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Christmas in Japan as a single, twenty-five-year-old man, honestly sucks if Izuku can be completely honest. There’s really nothing to look forward to. He can’t spend it with his mom, eating fried chicken and watching movies as he did during his childhood years. He can’t spend it with his classmates, commiserating their singleness, as they did when he lived in the UA dorms. He can’t spend it having a big, hearty dinner with a bunch of friends as he did during his internship in the USA. He can’t even spend the night working, as he did when he was a fresh-faced sidekick, always being scheduled for the worst shifts.
At this point in Izuku’s life, Christmas has nothing to offer him except a painful reminder that he doesn’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend to spend it with.
It should be alright. It should. It’s not like Izuku’s lack of a romantic partner is anything new—he lives with that knowledge the whole year, not just Christmas. And he’s happy his friends are all in relationships of their own, meaning they’ll be having nice date nights with their significant others and won’t be available to hang out. Izuku is happy for his friends. He truly is. It should be alright.
He already has a plan. It’s not the most exciting plan in the world but the life of a hero can use some non-exciting nights from time to time. Izuku will pass by his favorite konbini on his way home after work, and grab some delicious, fat-dripping fried chicken and the smallest cake he can find. Then he’ll go home, watch movies on his own, eat way too many carbs, and rest. It’s nothing grand but it should be a pretty relaxing night if he does say so himself.
That is, if he manages to not think about his deep-rooted feelings for his best friend and the years of pitiful pining he has given the man who probably doesn’t even know today is Christmas. The only problem is that the romantic mood Christmas has in Japan makes it very, very hard for Izuku to ignore that his only wish for this day would be to walk hand in hand with Kacchan under fairy lights.
Yeah, right. Not even a Christmas miracle would get Kacchan to walk under fairy lights with him. Izuku is sure that if he ever suggested it, even under the guise of a friendly hang out, he’d be treated to an hours-long rant about how Christmas and everything concerned with it is “shitty” (among other things). Kacchan would probably mock him for years to come over Izuku’s childish wonder for colorful LEDs on strings.
And that’s the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario would be finding out Kacchan has a date. Izuku doesn’t think his heart would survive discovering Kacchan has forsaken his perpetually single status right on Christmas Day. There’s not enough ice cream and tissues in the city of Tokyo to deal with that discovery. That’s a stone better left unturned.
To be sure Izuku doesn’t get any news on what Kacchan will be doing for his Christmas night (and risk a lactose overdose), Izuku makes a point of avoiding him the whole day. It’s not an easy feat since they work at the same agency—locker rooms, cafeteria, break rooms, even the entrance lobby are danger zones. Izuku could run into him absolutely anywhere and the festive red and green decor at the agency would make it difficult to talk about anything not holiday related.
But Izuku does his best. He avoids any common rooms, takes a new sidekick to patrol with him, and volunteers to fill out some reports that will make sure he can hide away in his office without anyone bothering him. It’s truly a flawless victory.
Until it isn’t.
“Deku!” the voice he’s been both dreading and longing to hear all day calls for him.
Izuku is just a few feet away from the agency’s door. A few feet away from freedom and a night of relaxation without desperation. He could run. Kacchan is fast, but Izuku doubts he’d risk another write-up on his permanent record just to rub it in Izuku’s face that he has a Christmas date. Or maybe he would. Kacchan does like rubbing his victories in Izuku’s face a lot.
“Deku! Wait up, shitty nerd!”
Who is Izuku kidding? As if he could ever hear Kacchan calling for him and walk away. With a defeated sigh, he turns around, already putting a business-as-usual smile on his face.
“Hi, Kacchan,” he greets. “How can I help you?”
“Where the hell have you been the whole day?” Kacchan huffs, looking personally offended by Izuku not being in his peripheral vision for once.
“Filling out reports,” Izuku says, feigning innocence.
Kacchan may not return Izuku’s romantic feelings, but they do share a weird friendship. Checking in on each other is a daily occurrence for them, as it’s training together, patrolling, working out, and sometimes even grabbing a bowl of ramen after work. It’s a delicate balance that Izuku works hard to maintain, between keeping himself relevant to Kacchan’s life and not smothering him with his constant need to say Kacchan sugoi. Izuku knows this balance was disrupted today so it’s not unexpected that Kacchan is annoyed by it.
“Whatever,” Kacchan dismisses. “Let’s grab a sparring room.”
