The person formerly known as Himiko Toga now married to Izuku Midoriya as Himiko Midoriya, watched her husband sleep. His quiet breath calmed her from her near hysterics. Blindly scrambling for his hand she gripped the scarred hand and gently pressed it into her heavy stomach and whispered "Please God, protect my baby…"
The tears filled her eyes and turned the world into a watery mess. Her nightmare woke her and it took only a moment for her eyes to fill with tears as the images of her baby's death rattled around behind her eyes. The hand she was holding to her stomach twitched and Himiko took several deep breaths. The words tumbled out of her mouth and into the cold, thin, winter night air "I'm allowed to be happy…right?"
"Of course you are." Izuku whispered as his left hand grabbed hers and brought it to his mouth for a gentle kiss. Sitting up he pulled her into his lap. When the shudders of her body died out he kissed the top of her head "Another nightmare?"
Nodding she buried her head into his chest and struggled not to cry. Her husband started to hum and rock back in forth whispering in her ear "It's going to be all right, I'm here and our friends are too." when her half-caught breaths didn't subside he glanced at the clock and noted that it was around 2 in the morning.
"If you want, after we wake up later, we can go to the doctor just to be sure."
Sniffling she added "Temples? Churches?"
With a chuckle he laid down with her still tucked in his arms "If you want we'll go to all of them."
Himiko only nodded and she started to drift into sleep.
Mina burst into the room with a cry of "HIMIKO!" and scooped up the blond in a careful but strong hug as she twirled the pregnant woman in circles. Several laughs followed Mina at a more sedate pace as the former class 1-A made their way into the room.
Every so often they gathered together like this just to catch up and have fun but tonight was Christmas Eve so a gathering was a must. Somehow someone always managed to get Todoroki and Bakugou to come, the former usually got dragged along by his long-time girlfriend Yaoyorozu while the latter just seemed to get dragged along.
Himiko giggled as she tottered around for a second before grabbing Mina, Tsuyu and Ochako in a hug of her own, surprisingly they were the closest of friends-not to say that they weren't friends with the others but the bond between them was extremely strong.
As the various heroes greeted their hosts and made their way into the Midoriya home they looked around in wonder at the large house the duo had bought since their last meeting about two months ago.
Iida asked, while waving his arms in that odd way, "I take it you bought this beautiful home for your future child?"
Nodding bashfully Izuku rubbed the back of his neck "Yeah, I mean I want us as a family to be comfortable and be able to do things like this here. I wanted a place where all my friends could get together whenever we wanted and not have to rent out a space like we've been doing."
Himiko, who was sitting on the couch surrounded by the other women called out "Children! Not child! I refuse to let my baby be an only child." Iida looked back at his friend who could only shrug at his wife's insistence.
Bakugou yelled from the kitchen "Oi Toga! Shut up!"
Hissing back the pregnant lady retorted "I've been married to Izuku three years now and you're still calling me that?"
Tsuyu sighed "It's his way of being endearing, you get used to it."
Puffing out her cheeks Himiko muttered "I don't wanna get used to it. He does this every time."
All the attention in the room was diverted to Sero when he let out a high pitch shriek that rattled the glass. Hanato shook Izuku by the shoulders "What do you mean it was here when you bought the house?!"
Ojiro was the only one gathered up the courage to ask "What was here?"
Himiko puffed out her cheeks "Probably the hot tub."
Ojiro blinked "You guys bought a house with a hot tub?"
She rolled her eyes "Actually we bought the house and there was a hot tub set up in the backyard under a pile of branches so we didn't know until Izuku started cleaning up."
The group all clamored outside to see the miraculous hot tub…except Izuku and Todoroki who asked "What's so great about it?"
The other joked "Well it's not like the rest of us can make one on command!" which got a laugh out of both of them before a small silence fell over them.
The fire and ice user watched his friend's face grow a bit tense "What the matter? Something with Himiko?"
Slouching into the couch the One For All user nodded "She keeps having these nightmares about the baby…like dying, mutilation types of nightmares. Yesterday we went to the doctor then to all the temples and churches in the city."
Shouto wasn't known for his social skills so he just came out and said it "She was a villain. Some people would probably say she doesn't deserve the happiness she's getting." when Izuku's eyes bored into him Shouto sighed "I don't agree. I think her circumstances are…enough. She's helped far more than she's hurt and you can see her guilt. I, personally, would vouch for her any day of the week anytime anyone asked."
Rubbing his eyes Izuku groaned "I just wish she could have some comfort, I try but I know it's not enough…"
Shouto didn't have a response for that so the silence again filled the room until the others came back in chatting about how lucky their friends were in getting a hidden gem.
