"What the –" Nigel gaped as he walked in after the morning exam and saw the state of the office. It was only years of dealing with surprises that prevented him from dropping the pile of term papers that he was carrying. Sprigs of mistletoe hung not only from doorways but also sporadically from the ceiling with no discernable pattern that he could make out. The only exception seemed to be Karen's desk. Where the hell had it all come from? Had Karen lost her mind? Had Sydney lost her mind? Sydney wasn't one to usually decorate the office, preferring to turn her efforts towards her students or her hunts, and so far all Karen had done was place a small tree on her desk. The last time the office had been this decorated was when –

"Surprise!"

Nigel jumped as Claudia came out of Sydney's office, a huge grin on her face. That explained a lot. "Claudia, what have you done?"

"And hello to you too," Claudia snarked. "Isn't it perfect?" She looked around happily.

"But how did you get in? And why?"

"Ugh, Nigel, does everything need an explanation?" Claudia crossed her arms. When Nigel did no more than raise his eyebrows she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Agnes. She still owes me from a sitch I helped her out with when I still worked here. Happy?"

"Happy? Sydney's going to kill us. Wait, not us, you. And you still haven't mentioned why you've decided to decorate the office with poisonous symbols of fertility or human sacrifice depending on whether we're looking at this from a Pagan or Celtic origin."

Claudia huffed. "Daddy made me come home for the holidays but then got called in for some meetings today and mommy had a ladies brunch which is code for drinking mimosas with some friends of hers while they order food they don't eat. That's going to end up being an all day thing and like I want to hang out with all her friends? So I decided to come and see you and Syd. Then I ran into Carol who said that the two of you were acting kind of weird with each other so I asked her if you two were dating yet and she said you weren't. I went to Kinsman's and got some mistletoe to help you out! Didn't I tell you that you were perfect for each other? And you haven't even made a move yet? It's been like four years."

"A move on what?" A new voice came from the doorway before Nigel could reply. Karen stared around the room, her mouth agape and eyes wide. She didn't seem to notice when her purse fell from her shoulder to the crook of her arm. "What happened in here?" she asked, walking in slowly.

"Hi! I'm Claudia, you must be Karen."

"Oh! I've heard so much about you."

Nigel dumped the stack of papers on his desk and eyed the two women warily as they shook hands. Either they wouldn't get a long at all, or they'd find some weird common ground and gang up on him for something and he wasn't sure if he would rather listen to fighting or scheming while Claudia was in town. Women gossiping always made him feel awkward and self conscious and he always worried about being the subject.

"If you heard about me from Dennis, he's totally lying. I broke up with him because he had the worst haircut. Honestly, when you're going on a date you need to look hot not blah. And Rachel just had something against me so you can't trust anything she says. And Nigel is a liar."

Karen still looked slightly shellshocked although Nigel wasn't sure if that was from the mistletoe or Claudia's energetic introduction.

"Claudia, you have to take this down. Oh, or I'll take it down myself." Nigel got up from behind the desk where he had just sat down.

"Don't you dare," Claudia brandished the tape she was still holding at him.

"We're not leaving it up. It's unnecessary and juvenile."

"Oh lighten up Nigel, you're always such a buzzkill. And it wouldn't need to be up if you'd just ask her out or kiss her or something."

"Who are we talking about?" Karen interrupted them.

"No one." Nigel glared at Claudia, willing her to shut up.

"Sydney." Claudia intently ignored Nigel's silent pleas. "Nigel's had a thing for her for years, and I've told him that they're soulmates. It's in the cards. Literally. I did another tarot reading and it never changes. They always come up as soulmates. But this idiot won't do anything and, like, Sydney won't listen at all unless it's about a relic. So I've decided to give them a little push." Claudia smiled triumphantly.

"I see," Karen said. She leaned against her desk. "What can I do to help?"

Nigel suddenly missed the days before Karen had found Matt. Karen who was interested in Nigel would have been a better ally than Karen who was dating Matt from the bar.

"Great! We need to make sure Sydney and Nigel follow all the rules. Mainly, if they're under the mistletoe they have to kiss to get out of it."

"And how do we do that? I'm not about to tell my boss to kiss someone."

"What about telling me?" Nigel asked indignantly. "And I can't exactly just kiss my boss!"

"Oh honeybun," Claudia looked at him sternly, "you're not getting out of this. Remember when you sent that email to Professor Fozer?"

