A/N: So I started watching Food Wars recently, and I can't wait for the third season to come out. I posted about this on my tumblr, and between the responses from my followers and talking to my husband, I've decided to make this an OC story instead of a Fairy Tail crossover story.

I'm completely out of my comfort zone by breaking into this fandom without it being a crossover, so constructive criticism on canon characters is greatly appreciated. I'm still trying to find these characters' voices, though.

It'll be a chapter story, but I'm not sure how many chapters just yet. And just for those of you who read author notes, please be aware that this story intentionally shifts in tenses and a good portion of it is a series of flashbacks (told in past tense). So, if it's present tense, that means we're dealing with the older character(s), and not when they're in the academy.

So, let's get on with the story! I hope you guys enjoy this plot bunny. I know I said I was going to wait to post this, but I'm hopeless and far too excited to keep it to myself.

Partners

Her days start at four in the morning, but she doesn't want it any other way. Crystal loves waking up when the sun is still down and driving to the restaurant to start baking for the day. At the age of twenty-two, she's as successful as she'd always wanted to be.

But that morning, after she'd finishes icing cakes and testing out new recipes - most of which are still flops - she sits down in the office with her mother and finds something that surprises her.

A scrapbook from her middle and high school years in Japan. She's back home in Florida, and has been for a long time, but there are days that she misses the hustle and bustle of Totsuki Academy. The pressure to perform. How far her culinary skills had been pushed because she knew that she was being compared to others who were the same age as her, but leagues ahead in ability.

"Mom, what's this doing out?" Crystal asks with a fond smile. Her fingers brush across the worn cover and she pulls it into her lap.

"I was looking through some boxes in your old room," her mother says. "Thought you might want to reminisce a little."

Crystal laughs and brings the book to her chest. She's a sentimental fool a lot of the time. But there's one thing from her experience in Japan that always brings tears to her eyes. It wasn't in the beginning, when she'd barely gotten through the entrance exam for middle school. Those few years had been horrible and awkward, and she tried her best to forget them.

What sticks with her the most was later, when she was in her first high school year. Just after the Fall Selection, when they had all been assigned to work experience sites. It was when she'd met him. Ryo Kurokiba.

He was aloof back then. A true enigma.

Her mother pats her shoulder and walks out of the office, leaving Crystal to carefully open the scrapbook and peer down at the first page. At the picture of her fifteen-year-old self, standing in front of a small, quaint restaurant with a boy several heads taller than her. His hair is like pitch, and his tired red eyes peer at the camera from between his disheveled bangs. His arm isn't around her. They hadn't been close enough to even shake hands. They're simply side-by-side, but that had been the beginning for her.

Crystal's hand smoothed across her apron while she waited for her cakes to finish in the oven. The kitchen was silent, already sparkling from being freshly cleaned and sanitized, and now it was just a matter of time before she could bring her creation to the store owner for him to try out.

It was the second week of the Stagiaire, and she'd been informed that she had to stay in this hell hole to keep helping out.

And she hated it. Mr. Hokotomi was kind of an asshole, to be perfectly honest. At least, he was to her. No matter how much she smiled at his pudgy little face and ignored the sweat glistening on his brow and dripping down to the wire rims of his glasses, he didn't seem to care very much for her existence in his store. But she could be a professional, and this was her way of proving it.

Her partner had been expelled in the first day, and they'd found out that someone from Totsuki was watching their every move when a man dining near the little restaurant's window called for the chef who made his roast beef, then promptly terminated the boy. Apparently, he could smell smoke on the food from Koji's hands, from the cigarette he'd snuck while in the bathroom. Apparently, students could get expelled for smoking.

The timer went off and Crystal pulled three pans from the oven, then set them on the shining steel counter. She reset the timer for fifteen minutes and went about gathering the ingredients she needed for the topping and garnishes. Her hometown famous cinnamon buttercream icing, and blown sugar orbs filled with caramel to cover the three-layer apple pie inspired cake she'd made.

There weren't many students at Totsuki who gave desserts a whole lot of attention. Everyone focused so much on entrees and appetizers, but the most important part of the meal - in Crystal's eyes - was left to "lowly bakers."

She was surprised that she'd even made it to the high school level, considering her specialty really was just baking. Savory and sweet was her favorite flavor combination, and she'd managed to squeak through the initial taste test by dressing up a pineapple upside-down cupcake with a ham-infused honey glaze. It hadn't wowed anyone enough to make their clothes go flying, but it was enough to get her foot in the door.

