Silent Suffering

Chapter 8 - Blackout

Izuku was sitting in the common room with the rest of the Dekusquad, doing homework together. It was fun for the most part, as long as Izuku was able to focus and not be distracted by other people's thoughts. He needed someone who was focussed so he'd stay focussed too. Iida was always yelling, so even if he was the only one who was actually focussing on their homework, tuning in on his thoughts wasn't an option.

Jirou had made Todoroki a new playlist, so he was just repeating some lyrics in his mind. Izuku had tried tuning in on it, but he got too distracted by the songs to do his homework properly and Iida called him out on it. Uraraka wasn't an option either. Every time Izuku seemed to tune in, she was thinking about him in a romantic way. He didn't know whether that was coincidental or not and didn't want to test it.

Asui had left their study session already, so she wasn't here to help him either. The fact that they weren't the only people in the common room brought certain challenges as well. You okay Deku? Looks like you're struggling. You've been staring at question 16 for a few minutes now and it's a yes-no question. Izuku glanced up at Kacchan, who was sitting on the couch with Kirishima and Ashido. The latter two had gotten closer recently, the red head not leaving Mina alone.

He was worried about her, Izuku could hear it, but Ashido thought it was overbearing. They were figuring things out though and Izuku thought their friendship was really cute. They are how real childhood friends would act. Not like whatever messy track he and Kacchan followed... Well, guess it wasn't all that bad since they ended up in a relationship, but still...
"Oi Deku, stop fucking staring. You've got something to say or some shit?" Katsuki asked.

[Concentrating on homework when you hear everyone's thoughts isn't easy Kacchan] Izuku frowned, making sure there weren't any other people here who could understand what he was saying.
"Sucks to be you then, nerd" Kacchan laughed. Come to my room later? We can do it together and hang out for a bit? If you want to, of course. I'm not forcing you to come or anything, I just-

[Overthinking] Izuku signed, something he'd started doing whenever Kacchan was spiraling.
[Homework after dinner?]
"Sure" Katsuki huffed, secretly really happy about it. Not that he could hide anything from Izuku right now.
"What did he say?" Uraraka asked.
"Ha? None of your business round face!"

"Come on bro, you're the only one here who can understand him" Kirishima pointed out.
"So? Not my fault you idiots are too dumb to know sign language. Even fucking dunce face knows it so you've got no excuses" Katsuki countered. Well, it's not like Kaminari was dumb, he just had trouble focusing. At least, that's what Izuku noticed after being hit with this quirk. His thought process was seemingly random and he got distracted easily. Unless it was something that interested him, then he could spend hours focusing on it.

That's probably how he learned sign in the first place... It were all signs of some kind of learning disorder, but Izuku wasn't all too familiar with those. Besides, he questioned whether Kaminari himself even knew he had a learning disability. He did try to take it into account when doing research on possible training methods, but he wasn't sure whether or not those would be successful.

Izuku got his answer when the light suddenly went off and all appliances stopped working.
"Did the power go out?" Uraraka asked out loud. Well yeah, they're all sitting in the dark, aren't they? It was already evening, so there wasn't a lot of light coming in from outside. The only sources seemed to be phone screens and flashlights that got turned on now that they weren't able to see normally anymore. Izuku could hear people speculate about what caused it in their minds, some already thinking of possible solutions.

Are we the only ones who lost power? Is it a campus wide blackout? What about UA's security? Could this be a villain attack? We need to inform the teachers. Maybe it's just a malfunctioning electric circuit? We should check the basement and get the lights back on. Ugh, blackouts are so annoying!
"I'll call Aizawa sensei to inform him that-" Iida started only to get interrupted when Kaminari stormed into the common room