Work Text:
Felix sat in his office with the lights low. He adjusted his blue-light glasses and continued typing, only pausing once in a while to take a sip from the coffee he had made an hour earlier. He was always the first one in the office and the first to leave - sneaking into the break room to get coffee before anyone else had even shown up. He was the lead programmer for their small company and had an office to himself. That was how he liked it. He liked working alone.
Sometimes people would come to bother him - mainly Sylvain, Ingrid or Dimitri. Considering that they had all known each other in childhood, this wasn’t a surprise. He’d usually withstand their banter for a few moments before turning back to his computer, putting his headphones on and continuing to work.
Sometimes it would be Byleth, the new director. Well, eight months new. They’d stop by, shaggy green hair framing their face and glasses at their nose, usually with a clipboard in hand, to comment on something. The rest of the staff at Blue Lions Games loved Byleth and praised them to the ends of the planet. Dimitri hired them on a whim, with no experience and no background to speak of. Most of the other people in the office were a little hesitant at first, but came to love Byleth. Felix was the only one that didn’t take warmly to Byleth’s arrival at the company. He was curious about Byleth, but the only thing Byleth ever talked about was work and the only thing Felix ever wanted to do was get his work done.
This time it was Ashe who came into his office, quietly knocking before stepping in. Ashe was the other programmer and worked in the bullpen area with most of the other staff of Blue Lions Games. He was one of the only people who got along relatively well with Felix. More accurately, Felix had a soft spot for him but would never admit it.
Ashe was wearing a white sweater with red and green stripes and trees. It reminded Felix that Christmas was only two weeks away, meaning that the worst time of year was arriving much sooner than he anticipated. Ashe smiled warmly at Felix and made a gesture that asked Felix to remove his headphones.
“What?” Felix asked, bluntly.
“Annette is getting the Secret Santa list together,” Ashe responded, a little too cheerfully. “Are you participating?”
Felix sighed and rolled his eyes. Ashe continued to smile at Felix, unwavering.
“No, Ashe,” he finally answered after a few moments of silence. “I wasn’t planning on going to the party.”
“You weren’t going to go!?” Annette’s voice rang out. The small red-head stepped into the office behind Ashe. Annette was a bright light in the office, in charge of storyboarding. She usually planned all of the birthday parties, office gatherings and any community service that came up. She had managed to wiggle her way into Felix’s soft spot, as well, by offering him his favorite coffee and teas every so often. He had also caught her singing once in the break room, but she called him a villain and ran out.
“Yeah, I’ve never gone,” Felix said. He turned his office chair back around and put his headphones on, the universal signal that one is done with the conversation. “It’s not my scene.”
“But Felix! You have to go! It’ll be so much fun,” Ashe insisted, hovering over Felix’s shoulder. Felix turned his head and looked back and forth between the only two people in the office that didn’t annoy him as much as everyone else did. Annette’s pout was way too cute and Ashe’s look made Felix crumble.
“Okay, alright, fine,” he finally relented. “I’ll do it.”
Ashe and Annette both let out a small cheer and Annette started clapping.
“You’ll have fun, I promise,” Annette said, patting his shoulder. She swept Ashe out of the office and Felix let out another sigh. He’d have to work on those soft spots.
——-
Byleth sat at their office desk, staring at their computer like they had been for over an hour. This was the part of the job that Byleth hated - waiting for things to come in. As the director, they would usually wander around the office and check in with people to make sure things were on schedule, but with the year coming to a close, they were waiting for everyone to turn things in. Sylvain had already gotten all of the voice work in, Dorothea had turned in all of the orchestration and sound effects, the story was done and Ingrid had already analyzed the research for the demo that had been released earlier in the year. Byleth was really waiting for the animators and programmers.
Dimitri and Dedue had expressed that they wanted the game released by the end of January, but Byleth knew that wasn’t realistic. Not being one for many words, they didn’t know how to express this to Dimitri. They all knew that Felix and Ashe were the only programmers, with Hilda and Marianne being the only animators. Even if it was all turned in in the next three weeks, they would need time to polish and retest.
