Chapter 4
Sky buzzed through the house, humming to himself as he peeked in the oven.
The roast he’d put in more than an hour ago was nearly done, filling the house with a delicious aroma.
In a few minutes, he’d shift things around so he could squeeze in a pan of cornbread muffins.
The sun had set, and his darling boyfriend would be heading across the street soon.
With his new pet.
The tree followed Nolan to the other house every morning, where it would apparently sit in the corner while Nolan worked.
It would only return at the end of the day when Nolan was finished working and the sun had set.
As far as Sky knew, the neighbors hadn’t yet noticed the walking tree with its cord of lights trailing behind it as it scuttled across the street.
Speak of the devil…
The sound of the front door opening echoed through the house, followed by the stomp of Nolan’s shoes on the hall rug. Snow had fallen throughout the day, blanketing their neighborhood in a glittering white shroud.
“Gawd, baby! That smells so good!” Nolan called.
Sky grinned. There was no secret to winning his sweet man.
The adage held true: the way to Nolan’s heart was through his stomach.
If Sky didn’t know better, he’d think Nolan’s heart was a second stomach.
The man could eat, but he almost never gained a pound.
In his opinion, his boyfriend could stand to put on a bit of extra stuffing to match his own, but no matter how Sky tried, Nolan remained his usual sleek self.
He snatched up a dish towel and dried off his hands as he walked into the hall. Nolan was shedding his coat and putting it on the hook, while his green shadow was stomping its various root feet to get rid of the snow clinging to them.
“Any trouble getting across the street?”
“Nah. Though I’m in no hurry to drive in that. There’s at least four inches on the ground now, and it’s still coming down.”
“And what about your friend?”
Nolan smirked at him. “I don’t think it’s a fan.”
“Really? It doesn’t like the snow.”
“Do you?” Nolan shot back, and Sky instantly shuddered.
He loved the look of snow, how it made everything pretty and sparkly.
He liked to sit and watch it fall while inside his warm house as he sipped hot cocoa.
But he did not like being out in it, shoveling it, scraping it off his car, or even driving in it.
“When we first headed out, it didn’t want to leave the porch,” Nolan continued. “But it soon figured out that it could follow in my footsteps, avoiding the deepest parts of it.”
Sky bent, putting his hands on his thighs as he leaned toward the tree. “Well, aren’t you a smart one?” The tree shivered, its branches quivering, and made a little noise.
“You can’t understand it?”
Sky shook his head as he straightened. “No.”
“But it sounds like Frank and the other minions to me.”
“Yeah. Maybe it uses a different dialect or something. As soon as Grammy returns from her friend’s, I’ll see what she says.
I learned the minion language from a spell, so I might need to find the right spell to understand the tree.
” Sky waved his hand at the tree. “Go over to your spot. I refilled your pan with fresh water.”
The tree scrambled across the floor, its plug bouncing along behind it.
Nolan wrapped his arms around Sky from behind and pressed a kiss to his neck. It would have been pleasant if not for the brush of Nolan’s ice-cold nose. Sky squealed and pushed his laughing boyfriend off him. The sneaky bastard had done that on purpose.
“It smells like you’ve been busy today,” Nolan stated, following his nose to the kitchen.
“That isn’t the only thing I’ve gotten done,” Sky said to his back.
Nolan stopped in the doorway to the kitchen. “I see that.” He continued into what had been the dining room, but the table and chairs were missing. Now, in the center of the room, was his artificial Christmas tree.
“I’m assuming you had help. How’s Frank?” Nolan teased.
Sky rolled his eyes at Nolan. “Yeah, like I was going to carry the table and chairs to the basement.” Sky snorted. “Besides, I had some deli meat in the fridge that was going to expire in a few days. The minions got sandwiches, and I got my Christmas tree.”
“Except you’ve already got a Christmas tree.” Nolan jerked his thumb toward the living room, where the Yule tree was resting.
“Yes, but it’s tiny, and it can’t hold all my pretty ornaments.” Sky pouted.
