It was sickening. The whole class sitting in a circle in front of the television, laughing and discussing plans for Christmas as though nothing the past year has happened to any of them. Troubling events were especially difficult for Katsuki Bakugo this year, and he couldn't even find it in him to sit with his usual group of friends. Everything just felt wrong. He didn't – couldn't talk about the way he felt to anyone and everything just gave him a headache. Especially this time of year.
"Hey, Kacchan," It was Deku. Of course, it was fucking Deku. The only one brave enough or at least stupid enough to approach him as he sulked at the table by himself. "We're all going out to eat tomorrow, wanna go?"
"Not particularly." Bakugo responded, with a hint of a sneer in his voice.
"But you'll be the only one who won't be there." Izuku replied with a pout. "Even Todoroki is coming."
"Yeah, but that's only because I handcuffed him to my wrist." Said Yaoyorozu as she lifted her arm to reveal a reluctant Shoto attached to her. "We hardly see you guys anymore," She continued sadly. "The both of you seem so busy with your extra courses that we hardly have enough time to bother you."
"C'mon Blasty!" Mina shouted as she wrapped her arms around her friend in a choke hug. "We can't leave you alone on Christmas."
"I said I don't feel like it." Katsuki sighed as he left the table to retreat to his room. Mina, on the other hand, refused to let go. She grasped tightly onto Bakugo's ankle and was dragged across the floor while she wailed loud enough for the students in the class B dorms to hear her.
"I said I hate Christmas!" He shouted before slamming his door.
The rest of Bakugo's friends decided to pester him further. "Don't be like that, Kacchan!" They joked as they pounded on his door. All of them knowing fully well that using Deku's childhood nickname for him would surely piss him off and get some kind of response from.
"I didn't even get you fuckers anything! So just piss off and leave me the hell alone!"
Izuku decided on a more sensitive approach the following day. That morning, Bakugou was up first. As usual, he had already finished breakfast and his morning run. He seemed to be laughing at some lame reality show about a bunch of drunk idiots beating each other up. He glared when he noticed his green – haired classmate. "This better be important. You're ruining my show." He snapped.
Unphased, Deku sat beside him regardless of the other boy's temper. Katsuki continued to laugh at the show he had been watching and ignored Deku completely.
"Why do you suddenly hate Christmas so much?"
Katsuki's laughter ceased, but he refused to meet Izuku's concerned glance.
"Remember when we were kids and I would always go to your place with my mom or you would come over to mine with your parents? We would open presents together, our families would take pictures of us, and you would actually smil-"
"That was years ago, shit nerd. I'm not some stupid little boy anymore."
Izuku gathered enough courage to place a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "I don't believe you. I can still see him in your eyes when you laugh." He blushed after that. 'Maybe that was a little too personal and stupid to say.' He thought to himself. "Please. If you spend one day with me over the break, I promise to leave you alone about Christmas for good. Deal?"
Katsuki's eye began to twitch with annoyance, but sighed in defeat. The stupid shit didn't know when to call it quits. "Fine. But don't expect me to come to your stupid little Christmas party. Not like I got any of you dorks any presents, and I don't want any, either."
Izuku gulped and twiddled his thumbs nervously.
"What. The. Hell. Is. Your. Problem. Now?"
"W-w-well, you see – I – sort of already bought you something. It's okay! You don't have to get me anything!"
Katsuki walked towards the closet to retrieve his coat and boots. "Let's go now. It's still morning. So we can get through all of your shitty Christmas activities in the next few hours."
Deku's face heated red from his fingers down to his neck. 'Kacchan wants to spend hours with me?' "In that case, I'll go get my skates! We can rent you some when we get to the rink. I'll go dig mine out of the other closet! Oh, and thank you, Kacchan, this really means a lot. Spending Christmas with you and all. I don't need a present, just this is more than enough."
'I'm gonna choke that nerd I swear to god. I already know how this will go. The idiot will fall flat on his face in the rink and I'll have to be the one to save his whiny ass.'
The two made their way to the nearest skating rink within the hour. Much to Bakugo's horror, Deku was actually quite good on the rink. He even managed to pull off some twirls and jumps. Although, he wasn't having much luck on the ice, himself.
"Come on! It's fine Kacchan!"
Kacchan, however, was too busy clutching the rails and trying to regain his balance. 'Shit! Shit! No! I can't fuck up something so stupid as skating! If Mina could do it than anybody can!'
