The best thing about cooking is watching others enjoy what you make. That was my personal opinion, anyways. Sitting down between Izuku and Ochako, watching them scarf down pancakes, I smiled happily. Across the table, Tenya and Momo were gorging themselves as well, but in a slightly politer fashion.

"Thif if rea'y goo', I'han!" Ochako snarfed, mouth full and eyes bright. "Wa' 'ou fay isf wasf a'ain? Pa'akes?"

I giggled at how hard Ochako was to understand. "Pancakes, yes," I confirmed, bobbing my head happily. "I'm glad you're enjoying them, the boys and I had a very difficult time prepping them."

"The boys?" Momo repeated, looking amused. "You're using colloquialisms now?"

Ochako gasped dramatically. "Don't tell me… you're all becoming friends?!"

I crossed my arms defensively. "I'm not, but can you think of a better way to phrase it?" I asked. "I don't want to list off all their names. Shouto, Monoma, and Bakugo are all males under the age of eighteen. Boys," I emphasized. "I am female, and therefore the exception. I should therefore be referred to separately, in first person because I'm the speaker, as 'I' or 'me'. Therefore, it's 'the boys and I'."

Tenya pushed up his glasses, lenses flashing. "You are very defensive, Ichigo," he remarked matter-of-factly.

"Suspicious," Ochako echoed helpfully.

"No, not suspicious," I insisted, slamming my hands down on the table. "There is nothing suspicious."

Izuku nodded in agreement, looking a bit worried. "Maybe you should lay off, guys," he said. "Ichigo doesn't want to talk about it."

"That's because we're right," Ochako responded without hesitation. My brows contorted immediately, and I opened my mouth in preparation to make a scathing comment. I was interrupted by Pixie-bob marching into the middle of the dining area banging pans together loudly.

Bang! Bong! The metal rang with every clash, and I winced at the loud, painful sound. Pixie-bob, grinning, stopped in the center of the picnic tables. With a final, loud crack, she dropped the pans to the ground and spread her arms widely. "Alright everyone! Breakfast is officially over!" Pixie-bob declared proudly. "It is time to begin training!" With a loud groan, I dropped my head onto the table. Ochako pat my shoulder sympathetically, while Izuku offered me an apologetic smile in advance. I bit my lip and tried to keep from whining. I didn't want to get beat up again. "Now then, get going everyone!" Pixie-bob encouraged, and I pushed myself up from the bench slowly.

At least I didn't have to clean the dishes.

After training that day, Mister Aizawa once again called Shouto, Bakugo, Monoma and I off to the side for our third trial. He walked us out to an empty field in relative silence, and I lingered by Shouto's side nearly compulsively. The little scene was a little too similar to our walk before the trust falls, and I didn't like it at all. My body was unnaturally tense, and I knew that if I was looking at myself I'd recognize the squirrelling eyes and shaking hands of anxiety in an instant. Fortunately, I was walking out of Shouto's view, and neither Bakugo or Monoma were the most observant of people.

It was a remarkably short walk to our newest testing ground, an open clearing. I automatically observed how the grass had been carefully mowed, and a white square was painted in the center, filled with gigantic foam blocks. I frowned thoughtfully, trying to connect the seemingly unconnected objects.

Mister Aizawa turned around, hands in his pockets. "Your third trial is the Trial of Communication. It's pretty straightforward," he began, back to the pile of foam blocks and faraway desk.

Bakugo snorted. "Straightforward as the last two damn tests?" he asked bitingly, and I couldn't bring myself to criticize him. Honestly, I agreed with sentiment.

"No," Mister Aizawa disagreed, unperturbed. "The objective of this test is to prove you all are capable of working together efficiently using your words." I bit my lip, feeling remarkably like a child from his phrasing. "The four of you will need to build a structure using all the blocks behind me. One of you will be a builder, one will be the 'runner', one will design the building, and the last will observe the progress and make suggestions to improve. The building must look like what the designer draws for you to pass, and only the runner's headset can communicate with both of the others," Mister Aizawa paused, pulling out a familiar black watch. "Decide your roles amongst yourselves, I'll hand out the headsets and start the fifteen-minute timer when you're ready." Explanation finished, he slouched away.

I found myself doubting the straightforwardness of his assignment instinctively, but pressed on anyways. It wouldn't do for Bakugo to be the first one to speak. "Monoma can be the runner," I decided quickly, eager to get this over with. These trials seemed to have a way of going wrong. "And it might be easiest if Shouto is the observer."

