A/N- Is everyone ready for a week-late Christmas drabble? Because I'm sure not. I totally intended to have this done before the holiday but you know me...

Prompt: Cookies, Christmas trees, and a few broken ornaments along the way.

"Are they ready yet?"

"Not yet. Just a few more minutes. Gives us some time to get this last batch decorated." Hina said, glancing at the oven's timer before finishing up the last few touches of icing on her cookie. The green tree with colorful ornaments looked much better now that she'd included what was supposed to be a string of lights across the branches.

It was the day before the Christmas party for the dorms, and Hina was determined to make it a festive one. That meant decorations, music, and of course lots of cookies and treats. While Aizawa was out on a patrol, covering for another hero who apparently had other plans for the day, Hina and Eri were furiously baking in the kitchen. It was easy to underestimate the amount of cookies that 20 high schoolers could eat, but Hina liked baking anyway, and she was excited to use her mother's sugar cookie recipe again after so long.

Her on-campus apartment was alive with Christmas lights strung throughout the living room, a festive tree already decorated in the corner and lit up in multicolored lights. Holiday music played over her phone's loudspeaker, tv showing a crackling fire to set the mood. Hina was always an eager participant of the winter holiday but knowing that this would be Eri's first Christmas in her newfound freedom, the telepath was determined to make it a memorable and happy one.

Setting the complete cookie on her pile of finished ones, she wiped icing-tipped hands on her apron and stepped over to where Eri was stood on a step stool at the counter. Even with the extra height under her feet, she was barely able to clear the counter enough to reach things comfortably. "How's yours coming along?"

"Ok. It's almost done." She said, concentrating hard on the ball ornament cookie she was working on. The icing was uneven and there were some gaps in between the colors, but Hina didn't mind. Purple and orange had certainly never looked so good together in cookie form.

"Looks tasty." Hina said with a smile. "Are you gonna put any sprinkles on it?"

"No, just the icing."

"Good choice." Giving Eri's shoulder an encouraging squeeze she went back over to her side of the kitchen counter, grabbing an undecorated cookie in the shape of a snowman and her bag of white icing.

"Do you think Mirio and Midoriya will like it?" Eri asked suddenly, holding it up for her to look at again.

"Of course they will." She said with a laugh, pleased to see the girl's mouth quirk up in a smile. "Your cookies will be the highlight of the party."

"Really?"

"You bet." She gave a wink, then put down her icing and gestured to Eri's ornament. "All finished?"

"Yeah."

"Let's put it with the others, then." She held out her hand, and the little girl delicately placed it on her palm. Hina took care not to mess up the still-wet icing in some areas as she set it on top of a pile of other decorated ornaments, all in a variety of colors. "Which one do you want to do next?"

"Umm..." Eri looked through the cookies they had yet to do, before pointing to one of the piles. "A tree."

"Alrighty, here ya go." She handed her the cookie and the green icing bag. The oven's timer chose that moment to go off, and she quickly snatched up her oven mitts. "Ooh, stand back for a second. These ones are done."

Eri hopped off the stool and took a few steps back, letting Hina open the oven to reveal the two trays of freshly baked cookies. One by one, she set them on top of the stove, replacing them with the other two awaiting trays on the counter. She shut the oven door, setting the timer for 10 minutes, and tossing her oven mitts beside the two cooling trays.

"The last batch is in! Now we just have to finish decorating the rest." Hina said.

"They smell really good."

"They sure do." The redhead took a deep breath, taking in the scent of freshly baked cookies again, before letting it all out in a happy sigh. "Reminds me of when I used to make cookies with my mom. I loved helping her in the kitchen because it always smelled like this."

Eri looked at Hina hopefully. "Can I help you decorate cookies next year too?"

"Of course you can. You're the best cookie partner I could have asked for." Hina lowered her voice, looking around conspiratorially. "Aizawa sneaks more cookies than he decorates. Don't tell him I said that, though."

The little girl giggled, and Hina smiled in return, glad she could make her laugh. They settled into decorating again, the redhead lining the edges of her cookie with the white icing.

"I really like Christmas so far." Eri suddenly said, smiling to herself. "I hope every year is this nice."

