The second November 31 turned into December 1, you were in full Christmas mode. You'd been doing everything from buying and wrapping presents to setting up the tree and baking cookies, all while listening nonstop to a Christmas playlist you put together back during the summer. Let's just say that Christmas was definitely your time of year, and you were completely there for it. You were currently sat on the floor in your living room, a Santa hat perched over your messy bun, wrapping some last minute gifts as Christmas music flowed through the apartment. You didn't realize how loud the music must have been, but you were jostled out of your pleasant bubble by an insistent knocking at your door.
"Hold up, I'll be there in a second!" You called out, grabbing the remote for your speaker and lowering the volume a bit. You scrambled up, trying to compose yourself fully before answering the door. When you opened it, you saw an unfamiliar man standing there, an obvious look of displeasure on his face. "Uh, hi?"
"Hello," he responded briskly, raising a brow as he took in your appearance. You reached up, slowly pulling your Santa hat off of the top of your head. For some reason, you suddenly felt ridiculous with it on.
"So, uhm, who are you and how can I help you?" You asked, fiddling with the Santa hat. It felt like you were back working customer assistance. Hi, can I have your name? What seems to be the issue? The man shook his head slightly, as if you reminded him why he was there in the first place.
"Right. I'm Loki," he introduced himself before continuing, "I live directly below you. Your Christmas music's loud and, quite honestly, I don't want to hear it." You were slightly taken aback by his bluntness, but nodded anyways.
"Right, sorry about that," you told him. "I just kinda get really into Christmas, you know how it is."
"I can honestly say that I don't," Loki replied, shaking his head.
"What?" You asked incredulously. "You don't like Christmas?"
"I can't say that I do," Loki told you with a shrug. "And I'd prefer if I couldn't hear your Christmas music... sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"That's because I never gave it to you," you sassed. Loki raised a brow at your response. "It's (y/n)."
"Well, (y/n), it was nice meeting you," Loki said. "But keep your music down." With that, Loki turned to leave, and you watched him go until he disappeared around the corner. You closed your door, immediately turning your music back up, but not as loud as it previously was. You went back to wrapping the presents, your mind racing with thoughts of Loki. Sure, you were glad that he'd talked to you as opposed to going directly to the building manager, but you still couldn't process how someone could apparently dislike Christmas so much. You'd met your fair share of people who didn't really care for the holiday, but Loki was on a whole other level. You began forming a plan and turned off the Christmas music, grabbing your coat as you left the apartment to start your plan.
--
It had taken a while to get everything in place, but you began to think that you were finally ready. You'd been seeing Loki a lot more in the halls and the elevator, so you chatted with him to get an idea of what kinds of things he liked. You looked at the small stack of presents you had separated from the other gifts and took your phone, looking for a loud Christmas song that would be sure to get his attention. You finally decided on Pentatonix's version of Up On the Housetop, playing the song loud enough that you knew he'd hear it below.
Sure enough, a few minutes later there was a pounding on your door. You paused the Christmas music and turned down your speaker, quickly going to open the door. When you did, you were met by an obviously annoyed Loki. You smiled brightly, ignoring his annoyance. "Great, so it did work!" You said, opening the door wider. "Come in!"
Loki was taken aback, his annoyance turning to confusion. "Excuse me?"
"Come in," you said, motioning him forward. "I promise there won't be any super loud Christmas music in here, just loud enough that you can barely hear it." Loki still looked confused but came into your apartment anyways. You motioned for him to take a seat on your couch as you switched the music to Leslie Odom Jr's Christmas album and lowered the volume significantly.
"I came to ask you to turn down the music, but I assume you had this planned," Loki commented, shifting on the couch as he took in your decorated apartment.
"Well, obviously," you laughed, taking a seat across from him. "I figured you wouldn't make a nice Christmas for yourself, so I decided to make one for you. I know Christmas isn't for a few more days, but still."
"No, really, that's not," Loki rambled, getting up to leave. You panicked slightly, not wanting your plan to immediately fail.
"If you just stay and don't like it, then I swear I'll never bother you with Christmas music again," you blurted out. Loki turned back to you.
"And if I don't?"
"Then I go even harder on Christmas than I've been going," you threatened.
"You wouldn't," Loki replied, eyes narrowing.
"Try me." At that, Loki gave a defeated sigh and gave up, sitting back on the couch. You gave a small cheer of victory, going over to Phase One of the plan. It wasn't like you could force Loki to have a Christmas dinner with you without it being awkward, so you'd just ordered a pizza and played a Christmas movie. Loki stayed quiet, watching as he ate his pizza, and you watched him from the corner of your eye, gauging his reaction. The initial awkwardness of the night had begun to calm down, so you allowed yourself to begin to enjoy the night.
--
After the movie finished, you went over to your tree and got the small pile of presents. "Now, I know I don't know you all that well, but I still wanted to get you a few things," you told him with a bright smile as you placed the small pile in front of him. "And don't feel like you need to get me something, I did this all on my own so..."
"I... don't know what to say," Loki trailed off, looking at the presents in front of him.
"Then don't say anything, just open them," you told him with a smile. Loki nodded and began opening his presents. You'd gotten him small things for the most part: earbuds since he once complained to you about losing his, a pack of his favorite pens since you found out they were his favorites after noting that his pen wrote well, small things that you noticed once you started talking to him. It wasn't until he got to the last present that you felt a bit nervous. "I know this one might be a bit much, but you mentioned something about liking Shakespeare so I thought it would be nice."
"You really shouldn't have," Loki commented, his eyes widening as he tore the wrapping paper from his present. It was a leather-bound collection of a few of Shakespeare's plays and had cost you a pretty penny. He looked back at you, the expression of shock making it clear that you had made the right decision. "Really, (y/n), you shouldn't have. How much did this cost?"
"Pfft, don't worry about it. I got a Christmas bonus so I might as well spend it," you joked, smiling even wider. "So I'm guessing you like it?"
"That would be a severe understatement," Loki said, shaking his head slightly. "Why would you do this for me?"
"Well, you mentioned liking Shakespeare so-"
"Not just the book. This entire night," Loki clarified. You shrugged.
"I told you, I really like Christmas. I understand people not being as into it as I am, but I thought you might've needed at least a little bit of Christmas spirit in your life," you told him with a softer smile. "So, was it as bad as you thought it'd be?"
"No," Loki told you. "It definitely wasn't."