Sweaty Palms

Estelle entered Heights Alliance with Tokoyami at her back. She was surprised when he showed up at her door earlier that day and asked to accompany him to the training grounds. Her understanding bloomed when she realised he was looking to further his own training in an attempt to better control his quirk.

He was progressing, but it was slow. Estelle knew people work at different speeds, and Tokoyami had a significant hurdle to battle through, so she allowed herself to be patient with him. Tokoyami was a severe and quiet person, just like her. So, it was nice to be in the presence of another without a billion questions. It was training, pure and simple.

"Exaggerate your breathing first."

"Like this?"

-WHEEZE-

"Sure."

Estelle's lips tilted at the memory as she headed to the kitchen for her tea. Her consumption was embarrassing, but it pulled Estelle through the day, so she didn't care. When she sat down on the couch, Estelle looked across at Kaminari. Her attention was abruptly cut off by another blonde. "Oi, where were you?"

"Me? I was training Tokoyami," Estelle responded, a tilt to her head as she curiously scanned the questioning male.

"Hah?! Why would you do that?"

Surely it should be obvious? The male's pout defiantly suggested otherwise. "Because I told him during the training camp attack I would help him manage his quirk. Why are you so interested anyway?"

"Tch. I'm not. I was just wondering why my bento was uneaten," The aggressive blonde answered gruffly, his face hidden from the female as he looked away.

"You don't have to cook for me, you know."

"Hah? How often do I have to tell you that I do what I want? I know for a fact you would ruin the kitchen. That's why I bother!"

"Fair enough- Hey, Kaminari! Come here!" Estelle hollered immediately after admitting defeat.

Her fellow student swiftly turned, perplexed by the new event. Kaminari was nervous, pointing a finger to himself to ask if the female was referring to him. When she nodded to him in confirmation, he came up to her. Ignoring Bakugo's inquiring look. Estelle asked, " Sit down. Tell me everything about your quirk. Even the boring parts."

"Hey! Uh, why?" The lightening haired boy questioned nervously, his eyes glancing to the side as if he was looking for a way to escape the female. Estelle smirked at the look, finding his nieve hope humorous. He wasn't getting out of this.

"Do it, or I'll stab you."

"Ha. Ha. Okay."

Estelle sat through his explanation with boredom as he discussed the various aspects of his lightning quirk. Her eyes glazed over as she tried to make sense of the complicated science behind it. Bakugo had gotten uninterested himself but stayed by Estelle's side, scrolling through his phone as he waited for Estelle to finally get to the point.

"So your quirk is like a battery, and when it becomes drained; You get stupid."

"That's mean! But...yeah." Kaminari exclaimed before answering in downfall; the blonde next to her chucked at the response, which caused Estelle to pass him a scolding glance, a tilt to her lips.

"So, you expanded the battery during training camp. But you seem to be only able to let loose in one consecutive move without gear. Which is highly dangerous. I'm glad you weren't on the battlefield because you would be dead."

Kaminari turned silent and serious with the answer. From what he was aware of with Estelle, he knew that the remark wasn't an offhanded comment but the truth. Bakugo slowly slipped his phone onto his lap as his interest piqued.

"Yeah, but that's why I'm here," Kaminari responded, his back straight in readiness for a battle he wasn't aware of yet. Estelle gave him a tiny smile in response. She always liked determination. "I'm offering you one on one training. The school is too slow, and you need to be prepared."

Kaminari took a step back in shock from the offer, his eyes widening as he turned to Bakugo for confirmation that he wasn't going deaf. Sure, Estelle provided support for the licensing exam, but this was different. She rarely offered anyone; Tokoyami and Hitoshi had been the only ones. Kaminari couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Wha?! Really? We have three years - is that not enough time?"

"Are you seriously asking me that when your class have been targeted so many times? Do you think it's over? No. It's only the beginning. You can't run around dumb after a couple of attacks."

"You mean... Our class?" Kaminari probed, his body leaning forward to correct her.

"Was that the only thing you picked up from that?"

"...yes."

Estelle closed her eyes and sighed to herself in disbelief. She questioned why she bothered offering this idiot a helping hand when he couldn't take in her complete sentence.

"Wait, I'm confused. What can you teach me about lightning?"

Estelle opened her eyes to the question, her shoulders relaxing in slight relief, "It looks like you do have a noggin in there. I can also control sub-elements. I just kept it under wraps. The sub-element of fire is lightning. It works very differently from your quirk, but you could get some learning out of it."

"No way! Awesome!"

"Tch."

"So pick a damn time, and I'll train you till your nothing but bone."

"Ha. Ha. Okay..."

After arranging their meeting place. Estelle heard another one of Bakugo's "tch."

"What is it?"

"Why didn't you ask me to train with you instead? I could beat your ass," The pomeranian grumbled again, his eyes creating daggers into the back of his fellow student.

Estelle shook her head at the blond with a scoff. "You're at the right level for your progression. You don't need me."

"Tch. So? You helped me well enough the last time!"

"Didn't I tell you everything you needed to know? As long as you follow my advice, you're on the right track. Kaminari, on the other hand, is an extreme liability on the battlefield if he doesn't get his quirk in order."

"Why offer? I thought you wanted to stay away as much as possible?" Bakugo muttered, his gaze scanning the female in wonder. He didn't think he would ever understand fully how her mind operated. But he understood enough.

"I do, but if I can teach something that would save a life - his or otherwise. Then I'll suck it up."

"Tch, and you call yourself a bad person."

"I am", Estelle responded, her voice flat. Bakugo watched Estelle in disbelief; an immediate response like that was not normal, especially for a statement with such low self-worth. He hated it.

"For someone so smart - you really are an idiot sometimes," He grumbled back in displeasure.

