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“Is this not a little… excessive ?”
Judging by the way Momo had snorted into her mug and how Uraraka had waved him off while hanging up what must have been the twentieth bundle of mistletoe in the common room alone , Shouto decided to assume he was right.
“It’s all part of the plan, Todoroki!” Mina said enthusiastically, and her grin was so wide he felt like maybe it wasn’t the greatest idea to listen to her even if he had agreed to some version or the other of the plan a week ago. Back then, there had been talks of one bundle that would have been hung by the door rather than the hundred he had seen Momo create. “Like, statistically speaking, you and Blasty gotta wind up underneath at least one of these bad boys together at some point during the night, right?”
“That sounds…logical” he offered.
It wasn’t logical. Momo snorting again confirmed that much too.
Rather than being logical, the plan sort of reeked of desperation now. Not that Shouto wasn’t desperate at that point. That had been how he had wound up in the situation in the first place anyway, having thought it would be smart to ask the girls for advice where he was clearly lacking in knowledge.
If he was to be honest though, he wasn’t entirely sure he had made the right move.
“Just trust us” Uraraka hummed as she slowly floated down from a job well done. “You’ll get your kiss. Or…well, you’ll get a kiss since there are so many of them…But we’re gonna try to get that kiss to be Bakugou”
“Right! It’s genius! Practically foolproof!” Mina cheered.
Shouto did not particularly see any reason for cheering.
He did appreciate that they had all gathered to try though, so at least he had that much.
“You know, Todoroki…I still think if you just talked to him, you’d get what you were looking for,” Momo said as the two others went back to help set up for the rest of the Christmas party they’d have in half an hour or so. “I mean, how you look at one another is really no secret”
“It’s still a secret to me,” he said. “I have yet to see it”
“That’s because he always looks away when you look. Likewise, you look away when he does. It’s a frustrating and evil circle that we are forced to witness” she sighed. It sounded exaggerated if anything. “And…it makes the two of you resemble meerkats”
“You are making fun of me”
“I am making fun of both of you”
Shouto glanced over at her then and she was already smiling at him, amusement dancing in her eyes, and all he could do to retaliate was sigh and look back at the minefield of mistletoe.
“You’ve already gone through the effort to set this up…I’ll have to try this before I just speak to him,” he said. “Thank you for this, by the way. Regardless of how it ends”
“Oh, don’t mention it! We were so excited when you first came to us.” she hummed. “I know we did go a little… overboard …but I think it’ll work out in the end even if it isn’t in the way we intended it to be”
Though he once again didn’t really understand how it would work out if the plan didn’t, he did appreciate the comfort she had to offer.
“It’ll make an entertaining story to tell my sister, if nothing else”
“That’s true!” Momo laughed again and patted his shoulder as she put her mug down. Then she picked up the box of decorations next to her and he came to the realization that their unofficial break was probably over.
He took a deep breath, then nodded to himself before he too got back to work making ice for the ice buckets with soda in them.
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The wheezing laughter was difficult to ignore.
“What the hell are you wearing???”
Though the plan itself was somewhat ridiculous, Shouto couldn’t imagine that his outfit of choice (not his choice- though he hadn’t particularly protested if he was being honest) would make it any better.
The shoes, pointy and green, jingled when he walked, and as if that wasn’t enough, so did his shirt which was decorated with bells- jingle bells - that dangled by the spiky bottom. There was an additional one at the end of his, also green, hat. It even came with two pointy ears he had put on for the sake of it.
He was dressed as an elf, in other words.
They had all worn the classic Santa look the year before, but now the class had wanted to change it up so there was a mix of reindeer, elves, gifts, and Santa costumes going around.
Oh, yes, and one tree (Midoriya).
The choice had been made with a wheel of some kind where each of them got a turn to spin the thing that would determine their fate. Shouto hadn’t really cared all that much about what he would have ended up as at the time.
The tight red pants that felt like they’d fall apart any moment and the velcro belt did concern him a bit when he had first gotten the thing in the mail, though they had held that long so they’d probably last for a while longer. At least he hoped they would.
Honestly, he knew he was supposed to feel silly in them, but he didn’t really.
