Bakugou POV

I woke up, got up, went to my desk and slammed my hand down onto it. I punched it again, harder the second time. I did it just once more to see if anything changed, but nothing did. I still couldn't hear anything.

As I got ready in the morning, I would slam my hand into just about everything that was solid. My door, the wall, I even smacked my notebook on the window, hoping my ears would pick up on some kind of sound, but they never did.

After hitting things so hard my hand started to bleed, I stopped. I had to accept reality; for the time being, nothing was changing.

I went over to Eijirou's room and knocked on his door. I didn't get an answer. He was always a pretty heavy sleeper and I wasn't sure how quiet my knock was, so I tried it again, being a bit more forceful.

It was weird knocking on the door and not hearing it. I imagined that I would just go to the door and do it, like my body would remember how hard I needed to hit the door, but I didn't. I had no idea how hard to hit it in order to have Eijirou hear it. It felt like I was trying to learn how to exist all over again. I was going to have to adjust to all the little changes that were going to happen.

I waited at the door for a couple of minutes, but got no answer. I figured that he went downstairs already to get breakfast, so I went down to the common room, bringing my notebook with me. It would be a while before I knew enough sign language to communicate without it.

I scanned the common room for a bright red mop of hair, but saw nothing. What I did see was all the extras staring at me. They were pitying me. I wanted to smack every one of them across the head with my notebook.

I opened it to the first blank page I could find and scribbled a note, which I shoved in the face of the closest person to me, who happened to be icyhot.
Where's Eijirou?

He looked at me with his dumb confused face and said something to Deku, who looked at my note. Deku then took the paper and wrote back to me.
I thought you knew? Isn't that why you were hitting things?

The rest of the class had started to close in around me, listening to what Deku was saying. I tipped the notebook from his hands.
Thought I knew what? Where's Ei?

Deku and icyhot exchanged a look when I shoved the notebook back at them, waiting for a response. Four eyes took it from them and started writing. Leave it to the class president to take charge.

I waited impatiently as he wrote a fucking paragraph. Finally, he gave it back to me and I read it as the rest of the class looked on.

Kirishima was taken to the hospital late last night. Aizawa sensei went with him so we'll have a substitute teacher in class today. Apparently, he was having trouble breathing and passed out on the way to the hospital.
Aizawa sensei has told me that he's stable for now, they're just running some tests to see what's wrong and they're trying to find a way to treat him.
I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, I assumed that you would've known. If you have any more questions, just ask and I'll answer them as best as I can.

What the fuck? What the fuck!?! Eijirou was in the hospital and nobody told me! I'm not sure why I was surprised, of course they thought I knew. They figured I heard the commotion, since my room is right next to his. I guess they forgot that I can't fucking hear!

I took the pen and wrote out:
What hospital?

There were a few in the area, with the area having so many heroes because of UA. There were at least four hospitals nearby and he could've been at any of them.

Bakugou, I know that you're worried, but he'll be okay. Right now, just try to focus on your studies and your health.

After reading that, I grabbed the notebook and threw it out the nearest open window. I figured that it they weren't going to tell me where Eijirou was, I'd have to check every hospital myself. Of course, that would be difficult because I couldn't hear and I didn't know sign language, but I wold figure it out no matter what.

I stormed out of the dorm and slammed the door behind me. At least, I hope I did. I put in quite a bit of force, so I assume it closed with a thud. I headed in the direction of the first hospital that came to mind.

All of them were equally close to UA. This was done on purpose because a long time ago, a villain attacked a hospital where they knew a UA teacher was because there was only one hospital close to UA. By putting a bunch of hospitals an equal distance from UA, the villains wouldn't know which one to check. There was also a police station nearby, so between the UA teachers and the police, they'd have to get really lucky when choosing a hospital to attack, or they'd get arrested pretty easily.

Unfortunately for me, it meant I had a lot more walking to do. For the first time since I'd lost my hearing, I was completely alone and now, I was off school grounds. I felt uncharacteristically vulnerable. Every time I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, I freaked out a bit. It occurred to me that a villain could sneak up behind me and I would have no idea until they were already on top of me. The thought of it sent a shiver down my spine.

When I reached the first hospital, I went up to the lady at the front desk. I gestured 'no' and pointed to my ears to tell her that I couldn't hear. She made an 'o' shape with her mouth. I did a writing gesture and she grabbed a small notepad, along with a pen. I took it and wrote:
Is there a patient here named Kirishima Eijirou?

