The Art of Listening

Chapter 2 - A Little Bit of Quiet

Izuku

It didn't take very long for Izuku to realize just how hard it would be to live with Bakugou Katsuki. But there was just something about the man that wore down the artist's particularly strong patience. They'd only been living together for two weeks, and Izuku was ready to pull out his curling green hair from his scalp. He was at his wit's end. He had tried so hard - so very hard - not to crack under the intensity that was Bakugou Katsuki, but he couldn't help it. The arguments over petty things just kept coming!

This time, it was because Izuku hadn't done laundry in a little over a week. His basket was overflowing, but with classes in full swing and a portfolio of art pieces to create, he'd hardly had the time to make his way to the dorm building's basement to do his laundry. He'd brought enough clothes with him to college for a reason. He easily had enough graphic t-shirts to get him through a full month if worse came to worse because he knew laundry would never be a priority in his life when it came to school.

But apparently it was to Bakugou Katsuki.

It was a Saturday morning, and Izuku was in the middle of sketching out his latest piece for his portfolio theme when Kacchan had absolutely just gone off.

The door to their dorm slammed open, startling Izuku where he sat. The sudden motion dragged a very stark, dark line across his sketch. Sure, it was fine because it was just a sketch, but it still didn't make him feel great. Especially since he had to turn this in come Monday. No. he'd have to redraw it, which would be a drag. He'd been in the zone. That is, until Kacchan had decided to interrupt him with his grand entrance.

"What the fuck, shitty Deku?" Kacchan yelled. The blond was shucked off his running shoes at the door, leaving them on the mat before he entered the room. His skin was slick with a sheen of sweat. He'd probably been on his morning run.

"What? What did I do this time?" Izuku asked as he leaned his elbows on his desk and cradled his head in his hands.

In Kacchan's eyes, he always did something wrong.

"What you did wrong? It's what you didn't fuckin' do!" he hollered. "I can literally smell your dirty clothes through the door of the dorm. It's fuckin' disgusting!"

Izuku groaned audibly. "I haven't had time. I've been busy."

"Tch! You've had time," Kacchan accused as he slammed the door of their dorm shut. "You just spend all of your time watching fuckin' reruns of the All Might TV show."

The greenette was going to open his mouth to protest, but he couldn't. Kacchan was right. He did spend a lot of his freetime watching reruns of his favorite show, but he also spent a lot of time working on homework and projects for his various art classes. Oil painting and life drawing were taking the life out of him. He really just wanted to draw digitally, but he hadn't gotten the opportunity to take any digital painting classes that semester. So, he'd determined he needed the stress relief. In the form of mindless television to ease his fried brain.

"Go. Do. Your. Fuckin'. Laundry!" Kacchan yelled.

Izuku really didn't want to listen to this. He'd finally pulled himself out of his lack-of-inspiration rut that he'd been in the first two weeks of classes. He'd finally found something to draw. But Kacchan had gone and pulled him out of his artist's headspace, effectively souring his mood.

"I really need to get this sketch done," Izuku implored. "This and four others that are due Monday."

"Maybe if someone had their priorities straight, they'd be on top of their school work," Katsuki snapped as he made his way around the room, gathering his shower stuff.