"Here, take my hand!" Izuku offered with a smile.
Bakugo's mind immediately flashed back to the moment wen he and his new skating partner were merely children. It had been the day when the blonde boy had fallen into the water, only to be helped by the person he had bullied the most. He flinched before taking Deku's hand, but Deku hadn't seemed to notice this. Arm twitching, Bakugo slowly reached over to awkwardly grasp his classmate's hand and finally let go of the railing.
"See, this isn't so bad!" Midoriya cheered. He spun Katsuki around and gently grabbed him around the waist.
"Oi! I don't want to break any of my limbs today. Watch what you're doing!" He barked.
The green – haired boy only laughed at his friend's threats. Well, more so friend than the enemy Katsuki formerly made him out to be before discovering his secret of One For All.
A slow, romantic Christmas song began to play over the speakers and the sound filled the entire skating rink. Izuku smiled that stupid nerd smile of his.
"What?" The blonde asked with an eye roll.
"May I have this dance, Kacchan?" IZuku joked. Or at least pretended to. He was mostly very serious.
He received a grumble in response. "Fine."
He placed one of Bakugo's hands into his and was about to wrap the other around his waist but had been slapped away. "Hey! If anyone's the girl here, it's gonna be you. You've got those stupid freckles that make you look like one, anyway."
Midoriya was too happy to care about Blasty's insults. "Aw, tell me I'm pretty again." He giggled.
Katsuki blushed and glanced at the floor. "Just one stupid song and then we go back to the dorms." His legs still wobbled, mostly from nervousness but he continued to blame it on Deku's "poor" skating skills. Even though any onlooker could tell that he was the bad skater out of the pair. Then, some wise guy thought it would be funny to push the boys onto the ground, their bodies and faces crashing into each other rather harshly.
"Fags!" He pointed and chuckled loudly before skating away with his group of friends.
That insult seemed to hit Katsuki hard. "That's it! I want to go back now!" He hollered, ignoring the fact that Deku was planted on top of him with both of his hands pinning Bakugo onto the ground.
"He's only a bigot Kacchan, just ignore him."
Katsuki wasn't in the mood to argue about the topic. He made his way off the rink, removed his skates and walked outside. Izuku followed close behind him and stopped the explosive teen before he left the building.
"Kacchan, what's really wrong? Please tell me."
"No."
Izuku grabbed the other by the arm this time to get his attention. "I won't let up until you tell me! Why does Christmas upset you so much and why are you more miserable than usual?"
A vein popped in Katsuki's forehead. This time he really was going to lose it, even though he hadn't planned on it happening here. "Fine. Fucking fine. Do you really want to know why I hate this shitty holiday so much? My parents called me two weeks ago. You know – pretending to care about me and stuff. I came out to them…told them I was gay and asked them if I was still normal. My mother told me she never wanted me in her house again, and that I can forget about contacting her or dad ever again, either. They say Christmas is all about family but I don't even have one of those anymore. And how can I even be honest with my so - called friends if I can't even trust my own parents? This is the last thing that I needed to happen this year. It was hell. It was shit. And it fucked me up. The only reason why I even bothered to hang out with you today was because I was going to hang myself in my dorm tonight anyways! That's also why I didn't bother to get anyone anything for Christmas, because I didn't plan on being around for that damned day, either. If you're not fucking satisfied with that answer, then I don't know what to do with you anymore. Now leave me the hell alone!"
With that last warning, Katsuki pushed Deku against the opposite wall and burst out running through the double glass doors.
Deku had a feeling that Bakugo wasn't going to stop for oncoming – traffic. He was going to run straight into the busy road and Deku had to do everything he could to stop him. Tears were running down his eyes as he ran after his friend and screamed for him to stop. He couldn't think. He just reacted. Using as much power as he could muster in his legs, he flung himself into the air to put himself in front of Bakugo before he could make it to the road. It was just like the sludge monster all over again, or the time he saved him from the league of villains. Except this time, he was saving Kacchan from the mistakes he was about to make by trying to end his life.
Izuku Midoriya couldn't comprehend how fast he had been jumping through the air, as he had his arms wrapped around Kacchan's body mere seconds before the other had been able run head on into a car. However, Izuku didn't scold Katsuki. Instead, he wrapped himself tighter around his classmate's shaking body and told him that everything was going to be okay, and that he was safe now.
