Chapter Text
“I heard a rumour about you today,” Akko said idly, twirling a pencil around the fingers on one hand as she tried to stare her English assignment into submission. Her study partner, Diana, had learned weeks ago that Akko actually had an easier time focusing on school work while fidgeting, and had since learned not to chastise her for it, no matter how distracting it was.
The pair were tucked away in Luna Nova High School’s library, at a table near the reference books. Akko and Diana were near the end of their frequent study sessions, the former almost having finished her assignment and the latter on standby to check over her partner’s answers.
“Is that so?” Diana didn’t even stop working through math questions or even look away from the paper, not the reaction Akko was looking for at all.
Akko was something of a rumour topic herself, and she was always annoyed by what people were saying about her. “Blair says you’re secretly dating Andrew Hanbridge.”
That made Diana stop writing, and she frowned. “I’m not dating anyone, nor have I ever, secretly or otherwise, and certainly not Andrew Hanbridge .” She uttered the name as if it were a curse.
“You don’t have to tell me that,” Akko said. She knew that her study partner was in a committed relationship to her academic prospects. “I just thought it was funny.”
“There’s a certain absurdity to it, I agree. What on earth is going through our classmates’ heads?”
“Apparently you and Andrew are the “princess and prince” of Luna Nova High School.” Diana’s nickname came from Amanda derisively referring to her as such during a public argument, and Akko guessed that Andrew’s nickname had been hastily tacked on after the conspiracy theory had taken root. “Everyone’s saying that it would be amazing if the hottest girl and boy at school were dating.”
“That sounds like a great deal of projection or wishful thinking from those who are spreading the rumour.”
“I know right? I haven’t even seen you stand near Andrew for longer than a minute,” Akko noted. “It’s like you’re trying not to be seen with him.”
“It is like that,” Diana said mildly. “Though I suppose that’s why everyone is speculating that we’re secretly dating.”
“Hmm.” Akko didn’t understand what people got out of theorizing about other people’s relationship, especially when the people in question didn’t seem to like each other. “They might as well assume you’re secretly dating someone you’re always spending time with. Like me.”
Diana dropped her pen. Her fingers fumbled as she tried to pick it up again. She cleared her throat when she finally had it back in her hand. “There’s no sense to it. Though it’s not harmful, I wish they wouldn’t do it.”
Akko frowned at Diana’s overreaction, but didn’t think any more of it. “Do you really dislike Andrew that much? I think he’s kinda cool.”
“I have no particular feelings toward him either way. He’s a family friend, so I’ve been required to spend time with him on occasion, but that’s the full extent of our acquaintanceship. Despite these facts, this isn’t the first time others have made assumptions of this nature.”
“So cold!” Akko giggled. “Why don’t you just tell people you’re not interested in him?”
“I’ve tried, but they don’t listen.” Diana let out a long sigh, her shoulders drooping as the air escaped her. “Hannah and Barbara and the others are always asking me which boys I like, no matter how many times I tell them I’m not interested. They’re always bothering me to go out and meet boys with them, and I can’t imagine anything less entertaining. My refusals are partly to blame for these rumours about my dating life, I imagine.”
“Is there a reason you’re not interested?” Akko asked. She figured Diana didn’t want the distraction of dating when there was studying to be done; she wasn’t prepared for what she heard next.
Diana looked side-to-side, as if she were about to cross the street instead of sitting in a library. She eyed the other visitors in the library, and once assured that they were minding their own business, she leaned in and whispered, “It’s because I’m gay.”
“Oh.” That was… unexpected. Akko had always assumed that Diana was straight as the A’s she got in every class. “Do, um, your friends not know that?”
“I haven’t told them. Or anyone. Except for you.” Diana’s smile hit Akko right in the heart.
“Why me?”
Diana broke eye contact and shrugged. “You’ve never tried to make me date any boys, nor have you made me feel uncomfortable about my sexuality. Moreover, I trust you, Akko.”
“Well, gosh.” Akko rubbed the back of her neck, which suddenly felt hot.
Diana cleared her throat again. “Enough about rumours. Have you finished that assignment yet?”
“Uh, gimme a minute.” Akko hastily scribbled out an answer for the last question and handed the paper over to her study partner. Her eyes were inevitably drawn to Diana as she looked over the assignment. Diana was gay? That explained why she didn’t have a boyfriend, which had always confused Akko. But that just raised the question of why Diana didn’t have a girlfriend. Was she just afraid of coming out and being judged by her friends and the rest of the school? But if she was looking for another girl who liked girls, she definitely had options at Luna Nova…
Never mind that. Akko appreciated the trust Diana had placed in her with this secret, though she was a little surprised, given their history.
