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It was supposed to be a simple sparring session. Jirou had scraped her knee, and had a cut on her lip but the fight wasn’t over. Bakugou grinned, his hands flickering with mini-explosions.
“Come on, Kyouka!” Momo cheered her girlfriend on.
“You’ve got this, Bakugou!” Kirishima countered.
Bakugou ran towards Jirou, palms blazing. Jirou had a determined look on her face as she stuck her earplugs into the stereos on her boots. The sound of her heartbeat blasted through the room, causing everyone in the stands to cover their ears. Bakugou was also sent a few yards back from the force. Once it seemed like it had stopped, they lowered their hands. But Kirishima noticed that Jirou still hadn’t removed her plugs.
Then Bakugou screamed. “Ugh, motherfucking goddamnit!” Cursing, his hands trembled as they pulled at something in his ear. Kirishima’s eyes widened. Jirou hadn’t stopped blasting sound, it was just at a higher frequency.
“Jirou, stop! It’s his hearing aid!” Jirou’s face took on shock as she quickly took out her earplugs.
But Bakugou didn’t stop cursing or yelling. “Fucking shitty pieces of garbage!” He finally managed to pull out his hearing aids and threw them on the ground. He clutched his head, on his knees. Kirishima rushed over to him. He knelt beside Bakugou.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Kirishima asked. “I need you to talk to me.”
Bakugou continued to curse, though it was at a low mutter now. He glared up at Kirishima, though his gaze wasn’t focused. “Hurts,” he mumbled. “My fucking head.”
Kirishima turned Bakugou’s head to the side. Blood was trickling out of his ears. Kirishima picked up the hearing aids. Yup, they were most definitely broken, probably permanently.
“Hey, I’m gonna take him to the nurse’s office,” Kirishima called up to Aizawa. He pulled Bakugou to his feet and slung his arm over his shoulder.
Bakugou mumbled something he couldn’t quite make out. “It’s gonna be okay, buddy,” Kirishima said.
“I’m so sorry.” Jirou looked horrified. Momo put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but Jirou didn’t seem to notice.
Kirishima smiled tiredly at her. “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. He’s not gonna hate you any more for this, anyway,” he joked. Jirou didn’t smile.
~~~
“I can’t believe my shitty hearing aids broke,” Bakugou fumed. Recovery Girl had fixed him up, but without his hearing aids, Bakugou was almost completely deaf, due to his Quirk.
How long until you can get new ones? Kirishima signed in choppy Japanese sign language. The whole class had been learning sign language from Koda. Aizawa had suggested it as preparation for for a scenario in which someone’s hearing or vocal chords had been damaged mid-battle.
“Dunno,” Bakugou answered. “My parents are gonna kill me.”
Kirishima frowned. He hated seeing his friend this upset. Yes, Bakugou was appeared to be upset to some degree. But over these past few months, Kirishima had learned to speak in sign language and fluent Bakugou. And he could tell that Bakugou was more disheartened by this then he let on.
Then Kirishima had an idea. Stay there, he signed, then without waiting for Bakugou’s reply, he left.
~~~
“So,” Mei Hatsume said, tapping her chin with a wrench. “You want me to make a cool new baby for your boyfriend, Mr. Murder, because he can’t hear well.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Kirishima yelped, his face now a light shade of pink. “It’s cheaper this way, so-”
“Wait.” Hatsume turned to face him, her goggles off. She looked ready to kill him on the spot. “Did you just call me and my babies cheap?”
“No!” Kirishima waved his arms. “That’s not what I meant at all! Look, I’ll do anything you want, I’ll pay you back later, I’ll even be your test subject or something, but I trust you with this, so can you do it?”
Hatsume grinned widely, completely changed in an instant. “I was just messing with you, but since you offered, sure! Let’s get to work, my humble lab rat!”
“Wait, what?”
~~~
Bakugou felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned around to tell that person to kindly fuck off, couldn’t they see he was studying, but paused when he saw it was Kirishima.
“The hell happened to you?” he asked. Kirishima’s hair was singed and he had a few bruises and scrapes, not to mention he looked utterly exhausted.
“Here,” Kirishima declared triumphantly, putting something in Bakugou’s hand before sinking down to sit beside him on the couch.
Bakugou felt his heart stop for a moment as he looked down at the brand new hearing aids. “Wha-where did you get these?”
Kirishima gave a small, sharp smile. “You know Hatsume from the Support Department? Well, I talked to her and she made those for you. And all I had to do was be her test dummy for a week.”
Bakugou took a minute to process what he was reading from Kirishima’s lips. That definitely explained his beat-up state. “Why would you do that? I was gonna pay for new ones myself, Shitty Hair.”
“Well, now you don’t have to.” Kirishima yawned. “I’m tired. Try them on.”
Bakugou hesitantly put the hearing aids into his ears. The world’s sound exploded to life instantly. He could hear the TV in the background, the rattle of the air conditioner, his and Kirishima’s breathing. And they weren’t uncomfortable either, fitting the shape of his ear perfectly, like someone had made them with his exact measurements in mind. Bakugou couldn’t remember ever getting a gift like this before.
“I asked her if she could only get them to amplify human speaking frequencies, so your explosions won’t be any louder to you than they already are,” Kirishima explained. Bakugou simply stared at him.
“Dude, you okay?” Kirishima asked.
“Thanks, Kirishima,” Bakugou grunted. “They really-they work alright.”
Kirishima’s smile was brighter than the sun. “That was the idea! Oh, and Koda taught me a new sign!” Kirishima put out a fist and rubbed the palm of his other hand over it.
Bakugou felt a blush creep up his neck. So, Koda had taught Kirishima how to sign “I love you,” as a joke? Well, Bakugou wasn’t amused. He got up, ignoring how his hands twitched to sign it back.
“Koda said it meant Ground Zero, but I don’t see how it-hey, where are you going?” “To my room. Good fucking night, Shitty Hair.”
Kirishima was left alone on the couch. “Was it something I said?” he asked out loud.