"Huh?! What's this?! 1A's got students in remedials?! So you have people who actually failed the tests?!"

Apparently, no one had ever explained the meaning of the term 'Friendly Fire' to Monoma at any point in his life. Rivalry was certainly one thing, but how Monoma held onto it and how bitter he seemed to become because of it was truly quite another. It was starting to get to the level that made his classmates genuinely wonder if he understood that 1A were Hero students, the same as they all were.

All it took was the mere sight of someone from their other class – Which happened a lot, given the fact they were part of the same school – For him to fly off the rails. And it was only him now. Yes, everyone wanted to come out on top of their opposing class, but they didn't have this ingrained obsession that the Copy Quirk user seemed to have.

Almost like it was a part of his genetic code. It ended up causing quite the joke within the 1B group – His obsession with defeating 1A only ever came about after his defeat by the hands of Katsuki Bakugou and his team back in the sports festival, but not before putting up a valiant fight. Some people were starting to think that when he had copied Bakugou's Explosion Quirk, he'd copied an aspect of his… Attitude, as well as his explosive abilities. Only the personality traits decided to stick around.

He'd barely even allowed 1A to walk up towards their own bus before he'd started slipping into his usual rants. Some were worried. Others were just exhausted by it.

"Good grief. Does he ever take a break?"

"I'm starting to wonder if he even knows how to. He's obsessed."

"He does realize he's the only one of all of us to fail the test, right? We have mentioned that to him?"

"I'm serious, someone needs to admit him into a hospital, or something."

At this point, Itsuka didn't even have the physical capacity to find herself irritated with Monoma. She'd reached the point of absolute apathy, and felt nothing whatsoever as he ran his mouth off for what had to be the three-hundredth time this year. A real part of her was starting to consider recommending him for psychiatric help with the school nurse, or a professional therapist, or someone who might be able to get through to him. Anything to get him to just calm down.

"Isn't that odd though?! And here I thought 1A was the superior class! So what's happening here, huh?! What – "

A single strike to the back of the neck later, and Monoma was out cold. Itsuka had gotten so used to doing this that she knew exactly what parts of her blonde classmate she needed to hit, and how hard to hit them, to keep him out for as long as she felt like. With the amount of strength that she'd put into that strike, he'd be out for about ten minutes, by which point, the buses would be on their way to the lodge, and he wouldn't have anyone to antagonize.

"Sorry about that." She quickly apologized to the 1A students Monoma had been harassing, before dragging him off back to her own classes group.

The day to finally head out on the trip to the Lodge was here. It had been about a week since the incident at the Kiyashi Ward, and the incident had prompted Yuuei to change the location from where they normally took students, to an undisclosed location in order to try and prevent the Villains from being able to track their location. Some people grumbled, but to others, the mystery made it all the more exciting.

For the others, the last week had been one of preparation and mild relaxation, getting themselves ready for the challenges that this retreat was going to throw at them. Sorting things out at home, getting supplies that they felt they would need, dealing with fussy and concerned parents, and letting friends know where they were going to be for the next week.

Not for Itsuka though. For her, it had ended up being a week of thinking. And almost nothing else.

The orange haired girl scanned over the 1A students, trying to see if she could spot Momo in the crowd. She found herself unable to – Perhaps she wasn't here quite yet, or maybe she was behind some of her classmates. Who knew.

She could see Jirou, who was in a conversation with – If Itsuka remembered their names – Kirishima, Kaminari and Hagakure. It puzzled the Large Fist Quirk user. Jirou and Momo were good friends, weren't they? She'd kind of assumed that if she found the short, punk girl, she'd find the tall, raven haired, hazel eyed, smart, pretty –

Itsuka stopped herself right there, before she ended up blushing outright. Though she couldn't prevent a pink twinge hitting her cheeks. Or a fluttering of her heart.

