Chapter Text
Eijirou always looks forward to nights with Bakugou. Even though they’re usually spent with Bakugou throwing textbooks in Eijirou’s direction, no one can say that he hasn’t gotten really good at hardening in anticipation for the outbursts. The hours after studying are usually Eijirou’s favorite, though. Bakugou will halfheartedly work on something while Eijirou tells him about his day, enjoying every snort and interjection that Blasty Boy makes at his stories and anecdotes.
“And then Denki…” Eijirou trails off. Bakugou hasn’t looked at him once during the entire time he’s come into his room except to greet him, and even then it was a half-hearted grunt. “Hey, are you ignoring me? Bakugou?” He shoves his hand at Bakugou’s arm, interrupting his writing. Bakugou looks up, an irritated expression on his face.
“What, Shitty Hair?”
Eijirou feels a heavy pang of hurt at that. “Were you not listening to anything I was saying?”
“What?”
Eijirou swallows, looking away. “Oh. I, uh, yeah. Fine. You’re working on homework. Sorry for bothering you.” He glances at Bakugou to give him what’s supposed to be a smile but probably looks like a grimace. The worst part is, Bakugou looks confused, maybe a little hurt, like he can’t possibly understand why Eijirou is upset. He guesses that Bakugou isn’t very familiar with being ignored, so he doesn’t know how much it hurts.
“Wait!” Bakugou says, but it’s quiet and Eijirou knows he’s just saying it because he has to.
“Don’t worry about it, bro. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Eijirou says on his way out, refusing to look at Bakugou’s face again. He thinks it’ll just make him more upset. He shuts Bakugou’s dorm door behind him and takes a shaky breath. He thought that they were becoming friends, real actual friends. Hell, he thought they already were! Bakugou is sorta his best friend. Yes, he ignores Eijirou sometimes, but usually it’s an act. Bakugou has always been the kind of person who pretends to ignore what you’re saying and then ends up asking follow-up questions, pleasantly surprising in his comprehension of the story.
Eijirou knows it shouldn’t hurt this much, but having Bakugou ignore him for real more than usual cuts deeper than he thought. He always knew that Bakugou meant much more to him than he did to Bakugou, but it stings to have the reminder sitting right in front of him, pretty much telling him that to his face.
Oh well. He’ll take a shower, and when he feels more put together he’ll text Kaminari and Sero to see if they want to play videogames. It also hurts to not spend time with Bakugou like they planned, but he’ll make do. He always has.
“Hey, anyone seen Bakugou?” Eijirou asks the next morning. Usually by this time, Bakugou has stomped down the stairs to make himself breakfast in the common area, but he’s nowhere to be found. There isn’t any evidence of him being here, either.
He’s not as upset as he was yesterday. He was able to salvage the night by being stupid with Kaminari and Sero, playing Super Smash Bros for a few hours before making popcorn (the right way, with kernels and a stove - looking at you, Kaminari) and trying to make the grossest combination of spices, then daring each other to eat it all. You know, living out the best years of his life. He figures that Bakugou was just in some sort of mood yesterday and is ready to easily forgive him. If only he could find the dude.
“You’re the Blasty whisperer,” Ashido says. “If anyone knows where he is, it’d be you.”
Eijirou feels a little seed of worry plant itself in his gut. It’s Saturday, so Bakugou is allowed to sleep in, but their resident bomb almost always keeps a strict schedule. The only time he wasn’t up and about by at least 9am was when he was so sick he could barely get out of bed, and that was back in their first year. And Bakugou was supposed to meet him downstairs for their weekend spar. He’s never forgotten that.
He wouldn’t be so worried if Bakugou just picked up his phone, but every text or call that Eijirou has sent him has gone unanswered. Is Bakugou upset at him for something? Is that why he ignored him yesterday? Does he think that Eijirou is too annoying and no longer wants to be friends? Or maybe he’s so ill that he can’t get out of bed, slept through his alarm, and is still sleeping through all of Eijirou’s worried messages?
