🌻Before You Read🌻

🌻Warning, long chapter. It is separated into 3 parts (each section divided by scene breaks) but yeah, longest, yet most fun chapter of the entire fic.

🌻Fun fact about this story: the scene at the very end of this chapter is what inspired this whole fic. More to come about that in the next chapter as I don't want to give spoilers.

🌻That's all!! Enjoy!!

🌻Gingerbread House Fiasco 🌻

While I wanted to follow Kita and Mori around to make sure those two were, indeed, getting closer, I forced myself to stay away. Surely enough, Mori would be able to make a move on Kita and get closer to her. I didn't have to worry about those two. What I did have to worry about was everyone else.

Especially a particular boy with an obnoxious orange Christmas sweater.

First off, who even makes orange Christmas sweaters? Secondly, didn't he understand that everyone was supposed to dress up? Wearing an ugly Christmas sweater was not dressing up at all! I was about ready to march up to him and ask him all about it, along with demanding where his friend was at when he made the fatal mistake of looking up at what was hanging in the doorway.

"Would you look at that, mistletoe," he noticed, before glancing at the person standing nearest him. Luckily, she didn't give me a heart attack with her outfit as Dani must've either beat me to it and forced her to change into something more sensible, or he threatened her before coming. Either way, I doubt she'd willingly come to a party wearing a nice green jumpsuit, one that actually looked like she tried.

Because she looked like she tried, I wasn't going to question it.

She mustn't have heard him as she started walking in his direction to go to another room, but Kaito being, well, Kaito, he grabbed her metal arm and pointed up at the plant above them. I should've moved it out of the way with my vines, but knowing how idiotic he was, I decided to lean against the wall and cross my arms over my chest, watching as the whole thing unfold.

I was glad I did.

"Hey, don't you know what mistletoe means?" he asked, despite being like a foot smaller than Rose. Any other guy I knew would've tried to walk away from it if the girl was taller, but that was just how big of an idiot the orange was.

To make things worse for him, he had to get stuck under it with Rose. I couldn't help but smile when I saw the glint in her green eyes. She pulled her hand away from him and started to crack her knuckles.

"I sure do, Glowstick," Rose said before winding up her metal arm.

My hand covered my mouth as I witnessed the entire thing go down. It shouldn't have taken the orange that long to figure out what she was about to do, but he was so distracted by the nickname she had made up on the spot that he opened his mouth to argue instead. Because of this, Rose's metal fist was able to make contact with the side of Kaito's face, slamming him right to the ground.

That better teach him to watch his mouth.

The pink haired girl was about ready to fight him even more when a hand grabbed her other arm and pulled her away from the mistletoe. Everyone who was watching snapped their heads to see what had stopped the fight from even taking place, only to see Blake Hayate standing there. From what I could gather, he was from the Business course, so if anything he shouldn't have tried to get in between a fight between a Support kid and a Hero one.

Though, looking by the amount of muscle this guy had, he probably could take on both.

"Hey! Watch it!" Blake yelled. "You two better not break anything."

There was nothing really going on in the room that I carefully snaked my way out of there and slipped out into the hallway. Guess we should've realized having a party with different departments could and would resort to someone getting into a fight. At least it was all in good fun being that it was just Kaito and Rose.

Plus, it was entertaining to see it pan out the way it did while it lasted.

Christmas music echoed from a nearby room that caused me to stop for a moment. It wasn't the same that was playing throughout the house. This music was much softer, with voices speaking in a different language. I knew some people here were fluent in English, like Tami and Iris, but the voices didn't sound like anyone who had a Japanese accent.

I poked my head inside the room that Dani and I were decorating before people started showing up. It was one of the smaller rooms, but definitely very cozy for those wanting to get away from it all. A smile crept on my face when I saw a redhead girl and a boy with curly dark hair signing to one another. Neither one of them really seemed interested in the movie which honestly surprised me knowing how much Koto loved them.

Though, glancing at the movie that was playing, it seemed like a really old cartoon with a creepy skeleton man walking around. I didn't get the appeal to it, especially since it looked more like a Halloween movie than a Christmas movie. There was no use pointing that out though. Surely, the two would argue about it in some way.

Besides, I had other things to worry about.

