Pip escaped into the power classroom, breathing hard against the heat raging through her face. God, it was like Florence was trying to out her feelings to Vivainne. What was wrong with him?

"Pip?" Violet stared at her with raised eyebrows. She wasn't the only one, people all around the room staring at her. Including Canvas, the fabric around their forehead rising as they raised their eyebrows.

She quickly pulled herself together, though she was unable to wipe the blush from her cheeks. "Yes?"

"Uh, you good?" Violet asked.

"Yup," Pip said, flashing a smile, hoping it would get everyone off her back. She couldn't deal with everyone staring at her like this for no reason. And it really was for no reason. It wasn't like she actually looked like a mess, and she was early for once. "What are we working on today?"

"Now that everyone has a solid foundation in the understanding of their own power, we're moving onto the next phase of training," Canvas said, clapping their hands together.

"What's that?" Pip asked, walking up to the hero, letting the prospect of training distract her from her terrible, tricky emotions. She'd made a lot of progress when it came to her glasskinesis. Probably not as much as Canvas wanted, judging by the fact that she was meant to meet with the professor later in the day to discuss her performance in the test, but it was miles better than she'd been before. Even if it didn't work with the type of hero she wanted to be.

"Power sharing," Canvas said. "Power sharing is…"

"Yeah, I'm not good at power sharing," Pip said, interrupting the hero before she realized what she was doing. "My mom tried to have me power share with a bunch of different heroes when I was little and none of it ever really worked."

"Really?" Canvas asked, sounding genuinely curious. "It didn't work at all? How young were you?"

"It was right after I developed my power, so six? Seven?"

"That's very young to begin power sharing," Canvas said with a light shake of their head. Pip wasn't sure why she found it odd. Canvas had to have been around the hero world long enough by now to know it was at least common.

Pip shrugged. "It's pretty typical amongst hero families."

"Well, you were really too young to judge whether you can power share or not," Canvas said. "Have you tried since?"

"Yes," Pip said, the color returning to her cheeks as she remembered. "It worked once."

"Then why don't we start there," Canvas said. "How did you get it to work for you?"

"Uh." No one was staring at her except for the professor, and yet she felt the weight of attention all the same. "By making out with her?"

"That's, uh…" Canvas shut their eyes, as if warding off the idiocy of Pip's statement. "Just… just go try and work it out."

Cheeks aflame, Pip turned around, freezing as she made eye contact with Violet. The girl smirked and jerked her chin to the side, moving over to the wall herself. She followed the strongman over to the side of the room, arms curling in around herself, not sure why she was listening to her summon.

"You really took on an aspect of someone's power by making out with a girl?" Violet asked, the amusement unmistakable.

"Pretty much?" Pip admitted sheepishly. "That's the only time it's ever worked successfully."

"What power aspect?"

"Cold," Pip said. "Means my glass can at least somewhat resist Florence's heat. I haven't really tried to use it for much else."

"Nice," Violet said with a nod. "Well, should we find you someone to make out with so you can work on developing your power?"

Pip stifled a groan, hiding her face behind her hands. "Please, no."

"Really? I'm sure someone would be willing," Violet teased. "Or we could always try and power cycle together?"

Peaking out from behind her fingers, Pip considered her for a moment. She was powerful, maybe not the most powerful, but she was a strong super. And there was the added benefit of having made out with her, amongst other things. "I don't know how much synergy there would be between our powers," she said finally.

Violet shrugged. "No clue. But pretty much anyone can benefit from some extra durability, if you manage to pick that up," she said. "Though, I don't really know how this works."

"I can help with that," Pip said. She may not have been great at power sharing, but she knew the theory behind it. "Let's find a place to sit down."

After asking Canvas' permission, they left the large power classroom, migrating through the underground campus until they found a quiet corner to sit in. A classroom or training room probably would have been better, but Pip didn't want to go through the trouble of having to book one and it wasn't like they were doing something strange. At least, not strange to be doing down here.

Pip sat down, crossing her legs beneath her, resting her hands on her knees. Violet did the same, lowering herself to the round and pressing her back to the wall behind her. Sitting down, she was still at least a foot taller than Pip was, broad shoulders stooping toward her.

"What now?" Violet asked.

"We cycle our cores and open them up to each other," Pip said, shaking her core awake. Not that it was sleeping, just resting, waiting to be used. It thrummed to her fingertips with the familiar warmth and surety her power always carried, but she held it back, cycling the power inside her instead of summoning anything into existence.

"Open them up?" Violet asked.

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"Yeah, like… We have to open up our cores a bit to use our powers, this is just opening them up more. Welcoming someone inside."

"So I just gotta… slip inside you."

"Shut up," Pip said, a smile curling along the edges of her lips as she shot a peak at the girl. Violet grinned back at her, eyes alight with mischief.

"I mean, you said making out helps."

"I did not say that," Pip said. "I said that's the only time it's worked for me. But I'm different."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah," Pip said, shuffling slightly. The floor was uncomfortable, the wall hard. Maybe they should have booked a training room. "I'm kind of bad at this."

"That's not true."

"Yeah, it is," Pip said with a sigh. "I'm probably going to have to change my entire style of fighting because my power won't let me fight the way I want."

"Is that so bad?" Violet asked. "I'm pretty sure it's typical for our understanding of our powers to change when we're in the program. It's not like we're going to know how to be heroes from the jump."

"It's not that," Pip said, shaking her head. She took another deep breath, focusing on her core for a moment. Emotions left it roiling, a tempest inside her. At least she'd never struggled with controlling her powers when she was angry or upset, like some people. "It's just… I'm a Carter. I should be able to fight like a Carter."

