#this took over an hour. fuck you akko
Note
All the numbers
fuck you
1. Who was the last person you held hands with?
uH MY CLOSE FRIEND LMAO? 2. Are you outgoing or shy?
lowkey both?? im more shy but if i know the person im incredibly outgoing 3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?
MY LOWKEY GF4. Are you easy to get along with?
oft no 5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?
YEP6. What kind of people are you attracted to?
ppl who are kind !! also ppl who could either break me or love me 7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?
,, hopefully8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind?
,,, can i say keaton henson bc his music makes me sob9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?
no but depending w who lmao :””^10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?
mm i think my friend from school abt shitty people ngl 11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?
”do you think it’d be a good idea for me to run and get tea right now”12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?
ok jeez
1. cherry bomb - the runaways (wow, original)
2. all of sevdalizas songs ever
3. blood // water - grandson
4. charger - gorillaz
5. pools - glass animals
13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?
YESYEYSYESYEYSYES. fuck yes.14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?
mhm!!15. What good thing happened this summer?
err i mean, if u count summer as past summer then convincing my dang dad that i dont wanna stay at my shitty school lmao?? 16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
depends on what kind of kiss !! but ye!!17. Do you think there is life on other planets?
pfft, absolutely 18. Do you still talk to your first crush?
,,, i dont think so tbh19. Do you like bubble baths?
HELL YE I DO20. Do you like your neighbors?
ngl i dont rly talk to them but they seem Nice21. What are your bad habits?
if i dont know someone all too well i tend to joke around w them?? idk its weird but i kinda get annoyed easy as well,, altho another bad habit is my flaky ass backing out of events sometimes22. Where would you like to travel?
i’d love to ,,, travel to scotland or france23. Do you have trust issues?
oh boy i do24. Favorite part of your daily routine?
going the hell to sleep again and wrapping myself up25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?
every part w scars lmao26. What do you do when you wake up?
take my dang meds27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?
,, idk?? i like my skin tbh but it could clear tf up28. Who are you most comfortable around?
my sister29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?
nope :””^ 30. Do you ever want to get married?
yes!!31. Is your hair long enough for a pony tail?
ye lmao32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with?
,,, IM 16 LETS NOT GO HERE33. Spell your name with your chin.
aki34. Do you play sports? What sports?
i work out but i dont play sport lmao35. Would you rather live without TV or music?
without tv, music is my lifeblood36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?
almost always37. What do you say during awkward silences?
i try to joke abt smth usually38. Describe your dream girl/guy?
someone who cares for me smh39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?
T2, I LOVE TEA,,, 40. What do you want to do after high school?
university or nap 41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?
yes!! unless they’re super shitty42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?
i’m nervous, anxious or overthinking43. Do you smile at strangers?
i try to ??44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?
oo fuck outer space ty45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?
,, honestly talking to lovely ppl46. What are you paranoid about?
people abandoning me or being completely alone and shut in and just,, closed away from the world47. Have you ever been high?
tba48. Have you ever been drunk?
not rly lmao i have a high tolerance 49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?
,, UM,,, lowkey yes50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?
olive51. Ever wished you were someone else?
before, yes. now? nah, i’m pretty good 52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?
highkey wish i was less anxious 24/7
53. Favourite makeup brand?
NARS. nars. or kat von d altho i hate what she stands for
54. Favourite store?
T255. Favourite blog?
,, idk? 56. Favourite colour?
blue / green!!57. Favourite food?
creme brulee58. Last thing you ate?
a rly good double cheese burger59. First thing you ate this morning?
croissant60. Ever won a competition? For what?
knowledge of novels for school!! or art wise, i’ve won a few comps inside our school61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?
nope62. Been arrested? For what?
nada63. Ever been in love?
smh i fall in love,, way to easily64. Tell us the story of your first kiss?
,, jeez i hate the person who it was with, but it was underneath the harbour bridge after chocolate strawberries and a picnic,, she asked if she could kiss me and i said yes65. Are you hungry right now?
jfc not rly im super content tbh66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?
no @official-akko is a binch (im kidding i love u)67. Facebook or Twitter?
fb68. Twitter or Tumblr?
tumblr69. Are you watching tv right now?
nope but i was watching law and order svu 70. Names of your bestfriends?
beauty, my cat71. Craving something? What?
cuddling someone and gently lying my head on their chest 72. What colour are your towels?
white!!72. How many pillows do you sleep with?
3 binch73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?
yes!!74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?
on my bed is 2, but i think at least 5+ around 75. Favourite animal?
i love,, cats,,,, so fucking much 76. What colour is your underwear?
wouldn’t u like to know77. Chocolate or Vanilla?
vanilla78. Favourite ice cream flavour?
mm cookies and cream?79. What colour shirt are you wearing?
dark bluuee80. What colour pants?
grey81. Favourite tv show?
right now its between brooklyn 99 and stranger things82. Favourite movie?
i will never stop loving mulan or the princess diaries 83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?
mean girls 84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?
mean girls i guess 85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?
,, janis ian86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo?
uh the turtle smh87. First person you talked to today?
ash!! 88. Last person you talked to today?
rn, its niko89. Name a person you hate?
me90. Name a person you love?
ash91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?
GOD this one asshole from school i will actually brawl92. In a fight with someone?
not rly?? idk93. How many sweatpants do you have?
at least 494. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?
5!!95. Last movie you watched?
legally blonde pfft96. Favourite actress?
i lowkey love madelaine petsch97. Favourite actor?
shrugs loudly98. Do you tan a lot?
no im pale af99. Have any pets?
a cat!!100. How are you feeling?
tired, coffee makes me tired101. Do you type fast?
yep!! i can touch-type too so i dont even have to look most of the time as well lmao102. Do you regret anything from your past?
waayyy too fuckin much regret over what ive done to myself 103. Can you spell well?
ye!!104. Do you miss anyone from your past?
,, my grandma :105. Ever been to a bonfire party?
nope lmao106. Ever broken someone’s heart?
,, i think i have,,, 107. Have you ever been on a horse?
yes!! i go horseriding at least four times during the year108. What should you be doing?
sleeping probably109. Is something irritating you right now?
i have a fuckin itch on my leG110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?
yep,, oh boy 111. Do you have trust issues?
i already answered this lmao112. Who was the last person you cried in front of?
,, my sister because i wanted her to comfort m e shes v sweet113. What was your childhood nickname?
”leash”114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?
yes!!115. Do you play the Wii?
sometimes116. Are you listening to music right now?
i am, its glass animals :””^117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?
yes!!118. Do you like Chinese food?
eh, iffy but i dont mind it!119. Favourite book?
THE NAME OF THE WIND BY PATRICK ROTHFUSS120. Are you afraid of the dark?
only a lil121. Are you mean?
,, i think i am sometimes122. Is cheating ever okay?
never ever ever ever is it okay.123. Can you keep white shoes clean?
yes! if not i fuckin clean em wth124. Do you believe in love at first sight?
not rly? i think love is something you have to grow and share together, kind of like a garden plant? works gotta go into it for it to blossom 125. Do you believe in true love?
i believe in it!126. Are you currently bored?
,, yea lmao127. What makes you happy?
memes, reading and tea ngl128. Would you change your name?
birthname? ye, probably lmao129. What your zodiac sign?
cancer! im an emotional fucking crab130. Do you like subway?
ye!131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?
remind them im a lesbian132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?
binnch this is a past question133. Favourite lyrics right now?
”Our skinIn time would tellCan I hold on to our genesIn my lifeI could not failWhen I run out will you leave?”
134. Can you count to one million?
i can but i’d loose track i have attention issues pfft135. Dumbest lie you ever told?
”i was late because my cat threw up one on of my school uniforms and i had to change”136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed?
closed, idk who can trust anyone that much to keep them open137. How tall are you?
5′7!138. Curly or Straight hair?
i have wavy hair if this is asking m e139. Brunette or Blonde?
blonde140. Summer or Winter?
winter141. Night or Day?
night142. Favourite month?
july bc its cold and my birth month143. Are you a vegetarian?
nooppe144. Dark, milk or white chocolate?
milk chocolate!145. Tea or Coffee?
tea146. Was today a good day?
meh, highs and lows 147. Mars or Snickers?
mars148. What’s your favourite quote?
either:a. “And what we learn about ourselves in those moments, where the trigger has been squeezed, is this: the past is not dead. There are things that wait for us, patiently, in the dark corridors of our lives. We think we have moved on, put them out of mind, left them to desiccate and shrivel and blow away; but we are wrong. They have been waiting there in the darkness, working out, practicing their most vicious blows, their sharp hard thoughtless punches into the gut, killing time until we came back that way.” from Trigger Warning (Short fictions and disturbances), neil gaiman
or
b. “Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind's way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying 'time heals all wounds' is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind. Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.” - The name of the wind, patrick rothfuss
149. Do you believe in ghosts?
yes!! i believe that ghosts exist lmao, or at least guiding spirits 150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page?
“… but he left his doubts unspoken. Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.” - Game of thrones lmao
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I've been kinda down tonite so I decided to check out the Enchanted Parade movie for Little Witch cus it's a comfort show. So here are thoughts and prob spoilers so be warned
I really really love how the plot of this has to do with Akko being selfish and how that affects the relationship she has with her friends. Often times she has these absolutely farfetched magical ideas that her friends get roped into. And they love that part of her, because in a lot of ways Akko wouldn't be Akko if she wasn't ridiculous and so over the top. But at the same time sometimes getting pushed and pulled and thrown into things without being asked can wear you out. And i just love that they took the time to explore this with the red team. And especially with Lottes character since she's known for being so mild mannered. It's really the only time I can think where the three of them have a fight and I think they did it pretty well.
Other thoughts. I love the green team. I just think. They are the fucking best side characters. I think they are so fun. They are such fun ideas for individual characters but like you see the three of them together and you wonder how it works. And the answer Is they're all so chill and kind of defy the rules in their own relaxed way. Whether it's Amanda stealing a broom and flying around during non flying hours. Or Jasminka eating all the food no fucks given. Or Constance just building mechas in class cus old magic is boring. These three are fucking awesome and work so well as the red teams friends.
Diana really just shows up whenever Akko is by herself/feeling sad/in danger huh? Girls got it bad. Big fan of the rival character who hates the mc but then cannot fathom why they hate to be away from them.
Ursula really let those kids fight that fucking giant alone just so she could run the show. Bitch how could you lol? Like I know performing is Chariots whole thing but dude. Like Jennifer is the one who took this thing down and you just let the kids take this one? Lol. I actually really enjoyed her on the mic and she's still very good at directing the crowd. So it was fun to see Ursula actually have a Chariot moment if that makes sense?
Contraversial thought. Maybe drop the kid? Not a great idea but one I definitely thought cus what a little asshole. I was legit just like "yeah whatever let the kid die fuck it". Also I was kind of hoping Diana would catch Akko in this one and this little prick ruined the chance of that happening. (I do not approve of actual murder I am just being silly)
Overall really fun movie that gave me a lot of all my fav characters. And at the end of the day they brought up a problem Akko has and she had to work hard to fix that problem herself. And then she made up with her friends. And maybe it's just me but I'd rather have more movies about growing as a person and making stronger relationships with the people around me. Than overhyped action movies where 95% is action or villain monologues. Just saying maybe Hollywood should watch some shounen anime.
#little witch academia#akko little witch academia#lwa#Little witch academia and the Enchanted Parade review#review#thoughts#silly thoughts#diakko#akko kagari#text#textpost#Ive been up n down lately and that has kind of sucked#I'll have an okay day then have a really hard night#So im glad I got to watch a comfort show tonite#It helped me calm down#I really love these dorks
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FULL REVIEWS: “Wing It Like Witches”
Damn, that last episode was something. It was so much of something that the hype for this episode didn’t come until after they released a screenshot of Amity in the grudgby uniform. Everyone predicted that this was the episode that had Amity join The Owl House squad and...they were right.
The Lumity Trilogy ends with a sports balls game.
The cold open starts with Boscha of all people.
It’s grudgby season again and all I can think of is “Wow how lucky is Luz to enroll in Hexside during the semester where shit happens.” Is the first semester the boring one with no holidays and/or events?
Anyway, I grew up in South Texas where high school football was treated like the biggest deal. I get why Boscha is being treated the way she is, and so does she.
Boscha goes to school expecting a hero’s welcome, but gets pissed when the attention is given to Willow.
Willow tells Luz that ever since she patched things up with Amity, she’s been feeling more confident. That’s really good character development. Without her resentment toward Amity (who was her oldest friend), Willow feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. All that hate and sadness was bringing her down, but without it, she’s free to blossom.
I don’t mean to quote Penn & Teller but, “And then there’s this asshole.”
Boscha is so not okay with Willow being happy with herself and just picks on her harder. Especially since it’s grudgby season and she knows she can get away with it.
Amity tells her to grow the fuck up, and Boscha lets it slip that ever since grom Amity has been “getting soft.” This does fucking nothing since Boscha literally spends all day following Willow and friends all day picking on them like crazy. Like damn bitch, don’t you have anything else do do? Don’t you have any life outside of Willow’s?
People ask why I don’t ship Willow and Boscha and this is why. I get enemies to lovers. I get the bully becoming the love interest. Hell, it’s happening with Amity right now. But this is too needlessly cruel for my taste. There’s not way the Defeat Equals Friendship trope is going to work here. Not for me. But hope comes in the form of a useless lesbian.
Amity literally gay panics after getting ‘nam flashbacks of dancing with the girl she likes in the moonlight. Luz asks Amity for help about Boscha, and based on Amity’s answer, I don’t think Amity has ever liked Boscha. She agrees that Boscha is difficult to tolerate. It’s even worse during grudgby season because it becomes all the thinks about. Luz gets the wrong idea from that.
After literally pelting Willow with garbage, Luz challenges Boscha to a grudgby match for Willow. Again Luz’s character flaw of overstepping her bounds comes back. She never even considers what Willow might want or the fact that Willow has never even played grudgby before in her life. And that’s when another of Luz’s character flaws comes back hard. This time it’s Luz expecting life to play out like a story, or more specifically, a sports movie.
Holy crap. Is that the thorn-vault? I’ve never noticed that before.
Luz thinks that if they just try really hard they’ll beat someone who has been excelling at the sport for years. No. That’s not how life works, sweetie. I’m starting to think that maybe Luz’s mom was on to something sending her to camp.
Luz manages to convince Willow and Gus to be on board, but Amity...
She’ll be in her bunk.
Meanwhile in the B-plot (that should be my t-shirt by now), Eda is talking about her time when she was star player of her grudgby team when Lilith makes an unexpected appearance to arrest Eda. Lilith notices that Eda is wearing her old ass grudgby uniform and Eda’s response made me laugh.
“No reason. It’s laundry day.”
Lilith gives Eda a quick reality check to remind her that while Eda was good...
Lilith was better.
This photo really confused me and took me a while to realize that that was Eda and Lilith. Lilith gave herself a serious make over after school. Straightened her hair, darkened it, got ride of the glasses. I didn’t even recognize her.
Since we all got grudgby on the brain, Eda makes a bet. She’ll go with Lilith to The Emperor peacefully if she can beat her in a game of grudgby. Luz is always pulling stuff like this and it works out for her, so why not? Speaking of which.
Willow and Gus teach Luz about grudgby. Luz teaches Willow and Gus about montages and it does not go well at all. The grudgby, I mean. The montage was great.
In fact it’s so bad that Willow confronts Luz about the thing I was just talking about earlier. You can’t just shonen hero through all your problems. Willow and Gus give up and just leave.
I hate comparing shows because I believe they should stand on their own, but this really does remind me of when Lotte got mad at Akko in Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade. Being innocently insensitive plus expecting life to play out like a movie is not a good combo.
Luz and Amity have a heart to heart. Luz’s character flaws do come from a place love. Willow is one of the best friend’s she’s ever had and it hurts to watch her get picked on. She’s not trying to make things worse but growing up on a diet of movies and cartoons, this is the only thing she can think of.
Amity reveals that she actually used to be a jock. No joke. She was the captain of the grudgby team before Boscha. But Amity decided to make the game all about her and her teammates got hurt. So felt so bad that she never played again. Amity is rough around the edges, but deep down she’s always cared about people.
Another gay panic later, and Luz gets the right idea this time. Luz forfeits the game and agrees to take all of Willow’s punishment so that Boscha will stop picking on her.
Bitch, works for me! Think fast!
Amity senses the obvious and immediate danger and goes for help. She reminds Willow and Gus that Luz always has good intentions and needs help because that’s what friends do.
This isn’t about “friendship” is it?
Gus and Willow show up to save Luz but you need three on a team. And in true sports movie fashion, the hero arrives in the eleventh hour to save the team. I.E. the only player who is actually good at the game gives the good guys a chance to win.
Let’s get it on!
It’s game on and for a bunch of nerds the game is actually pretty competitive. It’s a magic sport, so Willow focuses on the magic while Amity focuses on the sport. Luz being Luz, even congratulates the other players when they score. Luz discovers every RPG players favorite spell, fire.
It looks like our heroes pull off the victory in true sports movie fashion when this happens.
I stand by what I said last time. Someone on The Owl House thinks Harry Potter is really fucking stupid. Boscha catches the rusty smidge which means she automatically wins and Luz let’s out two decades of Harry Potter frustration.
But she has a point. If the golden snitch gives your team 150 points and ends the game then the only way to play would be to play defensively and focus all your efforts on finding the snitch. It means there’s literally only one decent way to play the game if you want to win.
“That just invalidates all our efforts! If catching that thing is so important, why do anything else!? There’s no reason to watch any of the other players! THAT’S SUCH A STUPID RULE!”
You tell them, Luz.
But in a twist that everyone saw coming, all the other players (Skara, Cat, Amelie) all had so much fun playing that they invite Willow to join the team. Willow politely declines because Boscha.
But we can’t have Amity help with the season finale so she hurt her leg. Amity panics at the thought of Luz carrying her, so of course Luz picks her up.
“Oh. Wow. Sports.”
Speaking of sports.
It’s game on at The Owl House and Lilith and Eda have a one on one match that’s really close. Eda decides to cheat her way to victory until.
Dammit, Luz!
Eda wins and Lilith vows to return.
The episode ends with Amity joining the fam at The Owl House.
FINAL SCORE: 5 - LOVED IT!
This episode was the best of fun episodes combined with the development of Amity episodes and you get probably my favorite episode. This was so fun and touched on most of the major characters. Even the B-plot is important because now Lilith knows the location of The Owl House. The jokes were funny. It was cute. Just everything.
The Lumity Trilogy ends on a high note. Amity is officially crushing hard on Luz.
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Pastel Diana Version 1: Canon Personality
A/N: A/N: Inspired by @tanuki-pyon‘s art!!! Go check it out and followwww!!!
I had 2 concepts in mind for this art huhuhu. Also!!! This is thanks for the 200 kudos I got on this collection on ao3! Huzzah!!! Y'all are lovely! <3
Enjoy?
~Shintori Khazumi
"Interesting..."
"That is honestly so refreshing."
"And weird."
"Sucy!"
"I... I li-like how the jumper strap..."
"You're so gay, Akko." Amanda snickered, poking Akko on the side.
"Whu- WE ALL ARE!"
"Umm... excuse me... Maybe..." Diana shuffled her feet, hands gripping the edge of this too-short skirt she had unwillingly donned at the (utterly adorable) behest of her girlfriend.
"Yes, Diana?"
"You all could... perhaps... not stare?"
