Who: Katou and Kanan What: Decorating the Christmas tree When: December sometime Where: Chateau Katou Warning/Rating: Low/none Status: Complete
It had been a long day. Katou’d always hated this time of year, and while he was starting to accept it a little more now - maybe his birthday wasn’t the worst day of the year after all - he was still a little sour. The snow, the too-cheerful Christmas carols being played on repeat, and the fact that he’d been almost certain he’d seen a snowman in a top hat dancing with some children was all too much for him. Top it off with the fact that, despite braving the Christmas crowds, he still hadn’t managed to find a gift to Kanan - what the hell did you get for the guy who gave you everything - and Katou wasn’t exactly cheerful when he made it home.
“I’m home,” he called, tapping his toes on the door mat when he walked in to knock off some snow before he took off his shoes. He was unwinding the scarf from around his neck when finally noticed the Christmas tree in the middle of the living room.
“What the hell is that?” he asked, staring at it.
Kanan Jarrus was getting into the Christmas spirit. In fact, he’d gotten into the spirit a little more deeply than he’d expected. It was the first time since he’d been a little kid that he’d had the opportunity to celebrate it. There wasn’t much in the way of celebrating when you were on the run. And it wasn’t as if Janus didn’t observe the holidays, there just hadn’t ever been the time. And finally, when Kanan was out on his own, he found that celebrating the holidays on your own was lonely as fuck.
This year he had people to celebrate with! He’d had a little too much fun finding gifts for everyone. A brand new shiny amp was squirrelled away in his closet behind a bunch of random items. With how easily Katou had found Kanan’s birth certificate, Kanan wanted to be sure his protege wouldn’t “accidentally” stumble on his Christmas gift the same way.
In getting into the Christmas Spirit, Kanan had gone out and gotten a Christmas Tree. One with the roots all bundled up in a little burlap sack at the bottom so after the holidays it could be planted. Kanan thought it would be nice to plant the very first Christmas Tree he’d’ ever had. Sentimental old fart that he was. He’d also gone out and bought a bunch of random decorations for the tree. He was in the process of stringing the lights he’d bought when Katou had come in.
“Heya, Yue,” Kanan called, stepping out from around the tree. Stringing lights around a tree was easier said than done. The lights were wrapped around Kanan more so than they were the tree. “This is a Christmas Tree…” he stated proudly and then trailed off. In his zeal to celebrate his first Christmas he’d forgone asking if Katou minded if a tree decked out in colorful bulbs and lights appeared in the middle of his living room. For all Kanan knew, the kid didn’t celebrate Christmas. Not very roommate-ly of him. “I...uh…” he rubbed the back of his head a little sheepishly. “Sorry, I should have asked you first. You wanna help me decorate it?”
Katou slipped off his shoes and tossed his scarf and jacket onto the back of a chair. “Sounds like a pain in the ass,” Katou drawled, walking into the living room, but despite his words he grabbed a string of garland to wrap around the tree. “I ain’t never had a Christmas tree before. Is our house going to smell like a forest until we get rid of it?”
Not that the pine needles were an unpleasant scent.
Kanan smiled faintly, a little relieved that the tree was met with only minor grumbling. He suspected, but couldn’t tell for sure, that Katou secretly and deep down inside just might enjoy this.
“It might,” he answered as he went back to untangling the string of lights he had wrapped around his arms and torso. “I’ve never had a Christmas tree either. I got us one with the roots still attached. See?” Kanan gestured towards the bottom of the tree where a burlap sack was bundled around the roots. “When we’re ready to take it down, we can plant it in the yard or something.”
Katou looked down and was actually a little surprised when he saw bag attached to the end of the tree. “What, so we’re not going to be done with this thing even when Christmas is over?” Katou said, rolling his eyes but grinning. What a fucking dork Kanan was. Who saved their Christmas trees, of all things? “You’re a sap,” he said, lightly punching Kanan in the shoulder before making his way to the tree with his garland. He regarded the tree for a moment, before he decided to start at the top and work his way down.
Kanan was a colossal dork. He knew it and he didn’t much care. He’d gone through his life with nothing tangible to remind him of happier times. No photos. No keepsakes. Nothing. A tree - a living and breathing thing - to commemorate his first real Christmas spent with people he cared about seemed appropriate - necessary even.
