Also. Where are the parents? *vague shrug* I don't know. I can't even decide if they're dead or not. They just don't show up in the fics.
Vanitas sort of kidnapped this fic for a bit there. I'm not complaining, but yeah, that was a little weird. Other than that here is the dumb brothers bonding fic.
Prompt: Decorations
The Strife residence was a modest house. Big enough to allow five growing boys the space they needed without being so big as to be excessive. Still the house had two stories with a bunch of rooms on both of them.
Every year on November 2nd Sora tried to decorate it all.
Even if his brothers didn't want to help (and Vanitas certainly claimed he didn't) there would be no chance of getting out of it. It was near impossible to say no to Sora once he turned his puppy-eyes on you at full force and when it came to anything relating to Christmas Sora seemed to be ready to turn them on at the drop of a pin.
So all plans are abandoned and the five Strife brothers spend the day decorating the house.
They were woken that morning by the Christmas music that Sora managed to play from the speakers in the downstairs TV loud enough to reach all their rooms. Grumbling, they dragged themselves out of bed and downstairs. After a quick breakfast they started the task for the day.
The actual decorating always started with them dragging all of the Christmas decorations out of the various places they have been stored. Which every year became a game of hide-and-seek: the decorations having hid the year before and the five Strife boys trying to seek them out.
Cloud tries to avoid the game by dragging box after box of decorations up from the shed in the backyard and pilling them into the living room.
"Go help the others," Cloud said when he found Vanitas lying on the couch, feet on the coffee table as he idly watched the Christmas special on the television.
"I will drag you off that couch if I have to," Cloud said when Vanitas ignored him and the younger Strife dragged himself up. He knew Cloud would go through with his threat; he had done so many times in the past.
While Cloud went back to dragging the last few boxes in Vanitas went to his room. He opened a closet door or two on his way there but shut them as soon afterwards. He had no interest in trying to find any decorations or even decorating the house for Christmas at all. Once he was in his room he dug through the pile of stuff he had on his desk to find where the half empty packet of cigarettes was. After another five minute scuffle he found his lighter and walking over to the window to open it so he wouldn't get in trouble for making the house smell of cigarette he lit one up. It was stale but would do the job. He would go back down and start helping again once he finished it; by that point hopefully most of the annoying tasks were already done.
By the time Cloud had finished dragging all the boxes from the shed and garage into the living room the remaining three brothers had finished gathering up the spare decorations from their places around the house.
Unpacking the boxes took time, but no-one was complaining. It was fun to see the decorations again and there was always a few that someone had forgotten about or which had deformed in some way during the year to a hilarious new shape. This year a Santa figure had apparently half melted around his robe creating a mottled flesh and red coloured blob that had various bits of fabric sticking out of it at odd angles. After a few minutes of making fun of it Sora began to feel sorry for the ex-Santa and had decided to add it to his collection toy that his brothers referred to as the "unlovable toys pile".
Soon enough the boxes were empty and the decorations sorted into piles for the room they were going to go in. At that point Vanitas rejoined the group, giving his own taunts at the ex-Santa that currently rested on the mantelpiece before Sora moved it to his bedroom.
Sora gave a room to each of his brothers and they diligently moved the corresponding pile to the room and began decorating. They had learnt that it was just better to let Sora organise the day, especially after the year Roxas had tried to take charge only for the decorating to end up taking two days.
Sora moved between the rooms, taking the remaining piles of decorations to their eventual room of choice and ensuring his brothers did an acceptable job at decorating the room they had been given.
Once someone finished one room they would move on to another, until the whole house was completed. Sora going through each room once it was finished to ensure it met his requirements.
Eventually the whole house was done and the five brothers collapsed into the now decorated living room.
"Glad that's done for another year," Roxas groaned.
"Come on Rox, get into the holiday spirit," Sora complained.
"I am in the holiday spirit. That doesn't change the fact that decorating this place takes a long time."
"Whatever, we're free now so I'm going to go out," Vanitas said, getting up from his chair to head back upstairs to pick up his wallet, lighter, and pack of stale cigarettes – everything he needed for a night out.
"Don't stay out too late," Cloud called after him but he had long given up trying to keep Vanitas in line.
"I'm going to see if Riku and Kairi are still free," Sora said, as if his two friends would ever not be free to spend time with him.
Soon enough Roxas and Ventus also make their own excuses to go visit their friends and Cloud went to work on his bike.
That was how the day always ended every year: all the brothers going their separate ways for the night. It wasn't that they needed space or anything, just something that happened.
