Secret Santas and red-nosed reindeer

A/N: I had to attend a work seminar this afternoon, which turned out to be mind-numbingly boring. Therefore, in order to keep myself inconspicuously occupied, I ended up with this instead of actual work-related notes. Ahem. I wrote this in approximately one hour, so my apologies if that clearly shows. And please do not pay attention to the title :p Apologies also for any spelling errors/general mistakes there may be in this as for once, I did not have it checked. I have a feeling my very wonderful beta is on an impromptu trip to NYC, so I'll leave her in peace :)

Oh, also. The small part in Italics is a flashback.

Spoilers: Ummm. Maybe for 3x01.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything even remotely related to The Mentalist.

-xxx-

Lisbon peeked through the blinds in her office, anxiously anticipating the moment she'd been waiting for. When Jane stood up from his couch, heading for the break room, she seized the opportunity and quickly walked into the bullpen.

"Alright," she addressed the other members of her team. "Who's got Jane for Secret Santa this year?"

"Why?" Cho asked, looking up from his book.

"Because I need to trade."

"Well, that kind of defeats the whole purpose, boss, because then it's not really Secret Santa." Van Pelt pointed out cautiously.

"Of course it is, he won't know we switched."

"No, she means then we'll all know you've got Jane," Rigsby added.

Lisbon frowned and a small smirk appeared on her lips. "So? You won't know what I got him."

"Why do you want to change?" Cho asked again.

"Because I've already got him something," she clarified.

"I have Jane, but I actually already had a gift for him in mind," he added.

"Great," Lisbon sighed. "It's no use, I can't trade with you anyway."

"Why not?" Rigsby asked.

"Because then Cho would have to buy a present for himself." Jane's voice suddenly drifted through the bullpen as he walked in, grinning widely. "But you can all relax, there's no need to fight over me, you can both buy me a present if you'd like."

"Oh, dammit," Lisbon mumbled. "Why couldn't you have stayed away for five minutes?"

"Because I am omnipresent, Lisbon," Jane said in a mock-serious tone of voice. "It wouldn't have mattered, I would've heard anyway. I am everywhere, in every way, shape or form and you cannot elude me."

"Evidently," she muttered.

"Hey, wait a minute," Rigsby cut in, seemingly confused. "How did you even know Lisbon had Cho in the first place?"

Jane turned around to face him, a cup of tea halfway to his lips. "Rigsby...please...," he simply smiled, causing Lisbon to roll her eyes.

"Okay, one of you two needs to switch with me, so I can trade with Cho," she said, addressing Van Pelt and Rigsby.

"But I don't want to switch," Van Pelt said at almost the exact same time as Rigsby.

"Why not?" she frowned.

"Because they both picked each other," Jane interrupted again. "Providing them with the perfect opportunity to give each other small yet meaningful presents, even though they're no longer in a romantic relationship."

Rigsby and Van Pelt immediately looked at each other, before quickly turning away, Van Pelt blushing as she let out a frustrated sigh.

"Ugh," she suddenly exclaimed. "Every year! Why does this happen every year? Why can't we just have one Secret Santa where nobody knows who's buying whom a present or what they'll get?"

"Because that sounds boring, Grace," Jane simply replied. "You have to admit this is far more entertaining."

"Fine." Lisbon did another quick calculation. "Then Jane, you switch with Cho, so you'll have yourself and then I can trade with you." Rigsby looked completely lost at this point and just shrugged, obviously happy he would get to buy Grace his intended piece of jewellery.

"Oh, but I don't want to trade either," Jane said, smiling broadly. "I picked you so I'm keeping mine."

"Alright, never mind, we can just leave everything as it is. Forget I asked," Lisbon sighed, coming to understand this would prove to be impossible.

She walked back towards her office, belatedly noticing that Jane was following annoyingly close behind.

"What?" she simply asked, plopping down onto her desk chair.

"How come you wanted me so badly? I'm intrigued, Lisbon." His teasing grin clearly indicated he was enjoying this tremendously.

"Because I didn't have you last year, or the year before and I've had this idea in my head for awhile. So I went ahead and bought it," she explained.

