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It’s not often that Shouto finds himself at a shopping mall, but Christmas is coming and he figures he should at least try to get something for his siblings. He already has a gift for his mother, something small that he had picked out earlier in the week, but his siblings have proven to be significantly more difficult to shop for.
A new jacket for Natsuo? Nah, he already has one that he wears all the time, he doesn’t need another one. What about a scarf? Does he even like scarves?
Maybe new writing utensils for Fuyumi? What do teachers use anyway? Books? Textbooks? Art supplies?
Shouto lets out a sigh in frustration and his shoulders slump forward. It’s been two years since he started to work on his relationship with his siblings, but he doesn’t think shopping for them is ever going to get any easier.
His pulse quickens in annoyance as he walks down the crowded hallways and is forced to side-step, back-track, and make sudden stops just to keep himself from crashing head-on with other people.
He hates the place—the faster he gets out of it, the better he’ll be.
Spotting a small bookstore tucked between a candy shop and a computer store, Shouto walks inside. Perhaps a place like this will help him find his sister’s gift.
The place is not very big, but every square inch is covered with books, towering high on piles scattered around the floor and stuffed in full shelves. There are a few people around the store, but it’s blissfully empty when compared to the hallways outside
He lets out a sigh of relief, feeling the tension that had weighed him down only a few moments before leaving his body. There is something familiar about this place that calms him down.
Taking his time—he is in no rush to get back out and into the mob, after all—he wanders the aisles, drifting from genre to genre like a boat would from island to island, looking for any treasures hidden deep within the shelves that line the walls.
A locked cabinet catches his eye. Ring for assistance , reads a small plaque beneath a button placed on the outside. Curiosity piqued, Shouto leans in closer to the glass to take a better look.
There are five books inside, each on its own shelf, but one in particular catches his eye. The Shadow of the Wind , reads the title, with a small plaque that reads First Edition, Signed next to it. It’s not a particularly old book, but the title sounds remarkably familiar, the shapes of the letters and the sounds of the words tugging at a memory.
He stares at it for a moment longer and the image of Yaoyorozu drifts into his mind. He can see her curled up in one of the couches in the dorm building, a book on her lap and a cup of tea warming her hands.
Caught off guard by the memory, he takes a step back and shakes his head in an attempt to get rid of the image.
Right, Fuyumi. He needs to find a gift for his sister, he reprimands himself, turning around and walking away.
He roams up and down the aisles once again, picking up random things and putting them back down without much thought, mind instead drifting back to the book behind the glass and the girl that he has come to associate it with.
Standing at the end of an aisle, Shouto turns back to look at the cabinet, only to find a couple standing in front of it and pointing excitedly at the book. He stops in his tracks as his stomach twists painfully and his mouth goes dry.
Not knowing how or when, Shouto finds himself pressing the button next to the cabinet, startling the couple who take a step back and away from him.
“How may I help you today, sir?” asks a store worker that appeared from behind the cabinet.
“I want this book.” He points towards it with a determination he doesn’t remember mustering.
“Certainly,” says the worker, unlocking the cabinet and taking the book with him towards the register. “That would be 61,920 yen.”
Unphased, Shouto hands over his father’s credit card and walks out of the store, book safely wrapped and tucked away in his bag.
His siblings would have to do with gift cards this year.
Hours later, Shouto sits on the floor in his bedroom, eyebrows drawn and gaze set on the small package in front of him, the little golden bow catching the light and mocking him with it.
He pokes it lightly with one finger. When had the store clerk wrapped it?
He sighs and lays down on the tatami floor, now faced with an issue he had completely neglected to consider back at the store—how is he going to give her the gift? Is it too much? Would it be better to get something for everybody else?
He drapes an arm over his eyes, hiding from the light and the gift.
It's just a gift, damnit. Just give it to her.
The same image of her that he saw at the bookstore resurfaces in his mind and his heart quickens.
He pushes himself off the floor, picks up the book, and stuffs it inside his wardrobe, behind layers of Endeavor sweaters and sample merchandise that the old man has sent him over the years.
Pushing the door closed, he leans against it as he feels his face get hotter by the second. He covers his face with his right hand, activating his quirk to put an end to the oncoming blush before it reaches the tip of his ears.
What on earth is wrong with him?
