A/N: I was asked by anon to write another ACITW inspired one-shot after my one in July 'Under the Fireworks'. So, this has nothing to do with the AU I'm writing, but it does follow the other one-shot. It's just a fluffy little piece of Christmas joy. Written for the Kurtbastian Hiatus Project prompt 'decorating'.
Kurt never realized what a stressful business decorating for Christmas could turn into.
When he lived at home with his father, Christmas decorations were a simple matter of a few strings of garland hung over the fireplace, some lights on the windows (Kurt demanded twinkle lights, and as he got older they seemed nearly impossible to find), and the tree. As the piece de resistance of their holiday decorations, the tree had to be perfect, of course. He and his dad spent entire Saturdays trolling the Christmas tree lots of Lima until they located the perfect Douglas fir (as Douglas fir was the Christmas tree of choice for the Hummel family).
Once the tree was up, then the real decorating began. Kurt usually monopolized that task, as every ornament had a specific location on the tree and Kurt had mapped them all out in his head. His dad was typically in charge of putting up the lights and garland.
And together they put the star on top.
Afterward, father and son would sit on the sofa with glasses of soy nog in hand and relish in the glory that was their spectacular holiday tree.
With those warm and fuzzy holiday memories swimming in his mind, Kurt thought that decorating with Sebastian for their first official Christmas together would be a heartwarming and nostalgic endeavor, but decorating with Sebastian has turned into more of a military affair.
The first thing Sebastian did (at nearly six in the morning) was to lay out all the decorations – ornaments, garland, lights, etc. – out in the living room. Kurt had cooed when he saw all the brilliant ornaments, and made the phenomenal mistake of picking one up to examine it. With a stern glare, lips fixed into a tight line, Sebastian snatched it out of Kurt's hands and put it back in its place.
Apparently, there is a certain order to things, and precision is key.
Kurt can definitely appreciate precision and order, especially when it comes to decorating, but Sebastian takes it to manic levels.
Searching Christmas tree lots in New York City is vastly more difficult than it is in Lima. Hours and hours of walking, checking, rechecking, walking some more, and then going back to the very first place they had started rewarded them with the most glorious eight-foot noble fir (and Kurt has to admit it's magnificent, even if it isn't a Douglas fir).
They bring it home, lug it up to the penthouse, and stick it into its stand, all according to plan, but this is where they hit a wall. No matter how Sebastian moves the tree, no matter what angle he appraises its position in the room, he seems to believe that it's crooked.
"Sebastian, it's fine," Kurt assures him numerous times – so many times that he considers recording the sentiment on his phone and replaying it at odd intervals.
"That's because you're sitting down," Sebastian retorts. "If you were standing up, you would see that the tree is crooked."
"Well, we'll just make everyone stay seated the entire time they're here."
For this bit of teasing, Kurt receives a disgusted face, and afterward, nothing else is said.
Kurt lets Sebastian's progressively sour mood slide. Granted, being their first Christmas as intendeds, it is the first time that they will be hosting the holiday festivities for the family – approaching nuptials having tossed them into the rotation - and Sebastian is surprisingly nervous about making a good impression. Kurt understands this, but it's nearing midnight, and Kurt can see through the numerous picture windows of the penthouse that a new falling snow is covering the city, washing away the dirt and turning everything it touches into a soft winter white.
New York during Christmas is a magical thing to behold, and there are things that Kurt is eager to do with his fiancé other than watch him readjust the tree six hundred times. Kurt lets out a long, overly dramatic sigh when Sebastian moves the tree a half an inch to the right and steps back to check and see if it's still crooked. Sebastian tilts his head left and right, then nods, and for a second, Kurt is fooled into thinking that Sebastian might be done, but he shakes his head and walks up to the tree again, reaching around the thing to move it one more time.
"You know, you're kind of anal about this," Kurt says with another long sigh in his passive-aggressive attempt to get Sebastian to call it quits.
"I'm kind of anal about a lot of things," Sebastian says, looking at Kurt over his shoulder and giving him a wink, though at this point, it doesn't seem all too promising, regardless of its suggestive intent.
"Not in the last twenty-four hours," Kurt mumbles, standing from the sofa and stretching, lifting his arms over his head to straighten his sore, compressed spine.
