Emily hummed cheerfully as she took another bowl of popcorn out of the microwave. She did love this part of Christmas. Shopping and stressful crowds could shove themselves and present decisions could be forgotten. This is what Christmas was all about.

She swung into her living room, sneaking a few kernels for herself, so she could finish her task.

"Spencer, what are you doing?" she asked her boyfriend, setting the bowl on the side table.

He was alternating between eyeing their currently bare tree and frowning at the spool of thread shed found.

"Calculating," was all the answer she got.

"I can see that," she told him, dropping herself down on the floor next to him. This task was much more fun on the ground. "Why are you calculating? Or what are you calculating?"

"I'm figuring out how much thread we need to wrap it around the tree. Can you hold this?" he asked, handing her the loose end of a spool of thread.

Emily took it with a bit of amusement, watching as Spencer unravelled it to the correct length. Or, try to. This was Spencer Reid after all. He was actually doing okay until he deemed it necessary to move to prevent the thread getting tangled. Of course, he was going backwards so he could accurately judge the length which made her feel very nervous.

Why were there so many pieces of furniture in their apartment?

"Just, be careful," she fretted, twisting her hands together - a habit she'd picked up from Reid.

Reid, the annoying dork, just brushed her off. "I know every inch of this apartment, Emily. This will be fine."

"Uh huh."

Where had she heard that before?

"Just hold the string taut," he instructed, eyeing the thread.

Not able to resist the urge to mess with him, she held her end of the thread high in the air.

"Like this?" she teased.

"Emily!"

"Or," she twisted some of it around her fingers. "Like this?"

"I'm trying to get this exact, Emily!" he complained.

"It doesn't need to be. That's what scissors are for."

"This will save time. If you hold it right."

Emily sighed and rolled her eyes but obediently held the thread out.

"See, this is easy," he told her triumphantly, backing himself to the opposite side of the room. "It's just needs to be a little longe-"

"Spencer, the wall!"

'CRASH!'

"I did warn you," she tutted at him, holding a bag of frozen peas to the back of his head.

Spencer tried to glare at her but it was interrupted by a groan.

"Where did that wall come from anyway?"

"It jumped out at you," Emily said drily. "I saw it."

Spencer growled something incomprehensible as he grabbed at the cold bag to steady it properly on his injury. She patted him on the cheek.

"I'll go get the scissors."

"Would you stop eating all the popcorn? It's supposed to go on the tree!"

"But I'm hungry," Spencer whined, turning a pout on her.

Nope, she was not going to give into this today. Not while they were decorating.

"Then get some food."

She slid a cranberry on and frowned. That didn't look quite right.

"There's food all around me," he argued, reaching for another handful only for his hand to be slapped away. "Hey!"

"This isn't food," she scolded then turned back to her string and sighed.

She pulled the cranberry off. Popcorn needed to go there. Not that that was going to happen if her boyfriend kept eating all of the popcorn!

"I think that you'll find that it is."

"This," Emily gestured to the bowls of popcorn and cranberries around them, "is for decorating."

"And snacking?" Spencer added hopefully.

"No."

"Aww."

"Ow!"

Emily knotted the end of her string. That should be long enough to string across the wall.

"Ow!"

She grabbed the scissors and laid claim to the remaining popcorn. They'd need to put more on soon.

"Ow."

Now what to start with this time, popcorn or cranberry?

"Emily," Spencer whined.

She sighed heavily and carefully placed her strand on the floor before turning to him.

"What?"

A finger was suddenly thrust into her face. She had to take a step back so it was actually in focus. It was pinpricked with blood.

"The needle hates me!"

Why did she think that giving Spencer a small, sharp pointy object was a good idea?

"Ow, Emily!"

"How does this look?" Spencer asked, holding his string up.

He had eventually gotten the knack for threading the popcorn and cranberries together. It had only taken a few more injuries (and kisses) on both their parts to do it. Leading his hands was not a good way to go about doing that. Too distracting. But it wasn't for nothing. He had managed to string simple popcorn and cranberries into a complicated but repeatable pattern because apparently the old 'two cranberries, one popcorn' was boring.

"Cool," she praised and held up her own. "What do you think?"

"Pretty," he praised.

They grinned at each other and got back to work. They had to have enough to drape across the walls after all.

"This is fun," he said happily, sucking on his finger where he'd pricked himself again and grabbed three cranberries.

"Isn't it?"

"So, you did this all the time growing up?"

"Yep," she nodded her head. "This was the one thing that me and mother did no matter what country we were in or what she was doing. The other decorations were usually put up by staff but the cranberry and popcorn garlands were always done by us."

It held a very special place in Emily's heart, not that she'd ever admit it.

"It's a nice tradition."

"What about you?" Emily asked curiously, he never really spoke about holidays with his mom.

Spencer shrugged.

"We didn't really celebrate much. Mom always thought that the Christmas lights were bugged by the government, so we couldn't have those. She wasn't really into corporate holidays, as she called them, anyway. Said all the meaning was taken out of them."

Emily's face fell. "That's just sad."

Spencer shrugged again. "It's all I knew so I didn't really miss out on much. I didn't really mind."

"But surely there was one Christmas tradition that you always wanted to do as a kid?"

He gave her a thoughtful look. "Well, I always liked baking cookies but mom would do that any time with me. I wouldn't associate it with Christmas"

That just sounded depressing to Emily. What was Christmas without the decorations and the baking?

"Religion, Emily," he told her.

Oops, had she said that out loud.

"Well, yes," she said begrudgingly. She supposed that was the whole point of the holiday.

"And mom and me aren't exactly big on that either."

"Do you even like Christmas, Spencer?"

She had just sort of thrown the box of decorations at him (nearly squashing him in the process). She hadn't exactly asked his opinion.

He gave her an insulted look. "Of course. Since the team introduced me to it."

"But you wouldn't celebrate it by yourself."

"It's a holiday for family, Emily," he said earnestly. "I couldn't celebrate until I had found mine."

Her eyes started to frustratingly water. Okay, this was far too much emotion for simple decorating. Time to redirect.

"Oh, shush," she said, throwing popcorn at him. "Go and enjoy your popcorn threading."