"Why do I need to be the runner?" Monoma challenged. "Does the great Class A need peasants to do all the hard work?" I sighed, having expected that resistance. Unfortunately, I was beat to responding.

Bakugo crossed his arms. "It'd only make sense for you to do the fucking talking, dumbshit, since you love running your damn mouth so much," he answered scathingly, eyes daring Monoma to talk back. The other blonde seemed more than happy to take the bait, but he was interrupted.

"It'd make more sense for Ichigo to be the runner," Shouto suggested.

I bit my lip, nodding in agreement. I felt suddenly guilty for not considering that Monoma and Bakugo constantly talking would offer too many opportunities for fights. "You're right, it'll be better if I'm the runner," I correct. "Shouto can be the builder instead, and…" I paused, realizing my next words could be the start of a fight if I wasn't careful. "Bakugo should be the observer, he'll spot any mistakes we make fastest. Monoma can work as the designer."

Bakugo huffed, but didn't protest. Monoma nodded, expression smug. "I can draw excellently, blueprints will be no problem!" he declared.

"Keep it simple," I commanded. "We have a time lim it and a bunch of boxes, so nothing complex."

Monoma smirked. "Duh," he said shortly, and before he could say anything else I turned to Mister Aizawa.

"We're ready!" I called out, and Mister Aizawa turned around immediately. Monoma's mouth snapped shut, and I let out a relieved breath.

"So who's who?" Mister Aizawa asked, three headsets in hand.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm the runner, Bakago is the observer, Shouto is the builder, and Monoma is the designer," I rattled off, hoping none of them would protest. Mister Aizawa scanned of our faces closely, and then held out a headset to me. I glanced over to Bakugo's grumpy expression nervously as I reached out and took the headset quickly. Mister Aizawa then offered Monoma his headset, and he took it with a smirk. The last headset was handed to Bakugo, who snatched it away, eyes narrowed on me. He was going to take his job – criticizing the rest of us – very seriously, I could tell.

"Bakugo, Monoma, follow me," Mister Aizawa ordered, before pulling out a headset of his own. "I'll tell you all when the timer starts. Kurosaki, use the switch on the side of your headset to switch channels, clear?"

I pulled the headset over my ears, adjusting the mic. I nodded, smiling weakly, not excited about this new activity. I reached up to the sides of my headset and felt around for the switch. "Got it," I confirmed. Mister Aizawa nodded and then shuffled away into the woods, Bakugo and Monoma on his heels. I shifted from foot to foot, and then glanced to the side at Shouto, who seemed focused on counting the foam blocks. I took a deep breath, and then reached up and turned my mic off so the others wouldn't hear.

"So…" I said, wondering how to say 'sorry for ignoring you for the past month and a half '. Shouto glanced at me, eyes clearly questioning. I hesitated, the words getting stuck on my tongue. I opened my mouth, ready to speak, only to be cut off by a loud beep. I winced, reaching up and switching on my headset.

Mister Aizawa's voice came across, short and irritated. "Kurosaki, don't switch off your headset," he ordered. "The exercise starts now." I nodded, then realized he couldn't see me and flushed. Before I could speak, a beep signaled him disconnecting.

I saw Shouto staring at me curiously, and turned away to hide my reddened face. Taking a deep breath, I flipped the switch and tried to connect to one of the boys. "Hey," I started. "Who's this?"

"It's Monoma," Monoma answered immediately, sounding very smug. "I'm already almost finished designing the building. How's that for speed-drawing?" he asked.

I grinned, amused and exasperated despite myself at his ego. "Good job," I complimented, trying to keep our conversation smooth. "So, what do you have so far?"

"It's a square with a stack of blocks at each corner," Monoma described. "I kept it simple for you Class A kids."

I clarified, "So it's like a fortress with pillars around it?" Monoma hummed in confirmation, so I switched off my mic and looked over to the box where Shouto was waiting. The other teen barely glanced up at me from where he was stacking things. "Uh, so it's kinda like a fortress," I described, holding my hands up in a square shape. Shouto didn't even glance up from the foam block he was holding. "But there's, like, pillars at each of the corners. They're all the same heig-"

A sharp beep over the headset cut me off. I winced, reaching up and switching the headset on. "Monoma, what the heck-"

"OI! ICHIMI!" Bakugo screeched. "SWITCH TO MY CHANNEL!" I froze, surprised by the interruption, before flicking the switch over to Bakugo's channel timidly. Did he have to shout so loudly? Then again, his headset didn't communicate directly with Monoma's, so maybe he didn't think I could hear?

