Music vaguely pisses Adam off.
It's not the songs themselves that annoy him, although there are plenty of awful ones. No, what annoys Adam is how much of them he can't hear.
He hadn't realized until recently how much of the music comes through one ear or another. Things that were meant to sound like a mystic passing drumbeat would disappear halfway through their stroll. Entire backing lyrics would be absent, pumped into an ear dead to the world.
He'd tried swapping out earbuds, putting headphones on backwards, but Adam would just end up missing a different part of the songs. And it's not like he has time to spend on things like this, with Cabeswater pressing down like so much warm sunlight and icy rocks.
So now Adam listens to nothing at all. Which also vaguely pisses him off, because his ear won't stop ringing. And it's not Cabeswater, trying to whisper to him. That's a whole different problem.
Adam looked it up online, a moment of tapping borrowed keys. It's a side effect of going deaf, as if the effect itself wasn't enough pain and inconvenience.
So when Adam grumbles at Ronan about the pure predicament of being deaf - he actually has a good and bad side now which really pisses him off - he doesn't expect anything to come of it other than that same stare Ronan gives everything that comes out of his mouth. Like everything Adam says is a concrete entity that can be absorbed.
So Adam pretends not to notice how Ronan always casually positions Adam so his good side is facing the pounding beat. He pretends not to notice how close the speakers have inched together, travelling sounds and backing tracks blasting at him in a remarkably uniform way.
And maybe music doesn't piss Adam off so much anymore. Not when there's a Cheshire grin with tattoos swearing until the the faults correct themselves.
And maybe he smiles back.