*
Atsuko “Akko” Kagari had immediately made a name for herself upon entering Luna Nova High School. In a bad way. Her troublemaker antics had fixed her name on everyone’s lips within a week. In her defense, how was she supposed to just turn down Amanda O’Neill’s dare to climb the flag pole and replace the British flag with an American one? She got a week of detention, but she also got Amanda’s respect and friendship. And it’s not like climbing a flag pole was as dangerous as what Sucy had gotten her to do in the chemistry lab...
Her reputation wasn’t completely terrible though. The track team had been in dire straits before she showed up, but this year her speedy little legs were sure to carry them to victory. Not to toot her own horn, but Akko had been a bit of a star in her middle school back in Japan. In fact, she would’ve been the best runner on Luna Nova’s team if it weren’t for a certain Diana Cavendish.
“Luna Nova’s princess” excelled at athletics as well as academics, which was hideously unfair. Even worse was the fact that she was the prettiest girl in school, and she didn’t even look gross after running for hours. So unfair.
Diana was the only member of the team who could beat Akko’s times, which Akko blamed on the other girl’s longer legs. Her longer, stupider, prettier legs. Akko couldn’t take those defeats lying down, and she told Diana as much.
“You’ve got yourself a rival,” Akko told her after practice one day. “I’m going to beat all your times
Diana looked her over before answering. “There’s no need to be so competitive within the team. As long as we each have impressive times, we’ll win competitions for sure.”
She was right, of course, but Akko didn’t care about that. In order to beat her rival’s times, Akko put all her time into practice, time that perhaps ought to have been devoted to studying.
Coach Callistis had to take her aside one day and explain that if she didn’t improve her grades, she wouldn’t be allowed to attend the next competition.
“I’m only failing one class.” Akko pouted. “English literature is boring and confusing.”
“Everyone has things they’re not good with,” Ursula reassured her, “but athletes aren’t allowed to participate in sports events if they’re failing classes. There’s nothing I can do.”
There was a knock on the open door. Akko was mortified enough that anybody had listened in on that conversation, but she almost died on the spot when she realized it was Diana .
“I couldn’t help but overhear, but if Akko needs help, I’ll gladly help her study so she can pass her midterms.”
“That’s perfect!” Ursula said over Akko’s blustering protests. “It’s so nice to see the team’s stars looking out for each other. This is a load off my mind.”
The aforementioned stars left Ursula’s office, and Akko turned on Diana as soon as they were out of the coach’s earshot. “Why would you help me?”
“Because it would be a great disservice to the team if you were unable to participate in the next competition,” Diana replied impassively. “I would rather give up my free time to help you than allow the team to lose at regionals because you weren’t there.”
“I don’t need help from my rival!”
“I’ve never seen you as a rival. I can’t make you study, but I doubt you want to let the team down.”
Akko couldn’t construct an argument against that logic, but she had a much better chance after Diana walked her through how to write an English essay. The troublemaker had never sweated as much during races as she did during that English midterm, but she crossed the finish line and eked out a passing grade.
“That mark isn’t ideal, but you’ve certainly improved,” Diana had said when Akko bragged about her midterm result. “Together we’ll make sure your next grade is higher.”
“Eh? The torture isn’t over?”
“I might as well continue assisting your studies to make sure you’re not at risk of being taken off the team again. But if you’d rather study on your own...”
“I’ll be in your care.”
And so the emergency study sessions transitioned into a routine occurrence. Akko’s English mark improved under Diana’s strict tutelage, and the dedicated study time allowed her to focus on other subjects as well. Diana showed as little mercy in the library as she did on the track, but Akko consoled herself with the knowledge that the study sessions kept Diana from practicing as well, so she wasn’t going to be falling behind her rival.
Akko never would have imagined that same rival would come out to her before anyone else.
Did that make them friends? Akko never stopped seeing Diana as her rival, but clearly the sentiment wasn’t reciprocated. Did Akko want them to be friends? Well, it couldn’t hurt, right? Since Diana had opened up to her, Akko ought to loosen up around her too—not that she was considering giving up their rivalry!
Her determination failed to instantly manifest a victory. The day after Diana came out to her, Akko found herself trailing after her rival all through the afternoon’s track practice, that ponytail of lustrous, platinum blonde hair bouncing right in front of her face the entire time. She collapsed next to her bag once she finished her laps. “ Mou ! What’s in that water bottle of yours that makes you go so fast? Concentrated energy drinks?”