My hand flicked up as my vines wrapped around my hand and carefully tore down the mistletoe sitting above me. A ton of the doorways had mistletoe hanging from them, but not all of them did that. Luckily, Dani wasn't around to see me move the one decoration that he was so particular about. Even if he was, I was certain he'd understand.

If not, I'd make him understand that this was so much more important.

It was luck that Koto had her back turned towards me, so she wouldn't see my Quirk in action. I was careful to move it just above the two of them, pushing my vine up into the cracks. The only problem was that I could start to feel the side effects of my Quirk kicking in. My lips pressed together as I tried not to let anything come out, but I could feel my head growing heavy as the pressure started to squeeze at my nose.

The moment I had finally placed the plant where I wanted it to be, I couldn't hold it in any longer. My head flung forward as a blasting sneeze came flying out. It was lucky that it was an airy sneeze, but when I looked up from my hands, I could see both Koto and Rocket looking at me.

The boy with dark hair even held up his whiteboard that had the words, "Bless you," written on it.

"Thanks," I sheepishly said, before casually glancing up. At least the sneeze could do one thing: grab their attention. "What's that?"

Koto, being the only one who could hear me, glanced up at the mistletoe hanging above her. From where I was standing, I couldn't quite see her reaction, but it was enough for Rocket to quickly move his hands in front of him.

"What the hell is he saying?" I muttered subconsciously.

A giggle sounded from behind me. "He asked if she was allergic to the piece of lettuce hanging above them," a soft voice explained.

I turned around to see a girl with black hair standing there. She didn't look familiar, and not in the way that maybe she wasn't in the Hero Department kind of thing. Her eyes watched the two for a bit before glancing over at me, offering a smile.

As if she was reading my mind, the girl said, "I don't think we've met before, have we? I'm Reina Fujino. Koto invited me," she explained before lowering her voice. "Though, I think it might be best to give those two some space for right now."

Before she could explain more, I glanced back just in time to see Koto lean into Rocket and give him a kiss on the nose. It took everything inside of me not to squeal, but the girl behind me didn't even give me a chance as she wrapped her arm around me and pulled me away. Guess being close friends to the redhead, she would've known better than anyone that she wanted her privacy with that moment, but still. I wanted to see how those two would progress from there. Would that kiss on the nose be enough for them to become a couple? Would it take them a few more days to progress that far?

Okay, so maybe I wouldn't see that far into things, but I would at least want to see how they'd act afterwards. I hardly knew the dark haired boy as he was so stinking quiet! At least Koto would've been a good match for him as she knew sign language and could help him out.

"You're Sakura, right?" Reina asked as she finally let go of me. The two of us walked side by side, making me wonder where she was exactly going.

"Yeah, I am," I replied. "How'd you know?"

The girl smiled. "Tami and Suki are looking for you. Apparently, it's an emergency."

An emergency with two girls that seemed very different? Thing was, Suki was one of the people who needed me, and she was one of the people who helped me set this whole thing up. Did she need help getting Raiden in Tami together? I don't remember him being here quite yet, but maybe there was a reason for that which was why both of them needed me.

Whatever it was, I wasn't going to let them down.

───※ ·𖥸· ※───

A gingerbread house competition, that was what they called me over for. I wanted to be mad when those two girls could've paired themselves up with someone they actually liked, but no. They had to stop me from trying to set up couples to build and decorate some lame gingerbread house.

What made things even worse was that the other teams weren't even ones I could even look to see if there was anyone that could be matched up. One team had a brother sister duo who had Iris with them. Teams had to be made up of three; otherwise, I was certain those two siblings would've just been by themselves. Well, either that or the two girls would've been paired up as the boy simply stood there behind the two of them, looking a bit bored.

The other team that was there was made up of the most awkward trio. They were all from different classes, and honestly, I couldn't think of one thing that they had in common. Blake was the only boy in that team, but it looked like his mind was elsewhere as kept his eyes glued onto his watch. Standing close to him was a girl with electric blue hair, shooting everyone a dirty look. I knew she was in Dani's class, but I never got her name, or at least, I never got her actual name. Most people called her Short Circuit, but Dani also called her by other names like Circuit Spaz, Binary Bitch, aLeXa, and so many others I couldn't quite remember.

