Archive of Our Own

The air smelled minty and cold. Snow blanketed the ground, burying yellowed dying plants. Evergreen trees stood tall above the silver-white sea, dusted with frost and snow. The sakura tree in the garden twisted bare black arms towards the white cloud-covered sky. 

Sound was hushed by the snow. The normally busy streets were barren. The snow was untouched by tire marks or footprints. 

The only sound to break the silence was the scrape of a plastic snow shovel against concrete. While everyone else slept in in the warmth of their homes, Shouto Todoroki was outside shoveling snow from the sidewalk. He did this everytime it snowed, mostly because last year his husband Izuku slipped and fell down the icy stairs leading up to their doorway and broke his leg in two different places. Shouto wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. 

"You know you don't have to get up so early to do this, right?" The door swung open and Izuku -bundled in quite possibly every blanket in the house- peeked his head out. 

"I'm fine. The cold doesn't bother me," Shouto flung a shovelful of snow into the yard.

"Okay, Elsa . But seriously, can you please hurry? I'm cold."

"You don't have to stand out here."

"No, I wanna cuddle you," Izuku whined dramatically, making grabby motions towards Shouto with his hands.

"Fine," Shouto sighed. He abandoned the shovel and nealt to the ground, lighting a small flame in his left palm and melting the rest of the snow with it. He let the fire burn hotter so that the melted snow would evaporate. After about a minute, the sidewalk was completely clear.

He walked inside and closed the door. Izuku sat on the couch and watched as Shouto took off his jacket, mittens, and snowboots. He was still wearing his pajamas underneath. He sat on the couch beside Izuku and was immediately covered in blankets and squished in his husband's arms.

"Can't breath!" He protested, struggling in Izuku's grip.

"Shh. Die more quietly, my love," Izuku joked, but loosened the hug. "Here, do you want me to turn on the three hour fireplace ambience video?"

Shouto snorted. "We have a fireplace." 

"Yeah, but it was the only place to put the bookshelf." He was right. The bookshelf did look really nice there.

Izuku turned on the TV. The digital fire crackled and swayed, but no heat came from it. Izuku leaned into his left side.

They were sprawled on the couch under at least five blankets. Shouto was leaning against the arm on the couch, legs curled to the side. Izuku was taking up the entire rest of the couch and was using him as a personal heater. It wasn't super comfortable, but it wasn't uncomfortable either.

They both had the day off of hero work today. They were still young enough that they could be stuck as sidekicks, but after leaving UA, almost the entire class became full-fledged heroes immediately. Izuku was currently the number one hero, and Shouto had dropped behind Bakugou again and into the third spot. Izuku hadn't moved at all since earning the title of number one, but Bakugou and Shouto were in a constant struggle to take the number two spot and their positions changed almost every week. 

Since leaving UA, Izuku had somehow grown incredibly tall and developed more muscle. He stood a few inches above Shouto, and he was definitely more muscular.  

Sometimes Shouto missed the days when Izuku was the smaller of the two. Like right now: while Izuku was practically sitting on him. 

"I'm bored," Shouto groaned after about five minutes of staring at the TV and being his husband's personal kotatsu. 

"How about we go somewhere today?" Izuku suggested. "Maybe we could get Christmas presents for our moms and our friends? I want to get some stuff for All Might too." Shouto still didn't quite understand Christmas. The first time he celebrated it was in his first year of highschool, and even now it was confusing still. Izuku loved Christmas. He was one of the only people Shouto knew who was actually Christian. As for Shouto himself, he grew up Shinto, but was now agnostic. 

"That sounds like a good idea," Shouto said.

The mall was nearly empty. It was a slow grey start to the morning. It was tired and foggy, like the world hadn't yet woken up and time moved molasses-slow. 

Izuku, however, was bright and smiley, pulling Shouto from store to store. He spent forever looking at items, muttering to himself about who would like a certain object best, or how he would send it to them. 

Shouto simply listened to his husband talking and enjoying his companionship. Everywhere Izuku went, he brought brightness and warmth with him. No matter how stormy the day or how dark the night Izuku shone like a sun ray through the clouds. That is why Shouto loved him. He was the embodiment of kindness, and his presence always made Shouto feel so happy he could cry. Kindness was not something he experienced much as a child, but Izuku seemed to have an infinite supply. 

