Chapter Text
Hannah's eyes welled with concern. "Barbara, you're my best friend."
"And you're mine," Barbara replied.
"You know that I love you?"
"I've never been more sure of anything."
"So you know I mean no offence when I ask you what the actual fuck you're doing?"
Barbara was crouching beneath a windowsill, practically flush with the wall. When Hannah found her, she was attempting to shimmy along the wall while moving as little as possible. She looked absolutely ridiculous, which is the sort of thing one expected from Akko, not someone as well-esteemed as Barbara Parker
"It's kind of a long story," Barbara said sheepishly.
"Is it three hundred and sixty-five volumes long?" Hannah asked pointedly.
Barbara blushed at her own predictability. "Me and Lotte—Lotte's in the bathroom right now—were talking about Nightfall and how difficult it must be to live as a vampire. Lotte pointed out that vampires burn in direct sunlight, so they wouldn't be safe even indoors because of windows, so—"
"So now you're sneaking around the castle doing stuff like this?" Hannah smirked. "That's a unique way of spending a Saturday. Well, who among us hasn't done something silly for a girl?"
"I-it's not l-like that!" Barbara had told Hannah time and time again that her feelings for Lotte were strictly platonic, but her best friend didn't believe it.
Barbara was spared another interrogation on the subject by Lotte's reappearance. "I'm back!" she said redundantly. "Oh, hello, Hannah!"
"Hi, Lotte," Hannah said. "How's the vampire role-playing?"
"It's going well!" Lotte adjusted her glasses. "We didn't anticipate how the time of day and location would affect things. The position of the sun wasn't so much of a problem at noon, but soon we're going to have a problem with the western windows in a while."
"Is that so?" Hannah grinned as she watched Barbara's admiring reaction at Lotte's analysis. As Hannah kept reminding her, Barbara was extremely attracted to intelligence, which Lotte had in droves. "Well, I'll leave you to it." At Barbara she mouthed, "Go get her!"
"It's not like that," Barbara muttered as Hannah walked away.
"What's that?" Lotte asked?
"N-nothing! You've had your break, now get down here and suffer with me. I think I'm getting a cramp."
Without further ado, Barbara and Lotte resumed their project. They sidled along walls and crept under windows to avoid the sun's deadly rays (deadly to vampires, anyway), hurriedly making notes on their experiences and the logistics of time and direction.
"No wonder vampires prefer to sleep during the day!" Lotte pressed herself against the wall, shuffling slowly to make sure her feet didn't touch the sunlight coming through the window opposite.
"And you wondered why I've always said I wouldn't want to be a vampire," Barbara said. Although she wouldn't want to go to such lengths to avoid sunlight, she didn't mind having to stick so close to Lotte. Then as Lotte edged along the wall, her hand brushed against Barbara's. She expected Lotte to pull her hand away, but the bespectacled girl seemed content to have their hands touching. When she realized this, Barbara shivered involuntarily.
"Is something wrong?" Lotte asked.
"I, uh, I think that cramp I mentioned is acting up again," Barbara lied.
Lotte offered to take the lead so Barbara could relax. In reality, Barbara did no such thing. Her thoughts were a jumble, circling around Lotte and how unusually pleasant it was to be around her, to be close to her, to touch her…
Barbara tried not to think about it when they sidled up against the walls. She tried to maintain her distance, but Lotte kept drawing her in like a magnetic pole. Her hand wavered near Lotte's, fighting the urge to hold it. She didn't want to admit it, but maybe Hannah had a point, maybe she really did have feelings…
"This is going to be a tough one," Lotte said, pointing to a wide window and the stretch of orange sunlight reaching out from it. "We can do it, Barbara!"
Barbara nodded nervously. Not only would she have to crouch up next to Lotte, she'd be in that position for quite a while. She wasn't sure if she could handle it.
Sure enough, they weren't halfway through before Barbara started having trouble. She paused. She was extremely self-conscious of her body next to Lotte's. If only she could stay with Lotte like this instead of moving on, if only she had the courage to embrace Lotte. But she couldn't stay still, she needed to move forward. She stopped hesitating and followed Lotte along the wall.
Unfortunately, Lotte chose that time to take a small break. Barbara lurched forward and they collided. Her face smushed up against Lotte's neck. Specifically, her lips touched soft skin. Lotte let out a squeak and tumbled onto the floor in a flustered mess. Barbara fared better, managing to catch herself by propping herself up on her arms. She ended up kneeling over Lotte in a rather compromising situation—thank goodness most students at Luna Nova had better things to do on a Saturday afternoon than traverse the fourth floor corridor hallway.
"Are you alright?" Lotte asked.
Barbara couldn't help but laugh. "Why are you the one asking that? You're the one on the floor."
"You're wincing."
"The sun's reflecting off your glasses."
"Oh. I'm glad you're okay." Lotte smiled.
Barbara looked down at her and smiled back. She could've averted her eyes to avoid the sun's glare, but she was reluctant to stop looking at Lotte. Barbara couldn't tell which was brighter, the sun reflecting off Lotte's glasses, or her crush's smile.