Diana wrinkled her nose as she sat down next to her. “Most certainly not. Although, I wouldn’t mind something to drink right now.” She tipped her water bottle upside down, revealing it to be empty.
Akko took a swig of her own water bottle, then passed it to Diana. “You can drink all you want if you tell me your secret.”
“I…” Diana looked at it with widened eyes. Was she staring so intently at the lip of the bottle to figure out what was inside it? It was just water. “My secret is diligence, nothing more.” She took a dainty sip.
“Yeah right. It’s your legs, isn’t it? Those beauties just aren’t fair.”
Diana un-daintily choked on water. “Pardon me?” she said between coughs.
“Your legs. You’re faster than me because you’ve got longer legs. That’s your secret.”
“Proportions aren’t everything,” Diana huffed. Her face had turned red, either from coughing up water or agitation about the legs comment. She thrust the water bottle into Akko’s hands and stood up quickly, inadvertently giving Akko a better look of her legs.
“That’s easy for a tall girl to say.” Akko poked just above Diana’s knee, the lowest part of her thigh. The firm muscle annoyed her. Some teasing was in order. “Y’know, never mind gold medals, these legs could probably get you a girlfriend too.”
There was a sound like a car backfiring underwater. It took a moment for Akko to realize the noise had come from Diana, who had taken off like a shot.
“No need to be shy about it!” Akko called after her. “But your shy side is pretty cute!”
But Diana didn’t so much as look back. In fact, she ran away from the track even faster.
“ Mou , what’s gotten into her?”
*
Akko liked to think of herself as a gamer, but she had always struggled to take on more than one enemy at once—blame it on the ADHD. Paired boss enemies were the worst. As soon as she figured out how to deflect one of their attacks, the other boss blind-sided her.
That’s how she felt when Hannah and Barbara cornered her in the hallway during lunch period. One minute she was thinking about the omelets in her lunchbox, the next she was trapped between her locker and Diana’s constant companions.
“Hey, Akko,” Hannah said in a tone as smooth as a rattlesnake’s scales. “Can we have a moment of your time?”
“Is this a shakedown?” Akko asked. She would fight to the death for her omelets.
“That’s so funny,” Barbara said, her chuckle like that same snake’s rattle. “No wonder Diana hangs out with you so much.”
Akko raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to try to bully me into staying away from her or something?” The pair hadn’t made their disdain for her a secret.
“Of course not, you’re so paranoid. You’re Diana’s close friend, after all.”
“We were just wondering, since you’re so close with Diana, she might have told you about who she likes.”
“Ah, so that’s it.” Diana’s friends still refused to believe her when she said she wasn’t interested in any boys. “She doesn’t have anyone she likes right now.”
Hannah and Barbara frowned in unison. “Is that what she told you?” Hannah asked.
“Not exactly…”
“Then what did she say that makes you think that?” Barbara asked.
“That’s, um, private.”
The pair leaned in closer. “So she told you something you’re not allowed to tell anyone else?”
“That definitely means she has a secret.”
“Who said anything about a secret?” Akko started sweating. If she didn’t throw them off the scent, Hannah and Barbara would pester Diana with renewed interest. “N-now who’s being p-paranoid?”
“You’re hiding something.”
“No doubt about it.”
“We don’t talk about relationship stuff unless you count Henry VIII.” That history assignment had been quite the chore.
Hannah squinted. “What about Andrew? You’re pretty close to him too, aren’t you?”
“Eh? Not really.” They chatted from time to time, but the way Andrew’s fangirls carried on, you’d think the fact that Andrew would go out of his way to talk to her was a personal attack against them.
“Can you say without a doubt that Diana and Andrew aren’t secretly dating?” Barbara scrutinized Akko for a reaction.
“Diana told me they aren’t when I asked about it, and I believe her. Why don’t you?”
The last shreds of Hannah and Barbara’s polite facade went up in flames at the slight. Akko braced herself for a boss fight.
“Hannah, Barbara, weren’t we supposed to meet in the cafeteria?”
The pair whirled around to see Diana standing behind them, arms-crossed across her chest.
“We were just—”
“Go ahead, I have to speak with Akko for a moment.”
Hannah and Barbara obediently slithered away. Diana let out a sigh of relief when they were gone. “Were they harassing you?”
