Happy Friday guys! Two updates in one week, whew! I wrote this chapter in one night so I apologize if some wording in this seems pretty awkward. In addition, despite my lack of office party knowledge, I believe this went pretty well.

Anyway, enjoy!


The day of the holiday party had finally arrived, and Chrollo couldn't be more excited. He had even come in early, resulting in him being the first one to arrive, all on the pretense of "making sure all the work was done." Any project left for this year had already been complete, but the satisfaction of checking to see that there was nothing to do was fantastic.

Eventually other people started showing up, each one of them carrying food, decorations, or sometimes both. Morgan told Chrollo he had brought a mistletoe but refused to tell him where he had put it. Despite his curiosity, Chrollo refrained from asking and pretended like he didn't care, so the other man left him alone and went to bother Ariena about it.

After a while, there was a lot of people milling about the department floor; cubicles had been moved a few minutes ago to create a clearing for the party and a table had been set up with food and drinks. Chrollo felt bad for doing nothing but watch; he had no idea what to do. He heard a faint ding to his right and glanced over to see the elevator open for Kurapika and Jordan, both whom were holding two trays each of chocolate chip cookies.

"Sorry for coming a little late boss!" Jordan called out to him, jumping out of the elevator. "I decided I should make them fresh this morning so that they'd be soft, but my timing was a bit off and so I ended up dragging in Kurapika to help me out!"

Kurapika shrugged at her mention of him helping but otherwise said nothing, nodding to Chrollo as his greeting.

"Would you want me to help with carrying that?" Chrollo asked to them both, hoping he would finally look productive that morning.

Jordan politely denied him and then quickly walked past him, seeming to dance around people to get to the snack table. Chrollo turned his attention back to Kurapika, who just handed him a cookie tray and walked after her, not even making eye contact with him.

The black haired man watched the other pass by him, confused by his attitude but followed him to put down the cookies anyway in hopes that he'd be able to get an explanation.

An hour later, the party around him was in full swing, and it turned out that in the break room, Vi had figured out how to use the projector to stream an online game; several people from other departments had brought their laptops to compete through the multiplayer function.

Chrollo stood back and watched for at least thirty minutes before figuring that Vi would probably be reigning champ for the rest of the night. He left the break room to find that the cubicles had been shifted again to form two arcs facing each other, leaving a few feet between each arc to make a passageway to the snack table. Chrollo walked over to it, noticing how most people had settled into their own cubicles and were gossiping about some news from other departments and from themselves.

"So apparently a few people from the education department read one of Stevie's fics and decided to grade it as if it were a fictional essay."

"What? No way man, which one?"

"The one with gay sex I think."

"That's like, half of them."

Laughter arose from the group at that comment, and half the group continued onto another topic of conversation while the other half continued to talk about the graded smut fic. Chrollo couldn't help but laugh at the situation himself but traveled away from the outer ring of the arcs to go the long way around to the snack table. When he got over to it, he noticed that Kurapika was standing with his back against the windows of the printing room, the faint golden glow from the room accenting his figure as if trying to show off the fact that he was actually present at the party.

After grabbing a few cookies from the table he walked over to the blonde and leaned onto the window next to him, handing him a cookie silently. The shorter man took it, wordlessly eating the cookie as they both watched the arc group talk endlessly about interesting articles and stories and the break room group rise up in celebration at yet another victory from Vi.

"So, enjoying yourself?" Chrollo asked after a few more minutes of silence had passed by, wondering if Kurapika was in the mood to talk yet.

The blonde looked over at Chrollo with an unreadable look in his eye before turning his attention to the room in front of them.

"I guess. It's how I imagined it would be, if not more chaotic. Not a bad thing though."

"Well at least you tried it out. You even wore an ugly Christmas sweater." Chrollo replied, poking at the blonde's knitted turtleneck, which wasn't at all ugly but just a regular green, long sleeve with two red zigzags going around it.

Kurapika scoffed, but a smile was on his face now.

"You're not any better." he claimed, pinching at the gray, long sleeve shirt the older man had worn, a poorly printed 'X-MAS' on the front. Chrollo chuckled, swatting his hand off his clothes.

"Oh I'm sorry to disappoint. Didn't know it was fashion week Mr. Kurta." he replied back sarcastically, grinning at the shorter man. "Would my scarf give me extra bonus points?" he asked, tugging at the off-white cloth around his neck.

Kurapika rolled his eyes at the man next to him but didn't answer him, his eyes getting caught on something on the ceiling.

"What is-? Oh damn it all…"

Chrollo followed the other's line of sight and found that they were both staring at a mistletoe that was hidden behind a large ornament, the fake plant covered enough so that Chrollo was sure that no one in the room could spot it unless they were where they were standing.

