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If Ashton hears ‘Frosty The Snowman’ sang in that annoying tinkly voice, one more fucking time he’s going to throw the stupid little dancing white fluff out of the window. In fact he’s 100% sure the piece of singing shit would already be lying in at least six thousand pieces on the road seven storeys below them, if the desk it sits on hadn’t belonged to the hottest guy in the office.If he’s entirely honest with himself, though, even Michael Clifford’s sparkling green eyes and magical smile aren’t quite enough to outweigh how desperately annoying the Christmas tat he’d covered his desk in is starting to become.Even the way that Michael is grinning like a child as he scrunches his eyes closed and sways to the tune his snowman is currently filling the office with, isn’t quite as cute as it was the first three hundred times he’d done it. Okay, that might be a lie... Ashton still finds himself watching the younger man fondly, despite having watched him do this exact same adorable little head wiggle more times than he can count.Truthfully, as much as Ashton would love to deny it, he’s well and truly gone for the dorky blonde. He had been since the moment Michael had welcomed him into this office on Ashton’s first morning, just over six months ago. Back in the summer, Ashton had been sure that Michael had no flaws at all. He was kind, sweet, funny, gentle and cuter than any other guy Ashton had ever laid eyes on. However, when Michael had started decorating his desk with tinsel and other festive crap, in mid November - Ashton had realised that no one, not even the pretty angel that sits at the desk by the window, with the dazzling smile, was perfect. It was only when Ashton had realised that Michael’s enthusiasm for Christmas was the thing he considered a huge negative personality trait, that the older man realised just how much of a Scrooge he really was. The only comfort he has is that he knows he’s not the only one. A few of the other people in the office (especially the ones that sit the closest to Michael) were getting just as annoyed by the singing snowman and the other decorations surrounding the blonde’s desk. It kind of made him angry to hear other people being mildly mean to Michael but he more than sympathises with their reasons.“Hey, Ash!” A cheerful voice chides, pulling Ashton from his thoughts. He can’t help but smile when he realises it’s Michael and that terrible singing abomination is finally quiet again. “Could you email me the notes you took from the meeting this morning?” Ashton nods and smiles, even though the gesture is slightly forced because Michael’s light up Christmas jumper is offensive to his eyes. He must squint a little or something because Michael promptly turns the lights off. “Oh, sorry!” He blushes. “I forget they’re on sometimes!”Now that the sweater is just a regular knitted garment with a horrendous Christmas tree emblazoned across the front of it, Ashton can concentrate a little easier on his colleague’s pretty green eyes, pink cheeks and gorgeous smile. “Don’t worry about it.” He says quietly, before turning his attention back to his computer and opening his emails. “I haven’t seen you in any festive jumpers yet.” Michael observes, looking over Ashton’s plain charcoal sweater and black skinny jeans, with something akin to distaste. “Don’t you like Christmas?” He asks, cocking his head to one side like a confused puppy.The question takes Ashton surprise and the last thing he wants to do upset the most festive person in the office with his anti Christmas tendencies. “I just...” He stammers as he attaches his notes to the email and clicks send. “I just don’t own any Christmassy clothes.” Michael makes a shocked gasp that Ashton’s certain is not entirely fake. “You should have said, I have like twenty! I can bring some in for you to borrow, if you like?” Michael’s enthusiasm is far too great in Ashton’s opinion but he finds himself nodding again. “That’d be lovely. Thank you” He lies, but Michael’s huge smile almost makes the older man consider actually wearing whatever knitted crap the blonde brings for him. “I’ve sent you the notes, I just have to...” He points towards the bathroom as he stands up, needing to get away from Michael before he agrees to anything else.
