In Exile

Chapter Eighteen

Your work Christmas meal was one of the best that you had had in your time working there.

The group was smaller than previous years, which was no surprise with there not being enough budget to hire replacements when someone left, not even Christmas temps, and over the years you'd watched as ten co-workers dwindled to five.

While this meant more pressure on everyone over the Christmas period, it also meant that you got overtime hours, which would be appreciated in the January pay packet, and that the table could be smaller and more compact, leaving space for more conversation thanks to the table not being split into specific, spaced out groups.

It wasn't a surprise that Loki got along with everyone and they all seemed to take to him,

He may have been insufferable, but he had a charm to him that was difficult to resist.

The evening passed quickly with an air of mirth and laughter, Loki entertaining your second family with his own life stories, at least the ones he could get away with telling, and his attempts at eating with chopsticks.

When you got home that night, Loki had been insisting that it was all an act and that, if he had his magic especially, he would have been able to use the chopsticks perfectly fine.

You weren't entirely sure how that logic worked out, but you simply laughed and let it slide.

As you had work the next day and you'd arrived home at just past ten, you decided to make some hot chocolate and stick on a film for you both to watch until it was time for bed.

The following week, which was full to brim of rushing about both at home and at work, you left work and immediately walked the five minutes to the coffee shop in the town center where you were to meet Loki, from there you would walk to his office building and let his company party commence.

The walk was pleasant, you both made small talk about your days as you attempted to shield yourself from the harsh cold wind that battered against you.

Loki seemed unaffected and carried on as if it were nothing, something you may have been a tiny bit envious of.

You were instantly thankful at the waft of warmth when you entered his building and made your way up to the floor where the party was being held.

It was a surprisingly sterile place, made up of grey cubicles and pale blue walls, the kind of place that is usually used in films to mock the mundanity of office work life, where all the employees looked dead inside as they made their way to the designated work space to answer or make calls to clueless people who did nothing but yell abuse.

Yet the place had been decked out with Christmas decorations, including a large, over decorated tree in one corner, and long tables of food and drink lined the walls.

Many people were already there, having stayed after their shift rather than going home according to Loki, and they looked livelier than some of the people you had served during your own work hours.

Music was playing, as you'd stepped in it had switched from an upbeat pop song that would get stuck in your head to a traditional Christmas song and that would remain to be the pattern throughout the night, a nice mixture of Christmas and other genre variety.

The people were all smiles and cheer, most of them wearing corny Christmas jumpers that gave others a laugh.

Much like your co-workers were with Loki, they were all very welcoming and you immediately took to them, getting more comfortable with talking to these strangers and being greeted as more filed in and added to the group, which was already significantly larger than your own workplace's employee count.