Guest: Lambo is still a year old and the kids have been living with the Vongola for several months now. Thank you so much!
I don't own KHR.
"Alright, what do you think?" Elena asked right after she had opened the double doors to the living room very dramatically. Ryohei's eyes widened as his mouth dropped open in pure awe as he looked at the tall and wide Christmas tree.
Today was December 8th, or the day where Italy (and maybe other countries too, Ryohei wasn't sure) celebrated the Feast of Immaculate Conception. To celebrate, Ryohei and the rest of his family went into town to see the parade while the kitchen staff prepared (and still was) a feast. Ryohei and his siblings were also promised that there was going to be fireworks after dinner, which greatly excited his younger siblings.
But that was later. Right now, they were going to decorate the Christmas tree, which currently only had the lights on it. But despite the fact that the lights weren't even on yet, Ryohei thought that the tree, with its branches full of green leaves, was already pretty extreme.
"It's so pretty," Chrome complimented with a wide smile.
"And big," Tsuna added in pure awe as Hayato nodded silently in agreement.
"I approve," Kyoya stated as he peered up at the adults, mainly Alaude.
"I should hope so," Lampo grumbled while the corner of Alaude's lip turned up a little. "It took us two hours in the freezing cold to find it."
"It wasn't that cold, at least not compared to the ultimate weather last year," Knuckle said thoughtfully.
"And it wouldn't have taken us that long if somebody hadn't been super picky and vetoed almost every tree we came across," G sniped as he started glaring at a certain someone.
"Hey, I may be lazy," Lampo replied with his hands up in a placating gesture. "But I am also not willing to look at an ugly tree for the rest of December."
"I'll drink to that," Daemon pronounced as he raised his translucent cup like he was giving a toast before taking a few sips of the brown liquid (by the way it was steaming, Ryohei assumed it was hot chocolate).
"In any case," Elena interceded with a clap of her hands. "The men have put up the tree, I did the lights, and now all there is left to do are the ornaments."
"Looks like you kids are up," Asari said with a warm smile as he poured himself some steaming water into a cup by a table at the side of the room. Ryohei smiled as he looked from the boxes of ornaments by the base of the tree to the evergreen itself.
He hadn't decorated a Christmas tree in an extremely long time...and he was going to do it with his beloved siblings. To say that he was going to put his all into this would be an extreme understatement.
"That begs the question though...do you want to do your special ornaments first or save those for last?" Giotto asked after he took a long sip of his own beverage.
"Ah, look at that, little Giotto has all grown up and even has a moustache now. Though how strange, it's brown, not blond," Reborn pointed out with a smirk.
"I say our special ones first," Mukuro suggested as Giotto blushed and quickly wiped his upper lip with his free hand. "This way, we won't accidently run out of room for them in the end."
"I agree with Mukuro!" Tsuna exclaimed as he raised his red-and-green box high in the air. Ryohei looked down at the boxes in his hands with a smile. After the parade, the men left to go get the tree while Elena and Reborn took him and his siblings to a store that was filled to the brim with ornaments. Elena had said that since it was tradition that children decorated the tree with ornaments, it was only right that each one of them got to pick out their very own ornament. Especially since this was going to be their first Christmas together.
Most of them quickly separated as they hunted for the perfect ornaments, while Kyoya and Mukuro just calmly browsed through the store. Both of them had the mindset that if they saw one that they liked, they would get it. If they didn't, they weren't going to worry about it.
But then Ryohei saw them at the checkout line, each with an ornament in hand and looking pretty pleased with themselves.
"Alright, then by all means, all go ahead," Elena granted with a laugh as she motioned them towards the tree. This was the only invitation Lambo needed as he let go of Mukuro's hand and rushed right for the tree with a joyful laugh.
"Wait Lambo!" Takeshi exclaimed with a laugh as he and the rest of them followed Lambo. "Ryohei still has your ornament!"
"Ryo?" Lambo cooed as he turned his head to look at Ryohei expectantly. Ryohei chuckled as he got on one knee and held out Lambo's box towards him.
"Here you go, extreme little brother," Ryohei said he put his own box down on the ground. "Do you need help getting the top off?"