“Ahh...” Izuku quickly tries to come up with an excuse as to why he can’t spar today. “I—I was kind on my way out? I’m really tired today and—”
Kacchan clicks his tongue and grabs Izuku by the collar, dragging him away from the exit. “Stop being a lazy nerd,” he orders.
Izuku tries to wiggle out of Kacchan’s hold without any success. “I’m—I’m not! I just—I gotta go home and—”
“What?” Kacchan barks at his face. Izuku can see his annoyance is quickly becoming anger by the way his red eyes glare straight into his soul. “Do you have someone waiting for you?”
“N-no!” Izuku waves his hands in front of his face—a nervous response he never grew out of. “I—I—”
“Then you can train with me,” Kacchan states, leaving no room for argument.
Izuku sighs, defeated. “Alright, Kacchan.”
On the plus side, since clearly Kacchan doesn’t know today is Christmas, he doesn’t have a date; Izuku didn’t need to be so wary of that possibility in the first place. However, his plans of a nice relaxing night of fried chicken and cake quickly become history, since his and Kacchan’s spars usually last hours and leave him too sore and tired for actual resting.
“No quirks today,” Kacchan announces when they enter the training room. “You’ve got to work on your shitty feet.”
Trust Kacchan to kidnap Izuku for a training session against his will and still make it sound like he’s doing Izuku a favor. And trust Izuku to not argue against it.
“Hai, Kacchan…” he acquiesces.
Truth be told, his footwork isn’t shitty, though it could use some polishing. Most villains don’t pose a threat to him, which can sometimes make Izuku feel like he has his technique in a good place. Kacchan makes sure to knock that belief down time and time again—just to keep Izuku on his toes.
That does seem to be the norm between him and Kacchan. Every time Izuku thinks he has something kind of under control, Kacchan goes on to show him that no, he doesn’t. If Izuku thinks he knows where his relationship with Kacchan stands, Kacchan is quick to turn that belief upside down. Following this pattern, it’s not so out of the ordinary that on a day Izuku decides to avoid him, Kacchan decides it’s imperative they spend the whole night sparring.
“Uuf!” The air gets knocked out of Izuku’s lungs as his back hits the floor. Kacchan swept his legs while Izuku was lost in thought.
“The hell are you thinking about? Think you’re good enough to not pay attention to me during a fight, shitty nerd?!” Kacchan accuses.
“I didn’t know we had started yet,” Izuku grumbles as he gets up, frustration rising inside of him.
“Keep your eyes on me, Deku!”
Izuku almost rolls his eyes. This spiel is getting old and he’s truly not in the mood for it today. He refrains from saying as much though, because he’s pretty sure Kacchan will try to kill him otherwise and he doesn’t want to create any more work to the agency’s cleaning staff on Christmas night.
It’s clear there’s no walking away from Kacchan. Not until they at least have worked up a sweat. Then Izuku can try to convince Kacchan it’s not a good idea to stay out late sparring on a weeknight. It’s easier to appeal to Kacchan’s need for a solid sleep schedule than it is to appeal to his common sense. Now, all Izuku can do is turn his focus to the fight and try not to get too beat up.
Kacchan doesn’t seem to want to make things easy for Izuku, though. He’s going at it as if it’s a life-or-death fight, giving his all, making Izuku sweat, and taunting him the whole way through. Izuku has been trying to dodge more than engage, which has only been spurring Kacchan on.
“What’s the matter, Deku? Too afraid to face me?” Kacchan taunts, after Izuku dodges another attack.
“Just working on my footwork like you said,” Izuku grumbles.
“So you admit I’m right about your footwork being shitty!” Kacchan teases him, laughing.
“Whatever, Kacchan,” he sighs. “Maybe we should stop for today? It’s getting late—”
“We barely started! Are you saying you can’t keep up with me?” he continues taunting. “If you want to admit I’m the best, go ahead!”
Izuku rolls his eyes at the provocation. Sometimes it feels like Kacchan hasn’t changed much since their nursery days when he’d brag about climbing the monkey bars faster than anyone else.
“Alright, Kacchan, whatever you say,” he agrees half-heartedly, if it means he can cut this disaster of a night short. “Can we wrap up?”
“Are you saying I’m the best?” Kacchan presses on, still throwing attacks for Izuku to dodge. “That I win?”
It’s easier to handle the kicks to his legs and the punches to his stomach than it is to accept that his and Kacchan’s relationship hasn’t evolved even a little bit. For Kacchan, it’s still just rivalry. Izuku’s only worth is as an opponent to beat and keep down.