Byleth took their glasses off and rubbed their eyes, letting out a sigh. A knock came at their office door and they looked up. Annette, with some tea and a small snack, waited. Byleth made a gesture for Annette to come in and the tea was set on the desk. This was almost a daily ritual for the two, and the way that they really became friends. Annette would bring in some tea and they’d chat for a little bit before going back to work - but it usually happened during their lunch break. It was 10:30 AM.
“You’re early,” Byleth commented.
“Yes! I’m getting the Secret Santa list together and I wanted to ask if you were interested!” Annette smiled, unwavered by Byleth’s hesitation.
Byleth was not planning on going to the office holiday party, but they hadn’t told anyone yet. Dimitri had asked a few days ago, but Byleth didn’t have the heart to tell him that they weren’t interested. Office parties weren’t their scene.
“Oh, uh…” Byleth started, Annette still smiling brightly.
“Great! I’ll put you down,” the red-head responded, leaving before Byleth could answer.
——-
Annette scurried over to her desk in the bullpen next to Ashe, who took off his headphones as she sat down. Feeling very proud of herself, she nodded quickly. Ashe pumped his arm in excitement and let out a small “woop!” The other employees in the bullpen noticed, but decided not to comment.
“I can’t believe you pulled it off,” Ashe whispered, leaning over to her. Annette giggled and covered her mouth. Sylvain must have heard her giggle because ever the one for drama, he rolled his chair over from the other side of the room.
“Gossiping at work? How unprofessional,” Sylvain teased. Annette slapped his arm and Ashe chuckled. “What’s the scoop?”
“We got Felix and Byleth to sign up for Secret Santa,” Annette confessed quietly. Sylvain gasped dramatically.
“You convinced Felix to come to the party? And you signed him up for Secret Santa? Mr. ‘I-refuse-to-acknowledge-most-of-my-coworkers’ Fraldarius?
“The very same,” Ashe laughed.
“How’d you do it?” Sylvain asked.
“I have no idea, but we’re trying to set them up.”
“Set them up? Tell me more.”
“I just think they’d go really well together. Both hard-working, both pretty quiet and awkward,” Annette answered.
Sylvain brought his hand to his chin and looked away thoughtfully.
“Ya know…I could see it,” he finally said after a moment. “I’m gonna go check in with him.”
Sylvain rolled his chair back to his desk and swaggered to Felix’s office, flashing a wink to Ashe and Annette on the way.
——-
“I heard you’re going to the office party this year,” Sylvain said, leaning on Felix’s desk. He had a smug grin on his face - one that meant he wanted or had information. Felix rolled his eyes, ignoring his friend’s presence. He continued typing until Sylvain removed his blue-light glasses and headphones. “Fe, come on, fess up. You’ve never gone to one office party in our time here. Why now?”
Felix glared at Sylvain, but the red-head didn’t flinch. This was not new for them - in fact, this was how much of the communication in their relationship worked. And as always, Felix relented after he realized Sylvain wasn’t going to give in.
“Ashe and Annette convinced me,” he mumbled, grabbing his glasses and headphones back from Sylvain.
“Oh! Have you made friends?” Sylvain teased, bumping Felix’s arm. Felix sent another glare and snapped his headphones back over his head. Despite the obvious signal from Felix, Sylvain wasn’t interested in leaving.“Do you know who your Secret Santa is yet?”
Felix shook his head and put his blue-light glasses back on. Sylvain smiled knowingly, which Felix found suspicious. Before he could question his friend, Sylvain tapped the desk twice and turned to leave.
“Let me know who you get!”
——-
SECRET SANTA MATCH!!! 🎅🏼🎄🥰
Byleth clicked on the email, almost feeling nervous. This wasn’t going to be a fun experience and they already regretted letting Annette get away with it. Byleth hadn’t really become close friends with anyone except Dimitri, Dorothea and Annette, so having to find a gift for someone new was…almost scary.
Your match is…Felix!
“Felix?” they quietly asked nobody.
Their interactions with Felix hadn’t been the friendliest. Whenever Byleth would pop into Felix’s office to give a comment, he’d have his headphones and a scowl on. The conversation was usually very short and would end with Felix snapping his headphones back on to continue what he was doing. Byleth thought that Felix just didn’t like them. Byleth wanted Felix to like them. They wanted everyone to like them, really, which was totally normal. Right? They did get along with basically everyone except for Felix. Dimitri had mentioned that Felix was pretty closed off and would probably take a while to warm up to them - though he still hadn’t.