A knock on the door distracts him from his quandary.
“Todoroki-kun!” comes Hagakure’s voice through the door. “We are picking our secret santa assignments!”
Secret santa?
Shouto lifts his head, an idea taking shape in his mind.
He opens the door to find Ashido, Yaoyorozu, and Hagakure, the latter holding out a red and white hat. His eyes flick towards Yaoyorozu and his mouth goes dry, the book almost burning a hole in the wardrobe.
He clears his throat. “Can I help you?”
“Pick a name out of the hat!” says Hagakure excitedly. “There are only two left, since you were out when we picked them, but don’t worry, we didn’t cheat.”
His eyes roam from girl to girl, settling on Yaoyorozu. A soft smile forms on her face, her eyes scrunching up on the corners as she nods. He averts his eyes, feeling the blush creeping back up the back of his neck and hastily moves his hand towards the hat.
He moves his hand around, almost willing Yaoyorozu’s paper to come to him. The odds are slim, extremely so, since there are only two papers left and he’s not even sure one of them holds her name, but he refuses to acknowledge any other option.
“Don’t forget, everything needs to be ready for next Saturday,” adds Ashido as he decides on a paper.
He nods. “Sure.”
The three start walking away, heading towards the elevators when Yaoyorozu turns back to face him. “Have a good night, Todoroki-san,” she says, walking backwards for a few steps before turning back around and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
He lifts up a hand to wave at her. “You too, Yaoyorozu,” he whispers.
He closes the door and takes a peek to see his assigned partner.
His stomach drops and he does a double take, just to make sure that he read it right, only to find the same name staring up at him.
Mineta Minoru .
Katsuki is hungry.
He had gone up to his room earlier than usual to work on his gauntlets—the explosions aren’t as powerful as he would like, and he knows he can do a much better job than anything those extras in the support department can come up with—but now he is real fucking hungry and has no snacks left thanks to Shitty Hair and Pikachu.
He looks over to the clock on the other side of the room and finds that it’s almost ten—time to go to bed, as far as he is concerned—but the rumbling in his stomach forces him to throw away his tools and headphones and head to the kitchen.
“Bakugou!” calls Ashido from the couch as soon as he steps off the elevator, her head popping up from behind the cushions like a jack-in-the-box. “You went up to your room too early and didn’t pick your secret santa partner!”
“And we went to your room but you didn’t open the door,” adds Hagakure from next to Ahiso.
He ignores them and heads directly to the kitchen—he is there to get food, not to strike up conversation.
However, much to his dismay, they get up and follow him with a red and white hat clutched in Ashido’s right hand.
Letting out a grunt of annoyance, he heads to the fridge in an effort to ignore their approach—all he wanted was some food, damn it—but Ashido is there when he turns around with the bottle of juice in his hand.
“What the hell do you want?” he asks while attempting to side step her.
“Everybody already picked their partners,” says Ashido, holding the santa hat out to him. The hat that, he presumes, held all the pieces of papers with their names.
“So?” Katsuki scowls at her but she’s completely unphased, instead putting the bloody hat right in his face—a fucking nusiance, that’s what she is.
“Go ahead, take the last paper,” she says with a smile. “Don’t be a killjoy.”
“I’m not a fucking killjoy,” he yells as he angrily sticks his hand in the hat, taking out the last piece of paper. “Happy now?” he asks, stuffing the paper in his pocket without looking.
“Don’t forget to have the gift ready by-”
“Whatever,” he says, walking back the way he came.
It’s not until Katsuki is in the elevator that he takes the paper out of his pocket to look at it.
There, written in elegant handwriting, he finds the name Yaoyorozu Momo .
Katsuki stomps into the boys’ changing room on Monday morning. He ended up going to bed late the night before thanks to Ashido and her secret santa shit.
So he’s late, so late that only Kaminari and Todoroki are left inside.
And he’s pissed .
“Dude, you’re late,” says Kaminari as he finishes putting on his tacky glasses and jacket.
Katsuki grunts in acknowledgement but doesn’t say anything else, opting instead for opening his locker and changing into his hero outfit.
“Sooo,” starts Kaminari, elongating the vowel in the most annoying way possible. “Who’d you get for secret santa?”
Katsuki turns to look at him with a scowl on his face. “Do I look like a fucking snitch to you?”
