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Akko took a deep breath as she checked the time on her watch. She and Diana were supposed to leave Luna Nova for their little Valentine's Day date in an hour. It was nothing big, just a small restaurant in the evening, as Luna Nova had allowed the students to return exceptionally around curfew time rather than 6 PM.
She looked at herself in the mirror that adorned the wall of the blue dorm. She ran a hand through her hair and adjusted her cardigan on her shoulders before groaning, the soles of her Converse squeaking against the wooden floor. Diana was never late, but for some reason, she had been locked in the bathroom for over two hours.
Akko looked up as she heard the door open, hoping to see Diana appear, only to find Hannah and Barbara come in laughing. They stopped as they noticed Akko's dejected face.
“What are you still doing here?” Hannah asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I'm waiting,” Akko sighed, pointing to the bathroom door. Hannah and Barbara exchanged glances, and their attention shifted to Diana's wardrobe. Barbara peeked inside before covering her mouth with her hands.
“Urgent Blue Team meeting—” She pushed Akko out of their dorm. Akko squealed before being met with the massive door that slammed in front of her. She opened and closed her eyes several times before knocking repeatedly.
“Girls, this is not the time!” she screamed.
“Diana will come get you in your dorm; trust us!” Hannah opened the door slightly. She didn't allow Akko to respond before slamming the door again. Akko blinked a few times before sighing and turning on her heel. Diana and she had been dating for a little over a month, and Akko was doing just fine. Even though Diana was… how could she say it…
Awkward?
Not awkward in a bad way, thankfully! Awkwardly cute, the kind that left her cheeks flushed all the time. The kind of awkward where her hands got sweaty every time she held Akko's, where she stammered incomprehensible words every time Akko complimented her.
And it was always cute to see the great Diana Cavendish lose her cool whenever Akko was romantic. It was as if she were finally letting herself act like a normal 17-year-old girl and not an aristocrat who couldn't swear properly.
Yeah.
Akko loved Diana.
“Diana, get out of there,” Barbara sighed for the umpteenth time.
“No way!” The Scottish witch’s voice trembled. Hannah growled and, with a wave of her wand, unlocked the door.
Diana was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, her face in her hands, her long hair hiding her expression. Her shoulders were tense, her legs slightly apart, and her phone was on in front of her.
“I look ridiculous…” She muttered, tensing up a bit more.
“No,” Hannah patted her back. “You look good, superb.”
Diana looked up—and okay, maybe she looked a little ridiculous. Hannah tried to hide her expression by looking away, but Diana understood and buried her face in her hands.
“I should just change—”
“No, no, no, no!” Barbara screamed, closing the door and forcing her back to sit down. “You just picked the wrong one, but I’m sure we can work it out!”
Diana growled even more.
Hannah and Barbara exchanged glances. For this first Valentine's Day, Diana had chosen, for some unknown reason, a suit.
Not the kind of feminine, well-structured outfit that would have highlighted her curves. No, it was a dark blue plaid suit, slightly too big for her, with sleeves and legs that fell awkwardly. The buttons were fastened askew, creating a gap at the collar. The tie hung loosely, and a video tutorial on how to tie it played on a loop as if to mock her.
“Why didn’t you… pick an outfit you were sure of?” Barbara asked.
“I… wanted to look presentable…”
Hannah was about to comment, but Barbara stopped her.
“But you always look presentable! You could have worn a uniform on that date, and Akko would have been happy!”
“I just wanted to seem, I don’t know, confident? A little more than usual?”
To all outsiders, Diana was the epitome of self-confidence. Always poised, always speaking with a calm and assured voice.
For her roommates, after getting to know her better and dissociating from the idea of perfection they had of her, it was quite the opposite. It was all just a facade, a performance that Diana was putting on for the world, who expected constant structure from her. But in reality?
Diana was a mess.
Since she stopped forcing an image in front of Hannah and Barbara, the two had witnessed countless awkward moments: Diana missing a step and slipping down the stairs, tripping over her own feet before catching herself on the wall and bumping into it, trying to comfort a crying child at Blystonbury only for the child to cry even more because explaining how his leg could get infected if he didn't treat his boo-boo wasn't a good idea…
Far from the graceful image Diana had projected during their first year.
“Listen, let’s fix this,” Barbara suggested, as Hannah returned with several dresses. Diana opened her mouth to protest, but Hannah thrust the dresses into her arms.
“You're already late, so don’t say anything.”
“But I really wanted to wear this,” Diana protested, staring at the costume.
