This was supposed to be updated a week ago but I lost my nerve while writing it and stepped away for a few days before I came back an finished it all yesterday. I apologize for the wait and hope that this chapter is satisfactory!
Enjoy!
Not even a week later Kurapika found that his workload continued to lessen the closer it got to Christmas. He couldn't help but feel both relieved and a little sick at the fact that he had so little left to do with the year. There was now less things he could use as an excuse to escape from his life.
Kurapika was currently taking a stack of papers from the printer and arranging them into a manilla folder next to him. The blonde flicked through the pages quickly, counting twenty in total. Satisfied, he nodded to himself and began walking back to his office, noticing that Chrollo's workspace didn't produce any light from it, telling the blonde that the other had yet to arrive at the department. Odd that he would be late Kurapika thought to himself, straightening the papers in his hand.
He was about to head into his own office when he heard the elevator doors open, causing him to pause.
Looking back he saw Chrollo walk onto the department floor, though something seemed off about him. Kurapika realized what was wrong as soon as he stepped into the fluorescent lighting. He was almost unsure of how to react: Chrollo's hair was braided in an almost strategic sort of randomness around his head. Kurapika stood staring, trying to urge himself not to because he knew it was rude, but he couldn't look away, and apparently neither could his coworkers.
"Trying to start a new fashion statement Chrollo?" one of them piped up, walking up beside him, holding up one of the braids by their end.
Chrollo swatted the offending hand away, clearly embarrassed.
"Nothing of the sort, I wouldn't do this to myself." he huffed, trying to look as nonchalant about it as possible.
"Oh? Then who would? Who could make the all mighty boss of the Eighth Department bow on his knees I wonder?" they asked dramatically, earning a small snicker to arise from those watching.
"My goddaughter." the dark haired man answered, only managing to walk a few more feet forward before seeing Kurapika, to which he smiled sheepishly at him. "She wouldn't let me leave the house if I didn't keep it in."
"Is that why you're so late?" Kurapika asked, smirking at the taller man, amused by the idea of a small child having so much power over him.
"Yeah." Chrollo shrugged, looking everywhere but Kurapika, trying not to blush.
Kurapika couldn't help but genuinely laugh at the situation, hiding behind his papers as if it would somehow conceal how giddy it made him feel. When he felt the laughter die out to just small giggles, he looked up to see Chrollo looked a little shocked, some of his coworkers even looking over at him out of curiosity.
"What?" he asked, still smiling, wondering what had caused everyone to look at him that way.
"You laughed." one of his coworkers pointed out, others agreeing with them.
"Yes, and?" Kurapika asked, beginning to feel self conscious underneath all of the gazes he was receiving.
"You have never la-"
"It's a good thing is all." Chrollo said, interrupting them and shooting over a look. He turned back and smiled at Kurapika, now noticing the papers in his hands. "What might those be?"
"Huh? Oh, these! They're for the new edifice project that starts in January. It concentrates on the building of the next few developmental centers, so these papers will be redirected to the architecture and construction departments once we're done looking them over."
Chrollo nodded wordlessly, seeming to have some idea on what he was talking about.
"Will that be the first project of the new year?" he asked, propping a hand on the wall next to Kurapika as the blonde showed him the files he had in hand.
"Yes, I think so. Unless they decide to send us some more projects to organize and host, I don't think we'll have to deal with more work anytime soon." he confirmed, handing the top paper to Chrollo, who took and it and skimmed over the brief summary given on it.
Again, Chrollo nodded, handing the paper back to Kurapika as he began to walk off.
"Well good work with it, it looks great so far!" the dark haired man said encouragingly, already turning away before Kurapika could really think of what he was doing.
"Wait!"
Chrollo turned back to look at him, confusion on his face.
"Yes?"
Kurapika paused, unsure why he had held the older man back. He wanted to tell him never mind and that he had forgotten what he was going to say, but it felt wrong to say that when he didn't even know what he was going to say. Perhaps he had wanted him to stay with him longer, but for what reason? He wiped all thoughts from his head and smiled at Chrollo, unsure how he was able to feel very genuine in the way he did it.
"I actually think your hair looks charming today." he heard himself say, slightly surprised at what he said but more so at Chrollo's reaction.
He was blushing. Not too much to be noticeable, but enough to where even his ears were a shade darker than normal. Kurapika decided to ignore it for the older man's sake.
"Thank you. I'll let Taj know that." Chrollo said, coughing to cover up his momentary sign of weakness.
"Taj?" Kurapika questioned, the name sounding a bit foreign.
"It's my goddaughter's name." he answered, smiling as he did. "She's a tiny menace when it comes to having her way but none of us really mind it." he continued, chuckling as one of his hands found its way to tugging at the braids in his hair. "I had to show proof that I got to work intact with these things in. She even demanded that I leave them in till I get home too." he sighed, shaking his head. "A wonder that girl is."
