As I woke up, I could see that it was still dark outside. Looking over at my clock, I could see that it was only 6:00 AM. Clearly Chris’s habits had begun to wear off on me, because I honestly didn’t even feel like going back to bed. Realizing that I could hear him, I quickly got ready for the day before joining him in the living room. As I walked into the living room, I could see him in the kitchen cooking. 

“Good morning,” he said before I could speak.

“Good morning,” I replied. “Seriously though, how do you do that? You always know it's me even before I say anything.”

“I can recognize the sound of your footsteps. It’s not like you’re silent.” he says with a smile as he turns around. 

“Fair enough,” I reply as I walk into the kitchen. Pulling out the orange juice from the refrigerator, I ask, “Would you like some orange juice too?” as I open the cabinet. 

“Sure,” he replies as he flips the pancakes in the pan.

I take the glasses to the kitchen table and pour two glasses of orange juice. Putting away the juice, I could feel him looking at me. Ever since our hug the other day, I noticed that he has been less flirtatious, but he seems to be constantly staring at me. Grabbing my orange juice, I walk back into the living room to look at the Christmas tree we got yesterday. Turning to look at him in the kitchen, I ask, “Do you want to help me decorate the Christmas tree today? I was thinking we could finish pulling out the decorations and get started after breakfast. “

“Sounds like a plan,” he replied as he plated our pancakes and placed them on the table. Joining him at the table, we finished our breakfast. Although I could feel him looking at me multiple times, I quickly focused on finishing my pancakes. I placed my dish and cup in the sink before heading into the hall closet to pull out my other boxes of decorations. Chris wasn’t far behind and helped carry the other box into the living room. Opening the boxes, we began to pull out string lights and various ornaments adding them to the tree as we went along. 

“What do you think of this ornament here?” he asked, holding a cute little dog ornament.

“That spot is perfect!” I respond as I look through the box for the matching ornament. Finding it, I held it out triumphantly before finding a spot on the other side of the tree to put it. “What do you think about putting the matching one here?” I ask him as I hold the ornament near the middle of the tree.

“That looks good, What about this one?” he replied. Although it made the whole process take a bit longer, we double checked ornament placement for almost every single ornament in the hopes that we could prevent having two of the same place too closely to each other. 

As I continued to look through my box, I found the star for the top of the tree. I immediately turned to look at Chris, before saying, “Do you mind putting this on top of the tree? There is no way that I can reach that without a ladder.”

“Of course,” he says with a smile. Barely stretching, he managed to put the star on top of the tree effortlessly. “How does it look?” he asks as we both take a few steps backward to admire our work. 

“It looks really good,” I reply. “Honestly this might be the best my tree has ever looked and it’s all thanks to you.” I continued with a smile. 

“Thank you, but I can't take all of the credit”, he says with a smile. “Although I must admit, I wouldn’t mind a reward.”

“Well it's a good thing that I already planned to cook dinner so you don’t have to. So that’ll be your reward.” I said, fully aware that wasn’t the reward he had in mind, but honestly happy that he seemed to be returning a bit to his flirty self.

“That isn’t exactly the type of reward that I was hoping for.” he says as a slight pout makes its way onto his face.

“And what exactly did you have in mind?” I said with a teasing tone in my voice. Although I enjoyed teasing him for once, I hadn’t ever seen him pout before and I couldn’t deny that I would probably say yes to whatever he asked me. 

“Can I have another hug, like last time?” he asked.

I didn’t know what had gotten into him today but I wasn’t about to refuse a hug. If I was being honest, I had wanted to be back in his arms since our last hug ended. I immediately walked forward and wrapped my arms around him and could feel him do the same. WE simply held each other for a few minutes before we pulled away.

“Thank you,” he said. “I really needed that.”

“No problem, I don’t mind giving you a hug whenever you need it. But do you want to talk? You seem a bit down...” I trail off hoping he doesn’t take it the wrong way. 