“Come on, Bakugou,” complains Kaminari, “It’s just you, me, and Todoroki here. Nobody is going to snitch,” he adds, lowering his voice to a whisper and looking about the room as if trying to catch intruders.
He doesn’t have time for this, he’s just going to get a headache if he runs into any more annoying people.
“I’ll tell you if you shut the hell up.”
Kiminari nods enthusiastically in response, almost buzzing with excitement.
“Ponytail.”
Kaminari lets out a loud gasp. “Do you want me to ask Jirou for ideas?”
Katsuki slams shut his locker door. “I think I can manage buying a fucking gift.”
Kaminari opens his mouth to reply when Kirishima storms into the room. “Dude, Aizawa-sensei is waiting and he is not happy about it.”
“Coming,” says Kaminari rushing to the door and leaving with his friend.
Taking a deep breath, Katsuki heads to the door when Todoroki steps in front of him, blocking the exit.
Not this again.
“Move it, Icy Hot.”
"Trade with me, Bakugou."
Huh? The fuck is he talking about. "Trade what?"
"Secret santa partner."
"The fuck would I do that?"
"Because I want Yaoyorozu."
He what? He narrows his eyes at him. "You what?"
"I already bought a gift for her."
Katsuki stares him down, but Todoroki doesn’t flinch. Damn their height difference, it’s been over two years since they met and the guy just keeps getting taller and taller.
He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. "What's in it for me?"
Todoroki looks away, grasping his chin with one hand as if deep in thought, looking for the right words to convince him.
"The reward of helping a friend?"
"Ha! We're not fucking friends, Half and Half," he growls at him, leaning closer. "You better think of something better than that."
“I’ll take your cleaning duty for a month.”
Katsuki scoffs. “Shitty Hair is already doing that.”
"I'll take on your cooking duties for a week."
"As if I want to eat your shitty cooking for an entire week," he says, sidestepping him and reaching the door. "Forget it, I'm keeping Ponytail. Figure out on your own how to give her the gift."
It’s Tuesday after school, and mercifully neither Kirishima nor Kaminari are pestering Katsuki, choosing instead to bolt over to the dorm to try the new video game Sero had received as an early Christmas gift from his parents.
“Yaoyorozu,” comes Todoroki’s voice.
Katsuki does not mean to listen to their conversation—why the hell would he waste time on a pair of losers when he has much more important things to do?—but he can’t help that it takes place right behind him.
“How can I help you, Todoroki-san?”
“Could we-”
“Yaoyorozu,” calls Aizawa from the front of the classroom. “Please take these notebooks to the teacher’s lounge for me.”
“Yes, sir,” she replies loudly before lowering her voice once more. “I apologize, Todoroki-san, but I have to go now.”
“Uh, sure.”
She walks past Katsuki and towards the front of the classroom, stopping to grab the pile of notebooks before heading out the door.
She stops at the threshold, turning back to send one last lingering glance in the opposite direction. He follows her gaze only to find her looking at Todoroki, who is busy putting away his books, a golden bow sticking from the top of his school bag.
He trunks back as the door closes behind Yaoyorozu.
What the hell is going on?
“Bakugou,” says Aizawa. “If you don’t have anything better to do than stand there, make sure you deliver these files to All Might. He is training with the first years in Ground Beta.”
“No, I was-”
“Now.”
Fucking Half and Half.
Taking the files from Aizawa he heads to Ground Beta, stomping his feet and muttering in the frigid December afternoon.
On Wednesday night, Katsuki is playing a video game in the living room when Todoroki approaches the area.
Not that he's paying attention, but the loud greeting the guy gets from Kaminari is enough to shake his intense focus from the game in front of him.
“Yaoyorozu, can I see you outside?”
Aw, fuck, not this again.
“Right now?”
“If you can.”
“Well, ah, I would love to," she says. " But it’s snowing right now, Todoroki-san."
“Oh, so it is.”
Katsuki hears him sigh.
Katsuki is far enough ahead in his game to chance a glance towards his classmate, who is heading back towards the elevator with a hand draped protectively over his school bag while Ponytail stares at his retreating back.
He snickers at Half and Half's failed attempt.
Fucking loser.
"In your face Bakugou!" comes Shitty Hair’s voice.