Their third member though was someone I knew a little too well. Her long strawberry blonde hair was a dead give away, but the disapproving look she sent towards Tami was enough for me to want to slap her across the face right then and there. I would've too, but Suki seemed to have noticed and grabbed my wrist, quietly warning me that it wouldn't be lady like to do that.

It might not have been lady-like, but damn, did Asami deserve it.

That was all three teams that were there. None of them had anyone I could pair up with. At least, not until I overheard Suki talking to Tami.

"...Hinata and Vivi are," Tami said.

My head snapped over towards the small blonde. "Hinata and Vivi are what?" I asked.

"They're judging the contest," Tami explained. "When we were trying to figure out who would judge, we all agreed that Vivi has an eye for artwork. As for Hinata...I really don't know how he got roped into that position."

I carefully glanced at Suki in the corner of my eye. No wonder she wanted my help. While Tami was good at baking, I was clearly the better decorator. We could easily snag some of her cookies she made to add to the premade gingerbread houses, and I could make them look like actual people for her.

All this to impress Hinata. For Suki's sake of course.

Thinking about that, reminded me of something.

"Hey, Tami," I said as she lifted one of the rectangular pieces to look at it. "Have you seen Raiden at all today?"

Upon hearing her crush's name, the blonde nearly dropped the gingerbread wall on the ground. The only thing that prevented it was Suki's quick hands as she grabbed it and carefully placed it back on the table.

"I-uh, he didn't come," Tami explained.

My eyes widened in shock. That little son of a bitch! Like Mori, Kita, and Tami, I had given him subtle hints on what to wear, and not once did he tell me he was thinking of flaking! The nerve of that guy!

"It was because of his brother's wedding, right?" Suki commented, forcing me not to do anything too crazy.

Brother's wedding? Just how big was that kid's family?!

Before I could ask though, I noticed Tami's cheeks tinged with pink. She knew but never told me?! How was I being kept out of the loop with these things!

I was about ready to ask more when someone cleared their throat. We all snapped our heads to see a blond haired boy standing at the head of the island that was placed in the middle of the kitchen. Only Iris and my group decided to have our gingerbread house pieces on it while Asami's group kept theirs on a counter that was adjacent to the wall. By the way the two girls looked as they stood back there, they probably just wanted a way to keep their decorating skills a secret.

Not that they could really come up with anything great.

"Alright, I think this is going to be everyone," Hinata explained. "So, before Vivi and I explain—"

Before he could finish, a pink haired girl with ram horns wrapped around her ears came running in. She didn't seem out of breath or anything, but she sure did seem a bit lost. Part of me wondered if it was because she lost Mori or something, but shortly after she stumbled in, he came running after her. His wings were carefully tucked behind his back.

"Can we still join even if we can't find a third person?" Kita asked. "Mori and I tried finding someone, but everyone was busy."

Hinata exchanged looks with the blue haired girl beside him, but before any of them could say anything, I quickly pointed to the lone, unopened box sitting in the corner of the room. "I don't see why not! There's one left over with your guys' name on it," I explained.

Kita sighed in relief while Mori glanced over at me, offering a small smile. I quickly returned it before looking back at Hinata and Vivi. Our two classmates seemed to have shrugged at the idea, not really minding it one bit.

I smiled as Mori and Kita grabbed the box that had the gingerbread pieces in it and placed it on the small end of the table. It took everything in me not to smile as they had blocked Asami's group's view of what all the other groups were doing. Not only that, but it looked like Mori and Kita were really hitting it off. Everything was going just as I had planned.

Except, I couldn't find myself staring at those two like I could any other couple. Maybe it was something bad I had eaten the night before, but I could just feel my own heart racing while my stomach clenched. I tried not to think about it.

Besides, Mori and Kita would make a great couple. They had to. They just had to when he liked her.

I shook the thoughts out of my head as Vivi wished us luck and was about to set the timer. Only this time, she was interrupted once more.

"Hey, I heard you were having a gingerbread contest," a velvety voice came. "Is there a spot still open?"

No.

My eyes widened in shock as I recognized that voice.

No no no no no! This couldn't be happening!

I dared to turn my head up at the boy who had just walked in, feeling a lump in my throat.

It was none other than Hikaru Akiba. Seeing him was already bad news. I mean, I thought this wasn't his kind of scene. He always seemed like the type to stay home at big gatherings, especially since he hardly said a word at lunch. With him showing up so late, I thought he wouldn't have the audacity to come.