I showed her the note and she turned to her computer, typing on her keyboard. She did a quick search and scrolled through her list, before turning to me and shaking her head to tell me there was nothing. I scowled and walked out, going to the next hospital.

I kept the note I'd already written to save some time, so when I walked into the next hospital, I just showed the man at the front desk the note. He looked a bit confused, but typed in his computer like the last woman did. When he finished searching, he said something to me. I grabbed a pen and added on to the note I had, writing underneath:
I can't hear and I don't know sign language yet.

He made the same face the last lady had made. Then, he pointed to Eijirou's name on the note and made an 'x' with his hands to tell me that he wasn't there. I nodded and left that hospital too.

I could understand why this stopped villain attacks. I was getting tired of going from one hospital to another, only to have no success. I can imagine how much harder it would be if I had pro heroes chasing after me.

When I'd reached the third hospital, I handed my new and improved note to the lady at the front desk. She nodded and started typing on her computer. The took the note from me and grabbed a pen. She wrote something on it and I tried looking over the counter to see what she was writing. Then, she handed back the paper.

He's here in room 1242. If you'd like to see him, just take the elevator on the left and there will be a visitor sign in sheet outside his door. You have to sign in, but then you can go see him.

I nodded and bowed slightly, showing my gratitude. She pointed to the elevators that she mentioned and I ran over, pressing the 'up' button repeatedly. I stared at the doors until they finally opened and I rushed inside.

Waiting for the elevator to go up was torture. I probably could've ran up the stairs faster than that stupid piece of junk, but eventually, the doors opened again and I ran through the hallways, looking for Eijirou's room.

I felt someone grab my arm and stop me. It was a nurse, a man who was a couple inches taller than me. He was saying something and I tried to use my hands to gesture that I couldn't hear him, but he just put my hand back down and kept talking. I was about to blow up in his face, when he stopped talking and looked at something behind me.

I turned around and saw Aizawa sensei, probably explaining the situation to the man. As sensei distracted him, I got out of his grip and ran in the direction sensei came from until I finally saw Eijirou. Completely ignoring the sign in sheet, I opened the door and gave him a hug, trying not to crush him because he was still hurt, but it was hard to resist.

He hugged me back, to my relief, and we stayed like that for a little bit.

Kirishima POV

I was surprised to see Katsuki running through the door, but I was definitely glad. He hugged me around all the tubes that were on me and in me. The doctors had given me another nose tube, but this one was connected to a huge oxygen tank that was almost two thirds my size and was mounted to the wall. Also, I had an IV drip attached to my arm, putting medicine directly into my bloodstream.

I felt like a mess, but I was so glad to see Katsuki. I imagined that he woke up in the morning, couldn't find me and when someone told him where I was, he ran out into the street like an idiot trying to find me.

The thought of it made me laugh a little bit, but I was happy that he cared so much. When he finally let go of me, he held my hand tightly and pulled up a chair next to me.

"So, this is the cute little boy you were talking so much about."

I looked over at the other side of the room and tried to hide my flushed face. The voice came from my 'hospital roommate.' Her name was Nishiyama Yui. She was about 55 years old. Her and I had spent a lot of time talking so far this morning. She was very pleasant and I'd mentioned Katsuki in our conversations more than once. Okay, maybe a lot.

"I can see why you like him, he's quite adorable!" My face flushed red again and Katsuki looked over at Ms. Nishiyama with a confused look on his face. I tried to find a pen and paper. There was one next to her.

"Ms.Nishiyama, can you please hold up that pen and paper near you? Katsuki will grab it from you if that's okay, I don't have anything to write on here."

She held the pen and paper and held it out for Katsuki, who moved to get it from her. "That's not a problem dear. And for the last time, stop calling me Ms. Nishiyama. I know everyone seems old to a 16-year-old, but I'm not ancient and I'm not royalty, so just call me Yui." She chuckled a little bit and I nodded.

"Okay, thank you Yui."

Katsuki took the paper and pen from her and wrote on it.
You okay?

I nodded yes. He started writing something else.
Do you know this woman?

He was referring to Yui. I took the paper and wrote:
No, but she's very nice. Her name is Nishiyama Yui. We've been talking for a bit, she's very funny.

He read what I wrote, before turning to Yui and bowing. "Awww, he's adorable. Are you two dating? You should be."

For the third time in the last five minutes, my face turned bright red once again. "Please don't say things like that!"

"Why not? I don't think he can hear me. Unless he has some incredible lip reading skills, your secret is safe."

"Secret?" I asked. "What secret?"

She laughed a bit. It was hearty and genuine. "Oh dear, the two of you need to have a conversation about your feelings. You don't seem very good at figuring it out yourselves."

