One Month: Assorted, keyword "gift exchange"
Name: Why Silverheart Will No Longer Be Attending the Annual Office Christmas Party
Community Event: Christmas 2010
Prompt: 05: Gift Exchange
Word Count: 1890
Summary: Much like any other office ever, F13 has a yearly Christmas party, complete with gift exchanges. Sometimes, things get a little bit out of hand.
Notes: Set after Maddi has been transferred to F16 for the South Asuncion mission and then moved back to F13. Also, unfamiliar names:
Scott Dennis - of F16. He and Maddi knew each other in high school, and have a history.
Benjamin Myers - part of the family Maddi was helping to protect in South Asuncion.
The office-wide gift exchange was always hit-or-miss. It was to be expected, considering the size of their department-that wasn’t to say that there were so many people that some got lost, but rather that with all of the different personalities represented by the agents of F13, you didn’t always wind up with something that you could actually use.
And of course, there were some years wherein everybody just got the most ridiculous thing they could find to bring to the gift exchange, and you just had to hope that you would wind up with something that could be re-gifted later without arousing suspicion.
“What did you get this year?”
Maddi snorted over the top of her wineglass, quirking an eyebrow at the man posing the question to her. “What are you doing here, Dennis? How’d you talk them into letting you come up here for this?”
Scott Dennis grinned at her. “I heard you guys needed an expert in gibberish and technology, so I asked Naeon to let me step in and fill the spot.”
Maddi paused, her eyes actually widening a fraction. “No, you didn’t.”
“I did!” He raised his wineglass to her with a laugh. “Celebrate with me, Maddi, come on! We’re gonna be working together again!”
“You didn’t…”
- - -
“Ben, what are you doing here?”
The man in question gave Noble his most winning grin. “Having a party, what else?”
Noble frowned. “No, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in, I don’t know, Maine?”
“You forget!” Ben chirped. “Now that I’m privy to all your darkest secrets-and by your secrets, I suppose I should say thanks to Silverheart-why wouldn’t I miss a chance to come and see the brightest light of my heart, the apple of my eye, the-”
“Yes, yes, we get it.” Noble scowled. “So Silverheart invited you here?”
“He might have let me know that there was going to be a party in the area, yes.”
She was going to kill him.
- - -
“Heeeeeey, look who showed up!”
By the time Silverheart reached the office, immaculate as ever, the party was in full swing. He looked around as he loosened his scarf and took off his hat; Cardi was entertaining a group with a loud recollection of one of his most recent jobs, large and uncontrolled hand gestures included. There were several other people just milling about socializing, and some of the girls were hovering around the small Christmas tree that had been put up near the windows, ostensibly guarding the presents for the gift exchange (but he could tell at a glance that they were trying to figure out what each package contained, as well). Simone was playing bartender around a desk that was covered in bottles-nothing surprising there-Ben and Noble were bantering, Noble looking more and more exasperated with every quip, and Maddi-
“Come on, come on, Silverheart, put your present under the tree and have a glass of wiiiiiine!”
-and Maddi he didn’t see before he’d been shanghai’d by Andrew, the other man slinging an arm around his shoulders and dragging him toward the tree. Silverheart cast a disparaging glance at Andrew, but as always, it didn’t do more than make Andrew’s grin widen as he continued towing him along. “You’re late,” he exclaimed, finally releasing his boss as they made it over to the windows. “We were thinking you weren’t gonna show! What happened, did you forget to get a gift?”
“Of course not,” Silverheart said, lifting the small bag he’d brought with him. Almost immediately it had been stolen out of his hands, Andrew peering into it and trying to nudge the tissue paper aside to see.
“Andrew! You can’t look yet!” One of the girls, a bubbly blonde woman named Melissa, pried it from his hands with a giggle, tucking it beneath the tree. “That takes all the fun out of it!”
“I wrapped it before putting it into the bag,” Silverheart told them all with the smallest of wry smiles. “None of you will be taking a peek at what I brought until it gets opened, unfortunately.”
