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“I can see it in your eyes, Diana. You’re excited!”
It’s hard not to be. In the space between Akko and herself is the limited edition Blu-ray set of the Shiny Chariot World Tour: Magic and Laughter. She had all of them. All six of them. Akko was holding them up like a royal flush, except she had no poker face to speak of whatsoever.
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps?” Akko looks smug. “Did you know that your ears turn pink when you’re excited about something?”
She immediately brings a hand up to cup the side of her face, scowling.
“See? You are!” Akko leans forward. “So what do you say? We can watch one volume per major milestone this school year. To keep us motivated!”
“Together?”
“Of course!” Akko looks at her incredulously. “Why else would I be here?”
Historically speaking, she should have huffed and puffed and crossed her arms and said no, but… she’d actually like that.
It’s so simple, yet so surprising: even just planning it was already making her excited, the emotion almost physically present in her stomach. Yes, she’d love to. She’s never had anyone to watch Shiny Chariot re-runs with before, and there was no one else in school who wasn’t weirded out by the fact that Chariot was their professor now. It’s a little scary how relieved she felt that it seemed her friendship with Akko is here to stay… even without the threat of mildly homicidal family members and international disasters. Lots of feelings to process, so little experience expressing them, so she just mutters:
“Sure.”
“Yay!” Akko’s hands shoot up to the air and she nearly drops the set. “I’m so excited! It’s like a drawn out watch along!”
It’s… a little awkward.
Well. No. She’s awkward. It’s hardly Akko’s fault, and honestly Akko might not even be noticing it because she’s completely enraptured by the first volume. It was one of Chariot's earlier shows, set in a small venue in Birmingham. They were just beginning to experiment with the flow of their program so while it wasn’t as thematically cohesive as her bigger shows later on, it definitely felt more… herself. It was silly. All she wanted to do was make people smile: and it showed!
But yes, it was awkward, because Akko was huddled close next to Diana and she didn’t know what to do with her hands or where to put them. They sat shoulder to shoulder on Akko’s dormitory bed, knees drawn up while looking at the (smuggled, possibly against protocol) television set.
They would have had just enough space, if Akko hadn’t insisted on giving her three foot tall Alcor plushie a designated seat, but instead the three of them (yes, including Alcor) leaned against Akko’s rickety headboard, their knees and elbows bumping clumsily against each other. Except Alcor. He didn’t have any knees or elbows.
“Your thinking face is on again.” Akko narrowed her eyes. “What’s on your mind?”
Plushie anatomy, she wants to say, but that was silly and god forbid anyone ever think she was silly. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Akko looked at her with a scowl. She pointed to the television set. “Even with limited edition Shiny Chariot Blu-rays on TV?!”
Diana made a vague gesture with her hands. “Well. Not nothing, I was just—” Wondering why Alcor had a seat! “Nevermind,” Diana said softly. She bumped her shoulder against Akko, who, in turn, bumped her back. “Let’s just keep watching.”
“Okay.” Akko grinned, so easily placated. “I’m really glad you’re here.” She hooked their arms together, and at least now she knew what to do with one of her arms. Akko broke their eye contact, looking back towards the show. Diana followed her gaze, but just a second later.
It was just a second later.
But it was long enough to make her think about how beautiful the faint glow of the television set made her look.
Diana reads and re-reads and loses track of where she was on her page and has to start all over again from the top of the paragraph and finally—finally—there’s a knock on the Blue Team’s dormitory door.
It startles her out of her seat, makes her snap her book closed. The rhythmic rapping lets her know that it was probably Akko, and it surprises her how quickly she had walked the distance from her chair to the doorway, her hand hovering on the knob. She stops herself and curls her fingers against her palm, counting slowly to twenty because—it’s silly, but because she didn’t want to seem too excited to open the door—and finally once she hit twenty-five (she added a few extra seconds to be sure!), she opens it to the sight of Akko: smiling at her and excitedly rocking back and forth on her heels. There’s a bundle of soft cloth in her arms, and a paper bag.
“I brought snacks!”
“I can see that.”
Akko side-steps Diana, letting herself in. “And blankets, because why is it always so cold in your dormitory? Climate control is the one luxury we get in Luna Nova, and yet you still choose this?”
“The three of us prefer it colder,” she follows Akko into the room, closing the door behind her.
“Well the three of you chose wrong” Akko drops her armful of fluff onto their sofa, turns to look at Diana with her hands at her hips. “But I’ve come prepared. Are you ready for volume two?”