"Do you think Asui- no,Tsu  would like this?" Izuku held up an english-style tea set that was fancily painted with porcelain frogs and mushrooms. 

"I think she would enjoy it. It is also useful."

Izuku added it to the growing pile of gifts that he was holding in his arms.

Shouto spotted a calligraphy set with beautiful envelopes and paper to write on. He picked it up. He was going to give it to his mother. They often wrote letters to each other, even though texting was quicker and easier. She was allowed to text ever since she left the hospital, but they still wrote letters. It was like a tradition. She had before apologised for the poor quality of paper and envelopes she sent, so he hopes she would love these new ones.

Izuku carried the heavier bags out to the car, while Shouto carried the smaller ones. Izuku had bought a gift for pretty much everyone he knew. Shouto only bought presents for his mom and siblings, as well as Iida, Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, and Bakugou. He just didn't feel close enough to anyone else to buy them things.

After all of the presents were loaded into the back of the car, they sat up front, waiting for the car to warm up before they started driving. 

"I'm surprised no one there stopped us to ask for autographs," Izuku said. It was true that they often had trouble going out in public because of their fame.

"I think it's because the only people there were old women," Shouto said.

"Probably… hey, Shou, do you wanna go ice skating?"

"I guess? I've never done that before?"

"You literally slide around on ice all the time."

"Well, it's ice that I am controlling. Also, I never have knives strapped to my feet when I'm doing it."

"I think you'll like it. I know this really cool place my mom and I used to go to when I was little. Kacchan used to go too, but he got banned when we were in primary school because he blew up a good chunk of the rink." Shouto laughed at the image of a young Bakugou causing chaos at a skating rink.

They drove to the rink, passing through the town in the mountains and into the city. There was far less snow in the city, and far more cars. 

They stopped in front of a large domed building and got out of the car. Izuku led the way inside, and Shouto kicked the snow off his boots on the sidewalk before entering. 

The lobby consisted of a set of couches and benches off to one side (probably to allow guests to put on skates), lockers on the other side, and a front desk in front of a large room filled with different skates. A teenage girl sat at the front desk, flipping through a book.

They walked up to the desk, and Izuku looked at the sign that displayed prices. 

"Oh my goodness! Hello!" The girl noticed them and scrambled to put a scrap of paper in her book and set it down. "I'm honoured to meet you, thank you so much for protecting this country!" She stood and bowed. 

Izuku giggled, face turning red. "Oh, it's no problem, you don't have to bow!" He always got flustered when people paid attention to him. Which was all the time.

"Sorry! I just didn't think I would ever meet a pro hero, let alone two," the girl blushed and sat back down.

"You don't have to apologise either. Umm can we do the one hour skate session?"

"Yep! I'll get you some skates!" She walked into the back room.

"Isn't she supposed to ask our shoe sizes?" Shouto whispered to Izuku.

"Yeah."

A few seconds later the girl came back. "Sorry, I forgot to ask shoe sizes!"

"Help, I don't know how to tie these," Shouto struggled to tie the laces on the skates. Izuku, who had already gotten his skates on, kneeled down and untied the mess Shouto had made. Then, he laced the strings through and tied them in little bows. 

"Thank you."

Izuku helped him up. He stumbled on the carpeted floor, struggling to balance on the thin blades. Izuku was standing just fine. They walked towards a doorway that stated it led to the rink, and Shouto nearly face-planted with every step. They walked into a room that had bleachers surrounding a large rink. The ceiling was high and arched. There were a few families and a group of middle schoolers on the rink, but it was relatively empty.

Izuku helped him towards the rink, and Shouto slid onto the ice. He felt his legs slip from under him, but Izuku caught him before he could fall.

"Hold onto the wall," Izuku instructed. Shouto held tightly to the cold, ledged wall as Izuku joined him on the rink. Izuku glided perfectly on the ice, and he turned so he could face Shouto.

"How do I do that?" Shouto asked.

"Do what, the turn?"

"No, how do I move."

"Oh, you kind of walk, but you push your feet outwards instead of forward."

"Okay." Shouto took one hand off the wall, though he kept the other on it to balance himself. He pushed his right foot outwards, and he moved slightly to the right. When he tried with his left foot, he slipped backwards. Izuku was once again there to catch him.

"You need to lean forward a little bit to keep your balance," he offered another tip, and he moved Shouto just slightly so he would be positioned correctly. 

"Can I hold your hand?" Shouto asked, feeling unsteady.

