Traditions
Christmas was Wilford Warfstache's absolute favorite holiday. He was the type to start listening to Christmas music the second Halloween ended. His housemate, Dark, wasn't as fond of Christmas as Wilford. Since they had been living together, they tried to be considerate of each other most of the time, so Wilford was kind enough to wait until Thanksgiving ended to turn the house into a Christmas lover's dream.
Dark knew Wil loved Christmas, and he knew Wil was bursting at the seams to decorate. But even still, he almost couldn't believe his eyes when he left his bedroom on the morning after Thanksgiving.
There was red, green, and white everywhere. Santas, reindeer, candy canes, and Christmas quotes were everywhere Dark looked. Garland and holly sat on every railing. As Dark descended down the stairs, he saw a giant Christmas tree, filled to the brim with ornaments and lights. While that one was the biggest one, there were smaller ones scattered throughout the manor, all decked out. And Christmas music already seemed to be playing. Dark could also smell something baking...cookies, maybe? But it was only eight in the morning!
As Dark entered the kitchen, he found Wilford. Sure enough, he was pulling a tray of freshly baked cookies out of the oven and putting a new tray of dough balls in. He was in flannel pjs and there was already a mess of ingredients, bowls, and recipes littering the island countertop.
"It's like Kris Kringle threw up in here. What in the hell is up with the house?" Dark grumbled, reaching for the coffee pot.
"Oh, good morning, Dark! It's officially the holiday season!" Wilford greeted him.
"It was just Thanksgiving."
"Yes, and now it's Christmas time!"
Dark poured himself a cup of fresh coffee and took a long drink before speaking again.
"How did you manage to decorate the entire house already? There's so much stuff everywhere."
"Well, I had to stay up all night to get it done, but it was worth it, don't you think? I mean, the house looks amazing! By the way, do you want a cookie? They're fresh out of the oven!" Wilford held the tray out to Dark, who pushed it away.
"No thanks. I don't do cookies for breakfast," Dark sneered.
Unfortunately for Dark, Wil's holiday obsession didn't stop there. Not only did Dark have to look at Christmas decorations practically every second of every day, and constantly either drown out holiday songs or Wil's own renditions of them, but Wilford tried involving Dark in every tradition he knew.
Dark might have turned down cookies for breakfast, but by the end of Black Friday he had tried probably twenty different types of Christmas cookies and sweets - Wilford baked all day and convinced Dark to help him with decorating. Every night, Wilford exposed Dark to a new Christmas movie that he hadn't seen. They went ice skating, which neither of them was good at, so they had to hold each other up most of the time. Wilford pulled Dark outside and persuaded him to play in the first snow of the year, which led to the two of them making snow angels and snowmen and eventually, having a very competitive snowball fight. Wil even managed to get Dark to pose for a Christmas card and have a holiday photo shoot.
"There is no way you're going to get me to wear this atrocious thing," Dark frowned as he gazed at the ugly Christmas sweater Wilford had laid out for him. But with a little bribery, Wilford did get him to (he promised Dark he'd get him the really nice new suit he wanted for Christmas).
On Christmas Eve, Wilford threw a big Christmas party at the manor. It was supposed to be an ugly sweater party, but Dark made Wilford change it to a "general holiday attire" party because he refused to put an ugly sweater on again. (Dark ended up settling for a red suit and a Santa hat instead). At their party (which was mostly Wil's, but Dark got roped into it since he lived there too), they served adult versions of eggnog and peppermint hot chocolate, they did karaoke to holiday hits, and had a gift exchange during which Wilford received a gift set of chocolate and candy and Dark received a bottle of red wine.
Dark was exhausted from all of the fun Wilford was forcing him to participate in, but even after their late ending party, Dark didn't get a break. He was woken up (and scared shitless) by Wilford bright and early.
"Wil, what the fuck?!" Dark shouted, yanking the covers higher over himself as if Wilford had never seen him shirtless before. Meanwhile, Wilford was sitting on Dark's bed, staring at him.
"Rise and shine, Dark! It's Christmas!" Wil exclaimed, pulling Dark out of bed.
"It's practically been Christmas all month," Dark muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Wil to catch it.
"Oh, just put on a shirt and come downstairs!"
Dark did as he was told and found Wilford in the living room, making two piles of presents on either end of the couch - one for himself and one for Dark. Dark joined Wil on the couch with a cup of coffee once Wil was done and they tore into their gifts and stockings as flames crackled in the fireplace and music played softly in the background. Even Dark was in a good mood by the time they were done opening everything.
After a filling lunch and dessert (there were still so many cookies left somehow), Dark and Wilford cozied up by the fire with fluffy blankets, watching Christmas movies that they had both seen a million times by now but still weren't completely tired of.
"Well, did we cross every tradition off your list?" Dark laughed before taking a sip of his new bottle of wine.
"Almost," Wilford replied.
"There's still something left that we haven't done?" Dark answered, surprised.
"Yeah. Mistletoe."
"You put that up over a month ago," Dark reminded him.
"But we haven't kissed under it yet," Wil told him, looking up. Of course Wil had put mistletoe on the mantle, right above where they were sitting.
Dark sighed and set his glass down. Then he pulled Wil in for a sweet kiss, which led to another, and then another.
"Now we've done every tradition," Wilford smiled when Dark finally pulled away. They both could agree that it had been a pretty great Christmas.