Chapter Text
Slouched back with arms crossed tightly over his chest, the vibrations of the bus window rattled at Katsuki’s brain, but he refused to give an inch to the asinine conversation the gaggle of clowns who he called friends spoke about.
“Come on, dude, you’ve been sulking this whole time. Summer camp can’t be that bad,” Eijirou’s voice beside him cut through the noise as a warm hand playfully shook his shoulder. “You’ve got all of us to hang out with for the whole summer!”
“Yeah!” Mina pipes up from behind him, her arms wrapping around his shoulders. “Don’t think you can get away from us that easily, Kats!”
“And what if I don’t want to be around you lot, huh?”
“Are you serious, Kacchan? You love us!” Denki exclaims in front of him, fingers prattling over the seat of the bus in all the excitement of a golden retriever as he hangs over the back.
“You look way too excited for someone that’s not going to be allowed to use their phone for the next few months,” Kyoka snorts beside him. “Or any tech for that matter.” A subtle look of mourning etched in her expression at the confiscation of her music.
“What, seriously?! No phone?!” Denki looks aghast.
“Not that you’d get service anyway.”
“What about games?”
Kyoka shook her head.
“A digital watch?”
Face scrunching up a little, she shook her head again. “No.”
“You guys are so damn tiring,” Katsuki grouses.
Their conversations turned amongst each other at once, and it became too hard for Katsuki to decipher what they were talking about anymore. The chatter of at least ten other conversations melded with the motor of the bus and mixed with other background nonsense that turned everything into the same, loud sound, like a fan blasting into someone's ear before bed. It made all of the nonsense hard to decipher. He couldn’t keep up, and frustration welled in his chest as he grit his teeth while they laughed at some joke, so he tuned them out.
And it’s always been like this. He gets left behind.
Ever since he lost his hearing.
A part of him knows that they don’t notice by being too wrapped up in their own conversation, but it still pisses him off all the same. His hearing aids never gave him the same hearing he once had. When so many people talked at once, he couldn’t keep up with the sounds.
He hated it.
Katsuki leans back in his seat again with his arms crossed, and begins to seethe as his eyes stare out at the trees blurring together and street signs zipping by.
The anger in his mother’s expression was vivid in his memory as he was told that he was going to summer camp whether he liked it or not. He doesn’t know how she has the right to be angry at him when she’s the one forcing him to go!
He recalls the exasperation and frustration in Mitsuki’s tone as she said, “this’ll be good for you, kid. I didn’t raise my son to be a coward and a shut-in; smell some flowers! And be around your damn friends for once, they’re all going too!”
Why should he care about sniffing some flowers? Being in a camp in the middle of nowhere with a large, rowdy group of people is a personal hell that he’s convinced his mother solely made for him to suffer after he forgot to do the dishes once.
“Hey, earth to Katsuki!” Denki’s energetic wave drew his attention back to the nightmare he was living at hand. “What do you think?”
“What the hell do you want?”
Narrowing his eyes, Katsuki looked around at the group. They were all staring at him, expectantly waiting for an answer.
“Would you rather have a bird pluck seeds between your toes or a cat lick your eyeball?” Denki stared at him, grim and serious, as though his question was more important than any time he begged for help with his homework before.
Katsuki fixes him with the most unamused stare he has ever given in his life.
Lifting his hands, Katsuki maintained eye contact with Denki as he quickly and methodically removed a hearing aid. The other followed right after. He shoved them into the deepest holes of his pocket with a glower.
Like the flip of a switch, silence filled his ears, an all-encompassing feeling that drowned out the world around him. There was still something akin to a sound, one that Katsuki never could decipher what it really sounded like, aside from it just sounding like… silence.
Denki looked dumbfounded as everyone else silently laughed and jeered around him.
With a finger, Denki pointed to his lips and tried to speak so he could lipread. Katsuki found the trees outside the bus window much more interesting than what he had to say.
Lipreading was something he had been forced to learn from the beginning of it all, but it was much more challenging than something as straightforward as sign to him. He preferred sign, but none of his friends ever learned it.