“Shhhhh!” Nolan waved his hands at Sky and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Watch what you say. If that tree overhears you, it’ll probably find a way to grow into a six-foot spruce. I think the neighbors are going to notice a six-foot tree following me back and forth across the street every day.”
Sky laughed. “You’re ridiculous. It’ll be fine.” He turned to the tree and released a happy sigh. “I got the lights on it this afternoon. I figured after dinner, we could decorate it together. We could even run to your house and get any ornaments that you have.”
His grumpy boyfriend melted in a second. It was their first Christmas together, and despite all his grousing and grumbling, it was clear Nolan loved sharing all these firsts with him.
“Okay, but that’s assuming you don’t put me into a food coma first.” Nolan slipped into the kitchen and began poking at the various pots on the burners before peeking into the oven.
“Pork roast, tiny potatoes, brussels sprouts, and cornbread muffins. You’re going to be lucky to get me off the couch after this meal. ”
Sky hurried into the kitchen and closed the oven door, stopping the heat from leaking out. “I might have also made a batch of snickerdoodles, but you only get those after you help me bring up the ornaments.”
“Wait. You had the minions take the table and chairs down to the basement, but you didn’t tell them to bring up the last boxes of ornaments?”
Sky huffed. “I was out of cheesy puffs. If I had asked for that, Frank would have thrown a fit.”
Nolan wrapped his arms around Sky, cuddling him close. “I think I can get behind the ‘carry a box, get a cookie’ exchange program.”
“I thought you might.” Sky tipped his head up for a kiss, but it never happened.
A loud crash behind them caused them to jump apart and turn at the same time. The Christmas tree Sky had set up in the dining room nook had fallen.
“What the hell,” Nolan muttered. He was a step ahead of Sky, who was still staring openmouthed at his poor tree. Nolan reached through the prickly branches to grab the pole that ran through the center and stood the tree up. “Can you check the base? Did one of the legs break?”
Sky dropped to his knees and peered under the lowest branches at the four plastic legs that kept the tree upright. “No. Everything looks okay here.”
Nolan set the tree where it had been, and they took a step back, watching the tree as if they expected it to topple again.
“Another ghost?” Nolan teased.
“You mean like our sock thief?”
As one, they turned their heads in the direction of the living room, but they couldn’t see the creepy tree because of a wall blocking their line of sight.
“You don’t think…” Sky whispered.
“What? That the creepy tree that steals socks and follows me to work every day knocked over your tree?” Nolan countered.
Sky glared at his boyfriend. He did not appreciate it when he was right about things like this, but it made the most sense that their guest had pulled down his tree, considering the thing had been standing just fine for hours until Nolan and the creepy tree had returned.
He slowly walked the rest of the way through the dining room to the living room, where the tree was standing in its usual spot with its white lights glowing in the dimly lit room.
It didn’t appear to have moved, and they hadn’t heard its roots scrabbling across the wood floor.
How the hell would it have moved so silently?
“I don’t know,” Sky mumbled. “Maybe it wasn’t as steady as I thought it was, and our moving back and forth past it finally knocked it over.”
“Uh-huh,” Nolan said, sounding completely unconvinced. “Well, it’s steady now, and it has no reason to fall on its own.”
“Good.” Sky spun and marched to the kitchen. “I need to get the muffins in the oven. Dinner should be ready in about fifteen to twenty minutes.”
As Sky walked past Nolan, his loving boyfriend caught him for a quick but toe-curling kiss. “While you finish dinner, I’ll go to the basement and get the last boxes of ornaments. Might as well work up a good appetite for dinner.”
“How did I get such a thoughtful, loving boyfriend?”
“You caught him with muffins and your sexy body,” Nolan murmured against his mouth.
“Sweet talker.” Sky sent him off with another kiss and turned his attention to the meal he was attempting to finish up.
While moving the dining room table to the basement meant they were eating dinner off TV trays in the living room, it would give them the chance to catch up on their Christmas show watching.
Since the start of December, they’d been taking turns picking out their favorite Christmas shows to watch each night, and they still had a very long list to get through before the end of the month.
He’d just gotten the roast moved to the side of the oven and was sliding in the pan of muffins when a loud crash filled the house.
