title: Christmas Lights
summary: Ganondalf has never met an adversary he couldn't best, until his girlfriend talks him into rigging up the lights at her father's.
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A leather boot touched down onto the driveway at the same moment the roar of the motorcycle stilled. Bins of lights sat on a surprisingly lush green front lawn and a large metal ladder laid on the ground not too far away. How had she talked him into this?
His girlfriend walked out of the front door wrapped up in a black fleece jacket with a pair of purple fleece socks peeking out from the top of her winter boots. Her blonde tresses pulled back into a high ponytail. Her smile radiant. The same smile that somehow coerced him into assisting her with crafting her aging father's home into a Xanadu of lights. Dismounting from this bike, he surveyed the roof. It was a decent size and a decent ways up. A fall wouldn't kill him but they'd be ending up spending a while in the emergency room.
When she had asked him, he forgot her childhood home (read: estate) had once been on the cover of some architectural magazine with it's ridges and slopes. Now looking at it he silently regretted agreeing.
"You're here! I was starting to think you bailed." She teased, pulling him into a quick kiss. Her arms snaked around his waist, "At least you listened to me and wore something sensible instead of your leather jacket though the traction in those shoes are questionable." He packed a pair of crummy sneakers in his bag.
"Whatever the princess wants, right?" he chided, her blue eyes automatically rolled in response. Releasing her arms from around his waist, he was almost tempted to pull her back into him. But the faster he got up on the ladder, the faster he could finish hanging up the lights and the faster they could go get crappy takeout they'd eat on the floor of his apartment.
"This so-called princess shall be supervising from the ground." Wise decision. Pulling the lid off one of the bins, his girlfriend began pulling out boxes of lights. "We'll unravel them all and check which ones work and which ones don't. I have replacement bulbs somewhere."
Making swift work, she had him hold on to the female outlet (because apparent that was the proper name for the outlet you plug something into) and walk it to the opposite side of the lawn, stretching out the 25 feet strands. When they finished, ten strands littered the front lawn. He watched as his girlfriend slid open the small door on the male outlet (again, apparently that was the proper term for the side you had two to three prongs on) and fiddle about with the fuses inside. One of the fuses ended up being tossed out. Trying once more, his girlfriend had all ten strands as a whole to work albeit several lights throughout the nine other strands had blown out. She asked for him to check the ones closest to him to see if the bulbs had been loose but said for him not to "force the bulbs". Something about blowing the fuses and the strands only coming with one replacement. She asked from him to grab her a few replacement bulbs from the bin, rattling off how many of what colored bulbs she needed. Quickly, she shot from one dead bulb to the next, exchanging them for a lovely, glowing one.
Within minutes he stood near the top of the ladder, his girlfriend below holding it steady as he attached shingle clips to the lights. Damn stupid smile on her damn stupid face manipulating him into getting onto his damn ladder and hanging these damn lights. With a groan, he pulled himself fully onto the roof. At least he completed one ridge.
"Zelda! What are you doing now?" he called down, noticing her rifling through a different bin.
With that damned smile, Zelda pulled out another set of smaller lights. No, no more lights. He assumed she noticed the look on his face, whatever it was – probably annoyance. Letting out a soft laugh, she shook her head, "No need to worry your pretty little head off, just handle those one. These," she said, holding up the lights higher, "are mesh lights. They go on the hedge which I can do by myself. I needn't call any of my castle servants." Wise ass.
The repetition of snapping a light's base into a plastic clip, which was then slid under a shingle took longer than he would care to admit. No wonder his family never took part in this tradition, it was tedious. About every other clip either broke in half or decided to give up and fall to the ground. There had to be a more efficient means of hanging up these stupid lights than cheap plastic clips that 'secured' the lights. He used the term secured loosely if the now loose strand near the first ridge he worked on was any indication.
About the halfway mark, Zelda had turned on some radio station playing Christmas music. It took threatening to break up with her three times for the blonde to change the station.
Her father Daphnes' luxury sedan pulled into the driveway as he worked on what he thought were the finishing touches of the Christmas lights – he had to redo the strand that wrapped around the roof of the garage for the extension cords would not be able to reach the male outlet where they currently lie. "What are you two up to?" her father asked, observing what transpired on his property. His daughter currently kneeling near his walkway leading up to the front door, shoving a stake into the ground and her behemoth of a boyfriend clattering about his roof grumbling about the damn lights being wrong. Probably an odd sight to behold. Surprise, I'm gonna rip all of the lights off and probably your gutters with them, he wished to say when the man of the house asked how they were doing.
"Where did you place the extension cords?" Zelda asked, rubbing her hands together. The temperature as well as the sun had dipped since they had begun. Her father shrugged walking to his car's trunk. Did her father not know where the extension cords were? After he had to put up all these damn lights.
Chuckling to herself, Zelda disappeared into the garage for a few minutes. When she returned she carried a medium sized box. "Alright, the orange one goes…" she started, explaining which extension cord did what as she pulled them from the box they were housed in. Had the pair mapped out every aspect of hanging these damned lights? Did people normally map out everything or did they wing hanging up Christmas lights each year and hoped it turned out well? From his spot he watched as a blonde blu raced about plugging in the lights that draped over the side of the house. Guess it was okay to come down now.
The moment his foot touched the ground, Zelda's arms wrapped around his waist once more, her face buried in his back. "Thank you Ganondorf. I wanted to have them up to surprise him and also to make sure he didn't go on the ladder himself. Thank you." That was not a smile on his face, it was a smirk thank you very much, he didn't smile. He'd do it all over again, it was nothing.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the top of Daphnes' white hair peaking out from behind one of the bushes, the older male bent over fiddling around with the outlets. "Are you two ready?" he called out. Ready to revel in the hard work of dangling his first Christmas lights. "Are they on?"
He could feel his face fall – were the unlit Christmas lights on? He did all that work and the lights would not turn on? But he and Zelda had checked each light, they should freaking work. Why the hell aren't they blinking?! He could hear a low chuckle from Daphnes as he meandered his way from the bushes. Shit did he say that out loud?
His girlfriend disappeared from his side, this time he did reach out for her but she slipped away into the garage once more. "How about now?" her voice called from somewhere in the garage. The moment the words left her lips, the house lit up bathing the dimming skyline in vibrant balls of blues, greens, reds, and oranges. As she stepped out of the garage, her lips pulled into the damned smile once more.
The damned smile glowed brighter than the bulbs.
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Did you like anything? What did you not like?
