There's been a new presence in the Initiative offices ever since the fifteenth, and Alex is already sick of her two days in.

Molly Alma Weasley the Second, "but you can call me Mai!" is a sixteen-year-old nightmare sent from the depths of Alex's worst hell and no he's not exaggerating at all, shut up Kylee. Not that Kylee has any room to really have a viable opinion on the matter - she isn't the one being relentlessly hounded by Mrs. Weasley's insatiably curious and nosy oldest daughter.

Why she's even at the office when Alex knows the Weasleys have a whole babysitting system set up is beyond him, and he brings this up rather pointedly on day two when Mai cheerfully drags an extra chair up next to his desk.

"I don't have to be babysat." She says idly, infuriatingly permanent grin still etched over her features. "I'm going to be seventeen next February, so I'm close enough to adult. Anyway, I wanted to see what Mum and Dad do at work, and they said it was fine."

"Your dad doesn't work here." Alex says between gritted teeth. She hasn't even actually started interrupting his work yet but she's already pretty firmly under his skin.

"No, he's head of the Department of Transportation." Mai agrees. "But he's super busy this week, so I'm going to shadow him on Thursday when he's got less important meetings to do." She wrinkles her nose. "That was a grammatical disaster and I apologize that you had to hear it." She adds.

Alex just groans. Mai is the kind of person who can and will keep talking unless you tell her to stop, and even then she'll usually start up again if she finds a new topic to start in on. "Well if you're supposed to be shadowing your mom, go shadow her." He grumbles.

Mai huffs. "Paperwork is boring though, I like what you're doing! You get to meet people from all over the place and try helping them-"

Alex tunes her out, resolutely pulling out the binder he now keeps in his desk and skimming through it to determine what he wants to focus on today.

Unfortunately Mai is still going, and she leans in closer as if she can tell he'd stopped listening. "Ooh, that's your work binder! What are you doing today? We should go check on your owl, see if you got a response from-"

"Personal space." He snaps, and she immediately sits back in her chair and starts swinging her legs, not looking insulted or put off in the slightest.

"Oh, sorry, I do that when I get excited. You can push me too, Derek does that. Like, not hard obviously. Derek is mute, not a jerk. I feel like I should clarify that."

Alex just sighs and turns back to his binder. Maybe he can find some way to foist her off onto someone else before he actually has to leave the office - he thinks he might kill her if they're left alone without supervision.

"So are we going to check on your owl? She's so cute, you picked really well." Mai declares, and it takes a moment for Alex to remember that it's a continuation of the thought he'd cut off moments before. "People not used to owl post wouldn't be freaked out by her coming to their windows with a letter. Not like my sister's new Grey Owl, that thing is massive and also super mean. Lucy definitely picked him just because she knew he wouldn't like me."

Alex refuses to respond, continuing to sort through his binder to determine what to prioritize today. He knows ignoring Mai won't make her go away - learned that lesson Sunday - but she will sometimes start distracting herself if he refuses to engage.

"It's so cool what you're doing. I know I say that every day but I really do mean it." Mai kicks her legs lightly beneath her chair (she seems to take after her mother in terms of height - extremely short) as she keeps talking, unperturbed by Alex's lack of reply. "I always thought I might want to go into something like this - I mean, rights work specifically, not integration, though that's awesome too. Not the circumstances leading up to it, but you know what I mean. I have a theory it was going to happen soon anyway, and it really would have been better if we had some control over the initial reveal. I had a whole twelve-step process written up for it, I was going to present it to the Wizengamot once I graduated from Hogwarts. Obviously that didn't pan out, so I'm reworking it and I'm hoping I can get hired here instead."

Alex flicks his eyes towards her at that last thought. "You realize the Initiative is only a year long, right?" He says dryly, and she grins at him knowingly.

"That's what they say, but we all know it will need to be turned into something more permanent if it's going to actually work. Mum says so all the time at dinner - 'nothing happens overnight Ron,' - that's my Uncle Ron, we go over to his and Aunt Hermione's house every Friday for dinner - 'and in terms of human society a year is practically overnight.' So yeah, this is definitely going to get extended or at least added to some other Department as an Office. Maybe sized down if things don't go so well this year. I have a theory this whole Initiative is just a test case to see what works and what doesn't and then to put together a permanent response team based on the data."