And Denki always over exaggerated his lips when he spoke to him or spoke too fast. It was too hard to read.
Muffled and drowned out, he could just make out the faded sound of Mina screaming gleefully right beside his ear. He thinks it turned into laughter again, but the noise faded out as soon as it came.
Something happened, and Denki with all of the others turned their attention to the front of the bus with varying expressions of someone that had just been caught stealing.
Without paying them any mind, Katsuki looked back outside.
In the reflection of the bus window, he could see Eijirou’s jovial expression melt to worry as he looked back and stared at Katsuki. He reached down and began sifting through his bag.
A minute later, a small note was shoved in his face, brushing his nose and forcing him to smell the thin dead tree. It was so close to his eyes that the letters blurred together and read as complete nonsense.
Once Katsuki’s eyes focused on the small piece of paper, he read Eijirou’s scrawled and messy writing from the uneven surface of his bag.
You’re gonna lose those if you keep doing that, it read, and Katsuki snorted.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
Eijirou’s reflection sighed.
The bus rocked and bounced as it climbed a gravel road, trekking upwards and weaving through trees and lush forest like a salmon swimming upstream.
It finally came to a stop in a small clearing. The other students began scrambling outside to get a sweet breath of fresh air, after spending hours being trapped in the equivalent of a giant metal sardine can.
Putting his hearing aids back on, Katsuki slings a strap of his backpack over his shoulder and ambles to the exit of the bus. Eijirou had been waiting for him, and gave him a thumbs up before jogging down the steps.
As he stepped outside, other students were digging in the storage area of the bus, grasping at their larger luggage bags for their long-term sleepover.
This sucks.
He can’t believe he has to kiss his phone and every technological advancement in the past hundred years goodbye for the entire summer.
He shoves his hands in his pockets and stands beside Eijirou, who was looking ahead of the crowd at a few people standing in front of the group of students.
The trio stuck out like a sore thumb. Katsuki did not need to guess to know that they were the camp counselors. They were dressed in the tackiest gear someone would expect a camp counselor to wear, right down to the red fabric tied around their necks. Katsuki felt like he was in a generic comedy movie that would be tossed on in the background to pass time.
Unfortunately, this is not a movie, and Katsuki has to deal with this aggravating nightmare for much longer than two hours.
The man standing at the forefront of the three was buried beneath a blue scarf that wrapped around his long neck and covered half of his face. Katsuki already felt irritated at not being able to read his lips.
The other one that stood at his side had distinctive spikes in his hair and platinum locks covering one of his eyes. The woman on the other side wore a sleeveless version of the counselor uniform, revealing tan skin and strong arms, and there was even a prosthetic in place of one of the hands resting on her hips.
Katsuki snorted as they introduced themselves as the camp counselors: Hakamada, Kamihara, and Usagiyama. They go over all of the rules and activities stated in the pamphlet Katsuki’s mother had shoved in his face only a few weeks prior. No technology, outside contact only in emergencies, and a bunch of random, generic activities to get everyone to bond with team-based games like capture the flag.
He felt too old to be playing stupid games for kids when he’ll be graduating next year.
After an awkward game of people pointing at each other and stating their names and hobbies, Katsuki almost felt elated when the counselors separated them into groups and sent them to their cabins to unpack their items and prepare for their long stay. In the back of his mind, Katsuki wondered if his mother had any influence on the matter, or if it was one hell of a coincidence that he had been paired with Eijirou, Denki, and Hanta to share a single cabin together.
Katsuki stepped into the small and cramped cabin first, a tiny shack that could only fit a couple of bunk beds and a nightstand. He tossed his bags onto the bottom bunk before anyone could claim a spot and pulled out his blankets. He neatly tucked them onto the bed while the other three fought over the other spots.
Eijirou claimed the bed above him, and Hanta took the bottom one next to Katsuki while Denki clambered up to the top bunk across like a spider monkey.
