Frustration

Estelle stared up at the blonde as she lay on his lap. This evening, he was reticent, and it struck a strange chord in her that she could not describe. She watched as he silently drowned in his thoughts, and Estelle unconsciously frowned from the odd look in his eyes.

Giving his cheek an innocent poke to grasp his attention, Bakugo looked down at Estelle in question as she grunted. "Go on, spit it out."

"Hah?!"

"You do realise that you're not the only one who can see right through people. Spit it out."

It was quiet for a while, but Estelle knew that the male was just working through his thoughts. Not willing to push him too much at once, Estelle kept her eyes open to let him know she was still present. He gave a loud grunt of frustration as he clenched his fists. "Dunce face said that I'm making things worse with you because I hit you."

Snorting at his words, Estelle failed to hold back her following laugh as she tilted her head back to let it out. That was the last thing she was expecting to leave the mouth of the blonde.

"It's not funny! It just pissed me off! Grr! You annoying brat!"

Estelle gave a small smile as she tried to calm her laugh. Shaking her head, she voiced, "Dunce face is an idiot. He's still a cadet, though, so I'll give him a pass. But why would something like that bother you?"

"Grrr! It doesn't matter!"

Feeling conflicted at the fact he was trying to brush the frustrated emotions off, Estelle extended her hand to pull his face in her direction. Shifting forward, Estelle was practically on his lap as she stared at him with a little more seriousness. "Everything you feel matters. What is it?"

Automatically adjusting Estelle's position so she was adequately sitting on his thighs, Bakugo stared down as he marinated in his thoughts. The words were at the tip of his tongue, but something was holding him back that he could not pinpoint. The sudden difficulty of voicing the issue filled his anger as he tried to grunt out his misgivings. Frustrated that all he could vocalise was a bunch of stutters, Bakugo gave a loud yell before slumping in defeat.

Estelle frowned when she felt the sudden urge to comfort the male. He was clearly trying hard to say what he needed to, but he wasn't the greatest with his emotions. He was far better than Estelle was; she could give credit where it was due. But, for him to scream out in frustration only raised her concern.

"Hey," Estelle started as she placed a hand on the ruby-eyed male's cheek. Closing the distance between them as she brought her face closer to Bakugo to stare into his eyes. The blonde stilled when he found himself entranced by the view as his fingers moved to grip her hips.

"Does it trigger you when I do that?" he voiced gruffly.

Startled, Estelle leaned back slightly to double-take. She took a deep breath as she tried to process her emotions. Was he really that concerned about her? A simple action he did on a daily basis now coming into question over a simple remark. It just didn't seem like Bakugo at all, but Estelle had to remind herself that she didn't know every aspect of him. Bakugo was the type of person to bury every emotion within the raging inferno that was his anger.

She gave a soft smile to show the warmth she failed to bat away. The glimmering lips slowly grew into a confident smirk. "You really think that if I perceived those movements as a threat, that my reflexes wouldn't have kicked in and completely obliterated you?"

Bakugo looked away from the female with a scoff as he contemplated her words. He knew she was right, so his body unconsciously relaxed under her as a foreign relief hit him.

"My question is now, why did something like that concern you?"

Tensing right back up, Bakugo scowled as he kept his gaze on the door on the other side of the room. Nudging Estelle away from her, Estelle remained in place as she forced her eyes to stay on him. There was something else niggling at her, and she could feel that he wasn't being completely transparent.

She didn't even know why she even cared to find out. Maybe because it was just the two of them in the darkness of the night. But, whatever it was, Estelle was not ready to let go of the answer just yet. Especially now, she could see some pain in his eyes.

"Forget it, Lioness." He spat out. Vexed at the fact she had not moved, Bakugo gave another push to get her to leave him alone.

Annoyed at his attempts to keep his feelings locked up, Estelle muttered, "So, it's okay for you to intrude into my life. But if I ask you a simple question, you wanna run away?"

