Please rest. Everything can wait.

◟(◕◡◕❀)

Eri's first Christmas was attended to by Aizawa, Nemuri, Nezu, All Might, and me. It was surprising that All Might joined us, but evidently, he didn't have anywhere else to go. Had I known that I would have warned Izuku as I'm sure my friend would have been delighted to invite him over for Christmas.

I'll have to do that next year.

We recorded Eri opening all of her presents—some of which started to make her cry—then we had a lovely lunch. When All Might coughed blood, Eri was particularly concerned and hurried over to him.

'She's already learning to be so kind to others,' I thought with pride as she brought him a handkerchief I gave her.

"No need to worry, young one," All Might tried to appease her.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her tone quivering with worry.

"Just an old injury," he said.

"Old?" echoed Eri, her scarlet eyes widening as she looked over at Nezu. "Can I—?"

Nezu had climbed into Aizawa's scarf after eating because it was the comfiest spot outside of being held in my lap which Eri had permanently claimed. The principal gently said, "That's very sweet of you to ask, Eri-chan, but you don't have enough control over your Quirk to try it on other people."

Yet.

(Save it for the boy)

She looked down in disappointment. All Might smiled kindly and placed a hand over her head. "Thank you, Eri-chan. Don't worry about me, focus on yourself. You've been through a lot and deserve a childhood without concern."

"I want to be a hero like Nee-chan," protested Eri. "She helps people, I want to help people."

"You already do. Every time I see you smile I feel all my worries melting away," I sighed happily.

"Every time you let me dress you up, all the stress of the day fades away," agreed Nemuri as she also sighed happily. We exchanged knowing looks, comrades in admiring Eri's cuteness.

'It would be amazing if Eri could use her Quirk to restore All Might,' I thought. 'Izu-chan would be beside himself with joy.'

I wouldn't hold out that expectation. It would be unfair to place such a huge assumption on a young girl who barely understood her own Quirk.

Despite All Might coughing up blood the late lunch/early dinner Christmas meal was amicable and filled with light conversation. Nemuri and Nezu were natural conversationalists, and since my time at the café, I held up pretty well. Aizawa was reluctant to join in, only answering when directly called out. All Might and Eri were happy to listen, but cutely flustered when the conversation veered their direction.

There was a reason I called All Might Cinnamon Roll-san!

If All Might was a Cinnamon Roll then Eri was a sugar cookie with red sprinkles.

Once the meal was done, we chatted for a couple more hours. Only when the conversation began to idle and comfortable silence filled the room did the adults decide it was time to head out. Aizawa was the first to leave. Not before I got my holiday hug from him though!

It was a little bit tighter than the previous years.

"If you have another nightmare, I'll be in the apartment below," he told me.

"I'll be okay," I assured him, giving him another squeeze. "Thanks, Sensei."

He flicked me on the nose before he left with All Might. Nemuri came up from behind, twirling me around to face her. She pulled me into a hug. She kissed the top of my head and warmly whispered, "Merry Christmas, Kiyo-chan."

I held her close, breathing in her familiar scent.

The day had been an odd one. It was my first Christmas without Baba or Papa. There was that bitter taste in my mouth, but it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. There was a sweetness inside me that I knew was only there because I wasn't alone.

Truly, I didn't think I could have gotten through the holiday without my friends.

"Thanks, Nee-chan," I whispered.

She patted my back.

There was a tug on my hair from behind. Pulling away from Nemuri I found Nezu was beaming up at me. "Merry Christmas, Kiyo-chan."

I bent over to hug him next. "Merry Christmas, Shishō."

"Care to open my present for you?" he asked.

I warily eyed the box he pulled out from behind. His last two gifts had been absurdly expensive. He started to cackle upon seeing my apprehension. As he kept holding it out to me, I felt obligated to accept it.

To my relief it did not appear to be anything overly expensive, rather—

"A notebook?" I asked, pulling it out of the box. It was well made, about medium in length but very thick. It also had tabs.

"A blank recipe book," he said.

I beamed. "That's perfect. Oh, thank you, Shishō!"

I reached over and hugged him. He patted my back. "You are quite welcome, Kiyo-chan."

◟(◕◡◕❀)

As things wound down, I wished everyone a happy Christmas and bade them goodbye. Since I was the only student staying in the dorms over break until my work-study, Eri was allowed to stay with me. Once I left for my work-study, she would stay with Nemuri. She watched a Christmas movie in the living room while I cleaned up—she offered, but I insisted she relaxed and enjoyed herself. It took a few hours to get all the dishes scrubbed and dried, which gave her time to finish two movies.

