Chapter Text
By the time Andrew and Frank had left Luna Nova, Frank knew something was askew.
He had known something was askew since Andrew and Akko had returned to the banquet hall. They seemed to be keeping a secret, but the smiles and blushing and the way they seemed to be glowing told Frank and Lotte all they needed to know.
“Yep, something definitely happened. Look at them making eyes at each other.”
“It’s adorable.” Lotte leaned her head on Frank’s shoulder. “You’re a good wingman.”
“We’re a good wingman.”
She laughed gently and smiled at him, her eyes squinting behind her glasses. “I love you.”
“Because of my wingman abilities, of course.”
“Yes. You’re only husband material because of your wingman abilities.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to marry me for anything else.”
“I have my reasons. But I do wonder what happened with them.”
“I’ll get Andrew to talk somehow. But you’ll probably have more luck hearing the story from Akko.”
“Yeah, most likely.”
And so, when they were driving home, Frank was trying to get him to talk. This was not going very well.
“Come on, Andrew, I can tell something happened, you’ve never smiled this much the whole time I’ve known you.”
Andrew’s smile had faded into a smirk, but the schadenfreude of not telling Frank what had happened didn’t distract him from the overwhelming happiness of just Akko in general. He was only going through the motions of his life, mentally he was still up on the balcony of the new moon tower with her. Frank’s questions were just background noise.
“Please, Andrew, this isn’t fair, I’ve talked you through the whole thing, and when something happens you don’t tell me? This is torture, my dude.”
He finally spoke. “All you did was try to convince me to flirt with her.”
“But didn’t I support you through it all?”
“I suppose you did.”
“So then, will you tell me?”
Andrew was silent, smiling in the dark. It was a beautiful night, and he always enjoyed driving back to Somerset through the fields.
“I know something happened, because you’re smiling, and also you’re not denying that something happened, unless something didn’t happen, and you’re just messing with me.”
Andrew was still quiet. Frank switched tactics and put on a confident front. “Okay, fine. Tell me or don’t tell me, whatever you want. You know I’ll just get the story from Lotte.”
“So you think Akko is telling her friends, then?”
If Frank had been drinking something at that point, he would have spat it out in shock. Andrew was thankful he hadn’t, because he liked his dashboard the way it was.
“WAIT.”
Andrew turned onto the driveway of the campus, nodding to the security guard.
“WAIT.”
“Inside voices, Frank.”
He couldn’t keep from smirking. It was simply too easy. Messing with Frank was one of Andrew’s favorite hobbies.
When they got back to the dorm, they found Louis, who was once again trying to get used to taking up space, sprawled out over the couch, scrolling through his phone. He didn’t look up, but he greeted them.
“Eyyyyy….”
The ey trailed off, just like Louis’s interest in greeting his friends. In his defense, he was tired and bored.
Frank spoke with anger. “Something happened with Akko and Andrew won’t tell me what’s going on. I need you to help me annoy him.”
“When did I ask.”
Andrew was thankful for Louis’s apathy, until he seemed to want to annoy him himself instead of helping Frank. He leaned his head over the side of the couch to meet Andrew’s eye, and raised an eyebrow. “But I am curious, Hanbridge, what did you do with that witch?”
Andrew was rather glad he wasn’t the type to blush- not like Akko, who had looked even lovelier with each shade of red she’d turned as she was confessing her feelings… his heart quickened again at the thought. Then he realized he hadn’t answered Louis’s question.
“Distracted by the memories?”
“No. Miss Kagari and I had a picnic. Frank here is suspicious about that.”
“I’m only suspicious because you keep acting suspicious, dude!!”
Andrew smiled wryly. “Why, whatever makes you think that?”
Frank sighed and returned to his bed, opening his computer. “I’m emailing Lotte. She’ll tell me what happened.”
“Do whatever you want. I’m going to go play the piano for several hours. Don’t wait up.”
Meanwhile, over at Luna Nova, Akko had definitely told Sucy and Lotte the whole story. In fact, she was gushing. Gushing and blushing and giggling and swooning and a half-melted mess, Sucy was saying. She was finishing the story after a very long and winding explanation of everything, with breaks for Sucy and Lotte to comment.
“So then we went back to the reception and pretended nothing had happened, because we didn’t want to make a scene.”
Sucy looked up from Akko’s diary. “So you guys just kissed? That’s kind of anticlimactic.”
“I didn’t think it was anticlimactic. I mean, after two years-“
“Exactly, you guys have been pining after each other for two years. And with all the romance novels you and Lotte read, I thought it would be spicier. Unlike this drivel.”
