The second thing of Christmas that's such a pain to me...rigging up the lights!
"Did you decide to get a pile of twigs instead of a tree?" Shigure asked, raising an eyebrow as he stared at the mess of pine needles and branches in Kyo's arms.
The Cat scowled at the Dog, a look that seemed to warn that he was about to inflict some property damage, and Shigure looked about ready to run at the sight of such a warning glare. But Tohru was standing in between them, unknowingly protecting the Dog.
She smiled up at them, beaming happily. Shigure noticed with dismay that her high school friends were not with her. But then, it was probably best that the wave girl and her gangster friend didn't show up after all in his house.
He was also pleased that Ritsu was not around, but that also meant that there wasn't anyone less dangerous to poke fun at. Oh how bored Shigure would be!
But when did that ever stop him?
"Shall we get the garelands out, Miss Honda?" Yuki asked politely.
Tohru smiled as Kyo set his mess of needles and twigs down in a safe corner before glancing out the window at the large tree they had purchased. The christmas tree was strapped to the roof of the car, its branches splayed over the sides. He shrugged. "We'll deal with the Christmas tree later," he muttered, though no one had heard him.
"Of course!" Tohru said. "We could focus on the outside and I could attach the lights on the roof."
Shigure gasped dramatically. "You? My little, delicate flower, on the roof?" He pressed a hand on his heart with a horrified sigh. "How dangerous! You, alone, on the roof." He looked pointedly at the boys, raising his eyebrows.
"Oh!" Tohru exclaimed. "There's no need to worry! I will be using the ladder."
"That old rickety thing?" Kyo demanded, and both his and Yuki's eyes widened at the thought of Tohru balancing precariously on the old ladder.
"She'd probably try to fix a light, and fall off and break her neck in the process," Kyo thought, horrified.
"She would spot a squirrel in a tree and lose all interest in her safety and jump off to try and rescue it," Yuki thought with growing terror.
"I'll do the roof!" both boys shouted quickly, startling Tohru while Shigure smirked knowingly.
"Then I suppose it will be the two of us alone with the garlands?" Shigure asked innocently. "I am pretty sure we have some mistletoe laying around somewhere."
Just as he hoped, he got the reaction he was looking for from his two cousins.
"I will help you with the garlands," Yuki said hurriedly, shooting Shigure a warning glare.
"Then you don't need me," Shigure said simply with a triumphant grin, prancing away with a skip in his step while his two cousins stared at him with matching glares as Tohru just blinked in confusion.
While Kyo trudged outside with the ladder in hand, Yuki and Tohru were rifling through the boxes and checking the lights on the garlands.
Ten minutes had passed with Yuki and Tohru sorting and separating the lights that worked, and the lights that did not work. What made it a bit difficult was that the lights that were already stuck in the garlands had to be unwound if they did not work. Such a task left Yuki's hands red and raw.
Yuki huffed. "These are not working," he stated, throwing the useless lights away.
Tohru frowned worridley. "I just might have to go out and get some more," she said as she fixed up the garland. "They are really old, and I am worried that the lights that work for now will go out."
As if to prove her point, the lights that Yuki had plugged in flickered to life, before turning off abruptly and dying. Yuki huffed in frustration, adding those lights to the growing pile of dead duds.
Outside, Kyo was having some success with adding the lights on the roof. Balancing on the ladder, he hammered in the nails before adjusting the lights.
The sound of his hammering filled his thoughts as he slipped into a calm daze. When he was done with at least three lights, he jumped down the ladder with a pleased grin.
"Ha!" he exclaimed, twirling his hammer with a smirk. "Five down, thirty more to go."
"Did you check to see if they work?" Shigure asked lazily as he strode down the steps, arms folded casually.
Kyo huffed. "Of course I did! What do you think I am? Stupid?"
Shigure just hummed, a small smile on his face.
Kyo gritted his teeth. "Watch!" He marched forward and ignited the switch. He smirked when the lights came on, glowing a bright light of gold, greens and reds. He then frowned when he noticed the flickering lights.
"Why are they blinking?" he demanded, outraged. Then, to his displeasure, he noticed that with a simple pop and a fizzle, the lights went out.
Kyo stared, open mouthed while Shigure made himself scarce. Kyo growled, marching forward and waving the hammer at the lights threateningly. "Great," he muttered. "I might as well start all over." But the thought of Tohru's bright and happy smile and how much this meant to her caused him to suck it up and take down the lights with minimum grumbling.
He pulled at the nails with the hammer, throwing the lights down to the snowy ground. He jumped down from the ladder and proceeded to pull the plug on the broken lights, only to notice how the lights flickered back on.
"Ah no," he growled, yanking the lights out and flinging them away. "You had your chance to shine! Now you're going in the trash!"