Still, she had another week at this restaurant, and she'd yet to make a serious contribution to the place. Luckily, they'd given her a sort of free pass the week prior because there hadn't been any complaints about her performance in the kitchen even after her partner for the Stagiaire was expelled. Crystal took the load they should have been sharing, and bore it herself.

The scrape of her wooden spoon in the bowl as she mixed the icing set her into a lulled state of relaxation. Enough so that she could start trying to think of different ways to bring in more business for Hokotomi Eatery. They specialized in Western cuisine, so that gave her a little bit of an edge when it came to preparing the meals for service. But business was dwindling as winter drew closer, and Mr. Hokotomi expected the Totsuki students who came to work for him to fix his problem.

She wasn't a marketing specialist, though. Crystal didn't even have a club she belonged to at school. She kept to her studies and constantly brushed up on her Japanese to make sure she wasn't left in the dust by the students who already knew it and so much more.

Once the icing was finished, Crystal set about starting to boil the sugar and syrup for her blown sugar, another pan for the caramel, then dirty icing the first layer of cake. It didn't have to be perfect between the layers, just thick enough to give the customer a good taste of it with every bite. She set the second layer down carefully, iced again, then put the third layer on top. Next came carving it.

This was her first attempt at making some sort of change in Hokotomi's Eatery. They had frozen pies for their desserts. Nothing more. Nothing to really wow the customers. It made her cringe just thinking about it. But she could change that. And if people found out about the new dessert menu, they might be more inclined to come to the restaurant and try it out. That was why she was making this in the first place. Mr. Hokotomi wanted to taste it before he agreed to put any stock in her opinion on adding a dessert menu.

She put a thin layer of icing around the cake once it was carved into an elegant dome, then transferred it to the refrigerator.

Crystal was so involved in her work that she didn't hear the kitchen door swing open, or two sets of footsteps drawing closer while she pulled and twisted the sugar again and again. She was unaware of two sets of eyes watching her cut strips of sugar and attach them to her small hand pump, then fill the sugar with air. She just needed the shapes for the time being. Once they were done, she could get the caramel that was nearly ready inside, then use her creme brulee torch to seal them.

"What is that?"

If she hadn't had sugar in her hands, Crystal would have screamed and ducked for cover in surprise. Instead, her emerald gaze never left the little orange ball rolling between her gloved hands. "Sugar," she said. "For the cake."

She heard Mr. Hokotomi let out a long sigh through his nose. He just didn't understand. All he needed was someone to do the desserts once a day. With the exception of single-serving desserts, a baker could pound out cakes in no time and leave the kitchen free for the chefs during lunch and dinner service.

"Your partner's here," he said.

Crystal nodded and put another piece of sugar on the pump. "Thank you, sir." He left after that, and Crystal set her focus entirely on the dessert she was making. Orange and red and yellow sugar mixed and blended into ten fiery little orbs. Making the caramel was simple, and she took her time to carefully pour it into the orbs while holding them over a fan so they wouldn't lose their shape from the heat.

If she could just prove that desserts were a worthy investment, maybe that would help Mr. Hokotomi's business. And if his business was helped in any way, then she would be able to pass the Stagiaire and live to see another day at Totsuki Academy.

She hoped.

Had she known that Ryo Kurokiba was going to be her partner, Crystal might have thought better than trying to impress Mr. Hokotomi with her cake. Had she known that one of the three finalists from the Fall Selection would be sitting beside the restaurant owner and trying a slice of her cake, Crystal most likely would have thrown in the towel before even starting.

Surely she could call her mother back in America and say she'd gotten expelled from the program. Her mother was actually waiting for that call, already knowing how cutthroat Totsuki was, but it was part of the reason Crystal had been so adamant about passing. She wanted to prove that Americans could make it in the culinary world. She wanted to learn everything she could and go back home when this was all done, and help her mother open up a restaurant of their own instead of working at her grandfather's Italian restaurant.

But Ryo was there, eating her cake and even though she felt just a little better about the fact that he hadn't spit it out, he was taking a long time to chew that first piece.

Did that mean it wasn't good? Was he breaking down every flavor and trying to find the faults in it? Was he analyzing her recipe and taking notes on it in his head?