“I can’t believe it…” Hannah ran a hand over her face. “We’re going to need help.”
Amanda burst out laughing as her girlfriend ushered her into their dorm room. Diana stood in the middle of the dorm, her fists clenched and her breathing laboured.
“O'Neill, not a word, please,” Diana protested.
“Well, Cav,” Amanda couldn't help but smirk as Hannah set down the costumes she had borrowed from her. “Why didn't you use a spell? Metamorphie Weisstyss.” Amanda cast the spell, and after a poof and a bit of smoke, the costume was fitted, falling perfectly. Diana blushed and grabbed her own wand.
“Because I don't want an illusion,” she removed the spell and sighed. “I want to make the effort for Akko, to show her as best I can that I love her. I feel like I'm terrible at showing her, so…”
Amanda raised an eyebrow. Diana? Diana gay-as-fuck-for-Akko Cavendish? Diana, who couldn’t look anywhere but Akko, who had the biggest smile whenever Akko spoke to her, and who everyone in this damn academy knew perfectly well was very, very in love with Akko.
“Don’t worry about it,” Barbara rubbed Diana’s back as she sighed.
“You could give her a crappy box of chocolates, and she'd look at you like you gave her the moon,” Hannah added, crossing her arms.
Diana pouted. “That's not the point. I want… it to be perfect.”
Amanda rolled her eyes with a smile. “Cav’, listen to me. If Akko could, she'd probably roll around on the floor just because you breathed in her direction. She's going to think you're perfect no matter what you wear.”
“But that’s not—”
“Well, you're too stressed to listen to the voice of reason, so we'll do this differently. Do you want Akko to see that you made an effort for her? That you put your heart into your outfit?”
Diana nodded.
“Alright. In that case…” Amanda grabbed the still-loose tie and began to redo it, this time properly. “Stand up straight. Not like you swallowed a broom, but like… straight, relaxed.”
Diana complied, but immediately her back stiffened even more, as if someone had tied her to a wooden board. Her shoulders were so high that she looked like a startled owl, and her gaze remained fixed straight ahead, completely tense.
Amanda narrowed her eyes. “Uh. No. That’s worse.”
Hannah stifled a laugh into her hand as Barbara shook her head.
“Relaxed, Diana. Like… relaxed.”
Diana tried to relax her shoulders. The movement was jerky and far too mechanical as if she had just deactivated a default rigidity mode.
Amanda huffed. “Okay, try this: breathe in…”
Diana inhaled sharply as if trying to suck in all the oxygen in the room at once.
“Not like you're going underwater for three hours! Easy!”
Diana exhaled hastily and choked on her own saliva.
Barbara patted her gently on the back as she coughed, her cheeks burning.
“Okay, let’s forget about breathing. Um… move around a bit? Like, put some weight on one leg and relax your arms?”
Diana tried to shift her weight from one foot to the other, but she went too far and nearly toppled completely onto her side.
Amanda barely caught her arm.
“Wow, Cavendish, you look like a baby giraffe learning to walk. It's a little terrifying.”
Diana closed her eyes, exhaled slowly, and finally crossed her arms over her chest. “I give up. I'll stay tense forever.”
“I think that will be the case…” Amanda pinched the bridge of her nose before Hannah nudged her ribs with her elbow, holding another suit in her arms. Without even waiting for Diana to protest, she forced her to remove the oversized jacket, undid the knot Amanda had tied, and, ignoring the blonde's complaints, sent the shirt elsewhere.
“Hannah—!” Diana groaned, blushing and trying to pull away.
“Don't even try; you have ten minutes before you're running late,” Hannah said, forcing her into Amanda's pale blue shirt. Diana stammered as Hannah buttoned the shirt properly, and stiffened when she saw the pants fall to her ankles.
“I can dress myself—”
“There's a good chance you'll panic and fall into your own pants…” Barbara muttered under her breath as Amanda tossed Hannah the pants. They were slightly too short, but still less awkward than the vastly oversized ones Diana had worn before.
After some adjustments and a bouquet shoved into her hands, Diana was finally a little more presentable.
“I look like I'm about to propose to her…” Her voice cracked as she looked in the mirror. The suit was white, the tie matching the jacket, and Amanda handed her a pair of white Vans.
“It's better to look like this than like a grandfather.”
“Thank you, O'Neill…”
Amanda gave her a thumbs-up with a smirk.
“Well, we’re out of time!” Hannah suddenly pushed Diana out of the dorm. “Let’s go!!!”
