John and Sherlock took a step back to admire the fine fir tree that they had put up. After struggling to bring it up the stairs and set it upright in the stand, both men were out of breath and sweating.
"Now what?" Sherlock asked as he peeled of his scarf and coat.
"Now we just have to decorate it. Didn't you ever have a Christmas tree when you were little?"
"If we did, I've deleted the memory."
John's face fell slightly. "Do you still want to do this?" he asked.
"Yes. Why wouldn't I?" Sherlock asked with a cock of his head.
"Well I just didn't know if you would just end up 'deleting' this from your memory too."
"John," Sherlock said and closed the distance between them, placing one hand on John's hip. "I would never delete a single memory of you. I would gladly give up all the knowledge I've acquired to before forgetting a single thing about you, or us." He pulled John closer to him and nuzzled down into the doctor's neck.
John was beaming, and he threw his arms around his lover. But, determined to get the tree done tonight, he broke away from the embrace before it could lead to anything else.
Sherlock was in a particularly helpful mood, he had retrieved water for the tree, set out all the decorations they had bought on the couch and chairs, and began unwrapping the strings of lights they had also purchased. At the mall, Sherlock had suggested that their tree be gold and black, and John was too happy about Sherlock's enthusiasm to argue. John laid down the black velvet tree skirt that they had bought.
"Alright," Sherlock announced when he had set out all of their decorating supplies. "What do we do first?"
"Well," John said, "we need to do the lights first. Hand me a string of them please." Sherlock did as was told and watched as John stood on his tiptoes and began wrapping the string around starting at the top of the tree. John worked quickly and efficiently, draping the wire on branches and asking Sherlock for the next set we he started running short.
After the lights were all strung about the tree, John plugged them in and took a step back. The lights were white and when turned on gave a beautiful golden glow to the whole flat. Sherlock look intently at the lights. He was amazed that something so simple could be so beautiful. Truly, he would have been happy with just this or their tree. But they had many more decorations to put on the tree.
"Alright Sherlock, you'll need to help me with this." John picked up one of the boxes with black glass bulbs of varying sizes and handed it to Sherlock. "Take these and hang them anywhere you like on the tree. I'll start hanging some of these." John picked up a box of gold glass bulbs for himself.
The two men began hanging the ornaments on the tree, and Sherlock was surprised to find how much he was enjoying himself. John finished with his box first, but before grabbing another, he pulled out his cell phone and began snapping some pictures of Sherlock at work.
Sherlock whirled around at the sound effect of the cell phone camera, and glared at John. "What are you taking pictures for?" he demanded.
"Because love," John began and snapped another photo, "not all of us have a photographic memory. I need actual photos to help me remember the wonderful times like these."
Sherlock wanted to argue, he did hate having his picture taken, but he didn't want to ruin such a wonderful experience. If it makes John happy, I'll let it go. Sherlock settled for a roll of his eyes and went back to work. After a few more photos, John rejoined the decorating effort.
After all the glass bulbs had been hung, Sherlock picked up a box full of small glass icicles. They were made of clear glass. John and Sherlock began hanging them on the branches, and when they had hung all of them they both stepped back to admire their handiwork.
"I'm glad you suggested the icicles John, they catch the light beautifully." Sherlock said and took John's hand in his own.
"One last thing," John said and tugged Sherlock toward the couch. A large golden star sat in it's box. "You'll probably have a much easier time getting this on the top than I would." John took the star out of its box and handed it to Sherlock.
Sherlock approached the tree and stood on his toes, reaching up, and placed the star on the very top few branches of the tree. He stepped back and took in the whole sight of their completed tree. John had snapped a few pictures of Sherlock putting the star on, and now he took a few pictures of the completed tree.
"It's lovely John," Sherlock said with a smile.
"Yeah. I love it. Here, come here." John pulled Sherlock so that they were both standing with their backs to the tree. John held his phone at arm's length and swtiched to using the front camera.
"Really John?" Sherlock quipped.
"Yes, we don't have many pictures of us together. Look, it will be nice with the tree in the background." John tried snapping a few photos, but he couldn't quite get them both into the frame.
"Give me that," Sherlock said and grabbed the phone from John. With Sherlock's long arms, he was easily able to snap several photos of them, getting them both in the frame as well as the tree behind them.
"Thank you love," John said and stood on tip toes to kiss Sherlock on the cheek.
"You're welcome John. I can't say that I'd ever thought I would take a...what are they calling them? A selfie?"
"Yes. Don't worry, I plan on taking lot's of selfies with you." John giggled. Though Sherlock found the idea utterly ridiculous, he was pleased all the same.
"Well, I best have one for my phone. I've been meaning to change my background anyway."
"Really?" John asked. He wants a picture of us as his background photo?
"Yes. Come on, let's take a selfie."
That night, the two men sat snuggled close on the couch. A warm fire was blazing in the hearth and snow fell outside the window. They left the lights on the Christmas tree on all night.