She was so caught up in watching one of the stars of Totsuki eat her food that she completely ignored Mr. Hokotomi. She didn't see the owner's brows draw together or how he looked at his fork just before carefully tapping at the caramel-filled sugar ball.

She was going to be working with a real cooking superstar. What the hell was she supposed to do with that? Ryo was a genius, and Crystal was just… some girl who managed to scrape by unnoticed. She'd heard that he'd gotten through the Training Camp with ease; meanwhile, she hadn't left an impression on anyone, and most people simply forgot she'd cooked for them.

Crystal was still extremely thankful that she'd managed to dodge Chef Shinomiya's courses. If he'd tasted her food, she would have been gone in a heartbeat.

She finally pulled her gaze away from Ryo to look at Mr. Hokotomi, just when his gaze lifted to stare at her. "H-How is it?"

"What is this?" he asked, pointing to the ball.

"Oh, uh…" Crystal shifted slightly and caught Ryo in her peripherals, looking at her. "Well, it's blown sugar filled with caramel. You can break it open and eat it by itself, or… Um…"

"Or?"

"Y-You can pour it on, um… O-On…"

Ryo looked down at the fiery red and orange orb, then broke it over the cake. The caramel seeped down into the filling and he took a slow bite. Once he swallowed, he blinked and looked at Crystal. "You can pour it on the cake and add more moisture to it," he said.

"R-Right!" she squeaked. God, she sounded like a moron. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment and finally, her gaze drifted to the floor. No one spoke. The only sounds in the empty restaurant were the soft clink of forks on plates. That had to be a good sign, though. They were still eating.

Maybe it wasn't horrible. Maybe they liked it. Maybe this could be her contribution to the restaurant, and Mr. Hokotomi would put it on the menu, and then-

"I won't feed this to my customers."

Crystal's head shot up to find his cake was barely eaten, and the sugar ball was cracked on the side with caramel dripping down toward the center of the plate. "Sir?"

Mr. Hokotomi frowned and wiped his mouth with a napkin, then stood and walked back toward the kitchen. "This is a waste of time and resources," he said. "I don't have a qualified baker to make this, even if I wanted to give it to my customers."

Crystal turned to watch him walk away, biting back her instant response to tell him to shove his opinion in a very unpleasant place.

Her shoulders slumped in defeat. There went that plan. Maybe it was just the wrong type of dessert though. Maybe it was too fancy, too specialized. Blown sugar was a stupid idea. Here she was, wanting to show off for him and the Totsuki officials who were keeping an eye on her, but she'd forgotten the most important part. Whatever changes were made, they needed to be sustainable even after she was gone.

"Damnit," Crystal whispered. Her hands swiped over her face when she felt the first of her tears burning her eyes. No way. She wasn't going to cry over this. The recipe was solid. It was just the wrong place for it.

She took a deep breath and calmed herself down and walked toward the kitchen, leaving Ryo at the table. No one saw him quietly putting a second piece of cake on his plate.

Lunch service later that day was terrifying. Ryo was so different once that bandana was on his head. Crystal was positive that nothing good could come from the sudden terror that her partner became once he was in "Chef Mode." He yelled and terrorized the staff. There was a deadly aura wafting off of him in droves.

It left her questioning whether this was the kind of drive it took to be a top chef in Totsuki without being one of the Elite Ten. Was this what it took to become one of them?

This was definitely not the quiet teen she'd prepped food with that morning. He'd been silent then. Calm. Almost lazy. He hadn't said two words to her aside from a quiet grunt when she said hello. When he did speak that morning, it was only to Mr. Hokotomi, and he sounded bored out of his mind.

Then the orders started coming in. They were slammed within minutes, and Ryo's bandana flew from his wrist to tie around his head. In a matter of seconds, he was a demon of the kitchen and took control of it all.

"Why are those clams not ready yet?!"

"Coming right now," Crystal called back.

"You're taking too long!"

"Sorry, Chef!"

"I need three daily specials down," Ryo called out from the ticket on the line in front of him. "One subs a white rice, one with extra marinara, third with no garlic."

"Specials, heard!" the staff called out in unison.

"White rice, heard!"

"Marinara, heard!"

"No garlic, heard!" Crystal called back.

"And where in the hell are those clams?!" Ryo shouted.

