Fluffy WangXian Oneshots

The (S) Urge

Lan Zhan loved Christmas.

He loved the sound of jingle bells, the Christmas songs which probably became annoying to others, but they were always playing in some form or another in his home on the run up to Christmas.

He had a fire burning in the fireplace, Christmas candles lit all over the house, a new wreath hung outside on his front door, stockings filled with presents and of course, the all important Christmas tree.

His home smelled like Christmas too, with cinnamon and spice, vanilla and sandalwood.

He had a specific routine too, when it came to this most special of holidays.

Exactly on the first day of December, he would pull out his plastic tree from his garage and find all the ornaments they had accumulated during the years, and then spend the rest of the day decorating it and finally, finally at the end of the day, when it was just beginning to get dark...he would switch the lights on.

It was a magical time indeed.

As he pulled out his first ever bunny ornament, he thought about his mother.

She loved Christmas too, out of all the holidays and her infectious love had filtered down to him too.

She passed away after spending their eighth Christmas together.

They used to bake together and Lan Zhan treasured her recipe books. She had a special one for Christmas time and Lan Zhan was going to start baking from tomorrow.

There were lots of bunnies on this tree now, including the tree topper, a black and white pair of bunnies, one with a red ribbon and the white one wore a baby blue one. It had long since become his favourite ornament, and so he gave it the most prestigious place of honour, right at the top.

Throughout the years, his uncle and his brother gave him ornaments to add to this tree. It wasn't the same one as the one he used to decorate with his mother, because he had made sure XiChen received it for a specific reason.

He wanted to buy a bigger one.

That's why his tree took all day to decorate, and twelve days after Christmas, it would take the whole day to dissemble.

But Lan Zhan didn't mind at all.

He found it rather therapeutic, meditative almost. There was something calming about unwrapping the ornaments one by one from the tissue paper he saved, and rewrapping them when Christmas was done.

Today, he was rather proud of himself because he had finished a little earlier than expected. Normally he would switch on the lights at exactly four pm. That was twilight in these winter months and the anticipation was built to just the right amount.

Lan Zhan looked at his watch.

15.45.

Fifteen minutes early.

His finger hovered over the power socket.

He had never, ever switched it on early before.

He dithered for a bit, still in two minds and then, because it was the season of miracles, he felt a breath of air on his cheek.

It felt like a kiss from his mother.

He was so startled that his finger pressed the switch and the entire tree lit up.

It was beautiful...simply marvellous.

Lan Zhan stood back in awe and love.

This first moment was always magical, taking in the splendour of this, his creation.