Dancing Shadows

Chapter Six

Ellowyn's POV-
   I sit on the floor of the gym as Bakugou continues to train. I am not allowed to for at least the rest of today, so I'm just staying out of the way and playing on my phone. I'm beginning to get bored so I put down my phone and play with my quirk a little bit. A few minutes later, I'm interrupted by Bakugou asking, "What are you doing?" My focus breaks and my quirk stops working. I hold my hand over my heart and let out a sigh. I look up at him to see that he's taken his shirt off during his training and my face goes bright red. "What the fuck are you doing?" I get even more embarrassed when he repeats the question, making me realize I haven't looked away.

   I snap out of it. "Sorry, you startled me! Anyways, I was just messing around."

  "Do it again." I shrug and twirl my fingers through the shadows to stir them up and create a tiny tornado. He watches for a moment, nods, and walks away.

   "Wait, what was all that about?"

   He shrugs as he picks up another weight. "Nothing."

   I scoff. "Whatever, just be weird and secretive about it then." I go back to what I was doing before. "Can I ask another question then?"

   "If I say no, will you ask it anyway?"

   "I'll take that as a yes then." He rolls his eyes. "Why do you smell sweet, even when you sweat? Do you use a weird secret cologne or do you just eat a lot of deserts?"

   He chuckles to himself. "Why are smelling me?"

   "I'm not! I mean, I am, but not in a weird way. It's just something I noticed when you were standing next to me all shirtless and sweaty." Why did I say that? That just makes it sound worse.

   He shakes his head. "My quirk is the reason."

   "I'm confused. Don't explosions usually smell, like, I don't know, smokey, or something?"

   "It's not the explosions themselves. My skin secretes nitroglycerin-like sweat, which I can ignite on command. Nitroglycerin is known to have a caramel smell."

   "Oh, I guess that makes sense."

   There is a moment of silence before he asks, "What's up with Tsuburaba?"

   I take a sip out of my water bottle. "What about him?"

   "I heard that he was hitting on you at the pool."

   I choke on my drink. "Excuse me? Who told you that?"

   "No one told me. I just heard someone say it."

   "Who?"

   "Have you met Monoma?"

   "No."

   "You will. As Shitty Hair likes to put it, 'he's a douche.' In my opinion, that's an understatement."

   "Well, if Kirishima doesn't like him, he must really suck. Kirishima is nice to just about everyone. Anyway, he said that Tsuburaba hit on me?"

   "More or less."

   "What does that even mean?"

   "Nothing. Did he hit on you though?"

   "Not that it's anyone's business, but I don't know. He just asked me where I'm from and then I had to leave and get back to you guys. I guess he could've been."

   "Do you like him?"

   "Again, not that it's any of your business, but no, I don't, especially after he broke my head on the side of the pool. Why do you care?"

   "I fucking don't."

   "Okay." He continues to train while I think of another question to ask. "How did you know how to help me down from that panic attack?"

   "I've fucking done it before, obviously."

   "Really? Do you know someone who has panic attacks or did you help someone while doing hero work?"

   "Midoriya used to have them when we were kids."

   "I thought you guys weren't friends."

   "We aren't but we were when we were really young. We grew up together. Basically, I used to do the same thing for him when he got panic attacks."

   "That's sweet."

   "Don't fucking mention it."

   "Aw, come on. That's a super nice thing to do."

   "Wait, be quiet."

   "You can't stop me. I will tell everyone about your kindness!"

   "No, really, shut the fuck up. I hear something and I have a bad feeling about it." I shut my mouth and we both listen intently to hear the sound of footsteps walking down the corridor. A few seconds later, a blonde boy walks through the training room door. "Oh, it's Monoma. No wonder I got a bad fucking feeling." Bakugou mutters.

   "Hello there, class 1-A losers! How's it going?" He says once he walks up to us.

   Wow, he sucks. "Can we help you with something?" Bakugou asks.

   "Nope. I'm just stopping by. I guess that since you're here, it would be nice to get to know the newest hero course student." He holds out his hand to me and says, "I'm Monoma."

   I decide to take part in the pleasantries. "I'm Ellowyn Sallow." I reach out my hand to shake his but Bakugou stops me. "He just wants to steal your quirk and see what it is so that he can figure out how to use it to his advantage."

   "Come on, don't ruin my fun! I only wanted to play around with her quirk for a bit."

   "Anything else you need?" I ask.

   He stares at me for a moment. "You know, you look familiar. I recognize your name as well."

   I shrug. "I used to live near here when I was younger."

   "No, it's something else."

   My stomach does flips when I realize what the only other thing he could've recognized me from is. "I don't know what it could be then."

   Thankfully, he moves away from the subject. "On another note, Recovery Girl wants you to go to her office. With that said, see you later losers!" He says as he leaves the room.

   Bakugou sighs. "Fucking extra." He grabs his bag. "Let's go."

   I grab my phone and my water bottle and follow him out of the training room and to the nurse's office, hoping that Monoma hasn't seen what I think he has.