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"Hey, nerd," says Bakugo, throwing a Santa hat at you. "These idiots think they can out-Christmas us. You ready to prove them wrong?"
Balancing it on top of your head and throwing the white ball back, you nod. "Sounds like a blast. Get it? Cuz you…" He glares, and you cut your terrible pun short.
He throws a boxed gingerbread house set onto the counter. "This is it. Kirishima and Todoroki over there said they could build a better one than us any day of the week, so we need to make a point here. How are your skills?"
"The best. Christmas is my holiday. You name anything, and I am your ideal partner for it," you say proudly, opening the box.
He nods. "Good, cuz I refuse to lose to weird hair and half-and-half on something this simple." He tears open the plastic wrapping around the bases, laying them out more neatly than you would have thought him capable of.
"On one condition," you say, tying up your long black hair back into a ponytail. "We have to turn on Christmas music. It won't be the same without it."
He grumbles something, but turns on his phone anyway. "What were you thinking, nerd?"
"You can pick." The holiday season was always your favorite time of year, and it was difficult to find anything you disliked about it, including the music that came along with it. In fact, you'd already decorated your whole dorm with tinsel and lights and the like. Mina, your roommate, was delighted to see the enthusiasm.
Unsurprisingly, whatever he picks starts off with All I Want for Christmas is You. "You ready, extras?" he calls over his shoulder to Todoroki and Kirishima, who are setting up at the counter behind you.
"Almost. Just one more minute," says Kirishima, struggling over the plastic confinements.
Katsuki rolls his eyes and leans his elbow onto the counter, chin resting in his palm. After some more struggling, they finally line up all their things, and Todoroki says, "Ready."
Bakugo instantly begins propping up the firm cookies, knocking the frosting in your direction. "Look, nerd, you're the better one at making things instead of breaking them, so you can handle this."
"Got it, Bakatsuki," you confirm. You've known him for as long as you can remember, otherwise you wouldn't dare risk the nickname. Your hands steadily stick the paste to the walls as quickly yet neatly as you can, though Katsuki's pressuring is the opposite of helpful.
"Can't you go any faster?" he whines in his growly sort of way.
"This isn't something you can rush," you remind him, attaching the last of the four. "I know Eji and Sho are probably done over there, but I promise it's just gonna fall apart the second they move their hands away from it."
"We can hear you, ya know," says Kirishima.
You laugh a little, though Bakugo doesn't seem nearly as entertained. "Whatever. Just finish it up so I can actually feel like I'm being useful." He flushes a little as your hands brush together. "You're only here cuz I heard Mina talking about what you did in your dorm, by the way."
"Sure, Katsuki." He's always been like this. It used to offend you, but now it's sort of endearing. "You know, I really couldn't care less. I'm just here to enjoy myself."
He grunts in agreement as you plaster the final part of the roof down. "Okay, you handle necessary decorations, I'll set up all the extra stuff. What colors? This has gotta be coordinated if we want to wipe the floor with them."
"We don't have to 'wipe the floor' with anyone," you say gently, "and let's just stick to red and green." As hard as it could be to work with Bakugo, you had always admired how forward he was. He could go a bit far, but it was better than being a doormat.
"Color coordinating? How manly of you, Bakugo," Kirishima teases over his shoulder.
"Shut up!" he bellows back. "My parents are fashion designers, I grew up on this kind of thing."
You begin making a green wreath out of fondant, watching Katsuki's face turn a faint shade of red in his anger. He was cute when he was angry. He always looked like a sort of gremlin whenever he was anything but passive.
"What are you looking at, nerd?"
You feel your face go hot. "Nothing, Bakatsuki. Just keep going with your gumdrops or whatever." He grumpily does as he's told, stuffing the sugary blobs into mounds of frosting he's smeared onto the roof.
After about another half hour of back-and-forth and sticking sweets to cookie houses of dubious durability, you and Bakugo had finally finished. Now all that's left to do is wait for Todoroki and Kirishima.
"Hey, y/n?" asks Katsuki quietly, seated up on the counter next to your gingerbread house. "Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, of course, Bakugo." You heave yourself up next to him, fixing the glasses slowly riding down your nose.
He doesn't meet your eyes, instead watching his fingers pick at a hole in his jeans. "I think I realized something when we were working there," he says, softly enough that your classmates across the kitchen can't pick up on his words. "I think I might...I think I might like you, y/n."
You feel your heart flutter. If he meant what you thought he did, it meant your dreams were finally coming true. You'd caught feelings for him years ago, early on in middle school, but you had given up expecting anything in return.
"Well I should hope so," you respond, careful to keep any hope out of your voice. "We've been friends since basically the beginning of time."
"You know what I meant, nerd." His face is a dull shade of red again. "I know you're not dumb, so just tell me what you need to tell me. I won't get mad, I swear."
"I doubt that." He opens his mouth to argue, but shuts up when you gently take his hand in yours. "But even if you would get mad, it doesn't matter. I like you too, Katsuki."
"You---you what?" He turns impossibly redder, though not in the way you're used to. Usually it's anger on his face, but this is more like shocked embarrassment. "I thought you liked that idiot, Deku. I'd understand. I can't pass him up, after all, can I?"
It was always so sad to you when he got like this. He was clearly a good hero, and a quickly advancing one at that, but still he always compared himself to everyone else. "Don't say that, Katsuki. You think I'm that shallow?"
He shakes his head, still not looking you in the eye. "Guess not. It'd be pretty hard to find anyone to like him anyway, I guess."
You laugh a little at his quick mood shift, hand tightening in his fingers' grip. "When did you figure it out?"
He almost meets your gaze, but quickly fixes his attention on the sloppy gingerbread house. "When our hands touched for a little bit. I dunno why that's what did it, but does it really matter, nerd?"
"Of course it doesn't, Bakatsuki." Trying to fluster cuteness out of him even further, you peck him on the cheek.
"Ooooh, got a girlfriend?" asks Kirishima loudly. "Didn't know that happened."
You use your quirk to splash some water on him from the sink. "Stop, Eji, you'll embarrass him."
"Can we just get on with the judging already?" Bakugo grumbles, hopping back down to the floor. Shoto nods, standing awkwardly in front of their house.
"Hey, Hagakure, get in here, will ya? We need an unbiased judge!" says Kirishima, moving on from teasing his best friend.
You see the invisible girl's clothes skip in, tinsel strung around her neck like a scarf. "On it! What am I judging?"
"Gingerbread houses," says Katsuki with a grin. "Y/n's and mine is clearly superior, yeah?"
"Oh, yeah, it's cute! A little crumbly on the roof parts, but better than I could make!"
Kirishima crosses his arms, and gestures for Todoroki to move aside. He does as he's told, revealing a completely ridiculous structure to have made from a kit in only a little over half an hour. Despite having used half of the wall space, making it less wide, their house somehow has two floors, decorated with neat rows of candy and swirling frosting designs.
Toru gushes over it for at least five minutes, to Katsuki's great annoyance. You're not too bothered though, and you help your four classmates eat up all the sweets shortly after. With both another Christmas celebration and scoring your crush checked off of your list, you go back to your dorm, considering the day's events a lovely Christmas miracle.