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Despite what one may have expected, Tokoyami liked the holiday season. Sure, it was bright and loud, and he’d never actually had a pleasant Christmas while in the system, but he liked the idea. Family gatherings were something he had always secretly longed for, and if a month of bright lights, obnoxious music, and rampant consumerism made other people happy, then who was he to deny the people their happiness. There was a sort of charm about the whole season, and while Tokoyami himself preferred the old pagan holidays of Yule and the winter solstice, Christmas wasn’t so bad.
Tokoyami thought highly enough of the holidays to even attend 1-A’s Christmas party. Granted, he likely wouldn’t have had much of a choice in attendance anyhow; if he had stayed in his room, then the absolute Christmas menaces that were Kirishima and Midoriya would’ve dragged him down into the common area like they did to Bakugou. So, to the class’s early Christmas party he went, completely willingly and not at all out of obligation.
The party was, as expected with Momo in charge of decorations, absolutely gorgeous. The common area had been transformed into a holiday wonderland and had to it a festive brilliance. In the corner was a large evergreen tree, expertly decorated with sparkling glass baubles and silver tinsel. Colorful lights adorned every wall, they must’ve been connected to the speaker somehow; because they cheerily blinked to the jingling beat of the songs. The coffee table donned a festive tablecloth embroidered with holly leaves, and on top of it was an impressive spread of winterish snacks and hot drinks.
There were guests beyond the expected class 1-A, however. Kirishima, it seemed, had managed to coax the timid Amajiki into the celebration. That feat was likely managed, in part, by the fact that Togata was also in attendance. Aizawa was there, as expected, and he seemed slightly less tired than usual. Clung nervously to his side was a little girl with wavy silver hair and a horn. Eri, Tokoyami was fairly certain that was her name, seemed equal parts nervous and excited for the party as she skittered between Aizawa, Midoriya, and Togata.
Even with the unexpected guests, it had been a lovely party. The snacks, courtesy of Sato, had been delicious, the music, curated by Jirou, had been aptly festive, and there was an overall air of relaxed happiness amidst the small crowd. Even little Eri had a good time, she came out of her shell quickly and despite the ridiculousness of it, Tokoyami obliged her request for him to wear a Santa outfit. At least he wasn’t alone in that last one; the little girl had suckered even Aizawa into donning festive apparel.
Overall, the party had been a success. A loud, energetic, bright, and tiring success. But alas, all good things must come to an end. While his classmates spent the rest of the following day packing their things for winter break, Tokoyami made his way to Hawks’ agency. Holiday season or not, there was no rest for the wicked and thus no rest for those who thwarted the wicked. Hawks had, of course, officially given Tokoyami the week off, but if the hero was going to patrol over the holidays, and he was, then Tokoyami would join him. Tokoyami had no family to return to over the holidays anyways, so he might as well spend the time working alongside the closest thing to family he had.
The high-school student carefully cradled two wrapped boxes as he rode the subway to the agency. Even though he was working over the holidays, Tokoyami was no grinch; he had gotten Hawks gifts just as any good pseudo-sibling would have. Perhaps they weren’t the most extravagant or expensive presents, but Tokoyami knew Hawks appreciated practical things more than costly trinkets.
The building was empty when Tokoyami arrived, which at any other time of year would have sent him into a state of vigilance, considering that all the sidekicks had taken time off, though the boy wasn’t surprised. He didn’t bother to turn on the lights as he walked through the empty halls; he didn’t need them to see, and he wouldn’t spend much time in the lower levels anyways. The elevator dinged as Tokoyami stepped inside, and the boy noted that Hawks had changed the elevator music to something more festive.
When Tokoyami opened the door to Hawks’ penthouse, he expected to see said man with some sort of documentation in his hands, ready to patrol. Instead, Tokoyami opened the door to find Hawks sat criss-cross on the floor hunched over an old and well-worn box wearing the ugliest sweater he had ever seen in his life. Hawks sprung up and whirled around to face Tokoyami, who stood aghast and speechless in the door.