He left them to a chorus of whines that that wasn’t fair, he was a party-pooper, who wrapped presents before putting them in gift bags? Smiling faintly, he nodded to Neil, who had called out to him (surprisingly; Neil had been one of the group that had one day decided he was a vampire. Once Maddi had gotten through with him, Silverheart had expected that the other man would be terrified to speak to him for at least three months), then made his way about the room, doing as he was expected to and socializing with the rest of the office.
Finally, as he was talking to Jones, the lab technician, he saw her. Maddi was standing with her back to him, talking to a man he’d only had the pleasure of meeting once so far. Dennis, if he recalled correctly, one of the men she’d worked with on the mission in South Asuncion. He knew little of the man, but Naeon had assured him that Dennis was a handy man to have around.
“No, Dennis. We’ll discuss the matter later,” Maddi was saying as he approached them. From the sound of her voice he could tell that whatever discussion the two of them had been having, it had been going on for far longer than she would have liked.
“Problems?” he wondered aloud, stopping just short of the two.
Maddi twisted, looking for an instant surprised to see him-but then it was gone and she was stepping away from Dennis, her expression neutral. “Silverheart! When did you get here?”
“A while ago,” he responded, giving her the slightest of questioning looks. His interest had been piqued by the heated words; what had the two of them been talking about?
“I see,” she said, the barest of helpless shrugs his answer. “I didn’t notice. Dennis here has been trying to monopolize my time all night long.”
“Hey, now, don’t say it like that!” her companion protested. “I only wanted to ask you a question!”
“He’s just as bad as Ryndes is,” Maddi groused. “The two of them should become fast friends.”
“You mean Andrew?” Dennis asked. “I’ve met him already. Nice guy. Very knowledgeable about the agency.”
Silverheart looked between Maddi and Dennis again and shook his head. He was always of the opinion that he was running a high school rather than a covert agency, and this seemed as though it was going to bring in yet another level of the dramatic that he didn’t want to deal with. Still, though, that was a thought for another time. Tonight was supposed to be about relaxing…
“Hey, everyone come over to the tree! It’s time to open up the Christmas gifts!”
- - -
They didn’t do anything fancy when it came to the gift exchange; sometimes the idea was brought up that they should allow for people to snipe others’ presents, but year after year they simply drew numbers out of a hat. “What number do you have?” Ben asked, creeping closer to Silverheart in an attempt to read his slip.
“Eleven.”
“Really?” Ben peered at the tree, trying to see where his number was beneath it. “Damn, I need to find eight. That’s the one I got for Belle.”
Silverheart quirked an eyebrow at him. “Belle?”
“Noble! I can’t call her by her last name all the time, and calling her by her first name is too normal. C’mon, help me find number eight.”
“You’re trying to orchestrate her just happening to get your present?”
Ben grinned. “Think about it.”
Silverheart actually smiled as he shook his head, sighing. “Good luck switching her number out for it.”
“Maddi’s playing wingman. She’s distracting Belle while I find it. Belle’ll be the last one to draw. I just have to find it and put it back into the hat.” It was a perfect plan! He just had to make sure it went off without arousing suspicion.
The other man actually laughed at that, and Ben felt his spirits soaring. He lived for this sort of stuff-sure, it was proving to be a pain to find the correct number, but the expression on Belle’s face when she realized she’d just-so-happened to draw his present would be all worth it. “Good luck, Ben.”
“Thanks!”
- - -
“Okay, okay, does everybody have their present?”
Maddi looked around. Somehow, Ben’s plot had worked and they’d managed to trick Noble into picking up number eight. She’d been stuck with whatever other number had been left in the hat (carefully marked for her with a felt-tip pen), but considering it was the office gift exchange, she couldn’t say that she was actually bothered by it.
There was no response to Andrew’s question, and there were no more presents left under the tree to distribute, so he grinned and raised a hand. “All right-go!”