“I’m saying I’m done with this fight,” Izuku says tiredly, turning around to walk away.
Turning his back on the enemy during a fight is never smart. Still, Izuku had hope that Kacchan wouldn’t attack him like that, that Kacchan had too much pride to hit an opponent unexpectedly.
He was wrong.
Kacchan runs after him and kicks him in the back. Izuku falls to the ground, face first, with a painful thump. As if that’s not enough, Kacchan wrestles him on the floor, trying to restrain him.
“Let me go!”
“Tell me I’m the best!” Kacchan insists.
“You’re a pain in the ass! Let me go!” Izuku bites back angrily, trying to push Kacchan away.
“What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you fight me like normal?” Kacchan presses on, keeping his whole weight on Izuku’s back to not let him get away.
“Because I don’t want to! I want to go home!” he says, thrashing around to unbalance Kacchan.
“Fuck you! Answer me!” Kacchan tries holding Izuku’s shoulders with his hands while his legs remain hooked on Izuku’s.
“Fuck you! Let me go!” Finally, Izuku manages to roll on his back, forcing Kacchan back to the tatami.
“No!” Kacchan doesn’t accept the defeat, lunging over Izuku to hold him down once again.
In their scramble, Kacchan tries again grabbing Izuku by the shoulders but Izuku slips his body down, attempting to get away. He’s not fast enough to get away and Kacchan isn’t fast enough to realize their change of positions, making Kacchan’s hand that was aiming for his shoulder go with full force to Izuku’s nose.
“Argh!” Izuku cries in pain when the heel of Kacchan’s palm goes straight to his nose.
It becomes hard to breathe and even harder to think. His head spins from the blow. He opens his mouth, trying to get some air, and only feels more pain.
“Oh shit,” Kacchan whispers next to him, and that’s how Izuku knows how bad it is.
If the hit hadn’t been that bad, Kacchan would be yelling at him to get up and stop being dramatic.
Izuku blinks a few times, trying to get the world in focus, but the pain radiating from his face makes it hard for him to understand what’s going on around him. Mindlessly, he touches his nose and more stinging pain zaps through him. He groans and pulls his hand back just to see it covered in blood.
“You broke my nose!” Izuku accuses, finally catching on to what happened.
Talking only makes things hurt more and Izuku once again finds himself crying in pain and gently touching his face.
“Stop it! You’re making it worse!” Kacchan yells at him, pulling his hands away.
“It’s hurting!” he whines.
“I’ve seen you break your arm in five places and not whine so much,” Kacchan dismisses.
“But I’ve never broken my nose!” he retorts.
“Come on,” Kacchan grabs him by the collar. “If you get blood in the tatami, we’ll be screwed.”
Izuku grumbles and whines, mumbling “If you hadn’t broken my nose, there wouldn’t be blood in the tatami”, but he follows Kacchan anyway. He knows better than to cross the cleaning staff at the agency—way too many stories about heroes coming back to their offices to find all their reports “reorganized”.
Kacchan takes him to the locker room and leaves him sitting on the bench as he grabs the available first aid kit. It’s not the first time they’ve ended up in this position—treating each other's bloody wounds in the locker room—but it’s usually after a villain fight, not after a sparring match.
Another big difference is that usually, Izuku can appreciate Kacchan’s methodical way of separating the supplies needed, dousing gauze in antiseptic, and cutting bandages to the right sizes. Today, he’s just pissed off.
It’s Christmas. Sure, he didn’t have a date or anything exciting to do but he still had his plans! He was going to eat fried chicken and cake! He was going to watch tv! He was going to have a relaxing night! But no, Kacchan had decided they had to spar, and they had to go all out at it, and then he had to break Izuku’s nose in the dumbest scuffle. Kacchan can never accept Izuku’s opinion on anything, not even on how he’ll spend his goddamn night. Kacchan always has to make everything a competition, even when he’s the only one competing. He can never leave Izuku on his own without making it a big “Are you looking down on me?” drama.
Izuku is so damn tired of all of this!
“Stop scrunching! I can’t clean it like this!” Kacchan yells at him, just adding to Izuku’s anger.
“It’s hurting!” he yells back.
“Don’t be such a crybaby! It’s just a broken nose!”
