Work Text:
Mike gets the online invitation for the company Christmas party just as the work day is ending. He opens it up, dreading where the company has decided to hold it this year. The year before at the karaoke bar was traumatizing enough. It wasn’t like he didn’t like his co-workers, he actually liked all of them. Well, almost all of them.
He had been with the company about four years. When he joined it was a fledgling advertising start up, extremely casual, but fun. It was a drastic change of pace from his previous job at a pharmaceutical giant. The founders, Dustin and Jonathan were probably some of his closest friends now. They were always encouraging to get out of his corner of the office, out of his little life bubble of work, his dog, and hockey. Four years later, and with the company actively sorting through new clients he was still content to stay in his office and work with his small group of IT guys.
He took a deep breath and started to read the invitation, it had a dancing hedgehog holding a bottle of champagne. He ran his hand through his hair, getting it stuck once. He needed a haircut.
“IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN! HOPE EVERYONE IS READY FOR SOME OFFICE SHENANNIGANS AT THIS YEARS CHRISTMAS PARTY! WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE EVERYONE AT HOTEL SHANGRILA NEXT FRIDAY @ 6PM.”
Hm, this was an odd invitation. Richie knew the hotel. It was nice, like really, really nice. The invitation did not correlate. Or it certainly did not call for a dancing hedgehog, no matter how cute it was. Then it hit him, Jeff Carter. The new PR guy, he had been hired less than a month ago. He was the one that was put in charge of the party this year. He would make the invitation like this. Jeff was high energy and always excited to be around people. He rolled his eyes. It was kinda lame in a not entirely lame way. Well at least it was a place where he wouldn’t be forced to rap or sing. The video of him rapping the year before would still randomly show up in his email.
He closed the invitation and shut down his computer. It was time to go home, take his best dog Arnold out for his walk, hit the gym, and finally have something to eat while watching the Kings game. As he was walking out he passed Jeff’s office, “hey! Richie! Richie!” Mike groaned, he felt uncomfortable that Jeff, who he hardly knew was calling him by a nickname only his closest friends called him. He walked back and leaned into Jeff’s office.
“What’s up Jeff?”
“Hey Richie, taking off? Did you get the invitation?”
“Yeah, I just got it. You picked a great place.”
“Right, it should be fun, I really was debating about picking another karaoke place after seeing your performance, but figured a change of place would be fun too.”
Mike felt his face grow very hot. Oh god, he had seen it. Of course he had seen it, everyone had seen it. He cursed Jonathan for being the one who had picked karaoke.
“Hey, I don’t care what anyone else says, your rendition of eminem's ‘Lose yourself’ was pretty awesome. Who would have thought Mike Richards had some thug in him!”
Jeff was grinning ear to ear. As much Mike thought Jeff was too good looking and a goofball he couldn’t help but smile back.
“Hah, you should hear my Celine Dion.”
Shit, he immediately regretted saying that because the pretty grin on Jeff’s face turned into a full blown laugh.
“Richie, there’s always the after party.”
Again, the heat crept up on his face. No, he was not into Jeff. He would not let this happen. Jeff was too handsome, dressed too nicely, had really pretty fucking teeth. He was probably a douche too. He was probably being sarcastic right now too. Mike couldn’t tell the difference between flirting and sarcasm. It had been too long since he had actually flirted with anyone.
“What? No way. Um, so what did you want to ask me right now?”
“Oh! Right! So, um as you know instead of doing a gift exchange we’re all donating a gift for Toys for Tots…”
“What? We are?”
“Yeah, Richie, did you not read the entire invitation? Oh, was the dancing hedgehog distracting?”
“Uh, no.”
“The hedgehog wasn’t distracting?”
“Yes. I mean no. I mean, fuck, I’m sorry I didn’t read all of the invitation. I was just thinking about Arnold when I read it.”
“Oh. Arnold?”
Was that disappointment of Jeff’s face? It looked like it.
Mike wanted to get out of the office already. This was getting extremely awkward.
“Arnold is my dog, he needs to be taken out for his walk.”
Jeff smiled, relieved? “Cool, I’m sorry I won’t keep you much longer. So for this Toys for Tots thing, I wanted to have someone from the office dress up as Santa and collect the gifts in a big red velvet bag. And, well…I was hoping you would do it.”