Kurapika couldn't help but smile and laugh again at Chrollo, the blonde pressing against his own office door to hide his face as his hand scrambled to find the doorknob to let himself in. His hand finally found the knob and it swung open hastily, almost taking Kurapika by surprise as he stumbled slightly into his office.
"Sorry about that, it was just amusing hearing that is all." was all the blonde could think of saying, lingering near the door. "I'm sure she's sweet though."
Chrollo had that shocked look on his face again, but it seemed more dazzled than the last time, and Kurapika had to suppress the heat rising in his cheeks along with the idea that he had caused that reaction. The look quickly vanished though, and the dark haired man smiled down at him casually.
"She certainly is. Speaking of sweet, I heard that Jordan was making her chocolate chip cookies for the holiday party." Chrollo said, leaning against the wall next to the door. "Think you'll be there to try them?"
The blonde had to pause before he answered. The question had been proposed so smoothly he almost had agreed to it without even thinking about whether he was actually going or not.
"We'll have to see about that." was all he offered as his answer before he closed the door, grateful that he had shut the blinds early. He waited there for a while, as if waiting for something more significant to happen, perhaps for Chrollo to even follow him, but there was nothing.
Kurapika chastised himself in his head, turning back to his desk in a form of disgust. What? Did you think he'd chase after you? This isn't some fairytale! he thought to himself, only to blush at his own embarrassing thought. It wasn't like he wanted Chrollo to follow him, just, maybe try harder at inviting him, maybe? Gah, why did he care about how much effort the other put into it anyway? It's not like he was going anyway... Or maybe he was. He hadn't really decided what he was going to do for sure.
He sat at his desk and got to work with reading the papers he had just printed out, making sure that nothing was missing and that there was no ink smudges on them. Afterwards he got about writing a highlight of the new project and emailing the other departments, successfully spending about two hours of time before he came to the realization that he had nothing else to do that day. He sat awkwardly at his desk, thinking about what he should do now. Without much thought, he got up and walked out of his office, going directly to the cubicle in front of him.
"Oh hey Kurapika!" someone said, their head popping out from their cubicle to greet him. "Have you already finished your work for today?"
"Yeah, I am actually. Would you happen to have any extra work that you might need a hand in Julien?" the blonde smiled sheepishly, already feeling some eyes on him at the news that he had finished his work early. Again.
"Oh wow, impressive! And no, sorry. I'm working on the last thing for today myself, and it's just a really long email I have to send so it's not much you can help on, I'm sorry." Julien replied, swiping back their short black hair out of their face absentmindedly.
Kurapika raised an eyebrow but smiled nonetheless at the other man. "It's fine, I'll find something to do." he said, nodding before he started to walk off.
"Oh wait Kurapika, do you think you'll be going to the holiday party?" he heard them ask behind him, a slight panic in their voice. "It'd be nice if you could come, ya'know?"
Kurapika hummed, looking thoughtful for a second before shrugging. "Still haven't decided yet." he answered truthfully.
"Oh, uh, see you then?" Julien asked, faltering a bit at the end of their question, making Kurapika have the urge to give him another smile.
"Maybe."
Afterwards he ran into Morgan who gave him some the job of running off copies on whatever the brown haired man had been working on. During that time he was asked about going to the holiday party by Jordan, who stealthy tried to convince him to go by asking for a ride there, Morgan, who just outright asked him, and another coworker named Ariena, who said it would help with a video she was making. He hadn't given them definite answers and tried to avoid encountering anyone else who might ask. After all was said and done though, it took him about an hour and half to finish the task he was assigned, and he no longer had anything else to do. Again.
Glancing at his watch he realized he could probably just go home early, noticing that some of his own coworkers had similar ideas, seeing as how Stevie had already packed up most of their stuff into their purse and was bothering someone named Vi who was preoccupied with some game on their computer, seemingly winning due to the reactions coming from the crowd that had formed around their cubicle. Kurapika watched for awhile before realizing that he had a chance slip out of the office without being asked about the holiday party again.
Returning to his office, he gathered his stuff, not bothering to glance at the clock as he walked back out and headed towards the elevator doors.
Vi's game had apparently ended with victory, because the crowd had moved closer to the exit with a ramble of excitement and congratulations. Stevie spotted him from the crowd and called out to him, and while he would've liked to pretend he didn't hear her, it was hard not to when almost everyone in the crowd had turned their attention to him and the short woman.
"Hey Kurapika, Kura-pika! Are you going to the holiday party?"
He felt like muttering something foul under his breath due to being asked about it again but refrained from it, noticing that Chrollo had come out of his office as well to see everyone leaving. It seemed he had also heard the question though, and stood there waiting for his answer as well.
