“What’s wrong with the way the presents are wrapped?” Isaac asked. They looked fine to him. Sure, he had to use a lot more tape than he expected, and the wrapping paper had ripped on a few of them, but he’d already cut out different paper to cover the random holes.

Artemis gave him a dry look. “It looks like shit,” she said rather bluntly. “Why didn’t you just use a bag?”

“Because it’s Christmas.” He rolled his eyes at the question. Wasn’t the answer obvious? Isaac was going to make this special for you. “Our first Christmas together, I had to go all out.”

He’d asked Artemis to help because, well, out of all his bandmates, Artemis was at least decent at decorating things. She could keep a secret too. For whatever reason, Alon and Gray had become buddy-buddy with you (so much for being rival bands) after he’d finally come clean about the relationship to his band. Isaac was worried their loudmouths would ruin the surprise he was planning.

The living room of his—yours now, too—apartment looked like Christmas had thrown up in there. It was straight out of a cheesy Hallmark movie. Perfect, Isaac thought. There was a mistletoe in the doorway, garlands wrapped around wherever they could find. Fake snow, a real tree with a cluster of random ornaments he thought you’d like, stuffed reindeer and snowmen lining the couch and floor. He’d even switched out the pillows to fit the theme.

This was all coming from someone that hated anything not minimalist. Half the time people thought he’d recently moved into his apartment, but he just didn’t feeling cramped with too many belongings. He hadn’t considered you caring until he overheard you on the phone. Isaac couldn’t make out most of it, he had heard you say something about liking Christmas, though. At least he thought he did.

Isaac hadn’t decorated for the holidays since he was a kid. Sure, Christmas was fun, but he didn’t enough to do anything special. For you, though, he’d went and picked out a live tree just to take home. The palm-sized spider that fell on him in the process had only made him scream for a minute, thank you very much. He only had a few days to set everything up. You were off on a small gig out of town with your band, hopefully oblivious to all of this.

Artemis left the moment they’d gotten all the decorations up without even saying bye. Typical. He decided not to dwell on it.

Isaac stared at the matching stockings he’d gotten the two of you. Was that too much? Nah. He thought it was sort of cute. Isaac was about to make some hot chocolate in preparation for your return, when he remembered the damn wreath he was supposed to put on the front door. With a muttered curse, he went off to look for it.

The wreath didn’t want to work with him, however, and refused to stay straight as he struggled to put it up. It kept tilting to the side, throwing off the large ‘Merry Christmas’ sign attached to it. A noise behind him caught his attention, and he glanced behind him to find you. Of course you’d show up now.

“Wreath,” Isaac said without much thought. “Thought you’d like a wreath. Ta-da.”

The wreath in question tilted back to the side when he let it go. Isaac decided to accept defeat.

“Close your eyes. Here, I got your suitcase, babe. Don’t look! I’ll guide you in.” He excitedly grabbed at your hand.