"Why?"
"W-why? Why..." Diana turned her eyes to the ground. "Why?" She whispered to herself, before eyes turned up with a glare in place, its fearsome effect blunted by the crimson painted a lovely shade across Diana's face.
"Hmm?"
"Because it's embarrassing!"
"Eehhh?" Akko turned to her gorgeous girlfriend, looking her over again and flushing even deeper shades of red than she already was. "Even though you're so pretty?"
"!!! I-"
"You?"
"...thank... you..."
"... you're... very welcome..."
"..."
"GAY."
"FUCK OFF, AMANDA!"
//
"She got used to it, didn't she?"
"Yup. She got used to it."
"And it only took her... five? hours?"
"Five and a few minutes of forcefully dragging her out the door." Barbara shrugged. "But really. She looks good."
"Yeah."
"In Akko's clothes."
"Righhhtt?? Who knew?" Hannah giggled. "But well, this is Diana. She'd look good in a sack. I'm more surprised that they fit."
"She looks adorable." Lotte admired, watching Diana and Akko walk in front of them, Akko reaching a hand out for Diana to take as they descended some rather steep stairs.
"Diana, just put your phone in your pocket." Akko sighed.
"But-! These pockets are too small! I fear I may drop this device... and you just got it for me!"
"Diana. Just. Phone. Pocket."
"But-"
The rest of the group looked on at the exchange, amused.
"Think we should have gotten her a bag too?"
"OH!!! We could've let her try-"
And so continues Pastel Diana's Mannequin days.
#diakko#lwa#Little Witch Academia#diana cavendish#kagari atsuko#little drabble-ish thingy#ficlet#fanfic
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So... Is It Her First Day? (Diakko)
[LWA, Fluff, a lot of Fluff, Established Relationship, Pls Help Diana, slight Hamanda]
Summary: Diana found herself sneaking out of Luna Nova past curfew to visit a convenience store. Why was she even here?
Oh right. Her girlfriend was cranky, on her period, and driving her absolutely insane.
-
Diana stood at the hallway, unsure of how to process the fact that Akko had just very gently ushered her out of the Red Team's dormitory, shoving her textbooks into her arms while she told her, quote, “not to come anywhere near me with homework within the next twenty-four hours, Diana, I swear to Beatrix—”
Then silence. Because Akko closed the door.
At her face.
Diana blinked towards the heavy slab of wood that stood between herself and Akko. What could she have possibly done wrong?
“Cavendish.”
She whipped her head towards her left. To her surprise, enlightenment on the situation was about to come from Sucy of all people.
“You do not want to go in there right now,” she grabbed Diana by the sleeve.
“Surely there’s no need to drag me across the hallway—”
“Yes, there is.” The purple-haired witch spoke with the authority of experience. “It’s Akko’s first day and that is a shitstorm if I ever saw one.”
“First… day?” Diana had an idea what the other witch meant, but it paid to be thorough.
“Of her period.” Sucy glared back. “Don’t you have those? Also, you live with two other women in the dorm.”
“I just wanted to be sure.” Diana said in a clipped voice before pulling her sleeve free of Sucy’s grip and matching her pace down the hallway. “And what might you suggest I do?”
“Why would you have to do anything? Just leave her alo—” Then Sucy paused, smirking. “Right. I almost forgot. You’re her girlfriend now.”
It still made her blush whenever she explicitly remembered it, although she would have preferred not to look so flustered in front of Sucy.
Akko was her girlfriend for all of fourteen days by now.
The newest development in their relationship was something of a serendipitous moment. A pleasant surprise, so to speak—even if it seemed the two of them were the only ones surprised at the news. Were we that dense? Diana frowned, recalling how Hannah and Barbara sighed in relief rather than shock when she told them.
“Food.” Sucy had blurted out.
Diana looked at her inquisitively, and then she realized the pair of them were on the way to the… kitchens?
“Food is our go-to.” The other woman supplied. “Lotte will already be at the kitchens. Doesn’t fix her shitty mood completely, but it helps.”
“That’s… quite thoughtful of you, Sucy.”
The purple-haired witch shot her a massive eyeroll. “Don’t give me that look. Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass Akko is when she’s like that? It’s exasperating.”
---
All it took was one crate labeled ‘exotic ingredients’ for Sucy to lose track of the purpose of their kitchen visit.
“Diana’s her girlfriend.” Sucy had told Lotte, already trailing the goblins due to deliver the ingredients to the potions lab, “I’m out—this is her job now as far as I’m concerned.”
Lotte smiled apologetically, scratching at the back of her head while she opened the door into the kitchens and inviting Diana to come inside.
“This is really sweet of you,” the bespectacled woman said.
Suddenly she felt self-conscious, growing hot under the collar. Beatrix. How long was it going to take before the mere thought that she and Akko were dating would stop making her blush?
But at the same time—it made her smile. Lotte had always been observant, so the way she knowingly smiled back could only mean she knew what she was smiling oh-so-softly about. She briefly wondered if the butterflies in her stomach were glaringly obvious as well.
Diana’s eyes widened in surprise when she stepped through the door.
The kitchens were much bigger than she imagined. The walls were thick, aged stone, with pillars that shot up into the high ceiling, connected by arches for support. It looked a bit like a smithy with all the stone, smoke, and fire—but she realized that it wasn’t sweltering at all. There were metal air vents that ran above the kitchen, looking out-of-place but keeping the area well-ventilated with modern technology. And the aromas! She was hit by a delectable sensory over-load that made her (already fluttering) stomach grumble.
“Heya, Lotte!”
A friendly-looking goblin with a lopsided smile trudged towards them, landing a heavy slap on Lotte’s shoulder (“Ouch!”).
“Barry!” Lotte whined, rubbing at where he had greeted her.
“Sorry!” Barry scratched his head. He had bushy brows and fangs that stuck out of his lower lip, and yet despite it all he managed to look so… friendly. Perhaps the apron had something to do with it? “We just get excited when you guys visit.” Large eyes flitted towards Diana and then widened in recognition.
“Hello.” She cleared her throat, unused to being scrutinized. “I’m Diana Caven—”
“Hey guys!” Barry had called over his shoulder, grinning. “It’s Comrade Akko’s girlfriend!”
Comrade?
She looked back towards the staff who were busy with work, several of them turning towards her and waving. There were even some cheers. But they quickly fell back to cooking, which made sense—dinner time was coming soon. Oh. Perhaps now was not the best time to be bothering them with the concerns of a teenager who hadn’t the slightest inkling how to woo a cranky significant other.
“So we finally get to meet’cha!” Two burly troll hands settled heavily on her shoulder. “Why didn’t you guys bring her in sooner, Lotte?”
“You know how it goes,” Lotte chuckled mirthfully, still rubbing the sore spot on her shoulder. “School gets busy!”
“Good thing you’ve got us to keep those rumblin’ bellies full, amirite Jean?”
Coming up from behind him was another troll (Jean, she supposed?). He was a bit taller and leaner, with an expression that reminded her of snobbish pastry chefs she’s met when vacationing abroad. Except, troll-like.
“I can’t believe Comrade Akko had chosen a member of the oppressive bourgeoise for a fling!”
Diana blanched along with Lotte. Bourgeoise? That she could forgive. But—a fling?
“We’re very much in a serious relationship.” Diana found herself seizing up the taller troll, cheeks flushing in indignation at the thought that they were just a fling.
“C’mon, buddy. If she’s okay in Lotte and Comrade Akko’s book, then she’s good with the kitchen trolls!” Barry smiled brightly.
“Speaking of Akko,” Lotte interjected. “It’s that time of the month.”
Barry and Jean were struck with urgency and realization.
“First day?” Jean said quickly, brushing his manicured moustache.
“Yup.”
“Alright. Follow me, ladies.”
---
“I’m quite sure this is against regulation.” Diana set her hand on Lotte’s shoulder, allowing magic to soothe the inevitable bruising that would have come from Barry’s slap.
“Don’t let the trolls hear you say that!” Lotte said quietly. “They love her. Oh, but thanks for healing that—it’s… not like any of the magic they do at the infirmary.”
“It’s a Cavendish skill.”
Her mother had taught it to her at a very young age—to soothe a toothache here, or a pulled muscle there.
They were in a small separated room connected to the kitchens which might have been used to house treasure back when Luna Nova was a proper medieval castle. These days it was used more or less similarly, except the ‘treasure’ was a collection of candied applies, tarts, an impressive meat selection, and various types of bread.
“So this is where she goes whenever she sneaks out for snacks past curfew. I can’t believe the trolls condone this.”
“It’s Akko.” Lotte deadpanned.
She was right. This was entirely unsurprising—something to do with having fought for fair labor practices, she supposed.
“You know,” the other woman started, looking over a selection of sweets which Akko might like. “I’m really glad you two are finally together!”
Diana smiled in appreciation, looking down towards several baguettes while a light dusting of pink fell on her cheeks. “Thank you.”
“It’s really cute! And took no small amount of Akko going crazy about her feelings for you for months on end.”
“She did?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Lotte seemed to shudder at the memory. “It drove us crazy too.”
Diana blinked, feeling the odd need to apologize. “Well she does have the tendency to vent her frustrations in a more… outward manner.”
“Yeah,” Lotte giggled. “Screaming into pillows, banging her head into the wall while wailing about your “perfect freaking hair”, and don’t even get me started about that whole week she dedicated to practicing her grand monologue of professing her feelings to you!”
“Oh, she told me about that.”
“It was a disaster wasn’t it?”
“She tripped on her words.” Diana fondly recalled. “And then—”
“—said ‘I fucking like you!’.” Lotte completed, apparently having heard the story from the source itself. She groaned at her usage of such an expletive.
Then they sputtered into quiet, friendly laughter.
Diana never got to spend much time with Lotte, much less alone, but she was one of Akko’s closest friends and she had no plans of denying how enjoyable their conversation had been thus far.
“I feel like I should get to you know more, both you and Sucy.” The blonde said with a little bit of shyness.
“You sure about Sucy?” Lotte grinned.
Diana laughed mirthfully, “Akko said the Red Team was inseparable—take it or leave it.”
“Glad to see our friend is in good hands, then!”
“I…” she began slowly, “Plan to do this—being together, that is—as best as I possibly can.” Diana admitted, sighing wistfully. “I’ll take all the good and the bad that comes with her.”
She blinked up at the other woman, conscious of the lack of response to her sudden admission. Lotte was… swooning with what looked like hearts in her eyes?
“Oh my god!” She squealed. “That’s so romantic!”
---
Half an hour later, Diana was once again in front of the Red Team’s dormitory. Her hand flexed nervously around the handle of a food basket and she rolled her eyes at herself. Why was she nervous? All she was doing was giving Akko food!
She raised her hand confidently to rap at the door—
—and then pulled it back, running her fingers through her hair in frustration.
“By Jennifer,” she muttered to herself in annoyance. “How hard should it be to knock on someone’s door?”
But then said door opened, and red eyes were blinking at her.
“Diana?” Akko murmured. “I heard shuffling from the outside, I wanted to check it out but didn’t expect it was you.”
She looked disheveled, with her hair all over the place and her pajamas askew. She was holding a bag of warm compress and Diana felt worry shoot up at the thought that something was ailing her enough to skip dinner.
“Akko,” she started, stepping forward to lay her hand on her arm. “Is everything alright?”
“Nope,” the brunette wailed, stepping forward and dropping her head on Diana’s shoulder. “My uterus wants to kill me and this weather is making it worse! But I’m sorry about earlier.” She mumbled into her sleeve. “I didn’t mean to be so pushy. I got super stressed thinking about taking that Runes exam tomorrow while feeling this way—just seeing your books wanted to make me cry!” She rambled on. “Oh—what’s that?”
She pulled away, staring at the basket in Diana’s hand.
“I’ve brought you dinner.” Diana said softly, pleased that Akko was feeling better and even more so at how she sparkled at the thought of ‘food.’ This girl could be so simple, it made the blonde smile.
“Mou—I don’t deserve you!” She wailed, eagerly opening the cloth wrap in the basket right there at the doorway.
And then Akko groaned. She looked like she was going to cry. Why did she look like she was going to cry? Beatrix, help me. Diana swallowed.
“I’m so tired of potatoes!” Akko threw her hands upwards, lip trembling. “Does this school not order anything else?”
She stomped back to her bed, grumbling about starch and rice and ‘Okaa-san’s stew!’ before face-planting into the pillows.
Diana stood cluelessly at the doorway. Should she come on in or… just give her space?
But then Akko suddenly sprang back upward, running towards Diana before taking a fistful of her collar, pulling her in and—
Kissing her.
Very deeply.
She had never been so pleasantly confused in her life.
“I’m so sorry!” Akko pouted. “That was so ungrateful of me. Thank you! I’m starving!” She grabbed the basket. “I hate it when I’m like this—Kami-sama—I’ll be better tomorrow, I promise. You don’t have to deal with this and I’ll make it up to you okay? And-I-love-you!”
“I—I love you t—”
And then the door was back.
At her face.
For the second time today.
Was it acceptable to scream in the hallways at dinner time?
---
Feeling desperate and increasingly frustrated after dinner, she walked towards the Green Team’s dormitory, seeking the advice of someone she never wanted to ask: the only other witch in their group who had a girlfriend and experience with this matter.
Amanda.
Hannah wasn’t nearly as temperamental as Akko during that time of the month, but she wasn’t easy to get along with either. To her credit, it seemed the American witch was actually managing it quite well.
“Diana Cavendish.” Amanda smirked once she opened the door. “In the flesh. How can we help you?”
She flushed despite herself and gave a soft nod towards Jasminka and Constanze who waived at her from inside.
“I would like to seek your opinion on a matter.”
Amanda actually looked surprised. “Never thought I’d hear that from you.”
“Akko is…” Diana gestured aimlessly, trying to find the right words. “On her period.”
“Oh.”
Why was O’Neill looking at her that way? “Well?”
“So you’re having trouble dealing with the… ya know?”
“I don’t.” Diana pursed her lips. She was so tired at this point. “I don’t know.”
“No fucking way.” Amanda gawked. “I can’t believe you’re asking me about this.”
“What is it that’s so hard to believe about me wanting to be a good partner?” Diana fumed, her patience wearing thing. Wasn’t that what she was supposed to do? Make Akko feel better when in a foul mood?
Amanda whistled. “I mean… can’t you deal with it on your own?”
“On my own?”
“Yeah!” Amanda nodded enthusiastically. “The urge, I meant. Even I don’t push Hannah when it’s her red season. We just wait it out. Being intimate can get really messy when there’s bloo—”
She slammed the door shut so hard it might have hit Amanda’s nose.
---
Her attempt to learn more from the Green Team was a spectacularly embarrassing failure, and so Diana resigned herself to leaving Akko with space and shutting herself in her dorm.
“Trouble in paradise?” Hannah piped in, noticing the forlorn expression on her usually impassive face. “And why are you looking at me like that?”
Forget about what Amanda said, forget about what Amanda said.
“You could say that.” Diana admitted, not in the mood to hide anything. They were her best friends anyway.
Barbara watched with interested as Diana walked over to her desk and seated herself, catching her head in her hands with a sigh.
“So what happened?” The raven-haired witch leaned forward.
“Akko’s in a mood.” The blonde replied in a muffled voice. “I can’t make heads-or-tails of what to do about it.”
“Is she jealous?” Hannah guessed.
Diana shook her head.
“Injured?”
She shook her head again.
“On her period?”
“First day.” Diana confirmed.
It was met with a synchronized “Ooooh.”
“She hexed Amanda one time she bugged her on her period right?”
“Yeah.” Hannah tried not to snicker. “Burned her skirt. Never knew Akko could pull that spell off.”
Diana rubbed at her temples. “Why is that everyone else seems to know about her apparently infamous temperament and I don’t?”
“Because,” Barbara started, “she made it a point to steer clear of you so she doesn’t snap up or, and I quote “burden you”. And some people really do have it worse than others. My cousin had cramps so bad she would have to miss classes sometimes. I think Akko’s got something similar.”
Diana vaguely recalled days when Akko seemed more reserved than usual. She also had her fair share of spending the day at the infirmary every few months.
“She told you this?”
“Lotte did.” She said off-handedly. “Night-fall convention.”
“You talk about Akko and me during a—”
“We’re romantics!” She said defensively. “And we were right about you two. But anyway, what are you going to do about it?”
“I’ve been trying to do something about it. I brought her food.”
“And?”
“She’s tired of potatoes.”
Hannah sighed. “We all are. Even you—don’t deny it! I see the face you make whenever it’s potatoes for dinner again.”
She made a face?
“She’s probably craving for comfort food.” Hannah hummed to herself. “Tough luck, Japan is half-way across the world.
“Oh.” Barbara perked up, glancing over to Hannah. “What about that place Amanda sneaks out to get you snacks from?”
Hannah glanced warily over to Diana, who was raising her eyebrow in question. “Oh, fine. Don’t tell on her okay? She’s just trying to be sweet.”
“I won’t.” Diana sighed. “But I’m not Amanda. I’m not going to sneak out into the town past curfew just to buy Akko snacks.”
---
She was sneaking out into the town past curfew just to buy Akko snacks.
Beatrix, she mulled over to herself, pulling up the collar of the her capelet coat. What has become of me?
It was a warm night, unsurprising given the sizzling afternoon sun they suffered through earlier that day. She’d have to thank Professor Ursula for giving her a pass. Glastonbury, while still a bit of an ‘old town’, was beginning to modernize with the advent of the new magical age. More students enrolling at Luna Nova meant more business for the nearby towns, and the influx of children from non-magical families brought with it a union of old tradition and contemporary establishments.
One of which was the ‘Convenience Store.’ As per Hannah’s explanation, this type of establishment was open all hours through the day and night, and typically sold snacks and refreshments to address one’s cravings.
Unfortunately, said Convenience Store was a fifteen-minute broom ride away from school, and she hated having to sneak about. Not very convenient, if she could say so herself. She found it shorty after her arrival to town—it was hard to miss with its bright, off-white lights that glowed through Glastonbury’s dark and dreary streets. She tentatively pushed the glass door open. There was a young man snoozing behind the cash register.
She rolled her eyes, feeling painfully out of place in a store that screamed ‘twenty-first century.’ Why was she here again?
Right. Her girlfriend had cramps and was likely craving.
“Excuse me.”
He didn’t stir.
She cleared her throat, deliberately louder. “Excuse me.”
When he finally awoke, he regarded her with a groggy stare. “Yeah?”
“Do you have any snacks?”
“Help yourself,” he drawled lazily, gesturing towards the rows upon rows of brightly-colored chocolates, candies, and chips. There were coolers at back end of the store with a multitude of energy drinks and juices. Towards the left of the counter was freezer. “That one has ice cream.”
Where was she even going to start? By the nine, there so many choices! Feeling the need to vent, she had blurted out: “I have a cranky girlfriend on her period and I’m so very near my wits end.”
“Oh.” His eyes widened in sympathy. “I got you. Friend of O’Neill’s?”
“So to speak.”
“First time?”
She nodded.
“Alright kid, my name is Marty and I think you and I are gonna be good friends.”
Five minutes into their conversation, Diana realized that Marty was… quite interesting and not at all unpleasant.
“So we’ve narrowed it down to chocolates, and ice cream.”
“She’s quite fond of chocolates. You said these were imported from Asia?”
“Japan!” He grinned proudly.
Perfect.
“I’ll… get one in every flavor.”
“Go hard or go home, amirite?” Marty laughed.