“Nah, they were interrogating me about who you like and if you’re dating Andrew. Don’t worry, I threw them off the scent by telling them you’re giving up romance to join a convent.”
Diana rolled her eyes. “Don’t go starting more strange rumours about me.”
“That was a joke! But if they try to worm the truth out of me again, I might need to make something up so they don’t get suspicious. Those two are so nosy.”
“I’m sorry.” Diana continued in a lower voice, “I’ve troubled you with the burden of keeping my secret for me.”
“Don’t worry about it. What are rivals for?”
Diana chuckled. “That doesn’t sound like a terribly rival-like thing to do.” Her hand moved—for a moment, Akko thought Diana was going to hold her hand, but instead it came to rest on her upper arm. “Would it pain you to say we’re friends?”
“I… um…” Akko blushed. “Don’t think I’m going soft on you! If I beat your times because you were depressed about personal drama, it would suck out all the satisfaction for me, that’s all.”
“If you say so. It means a lot that I can trust you with this.” Diana gave Akko’s arm a gentle squeeze before letting go. “I have to go meet up with Hannah and Barbara now. I’ll see you later?”
“Yeah. See ya.” Akko watched Diana as she walked away. If Diana wanted them to be friends, she ought to give in, right? And yet, the idea of being “friends” with her rival chafed her. But she didn’t have time to unpack all of those feelings; she had omelets to eat.
*
“You’re awfully cozy with Cavendish these days, huh?” Amanda squinted at Akko, leaning into her personal space.
“It’s so nice that you’re getting close with new people,” Lotte said, closing in from the other side.
Akko just wanted to eat her lunch in peace.
It had been two weeks since Diana had come out to Akko, and they had only grown closer. Hannah and Barbara weren’t the only ones to notice this change; Amanda and Lotte picked up on it as well. They chose today to ambush Akko after their group of friends sat down at a table just outside the school to eat their lunch.
Lotte bumped up against Akko’s arm when she didn’t respond. “How did you two get so close ?”
Amanda put an arm around Akko’s shoulders. “More importantly, why would you get so close to that stick in the mud?”
“What kind of good cop bad cop routine is this?”
“Remember, Akko,” Sucy said. “You have the right to remain silent. Use it, because I don’t want to hear any of this.”
Akko remained silent while she chewed on her sandwich. “I told you guys before, she helped me get my English mark up so I wouldn’t get kicked off the team. Then we kinda just became friends. It’s not that deep.”
“Not that deep, huh?” Amanda smirked. “Sounds pretty defensive if you ask me.”
Akko squinted. “What are you implying?”
“It’s okay.” Lotte was practically drooling with anticipation. “You can tell us anything .”
“Not in front of my salad.” Sucy speared a mushroom with her fork as a warning.
“If you guys wanna ask me something, then ask, so I can get back to eating my sandwich.”
“You’ve got the hots for Cavendish, don’t you?”
Akko almost choked on her sandwich. “What!? No way.”
Amanda patted her shoulder in an obnoxiously comforting way. “C’mon, it’s totally obvious. You’re always chasing after her like a puppy. It’s fine if your type is prissy straight girls, but why does it have to be that prissy straight girl? She’s so annoying.”
“It’s not like that.” Diana wasn’t straight, for one thing. “And she isn’t annoying!”
“You don’t need to deny it,” Lotte said. “There’s nothing more romantic than hopeless, one-sided love.”
“That’s even more offensive, somehow.”
“We’ve all crushed on straight girls before,” Amanda said.
“Speak for yourself, dumb ass.” Sucy rolled her eyes.
Amanda continued, “But they’re bad for your health in the long run. Especially straight girls like Cavendish. Het girls like her are happy to string along girls like you to stroke their egos and have some fun, but as soon as they've had their fun, they’ll dump you on your ass. That’s what Cavendish is gonna do, mark my words.”
“Diana’s nice,” Akko insisted. “She would never do anything like that.” After all, Diana was gay; if she wanted to fool around, she could just date Akko...
“Exactly what I’ve been telling her,” Lotte said. “Yours and Diana’s relationship is pure. You have no chance with her, and you’ll be heartbroken when she gets a boyfriend, but that’s the beauty of tragic love.”
“We all get that you love angsty, hurt/no comfort fanfics,” Amanda said, “but that ain’t what’s going on here.”
“Nobody wants to hear that from the girl projecting her own tragic back story,” Sucy grumbled in Lotte’s defence.
“That’s enough out of all of you,” Akko said, crumpling up her sandwich’s plastic wrap in her hands, compressing it into a soft pebble. “I don’t have a crush on Diana!”