Izuku firmly grasped his hand. It was steadying, and the warmth of Izuku's skin grounded Shouto. He slowly moved off the wall and closer to Izuku, squeezing his hand a little too tightly, but Izuku didn't seem to mind.

Izuku began to skate forward, and Shouto tried to keep up, wrapping his other hand over Izuku's other arm to further steady himself. He kept haphazardly falling backwards or forwards, but Izuku tried to balance him as best he could.

Shouto let out a very un-manly and quite frankly embarrassing squeak as a kid skated by a little too closely for comfort and his balance was thrown off. Izuku glanced at him with a grin on his face.

"What?"

"You're cute."

"Stop," Shouto groaned, hiding his blushing face in Izuku's arm.

Izuku skated forward again, leading them in a counter-clockwise circle around the rink. Shouto started to get a hang of skating, but he still wanted to hold his husband's hand. 

"I still can't believe you aren't good at skating," Izuku teased. "I mean, when you fight villains you're constantly sliding around on your ice."

"Again, it's easy because I control the ice, and I also am not wearing knife shoes."

"They're not knife shoes! They're ice skates!" 

"Same thing," Shouto muttered.

Izuku led him further away from the wall and out towards the middle of the rink. Since there were few visitors today, the ice was smooth and almost unmarred. Their skates etched silver lines as they glided across the ice, like calligraphy strokes on blank rice paper. 

Suddenly, Izuku pulled away from Shouto and grabbed both of his hands. 

"I wanna try something," was his only warning- and a vague one at that- before he spun them. Shouto yelped and squeezed Izuku's hands tighter. Air whipped his bangs into his eyes. Now, he was spinning and he couldn't see. G r e a t. 

Shouto decided that it was probably best to keep his eyes closed anyways. He didn't want to see the moment before he inevitably crashed into something. He would rather die in peace, unknowing of what would happen to him... Or maybe he was just being dramatic.

Izuku slowed them down to a stop. 

"Why would you do that?" Shouto slipped but righted himself.

"I don't know. I thought it would be fun," Izuku brushed Shouto's hair out of his face. 

"Yes, because killing your husband is fun."

"I'm not killing you! I just want you to experience the thrills of ice skating!"

"Have fun trying to explain that to the homicide detectives."

Izuku sneezed out a laugh and held his left hand again, skating back towards the safety of the walls.

"It looks like we only have about five more minutes," Izuku checked the time on his phone. "That gives us time to skate around once more with time to spare so we can get back a little earlier than our time runs out," he was going to start muttering about the pros and cons of skating around the rink one more time if Shouto didn't stop him. 

He tugged Izuku's arm lightly enough to jostle him out of his one-sided conversation without causing him to fall.

"Oh, sorry! I was muttering again." Izuku started to skate. 

It was kind of disappointing that Shouto only just now was figuring out how to move on his own (though he still needed to hold onto Izuku for balance) when there was so little time left. 

"I want to try skating on my own for a second," Shouto felt confident enough in his ice skating abilities that he could finally try it.

"Okay, I'll stay nearby so I can catch you if you fall," Izuku gently let go of his hand, corrected his posture, and then skated ahead of him, turning backwards to face him. His arms stretched out towards Shouto, reminiscent of the way a mother would stand across from her child to get them to walk.

Shouto wobbled a bit as he leaned too forward, but he stayed upright. Eyes trained on the ground, he moved one foot slowly and carefully, listening to the sound of the blade slicing the top layer of the ice. He moved his other leg and repeated the forward-sideways movement, gliding for a few inches and then slowing down. 

He repeated the movements, becoming faster and more confident with each one. He looked up and in front of him, towards where Izuku was skating. He beamed a smile at Shouto, his eyes glinting with excitement and his freckled cheeks rosy from the cold. "You're doing amazing Sho!" He praised in that earnest voice that he used whenever he was proud of someone. It made Shouto feel happy. He smiled back.

Then Shouto's ice skate snagged on a barely-there hole in the ice, and he crashed straight into Izuku.

Izuku, with the exact reflexes you would expect the number one hero to have, covered Shouto's body with his arms in a protective embrace and tried his hardest not to hit his head on the ice. Dull pain travelled up his spine as his back hit the ice, but at least Shouto was okay and no one had a concussion. 

"What happened? Are you all right?" Izuku asked, sitting up.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just got distracted."

