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The blankets are soft and warm. A stark contrast to the air around Aizawa Shouta. He nestles more into the warmth, trying to postpone waking up as long as he can. He can hear his husband moving around in the front room, getting ready for the day. He, however just hides his face from the early morning sun creeping in through the bedroom window.
Suddenly Ding-dong by TOKIO starts blasting over the speakers in the front room of their apartment. He groans and buries himself deeper under the covers, in an attempt to hide from the noise. Before long his warm shield from the outside world pulled from the bed and the cold rushes up to meet him.
Shouta throws the first thing he touches at his husband’s head trying to stop the boisterous laughter coming from Yamada Hizashi. The pillow flops harmlessly to the floor doing nothing to stop it.
“Up, Shou,” Hizashi laughs, “it’s Christmas and Eri is waiting for you.”
“I’m up,” Shouta grumbles as he sits up, still glaring at his husband.
Hizashi keeps smiling and offers a hand to Shouta while saying, “come on, let’s get this holiday started.”
Once Shouta is out of the ratty, grey shirt he wears for bed and is properly dressed in a soft and cheery Christmas sweater they walk out of the room side by side with small smiles. They head into the kitchen and flip on the kettle to start warming up their first hot chocolate of the day, as is their tradition. Shouta notices the absence of one particular little girl.
“I thought you said Eri was waiting,” he says after looking around the kitchen and not finding her.
Hizashi looks up from the three mugs that he’s placed on the counter. “I did, she’s waiting over in her room. After hearing about our traditions, she was ready to wait until you woke up. Naturally, I wasn’t as patient.”
“Naturally, you ass,” Shouta grunts with a small teasing smile. “I guess I’ll go get her.”
After a quick “okay,” from the blond, Shouta makes his way to the girl’s room at the end of the hallway. He knocks gently. “Eri, you can come out. Hot chocolate is being made now.”
The door swings open and Eri is smiling up at him. “I’m sorry if Yama-san woke you up. I was fine waiting.”
“Yeah, but he wasn’t. You are better behaved than him some days,” he says his own tiny smile. “Come into the kitchen and sit with us.”
Hand in hand they pad back across the apartment into the kitchen where Hizashi has started playing another Christmas playlist over the speakers.
“You two are just in time,” the blond man announces with his usual smile. “The mix is all made. Just need to tell me when to stop with the whipped cream.”
All three of them end up with only a tiny swirl of the quickly melting cream on top their drinks before they head into the living room for presents. Hizashi and Eri settle on the carpet besides the coffee table as Shouta starts organizing and handing out the few gifts from around the tree. Eri ends up with the largest stack of gifts because Midoriya and Togata had left small gifts for her. She ends up with four, while the men only have two each.
“Eri, why don’t you start with Mydoria’s and Togata’s,” Aizawa suggests.
With a nod the young girl starts unwrapping her gifts. First was a small, pink cat head purse and a bunch of little candies from Togata wrapped in soft green wrapping paper. Next came the small, blue notebook and pen from Midoriya placed in a small blue bag. Eri smiles and puts the notebook and pen into the purse before moving onto the last few gifts.
In this one she opens a box to find a small CD player with several CDs that are popular at the moment. Hizashi grins as she looks over his choice of music excitedly. “Thank you, Yamada-san,” she whispers in her quiet voice.
“Well, I go crazy if it’s too quiet. The stuff you have now is really quiet so I figured these would do wonders for the noise levels around here,” he explains as Shouta rolls his eyes.
“I will listen to them all,” she says with a smile.
Shouta watches as she grabs the final gift bag. She digs through the tissue paper to find a small, fuzzy panda looking back at her along with a small jar of green slime. Eri ends up holding the stuffed animal close to her chest and smiling at Shouta.
“Aizawa-san, thank you. I like it.”
“Good,” he responds with a hint of a smile on his face. “I hear that slime is fun for kids these days.”
She nods and looks to the jar before asking, “Would you show me how to use it?”
He nods. “We can do that after breakfast.”
She grins at him and then gets up. “You both got gifts for each other,” she says and points to their couple of presents. “And from me.
Hizashi goes first. From Eri is a small bag with a folded paper stapled to the front. He removes the folded paper and opens the bag. Inside is a copy of a Studio Ghibli movie that he was wanting to get for her to watch. He grins, “this is amazing, kid!”
“Don’t forget the drawing,” she says holding up the folded paper.
“Of course, how could I forget,” he asks while plucking the paper from her hands carefully. On the carefully folded paper is a small crayon drawing of the three of them in the streets walking hand in hand.
“Eri, this is amazing and I will cherish it always,” he declares. The girl just smiles and points to the last present for him.
It’s a thin square wrapped in red and silver though that paper is quickly torn off as he’s unable to tamper excitement. However, as he realizes what Shouta has given him he stops moving with a grin.
“Cyndi Lauper? I thought you didn’t care for American music,” he teases.
“I don’t, but you listen to Lauper, and this was one album you didn’t have on vinyl,” Shouta explains while giving a small shrug.
He doesn’t have much time to brace himself from the great big hug that Hizashi gives him. “You do love me.”
“You’re crazy. And I still have to open mine,” Shouta says prying his arms free from the hug grabbing the first gift from his side. “But, yes. I do.”
He had managed to grab Hizashi’s first. It is a larger box wrapped with much care, and Shouta is more careful pulling it apart than Hizashi was. He soon pulls out noise canceling headphones. He does smile.
“Good. Now I can sleep through your morning antics,” he teases.
“Or we can loan them to Eri some nights,” Hizashi suggests with a wide, suggestive grin.
“Why to me,” Eri asks her eyes full of curiosity.
“Oh don’t worry about that just yet. If he keeps suggesting things, nothing will happen,” Shouta explains while the grin Hizashi is wearing quickly turns into a frown.
“Come on, babe. That is hardly fair,” he complains.
Eri looks between the two adults, confused.
“Thank you for them, though Hizashi,” Shouta says after the blond stops complaining. Once again he’s pulled into a tight hug. This time he lets it happen for a few moments longer before pushing away. “I’ve got to finish unwrapping gifts,” he says.
The gift is wrapped much like Hizashi’s was, though he starts by carefully removing the drawing and opening it. It’s another simple family style drawing but in another setting. “Maybe we can get you some art supplies next year,” he suggests with a soft smile. Inside the bag is a soft mauve t-shirt he had looked at while the two of them were out looking for Hizashi’s gifts. “Thank you, Eri. These are wonderful.”
He then stretches and says, “presents are done, and I’m hungry. Let’s get breakfast started.”
With that the three stand up and migrate into the kitchen. “What do you make on Christmas?” Eri asks softly.
“Whatever we want. I’m thinking pancakes,” Hizashi says.
Shouta nods and says, “that sounds fine. I’ll get out what you need for it.” Before he moves to the cupboards though, Eri stops him by tugging on his sleeve.
She is smiling up as she shouts, “Merry Christmas!”
A beat of silence passes before Hizashi turns back to face them with his large grin.
“Merry Christmas, Eri,” both he and Aizawa respond.