***
By lunch time the following day, Ashton must have heard that ridiculous, tinny version of that fucking stupid snowman song another ten times and he’s absolutely had enough. It’s just been adding to his bad mood and increasing his stress levels, which are already pretty high due to the amount of work he has to finish in just a few days, before the office closes for the Christmas break.Ashton had tried to forget about the rage-inducing tune throughout his lunch break but the second he returns to his desk his efforts are immediately undone. He glowers over at the offending object on Michael’s desk. The fluffy snowman is currently stationary and silent, but smiling obnoxiously over at Ashton like it knows how angry it makes him.One glance at the clock on in his computer screen tells Ashton he still has at least five minutes until the rest of his colleagues return from their lunch break. His darker side wins the brief argument it has with it's lighter counterpart. He raises from his seat and crosses the room, glancing at the door occasionally to ensure no one has chosen to come back to the office early. A tiny bubble of guilt builds in Ashton’s chest as he grabs the snowman from Michael’s desk. It’s enough to prevent him from smashing the darned thing, but he’s still intent on making sure it doesn’t annoy him for the rest of the afternoon. Throwing the stuffed snowman into the bottom drawer of his desk, Ashton feels an odd sense of satisfaction. Even though he feels a little bad for taking one of Michael’s favourite festive decorations, Ashton hopes that the lack of infernal singing will add to his productivity and lighten his mood. The drawer is barely closed when the first flurry of people return to the office. Ashton turns back to his computer and opens up a couple of documents, intent on acting innocent and inconspicuous for the rest of the afternoon.Of course he finds it hard to conceal his guilt when Michael returns to the office. The blonde looks much more upset than Ashton had ever intended when he discovers that Frosty is missing. By the time Michael has finally given up checking around and under his own desk as well as the ones nearby, he looks so glum that Ashton feels like the most evil dickhead of all time. Even the other people who have been complaining about the stupid singing snowman, start to sympathise with Michael when he slumps in his chair and miserably begins his afternoon’s work. Part of Ashton is aching to comfort Michael, but he already feels like a shit excuse for a human being. The last thing he wants to do is add manipulation and hypocrisy to his list of crimes against the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. To try and ease his guilt a little, Ashton decides that he’ll put the snowman back on Michael’s desk when everyone else has left the office and tell Michael that he found it down the back of a desk that Michael must not have thoroughly searched. In the meantime, Ashton insists on buying Michael a coffee to cheer him up. “I’ll even throw in a cupcake, they have some delicious looking ones in the cafeteria.” He smiles, hoping more than anything that he can make Michael smile again, even if it’s just a little.Michael manages a tiny twitch of his lips. “You don’t have to do that, Ash.” He sighs. “It’s not your fault Frosty is missing.”Ashton bites his lips together and makes a faint “mhm” sound, internally praying that his guilt isn’t showing on his face. “Well I just thought a cupcake would cheer you up a bit.” He tries cautiously, “I think they have some with those gold sprinkles on the top, i know you like those ones!”Even the promise of his favourite sweet treat doesn’t make Michael’s face light up the way it usually does and Ashton feels like he might just be the most dreadful person on the planet. “Well I’m gonna get you one anyway.” He promises. “I might even get you festive flavoured coffee too.”Michael manages a more sincere smile as he thanks Ashton before returning to his work.Despite the fact that at least half of the office had complained about Frosty as much as Ashton, the snowman’s absence seems to have had a knock on effect and everyone is much more subdued than they had been before lunch. Ashton spends the whole trip to the cafeteria and back planning Frosty’s return. Staying a little late this afternoon will definitely be worth it to restore Michael’s smile and lift the mood of the whole office again. However, as soon as Ashton steps back into the office he’s immediately aware of a tension that hadn’t been there a few minutes ago. A couple of people close to the office entrance shoot him nasty glares whilst a few others giggle behind their hands as he passes. His confusion over these things is short lived, as it soon becomes clear what the cause of the atmosphere is when Ashton catches sight of Michael miserably packing up all of the Christmas decorations from his desk into a cardboard box.“What’s going on?” Ashton asks as he places Michael’s coffee and cake on the corner of his desk.Michael scoffs, pointedly avoiding Ashton’s gaze. “Just take your cake and leave me alone.” He pouts, without making eye contact with the older man.“But I...” Ashton begins, still intent upon cheering Michael up before he notices Frosty laying amongst the tinsel and rolled up strings of fairy lights in the box next to the desk. The realisation of what must have happened whilst he was out of the office crashes down over him. Unsure of how he could possibly even begin explaining or begging for forgiveness, Ashton simply stares at the box in horror.“I was going to leave your secret Santa gift in your bottom drawer.” Michael explains sadly. “I thought I’d give it to you early because you were being so sweet to me...”Ashton’s heart breaks at the glum and utterly disappointed tone Michael uses. “Mike, I’m sorry.” he tries feebly. “I was just being grumpy and you shouldn’t take down all of your decorations.” “Well I wouldn’t want to annoy anyone.” Michael shrugs, still sounding more hurt thank angry.Ashton places a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, I...”Michael shrugs away from Ashton’s touch and cuts him off as he throws his last Christmas card into the cardboard box and picks it up. “I knew you were the office grinch, but I didn’t think you’d sink that low, Ashton.” He frowns as he stalks off towards the storage room.