The present-opening was nowhere near the fervor of a child on Christmas morning-they all chatted as they casually slit paper and opened bags, nudging aside tissue paper to pull that contained within out. A coffee mug, a glass jar of “the best cookie recipe ever,” books and all sorts of generic things, as well as-
“RYNDES, YOU ARE SO DEAD.”
-the usual gag gifts.
“What’d he get you, Maddi?”
Maddi was ignoring them all, glaring straight across the room to Andrew. “Isn’t this the sort of thing you should be buying for Simone?”
“I’ve already given her hers!” was the shouted response.
Maddi grabbed the nearest thing she could find-a staple remover, as it turned out to be-and threw it at him. It was a testament to how often this sort of thing happened that nobody blinked twice at the sudden show of violence; hell, Andrew probably deserved it. But Maddi was fuming. How had Andrew managed to work it so that she got his present? She shot a glare at Ben; he’d likely been in on it as well!
As Maddi was distracted, Noble took a glance into the box and started snickering. “It seems to me he’s only trying to help you, Baker. Something to get you and Silverheart into the Christmas spirit, hmm?” She reached into the box, drawing out a skimpy nightie of sheer red fabric, complete with white fluffy trim.
“Why don’t you open yours and we’ll see if you’re still laughing!” Maddi countered, snatching the nightie back and throwing it into the box. She jammed the lid back on and set it down on the nearby desk, folding her arms tightly.
Noble’s box was much smaller, navy blue with a puffed top. She eyed it warily for a moment, but after a moment she seemed to realize that everybody was watching and waiting for her reaction, and she opened the box.
There was a moment wherein she didn’t react at all, instead staring into the box. Maddi smirked; inside the box was a small pair of ruby earrings, along with a note tucked in just beneath-Merry Christmas, Belle.
Noble looked up and glared straight across the room at Ben. “What is the meaning of this, Benjamin?” she demanded, voice tight.
Ben threw his hands up in the air. “That’s it. Next year, I’m getting you coal!”
8> Only it became a running joke instead of him acting on it--at least for another fifteen years or so!
Community Event: Christmas 2010
Prompt: 05: Gift Exchange
Word Count: 1890
Summary: Much like any other office ever, F13 has a yearly Christmas party, complete with gift exchanges. Sometimes, things get a little bit out of hand.
Notes: Set after Maddi has been transferred to F16 for the South Asuncion mission and then moved back to F13. Also, unfamiliar names:
Scott Dennis - of F16. He and Maddi knew each other in high school, and have a history.
Benjamin Myers - part of the family Maddi was helping to protect in South Asuncion.
The office-wide gift exchange was always hit-or-miss. It was to be expected, considering the size of their department-that wasn’t to say that there were so many people that some got lost, but rather that with all of the different personalities represented by the agents of F13, you didn’t always wind up with something that you could actually use.
And of course, there were some years wherein everybody just got the most ridiculous thing they could find to bring to the gift exchange, and you just had to hope that you would wind up with something that could be re-gifted later without arousing suspicion.
“What did you get this year?”
Maddi snorted over the top of her wineglass, quirking an eyebrow at the man posing the question to her. “What are you doing here, Dennis? How’d you talk them into letting you come up here for this?”
Scott Dennis grinned at her. “I heard you guys needed an expert in gibberish and technology, so I asked Naeon to let me step in and fill the spot.”
Maddi paused, her eyes actually widening a fraction. “No, you didn’t.”
“I did!” He raised his wineglass to her with a laugh. “Celebrate with me, Maddi, come on! We’re gonna be working together again!”
“You didn’t…”
- - -
“Ben, what are you doing here?”
The man in question gave Noble his most winning grin. “Having a party, what else?”
Noble frowned. “No, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in, I don’t know, Maine?”
“You forget!” Ben chirped. “Now that I’m privy to all your darkest secrets-and by your secrets, I suppose I should say thanks to Silverheart-why wouldn’t I miss a chance to come and see the brightest light of my heart, the apple of my eye, the-”
“Yes, yes, we get it.” Noble scowled. “So Silverheart invited you here?”
