2019 Advent Challenge

I tossed a careless glance over my shoulder to see Naraka, my tree-decorating companion, stumbling over a bit of tinsel and falling over, the glittery stuff wrapped around his back legs. 'Gee, Naraky, I've never seen anyone struggle this much with such a simple job.'

'Shut up,' he growled, obviously annoyed. He managed to detangle himself from the tinsel, before snatching it up and throwing it over the tree. It was kind of a small tree; maybe four foot. I was a bit concerned that one of Naraka's clumsy movements was going to knock it flat. 'I know what I'm doing.'

'...Yeah, sure.' I turned back to my own job – hanging shiny baubles from the tree's branches. One of them was neon pink (ew) and just the sight of it brought back unpleasant memories of a certain pink-scaled dragon. Why was I thinking about her again? Oh yeah, she disappeared a few months ago.

Cherry hadn't meant anything to me. I was sure of that, and if anyone asked me about it, I was going to cut their face open.

'What's up with you?' Naraka growled.

'Nothing,' I said easily. The pink bauble didn't look good, and with a shrug, I tossed it over my shoulder, hearing it clatter down somewhere underneath the dining table. 'Don'tcha think it's cool that Colin trusted us to decorate his crummy little shack?' I added, grinning.

'S'not like we could mess it up or anything. It looks crappy enough already.'

'Well, yeah. But still, Colin doesn't normally care about Christmas stuff at all! This is a breakthrough, Naraky-boy! We've finally gained Colin's trust, and soon, we'll also gain his eternal love or whatever!'

'WHAT??' the dragon exclaimed. I saw visible drops of spit fly across the room under the lamplight.

'I was joking. Well, I wasn't joking about this being super awesome, 'cause it is. This crappy excuse for a house really needed some sprucing up.'

Naraka just made a non-committal grunting noise in the back of his throat. I smiled and sauntered past him to reach the cardboard box of decorations, patting him on the head as I did so. Well, why not? He was fluffy. I like fluffy things.

As I placed a bauble near the top of the tree, I said casually, 'So... Naraky. How's your plan going?'

'What plan?'

'You know, your plan to get clean!'

'Oh.' Was that embarrassment I heard in his voice...? Oooh, this was gonna be awesome. 'I guess it didn't really work out. Too hard.'

'That's 'cause you're not even trying. You need to actually, y'know, stop drinking for more than ten minutes at a time.'

'I have stopped for ten minutes!' Naraka barked. I slid my gaze behind him to see three cans of beer sitting innocently on the floor.

'Sure, you believe whatever you want.'

He favoured me with a baleful glare. 'I don't see you trying to quit drinking,' he growled, disapproval thick in his words. 'Maybe you shouldn't make fun of me for drinking when you do the same!'

'Naraka, I don't drink 24/7. You've got a serious problem, and don't even think about saying I'm anything like you. Go see a therapist or something. You're never gonna get clean if you don't even try.'

He snorted and, after a moment, changed the subject. 'Wanna go to the bar and get a meal once we're done here?'

I paused, my hand outstretched to hang a decoration on the tree. 'Bribery, Naraka?' I said, grinning slightly. How predictable of him.

'I just want you to shut up,' he grumbled.

'In that case,' I said, carelessly throwing the bauble onto a branch before stepping dramatically backwards, 'I accept!' I tripped over the cardboard box during my little manoeuvre, but he seemed too woozy to notice. 'I'm pretty sure there's nothing left to do here anyway, unless we actually clean the place. You can do that if you want, but I'm opting out.'

Naraka gave another non-committal grunt. I wasn't sure what emotion that was supposed to represent.

'OK, let's go then,' he said. 'I want some food.'

I glanced over my shoulder to observe our handiwork as we walked towards the front door. It looked good – or as good as it could be, considering how filthy the house was.

Maybe Colin wouldn't notice the fact that I'd drawn inappropriate pictures all over his living-room wall with permanent marker.