“Ha ha! There you are!” Hawks bounced excitedly on the balls of his feet as he ushered Tokoyami further inside the penthouse.
“Hawks, what is all of,” Tokoyami gestured confusedly at the numerous boxes on the floor, “this?”
“They’re decorations, kid! We’re doing Christmas, surprise!” Hawks gestured to the box of decorations, and Tokoyami noticed that his fingertips were stained green, likely from the poor quality of whatever tomfoolery was in the box.
“I’d like that, Hawks.” Tokoyami had never celebrated Christmas with family of any sort before; he’d like to give it a try at least once.
Hawks lit up like, well, a kid on Christmas and delightedly pushed a box of decorations towards Tokoyami, “Here! Help me sort through these; I bought them ages ago when I started my agency but never used them. I think we might have to pitch some of them.”
Poor condition was an understatement for how badly the decorations looked. The one box was full of what was once ornaments; now it was full of fragmented and sparkly glass. Another box had a mangled garland, clearly painted green and clearly losing its color. The garland, Tokoyami presumed, was the cause of Hawks’ stained fingers. It took another half-hour to go through all the boxes of unused decorations, and unfortunately, none of the items were salvageable.
“Hawks, what dark fate has befallen these decorations? What have they done to deserve such destitution?” Tokoyami picked up a half-shattered tree ornament and held it up in the palm of his hand contemplatively, “Alas, poor orb! I knew him, Hawks; a fellow of infinite shine, of most excellent fancy!”
Hawks scoffed, “Alright, alright, enough with the theatrics, Birdlet, I get it, I’ve brought great shame upon my poor ornaments. It probably happened when I moved the agency to a bigger building a couple of years back. I think I moved all my stuff in while it was raining.”
Tokoyami tossed the lamented ornament to Dark Shadow, who spiked it back into the box and cackled gleefully as it shattered, “Be at rest, fallen soldier, while you perish in vain, you pave way for a new front.” He then taped the box shut and stacked it on top of the others.
“Hey now, don’t give him an honorable funeral, maybe ol’ Yorick here,” Hawks gestured to the sealed box, “was a war criminal. Maybe, he deserved his death.”
Tokoyami cocked his head as he and Hawks picked up the boxes and headed downstairs, “Yorick was a court Jester, Hawks, not a soldier.”
“Ha! That’s what Hamlet wants you to think, court jester my ass, I bet he brutalized so many civilians, why, we oughta lock up his corpse just to be safe!” Hawks tossed the boxes into the dumpster outside the building. “Say, while we’re out, why don’t we go get some better, not war criminal, decorations?”
Tokoyami kept neutral for all of two seconds before his face split into a grin, “I shall seek out the worst of the worst in terms of decorative warfare, nothing but torturers and city-razers shall decorate the victorious barracks of your apartment.”
Hawks cuffed Tokoyami lightly, “That’s so fucked up, fledgling. Our Christmas tree will have an army of war-prisoner lights to adorn his boughs.”
“Now this, this is the true Christmas spirit.”
Unfortunate as it was, the pickings for Christmas decorations so late in the season were pretty slim. Hawks and Tokoyami had to travel to three department stores before they gave up and flitted from thrift shop to thrift shop for lights, ornaments, and anything else that caught either of their fancies. Christmas trees were in even more scarcity, and while Hawks desperately wanted a real one, they had to settle on a fake tree, also from a thrift store.
The two got to decorating the second they returned to Hawks’ penthouse. The tree, far smaller and scragglier than a real, or even newly store-bought one would have been, was placed proudly in the corner of the living room. Hawks struggled with the finicky and tangled string of lights while Tokoyami fussed over which branches he should place their mismatched ornaments upon. With the patchwork tree done, the two set upon the rest of the decorations. Festive trinkets were placed upon nearly every flat surface, and the windows were plastered with equally cheerful decals. What strings of lights weren’t used on the tree were hung upon every possible wall with the new garlands. When the two were finished, they flopped down on the couch, exhausted.
