AU: Worldswap (aka my book 'An Altered Tale')

Context: An old memory from when Orange was still a little kid.

============================================================

[Red Steve's POV]

After a chaotic trip to the home improvement store, we finally have our Christmas tree for this year.

The two of us have been waiting all day for the branches to poof out after being wrapped in that plastic for so long, and now Orange is excitedly waiting for Sharp and Beef to get here so we can start decorating it. In the meantime, I've been getting everything ready. Even though having enough money for house and tree decorations has been tough throughout the years, we still have a bit of a collection now.

"Red, did they text you back yet? Are they almost here?" Orange asks while standing next to the window, looking out to see if their car has pulled into the driveway.

"Calm down buddy." I chuckle, setting down the last box in the living room. "Remember that they literally have to drive across the town to get here, since they live in the space between here and Rose Hills. They should be here soon, though."

"Alright..." Orange sighs, turning back to the window. "I hope uncle Beef's spine problems have gotten better since the last time they visited. Last year, he didn't really get to join in on decorating the tree because of it..."

"Well, based off my last few visits to them the previous month, he isn't having those problems at all anymore." I say, smiling and walking over to him. "He finally got a call back from the hospital, and he was able to get that surgery last month, remember?"

"Wait, that's what that surgery was for?!" Orange exclaims, the hood of his pig onesie falling off as he snaps his head left to look at me. "Why didn't you tell me?! That's awesome!"

"Well, I knew you would've begged me to let you help them out while he's recovering, and you've missed too much school already from the last time I let you." I say.

"Awwww man..." Orange says, a bit disappointed.

He suddenly perks up when we hear a car approaching the house, and the shine of headlights goes through the window for a few seconds. We both look out the window to see a familiar red car has parked in our driveway.

"They're here! They're here!" Orange yells while running towards the front door. "C'mon, dad!"

"Orange, careful, it's still snowy out!" I say, calling after him as he throws open the door.

Orange has already run outside into the snow as Sharp gets out of his car. As soon as he's standing, he's almost knocked onto the icy driveway as Orange jumps up onto him. I sigh, knowing I couldn't really stop him. This kid might just be the death of me, I swear...

I shut the door behind me so the heat doesn't get out, and walk over to the two. Sharp is regaining his balance while Orange is clinging to him like a koala.

"Hey there, little guy! Excited to see us, huh?" Sharp chuckles.

"You bet! I've been waiting all day!" Orange says as he looks up at Sharp.

"How about you help me and your dad get Beef out of the car, and then we can go inside and start decorating?" Sharp asks him.

Orange lights up and lets go of Sharp, then runs over to the trunk of the car and opens it. Sharp and I follow him as he gets the wheelchair out of the back and goes to the other side of the car.

"Has he really been waiting all day?" Sharp asks.

"Yep, stayed by the window in the living room and everything." I say.

"He's determined, I'll give him that." Sharp laughs.

Orange has already opened the car door, and is talking with Beef as he unfolds the wheelchair. Once he does, he stands back as Sharp and I carefully move Beef from the car to his chair, then get the oxygen filter in its side pocket it has on the wheelchair. It was nice of Goggles to help customize it so it'll be easier to do things like this. Too bad he has to work all week, otherwise he would've come over too. At least he gets to on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Orange runs inside while Sharp and I carefully push Beef up the driveway, watching out for the icy patches.

"Man, the kid's goin' faster than me, and I have wheels." Beef jokes, the veil over his face slightly flapping in the frigid wind, laughing in his hoarse voice.

"Well, you being strong probably isn't the only reason you got named 'Beef', pal." Sharp smirks as we go into the house.

"Sharp, you little sh-"

"There's a child present Beef, don't go saying words you heard from the Obsidians around a ten-year-old." I laugh.

"Hey, I wanna learn new words! What is it?" Orange says in the living room.

"Something you shouldn't know until you're an adult." I answer.