Amanda and Lotte tutted at her in unison.
“There’s no point in denying it at this point,” Lotte said. “We can all see it.”
“The sooner you admit you have a problem, the sooner you can get better,” Amanda said smugly.
“The only problem I have right now is that you two aren’t listening to me.” If only she could tell her friends that Diana was actually gay... no, that wouldn’t solve the problem. After all, Amanda and Lotte were labouring under the delusion that Akko had feelings for Diana, and learning the latter was actually attracted to girls might make things worse. Besides... “Even if I did like her— which I don’t! —there’s no way what you imagine would happen. I could totally get a date with Diana if I tried! I just don’t want to!”
Akko’s luck stat was high enough that Diana was just far enough away that she didn’t hear that protest as she approached Akko and her friends. Hannah and Barbara followed several steps behind her, visibly reluctant to be near the others, but unwilling to be parted from Diana, who walked up to her study partner and smiled.
“Good afternoon, Akko. There’s something I need to discuss with you. Is now a good time?”
“Uh, sure.” She didn’t hear that, right? “What’s up?”
“Something has come up this afternoon, and I won’t be able to make it to our study session in time. If you’d like, we could study at my house later in the day instead.”
“I couldn’t impose on your family.”
“Not to worry. My guardian won’t be home.”
Lotte could barely contain her excitement, whereas Amanda let out a disgusted snort. Akko blushed at what she imagined going through their heads, but Diana appeared oblivious to the implications.
“Can I help you, O’Neill?”
“Damn right you can. You can stop playing around with Akko. ‘Come over, babe, my parents aren’t home.’ Like we don’t know what you’re talking about. Just give it a rest already.”
“I am not playing around with Akko,” Diana said. “She and I take our study sessions seriously.”
“Study sessions? Is that what you call it when you two are practicing this and that?”
Diana raised an eyebrow in confusion; Akko wanted to sink into the ground and disappear.
“So what?” Hannah snorted. “We’ve all done a little practicing.” Barbara nodded in agreement. “You can’t blame her for taking advantage of an available resource for it.”
“She should feel lucky that Diana’s even humouring her,” Barbara said. “It’s not like she had a chance otherwise.”
Even Hannah and Barbara are getting in on this? Akko had to set the record straight. “There’s nothing weird going on! You guys need to stop watching weird teen dramas.”
“What on Earth are all of you talking about?” Diana looked back and forth between the speakers. “Could somebody please explain?”
Lotte’s explanation most likely would have been tactful, but Amanda butted in instead. “We all know what you’re up to with Akko. You’re just another straight girl who thinks it’s okay to fool around with a girl as practice for when you have a boyfriend, and you think you’ll get away with it because you know she’s simping for you.”
Diana’s face turned bright red. If Akko hadn’t known the truth, she would’ve assumed it was an admission of guilt. “Preposterous! I’ve never done anything of the sort! With Akko or anyone else!” She huffed angrily. “Besides, why would Akko go along with such a sordid arrangement in the first place?”
Amanda, Lotte, Sucy, and even Hannah and Barbara said in unison: “Because Akko is bi.”
Diana looked at her in surprise, turned redder, then looked away. “I see. As in, Akko is attracted to girls?”
“I assumed you knew,” Akko said. “Everybody knows I’m bi.” She’d never tried to hide her equal attraction to girls and boys, and she wouldn’t have been able to contain it even if she tried—again, blame it on the ADHD. Come to think of it, her being bi had never come up in conversation with Diana… had Diana come out to her not knowing that?
“Somehow I was… unaware.” Diana’s eyes danced a little tango around Akko, never landing on her. She rounded on Hannah and Barbara, who had admitted to knowing what she hadn’t. “So, you thought Akko and I were…”
“Canoodling?” Hannah offered weakly. She shrank under Diana’s disapproving gaze.
Barbara shriveled as well. “In our defense, why else would you be hanging out with the local obnoxious bi girl if you weren’t making out with her?”
“Hey!!!”
“This is absurd,” Diana said loudly. “Why would I be ‘practicing’ for when I have a boyfriend when I’ve told you repeatedly that I have no interest in dating? I spend time with Akko because I enjoy her company, not her b-body. I’m inviting her to my house so we can study, not with the expectation that we’ll k-k-kiss.”
“Wait a minute…” Some serious calculus was going on inside Amanda’s head, but Akko couldn’t begin to guess what she was figuring out.
“I told you their relationship was pure,” Lotte said to Amanda.