I tilted my head in confusion as she laughed once more. "Y'know, when I was your age, I knew a young man who was absolutely perfect. He had it all; the looks, the personality, he even had a pretty good sense of humor. I was head over heels for him, but he was my best friend and I was scared to say anything."

"So, what did you do?"

"I told him. I was completely honest about my feelings and, as it turned out, he felt the same way."

I contemplated her words. "You're saying I should tell Katsu how I feel. I mean, I guess I could." I looked at her left hand and saw a wedding band on her ring finger. "Did you and that guy end up staying together?"

She saw me looking at the ring. "Oh, no he didn't give this to me. Him and I broke up after three weeks."

"What?!?"

"Yeah, turns out he liked eating his sushi with steak sauce, that was kind of a deal breaker for me. But that's not the point of the story." I looked at her with a mix of confusion and disgust at the thought of the sushi and steak sauce combo.

"I know, it was as gross as it sounds. The point was that things can work out and you have to give it a shot. Even if something changes, and things don't work out you'll be better off in the end. I told that same story to the man who I would end up marrying on our first date. He found it quite funny."

I let out a small laugh and looked over at Katsuki. He had no idea what we were saying, but he was looking at me, smiling. He seemed content. He looked nice. I mean, he was a mess because he'd just ran from UA to the hospital and almost gotten into a fist fight with a nurse outside, which I could see happening through my window, but he still looked nice.

For a moment, Katsu and I were the only people in the world. My eyes were locked onto him and everything in my peripheral vision faded into nothingness. It was just him. Just Bakugou Katsuki, the only thing that I could see in front of me.

It happened in an instant. My hands were up in his hair and I was pulling his lips down to meet mine. I knew that we were at a good place in our relationship, but I decided that I was going to be selfish. I needed more of him. I couldn't wait another minute, I wanted him to be mine.

When our lips did meet, it was soft, curious, and more magical than I'd imagined it to be. I was worried that he would pull away from me, but he never did. If his hands were on me, I couldn't even feel them, all I could feel were his lips and the way they glided gently against mine.

Finally, when we pulled away, we looked into each other's eyes for a brief moment, before he smiled at me with the brightest smile I'd ever seen on his face. I loved it so much. I loved him so much.

"God, I miss being your age. You can do things like that and everyone thinks it's so sweet. The joys of being young." My face flushed once again as I was brought back to reality. As I remembered where I was, it was very clear that Katsuki and I were not the only people in the universe. In fact, there was another person who was very, very close to us and had just watched that whole ordeal.

I tried to hide my face. Katsuki was blushing too, but he kept a confident grin on his face and he locked our fingers together, bringing my hand up to his lips to place a quick kiss on my knuckles.

It was really cute, despite how embarrassed I was. I loved when Katsuki was touchy-feely. It made me so happy. Unfortunately, the moment couldn't last forever as Aizawa sensei walked back into the room with a doctor next to him. They were talking as they walked in, so I assumed sensei already knew what was going on.

The stopped next to my bed and the doctor pulled out his charts. Aizawa sensei pointed at Katsuki and did a sign. He held both of his hands up straight, then crossed them so they made an 'x' twice. I recognized that sign from the book and it looked like Katsuki did too. "Trouble."

Sensei had a small grin on his face as he made the sign. I wasn't sure whether he meant Katsuki was in trouble or he was just trouble in general, but either way, sensei had meant it to be humorous, which both Katsuki and I could tell. We laughed just a little bit, having a moment of joy before the doctor gave us the news.

"So, Kirishima Eijirou, we've finished running all of our tests and we've discovered that your upper airway had constructed due to the smoke inhalation. However, due to the procedure, we believe that you're well on your way to recovery."

"What procedure?"

"It's called an endotracheal intubation. It's basically where we put a tube into your throat to help with breathing. We had to insert the tube when you got here around 9:00 last night and when you woke up earlier this morning, your breathing was okay and your throat had already started to heal up, so we took out the tube. I will say, you're tough as nails, not a lot of people could recover so quickly. You probably don't remember any of it though, you were pretty heavily sedated."

I nodded, a bit surprised that they could do an entire procedure without me remembering any of it. But, I wasn't dead so I guess they did a good job.

I noticed that Aizawa sensei was writing as the doctor spoke. I figured he was writing what was being said so Katsuki would know too.

"With the success of the procedure and the IV drip that's been giving you small amounts of medication for the last 8 hours or so, you should be fully healed very soon. You will have to stay here for a few days so we can monitor your condition, but other than that, you're all set."

