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Akko had been thinking.
That happened more often than a lot of very rude people assumed, and even more than a lot of more polite people assumed. For the past few weeks it would be easy to imagine otherwise, though, because lately her thoughts had been quietly dominated by one thing in particular.
Akko liked girls.
This wasn't actually news to her. As the proud owner of two functioning eyes and an impressive volume of Shiny Chariot merchandise, she had known for quite a while where her interests lay, at least some of the time. She didn't normally mention it, anymore, and hadn't actually thought too much about it since she came to Luna Nova. There were certainly some pretty girls at the school, but they just really weren't her type.
Or so she had been telling herself for some time now, to avoid the reality that, yes, one girl at Luna Nova in particular was very much her type. Akko was in deep, and probably had been for longer than she cared to consider.
Naturally, it would be none other than shining star of Luna Nova herself, because Akko just couldn't do things halfway. It would be so much easier to just let this go. To not have to reveal this part of her, or risk the dear friendship she had gained over the past few months. She could just wait it out, try to let her feelings settle, and she wouldn't need to risk finding out that Diana didn't feel the same way, or that she couldn't, or something even worse.
But she already knew that she couldn't do that, and that she didn't want to do that, even if she felt like she should. This wasn't an opportunity that she could just let slip away from her, and it wasn't a feeling that was just going to go away. It would only hurt their friendship to spend the next two years of her life desperately pretending not to feel the way about Diana that she did.
So instead she made a deal with herself. On the day when she finally flew a broom for the first time, which Akko felt would be any day now (for real this time!), she would gather her courage, abandon her hesitation, and ask Diana Cavendish out on a date.
What better time, than the day that one of her oldest, greatest dreams came true?
Diana had been thinking.
This was hardly shocking, as she was widely known as a pensive, thoughtful person. She dedicated much of her free time to working her way through one problem or another, and nobody would consider anything amiss seeing her at her desk late at night, scribbling notes and scouring book after book on whatever had caught her interest. The subject of her thoughts of late, however, was slightly less academic than one might assume.
Diana liked girls.
This had come as something of a surprise, as Diana had never considered herself the sort of person to 'like' anyone. Selecting a partner was an obligation she would eventually be faced with in service to her family, but not one that she had ever viewed with the enthusiasm towards that so many other people her age seemed to.
Given her lack of familiarity with the topic, it had taken some investigation to fully understand her situation. After a fair amount of reading, some indirect questioning of her peers, and quite a pleasant talk with Professor Pisces (she had been meaning to gain a basic understanding of fish language anyway, so the weeks spent studying it didn't seem like such an investment), she finally understood the truth of it. She was, in fact, completely and hopelessly head-over-heels, and almost certainly exclusively interested in women.
She supposed it was only natural that it would be Akko. There had already been so many ways in which the girl had casually turned her world upside-down, why wouldn't this be one of them?
The responsible thing to do, she felt, would be to let it go. While the idea of Akko reciprocating her feelings was a pleasant fantasy indeed, statistically the chance was considerable that it was not even an option, much less a likelihood. Confessing and being rejected would only put a strain on a friendship that she had quickly grown to cherish. Beyond that, while there was a long history of same-sex couplings among witches, Diana knew that in much of the world that was not seen in the same light. Would Akko, who wasn't from a witch family and was aggressively uninterested in their traditions, view such a thing in the same way?
She was deluding herself to think that was an option, though. For better or for worse, these feelings were a part of their relationship, and their influence would be felt even if she tried to hide them. To quietly grow distant without explaining why would be as unfair to Akko as it was unbearable to Diana. One way or another, this needed to be settled. With that in mind, she came to a decision.
On the day when Akko finally flew a broom for the first time, which Diana suspected was not far off, she would steel herself, throw caution to the wind, and ask Atsuko Kagari out on a date.
Hopefully, as had happened so many times already, she could rely on Akko to surprise her.
The day came unceremoniously in late February, on the afternoon of one of the first mild days at the tail of an unusually bitter month.
It had begun much like every previous day Akko had spent trying to fly. Her invited friends sat about indulging in one distraction or another as Akko spoke the spell again and again without success. Sucy and Amanda grumbled about being dragged out to watch, like they did every day, but they had still shown up like they did every day and so their complaints had a lot less bite than they otherwise might have.