"Taking your anger out on the lights?" Shigure asked teasingly, poking his head out the window.
With another growl, Kyo marched towards the box of lights, pulling out the messy tangle while Shigure watched with interest.
Meanwhile, Yuki was struggling with decorating the one garland he had finally managed to put up over the archway in the kitchen. He stared at the plastic berries in his hand while looking back at the flickering lights on the gareland. With a frown, he delivered a swift kick to the wall, and the lights miraculously stopped flickering.
"I can't believe that worked," he muttered in surprise.
"Eh?" Tohru asked from her spot on the floor where she was trying to mend Kyo's Charlie Brown christmas tree. "What worked?"
He shrugged. "Oh, nothing Miss Honda." He glanced down at the berries in his hand. "How exactly do you want these to be put on?" he asked.
Tohru smiled as she worked with the sticky tape. "Oh, it doesn't matter! You can decorate it however you want! You are really creative."
Yuki smiled at her encouraging words and determinedly focused on the bare garland before him.
Five minutes later, and despite Tohru's encouraging words, Yuki was pretty sure that he had somehow messed up the garland and berries.
"Um," Tohru started, staring at the mess before her, at a loss for words.
Somehow, Yuki had managed to tangle the berries up in the gareland. The pine needles were on the floor in a green mess. Yuki felt guilty at the thought of creating a mess, knowing Tohru would want to clean it up and refuse to let him help her. The berries he had tried to color coordinate were shaped haphazardly, tangled in the lights and needles.
Yuki frowned, taking a step forward with his hand outstretched. "Pherpas if I adjust this…" The minute he touched the garland, the whole thing fell off of the wall with a 'snap.' Both Tohru and Yuki winced while Shigure cackled from the other room where he was watching the mess.
Hatori, who was still passed out on the couch, just snored.
"I'll fix it!" Tohru said helpfully, jumping forward and picking up the garland. "Here, I'll show you," she said to Yuki, gently taking his hand and pulling him closer so he could see the berries on the gareland. "Usually, I start at the top with a purple and red berry together, then I work my way down on both sides: a red berry on the right with a red berry on the left side. Then there's purple berries under the red berries, then you repeat the pattern!"
Yuki watched as Tohru demonstrated for him, watching as the red and purples created a simple, neat pattern among the green garland. Just as soon as she was done, Tohru was back on the stepstool and placing the garland back on the hook. She then plugged it in and the lights flickered on.
"Beautiful," Yuki breathed, glancing at Tohru.
She beamed. "Yep! And we only have nine more to go!"
Yuki's heart sank as he observed the chaotic scene before them. Boxes were open up with wreaths, garlands, and lights pooling out.
"Oh, all this work is making me tired," Shigure sighed, collapsing up against the walls.
Yuki glared. "You didn't even help!"
"Sure I did," Shigure protested. "I put up the mistletoe!" he smirked. "Do you two want to test it out?"
Kyo growled once more as he slammed the hammer down on a stubborn nail. Pain exploded on his hand and he howled in pain and jerked his thumb back. He grimaced, hissing as he sucked on his thumb before going back to his work. He had finally managed to detangle one cord of lights that actually worked, much to his relief, but the tangled mess down below still needed sorting out.
Still focusing on the pain in his thumb, he carefully slammed the hammer down before stringing the lights. With a satisfied nod, he was just about to step down when he found that he could not move his right arm. Frowning, he looked up and realized that he had hammered his jacket sleeve into the roof with the lights.
Letting out a curse, he yanked at his sleeve, not in the mood to unstring the lights and pull the nails out. A simple tear in his jacket was nothing compared to everything else that had happened so far. His neck and arms hurt and his fingers were numb from all the lights and nails he had to handle.
With a growl and a torn jacket, he jumped down from the ladder and strode toward the moving tangled ball of lights.
He paused, blinking. Moving tangled ball of lights? The lights were moving?
He watched with growing fascination as a blonde head poked through all the mess, smiling brightly. "Hello Kyo!" Momiji chirped happily.
Kyo sputtered at his blonde cousin, staring at him. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"Helping!" Momiji said, holding up the lights in his gloved hands that were even now a tangled mess. "You sure have a lot of work to do," he said.
"I don't need your help," Kyo growled, snatching the lights from Momiji. "I had these perfectly organized."
Momiji frowned, tilting his head. "You do know that if you drop the lights, you can damage them and they will go out, right?"
"I know that!" Kyo snapped, irritated. He made a mental note not to drop the lights and handle them with delicate care. He marched towards the box, rifling around with a frown. "What?! We have no extension cords!" he demanded, outraged.
Momiji giggled. "Is this your first time rigging up the lights?"