Or hadn’t until Bakugou had taken one look at him and let out a loud laugh.
On the plus side, he hadn’t looked up yet.
“I got the elf”
“Oh yeah you got the elf did you?” he snickered and he was so unfairly handsome when he laughed Shouto couldn’t decide whether it was a blessing or a curse. It was most likely a blessing for Bakugou himself given he was protected by some divine being out there and a curse for Shouto since he couldn’t do anything but stare in admiration even when he was making fun of him. “Were the ears mandatory?”
“The ears tie it together”
“And the bells?”
“They all had bells on them” he sighed and the movement of his head made the one on his hat jingle again much to Bakugou's amusement. He reached out, hand passing by Shouto’s face and to his hat to flick at the thing, and weirdly enough, he didn’t really mind the jingling that time.
He…also sort of wanted him to stand like that for a while. Hopefully, the bell would distract him long enough so that Shotuo could drink it (the attention) all up and be satisfied with that for the next week or so.
“You’ll be heard from a mile away”
“Shouldn’t you have bells on you too? I thought the reindeer had them on” he shot back.
“I ripped them off,” Bakugou replied and he looked very proud of himself. Proud and also smug. “You’re lucky I’m wearing this fuzzball of a costume at all . I’d have gone crazy if I had to listen to the fucking bells go off every time I decide to move”
“I wonder what that must be like,” he said dryly and Bakugou’s grin widened before he kicked his shin. Shouto moved away though didn’t go far. He never did when he was close to him.
“Well, it’s not my fault you were too dumb to remove them beforehand, is it? If you had thought of that, you wouldn’t sound like…”
“...Christmas?”
“Yeah, but old school Christmas. This is the type of shit my grandparents say reminds them of their Christmases”
“I don’t think bells are old school. They’re still around” he informed him. “Like in Polar Express, if you just believe or something like that”
“ That you get, but the plot of A Christmas Carol was too confusing”
“The plot I understood. I don’t understand why they were puppets there” he mumbled, a slight frown appearing on his face though he waved the thought off. If he didn’t understand why there was a talking frog then, he wouldn’t get it now.
“ Muppets ” Bakugou corrected. “And it was just a version of the story. There are like eighty of them. Point is, don’t be a dick on Christmas”
“The point was ‘don’t be a dick at all’,” he hummed. And then because he could, because despite it all Bakugou was never too rough with him, added, “Something you may want to consider before you get a visit as well”
The kick he got to the shin that time was a little harder, and he did jump, making all the bells let out a loud cry. Somehow, though, he still ended up closer to him again.
“Real funny,” Bakugou said in a tone indicating he was very much not. Then he was going to say something else but before he could, was interrupted by a loud and excited screech coming from the couches. When he turned his head, he saw it was more specifically Mina.
“First victims!!” she yelled out and pointed a finger toward the door where Kirishima and Kaminari were standing. Kirishima had a ribbon tied around his head like some sort of helmet as well as a matching one around his bare chest, while Kaminari wore something or the other similar to Shouto except instead of pants- or tights-, he had red and white stockings on. “You know the deal!”
The pair stood stock still for a moment. Then, and Shouto didn’t know why he ever assumed differently, they grinned at each other. There was something mischievous there. A joke in passing almost.
“You down?”
“Oh hell yeah, I’m down. Kissing your friends is manly as hell”
“C’mere then, loverboy”
He didn’t really know how to describe the kiss they shared other than he could hear it from where he stood. And so could everyone else, he guessed.
“Oh. My. God!!” Mina howled her laugh, throwing her head back, and was joined by several others who clapped and shrieked along. “You did not need to go that far!”
“Wanted to see how it would be,” Kirishima said. His lips were still shiny and glistened when he talked. “I think he zapped me though”
“‘Cause your teeth are sharp! You nicked me!” Kaminari replied in complaint though he couldn’t help but feel he looked about as content as the street cats that would curl up next to him on a cold winter's day.
If he walked closer, he’d probably be purring.
“Now I want a go. Stay there-” Sero said, moving towards the door, and that time even Shouto smiled.
Bakugou, on the other hand, was not smiling.