Diana's admonishment stung a little more, as she hadn't shown up every day after the first few and Akko had assured her that yes, today was definitely the day. She had said that about every day, but she had been extra insistent about it this time.
Akko tried not to let it get her down, though. She still had a good feeling about this.
During a quick snack break courtesy of the basket Jasminka had brought, several of the professors arrived with Andrew and Frank in tow. It was a pleasant surprise, though it also seemed like a lot of extra pressure to have so many eyes on her.
Fortunately, Akko liked to think that she excelled under pressure. Even if in practice that had mainly been true in times of mortal peril, which she would hopefully not be experiencing today.
Surrounded by friends and teachers, Akko retook her position on the makeshift takeoff she had been practicing atop. She tugged her hat snug onto her head, feeling a reasonable amount more witchy for wearing it, and was preparing to try again when she jumped out of her skin at a hand on her shoulder.
"You can do this, Akko," Lotte assured her. "Just stay calm, and remember: 'A believing heart…'"
" '…is your magic', right?" Sucy finished from over her other shoulder, a rare smile on her lips.
Akko wasn't sure what did it. Whether it was the genuine support of her friends, the fact that they had clearly planned that line ahead of time, the giddy nervousness of being surrounded by onlookers, or some combination of all three, she just couldn't help the giggles that crept up on her, and soon escalated into a full blown laughing fit.
She was just so happy. There were a lot of ways in which this past year hadn't gone the way she dreamed it would, but so many more in which it had been beyond her wildest expectations. Standing where she was now, practicing magic surrounded by people who believed in her instead of tolerated her, was like nothing she had ever imagined. She felt lighter than air.
It wasn't until she heard her friends' collective shock that she realized the sensation was more than figurative. She looked over them for a second, feeling as though everyone seemed a bit shorter than they had a moment ago, before her eyes shot to her feet, dangling a few centimetres off the ground.
She was flying.
Without so much as a magic word, she'd finally done it. The spectators' cheers were matched by her own as she threw her arms up in delight, ignoring the way it made her bob slightly up and down.
She returned her hands to the broom as everyone crowded around to congratulate her, marvelling at the way it felt. The gentle thrum of power passing through her to the broom was far removed from how magic normally felt to her, a boiling pressure running from her core into her wand which she had only recently begun to consider wasn't how it was supposed to feel. It was as natural as breathing, and it suddenly made a lot of sense that this was considered one of the most basic skills of witchcraft. Akko felt as though she could already do much more than float, confident the broom would respond to her commands.
Patience, though. She hadn't made it this far without learning how to pace herself at least a little.
A little flight probably wouldn't hurt, though. She leant forward slightly, looking over at Professor Ursula ― Chariot, she supposed, that was still a little weird ― for confirmation. Her mentor nodded encouragingly, beaming, and Akko set her sights ahead of her and willed the broom to move. She rose from the platform, slowly gaining speed as she did a wobbly lap around the improvised flight grounds, and returned to about where she had started.
It wasn't pretty. It lacked the graceful acrobatics of Amanda's flying, or the wild energy of the Shooting Star, or the unwavering purpose of the Shiny Balai. But it was hers. As the applause around her continued with renewed vigour, Akko wasn't sure if she had ever been this excited in her life.
Her friends, to her delight, seemed to be doing their best to match her enthusiasm. Amanda whooping and cheering, Chariot glowing with pride, Andrew giving a polite clap belying the smile that reached his eyes, and Frank applauding next to him with far less restraint. Akko looked over them all, drinking in the shared elation before her eyes caught on one person in particular.
Diana.
Diana, standing towards the back of the group and meeting her gaze with a warm and genuine smile that Akko rarely saw.
Diana, who Akko had made a promise to confess her feelings to the day she learned to fly.
The day which had been comfortably existing in the far-off realm of 'someday soon' was now here, and the time had come to make good on her promise. Her joy began to turn rapidly to nervousness, her concentration broke, and she was abruptly aware that her connection with the broom was wavering as she began drifting towards the ground.
Akko was flying.
Diana had felt it wouldn't be long, but she would never have thought that it would happen so soon. She couldn't believe that she had almost missed this, only coming today at Akko's insistence.
