You could never be prepared enough for the first of December. In general, she never was but it also never mattered. As she could predict her family and friends' wishes for Christmas from her sharp observation before they could be aware of it, buying gifts was always a task done by the end of November. After all, Christmas only meant as much to her as it meant to her family and in between them and her individual life, her December was quite undecorated.

Usually around this time of year she would just be back at work after two weeks of vacation. Sometimes two weeks spent at one of their cottages, sometimes they would explore places of the world they hadn't seen before. No matter what they chose to do, she always returned strengthened, inspired and energized enough to work through the mess of Christmas crazed co-workers until the holidays.

She was lucky to have a job suiting her profession that didn't depend on holidays or seasons. There was no extra work to be done and finished before Christmas, the chores and tasks were no different from other times of the year.

"Robin, the table is clean." And yet, she was unfocused, inattentive, and rubbing her desk off of dust for minutes now.

Embarrassed by the obvious lack of concentration unusual to her character, she threw the cloth at the speaker and left for her private office. He wouldn't mind the reaction, he hadn't with those before, as much as the other two colleagues didn't mind. Everyone could guess what was wearing their boss' temper so thin.

But Robin couldn't. Who would've predicted skipping their November vacation could cause such a change? Admittedly, what probably played a greater role was the simple fact of her not taking off from work at all and instead joining a research team in Ireland that despite the bad timing and tight schedule she was very dedicated to support. Not having had a proper time off since August did take its toll on her. Draining energy and motivation from her, flipping her typical rationality over to irrational, counterproductive interactions with her co-workers.

No one minded. Except of her.

And coming home to a house full of Christmas decorations that didn't even belong to them only fueled her mood.


This was my contribution for the Winter event on the FrobinFanDays tumblr. The story takes places a few years after my yet to be finished fanfic Unexpected Discovery but it's not necessary to have read it!