When he looked back at him, he saw that the blonde's eyes were jumping from spot to spot on the ceiling as it seemed that he finally saw the endless display of mistletoe hanging just about everywhere in all given angles.
It was almost comical how for each new one he spotted, there was just a fraction of an additional bit of horror present. Or maybe defeat of some kind.
“Who-” he started just to spot a new one. “You hang up one! One! Where the hell did- Why are there thirty of them??? Where did you even get thirty of them??”
“There are more in the hall,” Shouto said and the voice in his head, the one that sounded suspiciously like Bakugou, was already telling him that that was a very unhelpful fact.
“What...?” the real one said, unknowingly in agreement with the one in his head.
“In the hall. Did you not see them?” he asked. “There’s one in the elevator too,” he added.
Bakugou only stared at him for a good while. A minute or so, he’d say.
“Did-....did you hang them up?” he asked eventually.
“No,” he said because technically he didn’t. He just watched and was somewhat in on the plan but none of the hanging was done by him. “The girls did”
“Figures. Who else would do this cliche shit”
“Oh don’t be so sour about it! No one’s forcing anyone to do anything” Mina said and waved him off. “It’s all good fun though! Everyone deserves a Christmas kiss”
“You gotta be some kind of pathetic if this is the only way you get a kiss outta somebody” he shot back at her…but the blow hit Shouto square in the chest. He must have been pulling some sort of face because whatever it was, Mina seemed to mirror it before she rolled her eyes.
“If you’re worried about someone kissing someone else that’s not.... mhm , you’re being very obvious about it” Jirou mumbled as she passed them and headed towards the drinks.
“Oh, shut it”
“Jealousy is an ugly thing”
“You- You are an ugly thing”
“Wow. Comeback of the year” Jirou snorted. “Are you going soft? What happened to the death threats?”
Shouto snorted quietly at that though scolded his expression back into place and cleared his throat when Bakugou glared daggers at him.
“You guys are just a bunch of horny fucks” he declared and crossed his arms.
Jirou spared him a look, much like the one Mina had given him before, before she just hummed.
“You’ll thank us for it though,” she said and grabbed a bottle of soda. “Nice cooling, Todoroki”
“I can freeze it again if it’s melting,” he said, and the party resumed much to Bakugou’s dismay.
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Though he had called it earlier, the plan seemed to turn more and more into an absolute failure than anything.
Once the attention had been brought to the plant, Bakugou did everything in his power to avoid ever ending up underneath one of the bundles and walked with his eyes glued to the ceiling at all times.
Shouto walked with his eyes glued to him and thus ended up kissing Sero, Mina, Momo, Uraraka, and Midoriya as he hadn’t been looking where he was walking. He’d also kissed Satou on the cheek and gotten one from Asui before he himself decided that maybe it was time to admit defeat when class B showed up.
After that, he begrudgingly walked into the empty kitchen to get a slight break.
Cooking for the day was all done, and the mess had been cleaned up long ago so the area was one of the few abandoned places on the first floor. The only light source in there was from a large star hung in the window, giving a faint golden glow, and the bit of light coming from down the hall and the lounging area on the opposite side of the building where the party was being held.
He walked around the kitchen island, ducking to grab a hold of a pot so he’d warm up some water or something. He knew they had hot chocolate powder somewhere or the other in the kitchen and he wouldn’t tell himself no to the marshmallows either for the sake of reenergizing.
“Beat me to it” he heard from the doorway and stood quickly. “What? You the only one who can get tired of watching people kiss?”
“No-” he replied and watched as Bakugou walked up to him and did nothing to stop it when he snatched the pot to himself. “I was just going to make some hot chocolate”
“Yeah, with water, I bet. Sit down”
“What’s wrong with water?” he asked and though Bakugou only gave him a look, he realized everything must have been wrong with water. Wrong enough to not need an explanation anyway. “Ah”
“Yeah, ah. Get me the milk”
He did as he was told and then circled back around the island to sit on one of the stools. He could still see Bakugou that way at least as he worked.
