The Art of Listening

Chapter 11 - The Sound of Silence

Izuku

Silence. Pure silence despite all of the chaos that surrounded him. His day had been filled with chaotic silence, more than he was accustomed to. At least lately. Usually, with Katsuki as his boyfriend, Izuku had a hectic day. It was a fact of life when it came to his blond gremlin. But with the addition of this part time job he'd accepted from Mitsuki-san, it was even more-so. It would be simple, she said. You don't have to worry, she said. It was far from that, and that was because of all of the silence.

The shoot they were doing features a fashion line for people with disabilities. All of the articles of clothing were accessible for people with varying abilities. He thought it was awesome that the Bakugous were doing this. It would help a lot of people across Japan. They'd asked him to work the shoot the week before, and he'd agreed. The extra money would be great, especially since they were already in the thick of their summer vacation. He already had a slew of date ideas for himself and Kacchan.

So, working today should have been a perfect way to raise funds. Until his life was plunged into silence. The external devices on his hearing aids had given up on him four days earlier. They were an older set, ones he'd acquired over four years prior.

It was a Saturday night when they'd died.

He was at Kirishima and Ashido's with Katsuki for a game night. It wasn't anything different than from what they did any other weekend. The group of them were crowded in the living room, enjoying snacks and videos, board games and whatever small amount of alcohol that Izuku could tolerate these days. Kaminari had some of the tracks from his band playing in the background, much to his girlfriend's horror seeing as she was the lead singer. He liked it, though. He thought Jirou Kyouka had a really pretty voice. It was mellow and nice, even with Kaminari's wild drum solos intermixed.

He stood across from Kaminari, talking about his step dad, Toshinori – Katsuki had so graciously spilled the beans about at the very next game night following his birthday.

"So, do you like, ever ask him to dress up as All Might for the hell of it?"

Izuku laughed. "I used to when I was like, eleven, and he and my mom first started dating," he said. "These days, he only dresses up for the kids in the building on Halloween."

Kaminari pouted slightly at this. "Man, I would kill to have a dad as cool as that. Not that I don't love my dad – man's a bro, but like. Sooo cool."

"It's alright," he said with a shrug. "There were a lot of times that things got ruined because people didn't know how to leave us to our privacy."

The electric blond nodded in understanding. "Yeah. That would totally-"

And suddenly, silence. He couldn't hear anything. Not the person talking in front of him. Not the shouts of Katsuki and Kirishima as they played Smash Brothers in the background. Not the sound of Jirou's soft lyrics. Not the ringing that usually accompanied silence. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Izuku's jaw dropped, and Kaminari wrinkled his brow. He must have thought Izuku's reaction was to whatever he'd said. But.

The silence sent Izuku's other senses into overdrive. He could feel the sticky humidity in the air from the hot summer air that poured in through the windows. He could smell the sweat of his friends. The stench of alcohol reigned supreme along with greasy food. Immediately, the panic settled in. Crowded space. No sound. Alcohol. Dim lights. Fuck. He was panicking. He could feel it. His body chilled. His heart started racing. His mouth grew dry as the electric blond across from him waved a hand in front of his face only to receive no response. He couldn't control the panic, the memories of the last time he was in this sort of situation without any sound to aid him. Fuck. It reminded him of the party where- NOPE. Don't go down that slippery slope, Izuku. You're okay. You're among friends. You're safe, the voice in his head said. It was the repeating mantra he heard every time the panic threatened to overwhelm him. But it wasn't working. Katsuki is right there. You're safe. You're safe. Youresafeyouresafeyouresafe.