Katsuki didn’t show weakness to anyone. EVER.

That was a rule that he’d made for himself all the way back in middle school that he’d strictly followed until late into his first year at UA. It took a long time and a lot of effort for him to start lowering his walls a bit, even if just with a few…like Aizawa.

His teacher was the first person he’d ever willingly shared his…developing issue with…his hearing was deteriorating, rapidly at that. A negative effect of his quirk causing his eardrums damage at an alarming rate. He realized it earlier on than he’d ever admit, hiding it from his parents for quite awhile until even communicating with them from across the house became nearly impossible, finally telling them about this embarrassing issue…which they predictably responded to by getting him hearing aids, an embarrassing tool he refused to publicly wear them.

Luckily, his teacher wasn’t a complete dumbass by his standards, having earned his begrudging respect well into their first year of classes when he would eventually share this weakness with the man, who while extremely frustrated with the time between his attendance and that of his decision to finally inform him, he did not push the issue at the moment having observed Bakugo’s obvious embarrassment on the subject.

Instead, he would take his own steps by going around him and having the support agency that UA worked embed built in hearing aids into the pointy hair pieces of his hero costume, doubling as both a comms device for hero work and his hearing aids during any point where he’s on duty. Meanwhile, also commissioning a custom pair from the same agency for the hot-headed student, with these in particular merely designed to look like wireless earbuds and using his liberties as the classes teacher to privately excuse him to wear them in class. Both preserving his dignity and ensuring that he still has all the necessary means to properly learn.

While initially humiliated and furious at his teacher’s audacity, he did accept the aids without a fight and merely deflected when others questioned the “earbuds” he was always wearing. Things have been going fairly well ever since, even occasionally feeling a bit of pride as he did look cool.

But everything suddenly changed as Aizawa announced that they would be receiving a late transfer student from Shiketsu into their class, a promising hero student like all of them, well except…they were completely deaf, still excelling with their ability to read lips and speak with fairly good tone control.