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just-open-the-fridge-yo · 3 years ago

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Holiday Cheer (My Hero Academia)

A/N: Here’s a gift for @sweet-caramel-tthings ! This was for the Secret Santa gift exchange that was hosted by @made-by-jade-222 from a zoom session we did a while ago! I hope you've had a good holiday, and happy last day of 2021!

Summary: Shinsou, Aizawa, Yamada, and Eri celebrate the holidays together

Words: 2K

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“Yo, Shouta! Hot sauce me, buuuuurother!”

“Here.” Aizawa handed the hot sauce to Eri who passed it to Shinsou, who gave it to Yamada. Shinsou watched the bottle’s glass shimmer against the glow of the campfire they were all sitting around as Yamada dumped sauce over his chicken leg.

This wasn’t how Shinsou pictured his night going. He’d been walking alone along the beach’s shore, watching the moon’s light blanket the ocean. The sight always soothed his mind every time he took nighttime beach walks to clear his head.

He saw a few strangers scattered around the area on towels, stargazing as usual, but he hadn’t been expecting to come across holiday music accompanied by festive lights decorating the trunks of a few palm trees. He also hadn’t been expecting to see Aizawa sitting, partially encased in his sleeping bag, Eri sitting next to him on the same log, wearing a Santa hat, and Yamada dressed in a tropical elf outfit.

Shinsou hadn’t been planning to stay either, but Yamada offered him food.

Aizawa had asked him what he was doing out here so late when the teachers had given many of the U-A students permission to leave the dorms on Wednesday to visit their homes for the remainder of their holiday break. But here it was, Friday, Christmas night, and Shinsou was still in the campus area.

Christmas wasn’t something he celebrated.

“Really? You don’t?” Yamada paused mid-bite of his chicken to ask. Shinsou shook his head and Yamada gasped. “What about Appreciate the Cake Day?!”

“Uh…” Shinsou raised his brow at the degree of his English teacher’s distress. “No.”

“You don’t experience any kind of holiday cheer during December?!”

“Relax, Mic. It’s fine if he doesn’t,” Aizawa said as he poured a small puddle of hot sauce onto Eri’s plate that she wanted to try with her chicken. “Choosing to celebrate the holidays is up to the individual.”

Yamada frowned. “Yeah, of course I know that, but—”

“It’s…” Shinsou shook his head. “It’s not something I hate or anything, I’ve just…” He shrugged, suddenly feeling mildly self-conscious. “We didn’t do any of that stuff at my past schools growing up, and my parents don’t celebrate either. Their jobs always have them busy this time of the year. They’re outta town again on a business trip right now.”

Only the crash of the waves was heard for a moment.

“Well, there’s a first time for everything. I’m glad we get to be the first to celebrate some of our annual personalized holiday cheer with ya then!” Yamada said.

Shinsou tilted his head. “‘Personalized holiday cheer’?”

“Yup. That's right,” Aizawa mumbled. According to the two teachers, Christmas nights at the beach first became an annual tradition of theirs when they were U.A. students. Usually, Toshinori and Kayama would be there, too, but this year, Toshinori had received an invite to have Christmas dinner with Izuku and his mom, while Kayama was out of town, visiting relatives.

“This is the first year they’re not in attendance. Looks like we found two stellar human beings to take their place on this special night!” Yamada smiled while finger gunning in Eri and Shinsou’s direction.

“Mmm!” Eri tried some of her hot sauce-dipped chicken, coughed a few times, and after drinking water, she dug right back in, much to everyone’s amusement. They then all continued eating.

Present Mic’s station, Put Your hands Up, which was currently playing non-stop holiday music, had been playing on his nearby stereo as they ate and talked. But when the opera-like music that had been playing slowly transitioned into “White Christmas”, Yamada practically jumped out of his elf costume.

“FINALLY! I thought this one would never play!” he cried and tossed his half-eaten corn on the cob onto Aizawa’s plate, ignored the man’s annoyed stare, and grabbed his ukulele. He began strumming it slowly along with the song and sang:

“I’m dreaming of a green Christmas, with all the palm trees at the beach….”

Yamada’s singing wasn’t bad, but his voice naturally grew louder and louder as the seconds ticked on until he was drowning out the radio, and his voice was spreading very loudly all over the beach. When Shinsou noticed other people were starting to notice, he felt awkward.

“…Where the palm trees glisten, and people listen to Present Mic and his beats - OH YEEEAAH!” Yamada was really getting into it.

‘He’s gonna be doing this for a while, isn't he? And is he using his quirk a little?’ Shinsou groaned and rubbed a hand over his warm cheek, confirming that yes, the attention his Sensei was drawing was making him blush. He rarely got embarrassed about things, but it was only getting worse with every new stranger’s stare that latched onto the four of them. Shinsou glanced at Aizawa who was sitting to his left on another log. After some hesitation, he cleared his throat, catching Aizaawa’s attention, and he gave him his best ‘pointed look’ that said: You’re one of his best friends, right? Do something.

Shinsou and Aizawa had developed a pretty strong understanding of each other’s facial expressions, having spent a decent amount of time together for Shinsou’s training and all, so Shinsou knew his ‘look’ got his message across to Aizawa who sighed, stood, and stepped out of his sleeping bag.

Yamada’s “Green Christmas” song was coming to an end, and “Jingle Bell Rock” was just starting. Shinsou waited for Aizawa to put a hand on Yamada’s shoulder with a look that said “enough is enough”, or activate his Erasure quirk to quiet Mic down.

Instead, Present Mic kept singing, and Aizawa began to dance. Hula dance.

“Break it down, Shouta!! Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock - WOOO! ”

Aizawa’s hula moves were flowy yet controlled as they aligned perfectly with the rhythm of the music and Yamada’s singing, and he wasn’t phased by Shinsou’s incredulous look. “This song is incomplete without the dance,” was his explanation.