"By what?" Izuku helped him to his feet.

"I- you- I got distracted by your- by you…" his voice got quieter and higher as the sentence went on. 

Izuku blushed strawberry red and hid his face in the hand that wasn't currently holding Shouto up. "Sho, you're going to kill me," he giggled. Even after a year of marriage they still sometimes acted like a new couple.

"Now come on, we only have two minutes," Shouto reminded him. 

"Oh, right!" They skated towards the opening in the rink's wall that led to dry ground. When they stepped out of the rink, Shouto stumbled a bit, but he eventually got the hang of being on the ground again. 

They headed back to the lobby, swapped out their skates for their shoes, and returned the skates to the girl at the counter all before their hour was over.

"Um… can I… may I have your autographs?" The girl fidgeted nervously.

"Sure!" Izuku answered. 

"Thank you so much!" The girl pulled out the book she was reading earlier and flipped to the front page, handing Izuku a pen. "This is the only thing I have for you to sign, sorry."

Izuku spelled out his hero name in neat English letters, turning the u at the end into a smiley face. Shouto signed his in crisp clean kanji. The girl thanked them and they waved at her as they walked away.

The drive home was easier than the drive there. They lived in a house up in the mountains not too far from Tokyo. It was peaceful and beautiful, but driving to and from the city in snow or bad weather was difficult. At some point today a snow plow must have cleared the road between their neighbourhood and the city. 

It didn't matter much though, as snow was falling again. Puffy thick snowflakes fell from the grey sky. The car's headlights reflected off of them, turning then into bright white sparkles before they fell into dulled obscurity. 

The heater was turned up almost to the highest setting. Shouto actually had to use his quirk to keep himself from dying of heatstroke. Izuku couldn't handle the cold at all. Shouto used to complain, but Izuku insisted that the driver gets to choose the temperature and the music. Shouto thought this was unfair, considering he kept failing his driver's test and couldn't get a license (he's blind in one eye! Of course he can't see the pedestrians!), but he loved Izuku enough that he let it slide. Besides, his husband did have to deal with driving him around everywhere.

They reached their driveway, and Izuku pressed the button on the sun visor that opens the garage. He parked the car in the garage and they got out, grabbing the bags of the newly-bought gifts and bringing them inside. 

Once indoors, they set the bags on the floor of the living room. Their cat, Soba, slunk out of the kitchen and curled around Shouto's left leg, purring. She was a fluffy grey-white that reminded Izuku of the shag rug Mina decorated her dorm room with in their third year. Shouto picked Soba up and pet her on the soft part of her head between her ears. Soba absolutely adored Shouto, but to Izuku, she was a massive asshole. Izuku's theory was that Soba was trying to compete with him for Shouto's love, attention, and most importantly: cuddles. 

Shouto set her down and she swatted at Izuku before creeping away to the bedroom. She was probably going to go sleep under the bed like she usually did.

Izuku had wanted a dog, but it turns out that Shouto is afraid of dogs. So they got a cat instead. Shouto felt it was the best thing that had ever happened to him (besides meeting Izuku, of course) and Izuku felt he should have just gotten a hamster instead. They are smaller and cause much less damage to couches and other things. But, he loved Shouto, so Soba stayed. 

They took off their coats, and Shouto flopped onto the couch, sighing dramatically. Izuku laughed at him and sat by his feet, scrolling through his phone. He wanted to find a nice cookie recipe. It was probably a bad idea to let Shouto anywhere near the kitchen, but he wanted to eat cookies and be festive god dammit! 

"Do you wanna make cookies later?" Izuku asked.

"Yeah," Shouto sat up and turned so he could see Izuku's phone.

"I'm looking for a recipe," Izuku explained. Shouto nodded and laid his head on Izuku's lap. 

Izuku clicked through several different recipe sites. Many of them were a tad complex, so he revised his search by typing the word "easy" into the search bar. To be honest, letting Shouto into the kitchen is a terrible idea, but Izuku himself wasn't much better. Though he certainly caused less damage to the kitchen than Shouto did, his food wasn't exactly very good. Or at least, that's what Kacchan said any time he tried it.

He looked down from his phone for a moment as the new webpage loaded. Shouto was lying with his head on Izuku's lap. The steady rise and fall of his chest and the peaceful expression on his face told Izuku that he was sleeping.

Somehow, during the night Shouto couldn't seem to fall asleep, and he was often plagued with nightmares. But during the day, he could often be found curled up and napping somewhere.