“And…” she glanced over the ice cream cooler. “One pint of each flavor you have.”
Marty blinked.
Costs didn’t matter. Might as well make the most of being part of the ‘oppressive’ bourgeois.
---
“I had a feeling you’d still be up.” Diana whispered softly through the opening of Akko’s dorm. “Please don’t shut the door at my face again.”
“I’m sorry about that!” Akko cried out, but Diana held up her finger in a gesture to keep her quiet.
“Sucy and Lotte might wake up.”
“What’s going on?” Akko inquired. “It’s really late now, Dia.”
“M—May I come in?”
They slipped into the Red Team’s dormitory with hushed voices and the sound of shuffling feet. Diana should have asked Akko’s roommates before inviting herself to stay the night, but she’d rather not wake them and she could leave first thing in the morning.
Akko’s bright red eyes glistened in wonder at the plastic bag Diana was carrying. “W—Where did you get these?”
“In town,” she supplied cryptically.
“You snuck out.” Akko gawked.
“The method is unimportant.” Diana replied. And then her voice and gaze softened. “What matters is… do you like them?”
“I would have screamed in joy if you haven’t been trying to keep me quiet!” Akko said under her breath, pulling on Diana’s arm to sit beside her at her bed. “L—Let me take your coat.”
“That’s not necessary,” Diana whispered back, slipping out of her coat herself and hanging it at the edge of Akko’s bedpost. “I’d rather you just lean back and not exert yourself.”
She had changed into something more casual before leaving, and was glad she wouldn’t have to spend all night in their stuffy uniform. Akko was fiddling with her thumbs and biting her lip.
“Is something wrong?”
“No—no!” Akko reassured. “Well… I’m still sorry for how I’ve been today. I guess I should have told you, but I get really bad cramps on my period and it makes me want to like… break things.”
Diana softly reached over to hold Akko’s hand. “Barbara tells me you didn’t tell me about this?”
“Yeah.” Akko scratched at her cheek, looking away.
Diana scooted over to lean against the headboard of Akko’s bed, quietly inviting the brunette to rest against her. If instinct told her right, Akko would appreciate being held. Sure enough, the smaller witch followed the invitation, situating herself to lean against Diana’s chest. While she wrapped her arms around Akko’s torso, the only thing the blonde could think about was how much she missed holding her today.
She held onto Akko a little tighter, pulling her just a bit nearer. But then Akko began to tense, curling up into herself with a sharp breath.
“Cramps?” Diana spoke gently, laced with worry.
“Yeah. Jennifer’ tits this sucks.”
“What do they give for you at the infirmary?”
“The potion they give me knocks me out cold and I hate how I feel when I wake up in the morning.” She sulked. “Today wasn’t so bad though, so I just wanted to sleep.”
Diana frowned. The way she was gripping on her forearm told her the cramps probably haven’t gone away, so on a whim she wondered if…
“May I try something?”
Akko blinked up at her, a strained expression on her face. “It’s good, this is the worst of it. I really will be fine tomorrow.”
“But may I?” She insisted.
“O—Okay.”
Slowly, she breathed in, setting her hand above Akko’s stomach while she remembered the feeling of magic and… love.
“It’s warm.” Akko whispered, noticeably relaxing.
“It’s a spell from my family. Is this better?”
“So much better.” Akko laced her hands with Diana’s, gratitude evident in the breathlessness of her voice. “Thank you, Dia.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“It would have been troublesome for you, so I just wait it out.” Akko admitted sheepishly.
Troublesome. Diana smiled, watching Akko relax once the pain had been soothed away. She chuckled when Akko opened the first bar of chocolate her hand had found from the nearby pile. Her surprised gasp was a wonderful thing to hear. “This is—from—”
“Home?”
“Yeah!”
“I went to the convenience store in Glastonbury.” Diana admitted.
“I really don’t deserve you!” Akko pouted, head falling back into Diana’s shoulder. “You get me chocolates, have magic healing hands, and now you’re out of your dorm past curfew and—Ugh! I told you—troublesome.”
Diana pressed her nose against Akko’s shoulder, tightening the arms around her waist. The darkness of the room was relaxing, accentuated by a moonlit glow. She breathed in deeply, enjoying their closeness and how nice Akko smelled.
“I think you’re underestimating how much trouble I’m willing to go through for you.”
That earned her a kiss on the cheek. “When did you get so cheesy?”
“Are you complaining?”
“Definitely not.”
“And this is nothing.” Diana teased. “I believe I remember a certain witch chasing me all the way into Wedinburgh just to get me back to school. She didn’t even fly.”
“Mou!” Akko huffed, snuggling into Diana’s warmth even further. “You loved it.”
Diana paused in contentment.
"I love you.”
Akko turned to face her. Her eyes were moving carefully over Diana’s features, as if to memorize how she looked. She grinned. “I can’t believe you’re real and that you feel the same way.”
Diana felt her ears flush. This time, Akko kissed her softly on the lips.
“I love you.” She kissed her again. “Thank you for these, Diana. It—It means so much.”
“So,” Diana started with a teasing lilt in her voice. “What was that about—kissing me right at your doorway earlier?”
“Mood swings are caused by hormones, you know.” Akko pouted, flushing red in the cheeks.
“So picky with food, too.” She continued to tease, earning another quiet laugh from her girlfriend. Akko looked like herself again.
They fell into a familiar banter, curled up together in bed, and she realized that she’d do it again.
From raiding the kitchen, to running around the castle, to flying out in the middle of the night.
She’d do it again, and again, and again if she had to because Akko was smiling once more and everything—everything—was worth it.
-
fin
-
A/N: Hey guys! Here's another one-shot that absolutely no one asked for but I may burst into tears because of how much I loved the idea. I was beginning to get self-conscious about how many one-shots I've made for Diakko but like IDK I LOVE THEM OKAY IDC ANYMORE I hope you enjoy, and stay safe! I also appreciate all the comments people have left in the other works, and am sorry if I don't always get to respond but will try to find the opportunity to! <3
Additionally: Haahaaha yeah I know it's not an Appt update I'm soRRY
#Diakko#Dianakko#Diana Cavendish#Akko Kagari#Atsuko Kagari#LWA#Little Witch Academia#Luna Nova#Sucy Manbavaran#lotte yanson#LWA Akko#LWA Diana#Fluff#Romance#Cute Fanfic#Hamanda#wlw
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Diana vs. The Webcam
I’m back, and with another one-shot! This is kinda a gift for Mod Nightly! Also I do recall getting an ask about Diana struggling with technology, so I guess this fits? Kinda? Anyway, this is my longest fic yet, clocking in at around 2,600 words. A big thank you to R5H for helping me edit!
Diana booted up the old computer in her study. While she waited for the old thing to finish starting up, she let her eyes roam over the old room. Had it not been for the perfectionist tendencies of Anna, Diana figured the whole study would’ve been covered in dust. Much of it was as she had left it. This room had been her hideaway last school break. Anna may have cleaned it, but the books had been meticulously put back in the same skewed positions as Diana had left them. The obvious overflow of the literature made Diana make a mental note to either find better space, or perhaps put the lesser used books back into the family library. Tapping the mouse in a staccato beat, her eyes ran from the bookshelves to the paintings on the wall. Diana wasn’t attached to the multiple portraits of fruits; perhaps she would replace them with more personal pictures soon. She doubted it though, this room stayed the same. She may claim it would be renovated, but in the end she found that she rather liked the room and its timeless charm. It would always look the way she expected it to be. Like grandmother’s study.
A chime interrupted her thoughts and her attention turned back to the screen. The blue glow caused her to squint and quickly turn on the desk lamp. It eased the strain on her eyes and allowed her to log into the old contraption. The keyboard was bulky and grey, making loud clacks as the password was hastily typed in. Now to hook up a “webcam” as Akko had called it. The stubborn brunette had refused to allow Diana to purchase her a crystal ball and instead had presented Diana with a box. Inside had been the “webcam”. Akko had demanded that Diana “Get her head out of the 1800s and learn how to be a modern witch”. Diana let out a huff as she recalled that particular spat. Although, she was planning on looking into modern technologies anyway. Just in case Croix tried something again that would put Akko at risk.
Diana cracked open the webcam box, and flipped foremost to the instruction manual. As she quickly skimmed through the pamphlet, small disgruntled noises fell from her lips. “What in Beatrice’s name is a MicroSD, and how does one insert it into a computer?” This may take longer than she originally thought. Diana snapped the hairtie she was wearing over her wrist and pulled her hair up into a high ponytail. After rolling up her sleeves, she removed her wand from the holster she kept on her hip. Muttering a quick chant and performing the proper wand movements, she summoned a wispy green spirit. “Please tell Anna that I request some tea and refreshment to the southern study.” The tiny spirit saluted and Diana covered her mouth, lest she let out a giggle and draw the ire of the small fae. With a nod, Diana dismissed the spirit and watched it zip through the door.
Once the spirit had left, she turned back to the task at hand. She wanted to at least have some sort of an idea before Anna saw her in this miserable state of confusion. This was why crystal balls were superior to mundane tech; you didn’t have to add anything. All it required was the right sort of spell. Although, now that Diana had a proper moment to reflect, Akko would most definitely have a harder time conjuring the required spells. While the excitable witch had made progress in leaps and bounds, the magic that required more finesse still left the brunette floundering. If Akko was trying hard in the more magical aspect for Diana, Diana could try hard in the more mundane aspect for Akko. Diana figured she had at least forty minutes for proper snacks to be made and for the tea to boil. She wouldn’t confirm nor deny knowing that the snacks meant for this evening had disappeared rather early today after she had passed by the kitchens.
Thirty minutes later Diana was feeling rather frazzled. Small curses she would never be caught dead uttering were flying from her mouth at an astounding rate. Her hair was messy, her back ached from frustration, and nothing was going right. Anna was due in the room at any minute, and Diana would rather she uphold her current reputation as a level headed and intelligent witch. She counted her blessings that O’Neill wasn’t here, lest the obnoxious redhead never let Diana live down her inability to hook up a webcam, and saying ‘fuck’. It had been uttered at least twelve times now.
“Fucking hell”
Thirteen.
Sitting up and taking a breath, Diana tugged on one of her loose bangs. She was an intelligent witch. She could do this. She twirled the desk chair once and got comfortable. Squaring her shoulders, she picked up the accursed instructions and gave them another look. As she was absorbed in sifting through the obscure text, a knock softly rang through the room in a pattern. One, two-two, one- one, one, two. “Come in, Anna,” Diana said as her eyes continued to scan the page. She absentmindedly waved her hand .
Her nursemaid glided into the room, tea tray in hand. It was piled with cucumber sandwiches, scones, and assorted tea cookies. An elegant teapot with a gilt rose design and matching teacup sat elegantly in the middle of the tray. Anna stood next to Diana and gave her a look of rebuke. The young heir was sprawled in the chair, one leg draped over the armrest, the other on the ground. Diana was using that leg to make tiny half revolutions as she slouched in the chair, one hand holding the instruction book, the other tugging her bangs. Anna cleared her throat, and Diana didn’t even flinch. Her hand flailed around, grabbed a sandwich. She began gnawing at it irately as she focused harder on the task at hand.
“Lady Cavendish.” Anna’s eyebrow raised and the frown lines on her face deepened. “Please refrain from such behavior.” Diana froze mid bite into her sandwich. With a scramble of one moving for their life, she quickly straightened her posture. Smoothing her hair and practically tossing the sandwich back onto the tray, she faced Anna. The instruction manual fell abandoned at her feet. Diana would rather she not make a fool of herself trying to grab for it. Nine knows she had made a fool of herself already.
“Anna. Thank you for the refreshments. I ask that you forgive my behavior, I have been,” Diana glanced at the computer screen. It had gone back into sleep mode some time ago. “Rather occupied.”
“Of course, Diana. I only ask that you emulate the behavior of a lady when necessary. It would not do for you to show a sloppy side in front of those of a lower station.” Anna rested the tray on the desk and gently straightened Diana’s messy hair with a gentle hand. “Now, may I inquire what has you so distressed?”
Diana’s faced flushed as she glanced at the fallen manual. She cleared her throat in an attempt to buy some time to formulate an answer. “I wish to add a webcam to my computer, but much of this does not make as much sense as I wish it would.” Diana kicked the evil pamphlet gently. Her arms wound themselves around her torso and she pouted slightly. “I just want to video call my dearest friend, Akko”
Anna did a quick sign of the cross and muttered a Hail Mary at the mention of Akko’s name. She straightened up and gave Diana a faint smile. “Together we can puzzle through this, Diana. May I offer my assistance?”
Diana gave a tiny nod and quickly moved out of her seat. She wrapped Anna in a quick blink-and-you-miss-it sort of hug, and then flashed back into her seat. Anna let out a nearly inaudible chuckle at her young charge’s affection. Diana didn’t often like to be vulnerable. Weakness was easily taken advantage of in high society. Diana had caught on that regrettably quickly after the passing of her mother, Bernadette. Anna had done her best for her young mistress in a house absent of love. Seeing Diana smile more and act like a child was refreshing, even if it was improper. Anna crouched down and picked up the manual. “Now let’s take a crack at this together. Please eat while I go over and see what you could’ve missed.”
It took a full two hours, one and a half pots of tea, and at least ten cookies before the two had finally figured out the problem. As soon as the proper window had finally popped up, Diana let out a joyful cry and latched onto Anna, giggling. Anna couldn’t help but smile, and she indulged a minute or two in her almost adoptive daughter’s embrace. All too soon she extricated herself from Diana’s grip. “I’ll bring a fresh plate of cookies, Diana. Why don’t you call your friend?” Diana’s eyes lit up even further.
“That would be acceptable. I shall call Akko right now.” Diana practically wiggled in her seat. She then froze as if coming to a realization. Frantically she tidied her desk area and clothes. She took out her ponytail and grabbed her wand once more to cast a spell to neaten her hair. She had to look her best for Akko. A quick look to the wall clock told Diana it was about 9:25PM in Japan. Surely Akko would still be up. Anna hid a smile and quickly exited the room. Diana still had some cookies on her plate, and Anna wanted to leave the two girls alone for a bit.
Diana hastily booted up the program and went through the steps to call Akko. She waited with bated breath as the dots loaded across the screen. She looked as if she was in a silent prayer, hands clasped as she chewed on her lip.
“Konbanwa….” A messy haired Akko filled Diana’s screen. The hair that usually was stowed away in her little pigtail was practically sitting straight up. “Oh! Diana!” Akko’s accent had gotten even thicker during the few days she had been at home. The brunette rambled a few more words in her native tongue until she caught herself. “So!” Akko ran a hair through her adorably spiked hair. “Finally got the webcam up, huh, Diana?”
Diana blinked. She had been caught up in memorizing Akko’s cute bedhead. “Yes, it was quite a simple matter once I figured the instructions out. Took merely minutes to install.” Diana flicked her hair away from her face and stared Akko right in the eyes.
“Diana~ Your teeth are gonna rot from telling lies! You only ever do that hair thingie when you’re not being honest! I bet it took you hours. Did someone help you?” Akko flicked her screen and her picture flipped. “Oops.” The brunette deftly righted the mistake and began teasing Diana with that little smirk of hers.
“I’ll have you know-” Akko spun around in her chair, stopping mid spin to pull a face at Diana. “Confound it, Akko!” Diana dissolved into giggles. Akko looked on utterly smitten as Diana laughed. She missed this. Akko was so carefree, truly a breath of fresh air in Diana’s stagnant life. The rapid shutdown of the school due to the virus had sent Akko on a one way plane back home. Away from Diana.
After Diana managed to compose herself, she noticed Akko had switched positions. Her hand rested her cheek, supporting her head as she looked at Diana in a dreamy manner. The slight knocking noise in the background clued Diana into the fact that Akko was swinging her legs under her desk. It was just like Akko during classes at Luna Nova. She could never truly sit still. Quarantine had made them both a little stir crazy. Seeing each other like this made things seem okay again.
“Atsuko, I truly missed you.” Diana’s eyes had a melty quality to them as she said this. Akko thought they kinda looked like the water in the Fountain of Polaris. Except while the waters in the fountain were cold, Diana’s were warm. Akko wanted nothing more than to give Diana a hug.
“I missed you too ,Diana. But! Guess what, you can finally see my room!” Akko slid her rolling chair away from the computer with a flourish, she gestured to her room. It was smaller than Diana imagined, and quite messy. The bed hadn’t been made and clothes were strewn about. The empty chip bag poking out from under Akko’s bed was especially incriminating. Of course, Diana also saw Shiny Chariot posters and collectibles littering the walls and bookshelves of the room. She noticed some other unknown cartoon characters, and made a mental note to look them up later. Akko’s birthday was coming in three months, and Diana wanted to send a care package to her. The room was overall warm and lived in, just like Akko herself.
“It’s just as messy as I figured, Akko.” Akko let out a squawk and jerked her head to actually give her room a good look. Scrambling up from her chair, she jerked her sheets over the messiest bits of her bed and kicked her clothes out of view.
“Look, it doesn’t normally look like this,” Akko began to make a gaggle of excuses, each word coming out faster than the last one. She had turned back towards Diana, and was standing in the middle of the room.
“Oh? Now who is the one lying, Atsuko?” Diana teased gently, a small giggle bubbling forth from her lips. Akko paused in the middle of her wild gestures.
“I like it when you say my name, Diana.” Akko’s eyes gave a quick blink as her brain caught up with her mouth. Diana began to slowly turn red as she too processed what Akko had said. “I mean-what I want to say is-uh, etto, I really like the sound of your voice.” Akko covered her face and curled in on herself, wiggling from side to side.
“Akko,” Diana said softly, “I like it when you call my name too. I love your voice as well.”
Akko let out a muffled scream and wiggled harder. Her feet stomped lightly on the floor, tiny thuds accompanying her shriek. Diana felt her hands cover her face as well. She wasn’t usually as honest with her feelings as she was now. Akko tended to make Diana do crazy things, like venturing to the top of the stratosphere to stop a giant missile. Or like telling her things she swore never to say. Or actually giving people physical affection.
Akko peeked out from her hands, only to see Diana practically mirroring her embarrassment. “You’re cute, you know?” she blurted out. If Akko was going to die tonight, she might as well make sure she’d be six feet all the way under. It was Diana’s turn to let out a little squeak, so adorably uncharacteristic. “When this is all over, can I take you out to Blytonbury sometime?” Akko crossed her fingers, practically praying whoever was up there to let this work.
Diana peeled her hands from her face and took a deep breath. Looking a nervous Akko in the eyes, she gave her answer. “I suppose I would not be remiss in indulging on an outing with you at a later date. However, perhaps we can do something sooner? I’ve heard marvelous things about the internet.”
Akko let out a cheer and jumped into the air, only to scream as her foot slipped on some discarded shorts she had missed in her mad dash to ‘tidy’ her room. “Daijobu” a weak groan came from the floor as Diana let out a guffaw that evolved into full blown laughter. Akko watched happily from the floor. She would make Diana laugh more in the coming video calls, she hoped.
“So, how about a movie?”
#lwa#little witch academia#akko kagari#diana cavendish#dianakko#diakko#my writing#daily speaks#i know some parts have a weird POV switch#im just strange like that#edit bc anne is actually ANNA#motherfuck
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Edges of Ink
pairing: Diana/Akko lwa
words: 6k
summary: Akko is a popular tattoo artist who specializes in Chariot card tattoos, Diana is a college girl who keeps walking in (and then out again)
Diakko Tattoo artist AU
Ao3
It was March fourth. Diana’s hands were practically numb from the slight chill and her face felt like it had been cursed by a witch to be stuck in a scowl.