There was something nice about watching him in the kitchen. He was so…focused when he worked, and he really looked professional. His hands would dance on the cutting board and his arms would flex when he stirred the pot. His brows would knit when he peeled garlic and he’d blink near furiously when he cut onions and always managed to somehow not shed any tears despite the sting. Sometimes he’d bark orders at him and tell him to get a hold of spices he didn’t even know existed before that. Then, he’d sometimes give him some taste testers of whatever it was he was making.
On top of it all, Shouto hadn’t actually ever met anyone who could make better food than him, so generally he really liked sitting there and watching him and getting small bites of food every now and then.
“What now?”
Shouto shrugged a bit. He was not going to tell him about his thoughts then and there so they fell into a sort of silence as the other mixed in the powder in the milk and started slowly stirring so the milk wouldn’t burn to the bottom of the pan.
It could do that. Shouto had learned that the hard way.
“Mistletoe is a parasite”
The stirring paused for a second as Bakugou stared at him. Then he resumed with a hum of acknowledgment.
“You can say that again”
“No, as in…It’s really a parasite. The plant, I mean” he said. “It steals nutrients and water from other trees because it doesn’t have roots in the ground. It…establishes itself onto its host, so it’s categorized as a parasite”
“You watch a documentary or something?”
“I did,” he said. “It’s not a problem right away but it can be”
Bakugou snorted.
“So we should get rid of it before it steals what it needs from us?”
“No. The ones we have are fake, I think. Plus the building doesn’t have water or nutrients. But I never understood why people would kiss under them” he said. “You wouldn’t kiss under a tapeworm, would you?”
“You-” Bakugou started, then laughed again, turning his head away from Shouto. “You are the first person to ever make that comparison, you freak” he snickered.
“It’s a fair comparison” he argued. “Why a parasite?”
“Did they not cover the history of it in your documentary?”
“I was…jumping from channel to channel”
“Of course you were,” he snorted again. “Here. Stir”
Shouto got up again, moving over to him and the pot as he stirred dutifully.
“It’s tradition,” Bakugou said and headed to the cabinet where they kept their mugs. “They probably didn’t care all that much about what the thing was back then” he added. “And also, they were probably not aware it was a parasite at all”
“It must be an old thing then”
“It’s a freakishly old thing, yeah”
“You seem to know an awful lot about it even if you hate it,” he said, risking a glance over at him. Bakugou grabbed their two mugs, because they all had their own mugs, and rolled his eyes.
“I don’t hate it. I think it’s obvious what they want when they hang up a million of them though. Could barely make it here without bumping into someone or the other”
“I’ve bumped into a lot of people”
“Yeah, I saw you with Cheeks”
Briefly, he remembered Momo’s words telling him that Bakugou did watch him as much as he himself did the other. Maybe not as much, but maybe it really was true.
“Does it make it less special if it’s more of them?”
“It makes it a minefield and annoying to navigate if you have a person in mind” he replied then snorted to himself. “One would make it easier. Only so much to keep an eye on and all. With more of them, there’s the risk of running into someone else before you even get your chance with the one you want”
“Do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Have someone you want? A person in mind?”
Their eyes met and Shouto felt butterflies in his stomach. A lot of them. So many that he wondered if he would have to get hospitalized or a check-up of some kind. He wasn’t too sure what recovery girl’s reaction to his explanation would be.
“Do you ?”
“Maybe”
Bakugou narrowed his eyes a bit at him. He looked calculating.
“Who?”
“I asked you first”
“Like hell I’m gonna tell you before you tell me,” he said but his fingers were tapping against the mugs in quick succession. Then he looked away, eyes scanning the area which was a thing Shouto knew he did when he was thinking quickly. Or maybe when he decided to stop thinking at all.
A beat passed.
Then another.
And another.
Then, as much as it shocked him, his head whipped back into place and their eyes met again. He put the mugs down as that happened, and reached into his back pocket, pulling out a crumpled-looking bundle of mistletoe that must have hung somewhere or the other before it ended up with him.
“Did you take it down?”
“I saw you come in here”
Shouto only continued to stir but did it in confusion that time.
“And you brought me mistletoe?”
“I brought you the parasite, yeah”
The stirring continued. So did the confusion.