Mike felt the ground drop out. No, he would not do this. Oh god, Dustin and Jonathan probably told him to do this. No, he would not do this. He could see Jeff raise his eyebrows.
“Sure, ok.”
What the fuck. That was definitely not what he wanted to say. He was positive he was going to say ‘no.’ Then the eyebrows raised on Jeff’s handsome face and the opposite of ‘no’ came out.
“That’s fantastic man! Dustin said you would be happy to do it! You’re going to make a fantastic Santa Claus!”
Mike didn’t want to say anything else, he didn’t trust himself to commit to anything else Jeff proposed. So he just smiled, nodded, and said goodbye. As he walked away he heard Jeff yelling, “it’s going to be great Richie!”
Once he got home he immediately changed into some running shorts and an old Kings sweater and called for Arnold who came bouncing off of the couch and headed straight to the door. “You ready for a run buddy? Because dad is and he’s freaking about something he agreed to earlier.” Arnold just cocked his head to the side and whined. “Ok, ok, buddy. Let’s run this off.” He put a leash on Arnold and opened the door.
It was a cool refreshing night out. Maybe a little cooler seeing as he was right by the beach, but 60 degrees in December was nothing to complain about. Mike loved living in Venice. It was a definite change of pace from his hometown of Kenora, Canada. He had gotten a call from his parents earlier in the week and they had mentioned it was around 12 degrees. He missed home sometimes, but was happy being in CA. It was good for him.
As he ran with Arnold by his side he couldn’t stop picturing himself in a ridiculous red Santa costume. This might actually be worse than his attempt at rapping. He would probably get a little drunk beforehand to deal with his embarrassment. Although, if Jeff was actually being honest, maybe he would look good. He was in really good shape, legs burning as he hit his fourth mile. Sexy Santa he muttered.
-A week later-
It was finally here. The day of the party and Mike couldn’t concentrate on anything that crossed his desk. The entire office was buzzing on how the party would be, and of course how Mike was going to look in his Santa outfit. Speaking of, Jeff still hadn’t given it to him. He had asked on Wednesday about it and Jeff had simply given him that ridiculously sexy, toothy grin and told him it was going to be a surprise.
The day was moving slow, Mike was hungry and it was about to hit one. He leaned back in his chair, and looked around his office. He caught the eye of Martin Jones, one of the youngest, but brightest IT guys on his team.
“I’m starving man, you want to get something quick to eat right now before the party in a couple of hours?”
Martin looked at him, then the clock on the wall.
"Sure, I could eat. Where to?"
It had been a while since he had sushi so he suggested a new place that had just opened up down the street from the office. Jones quickly agreed and they headed out. As they passed Jeff’s office he called out to Mike. He and Jones backed up and went into Jeff’s office.
“Are you guys going out for lunch?”
“Yeah, just going to try the new sushi place. Getting something light, we don’t want to fill up before tonight.”
“Oh that sounds awesome. I love sushi. I still haven’t found a place I really like down here.”
Jones elbowed him hard in the ribs, “What the fuck man?”
Jones coughed, “Um, sorry about Richie’s manners, do you want to come with us?”
Jeff practically jumped out of his chair, “let’s go man!”
Lunch was good. They had probably filled up on more sushi than they had intended, but everything the chef gave them was amazing. Lunch ran longer than intended, but the food kept coming and Mike had found that Jeff wasn’t so bad. He found out that he was also a huge hockey fan, played in a beer league on the weekends, and to top it all off the bastard was also from Canada. Jones made some stupid joke about it being fate, or some lame reference to “The OC.”
About two hours into lunch he and Jeff also found out that if you gave Jones more than one bottle of Sapporo he would turn bright pink and start hugging anyone that stood too close.
By the time they got back to the office it was already three and Jonathan and Dustin had declared that everyone could take off for the day to start getting ready for the party. Jones had his arms slung around Mike’s waist, “Richie, you smell so good.”
“Yeah, Joner, I’m going to give a ride home and do you think you can get ready on your own?”
“Hell yeah man. We’re going to rage it later tonight. You, me, Dustin, Jonathan, the girls, Jamie, Tyler, oh and Carts over here.”
Jeff turned, “Carts?”