She watched her circle the assembled spectators, enraptured. Her form was bad and her speed was too high for a beginner, though she at least had the sense to keep low to the ground. Those flaws quickly dissolved in the face of Akko's overwhelming and contagious glee, and Diana could consider it little other than beautiful.
As everyone else surged forward to congratulate her, Diana hung back slightly, thinking.
Akko had flown. Far sooner than Diana had been expecting, it was now time to either follow through on or abandon the promise she had made. She hadn't finalized her approach yet, didn't fully know what she was supposed to say or do. She almost wanted to call it off and maybe try again some other day.
Ultimately, though, she had meant what she had sworn to herself, and plan or no plan she would have to go through with it now. Besides, it was really just like Akko to force her to be more adaptable, wasn't it?
She felt the smile reaching her face as she gazed at Akko fondly, her heart skipping a beat as Akko suddenly locked eyes with her. There was something in her expression that Diana didn't recognize, and she quickly looked away before she began suddenly descending.
Were it not for the look of bewilderment on her face, Diana might have mistaken Akko's unsteady drifting towards the ground as deliberately coming in for a landing. Instead, she recognized from experience that Akko must have just lost her connection with the broom.
Diana also recognized from experience what was probably about to happen next. She was already moving forward, a warning on her lips, as Akko sent a surge of power into the broom to try and regain control of it. Magic flashing from its bristles, a wave of pressure washed over the crowd and bowled an unfortunate Constanze right over as Akko took off like a rocket, vanishing over the treeline.
Immediately Diana set off at a run. Chariot following close behind, sheepishly peeling away as she remembered that she wouldn't actually be able to follow. Throwing out a hand, a spark of magic met one of the school brooms they had brought with them and it came to life, rushing to meet her. She leapt astride it and angled sharply upwards, firing off in pursuit of the runaway broom.
Diana still felt an occasional throbbing in her wrist to remind her of her first flight. Her aunt's magic had erased the injury at a surface level, but was unable to make it truly vanish the way her mother's could have. It could have been much worse, though, and that was exactly what drove her forward now, almost flat to her broom as she set herself on an intercept course with Akko. Three more brooms ascended over the trees in the distance, climbing to track the situation from above as they realized there was no way they could keep pace with Diana. She adjusted her angle slightly, only a few seconds from making contact.
Three…
Akko was clearly visible now, screaming as she careened over the treetops. It was good that she had managed to stay upright, though Diana wasn't sure whether it was on purpose or not.
Two…
She had lost her hat at some point, the envelope of magic around the broom insufficient to deflect the wind at her speed. Diana could probably help her find it later.
One…
Her angle began to abruptly degrade, bringing her perilously close to crashing into the forest below. She yanked upwards on the broom, momentarily bringing herself back upwards but losing stability and beginning to tumble.
Zero.
Magic pooled at the tip of Diana's wand as she closed in, descending into a dive as Akko lost her grip on the broom entirely and was once more subject to gravity. The angle and speed weren't right to gracefully scoop her up and continue flying, so a slightly more basic approach was called for.
Diana hit Akko from behind, wrapping her wandless arm around her tightly as her broom descended into the trees. The magic she held at her wand tip enveloped them, green threads like spun glass rippling and sparking as they absorbed impact after impact from the canopy. Diana relinquished control of the broom to focus her energy on the barrier, momentum continuing to carry them forward as they descended in a shower of broken branches and skidded against the forest floor, at last coming to rest against the trunk of a large tree. Diana allowed the barrier to disintegrate, feeling slightly faint from the effort of maintaining it.
"Diana…?"
Akko wasn't completely sure what happened. She didn't seem to be dead, which was nice. One minute she had been hurtling across the Luna Nova grounds, and then everything become very bright and green, and now she was lying in a heap with Diana on the ground, which she might have been more enthusiastic about under very different circumstances.
"…Akko." Diana responded after a moment. She was pale ― more than usual ― and her skin was damp with sweat.
She was also very warm and very close, and Akko hurriedly seperated herself for the sake of her own sanity, helping Diana to her feet. Noticing her wand still held loosely in her hand, Akko put two and two together. "So I guess you caught me again, huh?"
"I suppose I did," she smiled weakly. "You should really be more careful."