"Fight like a Carter," Violet said with a snort. Pip's eyes shot open, a retort on her lips as Violet continued. "Like, I get that you're a Carter, but you're also Pip. So why can't you fight like Pip?"

"Because Pip likes fighting with a giant ass sword and shield," Pip said, wincing as she spoke about herself in third person. "Anyway, we should focus on this, I guess."

"Sure," Violet said with a shrug. "I mean, my durability would help with the type of fighting you want to do, probably. I wonder what'd happen if I picked up a bit of your power?"

"No idea," Pip admitted. Energy grew and stretched between them as Violet began to cycle her core. Pressing against Pip's own, she could sense the contour of it, the colors and impressions that formed it. Pip had no idea if power cores actually had shapes or colors, but in her mind, it was absolutely true. Her own core had colors, shades of pink and orange like the sunset. Violet's was, surprisingly, not purple, but it did feel uniquely her.

"There's no way for me to like, pick up something like a side effect, right?" Violet asked, core pulling away from her slightly before their powers could touch. "I don't want to become fragile."

"That's not a thing," Pip said, rolling her eyes. "And my glass isn't fragile unless I let it be. It's super enforced. How do you think I'm able to fight with it?"

"Fair enough."

Violet's core began to cycle again, and Pip slowly edged her own power against it, doing most of the heavy lifting when it came to merging their powers. As the most experienced one here, at least when it came to knowledge of powers and power sharing, it was her responsibility. Violet's power rotated counterclockwise to Pip's own, so she shifted the motion of her own and matched the speed and rhythm of Violet's power.

For as loud and confident a person as Violet was, her power core was surprisingly subdued. Quiet, almost, in a way. It struck Pip as odd as she felt her way around it. Then again, it wasn't as if Violet had the most complicated of powers. She was a strongman. It was that simple. Though, there was a little bit more to her power than Pip thought there would be from a simple strongman.

"You're just a classic strongman, right?" Pip asked, realizing she'd never actually asked before. Just assumed.

"Sort of?" Violet said. "I'm not really strong… No, I am strong, but not strongman strong."

"Right…" Pip trailed off, trying to figure out what Violet meant.

"I'm super durable," Violet said as Pip motioned for her to go on. "And I do have enhanced strength, speed, the works. But my power is technically kinetic based."

"What does that mean?"

"It means…" Violet shifted and the cycling of her core paused. Pip gently nudged her with her own power, and the movement began again. "Every movement, technically, makes me hit harder. And each punch I throw makes the next one hit harder. I sort of… gather kinetic energy to fight with."

"That's a pretty good power," Pip said.

"When does the power sharing start?" Violet asked.

"You can't rush this," Pip said, because she couldn't answer. She had no idea how long this was supposed to take, or when exactly she'd feel something happen. If something happened at all.

"Can't you just, steal something?"

"From your power core? I don't think that's a good idea."

"Just try it," Violet said, nudging her with her foot. "If I die, you can just hide my body."

Pip rolled her eyes behind closed eyelids. "I'm not going to hide your body."

"Well, if you want to get caught, that's your prerogative," Violet said. "That, or you could make out with me again."

"I don't… I don't want to make out with you," Pip admitted, keeping her eyes closed. She didn't want to see the look on Violet's face at her words. "I kind of like someone else?"

"Oh yeah?" Violet asked, curious and not sounding the least bit offensive. "Who?"

"Vivainne?"

"Oh, that makes sense," Violet said without pause.

"It does?"

"Yeah, of course it does," Violet said. "I thought you were talking about someone else."

"No," Pip said. "I don't know if I should say anything to her about it though. It could be a bad idea."

"Bad how?"

"We live together?"

"What's the big deal?" Violet asked.

"It could be awkward."

"More awkward than trying to hide your feelings from her?" Violet asked. "Just ask her."

"I'll think about it," Pip said. She slowed her cycling down, opening her core up wider, to encompass them both fully. "I feel like nothing is happening."

"That's why I'm saying steal it," Violet said.

"Steal what?"

"No clue, just try," Violet said. Following Pip's example, she spread the influence of her power core, a faint prickle washing over her skin as it enveloped her. Mentally, Pip inspected it. Was there any way she could try and borrow the specific element of Violet's power that she wanted?

"I'm going to try," Pip said, reaching out with her power. When it came to Khione, the process had just happened naturally, and she felt the cold infuse her soul. That didn't seem to be happening here. "Uh, hold still."

"I am holding still!"

Her power grew still, Violet's continuing to move as Pip tried to entice something into her soul with nothing but sheer will. When nothing happened, she grew desperate, grabbing for the closest thing that would tug loose.

Something broke loose, and Violet let out a little gasp as Pip quickly retreated back into her own body. The piece cycled for a moment, like a leaf drifting on a stream before disappearing, fading into her.

Pip opened her eyes, staring at Violet. "Are you okay?"

She took a second to inspect herself before nodding in affirmation. "Did it work?"

"I have no idea." She pushed herself to her feet, scrambling to her full height. "Punch me. Am I durable now?"

"Punch you?" Violet asked, hesitating as she rose.

"Yeah, can you think of any better way to see?" Pip asked.

Violet thought for a moment before shrugging. "Guess not." She balled her hand into a fist, pulling back as much as the hallway would allow before letting loose.

Her fist collided with Pip's stomach and she wheezed as all the air whooshed out of her lungs, doubling over as the pain rocked through her body.

Struggling to suck in a breath, Pip managed to speak. "Not durable."

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