"Without knowing if you'd even pick me? That's bold," he mocked.

"Shut up, Jane. Or I'm keeping it to myself."

"Aha, interesting. That means it's something both of us could use, which significantly narrows the possibilities."

He took another sip from his tea, already mentally eliminating several options.

"Stop it. I'm not playing this guessing game with you, it's no fun if you know what you're getting."

"Apparently I'm not getting it anyway, since no one wants to trade."

"Well, if you play nice, maybe Santa will come twice this year," she teased.

He sat down next to her, on the edge of her desk, leaning in. He was so close, allowing Lisbon to become intoxicated by the scent of his cologne as she inhaled involuntarily. For a brief second, she didn't know what he was planning and she felt a shiver run down her spine.

"I'll show you exactly how nice I can play," he grinned.

She rolled her eyes, turning them back towards her computer screen, attempting to hide her momentary discomfort.

"What are you going to do about Cho then?" he asked on his way out the door.

"Nothing. I've already got him something too."

"Ah, now that's my Lisbon," he said affectionately. "Always prepared for every possible outcome of a situation."

Lisbon chose not to comment on that particular statement, but she couldn't prevent a small smile from escaping as she opened up the file in front of her.

.

-xxx- One week later -xxx-

.

She walked up to the attic, pausing just outside the door, which had been left slightly ajar. Pushing it open slowly, she noticed he had put up a string of Christmas lights and a little Santa on his sleigh, being pulled by all his reindeer. Jane sat at the far end by the window, hunched over his newly acquired chess set, deep in thought as he pondered his next move.

"Who's winning?"

"The other guy," he replied, not taking his eyes off the bishop in his right hand.

"I assume you're enjoying Cho's gift?" She closed the door behind her, walking over to join him.

"I hope you're not here to return yours?" He smiled, looking up at her as she sat down with a large, colourfully wrapped box in her lap.

"No," she softly said, blushing again when she thought back to earlier that night and the way she'd felt upon laying eyes on the present he'd bought her.

She had been dumbfounded upon opening up the big, flat cardboard box to discover a beautiful silk chiffon, knee-length halter dress in a deep purple colour. It was absolutely gorgeous, and when Jane had commented he had picked it out specifically because he thought purple was definitely her colour, she had been at a loss for words. Van Pelt had actually let out a small squeal of excitement when Lisbon had carefully unfolded the garment.

"A dress? You bought me a cocktail dress?" Lisbon exclaimed, still not quite able to come to terms with what she was holding in her hands. "No one's ever bought me a dress before," came Lisbon's slightly stunned reply.

"Well, then I like to think it was high time. You look absolutely stunning in formal evening wear."

Lisbon didn't think she'd ever blushed quite as much, especially when she looked up to find Jane looking at her expectantly with a silly grin on his face while the others simply sat staring.

"Jane, this is- I mean, this is…," she stuttered.

"Gorgeous? Beautiful? Elegant? Just my size?" he prompted. "Oh, and about that. If it's not your size, you can return it to the store and exchange it free of charge. Though I'm pretty confident it'll fit you perfectly."

"I can't accept this," she said softly, finally meeting his gaze.

"Oh please, don't start. Why not? You were complaining about having to attend the mayor's New Year's event next month and not having anything to wear, so I figured I might as well help you out. Especially given my impeccable taste in fashion."

Glancing down at the classy dress in her hands, it was hard to argue that last part.

"Well, then I can't accept it because it's probably way too expensive. What happened to the 20 dollar budget?" she asked somewhat sarcastically. Silently, she was already trying to accept the fact that there was no way she'd ever be able to part ways with this dress. She was already getting attached as it was quite simply perfect for her.

"The store was having a sale." Jane replied, but when all of them cast a dubious glance in his direction, he quickly added, "and in any case, there's no way for you to prove that it cost more than 20 dollars so there."

"It will take any of us 30 seconds and one phone call to prove that," Cho commented.

"Boss, you can't refuse it, it'll look incredible on you," Van Pelt cut in, offering up her own opinion.