Once that was done, we took a bath. I got her ready for bed—she wanted to watch another movie—and I made sure it was okay with her if I dropped off a present for Shōto. She assured me it was, and I promised I'd be back by the time she picked out the movie to watch.

Dressed in my pajamas, I sent a text to Shōto asking if it was okay to meet him in his room. He responded within a minute saying it was.

I popped by Shōto's room to deliver his Christmas present. My friend had been at his desk, a book about ASL resting on it. He was wearing a very nice maroon sweater with black pants. His white collared shirt was tucked underneath, giving the impression he had returned from a semi-formal dinner party.

'I can't believe I have such a handsome boyfriend,' I thought appreciatively. I had to admit I felt a bit silly standing next to him in only my pajamas. Not enough to go back and change—we had literally slept in the same bed too many times to count—but enough to cause a small blush.

Actually a big blush because I was acutely aware of the fact that I was alone in my boyfriend's room.

'Gosh I hope he doesn't think I'm weird because I literally can't stop smiling even if I wanted to,' I thought.

I held up his present. "Merry Christmas, Sho-chan."

"Merry Christmas, Kiyo-chan," he said, accepting the present. He carefully pulled off the tape around the wrapping paper, then unfolded the wrapping paper. He opened the box inside to find a hand-knit sweater, scarf, mittens, hat, and a few boxes of pocky.

'Thankfully I had brought all of them with me so they weren't destroyed in the fire,' I thought, resisting the urge to fidget anxiously. I didn't have a lot of money to spend on gifts, so everything was homemade. It hadn't been an issue before, but I always had that surge of anxiety followed by the shame of, well, not being as well-off as others. It was completely ridiculous—none of my friends were so shallow to judge me like that—yet I couldn't stamp it out of my head entirely.

He smiled softly, pulling the dark blue hat over his head. "Thank you."

"Welcome. If any of them don't fit, let me know," I said.

He set the box down on his desk.

Shōto stared back at me, slowly raising his hands to cup both sides of my face. With a patient smile, I waited for him to decide what to do next. His face grew steadily redder by the second until he was brighter than a ripe strawberry. He hurriedly kissed my forehead before stepping back, averting his gaze, and placing a hand over his mouth. "S-Sorry..."

"You're fine," I assured him as I inwardly squealed SO FLIPPITY FLAPPITY CUTE OH MY GOSH. My heart hammered loudly from excitement and oh if I was home alone I'd be screaming into a pillow.

He cleared his throat, then pulled out a box twice as big as the one I gave him.

'Oh jeeze—'

I sat on his bed to open the box, relieved to find clothes. Name brand, absurdly nice clothes, but clothes nonetheless. And a gift card for a fancy clothing store that I didn't think I'd ever be comfortable shopping in by myself.

Maybe Momo would go with me. She's probably shopped at that kind of store before and I won't feel so out of place with her beside me.

I pulled out one of the sweaters—a maroon one that looked very similar to the one Shōto was wearing—and slipped it on over my tank top. "Ooo. Soft."

"Since you're always so cold," he explained.

... and you lost a lot of clothes in the fire.

That part went unsaid.

"Thanks, Sho-chan," I said appreciatively, using my bubbles to step up and kiss his cheek.

"There's one more thing at the bottom of the clothes," he mumbled, his gaze shyly lowering.

Curious, I moved past the sweaters to find—

"Awww, you got me a new hori hori knife?" I couldn't resist squealing at that. The last one I had was lost forever after another adventure I had with Izuku. It had been on my list of tools needing to be replaced, but I never got around to it. "Thanks, Sho-chan."

"Welcome," he returned.

We stared at each other for another moment before Shōto coughed and looked away, his face turning red again.

"I should head back to Eri-chan," I said. "See you at the work-study?"

"Yeah," he said. "Good night."

"Sweet dreams."

I returned to the dorm.

Eri noticed me right away and smiled. "You look happy."

"I am happy," I told her.

"Good." She leaned forward, beckoning me to move closer to her. Humoring her, I bent down. She whispered in my ear, "That's what I wished from Santa—for you to be happy."

I started to happy-cry, scooping her into my arms.

'As soon as I turn an adult, I am adopting her.'

◟(◕◡◕❀)

To my delighted surprise Izuku and Katsuki were going to come along with me on Shōto's work-study with Endeavor.

"Although we were only apart for a bit I missed you," I cooed, nuzzling Izuku's cheek on the bus ride down.