Alex huffs out a breath. "Whatever. It's not going to work either way." He grumbles, and Mai frowns, leaning closer so he's forced to look at her.

"Well it won't with an attitude like that." She says briskly. "And anyway, if it doesn't work out, what exactly is the alternative? Trying to erase everyone's mind? A massive world war between magic and Muggle? You really should want this to work, it's the best alternative for everyone."

And that... that gets Alex to pause. What does he want to happen? He's still not optimistic about the Initiative, but Mai (regrettably) has a point - the alternatives aren't exactly pleasant. The world is armed to the teeth with nuclear warheads, and if another world war starts, well, it will probably be the end of the world.

"Hadn't thought about that, had ya?" Mai says, having the gall to sound smug. Alex flips her off. "Seriously though, how bad do you think this could get? I'd like to turn seventeen before everyone starts killing each other. And by everyone I mean the Muggles because lets be real, magic can't do against a gun. Or nuclear weapons."

"Why would you even think about that?" Alex asks, slightly aghast. Mai shrugs.

"My Aunt Python talks about it sometimes. She took me out shooting for my fifteenth birthday. Says she had a pistol that was really useful during the last war and I should know how to defend myself in every way possible." Mai rolls her eyes. "I told her I don't plan on murdering anyone, but you know. She's protective. She lost her sister and uncle in the last war so we're her only family."

Alex is getting less and less comfortable with this conversation the longer it goes on, so he abruptly gets up, grabbing a few files he wants to talk down to Braylon at the Squib Rights Foundation, and heads for the leaders' office. Maybe he can shove Mai off on them while he gets permission to head down for the morning. Mai follows along behind him, skipping slightly to keep up.

"Are we going to see your owl?" She asks, and Alex finally huffs out an angry breath and answer.

"I'm going to do my job, and that may or may not involve going to see the owl." He snaps. "You are going to stay here and stop bothering me!"

Mai blinks. "Oh, sorry. You should have just said. You never actually told me to leave you know." She says. "Actually, you were the only one who didn't. That's why I was following you around. Well, that and you've definitely got the coolest specialization." She grins at him. "But yeah, I can chill in mum's office. It's kind of boring, but I don't want to interrupt important work."

And now Alex feels bad. He runs through their conversations the past few days and realizes to his chagrin he never had just asked Mai to leave. He'd implied it plenty of times, but he's realizing now that Mai might genuinely not be good at basic social cues.

He sighs and turns to look over at Mai. "Look, you probably shouldn't come with to the Foundation - Braylon doesn't like witches and wizards in the inner offices which is where we always do our work, but maybe I could take you over to the other Department on this floor?" Magical Games and Sports seems plenty interesting enough to keep Mai distracted, and she wouldn't be too far from the Initiative offices and her mother that way.

Mai perks up. "Sure! Aunt Ginny says those offices are always chaos, which sounds pretty fun. A little overwhelming, but I've been having a lot of downtime today. You'll come pick me up after your meeting, right?"

Alex offers her a slight smile. "Of course." He agrees, and she beams. "I should be back before lunch. Let's tell your mum and Mrs. Morgan where we're going."

Mai knocks for him, having moved to walk next to him as they talked, and then immediately pushes open the door. "Mum! Mum can I go to Magical Games and Sports next door? Alex offered to take me, and he'll come get me when he's done with his meeting!"

Mrs. Weasley looks up from her desk at her daughter's voice, and she raises a surprised eyebrow at Alex, who shrugs uncomfortably. He may not be a huge fan of magical people, but he's not going to be an to someone who it turns out he was treating badly without having all the relevant facts.

"Meetings? I wasn't aware you had any today Alex." She says after a moment.

Alex shrugs. "It's not formal, but Braylon usually has time to sit down for an hour or so in the mornings. I wanted to check in with him on a few things before moving forward on communication with Alexander Aris." He explains.

Mrs. Weasley nods. "Well it's fine with me. Mai come back over if Alex's meetings run past lunch, alright?"

She nods cheerfully, and follows Alex out of the office.