As Katsuki finishes unpacking, he catches Denki hanging upside down from the bunk bed whispering something excitedly to Hanta beneath. Before he could decipher what they said, Eijirou is leaning over the edge of his own bed. “You guys seriously want to do that?!”
Katsuki opened his mouth to complain to them to keep him in the conversation for once, but then there was a knock at the door.
“It’s time to meet in the dining hall for dinner before we have a campfire gathering,” Hakamada’s voice came through, muffled behind wood.
Clamouring out of the cabin over creaking old wood steps, the four of them arrived at the dining hall and reunited with Mina and Kyoka. After that, Hakamada and the two other counselors sat them down and started a large campfire, and Usagiyama began to tell them scary hauntings as the sun fell behind the horizon.
A warm hand on his shoulder and a light jostle elicited a tired groan from Katsuki. Muttering unintelligibly, he lifted an arm to swat at the offending hand.
The jostle turned into a shake.
“What the hell are you waking me up for?!” And although Katsuki shouted it, he could only feel the vibrations of his voice as he yelled out into the dark.
The hand was suddenly over his mouth, silencing him. Katsuki startled as adrenaline rushed through his body, eyes snapping up to his offender, only to see Eijirou shaking his head urgently with an index finger pressed over his lips.
With a glare, Katsuki reached over the bedside and blindly felt around for his hearing aids. He slipped them on and tucked them into place.
“Geez, you’re always so cranky when you get woken up, dude,” he said when Katsuki finally looked up at him with tired eyes, his shoulders hanging forward and hands gripping at the bedside. “You’re not a morning guy or a night guy. It’s a wonder you’re ever even awake. You’d sleep through a forest fire.”
Waving a hand dismissively, Katsuki used the other to pinch the bridge of his nose and rub at it in irritation. A sigh lifted his shoulders and emptied his lungs before he looked up at Eijirou, noticing that Denki and Hanta were there- along with Mina hanging from Denki’s shoulders with a grin, and even Kyoka with her arms crossed beside them.
Katsuki sat up straight.
“Oh, Mister sleepyhead’s awake! You actually look pretty cute when you sleep, Kats. Less spikey, and more like one of those hamsters that melt in your hand when you pet them. At least whoever bags you is gonna have a nice view at night.”
“That’s too specific of a comparison,” Katsuki grumbled. “And am I gonna have to repeat myself?”
“We’re sneaking out, obviously!” Denki piped up to finally answer the question Katsuki already had a sneaking suspicion of. “And you’re coming with us.”
“Who said I wanted to go into the forest at the worst hours of the night to mess around and get caught by the counselors?”
“Then don’t come,” Kyoka says bluntly. “Get your beauty sleep.”
Running a hand down his face, Katsuki groans loudly. “Someone’s gonna have to watch you lot so you don’t get in trouble.”
Kyoka’s lips uplift into a faint smirk as she takes the lead towards the door, not hiding the fact that she got exactly what she wanted from him. “Then hurry up.”
They made it out of camp without getting caught, and began their long trek through the forest.
As they walked through winding paths and thick trees, through small clearings and around a lake with grass growing out the edges beneath a white moon, they roughhoused and chatted as Katsuki ambled behind them.
Some flat rocks stuck out of the river like budding flowers. Mina and Denki jump on them like a game of hopscotch to get across as the others follow.
“You know, we haven’t discussed any of the important stuff yet,” Mina said with a faux nod of firm determination, “like who some of our crushes might be.”
“And why would anyone want to know about that?” Kyoka said with her hands deep in her pockets.
A look sparked in Mina’s eyes, like an alligator spotting a mouse. She was immediately at her side, leaning into Kyoka’s space. “You like someone, don’t you?” She said with a mischievous smile.
With a brief look of surprise, Kyoka’s hands fidgeted in her pockets. A small flush crept on her cheeks. “What makes you think that?”
“Anyone who responds first always has a crush on someone.”
“Do you have any evidence for that statement?”
“I’m right, aren’t I?” Her smile grew.