"Look," Sebastian says with a frustrated huff, stepping back again from the tree and looking the evergreen up and down. "Make fun of me if you want. I know you think I'm being stupid…"
"I don't think you're being stupid…" Kurt cuts in.
"But," Sebastian continues, "every year my mom and dad's house is perfect."
"Yeah, but with you guys gone, they hire someone to get it that way," Kurt points out.
"Still, it's perfect," Sebastian insists, walking around the tree and turning it slightly. "And Liv's house…Jesus fucking Christ, how many times did we hear the story of how she decorated the house with all her fucking kids attached to her?"
"I'd still like to see the video on that one," Kurt chuckles through a yawn. "At least you're not going to have to worry about Julian and Cooper. They're going to be soaked in egg nog and wrapped around each other the way they were last Christmas. They won't even know that we have a tree."
"I would just like our tree to be as close to perfect as possible," Sebastian finishes in such an off-handed, distant sort of way that makes Kurt wonder if Sebastian meant to comment out loud. Kurt watches Sebastian fuss, his eyes clouded over, his lower lip trapped between his teeth in that way Sebastian gets when he's not saying everything that's on his mind.
And our tree? That's the first time those words have passed through Sebastian's lips. All day he's referred to it as the tree. Suddenly, it's our tree? Kurt furrows his brow and stores that snippet away in his brain for safe keeping. He doesn't want to overthink what could possibly be a simple slip of the tongue, but then again, he's never seen Sebastian act this way, especially considering his wonderful, close-knit family.
Kurt finds it hard to believe that any of them, even Liv, will care if the tree leans a quarter of a centimeter to the left or not.
"You know, Liv's still kind of miffed that you wouldn't agree to a Christmas wedding," Sebastian says suddenly, as if he had sensed his sister's name pop up in Kurt's thoughts.
"Boo-hoo," Kurt says. "I'm not about to share one of the most important days of my life with the world's largest materialistic holiday of the year."
Sebastian stops fidgeting with the tree to look down and laugh.
"I'll pay you $1,000 to say that to her face," Sebastian offers, laughing louder, picturing in his head the way that conversation between his high-strung sister and his high-maintenance fiancé might turn out.
"What?" Kurt exclaims with a nervous laugh. "Do you think I'm insane? I happen to value my testicles, thank you very much. I thought you did, too."
"Your testicles, watching you cat fight with Liv…" Sebastian puts his hands out, pantomiming weighing the pros and cons in his cupped hands. "Meh, it's too close to call."
Kurt yawns again, his eyes squeezing shut, tears rolling down his cheeks as his body tries to wring out its exhaustion.
"Well, I'm going to take my de-valued testicles and call it a night."
"But, babe…" Sebastian whines, tilting the tree again, "I swear, I've almost got it."
"Okay," Kurt says, "but it's late."
"Once I get this fucker straight, we'll be all set to decorate it," Sebastian argues, a bit more vehemently than Kurt would have thought necessary. Kurt frowns. This whole day has been an adventure in unearthing a piece of Sebastian Smythe that Kurt has never seen, and that's saying something considering how long they've been together.
"You said that hours ago!" Kurt groans.
Sebastian drops his arms, looking oddly defeated.
"Look, if you don't want to wait, then…fucking…go to bed, okay?" Sebastian grumbles, running a hand through his mussed up hair.
This isn't the way Kurt wanted this night to end, but Sebastian's irrational anger towards him is completely unwarranted, and he has no intention of being Sebastian's punching bag.
"Fine," Kurt says, turning from Sebastian, his tree, and this whole decorating fiasco, to storm away. He stops a few steps, hoping that Sebastian will calm down and ask him to stay. After all, it's a stupid thing to argue over a Christmas tree, no matter what the reason. What Sebastian needs to do is realize that everything is going to turn out alright whether the tree is perfect or not. Sebastian got the luck of the draw as far as families went; he should know that by now. But Sebastian isn't listening to him, and he's not going to listen until he gets this out of his system.
That's something Kurt can't help him with, and Sebastian apparently isn't going to ask him to.
Kurt leaves Sebastian to wrestle with the tree alone and goes begrudgingly to bed.
"Kurt?" Locked in the unpleasant darkness of sleep, Kurt feels his arm jerk. "Kurt? Wake up."