"I can find my own way you know. Mum just prefers I be accompanied since technically underaged people aren't supposed to be wandering around the Ministry unsupervised." She informs him, and then frowns when he turns towards the door he'd taken last time he went to Games and Sports. "Um, you know that's the back entrance right? Come on, I'll show you how to get around the lifts - it's honestly needlessly convoluted, but that's what happens when you expand a floor haphazardly."

She chatters idly about the construction of the Ministry, which is complicated and Alex honestly stops listening after the first sentence, as she leads him to a door on the other end of the offices, which opens into a short corridor that ends with a large, professional-looking door. Emblazoned over the top is 'Department of Magical Games and Sports' in the most obnoxious font Alex has ever seen. An image of a golden snitch flies around the glass, and Mai grins and attempts to slap her hand over it before pushing open the door.

"I'm good from here." She tells him brightly, but Alex is still not listening - this time because he's momentarily frozen to the spot.

Sitting at the front desk of the Department is a very familiar face. The girl looks up and meets his eyes, then yelps and jumps up out of her seat.

"You!" It's almost accusatory, and Alex takes a half-step backwards before catching himself and straightening. This girl had punched him in the face - she should be the ashamed one.

"Hello!" Mai says brightly, either missing the rising tension or ignoring it - Alex honestly isn't sure which it is at this point. "I'm Molly Alma Weasley the Second, but you can call me Mai! Is it okay if I hang out here with you for a few hours? I'm trying to figure out what department I want to work for when I graduate from Hogwarts in a couple years."

The woman blinks and looks down at Mai, apparently having not registered she was there in her shock at seeing Alex. "Oh, um, I'm Allison Meyers. And I guess that's fine? I'm on front duty today so there isn't too much to do." She blinks and grins. "Actually, I could use the company."

Mai beams and the woman - Allison - summons a chair from somewhere further in the office. She glances uncertainly at Alex as Mai settles in, clearly expecting him to walk off again.

For his part, Alex is definitely in an apologetic mood, and he figures that considering Allison had apologized and helped him after their last unfortunate meeting, he probably owes her an apology of his own.

So he clears his throat slightly. "I, uh, I'm sorry. For storming off, last time." He says, stilted and uncomfortable.

Allison blinks at him, wide-eyed, before her cheeks turn a bit red and she looks down at her desk. "No, no, it's fine, I was in the wrong. I mean, you don't know me so-" She cuts herself off and smiles sheepishly at the wood in front of her.

Alex shifts from foot to foot for a moment before starting to turn back to the door only for Mai to speak up. "So you two know each other then? Awesome! Alex is super cool, so you must be pretty cool too." She grins at Allison, who turns an even brighter shade of red at the compliment.

"Oh! Um, no, we don't-"

"Actually, I think I owe you a lunch." Alex blurts out. "I have to come get Mai around then anyway - we could all go together?"

Mai looks positively delighted at the offer, and Allison is looking at him again, smiling uncertainly.

"I'm actually busy today, but I appreciate the offer. We're good?"

Alex nods slightly. "Yeah, we're good."

"We're getting lunch though, right?" Mai asks hopefully.

Alex just shakes his head and heads out. "We'll ask your mom." He says just before the door closes behind him, and he can't help grinning when he hears Mai whoop happily. He figures Mrs. Weasley probably has plans, and if not he probably does owe Mai an apology lunch anyway.

Celine's new approach is doing wonderfully, and she decides to treat herself with her final piece for 2018. She foregoes setting up an interview with any new witches and wizards and instead sets things up with Mrs. Morgan so she can spend an entire day at the Initiative, observing their work and informally interviewing them. She's decided to focus on their holiday plans and traditions, since Christmas is only four days away, and the article will be going out on December twenty fourth, so she thinks it's an appropriate topic.

She arrives at nine AM sharp and is surprised to find that most of the office is already full.

"Hey Celine!" Miles waves at her eagerly, and she grins and walks over to where he's perched at his usual desk with Veena and Petra, the latter of whom is wearing what appear to be noise-cancelling headphones as she squints at the Initiative laptop. "How are you?"

"Not too bad - looking forward to the holidays. How about you? Any big plans?"

Miles happily chatters about a big Christmas party he's going to on Christmas Eve. "It's the annual Prophet Christmas Ball." He tells her eagerly. "Normally I'd get a standard invite, but since I don't work there anymore Serene is letting me be her plus one this year!"