“We don’t have a relationship!” Akko protested.
Diana’s eyes finally managed to stay on Akko, though her face contorted from the apparent strain from it. “Indeed. Indeed, Akko and I are friends, and that’s that. We’re not—we’ve never—” She took a deep breath. “Never mind all that. Akko, you’re welcome to come over and practice with me—study! Welcome to study with me. That is all.”
She turned on her heel so quickly that Akko was surprised she didn’t fall over. With speed befitting the top runner of the track team, Diana fled the scene.
It took Akko a moment to realize she should probably go after her. “Hey, wait up!” She shoved the rest of her lunch in her mouth, packed up her stuff in record time, and took off after her.
As she left her friends behind, Akko heard Amanda say to Hannah and Barbra, “What was that about ‘everyone practices?’”
“Don’t start! There’s nothing weird about it!”
“Yeah! And it totally didn’t awake anything in either of us!”
Akko wasn’t a star of the track team for nothing; she caught up to Diana quickly. “Slow down,” she said as she came up alongside her. “This isn’t a race.”
Diana gave her a lop-sided smile. “If it were, I’d have left you behind.”
“Hey! I thought you didn’t think of us as rivals.” Akko pouted. “Anyway, I’m down for studying at your place. If I don’t, you’ll make me study twice as hard next time.” She giggled.
“I see. You, um, didn’t have to chase me down just for that.”
“Yeah I did. You didn’t tell me when we’re gonna meet up later, or where you live or anything.”
Diana blushed. “You’re right. My apologies. I didn’t think that through. My mind was... elsewhere.” She slowed to a stop, Akko matching her pace. “If we exchange numbers, I can text you to meet up when I’m done my errand.”
“Sure!” Akko had never thought about trying to get Diana’s number before, on account of their rivalry. But since they were friends now, she had no reason not to. She took out her phone and played with the Shiny Chariot charm on it while she waited for Diana to navigate through her own phone.
“I’m sorry I’m taking so long,” Diana said as she tapped the screen. “I’m not used to giving out my number.” To the great disappointment of so many Luna Nova students.
“Does that make me special?” Akko asked, giggling as Diana almost dropped her phone.
“Of course. You’re the only person I’m personally tutoring.”
Diana showed Akko her number, which Akko added into her contacts with a speed that made the technophobe’s head spin. Akko sent a message to “My Rival” so she could add her as a contact as easily as possible. She wondered what Diana put her name as.
“As soon as I’m free, I’ll text you, and we’ll walk to my house together,” Diana said as they continued walking. “I hope your friends don’t tease you about coming over to my house.”
“They’ll tease me no matter what I do. That’s what friends do.” Akko shrugged. “They know you’re not going to pounce on me as soon as you get me through the door or whatever.” As if someone as proper as Diana would even think of doing something so forward.
Diana nearly face-planted. Akko looked down, but there was nothing for Diana to trip over. When Diana righted herself, her face was bright red. Again.
Giggles burst out of Akko’s mouth before she could stop them, but she put some thought into her next comment. “ Were you planning on pouncing on me?”
“Of course not!” Diana’s voice cracked. “I would never ‘pounce’ on anyone, nor would I use studying as a pretext to lure you into... you’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
The giggles didn’t stop. “I told you, that’s what friends do.”
“Honestly.” Diana huffed. “I suppose I’m lucky I didn’t ask if you wanted to spend the night. I’d have never heard the end of it.”
It was far too tempting to tease Diana, but Akko didn’t want to risk making Diana feel uncomfortable. After all, if she leaned too hard into it, Diana might think Akko was the one who was expecting something to happen. Which she wasn’t. They were rivals—friends, rather. Obviously Diana wasn’t romantically interested in Akko. Obviously. But she had to be blushing for a reason, right? At the very least, she found the idea of kissing Akko something to get flustered over. Not that such a thing would ever happen between them.
It wasn’t like they were going to get hot and bothered over studying Shakespeare plays. Even if they huddled close to read Diana’s notes, it’s not like they would start cuddling. Akko had spent countless track practices getting whiffs of Diana’s sweat, so there was no way she’d be overwhelmed by being close enough to smell the shampoo on her hair. As if the first time Akko and Diana had some privacy would somehow result in them leaning in, pausing for a breath, and bringing their lips together for the first of many illicit kisses stolen during what was supposed to be a study session. No way.
It was unthinkable.
And Akko definitely wasn’t thinking about that, and there wasn’t any way Diana was either.