Decorating for Christmas was a very big ordeal for Minho and Newt. Well, mostly Newt, but Minho found it endearing enough to play along. Every year they tried to outdo themselves with bigger decorations, brighter colors, and a bolder display. This proved to be somewhat of a challenge, given that they still lived in Minho's apartment and couldn't decorate the entire building (Newt had tried though, multiple times). Even so, their flat was decked from ceiling to floor in holiday spirit. Tinsel ran the length of the hallway and added a shimmer of beauty in each room. Mistletoe, too, hung from each doorway (although that was more of an excuse to make out at any given moment).
In the month of December, Newt was never seen not wearing one of his many festive sweaters and a bright smile. As always, he'd spread happiness to those around him just from his positive aura. Therefore Minho, who saw Newt the most, was almost equally as cheerful during the holiday season.
Except today. Today he had been given the task to find a tree. And in typical Newt fashion, it couldn't be a plastic tree from the sale rack at Walmart. No, he insisted Minho go and get a real tree. And, since Newt had a meeting at work and couldn't come along today, Minho was given the additional pressure of finding the perfect tree alone.
Surprisingly, though, finding the tree was the easy part. Attaching it to his car, driving it through the streets of Chicago, and lugging it into the building was the hard part. Damn Newt and his idea of a perfect, traditional Christmas.
And it was just his luck that the tree didn't fit in the elevator. Nope, he had to lug that baby up four flights of stairs. If he made it back to their apartment alive he was going to kill Newt.
"Did you get the tree?" Newt called from inside when Minho shoved the door open.
"You know," Minho said, completely winded. "That's something you could have asked half an hour ago. And then you could've proceeded to help me carry the damn thing all the way up."
"Oh god, I'm sorry," Newt said, coming out of the bedroom. "I wasn't thinking."
"I didn't know you were capable of that anyway," Minho responded jokingly. "I also didn't know you'd be back yet."
"Yeah, we got out early."
"Well, do you want to get this monster of a tree set up? Please tell me you baked cookies."
"They're in the oven as we speak," Newt said with a fond grin. "And I got the ornaments out already."
"Perfect."
Once they got the tree upright and even, which proved to be much more difficult than they'd have thought, they set about draping the colorful lights on it. This also was somewhat of a challenge since Minho was too impatient to do it well and Newt required that he redo his side multiple times. What was that he was saying earlier about Newt a slow, torturous death? Shh, it's only illegal if he actually does it, which he wouldn't. Newt makes the best cookies.
When they finally finished, Minho let his boyfriend ceremoniously hang the first ornament. This was also a big deal for Newt. Each year they (read:he) picked out a dazzling new one to hang on the tree and it always got the best spot on the tree. Minho generally hung a few of his favorite ornaments but let Newt do the rest of the decorating. Partially because he was lazy but mostly because Newt was so particular about the way the tree looked. Not that Minho minded, it did end up looking fantastic each year.
At the end of the very long process came the lighting, naturally. Years ago Minho had wired the lights to a remote control so that all they'd have to do was press one button.
"Do you want to do it this year," Newt offered.
"Are you actually letting me do the honors?" Minho said in (mostly) mock surprise.
The blonde laughed, "of course not. I just thought I'd be nice."
He gave Minho a quick peck before pressing the button and bringing the tree to life.
"You did a great job, as always," Minho murmured into Newt's hair.
Newt hummed back and turned to face his boyfriend. "Thanks."
"Merry Christmas."
"Christmas is still two weeks away."
"Just shut up and kiss me."
For once in his life, Newt did as he was told.
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a/n: Hope you enjoyed! This chapter was a pain to write and it didn't turn out as well as I would've liked but I'm already falling behind on the 12 days challenge. Just to do some shameless promo, if you're interested you can find me on tumblr.