Celine perks up. "Annual Christmas Ball? Who all goes, is it just people from the Prophet?"

"Well, the entire Prophet staff get invites, but obviously not everyone comes." Miles says sagely. "Plus a bunch of Ministry bigwigs come with their families and then get stalked by the crazier reporters all night. It's pretty fun - last year Mrs. Potter bat-bogey hexed Rita Skeeter when Skeeter tried to follow her into the bathroom."

"That woman needs to retire - her crap wasn't cute when she was younger, and now she's pushing, what, sixty?" Veena pipes up.

"We know. The editing department has been sending her 'happy retirement day' cards for the past ten years. She hasn't gotten the hint yet." Miles laughs. "Maybe soon though - Minister Granger has been threatening to have her formally fired if she doesn't step down on her own. I think she's still sore over 2014 - Skeeter made some really rude comments about the Minister's family when she was supposed to be covering the World Cup."

Celine scratches out a few notes about the ball, then looks back up at Miles. "Maybe next year some of the major Muggle papers could be invited too? I get not doing it this year - it sounds like this would be a really complicated event to plan!"

Miles' eyes sparkle. "Oh man, that would be awesome. I'll tell Serene to suggest it to Mrs. Holloway - she can get the idea to whoever is in charge of setup I bet!"

Celine beams back and then looks over at Veena. "How about you? Any big holiday plans?"

Veena shrugs. "The usual really - spending time with our families." She gestures vaguely towards the Hunter's side of the room, and Celine distantly recalls that Veena's wife works with the Hunters. "It's our son's first Christmas though, so that's exciting. My parents are already overwhelming our tree with gifts for him."

"As parents do." Celine says brightly, thinking to her own mother and the increasing frequency with which she mentions grandkids. "Sounds cozy. Do you guys have work next week?"

"We don't, but I think the Hunters are working on a lower capacity throughout, just in case something comes up." Veena explains. "But most of the Ministry gets the holidays off, and anyone who doesn't usually volunteered to be on shift."

"That's impressively progressive." Celine observes, jotting down another note. "Is that true of all wizarding jobs?"

"The top Prophet reporters usually keep working, but I think they want to." Miles muses. "They're pretty weird about their work."

"I think the word you want there is 'passionate' Miles." Petra cuts in, and Celine jumps, having not noticed when the third media specialist took off her headphones and started listening to the conversation. "They love their work, so they keep doing it."

"Are you looking forward to the week off?" Celine asks her to hide her momentary startle.

Petra nods vehemently. "I like working with the Initiative." She says hastily, looking a bit embarrassed, "But you know, reading comment sections is kind of exhausting. I'm planning to spend the holidays with my best friend who I haven't really gotten to see that much recently, so I'm looking forward to that too."

"No family gathering?" Celine asks, and regrets it at the look that briefly crosses Petra's face. Obviously she's not that close with her family then.

"I mean, they might be? We lost contact a while ago. I prefer spending time with Piper and her family anyway, we've been close since school."

It's a lot of information to get unprompted from the second quietest member of the Initiative (Celine hasn't even met Aruna yet, so she gets last place until Celine gets an actual read on her), and Celine eagerly takes down some notes.

"You all don't mind if I write about this? I want to do a holiday special for our Christmas edition, and I think it fits well with my overall theme that the worlds aren't so different. Work parties, overbearing parents, found families - Muggle society has all that too."

The three all agree to let her write about them, Petra a bit hesitantly, and Celine thanks them profusely before looking around for her next interviewees. Fergus and Kylee catch her eye, and she watches as they seem to be encouraging Desmond about something. Making up her mind, she waves to the media team and approaches the general specialists.

"Hey guys, mind if I sit with you a while?" She aks once she's in earshot, and Kylee looks up at her thankfully.

"Oh, hey Celine! Could you help us talk some sense into Desmond? His girlfriend asked him to a private Christmas dinner and he's hesitating."

"It's more complicated than that." Fergus allows with a smile as Desmond grimaces, "But we're trying to encourage him to at least go to hear her out."

"She stalked me, then ignored me, and now she's reaching out out of nowhere? It's suspicious!" Desmond insists, and Celine tilts her head curiously.