Yet there he was, ruining Mori's chances by just standing there. Normally, I'd think otherwise, that Mori would still have a chance, but I couldn't when this guy had the audacity to wear a suit! Well, it was really just a dark vest over a gray button down with a tie underneath, but still! Not even Hinata was dressed up that nicely as he wore a gray sweater over his button down.

Seeing him like that, I shot Mori a slight glare. He didn't see it though. His eyes were narrowed on his competition that he didn't get the slight hint I was trying to give him. All of this could've been avoided if he had worn the damn suit I told him to! But no! He had to be a stubborn bat boy and argue with me to the point we had to make a compromise!

Just how did Akiba know what to wear? I never saw this guy dress up, even when our friend group hung out after school! The only thing I could think of was if he would've bumped into Mori or me and used his mind reading Quirk on us, but that was the thing. Mori avoided this guy at all cost while I just made sure not to get near him after I became determined in getting Kita and Mori together.

"Sure!" Vivi exclaimed, pointing over at Kita and Mori. "I think Kita's group was just looking for one more person up until now."

Akiba simply nodded his head as he walked over towards her, passing Tami, Suki, and me. My hands clenched into fists as he did, especially since he deliberately stood right between Mori and Kita, rolling up his sleeves the moment he stood there.

Just how was I going to save Mori out of this one?

───※ ·𖥸· ※───

We all stood behind our gingerbread houses waiting for them to be judged. It was clear to see who the winner was, but I don't think it was truly fair. I mean, Iris ended up having to play mediator because the twins had different visions on their gingerbread houses.

"Nami! That's too much icing!" the boy argued as he tried taking the icing out of his sister's hands. I tried watching as the whole thing happened, but their hair caught into the light. Something that seemed strange to say, but their hair seemed to be made of some type of gemstone. Whenever it hit the light just right, it was hard to see.

"It's fine, Akihiko! The more frosting the better!" his twin argued.

"Yeah, if you wanted to get cavities," Short Circuit mouthed off, causing the girl to nearly shoot her frosting at her had it not been for Iris getting in the way and interfering.

Oh boi, it was a train wreck to watch, but my group had problems of our own that we couldn't really do much about it. After all, there was only so much Suki and I could do to save our gingerbread house when Tanami would accidentally squirt our creation. It wasn't on purpose, but it still stunk.

At least we had better luck than Kita's group. Whenever the girl wasn't looking at the two, the two boys would glare at each other. It got worse when someone called her on her phone, making her walk away from it all.

I remember seeing both boys reaching for the icing that was laying right in front of them. Mori quickly flinched and jumped out of the way, brushing off some invisible dust off his arm. Akiba rolled his eyes at the gesture as he grabbed the icing and handed it to him.

"Relax, I have no interest picking through your mind," Akiba taunted, "Besides, I already know what you're thinking without even using my Quirk."

Hearing that, I knew things were going to go south, so I took a step back from the gingerbread house Suki, Tami, and I were working on. Neither of them noticed as I pretended to take a paper towel to wipe off the icing off my dress.

"Oh yeah, and what's that," Mori asked as he glared at the boy standing beside him.

The moment the comment came out of his mouth, I knew Mori had just made the biggest mistake of his life. I didn't waste a second to step towards them, hoping I could think of some way to get those two to start fighting. After all, this was exactly why I didn't want Akiba to be here.

"Hey, do you two have any extra--" I started to say to stop the fighting, but it was too late as Akiba looked up, grabbing his heart with both hands.

"Oh wow, Kita's so pretty. I wonder if she thinks the same about me, or--" Akiba started to mock.

But I couldn't take it. I slapped my hand on the table, forcing the dark haired boy to look down at me.

"Hey! I don't know what the hell your problem is, but you better shut up about it before I get a headache from your thick head," I snapped.

Akiba rolled his eyes at my comment. "That's rich coming from someone who doesn't understand her own feelings," he shot back.

I didn't care what would've happened at that very moment, even if it got my team disqualified or myself kicked out of the house. I have had it with this boy. My hand clenched into a fist, ready to fly right into Akiba's face, when small fingers wrapped around my wrist. I turned back to see Tami standing there, shaking her head. It surprised me that Mori wasn't the one to do anything, but he just stared at me, looking a bit lost.

