Work Text:
From: [email protected]
Subject: Secret Santa!!
Good morning Ragatha!
Your Secret Santa is… Kinger!
Good luck,
Pomni
Ragatha read the email multiple times, and her stomach started to turn over as she started thinking of what to get for Kinger. Would he appreciate a new calendar? Or did he already get one? She would consider a mug as a gift, but he only used the matching one he had with his wife.
She remembered his love for bugs and tried to think about that, but with the extensive knowledge of bugs he already had, was it worth it? What if she got a book and it just sat on the shelf and collected dust? He’s had years of collecting papers and research on this subject, and she’d probably find something he had collected at least 5 years prior. So maybe that was out then.
Ragatha also felt a bit bad since she was slightly hoping to get Jax, but it was alright. Maybe she could get him a private gift and give it to him in secret? If she did that, she could play it cool and say that it’s a thanks for all the help he’s given her this year.
Or maybe this would be the time she finally confesses? For a while, the two had grown closer, spending more time around each other on a daily basis. Jax had even started going out with her almost weekly now after work. She also tried not to point out how Jax was much sweeter to her in private than he was with anyone else.
She didn’t miss the blushes he’d have when she’d catch him off guard with a compliment. Or how he always seemed to have some form of physical contact with her. And, he started to pull Ragatha away when he could from the others. She still was able to spend time with her friends, but she did like to think he wanted alone time with her sometimes, and that’s why he’d make up excuses for why Ragatha needed to come with him at that moment and no one else could.
Either way, she needed to decide on the perfect gift for Kinger and find one that Jax would appreciate.
//
“I got an easy one.” Jax answered when Ragatha asked about his person at the bar that night.
This made Ragatha’s eyebrow raise a little. Why was he so vague yet going along with her? She would’ve thought he’d have a Grinch like attitude and try to expose who everyone has so he can ruin the fun for everyone. But the Grinch did change in the end, so maybe that was a good sign.
“Have you been visited by the three ghosts of Christmas?” Ragatha asked with concern, and Jax rolled his eyes.
“Yes and they told me that a redhead I know is their next visit. Better watch out tonight, Dolly.” He tried to wiggle his fingers in a scary manner and she stuck her tongue out at him.
“Not my fault, you’re surprising me by actually participating in this. I thought you would’ve sent an email back to Pomni asking her to withdraw your name.” She said as she took a sip from her beer, shrugging her shoulders in the process.
“I’ll let you know I am full of Christmas spirit.” Jax’s voice was laced with sarcasm.
“So if I bring in a santa hat, you would wear it with no complaints?” Ragatha teased and Jax flipped her off.
“Only in your dreams would I wear that dolly.” He grumbled, and she couldn't help but laugh.
A comfortable silence fell between them for a few moments before it was interrupted by Jax.
“How would you describe your Secret Santa, then?” He asked, finishing his drink in the process.
She pursed her lips and thought about how to describe Kinger in a vague way.
“Obvious.” Kinger was pretty obvious with his interests, all someone needed to do was have about 5 conversations with him and you could find out what he liked.
“Vague, I like it.” Jax stated, and Ragatha smiled at that, feeling a sense of pride from the compliment.
The two continued drinking for a little while, continuing their small talk and jokes, until it started to get late and Ragatha wanted to call it quits. Plus, she needed to save time to go shopping for Kinger and Jax.
//
The days passed, Ragatha kept thinking of the gifts she was considering for Kinger, and eventually the party was in 3 days. 3 days to produce a gift for Kinger that he would love, that he didn’t have already, and that aligned with his interests.
What a difficult request.
Ragatha also wasn’t any closer to guessing who Jax’s mysterious person was. What did he mean by easy? Like easy to gift for with obvious interests? If so, Gangle and Pomni were her guesses. But if it was easy to please, then Zooble might fall into that category.
She couldn’t help but sigh, slightly irritated with how difficult it was to think of a gift for Kinger. She was probably one of the closest people with him, so it was ideal she was his Secret Santa, but what was she supposed to do?
Ragatha kept searching the internet for ideas, but the same results were popping up. It always had something to do with a book or a collection. And she knew that Kinger had multitudes of books already on the subject and as for the collection aspect, in his office area he had multiple of his collections up. It always made Ragatha feel a bit weird when she was in there for too long.
At some point, she had loudly sighed and conveniently, at the same moment, Gangle was passing by. She stopped and quietly came up behind Ragatha, softly tapping the doll’s shoulder. Ragatha jumped out of her chair and simultaneously shoved herself in front of her computer in case it was Kinger or Jax.