Sharp and I bring Beef into the living room, Orange excitedly bouncing around on the couch.

"Aw c'mon, I knew those words when I was his age." Beef says.

"Because your dad swore like a sailor." I say, chuckling. "Now come on, are we gonna decorate this tree or not?"

"YEEESSSS!" Orange yells, jumping off the couch and running over to the boxes of Christmas decorations.

"Orange, be careful, you could crack your head open doing that." I sigh.

"I saw the photo albums Red, you've did worse." Orange says, looking up from the boxes.

Sharp, Beef, and I all go quiet for a second, which makes Orange laugh.

"I thought I put those in the attic..." I mumble.

"Eh, who cares." Beef says, motioning that he was to go forward. "Now let's decorate this-"

"BEEF."

"I was gonna say 'grinch', chill."

A few minutes later, Sharp and I have gotten the lights on the tree, and the four of us are putting ornaments on. It's chaotic, because we're all trying to go different directions with it, but it's still fun. I'm putting up sentimental ornaments, Sharp is putting up traditional ornaments, Beef is putting up the meme ornaments he's picked out over the years, and Orange is putting up either the ornaments that look like toys or the ones that he's also gotten to pick out. Right now he's putting one that's shaped like a hermit crab next to Beef's crab rave one.

"I still think that 'crab rave' ornament is stupid." I say as I take the angel topper out of its box.

"Oh come on, you've just got no taste." Beef says, starting to lean towards the tree. "Look, it even has sound, remember?"

"Beef, no, you need to be careful about your back-" Sharp says as Beef reaches over to his ornament.

He's already flipped the little switch on the bottom of it, and the music from the meme is blasting out of the ornament in very poor quality. Orange giggles, while Sharp facepalms and I sigh. Every year.

I unravel the wire to the angel topper, and turn to Sharp.

"Could you climb the ladder and put this at the top for me, Sharp?" I ask. "I need to check on the cookies I put in the oven a while ago."

"Yeah sure, no problem." Sharp says as I hand him the tree topper.

I walk out of the room and into the kitchen. Putting on the oven mitts, I open the oven door and see that the cookies are finished. Just as I set the pan down on top of the turned-off stove, Orange appears behind me.

"Are we gonna decorate those too?" He asks, looking at the cookies excitedly. The shapes of candy canes, gingerbread men, mistletoe, and Christmas bells appear as silhouettes in the cookies.

"Yep, but we gotta let them cool first." I say, ruffling his hair. "The icing would melt."

"Like when Sharp tried to put that gingerbread house together one year?"

"Very funny Orange, keep bringing that up and you'll be risking a few presents." Sharp says from the living room.

"Hey, no fair!" Orange shouts, running into the living room.

I chuckle and follow after him, seeing him trying to slap Sharp with his tiny hands. Sharp just laughs and holds him away, while Beef laughs as well. I put the ladder back up against the wall and pick up the extension cords, backing up towards my family.

"Okay guys, ready for this?" I ask.

Everyone quickly calms down and gathers around next to me, Sharp pushing Beef over. We're now standing in a line facing the tree.

"Here we go..." I say.

Hoping that the lights don't short out, I flip the switch...

And the tree lights up with all colors of the season. The strings of lights are set to pattern in a cycle, same as the angel topper, and they display a beautiful show. We stand in awe for a while, admiring the tree.

"...Dude, I swear to Origin, if you fart next to my oxygen filter like last year-" Beef says, interrupting the silence.

Orange bursts out laughing, while I look at Beef, annoyed.

"Oh come on, for the last time, that was an accident!" I retort.

"Suuuure."

"You ruined it." Sharp facepalms.

Orange continues to laugh while me, Beef, and Sharp banter. Eventually, though, we can't help but start laughing as well. I honestly kind of wish I was recording that, but oh well... it's part of our memories now. And I'm perfectly fine with that.

After all, memories are what make the holidays even more fun.