Akko sighed again as she checked the time on her phone. Their reservation was in thirty minutes, and they had a twenty-minute drive. If they didn't leave now, they would be…
She was cut off from her thoughts by a few timid knocks at her door.
Akko jumped, her heart leaping.
“Finally!” she exclaimed, jumping up, ready to open the door. But before she could touch the handle, a drawling voice stopped her.
“Hmm… wait a second.” Sucy, lying on her bed like a slug in the middle of digestion, opened a lazy eye towards her. “Are you sure it’s Diana?” she whispered in a mock-worrying tone. “It could be a wandering spirit seeking vengeance… or worse, a possessed version of Diana, ready to devour you.”
Lotte shook her head, laughing softly. “Sucy, stop scaring her.”
Akko rolled her eyes. “It's Diana, stop your nonsense!”
She grabbed the handle but felt a hesitation.
“… Why did she take so long? First I got kicked out of her dorm, and now she's late…”
Lotte exchanged a look with Sucy before shrugging. “Maybe she wanted to… get ready?”
Akko narrowed her eyes. “Get ready? She told me it would take ten minutes; it took three hours! I had time to watch a movie!”
Sucy chuckled. “You'll see, it could be funny.”
Akko ignored her smirk and yanked the door open…
…then she froze.
Diana stood there, stiff as a statue, her fists clenched around a bouquet of red roses. Her shifty gaze and slightly pink cheeks contrasted with the image of poise that Akko knew so well.
She was…
Akko opened her mouth. No sound came out.
She blinked.
Diana took a deep breath and squeezed the bouquet a little tighter.
“I'm sorry I'm late, Akko.”
A silence fell. Sucy, still sprawled on her bed, murmured in an unusually impressed tone:
“… Oh.”
Lotte, hiding a smile behind her hand, repeated softly.
“Oh.”
Akko, however, remained frozen, her eyes wide open. Her brain was desperately trying to restart.
Sucy was the first to break the tension.
“Congratulations, Akko. Your girlfriend is literally proposing to you.”
Akko made a strange sound, a mix between a squeak and a strangled gasp.
Lotte, behind her, gave her a light pat on the shoulder. “You should answer her before she starts panicking.”
Akko finally blinked and opened her mouth.
“Y-You… You look great…”
Diana looked away, her cheeks red, and swallowed hard.
“Thanks, Akko. Shall we go?”
Akko nodded, but with so much energy that she looked like a mechanical toy about to explode. Then, abruptly, she grabbed Diana's hand and dragged her out of the dorm, almost running.
When the door closed behind them, Sucy rolled onto her back, laughing.
“I give you three minutes before Akko walks into a wall.”
Lotte chuckled.
“I would say two.”
“So?!” Hannah and Barbara looked up from the movie they were watching when the door to their dorm opened around 10 PM.
“It was… Good,” Diana didn’t bother looking at them as she replied, her voice unusually light, almost distracted. Hannah and Barbara exchanged glances, confused by her demeanour, before trailing after her to her side of the room.
The moment they caught sight of her face, they both froze.
Her usually pristine appearance was in complete disarray. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen, and most notably, smudged lipstick covered the lower half of her face—marks of varying intensity trailing from her lips to the curve of her jaw, some even faintly staining the sharp line of her cheekbones. It was as if someone had kissed her without any regard for neatness, pressing against her skin with reckless abandon.
Her hair, typically smooth and impeccably styled, was a mess of tousled strands, some locks falling wildly over her forehead while others stuck out at odd angles, as though fingers had run through them repeatedly, pulling and tangling with an almost desperate urgency. A few golden strands clung stubbornly to the remnants of lipstick near her temple, evidence of just how deep she had been into it.
And then there was her shirt. What had once been crisp and neatly buttoned was now hopelessly wrinkled, the top few buttons undone, exposing the delicate skin of her collarbone. The fabric bore slight creases, unmistakable where eager hands had gripped too tightly, stained by the lipstick. Her tie was the worst of all—completely undone, hanging limply around her neck, one end thrown haphazardly over her shoulder, as if it had been tugged on one too many times before being outright abandoned.
She dropped onto her bed with a sigh, her posture unusually lax, her entire being radiating the unmistakable glow of someone utterly and blissfully content. The goofy smile that played on her lips only solidified it—soft, dazed, and entirely unguarded.
And then it clicked.
The loud thud they had heard minutes earlier, the smudged lipstick, the ruined tie.
Diana had, without a doubt, just had the best evening of her life...