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𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗠𝗘

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
and when I'm feeling alone, you
remind me of home

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trigger warning: sexual innuendos, sexual references, sexual themes
(NO IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK LET'S CHILL OUT FOR A MOMENT)

CHRISTMAS SEASON WAS upon them — arguably Luna's favorite season. Luna and Mary Jane's house had been decorated on the outside and the inside to the littlest details, which they wanted. But, there was still one place that needed to be decorated.

Noah's stream room.

Somehow, in the constant begging of Noah's chat to have Luna appear on his stream, they had finally made a plan — Noah would decorate his stream room for Christmas, and Luna would help. Considering what happened last time the two of them tried to fix something together — also known as the great closet door incident of 2022 — Luna wasn't really sure how this was going to go.

So, Luna had gotten dressed in Christmas attire — a red jean skirt and a white sweater, accompanied by black tights and a red ribbon in her hair that held back the two front parts of her hair. She made her way over to Noah's, one AirPod in her ear to listen into the Discord call with herself muted on her phone, since Noah said Sam and BadBoyHalo would be watching them.

Luna opened up the door to Noah's house, not even bothering to knock — as always. She waved to Nolan, who was sitting on the couch, before climbing up the stairs. Luna navigated her way through the upstairs until she ended up at Noah's stream room. There were multiple boxes outside, which must've been the Christmas decorations.

"You can watch, you can stick around, I'll have my mic—" Noah was saying.

She knocked twice before opening the door. "I'm here."

Noah looked over at her, affectionately wearing a pair of Reinbeer pajama pants. "Oh, there she is." He grinned at her, extending his arm out towards her. "Hey, pretty girl."

"Hi." Luna moved further into the room, leaning down slightly and waving. "Hey, chat." She smiled at how they all started to spam her name. "Hi, Sammy. Hi, Bad."

"Luna!" Bad exclaimed through her ear.

"Hey Lunes," Sam replied. "Bad, why do you think this is gonna be a disaster? I think he's more than capable of putting up a Christmas tree. Besides, we have Luna."

"Oh, I trust Luna, one hundred percent. But have you seen Foolish do, like, things for the first time?"

"I don't think this is his first time ever assembling a Christmas tree."

"Let's ask him," Bad suggested. "Foolish, have you ever assembled a Christmas tree?"

Noah just made a face and looked into the fucking camera like he was on the Office. Luna let out a sigh.

"Foolish, did you buy this tree just for this? Oh, wait a minute, you did! I can see the look on your face — look at that face! And look how disappointed Luna is! That is the face of someone who's never set up a Christmas tree before."

"How hard can it be?" Noah argued. "And that's why Luna's here."

"Don't worry, guys, I got this," Luna reassured them. "MJ and I may have struggled to set up our Christmas tree for half an hour, but it's fine."

Noah looked up at her. "Half an hour?"

"Well, about half of it we spent laying on the floor around all of the pieces and contemplating life. It was a time and a half. You should've been there."

After Sam's instructions of reminding them to fluff the branches and a very interesting story about him forgetting to lock his doors — which caused Bad to have an absolute freak out — Noah stood up from his chair. He had a quick moment with Sam about his Reinbeer pajama pants before saying he was putting the tree next to the closet.

"Guys," Luna whispered, moving closer to the computer when Noah left the room to grab the Christmas tree. "I have a feeling I'm going to be doing absolutely nothing."

"What was that?" Noah asked, coming back into the room with the box.

"Nothing." She stood up straighter, giving him an innocent smile. "Don't you worry about it."

So, the tree actually had weird fiber optic light things (Luna was stealing that term from Sam) instead of string lights. Luna crossed her arms across her chest, tilting her head at it.

"It's five feet, okay?" Noah insisted, holding up the two parts. "Look, that's not tiny."

"It's a five foot baby tree?" Bad questioned.

"It's five feet, though. That's a big tree. That's not, like, a small tree."

"That's a baby tree."

"If we're using Luna as a system of measurement, it's about one Luna," Noah voiced.

Luna's mouth fell open in shock. "I do not consent to being used as a system of measurement. And I'm actually five inches taller than it, thank you very fucking much."

"You're, like, five one on a good day."

She slowly turned towards the computer. "I hate it here."

And in between Noah and Bad arguing about whether or not it was a baby tree, someone new joined the call.

"Can I offer some input?" Tina questioned.

Luna gasped. "T!"

"Oh, hi, Lunes. You look beautiful." She cleared her throat. "Anyways, my input."

"Oh, yes, and I might ignore it, but go for it," Noah encouraged.

Luna hit his shoulder. "You will not ignore it."

"Oh, okay," Tina said. "I think because Christmas trees are always taller than me, I don't like a Christmas tree that's smaller than me. It doesn't feel like a real Christmas tree."

"So you're just telling me you hate my fucking tree, too?" Noah shouted.

"No, no, no," Luna cut in. "Guys, let's keep an open mind. The tree might be really cute."

"See? Luna agrees with me."