Byleth wracked their brain, already trying to think of what they could get Felix - who they basically knew nothing about. Maybe that was a good place to start? He was definitely a hard-worker and apparently one of the best programmers in the city. He was always wearing his headphones and glasses. He hardly ever left his office and he was always one of the first people in. He almost always had a gym bag with him. He drove a small and old, but dependable car.
“Felix is an interesting character, isn’t he?” Annette asked, placing a cup of tea gently on Byleth’s desk. Byleth startled, not having noticed Annette, then nodded at Annette’s question. “Now, I did set this up and all so I can’t pretend that I don’t know who has who,” Annette giggled. “If you need a little help, I do know that he’s used those same headphones the whole time he’s worked here.”
Annette winked and left the room, leaving Byleth to stare at the cup of tea in front of them, wondering what had just happened.
——-
“Hey, Felix, I have a quick question for you,” Ashe said before Felix could get his headphones on. Ashe was surprisingly early, almost as early as Felix had been. This was not normal and since his interaction with Sylvain, Felix had grown suspicious. He turned towards Ashe, who was standing in the doorway with yet another Christmas sweater on. This one was sort of ugly, with striped sleeves and a huge pug on the front. Felix wondered how many he had. “I got Ingrid for my Secret Santa and I don’t really know what to get her.”
“Just get her some food and she’ll be happy,” he responded, turning back around.
“Okay, but um…what kind of food?”
“Basically anything. And I mean it,” he responded, about to snap his headphones back on his head.
“Do you know who your Secret Santa is?” Ashe asked quickly, before the headphones were back on.
Felix sighed and rolled his eyes. He nodded.
“Care to share who?” Ashe prompted.
“Byleth.”
“Oh, an interesting pick! Any idea what you’re going to get them?”
“Nope.”
“Oh, well, I’m not sure if you’ve been in their office but they have a really cool sword hanging on the wall,” Ashe said quickly. “Alright, I’ll let you be. Bye!”
Felix watched Ashe go, even more suspicious now. What are they planning?
“A really cool sword, huh?”
Felix put his headphones on his desk and purposefully walked through the office. He passed through the bullpen, which was mostly empty save for Ashe and Annette (which was also odd, because she was usually one of the last to arrive) and headed to the hallway with the other few offices. The offices, like his, had one clear window to see inside. He strode past Byleth’s office, surprised to already see the light on.
Byleth’s desk faced away from the window, so Byleth didn’t see Felix glance in as he walked by. There was a really cool sword hanging above their desk - it almost looked like one from the storyboards they had made. Felix had an appreciation for weaponry and he knew a cool sword when he saw one.
“Ah, Felix!” Dimitri’s voice boomed, startling Felix. How he hadn’t noticed the giant man, he didn’t know. Dimitri clapped his hand on Felix’s shoulder and smiled. “Haven’t seen you over here in a while! I heard you’re actually coming to the Christmas party this year!”
Felix gave Dimitri an awkward half-smile. He was definitely dreading this party already.
——-
Byleth fussed with the sweater they had on as Dorothea and Annette chatted beside them. It was sort of uncomfortable, but it was festive enough - a video game themed ugly Christmas sweater.
The three, plus Ashe, had arrived early to set up for the party. They moved all of the chairs and desks in the bullpen to make an open space for everyone to sit. They made the desks into a table for catered refreshments. An odd mix of Christmas music, pop music and music that didn’t mention Christmas played in the background. Annette had spent twenty minutes agonizing over the music - not wanting anyone to feel left out if she only had Christmas music on the playlist. Byleth had suggested adding other songs and Annette almost cried with gratitude.
Byleth was dreading the party, to say the least. They were not ready to socialize with people they barely knew for hours. Most of the others in the office had become friends after being there so long and in the case of Dimitri, Sylvain, Ingrid and Felix - they had known each other their whole lives. Byleth also just wasn’t one for conversation or alcohol. Almost everyone in the office knew that Byleth would turn down the happy hour invite every Friday.