"I thought Morgan only said he placed one around the office, not multiple." he heard Kurapika mutter under his breath, causing him to look down at them.

"Where else did he put them then?" Chrollo asked, almost aghast that the short brunette had convinced him that there was only one to worry about.

"One is over near the entrance of the break room and another one just before you get to the bathrooms." Kurapika said, pointing to where Chrollo assumed the mistletoes were hidden, since he figured they were probably also as well hidden as the one they were stuck under.

"Well that's nice to know." was all Chrollo said, a quick course of action forming in his head as he turned to Kurapika.

The blonde glanced at him, giving him a suspicious look when he saw that the taller man was smiling.

"Are you planning on trying to get other people under those hidden traps just to see what will happen?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest and turning towards Chrollo as if to stop him from carrying out the ridiculous plan.

"Maybe, but others' reactions isn't what I'm looking for right now."

"Then who-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, Chrollo having leaned down to kiss him on his lips. He pulled back to see Kurapika gaping him with a shocked expression that he found awfully cute. Not even a second later and he felt something hit him in the back of the head, causing him to close his eyes and his hands reach up to feel a bump already forming on his scalp.

"Ow, Kurapika what was that for?" he whined, standing up straighter as he thought about how he might need an ice pack for his head. Or not.

"I would've been fine with it if you hadn't interrupted me." the blonde said, turning around and huffing, walking over to the snack table.

Chrollo thought on it and nodded thoughtfully, understanding where the other was coming from.

"Okay, that's fair. I deserved that." he said, shrugging in defeat.

"Of course you did." Kurapika said, tossing the taller man another chocolate chip cookie. "And the next time you do that, I'm going to use that scarf of yours to choke you."

"And risk the chance of this pretty face getting damaged?" he asked playfully, joining the other at the snack table.

"I would punch that pretty face." Kurapika said with a laugh, taking a bite of another cookie. "But it wasn't bad, you just could've had better timing."

Chrollo stopped eating his own cookie to stop and stare at the blonde, wondering if he had heard right.

"Not bad?"

"Huh?" Kurapika paused to look over at the taller man, not having caught what he said.

"You said it wasn't bad." Chrollo repeated, watching the others face for a reaction.

"Yes, that is what I said." the blonde said, scrunching his face in confusion. "What of it?"

Chrollo stared at him for a few more seconds before feeling his face break into a smile, his whole body feeling warm.

"Nothing."

He returned to eating his cookie, glancing over the options left on the table, well aware that Kurapika was now staring at him. Chrollo got a small plate and piled a few things onto it before meeting the Kurta's gaze with a smile.

"What is it?"

Kurapika's face twisted in thought before he looked down at the table, his features darkening as his hair blocked some of the lights from his face.

"I'm sorry for how I was acting this morning. I wasn't in the most pleasant of moods when I arrived here."

Chrollo raised an eyebrow, not really expecting the sudden topic change.

"It's no big deal. If you don't mind, would you care sharing why?"

The blonde pursed his lips before sighing, grabbing a plate of his own as he absent mindedly put some food on it.

"Remember how I received a phone call yesterday in front of everyone and I had basically told everyone I was going to the party that way?"

Chrollo nodded, wondering why he was jumping back to the previous day.

"Well it was from an acquaintance of mine that I was friends with. I don't know if we're still friends, but I've been trying to avoid him for a few weeks now, but he keeps on calling me to try and get together and do stuff, but I just can't deal with him right now."

"So that's why you agreed to come here? Because it was another excuse to avoid him?"

Kurapika nodded, brushing some hair out of his face.

"Not that I didn't want to come originally, I just hadn't decided by then and him calling me got me to finally choose." he said, rolling around a cake pop in his hand.

"Why are you trying to avoid him, if you don't mind me asking." Chrollo asked, disliking how negatively Kurapika reacted to his supposed friend.

"Leorio… he… I've suspected that he's had a crush on me for a while, but I never bothered to confirm it, hoping it would just fade away and we could act as friends again, but…" Kurapika trailed off, his gaze falling to the floor now as a flash of pain went across his face.

"He confessed?" Chrollo guessed, hoping that he wasn't pushing too hard for answers at this point.

Kurapika's lips tightened into a thin line.

"Yeah. I panicked and said I would think about it but never got back around to him with my response, and after a week or two I had enough of pretending like he hadn't confessed, so I just started avoiding him altogether."

Silence stretched on between them after that, cheers from the break room and the chatter of the arc group seeming far away in that moment. Everything seemed to slow down, as if trying to help Chrollo compute the information he was hearing.

"Do you like him?" Chrollo heard himself ask, realizing too late that he probably shouldn't have asked it, and was about to say to ignore his question but Kurapika seemed to know his train of thought, placing a hand softly on his arm to stop him from speaking again.

