Chapter Text
Todoroki lowered his book and looked at the colorfully wrapped box being handed to him. It had tiny reindeer on it.
“It has tiny reindeer on it?” Todoroki said, in his usual monotone demeanor.
“It's a christmas gift!” Midoriya responded merrily.
Todoroki didn’t know why but every time Midoriya smiled he felt the urge to give him scraps of his food or leftovers. Perhaps it had something to do with the genuineness of the smile giving Todoroki a feeling not dissimilar to the way he felt around small mammals, like squirrels. Midoriya was not a small mammal, well not in comparison to Todoroki that is. Todoroki considered Midoriya the closest thing he had to a “friend.” Or at least he was the closest thing that qualified as a “friend” in his limited understanding of the word. He didn’t really have friends growing up, there was never really time for them between the intense training sessions with his father. He never really knew how to deal with a “friend” on a normal day, let alone on a day this “friend” was also giving him a gift.
“-my mother makes them for all my friends.” Midoriya continued, blushing.
‘Crap’ Todoroki thought. He had been so caught up thinking about squirrels and the non-existence of childhood friends, that he had neglected to notice Midoriya had kept on talking about the present. Was he informing him of the origins of the gift? Or possibly telling him it was for someone else? Todoroki internally panicked. Todoroki panicked often, but because of his emotionally crippling childhood destroying all sense of how to convey emotions externally it never showed on his face. It was a small benefit of having an utterly tragic upbringing.
“I mean it’s silly I know, and a bit early for Christmas presents but my mom wanted to make sure…” Midoriya continued, his words getting progressively more frantic as Todoroki continued to not respond.
‘DAMN’T’ Todoroki thought. He had once again not been paying attention to Midoriya and let himself get lost in thought. This entire interaction was sinking fast. He had to act quickly. What would a "friend" do in this situation. He grabbed a handful of chips from the bowl next to him and pushed the food into Midoriya’s face, stopping the green haired youth from talking.
Midoriya tentatively grabbed the food from Todoroki and slowly put it in his mouth. ‘Nailed it” Todoroki thought triumphantly. From down the hall, screaming could be heard.
“What do you mean you’ve never listened to My Chemical Romance?” Shouted two voices in unison.
Yaoyorozu came down the hallway, flanked on either side by an agitated Tokoyami and Jirou.
“I was just never into rock growing up, I listened to more classical music” Yaoyorozu said, with a hint of embarrassment.
“Rock is classic” Jirou countered, agitated by the complete betrayal she felt at the moment.
“Have you never longed-for the embrace of the darkness in your soul” Tokoyami said, more calmly than Jirou but definitely with a hint of frustration bubbling beneath the surface.
“I don’t know what the big deal is, so what if I don’t care about one band having a reunion concert in a few days? Is it really that important?” Yaoyorozu defended, unknowingly causing Jirou to almost die from a heart attack right there.
At this point Dark Shadow had taken to holding both Tokoyami and Jirou back from jumping on the unsuspecting Yaoyorozu; forcibly tying her down in order to make her listen to the band’s entire catalog on loop until they "fixed" her taste in music.
Bakugo and Kirishima were sitting in the kitchen, trying to ignore all the commotion, and study for their tests that were coming up before the christmas break. Bakugo was just doing a quick refresher, but Kirishima was struggling to stay focused on the material he had been neglecting for the past few weeks.
“I’m going to fail.” Kirishima muttered to himself, as the words in his textbook blended together.
“Only if you’re an idiot.” Bakugo responded, not even looking up from his book.
Kirishima looked around at his other classmates in the common room. Midoriya was trying to explain to Todoroki the concept of giving and receiving gifts from others, Dark Shadow was stopping Tokoyami and Jirou from killing Yaoyorozu for hinting that MCR wasn’t even that good from what she listened to, Mineta and Kaminari were off to the corner planning something (he worried what), and finally Mina also looked like she was trying to study, but upon closer inspection he saw that she was actually asleep behind the book. That’s when Uraraka and Iida strolled in wearing large christmas sweaters with their names on them, and knitted in their hero colors. Bakugou, who had been fixated on his book the entire time, glanced up to see them walking in before returning to the book. Most everyone would have missed the small look, after all it was for barely a moment, but Kirishima saw it. He smiled and went back to his “studying.” It wasn’t manly to pry, he would tell him in time, if he ever realized it himself.
Uraraka sat next to Midoriya at the table.
“Hey Deku, hey Todoroki!” She beamed as she sat down. Iida pulled a chair over to the group to sit with them. Todoroki wasn’t moving, he was too busy staring into the box that Midoriya had given him. Inside, there was a large knit sweater that Midoriya’s mother had made for him and the rest of Midoriya’s friends. It had his name written on it. Todoroki was fixated on it.
“Has he moved or said anything?” Iida questioned as he sat down.
“Nope he has been sitting there catatonic for about two minutes now” Midoriya said, not concerned, but not unconcerned either. He could never tell what Todoroki was thinking half the time, which he realized was still way more times than anyone else could figure out what Todoroki was thinking.
“I feel bad, your mom made these for us but we didn’t get you anything” Uraraka huffed.
“It does feel unfair Midoriya” Iida concurred.
“It's all right!” Midoriya frantically said, blushing. “I don’t really need anything, honest. these aren’t even technically from me, they're from my mother. Also I already feel bad enough that everyone else in the class didn’t get anything so-”
“That’s a great idea!” Uraraka exclaimed excitedly.
Midoriya and Iida both looked at her quizzically. They didn’t really understand what she meant by a "great idea."
“We can do a Secret Santa in the class!” She said merrily.
“Oh that’s a great idea!” Midoriya said pounding one fist into his hand. “We’ve all been so stressed with tests and villains, it would be fun for us to all give each other gifts before we all go home for the holidays”
“Exactly!” Uraraka said, hopping to her feet. “I’ll go get Tsu and the others, Iida why don’t you talk with Yaoyorozu about organizing the whole thing and setting some ground rules”
Iida nodded excitedly as he got up and went to go speak with Yaoyorozu.
Midoriya and Uraraka went off to gather their other classmates who weren’t already in the common room, leaving Todoroki sitting alone staring at the gift in his lap.
“I’ve never been given something so nice” he said quietly; his fingers played with the fabric.