Jones smiled, “Yeah man, that’s your nickname now. It fits, Carter, Carts, right Richie?”
Mike could feel Jeff staring at him. He thought it was a fitting nickname, classic, just like Jeff. Jeff, raised those eyebrows again, “so you think so?”
He ran his hand through his hair, getting it stuck again. He really needed a haircut.
“Dammit, I should get my haircut before the party. Come on Jonesy.” He turned with Jones still slung around him, “I’ll see you later, Carts.”
He couldn’t bring himself to look back and see Jeff’s reaction.
-Three hours later-
Mike got to the hotel fairly early. He couldn’t wait at home anymore. He headed towards the end of bar and ordered a double whiskey. He got his drink and downed it. He was going to make the best of tonight, he was going to have fun. He ordered another whiskey and a beer. Just these for the next couple of hours. He didn’t want to fall over anyone in his costume, especially over Jeff.
It was like Jeff read his mind, “easy there Santa, you still need to collect gifts for the little ones. Can’t have you falling off your sleigh.”
Mike jumped out of his seat. How had Jeff spotted him so far back in the bar? Again, it was like he was reading his mind.
“Your hair, I could spot it the second I walked in. You said you needed to cut it earlier this afternoon and I remember thinking it didn’t need to be. I'm glad you didn't.” He patted his hair. Mike was confused, was this pat a friendly pat? Like when he patted Arnold on the head? Or was this a, ‘I want to run my hands through your hair, but I’m petting it because I don’t want to come on too strong’ pat?’ Was the whiskey already hitting him? Or was it just Jeff’s intoxicating personality?
Ok, it was definitely the whiskey. He flagged down the bartender to order a water. Jeff slid into the seat next to his. “What, not going to get me a drink?
“Yeah, of course. I’m sorry. Listen, I really do have good manners. I am Canadian after all." Oh jesus. Why did he say that?
“No worries man, look, I’m just glad you’re going to don the Santa costume later tonight. For a second there when I asked you last week I thought you were going to tell me off.”
“No, never. I mean. Anything for a good cause, and you know as long as I don’t have to sing…”
“Oh god, I think I’ve seen your video about thirty times since I joined the company…”
“You’ve seen it how many times? In the last month? Why?”
Jeff blushed, gorgeous man statue Jeff Carter actually blushed. A deep shade of red, which Mike thought was hard for someone like Jeff, considering the deep tan he had going on in the middle of December. Jesus, it was like he a godamn celebrity.
Unfortunately the bartender stopped by and interrupted what Mike was hoping to be an embarrassing, but adorable answer.
“I’ll take a water and, um…” Mike took a deep breath, “…and Carts here will have a vodka soda.”
The bartender smiled and walked away to get their drinks.
Mike didn’t want to look at Jeff, he could feel Jeff just staring at him, big 100 watt smile on his face.
“You used it. Again. Jonesy’s new nickname for me. Why, Richie. Does this mean we’re friends?”
“Holy shit! The boys are already here! Richie and Carts!”
Jones had showed up and saved Mike from trying to explain anything that had happened in the last half hour.
Mike was relieved to not be alone with Jeff anymore. With the arrival of Jones it was only another 15 minutes until everyone showed up. After that they made their way to the private dining room where everyone proceeded to indulge on shrimp cocktails, surf and turf, crème brule, and plenty of wine.
By the time Mike put his fork down he was certain he had to unbutton his pants because it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. From the looks around the room, so did everyone else. He leaned back trying to stay focused on the conversations going on around him. Then he heard it. “Santa Claus.” He wasn’t sure who had said it, but once it was out there everyone started clamoring for it.
“Jeff, where is it man?”
“Oh man Richie, we have our cameras ready.”
“I really think this might be better than last year.”
“I don’t know guys, Santa Richie could come down my chimney any time.”
He wasn’t sure who said that, but he was fairly certain it was Tyler.
“Come on, we want jolly ol’ Saint Richie.”
Jeff, who was sitting across from him looked at him and winked. “You ready Richie? I have the costume in my room.”
“Ooohhh you have to go to Jeff’s room!”
That was definitely Jones. Mike was going to kill him.
