The Art of Listening

Chapter 10 - To Find a Voice

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Bullying, both physically and verbally. Please be advised as you read. If it is too much of a trigger for you, you can skip this chapter as it is not crucial to the plot.

Inko

21 Years Earlier...

She should have been happy, but her entire world was falling apart. It was in shambles all around her, and she could do nothing to pick up the pieces. Midoriya Inko should have been spending this day with happy tears in her eyes, but she wasn't. The tears that fell were bitter and sad and broken. Broken... Not because she was alone in a cold, sterile hospital room without her family, even though being alone with her pain, both physical and mental, was terrifying. Not because her husband left her to go celebratory drinking despite her hatred of his alcoholism. Not because she wished she had someone's hand to hold through all of the news the doctors were delivering to her; she was tough and could handle words if their meaning was detached from them.

No. She cried because her perfect, little baby would suffer because somehow, she had already failed as a mother. There weren't too many questions to be asked about what had happened. There was a simple answer. Inko had been a smoker, a heavy one at that, but she'd quit as soon as she'd realized she was pregnant. She was already two months into that first trimester by the time she'd found out.

The damage had already been done.

She already failed as a mother. She'd hurt her child before he was even able to defend himself, and it had all been because of her own foolish actions. The weight of it all crashed down on her shoulder.

"No one could have anticipated this, Midoriya," the doctor said as he laid his hand heavily on her shoulder, making some attempt at comfort. It felt cold and distant. "You did what you could by quitting your habits when you did... But young Midoriya is deaf. There's nothing you could have done."

Yes there was. She could have never picked up that dumb cigarette when Hisashi offered it to her in high school. She could have been healthy. She could have been cautious, thinking of her future and her children's futures. She'd been selfish. Instead, she'd left him a broken child with a disability. Broken...

No. She couldn't call him that. She couldn't label him. No. It would only do him more harm. He wasn't broken. He wasn't disable. He was her son. He was perfect. He wasn't broken, and she would never allow herself to call him that. She'd never allow anyone else to call him that. Never.

But instead of voicing any of that, she nodded numbly. "Do you know how bad?"

The doctor shook his head. His lips were pressed into this grave little line that made Inko's heart sink deeper into her chest. "We won't know until we do further testing. You have options. Depending on the severity of his hearing loss, there are several different hearing support devices that you-"

The rest of the doctor's words were lost on her as she stared at the quiet baby that slept in her arms. He had dark green hair just like her own and her husband's lovely curls. He was still beautiful even though he couldn't hear her voice. It was then that her mind had decided its resolve. She'd make sure that despite the silence that surrounded him, despite the words he couldn't hear, he'd know he was loved. She'd do whatever it took to get him to know that.

Because hearing didn't mean that you couldn't listen.

⤝⤞⤝⤞⤝⤞⤝⤞

2 Years Later...

Inko did everything that hse could to help Izuku. From the moment she learned he was deaf, she vowed to herself that she'd protect him at all costs. And in order to do that, she needed to arm him with the things that would help him along the way. He needed to have a life that was rich with language. She did her best to provide her son with those experiences so that he'd have the best quality of life that was possible for a child who was deaf.