“What else do people do before Christmas?” Hawks looked to Tokoyami as if the student had any more of an idea than he did.
‘Hmm. The class held a party for the holidays the other day, and Eri, that’s Lemillion’s small girl, said something of movies.” Tokoyami phrased it more like a question, as he himself was also unsure.
Hawks waggled the television remote in the air as if it was some kind of prize, “Movies it is then!”
Tokoyami found himself rather fond of holiday movies. Many of them were strange, old stop-motion animations of ages past, but they held a sort of nostalgic charm to them. Tokoyami was rather pleased with the cinematic rendition of Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol, although he didn’t quite understand why all the characters were colorful animal puppets. There were more movies, but Tokoyami fell asleep and remembered nothing of them.
For the first time in ages, Tokoyami found himself excited for Christmas. He had never been the type of child to wake up early for the holiday, he rose with the sun, and the sun rose late in the wintertime, but this Christmas was an exception. Tokoyami rose early on Christmas morning, unsarcastically excited for the holiday proceeding. As silently as possible, he rushed from the guest room to the living room and gazed in awe at the still-lit tree. Under the tree, next to the two presents Tokoyami had gotten for Hawks, was a small pile of neatly wrapped boxes. Tokoyami had no idea when Hawks had found the time to buy and wrap presents, but there they were anyway, in deep blue and silver wrapping paper.
Hawks, when he finally woke up, seemed extremely proud of the gifts under the tree, and insisted they opened them before even breakfast. Not that Tokoyami would complain about that, he didn’t think himself to be particularly greedy or materialistic, but he too was eager to open the gifts. They sat by the tree, both in pajamas, and spent a decent amount of time bickering over who should open their presents first. Each wanted the other to start, but Hawks won out, and so, Tokoyami carefully picked apart the wrapping paper of the smallest present.
It was a book, small and innocuous, but inside, the pages contained a detailed history and accounting of ancient occult practices even Tokoyami had not heard of. To say he was delighted would be an understatement. At the encouragement of both Dark Shadow and Hawks, Tokoyami tore through the wrapping paper on the next few gifts. Each one was as delightful as the next, a new set of candles, a stylish black aviator jacket, Tokoyami noticed it looked eerily similar to Hawks’ jacket. Hawks even got Dark Shadow some of their favourite snacks, which they instantly tore into with fiendish glee. Then, from behind the sofa, Hawks pulled one last present. The wrapping did nothing to hide what it was, Tokoyami would recognize a guitar case anywhere. The wood was dark and polished to perfection, the sound clear and resonant; it was clearly of incredible quality. The instrument was probably worth more than all of Tokoyami’s other possessions combined, and Hawks had gotten it for him simply because he knew the other would like it. Tokoyami quite thought his gifts of a cookbook and simple golden earrings paled in comparison, but Hawks insisted that he loved his gifts all the same.
With all the presents opened, Hawks turned on the radio and insisted the two sang along with the music. Hawks, while an exceptional attention hog, did not have a particularly melodic singing voice. Tokoyami, too, despite being musically inclined, did not know the carols well enough to properly play along on his new guitar. That didn’t stop either of them, however, from trying. They missed notes, fumbled over the lyrics, and were altogether out of key, but Tokoyami had never enjoyed singing more.
Looking around at the horribly clashing and mismatched decorations and listening to the tone-deaf warbles of Hawks’ singing voice, Tokoyami wouldn’t trade his place for the world. Far was this Christmas from the picture-perfect party hosted by class 1-A, but it was all Tokoyami could ever ask for.
Tokoyami had always liked the holiday season. It was bright and loud, and before Hawks, he had never had a pleasant holiday experience. The holidays made people happy, and who was he to complain about that. Yes, Fumikage rather enjoyed the holiday season, but he liked it a lot more now that he got to spend it with family.