“I’m okay,” he says as he gives me a fake smile. I decided to leave it alone since he seemed like he didn’t want to talk about it, but the sadness in his eyes gave away the fact that he was hurting. 

Changing the subject, I said, “Well since we’ve finished the tree, it is time to get to work on the rest of the decorations.” Putting Chris in charge of hanging the lights and garland around the doorways, I worked on decorating the tables with festive decorations. Pulling out my Christmas throw blankets and pillows, I made sure that the couch looked cozy as he finished hanging the last string of lights above the arch leading to the hallway. 

By the time we finished decorating the house, it was time for lunch. After all the work we did on the tree, we just had a simple lunch. After eating, we decided to rest for a bit before doing anything else. Honestly I was okay, but Chris seemed to be tired and I noticed that the sadness in his eyes had returned. I saw him checking his phone earlier, but he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so I pretended I hadn't noticed. 

Walking over to the couch, I looked at him and asked, “What do you think about watching a Christmas movie since we’ve now finished decorating?”

“That sounds good,” he replied with a hint of a smile. 

Grabbing a throw blanket and the remote, I get comfortable and pick a movie with good reviews. Fully engrossed in the movie, I hadn’t even realized that he had fallen asleep until I felt his head lean against my shoulder. Looking over at his sleeping face, I realized that his neck looked uncomfortable. Reaching over I grab a pillow to put in my lap before gently lowering his head to rest on the pillow. As his head rests on the pillow, he seems to relax and I enjoy watching the rest of the movie as he sleeps. As the movie ended, I realized that I had been playing with his hair as he slept. He was still asleep so I decided to look more closely at his face. 

I knew he hadn’t been sleeping properly, but he had bags under his eyes that weren’t there before. Although I wished that he would be comfortable telling me what was wrong, I didn’t want to push him to tell me until he was ready. Deciding to let him keep sleeping, I chose another movie and began to watch it as I continued to play with his hair. 

Somewhere in the middle of the second movie, I felt him lightly grab my hand that was in his hair. Immediately I pull my hand away and say, “I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?” he says as he sits up. “If anything I should be apologizing to you, I mean I was literally laying on top of you.”

Deciding to be honest I said, ”Actually you had only leaned on my shoulder, however since you are so tall, your neck looked really uncomfortable. So I laid your head down on my lap so you could get some sleep.”

I could see him look down at my lap before he looked back up at me before saying, “You are okay with me laying my head in your lap?”

“Yes, and although I think you need more sleep. I’d like to make sure you eat first. I noticed you haven’t been eating nearly as much recently either and I’m beginning to get worried about you.” Noticing the disappointment that flickered across his face, I said, “Don’t worry, we can watch some more movies afterwards and I wouldn’t mind playing with your hair while you lay your head in my lap.” Truthfully, I was looking forward to it. Being able to take care of him felt amazing and I couldn’t help but want to do it more often. 

As his face brightened once again, the two of us quickly finished dinner before returning to our spot on the couch. Leaving the dishes for tomorrow, he grabbed my hand and led us back to the couch. Once again we settled into position, this time however he kept staring up at me. As we get to the credits, I look down at him before asking, “Did you even see any of the movie?”

“Not really, I watched some of the beginning, but watching you is more interesting.” he replied with a smile on his face. 

Just happy that he looks better than he did earlier, I said with a teasing smile, “Do whatever you want. Do you want me to find something more interesting to you, or do you plan to just watch me instead?”

“I’d rather watch you,” he said before mumbling something.

Pausing the credits, I looked down at him and asked, “What did you just say?”

“Nothing,” he replies quickly. “I was just thinking about how good this feels, do you think that maybe you’ll lay in my lap next time.”

“Sure,” I responded. Although I was 99% sure that is not at all what he said, I decided to let it go, I’m sure he’ll tell me when he’s ready. 

I watched one more movie as he stared up at me. By the end of the movie, I was tired and decided that it would be best to head to bed and I could tell that he would fall asleep soon as well. After we both said goodnight to each other, we headed to our rooms. Once again, I fall asleep quickly.