So he and Jeff made left the dining room and headed upstairs. While on the elevator ride up Mike could feel all the alcohol wrapping him like a warm fuzzy blanket. He looked at the floor, unsure of what was going on with Jeff who was leaning against the other side of the elevator.
“You know this is going to be great Richie, I’m really excited to see you as Santa.”
Mike looked up, slowly. Drinking in the entire length of Jeff’s body.
“Oh, yeah? Why is that?” Mike felt bold. He took a step toward Jeff.
Jeff just grinned. “You’ll see, there’s one more special activity in store for Santa Richie.”
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. As they walked down the hall Mike intentionally bumped into Jeff. “Tell me, Carts.”
“Not until all the gifts have been collected.”
Mike gave him a side eye stink look to which Jeff only rolled his eyes and smiled that perfect smile. “That smile is ridiculous Carts. It’s like you’re a fucking movie star.”
Jeff opened the door to the room, “Yeah, yeah, ok Santa, your red suit is in hanging in the bathroom which is the second door on your left.”
Mike opened the bathroom door, flipped on the lights, closed the door and sure enough there it was. Hanging on the back of the door. Big, bright red Santa costume. Complete with a massive white curly wig, beard, and boots. Oh god, he groaned. There was even padding for his jolly Santa belly.
“You want to know something Richie?” Jeff asked from the other side of the door.
“Sure.” Mike said as he put on the massive red pants, which were actually pretty roomy and comfortable after all the food and booze he had only minutes ago.
“As much as I like the compliments on my smile, I can’t take all the credit. Most of the front ones are fake.”
Mike yanked the door open.
“What the fuck??!?! Oh jesus, let me see! How??”
Jeff reached up and pulled out the fake teeth. He smiled. “It happened a few years ago during a game. You know how it gets a little crazy out on the ice sometimes.”
He was pretty sure his jaw hit the floor. Oh god help him. Jeff was still kinda adorable, all toothless and shit.
Mike almost kissed him, but didn’t. It was too soon.
“Jesus, well I guess I can’t call you a celebrity anymore.”
“Oh come, on. Don’t say that. I like it when you call me a celebrity, it makes me feel special.”
He walked back into the bathroom to get the coat and boots. “I don’t know, don’t want you to start getting full of yourself. Oh, and by the way. I’m not wearing the belly padding. I work too hard for this.” Proceeding to shimmy the red coat on.
Jeff laughed. It was nice. He really liked his laugh.
Mike finished getting ready and once Jeff gave him the one over of approval they headed back down. He was twisting the bag in his hands, not nervous about being Santa in front of the rest of the office, but about the special activity Jeff had mentioned earlier.
“Ready?”
Mike nodded, and headed back into the dining room.
Immediately there were flashes of cameras going off. Mike smiled, shook his head and as loudly as he could bellowed, “HO HO HO! I hope everyone was good this year!”
Everyone cheered and made a beeline for him with their gifts. He opened his bag as the staff started to deposit their charity gifts into his bag. Everyone was laughing, snapping selfies with him, and patting his toned Santa belly. Dustin and Jonathan took plenty of pictures of the three of them and promised to e-mail them to his parents and brothers. He was having such a good time that he didn’t realize that everyone had given him their gifts and had started to trickle out of the hotel and onto the after party which Jones said was at some bar down the street.
Eventually it was just Richie with the bag of gifts and Jeff. Sitting and talking about their lives in Canada, hockey, the complete story of Jeff’s missing teeth, and the company which had taken both of them in and made them feel like family.
Mike took a swing of his beer, “so what’s the final “special activity” for me being in this ridiculously fun Santa costume?”
Jeff stood up and walked towards him. “Oh good, you hadn’t forgotten.”
“How could I?”
Jeff took the bag from in front of Mike and put it aside. He stood in front of Mike, towering over him.
“Well, the special activity is more of my Christmas wish.” Jeff whispered and proceeded to sit across Mike’s lap.
Mike grinned, happy to play along. Very happy to have Jeff so close to him.
“So, Carts, what do you want for Christmas this year?”
Jeff looked straight into Mike’s eyes.
“You.”
Mike took a deep breath, “Santa is happy to give you that exact thing Carts.”
He cradled the back of Jeff’s head, leaned in and kissed him. Softly. Just like a Christmas wish kiss should be.