***
The rest of the day turns out to be one of the worst Ashton can ever remember. Half of his colleagues give him evil glares and snappy remarks whilst the other half snigger at how miserable Michael is, which is actually makes him feel even worse than being branded the office villain.Michael ends up leaving work a little early, telling the office manager that he has a headache. He doesn’t say goodbye to anyone as he leaves, sloping out of the room quietly leaving the coffee and cake, that Ashton had brought for him, untouched on the corner of his desk.Even though Ashton doesn’t need to stay behind after hours anymore, he does anyway. Waiting for the office to empty entirely before he opens the bottom drawer of his desk. Sure enough there’s a little parcel sitting amongst the paperwork. It’s wrapped in shiny blue paper adorned with sparkly snowflakes and a pretty white bow. The tag is in the shape of a snowman (which is an extra stab to Ashton’s already sore heart). It reads ‘Merry Christmas, Ash! Love Santa x’ in an untidy scrawl that Ashton would have easily recognised as Michael’s even he didn’t already know who the gift was from.Unable to contain his curiosity, Ashton gently unwraps the parcel. A sad laugh escapes him as he uncovers a personalised stationery set. He’d complained to Michael a couple of months ago about how other people keep stealing stuff from his desk whenever he’s away from the office for more than a minute. Of course Michael remembered that conversation, because he's a lovely, caring and attentive person. There’s a tiny note taped to the packaging, written in the same untidy script at the tag on the wrapping paper, that reads ‘now you’ll always know who steals your shit xx’It might seem stupid to most people, to get tearful over a couple of pens, a stapler and hole punch with ‘Ashton’ printed on them in bold letters, but Ashton does anyway. Michael’s gift shows just how much he listens to and what a generally caring person he is. Ashton doesn’t think he could feel any shittier about the whole ‘hiding Frosty’ thing until he notices a tiny pin badge taped beneath the handwritten note. It has the words ‘office cutie’ written on it in gold glittery letters. Despite the cheesiness of the gift it would have made Ashton all fuzzy and happy to be called ‘cute’ if he wasn't feeling like the shittiest person alive. Instead, the revelation that Michael thinks he's cute just adds another layer of guilt on top the already mountainous amount Ashton's already carrying. It’s then that an idea pops into his mind, he may not be able to make the whole office forgive him, but there’s one thing that he's sure could put a smile back on Michael’s face. Ashton concludes that making Michael happy is the thing he wants to do most in the world right now, so he picks up his coat and scarf before heading for the door. He leaves the office with the distinct air of a man on a mission.