This wasn’t working out for her so far, she had run all the way here and she glared at the passing crowds of tourists and businesspeople. She ran across town, that was the first sprint, then she arranged her hair back into place and made her way calmly across the street.
The first parlour was run by a man over six feet tall that smelled like onions and whiskey, it had a line of five people and made her skin feel like an oil slick. She accidentally kicked an umbrella stand on her way out as she left.
The second establishment was a runny little building at the west end, its gutters were overflowing and it reminded Diana of a living health code violation. She watched a 40-year-old woman wipe the needle on her pants and Diana departs immediately.
It was March fourth.
The third location was a hole in the wall, stuffed between a specialized grocery store and two pubs in a row. It was twice as long as it was wide, had a large glass door on the front and a deep blue exterior, it was the blue that caught her eye.
A deep royal blue that reminded her of valleys or oceans or not some smokey London street that sold cigarettes outside the looF. It reminded her terribly of something else and she managed to stop just down the street to stare at it.
She flipped her collar up against the misty chill of the evening and walks toward it mechanically, her phone had already told her this was the other closest tattoo parlour she could visit that weekend. Diana tries not to dwell on what she’s doing at that moment.
She was a Cavendish, she inspected something thoroughly before she didn’t do it.
The hazy night sky was barely visible against wispy grey clouds and Diana was standing outside a tiny blue tattoo parlor with a sign in the window: Come in! :) . It looked handmade. She leans forward and makes out lights and wall paper with big yellow flowers on the inside.
“Well fine,” she goes in.
She may have been expecting a lot of things, more cigarette smoke and bad 80s rock, another man asking if Diana came to ‘let loose a little.’
She didn’t expect a cluttered warm-smelling room, covered with different haphazard wallpaper on each wall, a glass case, and then a tiny brunette in a plain t-shirt and jean jacket stood in the corner. Bubblegum pop music plays softly in the background and the Japanese girl with a huge smile on her face turns toward the front door.
Diana’s mouth makes a little ‘o.’ This wasn’t a 40 year old women accusing her of being drunk or a six feet three sailor.
“Hello!” She waves, Diana hardens her eyes.
She felt a little dumb standing in the doorway, she nods stiffly back. The girl blinks a couple times and then wipes her hands down.
“What can I do for you today?” She was still smiling, Diana looks creakily to the left and then to the right.
“What can you do.” She didn’t state it like a question, she just felt her thoughts ramming into each other as she took in the pictures pictures of trading cards in the case. Chariot trading cards.
The girl bounces to her feet and then seems to bounce right over to her, “I’m Akko! Akko Kagari, I can do anything you have your heart set on,” The girl clapped her hands together and Diana stepped backward at her sun glare.
“Oh,” She sort of wished somehow she’d been turned away. It was March the fourth.
“Hmm.” Akko looked her up and down, “a heart? A star? I can do some killer roses! Or,” she winks, “a lovers name maybe?”
Diana narrows her eyes, she wasn’t sure what her angle was for this sales pitch. Diana straightens her suit jacket, “a caduceus.”
“A what?” Akko tilted her head, blinking serenely now. Diana could just make out the edges of an almost golden ink along her collarbone, a shimmering tattoo. Diana’s face heats up.
“The winged staff and two snakes, or,” she frowns, “a unicorn. Yes, no,” she twitches, “a unicorn with...with a woman.”
“Uh, I can do unicorns.” Akko was giving her a funny look, Diana was feeling a little funny.
“I have to go,” she turns around, this had been a bad idea to begin with.
-----------
The temptation to get a tattoo was not a regular one, especially for Diana. It had begun late in the evening and dragged her across the city streets of London.
She wasn’t a particular fan of London, it was lovely and sometimes it reminded her of a milk white hand holding hers, of going downtown and eating smoked nuts. Of something else.
But London meant business, it meant visiting boardrooms and interrupting her school life to hold together her family legacy.
It would be nice if her aunt was trying to sell their assets off to the highest bidder as quickly as possibly, that would be nice. If this was still an era for duels Diana might have thought of alternative solutions to Daryll.
It was however, the twenty-first century and Diana was a twenty-first century girl who didn’t have any tattoos, she didn’t regularly want any tattoos. Until she did.
“It’s just another peak,” she assures herself the next day.
She only had two days of business in London but it was usually enough to fill her time and give her a headache in between meetings, she found time to get to Wittenberg Street anyway.
It was a smokey downtown street where they sold cigarettes outside the loo and some of the sidewalk turned to cobblestone if you kept walking long enough. Diana was on the phone when she got off the underground.
She was supposed to get back to Oxford that night, she was walking toward the tattoo parlour.
She was sure there were other tattoo parlours in the world, some even in Oxford, but this one was blue with a glass door and a handmade sign. This one had three walls with floral blue wallpaper on one, nautical anchors and mermaids on the other, and finally one large mural of Chariot, Chariot DuNord.
Diana finds herself walking back.
“It’s a quick trip,” she was saying to herself, “it won’t even hurt.” She walks like there was fire on her heels, past the specialized grocery store and the smells of something musky cooking from inside.
She stops at the door and takes a couple steadying breaths before she changes her mind.
The bell on the door jingles sharply this time as she goes in the door, the dim lights and whirr of some machine in the corner fills the space. Her eyebrows raise, she wasn’t alone this time.
She saw the back of a brunette head with her hair tied back in a tight ponytail and the face of a very tense looking boy with his forearm out. He looked like he was trying to gnaw through his own bottom lip.
It smelled like heather and perhaps rainwater, something damp almost- that was for sure.
“You’re doing great,” Akko was talking to her customer as she seemed to be working on a circular design, “we’re almost there.”
The boy’s features were pinched at every angle, but nods.
Diana blinks a couple times and thinks about leaving, she knew she didn’t need this, her aunt Daryll would shame her for months for getting it. Her board members would have something to say.
Diana stands dumbly in the entranceway and grips her right wrist with her left hand.
“I’ll be with you in a minute!” Akko calls over her shoulder and Diana jerks her head to the right. She waits.
“Is it almost done?” The boy's voice squeaks and Diana wonders how actually painful tattoos were, it couldn’t be worse than having your ears pierced.
“It’s gonna look awesome!” Akko cheers and Diana tilted her head at the sound of her voice. It was warm.
Diana might have just told the boy to stop sniveling, but maybe that was just another memory.
“Annnnn,” Akko was so loud, Diana wrinkles her nose as she drags out the word, “nnnnnnd, ta-dah!” Akko jumped backward with her whirring needle, “Look at it for a sec and then I’ll wrap it up for ya. Pretty cool!”
The boy blinked his charcoal brown eyes and then down at a rectangle tattoo, he beams. “Oh damn! It really came out.”
“Uh-huh, uh-huh,” Akko nods and turns her machine off as she reaches down.
Diana peers over and recognizes the ‘Pappiliodya Chariot Trading Card’ almost glowing on the boy's arm, she wrinkles her nose again. Wasn’t everyone in this room above twenty?
The trading card presents an intricate flowing yellow butterfly design.
“Dude, this is sick,” he bounces in his chair, “they weren’t kidding when you said you could make it look like the real thing.”
“Of course!” Akko flexes her right arm and kisses her muscle, the boy laughs and Diana has to cover her face after a brief smile. “Now, be sure to keep this on for four hours and not pick at it. Put moisturizer on it when it starts to peel! It’ll bleed a tiny bit, but that’s normal.”
He wasn’t looking at her as he looked down at the square card with a deep reverence, Diana was looking at it too. The boy looked like he might hug Akko.
“She’s gonna love this,” he says with a grin and Diana watches as Akko wraps the boy’s arm up in some plastic material.
She was still just standing on the door.
“I’ll take you to the front now,” Diana shuffles to the side, Akko’s eyes glide over her but she seems to finish the transaction first. Chariot Cards were extra it seems, but Diana tell see why.
The ink was detailed and swirling, moving almost, just like the card, and laced with some gold shimmer ink. The boy was pretty excited.
“Todd is going to be so fucking jealous too,” he puts his fist up and presents it, “so glad we got to you in London.”
They fist bump and Diana restrains from rolling her eyes, the boy seems to tip Akko and then turns around. “Night Akko!”
Akko waves and she straightens some papers and a stack of business cards with an over-enthusiastic font. She turns to Diana slowly.
“It’s you!” She crows, putting her hands on her hips and leaning forward, “I knew it.”
Diana furrows her brow, “excuse me?”
Akko rested her hand on the glass case, “oh, you just looked like you’d be back!”
Diana shook her head, “it’s not what you think.”
Akko shifted from side to side, “I think a lot of things, I wouldn’t be so sure.” She never really stopped smiling, did she?
Diana’s skin prickles, she frowns, “the butterfly…”
“Yeah, we could do one of those. Or a bird, or a heart! You look like you might like a heart, with a moon in it maybe? Or,” Akko’s face goes slack. “Of course.”
Diana hunches over, “of course?”
“You want my specialty,” she whips one of the cards from the case, “you want a Chariot Card!” Akko seemed like she might rival the Tuscan sun at that moment, she shines. “The Alcor card, no! You’re a ‘A Believing Heart’ card girl, I know it, I know it- I can see it in you.”
Diana clenched her jaw, “you don’t even know my name.”
“Oh,” Akko pauses and puts down ‘A Believing Heart’ card before walking over. “I guess in-out girl isn’t a good name either.”
Diana’s mouth fell open. “It’s Diana.” She says roughly, not giving her last. She didn’t need ‘Cavendish was in my downtown shop’ gossip running around.
Akko’s face split, “That’s a very nice name.” She pushes a stray hair back, “Yes, it suits you!”
“Thanks,” Diana says sharply, her eyes dart back toward the chair and the needle, “I’m interested...in the work.”
“There’s a unicorn Chariot Card too,” Akko was going through her stack.
“No,” Diana’s thoughts raced, “I mean, I mean I want to learn to tattoo.” Diana isn’t sure where that came from, but it was one way to stop this parade of excitement from the artist. It felt like the thing to say at the time.
Akko paused, her hands slowing, “you what?”
Diana stood all the way up, “I said, I just want to learn some of the art. To do one myself.” She wouldn’t have to say any embarrassing requests out loud then, she could just ink herself.
Akko’s mouth was open, Diana lifted her chin. “I can pay you.”
Akko tilted her head to the side, she hummed, “That isn’t what I expected.” She looked her up and down, “aren’t you a university girl?”
Diana raised both eyebrows, maybe she was observant. “That doesn’t mean I can’t learn something like this.” The words feel a little foolish in her mouth. Akko was looking at her searchingly, “And if you can’t do it…” She starts to turn around.
“Why?” She feels a hand tug on her sleeve, Akko had reached across the counter and latched onto her. “You really…?”
Diana sniffs, “it’s just something I want.”
Akko seemed to study her, “I really can do most things. It won’t be an embarrassing request if you’d like a bunny or lyrics or something!”
“I know.” She says softly.
“Or even Japanese characters if that’s what you’re here for.”
“I’m not,” Diana pushed her own hair back, “I’m sure you’re very talented.” Diana sniffs, “And I’m sure you’re busy.” She reaches for the door.
“Wait,” Akko was still holding onto her arm. Diana pauses, Akko takes a deep breath, “you are pretty fancy.”
Diana raises an eyebrow and then clears her throat, “alright then.”
“You wouldn’t want this if you weren’t serious,” she says simply, “and you’d like to pay me, yeah?”
Diana squared her shoulders, she had Akko’s attention. “I would.”
Her thoughts bite at each other’s heels as Diana stares back at her, this isn’t what she intended when she walked in the door.
But Cavendish's follow through.
“Can you get to Oxford on some weekends?”
Diana suddenly had a tattoo mentor, she told herself that would be the fastest way to solve this dilemma.
--------------------
Diana was not sure she liked the things she got up to after long days in London staring at the back of aunt Daryll’s head. Apparently, she went off and enlisted tattoo artists to teach her random skills.
She was about to get an MBA in Business Management and was somehow arranging a train ticket for an overly-friendly stranger around her age.
Atsuko Kagari. She started to google her.
Akko Kagari was 21 years old, Akko Kagari learned to tattoo in Okinawa and then did specialty practice in Seattle. Akko Kagari had an Instagram and people that favorited almost all of her inking posts.
Akko Kagari had another string of people making jokes about her early designs, which were, admittedly, terrifyingly bad- squiggly rabbits and poor elephants and uneven ears. But she had mastered gold ink, she had traveled to different mentors.
Picture after picture of Akko in Mexico City, in Rome, in Buenos Aires, in Moscow and Beijing and then London. Then a little shop in Wittenberg street.
Where was she going?
Diana didn’t know.
It was a Saturday, it was a Saturday at the tail end of a very damp March and right before more midterms. Diana felt the strong impulse to study, to lock herself back up in the library and bury herself three stacks deep in books- that would be preferable.
Instead, she was waiting at the train station to greet one stranger who was going to teach her a trade skill she didn’t need. But Diana never backed out.
She saw Akko’s ponytail first, barely visible above the crowd as she tore her way through the people and bounded forward. Despite the weather she had on a pair of shorts, brown boots and a heavy red jacket.
Diana waved a hand loosely over to her, “over here.”
Akko looked back and forth and then trotted over in Diana’s direction, “hello majesty.” Diana blinked a couple times, Akko pointed at her hand, “you’re waving like the queen.”
Diana sighs to herself, “this way.” She hunched her shoulders slightly, “I brought a notebook to write down the basics.”
“Uh,” Akko followed her through the busy station and Diana tries to navigate to the secluded hill by the rivers. “It’s really more of a feeling,” Akko was chattering, “you gotta feel it. Like a smell! You feel the thing, and poof, it’s all around you- pouring out.”
“That doesn’t sound safe,” she says flatly, “it’s a sharp needle.”
Akko snorts, “I’ve only ever stabbed myself.” She chirps and Diana cringes, “if you feel right, the picture comes out right!”
Diana shakes her head and starts climbing, “up this way.” Luckily, the weather wasn’t so terrible to stop them from sitting outside, the grass was almost dry even.
Akko bobbed onto the spring grass first and Diana eased herself into the place next to her, flattening her skirt down as she kneeled. She clears her throat and they spend a moment looking at each other, brown large eyes with a red sheen. Like a door, a Mahogany door.
Diana realizes she’s holding her breath and then kicks her legs out.
“I was just interested in the basics.” She says sternly, like she was chiding herself, and then looks away.
“Sure,” Akko was nodding, “we can do pressure application and how to work with different parts of the body.” Akko stuck her tongue out slightly, “I have the book here.”
Akko took out ‘Tattooing for Dummies’ and Diana has to cover laughter, there were colored tabs throughout the pages. Diana swallows down another laugh.
“Oh gosh,” she snorts and Akko glances at her.
“Diana,” she says slowly and Diana almost chokes on her tongue this time. “Is there a type of inking you’d like to focus on?”
Diana pushed her hair back and looked away, “not really.” She sniffs, “I just want one. One to do myself.”
Akko wags a finger at her, “you really shouldn’t tattoo yourself if you’re not an expert.”
Diana puts her hands out and nudges her, “Make me an expert then.” She sets her jaw, “I’ve seen your work.”
She watches Akko’s cheeks pink slightly, “alright...I can try,” she gives a cheeky grin, “for your majesty…”
She cracks open her book, littered with notes on the margins and papers stuffed into the front cover, “let’s start with applying pressure…”
Diana has to sit still and listen as Akko’s voice falls into something serious, Diana has to stop and pay attention. Akko’s brown hair floats in the breeze and her lips move to some unseen rhythm.
Diana has to turn off her group text with Barbara and Hannah and listen. Akko was business at first, like the words had been drilled into her with a persistent hammer, but she was easily lost.
“... and then I had Sucy, she works in the place next to me, she’s getting this list on her thigh. She gets one thing of the list every few months and she likes it when I press down harder. But she’s a weirdo! She finally told me the list is instructions on how to avenge her death. Weird! And then there was this other guy who wouldn’t let me so much as touch him.”
Diana tried to nod and then watches Akko’s hands dance around her as she talked, it was animated like an energy drink hit by lightning. Diana clears her throat.
“Can we go over line work? I’d like to make steady lines.”
Akko raises an eyebrow, she puts her finger in the air, “that’s one of the hardest parts.”
Diana gives a small smile, “I see.”
Akko shakes her head, “you’re pretty persistent.” She hugs her legs to her, “you’d make a great tattoo-ist.”
Diana sticks her lip out, “who says I won’t be?”
Akko snickers, “you’re only doing one for yourself. I meant in a parlour.”
Diana gives a cheeky look, “who says I won’t?”
“Haha, I’ll be the first to hire you!” Akko laughs, “you can do all the tiny heart designs that I don’t want to.”
Diana leans back on her arm, “weren’t you going to give me a heart design?”
“Yeah, but that’s before,” Akko looked both ways, “before.”
Diana raises an eyebrow, “before?”
“You know,” Akko’s hands were waving around again, “before I knew you weren’t just another university girl ‘experimenting.’ Not that that’s bad! But they uh, usually get those.”
Diana shakes her head and looks up to the shady pale skies, “Perhaps I am just another university girl. Perhaps I’ll get a heart.”
There is a long pause, a little lull of silence that made her hiccup on her own breath.
She hears Akko laugh, “A heart with a little dagger in it's hand.”
“Dagger?” Akko had Diana’s attention.
“For when you rip people’s hearts out and tell them this happened because they were idiots or something.”
Diana sniffs angrily, “Don’t forget the grave I shove them in.” She says flatly and Akko laughs again, it was a good sound. Diana joins her briefly.
“See? Not flower-moon material.”
Diana let’s out a long breath, she opens her mouth, I don’t know which one I want. She closes it again.
A long pregnant moment stretches between them again before an earth-shaking rumbling noise vibrates the air, Diana turns to Akko languidly, “Hungry?”
Akko holds her stomach, “maybe… a lot. Very much.” Diana chuckles.
She looked like a little kid in that moment, a little kid with a tattoo of a woman on her leg and almost a full-arm sleeve. Sitting on the grass and asking her where the closest Nandos was.
Diana looks the over direction, “my treat.” She sees stiffly.
“What’s that?”
“I’ll take you to this Ethiopian place around the corner. My treat.” She tenses, “for the lessons.”
“Really?” Akko clapped her hands together, “A prince among men!” She whoops and Diana dusts herself off as she gets up.
“I thought I was your majesty?” She fixes Akko’s askew collar instinctively, Akko squirms.
“You’re a lot of things.”
Diana smiles a little and walks her down the hill and toward the sleepy university town, “now, tell me about hand-steadying techniques.”
Akko sighs and puts her hands up, “I suppose I can’t just say ‘you have to feel it,’ can I?”
“No.”
Akko tries again and they discuss tattoos and the world and whatever the hell Akko meant by ‘listening closely to your heart before working.’
She buys her a Doro Wot and is amazed as Akko somehow adds hot sauce to it and keeps eating, slurping down the spicy chicken.
She keeps talking while she eats and Diana wants to wipe her chin or smack her, Akko was describing different cities.
Rome, Riga, Chicago, Jamaica briefly (apparently she passed out and ended up there with some very nice people after being kicked off a cruise). Diana finds herself laughing a little too much.
She watches her move like a live-action claymation video set on fast-forward. Diana only puts her hand out once, curiously, strangely.
