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The sounds of laughter and Jingle Bells playing from the radio fills the bar, with the scents of gingerbread cookies and eggnog wafting through the air.
Toga decided that, as a new family, having a Christmas party was a must. Twice was immediately on board, which trickled down the line, and Shigaraki surprisingly agreed to it,
Dabi vaguely remembers the last time he actually celebrated Christmas as a "family".
It was when Shoto wasn't born yet, when Touya was still loved, still valued.
Fuyumi and Natsuo followed him around like ducklings, waking up Enji and a heavily pregnant Rei, due in a few weeks, early Christmas morning with excitement and laughter.
It was snowing gently outside, dusting the trees and streets white, but the cold winter air was kept out. The house was warm; toasty and cozy and distinctly home.
He ran down to see the pile of colourful presents under the Christmas tree, lights and ornaments decorating its branches.
He doesn't remember what he got that year; maybe a bike, maybe another toy. All he remembers is the joy, and the realization the very next year that that was the last of it.
So you can understand his apprehension of having a Christmas party with his so called "new family".
But then, Toga was so happy, and he was reminded of Fuyumi's genuinely happy, smiling face that he doesn't quite remember because it's been so long, and he refuses to be a part of the reason for the possibility of hers fading too.
So he sucked it up, and endured. He didn't participate in the preparations, he couldn't bring himself to, but he didn't try to prevent it, so that has to count for something.
Someone strung colored lights along the walls and window sills, a wreath on each door and there's somehow a decorated Christmas tree in the corner of the room. He doesn't know how or where they got all of this, but he doesn't question it.
At some point Toga demands that everyone is to be in a Christmas costume of their choosing, and there are of course some protests, but they're quicky dismissed.
So Dabi is now wearing a long Santa coat to replace his usual edgy coat, open over his usual clothes, because he's decided that he's hilarious.
Toga is dressed as an adorable elf, Twice is in a full snowman costume, Spinner has on a normal Santa hat and a curly, white Santa beard, courtesy of Toga, Compress is in a concerningly detailed nutcracker costume, Magne is just in a snowflake patterned sweater, with a headband with antlers that light up, Shigaraki's hilariously wearing a bright green grinch tshirt along with a matching green Santa hat, Kurogiri decided on a simple red Santa hat, and you're dressed in a little reindeer costume and antlers.
And in the midst of laughing at something stupid Twice said, Dabi is suddenly hit with the cemented realization that these people in the room might actually care about him. Support and value him as not only his quirk, as a weapon, but as a friend.
As family.
The League is accepting in a way no other space has been for him, for all of them. Regardless of what they've done, or how they’d lived before joining, they were all valued and appreciated, even if they don't say and admit it out loud; even if he won't.
Their pasts don’t matter, because it's the present that counts in the long run, but he could imagine that they each have at least one bad Christmas memory of their own.
And yet, somehow, they found enough joy with each other, with him, to even consider enjoying Christmas.
But, he thinks, now isn't the time to dwell on the implications and depth of it all.
For now, he'll just enjoy Christmas for the first time in a long while, with his newfound family.