***
The following morning Ashton ensures that he’s the first person to arrive in the office. In fact, he’s well over a hour early which means he can put his plan into action without being judged or berated by anyone.He places his two huge supermarket bags down on the floor before grabbing the cardboard box of Christmas decorations that Michael had returned to the storage room the previous day.Ashton spends the next forty five minutes decorating the whole office with all of the new streamers, garlands, colourful fairy lights and tinsel that he’d brought after work the evening before. He pays special attention to Michael’s desk, ensuring that all of its previous festive decorations are returned to their rightful places. He'd also been unable to resist purchasing a couple of special little extras for the blonde's desk. He places the pretty little snow globe with a festive scene inside, next to Michael's computer monitor and a some snowflake and candy cane stickers around his notice board. After throwing out the rejected cake and cold coffee from yesterday, Ashton takes Frosty from the box and gives him the prime spot on the corner of Michael’s desk. A tiny smile curls the corner of Ashton’s lips as he pulls out the last thing from his shopping bag. It’s a stuffed reindeer toy with a beaming smile and a nose that lights up red when it sings ‘Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer’. He leaves a note next to it that reads ‘I’m sorry I was an idiot. I hope Frosty’s new friend Rudolph will help you to forgive me, love from the office grinch xxx’Despite still feeling terrible about what he did the previous day, Ashton feels like he’s at least made a start on redeeming himself. The first few people that arrive at the office seem pleasantly surprised by Ashton’s festive efforts and he even gets a the odd smile and nod from a few of his colleagues. He returns the gestures happily, ensuring that they all see the festive sweater he’s wearing to show that he’s serious about turning over a new leaf and leaving his Scrooge-like ways in the past. As the office slowly fills up, Ashton arranges the gifts Michael had given to him on his desk and pins the badge to his sweater before returning his eyes to the door, intent upon seeing the blonde’s face when he first walks in.When Michael finally arrives at the office, he almost drops his satchel as he walks into the room. His pretty green eyes widen as he takes in every inch of the festively decorated desks, walls and windows. He approaches his own desk as a slight smile begins to creep across his face.Ashton watches the younger man interestedly as Michael picks up the singing reindeer and reads the note next to it. As he finishes, he looks over at Ashton with an unreadable expression on his soft face.The older man half expects (and really hopes) that Michael will come over to chat a little, but instead he turns his back on Ashton to face his computer. Feeling slightly more glum and significantly less hopeful than he had been a moment ago, Ashton turns back to his own computer. He logs on and starts up the various programmes he uses every day. As his email window opens, Ashton’s attention is immediately drawn to one particular name on the list of his unopened messages. A glimmer of hope returns to him as he opens the email from Michael. It’s a short message but one that makes Ashton smile brightly. ‘Thank you for Rudolph, Frosty needed a friend. I guess the office Grinch has a little festive spirit after all x’To Ashton's delight the office is generally very cheerful for the remainder of the day. Michael’s festive antics make a triumphant return and Ashton can’t even bring himself to be annoyed by Frosty’s and Rudolph’s songs, even when Michael plays them at the same time like a mischievous child that loves making as much noise as possible. The main thing Ashton cares about is that Michael’s smiling again because that was the whole point.During in a particularly boring afternoon meeting, Ashton’s mood takes a slight dip when his boss tells him that the deadline of an important project has been moved to tomorrow morning. He inwardly sighs, resigning himself to the fact that he has to stay late after work to finish it. The blow is made slightly less painful by a sympathetic and possibly flirtatious smile from Michael, which Ashton obviously returns.On the way back to his desk, Ashton is stopped by a gentle hand gripping his shoulder. “I can stay and help you finish that project tonight, if you like.” Michael offers, as the sandy haired man turns to face him. “You don’t have to do that.” Ashton replies, touched by Michael’s generosity. “It won’t take me that long...”Michael shakes his head, cutting Ashton off with a bright “well it’ll take even less time if I help!” He insists. “Besides I can’t pass up on the opportunity to annoy you more with my singing snowman and reindeer!” He smirks cheekily before heading back to his desk.