"You wouldn't. We were never going to talk about that again." Nigel crossed his arms and glared at Claudia as she smirked.

"You're going to participate. That's how we get them to kiss," Claudia directed the last part to Karen, answering her earlier question.

"What was in the email?"

"Nothing! Nothing. Nothing at all." Nigel scratched the back of his head and ignored the look Karen gave him. The email had been a rather embarrassing drunken confession of love for Sydney but to Professor Fozer by accident and while it hadn't contained names it had definitely been descriptive and not something he wanted shared. Claudia had known a guy in IT who had deleted the email but had kept it in her back pocket for the 'right time'. When she had left he had thought that was the end of it. Apparently not.

"I'm going to get a coffee." Maybe he would run into Sydney in the hallway and warn her about the office?

"I'll come with you," Claudia offered uncharacteristically. "Someone needs to make sure you come back and not run into Syd and tell her, and I need to tell you about Jacques." She looped an arm around his and all but dragged him out, chatting animatedly about Jacques' best qualities.

"Get me a mocha!" Karen called from the office as they headed out.

The day passed in pure chaos. Nigel spent it making up every excuse he could to get out of the office: bathroom breaks, meetings, private phone calls, snacks, needing a new pen, finding relics to catalogue from storage. Interestingly enough, he didn't see Sydney at all in the office. The two of them spent the day just missing each other, to the utter frustration of both Claudia and Karen who expressed it every time Nigel was back in the office. To his dismay, Claudia and Karen were getting along well despite their very different personalities. Maybe it was their shared goal of meddling with his love life.

"I can't believe this is happening," Claudia complained. She was filing her nails at Nigel's desk. "You're supposed to kiss her and she's going to realize her feelings for you and it's going to be romantic and you're both going to be so grateful to me."

Nigel rolled his eyes. "We're not people in a film."

"Romance happens in real life too Nigel," Karen piped up from her desk. "And you and Syd would be so cute together. You basically act like a couple anyway."

"Oh my god, right?" Claudia agreed vehemently. She turned her attention back to Nigel. "You balance each other perfectly, and you're nerdy enough for each other, and she actually cares about whatever weird exhibit you want to go see. And anyone can see that you're madly in love with her. And she is with you too, it's just more subtle."

"They're not weird," Nigel muttered. His ears were burning even as he did his best to ignore the last part. He walked over to his desk to grab a stapler to fix the pages coming apart of the paper he was grading next and glared at Claudia as she flinched away from the desk and the mistletoe hanging above it. "How is it fair that you have my desk and I'm stuck using a book as a flat surface?"

"That's what you get for leaving the office so often. I'll give your desk back to you when you and Syd get together." Claudia stuck her tongue out at him and continued filing her nails.

Nigel opened his mouth to argue and then thought better of it, going back to marking the papers. If he could get them done then he could enjoy the days off in peace without having to focus on work; the exams themselves wouldn't take nearly as long to get through once he had to start marking those. And the constant need to escape the office in order to avoid his boss was interfering with his ability to get them done. At this rate he'd be working well into the night.

At 6pm Sydney blew into the office, a harried look about her. "I'm so late. Nigel, how many of those do you have left?" she asked as she went into her inner office. She pulled on her coat and started collecting items on her desk.

"Only another 5. I'll get them done tonight. I'm just going to stay here a little longer, maybe another hour."

"Do you need help?" Sydney came out of the office, pulling her hair out from her coat, purse in hand.

"No, I should be good," Nigel said, ignoring the looks he was getting from Claudia and Karen.

"Okay, great. Goodnight. 'Night Karen. Good to see you Claudia, sorry I couldn't stop to chat."

"Sure."

Sydney left the office and Claudia positively glared at Nigel. "That was the perfect opportunity."

"Oh no, you know how dangerous it is to get in her way when she's late. It's almost as bad as interrupting her lecture." He started reading his paper again and then paused. "And because you know that, the email can't be used."

"Ugh what a waste. Well I'm not staying here to watch you work. Karen, are you done?"

"Yeah, just shutting down for the weekend."

"Perfect. You can come help me pick out a dress for this party daddy's throwing tomorrow and then we'll get drinks. And food. No one should try on clothes on a full stomach."

"Um sure. I have to check on my brother first, make sure he has everything he needs."

"Is he cute?"

The two women got ready to leave, completing ignoring Nigel as they had been doing for much of the day unless goading him about Sydney or picking on him for something.

"Goodnight Nigel."