"Clams up!" Crystal called back. She whirled in place and set the bowl on the counter beside him then turned back to her station to start working on her portion of the daily special.

"You'll move faster than that, or you'll get the hell out of my kitchen!"

"Yes, Chef!" she called back.

It went on for hours. By the time the lunch rush was done, Crystal was exhausted. Her nerves were shot. She'd been in kitchens busier than this one - though she'd never been working in them before - and no one had ever yelled so much. The chefs back home didn't intimidate people into performing properly. There was respect across the board.

But Ryo respected no one. He was suddenly the head chef in Hokotomi's Eatery, and everyone else was there to serve his demands.

The only problem? He got results. Food was out faster than ever before, according to the rest of the staff. Ryo was capable of controlling them and making them all an efficient machine. He didn't lose his cool and start messing everything up.

That was all Crystal's doing. And when she thought about it, they still had to get through the dinner rush that would start in a couple hours. There was just enough time to clean and prep more food. There was no time to try and convince Mr. Hokotomi to let her make another dessert and have the customers test it out.

"Crystal." She turned to find the owner standing a few feet from her with a phone in his hand. "One of my waitresses called out. You're on front of the house tonight."

"Yes, sir," she said.

"Good riddance," Ryo spat while wiping down the line. "You're too slow."

Her lips tightened into a line and she bowed to Mr. Hokotomi. Crystal turned back to her station and started cleaning. Just because she wouldn't be in the kitchen didn't mean she wasn't going to pull her weight. She knew how busy it was going to get, so giving the chefs a hand by having everything where it needed to be was her priority.

All she could hope was that it wouldn't be too bad for the rest of the week.

Ryo preferred silence. He really did, but it seemed no one realized that. Maybe it was just that he wasn't vocal enough about it, or that he just didn't care all that much in general, but the second morning in Mr. Hokotomi's restaurant was so silent he was beginning to question whether he'd gone deaf.

"So, Ryo…"

No, he wasn't deaf. Damn. His gaze shifted just enough to see the petite brunette standing beside him, easily slicing cucumbers and onions. Her chestnut hair was tied up into a relaxed braid and curled around itself to keep it out of her face. "Hm." He went back to marinating the beef they would need for dinner that night.

"You know how we're supposed to make a contribution?"

"Mm."

"Well, I was thinking… What did you do at your last assignment?"

He was silent. It was one of his best qualities, he figured. Ryo let out a slow breath and sprinkled more seasoning across the beef. "Improved business and staff morale," he finally said.

"How?"

His hand lifted and her gaze shot toward his bandana. "That."

"... Oh."

They kept working in silence. It was so different from what he normally had to listen to when he was cooking with Alice. She was a talker, and had a tendency to order him around. Granted, he'd accepted the position as her aide, but that was mostly because she'd offered to get him out of that pub in Denmark. He would have been stupid to turn it down.

Alice knew when he could stand listening to her rambling, and when he really just needed to be by himself in the kitchen. They'd been together long enough that it had become second nature for her to read the subtle clues and give him the peace and quiet he needed. But Crystal's silence was deeper, somehow. It didn't make him uneasy, just more aware of her presence beside him.

"Um, so I had a thought," she said after several more minutes. "A dessert menu."

"..."

"People come here for pretty good food, but then they get fast food level desserts for way too much money," she said. "So, what if we made up a new dessert menu that ranged from elegant to simple, that way everyone has something to suit their tastes?"

Ryo shrugged. "Could work."

He didn't say a word after that, even when she tried talking to him again. She tried making small talk, asking about his techniques for different things he was doing. She seemed eager to learn, but it wasn't his job to teach her. Ryo's only job was to improve this shit hole enough to get through this stage, then get back to school.

He still needed to challenge Yukihira to a food war. Even if it wasn't official. He had to beat that asshole.

Once she was out of the kitchen, Mr. Hokotomi walked in from the office and narrowed his eyes at the door she'd just walked through. "Between you and me, that girl shouldn't be here."

Ryo said nothing. He kept his eyes only on his work. He didn't care if Crystal was expelled for failing the Stagiaire. That was one less person he needed to knock out of his way.

"Little American girl acts like she's so-"

Ryo ignored him after that. He hadn't realized that Crystal was American. Totsuki was diverse enough that he never really questioned where someone was from. Sometimes he could tell, like with the Aldini twins, but usually it was either someone was Japanese, or they weren't.