Thankfully, it was just Gangle.
“H-Hey Gangle! What’s got you around here?” She asked nervously, slightly turning so she could use one of her hands to close out the tab.
“Ah, you just seemed stressed. I wanted to check and make sure you’re okay.” Gangle said as she rubbed her ribbons together, giving Ragatha a look that made her feel bad for making the younger woman worry.
“I’m fine! Thank you for checking, Gangle. How’re you doing?”
“Oh, uh, I’m good! How’s your um, gifting going?” Gangle whispered the question to Ragatha and the doll sighed again.
“I’m still figuring out a gift, actually. Turns out it’s a bit hard figuring something out for Kinger.” Ragatha tried to smile but pulled at her collar, feeling the heat start to creep up on her skin.
Gangle moved close to Ragatha and lowered her voice, “I heard there’s an insect exhibit coming into town next month. I don’t think Kinger knows about it.” Gangle finished and gave a ribboned thumbs up to Ragatha.
The red head almost started crying at the information, but instead launched herself up and wrapped her arms around Gangle, excitedly but quietly thanking her multiple times. Gangle brought her ribbons to her face and if her mask let it, she’s sure she’d be blushing right now. So instead she was looking anywhere but down at Ragatha and accidentally caught the eyes of their manager.
Pomni raised her eyebrow, Gangle gave a thumbs up, and Pomni decided that while she did get paid to care technically, she didn’t have enough caffeine in her system to do anything at the moment.
//
They all were sitting in Caine’s living room the day before Christmas, celebrating their holiday party. He had a nice sized home and with Pomni’s persuasion skills, he allowed the party to be hosted there. He also did surprise everyone by having a sweet dog named Bubble, who especially seemed keen on Zooble’s attention.
They had all been chatting for a while, eating the appetizers people brought, while instrumental jazz music played softly in the background. Ragatha was in a conversation with Pomni and Gangle, listening mainly to them talking about an anime that was finally coming out.
Ragatha did feel a bit bad that she didn’t have her full attention on her friends, since her eyes kept wandering to a certain purple rabbit who was joking around with the other people in their office. Every time she thought about her gift for him, her bag felt heavier on her shoulder. Should she have gotten him a gift? Was that too obvious? Was he just going to laugh at the gift, which basically meant laughing at her?
“I’m going to go out for a breather quickly. It’s really warm.” Ragatha politely excused herself from her friends, moving to the closet near the door to grab her jacket and scarf so she would not completely freeze out there.
Ragatha noticed immediately that it had started snowing once she stepped outside.
She wrapped her small scarf around her as tight as she could, then stuffed her hands in her pockets. Closing her eyes and leaning against the walls of the home, she took some deep breaths.
She was going to definitely give Jax her gift tonight, but when? She didn't want to do it in front of everyone and make them question her. It’s not like there was anything between them anyway. They were just kind of close coworkers/friends now and she has feelings for him, but he definitely doesn’t feel the same way.
She stood outside a little longer, letting her nose turn a little red as she appreciated the snowflakes. Once her fingertips felt cold enough, she decided it was time to head back in. Standing in an upright position, she was about to open the door but was interrupted by said door opening, introducing the bunny that had just been on her mind.
“Hey, what’re you doing out here?” She asked, perking up as she gripped the strings on her bag a little tight.
“Taking a smoke before we do the gift exchange. You?” He asked as he pulled the cigarette box out of his pocket, and Ragatha deflated a little as her hopes dropped.
“Taking a breather, it got stuffy in there. But I was about to head in, so I won’t bother you.” She ran a hand through her hair, hating how awkward she felt in front of him.
“You don’t bother me Rags.” Jax stated it so directly and Ragatha felt her heart clench.
She had no response and instead her brain moved quick and she opened her bag, taking out the wrapped gift. She held it in his direction as she averted her gaze, biting her lip as she racked through her brain trying to find the right words.
“I got you this, as a thanks. For taking care of me this year. And for being someone I can rely on.” She wanted to flick her own forehead and call herself stupid.
“There’s no bomb in here, right?” Jax asked as he took the gift into his hand and she looked at him with shock.
“I- You know I wouldn’t do something like that!” She exclaimed and Jax smiled.
“Yeah, yeah, sorry about that. You just seemed a little stressed, so I thought a joke might lighten you up.” He lightly chuckled as he turned the gift around in his hand.
Jax was stupidly considerate of Ragatha.
Before she could say anything else, he had already torn the wrapping paper off and opened up the box, revealing a new pair of gloves.