Noah was honestly flabbergasted by their criticisms of his tree when they hadn't even put it up yet. Luna watched him argue with them, laughing slightly into her hand. The tree had two-step instructions, which was very simple compared to the closet door. She moved some of her hair off of her shoulder and watched as he brought the tree stand in. Noah then revealed that he didn't have any ornaments for his tree, but he did have a deer and a penguin decoration to set up for later.

"What are you going to put at the top of the tree?" Bad asked. "You got, like, something to put up there, right? Like an angel or a star or whatever?"

"Um . . . yeah, I kind of thought this would come with a treetopper, but that might not be the case," Noah responded.

Luna placed a hand on her forehead. "This is a disaster."

"Guys, you're making Luna lose faith. She was supposed to be on my side." Noah sighed. "Fine. If it doesn't come with a treetopper, we're putting a picture of Luna on top, because she's my star."

"Oh, wow," Luna commented. "How nice." She gave a thumbs-up to the camera. "Hear that? I'm a star."

"Hell yeah, you are."

Noah opened up the tree stand. Luna knelt down on the ground beside the tree and held her hand out to him as he was making the tree stand make a high-pitched sound. She took it and placed it down on the ground. Luna then took the bottom part and put it into the stand. She then picked up the top part, only to see a star at the top.

She then gasped, handing it to Noah. "It does come with a star! Let's go!"

"Wow, they actually pulled through and gave you a star," Bad said.

"Well, my work here is done," Luna stated, standing up from the ground. "It's all yours now." 

Noah watched her every move as she sat down in his chair. "Wow, thanks."

"What else is there to do? I mean, you've got no ornaments, so . . . I mean, I can do a fucking cartwheel, if you wish."

"Yeah, go ahead."

Luna blinked. "I was kidding, and even if I wanted to, I'm wearing a skirt. Nice try."

He put the screws in the bottom of the stand and pressed up onto his knees, typing on his computer to put on some Charlie Brown Christmas music to listen to.

"Speaking of, I think I'm gonna get it cut soon," Noah revealed, referring to his hair, which was extremely long.

"No way," Luna refused. "My life is over."

Noah laughed slightly at her. "Guys, never mind. Luna will break up with me if I do that."

"No, it's fine. Really, it's good. I'll just . . . deal with it." Luna then turned herself towards chat and mouthed I'm going to cry. "You'll still be handsome."

Noah then sat back down on the ground next to the Christmas tree. However, when he started to try and fluff the branches out, it looked . . . odd. Luna covered her mouth with her hand, turning back towards the screen. She started to laugh, her face turning slightly red.

"You just kind of, like, pull them out and stuff," Sam instructed.

"Pull them out?" Noah repeated, starting to grab the fake pine needles and pull them out.

"Yeah, there you go. That was good form." Sam then noticed her. "What'cha laughing at, Lunes?"

"Nothing," Luna replied, moving her hair away from her face as she giggled more. "Just . . . what he was doing earlier kinda . . ."

Sam then started to laugh. "I wasn't gonna say anything, but it looked a little like something else."

She laughed harder with him. "Go on, No, fluff it like you mean it. But I will not be participating in that with you."

Noah continued to push down all of the branches. Bad admitted it was a sad looking tree, but Noah argued against it with the Charlie Brown example. He started to try and fluff out the other branches in the same method he had used earlier. Noah argued with Bad some more, as he normally did, and Bad even went as far to get the link of the exact tree to look up. Bad then said he bought the worst tree, but Sam admitted he thought it would be cute. They then started to read the reviews on the tree as well.

Luna didn't join in in that on these arguments, only just staring at the camera with wide eyes. Honestly, this was just . . . chaotic.

Little did she know it would only get more chaotic.

Noah then put the top part of the tree on. He started putting down the branches, and Bad said he was going to look up a YouTube tutorial on how to make the tree look better.

"Bad, I once survived outside for eight hours," Noah argued.

"How to fluff a Christmas tree," Bad read out loud, presumably as he typed.

"You're looking up a fucking YouTube tutorial?" Luna questioned. "Oh my God."

"Okay, how did they do it?" Noah inquired. "Did they, like, sprinkle it, or did they stroke it?"

Luna looked at him with wide eyes. "Ayo, what'd you mean by that? And please don't do that hand motion, I can't." She then laughed a little. "Bad, don't look up the YouTube tutorial."

Bad then instructed that the people in the video were bending the branches as well by tilting them up. Noah then pushed down the rest of the branches while Bad watched his YouTube tutorial.

"Then you can stroke them to fluff it up, and tilt them a little bit, and you bend them up a little bit," Bad instructed, making Noah start to laugh.

"That's getting clipped," Sam said. "I know that's getting clipped. That is just one of the most hilarious sentences I've ever heard."

"He wanted instructions! I'm giving him instructions!"

"Bad's giving Foolish instructions to stroke it."

"I . . ." Luna trailed off. "Oh my God, where am I?"

Noah poked her side. "Aren't you so glad I invited you to do this with me?"

