Izuku The Cipher (Adopted) - (Slow Updates)

🎄 Bonus: Christmas Special! 🎄

Green and red runners hung firmly along the ceiling. Christmas lights lined the counters and shelves and winked every few seconds. Fake snow and tinsel were sprinkled all over the giant Christmas tree in the center of the shop, shiny ornaments occupied nearly every branch, glittery empty boxes wrapped in festive wrappings all neatly stacked underneath the tree atop a very grandiloquent rug, and a glowing triangle acting as the star. Each staircase had garland wrapping the railings all the way up, all decorated with ribbons and bows. The outside of the shop was glowing and twinkling with all the lights that highlighted glowing signs on the windows. Christmas music played through the speakers on each level of the store, lifting the spirits even higher than before.

A small shelf of Christmas-themed cookies sat on the counter for customers to buy, and behind the counter stood a very cheerful Bill with a red Santa hat in place of their usual black top hat. Their golden hair peeked out from under the rim of the hat, showing off the small curls as they pointed this way and that. Despite Izuku's unruly green hair taming from Bill's magical makeover, some curls still remained and liked to bounce whenever the opportunity arose.

Many customers walked through the store, all of the children pointing and laughing at all the pretty colors. There were a lot more customers than usual this time of year, which was a good thing for the slightly higher electric bill that came with all the Christmas decor. Izuku was making plans to invite the class over to the mansion and have a huge Christmas party for everyone to enjoy, and he was half-tempted to secretly order bill some presents of his own. Bill continued to ring up the items for the line of customers joyously waiting to bring their gifts back home to their families and friends.

And as business increased as usual during the annual Christmas sale, the other employees ran around frantically in Christmas-themed outfits that they all picked out for themselves. Sugame Kumo, a college first-year with a spider quirk, was wearing a cute snowflake dress with makeup on her face that matched the look. White pigment with silver streaks painted her cheeks and forehead, resembling a crystalized snowdrop, her spider silk hair completing the look. Kamui Tokage, a high-school senior with a lizard quirk, wore a simple brown sweater with a Christmas tree pin on his shirt and a wire reindeer headband on his head. There were a few other workers who were dressed as elves, their habiliments insulated and warm. Bill made it a rule to make sure that all of their clothing was insulated or heated if they wanted to work today. Nobody was catching a cold on their watch.

Childish laughter radiated from the children's area. Bill installed the playpen at Izuku's discretion for any children who didn't have the patience to wait while their parents browsed the many items on display. It came in handy a lot more than Bill realized. It was only opened after a daycare attendant was hired to keep the kids in check and make sure all of them were safe and unharmed; Ai Yasashi was very good at her job. Though, what most people didn't know was that the 16-year-old was quirkless. Most of Bill's employees were a bunch of rejects that got turned down by other companies, but as long as they worked hard and did their job right, then they were all welcome in The Cipher's glorious empire. Each and every one of his employees was very grateful for the opportunity, and as such, were some of the best workers that Bill has had in a while. None of them was their number one employee (that honor went to Izuku), but they were all very skilled and loyal and their quirks were all quite useful and convenient.

Yes, today was a very merry day for The Cipher.

. . .

Bill returned home with paperwork galore, tired and ready for a nice, warm bath. The housemaids had decorated the house with Christmas decor, most of the decorations being yellow. They didn't do much decorating, as they didn't want to be too much of a financial burden on Bill (not that the billionaire couldn't pay for it, it was just too much needless paperwork) but there were a lot of candles, garner, and tinsel everywhere that set the mood. The large fireplace crackled softly and the chef was making a Christmas dinner large enough for their entire class... which was apparently the plan as Mina had taken it upon herself to throw a party at Bill's house. Izuku was just happy to hang out with Momo, but the poor girl was too much of a people-pleaser to say "no". It also served as an opportunity to introduce the Yaoyorozu family to the non-existent Cipher family (not that any of them knew that. Izuku made the excuse of Bill's parents being too busy with work to be in Bill's life. It was an amusing thought considering what Izuku's father did to him. His dad was not much better, but at least he lived in the same house as the poor child.

So it came to reason that the entire class (even the mob, surprisingly) showed up at Bill's estate. Bill had their butler let the group in and made sure that some of the maids welcomed them in. Izuku sat on Bill's shoulder in plushie form as they all ate the giant feast. Kaminari had apparently found the wine cellar and spiked the eggnog, much to Izuku's disappointment. And then the class burst out laughing when Aizawa came to the estate dressed in a Christmas sweater with a cat face on it and the words "Meowy Christmas" right underneath it. Mineta got too much eggnog and told Izuku that Santa wasn't real and was then kicked out by Kirishima who assured the crying child that he was, indeed, very much real. Aizawa furthered this statement by texting the staff chat to see who would be Santa, Hizashi being the first to answer the call.

Hizashi Yamada, aka Present Mic, bounded into the living room with loud laughter and a red bag full of presents with his hair down for once and a white beard tied to his face with a string. Presents were handed out and games were played, and Bill found themselves actually having fun! Christmas music played on a vintage record player while everyone played the dangerous game of Monopoly, Bill winning with ease. Next was a "Christmas movie marathon", which Uraraka recommended. It was late into the night when they all decided to go home and sleep, which was also around the time Aizawa found out why the children were acting strange when he spotted an empty wine bottle in the trash. Most of the class was sober, as they started noticing Mineta's strange behavior when he hogged the first few cups of eggnog, Kaminari joining him soon after.

Overall, everyone had a great time, and the pictures of Izuku getting a tiny necklace with the words "my hero" on it were placed in the book of other childhood photos. Most of the images were a bit blurred because Izuku was a ghost, but they were still adorable. Especially the ones with Izuku being seen sleeping or playing with his green bunny. Speaking of the toy, Bill found a very tuckered-out Izuku smothered in a pile of fluffy blankets like a makeshift nest with his green doll clutched tightly in his arms. There is nothing that could get past the iron grip of a baby, not that Bill wanted to remove it. The dream demon settle themselves onto the pile and laid a blanket over themselves as well and fell into an ironically dreamless slumber.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

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(Seeing as this is a small skit, I decided to make this chapter short, forgive me. But I wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas; and to those who don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays! I hope you all enjoy yourselves and have lots of fun with your family and/or friends. And if you don't, make sure to drink some yummy hot cocoa, eggnog, or whatever kinds of yummy food you like to give yourself a bit of holiday cheer.

Take care, and thank you all for reading!)