“I just thought you might need some new gloves since you’ve been using your other ones for a while now. But if you don’t like it, I have the receipt and you can return it and get something el-“
“Thanks, Rags, this is… nice.” Jax’s voice was quiet as he admired the gloves.
Ragatha smiled at that and decided she had done what she needed to, so she could head inside now.
Except Jax caught her off guard by tossing a gift at her. By the time her brain processed what it was, she was scrambling to catch it and had ended up close to the ground with it in her hands.
“You could’ve just handed it to me.” She muttered as she stood back up, brushing off any dirt that ended up on her skirt.
“Well, where’s the fun in that?” Jax asked as he started to try on the new gloves.
Ragatha finally let it sit in her mind, and she realized what she had in her hands. Jax got her a gift. He went out and got something, with Ragatha in mind, and he was giving it to her. It felt almost too good to be real.
“Gifts don’t magically open up, doll, Hurry up before someone gets suspicious and comes out here.” She nodded and hastily opened up the wrapping, exposing a new scarf.
She looked up at him then back down at the scarf, moving her hand up to her old one sitting around her neck.
“Your scarf barely keeps you warm as is, so this one should be better.” He grumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck, his face turning a deep red.
She wanted to kiss him so bad.
But he didn’t feel that way about her, probably.
“Thanks Jax, I love,” and she took a quick pause as her gaze went up to his face, catching his eyes as he looked back down at her, “it.”
As they smiled warmly at each other, heat warming both of their faces, they knew the true intent behind her words.
I love you .
//
“I had Ragatha!” Gangle said excitedly as she got up from her seat and brought the gift bag over to the red head, who was currently standing next to the couch. Pomni sat on the couch corner near her, and Jax stood right near the doll, just a few inches away behind the couch.
Ragatha pulled out a book that she had been talking about for a while, but never ended up buying, since she knew she had too many books to read already. But she felt elated at the fact that Gangle remembered their conversation.
“Thank you Gangle!” She exclaimed as she moved forward, embracing Gangle with a quick but tight squeeze.
After the small excitement died down, Ragatha brought her gift for Kinger out and made eye contact with him.
“I was the Secret Santa for Kinger.” She announced as she excused herself around the couch area to give the small gift bag to the pawn piece.
“Ah, thank you Ragatha. I’m sure whatever you got me, I’ll love.” He said as he took the bag from her hands, then moved the tissue paper around so he could pull out the gifts.
First was a book full of dad jokes she had found at a bookstore nearby. The pawn piece enjoyed his fair share of jokes and doll always had a good laugh at them, so it felt right when she found it. Kinger’s excitement at the prospect of new jokes made everyone besides Ragatha groan.
The other gift was held in between a card that had a hand drawn butterfly on it. She had written a nice message inside, but the real treat was that there were two tickets for the traveling insectarium that Gangle had mentioned before in it. She had chosen a confirmed free weekend after scoping out his January with small talk about any plans coming up that month.
Kinger oohed at it, and Ragatha couldn’t help the big smile on her face as she watched the older man start excitedly talking about what could be there. To keep the process moving, she let him know that she’d send him more about the details of the exhibit.
She moved back to her spot, now a little closer to Jax. She was on the verge of trying to decide if she should try to say something, but he interrupted her thoughts as he poked her shoulder, motioning to a quiet and alone hallway in the home.
She turned her attention to the exchange that was still happening, and no one was focused on them, so she followed, joining him in the out of sight area.
“What’s up Jax?” She asked as he turned around and took a step close to Ragatha, inches separating their bodies.
She barely had a chance to register how close he was before she felt his lips on hers. He moved one of his hands to her mid-back, and her arms snaked themselves around his neck. Her heartbeat picked up in seconds, and the only thing on her mind was how much she did not want this to stop.
She brought herself away for a moment and was going to move back, but was interrupted by his voice.
“Thanks for the mistletoe kiss Rags.” He whispered as he removed his hand from her back and pointed up, only for Ragatha to now see the decorated green plant hanging above them.
Did he only kiss her for that? Did he kiss her as a joke?
“Jax-“ she began but was again interrupted as he looked a little disheveled now.
“I gotta go, doll. Thanks for the gifts again, I’ll see you soon.” He quickly said his goodbye as he rushed away, leaving Ragatha standing alone in the hallway.
She stood in shock in the hallway, bringing her fingers to her lips as she tried to process the situation. She and Jax just kissed. They kissed. But he left her in Caine’s hallway alone to process it. She felt her face heat up immensely as she let the realization truly fall on her. Her and Jax, her long time secret work crush and friend and coworker, had kissed.
What were they now?