"Me too." Hina said quietly, hoping that the little girl didn't see the sadness in her gaze. To go 7 years of her life without ever having a Christmas...she couldn't imagine it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing, interrupting the music that was playing through it. Setting down her icing again and licking her fingers of any that had missed the cookie, she jogged over to the table where it was placed. Seeing who was calling, she tapped to accept the call and put it on speaker.

"Hey, Sho." She greeted.

"Hey. I just got off patrol. Are you still baking?" She could hear the rush of wind through the phone. He was no doubt on the move. Most likely up high somewhere, knowing him.

"I just put the last batch of cookies in the oven. We still have a lot to decorate though." Hina said, setting her phone on the counter beside where she was working.

"Do you need anything before I get back to the campus?"

She looked around. "Umm...we should be ok. I think I actually overestimated how much icing I'd need for this, and I'm good on everything else. What do you think, Eri? Anything we need?"

Eri twisted her face up in thought, but shook her head.

"Nope, we're set here." Hina reported after a moment.

"Ok. Figured I'd check."

"How was patrol?"

"Busy. Mostly break-ins and thieves." He said with an obvious sigh. "Nothing more serious than a civilian armed robbery, though."

"Good. I'm glad you're safe." She bid with a smile, and he hummed.

"I'm always careful."

"I know, but I'll always worry."

"So I've noticed." He replied, amusement obvious. "I'll be there soon."

"Alright, we'll see you in a bit." Hina said, reaching over to hit the end call button, before thinking of one last thing. "Oh, wait, before you go!"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know if Toshinori got all of the Christmas decorations we need?"

Now fully into his retirement, the former Number One hero wanted to give back to the UA students and staff, offering to buy any decorations for the holiday they requested. Hina had been somewhat reluctant to take him up on the offer, knowing how expensive something like that could be, but he'd only laughed it off, stating that he was comfortably wealthy, given his years of service as a hero.

"I haven't talked to him. Call him and ask." Shouta suggested.

"Alright, I will. Love you."

"You too. Bye, Eri."

"Bye, Aizawa." Eri called, clearly happy to be included in some way to the conversation. "You can have one of my cookies when you get here."

"Can't wait."

They ended the call, and Hina scrolled through her contacts for Toshinori's name. Eri switched out her green icing for the red one as the redhead tapped the call button and put it on speaker again. It rang a few times before-

"Hello!"

"Hey, Toshinori, how are you?"

"Fantastic!" Was his boisterous reply. "I'm filled with this energy I can't explain. I suppose I'd simply forgotten how much I loved the holidays until now. It's invigorating."

"Forgotten?"

"For once, I'm not on a patrol, performing a contractual toy launch, or across the country helping with avalanche rescues in the north. Being retired has granted me plenty of free time to celebrate Christmas, not to mention many people I can share the day with, and I plan on making the most of it." He said with enthusiasm.

"I'm glad you're excited." She said, switching to her black icing for the snowman's scarf. "I was actually calling to ask if you'd gotten all the Christmas decorations yet?"

"I'm out buying them now! The trees are on their way right now, and I'm currently perusing through the ornaments. It's truly a wonder how many they have to choose from. I'll drop them off at each dorm later today. Not sure I'll be much help setting them up, though..."

"I'm sure Aizawa and I can handle 1-A. And the others can decorate their own dorms. Let's us worry about it. We appreciate all you're doing for us already."

"Think nothing of it. With the unorthodox year that it's been, I'm glad to be able to give the students a festive-G-gah!" A series of crashes on the other end of the line, which sounded suspiciously like a variety of glass objects, made Hina frown. "Oops..."

"What happened?"

"N-nothing! Everything's fine..." The blonde replied in that way that clearly meant he was flustered. Hina raised a brow, eyeing the phone. A moment later, both females heard a couple more shattered glasses. "Oh my..."

That certainly didn't sound good. "Toshinori-"

"I will stop by once I've got everything purchased. I'll speak with you later!" He said quickly, abruptly ending the call before Hina could ask what exactly he'd broken. She set the phone back to their Christmas music and set it back on the table.