"Stalked you? That doesn't sound like a very healthy relationship." She points out, and Kylee sighs.

"You don't know she was following you Des. Miles says she's not the type, and I bet you know that too. You're just being stubborn because your feelings were hurt when you realized she was a witch and had never told you."

Celine perks up. This sounds like a very interesting story - and, she'd bet, one that a lot of other people are going through right now. "What happened exactly?" She asks. "I can help more if I have all the details."

So Desmond explains, with interjections from Kylee at semi-regular intervals, that he'd found out his girlfriend of nearly a year was magical after running into her at work, and while they had been starting to talk again after his initial shock she had then appeared out of nowhere during the bar fight in October.

"I just don't see why else she would have been in that area of Muggle London." He finishes with a sigh. "She doesn't live anywhere near there, and obviously she works here at the Ministry."

"Well have you asked her?" Celine asks. It certainly doesn't look good, but she's also picked up through the story that Estelle Kuhara isn't really the jealous type, so following Desmond would be pretty far out of character - she gets the sense Desmond is running away from the confrontation more out of fear of losing something than of any real conviction that his girlfriend is secretly a totally different person. It's irrational, but in a very grounded and understandable way.

"I think you should go." She says after turning things over in her mind a few times. "And if she can't explain herself well then you end it. It's obvious this limbo is hurting both of you, and this seems like it will be the ideal time to lay everything out and see where you stand in this new world. Even if that means you and her can't be you and her anymore. If that makes sense?"

Desmond grimaces, and Kylee whoops.

"Thank you Celine! You're great with spoken words too." She compliments with a grin.

Celins shrugs, blushing modestly at the praise. "Years of practice." She dismisses, though she can't hide her pleasure at the compliment. "So that clears up what Desmond is doing for the holidays, but how about you two? Any big plans?"

Fergus shrugs. "The usual I guess? We all gather at my parents' place and eat until we pass out. Though I guess with the newborn there may be less sleep than normal." He jokes.

"Newborn? Fergus, are you married?" Kylee asks in surprise, and he laughs and shakes his head quickly, holding up his hands defensively.

"No! No, not my newborn. My little sister had my nephew a few months ago. I have to say it will be nice to see her again, we haven't been able to talk as much recently due to, well, newborn." He grins wryly, fingers twitching against the desk.

Celine laughs. "Fair enough. Sounds like it will be a rather eventful holiday!"

Fergus relaxes slightly back into his chair, nodding. "I'd say so." He agrees. "How about you Kylee? I imagine you'll be with your family?"

She nods, grinning but looking a bit nervous. "I am. First Christmas back in England since I was twelve, so it'll be interesting to see if anything has changed. But I'm looking forward to it - Baylee and I are going shopping tomorrow to try and find gifts for our parents, and our aunt and uncle are flying in from Canada on Tuesday and staying through New Years, which is exciting."

"Haven't seen them recently?" Celine guesses, but Kylee shakes her head.

"Actually, I lived with them most of my teenage years, and even when I was at USC I'd go see them during holiday breaks. So it's been since, I dunno, June that I last saw them?" She grins. "Still, I'm excited to see them."

"And you Celine?" Fergus prompts, and Celine waves him off with a scoff.

"This is an article about your holidays, not mine - I'm going to show that everyone celebrates the same way - or rather, that we all celebrate differently in the same way."

Fergus raises an amused eyebrow. "I wasn't asking for the article." He replies, and Celine laughs and blushes.

"Fair enough. I'm going to spend it with my mom and uncle more than likely, but I've got a Christmas Eve dinner with my friends which will be fun! I haven't seen some of them for a while - work keeps us all busy."

She chats with the specialists for a while longer, and is about ready to head over to where Landon and Rose are working in a chilly silence (she's admittedly been avoiding that corner intentionally) when Alex Zhang steps out of the lift and heads for his desk, trailed by a cheerful young woman with copper curls and a smattering of freckles that coat her face and vanish into her turtleneck sweater.

"Alex!" She waves, and is surprised when she gets a wave in return rather than the usual scowl.

"Mai has been good for his mood." Kylee whispers just before the two newcomers arrive at the desks.

