Chapter Text
Katsuki doesn’t really think about the first couple of noises until later, when it suddenly all seems a lot more fucking relevant. And like, if he had thought about it, it’s not like he could have done anything anyway, right? It wouldn’t have made a difference, probably. So even if he’d thought about the noises when he heard them – not that there’s any reason to think about them, it’s not like you never hear noises in a fucking dorm – it wouldn’t have helped. And Katsuki’s studying, not like he’s jerking off or anything. Unlike Todoroki. Unlike what Todoroki sounds like he’s doing, anyway. Asshole.
And look, maybe it is kind of weird, because Katsuki’s been living in the room below Todoroki’s for months now and he’s never heard anything from him at all, like the icy bastard just doesn’t exist when you can’t see him or something. It’s not like the dorm’s sound-proofed – Katsuki’s heard enough from idiot Kaminari on one side and Raccoon Eyes below to be pretty careful about what noise he makes himself, jerking off or otherwise. So, OK, maybe half-and-half has some kind of supreme restraint, or maybe he’s just really, really quiet, but either way, it’s a little weird that Katsuki hasn’t heard a peep out of him in all the time he’s been living in the dorms, and when he thinks about it later, he’s going to realise it was even weirder to suddenly be hearing thuds and groans after so many months of nothing. But – OK, fine, if he’d thought about it, he might have thought it was a little weird, but so what? All the extras in his class are fucking weird. And normally there’s a lot more ambient noise in the dorm, but tonight, the night that Katsuki really just wanted some quiet time to get on top of his math assignment, it’s just him and Todoroki. So it could have been just that normally he didn’t hear that asshole over the dull roar of everybody else.
Except that’s not it, as it turns out.
“What?” Katsuki mutters, coming out of his math haze at the sound of something heavy being dropped on the floor above him. He looks up at the ceiling. “Fuck you, shut the fuck up.” He could yell – could even stomp up there and demand that icy-hot stops whatever the fuck it is he’s doing – but he’s busy with quadratic equations and he doesn’t have time to get involved in an argument right now. Plus, if icy-hot’s jerking off – Katsuki tries and fails to think of some way that jerking off involves dropping heavy shit on the floor – he definitely doesn’t want to get involved with that. No way, no how.
“Fucker,” he mutters, and tries to subsume himself back into Math Brain. It works for maybe a minute, and then he hears a grunt – quiet, but now that he’s noticed icy-hot is making weird noises, he can’t seem to stop himself from listening for them – and his concentration is screwed.
“Fucking seriously,” Katsuki mutters, throwing down his pen. Of all the people who could have decided to stay in tonight while all the other losers went to a movie, it had to be someone with a room adjoining his. OK, so it was kind of predictable – Todoroki’s not sociable at the best of times and he was looking like he was going to puke in the common room earlier – but still. Let the bastard puke – or whatever he’s doing – on his own time, not when Katsuki’s trying to do math.
Another grunt. Katsuki tries really hard not to think about what the grunting might mean. It doesn’t sound like he’s puking and the sounds aren’t rhythmic enough for push-ups, so that doesn’t leave much. It’s one thing to assume icy-hot’s rubbing one out, it’s another to think about the details. Shit, he is never going to get this fucking equation finished.
(So he could have gone upstairs, then. He almost does, almost. He’s pissed and he’s not getting anywhere with the math anyway, so he might as well get into a fight instead, blow the cobwebs away. Would it have made a difference? Is there even any point wondering?)
Katsuki stares at the math. The math stares back. Katsuki wonders if it’s possible to just blow math up. Or maybe just blow icy-hot up. That would solve part of the problem, at least.
Upstairs, a door opens.
Fine. He’s probably going to piss, or puke, or whatever, but at least he’ll no longer be directly above Katsuki’s head. Katsuki takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and aims for calm. Or at least not fury. He can’t think of a single time in his life when fury’s helped him with math.
Footsteps. They’re not heavy, and normally Katsuki wouldn’t even really notice them at all, but he’s so on edge now, so keyed up by every little noise that Todoroki makes, the fucking bastard, that he’s furious again in an instant. The footsteps are weird and shuffling, like it’s some old asshole up there. And they’re slow. Katsuki grinds his teeth as he listens to Todoroki head for the stairs. Fine, he’s going down to the kitchen. If he’d just move at the speed of an actual normal human being, he’d be out of earshot in less than a minute and Katsuki could stop being distracted by every little fucking noise he makes. But no – when he gets to the stairs, the footsteps get even slower if possible. It’s – fucking unbearable, it what it is.
Katsuki snaps his pencil in half. Fuck. Fucking – fine! He gets to his feet, revving himself up into a pretty satisfying head of steam. Maybe yelling at Todoroki will help his math frustration. Even if it doesn’t, it’s always worth doing. He takes a step towards the door.
Then he hears the sound of someone falling down the stairs.
Katsuki freezes mid-stride. Outside the door, he can hear someone breathing heavily. Wheezing, even. What the fuck?
“What the fuck?” he says, and throws open the door.
Outside, Todoroki Shouto is lying in a heap on the landing at the bottom of the stairs. He’s wearing drawstring pants and a white sleeveless t-shirt, which Katsuki notices because the bloodstain on his side shows up real clearly against the white. His eyes are closed and there’s this fucking horrible, wheezing, rattling noise coming out of his mouth. And his lips – are blue.
Well, fuck.