"Hehe, I missed you too," said Izuku, well-accustomed to my affections. I gave Katsuki a hopeful look.

"Touch me a die," he crankily warned.

"Happy New Year, Bocchan," I said, moving to nuzzle with Shōto instead.

"Whatever," dismissed Katsuki.

"Hehe."

◟(◕◡◕❀)

"Welcome. I'm Endeavor," greeted an oddly smiling Endeavor when we got off the bus. Then his face morphed into that of a glower and he growled, "Is that the warm reception you were hoping for? I ain't thrilled about taking you three. This is only 'cause Shōto asked. I was hoping it'd be just him!"

"You already accepted, stop complaining," Shōto sharply cut in.

Katsuki looked Endeavor up and down. "Ever since our training course I've been thinking... You're an ass."

Endeavor glowered at Katsuki. I turned my head, coughing, to hide my smile. "Are you really friends with this kid, Shōto?!"

Instead of answering, Shōto ignored Endeavor to work on adjusting my red scarf. "Are you cold?"

"N-No," I said, smiling as Shōto buttoned up my jacket as well.

"But you coughed—"

"Not because of that—"

"Whatever," Katsuki said over us. "I'll put up with anything if it means seeing how the top dude operates."

Endeavor scoffed at Katsuki. He addressed Shōto, "I toldja to choose your friends wisely!"

Shōto continued to ignore Endeavor as he buttoned up my jacket.

"Thank you for accepting us," politely demurred Izuku, clearly anxious to keep the situation calm.

Endeavor's eyes narrowed further, his gaze assessing. He turned away from them as Izuku hurriedly added, "We're here to learn, sir."

"Hmph." Endeavor turned and started to walk away.

"If you get cold--" Shōto began.

"I'll be okay," I reassured him.

"Mn."

The group walked further down the sidewalk in the chilly air. The bus station was barely out of sight when Endeavor noticed something. A tingle went down my spine as I saw him jump over the sidewalk gate and onto the street, flames coming to life around him. "Sorry, but I don't give a crap about anyone except Shōto."

Off in the distance, a scream could be heard. The moment Endeavor had jumped the fence, we reached into our hero case to pull out the bare minimum of our hero outfit—a grenade glove for Katsuki, a support glove for Izuku, my staff for me.

"You wanna learn? Stand back and watch!" ordered Endeavor.

"Tell us what we can do," Izuku boldly declared, equipping his glove.

"I told you to stand back and watch," barked Endeavor as he sped off in the direction of the scream.

Izuku leaped into the air as he retorted, "To watch, we have to keep up!"

Endeavor was off and running before we even heard the sonic boom. That went beyond just speed. I had to teleport to Endeavor to keep up and I could barely see that he had tackled a villain into an alleyway. Izuku and Katsuki were leaping to the end of that alleyway. I teleported over to them, noticing that a group of other villains were at the end, likely waiting in ambush for Endeavor to come down with their leader. I pulled out my staff, raising it up as Izuku prepared to kick another, and Katsuki had his fist pointed down at a third.

Endeavor shot through the alleyway, throwing the leader into the ground. Before any of us could complete our moves against the henchmen, a new hero came into play. A young man with wild blond hair and scarlet wings. In a flurry of feathers, he pinned the henchmen down, forcing the three of us to cancel our attacks and readjust. I fell to the ground, landing lightly on my feet as I examined the new hero.

The bird man let out a chuckle, "My bad. Looks like I was a little faster."

"Hawks?" Izuku exclaimed in surprise.

'Hawks... the new number two hero?' I thought.

"Seemed like you were in trouble, Endeavor," Hawks commented.

"Me? Not a chance," snorted Endeavor.

"But it seemed that way, didn't it, Shōto?" Hawks asked, turning to Shōto who had moved to stand next to me.

Shōto, caught off guard from being addressed by a strange hero, stiffened. "Um..."

Endeavor stood up, his foot pressed firmly in the back of the pinned leader of the goons. "You're supposed to contact me when you're in town."

"I'm not—I mean, I was just passing by," said Hawks, his gaze unreadable.

The police arrived shortly after to escort the villains away while we introduced ourselves to Hawks. I smiled at him and said, "Hello, it's nice to meet you. My hero name is Saki."

"Likewise," politely returned Hawks.

Izuku was the second one to do so, stepping up to the hero with a nervous smile and a rushed out, "Hello, my name is Midoriya!"

"You're the kid who smashes up his own fingers, right? Tsukuyomi filled me in. Man, I wish I could've worked with that kid again."

