summary: in which harry is infatuated with the woman he meets at his company's christmas party
14k words
warnings: none!
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Christmas is a unique time of year, he thinks.
The weather gets impossibly cold and the streets are covered in a thick slush of ice and snow. Traffic gets worse. Prices on everything go up. Everywhere you fucking go is crowded with families and children and it's just such a mess. Yet, these people love this particular time of the year. You get to see family you haven't seen in ages, you get reminded how precious that time is with your family. It's all about family. Which is fine. The plus side of it for him would be getting a couple days off work. But even then, he's got so much work to do, he rarely takes a break. Even for the holidays.
Maybe that's so because he's never had anyone to spend them with. He's sure that if there were people out there waiting for him, he wouldn't feel so inclined to work. He would let the office out earlier the day before Christmas Eve just because he's just as anxious to get home to his family as they are.
Sadly, that's not the case. So, no one gets off early the day before Christmas Eve. No one complains either. They're the ones that can leave the office and forget about it for the weekend. He can't. In fact, he forces himself to think about work so he doesn't have to think about how alone he is.
It's not that he doesn't have family at all. No, that's not the case. Everyone has someone somewhere. He just doesn't want to see them. His voicemail box is filled this time of year with his mother begging him to come home, to take a break, to see her every once in a while. But he doesn't want to. He misses her, sure. He does see her when she randomly shows up throughout the year as a surprise. And that's really all he needs. He likes space. He hasn't been home in twelve years because of how much he adores being separated from who he was at home. He's changed, he doesn't want to go back to the monotony that is his hometown. He likes it so much better in the city. The lights are bright and the city never sleeps. So, in a way, he's never alone.
Even when he's up late at night, unable to sleep, and driving himself mad over numbers to keep him from thinking about his internal issues. He doesn't know why he can't sleep. And he doesn't want to figure out why. He just wants to bury himself in his work and save all that for his inevitable mid-life crisis.
But that doesn't mean that he doesn't sympathize with people who are in the Christmas spirit. And that's exactly why he decided to do something a little different this year.
Tonight, two weeks before Christmas Break, he listened to his employees. They'd been asking, year after year, ever since he took over almost nine years ago, for a work holiday party. At first, the thought of it was stupid. Why would you want to be surrounded by coworkers after hours? Who would want to come back and spend more time in a place they claim to hate? He does it all the time, he just wondered why everyone else would. He's heard the rumors. Everyone thinks he's a stickler, intimidating, and just plain mean. He tries not to be. Half the people who made up these rumors have not even talked to him personally, or they caught him on a bad day. Either way, he doesn't think that's true. So what he likes things done a certain way? If that makes him a stickler then he'll proudly wear the title.
But, perhaps with this party, he can show the others that he's not who they think he is. Even him approving of the party was a big step. No one ever thought it would happen. He decided to show a little Christmas cheer this year and give them something they asked for. So, all on his dime, he paid for catering and for a team to come in and decorate the space he's given them for the party. All the decor was in place before the work day was over so he was able to check it before he left for the day. He really hopes that they enjoy this and see that he doesn't want to make their lives miserable. He really doesn't.