"What are you researching this time Celine?" Alex asks, and at least he's still rude. It's defintiely still Alex.

"Holiday special." She declares. "Any plans?"

Alex gives a half-shrug. "Not really. I'm taking a few shifts at one of my old jobs to help cover since no one really wants to work on Christmas."

Celine decides not to ask why he's choosing to work on Christmas when he really doesn't sound too enthused about it. "That's really nice of you!" She says instead, giving him a smile that gets her an eye roll. Yep, still Alex.

The girl, presumably the 'Mai' Kylee had mentioned, speaks up then. "We always go to the Burrow for Christmas! It's pure chaos trying to shove everyone into one tiny house, but Grandma manages to make it work somehow. Except that one year Uncle George set off fireworks and almost burned the whole place down. It was to announce his engagement to Aunt Angelina." She adds solemnly, clearly feeling the need to defend her uncle. "Also I'm Molly Alma Weasley the Second, but you can call me Mai. Who're you?" She asks, sticking a hand out to Celine which is accepted.

Celine smiles as she drops the handshake. "I'm Celine Yang. I'm a reporter for the Muggle newspaper the Daily Telegraph. I'm getting some notes for my holiday special today."

"Cool! I at writing." Mai informs her, and Celine laughs. She ends up staying a bit longer to talk with Mai and Alex (who's shockingly chatty by his standards) before finally taking a breath and turning towards the last two Initiative members (other than Aruna) who she hasn't yet spoken to.

She normally wouldn't be so nervous - in fact she's quite excited to hear about Landon and Rose's holiday traditions - but the two of them haven't been getting along lately, which has made spending time around them uncomfortable, to say the least.

She's halfway over when she's waylaid by a young woman she doesn't know tapping her on the shoulder, causing her to startle violently.

The woman grins sheepishly. "Hi, sorry." She says. "You don't happen to have a few minutes to talk?"

Celine tilts her head in acceptance. She assumes the woman is probably a Hunter, and that guess is proven correct when she's ushered over to the other side of the offices.

"You were just talking to Des - did he say anything about if he's going to come on Christmas Eve?" She asks nervously, and Celine blinks, processing the question.

"You must be Estelle." She concludes, and the woman nods.

"Oh, yes. Estelle Kuhara. Sorry, I assumed you already knew who everyone was, if only by virtue of Miles being way too chatty." She flashes a grin, and Celine laughs.

"Fair enough. It's nice to meet you properly - I have admittedly heard of you, mostly just now from Desmond." She admits, and Estelle grimaces slightly.

"So you were talking about my invitation?" She guesses, and Celine nods.

"He's going to accept." She offers, and Estelle perks up immediately, looking immensely relieved.

"Oh good, I'm terrible at this sappy romcom stuff - I wasn't sure I'd done that correctly." She says, and Celine can sense a story there. She fights her reporter's instincts for all of ten seconds before she grabs an open seat next to Estelle and flips to a fresh page on her notepad.

"Romcom stuff?" She prompts hopefully, and Estelle laughs.

"Alright, let me get Pup - he's a big part of this, he'll be able to explain some things better than I could anyway." She says amicably, standing up as she does. Celine settles in her randomly grabbed chair - hopefully she didn't just steal someone's seat - and waits patiently for Estelle's return.

Unfortunately, the seat's original occupant returns before Estelle does.

"Hello? Sorry, that's actually my desk today." At least the person she'd rudely stolen from is polite about it, and she quickly jumps out of the chair and bows in apology before even looking at the speaker, her mother's etiquette lessons moving her automatically.

The man chuckles slightly. "Sorry to startle you. You can keep the chair, I can use Estelle's. She won't mind sitting on the desk. You're Celine, correct?"

She nods nervously, settling back in her pilfered seat. "That's correct - I'm afraid I can't say I've had the pleasure yet Mr.?"

"Travers." He supplies. "Noah is fine though, if you prefer. Are you doing a story on the Hunters?"

Well, apparently Celine is known among the Hunters, even if she hasn't really spoken to them before. Maybe she should remedy that and interview them for her next article.

"Not just now." She admits. "I'm covering holiday traditions for our holiday edition. You doing anything interesting next week Noah Travers?"