“Why are you moving through all these places?” As far as Diana understood Akko saved up her tattoo money off of tiny shops she established and then used that to push off again.
Akko chews on her chicken again, “lookring.”
“What?” Diana pauses eating her Gomen.
Akko seems to swallow the entire bite whole, her face goes still, like a butterfly suddenly being trapped under glass. “You know,” she says tentatively, “I’m just looking for someone.”
Diana looks her up and down, biting her cheek, “will you be off again soon?”
Akko frowns for once, “Not yet.” She says halting, “I think I’m close. Maybe just one more plane ride. Or tip off.” She takes a deep breath, “I think I’m getting close to Chariot!”
“Oh,” Diana didn’t know what to make of that. Chariot DuNord was entertainment star most people just assumed faded like a dying red planet and dropped off the map.
Maybe someone was still looking.
Diana studies her face, “good luck to you.” Akko was making a strange expression, “if anyone could do it…” Diana didn’t know what she was saying, “you seem like the right fit.”
“Really?” Akko had sauce on her nose, Diana looks away.
“You seem...persistent.” Diana fluffs her own hair and says, “Stubborn.”
“We have something in common then!” Diana rolls her eyes and Akko tells her more about lattice techniques with ink.
Diana couldn’t remember when she had an evening like this before, maybe she never did.
----------
Diana doesn’t know why she plays the fool to herself. March fourth had already passed, she already jumped through the hoops, she had already played the game.
She arranges to see Akko again anyway.
And then again.
She finds herself texting her in the middle of class, mostly to tell her to stop texting her in the middle of class. She finds herself seeing her on weekends, waiting at the train station earlier and earlier each time.
She finds herself spotting Akko in the crowd, and realizing it’s not her.
To her own surprise, Diana was making a friend. She wasn’t used to that, mostly friends were just brought to her and had their own trust funds and small business empires she needed to cozy up to.
Diana was starting to feel twists form in her stomach.
--------------
It happened on one April morning, almost at 4am, a slight drizzle was gracing the sky and the whole room swam with dark colors. Diana was looking into a pool, a deep pool where a figure sat underneath the waters and perched on a dead tree stump, Diana began to cry.
“No,” her head swam, “no…”
Her voice was hoarse from calling out, her fingernails tearing at her nightdress as she violently flailed in bed, March fourth had already passed.
“No!” She dug her nails into her leg and starts awake, she fumbles for the phone with the dream fresh in her scrambled thoughts. Her hands tremble and her vision is completely blurred. A soft drizzle coats her window and she peers out as she dials a number.
Why was she dialing a number.
“Diana,” it was a sleepy voice, thick with a tangible grogginess, “is that you?”
Diana’s eyes go wide, that isn’t who she meant to call. She gives a deep shuddering breath and wipes the wetness from her cheeks, “G-go to sleep Akko.”
“You’re the one that called me,” Akko sounds awake now. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m sorry.” Diana hangs up the phone and hugs her legs to herself, she was sorry, so sorry.
Diana stayed awake after that. She had managed to snag her own lone flat next to the school and she felt the echoing of the empty halls in her bones. She hugs her legs to her chest and let the deep shuddering breaths rack her body.
She wasn’t going to cry, she wasn’t going to cry again.
She doesn’t know how much time passes, it all swam before her like a wave taunting the shoreline and swooping back and forth, merciless. It must have been a lot of time.
“Diana!” She hears a turbulent knock on her front door, “Diana, I’m here, come out!”
She stiffens and wonders why someone was pounding on her front door and why Mr. Stevens wasn’t getting it for her. She wipes her face and realizes he had quit two years ago.
Diana sways to her feet and fumbles to the door, “I’m fine!” Her voice was raw and naked in her throat.
“What was that phone call?”
“It’s nothing,” Diana pushes everything down, “wrong number.”
“Let me in then,” Akko says thickly, “It’s Saturday, we could go see the movies. I’ll teach you a new technique.”
“I’m sorry you came all this,” she keeps her tone even, “but I have school work.”
Akko was knocking at the door, “You sound funny.” She knocks again, “come on! Even queens need companions. Tell me why you called.”
“Go home Akko.”
She hears a thump sound, someone was leaning on the front door, “I’m not going anywhere.”
Diana heaves a long sigh and reaches out, her fingers shaking as she grasps the nod, “I’m not, I’m not-” She swallows painfully.
She opens the door ever so slightly, just a crack, “I need you to go.”
Akko’s large brown eyes are looking her up and down, she was leaning on the door and crawling toward the opening.
“You’ve been crying…” Diana doesn’t respond, Akko grabs at the crack in the door and pries it a little wider open, “Tell me Diana.”
Diana rubs at her ruddy face furiously, her thoughts racing. “I need it.” She says roughly, “I need the tattoo today. I can’t wait any longer.”
Diana’s body gives out, dropping to the ground slowly- like a chair leg that finally gives out under a heavy weight. Akko barely catches her as she curls into herself, Akko holds her for a very long moment.
“Okay,” she says in a small voice, “whatever you need Diana.”
-
Diana bundles herself up in her long coat and slips on her summer sandals before numbly walking out the door, the sky is over so slowly clearing and peaking through a moderate day. She isn’t sure how she made it to London but she did remember Akko taking her hand on the tram.
It was warm.
Diana’s eyes glazed over and when she blinked she was somewhere new. Wittenberg Street again, the smokey narrow pass where they sold cigarettes outside the loo and the pavement turned to cobblestone if you followed it long enough.
Diana closed her eyes and realized Akko still had her hand, Diana’s senses come back to her one by one. Akko leads her to the tucked away tattoo shop that was twice as long as it was wide. Diana touches the blue paint on the outside.
She sniffs, “I always liked this.”
Akko’s eyes were unusually soft, “me too.”
She follows her in, Diana’s gaze is unfocused and loose, she tries to put her hand on the glass case with Chariot Cards inside.
“A Unicorn,” she murmurs, “or maybe that doctor symbol. The staff with the snakes.” She buries her face in her hands, “a nightingale. Anything.”
Akko leads her to the chair, “you can get whatever you like. More than one even!”
Diana shakes her head numbly, “just one. Where I can see it.”
“Anything you want,” she kept saying that, Akko threaded her fingers through Diana’s hair- it had become knotted during the night, Akko untangles it. “But you have to tell me what this is about.”
Diana blinked unseeingly ahead, “nothing.”
Akko shook her head, “I can’t give tattoos to people who are not in the right state of mind. Not drunk or drugged or…” She peters off and her eyes flash up hesitantly.
Diana bit her bottom lip, and then she kept biting it, “I,” she took in a wheezing shattering breath of air, “you won’t understand.”
She hated how small she sounded, how frail, Akko was squeezing her hand.
“Are you looking for someone too?” Akko was staring ahead at the Chariot mural behind them.
Diana shook her head, “No…” She trails off and the words bubble up from deep within, “I don’t remember her face.” It tumbles out of her like a confetti canon, the tears well up again, “I realized,” she heaves a breath, “I don’t remember her face.”
Akko leans forward until their eyes are inches apart, she speaks gently, “who’s?”
“Mom’s,” she whispers, “it was our anniversary and I tried,” she swallows a wet sound, “I tried to remember it.” She covers her face with her free hand, her shoulders shaking, “It’s gone, it’s all gone!”
I’m a disgrace, Diana wanted to stop crying, she wanted to be someone else- the person she created. Not this.
“Sshhh,” Akko pet her head, “it’s okay.”
Diana shook her head, “I don’t remember it.” She starts to hyperventilate, “I need to remember her. Everything, her.”
“Ssshhh,” Akko presses down on Diana’s skin, “you’re safe here. You’re doing great.” She said the words like she talked to the boy the second time Diana visited. She didn’t know what she meant.
Akko crawled into her lap and pet her hair while Diana worked through a very bad dream. It wasn’t March 4th anymore.
-------------
Diana didn’t end up getting a tattoo that day, nor the next. She took Akko to ice cream shop and told her not to tell anyone about that. Akko rolled her eyes and told her Diana had to have more faith in her friends.
Friends. It suddenly felt like a bad word, but she doesn’t say that.
And the next day Diana takes Akko to the movie she wanted to see and maybe she talks about her mom for a couple hours on the walk home, the long way home.
Akko says she’s getting closer, closer to all the paper trails Chariot left, Diana’s heart thumped.
-----------
Diana got her first tattoo of a caduceus. It was gold and winged and reminded her of her mom’s saying: help who you can Diana, whenever you can.
She told Akko about her mom’s doctorate and all the nurses at the Royal London Hospital.
It was on her forearm.
----------
She got her second tattoo of a unicorn, a young woman standing by a unicorn’s mane, petting it. Akko leaned over her as she made it and Diana counted her eyelashes, they were large and framed her brown irises. Her eyes were different in light of her concentration, clear, taut.
She dotted Diana’s skin carefully, moving closely and precisely. Diana had found that she had begun to enjoy the sting of the needle as she watched her work.
“Do you want me to detail the face?” Akko asks breathlessly, softly.
Diana shakes her head, “not yet.”
She holds her hand on the way home and they drive miles and miles out of London and into the countryside, it’s a four day weekend and she shows Akko her favorite farmhouses and sheep.
-----------
She gets her third tattoo on a dare.
A bad dare, a poor dare, a dare nonetheless.
They were in Oxford, walking next to a footpath by the Thames and listening to a bicyclists yell at a motorist for swerving into his path. It was a fair day, the clouds were puffy white cotton balls instead of flattened grey pancakes and the sun gently kissed Akko’s cheeks as she turned toward her.
Diana smiles to herself.
“I hear you’re selling to some heiress next week,” she says with a little grin.
Akko shrugs, “business is good.” She leans on Diana’s arm, “too good. They want me to do water color work.”
“Can you do water color work?”
Akko puffs her chest out, “of course.” She set her chin, “with a little practice.”
Diana laughs, “well, I’m sure someone in London could give you a lesson if you look.”
Akko shakes her head and tugs on Diana’s sleeve again, “When are you going to get your next one? I’ll learn watercolor tattoos if you’re the one that wants one.”
Diana felt her face heat up slightly, she looks away. “I can’t just get these things on a whim.”
“Of course you can!” She cheered, “that’s what makes them fun.”
Diana slows down their slow and pauses to glance at her, “you’re a menace to public decision making you know.”
Akko snorts, “I love being a menace.”
Diana laughs and pats Akko’s arm, “I can tell.” They laugh again and Akko is still looking at her.
It happened on that clear spring day, with clouds like cotton balls and sky like lovely blue syrup.
“What should I get then?” Diana asks teasingly, “You seem to have lots of answers.”
Akko tapped her chin, “something just for you!” Diana feels her expression pinch.
“Oh?”
“Or a lover!”
If Diana was drinking something she would have spit it out, “What have I done to ever suggest I have a lover?”
Akko put her hands together, “duh, you’re like the prettiest most intelligent girl I know. Don’t hide it from me! No one could resist your fluffy princess hair.” Akko primps Diana’s long blonde hair and Diana swats her hand away.
“It takes more than that to get dates you know.” She says in a monotone. “ Plus, tattoos are permanent and love isn’t exactly like that.”
Akko’s mouth falls open, “they’re the same thing!”
“I don’t want some random person’s name on me forever.” Diana defends.
Akko crosses her arms across her chest forcefully, “Love tattoos are the best ones. They’re the same things.”
Diana raised her eyebrows, “how would you know?”
“I have eyes,” Akko stuck out her tongue at her, their eyes meet. “And they’re both, you know, both can be permanent.”
She frowns deeply, “you can be a little silly sometimes I’m sure you know.”
“You’re the silly one,” Akko’s face was burning an angry red as she balled up her hands, “you don’t even…”
Diana took in a deep breath and looked Akko up and down, “do you have a love tattoo?” She asks curiously, Akko just shook her head.
“But if I did…” She looks up, the heat dying in her eyes, “I know what I’d want.” Her eyes were on her, Diana slowly counts her eyelashes. She holds her breath. “Not that you understand.”
Akko said the last sentence like heartbreak. Diana steps forward, her color rising unexpectedly.
“Where would get it?” Her heart thumps in her chest.
Akko looks at the ground, like a puppy locked outside. “I don’t know.” She reaches up to touch her face.
Diana takes another tentative step forward, “I’m not an expert.” She says shortly and Akko glances up. “In fact, I think I’m terribly suited for it.”
“Huh?”
“But I could show you where I’d put it.”
Akko’s eyes go wide, she nods ever so slightly and Diana was already in motion before the answer hung in the air. She kisses her shoulder.
“Diana…” Akko fades out, Diana reaches up and kisses her cheek. “Diana!”
Diana leans forward and captures her bright lips for a moment, and maybe if that could be permanent, for just a second. She kisses her and the cotton ball clouds seem to pause and the syrup of the fine blue skies drips down on her like a warm bath in her chest.
It was quick and forever all at once, the speed of her heart beat mixing with the slow press of her lips, gradual and soft at first and building into something solid. Burning.
Akko wraps her arms around her neck and Diana stands up straight, dragging her feet off the ground into a kiss with a slight twirl. She laughs and Diana holds her. “There. Right there.”
Akko boops her nose, “You can’t tattoo your mouth.”
Diana shakes her head, “I can try.” She kisses her again.
Diana gets one last tattoo, Akko dares her to get one over her heart and she accepts.
#little witch academia#diakko#dianakko#diakko fic#lwa#diana cavendish#akko kagari#I forgot to upload this before#lwa fic
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"Hello, my name is Atsuko Kagari! But you can call me Akko!" Voice breaking//"Mynameisimgay."
This was really fun to write
Read on AO3
_______________________________________________________________________
Diana slouched as she sat in her seat and placed the paper bag on the table with a sigh. After taking a few moments to rest, she sat up straight and opened the bag, taking out a greasy burger and overly salty chips. Diana didn’t usually eat this kind of food, but after a session like that, she couldn’t be bothered to eat anywhere other than the closest restaurant, which just so happened to be a fast-food restaurant.
With the prelims coming up so soon, Diana couldn’t afford to waste a moment of training. She knew she was the star of Luna Nova University’s running team, and she knew the school was relying on her to get them into at least the regionals. So she had taken it upon herself to squeeze in some extra training in her full time.
After hours of running through parks and around the city, Diana had found herself quite exhausted and even more hungry. So as soon as she had the unhealthy food in front of her, she relaxed in her seat and let her gaze drift around the room.
Even eventually her gaze landed on a small group of girls, fixated on one girl in particular. Her long brown hair flowed down her back, with a cute short ponytail near the top of her head. Her brown- no, red eyes shone brighter than anything Diana had seen since she went to that Shiny Chariot concert when she was younger. The girl’s face was round, and her face and eye shape gave away that she was either Asian or of Asian descent.
One of the other two in the group - a girl with long pinkish hair covering one of her crimson eyes - gazed over to Diana, staring at her for a moment before saying something to the other two. The girl from before and her friend - who had short light orange hair and glasses - turned to look at her for a second. The pink haired one said something, and the beautiful girl with the wine-red eyes nodded enthusiastically and stood up, approaching Diana with a cheerful gaze.
It was then that Diana snapped out of her funk and realised she had been staring.
The girl with the incredibly soft gaze bounced over to Diana and stood next to her seat. “Hi! I’m Atsuko Kagari, but you can call me Akko!”
“MynameisI’mgay.”
“W-what was that?” Akko tilted her head adorably, “I didn’t quite get that.”
Diana flushed red as soon as she realised what she had said. “M-My apologies, my n-name is Diana Cavendish,” she half-shouted, cringing as her voice broke multiple times in one sentence.
“That’s a really nice name!” Akko said and god she had the voice of an angel
“T-thank you…”
“ASK HER WHY SHE WAS LOOKING AT YOU!” the pink haired girl shouted in a monotone voice, prompting Diana to blush again.
“OK!” Akko called back before turning to Diana, “So, uh, my friends and I couldn’t help but notice you watching us…”
“My apologies…” Diana took a deep breath, “I was merely captivated by your beauty and found myself mesmerised.”
This time Akko flushed red and it was adorable. Her friend with the glasses was squealing quietly, eyes sparkling as the pink haired one tried to contain her laughter.
“Th-that’s…I…”
“I-I’m sorry, was that too forward?” Diana asked, regressing back into nervousness because you fucked it up Cavendish you just made her feel awkward this was a mistake-
“You want my number!?” Akko asked suddenly, nervous but confident. “S-sure…” Diana replied, shocked as she took out her phone and gave it to Akko so she could enter her contact. She watched as Akko typed in her details before taking a quick selfie to set as her contact photo and handing the phone back to Diana. Taking a glance at the contact, Diana blushed upon noticing the heart emoji Akko had put after her name.
“I’m gonna go talk to my friends now, but uh…text me, OK?” Akko said as she jogged back to the others, leaving Diana a flustered gay mess.
#dianakko#diakko#au#no magic au#akko kagari#atsuko kagari#kagari akko#kagari atsuko#atsuko 'akko' kagari#diana cavendish#lotte yanson#lotte jansson#sucy manbavaran#lwa#little witch academia#fanfic#fanfiction#fic#oliver's writing#drabble
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And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 54)
Akko could finally use the mind palace machine later that day, and the sound of cranking, pedaling, and whirring quickly became a constant presence in AWRD’s dorm room, like their studying for their exams on Thursday and Friday had been given a soundtrack.
Whether it was going over their notes, old quizzes, and mock tests they’d borrowed from Blake, Lotte, and the rest of the student tutors; planning and practicing for the practical projects like for Gen-Mech; or even the rapid ramping up of their recovery training, there was scarcely a free moment in their schedules.
However, they unanimously agreed that Wednesday evening would be free for all of them, and Ruby and Weiss took that opportunity to go down to the city with their siblings for dinner.
“You guys are really going all out for this, aren’t you?” Yang asked, reaching into the steamer basket in front of them for another steamed bun.
“Mhmm!” Ruby replied as she munched on the one in her hands. She swallowed, and continued, “Gotta get those good grades so we can focus on the Tsukimi Festival! It’s gonna be really bad for the plan if we have to do the really intense extra credit work, like with your team.
“How’s your week off going so far, anyway?” she asked, before she swallowed the last of her bun.
“Amazing, and it’s actually gotten even better!” Yang said, smiling as she peeled off the paper underside of her bun. “Dr. Freya’s just up and decided to give us an extra two days off!”
“That’s great!” Ruby said, still chewing. “Changed your plans any?”
“Oh, you bet your ass we have! Whole thing’s still starting right after exams Friday afternoon, but now ends early Wednesday morning!” Yang explained before she ripped the top off a sauce packet with her teeth. “It may just be two weeknights, but it’s going to be two weeknights where we can decide how the hell we’re going to spend them, and we are going to make them count!
“You or any of your teammates want in?” she asked as she poured a generous heaping of spicy sauce on to her bun. “Sucy’s coming with us this time, now that she can leave campus and all, but I promise I won’t let her try any freaky experiments on any of you—just keep a very close eye on your drinks, she’s like a ninja,” she said before she bit into her food.
“Oh, I’d love to, but we’re going straight back to the plans for the Festival right after exams—Diana and Weiss made synced up schedules and alerts for our scrolls, and everything,” Ruby said as she reached for the basket again.
“Aww, c’mon, Ruby, I know it’s important and all, but you gotta fit in some fun time in there!” Yang said through a mouthful of food.