It didn't matter to him where she came from. It wasn't like she would be around long enough for it to make a difference.

Crystal looked out across the square through the restaurant's front window, toward the large groups of townsfolk bustling past the building without even taking a moment to glance in their direction. It was dead. Utterly empty.

All the prepping they'd done that morning to get ready for the usual lunch rush would go to waste. But it was a Tuesday, and the same thing had happened the previous week when it had just been her with the other staff members. Of course, Mr. Hokotomi didn't want to listen to her when she'd mentioned maybe holding back on prepping as much until they knew what business would be like that day. Apparently being there for only a week wasn't enough time for her to understand the flux in customers.

Because there was nothing to do - everything was already clean and spotless, and he wouldn't let her do any baking and waste his money - she was getting restless.

She needed to do something. Anything to keep herself occupied. It just didn't seem right to lounge in the kitchen like Ryo was doing. They were supposed to be helping Mr. Hokotomi, not wasting everyone's time.

Crystal turned away from the window and removed her apron while making her way back to the kitchen. She edged past the stool Ryo had commandeered and strode toward the office where Mr. Hokotomi was handling the books. Based on what she knew of accounting, and how her grandfather acted when he was interrupted in the office, Crystal was just a little hesitant to bother him. Still, she wanted to make the most of this opportunity.

So she knocked gently and took a step away from the doorway to give him some space. "Excuse me," she said when he didn't respond. "Mr. Hokotomi?"

"What is it?"

"I was wondering if I could step out for a little while," she said. "I wanted to ask around town and gauge people's responses to the restaurant. Maybe that could help-"

"That's a waste of time," he spat, tossing his pen to the desk and slowly turning to glare at her. "I don't know how things work where you come from, but that's not how we do it here."

Crystal bit her lips and nodded, lowering her head slightly. It had taken a while to get used to the customs in Japan, but she'd learned pretty quickly that bowing even just a little was a step in the right direction. "Of course, sir. I just wanted to help."

"No, you just want to suck up so you can stay at your school," he said. "I know how it works. The only reason I let you stay here instead of having you kicked out last week is because it's free labor."

"Yes, sir. I understand," she whispered.

"I can't believe they even let someone like you into that school. I had assumed Totsuki had standards."

"Only the highest, sir."

"Then why are you even here? Ryo is a genius in the kitchen. All I need is him. You're just dead weight."

Crystal's head lowered a little more and her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Sharp guilt pierced her gut and seeped through her veins. Her eyes slid closed to combat the tears fighting to break past her lashes. "I-I'll try harder, sir."

"Sure you will. Stop wasting my time."

"Yes, sir," she said. God, she wanted to do what her mother had done all those years ago with her grandfather, and tell the guy off. Crystal took a deep, calming breath and backed away from the door, then turned. She was more than ready to hide herself in the bathroom for a little while. Maybe until the end of the night when she could go to the little motel down the street where she and Ryo were staying.

Except there he was, standing right in front of her, looking down at her. Crystal stumbled and her head tilted back to meet his bored gaze. For the briefest of moments, she swore there was a flicker of emotion. When she blinked, it was gone. Maybe she'd just been seeing things.

"Hey," Ryo said, peeking his head around the doorway. "I think she's onto something."

"What's that, Ryo?" Mr. Hokotomi asked.

"Surveying would be a good idea. Maybe the menu's out of touch with the customers for this time of year. I'm going with her."

"But, I said it was…" The older man froze when Ryo's hand shifted and the bandana wrapped around his wrist came into his line of sight.

Ryo turned and started walking away, then paused after several steps to look at Crystal. He didn't say anything, but when she looked at him, she got the feeling that he was telling her to get moving. His lips didn't move. He didn't whisper it or even look impatient. Ryo was just as bored and lazy as he always was.

So why did it feel like she understood what he wanted? Crystal took a hesitant step forward, her eyes narrowing with curiosity when he walked off toward the front of the restaurant. Once outside, she took a deep breath of crisp, fresh air. She loved being in the kitchen, but it was days like this that she ached for. The humidity was lower than back home, and standing in the sun didn't make her feel like she was going to melt at any second, but just a few rays of light casting down on her shoulders had a gentle smile curling her lips.

She looked up at Ryo where he stood beside her, his hands in his pockets. "Thank you," she said softly.

