~*~Christmas Eve~*~
by Hatter of Madness

Sirius sat in an armchair, reading the Prophet, and looked up in surprise when Remus walked into the room with a cardboard box in his arms. He raised a brow at Remus, who was busy taking his wand out from his robes and muttering, "Lumos." He then practically stuck his entire head in the box. Sirius rolled his eyes, sitting up straighter. This ought to be good.

Folding the newspaper and standing, Sirius walked over to where his boyfriend was on the floor. "Er...Moony, what are you doing?" he asked.

Remus looked up in surprise. "Oh, Sirius. Uh..." He seemed nervous. "Well, it's Christmas Eve."

"So?"

"So, um...well, we've had a Christmas tree up for a while now, and..." As Sirius cast a glance at their tree, where several Christmas presents lay waiting (it was obvious who each gift was for; Remus actually took the time to wrap all of his gifts to people, whereas Sirius just slapped some paper on with some Spellotape and called it a day), Remus stood to his full height, fidgeting slightly. Sirius thought that Remus was so damn handsome and cute when he was so nervous. "Well, I was just thinking that since it was Christmas Eve...we ought to decorate it, haven't we?"

Sirius stared at Remus for a minute in shock, then opened his mouth and let out the loudest laugh that Remus had ever heard in his life.

"I...I just thought..." Remus said. When Sirius detected the hint of sadness in his tone, he sighed. He could never win against Remus.

"Where do we start?"

An hour later, Sirius was not having fun.

"This just never ends," he grumbled as he struggled to get the tinsel out of the stupid cardboard box labelled 'Christmas'. Usually, he took magic for granted, but he cursed the stupid thing for being bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. The stupid silver tinsel (what a stupid name, too) seemed to go on for ages.

Remus chuckled upon seeing Sirius. "It helps if you just put it on without getting the entire thing out first," he said.

"But it doesn't reach the top yet."

"That's why you start at the bottom."

Sirius frowned, setting aside his anger for Remus. He knew it was not going to be any good trying to argue with Remus or to dampen his mood. Once he got excited about something, bringing him down again was a horrible, horrible idea. "But why do we have to do it without magic?" he snapped.

"Because, that's the Muggle way to do it." He could not help but note that it seemed as though Remus was fighting the temptation to roll his eyes. "Here, if you don't want to bother with the tinsel then help me with the lights."

"No, I'm determined to finish it now..." He continued to yank at the silvery string, nearly falling flat on his backside trying to get it untangled from the other contents of the box. Remus was positively roaring with laughter. "And what is so funny?"

"You!" He couldn't stop laughing. Sirius was torn between adoration and anger. "You're all tangled up in it, Sirius!"

"It's not...funny!" He nearly fell onto his feet as he reached the bottom of the tinsel, then said, "There. I've got it. Anything else you need?"

"No. Not now. I'll let you know." And with that, Remus gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Sirius rolled his eyes, despite the want to return the action and the bitter repulsion he felt at the moment. He was never one for the holidays, especially not decorating. Why Remus would want to, he didn't know. But he always went on and on and on about how important it was that they acted like a family, and that they do regular couple things, and how other couples acted so they had to act that way too... On and on and on he went. Usually, Sirius found Remus's banter to be yet another reason to fall in love with him, but it was another thing about being a 'normal couple'.

They weren't a normal couple, for more reasons than one. Firstly, Sirius was a pureblood; Remus was a halfblood. That kind of thing would have greatly upset his family, had they not disowned him already. Secondly, they were both, well, men. Strictly speaking, that kind of relationship was frowned upon in their society. And lastly, Remus was a werewolf. Anyone would have been insane to be in a relationship with him.

After the lights on their little tree were strung (which were lit when Remus tapped it with his wand and muttered 'Lumos', the one time that it was deemed 'acceptable' to use magic in this long and dismal process), Remus helped unwrap Sirius from the tinsel and then twine it around the branches of their Christmas tree. "I doubt even James and Lily put this much effort into the holidays," Sirius complained, "and she's a Muggleborn!"

"Don't be a Scrooge," Remus said, shaking his head but smiling nonetheless.

Sirius had no idea what a 'Scrooge' was.