“That can’t be true,” Denki piped up suddenly, an edge to his tone, albeit faint and unusually nervous. “I don’t see how that makes sense.”
Mina’s head snapped to Denki, her eyebrows almost flying off of her head.
“What about-” Denki paused, mulling over the options in his head- “Katsuki?!” He cried out as a distraction.
“What about me? Don’t drag me into this,” Katsuki protested.
Mina turned, body facing him as she walked backwards. She squinted at him with a hand lifted to her chin and a loud hum. “No, Kats isn’t interested in anyone.”
“How can you say that for sure? The guy’s so uptight about his feelings,” Denki remarked.
Katsuki’s face twists in vexation.
“But he’s upfront about things like that, maybe even a little too confrontational,” Mina waves a finger in the air like a professor correcting a student.
“Katsuki,” his head turned to Eijirou as he suddenly spoke, “do you even like people like that? Or you know- are you like Mina?”
Mina waves a hand with a grin. “Kats definitely likes some people! He’s just too chicken to let people in.”
“You’ve been playing too many of those dating games, stop analyzing us. And I’m not a chicken!” Katsuki complained.
“Aw, don’t worry! Maybe you’ll find someone right here. Someone’s bound to like you and get you to loosen up for once in your life!” Denki exclaimed cheerfully.
“Who the hell am I gonna find in the middle of the forest? I’m trapped here with all of you.”
“Hold on, are you confessing to Kats?” Kyoka suddenly said as she looked more alert, and sounded only a little confused, perhaps even worried.
“What? No-! That’s not what I meant!“ Denki raised his hands and waved them in the air.
“I want a guy with strength and determination, someone who’s always ready to test their limits,” Eijirou suddenly remarked with a bright grin.
Mina continued to bother Denki and Kyoka. Denki, however, had quickly diverted the conversation back to their earlier one on the bus, and Mina dropped the subject of love to join in.
The group got too rowdy again, and started speaking all at once. It was getting too overwhelming for Katsuki to listen to in the middle of the night as his eyes grew heavy.
Feeling tired and getting annoyed as hell from the pestering, Katsuki removed his hearing aids again and shoved them back in his pocket before he decided to test how loud his voice could really get before they were caught.
He spent the rest of the trip back listening to silence and trying not to fall asleep while walking.
A hand jostled his shoulder to wake him again, and he stirred, groggily looking up at a burry Eijirou. He felt like a bag of bricks hit him, a low ache settling in his bones. He was not built like the others, who seemed to have an endless amount of energy despite hardly getting an hour of sleep some nights.
“I regret going with you lot last night. I’m too tired for this crap,” he muttered as he reached over for his hearing aids with a hand, the other rubbing the sleep from his eyes. If Eijirou responded, he couldn’t see his lips.
His hand only slid across the smooth surface of wood at his bedside.
Katsuki’s eyes shot open, head spinning to the small stand at the head of the bunk bed.
His hearing aids are gone.
Jumping from the bed, he grabbed blindly for his hoodie draped over the edge and started digging through the pockets. He shoved his hand as deep as it could go, fingers grazing over every millimetre of pocket and string holding it together.
Eijirou touches his shoulder, at least he thinks it’s Eijirou’s fingers tapping.
“My hearing aids-”
He feels something he hasn’t felt since he lost his hearing.
Panic. Panic from the silence that suddenly felt too loud.
It rose in his chest and spilled out his fingers as he dove for his luggage bag and began tearing it apart, chest rising and falling rapidly at the thought of losing the only thing keeping him connected with the hearing world, with any of his friends.
He knows they’re not in there, but he still checked.
“Did one of you steal them as a sick joke?!” He bellowed angrily, but he knew that wasn’t true either. No matter how far any of their teasing went, they wouldn’t do something like that.
He does hear something, too faint and muffled. His name?
He tore through the room, ripping his blankets from the bed, searching beneath the frame, yanking at any drawer or storage space.
Nothing. He couldn’t find them.