"Hm."

Crystal laughed and started walking down the street. And he followed. And even though she knew Ryo might not be all that forthcoming when it came to talking to people, at least she didn't have to wander around alone.

After only twenty minutes of trying to talk to random people on the street, she was ready to give up. No matter how good her Japanese was, she was still obviously a foreigner. Crystal had gotten so used to being at Totsuki that she hadn't considered what it might be like out in the rest of the country. At school, no one looked down on her for being an American. No one even noticed it.

She was sure it wasn't like this everywhere in Japan - because she'd read enough articles over the years about the country actually being really nice to foreigners - but after the fourth older woman in a row started muttering about her kind being in the area, Crystal was done. She just wanted to be helpful.

Ryo was so quiet that she'd forgotten he was with her while she collapsed on a bench and dropped her head to her hands.

"What am I supposed to do?" she whispered.

"Do you want me to try?"

Crystal jumped with a small squeak and found him sitting beside her, staring at the sidewalk. "Have you been here the whole time?"

"Yep."

She frowned. "Why didn't you offer to help earlier?!"

Ryo leaned back on the bench and shrugged. "You didn't ask."

"I didn't want to bother you…"

"You said you forgot I was here."

She couldn't really fight that. It had been comforting to know Ryo was with her at first, but he'd made a point of staying out of her way while she tried to survey people's opinions. He'd been so quiet that Crystal felt as though she was on her own. "Well, at first, I didn't want to bother you," she admitted. "But…"

"You forgot I was here," he said again.

"Y-Yeah…" She cringed while glancing at him, more than ready to find her partner was angry with her. Except Ryo still just looked bored. "Sorry."

Ryo stood and pushed his hands into his pockets, then made his way toward a man several feet away who was sweeping the sidewalk in front of his store. Crystal watched with wide eyes for only a moment before scrambling after him so she could write down what was said. Any information they gathered would help them figure out what they could do with the restaurant to help out Mr. Hokotomi.

"What do you know about Hokotomi's Eatery?" Ryo asked.

"The food's alright," the man said, never pausing in his sweeping. "A bit expensive for what you get."

Crystal bit her lips. "U-Um, is there anything you'd like to… to see different?"

The man frowned at her, then looked back to Ryo. "Any changes in the menu or atmosphere that would make you want to eat there?" Ryo asked.

Crystal kept her gaze locked on the notepad in her hands while the man spoke, writing down everything he said. They went down one street and another with Ryo taking the initiative to ask people questions and Crystal doing nothing more than taking notes.

By the time they returned to the restaurant, it was nearly time for the dinner service. Based on how quiet it was when they went inside, very few people had come in for lunch while they were gone. She didn't have time to look over the notes right then, but that night she was going to do just that over a cup of tea. Maybe it would help her figure out how to make a difference in this place.

Dinner service was a bust. Four customers came in. Once Ryo and Crystal had finished helping the staff clean, they left the restaurant together and made their way toward the motel they were staying in just down the road.

She was silent though, and it made him wonder just what was on her mind. It wasn't as though he would ask her. They were still competing to get to the top spot of the academy, and the last thing he needed was some girl bothering him because he decided to try having a conversation.

Still, he needed to come up with a way to make some sort of improvement in the restaurant.

"Do you have any ideas?" she asked softly. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye to find her staring at the ground. It was strange. She never seemed to meet his gaze for long. He'd grown so used to the way Alice insisted she look him right in the eye. Erina was much the same when she actually spoke to him. Soma and Akira, too. There weren't many people who really avoided looking at him, when he thought about it, but she did.

She didn't look anyone in the eye from what he'd noticed. Crystal almost always had her eyes cast downward, unless she was in the kitchen. Then her focus was solely on whatever she was cooking.

"Mm," he hummed.

"Do you think… maybe… and you can say no," she said. He watched as she pulled the notebook she'd written her notes in from their survey closer to her chest. "Nevermind."

Ryo opened the door to the motel and let her walk in before him. He didn't say a thing when she shuffled down the hall to her room. Just before her door closed, he heard a quiet "Good night."

With a shake of his head, he went into his own room and made his way to the shower. Not long after, he brushed his teeth and got ready for bed. Something would come to him to contribute to the restaurant. He didn't need to force himself to think of anything. The last place had been a piece of cake. All he'd needed to do was whip the owner's son into submission in the kitchen, and control the unruly patrons that were causing trouble. Easy.

