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English Breakfast; left to steep for two minutes and half before the tea bag was discarded and one cube of sugar was dropped. It would be stirred clockwise six times—never more, never less—before cooling for what seemed like three minutes. She would tap the spoon twice along the rim of the cup before setting it down at the side of the saucer.
It was only after this rigid ritual that the tea would find its way to Diana’s lips.
Barbara watched her friend fall into the rhythm of her habit. That’s just how Diana was—everything in order and in perfect timing.
There were two ways it could go from this point on: either Diana would consume the tea within half an hour, or she would maintain its temperature through magic for maybe a full-hour long. It never took her longer to finish her drink, something about its flavor, Diana once said.
“Potions class is in fifteen minutes,” the blonde witch stated factually.
“Mhm,” Barbara agreed, picking up her books and chuckling to herself because Diana didn’t even glance at her watch. “Wouldn’t want to be a minute off-schedule.”
One, two, three, four, five—
“Kagari, would you please keep it down?” Diana’s voice struggled to stay even.
Today’s tea was only stirred five times, and Barbara supposed Atsuko Kagari’s incessant gushing about Shiny Chariot had thrown Diana out of her concentration. She was by no means easy to work up, but this strange, wide-eyed brunette seemed to have the formula figured out.
“Can’t a girl enjoy her break!” Kagari retorted, sticking out her tongue towards Diana.
“Not if she insists on being disruptive to students who are evidently studying,” Diana replied sharply.
“It’s a Friday! Get a life, Cavendish!”
Three minutes have passed. Diana ignores the jab in favor of tapping the spoon twice along the mouth of her tea cup, once again setting the spoon at the side of the saucer before taking her first sip. Practically clockwork, Barbara chuckles to herself, finding the rigidity odd but endearing at the same time.
She decides its time she joined the shouting-match and, “tone it down, you weirdo!”
“What the hell, you’re yelling too!”
It was the fourth time that Akko sighed—very loudly—in despair over her homework, and much to Hannah and Barbara’s surprise, Diana bolted upwards from her seat and practically stomped, but with grace, towards Sucy, Lotte, and Akko’s table.
“How are you having trouble with arithmetic this far into the semester?” Diana scolds, looking over Akko’s shoulder to her parchment. “Will you promise some peace and quite if I assist you with—”
Diana pauses.
Barbara notes that Diana’s tea has been cooling for two minutes now.
“You’ve finished it all… but I am mildly perplexed as to how.” The blonde witch has a novel look of intrigue on her face.
“I’m good at math!” Akko crosses her arms. “This homework is frustrating because you guys have to do everything so… inefficiently!”
“Excuse me?”
“The long method isn’t even taught in Japan anymore,” Akko grumbles, scribbling something which apparently enraptures Diana’s attention.
“That’s… you’ve made the solutions shorter.”
“Yes!” Akko’s eyes light up.
It’s three minutes by now.
“You can cancel this part,” Akko makes a dramatic ‘x’ mark, and Diana nods. They fall into what might be their first civil (but of course, still mildly antagonistic) conversation, and five minutes later the cooling tea is all but forgotten.
“What is Kagari going on about?” Hannah blinks.
Barbara wants to remind Diana that potions is in fifteen minutes, but she’s never looked so curious in her life—and maybe it was okay to be behind schedule sometimes.
There was no tea today. Somehow, through some miracle, Diana is accompanying Akko while she shops for scarves at Glastonbury.
“It doesn’t even taste like anything!” Akko makes a face, carelessly setting the teacup down the table.
“I don’t recall giving you permission to drink from that,” Diana tries to sound cold, but the corners of her lips witched upwards ever so slightly, and Barbara doesn’t hear as much bite in her voice as she used to have.
“I was just so curious,” Akko groaned. “You have the same thing every day. Like, is there no other kind of tea in the world?”
“I like this tea.”
“That’s boring.”
Barbara kind of agrees, but she’s not about to say that out loud.
“It’s none of your business.”
“When I come home from winter break, I’m bringing you the good shit my Obaa-chan makes.”
Diana sputters, “the w—what?”
Hannah snickers, but Barbara simply lets herself laugh.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine. Professor Ursula’s on it,” Barbara pacifies her friend.
She wasn’t sure what was going on, but apparently something upset Akko—she ran off and couldn’t be found. She’d never seen Diana in such distress, with so little regard for composure or control. The chilly weather didn’t help ease anyone’s nerves and the blonde witch had been pacing.
“Hey,” Hannah arrives with a steaming cup of tea—made exactly the way Diana likes it. “Have some of this, you look like you’re freezing.”
“I don’t feel like having anything right now,” Diana worries at her lip. She crosses her arms, her fingers tapping along her forearm. “That’s it.” She gets up.
Barbara blinked, “where are you—?”
“I’m going to look for her myself.”
She was gone a flash, and the cup was left untouched.
Akko is found. Diana hasn’t left her side.
It’s a pleasant afternoon out in the gardens, and Barbara is surprised when Diana appears with two cups of hot water.
“No way,” Hannah laughs, noticing the package she brought. “You’re brewing the Good Shit From Japan.”
“Kabuse-Cha shouldn’t be subjected to such a frivolous moniker,” Diana shakes her head.
“But it’s catchier!” A vibrant voice calls out from behind. Akko is a grinning mess, hooking her arm around Diana’s before sending a wave to Hannah and Barbara’s way.
The blonde witch carefully dips in the teabags, but Akko is already distracting her before she can measure how long to steep it. It ends up darker than it should be, but the brunette adds an extra cube of sugar each and says, “it’ll be fine!”
Diana is too busy holding another hand to count how many times she’s stirred, too busy looking at another pair of eyes to notice if she was going clockwise.
Too busy smiling to count the minutes.
“Akko,”
Barbara elbows Hannah and motions for her to watch.
“How does it taste?”
They share a grin.
Diana is learning how to make tea for two.