"Next time honeybun, or I'll share that email."

Nigel mumbled a goodbye to them and switched back into his chair behind his desk, thankful that he got to use a sturdy flat surface finally. He stretched and got back to work, really hoping to get out of there in the hour he had estimated.

"Hey."

Nigel looked towards the door at Sydney's voice. "Hi," he replied, his voice as soft as hers had been. He watched her as she came around to stand in front of his desk. Under her open coat she was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing when she left. He wondered what she'd done for the forty minutes she'd been gone for.

"Almost done?"

"One more."

Sydney made a noise of acknowledgement before shrugging off her coat and going into her office. Nigel resisted the urge to watch her as she flicked her light on and settled behind her desk, picking through the papers she had left there.

Ten minutes later Nigel threw down the pen he was using and rubbed his eyes, placing his glasses on his desk. He then stretched, twisting his head to get the kink out of his neck. Freedom was good. He didn't have to worry about the exams this weekend at least. Getting to his feet, he walked silently to the doorway to Sydney's office and watched her, admiring the fact that she had found something to completely absorb her in the few minutes she had been there for.

Her long hair was pushed back over her shoulders and out of the way as she focused on the paper she was reading, her brows furrowed. Absently she tapped a pen against her lips before placing it to the paper and signing it, then picked up the next and sat back in her chair to read it. When she noticed Nigel standing in the doorway watching her, she smiled at him.

"Done?"

Nigel nodded.

Sydney put the paper, her pen, and glasses down on her desk and got up to stand in front of him. Nigel opened his arms for her to step into and she did, sliding her own arms across his shoulders until she was playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck, her body pressed lightly against his. Her touch was soft and sent shivers down his spine. No matter how often they were in this position, or any other, every time he could touch her or she could touch him it brought a feeling of warmth and happiness with butterflies to his stomach and nerves that he was going to mess this up or she would realize that he wasn't the right type of guy for her after all.

"So. Mistletoe," she said, looking up where a sprig of mistletoe hung right above their heads. She grinned. "They tried so hard," she said, fondness in her voice.

Nigel smiled with her. "If only they knew. Should we have told them? They wouldn't mention it to HR. Well, Claudia isn't here to mention it to HR even by accident."

"I don't want to complicate things yet. It hasn't been that long and I just want to enjoy this right now without looking over our shoulders at work. Besides, we're telling my dad at Christmas. One reveal at a time." Sydney laughed softly when Nigel grimaced. "You'll be fine. Dad loves you."

"He did when we weren't dating." He ignored the look Sydney gave him. While grateful for the reassurance he wasn't sure the platitudes were going to help him. "Where did you run off to in such a hurry anyway?" Nigel asked, changing the subject. As far as he knew Sydney's only plans for after work were with him.

"Oh," Sydney chuckled. "I figured if I was running late nobody would stop me, and it would get the two of them to leave and give you a break. I know you wanted to get those papers done." At Nigel's look she continued. "And the sooner you were done the sooner we could take advantage of this mistletoe Claudia was kind enough to place around here."

At her coy tone, Nigel gave up fighting the urge to kiss her and did so, bringing a hand up to cup her face. He had been thinking about this all day, and it had certainly played a part in distracting him from his work, in addition to keeping up a pretence of embarrassment and awkwardness about the whole situation in front of Claudia and Karen. Her lips were soft and pliant under his, and her body pressed impossibly closer to his own. She kissed like she did everything else – confidently, deliberately, and passionately, so when she nipped at his bottom lip, he was less surprised than enticed and he opened his mouth to hers eagerly.

He didn't know how long they stood there kissing but when they broke apart, they were each breathing heavily. Unable to stop himself, he brought his lips back to hers again before he had quite caught his breath, just needing to feel her lips on his again.

Sydney pulled away again to giggle when Nigel's stomach grumbled.

"I haven't eaten since noon and I've been very busy," he said defensively.

"Busy avoiding your girlfriend," she teased him.

"You can't tell me you weren't avoiding me too. You don't usually meet with people outside your office voluntarily."

"Maybe it would've been too hard to pretend I didn't want to kiss you."

Nigel felt the warmth rise in his cheeks at the comment. She was very good at making him blush. Nigel's stomach rumbled, interrupting the moment again.

"Okay, let's go get you some food. But first…" Sydney reached up and grabbed the mistletoe they were standing under. "For later," she told him, smirking.

He was looking forward to it.