I adjusted my microphone nervously, ears still ringing. "Uh, Bakago? I can hear you, please don't yell into the mic," I requested politely.

"D'you think I'm a fucking idiot?" Bakago snorted, and I frowned unhappily. "I can listen in on your conversations, I damn well know you can fucking hear me. Why haven't you done a fucking inventory check!" Bakugo hissed.

I blinked in confusion. "Huh?" I asked.

"You don't start a recipe without gathering the damn ingredients! Do you expect them to read your fucking mind? Count how many shitty blocks you have and make dumbshit specify the measurements!" Bakugo ordered. My eyes widened at the shockingly helpful advice.

I was such an idiot! Why hadn't I thought of that in the first place?! We were barely even starting and I'd already made a stupid mistake. Plus, Bakago had been blatantly right about something, and I couldn't argue with him. I couldn't even say I hadn't been obviously, entirely stupid!

"Ichimi? Is there a fucking brain in there?" Bakugo barked, voice crackling over the headphones. I flinched, startled out of my own self-berating.

I shook my head to regain my bearings. "R-right, I'll do that," I said shakily, still caught off guard. "Thanks, Bakago," I finished, turning around and flicking off my mic. I looked to Shouto, who currently making a square base with the blocks. "Shouto, how many blocks are there?" I asked.

Shouto glanced back. "Sixty-five," he answered promptly. I clenched my jaw, realizing that Shouto had thought to count the blocks even though I hadn't. Could I be that out of it?

"Ok, thanks," I answered, reaching up and flipping over to Monoma's channel. "Hey, Monoma?" I asked. "Can you make out the measurements for your fortress? You have sixty-five blocks to work with."

Monoma scoffed. "Easy," he said. "Give me a second, I'll give them to you."

I nodded, forgetting again that Monoma couldn't see. "Alright," I agreed, flipping off my mic for a second and looking to Shouto. "Don't continue building yet, Monoma's going to make more exact measurements." Shouto bobbed his head, dropping the block he'd been holding. He stared out into the woods silently, while I awkwardly fidgeted and waited for Monoma to speak. Finally, I couldn't take the tense silence anymore. "So, uh, our next trial is either the 'understanding' or 'leadership' test, right? Do you have any guesses about which?"

Shouto glanced at me, and then immediately shifted his gaze back to the woods. "Not really," he answered. There was a long pause, where I scrambled to think of something to say, before Shouto added, "Knowing Mister Aizawa, the 'understanding' trial will be difficult." Based on the odd tone of his voice, I could tell he was taking mercy on my poor attempt at starting a conversation.

I could work with that. "Yeah," I said, relieved. "He's usually pretty mean… he'll probably make us all share our most embarrassing childhood experiences or something…" I laughed tinnily. "At least I'll a lot to talk about." Shouto nodded quietly in agreement, but didn't say anything else. I sighed, twiddling my thumbs together behind my back. "Listen, I wanted to say I'm so-"

"Finished," Monoma's voice broke through over the headset, and I jumped in surprise. I hurriedly reached up and switched my mic on.

"Great!" I said. "Uh, why don't we start with the height and width of the walls?" I asked, mentally lambasting Monoma's terrible timing.

Monoma scoffed. "Nice and simple for Class A, hm?" he quipped. "The walls are four by four, three blocks high." I looked to Shouto and dutifully recited the information, and then Monoma added, "The pillars at each corner are four blocks high."

"Got it," Shouto answered, strolling over to the foam blocks and getting to work. I watched him get started carefully, wanting to make sure there wouldn't be any need for rebuilding. We only had about ten minutes left, and I suspected this would be the longest part of the exercise. Each cube was about two feet high, but fortunately Shouto was tall enough to stack them. If I'd been the builder, I would've been stuck jumping up and down for anything higher than two blocks tall - not to mention that the cubes were half as tall as I was.

Just as Shouto was beginning to stack up the pillars, a familiar, sharp beep sounded through the headset. I reached up and quickly switched over to Bakugo's channel. "Bakago? What is it?" I asked.

"Tell dumbshit he needs to find a place for an extra block," Bakugo commanded. "He's only used sixty-four in his stupid little design, and now there's an extra."

