Chapter Text
1.
Denki groaned as his head thudded on the monster textbook he was studying from. Since when did you need History to be a pro hero? It’s not like he’d be fighting Villains from the past anyway! All the dates and names of people who’d been dead for over 50 years weren’t going to help him if he was about to be thrown through a building.
He had voiced these concerns to Aizawa-Sensei, who had given him a look so terrifying Denki had nearly bolted from the room in the middle of a lesson, consequences be damned.
He’d always had trouble studying – his middle school teachers said he just lacked motivation, whatever that meant. Everyone had trouble getting out of bed sometimes, or most days, whatever, but that didn’t mean he lacked motivation! His body just felt like lead sometimes.
He knew he wasn’t stupid; he knew how to do maths! It just didn’t help that the extractor fan noise from the kitchen was making his brain feel like TV-static. Or the buzzing noise coming from the lights. Or the hum of the fridge. Or the-
“Pikachu, if you’re reading that close to the book, then you might want to ask Glasses about his prescription.”
Denki’s head shot up to see an irritated Bakugou glaring down at him with his arms crossed. He sighed, rubbing a hand down his face, not in the mood for Bakugou’s attitude when he was already so stressed. The last thing he needed was to be sneered at for not being able to do basic studying.
“What do you need, Bakugou? I’m studying.”
Bakugou snorted, raising an eyebrow, “Didn’t look like it. Looked like you were trying to absorb the book into your forehead.”
Denki rolled his eyes, huffing loudly. “If only. How am I supposed to study when the words keep moving? Like, come on,” Bakugou gave him a strange look even as he rambled on, “And that fan is making my head feel funny. I don’t understand how you can cook with that thing on.”
The look Bakugou was giving him now made him slightly unnerved. It was like he was looking into his soul as he glanced at the blonde and back down at his textbook. He grunted, striding off towards the dorm stairs.
He huffed in relief, looking back down at his textbook and attempting to continue his – frankly pathetic – attempt at notes.
A few minutes passed before Bakugou returned with a little case in his hand, which he placed firmly on the table next to the other’s textbook.
“If you lose or break them, I will blow you sky high”, he barked over his shoulder as he stalked back into the kitchen. Denki recognised the case for Bakugou’s earplugs – his drumming ones that he never let anyone hold, not even Kiri.
He gently removed them from their case and placed them in his ears. It wasn’t perfect, but it was as if someone had turned down the volume on the static. He could focus just enough to finish the chapter and even make a head start on the other.
Sometime in between, Bakugou had appeared with his own notes and textbook, sitting across from him with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he stared at the textbook and shoved ramen into his mouth. He gently placed the earplugs back in their case and fidgeted with them for a little while, watching the other intently. Bakugou sighed deeply, frowning at his textbook.
“What’re you lookin’ at, Dunceface?
“How did you know they would help?”
Bakugou hummed again, laying down his pencil before leaning back in his chair and grinning smugly.
“Would you believe me if I said lucky guess?”
“Would you answer my question?” Denki asked, frustrated and tired from focusing for too long.
Bakugou sneered at that, very nearly snapping a classic insult but visibly held back, staying silent for a few seconds.
“Deku used to get upset by noise. That’s why he mumbles. I never understood it – hell, never tried to understand it as a little brat. But now…” He trailed off, rubbing at the back of his ear “…I get it. He’s autistic, and my hearing is…”
He stopped suddenly, glaring at Denki in a sudden change of emotion that left him with emotional whiplash.
“Nobody but me, him and the teachers know that. If I find out you told anyone, I WILL hunt you down myself, got it?” Bakugou growled. “I’m only telling you because I think it’ll stop you trying to brain yourself on desks.”
Denki kept his smile in check – saying he wanted someone alive was a big thing for Bakugou – before frowning suddenly.
“You think there’s… something wrong with me?”
Bakugou huffed in annoyance, “There’s nothing wrong with you, idiot. You probably have ADHD or Dyslexia or somethin’. Go talk to Aizawa-Sensei or Hound Dog. Or don’t, see if I fuckin’ care. It’s nothing to get so pissy about.”
Denki couldn’t hold back his smile this time as Bakugou’s scowl deepened further.
He thought about it later that night. He’d always had trouble reading, couldn’t keep track of the lines, and sometimes Aizawa’s lectures stopped making sense half way through and he found himself lost, and unable to focus. Maybe he should do some searching online…
-
Bakugou was exactly right – Hound Dog diagnosed him with ADHD and dyslexia, and assigned Present Mic to help him.
Denki got a B+ on the next assignment, and he could have sworn he saw pride in Bakugou’s eyes.
(…and if he read out passages of text for Denki on his bad days, and if a pair of earplugs the same as his but in Yellow and Black appeared in Denki’s bag one day after class…Nobody needed to know)