Luna listened to Bad's instructions a little more, but she couldn't stop laughing — Noah couldn't as well, even going as far to fully collapse on the floor. "Bad, what instructions are you looking at exactly?"

"I hate you guys so much," Bad told them after arguing with Sam about tutorials. "You guys are the worst people."

Noah then stood back up. While Bad was saying tha they had to do this to each branch, he grabbed one, tilted it upwards, and ran his hand down it. Luna

"That doesn't . . ." Luna trailed off, starting to laugh. "Why'd that look kind of . . ." She started to laugh harder when Noah laughed with her. "That didn't look right."

"I think you're going to have to stroke each branch, though," Bad said.

And that's when Noah lost it. He hit his hand against the wall and laughed so hard he backed up all the way to his ring light. Luna had already been laughing, mostly from Sam's loud laugh, but that just made her laugh harder.

"Oh God," Luna let out through her laughter. She stood up and held her hands out while Sam rambled on and on about how each branch wanted a turn. "Noah, please."

Noah grabbed her hands and she used them to pull him away from the fallen ring light. She then pressed herself against the wall, covering her mouth with her hand as she giggled.

"Whenever you stroke the branch, it makes it look bigger," Bad announced.

Noah hit his hand against the arm of his chair and collapsed to the ground in a fit of giggles. Luna laughed harder than she thought she ever had before, placing a hand on her hurting stomach. This was just way too much for her.

"Merry Christmas chat," Luna let out, stepping around Noah, speaking over Bad saying that he hated them.

Unfortunately, it didn't really end there.

"Have the tips go up a little bit," Bad said later when all of the branches were down. "I think that'll give it this full effect. Like, tilting the tips up, you'll make the — the tree overall will look more more full, right?"

"Bad," Luna pleaded, running her hand across her face. "Bad, please stop. You know what you're doing."

"Yeah, it's probably easier to use two hands," Bad added.

"Mmm, two hands probably works better," Sam agreed.

Luna covered her face with her hands. "Jesus Christ."

"Okay, well we can't just let that one go, right?" Noah exclaimed after a moment of silence. "We can't just let that one pass."

After a little longer of Noah fixing up the tree and making the tree look better, it was finally time to see if the lights worked. Noah turned off the light behind his webcam, enveloping the room in darkness besides for the lights from his monitors. Luna stood off to the side, her hands locked behind her back. She watched carefully as Noah plugged it in.

Instantly, the tree lit up in a rainbow of colors. Luna smiled as she watched it flash. Honestly, the tree was going kind of crazy.

"Yes!" Noah shouted triumphantly.

"Aw, yay," Luna stated. "It looks so good."

Noah came up beside her, placing a hand on her back. "Thanks."

Luna looked up at him, and he looked down to meet her eyes, her smile softening at the sight of him. "You picked a good one, sunshine."

And for maybe for the first time in Luna's life, she felt nothing but warmth surrounding the Christmas season.

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

TWITTER

luna 🌙 lunahayes • 1h
not me being the happiest I've been but still writing the saddest songs

💬8,129 🔁1,945 ❤️48,273

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luna 4 life username • 1h
you always make the bops that paint you to be the problem and I need more of that in my life so thanks

💬22 🔁93 ❤️50

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style duo enthusiast username • 1h
JUST ONE HAPPY SONG???? PLEASE????

💬50 🔁104 ❤️198

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luna my moon username • 1h
this is so off topic but luna wtf was that on foolish's stream today

💬232 🔁400 ❤️730

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luna 🌙 lunahayes • 1h
I wish I could tell you. ask badboyhalo. bad any comments? BadBoyHalo

💬10,091 🔁2,309 ❤️41,902

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BadBoyHalo BadBoyHalo • 1h
he needed help on how to fluff a christmas tree. I did nothing but give him that help.

💬104 🔁98 ❤️150

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awesamdude theawesamdude • 1h
bad I don't know what tutorials you were looking up but you need to stop

💬93 🔁87 ❤️143

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Foolish Gamers FoolishGamers • 1h
"stroke the branch to make it look bigger" YEAH OKAY

💬7,640 🔁1,324 ❤️40,893

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BadBoyHalo BadBoyHalo • 1h
I hate every single one of you

💬90 🔁86 ❤️194

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Mary Jane Brooks maryjane • 1h
what . . . did I miss

💬12,785 🔁2,473 ❤️48,121

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luna 🌙 lunahayes • 1h
so much, mj. so much.

💬9,934 🔁1,006 ❤️40,287

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nc squad <3 username • 1h
I'M LITERALLY CRYING FROM LAUGHTER PLEASE

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-ˏˋ ♥̩͙♥̩̩̥͙♥̩̥̩ ˊˎ-

merry christmas! (it's october)

I literally couldn't NOT write this this stream had me giggling so much it was peak comedy. also sorry for jumping around I didn't feel like writing everything they said

anyways . . . FOOLISH OF THE GAMERS VARIETY RETURN TO MCC AT TWITCHCON ⁉️⁉️⁉️ AND JOHN (MASAYOSHI) ⁉️⁉️⁉️ I'M LOSING IT