When even Rigsby and Cho were nodding at that statement, she couldn't stop a smile from taking over when she got up and walked over to Jane, lightly pressing a kiss to his cheek, much to his surprise.

"Thank you," she whispered, still slightly uncomfortably under everyone's stares.

She had to admit that despite her initial reaction – which had been one of complete shock – and hesitation to accept his gift, she absolutely loved it. Not surprisingly, he had managed to choose something that was completely her style and she couldn't wait to try it on.

She shook her head, concentrating on the box in front of her.

"This is yours," she said, suddenly a bit nervous upon realising it was nowhere near as special as his gift had been. In fact, before actually deciding to come up here, she'd spent a good half hour debating whether to give it to him at all. Then again, she had immediately thought of him when seeing this and in his defence, he had, as promised, been on his best behaviour all week. Well, most of the week anyway. And it was always calm around the holidays.

A small giggle escaped when she saw the pure excitement in his eyes as she handed it over.

"It doesn't measure up to yours," she quickly said, before he started tearing at the paper. "But I hope you'll like it."

Quickly discarding all unnecessary ribbons and paper, Jane tossed it to the floor and was left with a handmade wooden box. It was quite large and surprisingly heavy, in a decorative wood. Dark oak with lighter streaks running across its lid. There were intricate carvings on the side, the attention to detail quite remarkable, confirming his suspicion that whoever had made this had likely spent more than a few hours on it.

"This is stunning," he muttered almost inaudibly.

Lisbon was watching him intently as he ran his hands over the box' lid again and again. He finally twisted the small lock at the front, lifting the lid to reveal its contents. The inside was lined with red velvet, neatly divided into multiple compartments.

And each of those compartments had been filled with a selection of teas.

The most dazzling smile took over his face and his eyes skimmed all the different bags and names, taking everything in. There must have been at least over a hundred teabags in there, all of them carefully organised and sorted by brand and flavour.

"How did you know how to choose all of these? They're basically all of my favourite ones."

"You're not the only one with keen observational skills," she playfully replied, merely smiling at him.

"Some of these are quite hard to find. And expensive," he observed, instantly recognising some of the finer labels. "What happened to the 20 dollar budget?" He said in a mocking tone, repeating her earlier words.

"Well, contrary to your gift, you have no way of proving I didn't stick to the budget," she smirked.

"Oh really?" he asked sceptically. "I mean, this handmade box alone must've cost a good deal more than the proposed sum of money."

Lisbon noticed he kept stroking the carvings on the side while absentmindedly running a hand along all of the different, multi-coloured teabags.

"Why did you buy me something this expensive?" he quietly asked, turning to look her in the eyes.

"Why did you buy me a cocktail dress?" she simply asked in return.

Jane smiled at her response as he regarded her seriously, a short look of understanding seemingly passing between them.

"Thank you Lisbon, this was very thoughtful of you. And I absolutely love it."

"I'm glad," she said honestly. "And you're welcome."

She got up, somewhat hesitantly. "I should probably head off soon."

"Okay."

"Oh, and Jane?"

"Yea?"

"It's Christmas, so I don't want to find you up here, or anywhere in the building for that matter, tomorrow or the day after."

"Don't worry, you won't. You've got both days off, remember?" he retorted, smirking in her direction.

"Well, I don't want to hear from anyone that you were here. I mean it."

"Or else what?" he asked clearly amused.

"Or else I'm driving over here to kidnap you myself."

He smiled as a mischievous look crossed his face. "I'm not sure that would be much of a punishment, actually."

She laughed and headed for the door, mentally hoping he'd actually take her advice just this once.

"Lisbon?" he suddenly called out, making her turn around. "I've been told you're a fine player yourself. I don't suppose you feel like losing?" he casually asked with a challenging smirk, nodding at the board in front of him.

Though his voice gave nothing away, Lisbon quite easily detected the hope hidden behind his words and she felt an unfamiliar ache in her heart.

"You're on." She grinned, already walking back to reclaim her seat.

Because when it came to Jane, she'd probably happily lose every single time.