Warnings: minor injuries and blood mention

Bright rays of early morning sun filtered in between the blinds of Patton's kitchen window, where Patton was padding around his kitchen to begin on making himself breakfast. He had barely finished getting out the ingredients he needed when his front door was being opened, and the recognizable heavy footsteps of Roman were once more heard entering his home.

"Patton?" He heard Roman call, most likely peering into his living room.

"Kitchen!" Patton called back, hearing his friend walk through the house until he stood in the kitchen entryway, smiling and waving at Patton.

"Good morning, Patton! You really need to start locking your door." Roman mentioned.

"How would you manage to barge into my house randomly then?" Patton joked, automatically going to double up the ingredients for breakfast. He knew Roman wouldn't have eaten before coming over.

"Maybe then I'd just have to knock like a normal person." Roman suggested, going to stand next to Patton at the counter and taking over one of the things Patton was making to make things easier on him. Patton smiled appreciatively, leaning over to give his friend a sideways hug. Roman wrapped his arm back around Patton's shoulders, pulling him in close. Roman was nearly a foot taller than Patton, so his hugs were always the greatest. Patton never wanted to let go of the hug, and luckily for him Roman seemed to be planning to stay that way until their breakfast had been finished.

"Acting like a normal person just wouldn't fit you." Patton laughed when Roman feigned offense, gasping dramatically and throwing his free hand over his heart.

"I'm perfectly capable of acting normal, thank you very much!" Roman replied. "I simply prefer not to. Normal people simply aren't as great as me."

"Whatever you say, Roman." Patton grinned, looking up at his friend. "What brings you over this morning anyways?"

"Ah, yes! I almost forgot. So, since the two of us are going to be spending out Christmas season together, I was coming over to ask if you'd like to join me today. I'm going to pick out a Christmas tree and decorate it today!" Roman explained himself. "So, would you like to help me?"

"Oh, of course! That sounds like fun." Patton agreed easily, turning off the stove burner as he finished their food. Roman copied him, and Patton shivered as he broke away from Roman's hold. It was much colder without his arm around him, but he needed to grab plates for the two of them. "Let's eat some breakfast and then I'll get ready to leave."

****

Not much later the pair were loading into Patton's car, Patton driving as Roman told him where to go. Not long after getting on the road Roman was reaching over to turn the radio on, filling the car with the sound of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Almost immediately Roman began to sing along, loud and cheery. A grin formed on Patton's lips as he sent Roman a look, finding his friend smiling and bobbing his head to the song. It wasn't long before he joined in belting the lyrics, earning a smile in return from Roman as they sang together.

This went on for a while as different songs played, the perfect music to get them both in the Christmas spirit as they went to pick out a tree. After a while they heard the voice of a radio speaker, telling them that the next song up would be Hallelujah.

"I've never understood why this song is played around Christmas time." Roman mentioned, frowning as the song began to play from the car's speakers. "It's really got nothing to do with Christmas."

Patton just shrugged beside of him, glancing over at Roman. "It's still a nice song!"

Roman couldn't deny that, especially when Patton's voice joined in with the one from the radio, singing to the song loudly and beautifully. Roman has never quite heard Patton singing to a song like this one, so he never truly realized just how wonderful his friend was at it. He couldn't even join in on the singing himself, too busy staring at Patton with wide eyes and his mouth slightly ajar, taking in his voice completely and enjoying every moment he got to listen.

Unfortunately it wasn't long before Patton realized he was the only one singing along, voice trailing off in the middle of a lyric to look towards Roman. He caught him staring intently at him, the both of them blushing and quickly looking the other way. Patton stared at the road, rubbing his red cheeks with one of his cold hands, hoping to rid them of their warmth. Not knowing what to say Patton settled on a joke, forcing a small chuckle. "U-Uh, am I really that bad at singing?"

"Wha-no!" Roman said quickly, looking back over at his friend and shaking his head. "No, definitely not! The opposite, really. You're-you sound absolutely amazing, Pat. I've never heard you sing like that."

"Oh," Patton mumbled, the compliment from Roman doing nothing to cool his blushing face. He drew in a deep and nervous breath, teeth catching his lower lip as he processed what exactly Roman had just said. "Thanks. It's... not nearly as good as your voice, though."

"It's every bit as good as my voice!" Roman argued quickly. A little too quickly he thought, making a joke to deflect a bit. "Of course, it couldn't possibly be better than mine, but you're certainly up there."

"I'm glad you think so." Patton smiled over at Roman, cheeks still a bright red shade.

Roman didn't seem to notice, smiling right back. "Of course. You should sing more often."

Patton wasn't sure what to say after that, continuing to stare out at the road ahead quietly. He was thankful when Roman loudly proclaimed that another song that came on was his favorite and began singing along, joining him in singing once again. They both sang, smiled, and laughed the rest of the way to the Christmas tree farm, all the way until they had parked the car. After their last song the two made their way towards the sea of Christmas trees, already able to smell the strong scent of the cut pine trees.

