I'M 18 I CAN LEGALLY SAY FUCK.
Well… I have been 18 for a while. And I don't particularly want to swear, either. Whatever. Hi. How's it going? It's been a while, but at least it hasn't been 8 years (no offense meant - I totally get it, authors). So, you know. Not too bad.
In actuality, I'm very sorry for leaving this fic alone for so long. I graduated high school and started college, so. That's fun. I'm an English major so we'll see if that means I write a lot more for this fic or a lot less. If last semester was any indication… yikes. It'll be a 'fun' experiment.
Hope you all had fun holiday celebrations and enjoyed New Years! I hope you all don't mind that this chapter is about Christmas, it's what I'm familiar with. Please enjoy the chapter 3
The child that woke Aizawa up on Christmas morning was not the child one would expect.
Izuku slept soundly, thank goodness. He hit the stage where it was harder to get him to bed than to get him to stay asleep a while ago. He'd been counting on the morning to sleep away and relax.
What he hadn't accounted for was his 19 other children bursting into his wing to drag him out of bed.
"Get out!" Aizawa snarled, shoving Mina and Kirishima back out into the waiting group of students. "Izuku is still sleeping! I was still sleeping! Go back to bed!"
"Sensei, it's nearly eleven o'clock in the morning!" Iida protested. "It is important to maintain a healthy sleep schedule, especially during the weekends and holidays!"
Aizawa stared at him with dead eyes. "Wake me at 1."
"Sensei, it's Christmas!" Uraraka pleaded. "We've been waiting for hours."
"It's Christmas, let me sleep."
"With the amount of gifts under the tree, we'll be there all day if we don't start now." Tsuyu pointed out.
"We have coffee in the kitchen, sensei," Jirou bargained.
Aizawa pointed to her. "You know how to get to my heart. Fine, but you all leave while I get Izuku up."
The class agreed with (hardly) suppressed enthusiasm, and Aizawa shut the door. He exhaled heavily through his nose before heading towards Izuku's room.
When he opened the door, he saw Izuku quietly playing with an All Might doll in his crib. A smile tugged at his lips despite the sleepiness tugging at his eyes. He leaned down into the crib to pick up the boy. "Hey, kiddo, are you ready for Christmas?"
Izuku babbled, more focused on the All Might toy than what his otou-san was saying.
Aizawa helped the toddler change into comfortable pants and a red and green shirt. After checking that everything was fastened and in place, he let the kid play while he changed into his usual Christmas attire: jeans and a red long-sleeved shirt. He also tied his hair back into a low ponytail.
Once Aizawa deemed the two ready to go, he turned to Izuku and held a hand out. "Izuku, time to go."
Izuku didn't look up from his toys, choosing to instead enthusiastically smash the All Might doll into a short block tower.
"Izuku," Aizawa repeated with a bit more force in his tone.
Again, Izuku ignored him, making the toy villain scream in fear before All Might beat him up.
I can't believe I'm about to force a child to participate in Christmas, Aizawa thought, walking forward to pick Izuku up. As he lifted the toddler off the ground, Izuku screeched, kicking and flailing and doing everything in his power to get out of Aizawa's grip.
"Whoa!" Aizawa caught both of his ankles in one hand. "'Zuku, we're just going to another room. You can take All Might with you."
"Nooooo!" Izuku yelled, attempting to hit Aizawa with the doll. Aizawa dodged and shifted to hold Izuku farther away from him.
Aizawa carried Izuku and a few choice toys out of their closed-off wing and went to join the students in the common area. As soon as Aizawa placed Izuku on the floor, Jirou was at his side with a mug of coffee in hand. Aizawa took it gratefully.
The students tore into presents from their family members first. Many received clothes, much to Aizawa's amusement. Christmas pajamas seemed to be a common tradition among the students. Several ran off to go change. Uraraka came back with snowman-print PJs, Mina with an ugly sweater made to look like a wrapped gift, Kouda with reindeer-print PJs, Hagakure with holly-print PJs, and Todoroki with a dinosaur-themed ugly sweater.
Aizawa grabbed a few of Izuku's presents and set them on the floor next to the couch, separated from the students' gifts. "Izuku, do you want to open a present?"
Izuku shook his head, now occupied with a Present Mic action figure. Aizawa let it go; there would be plenty of time for Izuku to open his own presents.
The students began their Secret Sant gift exchange with Iida, who gave Hagakure a set of hair clips she'd been gushing over at the mall. Hagakure gave Aoyama an assortment of foreign cheeses, Aoyama gave Tsuyu special face cream, Tsuyu gave Tokoyami a chain necklace, and so on. Aizawa turned to Izuku again after Ojiro gave Kirishima a coupon for a free class at his martial arts dojo, present in hand.