"No. Lam good," Lambo answered simply as he grabbed his box with both hands and roughly pulled the top off the box, revealing the ornament that Lambo picked out all by himself. It was a black bull in a stall full of straw, complete with a silver hook at the top. Lambo had extreme tastes, not that Ryohei was surprised. This was his baby brother after all.
"Cow," Lambo said warmly as he reached in and grabbed the fragile ornament.
"Careful to the extreme now," Ryohei warned kindly as he put both boxes down on the ground and gently took hold of Lambo's ornament with one hand. "Do you want me to pick you up? Or do you want to hang your extreme ornament right here?"
"Up," Lambo said without hesitation, his eyes still lovingly glued to his ornament.
"Okay," Ryohei accepted as he wrapped his free arm around his baby brother. "Here we go!"
Ryohei made a vroom noise as he picked Lambo up with one arm, making the little toddler giggle with delight and amusement just like Ryohei wanted. Once Lambo was secured against his side, Ryohei gently guided Lambo to the nearest tree branch with the hand that was on the ornament. Lambo thankfully didn't protest as both of them (mostly Ryohei though) carefully hung the ornament on the branch.
The third-oldest sibling then gently pried Lambo's hands off the bull ornament and smiled when it stayed on without a problem.
"Extreme job Lambo," praised Ryohei before he pecked the side of Lambo's forehead. Lambo just giggled with a clap of his little hands.
"Stay...stay..." Ryohei turned his head to see Tsuna sitting on Kyoya's shoulders as his hands hovered around a tin soldier ornament complete with a red suit and a tall red cap. When the soldier (who was only standing on one leg) didn't fall off the tree, he sighed in relief.
"Okay, we're good. Thanks Kyoya!" exclaimed Tsuna gratefully as he peered down at Kyoya.
"No problem," Kyoya simply accepted before bending his knees as Ryohei finally put Lambo back down on the ground.
"Good spot Tsuna!" Hayato praised him as Tsuna took Kyoya's silent invitation and got off their older brother.
"Thank you," Tsuna said in an appreciative tone before looking at the ornament in Hayato's hand. It was the abominable snowman, or as Hayato preferred to call it, a yeti. It had a bluish-grey face with white fur made out of yarn, and it was also wearing a Santa hat.
"Aren't you going to hang yours up?" Tsuna asked as he pointed to said ornament.
"Oh don't worry, I am, I was just waiting for you to hang yours up first," Hayato assured him with a wide, pleased smile. Then he faced the extremely beautiful tree. "Let's see...aha!"
Hayato then reached forward and hung his small ornament on a branch high above him, so high that he actually had to go on his tippy-toes. When the ornament was secured, Hayato stepped back with a pleased expression on his face.
Ryohei smiled when he noticed that if Tsuna's ornament was twelve on a face of a clock, then Hayato's ornament would be at 8 o'clock.
"Oh, I know where to hang mine now!" Takeshi suddenly cried as walked towards them before reaching his arm up easily and hanging his ornament. Not surprisingly, it was a baseball with the face of a smiling snowman.
"Now it's a triangle!" he exclaimed with a carefree laugh just as Ryohei realized that Takeshi's ornament was right across Hayato's, which made Tsuna's the tip of the triangle.
"Or would it be an iceberg? Because you know, it's Christmas to the extreme?" Ryohei pondered out loud as Hayato looked like he was trying to figure out how he should react to Takeshi's decision.
"Are icebergs technically a part of Christmas though?" Mukuro asked with a tilt of his head from over the right side of the tree. "Not to mention, are they ever perfect triangles?"
"Maybe if the top of one was cut off," Reborn mused as he stirred his cup of hot chocolate before taking a sip of it. An approving smile then graced his face. "Hm, this is actually decent dark chocolate. Good job to whoever bought the mix."
"You're welcome," Elena accepted with a proud smile.
"So it's an iceberg with it's top cut off," Takeshi said, bringing them back to the original topic of their discussion. "In either case, I like it!"
"Me too!" Tsuna exclaimed with a beaming face. Then, just when Hayato didn't look flustered anymore and was opening his mouth to say something, Mukuro interrupted him.
