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“How about this one?”
“Too crooked.”
“And this one?”
“It leans too far to the left.”
Hannibal sighed; he couldn’t see it when he looked at the spruce before him. This had been going on for the past hour and a half, still he followed diligently behind Will, ax in hand, as they tromped through the snow. Encephalitis seemed to be having a better time than he was, pouncing into snow drifts and snuffling nose deep into the powdery fluff. Hannibal understood why they were out here even though neither he nor Will had ever really celebrated Christmas before, but Will thought it was important to have a complete Christmas, especially since it was their first Christmas together. To Will a complete Christmas included a tree, decorations, presents and a large turkey dinner with all the fixings. Hannibal thought back to when Will had come to him to broach the subject, eyes wide and voice sweet.
“Let’s do something special for the holidays Hannibal. Just you, me, and Cephy together all day, please?”
He certainly couldn’t deny his lovely boy anything he wanted when he asked so prettily, and Will knew it. Thankfully Will didn’t abuse Hannibal's weakness or else he would grow terribly annoyed with him. So here he was, waiting for his beloved to finally pick out a tree.
“This one looks rather nice.” Hannibal suggested.
Will looked at it; brows furrowed and hand on his chin. He hummed appraisingly and Hannibal raised his eyebrows, perhaps this was the one, they could finally cut down a tree and go home—
“Too many holes.” Will decided and walked off in another direction.
“H-Holes? What do you mean holes? It’s just a tree; it will start dyeing the moment we set it up at home!”
Will turned to him and pouted, “It’s not just a tree Hannibal, it’s going to be our tree, for our first Christmas.”
Hannibal let his head fall back and groaned to himself, he loved this silly creature, he really did. Gathering up his resolve he slung the ax over his shoulder and loped back after Will, they were in search of the perfect Christmas tree and he would help Will find it one way or another.