"Well...at least we'll have some decorations tonight. I hope." Hina sighed to her small companion, who laughed at her skeptical expression.

"You've never seen Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?" Hina asked in disbelief, staring at her boyfriend's back as he hung the Christmas lights along the top of the dorm's common room walls. She strung the ornament's cap with a hook, then placed it up high in the Christmas tree they had placed in the center of one of the walls.

He gave a shrug. "You realize that's more of an American tradition, right?"

"I suppose, but..." What a travesty! To have never seen such a classic movie...she couldn't fathom a childhood without it. "Not even once?"

"No."

"We might have to watch it tomorrow after the party then." She decreed, ignoring his sigh and shaking head. Clearly, she was more enthused about it than him, but she didn't much care. "Besides, Eri will like it too, I think."

"She doesn't know English." He pointed out, finishing out the strand of lights and stepping down from the ladder they'd brought in to help them set up decorations. Hina pursed her lips, pausing at that revelation.

"Maybe they have a Japanese version..." She muttered, hoping it was true. She grabbed another hook, then one of the spherical ornaments to decorate the tree.

The more he shot down her idea, the more she realized what a unique cultural split her family had maintained growing up. Including some American traditions alongside Japanese ones. She supposed she could always translate the dialogue in real time? Whatever it took, she'd make sure Eri could enjoy a few things from her own childhood. Even if it was late, it was something...right?

The room was coming along nicely. So far, Aizawa had strung about three quarters of the room with lights along their edges, ringing the room in light. The Christmas tree, which was several feet higher than Hina had anticipated it being, was clearly the room's centerpiece. While not entirely covered in ornaments yet, it was still looking great with the string of garland and lights already draping the branches.

It was late into the night, well past midnight now. Eri had been put to bed several hours previously, and they still had a few hours left to go before being completely done. Aizawa had grumped about doing things last minute, but Hina's promise to let him sleep in the following morning quelled any further arguments. Plus, the fact that they were doing all this in their sweatpants and sleep shirts made things a little more bearable.

And despite his outward annoyed appearance, she knew he enjoyed the holidays just as much as her. He just didn't show it as openly as she did.

For the most part, they worked in silence, with Hina handing Aizawa a new string of lights every once in awhile. She steadily added ornaments to the tree, filling it's empty spaces. Toshinori had gone all out on the decor. There were too many to hang on the tree, and she was already formulating where to put the extras.

"What traditions did you have for the holidays in your family?" The redhead suddenly asked, and he glanced her direction.

"Not many." He said. "I was an only child, so it wasn't like I had siblings to do things with. We would visit my uncle in Sapporo mostly. It was more of a family get-together than a party, but he made sure to have plenty of dinner to serve us. I always looked forward to it."

"Is he still in Sapporo?" She asked curiously.

"No." He stated, leaving it at that.

Hina got the message and didn't ask further. Several silent moments passed, before she decided to speak up.

"I remember making cookies with my mom all day on Christmas Eves," she offered, filling the sudden silence with memories, "and my dad helping me wrap the gifts I'd gotten for her and Daichi. He'd always kick me out right after so he could wrap the rest."

He only hummed in response, and she focused instead on untangling some of the hooks in her box on the ground. It seemed like he didn't really want to talk about this, so she dropped it.

Another ornament hung on the tree, she stooped on the ground to get another, and Aizawa finished off the last of the hanging lights. Setting aside the ladder, he grabbed some of the paper snowflakes that Toshinori had bought from the party store and began placing them on the walls with tape.

"What else?" He suddenly asked, and she looked up.

"Hmm?"

Aizawa paused. "What else do you remember doing with your family?"

"Oh." She hadn't expected him to be so invested in her Christmas traditions. Given the green-light to keep talking, she smiled. "Well...when it snowed, Daichi and I would always build a big snow fort in the front yard. We'd gather snow from the park across our street and make it as tall as we could.

"And my dad and I would stay up late that weekend watching Christmas movies until I fell asleep." Hina said fondly. "In the morning, my mom would make a big breakfast."

She made another trip to the tree with ornaments, the last of the current box, and then returned to the pile of boxes to open a new set. "We'd make little gift boxes to give to neighbors, with cookies and chocolate covered strawberries, and other things. That was my favorite thing to do, I think."