He laughs, low and warm. "I am, in fact. My best friends and I always hold a small gift exchange at Diana and Bella's shared flat. It's a potluck sort of thing, and we usually end up playing games until after midnight. We started it when we were all still at Hogwarts, and we never saw a reason to stop."

Celine is learning quickly not to ask when family isn't mentioned, so she just smiles and takes a few notes. "That's really sweet - you don't mind if I include it, do you?"

Noah returns the smile. "Of course not - I wouldn't have told you if I did." He points out, and Celine shrugs.

"Some people will start talking and then afterwards tell me it's all off the record - I always check." She explains, and Noah frowns.

"Well some people should probably learn how to control their tongues then." He observes, and Celine can't help laughing.

Estelle returns then with a young man trotting after her. "Oh, hey Noah! Figured you'd be on your lunch date a bit longer." As Noah had mentioned, Estelle seems to have no problem hopping up onto the desk since all the chairs are occupied.

"Not a date Estelle, you know that." He says, but seems entirely unbothered by the implication. "I was telling Celine about my Christmas plans. As you've dragged poor Pup away from his work again I assume you're regaling her with the tale of your plan to re-woo Desmond?"

"Yep!" Estelle confirms. "And I like how you phrased that - Pup, make a note to tell Miles that we're changing the title of phase two to "The Re-Wooing."

Pup just grins wryly. "I still don't think it needs titles, but sure." He agrees easily.

Estelle rolls her eyes. "He's still floating from the kiss he got earlier." She informs Celine. "He gave his girlfriend her gift early since they're both busy this Christmas."

Pup turns bright red, but he's smiling so Celine doubts he's that embarrassed by the teasing. "On the cheek. And we're going on a proper date in January." He tells Celine.

Estelle and Pup take turns telling Celine the story of Operation: Romcom Nonsense, and Celine can't help laughing at multiple points. It really is like something out of one of those formulaic Hallmark Specials.

"Well now I definitely want to write a follow up." She says when they finish, looking down at her two full pages of notes. "Would that be alright?"

"Well, we may be interviewing on the most popular WWN Morning Talk Show anyway, so I don't see why it would be a problem." Estelle says easily. "Assuming it goes well." She adds with a grimace. "Honestly this is all well out of my wheel-house so."

"I think he'll appreciate the effort." Celine says encouragingly. "I can tell you two really love each other - at the end of the day, that's the most important thing."

Estelle gives her a smile. "Well, that's an appropriately romcom-esque thought, so I'll take it."

Celine laughs and looks around the offices, now scanning the Hunter's half as well to see if she can spot anyone who looks like they might be interested in letting her interview them.

"Go talk to Tristan." Estelle tells her, pointing out one of the younger Hunters who's chatting with one that Celine recognizes as Edward Clarke. "He and Edward probably have some interesting holiday stories to share!"

Celine thanks them all again before giving Estelle her seat and heading towards the indicated pair.

"Hi." She says once she's close enough. "Would it be alright if I asked you a few questions for my holiday article?"

The younger man, Tristan, looks up first, eyes bright and curious. "Oh, you're Celine Yang! Ed, Celine is the reporter covering the Initiative." He says, clearly excited.

Edward looks up with a rather tired smile. "Good morning Ms. Yang. I think Tristan would be more than happy to give you whatever you need for your article."

Celine smiles a bit awkwardly - obviously Edward is tired today, and Tristan seems rather extroverted - it's probably not an ideal combination. She'll try to make this quick then.

"I'm just asking everyone what their holiday plans are. Sort of showing how we all celebrate in similar ways. Plus I like Christmas so it's a bit of a gift to myself." She jokes, and is relieved to see Edward's smile relax slightly.

"Well I'm just spending it with my family, nothing fancy." Tristan says, obviously dissapointed with that. "Mum got an invite to the Prophet's Annual Christmas Ball but she and dad said I have to stay home and babysit my brothers. Which is stupid - they're seventeen and fifteen, they don't need a babysitter."

"They most likely don't want you there." Edward observes dryly. "Can't imagine why."

Tristan sticks his tongue out at the older man. "You're just grumpy because Demelza got called out today." He declares. "So what are you doing for the holidays Edward?" He seems genuinely curious, and Celine jots down a quick note before also looking over at Edward.