Snarling at the fact she was right, Bakugo jittered in place as he tried to figure out his next move. Estelle remained on top of him, patiently waiting for him to reveal what was bothering him so much.

"People think I'm too aggressive."

"You are aggressive," Estelle answered back simply.

"Grrr! I know that!"

Ignoring his exclamation, Estelle continued, "That is who you are, and there's no shame in that."

"I'm not ashamed of it!" Bakugo snapped back.

"What is it then, Ruby?" The female answered back calmly.

"At Kamino Ward, those shitty villains got me because they thought I was like them. A fucking villain!"

Staying quiet, Estelle patiently waited for him to resume. She wasn't sure where the topic was leading, but she knew that Bakugo needed to let this out. The frantic moving of his hands indicated how much this had bothered him.

"When I won the sports festival, it was the same thing! It infuriates me just thinking about it. I'm not a shitty villain; I'm going to be the best fucking hero there ever was, dammit!"

Estelle allowed him to finish in hopes of coming to a conclusion. Her mind ticked away as she tried to figure out the point he was trying to make. But she also wanted him to let it all out.

"So, do you realise how fucking furious I was to realise my own classmates think I'm a villain for treating you like that, that they had to bring it up like a fucking intervention!"

Oh.

Those idiots.

"Then I had to feel like a fucking villain for doing that to you! To you! No way! No way in hell! I'm not a shitty villain, dammit! I'm sick of people thinking that!"

Estelle stilled as Bakugo rambled on. She had always known Bakugo as an extremely prideful soul. He had mentioned to her in passing the praise he had gotten when he was younger. Looking back at it now, Estelle could see how he would struggle with the thought of being regarded as a great hero for so long and how that's turned upside down when he entered UA. Rather than praise for his strength, he was villainised by those who didn't look deep enough, and they labelled him as too villain-like. It was all bullshit, and Estelle felt a slight disgust for those who never bothered to look beneath the curtain.

Realising Bakugo was working his way up to explode, Estelle put her hands on his neck to make sure she was looking directly into her eyes. Her eyes lit up with a fire that made his trembling ramble halt as he stared into her soul. She was furious at the class for doing this to him without any thought behind it.

As she watched Bakugo internally fall apart, Estelle recognised that this aspect of UA life bothered him more than he ever wanted to admit. The class essentially stabbed him where it hurt without realising it, and Estelle was pissed. Feeling a protectiveness for the male beneath her, she finally halted his ranting tumble.

"Katsuki Bakugo." She sternly stated, ignoring the complete stop in his breath. Stunned and off guard, Bakugo was now the one to remain silent as he watched Estelle's dark eyes blaze with a passion that he had never seen before. It was exquisite, and he realised that the spark during the sports festival didn't compare to the look in her eyes at this moment.

"You are loud, aggressive, annoying, and everything else combined. But you are not weak, especially to how others view you. That rampaging drive you have within you makes people believe in you because we know that you'll tear everything apart to get what you want. You are Katsuki Bakugo, and you know that you're not a villain. Fuck what anyone else thinks!

Even if you never become number one, you don't need their validation to know who you are. But if you have to, you can prove the people wrong just by being the best hero you can be, because I told you before. You are enough."

Bakugo nodded softly as he slumped from mental exhaustion. Looking down, Estelle's eyes widened as the blush rose on her cheeks. She hadn't realised the position she was in. Quickly moving to back away from the blonde, Estelle was halted by the hands placed on her hips again.

"Let go," Estelle hissed, her head turned away as she desperately tried to get rid of her red cheeks.

Bakugo shook his head lightly as he gave a broad and smug smirk. Scowling, Estelle turned back to see the mischievousness in his eyes but knew she couldn't be entirely mad about it. His eyes were back to normal, fiery and proud. Estelle knew that it fit him better than anything else did.

Slowly trailing his hands up her side to her back, Estelle felt a warmth she could not recognise as his hands moved. Thinking back to the other times she had been touched, Estelle was immediately hit with the thought that it was different. It didn't bring out an inherent disgust in her like the others, but it felt hot, and her cheeks unconsciously reflected that.