“We already are!” Ruby replied as she peeled off the bottom. “We’re actually going out to dinner at the Bakunawa on Friday, because they want us to give our opinion on the new Festival menu—so business and pleasure!”
“Oooh, sounds fun!” Yang swallowed. “Any chance we can get in on that? We need a new hangout since we’re still can’t afford to buy our way back to the Shitty Bar.”
“Sorry, it’s a negative, not unless you’re willing to fork up the Lien like any other customer,” Ruby said as she poured sweet sauce on her bun. “We’re only eating free because we’re helping for the Festival, and Weiss and Akko both say that Aqua’s uncle Jun-Jun is SUPER strict about who gets free food and discounts.”
“Ah, well, at least I get to hang out with my little sister again!” Yang said, roping her arm around Ruby’s shoulders and pulling her in close. “Been way too long since we’ve done this last...”
“Well, to be fair, the world does seem to be incredibly intent on either killing you and your team, or drowning you in work, which has made scheduling difficult,” Whitley said as he and Weiss had dinner in a different restaurant. “There’s also the fact that we’re going to two different schools now, and you’re not living at home any longer.”
“Fair points,” Weiss said as she poked another cube of meat on her skewer, dipped it into the pot of boiling broth between them. “How is life in Sanctum, anyway? We haven’t really had much time to discuss, well, anything about you.”
“That’s mostly because my school year has been infinitely more boring and tedious than yours,” Whitley replied, casually pointing his empty skewer at Weiss.
“Oh, c’mon, Whitley, something interesting has to have happened in your life.”
“Not if it isn’t related to you, Akko, or the Shiny Rod,” Whitley replied. “I assure you, life in Sanctum is still just the same old teenage angst bullshit with legally sanctioned death matches that you and Akko have finally escaped,” he said as he looked at the remaining selection of bite-sized food in front of him.
Weiss nodded. “Speaking of which: are you doing alright now that we’re not around?”
“I’m… managing, I suppose...” Whitley replied as he slowly skewered a piece of potato.
Weiss frowned. “Define ‘managing,’ please,” she said as she fished out her meat, let it drain over the pot before she brought it over her plate.
“I’m attending all my classes,” Whitley started as he dipped his food into the broth. “I’m doing well in them for the most part, save for PE, but that’s always something of an inevitability. And of course, BCT continues to be the bane of my existence, except on the rare occasion when I do get a team or a partner that understands the concepts of ‘semblance exhaustion,’ ‘protect your support’ and ‘for fuck’s sake, get out of the way!’”
Weiss chuckled. “Met up with your old friends? Made any new ones?” she asked as she put her food to her mouth.
“… Kind of, and kind of...” Whitley replied, his eyes keenly on the end of his skewer and the bubbles rising from the broth.
Weiss stopped, and frowned. “What do you mean by that?” she asked as she put her skewer down on her plate.
Whitley pulled his potato out. “Well, with the old friend situation, we’ve recently realized you and Akko more than just the people that introduced us to each other, you two were kind of the reason we even hung out with each other and/or tolerated the other’s presence.
“With the new friend situation… it’s been… complicated.”
Weiss face softened. “Whitley...” she said as she reached out to him.
Whitley pulled his hand back. “Look, Weiss, please don’t worry; I’ll figure out something on my own eventually. That’s what this whole year is for us, isn’t it? Learning how to be independent?” he asked before he put his potato into his mouth.
“Yes, but being independent doesn’t mean you suddenly can’t, or shouldn’t rely on others...” Weiss said as she pulled her hand back. “Do you need help? Someone to talk to about it?”
Whitley shook his head. He swallowed, and said, “I appreciate the concern, Weiss, but I want to do this by myself a little longer, and I don’t want to talk about it—not right now.”
Weiss looked at him in concern, before she reluctantly nodded. “Good luck with that, then.”
“Thanks,” Whitley said quietly. He gave Weiss a warm look. “I mean it, honestly.”
Weiss smiled. “You’re welcome, Whitley,” she said, before they both returned to their food.
“So, the new Starlight Crusaders spin-off was released last week,” Whitley said as he skewered a chunk of meat this time. “You been able to watch it, by any chance?”
“No, haven’t had the time,” Weiss said as she pondered her choices. “Have you?”
Whitley nodded. “I have; the animation is still solid thanks to Lucidity doing it, but of course, Bhatt still wrote it, so I wouldn’t recommend it to you.” he said as he dipped his food into the pot.
“Ugh, I still don’t get what you see in them, Whitley,” Weiss said as she speared a chunk of carrot. “Black Hole was an absolute mess, and Centauri somehow made it even worse!”
“Bhatt has potential, Weiss!” Whitley complained.
“I’ll agree on that, but I still think the studio should be throwing all that money, resources, and good will with the fanbase on someone that can actually produce something actually good on its own, rather than with the extended universe media!
“Just admit it, Whitley, Bhatt should just go back to the indie scene or smaller studios; they had their chance in the spotlight, and they face planted not once, but twice in a row!”
And so the two siblings continued to argue, shouting and throwing points and counterpoints, until the hour grew late, and it was time for them all to head back to Haven.
“… And what do scholars generally agree doomed the state of Archaea?” Diana asked, holding a mock exam in her hands.
“In-fighting,” Akko muttered as she had her face flat on her desk, the top half of the mind palace machine pushed away as far as possible. “All the factions in the city finally got fed up and decided to go to all out war in the middle of winter when the grain started to run out.”
“Correct, but be more detailed, Akko; try and give me the names of at least three of those groups.”
Akko groaned. “Let’s see… there was the ruling class, the ‘Fortunata,’ the uh, the nationalist ‘Builder’ guys, and uh, the local mafia.”
“Who called themselves…?”
“The uh… the…?” Akko groaned. “I give up...”
“Ouroboros, Akko,” Diana said, “they called themselves the Ouroboros, as their philosophy was that man taking advantage of their fellow man was an inevitability, like death for everything that has ever lived.”
“Uuroobooroos, got it...” Akko muttered.
The lock to their door beeped, and was carefully pushed open. Weiss and Ruby paused for a moment as they noticed the overhead light was still on, before they stepped in. “Hey guys!” Ruby said, waving.
“You two are still up?” Weiss said.
“I don’t feel yet adequately prepared for exams,” Diana replied.
“And I’ve been waiting for you guys to get back...” Akko said, still face-down on her desk.
Weiss smiled. “Wanted to give a rousing speech to the team before exams?”
“No, I need someone to drag me to bed ‘cause my legs and arms are dead from all the studying I’ve been doing...” Akko muttered.
“I would have done it myself, but you all know how well that went last time...” Diana muttered, blushing.
“I’ve got it!” Ruby said, before she dragged Akko out of her chair and into her futon; they didn’t end up in the most dignified positions, but Akko was fast asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, and Ruby easily untangled herself from her.
“Not going to bed yet either, Weiss?” Ruby asked as she saw her sitting down at her desk.
“Yes,” Weiss replied as she pulled out one of her binders. “Before sleeping is the best time to learn, anything, after all!”
“Well don’t stay up too late!” Ruby headed to their closet, and started changing into her pajamas. “All that studying’s going to be useless if you fall asleep on your answer sheet.”
“Fret not, Ruby, we’re still well prepared for that,” Diana said, gesturing to two thermoses full of moon bloom or black moss.
“Can’t hurt to have a reminder or two!” Ruby chirped as she passed by them again on her way to her futon. “Good night, guys.”
“Good night, Ruby.” Weiss and Diana replied, before they shut off the main light and turned on their desk lamps.
They continued to read and quietly quiz each for an hour more, until their scrolls both locked and started vibrating, a cartoonish representation of Freya’s face scowling at them and telling them to go to sleep.
Diana chuckled. “Your grandparents were really involved in your studies, weren’t they?”
“That they were,” Weiss said, pressing the button labeled ‘Yes, Grandma!’ before she got up from her desk, and stretched. “You feeling ready now, Diana?”
“Not even close,” Diana replied as she neatly put away her things. “Then again, my idea of being ready for exams is to have studied and prepared for them daily since the first day of each grading period, and, well, life hasn’t been very accommodating to that recently.
“Speaking of which, can I ask you a question, Weiss?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“How have you survived all of the events of this month, and still be able to function this well?” Diana asked. “I mean, we’ve all suffered in one way or the other, but you’ve had objectively the worst time out of all four of us, as if some sadistic deity was targeting you specifically, and we were simply victimized by associtaion.”
Weiss shrugged. “Eh, I guess it’s a Schnee thing: the universe just seems to have it in for us both ways of the spectrum.” She looked over at the peacefully sleeping Akko. “Though, having a friend like Akko helpst, even if she did cause problems almost as much as she solved them.
“Why do you ask? Worried you can’t take much more?”
“No, not at all,” Diana said. “It’s just that that the events of this month are quickly becoming on par to some of the worst years I’ve faced, and it’s… well, it’s noteworthy, I suppose.”
Weiss smiled and touched Diana on the shoulder. “We’ll just make sure to pack lots of umbrellas from her on out.”
“Pardon?” Diana asked.
“It was my grandpa’s polite way of saying ‘Be prepared for future shitstorms,’” Weiss explained. “He couldn’t use the original for interviews little kids were watching, after all.”
Diana chuckled. “I see…”
5AM Thursday morning, Weiss didn’t wake up as usual, exhausted from last night.
5:30 AM, the alarm Akko set in her scroll activated.
“AKKO! WEISS!” Freya’s voice screeched. “WAKE UP! IT’S EXAM DAY!”
Akko and Weiss woke up screaming, bolting out of their futons. Diana and Ruby were jolted awake, sat up in their beds and watched as Weiss and Akko zipped about their room, rushing through their morning routines, ready to go in little less than a minute.
“Wow, you guys really weren’t kidding when you said this’d get you ready in no time at all, huh?” Ruby said as she climbed out of her futon.
Akko and Weiss both nodded, leaning on their desks as they waited for their heart rates back down to reasonable levels. Ruby and Diana went through their morning routine at relatively slower pace, and soon, they were standing before their door and ready to go.
“Team AWRD to exams?” Akko asked, raising the arm not holding a cup of black moss tea.
“To exams!” the rest cried, before they joined the droves of students filing out the dorms, and to wherever their exams were.
They headed to massive halls lined to the brim with desks; they got up on stages and before their proctors and peers; they carved out a spot for themselves in massive open areas they shared with dozens of other teams.
Pens, erasers, scratch papers, and pencils were used up, lent, broken, or lost in the blitz; presentations were given and questions were thrown back at them; machines were examined, repaired, or taken apart then put back together again.
Akko sweated and panicked at the blank spaces and pages on her test papers. Ruby flubbed a question that was far from any of the ones they’d rehearsed for. Diana got her fingers stuck in their “Useless Machine” project for Gen-Mech, Weiss was hit in the face with a wayward nut in her attempts to free her.
But still, they survived each their exams, if not feeling confident that they’d aced it, then at least that they had passed, or hadn’t failed that badly.
Finally, 6 PM Friday night, down in a tent in lower Mistral, team AWRD’s exams were finally over, Ruby pulling off her headset and waving at her teammates as they victoriously rode in on the back of a rickshaw, waving three digital trackers in their hands, their lights glowing bright green.
“Great job, AWRD!” Professor Nelson said as they turned the devices in, Akko signed the equipment sheet. “Maybe you four didn’t even need that handicap, with how fast you got this done anyway!”
“It really rather helped that Ruby knew so many shortcuts,” Weiss said. “Even if some of them were a little… out-of-the-way.”
Nelson chuckled. “I’ve noticed, but like I said, so long as we don’t get any reports of trespassing or anything else illegal, go for it. Anyway, you four are free to go; feel free to take the rickshaws back to the elevator, or wherever else they can take you—school’s got them paid for the next hour, anyway.
“See you on Tuesday, AWRD!”
The team bade her farewell, before they all climbed into the rickshaw, and they were off to the Bakunawa to celebrate.
Note: I know I've said this before, but feedback really means a lot to me. Anything from a short "Good chapter" or a little comment on what you liked or didn't like would be really appreciated.
Next chapter's going to be team AWRD's double-date night team bonding dinner.
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Dimanda headcanon
Amanda and Diana bond over the fact that they both like Akko yet Akko does not return their feelings because she likes Andrew. They also bond over the mutual frustration that its clear to them that Akko and Andrew like each other but neither is making a move.
this thing ended up pretty long so its under a read more.
Amanda finds a mopey-but-ranting Diana in a common room that isn’t very well known when Amanda was trying to find a place to skip class. Both were very surprised to see each other.
Diana immediately scolds Amanda for skipping class, Amanda shoots back that Diana is doing the exact same thing and is pretty much the pot calling the kettle black.
There’s a few moment of awkward silence before Amanda cracks a joke asking if the reason Diana is here is because of heartbreak, Diana is shocked but then quietly admits that it is the reason and she’s mad at herself for getting worked up over something so trivial and this is why she hates caring about things, because they always seemed to be snatched from her grasp.
Amanda then drops the joking demeanor after realizing that Diana is being serious and then admits that she knows what its like, because she has experienced the pain of unrequited feelings.
Amanda then asks “Is the person you liked Akko?”
Diana sighs “Yes, that’s correct. I’m mad at myself because I know I shouldn’t feel envious or bitter and be happy for her instead, but the ugly thoughts are there and its clouding my judgement. She confided in me a few hours ago that she has a crush on Andrew and went to me for advice because I’ve known him since I was a child, even though its painfully obvious to me that he likes her too.”
Amanda thinks for a moment and then sits down on the couch near Diana.
“It was like that for me too. I love her and she’s fun to be around but by god she is oblivious. It sucks because she likes girls as well as boys, but as soon as she met Andrew, her heart has been set on him.
“So you were saying I had a chance if I wasn’t so stubborn about hating her because she was unashamed about being a Shiny Chariot fangirl.”
Diana rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger, trying to wrap her head around the situation with Akko.
“You ARE really fucking stubborn though. Hell even if you did ask her out, it probably wouldn’t have lasted very long anyway, seeing how you two are like oil and water. Well, I did have a shot but it ended up being a fling. She was curious and we did have fun, but she doesn’t like me like that. It still sucks because I still like her despite what happened.
Diana glared at Amanda, peeved by her foul language.
“I’m not sure if you’re trying to take a cheap shot at me because I’m vulnerable right now or you’re actually trying to cheer me up by what people call ‘shock therapy’ by shooting the reality of the situation in my face.”
“Honestly I find talking about what-if scenarios helps a lot, plus it grounds you in reality when realizing the person you like wouldn’t be good for you in a relationship. I also find having someone to talk to this about helpful in general as well. Plus look at me, I took an opportunity to be intimate with her to see if she would end up liking me back afterward, but I ended up getting rejected in the end. I probably shouldn’t have done it looking back, but I was pretty desperate.”
Diana snorted looking at Amanda’s dejected face recalling her tryst with Akko.
“If it were me, I would have gone for it. The memory alone would have made the entire experience of getting rejected worth it.”
Amanda rolled her eyes and put her feet on the coffee table, Diana tried to jab her in the side to get her feet off the table but Amanda moved out of the way.
“Pfft. yeah right. I mean it was really fun, although Akko had no clue what she was doing until she got the hang of it. After that it would have been in the top 10. But I would not suggest it at the price of your own feelings. I had to avoid Akko for a few weeks for my own sake. Also getting rejected really sucks when you thought you had a chance. You should have seen me, I was so pathetic its laughable now.”
Diana shook her head and ended up laughing while picturing a desperate Amanda not getting what she wanted.
“All that matters is the experience right? But when you put it like that, it probably wasn’t worth it if you still like her even now. Especially since the person she likes now is actually really good for her even if he personally annoys me.”
“Ah yeah, I’ve noticed that Akko has calmed down a lot ever since she met him. It still kinda hurts see them interact, even though I’m happy for her that she found someone that suits her. I guess the most frustrating thing is seeing how they clearly like each other but neither makes a move, I mean, what the hell is with that?! They need to make up their minds already! I would call them useless straight people but Akko is bi, so that means she’s just standingbi in this situation.”
Diana jabbed Amanda in the side when she was caught off guard, which led to Amanda yelping from the sharp pain. Amanda grinned a bit but then winced from the pain, she decided to stay silent for a bit.
“I think Akko is planning to make a move, since she came to me for advice. Part of me is relived but I’m also annoyed. I just want these dumb feelings to be over so I can go back to being myself.”
Amanda sat upright and let out a whoop
“Fucking finally! I mean, this dancing around the subject thing has been going on between them for MONTHS. Well it’s also going to be easier for me to move on once she’s in a relationship with him, which frankly I am looking forward to. I hate pining over people, it isn’t fun and its also exhausting as hell.”
“Amanda, why are you like this? I do agree with you, but at least act a bit more ladylike and stop swearing.”
Amanda got up and started to leave the common room and stuck her tongue out at Diana.
“Whatever princess. Anywho you seem to be in a better mood than I first saw you in, so you can probably head back to class like the perfect student you are. If you want to rant more about Akko being dumb about her crush on the guy who likes her, let me know.”
Diana sighed as she got up to leave.
“Back to insults I see. Why don’t you also head back to class so you don’t get into more detention you’re already in? Thanks for the offer though.”
#dimanda#amanda o'neill#amanda x diana#ankko#diana cavendish#i put ankko in the tags because they're mentioned multiple times and kind of reason why these two are talking
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Home is a Family chapter 3
Nobody Forgets, and the IPRE makes a new plan together as a family.
Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12880710/chapters/30341823
Where Everyone Gets a New Home and Taako is Alone(TM)
Magnus was dropped off at a small rustic town known as Raven’s Roost. It was well known for its Craftsman's corridor, and Magnus would fit in well with his carpentry abilities. Merle was brought do a community of beach dwarves. Among them were the Rockseekers, distant cousins of Merle’s who miraculously lived in this reality. Lup and Barry got a nice house in a small town called Glamorsprings. It was safe and quiet and the perfect place to raise two children. Lucretia and Davenport would be staying on the Starblaster for the time being.
And Taako? Taako got a stagecoach, and a sign advertising “Sizzlin’ it up with Taako,” his very own cooking show. Somehow he couldn’t bring himself to be too excited about it with his family split up like this. He had always expected Lup to be there with him when he finally got famous, and after she had kids well... He had given up that dream for the chance to be there for his nieces, unlike his own family.
But now that plan was also shot to shit because of another stupid plan. He’ll get to see them of course. In between shows, on his way from one town to another, acting as a messenger for his extended family. Not to mention Lucretia had promised that it would only last for a few years. The girls would still be little kids when they all were reunited again. Still though, it hurt, not being with them. Not being with his sister, or even any of the men he had come to call brother, or Lucretia everyone’s pseudo baby sister, or Davenport and Merle, the crew’s collective father figures. For the first time ever he was completely alone.
Which meant he was going to milk it for everything it was worth and make his show the most successful thing this reality had ever seen. He stayed the first night with Lup and Barry, making sure they settled in okay, and after that he traveled to the nearest town that was of any note. It took him three days of travel to get there. All three days were spent planning his show, what he would make, what he would wear, the best way to perform, everything he could think of.
It didn’t go well.
Nobody knew what it was and the few people who did come didn’t seem all that impressed. Just his cooking wasn’t enough, he had to add in something more, and he was pissed. He was Taako from TV! The best transmutation wizard in all of existence, and probably also the best damn cook. And they just ignored him!
Well he wasn’t going to let that stand. He was going to figured out how to make people watch his show and become a godsdamned celebrity. People were going to know who he was if it was the last thing he’d do. But it wouldn’t be the last thing he did because after they knew who he was he’d have to capitalize on that shit with tee-shirts or something.