He turns around to find a big You Lose sign written in bright red flashing letters on his side of the screen.
He growls, tightening his grip on the controller until he hears a crack.
Thursday night is Katsuki and Iida’s assigned clean up time.
He’s busy making sure that any leftovers are put away in the fridge and the bowls and plates in the sink are clean when the boys’ elevator doors open and out comes Todoroki, a package wrapped in white paper with a golden bow held tightly in his hand.
Katsuki sneers and watches as Half and Half heads towards the girls’ elevator.
“Todoroki-kun,” says Iida, who is tidying up the living room. “It’s almost time for lights out, shouldn’t you be in your room?”
“I just need to stop by Yaoyoorozu’s room for a minute,” he says, not bothering to stop.
Running to intercept him, Iida stands in front of the elevator doors, arms waving wildly in the air. “You know boys are not allowed on the girls’ floors.”
Katsuki snickers at Todoroki, pressing his lips tightly, trying to contain his laughter.
“But I-”
“If you need to talk to her, talk to her in the morning.”
Failing to stifle his laughter, Katsuki lets out a boisterous guffaw that shakes his whole body as he witnesses Icy Hot’s failure for the third time. In the midst of his bout of laughter, he drops the bowl he is currently washing and it falls into the sink full of water, which splashes all over the countertop and soaks him in dirty water.
His laughter dies in an instant and is instead replaced by a murderous growl directed in Todoroki’s direction, his eyebrows twitching in anger.
“You fucking bastard! This is your fault,” he yells at Todoroki, sparks coming from the palms of his outstretched hands. “You better come clean this up before I blow you up into a million tiny little pieces.”
Todoroki walks back to the boys’ elevator and walks inside. “Not my fault you didn’t take the deal, Bakugou.”
Katsuki bares his teeth and creates a small explosion. He doesn’t care how many times Half and Half tries to give Ponytail the gift, but does it always have to inconvenience him?
Fucking hell, there are more students to annoy beside him.
It’s Friday morning and Katsuki is fucking tired of all he back and forth between Half and Half and Ponytail— it took him an extra hour to clean the mess Icy Hot caused the night before.
If he doesn’t take this into his own hands he is going to end up murdering the bastard.
The elevator doors open on the fourth floor and he steps in, only to find Todoroki already in there.
"Here you go you fucking loser," says Bakugou, slamming the paper to Todoroki's chest as he walks past him and the doors close behind him. "You better not make me regret this."
Todoroki reaches a hand up to grab the paper, eyes going wide when he reads the name on it.
"But what's in it for you?"
"Trust me, not being collateral damage in your pathetic attempts to give her that fucking gift is more than enough."
A smile forms in Todoroki's face. "Thank you."
Ew, Half and Half is fucking whipped.
And they're not even together yet.
Katsuki grimances—he's going to regret this, isn't he?
“Here,” says Todoroki, handing him his own paper as they arrive on the first floor.
Katsuki rips it away from his hand and looks at the name of his new secret santa partner.
His blood boils in his veins.
Fucking grape.
Shouto takes a deep breath and heads towards the living room.
It’s Saturday night, the date of the gift exchange, and he can’t keep his hands from shaking.
The place is packed with his classmates, all dressed in their traditional red and white suits and ready to celebrate their last Christmas together as students—he’s still not fond of the color scheme, but it’s now something he’s come to tolerate in exchange for celebrating together.
They all had worked hard earlier in the day to decorate the common areas and it had paid off. There are hand-made snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, multicolored lights streaming down the windows, and a towering Christmas tree bedecked in green and red decorations and small ornaments of each of them in their hero outfits (courtesy of Yaoyorozu herself) hanging from the branches.
He takes a seat on one of the couches, the one closest to the Christmas tree, and tightens his hold on the package in his hands as he waits for the exchange to begin.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spots Yaoyorozu coming towards him.
“Is this seat taken, Todoroki-san?” she asks, pointing to the space next to him.
He raises his head to look at her, his lips curving into a small smile. “No,” he simply says as she takes the seat.
“You should put your gift under the tree, with the other ones.”
“Ah, well,” he says, scratching the back of his head. “I don’t want it to get lost.”
She chuckles at his words, the sound making the annoying blush that’s been appearing whenever he’s around her creep back up his neck.