“I think he’s in his room, Kirishima,” Midoriya says as he grabs a juice from the fridge. “I saw him leaving the baths when I went to get Uraraka this morning and he went right back into his room.”
“Is he sick?” Eijirou asks, his worry not ebbing from Midoriya’s story.
Midoriya shrugs, but his eyes widen in concern. “He did look a little pale. Are you going up to check on him?”
Eijirou nods. “Yeah, he missed our spar this morning. I want to make sure he’s okay.”
“Good luck! Let me know if you need anything.” He calls after Eijirou. He smiles a bit to himself. Midoriya is too nice for his own good.
He worries his lip in the elevator, slapping a hand to his mouth when he accidentally bites down too hard and draws a little blood. The taste of pennies overwhelms his mouth and he wipes at his lip as the elevator doors ding open. He walks all the way down to Bakugou’s room, bouncing a little on his toes to shake out any nerves. He hopes Bakugou is alright, but doesn’t know what might happen when he knocks on the door. He knocks softly, in case Bakugou really is sick and he’s sleeping. When no response comes, he knocks slightly louder. “Bakugou?” He calls, pressing his ear against the door to see if he can hear anything. Absolutely nothing comes from the other side.
He tries the door handle and it gives way easily, like it does when Bakugou is expecting Eijirou to barge into his room for homework help or to force him to watch a movie that he’s been talking about all day. He only leaves it unlocked for Eijirou, and it always makes him feel special.
The lights are on in his room, and instead of a sleeping Bakugou on the bed like Eijirou was expecting, he sees Bakugou curled up in a ball on his desk chair, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his knees. His head is shoved between his legs and his chest and he seems to be taking deep breaths.
“Bakugou?” Eijirou carefully walks into the room. He’s back to worrying at his lip, coppery blood on his tongue again. He’s never seen Bakugou in this position before, and it kind of scares him. “Hey, are you okay? Bakugou?” He’s finally close enough to touch him, so he reaches out and places a comforting hand on Bakugou’s shoulder. The response is immediate and puzzling.
Bakugou jumps out of his skin, startling so hard at the contact that he nearly falls out of the chair. His eyes are wild and panicked, his pupils blown wide and his mouth gaping in fear. Eijirou pulls his hand back.
Eijirou’s never seen fear on Bakugou’s face, and it makes him feel sick. “Hey, are you okay?” He asks again, in a soft voice that might be used on a spooked animal.
Bakugou immediately starts to relax when he sees that it’s only Eijirou, but his brows furrow in obvious frustration and maybe a little alarm. His eyes are drawn to Eijirou's lip, and he reaches out to brush his fingers gently over the new puncture wounds there. "Don't worry about it man. I just bit down too hard." He knows his eyes are full of concern when he looks at his friend. "What about you?"
When there’s no response, Eijirou reaches out again. “Bakugou?” Bakugou’s eyes are still on his lips, and when tears start to fill his wide eyes Eijirou decides that now is a good time to truly panic. Something is terribly wrong, that much is true, and he has no idea what to do.
“Bakugou, what’s wrong?” He kneels down so Bakugou doesn’t have to look up at him anymore, and the quick action of his eyes falling down to follow Eijirou’s movement makes one of the unshed tears drip unceremoniously down his face.
“Kirishima,” his voice is rough and unbearably soft. He doesn’t make a move to wipe the single tear. “Kirishima, I can’t hear you. I can’t hear anything.”
Eijirou stares at his friend for a moment, not comprehending. “What?” He breathes, then realizes that he’s not helping the situation. “Oh my god, what?”
Another tear slips down Bakugou’s cheek, and he looks terrified, truly and completely terrified, by this new development. Eijirou knows this isn't come kind of joke or excuse. This is real, and his best friend is scared.
