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“Diana! Set to me again!”
Diana sighs, rubbing her eyebrows together, before getting into the optimal position to set to Akko.
Watching Akko stretch a little before getting ready to spike (‘Ahh, she’s actually stretching properly for once...’ she thinks to herself), Diana breathes in and out. She spies Akko beginning to run, and Diana immediately sets the volleyball in Akko’s direction, feeling it in her bones that it will stop midair for a few milliseconds, yes, but a few milliseconds that will make the absolute difference in the outcome of the spike.
But, this time around, no difference is made. Diana doesn’t know if the volleyball fell short when she set it or if Akko just wasn’t able to hit it in the few milliseconds it stopped the air, but she doesn’t hear the glorious sound of a ball she set being hit sharply by someone’s hands.
And when Akko yells, “It’s OK, Diana! Just set again!” Diana hits our breaking point.
Jabbing her finger in Akko’s direction, she stalks over to her.
“Maybe you should try actually spiking the ball!”
“Wh-What?” Akko tilts her head, looking extremely confused.
“You heard what I said! Actually try spiking the ball for once! Or is even that something you can’t do right?”
Akko’s eyebrows furrow together, and a frown slips onto her face hearing what Diana has said.
Akko throws her hands up into the air and looks as if she wants to say a few choice words to Diana, except a ball hits her in the back of her head. Akko turns her head in shock to face Constanze, the team captain, who simply responds to the look on Akko’s face by sweeping a finger across her neck, as if to say, “You draw more attention to yourselves than you already do and I will kill you.” Akko seems to catch what Constanze is trying to say because she simply rubs the back of her head before heading to the other side of the court.
Diana looks around, having only now realized how much her fight with Akko could affect the overall team spirit. Having confirmed that no one had really noticed the fight, probably too used to their arguments to actually care, Diana dribbles the volleyball in her hand a few times before heading over to where the managers are watching.
“Andrew!” Diana yells, waving her hand at her childhood acquaintance.
Andrew looks over to Diana from where he was talking to Frank about, and a look passes over his face that Diana chooses not to interpret.
“Aren’t you practicing with Akko over there?”
“Yes,” Diana says, taking the tilt of Andrew’s head to mean to continue on, “but we decided to separate for a little while to improve our separate skill sets.”
“Is that so?” Andrew says, a mischievous smile on his face.
Diana frowns, confused on what Andrew is trying to say. “Yes, that is what we will be doing, so if you could please be of some help and point me to where the water bottles are,” Diana says, folding her hands behind her back.
“Of course. It’s over there,” Andrew says, pointing to a cart near the volleyball basket. Diana nods in acknowledgment at Andrew before jogging over to the cart, picking up a few water bottles at a time and placing them on the floor.
Once she’s set up the drill, Diana closes her eyes, imagining how the set will go, before opening them again and beginning to practice the drill.
Of course, a few times, Akko’s spikes cause the water bottles to rattle a little and sometimes even fall over, but Diana simply grits her teeth instead of going over to yell at Akko.
She doesn’t need to make the situation any worse than it already is.
By the end of the practice, Diana and Akko have somehow managed not to talk to each other at all, a horrifying experience for the two, seeing as they were used to talking (arguing, really) all the time.
Diana sees her chance to make up for what she said earlier to Akko when the two of them get chosen to clean up. Diana notices Constanze give her a significant look, and Diana nods back at Constanze to show her understanding.
She waits until all the other members have already left, leaving only her and Akko who has already begun cleaning up. Diana had begun doing the same, now setting the volleyballs into the container so to get some practice in.
Akko, who seems to have noticed this from the corner of her eyes, smiles a little. Diana could even say she’s vibrating with excitement at the thought of spiking one of her throws. She smiles a little at the thought, before shaking her head.
Once she sees that the court is cleaned up, Diana grabs a volleyball.
“Akko!” she yells, gesturing towards the volleyball in her hand, “Want to try spiking again?”
Akko brightly smiles, running over to the court and hopping in place from toe to toe while waiting for Diana to give the signal to go.
Diana does an A-OK sign and immediately throws the ball up in the air the perfect distance, getting ready to set it.
When the ball is a little above her hairline, directly in her sights, she sets it.
A grin grows on Diana’s face when she hears the resulting smack from Akko’s hands, and once she’s sure that Akko is safely on the floor, she goes over to-
To what?
Talk to her. Diana knows she should do that, even if it might ruin the smile on Akko’s face.
Akko turns around to face Diana, a smile on her face as she lifts her bent arm and jabs it downward in joy.
Waving in the general direction, she says, “See! See! Did you see that Diana? Did ya?”
“Yes, I saw that Akko.”
“It went just like woosh, didn’t it? Want to-”
“We shouldn’t try it again until we perfected our own skills for this. That may have been a fluke, for all we know.”
“Wh-What?”
“Akko...I’m sorry for saying what I did. You’re so amazing at spiking, and you’ve been improving a lot at defending also! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! But, still...we’re not perfect-”
“No one’s perfect, Diana.”
A look of shock spreads across her face. “Oh. That’s...good to know. But still, we really need to improve so-”
Whatever Diana was going to say has drifted off, because Akko blurts out, “I feel like I don’t deserve to be friends with you!”
Diana’s eyebrows furrow together in confusion. “Wh-what?”
“I feel like I don’t deserve to like you at all! I shouldn’t like you! You should end up with someone of higher prestige, you know, someone like Andrew!”
Once it processes in Diana’s head what Akko is saying, she immediately blushes and starts waving her hands in disagreement.
“Andrew! Akko, Andrew is...is, you know! Wh-Whatever! Andrew is fine and all, but if I were going to end up with someone, it would be with you!”
Diana slaps a hand over her mouth, but it’s too late. She’s confessed her crush, put it out into the open air, and now there’s no going back.
Diana tentatively grabs Akko’s hand. She breathes in deeply, before letting the breath out, knowing she might have tried to suffocate herself if she didn’t let the breath out quick enough.
“Is this OK?” Diana says, leaning her head in until there are only a few inches between her and Akko’s lips.
“Wh-Wh-What?” Akko croaks out.
Diana knows a blush is dusting her cheeks. She knows her hair's a mess. And she knows drops sweat is dripping from her.
Yet, she wouldn’t have it any other way when she says, “Can I kiss you, Akko?”
Akko, for once, quickly seems to register what is being said, nodding her head. Diana drops her hand from Akko’s, already missing the warmth of it.
At least, she does, until all of her focus is consumed by Akko’s lips on hers, not having noticed Akko stepping forward into her kiss. Lifting her head from where she had been staring at her head, she lets out a squeak of surprise when her lips meet Akko’s, before relaxing into it and cupping Akko’s face.
The kiss ends up being short and sweet, despite the awkward brushing between their noses and the bumping between their teeth. Diana stands there after it’s over, trying to calm her heart.
“Do you...Do you wanna try that again?”
Diana nods her head, scrambling for purchase on any part of Akko’s face. She tilts her head, giving Akko a searing kiss that is just as heavily reciprocated.
Diana, in the back of her head, muses that this kiss is rather beautiful.
Sort of like an accumulation of all the passion, all the happiness, all the anger, all the sadness, everything . Everything ever exchanged between them. Diana knows the thought is rather poetic for her tastes but ignores it.
After all, the mind comes second in matters where the heart is fulfilled.