Hey, look! A chapter over 500 words in which things actually happen. Kind of, no real plot yet, sorry folks.
He felt a piece of paper being pressed into his back. Theoretically, it was accompanied by a 'psst' but he couldn't hear that. He turned around with a scowl.
The teacher, having assigned work, was using the rest of the period to mark their Maths tests. The students - all except Bakugou - were using the time to chat to their friends and mess around.
"What is it?" he hissed.
The girl behind him cowered slightly in her seat. She held a quivering note out to him.
"Could you, uhm, maybe - if - if you d-don't mind, could you pa-pass this to Sh-shira-k-kun?"
Bakugo scowled. He couldn't hear a word the girl was saying, and her incessant stammering made is almost impossible to read her lips.
"I'm not a mailman," he snarled, "if you want to declare your love to Shira, tell him yourself."
He turned back to his work. Since he couldn't hear it to begin with, he didn't realise that the chatter in the class had stopped.
Eventually he became aware of everyone's stares. Even the teacher had looked up to gape at him.
He'd been whispering, hadn't he? He had been whispering.
The girl behind him - what was her name? - was close to crying. Her lips were quivering and her eyes were brimming with tears.
His deafness had caused a lot of problems. But it had always been his problems. It had never really affected those around him. At least, not in this way.
Only when he felt Deku's hand on his arm did he realise that he had frozen in horror.
"Kacchan... are you okay?"
He didn't respond. He had thought he was okay. His lip reading had improved. The hearing aids were helping. He had thought he was fine.
"Uhm, Sensei, we're just going to... uhm. Yeah."
Bakugo couldn't really remember getting up. The next thing he knew, he and Deku were standing in the hallway.
Why had he come here? Why was he this upset? He wasn't the one who'd just had his crush exposed to the whole class by some thoughtless jerk.
Deku hesitantly shook him by the shoulder.
"Hey, are you okay?"
He pulled away, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and stomping towards the office.
"I'm going home."
At the office door he hesitated though. If he went home now his mother would want to know what had happened. She would insist that they go to the doctor.
The previous time he'd had his hearing aids replaced the doctor had told him… that this was the last pair. If they stopped working - that was it. There was nothing more that could be done.
He waited until the end of the day before going back to the classroom to collect his books. He found a note on his desk.
I'll stop by later to bring you your books ~ Deku
He smiled.
It fell when he looked at the desk behind his.
He had been so stupid. It wasn't just the fact that he'd been loud. The things that he had said - he had not thought about the effect they would have. He'd been careless of the girl's feelings.
To be fair, he was always careless of other people's feelings.
He caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. At the bottom of the paper recycling basket - as though it had been shoved in there - lay a piece of pale pink paper.
He should leave it there.
She'd thrown it away.
He was rummaging in the basket before he'd fully thought about what he was doing. The envelope was thicker than he would have expected a simple love note to be. She must have written Shira a whole essay.
Bakugou didn't know much about love or crushes. Personally, he thought it was stupid, the way people chased after each other and got all worked up.
But he did know that strong feelings - the kind that prompted someone to write a letter the length of a small novel or made them get up at 04:30 every morning to train - didn't go away simply because someone made fun of you.
Shira was sitting with his friends in the cafeteria the next day when Bakugou slammed the letter down on the table.
"Read it," he snarled. And walked away.
It wasn't much of an apology, but he reckoned it was better than anything he could say to the girl - Deku had told him her name was Nishimiya. Hopefully Shira would return her feelings. If not… Bakugou might have to have a little talk with him.
He scanned the library until he spotted a familiar head of green hair sitting at one of the desks. He walked over and dropped something on the desk next to Deku.
The heavy book thumped down with enough force to rattle the table. A few people looked up, glaring at the source of the disturbance. They quickly ducked their heads again when they saw who it was however.
Deku stared at the book with wide eyes.
"That's really thick, Kacchan," he mouthed.
Katsuki scowled, scribbling something down on the exam pad paper he had brought. He held it up.
'If we're going to do this, we'll do it properly."
Deku looked confused. "Do what?"
"We're going to learn sign language."
Deku stared at him for a moment before his expression became determined. He nodded.
He didn't ask why. He didn't comment or complain.
They spent the rest of the afternoon working through the book, "A Complete Guide to Japanese Sign Language."
By the time the library closed they could have simple conversations in sign language. By the end of the week they had mastered it almost completely.
A/N: Is it realistic for them to learn sign language so quickly? Absolutely not. If anyone could do it however, it would be these two stubborn over-achievers.
Also, the girl who Bakugou accidentally embarrassed is named after one of the protagonists of 'A Silent Voice'. It's an anime about a deaf girl and the boy who used to bully her. It's amazing; if you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend it.