Deck the Halls [Sienna - Walter]

The season of joy and cheer was coming upon the apprentices. The hallways were slowly sprouting branches of holly and long strings of glitter. Walter was usually quite excited about it, it packing up so much fun, not just the kind with wrapping, because much of it involved going to the world of the living finding the snowiest places and watching the big cities turn their lights on in the streets.

However, fun activities that involved going past the chrysanthemum field had been put on the shelf after Halloween. It appeared someone had put him under house arrest for the trouble that had happened, and to insure he was actually punished, strict instructions to hand in paperwork every single day. Just his luck yesterday's report was handled by that stingy guy who hated colours and marked it as inadequate work. So it was with a heightened level of irritation “Christmas decorating volunteer” Walter shuffled on to the hall with the Gothic archway to meet his designated babysitter for the day.

“...instead of exploring – stuck climbing ladders no doubt for some short little...SISI!” having muttered nothing but dark omens for himself along the way until he spotted the familiar face of his newly proclaimed second best friend under the archway, he instantly changed his attitude and made a run for it towards the girl holding the boxes with a big grin on his face and no intention to stop.

Walter knew Sienna was tidy but was by no means used to her mannerisms of being careful, especially not after what had happened at Halloween, so he jumped the instant she gave a quiet recognition to his presence, expecting her to be more like their colourful friend and just drop her load and catch him instead. He found out the hard way this was not the case.

Sailing into Sienna like a human cannonball his impact brought the sound of crashing glass and ringing bells bouncing against the floor. Christmas decorations were scattered everywhere, some holly leaves had even made it on top of his head. It was a moment of silence as Walter pondered at the disaster around him before addressing the poor housemaid he had landed on.

“Sisi...Why didn't you just drop the box? It's much easier to catch people.”

He had been oblivious to the holly until she started pulling them off him. Having her do that with such a gentle touch, it made him feel...younger. Not the favourite feeling of someone who was already a small person, it left him with this strange sensation of having done it before too many times before. To get rid of the feeling he put a hand up to ruffle his hair free of any other things that might be in it, making it even more of a mess than it already was.

With a voice that was without an ounce of regret for whatever damage he had caused he simply stated “Nah, bumping into people doesn't hurt.” as he spent no energy on finesse or calculating where he put his arms as long as his feet got put firmly on the floor so he could get off her. He bloody hated the feeling the older people gave him when they treated him like a helpless child.

Crack. The sound of the already broken ornament being stepped on made Walter stop up and gaze around. Shifting from one leg to another his expression changed away from the slightly annoyed child as he looked over the destruction he had caused. “Were these all...yours?” Placing a slight pause before the last word he squinted his eyes.

A sigh of relief escaped him when she smiled. She was taking the while thing very well. It wouldn't have been a nice to break her things when she was such a nice person, hiding her stuff together with Maxwell as a prank maybe, but not properly destroying them. His smile returned as she fished out the cleaning supplies from the closet. “Yeah, I am supposed to do Christmas decorations today.”

The earlier remorse was erased from his face as he idly swayed his arms at his side. “I thought it was going to be someone boring I had to work with, but it was you!” The child could clearly not be still or have the attention span for more than one emotion at a time, like some Peter Pan fairy, cheerfully chiming a “Do you do this every Christmas?” instead of offering to help clean up the mess he made.

Walter was surprised by her level of commitment. He hadn't pinned someone Maxwell mentioned that often as a person that was like the spirit of Christmas, doing this every year so that everyone else could feel the spirit too, or in his and Maxwell's case, run off with the prettiest and most interesting objects to make their own little hideaway even more sparkly during the season.

“I haven't tried putting up the decorations before.” The answer was lax for someone swinging their arms around, but Walter was only half paying attention to what was going on. His mind was busy trying to make sense of Sisi. She wasn't at all as energetic as Maxwell had made her out to be, not to mention less angry about the mess than anyone he had ever met. It was not much left of that fighting spirit he had expected, it wasn't like his best friend where the energy was fed into an endless sugar-coated rainbow void which came right back at you.

Clearly spending a lot of energy was not working with his new friend, meaning he'd have to try another way to get along with her. Offering her a smile, he squatted down to her eye level adding a slight tilt to his head. “It must be fun since you do it so often. I want to try too.”

Walters face carried a light smile as she talked, that was until she mentioned the word mistletoe. The smile widened as a mischievous glimmer played in his eyes, and he spoke out in a voice that was quite unable to contain his excitement. It was almost a little too happy for something so simple.
“Oh, yes, placing the mistletoe is a great idea.”

With his excitement practically bubbling in the air around him the little boy suddenly seemed to realize something looking at the poor maid still cleaning up the collateral damage.
“Do you want some help with that? Maybe I should take a box...”

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((I should rename myself slowking...very sorry for the amount of time I have taken to reply to this, I feel like I'm almost making him bipolar with his reactions from the difference in the mood when I reply.))

Walters face quickly broke into a big grin and he practically yanked the mistletoe away from Sienna and shot up the ladder like a squirrel up a tree.

“Do you want it higher than that? This is right, right?” Balancing on his toes at the top step of the ladder the mistletoe was way above the doorway, and he was ignoring the ribbons it was supposed to hang from, making the mistletoe almost invisible to anyone whom might be coming from the other side of the doorway.
“...You forgot to give me something to stick it in the wall with.”