"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Sirius asked with a contented sigh. Remus gazed at their Christmas tree and scratched his ear.
"Er, yes."
Sirius turned an accusing eye at the werewolf. "You're lying."
Remus turned his gaze back to the tree. In all honesty, it wasn't horrible, it just wasn't...neat. It wasn't how Remus would have chosen to do it. He supposed he should have been expecting this kind of decorating when he told Sirius he could put the tree together.
The ornaments were scattered everywhere, twisted in strange directions, and some of them had questionable content (where Sirius had gotten them, he did not want to know). He was suddenly glad that there were no children coming to their flat. Tinsel was tossed pointlessly, and the tree simply appeared too clustered.
"It's nothing, Siri," Remus tried, but Sirius rolled his eyes - he wasn't off the hook yet. If Sirius was one thing, he was persistent. "Okay, fine. It's just...it's not very pretty, is it?"
Sirius's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "You...you betrayer!" He cried in a false-horrified tone. A wicked gleam came into his eyes. "For that, I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted from decorating our tree. Good night."
This time it was Remus's turn to roll his eyes. "Don't be like that, Pads."
Sirius crossed his arms, putting his nose haughtily into the air. "If you can do better, try me. Now, like I said, I'm going to bed."
Remus shook his head, a faint smile on his lips. Sirius had already shut their bedroom door when Remus said, "Merry Christmas, you silly git."
He turned his attention back to the tree. With a weary sigh, he began to remove every decoration from the branches. It was a slow process, but eventually he had everything sorted into piles based on what they were - baubles, tinsel, homemade and store-bought ornaments, pictures, among other things. He first tackled the ornaments.
The first thing to go were Sirius's questionable ornaments. He didn't have the heart to throw them away, so instead he placed them back inside a box for storage.
Returning to the ornament pile, Remus spied one that Sirius had given him first year, and smiled with a soft laugh.
11-year-old Remus looked at the gift his friend gave him in his hand. "Wow, Sirius, you didn't have to give me this!"
The slightly older boy shook his head. "It's what friends do," he said, sticking a small pink tongue out at him.
It was a simple ornament, but it still meant the world to little Remus. He had never received presents from anyone outside his parents and his one surviving grandparent. It was an ornament embedded with a picture of the four of them: Remus, Sirius, James, and Peter.
Remus placed this gently on a small branch, a smile still on his lips. He gazed down at the other ornaments, and found one from 6th year. This made his heart swell, and he found that his throat was tightening up and tears pressed against his eyes. He lifted the ornament with gentle hands, and closed his eyes.
Remus and Sirius were walking back towards the school at a slow pace. They were the only Marauders remaining at the school until break was over, since Peter and James had returned home for the holidays.
Remus felt himself begin to shiver: his coat was once size too small, and it was not quite thick enough to keep out all the cold. His gloved hands were shoved in his pants pockets, since the thin gloves were wet from the snowball fight they had just participated in. He had destroyed his last scarf during his most recent transformation, so he had nothing around his neck but the flaps of his coat.
Sirius stopped them, and turned to face his friend. He removed his scarf and proceeded to wrap it around the both of them. Remus let out a nervous chuckle; wasn't this was people who were dating did? He had to admit that he very much loved the boy in front of him, but he had never confessed it to Padfoot.
"I wanted to give you a present early," Sirius said. "It's kind of cheesy, I guess, but I thought maybe you'd like it," he babbled. Remus stopped him by reassuring him that he didn't care. Sirius pulled something small and wrapped from his pocket. He handed it over to Remus, and the boy wordlessly opened it up.
A small gasp sounded when he tenderly lifted the ornament from its wrappings. It was a wood carving of a wolf and a dog curled up together. "Oh, Pads," he murmured. Sirius didn't have to ask if the boy liked his present: his voice held so much love and appreciation that Sirius had to fight the blush forming on his already pink cheeks.
Remus looked up into his friends gray eyes, and wrapped his arms around him in a hug. "Thank you," he whispered into the dark-haired boy's ear. "It means more to me than you could imagine."
Remus wiped the single tear that fell from his cheek and smiled. Later that night, their relationship had started to become much closer. By Christmas morning, they had even shared their first kiss - though it was highly embarrassing and for a few weeks they pretended it never happened. He laughed at the memory.
He finished putting up the rest of the ornaments and proceeded to finish hanging the tinsel. He added a few charms to the tree, making little lights appear that brightened the whole tree up. He backed up, admiring the work: it now looked like a proper Christmas tree.
He heard and smelled Padfoot as he approached Remus from behind.
"Alright," Sirius conceded, wrapping his arms around Remus's waist and resting his chin on his shoulder. "You win. Now it's beautiful."
Remus turned, wrapping his arms around Sirius's neck. "Finally admitting defeat, wow! I never thought the day would come when you shoved your pride aside." Remus's tone was serious, but his eyes danced with laughter.
He then said lovingly, "I was just thinking about the ornaments you gave me..." He paused. "Even now they mean the world to me."
Sirius's eyes went from amused to affectionate. "I'm glad, Moony," he said, followed with a small kiss.
"Mmm, now that your point has been proven - not to let me decorate the tree anymore - why don't we go to bed? I want to see what Saint Nick has left me under the tree." He grinned and led them to the bedroom.
"No staying up tonight," Remus said with a wink. "Or Saint Nick won't give us any gifts."
Sirius barked a laugh. "Get in the bed, you tosser."
Fin.
I know this is a bit late for Christmas, but I wrote it on a whim on Christmas Eve and was unable to publish it on this account until now! You may have seen it on my other account. I decided to create this account instead, so I can be a bit more organized. Just letting you know that I'm the same person so that you don't think I was plagiarizing.
Thanks for reading. I would be delighted if you'd leave a review, whether it be a critique or praise! :3