After a while, though, he was getting unbelievably hungry and found that, despite Remus's love of the holidays, they had not a single piece of gingerbread. That was why Sirius's eyes nearly popped out of his head when Remus pulled out a string and made a bag of popcorn to string onto it.

"Just hold the string for me, would you, Sirius?" he asked, as they flopped on the floor and set to work on the 'garland', as Remus called it. It was about fifteen minutes later and Remus just could not figure out why the strand was so short. "I just don't..." He looked up when he heard the sound of somebody eating. "Sirius!"

"Wha-at?" Sirius asked, his mouth completely full of popcorn. "I was hungry!"

Sirius never thought he'd see the day that his boyfriend gave him a time out, let alone for eating their Christmas decorations. After ten minutes of standing in the corner, he looked over to see the strand of popcorn completely finished and wrapped around their Christmas tree, which, he had to admit, looked a lot better than the plain green plant that had been standing in the center of the room literally hours earlier. It had taken them so long to decorate the stupid thing that Sirius was getting sick of anything related to the holiday. Even his pile of gifts didn't look so inviting anymore, along with the big red stocking above the mantel that said 'Padfoot' in Remus's scrawling print; next to it was an almost identical green one, but instead, the word 'Moony' was on it, in Sirius's handwriting.

"Anything left?" he asked, hoping that the answer was 'no'. His wish was not granted.

"Ornaments," Remus said, smiling. Sirius sighed. He couldn't say 'no' now. He could literally see how happy this stupid little activity made his boyfriend, so he set aside his indifference for it, for just a little while longer.

They put them up on the branches, Remus's eyes twinkling in the light of the...well, the lights. Sirius was afraid of dropping one and it shattering on the floor; he was unsure as to how Remus would react to that.

The activity was certainly enjoyable, Sirius was rather shocked to admit. And the smile that spread over Remus's face was more than enough to compensate for the ill feelings that he was having earlier. In fact, he was sort of getting into the Christmas spirit, for the first time in his life.

Dear Merlin, he couldn't believe he just thought that.

When the last ornament was put up, Sirius said, "So, we're all done, then?" he asked.

Remus had something in his hands, however. "Well...it's sort of a tradition to put a...a star, or an angel at the top..."

Sirius looked at the object in Remus's hands carefully. "And that looks like neither of the two."

"Well...it's a dog, actually. I just...I thought that since I was a werewolf, and you're a dog, that...that it'd be more fitting than an angel or...or a star. Unless you want an angel or a star, because I could..."

Oh, no. Remus was over thinking things.

Again.

"Together?" he asked in a quiet voice, interrupting Remus mid thought. Remus smiled, looking almost like he was going to cry, and they both grabbed hold of the stupid thing, placing it at the top of their tree together. They then stood back, Sirius holding Remus in his arms, admiring their work. Remus looked down at his watch and laughed.

"And it only took four hours," he said, smiling wider than Sirius had seen, even after that day. Sirius stole a glance at Remus's wrist. It was midnight, which meant that it was Christmas. He kissed Remus on the cheek and released him, stepping in front of him.

"Since it's officially Christmas, you have to look at one of your presents now."

"Sirius, can't it wait until morning?"

"No, you have to do it now..."

It was now Remus's turn to roll his eyes as Sirius dived for a badly wrapped...object under their tree, handing it to Remus and saying, "Merry Christmas, Moony." He waited eagerly for his boyfriend to open his gift. Remus did and was greeted with a can advertising Spray On Hair. Sirius had the stupidest smile on his face, much like the one that Remus had been wearing all day. "Well...?" he asked, grinning.

Remus smiled and said, "Well, it's the thought that counts."

Wat am I doing with my life. I got recognized on Tumblr now and I'm just like sljsdfsdfGAHH. I wrote this for an admin on a HP Facebook page (if you're here, hi, Senia!) and well...I got out of control. I Googled 'stupid gift ideas' to find Spray On Hair lolol. Don't ask me why Sirius would get this for Remus, I HAVE NO IDEA. It's almost 1 am and it is Christmas Eve so I am going to bed, lalalalala~ Review, please?

- Hatter of Madness