I noticed an ask exchanged between @lypten-tee and @queenangst about deaf!izuku and, while I don’t think I have the skills to conquer the topic in a full fic, the idea has been stuck in my head for days now. I hope y’all don’t mind me making use of your idea a bit!!!
here’s less than 500 words of… something jbujbfrwndk
It was after Kacchan’s right arm swung out, making a wide arch towards Izuku’s face in a swirl of red and orange, that he felt it.
The sensation reminded Izuku of his first time on a plane. He remembered being forced back into his seats as they shot off into the air, aiming for orange-kissed clouds and a pinkening sky. As the ground grew further and further away, Izuku’s couldn’t stop his fingers from pressing into his ears, trying to dig the feeling out. There was pressure first, then a sting of discomfort that shot out along the sides of his neck, making Izuku whine to himself.
His ears, they were popping.
Mom had noticed his squirming pretty quick. She showed Izuku how to close up his nostrils, letting his cheeks puff out as he held his breath, before blowing and blowing against the feeling until it went away. It took a couple tries, but once Izuku had figured it out, he was quick to relax, finding a reaffirmed grip on his spirits.
He had bounced around in his seat, feet kicking out as he animatedly pointed out anything that moved across the airplane window. Up with the maturing stars, he forgot all about the popping until they were moving to land in America, and even then, excitement at the prospect of seeing his dad had been enough for him to push past it. It was a small throb of pain in exchange for a meeting he had been waiting years and years for.
Except the throbbing was replaced by something worse, an ache just starting to swell when Izuku and his mom were left in the airport alone, an automatic voice ringing from Inko’s phone: the phone number you have dialed has been disconnected. The phone number you have dialed…
The memory played out in his mind as Izuku tried to scurry away from the incoming blow, but it was already too late. Lights sparked across the left side of his face, burning at his ear and his hair and his cheek and and and
And Izuku couldn’t hear. He couldn’t make out Kacchan’s taunting words or his lankeys’ responding jeers and laughs. The world stood still, almost silent around him, leaving nothing but a buzzing.
The ringing.
Izuku stayed on the ground after he fell, gravel trying to break his skin, to seep into and clog up his bloodstream. There was a kick that he barely felt, something jabbing at the back of his head, but he never moved.
When Kacchan got his fill, when they left Izuku at the opening of an alley just a few blocks from his apartment, the crackling in his ears continued to play out like a soundtrack.
The sight of empty sidewalks and the echoing in his head were almost as bad as the unanswered phone calls from the airport.