Yeah, all I could say was that it wasn't good, but that was how those two would act the moment Kita walked away. The three of them worked hard on their gingerbread house, sure, but it wasn't like they still shot snide comments towards each other without her noticing either.

Sadly, Asami's group seemed to have done the best. They had made their icing look like icicles at the edge of their roof and had the same idea Suki, Tami, and I did with including gingerbread people in it. Unlike my group, who modeled our gingerbread people to look like us, they modeled theirs after different Pro Heroes they must've liked.

Worst part: it was easy to tell which gingerbread person was which Pro.

It was no contest as to who won, making it two losses for Mori in the span of an hour. I tried to think of something that would help him, but there was just one problem. No one thought to decorate the kitchen. Sure, Dani did, but we all just argued with him that it wasn't even worth it. All because we ignored this room, there was no way those two could accidentally end up under the mistletoe like Rose and Kaito did.

At least, there wasn't any here right now. My eyes glanced over towards Suki, who stood tall as Hinata and Vivi inspected our gingerbread house. Her Quirk helped us with missing decorations before; I was certain she wouldn't mind creating some mistletoe to help push Mori and Kita together. Once she created some, I could sneak it up above the doorway, just like I did with Koto and Rocket.

My plan was foolproof.

I waited until our two classmates who were judging the contest walked over towards Mori, Kita, and Akiba's gingerbread house to nudge Suki in the arm, grabbing her attention.

"What is it?" Suki asked as she looked over at me.

"Do you still have your pen on you?" I asked, wishing I wasn't wearing my wrapped dress that didn't have any pockets. It was pretty, so I didn't really care.

But I did care when her face fell. "I don't, sorry. I gave it to Yamikawa a while ago when everyone was getting the photo booth ready."

Why would Yamikawa need a pen? I thought to myself. I wasn't going to waste any time asking as I need to figure this out quickly. My head turned to see Iris leaning against the wall, waiting for Hinata and Vivi to be done. As she waited, she pulled out a notebook and a pen out of her back pocket. My lips curled into a smile as I saw her.

"Hey Iris, can I borrow your pen for a moment?" I asked.

"Oh, sure," she said, handing it over towards me. "Just give it back when you're done."

I nodded my head quickly, handing it over to Suki. She looked confused for a moment, but I cupped my hand and whispered in her ear, "I need you to draw me some mistletoe, okay?"

Suki looked a bit suspicious, but she never asked anything about it as she shrugged off her pink blazer, showing off her arms. It was smart that she chose to wear a white shirt underneath that didn't have any sleeves in case she got too hot in that blazer, but even more so with her Quirk. As long as she could draw on her skin, she could bring that drawing to life.

Now, I could've asked Iris to do the same thing for me rather than have her just give me a pen, but there was only one reason I didn't do that. She didn't know about the whole plan of us setting people up. If I had asked her to make some mistletoe, she probably would've questioned me. Maybe not, but I wasn't going to take my chances.

The moment Suki was finished with her drawing, she handed me the mistletoe which I had to carefully hide behind my back as I saw Kita move her head slightly. It was luck that Suki moved into her way of sight, giving me a chance to hide the mistletoe.

It was like the children's game of red light green light. Every time Kita, Mori, or Akbia turned their heads, I had to freeze whatever I was doing and act natural. The moment their heads were turned away, I carefully maneuvered myself towards the doorway, quietly excusing myself whenever I got too close to people. By the time Vivi and Hinata had their scores, everyone had their attention on them, giving me the chance to reach up and hook the mistletoe up on the doorway.

I pretended to get a cup of hot chocolate after I had set up my trap. Most everyone stayed back once Asami, Short Circuit, and Blake were declared the winners. Tanami had to break off a piece of her group's creation, only causing her brother to shake his head while Iris just laughed at the entire thing. Tami and Suki went over to congratulate the trio who had won, despite the two girls in that group not truly deserving any praise. I wanted to keep my eye out for them when I saw something move in the corner of my eye.

Just as I had hoped, Mori had noticed the mistletoe handing on the door and made the smart decision to walk underneath it. He waved over towards Kita as a way to get her to stand underneath it as well. Everything was going perfectly as I glanced over at the girl with the ram horns, walking over towards Mori. Best part of all of this was that Akiba had his back turned as he was talking to Tami for a moment.

