The day of the dance and me and Bernard still weren't talking. I even refused to see him about the cards even when ordered. I don't know when or how I got all this courage when just a week ago I was having trouble telling him I was even sending the cards. Half of me wanted to throw it in his face and storm off never to speak to him again, but the other half pulled me back and told me not to ruin what I had, to be careful not to do anything drastic.

Bernard had set a quota for us to reach in order to be let out of work early. Most elves were working their hardest in order to reach this quota, meaning I had to work hard to keep up with the high demand.

Ava and Mina were going through training fine, and were able to do two runs on their own, though I didn't let them if I could help it.

And sometimes I couldn't help it.

Santa was making a direct point to get me and Bernard close to each other as possible, though we still hadn't spoken. It was on one of these occasions that I was captured again.

"Ah! Kira!" he exclaimed as I ran into the testing department. I looked over to see Santa waving me down, Bernard dutifully by his side. We caught each others eye and turned away, me to santa with my face hidden behind my curtain of hair. I dropped the box off and, unable to pretend I hadn't heard, walked over.

"You can help us out here." he smiled. He gestured to Bernard who I spared a glance. Bernard was looking straight at me. Simply trying to see me and I blushed nodding to Santa.

"O-okay."

"Good. I need you to go under the sleigh and work on the engine. for some reason when we tried to increase the power the engine doesn't work."

"What?" I squeaked. I was claustrophobic. It was one of the reason's I didn't work in the testing department.

"You'll be fine. You need to just tell Bernard what you're doing so I can do something to help on this end." he pointed to the secondary (emergency) engine.

"Oh . . ." I murmured, I couldn't say no, no matter my phobia nore my desperation not to speak with Bernard (though I also wanted desperately to talk to him) I couldn't disobey Santa's orders. I took a deep breath and lay down, carefully sliding under the sleigh.

Good thing you wore a skirt today. I noted in the back of my mind. I whimpered and rearranged my legs so they weren't unseemly.

"I-I'm readjusting the springs so they'll release more when the power shoots through here." Bernard glanced at me.

"So you're talking to me now." he sighed and relayed the info. I didn't answer, my hands were shaking and I struggled to stay calm. Why was air so short down here? Was I being suffocated?

"I-I'm releasing the pressure in the cylinder." I called, my voice was shaking so much there was a long pause before Bernard relayed the information.

"Kira are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine. Just a l-l-little m-more." There was a loud hiss and I screamed. Reeling back out from under the sleigh I threw myself into Bernards arms, squeezing my eyes shut as I clung to him.

"That's perfect." Santa called as he too revealed himself. "Oh! What happened?"
"I-I couldn't d-do it." I whispered, "I was-I was t-too . . ." Bernard hesitantly hugged me back.

"You're fine. You're safe. Don't worry." I sobbed and Santa looked around clearing his throat.

"Bernard. Maybe you should take Kira to get some hot chocolate, she had a pretty rough time." Santa edged and Bernard led me away. There were cheers and whoops in delight, as well as some suggestive comment directed towards us, but I was too shaken to care.

We entered the kitchen, nearly running into the elf who had found my card and they bowed past us. Bernard watched them run off but didn't follow, instead helping me into a chair out of the way.

"Judy!" he snapped and she came running.

"Yes, Bernard?" he gestured to me.

"Hot cocoa." she grinned and gave me a quick look over.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. She just had a panick attack under the sleigh."

"What?" Judy shrieked and trotted off murmuring angrily to herself. After All the weeks I had been sending cards, Judy and I had become very close. She came running back with a blanket and handed me the steaming cup while she swung the covering over my shoulders. I burned my tongue taking a sip of the scalding liquid as Bernard turned to her, stepping protectively in front of me.

"Why did she have a panic attack?" he demanded and she glared at him.

"Kira has Claustrophobia, you dunce. She can't stand to be in enclosed spaces." Bernard drew back as though she had physically hit him, then went on the defensive.

"You dare to call your superior a 'dunce'." he glared and the kitchen slowed, 'oohing' in encouragement.

"Only when they're being one." she retorted back and the crowd 'oohed even louder. I whimpered in protest drawing everyone's attention.

"Don't fight." both of them swung to me and the kitchen started up again. Bernard didn't apologize but he held his tongue while Judy sighed.

"Sorry, Kira. I was just worried about you." she said then glared at Bernard. "Don't you have work to do?" she snapped and he grimaced before storming off, pretending he wasn't looking back worriedly. "So I hear you're going to the dance with Curtis." she murmured, blushing like crazy. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"I-I am." I replied, unsure if Curtis was asking me to make Judy jealous. She nodded solemnly.

"Of course. I'll see you later Kira." she muttered and turned, following Bernard's leave.

The rest of the day was much more uneventful. After my panic attack I was given a short break before I had to go fill the rush orders again. Luckily, though Santa made a point that Bernard and I saw each other, he didn't ask me to help him anymore.

The most exciting thing that happened was the twins bombarding me with questions about how Bernard reacted to my panicking, though it turned out that they had seen the whole thing, doing a run while I helped at the station.

"It was so cute, you just ran up and hugged him!" Ava squealed. Apparently we had become the 'OTP'(a slang term for favorite couple) in the workshop and many were thinking of ways to 'get us together'.

"And he was blushing so hard he wasn't sure what to do," Mina started, " because he really wanted to hug you-"

"REALLY badly!" Added Ava,

"Yeah, really really badly, but he also had to keep appearances up so he hesitated, until he realized he couldn't resist!"

"So cute!" squealed Ava again and Mina chimed in.

It went on like this for a while, me occasionally reminding them I had been there and therefore they didn't have to tell me everything that happened, but usually I was ignored.

When the day ended I think I was the happiest elf in the whole workshop.

But my day wasn't over yet.