Clara was more than useless: she was a liability. By the time she’d gotten back to her apartment to take a shower, it was already five a.m. She needed to be at work by six for an early morning meeting. So Clara had gotten approximately half an hour of sleep, and even Susan, the rather dim temp who was covering Jane’s job for the holidays, would be more helpful today than she was. Eventually, the girl just stationed herself outside Clara’s office and deflected anyone trying to get in contact with the head of the department. At least most of the guests were apparently sleeping in Christmas morning. She knew it would be a different story, come afternoon and evening, so Clara took the moment to try to get a quick nap in before lunch time. She was in a rather nice doze, her head on top of her desk, when the door burst open.
“Darling, I’m home!” Someone screamed and Clara founding herself practically whirling backwards in her seat.
“What the hell!”
Kai, who was currently only wearing his company swim trunks, bounded into the room. “It’s lunch time!” Then he leaped over Clara’s desk and sat on a report that she had been pretending to read. Kai propped his feet on her chair and looked extremely pleased with himself. She then noticed he was also soaking wet.
“What the hell, Kai! Why are you wet?!”
He leaned forward and shook his head purposefully, spraying her with pool water. “It was absolutely dead at the pool this morning. Decided to take a quick dip to cool off.”
Clara rubbed her eyes. She was far too tired to deal with this. “Do you need me to yell at you for breaking protocol again?”
“For what? Swimming while I’m on duty as a lifeguard? Or the running through the lobby soaking wet and half-naked, trying to scandalize everyone in sight?”
Clara smirked. “Was Martha there?”
Kai smiled. “Of course.”
“And did she have anything to say?”
He pretended to think about it. “You know, she did! Wanna hear it?”
“Alright.”
He smiled impishly and launched himself forward, burying Clara in a very wet hug. “Merry Christmas!”
Clara couldn’t help, but snort and tried to disentangle herself from him. “Get off, you wet dog.”
Kai only leaned back slightly. “So I was thinking…?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Why?” she asked dryly.
“Don’t interrupt, dear. Anyway, I was thinking that, it being Christmas Day and all, that you really still owe me a present. I did give you a pretty awesome one last night.”
Clara raised her eyebrows and leaned over to confirm that Susan was, indeed, still at her post. She was currently listening and probably would spread some awful rumors by lunch. “Oh, and by the way, thanks for that. The entire concierge desk has banned me from the front lobby today. Possibly tomorrow, unless I can convince them otherwise.”
“Well, you could just say that you were too busy fucking the hottest lifeguard at the resort to sleep.” He suddenly turned and shot a rather impish smile to Susan, who seemed to realize that she had been caught. Her footsteps quickly scampered away.
Clara groaned. “Thanks for proving, despite what happened last night, that you are still the same Kai.”
Kai suddenly leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. And, despite how familiar they had gotten last night, Clara found herself blushing. It had all seemed like some dream she cooked up in her half-awake state. But with Kai here, ruining her blouse with pool water, it made her feel good to know it wasn’t her imagination.
“Even if you know how sensitive and deep I am, can’t have the rest of the resort getting in on it, eh?” he whispered.
Clara looked away for a moment, before smiling shyly back. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
“So…I’ve got an hour for lunch. I know you definitely have an hour to spare. You want to give me more of my present?”
Clara tried to glare at him, she really did. But she just wasn’t feeling it anymore. Maybe it was because she was finding his immature attitude and obnoxious flirting to be somewhat endearing. Or maybe it was because he did give her a pretty awesome Christmas present in the form of real snow in Hawaii, and the best view of the night sky on possibly the entire planet.
But probably, the real reason was because she didn’t feel the depressing need to go home anymore. She had so many wonderful holiday memories with her family, but she didn’t need them to feel that warm, pleasant feeling of Christmas. She didn’t even need snow to think of Christmas.
She just needed someone, a certain obnoxious someone, to remind her that even when you were in a strange land with strange weather and strange people, Christmas is anywhere you want to make it.
And while Clara really wasn’t feeling the Christmas spirit in her office, currently getting soaked by a hyper coworker, she had felt it last night. She had felt it looking into that starry sky that covered this small planet like a warm blanket on cold nights. That was the real present.
Clara smiled warmly at Kai and arched an eyebrow. “Why not? I think maybe I owe you one.”