"But isn't he back at your agency?" Izuku inquired.

"Yeah, down in my hometown with my sidekicks, but I've got too much going on to be there, I feel kinda bad—" Hawks looked over at a glaring Katsuki. "—about it."

"Back there—I was faster," Katsuki sternly said.

"Huh! You think so?"

Endeavor had finished talking with the police. He approached us, eyeing Hawks warily. "Well, Hawks, what do you want?"

"Want? Oh, nothing really," said Hawks as he rummaged through his jacket pocket before pulling out a dark book titled Meta Liberation War. "But have you read this book, Endeavor? I mean you must've heard of it. This thing's been flying off the sleeves lately. And after those townspeople in Deika fought for their lives, the book's been getting even more attention. It was written way back when, but it feels really relevant today. Like this quote: When freedom is only granted to a select few, the burden necessarily shifts to everyone else. If you don't got time for heavy reading, I highlighted the must-read parts. It outlines Destroy's ultimate ideal, a society held together by personal responsibility. It's perfect for this day and age."

Endeavor looked at Hawks as if the winged hero had grown a second head before him. "What are you talking about?"

"Imagine it, Endeavor... a world where we've got time to kill." Hawks placed the book in Endeavor's hand. It—

(Bravo, bravo.)

(Encore, encore.)

(A performance for the son of Janus.)

His words were persuasive, he even had an enthusiastic tone. But his eyes were flat, and his face slightly off. Hawks had an ulterior motive for telling Endeavor to read that book. His emphasis on highlighting certain key points made me wonder—

'A code?'

My hands clenched tightly around my staff.

'Would it be—would it be bad if I tried to read what he wrote?'

Izuku, completely sold on Hawks words alone, let out an interested hmmm. "That's recommended reading from the number two hero. Maybe I should check it out. Perhaps it holds the secret to his trademark speed—"

Hawks whirled around, pulling out several copies. "Here, I've got copies for everyone."

'If he was trying to go as a fan, he'd have addressed the whole group to get them to read the book instead of focusing on Endeavor. Preparing multiple books is a good step, but he's too somber,' I thought. 'This situation is oddly similar to one of the logic puzzles Nezu gave me in my psychology homework.'

Ugh. That reminded me I still had to complete the last round of worksheets he assigned me. I loved my Shishō, but waking up New Years to a text from him saying, I sent you more worksheets to complete over your work-study. You'll get it done, won't you? Of course you will, you're my prized pupil! Good luck, Kiyo-chan!

Not the best way thing to wake up to.

"He must really love this book to carry around so many copies," Shōto commented on and I honestly couldn't blame him there. Shōto hadn't had much training in psychology, and his ability to pick up on non-verbal social cues was still in its infancy.

'One of the many things that makes him so adorable,' I thought endearingly.

"It's almost like he's spreading the Gospel," Izuku joked as he accepted one of the books.

Hawks held out a book for me to accept, and I carefully did so.

'Do I tell him to act better, or let it go?' I thought then shook my head. 'He's the professional hero. I shouldn't call him out in public. Maybe he's pretending to act bad while pretending to act enthusiastic so Endeavor picks up on it?'

"I'm recommending it to all my friends and heroes across the country. Because if nothing else, that liberation ideology will be pretty darn fundamental going forward," said Hawks, turning away. He glanced back at Endeavor. "At least give the highlighted sections a glance. That's my second recommendation in so many words."

'That's too much emphasis on second and words, the code is every second word?' I thought, nervously looking over at my friends. Izuku and Shōto hadn't seemed to notice, but Katsuki's eyes narrowed and I thought, 'Oh so he picked up on that, too.'

Katsuki might not have been the tactful sort, but the boy had a demon's intuition when it came to masks, liars, and anyone who tried to manipulate others.

"Only 22, but he comes off as much wiser," Izuku murmured.

"Just six years older than us," said Shōto, looking up at Hawks who flew away.

"Annoying," muttered Katsuki, scowling at Endeavor's copy of the book.

◟(◕◡◕❀)

I had to take a break after reading certain plot points in the manga. I wanted things to settle down before I could re-plan the ending of this story but then things just... spiraled in the manga. I won't spoil but whoo boy.

But now I know what I need to do so here I am again. :)

Also saw a very neat fanart by @call-me-marigold005 on tumblr that really made me wanna post today.

Answer: Christmas & Halloween are tied. Before my allergies I was a big eggnog nut, but now I really like the seasonal pumpkin spiced drinks.

Question: Who would you want to be in a work-study with?

Reviews are love!