"Very nice, but you guys should come over here and see how well Chrome's looks on the tree!" Ryohei and his siblings then without hesitation walked over to Mukuro and Chrome. Even Lambo, who had been playing with the leaves, toddled after them in curious pursuit.
"See? She even picked out the best spot for it!" Mukuro proclaimed proudly as he pointed at an ornament slightly above him while Chrome just stood there with a bashful smile. Her ornament was on one of the most protruding branches, so that it would be hard for anyone to miss the little manger scene with Mary and Joseph watching over baby Jesus.
"Extreme spot Chrome!" Ryohei commended proudly causing Chrome to blush a little.
"Thanks, though Mukuro-sama helped me hang it up," Chrome added.
"...He actually helped you right? He didn't just take the ornament from you and hung it himself?" Kyoya questioned with his eyes narrowing somewhat at Mukuro.
"No, I picked her up! You know me better than that," Mukuro replied with crossed arms.
"Where's yours Mukuro?" Tsuna quickly asked as he looked up at Mukuro with wide eyes.
"Oh, it's right over there," Mukuro answered as he uncrossed his arms to point at an ornament that not only hung on a branch lower than Chrome's, but was also really close to the back of the tree. The ornament itself was a long scarf with red and green stripes, and the width was big enough that it could be argued that it actually a small blanket instead.
Ryohei honestly thought that the placement as well as the ornament fit his immediate older brother to a t.
"Right there, huh? Then in that case..." Kyoya began thoughtfully before walking away. Exchanging brief curious looks with the others, Ryohei and the others (including Lambo, who had been playing with the leaves again) followed him all the way to the other side of the tree.
"...I'll put mine right here," Kyoya continued as he hung his ornament, a white dove with a sprig of holly leaves in its beak, on a branch near the back.
"What, you couldn't have yours anywhere near Mukuro's?" Hayato jabbed with a teasing smirk.
"Tch, please, more like I wanted this side to have at least one ornament," Kyoya explained as he flicked Hayato's forehead with a playful smirk.
"Ow," Hayato reacted as he rubbed his forehead while Ryohei looked at this side of the tree and saw that Kyoya was right, the dove was only thing on there.
Well...at least for the moment.
"We still have the other ornaments though...but I guess this would make our ornaments a bit more spread out," Chrome said as Ryohei went back to the front of tree where a certain box still laid on the ground.
"Speaking of which, we should probably start hanging those now," Ryohei heard Takeshi say while he bent over and picked the box up. Then, with a wide smile, he headed back to his siblings. "Unless that wasn't everybody..."
"Nope, we still got extremely mine," Ryohei cut in as he pulled the top off his box. When he saw the bright gold Christmas star, he found himself glad that he found it. As soon as he laid his eyes on the ornament hanging on a fake tree display, he knew immediately that he had wanted it. He had learned in school that stars were actually suns from different star systems, shining on Earth from billion of miles away. And if that wasn't extreme enough, the story of a single bright star appearing to proclaim the birth of baby Jesus was very extreme too.
It was honestly the perfect ornament for him.
"Oh right, sorry," Takeshi laughed sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.
"Don't worry, you're extremely good," Ryohei assured him as he lifted his ornament out of the box. After a few seconds of searching, Ryohei found the perfect spot. He then hung the Christmas star right in the center of the tree's side, as high as he could reach.
Then unexpectedly, Ryohei felt a hand on his head.
"Ultimate spot, Ryohei." Ryohei looked up and saw Knuckle looking down at him with an expression full of pride and love. He then looked at his siblings and the rest of his family and saw that all of them had some kind of warm smile. Even Reborn was smiling a little.
"To the extreme," Ryohei agreed with a wide smile and a full warm heart. And his heart stayed extremely warm as he and his family continued to decorate the tree while having the occasional cup of hot chocolate.
Just so you know, Reborn joined Elena and the kids ornament shopping under the pretense that he, as a gentleman, couldn't let Elena handle all those kids all by herself. And while that is partly true, he really was not in the mood to go tree searching in the cold.
So what did you think? Please tell me what you thought in a review and I will update next year. Until then, Merry Christmas, or whatever you choose to celebrate! Stay safe and happy and see ya!