But this place? They needed to bring business in and keep it steady. He wasn't going to let some pathetic restaurant be the reason for his expulsion. That was why he'd even mentioned anything to Mr. Hokotomi about Crystal's idea being a good one. He needed to get out of that kitchen and get some fresh air.

Ryo let out a slow breath and closed his eyes, and let sleep take him as quickly as possible. It felt as though he'd only just closed his eyes when there was a knock on his door. A quick glance at the clock showed that it was nearly four in the morning. He rubbed a hand over his face and slowly sat up, then sighed when there was another, more urgent knock at the door.

He didn't care that he was only wearing pajama pants when he answered the door to find Crystal on the other side with her hand raised and ready to knock again. He was exhausted. Four in the morning was far too early to be awake.

He leaned against the jamb and pushed his fingers through his hair while he yawned.

"Sorry for waking you," she said. Her head lowered further than before. "I looked at the notes I got from yesterday, and I was right. I think. But I figured we should talk to see what we can actually do about it. And… Um…"

Ryo's eyes snapped open again to find her finally looking up at him. Right into his eyes. Large jade eyes gazed up at him, wide and innocent. She looked just as tired as he felt. A thin cloth robe covered her sleeping clothes and her brown hair fell in gentle waves past her shoulders. Had he fallen asleep standing up while she was talking to him? It wouldn't be the first time it had happened, but more often than not he was woken up by Alice realizing he wasn't listening, and then she'd start clobbering him.

"Oh, you look really tired," Crystal said with a wince. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have, um… I'll just go."

Ryo's hand snapped forward when she turned to leave, winding carefully around her slender wrist with just enough pressure to stop her. "I'm awake now," he said.

"I shouldn't have bothered you."

"Too late." He let her go and turned back to his room, leaving the door open for her to follow. Eventually the door closed and he collapsed back onto the bed with his feet dangling off the side. "Take a seat."

Ryo listened to her nearly silent shuffle across the room, and forced his eyes open when she sat at the foot of the bed. They were silent for several minutes, and his eyes kept drifting closed only to snap open once again. It was getting harder to stay awake, so he hoped she would hurry up and get to the point of her visit.

"So, um…"

"You have an idea."

Crystal nodded and glanced at Ryo for a moment before looking back at her hands. "There were different responses depending on the ages of people, but the most common was that they wanted better food."

"Not too hard to do," he yawned. "We just make better recipes."

"But the dessert thing…"

Ryo's eyes opened again. The last thing he would have expected was for a baker to actually make it this far at Totsuki. From what he'd overheard Alice and Erina saying one day, there were only two in the history of the school to actually graduate. But he'd tried her cake and it was surprisingly good.

"It just really bothers me that Mr. Hokotomi won't listen," she said. "I know what I gave him was probably wrong. I was trying to show off, and… The recipe was probably off. He didn't even eat the whole thing."

Ryo simply watched her start wringing her hands together.

"But there were a lot of kids around, and kids love dessert. Even if it's just cupcakes. I know I can give the store simple recipes that anyone can do, and the customers will be happier."

"Then do it."

"He won't listen to me," she said. "No one listens to me…" She looked at him again with her eyes shining, but he really didn't know what to say to that. People probably didn't listen to her because she had no confidence. She didn't stick up for herself. If their roles had been switched, Ryo knew that he would have shoved the cake down Mr. Hokotomi's throat until he admitted that it was worth selling in his restaurant.

She groaned and rubbed her hands over her eyes, flopping backward on the bed. He hadn't realized how short she was until they were lying side-by-side and he was able to see her face so close to him. There was at least a foot between them, but he wasn't looking down at her for a change.

It wasn't his job to hold her hand and get her through this though. Ryo could easily fix up the regular menu and get through the Stagiaire. The question was whether that would be enough of a change for the officials that were watching them.

He kept watching Crystal as she stared at the ceiling. How her thin brows furrowed in thought and her lower lip slipped between her teeth.

It wasn't really a horrible idea. That cake she'd made was delicious. It was leagues ahead of the garbage Mr. Hokotomi gave his customers while trying to cut a few corners on expenses. Then again, Ryo had a bit of a sweet tooth.