“Well, romance novels- WAIT, IS THAT MY DIARY??”
“Yep. You were super lame in fourth grade. It’s pretty clear sempai is not going to notice you.”
Akko jumped up from her spot on her bed to snatch her diary back from Sucy. “As a matter of fact, he did notice me, and I thought I told you not to read this!!”
“Yeah, he noticed you alright. I’m actually rereading this, I already got to the part where he laughed at your big speech about Shiny Chariot. But I think my favorite part is when you trip and-"
The distress on Akko’s face made Lotte chuckle. “Rereading? How many times have you read this?”
“Eh. Enough to see that you don’t have the attention span to actually keep a diary. It’s just a bunch of entries and then you forget about it for like three years, and then some more entries. It’s hilarious.”
Akko held her diary to her heart, trying to protect it, and her dignity, from Sucy’s curiosity. “Hey!! What’s so wrong about wanting to record your deepest inner feelings?”
“I’m just so glad I learned Japanese. So I can laugh at you, no matter what language you’re in!”
Akko angrily flipped through the pages, suddenly jerking her head up to wail at Sucy. “You ANNOTATED it?”
“Yeah?”
“’Sempai will never notice you, you pathetic clod’….ow?”
Lotte raised an eyebrow. “That’s a little harsh, Sucy…”
“Nonsense.”
Akko sank back down onto her bed, face planting into her pillow. Lotte patted her on the back. “It’s okay, Akko, she read mine too.”
“I enjoyed analyzing it. The transition between you simping for the second lead in night fall to you simping for Frank made me want to barf.”
Akko sat up sullenly. “Well, sempai turned out to be a jerk anyway.”
“You don’t need him,” offered Sucy.
Lotte elbowed Akko. “Yeah, you don’t need him, you have Andrew!”
Akko smiled, full of self-satisfaction. “Yeah. I do have Andrew.”
The Andrew in question was, as he had told Frank and Louis, playing the piano, but he couldn’t focus under the circumstances, the circumstances being that he could hardly contain himself for joy. He kept stopping to simply smile and blush. He guessed that Akko was equally giddy, wherever she was, but he had the added benefits of relief and surprise. Surprise, of course, because he hadn’t at all expected this. And relief because he hadn’t lost her. To the contrary, even.
Realizing he wouldn’t be able to focus on piano, he found a spare piece of sheet music and started writing a letter on the back of it.
My dear Akko-
I’m not sure what I had planned to feel after telling you. I only foresaw devastation. I thought I would tell you and then disappear somehow so we wouldn’t need to meet again. I thought I’d try and get over you, but I see now that that never would have been possible, even if you had rejected me. You are not something that can be gotten over. If you were, I might have figured out how to stop lying to you another way than telling the truth. But now I’m glad I never managed to love you the way you thought I did. I’ve been through hell and back for love of you, but I’m glad.
I was wrong, Akko. I was wrong about you, and about myself, and about hope. I thought I didn’t have any hope left, but you were my hope all along. Perhaps I should have been more optimistic, but that’s in the past.
We have a future!
It feels so strange to be writing when I could be telling you these things. I don’t have to keep secrets from you anymore. I can even stop writing these blasted letters.
There wasn’t a reason to keep writing that particular blasted letter. And there wasn’t a reason to stay shut up in the piano closet, either. Andrew left and walked through the campus, completely alone. There were students shuffling back to their dorms and parties glowing against the evening, so he just kept walking until he reached the lawn next to his dorm hall. The stars weren’t nearly as bright here. The sky always seemed so blue at Luna Nova, and it was more of a black here without as much light, but this gorgeous April evening was still beautiful. Everything was beautiful tonight, because Andrew was free.
I'm going to put an AN here because I'm not sure how to do summaries on the first chapter. Anyway.
I've returned, at least to my computer, if not my point of origin, from seeking my future. I have not yet found it but I'm also not done seeking. I've learned a lot that will benefit this fanfiction! Like knowing an Actual British Person. Apparently they do not have sand there, nor do they have 'pep.' neither the word or the emotion.
I am also writing this from my dorm room, I have a dorm room now. Let me tell you, the dorm that Andrew, Frank, and Louis live in is *incorrect*. They haven't even locked themselves out yet, and they have no RA's to let them back in if they did. I'm going to remedy this, but for now, just pretend that's been going on for the past year or so. btw I have locked myself out three times, all my fault, I should know better.
So, this is about to get more fun. I'm going back to my once a week schedule, especially because I have something else in the works that's taking up my time as well. get ready for an original work no one asked for!
I've missed this and I'm so happy to be back! (god this sounds like an email)
Love,
griff