And that’s the last straw on Izuku’s very thin patience for the night. Kacchan doesn’t care. He doesn’t care that he hurt Izuku, he doesn’t care that Izuku is in pain, he doesn’t care that Izuku’s nose may become crooked forever, and that he’ll be even uglier than normal. Kacchan could never understand—not with his perfect face and flawless skin, not one blemish in sight. Kacchan, who could get a date for Christmas with anyone he wanted but still chooses to terrorize Izuku’s night and make sure he’ll never get a date in his whole goddamn life because he’s ugly and has a crooked nose!
“What do you know!?” he screams, frustration and anger coming out of every pore. “JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!”
“The hell is wrong with you? I’m trying to help your ungrateful ass!”
“OH THANK YOU SO MUCH, KACCHAN! There’s no way I’d manage to break my nose without you!”
“IT WASN’T ON PURPOSE! Why are you being a little shit about it?! If you hadn’t tried to run away—”
“Oh, so now it’s my fault! I’m the idiot who wanted to spend Christmas night doing something else besides humoring your competitive neurosis! Maybe next time you should talk to a therapist about your need to humiliate me during every waking hour and then maybe not BREAK MY DAMN NOSE!”
“I already said it wasn’t on purpose, you asshole! And I wasn’t trying to humiliate you!” Kacchan tries defending himself. “I was just trying—”
“You were just trying to make me admit time and time again how much greater you are! Is that what you want? Alright, Kacchan, you’re the best! You win every time! I’m completely humiliated like you want! Maybe now you can just leave me in peace and let others bask in your glory!”
“I wasn’t doing that!”
“Yes, you were!”
“No, I wasn’t!”
“Then what do you call making me admit you’re the best? Why would you do that if not to humiliate me?!”
“I was just trying to impress you, you fucking idiot!”
“Impress me?” Izuku laughs without humor. “Newsflash, Kacchan, I’ve been impressed by you since I was in diapers! And what good did that bring me? A damn broken nose on Christmas night!”
After the last scream, Izuku takes a second to try and calm himself down. He’s panting—half from being so worked up and half because it hurts to breathe. There’s still wet blood sticking his nostrils shut. Still, he tries taking a few deep breaths to relax and Kacchan has the presence of mind to let him have a moment before they continue their fight.
Despite his anger, Izuku knows Kacchan didn’t do it on purpose. He knows Kacchan was just trying to train in his one-track-mind obsession to improve as a hero. But the fact that Kacchan can’t see how he hurt Izuku just makes it hurt more. Still, Izuku knows if he keeps screaming, they won’t get anywhere. Kacchan isn’t known for keeping his cool when someone is fighting him. It’s on Izuku to find his balance and try to wrap up this disaster of a night so they can both go home and pretend nothing happened.
“I know you didn’t do it on purpose,” he tries again, offering this small olive branch. “It’s still pretty shitty, though. I—You may have forgotten, but tonight is Christmas. I wanted to go home and have some cake and—I know you probably think this is childish or whatever. And that you wanted to train but maybe you could have asked someone else when I said I wasn’t in the mood? Or—”
“Did you ever think maybe I wanted to spend time with you?” Kacchan grumbles, staring at his own shoes.
For the first time since they got to the locker room, Izuku really looks at Kacchan. Through the angry tears in his eyes, Izuku sees his friend looking sadder than he’s ever seen him. His eyes are downcast, no spark left in them. His shoulders are sagged in defeat. He looks as beat up as Izuku feels.
Maybe—Maybe he was wrong. Maybe Kacchan cares that he hurt him.
“I like training with you too,” Izuku says gently. Seeing Kacchan sad is too much for his heart. There’s no antagonization left in him, just the need to reassure Kacchan. “You’re my favorite sparring partner. I’m sorry I said all these mean things just because I was grumpy. If you wanted to do a singles night for Christmas, we could—”
Kacchan pokes his broken nose, effectively cutting off whatever Izuku might suggest.
“WHA—” he screams in pain, cradling his nose protectively with both hands. “WHY DID YOU DO THAT?”
“BECAUSE YOU’RE BEING A DUMB FUCK!” Kacchan yells back, all the fight coming back to his posture instantly. “I didn’t even apologize and you’re already forgiving me!”
“Well, you said you didn’t mean—”
“I still broke your damn nose, idiot! And fucked up your Christmas night!”
“Yeah, but Kacchan didn’t know—”
“Of course I knew today is Christmas, you idiot!” Kacchan interrupts him again.
Izuku frowns, annoyed.