Kurt doesn't remember falling asleep. As far as he's concerned, he laid his head on his cold pillow, wrapped the blanket around him, and blinked. Now, it's dark and someone has his arm, trying to tug him back to consciousness.
"What?" Kurt mumbles, heavy lips refusing to form words.
"Kurt, wake up," Sebastian says, tugging harder until he nearly lifts Kurt off the mattress. "I need to show you something."
"Now?" Kurt responds, working to open his eyes so he can give Sebastian an appropriate glare, but the most he can manage is a kind of cartoonish glower, eyebrows rising too far up his forehead in a sad attempt at lifting his eyelids.
"Yes, now," Sebastian says, grabbing Kurt by the shoulders and shaking him awake.
"Wh-what, no, stop…Sebastian!" Kurt yells, pushing his fiancé away.
"Good, you're up," Sebastian says, standing from the bed and pulling Kurt up with him. "There's something I want you to see."
"You know, if we were actually married right now, I'd be considering a divorce," Kurt mutters, pinching Sebastian's hands to remove them from his shoulders.
"And that's why I love you," Sebastian mocks, keeping his hands clamped to Kurt's shoulders, heedless of the pain.
Sebastian maneuvers a drowsy Kurt into the living room and stands him before the tree. Kurt sighs when he sees it – this beautiful bane of his existence. Kurt rubs his eyes, fighting for clarity, realizing that if Sebastian woke him up to see the tree, something about it must be different.
"Okay," Kurt says in an exhale of breath, looking the tree over, searching for the change.
The tree stands straight and tall (thought it doesn't look much different in posture than it did hours before, but Kurt isn't about to make it an issue.) Every branch is covered with sparkling LED lights in rich shades of blue, red, green, and purple, which fade here and there randomly to give it the effect of stars in the night sky. There is no star on top just yet (because they had promised to do that together). But aside from the lights, the tree is bare…bare except for one ornament, hanging alone, front and center – a spot Kurt always considered a place of honor.
Kurt takes a step forward, looking at the ornament carefully, biting his lower lip when he sees it so that he doesn't giggle and embarrass himself.
Dangling from a sterling silver hanger on a prominent branch is an ornament of a cherry red Mustang – the same make and model as Sebastian's Mustang.
"Where…where did you get that?" Kurt asks in awe, walking up to the expertly crafted keepsake. The ornament is rendered so well, is so precisely detailed, that Kurt can almost imagine it starting up and driving away.
"It actually wasn't that hard," Sebastian says, acting nonchalant though he feels like dancing. He's trying hard not to play into old habits and dismiss the gesture. He likes the way Kurt's face lights up at his surprise. "The hard part was making sure the tree was perfect so that I could put the frickin' thing on."
Kurt's breath hitches and he nearly swallows his tongue.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait," he says, turning in Sebastian's arms and fixing him with a proper glare, "you went all Captain A. R. trying to get the tree perfect…for me?"
Sebastian looks into Kurt's eyes and shrugs, a sly smile sneaking up one corner of his mouth.
"Maybe I didn't want the tree to be perfect for everyone else," Sebastian admits, leaning down and kissing Kurt at the junction of his neck and his shoulder. "Maybe I wanted it perfect for you."
"Is that…is that true?" Kurt asks, taking Sebastian in his arms.
"I wish I could say it wasn't," Sebastian says, wearing the nostalgic grin that melts the passing years from his face, "but yeah. It's kind of true. I mean, Liv'll make fun of me no matter what, and Julian can suck it…"
"Which he probably will," Kurt says.
"Yeah," Sebastian chuckles, "he probably has." He lets his last few chuckles die before he continues. "And I love my mom and dad, but the only person I care about impressing is you."
"Oh, Sebastian," Kurt says, putting a hand to Sebastian's cheek, "that is the sappiest thing you've ever said to me."
Sebastian's grin grows to epic proportions.
"Did it work?" he asks, running a hand up Kurt's back and massaging the nape of his neck. "Do you forgive me?"
"Oh, yeah," Kurt says, resting their foreheads together, kissing his fiancé gently. "It definitely worked. I'm still here, aren't I?"
"Yeah," Sebastian says, whispering the next words into Kurt's mouth between kisses, "so you keep telling me."