A pair of hands squeezed his shoulders and spun him around before he made the room go from looking like a bull rampaged inside, to a tornado ripping it apart from the seams.
“Katsuki, calm down,” he could read on Eijirou’s lips. A look of sympathy etched into his face that made Katsuki’s skin crawl.
He didn’t want to be looked at like that again.
“We’ll find your hearing aids. They have to be around, right?”
Katsuki shook his head. “They’re gone. If they’re not in here, they're somewhere out in that stupid forest collecting dirt!”
Eijirou looked over at Denki. His lips moved, but he couldn’t understand him from this angle.
Katsuki frowned.
He looked down at Denki and Hanta, who were both sitting on the other bunk bed together with troubled expressions.
“If we do that they’re going to find out we snuck out in the middle of the night!” Katsuki more or less inferred over Denki’s lips.
Sometimes when he couldn’t quite catch what someone said by reading their lips, he would have to make an educated guess.
He thinks Eijirou responded as Denki’s arms were suddenly animated as he spoke to him, his lips moving too fast for Katsuki to properly read.
He already felt frustrated. Despite feeling left out in some conversations with his hearing aids, his profound hearing loss made it impossible to keep up when too many people were talking.
“Will you stop your panicking, I can’t understand you,” Katsuki growled.
Denki looked at him apologetically. “Sorry, Kats,” he read on his lips.
Katsuki grit his teeth.
“Whatever,” he bit back, and Denki flinched. Katsuki knew then that his voice must have come out much harsher and louder than he meant. It sent a spike of annoyance and guilt in his chest.
“We need to tell a counselor the truth,” Hanta said with a frown.
“But we’ll get in so much trouble!” Denki protested.
Eijirou said something to Denki before looking back at Katsuki. “-if that’s okay with you?”
“I don’t know what the hell you just said, you were looking away-”
“Oh- sorry.” Eijirou rubbed at the back of his neck with an apologetic look. “This is going to take some getting used to.”
The statement hurt in such a profound way, like a punch to the chest he couldn’t begin to explain. His face became hot as his eyes burned from sheer frustration. He managed to bite back a reply he knew he would regret.
“We’ll sneak out and look again tonight,” Katsuki read over blurry lips.
His fists clenched at his sides, teeth grinding over the inside of his cheek. He didn’t want everyone getting in trouble over his own careless mistake. “We’ll look tonight. If it’s not there- then I don’t know if we’ll ever find them.”
Eijirou opens his mouth to speak, but then everyone’s heads suddenly spin to face the entrance of the cabin. Denki and Hanta stood up as though a swarm of bees flew in and stung them in their butts.
Katsuki turned to face Hakamada standing at the entrance. Of course the guy with a scarf over his mouth comes in. Eijirou says something as he faces away from him, arms raised out placatingly.
Hakamada's sharp gaze met his own. There was a long pause before Eijirou raised a finger and pointed it at his scarf. Hakamada’s eyes widened briefly before thin fingers curled over the navy silk and revealed lips.
“Kirishima says you’ve lost your hearing aids?”
Katsuki froze. Eijirou conveyed a number of expressions to get the point across that completely lying about his hearing aids is impossible.
“I must’ve dropped them at some point.” It wasn’t a complete lie. It was enough of the truth to get by.
Hakamada nods. “We’re going to find them.”
Embarrassment and further frustration pent up inside Katsuki as Hakamada gathered the other two camp counselors and had every other camp member search the area. Not one speck of dirt or blade of grass was left unturned. The search continued outwards from there, over each area that had been explored or touched in the past day.
It was almost dusk, the hues of the world around Katsuki turning a colder color as the sun set behind his back. Hakamada stood in front of him with the other counselors. The other campers were wrapping up dinner for the night.
He felt that same pain in his chest return as he read that there was no sign of his hearing aids, and worse yet, they had no way of contacting the outside world unless it was a serious emergency. Katsuki was not in any real danger, and he can still communicate with them. Hakamada looked at him apologetically, and so did Kamihara. They stared at him with sympathy.