Looking at the two it made me realize something. If Tami and Raiden didn't work out, maybe I could push those two together. Truly, I didn't hate Akiba. I just wanted Mori to be happy. With him liking Kita more than...well, because he liked Kita, I had to do what I could to make it happen, so he wouldn't have to deal with any heartbreak.

I was about ready to turn my head towards Kita and Mori when everything went down the drain.

"Hey, Kita," Akiba's voice rang.

Just like that, Kita stopped dead in her tracks. She lifted her head up for a moment, no doubt eyeing the mistletoe for a split moment as her face flushed the moment she saw it. I glanced over at Mori, who's smile was nowhere to be found as he started to realize the same thing I did the moment Kita saw it.

Whether Kita would've gone through with it or not, we would never know. If it was just Akiba saying that to get her attention, maybe she would've asked him to join, but he didn't stop there. I watched as both him and Tami had their attention over towards Kita, waving her over.

"Have you tried one of Tami's homemade cookies yet?" he asked, holding up a spare one in his hands.

My nose scrunched up in disgust. We all knew that if someone opened up a dictionary and looked up the word "health nut", they'd see a picture of Kita Yukimura standing there. Part of me wished it wouldn't have worked, but Akiba knew exactly how to get Kita to make an exception to her health nut ways.

And that was to push my friend into the middle of it all.

"I don't think I have," Kita commented before walking over there, almost as if she was in a trance of some type.

My blood boiled seeing that. Mori was so close to getting a kiss from Kita. That was all it would take to get her to fall in love with him, I just knew it! Anyone else, maybe not, but Mori was just different, in a good way too.

How could Kita not see it? How could Kita be so blind and just gravitate to someone else?

"Can you believe that he tried making her fall for that cheap trick?" a voice sneered.

I snapped my head to see both Asami and Short Circuit gossiping to one another. Though, while they did, their eyes were shooting Mori some dirty looks.

"Who would even want to kiss him," Asami commented. "There's nothing special about him."

Nothing special about him? Nothing special about him?! That did it! Those two knew nothing about Mori to make rude remarks like that. Worst part was when I glanced over at Kita, Akiba, and Tami, none of them seemed to have noticed! They were all distracted by Tami's cookies, though, I'd be lying if that was totally it. Both Akiba and Kita looked a little cozy with how close those two were standing to each other, with their arms brushing against each other. All it would take was for her to lean in against the guy, and they'd look like a couple.

Sad thing was that it wasn't the worst of it. When I turned my head to look at Mori, I could see his tail, wings, and ears had dropped at the scene. Hearing what the two girls had to say about him too couldn't make things any easier on him either.

When he turned around to leave the room, my mind started to replay what happened that night at Kaito's cabin. The snow was softly falling around us; his arms wrapped around me protectively as he flew me across the city. Despite being so cold outside, he still took me out to get our mind off of things.

Kita would've been so happy with him, but that wasn't who I wanted to be happy. My goal was to make Mori happy, to make him not feel so alone. Hearing those stupid comments about how he didn't deserve it was enough.

I didn't care what people thought at that moment. My hand lowered the untouched cup of hot chocolate to the counter as I marched up from behind Mori. He didn't even have a chance to step away from the door when I tapped his shoulder. Mori turned around, and I grabbed ahold of his shirt and pulled him in. Only, unlike before where I had forced him to take off his beanie, I pulled him in closer until our lips collided with one another.

My eyes closed the moment it happened, so I could enjoy the soft touch of his lips onto mine. There was so much more I wanted to do, but I quickly pulled myself away as the shocking realization crossed my head. Not wanting to make that big of a scene, I let go of Mori as I pulled away from me, seeing his eyes wide open with shock as he looked at me.

"Don't let them get to you," I whispered as I walked away from Mori.

Part of me knew I should've stayed back to soak in the reaction Asami and Short Circuit probably had, but I didn't. I couldn't. Not when I couldn't dare look at what anyone else had thought at that moment.

All I knew was that I needed to get out of there ASAP.

🌻End of Part 3🌻

🌻Chapter Question🌻
What's your favorite thing to bake during the holiday season?

Excuse my bad drawing, but this was drawn before the fic...more about it in the next chapter to come.

Song: Run Run Rudolph Instrumental