"Izuku, want to open a present?" Aizawa tugged the wrapping paper enticingly.
"No," came the distracted answer. Izuku clamored over to Hagakure and pointed at her new hair clips. "Mine?"
Hagakure laughed. "No, your otou-san, has your gifts!"
Izuku frowned and pointed at the clips again. "Mine!"
Hagakure was silent, but Aizawa got the feeling she was looking to him for help. He pushed himself off the couch and grabbed Izuku before sitting again, tucking the suddenly screaming toddler under his arm. All the students froze at the sound of Izuku's yelling, but Aizawa rolled his eyes and waved them off. Once the students returned to the gift exchange, Aizawa once again put a gift in front of Izuku.
Izuku stopped whining and glared up at him, offended by the wrapped box in his lap.
"Don't give me that," Aizawa said. He tapped the box. "Come on, open it."
Izuku shook his head.
"Fine, I'll open it." Aizawa tore off the first layer of paper to reveal a colorful box.
Suddenly, Izuku leaned forward and grabbed the box. "Mine!"
Aizawa chuckled and relinquished the box. Izuku pushed the rest of the paper off, enthralled by the bright colors on the eight-pack of plastic HotWheels cars.
"Want to take them out, buddy?" Aizawa asked, already moving to pull the box out of the 3-year-old's hands. Izuku's grip tightened immediately, so Aizawa simply tipped the open of the box away from Izuku and cut it open with a nearby boxcutter reserved specifically for this task. He pulled the plastic packaging out of the box and started dropping cars into Izuku's lap. Each time, he gasped in delight and picked it up to look closer.
Aizawa watched the students break into their own friend groups while Izuku drove the cars up and down Aizawa's legs. Given how hard it was to get the kid to open just one present, Aizawa decided to save the other two for later. One of them was more for himself, anyway. Izuku would look adorable in the little dinosaur pajamas he'd found while out shopping.
"Sensei?"
Aizawa looked up to see Momo looking at him expectantly. She was holding a large box wrapped in white-and-green striped paper and a giant red bow. Iida and Shinsou stood on either side of her.
"We— that is, the class— wanted to give you this, for everything you've done for us this semester and for the next. We couldn't ask for a better homeroom teacher," Momo held the box out for him to take.
A fond warmth grew in his chest. Aizawa set the box on his lap, careful of the green bean sitting next to him. He peeled off the bow and stuck it to the arm of the couch before tearing off the wrapping paper.
The box was actually two boxes stacked on top of each other. The top box contained a large assortment of coffees and his favorite jelly drinks. He set the box on the floor with an appreciative smile before turning to the second.
He burst out laughing. Momo, Iida, and Uraraka joined in easily. Several curious students looked over and, upon realizing what was happening, turned back to their friends with large grins.
"You shouldn't have," he said, already reaching for the box cutter.
"We saw it and immediately knew we had to give it to you," Uraraka said.
They had given him a black, full-body sleeping bag, complete with a hood. Izuku peered over curiously, cars left mostly forgotten.
"Mine?" izuku asked, looking up at Aizawa with large, hopeful eyes.
Aizawa grinned, unzipped the suit and helped Izuku climb inside. The sleeping bag was far too big for the kid, but the kid was too big to disappear down one of the pants legs, so Aizawa didn't pay too much mind to it. He'd just have to make sure Izuku didn't try running in it.
"Told you we should have got a tiny one, too!" Aizawa heard one of the girls mutter.
"Comfortable?" Aizawa asked the bean. Izuku nodded, then squirmed to be let down. Aizawa steadied him one the floor. Once he was free, Izuku made a beeline for the green and orange sippy cup on the coffee table.
"Is Izuku going to open his other presents?" Uraraka asked.
"On his own time," Aizawa replied. "He does things at his own pace."
What holiday traditions do you look forward to? My family marathons Star Wars and my grandmother gives everyone stroopwafels. My family also does the whole Christmas pajama thing, all of which are made by my other grandmother. I love her with all my heart, but the pajamas never really fit me and are, like, square. Still, it's fun when the whole family is matching.
According to my parents, it once took us three days to finish Christmas because I was just not interested. I believe it, my younger cousin was the same way this Christmas; he wasn't interested in opening his own gifts, but everytime someone opened a gift, it was always "his".
I realized while writing that this fic is over two years old. Crazy. I've also spent a significant amount of time around small children, so Izuku's characterization has changed quite a bit. Should I rewrite old chapters? Let me know.
If you have suggestions, please let me know! I've got quite the list from you guys, but you never know when someone's suggestion will, like, possess me for a while. Maybe you'll coax another chapter out of me.
Appreciate you all! -BP