But this time, a shrill chirping noise and continued thrashing followed it.
Sky barely got the muffins safely into the oven and slammed the door shut.
He whirled around, already pulling on the dark magic that coursed through his body.
What evil demon could have crawled into his house?
No one was allowed to threaten his boyfriend!
As he cleared the counter and moved to the dining room, he found that his artificial tree was lying on the floor, and the creepy tree was stomping on it and pulling on the branches with its roots. Plastic needles flew everywhere, and ropes of lights were tangled in the remains.
“Eeeeeeeeeeee!” Sky screeched. “Stop it! Stop it! Leave the tree alone!” he shouted, but the creepy tree continued to attack it, ignoring him completely.
Sky lunged into the kitchen and snatched up the first weapon he saw—a long wooden spoon. He charged into the dining room, swinging his spoon at the creepy tree. “Stop! Get back! Leave it alone!”
Footsteps thundered up the stairs, and Nolan burst out onto the first floor. He charged into the kitchen and slid to a stop in the doorway.
“What the—”
“Help! It’s killing my tree!” Sky cried.
A noise escaped Nolan, but a rough cough suddenly covered it up. “It’s an artificial tree, baby. It—”
“Nolan!”
“Okay! Okay! I’m sorry.” Nolan waded into the fray, making a shooing motion at the creepy tree. “Enough! Leave it alone. It’s dead. Go on. Into the living room.”
The little tree poofed up like a pissed-off cat, bristling and shivering at them as it chittered, but at last it retreated to the living room. It didn’t return to its pan. It squatted not far away, as if it were watching them. Or possibly the destroyed tree.
“What the hell! My tree!” Sky moaned. He dropped the spoon and hurried to his mangled Christmas tree.
Some branches had been stripped of their needles, while others were broken off.
The top of the tree had been snapped off completely.
Even some lights had been stripped off the strand.
There was nothing he could salvage. “Why did it attack the tree?”
“How do you know it wasn’t protecting you?” Nolan interjected.
“What?” Sky squawked. “Protecting me? From an artificial tree?” He shook two handfuls of broken branches at his crazy boyfriend.
“Look at it from the tree’s point of view. Your tree was twice as big and seemed to appear magically while it was out of the house. Maybe it was worried it would attack us.”
“You’re insane,” Sky muttered, dragging his eyes to his poor tree.
“Well, think of the alternative. You brought another tree into its territory. It was defending its home.”
“Why are you defending the creepy tree? You’re supposed to be on my side!”
Nolan sighed and kneeled beside Sky, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s slumped shoulders.
“I’m not defending it. Just trying to understand it.
You let a wild animal…tree…that has a mind and instincts of its own into the house.
It’s like letting in a feral cat and then a week later adding a second cat. You think that’s going to go smoothly?”
Sky groaned. “I hate when you’re so reasonable and smart.”
“At least you hadn’t put your ornaments on it.”
Sky squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered at the image that flashed through his mind. Some of his ornaments were over a hundred years old, having been handed down from Grammy. All of them were glass and very fragile.
“Why don’t you go into the living room with the tree and apologize to each other? I’ll finish dinner and clean up this mess.”
“Are you sure?” Sky mumbled.
Nolan pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “Yes. I’ve got this. You go relax and pick out our show for tonight.”
Sky grunted and allowed Nolan to help him to his feet. He shuffled off to the living room, with the creepy tree moving with him.
He flopped on the sofa and glared at the tree that stuck its roots into the pan. However, it did not plug its lights in. It actually felt like the tree was glaring at him. Maybe it did feel like another tree had invaded its territory and it was only defending itself. Possibly even protecting them.
If that was true, Sky had likely hurt its feelings by shouting and swinging the spoon at it.
“I’m sorry I brought another tree into your territory without telling you first,” Sky grumbled.
The silence stretched, broken by the sounds of Nolan carrying the remains of his fake tree out the back door. A moment later, the tree chirped softly. Was that an apology, too?
A soft scrape whispered through the room, followed by the lights on the tree blinking on.