"I love the smell of Christmas trees," Patton smiled, breathing deeply to catch more of the scent. Roman agreed as they stepped into the Christmas tree farm, finally standing beside of the trees now.

"Everything about getting a live Christmas tree is amazing... the scent, the look, the fact that you get to cut it down with an axe all on your own," Roman grinned, examining the first trees carefully.

"Who decided you should be allowed to cut down your own tree?" Patton questioned, looking concernedly at his friend.

"I did!" Roman said gleefully, moving onto the next bunch of trees with Patton close behind. Patton just smiled and shook his head, happy to see his friend so excited for his Christmas tree.

"This one looks nice," Patton pointed to a particularly tall and full tree. Roman scrutinized the tree, walking around it in a circle.

"Yes, it is nice... but we have to look at all of the trees before we can decide!" He proclaimed, moving to the next one again.

"I see," Patton said with a smile as he continued to chase after his easily excited friend. "We have to pick out a tree that's just as extravagant as you!"

"Of course!"

****

It took a while, but eventually Roman had decided on a tree(which may or may not have been the one Patton had mentioned within five minutes of the two arriving at the tree farm). They had cut it down with surprisingly no casualties, had help to attach it to their car, and now they were standing in Roman's living room. Roman had just dug out his Christmas tree ornaments from his garage and was opening the two totes now for them to go through and hang on the tree.

"Hey, Pat," Roman looked back at his friend, grinning widely. Patton could tell from that alone that his friend had a plan, and that he should be cautious.

"What is it, Roman?" Patton asked with brows furrowed.

"We have two totes full of decorations... I think we should each get one, and see who can put up their ornaments the fastest." Roman suggested, grin only growing wider. Patton frowned, eyeing the decorations.

"I dunno, Roman. These are glass ornaments. We should really be careful with them!" Patton said, only causing Roman to pout.

"We can be careful and still race! We just won't go too fast!" He clasped his hands together in front of him, pouting his lips and mustering the best puppy dog eyes he could. He knew they weren't nearly as good as Patton's, but he hoped it might work anyways. "Please, Pat?"

"Hey, that's no fair!" Patton held his hands over his eyes, giggling despite himself. Roman simply grabbed Patton's hands, pulling them away from his face so he had to look at him. Patton blushed profusely, swallowing hard as he stared at Roman's face, very close to his own and holding his hands. He stood as still as a statue, holding his breath as he stared. Eventually Patton broke his gaze away, letting out a deep breath. "Fine, fine! Let's race."

Roman cheered as Patton went to stand by his tote, Roman doing the same, hands by their sides. "Alright, on three... one, two, three!"

Patton grabbed a couple of ornaments out of his box, racing over to the tree to begin placing them up. He made sure to place them apart from each other so they would still look nice, and they wouldn't have to go back again later to fix them up after their race was over. He tried to go slow at first, like the two had agreed to, but after a while Roman began to speed up. Of course, Patton wasn't going to just let him win(or at least, he had to be convincing enough so it didn't seem that way), so he had to speed up as well to keep up with him.

Gathering as many of the ornaments as he could into one arm Patton rushed to the tree, beginning to place them on quickly. He no longer cared as much about spreading them out nicely, and more about managing to beat Roman. It was when he had two ornaments left in his arms that Patton tripped, yelling as he fell towards the ground. Luckily Roman was there just after putting his ornaments on the tree, managing to catch Patton before he fell all the way. Unfortunately, Patton had let go of the ornaments in his hands and they fell to the ground to shatter on the hardwood flooring.

"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry, Roman!" Patton exclaimed as he was set on his feet again, frowning at the mess on the floor. "Here, I'll get it cleaned up."

"Patton, wait-" Roman started, reaching out for Patton. It was already too late to stop him, however, as Patton hissed in pain and retracted his hand. "Patton, stay still! Don't mess with the glass anymore."

Patton listened, still sat close to the floor with one hand held in the other, frowning as he looked at the mess he made. He worried his lips between his teeth as Roman disappeared from the room, waiting for him to return. When he did he was carrying a red bag, stepping into the living room and over to Patton quickly.

He guided Patton up and around the glass shards in the floor, ushering him into the kitchen. Once there he reached out to grab ahold of Patton's wrist, meeting his eyes in question. Patton allowed him to pull his hand away to examine it, looking over the cut that Patton had received carefully.

"Well, there's no glass in it at least... Here, you need to wash it." He pulled Patton gently towards the sink, allowing him to wash his hands. Once he was done with that he grabbed a paper towel to dry his hands, the paper coming back with hints of red. Roman frowned to himself as he sorted through his bag, a first aid kit, finding an antibiotic ointment to put over the cut.