"Shut up, Ruby," Estelle grunted out, annoyance lacing her tone as she faced the blonde.

"What are you gonna do about it, Lioness?"

"Beat you up again."

"You wanna go?!" Bakugo screamed, his hands popping with his quirk as he raised them up for her to see.

Estelle allowed her smirk to show as she said the following words. "To my deathbed? Yes."

"Grrr, come here!"

"Oooooh, looks like you are still too slow," Estelle continued, a light chuckle leaving her lips as she walked quickly out of the room.

"Lioness!"

Estelle watched as Kaminari attempted to take a strike of her lightning. Holding back her groan, Estelle tried to explain the move again. Kaminari came out an idiot every time, and Estelle was running out of patience.

"No, here. Point out your fingers like a gun to catch it, and then I want you to move like this and then point upwards to move the lightning through your body. Good. Now when I go - you do those exact movements - understand!?"

"Aye aye, captain!"

"Proceed, cadet."

The training was long and tiring. Estelle expected it to be shorter. She was starting to doubt Kaminri would be able to redirect her lightning at all. Much later in the day, Estelle finally saw some glimpse of improvement. Unfortunately, it didn't last long as idiot Kaminari returned, holding up his thumbs. The lightning moved up his hands, but due to his movements being slightly off - it failed to escape the other end, effectively frying his brain.

"Alright, that's enough for tonight." She finally voiced when he returned back to normal.

The blonde slumped in disappointment at the lack of improvement. Gazing at the selected student. Estelle decided to jump out of her comfort zone to ease his disappointment. "Hey, you caught it. That's progress. It took me a full week to catch lightning. Don't be so hard on yourself."

Sure, Estelle was embellishing the story a little since she had to wait for actual lightning to strike, but she would never admit it. She was trying to help, not destroy. It seemed to have worked as the student straightened up with a brightened aura, latched in relief and a smile on his face.

Estelle was taken aback when the male trapped her in a hug, his whoops of joy and relief ringing in her ears. His sweaty body pressed up against hers, making her cringe. Awkwardly, she patted his back to show she was being nice. It warmed her a little, knowing that she managed to say and do something admirable for once. It was nice not to feel like a horrible person, though she wondered if she was selfish for thinking that.

Kaminari finally broke from the hug with a beaming grin. Estelle unconsciously returned the smile slightly as he rushed to grab his bag and hopped out of the room excitedly as he yelled, "I'll see you at dinner! Captain!"

"I'll see you then, cadet," Estelle responded with a light shake of the head. Amusement flooded her bones from his title.

Estelle returned for dinner with a frown. Her patrol was cut short as the session with Kaminari dragged on. But that wasn't what had caused her mood. The patrols were getting stranger as more ghouls were popping up everywhere. She wasn't sure why since they tended to steer clear from other spirits out of fear of the unknown. They did retain memories of their old life, so their fear of spirits stayed with them, even in death.

It was mentally exhausting listening to praises from them. The only solution Estelle had was to find out what held them back and counsel them till they felt good enough to move on. The whole experience was tiring; listening to people stories was taxing, especially when they had terrible lives.

Estelle was quiet as she ate her meal with the class in her jammies. Her signal for letting them know she was beaten for the day. The question kept ringing out in her mind. What would cause an increased amount of ghouls to come through the gate? Did something happen with their territory which forced them to relocate? Did something go wrong?

Estelle froze when a hand gripped her own. Glancing down in surprise, she found her hands encased within bigger ones. Trailing her eyes up, she found the ruby eyes she was becoming increasingly familiar with. His frown placed on his lips tilted down as his eyes moved to gaze down at her fingers.

Her fingernails were digging into her palms with increasing intensity the more she had delved into her thoughts of the current events. Blood was beginning to flow from her palms from the vehemence with which her fingernails were digging into them. Estelle held in her shock that he even noticed what she was doing because she wasn't conscious of it until he pointed it out.

His warm hand gripped on hers tightly in an attempt to force her hand still and immobile. Estelle pushed to remove her hand from his grasp but was only gifted with a scowl and a tighter grip. Giving up, Estelle used her free hand to keep scooping spoonfuls of rice into her mouth. Bakugo mirrored her actions, doing the same as he held onto her tightly under the table.

Heat crawled up his neck from his immediate reaction that he couldn't even stop if he wanted to. Cursing himself, Bakugo kept his eyes on his meal to cover the strange feeling of holding her hand. It was for a practical purpose, of course, but still. He needed to remind himself that he wasn't actually holding hands with Estelle, even if that's what he was doing. He was confusing himself just thinking about it.

Unaware of the internal screaming inside Bakugo's head. Estelle ate her meal calmly and forced herself to pay attention to the conversations at the table to distract herself. It worked as Estelle eventually relaxed as the meal continued on. She had forgotten that Bakugo was still holding her hand.

It was the complete opposite for the blonde. It was the only thing Bakugo could think about. He had felt her relaxation but doubted if he should move away. Giving up, he held onto her until the end of the meal. The sweatiness of his palms was evident between their grasp, and Bakugo knew he should wipe it away before he made a mistake with his quirk.

But if he let go, then he wouldn't be able to hold on again. For some reason that he could not define, Bakugo had an issue with that. He knew she could take his explosions head-on, which was a feat in itself, so it eased him a little. Nevertheless, he didn't let go even in the face of his palms letting loose on their own.

Estelle took note of the red hue on his cheeks at the end of dinner after he let go. She made no comment of the wetness on her hands. Surprisingly, Estelle wasn't annoyed by it; it was so Bakugo that Estelle couldn't be mad. Why would she? When Estelle's own hands were sandpaper from years of hard training.

Making brief eye contact with Bakugo, Estelle let out a brief smile of gratitude. She missed the fact his face turned redder when she turned away to leave the room.

'Damn you, Estelle.'