Your voice feels beautiful ~TodoBaku~

Chapter 5: fuck

Katsuki Bakugo

Goddamnit, where are those idiots?! The usual table had been infested with first-year losers, and I didn't feel like getting reported for abuse right now, which left me stumbling around the cafeteria like an idiot, my sandwich and drink tucked under my arm.

I was almost relieved when I saw that stupid pink haired girl waving me over to a table just outside the room, and angrily made my way over.

"Somebody going to tell me why the fuck we're sat here?!"

"Uh, look around bro..."

"The fuck do you mean look aro-" I started, cutting myself short.

Oh.

Todoroki and his friend (Yao-somethingorother) were sat at the table, the former staring up at me, the latter looking concernedly to Pinky. Upon seeing them, my brain seemed to stall. Usually I'd come up with some smartass nicknames and insult the two of them, but...he's deaf, y'know? I don't wanna go down as the idiot who verbally assaulted a deaf kid! So, afraid of normal human conversation, I just slumped into my chair and pulled out the sandwich, taking a bite and looking away.

It was annoying that the idiots knew me so well, seeing as Pinky soon adopted a teasing tone and said "babes, I know you've got the hots for him, but you can't be that embarrassed, surely!"

I turned to meet her eye, staring right the way through her, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Yao-fuckyfuckfuck signing something to Todoroki. Whatever she'd said seemed to shock him, as he turned to me, meeting my eye for a whole nanosecond before looking away and eating. If anything this irked me even more, and I kept my eyes on him as I ate and the idiots conversed about stupid shit. Occasionally he'd look up and into my eyes, but it never lasted long.

Eventually, the girl (Yao-Momo, as I gathered) signed something to him, a slight smile as she did, and his face turned a heavy shade of pink, a small glance in my direction as I pretended not to hear. He looked outraged by her statement, and once her giggling had subsided, it was actually Mina who asked her what she'd said.

"Oh it doesn't matter. Just teasing"

"Hmmm....about the same thing I was teasing blasty? about~?"

"Maaaaaaybe"

I just kept my head down, continued eating, and stole the occasional glance at the boy, who was now conversing with his friend, trying to figure out what she'd just been saying. I really felt for him from the bottom of my hard-to-find heart, the overwhelming difficulty of his life catching up to me a little. I'd always seen being deaf as a slight inconvenience for people, but had been so ignorant in that. Life was so fucking unfair sometimes. Why couldn't it be the rapists and murderers that suffered the most? Why an innocent boy, my own age, a committed history and politics student, a boy so perceptive of his surroundings. Why a boy that had done nothing at all, sat here staring at me like I was crazy.

"Hey blasty, by the look on his face he doesn't mind. You should try something!" Pinky whispered to me, and I responded with a toned down whisper as well, not wanting his friend to hear me.

"And how exactly am I supposed to do that with you three idiots and that bitch here?!"

"We'll leave, just...promise you won't kill him?"

"I don't make promises I can't keep."

"...so that's a yes. Ok, Kami, Kiri, let's go get some more food. You coming Yao-Momo?"

"Oh, uhhh...yeah, sure" she said, before hastily signing something to Todoroki. His eyes widened and he tugged at her shirt, but she pried herself away and signed something else, before darting off with my three idiot friends. I pulled a notepad and pen out of my bag and wrote a question for him, prying a little more. Since I knew he couldn't spread rumours, I felt quite comfortable around him, which sorta made me feel guilty for taking advantage of his condition.

I'd written down "so, how long have you been deaf? Was it from birth or some kind of accident?"

He read it over, and hastily scribbled back "since birth", a concise answer that told me only some of what I'd wanted. This led to me writing another question: "does that mean you've never heard any voices before?"

"Yes, I don't know what anybody sounds like at all. I can't talk either, since I don't know what letters sound like"

"That must be tough, especially here"

"It can be, but I'm kind of used to it. I think it'd be really weird."

"Well...I can tell you about a few peoples voices I guess"

"That's be nice. It's hard to guess what people sound like, since I don't know how deep any voices are at all, but hearing vibrations helps a little bit"

"Ok...so Kirishima has a slightly higher voice than you'd expect, it breaks a lot when he talks, which means it suddenly goes high pitched on certain words. Kaminari has a super annoying voice, it's always high, plus he shouts a lot. Mina is pretty normal for a girl, her voice is lighter than the boys', but not quite annoying. Your friend has a surprisingly low voice for a girl, but that doesn't necessarily mean much. That might help, it might not, but I hope so"

"It sort of does, thank you. And...what about your voice?"

"My voice? It's...kinda odd describing your own voice, so..."

"...can I feel it then?"

"Um...what does that entail?"

"I..don't think I've ever seen that word before"

"Oh, it basically means involve. So I was asking what you would do to..feel(?) my voice"

"Oh, sorry. I'd just hold your arm while you spoke. Is that ok?"

"Yeah, whatever"

He reached a hand over the table, and I lay mine flat underneath. He tightly gripped my forearm, his own arm resting on it, and I thought of something to say, looking around me to see who was near. I admired him a little as he held me, and suddenly, a thought I wasn't too expectant of came into my mind.

"..you're eyes are really pretty" I said aloud, and I felt him narrow his eyes and focus on the vibration he got. It would only be faint, but he was able to write "thank you. It sounded deeper than Momo's, and a little bit hoarse. I like feeling vibrations, it's the closest I have to sound"

"Well...you can feel mine any time, just let me know"

"Thank you Bakugo, that's very kind. Your friends are coming back now, so you should maybe let go of my arm"

I snapped to attention, realising that I still gripped his arm, holding it on mine. I snatched it away with an apologetic wave to him, looking around to see the idiots giggling at me. I quickly wrote "I've got to go hit some people, see you soon", and sauntered towards the snickering trio.

"Right...who wants to die first?"
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Bakugo is probably gonna be a big softy in this story.

Maybe some reasons why...? 👀

Fact of the Day: Bakugo not remembering his classmates' names is just so good, I love that it's actually canon as well.