Not like she’s been waiting all day... or anything. Diana looks towards the corner of the room, somehow unable to hold Akko’s gaze. “Yes. Just about.”
“What are you waiting for then!” Akko smiles. She takes her by the hand and pulls her back down towards the sofa. She unravels the blanket and it’s very soft, and probably very warm. With wide, excited eyes Akko to Diana and pats the space on the couch beside her, beckoning her closer.
(She’s glad that Akko always reaches out first because she always does so with so much ease. It’s pleasant whenever they’re close to each other, but Diana never knows how to ask, much less how to initiate it.)
They settle in, shoulder to shoulder, a warm blanket across their laps and snacks in tow—and that’s when they realize that a fundamental part of their watchalong is missing.
“Oh.” Akko laughs nervously.
“Oh?”
“I forgot to bring the TV here from our dorm.”
Diana laughs. She hides the sound behind her free hand, turns away from Akko when it happens.
“Hey!” Akko blinks at her owlishly. “No fair! Don’t look away! It’s so cute!”
“Akko!” Her ears flush. Akko’s leaning in closer, craning her neck to get a glimpse of Diana fighting back a modest parade of giggles.
Akko started giggling too. “Laughing suits you, Diana!”
“That’s ridiculous,” she pushes Akko away by the cheek. It makes Akko laugh harder.
“It’s true!”
The laughing mellows down, and it ends with Akko shooting her a shit-eating grin that makes her roll her eyes.
“Alright, come on,” Akko concedes. She moves up to get on her feet, tugging Diana upwards by the hand. “Let’s go get the TV.”
Diana doesn’t budge, but neither does she let go. Akko was right: it’s colder than it needs to be in their dorm. She realizes it better now that she’s felt the warmth of Akko’s laughter. But then Diana remembers herself, almost physically shakes her head to clear her mind and lets go of Akko’s hand. “Um.” She clears her throat. “Yeah, let’s go.”
The third time, she remembers to turn the heat up a little so Akko wouldn’t be so cold.
But now Akko is warm and snuggled up to her side, and the room is much too warm. She supposes she could turn the heat down, but that would mean getting up from the sofa, and getting up from the sofa meant having to push Akko away for a minute, and—
“You comfy?” Akko blinked up at her, her cheek squished against her shoulder.
“Yes.” Well, no, but more importantly: “Are you?”
“Super!”
There it was again, the most charming of smiles. It was decided: she’s not getting up. Akko would stay comfortably perched beside her, and Diana was just going to have to deal with it and try to focus on volume three of the Shiny Chariot Blu-Rays.
See, the confounding thing about this all was that she wouldn’t have had to try before. She just knows, deep in her freshly-thawed heart, that she wouldn’t have been able to pry her eyes away from what is essentially limited-edition footage of her favorite Chariot shows. But now too many things were fighting for her attention: Akko’s arm was hooked around hers, the fact that she smelled like flowers and she’d have to ask where she bought her shampoo, that every smile and giggle and laugh made her stomach feel like a butterfly garden in a fresh, spring day.
…and the three foot tall Alcor plushy. He had a designated seat again, so now they were snuggled up even closer together than the last time.
“Hey, Diana?”
She felt a soft tug on her sleeve.
“Yes?”
“What’s your favorite part?”
“Of the show?”
“Yeah!”
Sitting together like this, is what she wants to say, but that’s not exactly the right answer to the question so she goes with: “I think it would be the choreography.”
Akko lights up. “Right?! It’s so good! So much showmanship, she didn’t just rely on magic to entertain her audience. Her stage presence and the physical movements she does leading up to each new magic trick is just—” Akko brings her hands up to her head, making exaggerated explosion gestures. “Mind blown!”
Completely charmed, Diana realizes that she’d happily listen to Akko talk about her favorite things all afternoon. “What about you?” She prods. “What’s your favorite part?”
Akko grabs the remote, hits pause, rolls up her sleeves. “Oh, no. You asked for it.”
Diana smiles. Yes. She really did!
“What if we made the fourth session a whole party!”
“What?” Diana blinked, peering at Akko over the gigantic tome propped up on their study desk. “Why?”
“Cause it’ll be fun,” Akko places her finger atop the book’s spine, pushing it downwards to see Diana better. She’s leaning all the way forward on the desk, smiling at her.
“Who would we even invite?”
“Everyone!”
“No.” Diana raises an eyebrow. “Akko, we can’t fit nine people in a dormitory.”
Diana was staring at eight other people crammed into the Blue Team dormitory, wondering when she had turned into such a softie. Constanze had to magically support the cooling system because it had quickly turned sweltering, and Jasminka went above and beyond with the snacks.