Kurapika looked sideways, hoping to not make eye contact with anyone, and before he could answer them his phone rang, scaring him enough to make him almost drop his phone in the process of getting it out of his pocket. The rest of the room went quiet as the blonde quickly put his phone up to his ear.
Kurapika felt his heart drop at the sight of the callers name, and wanted to ignore the call but knew he would have to answer eventually, so he answered to temporarily get away from answering the now waiting crowd.
"Hello Leorio."
"Hey Kurapika! I was wondering where you've been!" the other man's voice came in through the speakers of his phone too loud, causing Kurapika to hold the phone off of his face so as to not get his eardrums blasted.
"Working Leorio, like normal people do." his answer seemed cold, but he didn't care. The conversation was already becoming annoying.
"Ah, I figured as much! You've always liked putting yourself into your work! But hey, I was wondering if you would want to get together this week! I think Killua and Gon already agreed to coming over on Friday-"
"Sorry, I have something that day." Kurapika quickly interrupted, realizing just exactly what he was getting himself into.
He slowly looked over to the people still politely waiting on him, his coworkers all trying their best not to seem too invested on what was going on in front of them. Kurapika felt his mouth go dry but continued speaking, making eye contact with Chrollo as he did.
"On Friday, I'm going to be participating in the holiday party at my work."
There was silence from the crowd, Leorio, and Chrollo at first, but his coworkers reacted the fastest, small but loud cheers escaping but dying out quickly as others shushed them. Leorio was the next to recover from his statement, coughing somewhere in the background.
"Oh, I see. Well that's good! I'm glad you were able to be comfortable enough to go to one, you used to hate going out and partying in general, so congratulations!"
Kurapika just grunted a response and said a quick goodbye before hanging up and shoving his phone into his back pocket, sighing in relief when he was sure he wouldn't get another call.
He then turned his attention back to the waiting crowd, embarrassed for a reason he couldn't place. Then all at once, everyone rushed forward, spouting words of encouragement, and whether it was because they wanted him to feel better about his decision or they were still drunk over Vi's win, he couldn't tell.
After the crowd finally started to calm down, people went down to the parking lot in groups, the elevator bell dinging whenever it came back up again. Kurapika stood behind, letting people go before him so he could at least have some time to think about the choice he had just made.
One last group went in, Jordan pausing before she stepped into the elevator.
"So, will you be able to give me a ride to the party then?" she asked, an almost smug smile showing on her face before being covered by the scarf she was wrapping around herself.
"Just get going." Kurapika sighed smiling, pushing her on.
The woman grinned and skipped into the elevator, Ariena, Morgan, and a few others greeting her as she joined them. The elevator door shut behind them and their sounds were gone.
"So, what made you decide to come?"
Kurapika yelped at the voice, turning around to see that Chrollo was standing right next to him. The blonde had failed to notice the taller man till now and that made him slightly uneasy.
"I uh, well, everyone seemed to want me to go so I probably would've caved eventually." Kurapika heard himself say, though he could tell the lie didn't go undetected to his boss.
Chrollo hummed and looked over at the elevator, clearly thinking over what was said to him, but then his face became unreadable.
"Why was everyone asking me anyway? It seemed sort of weird how everyone wanted to know if I was coming or not." the blonde wondered out loud, slightly uncomfortable at the silence that had come between them.
"They were all trying to see who could convince you to come was all. They all think of you as part of their office family after all, even though you're not here a lot." Chrollo supplied, watching the number above the elevator reach ground level.
"So what am I? The odd teenager who holes himself up in his room on his phone all day to avoid family?" he joked, glancing at the older man to see his reaction.
His comment got Chrollo to crack a smile.
"That sure would make a lot of sense." he replied, looking down at the blonde. "And Stevie is the wine mom and Morgan is your cousin who is bad at video games."
"Whereas Vi is great at them and Jordan is the baking queen." Kurapika added on smiling.
The air after that seemed pleasant as they exchanged random nicknames and statuses they had given their coworkers. It wasn't until the elevator rung out once again that Kurapika was reminded about the real world.
They both went into the elevator and Kurapika stood by awkwardly as Chrollo pressed the ground level button, causing the elevator doors to shut. It was silent as they rode down, and continued to persist even as they walked through the lobby and out into the parking lot. They began to part ways when Chrollo stopped him, a smile on his face.
"What?" the blonde asked, not sure what else he could possibly add to their conversation earlier.
"I'm glad you decided to go to the party." was all he said before quickly kissing him on the cheek and walking off to his car, an extra pep to his step as he went along.
Kurapika stared after him bringing his hand up to touch the spot where he had been pecked before turning towards his own car and driving out of the car lot and away from his work building. As he drove on, he couldn't get rid of the happy feeling he had gained after his and Chrollo's last exchange of the day, the kiss he had received earning him a fluttery feeling in his stomach that he didn't mind having at all.
Maybe going to the party wasn't such a bad idea after all.