“He might have let me know that there was going to be a party in the area, yes.”
She was going to kill him.
- - -
“Heeeeeey, look who showed up!”
By the time Silverheart reached the office, immaculate as ever, the party was in full swing. He looked around as he loosened his scarf and took off his hat; Cardi was entertaining a group with a loud recollection of one of his most recent jobs, large and uncontrolled hand gestures included. There were several other people just milling about socializing, and some of the girls were hovering around the small Christmas tree that had been put up near the windows, ostensibly guarding the presents for the gift exchange (but he could tell at a glance that they were trying to figure out what each package contained, as well). Simone was playing bartender around a desk that was covered in bottles-nothing surprising there-Ben and Noble were bantering, Noble looking more and more exasperated with every quip, and Maddi-
“Come on, come on, Silverheart, put your present under the tree and have a glass of wiiiiiine!”
-and Maddi he didn’t see before he’d been shanghai’d by Andrew, the other man slinging an arm around his shoulders and dragging him toward the tree. Silverheart cast a disparaging glance at Andrew, but as always, it didn’t do more than make Andrew’s grin widen as he continued towing him along. “You’re late,” he exclaimed, finally releasing his boss as they made it over to the windows. “We were thinking you weren’t gonna show! What happened, did you forget to get a gift?”
“Of course not,” Silverheart said, lifting the small bag he’d brought with him. Almost immediately it had been stolen out of his hands, Andrew peering into it and trying to nudge the tissue paper aside to see.
“Andrew! You can’t look yet!” One of the girls, a bubbly blonde woman named Melissa, pried it from his hands with a giggle, tucking it beneath the tree. “That takes all the fun out of it!”
“I wrapped it before putting it into the bag,” Silverheart told them all with the smallest of wry smiles. “None of you will be taking a peek at what I brought until it gets opened, unfortunately.”
He left them to a chorus of whines that that wasn’t fair, he was a party-pooper, who wrapped presents before putting them in gift bags? Smiling faintly, he nodded to Neil, who had called out to him (surprisingly; Neil had been one of the group that had one day decided he was a vampire. Once Maddi had gotten through with him, Silverheart had expected that the other man would be terrified to speak to him for at least three months), then made his way about the room, doing as he was expected to and socializing with the rest of the office.
Finally, as he was talking to Jones, the lab technician, he saw her. Maddi was standing with her back to him, talking to a man he’d only had the pleasure of meeting once so far. Dennis, if he recalled correctly, one of the men she’d worked with on the mission in South Asuncion. He knew little of the man, but Naeon had assured him that Dennis was a handy man to have around.
“No, Dennis. We’ll discuss the matter later,” Maddi was saying as he approached them. From the sound of her voice he could tell that whatever discussion the two of them had been having, it had been going on for far longer than she would have liked.
“Problems?” he wondered aloud, stopping just short of the two.
Maddi twisted, looking for an instant surprised to see him-but then it was gone and she was stepping away from Dennis, her expression neutral. “Silverheart! When did you get here?”
“A while ago,” he responded, giving her the slightest of questioning looks. His interest had been piqued by the heated words; what had the two of them been talking about?
“I see,” she said, the barest of helpless shrugs his answer. “I didn’t notice. Dennis here has been trying to monopolize my time all night long.”
“Hey, now, don’t say it like that!” her companion protested. “I only wanted to ask you a question!”
“He’s just as bad as Ryndes is,” Maddi groused. “The two of them should become fast friends.”
“You mean Andrew?” Dennis asked. “I’ve met him already. Nice guy. Very knowledgeable about the agency.”
Silverheart looked between Maddi and Dennis again and shook his head. He was always of the opinion that he was running a high school rather than a covert agency, and this seemed as though it was going to bring in yet another level of the dramatic that he didn’t want to deal with. Still, though, that was a thought for another time. Tonight was supposed to be about relaxing…
“Hey, everyone come over to the tree! It’s time to open up the Christmas gifts!”