Momo had found herself right at the forefront of Itsuka's thoughts. The two of them hadn't really exchanged words a whole lot throughout the rest of the week – Not that there was a reason for it. They spoke sporadically in text messages, but that was about it, and when they did talk, it wasn't usually a particularly eventful conversation. Just check-up's on how the other was doing, and if they were okay, and if they were still looking forward to the lodge. Small talk, essentially. There wasn't really a huge amount to talk about, was there?

Nothing they could talk about openly, anyway. Well, nothing Itsuka could bring up in casual conversation at least.

Jirou's words had ended up making the young woman rack her brain around a bit. Itsuka still couldn't decide if she was incredibly good at reading people, or if she herself was just completely obvious. She didn't know the Earphone Jack Quirk user well enough to make an estimate on that.

Still, it didn't change the fact that in either case, she was right on the money. And had given good advice.

The problem with good advice though was that it was always difficult to take.

"Ya'll right, le Prez?"

Apparently having noticed her off behavior, Setsuna approached the pink-cheeked teenager, and tapped her on the shoulder a couple of times. The sudden physical contact made Itsuka stiffen upright, caught off guard as her thoughts had distracted her.

"Gah!"

Setsuna didn't even flinch. "…So, did I just snap you out of the worlds most tantalizing daydream or something?" She asked as she rested a hand on her hip, and put on her trademarked smirk.

Itsuka's hand made its way over her now beating heart as she took in a deep breath and then exhaled it, trying to calm herself. "D… Damn it, Setsuna."

"Sorry. You were zoning out. Wanted to make sure you were alright." The green-haired girl said, patting her friend on the back. Setsuna followed the line of sight her friend had, seeing that her attention had been towards the members of their sister class. "You looking at a piece of eye candy, or what?"

"What – No, I – I wasn't – "

"Well, I see like, three people over there that are damn fine. Don't know what you're looking at if not them."

Sighing, Itsuka shook her head. Setsuna's hyperactivity was not what she needed at this exact moment.

And it seemed that the other girl understood that just as well. "Anyways, c'mon." Setsuna said, tugging her shoulder. "Blood King'll lose his shit if you're not organizing everyone onto the bus, Le Prez."

"…I don't suppose you ever plan on stopping calling me that?"

"Not in the foreseeable future."

Another sigh, although this was ended as more of a chuckle. Setsuna gave nicknames to pretty much everyone, and used them whenever she felt like it, and must have gone through about four for Itsuka alone. She supposed it had to be a better nickname than the last one. At least there was one less 'Z' in it.

Itsuka scanned over the 1A class again, hoping to maybe catch a glance of the taller girl, to no avail. Maybe she was already on the bus. Either way, any chance that she might have had to go and look around for herself had been ruined by Monoma's rantings. She sighed once more, and turned her back, moving to organize her class before they got onto the bus.

Sounds filled up the bus as it took the students to wherever it was that they were going

They had a few hours on the road to go, and no idea where it was that it was taking them. Some passed the time with eager and energetic conversation, while others listened to music and moved their bodies to the beat. Some have games on their mobile devices, and some even made an effort to sleep before they reached their destination.

God knew how they managed that.

Although that was probably the logical option. If the training at the camp was going to be as intense and hellish as described, then they were going to need all the rest that they could get, especially the remedials. As one might expect though, the remedials weren't exactly the type to do things the logical way. They tended to be the more hyperactive ones.

Momo though, she found herself just staring out the window, watching the trees, plants, and lampposts going by. She didn't focus on any one thing in particular, lazily just watching blur by at high speed.

She found herself lost in thought. She knew that there was a ton of noise going on around her, but she couldn't seem to hear any of it. It all turned to white noise as it reached her ears, and fuzzed out into nothingness. Occasionally, she would try to focus in on something nearby, if only as a short distraction from the thoughts that she was having, but to no avail. The only thing that she could focus on were those thoughts that rushed around inside her mind.

A small sigh escaped her lips.