“Hey, hey now it’s okay,” Eijirou reaches out and brushes away Bakugou’s tears. He’s not sure if this is a thing that bros do or not, but right now Bakugou needs comfort. He holds out his arms and wraps Bakugou into them. “It’s okay, it’s gonna be okay,” he says. He figures Bakugou can’t hear him, but he hopes that the rumbling of his chest is comforting enough for the moment. He tries not to freak out, because it’s obvious that Bakugou is and he needs some sort of comfort rather than another person panicking.
When they pull away, Eijirou turns his gaze to Bakugou’s desk, grabbing his open notebook and a pencil. When did this start? He writes before sliding the notebook back at Bakugou.
“After training. I didn’t realize it until we were doing homework yesterday.” His voice is still a near-whisper. He looks up at Eijirou, something unreadable in his expression. “I’ve been losing my hearing slowly, ever since I got my quirk,” he says. “But this is the first time I’ve heard nothing.”
Eijirou opens his mouth to speak, remembers the situation, and then leans back over the notebook. We should go to Aizawa.
Bakugou looks down at the paper, obvious hesitation on his face. “No,” he says. Eijirou gives him a look before insistently tapping the sentence, a serious expression aimed right at Bakugou. Bakugou runs a hand roughly over his face. He obviously wants to say something, but something else - likely his pride - is stopping him. Eijirou taps impatiently at the paper again. Bakugou lets out a too-loud noise of frustration. “What if he thinks I’m weak?” His sentence is much too loud in the quiet of the room. Eijirou looks at him, really looks at him, and sees fear again. The next statement is much softer. “What if he says I can’t be a hero?”
Eijirou taps gently on Bakugou’s fingers with the pencil’s eraser before smiling at him, soft and reassuring. It’s going to be fine. But we need help, we can’t do this alone.
Bakugou runs a hand through his hair, shaking his head roughly before nodding. “Okay. Yeah, okay. Now?”
Eijirou scratches an answer into the paper. Have you eaten yet? Bakugou shakes his head. Then let’s get you breakfast, and then we’ll go.
“I don’t wanna go down there,” Bakugou says quietly, referring to the kitchen in the commons area.
That’s ok! I have bars in my room. Eijirou stands and smiles encouragingly at Bakugou, nodding his head towards the door. Bakugou heaves a sigh before relenting, and Eijirou grabs the notebook and pencil before leading Bakugou to his room. Once they’ve grabbed some breakfast bars and start on their way back to the elevators, Bakugou has retreated into complete silence, head focused on his feet.
When the elevator stops on the second floor and Tokoyami enters the elevator with them, Bakugou visibly tenses up and moves closer to Kirishima. “Kirishima, Bakugou. How are you two?” Tokoyami asks out of politeness.
“We’re just fine, thank you. How are you?” Eijirou grins widely, pushing down his urge to check on Bakugou and focusing instead on keeping Tokoyami from averting his attention to their weirdly silent companion.
“I’m well. Dark Spirit and I are looking forward to sparring with you soon, Bakugou. We’ve been working on light tolerance and want to take you up on your offer for a rematch.”
Eijirou panics, nudging Bakugou discreetly with his knuckles. Bakugou looks up, nodding and letting out a grunt, before looking back down at the floor. Tokoyami looks a little put out, so Eijirou hurries in on damage control.
“Sorry he’s such a grump today, he didn’t get much sleep! I know he’s excited too, he talked about it last week when Aizawa mentioned next week’s match up sparring.” Eijirou gives Tokoyami the most apologetic smile he can, and it seems to work, as Tokoyami gives him the closest thing to a grin a bird’s beak can achieve.
“See you two later,” he says as the elevator opens on the first floor, and Eijirou calls out a goodbye before grabbing Bakugou by the wrist and pulling him as quickly as he can through the commons area and towards the door. Someone calls out to them but Eijirou merely waves a hand in the air and continues their beeline for the outdoors. They make it, thank god. Eijirou really wasn’t sure with how nosy their classmates are.
Bakugou is scarily silent as they walk to the teacher’s quarters, and Eijirou sends up a quick prayer to the sky that Aizawa is in his room like he usually is on Saturday mornings. He likely won’t be delighted with them waking him up, but Eijirou is sure that their teacher will understand.