Izuku smiled and delicately moved aside a strand of Shouto's hair that had fallen to the corner of his slightly-parted lips. Shouto drooled in his sleep and probably wouldn't like it much if his hair became covered in spit.

Izuku felt warm champagne bubble in his heart as he watched his husband. He couldn't believe that out of every person in the whole entire world he was married to Shouto.

Oh, the recipe site finally loaded. He scrolled past the several paragraphs of writing that always come before a recipe where they talk about their childhood or something else that doesn't have to do with the recipe. 

At the bottom of the page, there was a picture of the cookies, and beneath that- the recipe. It didn't seem complex. It was just mixing together sugar, flour, egg, and butter. There was also an easy frosting recipe! 

He decided that they were going to cut the cookies into Christmas-themed shapes and then decorate them when they are done, just like Izuku used to do as a kid.

He should probably wake up Shou.

He set his phone to the side and leaned down, brushing Shouto's bangs out of his face. He pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead, and then sat back up. He had long learned that shaking his husband awake only ended in Shou freaking out. 

Shouto blinked, huffing out a confused sound. 

"You fell asleep," Izuku helped him sit up.

"Oh, sorry," Shouto rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"It's okay. I like it."

"Huh?"

"I think it's really cute."

"Oh," the tips of Shouto's ears turned pink and glanced away, fidgeting. As much as everyone else thought Shouto was a stoic and confident hero, Izuku knew the truth. Shouto was just an awkward dork who gets embarrassed when he gets complimented.

"We are gonna make sugar cookies, and we are going to decorate them!" Izuku stood up and grabbed his phone again looking over the recipe.

"Okay, we need sugar, vanilla extract, flour, butter, eggs, and baking powder," Todoroki took the butter and eggs from the fridge while Izuku grabbed the dry ingredients. They took out the necessary utensils and Izuku preheated the oven.

"The recipe says the butter needs to be room temperature," Izuku read the instructions.

"Okay," Shouto placed his left hand on the stick of butter.

"No! No quirks in the kitchen! Shouto, stop it, you're going to set things on fire!" Izuku had flashbacks to the last time Shouto tried to use his quirk to bake. He had accidentally set one of the curtains on fire.

"No, I did it right, see?" Shouto gestured towards the butter. He was right, it was at room temperature, and no damage had been done to the surrounding area.

"You did a good job this time, but don't do it again!" Izuku playfully smacked the back of Shouto's head.

Izuku then began measuring out ingredients. He liked to make sure that everything was exact, that way, the recipe had no chance of going wrong! Once he was done, he poured the ingredients into the bowl and handed Shouto a whisk. Stirring the mixture was pretty much the only thing he could trust him to do. 

The mixture became less watery, and Izuku had Shouto switch out the whisk with a spatula. Shouto stirred the dough with a determined look. Izuku almost laughed at the sheer concentration Shouto used to mix the cookie dough.

Soon, it looked completely mixed up, so Izuku took a rolling pin and rolled the dough out on the floured surface of the table. Shouto sat on the kitchen chair and watched, curious. He had never made cookies before, so all this was completely new to him.

"How about you pick out some cookie cutters?" Izuku asked him,"make sure they are Christmas themed."

Shouto nodded and opened the cabinet with the baking utensils. He fished out a plastic container with a bunch of different plastic cookie cutters. He set it on the table and dug through the box. 

"Is this an All Might cookie cutter?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I forgot I had that! Whenever my mom made cookies, she would make one All Might cookie and give it to me."

Shouto nodded and took the cookie cutter out of the container. He found a snowflake shaped one, a Christmas tree, and one that was shaped like a gingerbread man. 

"There should also be a candy cane one in there somewhere," Izuku had finished rolling out the dough.

"Oh, I thought it was a letter J."

Izuku laughed and took the cookie cutter out of the box, also grabbing a snowman shaped one. He scooped them all into his arms and deposited them closer to the dough.

Shouto picked up the All Might cookie cutter and cut out one cookie, setting it on the baking tray when he was finished. Then, it was a scramble of who could cut the most sugar cookies out of the dough. Shouto stole the snowflake cookie cutter out of Izuku's hand at one point, and Izuku just stood, shocked that his husband would resort to such underhanded measures. 