“Then you decided Christmas was dumb capitalist shit for stupid losers or whatever,” he says, imitating Kacchan’s derogatory tone. “What’s up with you? Do you want me to stay mad at you?”
“YES!” Kacchan screams but quickly corrects himself. “NO! Argh! I don’t know! I want you to stop being so fucking good after I’ve been a complete asshole! Stop defending me after I broke your nose and ruined your night just because I couldn’t ask you on a goddamn date!”
“What?!” Izuku blurts out, disbelieving what he just heard.
“WHAT?!” Kacchan yells back.
“You wanted to ask me on a date?”
Izuku doesn’t believe the words that just came out of his mouth—and from the look of it, Kacchan doesn’t believe it either. His face goes bright red and his eyes grow huge, like a deer caught in headlights.
“Shit,” Kacchan whispers under his breath.
“Kacchan, did you want me to go on a Christmas date with you?” he presses on.
“Forget it,” Kacchan says, turning on his heels, ready to bolt away.
Izuku doesn’t let him, though. He grabs Kacchan by the wrist and throws all caution to the wind.
“I wanted to go on a date with you today!” he stumbles out. “I—Actually, I want to go on a date with you any day. It’s not a Christmas thing or whatever. I always like to spend time with Kacchan and if we could call the time a date, as in a ro—ro—romantic date, that would be—Ah—Special. It would be special. Because Kacchan is special and—Yeah. I guess you get it. Kacchan is special to me and a date—a date would be nice.”
Feeling more awkward and self-conscious than even in his first interview as a hero, Izuku lets go of Kacchan’s wrist and starts fumbling with his own fingers. There, he said it. He’s not sure what Kacchan said before but Izuku certainly said everything now. No taking it back. He stated clearly that he’d love to go on a date with Kacchan and now all that’s left for him to do is pray he survives it.
“Cake,” Kacchan blurts out, breaking the silence.
Izuku looks up and sees Kacchan still looking flushed. They’re clearly both as embarrassed with each other. And yet, they’re trying—no screaming and fighting to hide behind. Just the two of them, reaching out to each other.
“Do you want to eat some cake or whatever?” Kacchan grumbles.
“I—I’d love to eat cake with you, Kacchan.” Izuku smiles.
The smile isn’t one of his best ones, though, because it makes Kacchan grimace.
“Shit—We need to clean—The blood—” Kacchan points awkwardly to the abandoned first aid kit.
“Oh, damn—Yeah, I’m still a mess, right?”
“Come here,” Kacchan takes his hand and brings him back to sit on the bench. “Let me do this.”
“Alright, Kacchan,” Izuku agrees, feeling almost giddy.
They’re going on a date! Izuku said he wants to go on a date with Kacchan and Kacchan didn’t explode his head! And Kacchan is being nice! He’s being extra gentle with the antiseptic, doing his best to not hurt Izuku anymore.
“There. It’s not that bad. I don’t think we have to have it set back in place,” Kacchan says, once he’s done.
“Is it not going to be crooked?” Izuku voices his worry. “I don’t want to be even more ugly than—”
“There’s no part of you that’s ugly,” Kacchan interrupts him, gentle hands still brushing his cheeks.
“Oh,” Izuku gulps, extremely embarrassed.
Kacchan just said he doesn’t think Izuku is ugly! His nose may start bleeding all over again because Izuku is feeling all his blood rush to his face.
“It’s not crooked,” Kacchan continues, totally ignoring Izuku’s internal freakout. “I don’t think it’ll be crooked. But we can go to an infirmary—”
“No!” Izuku interrupts him. “I—I don’t want to give any more work to whoever has a shift on Christmas night. And—you said we could get some cake?”
There’s hope and a small smile on Izuku’s lips that find themselves mirrored in Kacchan’s face.
“Yeah. Let’s grab some cake.”
“There must be some left in the convenience store near here.”
“We can buy one and go eat it back at your place,” Kacchan offers, to Izuku’s delight.
“Yes! That—That’d be great,” he answers, giddy all over.
And to make the night even more perfect, Kacchan offers his hand to Izuku and doesn’t let go even after he gets up. They walk together, holding hands, all the way to the convenience store. And later, when they’ve bought their cake, Kacchan takes his hand again so they can walk back to Izuku’s home.
It turns out to be a perfect, perfect night. The best Christmas of Izuku’s life. Totally worth having his nose broken for, even if it did make it hard for him to taste the cake.
He had no problem tasting Kacchan’s kisses, though.