He had contacted Aizawa and All Might while the police had catered to Bakugo. He would not let go of the blanket they had wrapped around him, and he enjoyed the warm feeling the mug of hot cocoa had given his hands.
The green – haired boy had fallen asleep next to Katsuki some hours later as All Might and Aizawa had been talking to his blonde friend for quite some time. Other classmates came and went to check on him, but Izuku had stayed for the entire evening. Bakugo flinched for a moment as he noticed the boy had found a comfortable spot sleeping on his lap, but he let it be for now, as Deku seemed to stir in his sleep whenever the explosive teen had tried to move away.
All Might couldn't help but smile at the scene, despite the troubling situation the other boy had been in earlier. "I've been thinking about something, Bakugo. I wanted to run it by you first before I took any action. But… I heard what had happened between you and your family, and I wanted to let you know that I am willing to adopt you – legally – if you'd let me."
"A-are you sure?" Katsuki asked. His voice cracking though he tried his hardest not to break down in front of the retired number one hero.
All Might smiled and wrapped an arm around his student. "I've never been more sure about anything. I've always wanted kids, you know. It's just never worked out when I was younger. Always out on the job, then I got injured. No time has ever been the right time for me."
'All right, now he's just guilt tripping me so I'd say yes.' The blonde thought. Although, the more he thought about the circumstances, the more natural it felt to say yes.
"And I'd love to play catch with you and Midoriya on the weekends, if you two had time and –"
"Okay! Fine!" Bakugo caved, though he would have agreed to let All Might adopt him, anyways.
Midoriya, who had semi been pretending to sleep, smiled and faked a yawn. He stretched and blinked his eyes to make it seem like he had just been waking up. "Did I miss anything serious?" He asked, forging concern.
All Might grumbled and rolled his eyes. "You're a terrible actor, young Midoriya. I'm pleased that you took it upon yourself to study hero work instead of the dramatics."
Bakugo was allowed to go home that night, only because the teachers and the rest of the U.A. staff had promised to keep a good eye on him; and to make sure that he was safe from trying to harm himself again.
Every member of Class 1A had been waiting past 4am just to make sure that their classmate had returned in one piece. All Might, Izuku and Katsuki had all been greeted by some very sleepy friends, but nobody seemed to mind that it had been so early in the morning.
Izuku had invited Katsuki to sleep in his room that night. "I'll take the floor! You can have my bed if you want." He seemed rather too happy to accept sleeping on the floor, and that annoyed the other male.
"Just get in the damned bed." He flipped the covers back and moved over to make room for Deku. He turned his face towards the wall so that he wouldn't have to face the boy who saved his life multiple times.
Deku didn't say a word, but accepted the blonde's invitation nevertheless. "Goodnight, Kacchan. I – I'm glad you're here, and that you're okay. Promise you'll keep your appointments with the therapist, okay?"
"I'm not going unless you're going."
"O-okay. I promise." With that, Deku sighed and turned towards Kacchan, even though he wouldn't look at him.
The bedroom door had opened a few moments later to reveal all of their classmates dressed in their pajamas and carrying sleeping bags.
"Hey dude, slumber party?" Kirishima asked hopefully.
"Whatever, shitty hair. Just be quiet."
Everyone happily placed their bags on the floor, and surprisingly managed to fit into Izuku's small bedroom.
"What? You didn't say you brought the whole class, shit for brains!"
Kirishima's smile never faltered. "Shut up, man. We all love you. Whether you like it or not." He threw a pillow against Katsuki's head.
"Hey Bakugo!" Mineta elbowed him, looking rather smug. "I hear you're into the dudes, hu? Well, I may be well – known for being a lady's man, but I also take some dick from time to time, if you catch my drift. So, I've decided to take you under my wing as my official student."
This time, Bakugo threw a pillow against Grape Boy's head, which sent him flying across the room.
"But you need me!" He whined pitifully.
"Oh my gosh… we're really having a pillow fight!" Mina Ashido cheered, hitting Tsu over the head with her pink pillow.
"No, no! We are definitely not having this!" Of course, the only one to disagree with the pillow fight had been Bakugo, who had been hit in the face with a rather soft pillow by Deku.
"Deku vs Kacchan part 3! Part 3!" The red – head hollered.
Nobody ended up with any sleep that night, but even Bakugo admitted to himself that he probably wouldn't have been alive today if it wasn't for Deku. 'Shit. I guess I have some Christmas shopping to do.'