***
Staying behind after work with Michael turns out to be the most enjoyable two hours and twenty three minutes of Ashton’s day. They concentrate hard to make sure that the project is finished to the manager’s high standards but the tedious work is broken up with a lot of flirtatious banter and by the time Ashton emails the final plan to the relevant people he’s in very high spirits. “Thanks for helping me with that.” He smiles gratefully as Michael begins gathering his things from Ashton’s desk. “No problem.” The blonde replies, “it’s the least I could do after you went to all this hard work earlier.” He gestures to the various decorations Ashton had laid out that morning.Blushing a little, Ashton shrugs awkwardly. “Well that was to apologise for being an idiot yesterday.” He explains. “I’m just glad it helped you to forgive me.”The cheeky grin that Michael had worn earlier when he offered to help Ashton, is back in full force. “Who says I forgive you?” He asks, quirking an eyebrow.“I know I still have to do a lot to make up for it...” Ashton begins, intent upon making Michael realise just how sorry he is, but the blonde cuts him off with a giggle.“I’m just kidding, Ash!” Michael grins. “I know I can be annoying sometimes, I don’t blame you for hiding Frosty.”Despite the sincerity of Michael’s statement, Ashton still feels guilty. “Well I'm sorry, anyway.” He shrugs. “I never want to make you that sad again.” He’s not really sure where his confidence comes from, but Ashton raises a hand and strokes Michael’s cheek gently. “Your enthusiasm for Christmas is just a part of you are and I never should have made you feel bad about it.”Michael blushes, his eyes drifting to Ashton’s lips before meeting his gaze again. “You didn’t.” He reassures. “I’m sorry I called you the office grinch.” A slight smile lighting up his face as he leans into Ashton's touch.The Older man laughs, stroking Michael’s cheek softly with the pad of his thumb. “I deserved it.”A moment of silence passes between them, during which neither of them breaks eye contact with the other. Ashton feels a flutter in his tummy as he works up the courage to close the distance between them. Just as he’s about to make the first move, Michael backs away. “Wait here!” He says before jogging over to his desk.If it wasn’t for the smile on Michael’s face and the spring in his step, Ashton would feel embarrassed that his almost attempt at kissing the blonde was shot down so quickly.Luckily, Ashton’s worries that he may have misread the situation are wiped away as Michael returns, waving a little bunch of mistletoe. “We can’t have our first kiss at Christmas if it isn’t under mistletoe!” He exclaims excitedly. “I’d lose my crown as the most festive guy in the office, for sure!" The blonde holds the mistletoe above their heads and smiles at Ashton expectantly. “It’s almost like you had this planned.” Ashton smirks, stroking a stray strand of blonde hair behind Michael’s ear. “The mistletoe?” Michael asks innocently. “Nah, not really.” He shrugs. “I just brought it at lunch time in the hope that the office cutie would give me a chance to use it.”Ashton chuckles, gently pulling Michael closer. “Well I’d hate to disappoint you twice in one week.” He whispers.Michael’s smile melts into an almost lustful expression as Ashton finally leans in to kiss him. It’s a soft and comfortable embrace, each of their lips moving seamlessly against the other’s until the kiss comes to a natural end. Ashton rests his forehead against Michael’s as he catches his breath. “If I knew how good of a kisser you were, I’d have tried this mistletoe trick weeks ago” the blonde smirks. “You’ve wanted to kiss me for weeks?” Ashton asks, slightly angry at himself for being so distracted by his distaste of Christmas when he could have been wooing and possibly even kissing Michael this whole time.The blonde nods. “Well probably more like months, the rest of the office teases me about you every time you’re not around.” He blushes at he apparently unplanned oversharing.“Then I guess I have a lot of making up to do.” Ashton grins before pulling Michael into another kiss. It’s less hesitant and more lustful than the last one and it leaves Ashton wanting even more. He restrains himself though, determined to be the gentleman he was brought up to be. “I can definitely kiss you a lot more between eating fries and drinking beer if you’ll let me take you out for dinner?”Michael draws his bottom lip between his teeth before replying with a question of his own. “Then how I could I refuse?”