March 20th, 2016 (same day)
Bakugou Katsuki didn't like the dumb festival. It was pointless and a stupid excuse for the school to show off to parents. When their class decided on making sweets, he immediately tuned out of the planning.
But… he couldn't help noticing Akira Ayano's growing excitement and dread for the fast approaching festival. On multiple occasions over the last month he found her researching and taking notes on different sweets to make. On the other hand, when Class Rep suggested uniforms for the students making and serving the sweets, Ayano evaded the girl at all costs. Pretty sure I saw her jumping out a second story window to avoid getting her measurements taken. But it was all for nothing, he found out from Ayano a couple days after that, because Class Rep stole Ayano's school uniform during gym to get the numbers she needed.
When March 20th finally arrived, Bakugou had been tasked with set-up and clean-up, so during the event he was allowed to roam the school. He was planning on finding Ayano, probably in the kitchen already, so he could annoy her while she worked. She's probably still pissed about me making fun of Deku in class last week… He didn't want to apologize, and why should he need to? It's not like it's his fault Deku was born quirkless.
'It's not like it's Izuku's fault either!' Her voice rang in his head, an argument from a few months back biting him in the ass. And if he didn't apologize, she would probably just annoy him with her constant disappointed looks and silent treatment.
As the blonde opened the door to the kitchen with a slam, all heads turned his way, then fell after seeing him. A quick glance around the small room revealed no heads of curly brown hair.
Where the hell is-?
"Well, it's actually really simple," A vaguely familiar voice down the hall caught Katsuki's attention. He scanned the maybe 40 student large group and caught a glimpse of short messy black hair. Deku. "I want you to beg me for it." Red eyes focused back towards the voice from the middle of the crowd.
He decided to figure out what the hype was, plus while I don't know where my usual source of entertainment is, might as well check this out. He really shouldn't have been surprised, when he was halfway down the hall he heard her voice.
"Will you please give my journal back?" The admittedly short-tempered junior high student almost groaned. Of course Aya's in the middle of whatever the hell this is, can't really say I expected anything else, fucking idiot.
As Katsuki finally got to the front of the crowd, barely out of Ayano's peripheral vision on her left, he was momentarily stunned by what Ayano was wearing. Is that a-? His thoughts were cut off again by the girl holding a purple book covered in stickers and pointing at the floor. The next words that came out of her mouth set Katsuki's blood on fire.
"Do it properly, seiyōjin."
His fists clenched as the petty excuse for a girl called Aya westerner, but his eyes snapped to Ayano before anything else. Her eyes were searching the crowd, it didn't take him long to figure out what she was looking for.
An ally.
Well, I guess I can't just walk away now.
Katsuki stepped forward, just as Ayano's shoulders started to slouch. He grabbed her arm right as she was leaning forward to bow, maybe even kneel. He ignored whatever look she gave him as he glared at the three cowards in front of him.
He could tell his reputation preceded him, the hesitation in their faces was clear. Katsuki took a step forward and the girl holding the book pointed it at him.
"You know," She had a desperate look in her eye, "There's stuff about you in here." He could feel Ayano tense up beside him. He couldn't care less about what was in the book. But Ayano did, so he should probably get it back before shit went sideways. "I could tell you-"
"Hand it over."
The murmurs and ambient sounds of the school seemed to disappear. Ayano watched as Head Bitch trembled under Katsu-kun's glare. Huh, I guess he can be useful.
Ayano won't admit that she hadn't felt more alone than 2 minutes ago when she was about to beg for her dignity in a maid's uniform. No one will ever hear her confess that she felt immense relief when Katsuki's hand landed on her arm and pulled her to stand up straight.
When the leader didn't do what he asked, Katsuki's voice lowered to almost a growl that made her jump. "Hand it over, or I'll kill you."
Ayano was sure that he could get in trouble for such a blatant threat, but when the terrified and embarrassed girl threw the purple book at Ayano, she didn't give a shit about the rules and caught it with a red force field. She grinned at the blonde boy as she dismissed the bubble and caught the book. Her arms wrapped tightly around all of her private thoughts as she hugged the simple journal to her chest.
"Thanks for that," She bumped his shoulder with hers as the crowd dispersed. Izuku popped up carrying a large box in front of her as Katsuki scoffed. The blonde otherwise ignored her gratitude as the three of them walked to the home-ec-classrooms-turned-kitchens.
"Hey, uh, everything okay? I only caught the end of that." Izuku walked into the kitchen first, setting down the box he was carrying on an open space.
Ayano responded as she opened the box, checking the contents, "Yeah, it definitely could've gone a lot worse." She pulled out some of her premade doughs and batters, lining them up on the counter next to their respective recipes.
A glance at the two boys on the verge of twiddling their thumbs and Ayano made a split-second decision. "If you two have nothing better to do, and you promise to do as I tell you, you could help me make some of these."
Izuku's face lit up, "Of course! Just, um, you might have to show me how first."
Katsuki tsked, then looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Does that mean I get free samples?"
