"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. The ornaments were scattered everywhere, twisted in strange directions, and some of them had questionable content. He was 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. "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 a haughty nose 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 to the tree now. 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.

He spied one that Sirius had given him first year, and chuckled.

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 little pink tongue out at his friend.

It was a simple little 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, because Peter and James had already 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 pickets, because the gloves were thin and 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 admitted it.

"I wanted to give you a present early," Sirius said. He 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 on his 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, resting his chin on Remus's 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 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 decided last-minute that I wanted to write a Christmas one-shot about these two. I swear, they are my OTP. :3

Please, drop a note to say what you thought? I want to know if my style of writing is okay or not. I have some other stories/one-shots planned for these two!

Oh, also, this fic will be moving to a new account that I just created once I can post on it. I have to wait 2 days before I can upload a document, and I wanted this out in time for Christmas! I'll post a link on my profile telling you where you can find this if you for any reason want to locate this story again.