He swayed a little when Katou playfully punched him and laughed. “Yeah, I’m a total sap,” he admitted. “But think about it. Every year thousands of trees give their lives so that people can be festive. Just thought it’d be nice to give one a home. Think Wendy’ll mind? Having a new tree in her yard? I think it’s kinda nice.”
“Naw, Wendy won’t mind,” Katou assured Kanan. “This exactly the kinda sappy shit she’d eat up with a spoon.” And, you know, maybe so would Katou. Not that he’d ever admit it. As far as he was concerned, the fact that he happened to fall in with weirdos with all sorts of strange romantic notions up in their heads was just some weird coincidence. Or God’s way of laughing at him (hey, at least it beat his dream God’s idea of fun).
He’d managed four circuits around the tree before he stopped and looked over at Kanan. “Hey. You think you can Force decorate? Bet that’d save us all sorts of work.”
Kanan had managed to untangle the lights from around his torso and was circiling them around the tree in the opposite direction of Katou to avoid getting the lights tangled with the garland. At Katou’s suggestion he use the Force to decorate the tree he stopped and blinked.
Why hadn’t he thought of that?
“Dunno,” he answered thoughtfully. “Christmas doesn’t exist in a Galxay Far Far Away.” At least not that he’d seen any sign of thus far (minus that terrible Wookie special that had come out in the early 80’s, but no one wanted to admit that was a thing that existed). “Guess I could try.” He set down the remainder of the string of lights and took a step back so he could see the tree in its entirety. He took a breath, closed his eyes and cleared his mind of thought. He focused on the string of lights. The way it looked, the way it felt, connected with everything else along that fabric of the universe. He could see it, in a sense, coiled in its little bundle on the floor.
As he concentrated on the lights, Kanan raised his hand, a focal point for the telekenises portion of his Force abilities. The string of lights moved, floating upwards from the floor. Kanan shifted his perception as he moved it around the tree. Force based telekenises wasn’t too terribly precise, nor did it have particularly good dexterity, usually used in combat to fling enemies from one end of the field to the other. So it took a few minutes to wrap around the tree.
Kanan opened his eyes and glanced at Katou. “For lights, that was easier, but using the Force will take just as long. I can really only move one thing at a time. Besides,” he shrugged. “Isn’t part of the fun actually hanging the ornaments yourself?”
Katou never got sick of seeing the Force at work, and he watched the floating light with a grin on his face. Not for the first time, he wished he had Force powers. Life would be so much easier if he could just wave his hand to get the television remote instead of actually standing up.
“I wouldn’t know,” Katou said, bending down to pick up a couple of the ornaments. He lobbed one at Kanan. “Guess we’ll find out though.”
Kanan caught the ornament with one hand, gently palming the delicate glass bulb so that it would shatter into his palm. “Yeah, I guess we will,” he smirked at the younger man. “I got some extra garlands to string up over the living room doors, too. And some lights for the windows.” Because that’s what people did. He hadn’t gotten anything gaudy or stupid. None of those blow-up decorations for the front lawn. Even Kanan in all his Christmas Spirit eyed those with a bit of disgust.
“What, no lights to hang off the roof outside?” Katou asked, a little surprised. If the Christmas movies he watched in elementary school were anything to go with, there was nothing more Christmasy that climbing an icy ladder to hang lights from the eavestroughs, and possibly to slip on said ice and go tumbling down from the roof.
“No…” Kanan answered kind of sheepishly. “I wasn’t sure if that was ok. I mean, it’s not my house.” He glanced at Katou carefully. “I could get lights for the outside if you want. I could totally use the force to hang them. Avoid going up a ladder. I don’t have much success with ladder and roofs.”
“It’s as much your house as mine,” Katou said, shrugging. Just because he’d lived there longer didn't mean that it wasn't still Wendy’s house. “Maybe I can sit myself up on the roof one of these days and you can Force the lights up to me. Even if that wouldn’t be quite as funny as watching you fall off the roof yourself.”
“You would enjoy that, wouldn’t you?” Kanan said with a teasing smile. “I’m not risking my neck to hang a few lights. You can fly. It makes more sense for you to fly up there and hang the lights.”
But what Katou had said about the house being as much his as it was Katou’s was appreciated. It had never been said, but they were as good as family and Kanan couldn’t think of a better way to spend the holidays.