Glowing Eyes || Adopted by Josh Dun

merry

I had only really decorated a Christmas tree once before, and that wasn't even at my own house. It was at Dael's house, as you probably guessed already. So, technically speaking, the first time I decorated a family Christmas tree of my own was when I was fourteen, with my newly adopted-into family.

I had no idea how much of a process tree decorating was. The lights in themselves took at least half of the time, and they were incredibly hard to put on. Side note - apparently popcorn and cranberry garland isn't an actual thing families do. It's just a movie thing.

The fun part was putting the ornaments on. There were cases upon cases of the things (most of which we ended up not using). Some of them were clearly store bought in beautiful packs, all color coordinated and perfectly painted. Others were kept together in bubble wrap and cardboard boxes. Either old, handed down ones, or ones that they Duns had made as little kids.

It kind of reminded me of the ornament I made a long time ago. I think I told you the story a few chapters ago. The one I made at school and my mom didn't like, but my brother cherished. It seemed kind of... weird to me that they had kept them for so long. Old paper ornaments of their cut-out hands that we're falling apart, but still held their names signed in six-year-old writing tied to the tree by fading ribbon.

It was kind of beautiful. And even though those weren't my memories, those were my favorite ornaments to put on the tree. Late at night afterwards, I would wake up to sneak down to the tree, and I would look at them and imagine what memory was tied to it.

The tree was tall - the living room had high ceilings. Josh would put me up on his shoulders, and teeter back and forth as I put ornaments on the tree from many feet higher. It took a few hours to finally fill the tree, and by the end of it our throats hurt from laughing and belting Christmas songs, and we had broken at least twenty ornaments. (Mrs.Dun would always just laugh and say 'Well, that's what duplicates are for).

After we were done, we all drank hot chocolate and sat in front of it, admiring the twinkling lights reflecting off of silver ornaments in the dark, winter night. And when everyone had finally gone to sleep, I snuck out to see it again. I sat there for hours, staring at the beautiful tree in a mixture of content and awe. A Christmas tree. It was a real Christmas tree. Not just mine, but my family's Christmas tree. That thought always brought a smile to my face.

I sat in a pair of sweatpants, my brother's old maroon hoodie, and worn socks as I let the warm lights slowly lull me to sleep. I laid down on the wood floor as I gazed at it near the foot of the couch. I finally shut my eyes after what felt like hours of looking at it.

I was woken up a few hours later by a tap on the shoulder and someone softly whispering my name. I came to slowly, rubbing my tired eyes and sitting up. I finally caught sight of the figure kneeling in front of me.

"Josh?" I croaked sleepily.

He smiled, his white teeth reflecting in the tree's soft glow. It made his pink hair look funny, too, more like an off-color hue surrounding his head.  "Hey, what are you doing out here so late? It's two in the morning?"

I sat up, leaning against the bottom of the couch, "I stayed up to look at the Christmas tree and I fell asleep."

Josh smiled softly at that, before sighing softly and saying, "Well, you need to get off to bed. I promise it's more comfortable than the floor." He chuckled a little, scooping me up with ease and carrying me around the couch and up the stairs.

I took a deep breath that seemed to stretch me out and buried myself into his chest, practically falling back asleep. Then again, I wasn't really awake in the first place.