Work Text:
"Ho, ho, hoes! Merry Christmas!" a voice boomed at the entrance of their department and all the workers flinched at the prospect of who it was.
"Annette," Ashe said, wincing as he watched the scene over his shoulder, "don't turn around."
"What?" Annette ignored his warning, turning around and cursing her eyes with the image of their dearest coworker Sylvain dressed as a sexy Santa. "I should have listened."
"Probably," Mercedes said, watching as Ingrid was fuming at the door with Felix while Dimitri was laughing so hard he could barely hold himself up. Even though he was their boss, her didn't appear to be putting any effort towards stopping the situation. "Looking good!" Mercedes called out mockingly.
Sylvain was wearing no shirt, with shorts on that were unfortunately tight and donned a santa hat. He was carrying a sack, but he looked close to getting skewered by Felix.
"What do you want for Christmas, little boy?" Syvlain asked, his fake beard nearly falling off as he talked to Felix.
"I'm going to take that candy cane—" the man pointed to a comically large candy cane decoration that had been resting against the wall of their office for the past month "—and shove it up your ass."
"Don't say that, he'll enjoy it too much," Ingrid said, groaning as she looked at the cup in her hand. "I need another drink. With vodka."
"We can't have alcohol in the office building," Dedue reminded her, also not making a movement towards stopping Sylvain who had moved onto harassing his laughing boss.
"We can if you know the right people," she said, miming a "cheers" motion and joining Mercedes and Annette at the sweets table.
Dedue did his best to stay out of the fight that was beginning to brew between the two childhood friends, vicious glares being sent in both directions. Sometimes working with people who knew each other for so long had its perks: when they got into the groove, the “Faerghus Four” could complete a project seamlessly without the need to even talk to one another.
Other times, Sylvain showed up to the office work party as sexy Santa.
“Sorry we’re late,” a new voice called out from the door to their office, followed up by, “Oh, ho ho ho indeed .”
Standing in the door were the new recruits that had transferred from a different branch. Yuri had a Santa hat on while Hapi donned reindeer antlers, both in a mild state of confusion. “Should we come back another time?” Hapi asked. “Do they need their moment?”
“No,” Ashe said, ducking under the candy cane that Felix swung at Sylvian. “I think it would be worse if you didn’t join.”
“Are they always like this, Freckles?” Hapi asked, cocking her head to the side as Yuri freed his phone from his pocket to immortalize the moment in pictures. Sylvain’s beard had completely fallen off by that point and he was being hit over the head by Felix, who was being less than careful with his attack.
“Holidays or every day?” Ashe asked, before following up with. “The answer is ‘yes.’”
“Okay, let’s calm down here,” Dimitri finally said, even though he was still laughing at the scene. “Everyone is here, so let’s not kill Sylvain.”
“I say we should let him,” Mercedes suggested. “The party will be nice and quiet without the commotion.”
“Put on a shirt .” Felix glared, tossing the candy cane aside. The plastic itself had cracked from hitting Sylvain’s head too many times. No one wanted to point out the damage that might have been done to sexy Santa, himself, but then again the entire department figured he could afford to have things knocked around a bit.
The rest of the office building was silent save for their department, the lights off in the hallway that connected them to the main offices. Dimitri had been warned against trying to throw any type of party: the higher-ups assuring that no one would actually show up after work hours to spend more time at the office. It would be a waste of effort, they said.
Each of his coworkers had shown up and brought something to share with the others. Of course, that included sexy Santa and his bag of gifts that he had gotten at Five Below, but it was still a sweet gesture under the buffoonery of it all. Mercie and Annie had baked sweets for everyone (well, Mercedes had—her wife wasn’t allowed in the kitchen). Ingrid and Dedue went half on a few meals from their favorite Duscar restaurant and Ashe took the time to pick out a custom mug for each of them. Hapi and Yuri placed a basket of candy canes and assorted chocolates on their small table. Even Felix had reluctantly shown up with a bowl of fruit.
Dimitri knew he was lucky to work with them—even if they were willing to murder each other over a lack of proper apparel. The printing press that they worked at was small, their HR department that Dimitri was now in charge of known for being the worst resource in the company before he had gotten his act together.
“Okay, quiet down,” Dimitri finally called, asking for Dedue to lower the holiday music blasting through his phone speaker. “Thank you all, really.”
“Please don’t cry,” Ingrid said, earning laughs from Sylvain. “We play this game every year, Mitya.”
“I’m not going to cry this time!” he insisted, but he could tell that his coworkers didn’t believe a word he said. “Thank you all for showing up, truly. Christmas has been… well, lonely since my father’s passing. I think he would love to see the cheer you all have brought to the department. So, thank you for being such good friends, each and every one of you.”
He felt the hot tears in his eyes—memories of being alone during the season, not even able to open the door for Ingrid, Sylvain, or Felix—but it was quite easy to dismiss them by thinking about the santa stunt once more and dissolving into laughter.
His friends were going to call him out, but it was nice to see Dimitri happy once and for all.
“All this to say, Felix Navidad,” Dimitri finished, taking off running as Felix equipped his candy cane once more.