Before Shouto could use the stolen cookie cutter, Izuku pushed him out of the way and grabbed the candy cane one, stamping as many marks as he could until Shouto could eventually move his arm out of the way.

"No fair, you're really heavy!" Shouto complained as he tried to push Izuku off the bench.

Shouto stopped pushing against his side in what looked like defeat. Then, without warning, he touched the back of Izuku's neck with his freezing cold right hand. Izuku yelped and jumped. Shouto took this moment of surprise to push Izuku out of the way, laughing.

"I said no quirks in the kitchen!"

"You decided to push me. That was just revenge."

"No, you started it!"

"How."

"You stole the cookie cutter!"

Shouto just grumbled and allowed Izuku to keep cutting cookies.

The house smelled of vanilla. The scent was nostalgic and comforting. It reminded Izuku of winter nights in his childhood, how the snow would fall outside while he and his mother sat in their living room, covered by blankets and watching Christmas movies.

The oven warmed the kitchen as the cookies baked. Soba was lying stretched out by the oven, basking in its warmth. Shouto was dozing off at the table, using his arms as a pillow so his head didn't rest on the hard wooden surface. Izuku was making icing. Quietly, of course, since he didn't want to wake Shouto and Soba. He separated the icing into several different bowls and added food colouring to each of them. He poured green into the last bowl, watching the icing take on the rich colour as he mixed it in.

The cookies were nearly done, he noticed as he glanced at the timer on the oven. He spent the remaining time setting the bowls of icing down on the table. He also took a few bottles of sprinkles down from the cupboard.

The timer went off, spooking both his husband and his cat, who each shot up at the loud beeping.

"Sorry about that!" Izuku turned off the timer and took the cookies out of the oven. He carried the tray to the kitchen island to cool down. Soba ran for his legs but he sidestepped, managing to only drop one cookie on the floor. Soba snatched it up and ran.

"No, Soba! That isn't good for you!" Shouto jumped out of his seat and chased after her. "Open your mouth! No, give it to me!"

Izuku laughed and set the tray down. He stepped into the hallway and watched Shouto trying to take the cookie from Soba in the living room. 

"Soba, give it back. Don't eat it, you'll get sick!" Shouto pleaded with her, trying to grab her. He finally managed to pick her up.

"Izuku, help," he called; struggling to hold the cat and get the cookie out of her mouth at the same time. Izuku walked over and tried to be as non-threatening as possible as he tried to grab the cookie out of Soba's mouth. Eventually, he succeeded, though he had scratches all over his arms.

Shouto set Soba down and pet her head. She rubbed her face in Shouto's hand and purred.

Soba was a bit of an asshole, but at least she was nice to Shou. They walked back into the kitchen, and Izuku threw away the remains of the cookie and washed his hands and arms in the sink. 

"Poor Soba could have gotten really sick," Shouto was sitting on the bench again, and Soba was curled up on his lap. 

"She scratched me up really bad," Izuku dried his hands and arms with a towel. 

"No, Soba is an angel. She would never do anything wrong." Shouto joked.

"You watched her do it!"

Izuku read a book as they waited for the cookies to cool, and Shouto petted Soba as he looked at something on his phone. 

"Oh great, we're in the news again," he heard Shouto sigh.

Leaning over to look at his phone, Izuku could see a headline: "Top Heroes Deku and Shouto Seen Skating" someone had taken a photo of Shou falling down.

"Someone must have been taking pictures without us knowing."

"Yeah, but why am I falling down in every photo?" 

"I mean, to be fair, you fell down a lot more times than you stayed up."

Shouto groaned and turned his phone off. He didn't want to acknowledge that Izuku was right, but he was. 

His phone buzzed. He picked it up. Oh great, a message from Bakugou. He opened it and read it. The message contained a picture from the news article (the most embarrassing looking one, of course). Underneath it, Bakugou had typed: Hey dumbass. This must be so embarrassing for you (: 

Izuku snorted, but he tried to cover it up with a cough.

"You're laughing. Bakugou is cyber bullying me and you're laughing."

Izuku didn't even try to stop his laughter from coming out. Sure, Bakugou's text message was hilarious - but Shouto quoting memes in a monotone voice? Even better.

Izuku's laughter must have been infectious, because Shouto was laughing too, covering his mouth with his hand.

When the cookies cooled, Izuku split them into two groups: one for Shouto and another for himself. He set them on the trays and then put them down on the table. 