Heroism was something that she took incredibly seriously. Every single day, she found herself dwelling on the subject, wanting to discover new ways to improve herself, to make herself far stronger, and become the best Hero that she possibly could be.

It was something that she had been sure that she wanted to be since her Quirk manifested. There hadn't been any doubt in her mind on what she wanted to do as she grew older and older. She devoted more and more of her time to figuring out her Quirk, stretching its limits, and researching more and more. She wanted nothing more that to learn everything that she could so that when she finally made her debut, she could protect as many people as possible, and be the best Hero that she could.

When she got accepted into Yuuei, it was quite easily one of the best moments of her life. She felt suddenly, that all her hard work, all that training, all of it, had been worthwhile. That every moment that she had spent, learning how to use her Quirk, had all finally come together.

She was a student at the top Hero school in the country. She could become a great Hero.

This singular dream, this narrow-vision goal of achieving her status as a Hero that could give back to the people had taken up nearly a full decade of her life. And she wouldn't change it for anything.

…

Yet she had never been in love before.

She was young, and hadn't exactly found herself in the best environment to explore her emotions, and the world that was around her. She had her books and her Quirk, and pretty much anything that she wanted at her fingertips. She had lived a sheltered life, woefully ignorant to the world outside the wealthy world her family inhabited.

What friends she did have tended to be few and far between, or lived far away. A lot of the time, she found herself left on her own. Which suited her fine. It gave her more chances to study and learn how to use her Quirk.

As she grew up, she began to meet more people. People who were interested in her. As she came to mature more and more, she began to realize what kinds of people she was dealing with. Though they often argued against the term 'Suitors', that was what Momo had come to call them.

When she thought back to those days, she found herself incredibly thankful for her intelligence. In that sort of realm, it would have been easy for someone less aware of their lives to fall into a trap like that. To find herself falling into something that she had no interest in, that only really stood to benefit the man at the other end of the table.

Her parents hadn't ever meant it as a way to insult her – She doubted that they even really knew what these people were like. They were just trying to introduce her to people who shared a similar environment to her, in the hopes that she would be able to develop more social skills before attending a public school like Yuuei. It had all been under her request as well, so she couldn't blame her parents at all. Frankly, they were as shocked as she was that some families were training their children to be suitors before they were even fifteen.

Thinking back, it almost sounded aristocratic.

The times had changed drastically in the last few centuries. Time always marched onwards, and the world changes as inevitably as the Earth orbited the sun. She had never been placed under any obligation to do anything, or befriend anyone. The choice on how she proceeded with those relationships fell entirely onto her. To her own parents, it was more akin to her meeting the children of friends, more than anything else. It just seemed like that wasn't how the others saw it.

…None of this went to say that she hadn't experienced attraction before.

There were people that Momo found herself unable to resist looking at, or stealing glances at whenever she could get away without being spotted. People who she thought looked incredible, and that stirred up some kind of emotion in her that she couldn't quite describe as love, but was something else. Enamourent maybe?

As much as she thanked her intellect for helping her avoid people who had ulterior motives, there was one occasion that stood out to her, that she hadn't ever managed to quite understand until now.

One such suitor had decided, for whatever possible reason, to bring along his sister. Momo never did figure out why the woman had come along – It wasn't a part of what had been arranged. This was long before she caught onto these types of people as well. In fact, this was one of the first people that she ended up meeting, and subsequently ended up rejecting later on.

The man was… Well, he was polite enough, and Momo didn't particularly feel much hostility towards him.

Yet his sister – Momo hadn't been able to take her eyes off of her. Blue, long hair, that curled up at the bottom, with equally blue eyes, and darker blue pupils. An impressive figure. And a certain glint in her expression that Momo wouldn't ever be able to figure out. For some reason, she hadn't been able to take her eyes off of that woman the entire time she was there.

….And now, she found herself unable to tear her eyes away from Itsuka Kendou.