He didn't realize that he'd been dreaming about just watching Crystal lie beside him, until his eyes opened again to find his bed empty and sunlight peeking between the thin drapes over the window. It made him wonder how long she'd waited before leaving. If it hadn't been for his feet still hanging off the edge of the bed, Ryo would have questioned whether Crystal had actually showed up at all. But he didn't move in his sleep. Years of having only a small cot to sleep on in Denmark had trained him to stay very still, otherwise he'd fall off of it in the middle of the night.

With a soft sigh, he pushed himself up from the bed and stumbled to the bathroom. He still had time to get some breakfast before heading down to the restaurant, and then he could probably (maybe) find Crystal and see if she had a breakthrough on what to do for the Stagiaire.

She's still in the office, lost in memories of the past, when her mother comes by after the store has opened. Crystal knows that there's still work to be done, but when she looks up to find her mother watching her, smiling at her, she knows that this is one of those days she can take a little break. They don't happen often. It isn't that the store doesn't have enough business.

She assumes it's the look in her eyes that clues her mother in. She just wants to look at the scrapbook for a little while longer. She'll get to work soon, but for now she wants to remember.

Crystal sighs when her mother comes forward and kisses the top of her head before walking back to the front. Her gaze falls onto the page again and her fingers brush across the same picture of herself and Ryo in front of Hokotomi's Eatery. She doesn't have many pictures from Totsuki. She'd had a camera the whole time and always took it with her wherever she went, but most times Crystal hadn't been able to find reasons to get a picture.

She wishes more than anything now that she'd taken so many more pictures. Pictures of her dorm, the academy, the other students. Pictures of Megumi and Soma - though they'd never really been close friends. Pictures of Akira and Ms. Shiomi, from her short time with them, learning about spice ratios to better suit her baking. Pictures of her instructors and the beautiful gardens she sat in more often than not.

She wished she'd gotten more pictures with Ryo. There was a little of everything, but not nearly enough when she thinks about it. Then again, no amount of pictures in a scrapbook would ever be the same as having him in her life.

Crystal turns the page and her lips curl a little higher when she catches the only photograph she has of Ryo wearing his bandana. Screaming at Mr. Hokotomi and brandishing a knife in one hand and a fish in the other. That was when he'd heard her trying to convince the restaurant owner to let her do a test run of a couple desserts and see if customers enjoyed them. Mr. Hokotomo had been refusing left and right.

It's still so strange to think about how little confidence she'd had while in Japan. But that day, something had clicked for her and she still doesn't know what it could have been. She'd grown a backbone and hadn't let Mr. Hokotomo tell her no. And when he tried to slam the door in her face, Ryo jumped in. Then again, he'd also yelled about how she was wasting time out of the kitchen.

Her thumb brushes over the faded flames on his bandana and she has to fight against the tears begging to burn their way down her cheeks. Crystal never forgot him. She misses him, though. Ryo had been the one to give her confidence she now has in spades, even though she knows he hadn't been trying in the slightest.

"Ryo," she whispers. Seven years have gone by since she'd last seen him. It makes her wonder what he looks like now. If he's still as quiet as he'd been when they'd met. Does he still go berserk when he's cooking? Did he ever graduate, unlike her? She wishes every single day that she'd been able to stay at Totsuki longer, if only to be able to spend time with him just one more day.

Because it wasn't until Crystal had boarded the plane heading back to America that she realized she'd never see him again. It wasn't until the wheels on her plane had lifted and she was ascending higher and higher that she realized that what she'd thought was just respect for Ryo's culinary skill, was actually something more.

Crystal sniffles and closes the book, pulling it tightly against her chest. She swipes at her tears and glances at the computer. There was no use searching for him. She's tried it several times over the years. He was never on social media sites. There's nothing about him on Alice's page; Crystal knows because she and Alice are now loosely acquainted through accepting requests and liking or the odd comment on a post here and there.

She's too scared to ask Alice where Ryo may have gone. She's terrified of what might happen if she actually finds him, or searches for him in any way other than the cursory glance here and there. Worst of all is that she doesn't know why she has feelings for a man she doesn't know any longer. He's probably not the same teenager she once knew - and it's a stretch to say she even knew a thing about him - and she's most likely built up this ideal Ryo in her mind over the past seven years.

Her eyes close and her head lowers, and she curls around the scrapbook. "Ryo, where are you now?" she cries softly, unaware that her mother is standing just outside the office.