Dancing Shadows

Chapter Three

Bakugou's POV-
   Cherry sits with us at lunch for the rest of the week. She mostly keeps to herself and listens more than she speaks, but that's only if she doesn't have her nose buried in a book, which isn't often. When Friday comes around, I go to the training area that I had Aizawa reserve for us. I wait a few minutes before I already start to get irritated. If she wasn't going to show, she could've at least mentioned it at lunch or during class. Just as I'm about to leave, I see her running up to me. "Sorry!"

   "Why the fuck are you late?"

   "I had to run back to my dorm to get clothes and then I realized that Todo offered to wash my laundry with his, but he hadn't returned them yet, so I had to go downstairs to the laundry room just to find my gym clothes."

   I roll my eyes. "Whatever. Let's just get started."

   She clasps her hands together nervously. "Are we sparring again?"

   I scoff. "No. I don't plan on getting hit by your quirk again, at least not for the moment. For now, I just want to test your limits." I point to a dummy that's standing up on the other side of the training area. "Instead of hitting me, you'll be hitting that. I want you to use all of your power on that thing and we'll see what happens."

   "O-Okay."

   "Why are you so nervous?"

   She shrugs. "I don't think I've ever used all my power before. I only discovered my quirk last year and I've basically just been suppressing it since then and using it as little as possible."

   "Don't be nervous. This quirk is yours. Take control of it. It belongs to you."

   She takes a deep breath before turning back towards the dummy. She closes her eyes and her brow furrows as she focuses deeply. Then her eyes snap open but they've changed color. They have turned black. I didn't notice that earlier. Just as her eyes open, the dummy is struck by a sharp strike of darkness that sends it flying across the room and through an open window. Her face turns bright red as her eyes return to normal. "My bad! I'll go get it." She teleports away only to be back within a second with the dummy in her arms.

   I think for a moment. "With that strike, you pushed the dummy away from you instead of sending your energy into it like you did with me. Can you send your energy into objects?" She shrugs. "Try it."

   Again, she focuses and her brow furrows cutely-wait, cutely? Ugh, I need to stop thinking things like that. Anyways, her eyes turn black again, and just as they snap open, a streak of darkness races across the ground and up into the dummy. This time the dummy just partially decays and falls apart on the spot. She bites her lip anxiously as she asks me, "What do you think?"

   I smirk. "That wasn't terrible. Let's do it again."

...

Ellowyn's POV-
   We train for three hours before Bakugou finally decides we are done. I feel so tired and so mentally exhausted. Once I get back to the dorm, I take a shower, eat some ramen, and then immediately go to bed. I sleep in a bit later than usual on Saturday, only to wake up to the sound of aggressive knocking on my door. I want to ignore it but I also don't want to be rude. I grab my glasses off the nightstand and put them on. I open the door to see Bakugou. He glances at my pajamas and messy hair before sending me a sly smirk. "Was I too hard on you yesterday?"

   I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes. "Is there something I can help you with or can I go back to bed?"

   "Kirishima wanted me to invite you to the pool with us. Are you coming or not?"

   I think about it for a moment. "No, I think I'll stay here. Thanks for the invite though."

   I go to close my door but he stops me. "Why not?"