Ashe plopped down next to Byleth and gave them a huge smile. Ashe was also wearing a Christmas sweater, one that Byleth had not seen yet. Red with black cats all over it, they noted. They wondered how many he had. Ashe had been setting up the Secret Santa table in the other room. Everyone had brought their gifts to Annette during the previous few days and they would be given out later in the evening (which forced Byleth to stay longer than intended).
“I’m so excited,” Ashe said, practically jittering out of the seat. He already had an open Whiteclaw in his hand. Byleth nodded and a sigh escaped. “Is everything alright, Byleth?”
“Oh, yeah, fine,” they stuttered. “Just not looking forward to the party.”
“Oh, it’ll be fun,” Dorothea hummed, patting Byleth’s shoulder. Byleth gave Dorothea a lukewarm smile and continued to fuss with their sweater.
As the small crew finished setting up, the rest of the employees began to arrive. Dimitri and Dedue arrived together, followed by Ingrid. Sylvain swaggered in with a glowering Felix in tow. Seteth brought his daughter, Flayn. Lastly, Hilda, Marianne and Bernadetta walked in together, arm in arm, rounding out everyone that worked for Blue Lions Games.
“That’s all of us,” Annette said to Dimitri with a smile. Dimitri stood from his spot next to Dedue and everyone quieted down. He raised his glass of red wine and waited for everyone to raise theirs before he spoke.
“Thank you all for joining us this evening. It’s been an interesting year at Blue Lions Games - with the downsizing and start of a new project - but I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. Cheers!”
Byleth clinked their cup of water with the people around them. and people began to talk. Cards were passed out for a game that Byleth hadn’t played before and was avoiding. Already overwhelmed, Byleth decided to retreat to the break room.
——-
Felix had made a beeline for his office two minutes after arriving with Sylvain. Sylvain insisted on picking him up and dropping him off, which meant that Felix would be driving Sylvain back to his place later. He also knew Sylvain was thinking he’d try to leave early, which he had planned on doing, but his soft spot for Sylvain stopped him. He really needed to work on those soft spots.
He was sitting in the dark, scrolling on his phone when he heard Dimitri’s short speech. While he hated them, he would admit that Dimitri had gotten better at giving them. Short, sweet and to the point. He heard everyone cheer and he saw Byleth’s figure pass by his office.
Curious, he followed.
They ended up in the break room and Byleth opened the cabinets, grabbing a tea bag and a mug. They nodded at Felix when they noticed him in the room.
“Tired of the party already?” Felix asked.
“Yeah,” they answered quietly. “Not really my scene.”
Byleth filled the cup with water until it was almost full, then stuck it in the microwave. They opened the tea bag and waited for the microwave to beep. There was a slight awkward tension in the air. Felix realized that if he wanted conversation, he’d have to start it.
“Tea?” he asked.
“Yup.”
“Cool, cool.”
“Yeah, Annette got me into it.”
“Nice.”
More awkward silence hung between them. The microwave beeped and Byleth pulled out the mug, putting the tea bag in to let it steep.
“I saw the sword in your office. It’s pretty cool.”
“Thanks. My dad got it for me. He teaches medieval history classes and he got it from a real blacksmith.”
“Cool.”
More awkward silence. That’s all you had to say? Cool? Idiot. Byleth threw out the tea bag and started to stir in some honey and cream.
“I heard that you never go out for happy hour,” Felix said. Byleth paused what they were doing to give him a questioning look and he realized that it might have sounded accusatory. Nice going, asshole. Save it . “So uh…why are you at this party? All anyone is gonna do is drink and act like idiots.”
“Annette told me to come,” they answered.
The suspicions arose once again. He remembered Annette's pout and Ashe mentioning the sword and Sylvain’s mischievous grin. The pieces were starting to fall into place.
“Oh, interesting…” he commented. He stood and nodded at Byleth. “I’ll be back.”
Before Byleth could answer, he walked purposefully to where Ashe and Annette were sitting. He ignored the people greeting him and focused in on the two, who happened to be whispering to each other and giggling.
“What are you planning?” he snapped.
The two jumped, practically falling out of their seats.
“What do you mean?” Ashe asked, startled. His cheeks were red.
“You know what I mean. You’ve been planning something this whole time,” Felix snapped again.