Six months and several more towns later and he finally got the hang of attracting a crowd. His personality is perfect for this show biz, but plan old cooking isn’t exciting enough for them. So he’s added in some of his transmutation to make it more interesting. And what’d ya know? It actually works.
He would be doing another show right now, somewhere high and fancy, like Goldcliff, but it’s almost his niece’s first birthday and like hell he’s gonna miss that. Not to mention the rest of the crew will probably be meeting on the day of their actual birthday to celebrate. But it’s his duty as their favorite (if he isn’t their favorite when they grow up he’s gonna throw a fit) uncle to be there a few weeks early and spoil them as much as possible in the meantime.
As his wagon pulled up the road to his sisters house he saw her and Barold out on their front lawn, each of them holding one of their daughters’ hands as they waddled barefoot on the grass. “Teaching them to walk without me?! Their favorite uncle Taako!” he called as he stopped the wagon.
“Unk” “Akko!” the two little girls called out, Churrita saying the first word and Tarch followed with the second.
“And they started talking!” he exclaimed getting off of his cart.
“Yeah well you’ve been gone for six months. Kids start doing that stuff around this age,” Lup said, smiling widely at her brother, despite the harsh words.
“At least we taught them your name,” Barry pointed out, as Taako got closer to them, “We haven’t taught them the other’s names yet.”
Taako quickly gave them both a side arm hug,“I-I wanted to, listen that’s not the point uh, I wanted to be there for that. But I wasn’t cause of this stupid plan. I fucking hate it.” With that statement made he scooped one of his nieces up into each of his arms.
“Feck!” Churrita exclaimed happily.
“And yet here you are, already teaching my daughters to swear before they’re even a year old,” Lup mock scolded him.
“Yup! They grow up fast sis, gotta be ready for it,” he said, carrying the girls towards the house. “Lets go inside so I can spoil these guys with all of the presents I got them.”
“You got them presents?” Barry asked, as they followed him inside.
“Yes, I got souvenirs from every town I visited,” he explained, pushing the door open with his hip.
“Taako, my dearest brother, my heart, best uncle to my children, I’m not putting away your wagon for you.” He grumbled and handed the girls to his sister and went to put away the cart.
Later that day the twins were napping on his lap as the grown-ups sat down and talked. He had gotten them mini battlewagons from Goldcliff, and dragon stuffed animals from Neverwinter, and little matching wizard hats that matched his, and a jumble of different stuffed animals from small towns that had nothing unique to offer, but it seemed like they enjoyed them all. Currently though they were only holding the mongoose stuffed animals he had made for them when he found out he was going to be an uncle.
“So Taako how’s your cooking show been?” Lup asked with a slight smirk on her face, “terrible since you don’t have my help with the taste-testing?”
“No, it’s been amazing, especially since I started using transmutation to make it showier,” he boasted.
Barry put an arm around his wife’s shoulders, “Sounds interesting to watch, you gonna do a show here?”
“A show here? In Glamorsprings? I mean I could try out my new thirty-two garlic clove recipe,” Taako said. “Sure, why the hell not?”
They talked for longer about his show, and how it was to travel alone. He brought up the idea of him hiring an assistant. And then the talk turned to the kids.
“So how about you guys? How’s it been being domestic?” Taako asked.
“It’s nice living in one place permanently, you should try it sometime,” Lup answered.
“Yeah sure, just as soon as this stupid plan is done,” Taako huffed, his ears flattening to his head.
“The girls haven’t been taking well to this plan either,” Barry sighed, looking down at them.
“What? Why not? What’s making them uncomfortable?” Taako demanded.
“Their used to having a lot more people around. They are lonely. Just the two of us taking care of them is a lot harder than all seven of us,” Lup told them.
“They missed you,” Barry added, “they were so happy to see you today, the happiest they’ve been in a while.” Taako sighed and kissed each of the girls on their foreheads. The sooner Lucretia finished making her organization the better. Then they could all be a family again, and they could reclaim their relics.
“Alright girls? You ready to learn how to make sugar cookies?” Taako asked, as the twins started up at him from the floor, teething toys in their mouths. He nodded, should’ve expected as much from toddlers. He was babysitting them for a few hours, while Lup and Barry went on a date for the first time in six months.
“Okay well first off you need baking soda and baking powder, which are different mind you,” he said in his showman's voice, “But we only have the one so I’ll be transmuting it into the other.” He grabbed the pre-portioned baking powder he set aside earlier and transmuted it to baking soda with a flourish and a few prestidigitated sparks. “Then we mix in the flour and in the second bowl the cream, butter, and sugar.”
Churrita picked up one of the battlewagon toys and started playing with it, while Tarch crawled closer to him and started up at him with big baby brown eyes. “Well at least one of you is enjoying this,” he said, continuing on with his act. Once he had a completely made batter Churrita crawled over to him too, and both of them reached for the batter. “No no no, this has raw egg in it, and your mom would kill me if I got you sick. And then your dad would bring me back as his undead servant. You can taste the icing.”
“Up, unk aako,” Churrita demanded.
“Up! Up!” Tarch added, clapping happily. He sighed and picked them up baking was going to be very difficult while also taking care of them. Cooking with both hands occupied was impossible.
He set them down carefully on the table and continued his work on the counter. After the cookies were placed on the pan and in the oven he started to make the icing. A strawberry buttercream icing made with fresh strawberries would be tasty for kids. The twins babbling to each other in the background while he mixed the ingredients, no longer bothering to narrate his process, they didn’t appreciate it so what was the point.
By the time he had finished that the cookies had to be pulled out of the oven. “Ookie!” They spoke in unison, reminding Taako of himself and Lup when they were little, even though these two weren’t identical.
“They need to cool. But you two can try this,” he said, holding out two small spoons, filled with icing, in front of them. They took the spoons eagerly, putting them in their mouths. So they ate in sync too, interesting.
He smiled at them and started to put the icing into a piping bag. There was something he wanted to try. Taako took the cookies off of the tray, and onto the biggest plate he could find. Turning back to the twins he noticed that Churrita still had her spoon in her mouth, despite the fact that it was clean, and Tarch had put hers down in order to inspect one of the measuring cups he had left out.
First he put the cookies down and then he shifted the twins so they were on chairs instead of the table. “Alright last thing you wanna do is to ice the cookies,” he said, showman’s voice back on. Making a smiley face on one of the cookies he continued, “now you just want to pipe them like this. Now you guys try.”
When Lup and Barry got home the kitchen was a mess. As were the cookies. Each cookie had an abundance of icing on them, but it sure didn’t look pretty. However, Lup took one look at it and started cooing about how artistically inclined her daughters were, kissing their cheeks despite the icing all over their faces.
As he watched his sister and brother-in-law struggle to give their daughters a bath, laughing at their pain, he thought about how he couldn’t wait till he got to be around this permanently again.
#TAZ#the adventure zone#Taako Taaco#Blupjeans#Blupjean Kids#Lup Taaco#Barry J. Bluejeans#magnus burnsides#Merle Highchurch#Lucretia#Davenport
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Watching Little Witch Academia Episode 2 with my best friend
Didn’t post this right away cause I knew we weren’t going to watch anything this past weekend, and I didn’t want two weeks to go by without me posting anything xD We watched episodes 1 and 2 back to back after playing two hours of Injustice 2 and about two more hours of a horror game that had us shitting our pants while absolutely nothing happened. It was a very welcome distraction.
*episode starts*
Me: This one is better than the first one.
Her: Shhhh.
Her: *sees Sucy working on a potion* She must be a really powerful witch with all her potions and stuff. *keeps talking over Akko to block her out*
*Sucy: You only told us about it a hundred times last night*
Her: *chuckles* Even her friends find her annoying.
*Ursula acting in an Akko-like way (trips and falls flat on her face)*
Me: *waits for the groan*
Her: *snickers* She’s adorable.
Her: I don’t like this teacher (Finneran), she’s too bitchy. Speaking of… *Diana appears for the first time*
Me: You don’t know what you’re talking about so stop, omg.
Her: Omg, is she (Sucy) getting high on those fumes? Look her eyes are red.
Her: Diana sure likes to show off, doesn’t she?
Me: It’s called participating in class.
Her: Yeah but still.
Her: Does she (Akko) not know she has a plant on her head? *Akko keeps talking* Does she not know how to stop talking?
Her: Huh. She (Diana) seems nicer.
Me: She is.
Her: I’ll believe it when I see it.
*cuts to Ursula while Diana is talking about Chariot*
Her: Isn’t… Isn’t that Chariot though?
Me: Did the oh-so-subtle hints give it away?
Her: It’s supposed to be a secret?
Her: Shit, Diana’s friends are even worse than Diana.
Me: Diana is not bad though?
Her: Shush.
*Akko prepares to use the Shiny Rod*
Her: *sees Ursula watching* She’s gonna help, right? *Akko fails* Why isn’t she helping?? *statue moves* Oh, there we go. Wait. Was that Diana?
Me: Yep.
Her: I thought it was Chariot. Why are the blonde ones always the bitchy ones?
Me: She’s my favorite one. Her and Ursula.
Her: Not surprising.
Me: Like, by the end of the show, she’s probably the best character. And I’m being objective.
Her: I’ll judge by myself. She seems pretty full of herself so far.
Me: *thinks of how little she knows but says nothing*
Her: How much are you willing to bet that she (Akko)’ll have that card by the end of the show? I bet Diana has it.
*Diana prepares to cast/casts the revitalization spell on the tree*
Her: What is she doing? I love her voice when she casts spells. Ohh nice. *realizes something went wrong* Uh oh…
*Akko, Lotte and Sucy playing cards*
Her: She (Akko) plays the same way my sister used to play. Cheating.
*roots burst from the ground*
Her: Ohhh she (Diana) done fucked uuup.
Her: *sees the roots* What happened?
Me: It’ll be explained.
Her *sees the tree* Did she (Diana) do this?
Me: You’ll see.
Her: *sees the chrysalises* What are these?
Me: Oh my god, just watch.
*Diana hits Akko with her spell*
Her: Oh daamn, that’s not good. It was an accident, though, she (Akko) was being reckless again.
*Akko gets up/is about to cast the papilliodya spell*
Her: Wait, she’s okay? What happened to her “churning with magic”?
*Akko doesn’t know how to pronouce the spell*
Her: Ugh.
Me: *chuckles*
Her: Can she not read?? At least Diana can.
*butterflies come out of their chrysalises*
Her: Awww pretty. What do they do?
Me: It just said that they bring joy and hope to whoever sees them flying for the first time.
Her: No, it didn’t?
Me: Yes, it d- Or it’ll say it now… *Ursula explains the effects of the butterflies’ first flight* Oops.
*Diana tries to say it wasn’t all her who made the tree better/fails*
Her: Why didn’t she just say it was Akko? She took the credit like that, she could have just said the others helped. Why did she do that?
*episode ends*
Her: This was honestly so much better than the first one though? Probably cause she (Akko) wasn’t in it as much. I’m liking it so you can relax now. (I’m always nervous when showing her stuff cause I really want her to like them)
Not nearly as much groaning this time around so I say this episode was a big success! xD
Also, dudes. My dudes! I have officially reached 200 followers, omg thank you so much! If these posts end up being my legacy in the LWA fandom, then so be it :P
Sia watches LWA
First OVA
Second OVA
Episode 1
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6 - Coming Soon
#watching little witch academia#sia tag#sia watches lwa#little witch academia#lwa#i'm legit so glad shes liking it#you have no idea#can't wait for episode 3#akko kagari#diana cavendish#ursula sensei#shiny chariot#lotte yanson#sucy manbavaran#diakko#dianakko#my post#text post
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Okay I’ve been wanting to make a post like this for a while now but I finally kicked my own ass into gear so here it is. Took me several days to compile it all and finish, but Neon deserves it.
For @theneonflower and all of their incredible art ♥
I know Neon does plenty more art other than Dianakko but that is my otp and usually the ones I look at and obsess over the most. Nearly every night before bed for the past 5 months since LWA came out and since I met Neon, I’ve been looking at their art to help myself fall asleep. I always end up spending like 10-20 minutes just looking through it because it makes me feel so soft and happy inside ;w;
Something I’ve always done with art is I’ll stare at a single piece for like 5 minutes straight just tracing it with my eyes, trying to absorb every piece of it, trying to appreciate it as much as humanly possible. Because I know someone spent time and energy on this and stressed about it for probably hours and I don’t just wanna glance at it for 20 seconds and be done. I wanna try to put some time into appreciating it for all the trouble the artist went through.
Neon’s is probably the only art I’ve done this for with every single piece. It probably sounds weird that I just stare at art, but I love it. I feel it’s all I can really do to appreciate the pieces. Well, that, and I can scream in the tags and make posts like these!
So I’m gonna be going back through my Neon_art tag from the beginning, linking and sharing every Dianakko piece and explaining just why I love it so much. Other people should totally follow the links and reblog pieces they haven’t seen before. And even if you have seen/reblogged it before it is not a crime to reblog something more than twice, give it some extra exposure and notes. Don’t be scared to reblog the same post/artwork twice if you want to!
All righty here we go!
This one the first Dianakko piece I reblogged from Neon ever! Diana and Akko on a secret date. I love this one because it’s so simple but yet still so beautiful. It really shows that art can be lovely whether its got 8 million details and colors and shadings or just done with the right amount of everything - just what’s necessary, nothing extravagant. I’m a sucker for my girls in casual clothes but I especially love their expressions in this piece - Akko’s YOURE REALLY PRETTY excited face to Diana’s bashful face. And then the humor with the reactions of their nerd friends disguised and reacting to it all. And the hand touch. Starting with a small small pinky brushing, and then full-on hand-holding. So soft. So gentle. So nice. And Akko’s just so goddamn happy. UGH.
Next is Part 1 of the Sorcerer comic. Ho damn. This was before I really even knew Neon well, but I saw a badass dragon with Dianakko and I was hooked. It’s just done so well, the shading, the glowing of his eyes, and just his creepy, bony inky design in general. And Diana not even flinching in front of him. It captures her character perfectly, her confidence. Neon’s a pro at doing suspense in drawing form. The way Akko hurries in and Diana isn’t looking at her at first but then turns. You can just TELL something is going to happen and it does. That dribble of blood on her lips is all we need. And god the look in her eyes. It isn’t excessive terror, no, it’s just that dazed kind of shock, confusion. Like, she hasn’t even felt the blow yet, it just sort of happened and now there’s blood in her lungs. And the last panel just leaves you screaming like how fucking masterful is this.
Part 2 now god GOD when I say you can feel her being impaled I mean you can FEEL IT. You can tell his tail is sort of locked in place in her chest, that he’s keeping it there for a little longer than he has to just because he’s a giant asshole. And when he yanks it out you can feel that too. The way the blood spurts out and follows the direction of his tail really shows the force of it. And even despite all of this, Diana is STILL trying to put up a front/show a strong face. You can see the desperation in Akko’s eyes, you can almost hear her crying, and Diana’s just so numb with pain she’s beyond feeling. We don’t even need dialogue - we know exactly what they’re saying to one another. I’ve never seen art accomplish that feat quite so effectively before. And the ending panel, reflecting the one before it with Akko’s name and the seven stars. Do half the people looking at this art even appreciate those small details/shoutouts to the canon? I doubt it. And it’s a damn SHAME.
Next up was this request I never thought an art god like Neon would ever accept from lil old me, a person they didn’t even really KNOW at the time. Another fine example of how art doesn’t need tons of color to be beautiful. Neon is an expert with blue in particular. It’s such a cold color but not in Neon’s hands. It portrays darkness of night but not cold. I don’t feel chilly looking at this piece. I just feel so warm. Their embrace is so tight and intimate, you can just see the blushes on their faces. But even in a darker piece like this where some artists might use the lack of lighting as an excuse for lack of detail - not Neon. There’s still every wrinkle in their clothing, every shadow, every ruffled blanket and wave in their hair, the way Akko’s shirt crumples up a little at the small of her back and that small, secretive, admiring look she gives Diana. I might as well be dead.
This one more bedtime cuddles and kisses! But notice how none of these are ever the same with Neon. No matter how many kisses or cuddles they draw, each one is always different and just as beautiful as the one before it in different ways. Akko and Diana aren’t as closely-pressed as they are in the one before it. It’s just the bare minimum of contact in their hands, and where their legs touch, and then their lips. All very small but significant points of contact. And I just love how Diana curls her legs around Akko’s back. Just a bit of light coming in from a window we can’t see but know that’s there. It’s just the amount of light we need. Perfect.
A beautiful colorless comic next! Their poses match their dialogue so well and again with the DETAILS. You can tell how badly they’ve missed each other even when they aren’t looking at each other. And then when they DO, upside-down, hair touching so close they can feel each others’ breaths, so intimate so soft, so playful. And then the kiss, how Akko reaches up her arm to pull Diana down and the way Diana curls her arm around the side of her neck. The pose of Akko lying on top of Diana hugging her with her feet kicking happily in the air is probably one of my favorite things ever. She just looks like a happy little puppy. And Neon never fails to give Akko bedhead that adheres to her usual hair. There’s always a tuft where her ponytail is and I haven’t seen that in any other art for LWA that involve Akko in her pjs/with her hair down. It’s something totally unique to Neon in my book.
The wedding spell comic is so beautiful. Akko’s maids of honor trying to reassure her. Their expressions are all so cute (and then there’s Sucy being Sucy) but Akko’s nervous pose and Lotte’s reassuring hand on her shoulder is so cute. And then the blue team aspect with Hannah and Barbara with the little hand-wave motion they did in canon like how perfect is that little detail? I can really feel Akko’s nervousness in the next few panels and the darkness really helps that too. You feel like you’re the one about to cast this super emotional marriage spell that could potentially fall through and break your heart. And then when they finally get to look at each other and suddenly you can breathe a little easier like ‘okay at least they’re not alone in this at least they have each other’. Also just the slight differences in their wands is so nice. And then they’re holding hands so softly but also concentrating on this super difficult super stressful spell. They just both look so gorgeous in this shot oh my gosh I love it. And the lighting comes in again, I swear to god Neon with their lighting techniques. Super bright on super dark really gives it that lively magical feeling. And you can see the rings being linked and you can essentially hear the emotion in their voices when they say each other’s names like when was the last time a comic made you HEAR something?? But GOD when they hold hands and rests their foreheads together look at the lighting and the tears in their eyes look how soft and tender it is. This is even better than a wedding kiss at this point because they’re both just so relieved the spell succeeded (the kisses can come later) but I absolutely love the forehead touch.
The wedding pic holy shit. I still can’t believe there are only?? 4 colors in this? Peach brown blue and white and yet??? It’s more gorgeous than most other pieces of art that use 9000 colors. It’s the lighting, the glow, the contrast between light and dark. The way the magic swirls around them, bright and soft. It really flows. There’s so much motion in a still piece. You can FEEL the love between them even without the adorable magic hearts in the background. And god have you seen their dresses? They aren’t both wearing the same generic white wedding dress. Neon goes a step beyond and adds in swirls, thinner or thicker materials, gloves, but makes sure to keep them open-back, because GOD are Akko’s and Diana’s backs important in this Au. The fact that their matching scars are exposed on their wedding night just really says something to me. And holy hell the shine in their hair. You can see every strand. It’s beyond me how that is even POSSIBLE.