"No, I don't like him, not like that at least. He was my friend and I still want him to be, but he wants more than that and I can't supply what he's looking for. And don't worry, I'm not offended by the question, it's natural to be curious about that sort of thing after all."

Chrollo saw the shorter man wipe at his face with his sleeve, and he felt his heart drop. He wanted to comfort him, but anything he could think of either seemed too formal or informal to do, so he just stood there and watched him cry, feeling guilty at having invoked these feelings in the blonde. At that moment, he was glad for the noise going on around them, because it helped in masking the sniffles and hiccups of Kurapika's crying with all the shouting and laughing from the other people there.

After a while, Kurapika had stopped crying, though his sniffle still remained as he wiped his eyes with a spare napkin.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, I just, I couldn't stop them…" Kurapika said, almost too quiet for Chrollo to hear.

"It's okay, I made you talk about it so it was my fault. I should be apologizing." Chrollo said softly, patting the blonde on the shoulder. "If it helps at all, you can come over to my place for Christmas. My family and I are a bit mismatched, but we all get along alright." he paused then panicked, quickly adding a mumbled "Well, that is if you need an excuse for that day; don't feel pressured to come if you don't want to."

Kurapika stared wide eyed at the snack table before turning to Chrollo, his face disbelieving of his invite.

"Are you sure that's okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine. None of us are actual blood family so bringing in someone else wouldn't disrupt anything at all. Though I can't guarantee you any presents." he said, trying to help lighten the mood a bit.

This got Kurapika to smile, a true genuine smile that made Chrollo's insides get almost uncomfortably fuzzy.

"Thank you Chrollo, the invitation is much appreciated."

Chrollo felt himself smile back despite not understanding why.

"You're welcome. Tell me if you accept so I can at least save some food for you."

Kurapika gave a small laugh, hiding his mouth behind his face.

"Of course. Always have to worry about the food right?"

Chrollo laughed and agreed when in the break room they heard a dramatic 'no!' come from within, Stevie coming out cradling a small object in their hand.

"What happened Stevie? Did one of your favorite characters die again?" Ariena asked, already patting the short woman on the shoulder despite the situation probably being nothing akin to that.

Stevie shook their head and held out two broken clay pieces in their hands.

"My dreidel broke." she stated dramatically, clenching her hands around the remains of it once everyone had gotten at least a quick glimpse at it.

"I told you not to use Play-Doh." Jordan countered, inspecting the pieces Stevie had handed over.

Stevie said something in return, but Chrollo tuned them out, noticing that Kurapika had moved away from him in favor of sitting on the wall outside his own office. Chrollo went over to join him, bringing his snack plate with him.

"Tired already?" he asked when he sat next to the blonde, only to receive an almost accusing look.

"Well I did just cry so yeah, quite a bit." Kurapika sighed, looking up at the streamers that hung around the room.

Chrollo felt bad about reminding the blonde of what had just happened but felt that even if he hadn't said anything that Kurapika would still be thinking about it.

After that, they sat there and ate their treats in silence, only getting up two more times for drinks and more food. Eventually the party wrapped up with Vi winning the tournament in the break room. After a small celebration for their victory, everyone started cleaning up; the process going even faster than the set up due the help of the other departments.

Chrollo had volunteered to take home some food and had managed to convince Kurapika to help him carry out some to his car. The blonde had agreed pretty easily though, probably grateful to get his mind off his own thoughts. On their way down, Chrollo smiled to himself, having felt that the party went significantly well for not having done much with any of the activities.

"What are you smiling about?" Kurapika asked, shifting the food box in his arms as the elevator opened up in the lobby.

"Hmm, trying to imagine you meeting Taj. I bet she'll have you under her control in less than five minutes." he said, nudging the blonde with his elbow.

Kurapika gave him an amused look as they walked out to the parking lot and to his car.

"Five minutes? I'll give her ten minutes. She can't be that cute."

Chrollo unintentionally let out a dark chuckle, causing Kurapika to make a surprised expression on his face.

"Cute is the wrong word. She's powerful and relentless." he said, unlocking his trunk and placing the food in the back. Kurapika followed suit, pausing when Chrollo got into his car.

"I'll try to call you as soon as possible if I do decide on going. I can't make any promises though." he said, looking at his phone to probably set a reminder for himself. "See you later!"

The blonde then sped walk towards his own car, disappearing out of sight quickly as he heard Julien shout across the parking lot calling to Jordan that he could give them a ride back home. Chrollo sat in his car listening to other people leaving for a while before he actually started his departure. He couldn't quite place why he felt better after the party, but he decided that the why wasn't important right now. He just wanted to hold onto the good feeling for as long as he could.