Akko pouted. "It wasn't on purpose."
"I recognize that, I apologize." Diana leant against the nearby tree, slipping her wand back into her belt. "For what it's worth, you have my congratulations. Your first flight was wonderful, right up until the part where it wasn't."
Diana considering her flight wonderful was, in fact, worth quite a lot. Akko broke out in a grin, mood tempered only by the fact that Diana still looked pretty rough.
"You're okay too though, right?" She looked Diana over, noting that she didn't seem to be bleeding or otherwise terribly injured. "You aren't hurt?"
"I may have overtaxed myself somewhat, but it is nothing I won't recover from. I don't believe I will have it in me to fly us back together, however." She indicated the broom laying a few metres away from them.
"Oh!" Akko exlcaimed. "So you think that I should do it, right?"
"No."
"Oh." That was pretty fair, though it didn't stop Akko's expression from falling somewhat.
Diana shook her head. "I don't mean it like that, though carrying two people is more difficult than flying on your own. Simply that the others should be here in no more than a few minutes, so we may as well wait."
"Ah. That makes sense, I guess." Akko began to pace, looking around the forest. "So, where did we end up, anyway? There's not going to be any monsters or anything around, right?"
"We should have little to worry about. We are actually still fairly close to the school, as far as I am aware."
"If you're sure then that's good enough for me." Akko crept around some more trees, looking for where her own broom might have fallen.
"I would still rather you didn't go off on your own, if possible."
"Right, sorry." Akko wandered back to their crash site, while her thoughts wandered exactly where she had been trying to get them away from.
She was alone with Diana. The circumstances were maybe less ideal than just asking to talk to her at school, but the sooner she got this over with the less chance there was that she would chicken out. Besides, knowing her luck some other comedy of errors would transpire if she chose to wait, anyway.
She didn't have long if rescue was on its way, and she still didn't know exactly what to say. Akko liked to think that she excelled under pressure, though, and with her mortal peril for the day taken care of she was confident that she could do it.
Diana hadn't felt this drained in a long time. When she was younger and her magic was still weak, it wasn't uncommon for her to work herself to exhaustion, but as her skill increased and she learned to better pace herself it became vanishingly rare to ever be pushed that far. Absorbing a high velocity broom crash could still do it, it turned out.
But even as she fought to conceal just how close she was to having her legs give out beneath her, she knew that, for Akko, she would do it again in a heartbeat.
With that realization eroded the very last of her doubt. Whatever the result may be, today was the day. They were alone in the forest for now, and it would probably be a few minutes yet before they were located. She just had to go ahead and do it.
Akko, for her part, had ceased her wandering but seemed intent on looking anywhere but at Diana, perhaps out of misplaced guilt for her condition. Wishing to indicate that she was really alright, Diana pushed herself away from the tree that she was leaning on, stumbling only slightly as she returned to supporting her own weight. The motion captured Akko's attention, and she met Diana's gaze with an unusually focused expression.
It was one she had seen before. At the Samhain festival, or in the depths of the Cavendish sanctuary, or on the way to face down the Noir Missile. The look of Akko singularly focused on an objective, about to do something extraordinary. Diana didn't understand why she was wearing that look now, but something about it drove her forward. It was now or never.
"Akko―" she began.
"Diana―" Akko mirrored.
"―will you go out with me?" they finished.
The twin questions hung in the air between them for a moment, neither of them seeming to register what the other had said. After a period of time that Diana chose to blame on her exhaustion, the meaning of it finally reached her.
In a moment of indignity she also chose to blame on her exhaustion, she released a wholly uncouth snort of laughter, almost losing her still somewhat shaky balance. Of course, she thought to herself, Akko would have done the one thing she would never have imagined to happen. Why would she ever expect less from this beautiful, ridiculous girl?
She regained her composure to find Akko seemingly still processing the information, fierce concentration having given way to complete bemusement. Slowly, she began to speak.
"You want to?"
"Of course, Akko, I wouldn't have asked if I did not. Might I assume you feel the same?"
Akko's face took on an urgent look, as if she actually thought Diana was unsure. "Yeah! Definitely! It's just…" her voice hushed, as if she was worried the forest might overhear them. "…is that okay? The two of us?"
