A Christmas Encounter [Threadvember]

This one for Dex, who asked for "Bakugou falling in love with his too christmasy neighbour"

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For a brief few weeks, Bakugou had loved his new neighbour. He'd dropped by for all of five minutes on his move-in day, apologising for the noise and all the people who would be in and out all day to unload furniture. He'd presented Bakugou with a passable curry that had served him for three meals, seeing as he didn't have anyone else in the house to split it with, and then he'd never heard another peep out of the guy.

It had been great, until December first rolled around. Then, suddenly, there were cheesy Christmas carols blaring from his neighbour's front yard at ten in the morning, because apparetly the guy didn't have a job – Bakugou refused to acknowledge the irony of him also being at home – and a thousand decorations were taking over the house and front lawn. There were entire families of light up reindeer stuck into the grass, colourful blinking lights strung along every window frame and the edges of the roof, and as Bakugou looked out his window with a scowl, a giant inflatable Santa Claus was going up to wave at passers-by.

So he took it back, he definitely did not love his new neighbour. In fact, he might just be the new bane of Bakugou's existence.

He stuck his biggest noise-cancelling headphones on and turned up some good, loud rock music, settling in to catch up on some paperwork with disgust.

Ding dong

He looked up with a groan to see a flash of green hair in the front window, setting his laptop aside to stomp over to the door. Even with the scowl on his face, his neighbour was still beaming at him happily, holding out a tray of steaming Christmas cookies.

"I got carried away made made way too many!" he explained. "I was hoping you would take some off my hands!"

"What's the catch?"

"Huh?" the man's eyes widened, horrified. "There's no catch! Just, you know, Christmas spirit? I saw your car in the driveway and figured you must work from home like I do, so I thought maybe you'd eat some cookies for me!"

Bakugou took one from the tray, still staring at the nerd warily, and took a tentative bite. He made a point of going right for the head, decapitating cookie-Santa with one bite.

"They're alright," he conceded, finally accepting the tray from his hands. "Thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome! Are you gonna decorate too? This is my favourite part of the year! I'm so happy to finally have a house to decorate properly, I've been stuck in an apartment while I was working in America and it was the worst. I'm so happy to have space to put things up!"

"I hate Christmas."

"What?! How?!" he gawked, as if he was personally offended by the words. "Wait, but you're wearing a Christmas sweater! What do you mean you hate it?"

"The sweater is warm, asshole. I hate the cold."

"O-Oh. Well, um... I hope you have a good holiday season anyway! Maybe a little Christmas spirit will find its way in!"

He excused himself to head back home, leaving Bakugou with the cookies that were actually pretty damn good, and found himself wondering what on Earth he was doing. He'd always loved Christmas as a kid, despite the weather, and even as an adult he had gotten a few little smiles from the light displays as he walked through town. He always spent it alone, but he enjoyed tucking himself in under a heavy blanket with hot cocoa with cinnamon in hand, watching cheesy movies on tv and jeering at them under his breath.

Truth be told, he wasn't sure why he'd said he hated Christmas. The over-enthusiasm had set him off in a weird way, the decorations far too over the top for his liking, and it had resulted in a blatant lie that he knew had made his neighbour feel awkward. Normally he wouldn't care about that part of the equation, but he had been a pretty ideal neighbour in the weeks since he moved in. Quiet and respectful, even now other than the radio going, which... Well, it wasn't that bad compared to some of his other and previous neighbours.

What was the guy's name, anyway? He was sure he'd heard it once or twice.

He wasn't sure exactly what he was thinking when he began pulling ingredients from his pantry, measuring and mixing with the utmost precision. But before he knew it, he was fixing together pieces of gingerbread, making a stupid little house complete with candy decorations and a giant chocolate santa in the front yard, a little green gummy man standing at the gate.

As soon as it cooled, he transferred it to the tray the nerd had brought by, now sadly devoid of cookies after Bakugou had gotten way too addicted to the things. He'd eaten the whole damn tray in less than a day, what the hell had gotten into him?

He checked the mailbox on his way through the front gate, noting the name Midoriya written out on the metal plate, and then he was knocking on the door with a scowl still firmly set on his face.

"I'm sorry, is my music too loud? I forgot to turn it- What is that?"

"A gingerbread house, asshole. For the cookies. They were good."

"You made it?" he gawked, inspecting it from every angle with awe. "Oh my gosh, it's beautiful!"

"It should taste good too."

Midoriya accepted the tray with delight, pausing with a nervous little smile on his face.

"Do you want to come in for a bit?" he offered, stepping aside and gesturing as best he could with his full hands. "I just started a fire in the fireplace, I was gonna watch some bad Christmas movies and make fun of the characters."

Bakugou found himself nodding before he'd even fully processed the words, and Midoriya's freckled cheeks split into a cheesy grin as he made room for Bakugou to come in. He led the way to the living room, getting Bakugou settled in the living room and placing the tray down on the coffee table with a simple "I want to eat it now" as explanation.

A list of movies was pulled up on the screen, a ridiculous collection of cheesy holiday movies, half of which he'd already seen at least twice. There were a few unfamiliar titles, though, and he found himself reaching for the remote, flicking through the list.

"Choose anything you like!" Midoriya offered. "I've seen most of them, but there are a few new ones too!"

He set down two giant mugs on the edge of the tray, full of creamy hot chocolate topped with marshmallows and chocolate shavings. When he picked it up to take a sip, he got a whiff of a familiar spice: cinnamon.

"Is there anything else I can get you?" Midoriya offered, counting off on his fingers. "More snacks? Anything else to eat? Marshmallows to roast? Uhhh a blanket?"

Bakugou glanced up at that last one, and Midoriya caught it immediately, grinning as he nodded and opened a cupboard to look.

"Here, this one is my favourite!" he grinned, pulling out a massive, fluffy as hell blanket, a familiar face emblazoned across it. "It's super warm and cozy!"

"You're an All Might fan?"

"Yeah! He was the one who inspired me to become a hero!"

"Me too," Bakugou admitted, eyeing Midoriya's physique and reluctantly admitting to himself that yeah, even with the baggy sweater he looked like he had the build of a hero. "I guess we have more in common than I thought."

"Yeah! That's so cool! We'll have to hang out more!"

"Sure," Bakugou found himself agreeing, kicking himself for it instantly – what the hell had gotten into him today? "Here, share it with me."

They tucked the blanket over both their laps, getting snuggled in as Bakugou hit play, sipping together at their hot chocolate and snacking on pieces of gingerbread house.

Maybe he still loved his new neighbour after all.