The blue eyed girl laughed as she pulled out the bowl of dough for the castagnoles, a fried carnival treat from Italy. "Yeah, sure, as long as you make enough to make up for whatever you consume."
She walked both boys through rolling the dough into generous inch sized balls. Izuku was shaky at first but got into a rhythm pretty quickly. The usually impatient red eyed boy was working much more efficiently than she expected.
Soon, they had more than enough for the first rush of the day almost an hour before Ayano expected herself to.
"Hmmm, you could help me fry and fill the cannolis, but then we'll be just about done. I'll have to leave you guys to tend to the booth around 9, since I don't trust anyone else with frying these babies." She gestured to the dough balls they just completed, "And it would just be wrong to pre-fry them."
"Why? Wouldn't that save time?" It was too easy to compare Izuku to a puppy when his head tilted to the side. Ayano decided to keep the thought to herself to spare the boy's pride.
She tilted her hand back and forth, "Maybe? They're barely in the oil a couple of minutes anyway and they are ten times better fresh so I might as well wait to serve them fresh." She pointed to the bowl next to the recipe card labeled 'Cannolis', "Those, however, can keep just a little bit longer, and I have to fry them one by one. Mind passing that bowl, Katsu-kun?"
He complied and handed her the bowl, then stood next to her and watched her flour the table. Izuku watched from the other side, put on guard duty for the raw castagnoles on their six trays. The girl in the frilly maid costume took care of rolling out half of the cannoli shell dough as she talked Katsuki through making the ricotta filling. She was honestly surprised with how easily he was taking her instructions.
Soon enough, it was frying time. With the ricotta chilling with the other two cannoli fillings in the fridge, Katsuki was back by Ayano's right side ready to take the freshly fried shells with a paper towel. Izuku had moved to her left side to prepare the next circle of dough on the mold. They worked like a well oiled machine. No one got in each other's way or slowed the process. As Ayano pulled the last shell out, Sameko opened the door.
"Akira-san, are you on schedule?" The Class Rep clicked her pen, not looking up from her clipboard.
Ayano spoke happily as she handed the shell off to Katsuki, "Ahead, actually. I just finished the last shell, so I bet we could have the cannolis ready in half an hour, tops."
That seemed to be the only good news Sameko had heard all day. The smile on her face was almost unbelieving, "Really? Thank god, I don't think I could have handled another delay. Half an hour? That puts you at 8:30, so you would have half an hour before we have to open up." Her face turned to a pleading one, "Would you mind helping Yumi-?"
Before Ayano could answer, probably to accept, Katsuki interrupted. "No."
Katsuki could tell that, no matter how stressed Class Rep was, Ayano needed those 30 minutes more than anyone right now. The whole time they were working together she kept on checking the pocket on her apron. He had noticed her drop that stickered purple book in there after she got it back from whoever that black-haired bitch was. His hand grabbed her arm before she could contradict him, he gave her a look and she shut her mouth. Her glare told him it wasn't over, however. Great, that'll be a fucking blast.
Sameko's face dropped a bit, but she didn't seem surprised. "Alright, I get it. Save a couple sweets for me if you can, and find me if you need anything." It was obvious to the three that she hoped they wouldn't need anything. After that, she left the room in a hurry, seemingly recallinging an almost forgotten commitment.
Ayano turned and raised an eyebrow at Katsuki, "So?"
He raised a challenging brow, "...so?"
Her eyes rolled. "What the hell was that? 'No'?" Her arms crossed, and Katsuki wanted to burn his eyes for following the movement and watching how her chest moved-"Why am I not allowed to help Sameko?"
Oh boy, that sounded like a trap if Katsuki had ever heard one. I'm screwed no matter what I say… might as well have fun with it.
He grinned maliciously at her, "What, you wanted to spend that half-hour with what's-her-face stressing about everyone else's bullshit? Isn't it much more fun to just deal with mine?"
The brunette rolled her eyes again and ignored him, turning to the box to pull out the piping bags. "Anyway, since Katsu-kun finished the ricotta filling, and I made the other two yesterday, we can all choose a flavor and start piping 'em." Ayano pulled out the ricotta and two resealable bags of filling from the fridge and one last empty bag from the box.
"There's chocolate, mint chip, and the original ricotta Katsu-kun so kindly made for us." She handed Deku the chocolate bag with the 5-pointed-star tip. Katsuki got the mint chip with a 10-pointed-star tip. After easily pulling her poofy hair back with a hair tie that definitely just materialized in her hand, she made quick work of moving the ricotta from the bowl to the empty bag with the circle tip.
She showed them how to fill the cannolis from both sides with the ricotta filling a few times before the boys started with their given flavors. Katsuki, as expected, picked it up quickly. When he started speeding up to catch-up to Ayano, she sped up with him. It became a silent race to see who could finish first, without ruining any of course. Yea, I break just one she'll kill me for sure.
So began Katsuki and Ayano's competition of the hour, who could fill more cannolis?
あきら End Chapter 6 あやの