“That doesn’t-” And then it hit him. “ Oh ”
“Yeah,” Bakugou said and he looked like he was holding his breath. “Well…? Gonna tell me now or what?”
“You should-...You should hold it up first,” he replied. “I think that’s the tradition”
He did.
His arm stretched up so it was held above their heads but barely so. He didn’t really care if that wasn’t proper or not, the thing was serving its purpose.
Shouto moved first, his hands reaching out for him, and ended up pinching the fabric of the front of his reindeer costume to pull him closer. The bell on his hat jingled when he leaned in ever so slightly, and the rest of them jingled when their lips met, a physical reaction he hadn’t even thought possible.
He didn’t register before a second later that they must have looked absolutely ridiculous the two of them. One with pointy shoes and pointy ears and the other with brown fur all over as well as giant cartoonish eyes and tiny horns sticking out of the hood.
The guaranteed strange image that it was did nothing to ruin the moment though.
Hell, even the jingling didn’t even if he felt Bakugou smile against his lips.
Bakugou was undoubtedly the best kiss of the night.
He didn’t really want it to end.
Somewhere behind him he heard snickering and turned just in time to see the shadows of who he assumed were his classmates disappear behind the wall.
“I…have a confession,” he said as he turned back.
Bakugou didn’t even look like he had bothered to look their classmate's way, far too taken with Shouto. That made heat pool in his chest and spread to all parts of his body.
“I was part of setting it up”
“The mistletoe?”
“Yeah. I was hoping this would happen” he said and even if the bundle wasn’t up that time, pulled the blonde in for another kiss anyway. When he pulled back, the other was grinning a toothy grin, and had this look in his eye that nearly made him squirm. "Though I didn't lie about not hanging it up. That I had nothing to do with"
“Figured with the way you kept staring at me”
“You knew?”
He hesitated.
“It was hinted at,” he mumbled. “I got this from Ponytail earlier and she kept half nodding at you real subtly and all so I put two and two together when I saw you glance my way”
“Then why didn’t you-...Earlier?”
“Why didn’t you ?”
Well…he got him there.
“You said it was kind of pathetic” he declared even if that hadn’t been the whole reason for his concern. “To Jirou”
“I didn’t know it was your idea,” he said. “And I didn’t want to watch you cozy up to everyone else”. He then shook the bundle again. “Besides. Does it look like I think it’s pathetic?”
“No”
“No”
“So…”
A little light bulb went over his head.
“That was the jealousy,” he said, accusatory. “That’s what she meant-”
Bakugou stared at him again and he couldn’t stop himself from smiling at him. It grew the more he thought about it. About how he must have seen an image in his head of Shouto kissing just about everyone except for him and how that was the worst thing imaginable. The amusement evident on his face seemed to snap the other out of it though and he reached his hand up and pulled his hat down over his eyes.
Shotuo laughed into the darkness anyway then pushed it back up.
“Just get back to stirring!” he huffed, his face a delightful bright pink he could barely make out in the dark.
“You’re blushing”
“Yeah well so are you!!”
He could feel how his own cheeks had heat coming off of them but that just made him smile all the wider.
“Can I have the mistletoe?”
“No”
He kissed his cheek that time, again, without the thing. Bakugou looked like he enjoyed it even if he was fighting for dear life to keep his eyes away.
“Well...I don’t mind not needing it”
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When the two of them got back to the party, he made sure to end up next to Momo again. He also very much pretended like he didn’t see the dozen grinning faces looking his and Bakugou's way as they reentered.
“I told you” Was the first thing she said to him as Bakugou was pulled aside for a round of interrogation by Mina.
“Thank you,” he replied softly.
“Mhm,” she said, then nudged him lightly. “Overboard but it worked. He’s looking at you again”
He smiled a bit, looking over at the blonde who was indeed looking his way, and made a note that this was the first time he actually caught him in the act. Before long though, his attention was forced away from him and back trying to fight off the three surrounding him with questions Shouto couldn’t hear over the music.
He looked at the ceiling instead.
The excessiveness had worked out in the end. H e couldn't help but to grin again.
“And in the costumes no less…”
Momo laughed and so did he.
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