At that moment, Ashido stands up in front of everybody, clapping her hands enthusiastically. “Okay, now that we are all here, let’s get the exchange started!”
The class cheers loudly.
“We are going to pick one gift from under the tree and the person who gets it then gives their gift to their partner and so on,” says Hagakure. “Any questions?”
When nobody says anything, she crouches next to the tree, picks up a small box wrapped in silver, and begins the exchange.
Shouto’s attention drifts off as soon as it begins, not really caring about what the others are getting or whose turn it is—at least he wasn’t, not until a small package wrapped in bright green paper appears in his line of vision.
"Merry Christmas," says Kirishima.
Shouto looks up surprised. In the midst of the fiasco that was trying to give Yaoyorozu her present he had completely forgotten that he’d be receiving one as well.
Setting Yaoyorozu’s gift aside, he accepts his gift from Kirishima’s outstretched hand and tears the wrapping paper. Inside, is a small box with an all you can eat pass for one at his favorite soba place, valid for the next month.
“Thanks,” he says, already thinking about his next few visits over the upcoming break.
“Now it’s your turn Todoroki-kun,” says Hagakure, crouching beneath the tree. “But I don’t see a gift from you here.”
“It’s right here,” he says grabbing the gift from where he had placed it.
Hands shaking, he extends it towards Yaoyorozu. “Merry Christmas.”
Her eyes widen in surprise.
“Thank you, Todoroki-san,” she says with a smile.
He watches her intently as her hands undo the bow and tear the wrapping paper. He sees them still as the book comes into view.
Carefully and ever so slowly, her hands caress the cover and then move to open it. A soft gasp escapes her slightly parted lips.
“A signed first edition?” she asks, eyes growing even wider as she turns to look at him.
“Damn, Yaomomo,” says Jirou, leaning over Yaoyorozu’s other side to get a better look. “Isn’t that your favorite book?”
Yaoyorozu nods in acknowledgement, not tearing her gaze away from his.
Ah, that’s why the title was so familiar.
“How- how did you know?”
Clearing his throat, he leans forward and places his elbows on his knees while looking at her. “I saw it and it reminded me of you.”
A light pink blush spreads on her cheeks and his heart skips a beat.
“No fair, Todoroki!” says Ashido. “You went over the spending limit, didn’t you?”
"There was a limit?" he asks, turning to look at her.
“Of course there was a limit!” says Ashido. “Not all of us have your unlimited spending power.”
“Oh, I didn’t know” he shrugs his shoulders and turns back to look at Yaoyorozu. “I bought it before we got our secret santa partners, anyway.”
The room grows quiet and the only sound Shouto can hear is the rush of blood in his ears as his heart speeds up.
Yaoyorozu’s cheeks change from pink to a bright red and she looks down at the book, hands hovering over it almost reverently as her hair cascades over her shoulders and shields her from view.
On a seat opposite to the couch, Katsuki snarls.
He’s gonna barf if this goes on for much longer. Isn’t it enough to have put up with Half and Half and his idiocy for an entire fucking week?
Deciding that he’s had enough, he reaches into the pocket of his coat and takes out his secret santa gift. In one swift movement, he throws a brand new pair of unwrapped socks at Mineta, the cardboard tag hitting him square in the face.
Mineta yells, drawing everybody’s attention towards him.
“Choke on that, you fucking grape.”
"Bakugou, no!" Ashido admonishes, attempting to hit him over the head with a torn piece of wrapping paper. "You're ruining the exchange! It's Yaomomo's turn to give her gift to her partner."
"Hell if I care," he growls back. "Besides, it's not like she's even paying attention," he says pointing in Ponytail’s direction, who is now caught up in a staring match with Todoroki.
Yuck, how is Katsuki supposed to survive the rest of the school year living in the same dorm as those two?
“Yaomomo?” asks Ashido, waving her hand in her direction.
The mention of her name seems to snap her back to reality and she turns to face the entire class once again—cheeks still burning red—as Todoroki leans back on the couch cushions, a stupid smile on his face and his eyes never leaving Yaoyorozu.
“Oh. I apologize, everyone,” she says tugging the book closer to her chest and reaching over to the tree to pick up a gift box and giving it to Tokoyami. “Let’s continue, shall we?”
About damn time.