Shinsou internally face-palmed.

'I’ve only known them for half a year, but why do I feel like they’re my dads that have been embarrassing the hell out of me my whole life?' Shinsou thought while reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. ‘Why am I even here again?’ he wondered.

“Wooow…” Eri whispered and looked at Shinsou from across the fire with wide eyes. “They’re really good at this.”

Shinsou took one look at Eri and her amazed expression and couldn’t bring himself to openly disagree with her. Instead, he silently watched the two again.

After a few moments passed, the wave of Shinsou’s initial embarrassment was slowly dying down a bit, and he realized watching them was…tolerable.

“Leeeet’s speed it up a little, ya dig?!” Yamada yelled after the end of the first round of “Jingle Bell Rock” ended. He then started all over again, making the song a few times faster this time. “Jingle-bell-jingle-bell-jingle-bell-rock! - YOW - Jingle-bells-ring-and-jingle-bells-ping - POW!”

Shinsou’s eyes widened. The song’s greater speed made his Senseis perform with even more enthusiasm that he didn’t know was possible. Despite how fast this version was, they were keeping up with it impressively.

‘All right. Maybe they’re…really not that bad…’ Shinsou was surprised to hear himself think.

There was no denying that Yamada’s singing was beautiful. Loud and wild, but beautiful. And Aizawa’s dancing was slightly mechanical, but graceful in its own way. The two’s stage presences were so different, but they came together and brought the moment to life.

‘Fine. They’re definitely embarrassing. But they’re not horrible at all. I’ll give ‘em that.’ Soon, Shinsou felt the corners of his mouth turning upward when Mic started dancing along with Aizawa, not as good, but doing it while still singing and strumming, too. ‘In fact…they’re actually kind of….’

“Giddy up, Eraser, pick up your speed!” Yamada belted out.

“Already doing that,” Aizawa said dryly, not missing a beat.

“Hahehehee!” Eri burst into giggles that were airy and musical, and she gave Shinsou a bright smile. “They’re going so fast!”

Shinsou casually put a hand over his nose and mouth, but the way Eri was still laughing, along with the way Aizawa continued to hula dance like a pro all while keeping his usual straight face, made it much harder for Shinsou to contain his amusement.

“You two…are so lame,” he muttered behind his hand as if saying that would help him snap out of his urge to laugh. But it was so hard not to look away.

“Come on, Shinsou! Aren’t ya diggin’ the song? Where’s your holiday cheer?”

Shinsou shrugged.

“Get down and boogie with us, would ya?” Yamada encouraged.

Shinsou continued to sit there.

“UH-OH! Now it looks like little Eri’s got the spirit - and she’s gettin’ dooown!”

Eri had gotten up to join them, standing next to Aizawa and trying to mimic some of his hula moves. Aizawa occasionally halted his dance to show Eri the moves better.

It wasn’t that Shinsou didn’t like dancing; he enjoyed it. He just knew he wasn’t the best. But then again…

The bunch performing in front of him (except for Aizawa) didn’t look the most… ‘put together’ anyway-

‘What is…is he doing the Cha Cha now?’ Shinsou was aware of Present Mic approaching him with his ukelele abandoned in favor of dancing fully along to his song. He was like a moving stereo that plopped next to Shinsou again on the log.

“What a bright time, it’s the right time to dance next to the sea!” Yamada slung an arm over Shinsou’s shoulders like he usually did when giving him and other students pep talks, and Shinsou rolled his eyes.

“What a bright time, it’s the right time to get up dancing in a one, two, three!” Yamada said while poking Shinsou in the chest three times, which caused him to flinch and curl in a little with his hand over his mouth again.

And of course, a glint of further playfulness appeared in Yamada’s eyes and he poked a few more times, this time into one of his sides. “Theeere we go, now you got the moves!”

“Heh - ehehey! Yahamada S-Sehehensei!” Shinsou snorted and tried to keep his mouth covered but was failing miserably to hide his snickers with each poke. The fact that Yamada was also still singing made it hard to stop the laughter from bubbling out of him once it started. He slid off the log and was rolling around in the sand with Yamada following. “Whahat are yohohou dohohoing?”

“You indicated you didn’t know where your holiday cheer was, so I thought you could use a little help!” Yamada exclaimed.

At some point through his laughter, Shinsou asked if Aizawa was going to, you know, bother helping him at all.

“Help yourself. I’m busy here. No, here, do it like this. When you take a step forward, move your arms just a little more,” Aizawa told Eri while gently guiding one of her arms in the right movement. She nodded and repeated the move on her own and Aizawa hummed. “Good. Imagine your arms are the waves.”

“Okay. I am the oooceeeaaan,” Eri said while wiggling her arms slowly.

Aizawa cracked a smile. “Whatever works.”

Soon, Yamada stopped his tickle attack with an affectionate hair ruffle, earning some grumbles from Shinsou once he’d settled down from laughing. But after that, Shinsou noticed that he felt a little lighter and more at ease.

The night’s activities were nothing extravagant. Eating, talking, drinking, listening to music, and the sounds of the beach. Yet Shinsou kept wanting to stay just a few minutes longer with the three of them. And each moment he glanced at the time, he couldn’t believe it was going by so fast.

They finally called it a night when Eri fell asleep in Aizawa’s arms, comforted by his hold on her and the warmth of the fire. It was a little past midnight when they said their last Merry Christmases and a happy new year before parting ways. Shinsou was headed back to the dorms, alone again.

‘So, this is what ‘holiday cheer’ feels like’, he thought with the night’s memories replaying in his mind, contentment lingering in his chest, and a faint smile still on his face. ‘Not bad’.

Maybe he could feel it again next year.

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