They walk into the teacher’s building. Unlike the second year dorms, it’s almost completely silent. A small aquarium in the commons bubbles happily, but otherwise the place is devoid of life. It makes sense, since most of their teachers still serve as pro heroes when they’re not teaching classes. Aizawa is on the third floor, so they wait in the elevator again. Eijirou realizes that he still has a grip on Bakugou’s wrist. He starts to let go, but Bakugou is quick to grab his hand again, his eyes not leaving the floor. Eijirou glances at their intertwined fingers before squeezing Bakugou’s hand. It makes his friend’s posture relax minutely. It's something they'll do sometimes, to remind each other that they're there when they have nightmares or have a bad day, full of reminders. They usually just grab, squeeze, and let go - so prolonged holding is something that Eijirou is not used to, but can't say that he hates.
Eijirou’s been trying not to think about what Bakugou going deaf means, but now that they have a moment of silence he worries and worries. Aizawa won’t kick him out of the hero courses like Bakugou fears, right? But how will Bakugou be able to communicate? Even if everyone in the country knew JSL (which they don’t), part of being a hero is being completely aware, all the time, and being able to help those who call for help.
He doesn’t have time to continue worrying because they make it to the third floor much too soon. He’s the one who takes the first step so that the elevator doors don’t close on them, their linked hands pulling Bakugou with him.
They stand in front of Aizawa’s door, neither of them raising a hand to knock. Eijirou lifts up the notebook with his free hand, then takes their linked ones and taps the sentence he wrote twenty minutes ago. It’s going to be fine. Bakugou nods shakily, then lifts his free hand and knocks on Aizawa’s door. It’s not very loud, but he wouldn’t know that, so Eijirou raps a few more times just to be sure that Aizawa hears them.
When he hears the locks coming undone he squeezes Bakugou’s hand, and the door swings open to reveal an exhausted Aizawa. His hair is wet, and it’s obvious that he’s just come back from his night patrol, despite the fact that sunrise was hours ago. Eijirou almost feels bad about bothering him, but then he feels the sweat pooling between his and Bakugou’s hands and straightens his shoulders.
“Kirishima? Bakugou? What’s wrong?”
“Aizawa-sensei, we need to talk to you about something.” Their teacher immediately looks more awake. His eyes flicker down to their clasped hands, but his expression doesn’t betray anything, as per usual.
“Come in,” he steps to the side, letting them enter. Teacher’s rooms are set up differently from the student dorms, with each room having a small living area and kitchen, plus a bedroom and bathroom. Aizawa leads them to the small purple loveseat he has in his sitting area and he pulls out one of the chairs at his kitchen table to drag over to them. Bakugou still doesn’t let go of his hand as they settle on the loveseat, thighs pressed together, and Eijirou squeezes his hand comfortingly.
“What is it that you need to talk to me about?” Aizawa asks.
Eijirou glances questioningly at Bakugou, who shrugs and looks away. It’s permission.
“Uh, sir, we don’t really know a lot about it and I only found out like half an hour ago and Bakugou only knew since yesterday and--”
“Kirishima.”
“Sorry! Um. Bakugou can’t hear.”
Aizawa looks at them sharply. “I am aware that Bakugou doesn’t have his full hearing, his medical records were transferred to UA.”
Eijirou fidgets and plays with Bakugou’s fingers. “Um, no, not like that. I mean that...ever since training yesterday, he can’t hear at all.” When he looks back up a few seconds later Aizawa is glancing between them, his expression still unreadable.
“Bakugou is completely deaf?” He asks. Eijirou nods in confirmation. Aizawa sighs loudly, then leans forward and taps his fingers on Bakugou’s knee. Bakugou jerks his head up, blinking hard. Aizawa moves his hands in deliberate motions, something that Eijirou recognizes as JSL.