Annette and Ashe looked at each other with wide eyes, then back to Felix. Some of the other employees were starting to watch, most never having seen Felix get this angry before. The two people in his soft spot had managed to avoid it, but Felix knew he was being played. Ashe visibly gulped and Annette started to stutter out an answer when Sylvain sauntered over, with a slight stumble in his step.
“Hey, Fe, chill out,” Sylvain began, throwing an arm around Felix’s shoulder.
“Don’t even start with me, Sylvain,” Felix snarled.
“They’re just trying to help you out, dude. Open up for once.”
“Sylvain, get off of me,” Felix snapped as he shoved an elbow into Sylvain’s side. Almost comically, Sylvain stumbled into the table with the food and drinks. A punch bowl fell, spilling its contents onto a power strip. The power strip sparked, as did the rest of the power in the office. The office plunged into darkness.
“Shit,” Felix muttered.
Phone flashlights popped on as Dimitri announced that he’d take care of it. Felix gave Annette, Ashe and Sylvain a glare, then he pointed his look at Sylvain.
“I’m getting out of here. Find a ride home.”
——-
Byleth had been happy to wait for Felix, but was also very happy to be alone. The tea was warm, a nice vanilla caramel, and it was quiet in the break room. Byleth began to scroll on their phone, going between Discord, tumblr and different fanfiction websites. Really, Byleth would have been happy to stay in the break room, but when the power went out and Felix’s shadow stormed by, they figured it was time to move. Maybe even a good time to sneak out.
Byleth quietly closed the break room door and tiptoed over to the entrance of Blue Lions Games. Eyeing the present table, they grabbed both their gift and Felix’s . They heard voices in the distance, mostly Dimitri and Annette, and with a silent resolve, they left the party.
With the chaos of the office party behind them, they walked outside to find Felix with a cigarette in hand, sitting on a stoop of a building next door. They took a deep breath and stepped close.
“Hey,” Byleth said. Felix took a long drag and nodded, blowing smoke away from them. “I saw you leave and figured I’d grab this.” Byleth held out the gift they had carefully wrapped earlier that week. Felix eyed them, hesitant, and dropped the cigarette on the ground. He snuffed it out with his heel and took the gift from Byleth. “I was your Secret Santa. Sorry to ruin the surprise.”
Without invitation, Byleth sat next to Felix.
“I figured. I was yours,” he grumbled as he ripped into the wrapping paper. “I think Ashe and Annette were trying to set us up.”
“Oh,” Byleth whispered. Wrapping paper fell to the ground and Byleth leaned down, picking it up.
Underneath the wrapping paper was a set of wireless headphones. The box advertised noise cancelling and Bluetooth compatibility, both of which Felix’s current headphones lacked. Byleth could have sworn they saw a small smirk on Felix’s face.
“I noticed your headphones looked kinda old,” they commented.
He chuckled softly and nodded. “I’ve had them for a while.” They sat silently for a few moments, before he added, “You know there was a price limit, right?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t read the whole email,” Byleth admitted. Byleth felt a blush form on their cheeks, slightly embarrassed.
“I didn’t follow it either. You can open yours if you want.”
Byleth’s gift was in a plain white envelope, with their name scrawled across it. The envelope wasn’t sealed, so Byleth lifted up the flap and pulled out the papers inside. They let out a soft gasp after reading its contents.
“Fencing lessons?” they asked.
“Yeah. I saw the sword in your office and went from there.”
“This is…really cool. Thank you.”
“Yeah, no problem,” he said with a nod. “Can’t believe Ashe and Annette roped me into it.”
“How’d you figure out they were planning something?”
“Eh, they’re not super secretive.”
Byleth gave Felix a small half smile and Felix sighed, leaning back on the steps he was sitting on.
“Man, office parties really aren’t my thing,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, same. Ironic that the first one I go to here ends up with a power outage.”
“Ah, that was…my fault. I pushed Sylvain into some punch.”
Byleth laughed out loud, glancing over at Felix.
“Office parties are just some special sort of hell. Always uncomfortable and everyone just gets drunk. I try to avoid them as much as possible,” he continued. Their eyes met and Byleth smiled. “Wanna get out of here? Grab some coffee or something?”
“Didn’t you drive Sylvain?”
“Eh, don’t worry about him. Come on, let’s go.”