"Shut up you darn Rabbit," Kyo huffed. "Go bother someone else."
Momiji beamed. "Good idea! I'll go bother Tohru!"
"Don't bother Tohru!" Kyo shouted, whirling around to face the Rabbit, but he was already gone. Growling, Kyo turned back to the tangled mess of lights, and resigned himself to a long afternoon.
"Tohru!" Momiji exclaimed, skipping towards her with his arms outstretched, causing her to look up in surprise as she held a ball of lights. Momiji, however, was stopped by Yuki, who held onto him firmly.
"Don't even think about it," Yuki warned. "Show some restraint."
Momiji frowned. "Aw, but I really wanted to hug Tohru." He beamed. "If you won't hug me, will you kiss me?"
Tohru blinked, stuttering. "W-what?"
He pointed upwards. "The mistletoe!"
Tohru looked up and noticed the little plant dangling above their heads. She turned a light shade of pink at what Momiji was implying, hugging the ball of lights tightly.
"So how about it?" Momiji asked, bouncing on his feet with a wide smile.
She smiled down at him and giggled. "Okay!" she said, leaning down and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
Momiji cheered and bounced around the room, looking inside the boxes. "Do you need any help?" he asked.
"Oh! We wouldn't want to take up any of your time," Tohru said quickly.
"How about the garlands?" Momiji asked, poking his head in one of the boxes. "Oh! Do we need to go get a tree?"
"We already got the tree," Yuki said simply. "We still need to decorate it after we get it off the car."
Momiji looked up at his cousin. "You got the tree without me?" he pouted.
"I'm sorry Momiji!" Tohru said frantically. "I didn't know you wanted to come!" She brightened up. "I know! Would you like to come shopping with me for new lights? I need to finish my Christmas shopping anyway."
Momiji smiled. "Yay! A date with Tohru!" he cheered. "Can Haru, Kisa and Hiro come?"
Yuki frowned. "Are they here?" he asked.
Momiji nodded. "Yep. But Haru got lost and Hiro and Kisa are helping him find his way back to Shigure's house."
"And you left them," Yuki stated with a raised eyebrow.
Momiji shrugged, unfazed. "Well, I was so excited to come here that I couldn't wait for them."
"Sure!" Tohru said happily, smiling at the thought of seeing Kisa again. "I would be happy to have you come along. Lets just finish this first." She began listing what needed to be done with the decorating. "I need to do the Christmas cards, cook the dinner for tonight." She paused. "Momiji, will you and the others be staying for dinner?"
Momiji brightened up. "Sure!"
"Miss Honda, you do not need to through all the trouble," Yuki said quickly. "You already have so much to do." He folded his arms. "Kyo and I can finish the decorations, and I can do the dinner." He hesitated. "With help."
Tohru visibly relaxed at the thought of not leaving Yuki alone in the kitchen where he might potentially ruin the meal. She frowned. "What about the cards?" she asked. "There are so many that need to be sent out!"
Yuki smirked just as Shigure walked by. "Shigure's got that covered."
Shigure blinked. "What?" he demanded. "I've got a lot of things-" In that moment, he tripped on a string of lights and with a yelp, he fell forward with the garlands toppling down on top of him.
"Gracefulness is not one of them," Yuki commented with a scowl as he looked at the mess.
"Work you piece of garbage!" Kyo howled, wrestling with the tangled mess of lights. Somehow, his legs got tangled up in the lights, and his right arm was pinned to his side. It was like the lights had a stubborn mind of their own and had set out to capture the Cat of the Zodiac.
Kyo lunged forward and plugged the lights in, the bright orbs shining brightly, and Kyo let out a triumphant "Yes!"
"I didn't know you were the Christmas tree, Kyo," a voice commented.
Kyo managed to turn his head and see Haru standing on the porch with Kisa on his shoulders and a scowling Hiro at his side.
Kyo narrowed his eyes. "Whatta you looking at?" he growled.
"You look so pretty, Kyo," Kisa said softly from Haru's shoulders.
"I don't feel pretty," he grumbled, trying to detangle himself from the lights.
"Is Onee-chan inside?" Kisa asked hopefully.
"Tohru's doing the decorations with the darn Rat," Kyo grumbled, wiggling free and kicking at the lights that were stuck around his ankles.
Kisa beamed and Haru let her down as she scrambled inside with Hiro following her, not bothering to watch where he was stepping.
"Don't you dare step on my lights!" Kyo roared, lunging towards his smug cousin.
Hiro just smirked. "If you hit me, you will be charged for child abuse. Consider it my Christmas gift to you."
Kyo growled, uncurling his fists as he watched the kid saunter away.
"He better watch it," he muttered in annoyance as he once again got into a fight with the Christmas lights. "I hate rigging up these darn lights!"