I smiled at Aizawa sensei, who smiled back. Katsuki was also smiling back at me, even though he had no idea why. I gave him a quick kiss and sensei handed the notes he was writing to Katsuki.

"You two are so cute it's making me want to puke."

"Ms. Nishiyama, if you feel nauseous, perhaps I should call the doctor whose been taking care of you, I'm sure that would be a point of concern."

She rolled her eyes. "It was a joke, Dr. Stiff, I'm not gonna puke. If I do, it'll be all over your fancy lab coat though." I tried not to laugh, but it was hard. The doctor looked unamused and let out a quiet sigh. He walked out of the room.

Katsuki had finally finished reading what sensei wrote and, when he looked up from the paper, he kissed me once more before wrapping me up in a hug.

I looked at the note sensei had written and noticed something else on the bottom.
Bakugou, the results from some of the tests for your ears came in earlier this morning.

I didn't realize there were any results that hadn't come in yet, but it made sense. Medical tests usually took a bit of time to get results. I read the rest of the note.

It looks like this hearing loss is going to be permanent. They're setting up an appointment for you to get hearing aids. It's next week. You still have to take the medication in case there's been any kind of damage that can still be healed, but it doesn't look like your hearing will come back fully.

I looked at the note sadly. Katsuki saw my expression and kissed all over my face to comfort me. He signed 'ok,' the real sign for ok. It didn't seem like he was just saying it. It felt like he meant it. He was going to be okay.

Although, the note reminded me of something. I signed to him 'medicine' '?' Which he answered by doing a sign I didn't recognize before the sign for 'no.' I wrote on the paper
What was that first sign before the word 'no?'

He grinned and took the pen from me. It means fuck!

I thought about the sign he just did. It meant "fuck no." I glared at him, but after two seconds I started laughing. I couldn't help it. I was happy. He was okay, I wasn't dying. While I admit those are low standards, it was a start. Besides, I'd kissed him and he kissed me back. We could talk about a label for our relationship later, but it made me happy knowing there was one.

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ONE WEEK LATER

Katsuki and I were on our way to his appointment for his hearing aids. Much to my surprise, his hearing came back a tiny bit over the last week. When I say tiny, I mean really tiny. As in, he can't hear anything unless I yell it directly into his ear with a megaphone, but it was definitely an improvement from hearing nothing!

Also, our sign language vocabulary had improved. I started learning words that would help me tell him more about our lessons at school. Some of our classmates even picked it up. Iida was a natural, given how much he talks with his hands anyways. Katsuki had taken it upon himself to learn every swear word he could. I was happy that he did, it felt weird not having him swear at anyone for so long. Even if he wasn't saying the words verbally, he was still saying them.

It's weird to say that I missed my boyfriend telling me to fuck off, but I did.

Oh, yeah. Katsuki and I had settled on the fact that we were most definitely boyfriends. We actually went on our first date the first day I'd gotten out of the hospital. He set up a little picnic on top of a small hill at sunset. It was very romantic.

I'd gone back to normal, with the nose tube finally gone and my throat completely healed. It felt like a new start for us, even though, when he got his hearing aids, nothing would be much different than before.

He would be able to hear, my throat would be fine and we would be as affectionate as we always were. But still, though my head found no difference, my heart soared at the thought of how much things had changed.

When we got to his appointment, sensei was there waiting for us. Apparently, they just needed to have the hearing aids fitted and get them made. So, after they'd fitted his ears (that's not a sentence I ever thought I'd say), we waited for them to make the hearing aids. It was going to take a couple hours, so sensei took the two of us to get lunch at a nearby restaurant.

We are our lunch happily and tried to contain our excitement. Finally, we were on our way back to get his hearing aids.

When they handed them to Katsuki, I admit, they looked kind of cool. Sensei had asked for them to be customized, making them appear similar to Katsuki's hero costume with the orange 'x' from the front of his suit on it.

When he put the hearing aids on for the first time, I was shaking with anticipation. The doctor moved the dial up to a particular setting and we all went quiet for a minute. Aizawa sensei looked at me to say something.

I moved closer to Katsuki and tried to keep my voice from cracking as I said "Katsu? Can you hear me?"

His voice was rusty from disuse over the past week, but I heard it. Clear as day, the quiet "yeah Ei, I can hear you."

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Word count: 4,184

Wow, this was a lot longer than expected. I hope you enjoyed this! I planned on putting this out over the course of three days, but I got excited. Anyways, I'm actually proud of this and I hope you liked it.