It almost felt stalkerish, but Momo found herself feeling… Compelled to look at the 1B student. There wasn't anything that she wanted from the girl. She had taken screenshots of the commercial both she and the Large Fist Quirk user had been in, and could find herself spending hours just…. Looking at the shots.

It just… It made her feel good to see her.

Her heart felt warmer and fluffier whenever she saw Itsuka's face, and in the frames that she smiled in, all Momo could think of was how much she wanted to see it in person. It made her heart skip a few beats each time she saw it. She was all dolled up thanks to the makeup team Uwabami had handy – And they had made Itsuka look like a Goddess. She was beautiful. She was stunning. She was…

…She made Momo feel something she hadn't felt before.

And it wasn't just attraction. Attraction, Momo understood – It had taken her a while, and made her realize some things, but she understood the basic concept of finding another person attractive.

Itsuka though… There was more to it than that. There was more to her than all these confusing memories, and how they were just… Different.

It was difficult to explain. But back then, Momo didn't have the first clue what was happening. She was still trying to figure herself out. Still trying to understand who she was. What she was. And she still wasn't sure that she had completely figured it out. It was all just so…. Confusing.

…But she couldn't get Itsuka out of her head.

Even the people she had found herself attracted to had left her mind after a few days, and the few that did remain… Well, they didn't seem to have that spark anymore. At least, not enough to make her want to see them out. They were, at the end of the day, pretty faces, and there were a thousand other people out there that had pretty faces. But Itsuka… Momo couldn't get enough of seeing her. So much so that it honestly scared her to think about how much she enjoyed seeing this girl. How much she valued Itsuka's friendship, and how much she felt she owed her. Itsuka had gone out of her way, time and time again, to help her when she was at a low point. She helped to train her up when she struggled with combat. She helped her with confidence when she was barely getting by. She had suffered alongside her when they interned together.

All without any real clear benefit to Itsuka herself. She didn't gain anything from helping out the Creation Quirk user. She didn't benefit – If anything, she was actively cutting into her own study time, just to help her friend out. And she could say that it was just the sort of thing that a Hero in training was supposed to do… But it would have been easy for her to struggle too. And if she did ever mind herself struggling, she could have wound up failing the exams. Just to help her.

Because… That was just the kind of person she was.

…And she was attractive – Momo wouldn't deny that. But she was…

Kind. And sweet. And helpful, and wonderful to people. She put helping other people above her own success. And it just made her shine all the more. They shone far brighter than her appearance, complimenting it more than letting her looks define her.

Her heart ached. She looked at the shots she had of Itsuka. Of her smiling face.

Was it wrong to feel like this? To act like this? To think like this? It felt just…. Nice, to feel this way. But was it fair? To Itsuka?

Jirou had confessed to her, and she'd felt… It wasn't that she disliked Jirou. She was her best friend… But that was all it was. At least to her. With these feelings all bubbling up inside her, that was all that they could be… Was it fair to Jirou to base her response on that?

Of course, Momo and Jirou had been friends for months, and had gone through a lot together. Momo felt that she had a duty to be honest with her. And no matter what, Jirou was always going to be her friend.

She… Didn't have that guarantee with Itsuka.

… She hadn't been in love before.

But she didn't need to be to know that she had fallen for Itsuka. Fallen hook, line and sinker.

And a part of her felt amazing. The other part, as she looked at the shots again… Intense guilt. Another, fear. And another, longing. All together, they were feelings that Momo didn't know how to deal with and process at once.

So she had gotten onto the bus as quickly as possible. She wanted to… Avoid having to deal with them if she saw Itsuka. It made her feel cowardly, but she didn't know what else to do.

What was she supposed to do?

She sighed. The scenery didn't have a single answer to offer.

Maybe Jirou had spoken to Momo about all of this too. That was something that Itsuka hadn't necessary thought about. And maybe Momo was thinking about everything from a perspective that Jirou had given her.