"You only have to answer if you want to." She says politely, and he shrugs.

"My adoptive parents are Jewish, so we don't really do Christmas. I'm taking a number of shifts here next week, but I'll likely visit with my friends at some point." He says, and it's the most carefully neutral answer Celine has ever heard. She'd heard whisper that Edward was secret service for the government, and now she's starting to think that might actually be true.

She thanks them both, and realizes she really only has Landon and Rose left to talk to. Taking a breath she stands up and heads over for their desks, which are still coated in an icy aura.

Rose spots her first, and she looks incredibly relieved. "Celine! Hey, how are you?" She asks, bright as ever but clearly worn down somewhat. "I saw you come in earlier but didn't want to wave you down in case you don't have much time or something."

"I've always got time for you two." Celine assures her, and she means it too. She looks over at Landon shyly, and is pleased to find that he seems to have relaxed some as well. "I'm actually talking to everyone today about their holiday plans! I hear you all have all of next week off?"

Rose grins and spins her chair once. "Yup! It's going to be great, especially since I start up with Minister Granger again in the New Year - that was not as fun a job as you'd think, but, you know, I'm doing good work so it's worth doing." She glances over at Landon, who's resolutely staring back at his paperwork. She frowns, but quickly recovers. "Anyway, I'm throwing a Christmas party for friends, family, and family friends, so it's going to be a pretty great break."

Celine grins, unsurprised that Rose seems to be having the most exicting holiday. "Sounds like fun."

"You can come if you want! Where should I send your invite?" Rose asks, and Celine laughs because she knows Rose is serious.

"I'll have to decline this year." She says, amused but trying to sound genuinely apologetic. "I've got my own plans."

Rose hums. "Fair enough. Next year!"

"For sure." Celine agrees, grinning, and then turns to Landon. "Um, did you want to share your holiday plans?" She asks, somewhat hopefully and cursing herself when the hope slips into her tone. It's unprofessional to show favoritism.

Landon looks up at her and Celine wills herself to not blush. Even when clearly tired and irritated Landon is still very attractive.

"I'm not doing much." He admits after a moment. "Might grab lunch with some friends, but otherwise my family is all in America so. I don't really have anyone to celebrate with."

Celine's heart breaks a little bit, and she wonders if the cheer of the holiday is possibly part of the reason Landon is so stressed lately. She opens , but isn't sure what exactly she's going to say - she and Landon really don't know each other outside of a professional setting.

Rose pipes up, saving Celine from having to figure out what to say. "Landon! Why didn't you tell me that? You're coming to my party. You can ignore me the entire time if you want, that's fine, but come out and have some fun with us. I promise my friends are good fun - there will be Weasley's Wizarding Wheezing pranks all over the place." She grabs her bag from next to her chair and rifles through it before shoving an invitation at Landon. "Come. I'm not inviting, I'm insisting." She says firmly.

Landon frowns, but he takes the proffered invite. Celine hopes that maybe things will start to ease between the two, but somehow she doubts it. Still, at least Landon won't be alone for the holidays.

She ends up sticking around with the two political representatives for a while longer, and is pleased when Landon relaxes slowly as they keep talking. She even works up the courage to suggest they grab coffee on the twenty-seventh so he can tell her about Rose's party and she can include it in a New Year's follow-up column. She's not sure if she'll actually write a follow up, and based on the wink Rose throws her when she's finally leaving the other woman is well aware of that.

She's definitely blushing as she waves her goodbyes to the rest of the Initiative, but she doesn't really mind that much - she's got a date (not-date) next week and a great, feel-good holiday article to write. She flips through her notes and begins mentally compiling the order in which she'll tell the stories, and decides she should include her own holiday plans as well - this is about humanizing otherwise larger-than-life figures after all. And putting her own Muggle life next to theirs, well, that should provide a good contrast.

She's practically skipping as she waves down a cab and heads back to the Telegraph offices. This is definitely a great send-off for this year.

Author's Note: Happy vibes! For as much misery as I put into CtF I really do love me chapters that have nothing but feel-good fluff in them ^^ And as someone who adores the holidays, it was inevitably this sort of chapter would show up around this time period in the story xD Hopefully you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!