- - -
They didn’t do anything fancy when it came to the gift exchange; sometimes the idea was brought up that they should allow for people to snipe others’ presents, but year after year they simply drew numbers out of a hat. “What number do you have?” Ben asked, creeping closer to Silverheart in an attempt to read his slip.
“Eleven.”
“Really?” Ben peered at the tree, trying to see where his number was beneath it. “Damn, I need to find eight. That’s the one I got for Belle.”
Silverheart quirked an eyebrow at him. “Belle?”
“Noble! I can’t call her by her last name all the time, and calling her by her first name is too normal. C’mon, help me find number eight.”
“You’re trying to orchestrate her just happening to get your present?”
Ben grinned. “Think about it.”
Silverheart actually smiled as he shook his head, sighing. “Good luck switching her number out for it.”
“Maddi’s playing wingman. She’s distracting Belle while I find it. Belle’ll be the last one to draw. I just have to find it and put it back into the hat.” It was a perfect plan! He just had to make sure it went off without arousing suspicion.
The other man actually laughed at that, and Ben felt his spirits soaring. He lived for this sort of stuff-sure, it was proving to be a pain to find the correct number, but the expression on Belle’s face when she realized she’d just-so-happened to draw his present would be all worth it. “Good luck, Ben.”
“Thanks!”
- - -
“Okay, okay, does everybody have their present?”
Maddi looked around. Somehow, Ben’s plot had worked and they’d managed to trick Noble into picking up number eight. She’d been stuck with whatever other number had been left in the hat (carefully marked for her with a felt-tip pen), but considering it was the office gift exchange, she couldn’t say that she was actually bothered by it.
There was no response to Andrew’s question, and there were no more presents left under the tree to distribute, so he grinned and raised a hand. “All right-go!”
The present-opening was nowhere near the fervor of a child on Christmas morning-they all chatted as they casually slit paper and opened bags, nudging aside tissue paper to pull that contained within out. A coffee mug, a glass jar of “the best cookie recipe ever,” books and all sorts of generic things, as well as-
“RYNDES, YOU ARE SO DEAD.”
-the usual gag gifts.
“What’d he get you, Maddi?”
Maddi was ignoring them all, glaring straight across the room to Andrew. “Isn’t this the sort of thing you should be buying for Simone?”
“I’ve already given her hers!” was the shouted response.
Maddi grabbed the nearest thing she could find-a staple remover, as it turned out to be-and threw it at him. It was a testament to how often this sort of thing happened that nobody blinked twice at the sudden show of violence; hell, Andrew probably deserved it. But Maddi was fuming. How had Andrew managed to work it so that she got his present? She shot a glare at Ben; he’d likely been in on it as well!
As Maddi was distracted, Noble took a glance into the box and started snickering. “It seems to me he’s only trying to help you, Baker. Something to get you and Silverheart into the Christmas spirit, hmm?” She reached into the box, drawing out a skimpy nightie of sheer red fabric, complete with white fluffy trim.
“Why don’t you open yours and we’ll see if you’re still laughing!” Maddi countered, snatching the nightie back and throwing it into the box. She jammed the lid back on and set it down on the nearby desk, folding her arms tightly.
Noble’s box was much smaller, navy blue with a puffed top. She eyed it warily for a moment, but after a moment she seemed to realize that everybody was watching and waiting for her reaction, and she opened the box.
There was a moment wherein she didn’t react at all, instead staring into the box. Maddi smirked; inside the box was a small pair of ruby earrings, along with a note tucked in just beneath-Merry Christmas, Belle.
Noble looked up and glared straight across the room at Ben. “What is the meaning of this, Benjamin?” she demanded, voice tight.
Ben threw his hands up in the air. “That’s it. Next year, I’m getting you coal!”
8> Only it became a running joke instead of him acting on it--at least for another fifteen years or so!