Tsuyu hung back with Himiko, both watched the others file in before the frog woman asked "Something the matter?"
Himiko sighed and sat down on the bench beside the tub "I keep having these nightmares…of the baby dying, of me 'getting what I deserve' and it terrifies me." she admitted quietly or rather knowing that trying to hide anything from the oddly perceptive girl wouldn't work.
Tsuyu looked at her friend for a long moment before saying "You do realize that we're all here for you, right?" when she got a nod the frog continued "Then you realize that you are part of the former class of 1-A and that you are our friend before anything else."
"I know but still…the worst could always happen." came the blonde's reply.
Tsuyu blinked "It's Christmas Eve, normally I'd say drink a little and relax but that's a bad idea. So I think I'll say get something to eat and relax. You're way too high strung."
Himiko sighed "You're right…but I don't know how I can relax like this, with all this on my mind I mean."
Letting out a ribbit like laugh her friend said "Easy, knowing that if anyone even tried anything all of 1-A and your husband would personally rain down their wrath upon them."
A watery smile was the answer and together they made their way inside. Where the festive mood was starting to infect everyone, Christmas music was softly playing and champagne poured. Tsuyu left to plunder the candy cane stash and allow the husband and wife a few moments alone…mostly for candy though.
Sitting next to her husband was almost reflexively followed by him putting his arm around her shoulders and allowing her to lean into him. Taking a moment to let his warmth seep into her she leaned up and kissed his cheek. The smile she got in return was brighter than the tree in the corner with all it's lights. He returned the gesture with a kiss to her forehead and a whispered "I take it whatever Tsuyu said cheered you up?"
"I don't know but I think it'll at least take my mind off it."
He nodded knowing that he couldn't get anymore out of her, at least for the moment.
Himiko was surprised an hour later when she found herself no longer deeply bothered by her nightmares. Yes, they weren't pleasant but she could take them for what they were.
An amusing thought entered her mind-the bulbs. It was almost like they took her mass of bleak emotions that overwhelmed her and shattered it into thousands of tiny pieces that she took one at a time and dealt with.
She could see Izuku's relief in his eyes, her laughter was lighter than it had been for a while and she felt much better. Right now she was talking with Momo who was sitting next to Todoroki with her eyes glued on the bulge in her comfortable dress. Todoroki was getting her hidden message and was looking nervous.
Finally after half an hour of talking Momo looked at him straight in the eye "When are we going to have kids?"
His silence and look of utter terror amused everyone watching to no end and several of them busted out laughing at his troubles…which caused him to look at them like they were betraying him. Ojiro tried to tactfully change the topic "Hey, Izuku, where's your mom?"
Inko had become the surrogate mom for the entire class and had often brought the entire dorm food and other things like that. The son answered "Dad finally retired and he's at home so they wanted to just spend some time together." the group accepted it but didn't look happy and he continued "But they'll show up at our next get together, she wants to introduce him to all her surrogate children." that got a laugh out of them and got the Fire and Ice user out of hot water.
Tsuyu walked back over to the blond with three candy canes sticking out of her mouth and another four in one hand "Are you feeling any better?" she whispered around the candy.
The laugh she got was the answer she was looking for but the blond nodded "Yeah, a lot. Don't really know why but thank you."
Her dark mood lifted Himiko actually enjoyed the party, the eggnog was drank and the competition for who could eat the most candy canes in a minute, Momo got five, Mina got fourteen and Satou got 27. Tsuyu whooped them all with 132. Nobody understood how she did it they just knew she did.
She had thought she had been pretty good in hiding it but when she ducked into the kitchen for a moment she found Bakugou staring down into his cup of water. If someone hadn't spend as much time with him as the class of 1-A they wouldn't have noticed he was having fun. He glanced at her and the flush on his face made it perfectly obvious he was a bit tipsy. "You're finally feeling better." he slurred.
She nodded and leaned back onto the granite counter top "Yeah, having everyone here helped."
He nodded and went back to staring into his cup, she knew he was trying to sober up a bit and the water was helping. She patted his back and he nodded leaving her to go back with a slight bounce in her step.
Himiko was exhausted by the time she crawled into bed but lighter and happier than she had been for a long time. Everyone had commented about her mood, both her pre-talk depression and her post-talk almost high that she was still riding. Izuku smiled as she crawled into his chest to spoon.
Feeling his steady heartbeat was something of a vice for the young woman, she could listen to it for hours and be content, the feel of his breath across the nape of her neck was just an added benefit.
"Merry Christmas." she whispered happily.
The gentle kiss on her spine was the prelude "Merry Christmas to you too." he said against her skin.
She knew he meant more than just those five words. She knew he didn't say anything about her mood because he already knew.