"It's just a small cut, Roman." Patton mumbled, watching with warm cheeks as Roman worried over him. "Really, you don't have to worry so much. It's my fault for being clumsy."

"It's my fault," Roman mumbled, placing a bandaid over the cut once he had finished with the ointment. "I shouldn't have suggested we race. It was right for you to be concerned, I'm just too overly competitive."

"Hey, that's alright! It's fun to compete sometimes." Patton said quickly, using his non-injured hand to raise Roman's head to meet his eyes rather than stare at him hand. He was still blushing, but his own embarrassment and silly crush didn't matter. Not while Roman was feeling bad. "I'm sure if it were anything other than glass decorations, this would have been a lot of fun. We just need to be careful next time."

Roman stayed silent for a few moments, but slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, you're right... You're always the best at cheering people up, Pat. I don't know how you do it."

"I just like seeing my friends happy! Especially when they deserve to be. Which is all the time, in case you were wondering." Patton grinned, getting a chuckle from Roman. "Why don't we go back to decorating? Just... no racing, this time."

"Right," Roman agreed, quickly fetching the broom and dust pan. "First let me clean this up so no one gets cut again."

The two of them were soon back to decorating the tree, a lot slower and more organized this time around. They were both almost to the bottom of their totes of ornaments when something specific caught Patton's eye. He reached in to grab it, pulling it out and examining it. It was a simple decoration, a letter in a bottle with your usual Christmas greetings, and wrapped around the lip of the bottle were two charms attached to a string. One of the charms was a heart, and the other a crown. Patton had made the ornament years ago and given it to Roman, and he hadn't realized Roman had kept it over the years.

"What are you looking at?" Roman questioned, stepping up beside of Patton to look over at what he held. He smiled as he saw it, reaching out to take it from him carefully. "Oh, yeah! I love this ornament. It's my favorite one."

"Wha-really?" Patton stammered, surprised. "I-I didn't even realize you'd kept it."

"Well, of course I did!" Roman said, seeming offended. "Why would I not keep such a lovely gift from my best friend? What kind of a person do you take me for?"

"Well, I mean-it's not-I don't know, I just... figured you'd hang it up for a year and then get rid of it. It's not anything super special." Patton shrugged his shoulders, not meeting Roman's eyes.

"Not special?" Roman questioned, once again sounding offended. "It's incredibly special to me! I thought it was so nice of you to take the time to make something for me, especially since you were so busy with work and the competition that year. You hardly had the time to buy all our friends gifts, and yet you handmade one just for me." Roman looked on at the ornament fondly, remembering when he had first opened his gift that year. At first he didn't even know that it was handmade. It seemed to well put together, and Patton hardly had any time, so when Patton had told him how he made it, the ornament only became more important to him.

"I'm... very glad that you like it, Roman." Patton said, eyes burning. He definitely wasn't about to start crying over a Christmas ornament. Absolutely not.

"Thank you again, for making it for me." Roman sent a smile at Patton before going over to the tree, placing the ornament in a spot very clear in the middle of the tree. Patton couldn't help but grin, wiping at his eyes discreetly before he went back to putting up the rest of their ornaments. Soon enough they were all on the tree, leaving it very well covered in pretty colors.

"All that's left is the star!" Patton commented, pulling it out of the box and holding it out for Roman to take.

"Why don't you put it up?" Roman suggested, waving his hand toward the tree.

"Me? No way! This is your tree, you should do it." Patton insisted, still holding it out for him. "Besides, I'm not even tall enough to reach the top."

Roman didn't say anything, stepping closer to Patton. Patton was confused when Roman didn't take the star, but instead reached to hold Patton around his waist. He yelped as he was hoisted up from the ground, carried towards the tree with star still in hand.

"Now you're tall enough!" Roman commented with a laugh, only laughing harder when Patton complained and tried to squirm out of his grip. "C'mon, I want you to do the star! It's a thank you for helping me today, and hanging out with me this Christmas. Please?"

Patton could hear the pout in his voice, sighing and relaxing in Roman's grip. Roman was stronger anyways, so there was no escaping his hold. He might as well just put the star on the tree.

"Fine, fine." He mumbled, smiling softly as he carefully placed the star on the tree. "It's up."

Roman finally let Patton back onto the floor, still loosely held in his grip as the two examined the tree once more. Roman turned to look at Patton, who flushed at their closeness, grinning widely. "Thank you, Patton. The tree looks extra amazing this year, thanks to you." He pulled Patton into a hug that his friend quickly reciprocated, holding each other close.

"Thanks for having me to help." Patton said as they pulled apart, both smiling at each other.

"Hot cocoa and Disney movies now?" Roman suggested, smile widening. Patton chuckled softly; he definitely wasn't going to say no to that.

Pattons ornament inspired by:
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EtYE7seAv_M/UMZdl4W6VyI/AAAAAAAABag/-JsHUkR8m2U/s1600/IMG_2473a.jpg