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C h r i s t m a s t h e n
The Todoroki house looks deceivingly serene and idyllic this Christmas.
The snowy garden, the perfectly melted path, pretty snow and ice sculptures in the snow made with quirks perfect for this sort of design, Christmas lights tastefully lighting it all up.
That all goes away as soon as one would cross the threshold.
Inside, tiny shoes, snow boots, winter coats, hats, mittens, and earmuffs lies scattered around the hallway, and small puddles of melted snow are ready to surprise anyone unfortunate enough to step in them, and these are just a mere hint at the chaos within.
The whole house smells of Christmas cookies and burned sugar, as this year, Fuyumi have turned 12, and with that she finally earned her mothers trust enough to be allowed to oversee the others while baking, and as it turns out, she refuses to waste a single minute of potential baking time.
She is also the perfect mix of firm and patient, which is sorely needed when it comes to getting her brothers to cooperate, focus and behave, all at once.
The chance of walking into the kitchen and not finding Fuyumi and at least one brother hard at work is minimal at this point.
The art of gift wrapping is not lost in the Todoroki household, least of all to the oldest sibling.
Touya has, all trough his 13 years, had a way of particularity about him in general, but when it comes to any sort of crafting he tiptoes a bit too close to the dictator like line for his siblings liking, and that includes gift wrapping.
It would be one thing if he took care of it all himself, but he always insists that everyone joins in to ensure the tradition stays the same, no matter how many tears ensue.
Enji really thought that his work had made him better equipped to handle critique, but Touya's critique is both efficient and brutally honest, and he is only human after all.
Maybe next year he can make it trough without the tears. He'll make sure to work on his corners until then.
While Natuso usually isn't one to use his quirk much, Christmas time is the exception. Touya is usually the artistic one in the family, but the ice- and snow sculpture garden is wholly Natsuo's thing.
It started out as a silly little thing when he was around four, but by his eight Christmas it's a whole three day project, and the whole family participates. Well, Shouto mostly stares with wide eyes and "ooh" and "aahh" at all the right moments, which is arguably a very important job.
The only big rule is that nobody gets to try to make any sculptures of each others. Feelings tends to get hurt when that happens. (Touya's nose is not that big, and Shouto is not that short, and Enji does not look that much like an angry gorilla!)
Shouto may only be five, but he still has a lot of thoughts around Christmas. Mainly he thinks that it should come around a lot more often.
While his family is generally a close knit one, his siblings are suddenly getting more and more busy in their day to day life, and quite frankly, kindergarten doesn't take up as much of his time as he expected it to, so he's really missing them quite a lot.
But when Christmas comes around, they seem to want to be around him all the time, which makes it Shouto's favorite holiday by far. The fact that they all agree to watch a movie of his choice, without any complaints that it's for babies, at least twice during the vacation is truly makes the cherry on top for him.
Being referred to as Candycane for a month is totally worth it, Shouto decides.
C h r i s t m a s n o w
Once again, the Todoroki house looks simply perfect for Christmas.
Another year of beautiful snow covering the garden, perfectly melted paths, otherworldly beautiful snow- and ice sculptures spread around the garden, and lots and lots of Christmas lights lighting it all up.
One would believe that since the youngest child in the house is now 17, the chaos within would be at least a little mellowed out, but no such luck.
The shoes, snow boots, winter coats, hats, mittens, and earmuffs may be bigger, but they are just as scattered as they always were, and the puddles of melted snow are just as annoying to people who does not look before they step, and the chaos within is just as prominent as ever.
The smell of Christmas cookies and burned sugar are still present, because Fuyumi have only gotten better at putting her brothers in action over the years.
With her 24 years of age, and now her experience as an elementary school teacher, she makes the perfect head of the kitchen. Someone needs to keep her brothers from burning their fingers, tossing the flour around, writing profanities on the cookies, and general making huge messes.
The entire household are very aware that if they are to step into the kitchen when Fuyumi is there, either making or tasting cookies are pretty much a guarantee at this point.
They wouldn't change it for the world.
When it comes to the gift wrapping, Touya has truly stepped up his game. A couple of years back, he found himself a portable gift wrapping station, and it all escalated from there.
Being 25 hasn't put any sort of damper on Touya's feelings regarding Christmas and the importance of a perfectly wrapped present, nor has it slowed down his insisting that the last one is a mandatory family activity.
There have, however, been some compromises when it comes to the feedback, and if Touya has snuck down in the middle of the night to fix up his dads worst wrapping jobs, that's his own business.
Over the years, Natsuo have come to embrace his quirk quite fondly, mainly in favor of his beloved Christmas project.
As his 20th Christmas is about to roll around, he's dead set on surpassing himself once again, and there are no limits to his joy when he realizes just how much Shouto's quirk have evolved after he started attending UA, and the artistic potential that unlocks for him and his project.
The entire family still helps out, but the role of awed spectator have been moved from Shouto to Touya after the rather unfortunate incident a few years ago when Touya sneezed and accidentally melted half of the finished sculptures.
Natsuo still has nightmares about that faithful day years later.
Now, Shouto may not be a kid anymore, but even at 17, and even with his provincial hero license, he is still the baby of the family, and he is perfectly happy with that.
He still thinks Christmas could come around a little more often, too.
Don't get it wrong, he knows he is very lucky that he and his siblings still see each other as much as they do, even after Shouto moved out to the dorms at UA, but coming home for Christmas still feels as magical and special it always has.
He's still allowed to be in charge of a few movie nights during the holidays, and the lack of complaints when it comes to his choice of movies is still his favorite part.
Shouto is more than happy to be the family's resident Candycane for a month or so, as long as Christmas doesn't lose it's magic any time soon.
Even though a lot of things have stayed the same for Christmas at the Todoroki house over the years, a major change have turned up a couple of years ago; they now have a standard guest.
The whole family, with the exception of Enji, noticed that Touya had found someone special a few years back, even if he was suspiciously tight lipped about it.
That was until Enji came home from work one day, clearly shaken to the core, telling his wife that he had caught their eldest son making out with the #2 hero, Hawks, in a broom closet at his own damn agency.
He is, if possible, even more shocked at seeing his wife humorous reaction, but after a bit of coaxing, he does agree that the relationship seems to do his eldest troublemaker some good.
After that, Touya starts bringing Hawks, or Keigo, privately, around his family a lot, and they actually get along really well, so when Christmas comes around that first year, it feels natural for them to invite Keigo.
Keigo was honestly quite excited to celebrate Christmas with a real family, and he was not disappointed; Fuyumi showed him no more mercy in the kitchen than she did her brothers, Natsuo was ecstatic when Keigo offered his sharp feathers as a precision tool for the sculpture garden, and Shouto was just happy to have another person joining them on his movie nights.
However, Keigo wasn't stupid, and he knew that his boyfriend's gift wrapping station was the only place he did not dare set foot, even a couple years into their relationship.
Some things are best left a mystery, after all.