Wincing, Roci stuck his index finger into his mouth after pricking it with the needle for the twelfth time. He held up the string of popcorn he'd been threading for the past several minutes, measured it, and sighed; it was still only a few inches long, and he needed several feet before it was long enough to wrap all the way around the tree.
He rubbed the injured finger briefly on his pant leg, picked up another kernel from the bowl beside him, and became absorbed in pushing the point of the needle through the white fluff.
Wham–Bellemere blew in through the door in a gust of snow and frigid air. Startled, Roci jerked in his seat; the needle slipped from his grasp and jabbed his finger, again.
"I got the cranberries," she said brightly, placing a crumpled, slightly moist paper bag on the floor next to him. "Also, look at this–"
Her pockets bulged with pinecones. Handful by handful, she drew them out, stacking them in a neat pile. "We can tie loops around the tops. They'll make lovely ornaments." Shrugging off her coat, she grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl.
"Hey, you're not supposed to eat that!" Roci protested. Bellemere laughed through a mouthful of white kernels; she grabbed a few more from the bowl and tossed them at him.
"Just try and stop me." she smirked. Roci carefully set aside his popcorn chain. Then, he leapt up and proceeded to tickle her; she squealed and squirmed and giggled uncontrollably.
"Okay, I give!" she gasped between laughs. He let go and stood back, grinning.
"You know," Bellemere told him, "it's really not a fair fight. You're not ticklish at all."
He shrugged, still smiling, and began working on his popcorn chain once more. Picking up the bag of cranberries, Bellemere seated herself next to him.
"Can I use some of your thread? Thanks." Her fingers moved smoothly, deftly; in minutes, her chain of cranberries almost a foot long. Meanwhile, he added a few more inches of popcorn to his, but not without stabbing his finger several more times. Eventually, he got up to bandage the injured extremity, and returned to his task with a thick, clumsy bandage on his fingertip.
"You need any help with that?" Bellemere inquired, tilting her head to the side. Her cranberry chain lay coiled neatly on her lap, glistening.
"Sure." He handed her the opposite end of his thread; she tied on a needle and began to slip popcorn kernels down the sharp tip and onto the chain. Working together, the two of them finished quickly.
Then, they draped the chains of red and white gracefully around the tree, alternating and crossing the colors–this got them tangled more than once, and Roci nearly knocked the tree over, but in the end, their efforts were successful. Next came the pinecones; with loops of thread tied firmly around the tops, they dangled in-between the coils of cranberries and popcorn.
"I think it's beautiful." Bellemere declared. And it was–even without tinsel or glass baubles. The homely efforts of their own two hands was more than enough.