Glenn quickly took over the planning for their Christmas party, much to Rick's chagrin. Carol and Daryl would sweep the ornament section of the store, he and Maggie would get tinsel and bows for their tree barricade, Gabriel and Carl would stay back with Judith and prepare their nook, and Rick would go search for Michonne and the rest of Abraham's group.
Daryl and Carol were the first to make their find; ornaments for their Christmas trees. Carol made some playful jabs about Daryl going straight for the ball-ornaments, but he quickly wrote her off.
"You know I don't swing that way," he rolled his eyes and tweaked her butt playfully, "Besides, these will make great noise makers so no one comes sneaking up on us." He shook his head at the practicality he still felt, but they both knew the group's safety was top priority no matter how festive the time was.
She stuck her tongue out at him and held up a cute squirrel ornament, "I don't suppose you would have any opposition to this, eh?" She added it to her basket and hummed 'It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas' to herself.
"I still can't believe people used to spend money on all of this crap." Daryl said, sorting through a box of gaudy, sequined fruit.
Carol came up behind him and placed her basket down, wrapping her arms around his middle, "I kind of miss having a permanent home to decorate," she smiled as he turned his head to give her a look, "I don't miss cleaning my home, but I miss having a place to come back to."
He placed one of his hands over hers and let her continue her stream of consciousness.
"I remember," She said dreamily, "I had one of the most beautiful wreaths I had bought at a craft sale at church. I would always hang it on my door after Thanksgiving. Sometimes forgot to take it down. It was a green one, with a big red ribbon, and it had all of these tiny, sparkly pinecones strewn throughout…"
"Sounds like one ugly wreath." Daryl unlaced her fingers and turned around to face her.
She looked up at him almost indignantly, but then smiled, "Yeah." She picked up her basket and placed a quick kiss on his cheek, "Let's hope my tastes have gotten better, and let's hope we can find some good tree-toppers around here somewhere." She disappeared into another aisle, and Daryl quickly followed.
"Think there are more tree skirts around here? I could use a soft place to take a break." He placed his hand gently on the small of her back as he caught up to her.
"Oh, Daryl Dixon, you are not suggesting what I think you are…" She smiled at him and nodded her head towards an end cap of tree skirts across the aisle.
HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO
"Wish we could have electricity so we could have some lights." Glenn said, throwing a 100 count icicle light set aside.
"If you find a generator that won't attract every lurker from miles around, you can be my guest!" Maggie said sarcastically.
"Hmm," Glenn said, "Maybe I'll just have to ask Santa Claus." He walked over to his wife, who was struggling to untangle purple tinsel out of a bag. He stood leaning on a shelf, his head resting on a display of wrapping paper. He kept one hand behind his back.
"Enjoying the show?" Maggie looked up and held the neat string of tinsel victoriously, "Didn't Carol mention she liked the color purple?"
"Dunno, but any color should do," he trailed off as he got closer to her, "You're really pretty when you're untangling tinsel."
She smiled brightly at him and chided, "You're a big dork, Gl—"
Just at that moment, he plopped the biggest bow he had found in the store on top of her head, and she couldn't help but smile even wider. In her moment of recovery, he snatched the tinsel from her hand and wrapped it around her shoulders in a flurry of sparkles and crinkling plastic. Maggie laughed happily at the small gesture of silliness.
"Glenn, this is for the trees." She shook off the bow and placed against his chest. His arms wrapped around the thick red taffeta and he shook his head.
"Looks better on you." He winked setting down the gaudy decorations helping her with the tinsel wrapped around her neck.
"Shoot," He said, "looks like I tangled it even worse." He snapped one end of it off, leaving Maggie with an iridescent, purple choker. She gave him a dreadful look, and he put his hands up defensively.
"I didn't mean to do that!" He tried to guard himself, but before he could react, Maggie had grabbed a spool of thick gold tinsel and began to tangle her husband up in it.
"Now we can match!" She cackled, throwing him down onto a display of boxes. They crumpled under their weight, and both Glenn and Maggie let out an 'Oof' as they collided with the thick cardboard beneath them.
Glenn pushed aside the tinsel surrounding his face and looked at the woman beside him. Both of their cheeks were red from laughing, and Maggie was still fighting with her new necklace. Glenn grabbed her hand from her throat and knitted their fingers together. Maggie raised her other hand up to her husband's face, gently caressing his rosy cheeks. They both leaned in closer, and relished in their moment of privacy from the rest of the group. It had been awhile since the group had felt comfortable splitting up, and they were going to take advantage of this time they had alone together.