Katsuki didn’t need sympathy. He needed his hearing aids!
His frustration turned to anger.
An equal vexation burned in Usagiyama’s eyes as she stared at Hakamada’s back, shaking her head with tightly crossed arms.
There was no luck that night either, as he searched with his friends in the forest, back-tracking over every path they took with only three flashlights shared between them, courtesy of Denki’s sticky fingers. He had snagged it from the counselors’ storage room earlier in the day.
Katsuki still had to participate in camp activities. Many required hearing to have a true leverage over everyone else, even just to participate. He felt behind, and frustrated, and struggled to communicate with anyone.
At least he could read lips unlike when he first lost his hearing, but it did jack all when no one would look at him.
It was a sudden disconnect between himself and everyone else around himself, a reality that shifted on its axis. People started to put a distance between themselves and him because they didn’t know how to talk to him. When he did speak to other campers, they would sometimes flinch when he would unknowingly talk too loud because he can’t hear his own voice. They would even avert their gaze, and Katsuki hated the guilt and annoyance he felt whenever they flinched, but he hated most of all how self-conscious he suddenly felt about his own voice.
His friends remained close, but he could feel a distance with them too. They never waited for him to understand or catch up, they just kept on chatting as Katsuki idly stabbed at his food during every meal, as though he could take every frustration out on the crumbling rice on his plate.
They apologized when they realized, but they kept doing it, again and again.
Why should he bother to read their lips when they won’t even make an effort?
He felt alienated.
Just like before.
Days passed, and every single night after the second spent with the others looking, Katsuki made the same trek to the same place. He doesn’t bother waking any of the others. He scours every inch of ground, sifts through every blade of grass.
Nothing. Nothing ever came of it, and he couldn’t hear a damn thing anyone was saying and his eyes were tired of lip reading, of people overemphasizing what they were saying so much he couldn’t understand, or people constantly moving and turning away from him as though they expected him to have an all-seeing eye that can see their faces at all times.
He wanted to scream at them in frustration.
“Ugh, no!” With fingers tangling in his hair, Katsuki pulled until his eyes stung. “My hearing aids have gotta be here somewhere!”
The gentle glitter of the water reflecting from the moon caught his eye. He could see the flow and lull of the surface as it carried downward.
“Fuck,” he suddenly muttered, and repeated, over and over as a realization dawned on him.
His feet collided with the water, a freezing cold edge biting up to his calves, the drench climbing up to his knees until he dropped onto them in the water. He could not see anything beneath the surface, but his hands shot out, digging blindly through rocks, sand, and slimy algae in a futile effort to feel anything remotely plastic in an endless sea of rocks.
If they were in the river, they were completely worthless.
A sudden tap on his shoulder had him jump and spin around, the slick surface of algae catching his shoe and making him fall on his ass. His head shot up, anticipating Hakamada to be standing there, catching him in the act.
Instead, he saw a girl he didn’t recognize in a forest in the middle of nowhere.
There’s a near awkward pass of silence until Katsuki blurted, “what the hell are you doing here in the middle of nowhere, are you lost?!”
She smiled wide and bright, something almost playful beneath as she pressed her index finger to her lips.
She didn’t say anything. Instead, her hands moved, forming two light fists. Her index fingers raised before she made them bow at each other. Then she pointed to her nose and made a circle with her three fingers pointed upwards before gesturing above her heart. Then, she made a lot of kanji symbols, finishing with a thumb to her nose and pulling her hand out with a slight bow.
“Hi! My name is Uraraka Ochako, it’s nice to meet you!”
Katsuki sat in the water, sopping wet and speechless.
She knew sign language.
A random girl conjured from the forest just started signing to him.
Was he still in his cabin sleeping?
“Sorry for scaring you. Need a hand?” She held out a hand with a smile on her face.
“You didn’t scare me, and no, I don’t need a hand! I’m not helpless!”
Her cheeks puffed out in indignation, brows creasing in the mighty glare that Katsuki could only relate to an angry shiba. “You looked pretty scared to me, but fine,” she signed before taking a step back.