"Really?" I said incredulously, doing a mental tally. Four times four times three equals forty-eight plus sixteen for the pillars… yep, that was sixty-four. But I hadn't bothered to notice because… "Bakugo, do we really need to use all the blocks?" I wondered. "I don't remember Mister Aizawa saying it, so one extra should be fine."

Bakugo huffed. "Originally, he said that we'd need to use a structure using 'all' the blocks. Knowing that asshole, one word is more than enough for him to fuck us over," he explained.

Despite the crude phrasing, I agreed, especially after our rigged first trial. "You're right, I'll tell Monoma," I said, switching over to the aforementioned blonde's channel. "Hey, Monoma? We have an extra block, and Mister Aizawa might use semantics to fail us for it," I said, deciding not to mention that it was Bakugo's idea. I had a feeling that would run over well. "Think you can make one of the pillars a block taller or something?" I asked.

"No!" Monoma protested. "That would look stupid, absolutely not. There's an aesthetic here, Kurosaki, castles don't randomly have one taller tower. I'll fix it, give me a second," he said, and I could hear him mumble things under his breath as he presumably adjusted his design. I smiled in amusement at Monoma's phrasing. An "aesthetic", huh? I hadn't been expecting that from him… but then again, I hadn't expected him to know how to cook either.

Shouto, having apparently been listening into my conversations with the other two boys, was standing in front of his finished structure with the final block in hand. I smiled at him awkwardly, waiting for Monoma to finish mumbling and deliver instructions.
Finally, he finished. "Done," Monoma declared. "Now, I don't want this to get to complicated for you-" I silently rolled my eyes here. "-so I'll explain this in detail. Tell Todoroki to pick on of the sides and remove one of the middle blocks from the top row."

I switched off my mic for a moment. "Monoma is feeling superior, so this is coming in step by step," I prefaced. "Shouto, can you take off one of the top middle blocks?"

Shouto's expression shifted just barely into one of amusement, barely discernible from his usual deadpan. "Yeah," he confirmed, reaching up and easily grabbing one of the top blocks. (I suppressed the surge of jealousy at how easily he reached them. Damn tall people.)

I flipped the mic back on. "Did it," I said.

"Okay, now take the other middle blocks and stick it in the center of the gap," Monoma instructed. "The gaps on both side should be even." I nodded, and dutifully repeated Monoma's words to Shouto. "Now, take the two left over blocks and stack them on top of the gaps."

I bit my lip, glancing at Shouto nervously. He wouldn't be able to reach that high, would he? "Hey, Shouto? You might want to use some ice and make a stepping block," I suggested. "Monoma wants the two left over blocks stacked over each gap."

"It'll make the front of the castle stylized," Monoma insisted, and I coughed to cover my aborted laughter.

Shouto looked up, clearly measuring the height for himself, before shrugging. The familiar crackle of ice filled the air, and then Shouto was several feet higher in the air than he'd been before, putting the last two blocks in their places. While Shouto dropped to the ground and reached out to start melting his icy step-stool, I grinned happily.

"We're done!" I announced excitedly.

"You finished with five minutes and thirty-six seconds left on the clock." I spun around, startled to see Mister Aizawa standing behind me with his black remote in hand. "Bakugo, Monoma, return to the build-site," he said, speaking into his own headset, before holding a hand out to me. "You won't be needing that anymore, Kurosaki," he said, and I gladly handing over the headset, happy the entire trial was over.

A few minutes later, and all of us were standing in a line in front of Mister Aizawa, watching him compare our finished fortress to Monoma's drawing. I wrung my hands nervously, waiting with anticipation. We had done well, right?

"A bit rushed…" Mister Aizawa startled, and I held my breath, hoping we weren't about to fail. "But well done. You all pass."

A beatific grin spread across my face, and I bounced on my toes excitedly. "Yes!" I cheered. "Thank goodness, I was so worried." I spun around happily, wondering if I could get away with a cartwheel.

Bakugo crossed his arms. "The hell were you nervous for?" he growled. "This was easy as shit, no wonder we fucking passed."

"The other tests were easy as well," Mister Aizawa interrupted monotonously, and I froze. "Do any of you know why you were able to complete this test so much easier than the others?"

