Advice

Star Skyline woke up with a jolt as the train jostled her, her forehead falling off of whatever warm surface it had been resting on. She hoped she didn't have a fever, because she was almost positive she had fallen asleep with her head on the cold window. The train wasn't comfortable by any means, but it was calming in a way that she couldn't quite put her finger on. And after being up all night, it had lulled her to sleep within the first hour of the trip. Bakugo had again sat next to her, one earphone in his ear and one in hers, and the playlist he had added on to her phone had played on shuffle as the train brought them closer to home.

He was looking at her now in slight surprise, rolling and rubbing the shoulder closest to her as if it had fallen asleep, or had been uncomfortable. His ears turned a little pink, and he reached for the earphone that had been yanked out of his ear by her sudden movement. Grimacing in apology, she pulled on the cord attached to the bud in her own ear and located it's other half, handing it to him. He was careful to avoid their fingers touching as he took it, and she briefly wondered what it was he didn't want her reading. Was there something deeper to the flash of emotion she had just felt from him? Before she could ask or reach out though, he had closed his eyes, crossing his arms tightly against his chest. The tantrum he would throw if she touched him to read while he was drifting off wouldn't be worth it, so she put her hands in her lap and resisted the urge.

To her absolute annoyance, he had been working on finding ways to keep her even more out of his head than normal in order to give him back the advantage in their battles. Ever since he found out what Sir Nighteye had said about his natural mental walls, he had spent the last two days trying to fortify his already confusing mind. She wasn't sure what had changed in him recently to warrant it. The best guess she had was that he was getting annoyed at how much better she was at fighting now that she wasn't drinking and had a better handle on her quirk. Little did he know that it also had to do with her new found motivation to keep training even after the sun had set.

It wasn't often that he shut down his thoughts outside of battle, but when he did, her curiosity was hard to manage. Was that how people normally felt during conversations? Taking a small sip of wine from her water bottle, she turned back to the window. If he wanted to keep it private, she would respect that.

Saying goodbye to her mentors had felt bittersweet, she reflected as she watched the scenery whizz by. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't get Sir Nighteye's parting words out of her head.

-"Extrasensory perception or ESP. The reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind." Sir Nighteye had recited. "That is the burden of quirks such as ours. All too often, the burden of keeping everything we know in, causes us to keep… too much in. Not only information we have obtained from our quirk, but parts of ourselves as well."-

-His eyes had pierced her, and for a brief moment, Star had been sure he'd seen through her. What had his quirk predicted, to know how she was feeling in that moment? What path did he see her taking? Before she had been able to ask, Sir Nighteye had glanced over at the pair that were arguing in the kitchen as Hawks's wings kept interfering with Bakugo's cooking. Nighteye shook his head in disapproval, but gestured over at them, looking straight into her eyes as he spoke. -

-"Not everyone is like us. They are not able to predict the future, or walk into minds. So as ESP heroes, we have to remember to drop our walls every once in a while as well. Agreed?"-

-Star's gaze had stayed on Bakugo as he swatted his mentor's hand away from the two protein shakes, and as if able to sense her, he turned around. As his intense and irritated crimson eyes met hers, they seemed to change, and his jaw had unclenched for a brief second. Feeling her face flush at being caught staring at him so openly, Star had quickly looked away, and back to the Pro Hero in front of her.-

-"Yes." She had replied quietly, weaving a strand of red hair between her pointer finger and middle finger. For how wrong it had felt to lie all her life, it had begun to feel a lot more natural after the past two weeks.-

-"Good. Continue training your quirk, and keep in mind what I have taught you about putting your own walls up, and the walls others can put up against you. Remember that just as I can keep you out now, others may have the ability to as well. Trust in those that open themselves up to you, and be wary of those that never let you in."-