Keeping the smirk on his face, Bakugo dragged Estelle forward so she was buried at his neck. Confused and bewildered, Estelle moved to wiggle out of his hold but was only greeted by a chuckle. Puffing out in defeat, she felt Bakugo tremble slightly under her before tightening his grip around her back.

They were...cuddling?

Panic rose within Estelle as she tried harder to escape Bakugo's arms. The repeated words rang out in her head whilst she did so.

'This is bad; very bad.'

"Estelle...Shut up" The blonde grunted back, his face now in her neck.

The rampant thoughts in her brain remained as she continued her attempts to end the current situation. Eventually, the blonde got increasingly irritated with her frequent movements. Holding onto her tighter, Estelle let out a breath when squeezed too tightly.

"Relax, this isn't going to fucking kill you."

"Ruby, we shouldn't be doing this."

Holding her even closer, Estelle was beginning to lose oxygen within his embrace. "Every time you fight me on this, I'm just gonna keep squeezing. And, I know you don't wanna use your abilities and wake everyone up."

"Bakugo..." Estelle gasped as her ribs were crushed against her lungs. "Why do you keep trying so hard?"

"Because you ain't getting rid of me that easily."

"Fine! Fine. Just stop squeezing me so hard, dammit!"

"Good, now shut up and hug me, dammit!"

As she remained in Bakugo's arms, Estelle let out a scowl as she thought about the event Bakugo was talking about. Feeling a wave of bubbling anger, Estelle gritted her teeth at the other foreign emotions welling up inside of her.

Estelle glared at Class 1A besides Bakugo as they nervously sat in the living room. She had to wait for the blonde to leave before dragging everyone to their seats with a vicious scowl. The future heroes of Japan shrank in their place as they stared up at Estelle with a mixture of fear and confusion.

Estelle remained silent as she stood in the middle of the room with a fierce glare. She scanned the fumbling students on the couches as they tried to figure out the reason for the random meeting. Once the fear had fully settled in their bones, Estelle strode up to Kaminari and whacked him across the head.

"Ow! The hell was that for?!" The teenage boy whined back.

Not answering, Estelle gazed around the room to look seriously into the class's eyes. Standing straight like a soldier, she started her lecture. "Cadets, I have brought you here for a lesson. It's called; don't make fucking assumptions."

Stunned, the class sat back in their seats with complete bewilderment. What was going on?

Estelle gazed back at them with stern eyes. The students watched as she took a step forward and continued, "Next time you decide what triggers me, I'll raise hell upon you. Got it?!"

"Estelle, what's this about?" Kirishima asked worriedly, still astonished at the force Estelle was bringing into this conversation. Staring down at Kaminari, the class slowly understood the reasoning of today's discussion.

"Hey, Bakugo!"

"What do you want, Dunce face?"

"Have you ever thought about not hitting Estelle?"

"Hah! The hell are you talking about?!"

"Considering what she's been through. Wouldn't you be putting her in more turmoil by putting your hands on her?"

"The hell? I'll fucking kill you!"

"Kachaan!"

"Shut the hell up, Deku!"

"I think what Denki means is that maybe you should relax with her. We don't wanna push her away, even more, you know?" Sero added with his hands raised defensively to mitigate the damage.

"Tch, fuck off."

Estelle observed as the realisation kicked in for them with a scowl. She didn't need to know the situation, and quite frankly, she had no care for what was said exactly. But, she refused for others to speak on her behalf only to create further carnage, hoping it would help her. Honestly, these idiots couldn't stay out of anything.

"Do you understand?" Estelle repeated slowly.

Nods of the agreement were revealed around the room in the silence.

"Good," she grunted, her shoulder relaxing at their understanding.

Walking away, Estelle briefly stopped once she was by the door. Turning back around to face the bewildered students, she grunted, "Also, don't bring this up to Bakugo."

"Yes, Captain."

"Dismissed."