Blinded by the Light: Drabbles

Drabble Eight: The Christmas Tree

Brian had secretly been hoping that Roger, no longer able to see the street being dolled up for Christmas weeks in advance of the actual event, would not start begging to decorate their house at the first day of December anymore. Unfortunately, the opposite was true; hearing a few stray Christmas songs on the radio was all it had taken to get Roger in the mood for the party. This was why Brian, after having succumbed to the endless asking and begging of his boyfriend, found himself standing at the market and unexcitedly looking around the section of Christmas trees of a flower salesman who had switched his assortment from roses and daisies to pine trees for the occasion.

'I want a large tree, bigger than the one we had last year,' Roger declared while he tugged at Brian's hand to make him move forward faster. It still surprised Brian that Roger would often take the lead when they were walking hand in hand somewhere; it seemed more logical to the guitarist that he, being able to see their surroundings, would show Roger the way instead of the other way around. Then again, maybe it should not surprise him as much as it did; he was familiar with Roger's impatience and how it only grew worse in situations that excited him, like the current one – shopping for a Christmas tree – was doing.

'I was more thinking about a tree that fits into the car, to be honest,' Brian answered while he peered questioningly at the trees they passed. Most of them were much taller and wider than what he was looking for; some made him doubt if they even fit through the front door of the average London residence. Sure, Roger was going to love him for buying one of these excessive trees, but given that they had to take the tree home, preferably by car and not with a truck or anything the like, and fit it into the living room without damaging the doorpost (either on accident or by forcibly removing the wooden frame to fit the tree through it), it seemed better to Brian to go for a normal sized tree.

'That's just a minor detail,' Roger smiled, holding out the hand that was not constricted by Brian's, who irremovably clung to him in an attempt to hold onto Roger in the maze of pine trees and a handful of fellow Christmas shoppers. Roger felt around to find the trees, an excited smile forming on his face when he felt his hand connecting with the flexible branches he had been searching for.

'How about this one?' Roger asked, shaking his hand apart from Brian's to explore the shape and firmness of the fir he had elected. He deemed both these factors to be alright, and continued to stretch on his tiptoes to find how tall the tree was. He then unfortunately found that he could easily reach the single top branch, meaning that the tree was not tall enough, so he somewhat clumsily moved over to the section next to it. Brian, on the other hand, lingered at the tree Roger had just discarded as an option. It was maybe five foot tall, did not have too many protruding branches, and its needles looked shiny and healthy. Just as Brian look a step closer to inspect the paper price tag that had been attached to the top branch with a thin piece of rope, his partner diverted his attention from this year's potential Christmas tree to the one he had discovered.

'This one feels fine to me,' Roger said, and when Brian turned to look at the man standing a few metres away from him, he saw Roger reaching out a bare hand to touch the fir needles. Brian strode over to him, knowing by experience that they were soft, yet surprisingly sharp when approached from the right – or actually, the wrong – direction.

'Roger, put your gloves back on!' Brian ordered, knowing that if he allowed his boyfriend to touch the tree with bare fingers, he would undoubtedly manage to end up with one of those organic needles lodging in the skin of his hands in no time. Roger muttered an inaudible complaint as he let his fingers slip back into the gloves he had just taken off, only to squeeze a branch of the tree afterwards, as if it was his aim to do everything within his power to worry Brian.