“Just uh,” she gestures around vaguely. “Find a place to sit.”
It was like tetris: everyone self organized until the room was in the lowest state of entropy, and finally there was a space for everyone, and everyone was in the right place. Akko ceremoniously feeds the Blu-ray disc into the media player, gasps as the television flashes to life. By this fourth volume, it could really be seen that Chariot’s production team had grown in both size, budget, and experience. It was the biggest venue to date—it seemed almost fitting that they had a bigger crowd to enjoy the volume all together. If only their dorms were bigger too!
“So,” Amanda starts, “like, was this from the 90s or something?”
“It was from 2004,” Diana answered without missing a beat. “If you look at her costume, you can see gold embroidery on the collar and sleeves. She only ever had that during her South America tour. This one was in the Santa Cruz arena at Sao Paulo, and—”
Everyone was staring at her.
“What?” Diana flushes. “I study well.”
Akko, much to Diana's embarrassment, throws her hands up in disbelief. “What the hell!” She whines, looking a little mad. “Why was that kinda hot?”
“We’re like,” Sucy drawls, “right here, Akko.”
“Yeah!” She continued, unfazed, waving her hands at Lotte and Sucy. “So you saw that right?”
“Yes?” Lotte says timidly.
“I didn’t think anyone else would know that,” Akko admits. “You really are my rival!”
Diana was, unfortunately, not feeling very rival-like because she could barely shake herself out of her stupor. Did she just say that I was hot? Like temperature-wise? Did the cooling system need even more help? Should she go learn even more Shiny Chariot trivia? What did she—
“It’s okay,” Hanna sighed, patting her on the back while Barbara tried not to die of laughter. “Take your time.”
It shouldn’t be this hard.
She knew, factually, that she has full control of her hands, her arms, her fingers. And yet they freeze up, clumsy and clammy, refusing to heed the silly little waves of current through her nerves, urging them to move—to come closer—to hold her.
But sometimes, life was merciful and something serendipitous would happen: like Chariot’s famous dragon illusion, captured in HD in the fifth installment of the series. The build up was done perfectly, the execution even more so. As it reared its majestic head towards the camera, Akko had sighed in wonder and happiness, and in that instant, that magical moment, her hand had come up to cover Diana’s.
“Did you see?” Akko smiles, turning towards her.
Diana, captivated by her joy, finally found the strength to thread their fingers together. “No,” she admitted. “I’m sorry.”
“What!” Akko pouts. “You gotta pay attention!”
“I was looking at you.” Diana smiles softly.
“I—”
It was just as fascinating to watch her: she blushes nearly as red as her eyes, wide with surprise. Then Akko presses her lips together, her cheeks puffed out, and gently punches Diana in her shoulder.
“Oh, sorry—”
“No.” Akko’s hands grab at the cloth of her sleeves. She leans forward, hiding her face against Diana’s shoulder, pulling her close. “It’s okay… But I can’t believe you!” Her voice is muffled, and it makes Diana giggle. “You can’t just say that!”
“Yes I can.”
“No, you can’t!”
“I”ll stop, then.”
“You can’t do that either!”
Diana’s giggle breaks into laughter. More confident than ever before, she brings her arms around Akko to hug her. “You’re ridiculous, Atsuko Kagari.”
“Diana,” Akko laughs. Diana, enraptured by the sound of it, chases her for another kiss. And then another. “ Diana! ”
“Yes?”
“You’re not watching anymore.” Akko hits the pause button on the remote. “The sixth one is the bes— mmph! ”
“Sorry,” to be fair, she really was . While she was too busy chasing after just another kiss, Chariot was probably… doing something cool on the screen, or whatever. “That’s the last one.”
Akko bit the inside of her cheek, rolling her eyes at her. She drapes her arms around Diana’s shoulders loosely. “Well it doesn’t have to be the last —”
“Oh?” Diana blinks at her innocently. “I thought we were watching?”
“Hey, I’m not the one being a major distraction here!”
“I don’t know,” Diana hums. “You’re very distracting.”
“That’s not fair,” Akko pokes her on the forehead. “When did you get so smooth?”
“I’ll stop,” Diana laughed lightheartedly. She leans back into the corner of the couch, opening her arms for Akko to rest on her. “Come on.”
Akko happily follows, snuggling closer to Diana carefully enough that she doesn’t knock over her three-foot tall Alcor plushie. She smiles, gives Diana one last kiss on the cheek, then grabs the remote to hit play.