Diana frowned. "Technically, I suppose it would be a violation of Luna Nova policy, but that rule is not taken especially seriously." The soundproofing enchantment Diana had warded her half of the dormitory room with could attest to that. "Regardless," she continued, "I must say it seems unlike you to be concerned about that sort of thing."
"And it doesn't bother you? The… girl thing?"
Oh.
Diana had known that Akko may not be familiar with witches' courtship traditions, but her worries had been focused on what she might think of her ― she hadn't even considered that Akko might be struggling with her own feelings.
"Heavens no, Akko, absolutely not."
Akko's eyes lit up, her nervousness evaporating to reveal some her usual enthusiasm. "You mean it?"
"I do. I think there are fewer people at Luna Nova than you might imagine who would be bothered by 'the girl thing', but I assure you that if anyone were to ever take issue with that aspect of our relationship, they would have me to answer to."
For about one second, Diana was immensely proud of the undiluted joy her declaration brought to Akko's face. She then realised that face was coming closer and closer, right before Akko leapt forwards and threw her arms around her in a hug. Her wobbly legs surrended under the extra weight, bringing her crashing to the forest floor with Akko on top of her.
"Sorry!"
"It's… quite alright," she choked out. She would be feeling that tomorrow. Still, it wasn't the worst strain her body had been subjected to today, so she brought her arms up and loosely returned the hug. Akko tensed for a moment before relaxing into the contact, her weight and warmth something that might be more comforting if Diana's back wasn't against hard dirt sprinkled with broken twigs.
"Hey, Diana?" Akko whispered into her shoulder.
"Yes, Akko?"
"I'm really glad that you were there today."
"It could certainly have gone much worse if I was not, but it is no trouble."
Akko shook her head. "No, that's… I mean, I'm also glad you were here to catch me, but what I meant is that I'm glad you got to see."
Ah, that made more sense. Diana supposed the events of the day were catching up with her, her eyelids beginning to feel heavy.
"I'm glad of that as well," she whispered back. "Thank you for insisting that I be there."
"No problem."
Diana felt like she should probably get up, if for no other reasons than there was a stick poking into her shoulder and Akko's hair was tickling her nose. As the shock that had been keeping her upright fully subsided and her muscles relaxed, though, it became easier and easier to simply remain where she was. If she closed her eyes, which seemed like a very appealing idea, it felt as though she was somewhere far more secure and comfortable than in the middle of a forest somewhere outside of Luna Nova.
The next thing Diana saw was the ceiling of her dormitory room, growing dark as the sun set. The aching in her entire body told her that the day's events had not simply been a bizarre but pleasant dream, so she must have been carried back here after the two of them were located. She didn't realize she had been quite that exhausted.
The comfortable bed was an improvement over the hard ground, though the lack of Akko's warmth against her made it a tough call. Her sweaty, dishevelled uniform left much to be desired, though, so she willed herself into a sitting position to wash up and change. As she stood, she noticed something out of place on her desk. Examining it, she found a folded sheet of lined paper unlike the sort that Diana normally wrote on, seemingly ripped out of a notebook. She opened it to find a short message written on the inside.
Hey, Diana!
You sort of passed out and I was pretty worried, Finnelan and Holbrooke both looked at you and said you probably just needed to sleep it off, though.
Thanks again for saving me, and thanks for showing up to watch me fly. And also thanks for agreeing to go on a date with me. And also asking me to go on a date with you, I guess. (Are we both supposed to arrange dates now?)
I thought we could maybe go into Blytonbury on Saturday? I had a place that I was thinking of. Let me know.
Love Akko
PS. Is ending a letter with love fine?
At the end of the message Akko had doodled a heart in red pen, then scribbled it out, then doodled another one next to it.
Diana smiled fondly at the letter before tucking it inside her drawer and heading to the washroom. After washing up, which involved extracting an impressive number of leaves that had somehow found their way into her hair, she changed into her robe and exited the room.
She considered quickly penning a response to Akko, but an unexpected yawn indicated to her that the morning may be a better time for that. Her bed still felt unusually empty, but the feeling was unable to stop exhaustion from overtaking her as she sunk into it. She had barely a few minutes to entertain increasingly dreamlike concepts for her planned date before she drifted off.
All the better, to ensure she was fully rested and recovered for her first date on Saturday.