I paused, and a tense silence spread across the clearing. Why had this test been so easy, when the others had seemed so hard? Mister Aizawa was right, although the trust fall had been scaled up, it was still simple. Cooking hadn't been all that hard either. Why had they both seemed so much more difficult then? Maybe we'd worked together better? Teamwork? But there was no way the answer was so obvious, that had been the objective in the first place! There had to be a better answer...

Mister Aizawa scanned the four of us dully. "No answer?" he questioned. "Then here's your fourth trial, it ends at this time tomorrow." Mister Aizawa lifted up his device and revealed the display, with a twenty-four hour countdown. "I want each of you to do a complete analysis of each other's abilities, and figure out what changed from yesterday to today," he declared, and then his face spread in a familiar, cheshire-cat grin. "Your Trial of Understanding starts now!"

I blinked, and then frowned. Shouto had been right, the Trial of Understanding was going to be very difficult. Very difficult indeed. An in-depth analysis of everyone?

Seemingly amused by our consternation, Mister Aizawa turned around and started strolling back towards the camp. "You're more than welcome to work together or alone, but I expect you all to have different answers tomorrow. You can head back whenever you'd like as well," he said, vanishing into the woods.

Bakugo, with an irate "tch!", marched off along behind our teacher. Monoma, who was also visibly vexed, left a moment later as well.

Realizing that everyone was going to start leaving now, I faced Shouto, knowing this was my last chance to apologize before everyone left. "Sh-Shouto?" I called, cursing my stutter. Shouto paused at the mention of his name, so I stared at my feet as I rushed out, "Listen, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry f-for ignoring you before, I know I s-said I'd be mature ab-bout the whole 'final exam' thing, but I really d-don't think I was and—"

"Ichigo." My mouth snapped shut, and I lifted my head timidly. Shouto was… smiling? It wasn't a grin or anything, but the corners of his mouth were upturned just so that it clearly differed from his normally flat expression. "I get it. It's fine."

I grinned, relieved. "Great! Good! Okay! So things can return to normal now!" I cheered, running up to Shouto's side with a bounce in my step. "That's awesome because things have been super awkward lately, I'm really sorry about that—"

"Ichigo, it's fine," Shouto repeated, trailing after Bakugo and Monoma.

I nodded, cheeks reddening. "Right, sorry — wait, no!" I cut myself off from apologizing again. Burying my face in my hands, I thought I might've heard a low chuckle, but I was too busy trying to regain my composure to notice.

Mailbox

sousie Yeah, Ichigo has never had good luck, it makes sense she'd faint on her first day as well.

The Independent Variable Thank you :)

castielris I shall do my best not to fall ill again! I'm glad to be back as well, I've missed writing :) Aizawa is Dadzawa, he just hides it under layers of sarcasm and sadism. Ichigo was pretty cute when she stuttered, right? It took all the edge of her sarcastic comments (wonder where she learned that from). Glad you liked the interlude!

18. NekoMimi .27 Thank you for that, I'm happy to be feeling better as well! Everyone really seems to like seeing things from Aizawa's POV, I think I might do some other interludes as well later on for fun. Aizawa in this story is just stealth Dadzawa. Sadly, I don't think Ichigo will ever fulfill her dream of being creepy or vaguely threatening. She's just too small and cute. Mic and Midnight will continue to appear in the story, especially Midnight, so look forward to it! Speaking of the Shouchigo shippers - think this chapter added to that? At that very least, Ichigo and Shouto are friends again, which is what really matters. I laughed the entire time at Ichigo's attempts to apologize, they really are awkward to the point of comedy. More "cute drama" on the way soon! Although, Part 2 isn't looking too cute at the moment... On the bright side, I am now firmly back to updating every Monday!

GreenDrkness Ichigo has always had a lot of bravery inside her, its just that Aizawa's teaching gives her the confidence to finally use it. It's scenes like those that give a glimpse into how I envision Hime-Hime finally becoming. And yes, Ichigo was still living on the streets and getting her only meals from Lunch Rush - that's why she was so skinny and ate so much given every opportunity. Free food!

Guest You can pick favorites, I don't mind. XD

xenocanaan I enjoy making meme references in my stories now. I thought that suited her XD I'm not sure if Aizawa discovered his sadistic streak from teaching Ichigo, or if she just enabled him to worsen it. Nothing like having a loyal minion to torture! I'm glad you appreciated Aizawa's POV. I had actually originally intended for THIS to be the start of the story, but I changed my mind before I started posting. I think it had more weight here and now, since everyone has had time to get attached to Ichigo.