"Your family made a big deal out of Christmas." He stated neutrally, and Hina nodded.

"It was my parents' favorite holiday. They got engaged on Christmas Eve, so it was always special to them." She smiled wider, then. "I remember they'd put us to bed for the night, then slow dance in the living room to this one song. I couldn't sleep sometimes, and would sit at the top of the stairs, listening to the music. I don't think they ever found out."

She paused, smiling to herself. "I thought it was really beautiful, watching them dance like that."

Aizawa hummed in thought. Hina went quiet after that, thinking on memories and nostalgia, all wrapped up with the wistful feeling of missing her late parents. She missed them, and around Christmas especially, that ached intensified. It was such an important holiday for all of them-

"Which song?" Was his second unexpected inquiry.

"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." She responded distractedly, eyes taking in the tree so far and judging if she could fit a few more ornaments on it somehow. However, it was clear that any more would make it look ridiculous, so she cast her gaze around the room for any place that she could justify putting ornaments.

The next hour or so went by quietly, both teachers working to get the room done by the morning when the students would wake up. A few Aizawa knew to be early risers. But with teamwork, they both packed up the boxes or decorations and hid them away in the closet alongside the ladder.

A few plugged in cords later, and a flick of the lights to cast the room in darkness made for a wonderful final result of all their hard work. She stepped into the center of the room to really take it all in.

"Look at that..." Hina muttered, eyes gazing around the colorful, twinkling lights and green trim. The tree stood tall in the center of the room, wrapped in silver and gold garland, UA's signature blue and white adorning the ornaments on it's branches, and a magnificent golden star at the top. She walked around it a few steps, just to see it from all angles.

White snowflake cut-outs lined the walls, and windows were centered with vinyl holiday decorations. Various snowmen and reindeer were frozen in time the glass panes. The front door to the dorms had a red and green wreath to welcome and bid goodbye to anyone passing through.

"I think we're finally done." She said with a satisfied sigh.

"Almost."

"Have yourself...a merry little Christmas."

Hina turned as the first few deep-voiced lyrics of a familiar song began to play, watching Shouta put his phone on the couch's back cushion. Her mouth opened to ask a question, but nothing came out.

"Let your heart be light."

The speaker was just loud enough for them to hear without risking waking up the students on the floors above. He stepped closer, holding out his hand in silent invitation, and she looked up at him with such awe as she took it in her own.

"From now on, our troubles will be out of sight."

A gentle tug brought her flush to his chest, and his arm wrapped softly against her lower back. She needed no persuasion in swaying with him to the song, one hand settling on his shoulder as the other held onto his. They slowly spun circle through a few verses.

It didn't matter that they were dressed in ratty sweatpants, old t-shirts, hair an unkempt mess, and she was sans makeup. The common room suddenly became their own luxurious ballroom, decorated just for them. The redhead settled her head against his chest, smiling softly.

"You never struck me as the dancing type, Shouta."

"I'm not."

Her smile widened as they completed their second circle. "What ever will this do to your stern, no-nonsense reputation?"

He exhaled an amused breath, finally mumbling next to her ear. "There are many irrational, nonsensical things I'd do for you, reputation be damned."

Hina felt a pang of something unexplainably strong in her heart. As if she somehow found herself loving him even more than she already did, if that was even possible. Lip giving an imperceptible quiver, eyes growing glassy with the overwhelming threat of tears, she did her best to hold her emotions at bay and relish the moment. "Even join in all my silly traditions?"

"Every single one."

"You're..." She found herself swallowing hard, choking back by the overflow of gratitude and love and...everything else she was feeling in her chest in that moment. The rest of what she wanted to say wouldn't come out. He must have gathered the gist of her feelings though, because he rested his chin on her head and pulled her in a little tighter.

They danced for the rest of the song, Hina pouring her emotions through a telepathic connection between them, so she could somehow show her gratitude without words.

A/N-Did you think they were gonna fuck in the Christmas tree or something? Jeez, dirty minded readers... Anyway, let me know what you thought of this week-late snippet!