With a hand braced on his knee, his other extended into the water to push himself up, but the slick algae assaulted his palm again as he went careening sideways into the river.
Not only is this girl conjured from the forest, but she is the first to see Katsuki embarrass himself at such a spectacular level, and Katsuki refuses to ever make himself look like a fool.
He looks up at her, hair clinging to his cheeks and water dripping from his clothes.
Her shoulders shook with a smile tugging at her lips. She’s… she’s giggling at him?!
“You look like an angry wet cat!”
“What did you just say to me?!” Katsuki shouts in indignation, hand shooting up from the water to splash at her.
She holds up her arms to protect herself as she lets out a bout of laughter. He cannot hear it, but her shoulders shake as she doubles over in a fit of laughter.
He doesn’t know why she finds this so amusing.
When her giggle fit finally dies down, her calves submerge in the water as she holds out both of her hands to him, fingers wiggling playfully as a grin dances on her lips.
With a sour look, Katsuki extended his hands as she pulled him up to his feet.
With wide eyes, she tilted sideways as she blindly grabbed at him, and Katsuki caught her by the elbow before she could fall on her ass this time.
She meets his eyes, hands occupied by clinging to his shirt, and says, “it’s too slippery.”
“Fall again, and I’m not catching you next time.”
She makes that same puffed shiba look at him as before.
Once they reach the riverbank, Katsuki feels the water soaked in his clothes rush and drip onto the rocky, dry ground. Ochako lets go of his shirt and steps back.
Katsuki reaches down to wring his shirt of excess water. They are still going to be wet in the morning. He’s going to have to hide them. He doesn’t want any of the lot asking him questions.
When he looks up, Ochako is looking back at him, waiting. She signs, “you’re looking for your hearing aids? How did you lose them?”
The shameful feeling of losing the stupid pieces of plastic makes Katsuki’s teeth grind in frustration all over again, and with the fact that Eijirou had been the one to warn him about it made his chest form in knots.
He signs for the first time to her, “I didn’t feel like listening to anybody’s nonsense, so I took them out.”
“For someone that’s nice, you’re pretty mean.”
His face scrunched up at the comment. “I don’t care what you think of me. You’re some random forest ghost.”
“I’m not a forest ghost, and I have a name!”
“Yeah, I know.” Katsuki conceded with a smirk. He made a loose circle with his hand and tapped his cheeks, saying aloud, “Cheeks.”
She flushes, “You can’t give me a name like that!” She exclaims.
“Already did.”
With a heavy huff, she crosses her arms over her chest with a pout that does little to help her case, and sticks her tongue out at him.
Katsuki can see the weight of her sigh before she signs, “Why don’t you go get some rest for the next couple of days and I’ll keep an eye out for those hearing aids?”
“I don’t need help,” he defended.
“Stubborn,” her nose flared, and he couldn’t tell if she was exasperated or tired of arguing with him. Not that it mattered to him anyway. “And how has that “no help” been going for you? If you keep going you’re going to pass out in the forest and a fox is going to eat you.”
“Like a fox would eat me for passing out!”
“What’s wrong with getting some sleep?” She sighed. “How about if I don’t find them in two days, we keep looking together?”
“Why would I want you around?”
“Why would I want you around?” She parroted back.
If Katsuki had the capability, he would growl at her like an angry dog. He glowered at her instead. “The second we find my hearing aids, I’m never coming out here again.”
Ochako grinned brightly, looking far too happy with Katsuki barely accepting her help. “That’s fine with me!” She paused for a moment, and then signed, “why didn’t you just turn them off anyway?”
“I was trying to make a point!” He shouted.
“Well, did you make it?”
Katsuki froze, then frowned deeply at her. “I’m going back to camp. Go back into the forest.”
Her bright smile was sickly sweet, Katsuki had to look away and down at her hands as she signed, “get some good rest!”
He left her by the river, wringing more water out of his shirt as he followed the path back to camp.