Izuku began decorating his cookies, but then he noticed that Shouto was staring blankly at the icing like he wasn't sure what to do.

"Hey, Shou, you put the icing on with a butter knife."

"Oh, thank you." Shouto grabbed a butter knife and dipped it in the green frosting. Looks like he's got the hang of it. Izuku turned his attention back to his own cookies.

It made him feel sad whenever he had to help Shouto do basic things. He was happy to help, of course, but it reminded him of how awful Shouto's childhood was. When they were in highschool, his cluelessnes to regular human things gave the impression that he was just a bit sheltered, but once they graduated- and especially once they started living together- Izuku could see how harshly Endeavor had controlled his life.

To see so unsure of how to do something as simple as decorating cookies and unable to do it without instruction made Izuku's heart hurt. It also made him want to punch that bastard Endeavor. 

"Look," Shouto roused him from his thoughts. He was holding a gingerbread man which he had decorated in a lot of green and which had a lopsided smiley face and a few too many sprinkles, "It's you."

It did look a bit like Izuku. It also looked a little bit like a crayon drawing done by a four year old. It was still super cute though, and Shouto's proud smile was even cuter.

"Now I have to make a gingerbread man for you," Izuku picked up his gingerbread man cookie and set it in front of himself. 

He glanced over at Shouto, studying his features for a moment (as if he hasn't memorized them by now) and dipped his butter knife in the white frosting. He cautiously outlined a spot to put it, wanting it to be perfect. 

He finished the hair and the clothing, so he moved on to details. He dotted the face with two white dots of frosting and placed sprinkles for the eyes. Then he painstakingly drew a little mouth. When he was finished, he showed it to Shouto.

"Your's looks so good!" Shouto looked back and forth between Izuku's cookie and the ones he was decorating, "How are you so good at this?"

"I don't know. I don't think it's the greatest…" Izuku looked away, Face heating up.

"It looks like you hired someone to make it," Shouto reassured him. "I think you should just quit heroics and go into cookie decorating."

"You just want a chance at the number one spot," Izuku teased.

"Nooo~" Shouto looked away, then looked back, "okay fine. I do." 

Izuku exploded into laughter as he got to work on his next cookie.

The sun had long since sunken below the horizon. The moon was covered almost entirely by clouds. Snow still fell, softly now, on the silent world below the dark night-sky. Snowflakes sparked like embers beneath the warm honey-glow of the streetlights outside. 

Inside the house, it still smelled like baked cookies. The heater was on a comfortable warm, but the cold was still deep enough that one would only be completely comfortable beneath blankets on a bed. 

Izuku was snuggled up against Shouto's right side. Depending on the temperature, Izuku would also choose one side of him to sleep on. In winter, he sat on the left, and in the sweltering summer, he slept on the right. Their bed was large and comfortable. It was probably big enough to fit a small family on it, but it was just the two of them. And Soba, occasionally. 

Izuku was already asleep. He fell asleep easily if he didn't have anything distracting him. Shouto, on the other hand, struggled to fall asleep. He learned long ago that if he laid still and tried to match his breathing with Izuku's he would fall asleep faster. 

He cuddled closer to Izuku, burying his face in the crook of his neck. He breathed in the summer-warm scent of grass and fresh oranges that always seemed to cling to Izuku. He felt like a warm spring day that melted away the last remaining snow. To be beside Izuku was warm and safe and more wonderful than words could describe.

Joy and love overwhelmed Shouto's heart as he thought of Izuku. Every once in a while he wondered if this was some pleasant dream from which he would one day wake up. It seemed so unbelievable that he was married to Izuku. He was just so kind and so gentle and so perfect that Shouto couldn't even begin to imagine how he deserved to be married to him. 

Lying in the dark snuggled against his husband, Shouto pushed away his doubts and uncertainties. He filled his mind instead with the present, listening to Izuku mutter in his sleep and breathing in his scent. The winters here could be cold and dark. The biting chill would sink into your bones and linger. The only reprieve was the days when the sun shone through the clouds to send its golden light to heat the earth below. 

Sometimes, Shouto's anxieties and doubts swirled in his stomach like a fearsome winter storm, but Izuku was always there to melt away the hopelessness. 

Shouto shifted and yawned, leaning forward to place a gentle kiss on Izuku's cheek.

Yes, Izuku was like the warm sun in the winter, beaming through the dark with a smile on his face and love in his heart.