It might explain why she hadn't been talking to her all that much… Or why she'd not asked if she wanted to meet up again during the week before heading the trip. Or maybe she had just assumed that there would be time for them to talk while they were at this lodge, whilst they trained.

Although… That implied that Momo held onto these same feelings as Itsuka. And that was something that Itsuka didn't know.

Frankly, she wasn't even sure if it was a possibility. She didn't know the kind of people that Momo liked.

Or if she could be included in that list.

So maybe Momo had just been busy… Or had been avoiding her.

They were friends, right? The last two months hadn't just been figments of Itsuka's imagination, had they?

She sighed, and then made herself take a deep breath. She was thinking about this too much, too quickly… It spoke volumes as to how she was dealing with this scenario. And how much it all meant to her. And how important Momo had become to her.

"Okay, heads up."

The loud, thunderous voice of Blood King came from up front, and immediately captured any and all attention that his students could provide. His sudden call made Itsuka's hair feel like it was stood at attention. Her eyes shot straight towards to front of the bus, intently awaiting whatever Blood King had to say to them.

"We'll be making a quick stop in about five minutes. You'll have time to stretch your legs, and whatever else you need to do." Brilliant news for everyone – They'd been cooped up on this bus for quite a while now. Several grins and pumped fists made their way around the group. "After that, we'll be making our way straight to the lodge. Don't a single one of you drag your feet." That last part came as a strict order. Which was just part of the way that he taught his students. It was something everyone in 1B had needed to get used to, and had managed to adapt to since they first entered Yuuei.

A small smile made its way onto Itsuka's face. A chance to stretch her legs sounded good right about now. Patient as she could be, she was feeling restless just sitting here.

She glanced down at her phone, and for a moment, she felt herself tempted to message Momo. Asking to talk.

She trusted Momo. Among everything else, if there had to be a word that she had to use to describe how she felt about Momo, trust would be one of them.

She wanted to be honest with her…

But she decided against it. For now.

If she messaged her… It was possible that, if her worries were correct, and she was avoiding the Large Fist Quirk user, then letting her know she wanted to talk might cause her to avoid her by staying on the bus. Then again, that was also a kind of manipulative way to think about things, wasn't it? Not messaging her so she could essentially corner her?

Or was she thinking about this too hard? Or just being paranoid?

She sighed once again. Everything was always so confusing when it came to Momo.

Maybe… She should let Momo come to her. Just to see where they stood.

Itsuka glanced out the window, past Setsuna, whom somehow was fast asleep. There was a fairly simple solution. If Momo approached her whilst they were on this break, then great. If not, Itsuka could approach her once they reached the lodge. That made sense.

She shook her head and chuckled. Normally she was great at making quick calls on the fly, but given time to think about how to deal with Momo, she found herself stammering in her own thoughts. There was definitely a sense of irony there.

The bus came to a stop. Itsuka took a short breath. It was time to see which one of two ways this was going to go.

I sometimes wonder if I write this story well – I'm a white, cis, straight guy trying to write a romance between these two girls with a focus on identity and discovering ones self – I may not be the ideal person to write this. Still, I'm trying my best, and while I planned for this chapter to be longer, I thought that it might be smarter to split this chapter up with the next, since it'd make for more structured long-term reading. At least, that's my logic.

Recent MHA chapters have me hyped as hell – But also slightly distressed. They make the perfect set up for Handcrafted, but I started this a bit early. So, I'll have to make do with what I have – and hopefully implement some ideas that the recent chapters have given me in later chapters, or in later projects. I thank Dominomags and others for suggesting a slight look at Momo's home life - Rich, high life... Stuff, and how Momo interprets it all, and all that aspect of her life. I need to focus a bit more on Momo's home life I think. Not sure how it came out in this chapter though. I hope it went well.

In any case, I hope that ya'll enjoyed this chapter, and I'll be seeing you in the next one – See ya!