Bakugou nods at whatever he signed, then starts signing back with his free hand in small, aborted movements, not letting go of Eijirou once. Eijirou feels left out but there’s no way he’s going to interrupt, especially when the tension has started draining out of Bakugou’s shoulders.
“Both hands, Bakugou, I can’t understand you when you’re mumbling,” Aizawa says as he signs, and Bakugou reluctantly lets go of Eijirou’s hand and starts signing fully. “You can also talk if you want.”
Bakugou pouts, signing something quickly before looking away, embarrassed. Eijirou just looks between them, wondering what they’re conversing about.
After a few more back and forths with Eijirou only understanding half of the conversation and whatever he can glean from Bakugou’s unamused expressions, Aizawa nods with an air of finality. “We’ll get you to Recovery Girl on Monday to see what she says, but I think it’s likely that you went a little overboard with the explosions yesterday. You’ll get some of your hearing back.”
Bakugou deflates in relief a little, signing something back.
“I will be calling your parents, though. I think it’s time to consider hearing aids, Bakugou.” Bakugou glares. “I’m serious. Your audiologist likely agrees. We can also implement earplugs in your hero costume if you prefer. We’ll have to talk with your doctor to see what will work best.”
Bakugou chews on the inside of his cheek and averts his eyes, then suddenly looks at Aizawa with a fierceness that is pure Bakugou. He signs something short, with vigor, and whatever he signs makes a ghost of a smile appear on Aizawa’s lips.
“You’re actually lucky, Bakugou. You have a deaf Hero teaching you right now.” He must notice the confused expressions on his student’s faces because he just shrugs. “Why do you think I know JSL so well? Present Mic deafened himself the first time he ever used his quirk. But he’s a top 20 hero, well-liked and good at his job. Do you think he’s less of a hero because he’s deaf?”
Bakugou moodily shakes his head.
“Good,” Aizawa says and signs. “Will you be okay for the rest of the weekend until we can get Recovery Girl to look at you?”
“Don’t worry, Aizawa-sensei! I’ll stick with him!” Eijirou grins. He’s definitely not leaving Bakugou alone to the endless silence he’s sure his friend absolutely hates. Aizawa signs something to Bakugou without translating for Eijirou, and Bakugou flushes a light pink.
Before he can ask, Aizawa stands. “I’ll see you two on Monday. Bakugou, Recovery Girl’s office, bright and early.”
They both nod and wave their goodbyes. The walk back is silent, which Eijirou is expecting, and when they get back to the dorms he waves to everyone before grabbing sandwich materials from the fridge and scurrying after Bakugou, who’s already in the elevator. He wonders if he can convince Bakugou to watch the newest Crimson Riot movie with subtitles while they eat their lunch.
Convincing him isn’t as hard as he expects it to be. Neither is getting him to agree to watch Eijirou play pokemon on his GameBoy, and then watch another movie after that (one with lots of explosions that Bakugou looks a little bummed he can’t hear). They eat microwave mac ‘n cheese for dinner, then settle down with more pokemon, lying side by side in Bakugou’s bed.
Bakugou has his head resting on Eijirou’s shoulder, his small exhales and amused snorts ghosting along his neck. He can tell Bakugou is sleepy because of how heavy his head has been getting over the past hour. “Thank you, Shitty Hair,” Bakugou murmurs, almost too quiet to hear.
Anything he says will get lost in the void, but Eijirou says it anyway. “Always, Bakugou.” He reaches up one of his hands to squeeze the top of Bakugou’s hand, then leaves it when Bakugou flips his hand and intertwines their fingers.
On Monday, Eijirou shoos his friends to lunch while he sticks behind, taking his time packing all of his things in his backpack before approaching the desk, where their teacher is packing up his supplies. “Present Mic-sensei?” He says hesitantly.
Mic turns to him with a wide grin. “What can I do for you, little listener?”
Eijirou clears his throat. “Um, Aizawa-sensei mentioned that you’re deaf. And, uh, I was wondering...could you give me sign language lessons, or point me to a JSL teacher?”
Present Mic absolutely beams.