After their reunion lord they’ve been apart for 3 goddamn YEARS and look at how they’re looking at each other, like they’re trying to make up for all those 3 years when they couldn’t. As if the tears and the smiles don’t say enough, look at how they hold one another. This is another thing I love about Neon’s romantic pieces. The characters always hold each other’s faces, cradle their heads, hold their hands, hug their backs and sides, but it’s rarely the same in any two pieces. And in this one they’re touching foreheads, and the way Akko’s bangs fluff up and overlap Diana’s is such an eye-catching detail for me. And then the lineart of the kiss. Again, the detail especially in their hair and especially Akko’s. The way their hair slips through the others’ fingers. Shoot me.
Oh my god this one. Okay I need to get my shit together. We get everything we need and nothing we don’t. Just bits and pieces of the memories and the nightmare. You can feel the impact of Akko getting hit in the back. But my favorite panel in terms of emotion is definitely the one of Diana waking up from it all. You just know exactly how that feels. Everyone knows exactly how that feels. The way she’s jolted up in bed, hunching forward, gasping, and the tiny detail of one knee bent higher than the other to show she’s curling in on herself. I love this shot so much. But of course my favorite are the final ones because Akko is there to help her. Neon always has their marital rings glowing so they stand out in darkness. Simply the shot of Akko’s hand on Diana’s shoulder is again, so simple but so, so telling. It’s gentle but firm. And the look on her face as she kisses Diana. She’s upset that Diana suffered that nightmare. You can tell Akko is sad that she couldn’t save Diana from that. But she’s so gentle, that kiss is so small, just enough to coax Diana back into reality. And of COURSE the happy hug to finish it off. You know Akko needs that just as badly as Diana does.
The art for Pink Potion is next up aaaaaaah Neon drew for my fic out of pure enjoyment of it and I literally could not be happier. I still look back on this and just get so giddy. It’s so cute. Simple coloring to match the lighthearted tone of the fic. And bunny Akko is exactly as I’d imagined her. I didn’t mention the tips of her ears in my fic but Neon still somehow knew they were black and nailed that detail. The kiss is too adorable, the way Diana blushes and Akko scrunches her little bunny nose. And their faces when Akko turns back. Neon does suspense/angst/serious so well but I LOVE how they do cute/funny expressions like this. And their noses still touching aahh~
The dance dresses are just. So fucking gorgeous. Full color and all the right colors, so many details. This is literally a scene straight out of the show that we never got. I love the ruffles in Akko’s dress and the lack of them in Diana’s - kinda speaks to their personalities, though it’s more likely just the material. Neon has such a beautiful way of blending blushes with the skin ton and it really shows in a full-color piece like this one. I especially love how fluffy Diana’s hair is and how Akko’s hand is just gently resting there on the nape of her neck while their other hands are entwined. And god, the way Diana is looking at her. I know this scenario is part of the “We shouldn’t be doing this” idea, and that just makes you think twice about this happy colorful image. Akko’s wondering why she’s apologizing. But of course she soon realizes...
The continuation comic is probably one of my favorites (I... might be saying that about like 90% of these though...oops) Okay but the colors for this one, especially right after that full-color piece. It works so well. Their illusion of perfection is shattered by reality and the fact that people are in fact watching them disapprovingly. Before they realize that, they’re just so infatuated with each other, so happy to forget the rest of the world. The softness of that kiss followed so abruptly by the shock and dismay in their faces. And god the way Akko looks to the others and they just look back at her not really knowing what to do or say. Lotte and Sucy give her looks that just say “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what to do for you, I wish I could do something but I don’t know what” because Akko did just blow hers and Diana’s ‘cover’. And then the crying over the forced smile right before she runs. Neon doesn’t put the dialogue for suspenseful comics in the same image as the pictures like they do with cuter simpler lighthearted pieces. They make a whole new panel with nothing else to focus on, just that despair in those words. And this next part out in the rain. This might be the only time Neon makes blue feel cold because god poor Akko is out there alone and waterlogged and she doesn’t even care. Her tears are highlighted on her hands which I really like. The shot of Diana finally reaching her and just gently reaching her hand out. She doesn’t even touch her right away so she doesn’t scare her. And the hug. One of my favorite Dianakko hugs to-date. Diana even casts a barrier from the rain. That’s just such a good detail I feel, again, other artists might not think/bother to add in. As if the hug itself isn’t perfect enough in its desperation and earnestness, there are just tiny little details Neon puts in. How Akko lifts her arm but doesn’t exactly hug back, how there’s a drop of rain coming off her ponytail, how her hair fluffs up after Diana’s arms press down on it higher up, and the way Diana’s arms lock around her. Hugs are risky because we often will only see one character’s face/expression in a single panel, so the artist has to chose who to show. Neon always chooses the most poignant option - the person we need to see. We can tell by Diana’s calm manner of standing and reaching out what her expression looks like without needing to be shown explicitly. It’s Akko we need to see in that hug. And then for her to return the hug, to accept Diana, to bury her face in her shoulder... I love this so so much. For them to go from scared and separate to comfortable and close. From darkness and loneliness to having a bit of light and hope. And somehow once again making blue feel warm, even though it was just cold 3 panels earlier. How?? I don’t know, but somehow Neon does it.
Next is a marriage proposal one aaaah gosh how cute. This is one of those where they’re still students but a bit older than they are in canon. Especially in the first panel their expressions are so perfect, blushy cute nervous Akko and calm confident Diana. The colors are so warm and pleasant and the way Diana cups Akko’s face when she answers is so sweet, making sure Akko’s looking her in the eyes. But gosh that kiss how Akko literally just wraps her arms around Diana like with the one cradling the back of her head and the other just draped out over her shoulder and Diana holding her face GOSH I love this pose. It really encompasses the desperation they’ve been suffering from all this time to be together, and the relief that they finally can be. And just the way their bodies are pressed so close together is so nice because you know they’ve been kinda holding back until now but they don’t have to anymore.
Okay this. This is a biased personal fav. Oh god. There’s a reason this was my phone background for several months cause it’s just so goddamn beautiful. Neon draws any and every outfit so perfectly but these dresses I swear to god. This piece in particular looks so clean and simple with a lack of color, which makes you focus more on the girls and what they’re wearing and what they’re doing. I’m in love with Akko’s dress in the first part, the ruffles of her sleeve and the loose way it falls down her back, and how Diana’s cupping her cheek really softly. And just the very subtle, very soft blushes fanning out across their faces and shoulders. Just the perfect touch of the perfect color. And then we get even more angles of it from behind Akko where we get to see her gorgeous flowy hair with the ribbon and cute accessories, and Diana gently holding to both of her shoulders. Then how they just very slowly, very slightly open their eyes to look at each other and you can tell they’re both just a little bit breathless but not enough to stop them from doing it again. And another kiss to finish things (and me) off. God I love these so much. They’re so simply but so easy and nice to look at.
Next is cuddles and oh my god just that first one of Diana hugging Akko and resting her head on her chest to listen to her heartbeat look at how happy she is. Just hugging Akko around the back and nestling so close to her, as close as possible. And Akko’s just in heaven getting to hold her wife and rest her chin on her head. Another example of Neon’s amazing usage of blue and shades. Their hair is so soft and fluffy and bed-heady-ish. And the next part would you look at how Diana looks at Akko. I love Neon’s technique of just putting a bit of light in their eyes whenever they’re in a dark scene. Just the eyes and the rings cuz that’s all we need. There’s so much emotion in their faces and in how they touch each other. Diana’s so happy she looks like she’s about to cry. They look at each other like they’re the most precious thing in the world (because they are, to each other). Look at that kiss, very soft but firm, and just a faint glow in Akko’s ring to remind us they are married, putting her hand around Diana’s head to bring her closer. And god the breathless last panel when they’re just all over each other, Diana’s sprawled out on top of her and Akko’s never been warmer in her life. Again with that half-lidded look they give one another. Neon even put a glow for right where Diana’s ring is, even though it’s not shown. The attention to detail again.
The art for Matters of the Heart ch1, our first big project together I still can’t believe Neon did this with me god. Akko’s crying so much and her cheeks are puffy and you can see that clearly. Look at the sheen in her hair and the shock on her face and her eyes. I always loved how Neon does Akko’s hair. It’s got a very slightly-messy feeling to it, just a little bit, but that’s perfect for her, because she’s Akko. No one else draws her hair like that. And speaking of hair, this piece is a perfect example of how Neon does Diana’s. Not only wavy and highlighted, but sometimes multiple shades. It literally looks like a flowing little stream of water. The blue of her eyes is so beautiful, and the tears god she just woke up and she’s already about to cry because you can feel how tired and in pain she is. She just looks so weak and I feel like I’m the one lying in bed when I look at this. Neon puts you in each character’s position every time and it’s incredible.
And older Shiny Dianakko holy moley look at this full-body full-color masterpiece. Not only is Neon a pro at drawing people and tools/items/wands but the backgrounds the stars holy crap. Several of their arts have galaxy/stars backgrounds and each is more beautiful than the last. There’s so much color and light in this one, so much to look at. I just stare at the little details from the shine in Akko’s hair to the fabric lining Diana’s boots. And again with their rings glowing just so slightly. Their arms around each other and their hands together. Every detail was nailed beautifully.
Matters of the Heart ch2 I absolutely love the lighting in this one. You know exactly what time of day it is by the sunlight slanting in, and it’s bright and soft. Akko’s hair is ruffled cuz she’s been up for hours just worrying, and there’s the little tuft of her ponytail again, Neon’s little trademark. And the shine/shading all through Akko’s hair. I can feel the lump in Akko’s throat as she tries to talk past the tears. Her hand on Diana’s cheek and Diana weakly leaning into it and looking at her so longingly. She’s so so tired and everything hurts but you know she feels so much better just because Akko is there with her. Her hair is messy and unkempt, and Neon only draws her like that when it’s necessary. It’s not a careless swipe of the tablet pen, it’s intentional and it’s really expressive as to Diana’s state right now. All light, calming colors that set a really easy mood for this quiet tender moment.
A small kiss but still so beautiful. I love the (for lack of a better word) sketchier style. It looks so carefree just like the kiss. This is a kiss they can share just because they can, and I reel it’s something Neon drew just because they can, and thank god they did, cuz look at how cute. Still so many details, ruffled clothes and streaks in their hair. But like I said, no matter how many kisses Neon draws, they’re always different. Akko’s holding Diana’s shoulder and face and Diana is holding her firmly. It’s a quick messy kiss that you give your significant other just because you love them so much. More beauty in simplicity.
One of my favs like all the others are aahaHA Okay but this one gives us a view of how Neon draws other parts of the body like the back and shoulders more (and since it’s nakey we can see the muscles and scars and whatnot). More ‘warm’ blue colors at nighttime with these lovely cuddles. Look at how gently Diana strokes Akko’s back and we get CHIBIS I love Neon’s chibis. Cute little faces and expressions, which look especially great on Akko being tickled. And Diana’s just looking at her so longingly so lovingly. You can really see the love in her eyes and the adoration. And then you can feel Akko’s guilt. Neon just always chooses the best poses for everything. The way Akko hugs her pillow and gives Diana that nervous look (and her cute messy hair again ajksdhf) I REALLY Love the next part when Diana kisses her back. It’s so intimate, and I love their expressions. Diana is so certain about what she’s doing despite Akko’s clear misgivings and surprise. And the way Diana’s brushing Akko’s hair aside. I fucking love long flowy hair and this is the perfect opportunity for it and Neon does not disappoint. Such a sweet, tender kiss. I’ll never be over how well Neon nails emotions/expressions. And there’s often a variety of those in each comic. This one has guilt, nervousness, fondness, surprise, affection, joy. And the tiny little nose touch and how their bangs fluff up together. Look at how they look at each other. AND I fucking die when Akko gently touches Diana’s scar. Just that panel alone is so beautiful to me. The location of Diana’s scar being right over her heart, the way Akko’s ring glows just at the bottom of the panel, and the curls of Diana’s hair falling over her shoulders. God I love it. And another surprise little kiss for Akko. Have I said yet how much I love how Neon does kisses. And then adorable chibi cuddles as they just squish together look at how happy they aaaare.
Okay an angst comic Neon’s so good with choosing colors for text. But before that, their handwriting is really nice too. The haunting black/red backgrounds and drops of blood. And just the choice of dialogue itself is so telling. You don’t need to see the knife in that first panel to know what Croix is doing to her. Croix is so calm, but you can see she’s also tired and she’s not happy about this at all. But goddamn the shock and dismay in Diana’s face, the shading, the lack of colors and then a splash of bright red. And then I like how the painful red panels turn green (which is kinda associated with magic and in this case Akko’s healing magics). When Diana wakes up you can see Akko’s hair off to the side, so you know she’s there hunched over her sobbing even before you see it for real. Neon does tears so well. And not only little happy tears or slow dribbling tears, but pouring heavy tears too. Just streaming down Akko’s face in 3 different places and dripping off her lip and chin. And then you get to see her hands bloodied with Diana’s blood so you know Akko was pressing down to cover her wound all this time Diana was unconscious. You can feel just how relieved Akko is, not only because of the tears and how her eyebrows furrow and the way she looks into her eyes, but her mouth too. It’s a tight but wobbly smile, like she’s crying so hard she can barely get it out there but somehow she manages. And then what a beautiful tight hug of relief and love and joy and just good lord. I love this hug. Akko needs it as much as Diana does. You can really feel their closeness. And I know I was mainly gonna focus on the Dianakko cuz I’m trash but this is my fav art of the Sorcerer so far I just. Love his design so much. So inky and drippy and bony and neat. But an ass.
Chibi cuddles where you can see Akko’s pouty tired stubbornness look at her puffy cheeks and her tired eyes and her unrelenting grip on Diana. And Diana’s torn cuz she wants to stay in bed but she’s wired to get up and work. Their pose is really super cute, like how Diana has a hand on Akko’s head to half-pat half-push her away. And I love the lighting to show where the sunlight is coming in from this morning. Not too much color, but that’s perfect for an early-morning scene because at that time of day everything is still kinda pale and milky in color and not as bright yet so it really works perfectly here.
Study lesson sure okay right off the bat look at sweating gay baby Akko, meanwhile Diana is trying to be SERIOUS HERE but of course Akko is Akko. I love shocked Diana, how her eyes widen and her face turns pink. Then how they hold each other and close their eyes just as they kiss. Again, their hands are in different positions/spots than they are in any other kiss Neon has drawn. I like Akko putting both of hers on Diana’s shoulders/collar kinda to steady herself and keep her aim straight (lol). Followed by a cute little kiss and some of the cutest chibis ever. I’ll never be able to comprehend how simple circles and shapes like these chibis can instantly = people in my mind. All the work of an amazing artist.
Small kissu so simple and yet still so complex. I’ve always been as much of a sucker for the sketchy style as the clear lineart style. But this one is definitely more fun. Especially with Akko’s messy hair and ruffled bedhead, yet in contrast Diana’s hair is fluffy but not mess like Akko’s. I’m not sure HOW but it just is. And her fingertips just barely touching Akko’s face Akko’s chin and jaw, Akko’s hand on her shoulder firmly but comfortably. The way their hair kinda spills out over their shoulders and just that singular blush to keep our attention focused on the kiss itself. But don’t neglect to appreciate how Diana’s stroking Akko’s hair through her fingers. And then for her to move her hand onto Akko’s shoulder tells us she’s bringing her a little closer, kissing a little deeper. Such simply little subtleties but I want to appreciate them all cuz Neon needs to know someone really does just stare at these pieces for hours on end sometimes before bed.
Another that was my phone bg for a month or so. Such a cute, clumsy, totally-canon-possible situation. I like this simple, one-layer coloring technique a lot. Not too extravagant because the situation isn’t that serious, just cute and fun to look at. The side views are really cute, especially their mouths. Just the difference in the shapes of their mouths express their characters, how Akko’s goes wide/high and how Diana’s curves downward. But the follow-up image is just so precious, Akko worrying about Diana, but Diana reassuring her. I love Akko’s tiny little pout as she frets about hurting her, but Diana’s completely fine and just flattered Akko would even be that worried about her. And of course it’s a hug, and I’m a sucker for those, especially how Neon draws them. Always so close and cuddly. It makes perfect sense that Akko’s hands would be on top of Diana initiating the hug, pulling her in/worrying about her, while Diana would be returning it around her sides. Again, very small but important details that make the art all the more believable and enjoyable
Good please don’t ever stop cuz everything neon draws is fucking adorable. Another black-and-white piece, save for the blushes. And the sashes. I’ve said it a lot in art of other fandoms I used to be in, but I always love when artists do things like this, coloring only small parts of the art to kind of “highlight” it against the rest. In this one, they both have their hands on each others’ faces rather than shoulders or sides. A sketchier kind of piece for a quick, but intimate kiss works perfectly and really gives a feel for it.
A full color piece I really love. The highlights in Diana’s hair, the shine in Akko’s, and hell there are even shines in Diana’s too. For this one (as every Neon kiss is different), the both have both hands on the others’ back, and you can even see the motion in their hands (even though it’s clearly a still piece). You can tell their hands are roaming, rubbing, massaging gently, busying themselves in ways other than just kissing. And I love how Diana’s stroking through Akko’s hair. A super cute detail most pieces don’t bother to go above and beyond to depict, but if you are kissing someone with long hair, it tends to be something you do. It gives the piece a realistic feeling. Even more so with the second piece. By this point, both of them are a little breathless and giddy, their hair is messier (even the prestigious Diana Cavendish’s, and that detail in and of itself says loads about how busy they are with each other). I’m really in love with Akko’s hair on this one, the sketchy, shiny style for it, and the thin strands covering Diana’s fingertips. Tiny details that make it all the better and more enjoyable. And how Akko’s hand is kinda lazily lying over Diana’s shoulder, showing she’s at the point where she’s kinda stopped focusing on holding onto her shoulders and now she just wants to focus on her lips. These are also expressions we rarely get to see on these two, so it’s nice to see.
Matters of the Heart ch4. This one is simple (by which I mean simple to look at, though not to have created). Few colors, but again that highlight of the flowers in the background . Love it. But even more than that I just love Akko in this one. I love how she’s looking at Diana with such joy, such adoration, such fondness. No one has to read the fic or know what happened to know that Akko loves this girl with all her head. How she gently touches Diana’s shoulder and just gazes lovingly at her while she sleeps. Just gorgeous.
What should have happened in ep13. Beautiful coloring, and even more beautiful poses. Akko’s even crying because she’s so happy, Diana is just shocked at first. I love this hug (I keep saying that I KNOW) but I mean it shows Akko’s joy, to hug Diana around her back with both arms, happy enough to cry, while Diana’s hand is in midair, hesitant. But then she gets comfortable right away and hugs Akko back, and even Diana has tears in her eyes. I wrote an entire page describing this scene and yet Neon can express every emotion in two images. It just astounds me.
Okay this one. The One. It literally took me 20 minutes to look it over the first time cuz I liveblogged my reaction to it for Neon. I’m not gonna redo it on this post because nothing will ever be able to top the raw emotions I was feeling looking at it the first time. But I DO go back to it at least once a week (usually more than that) just to look at it. Just to stare. It is one of my favorites of any art ever.
Then there’s this one boy oh boy. Single image, different coloring technique, absolutely beautiful. The way Akko hugs her, holds her. It’s tight but not too tight. I’ve always liked hugs from behind where the person being hugged reaches up to put their hands over the other person’s (I know that is SUPER specific but it’s true). There’s just something about that kind of pose. The hugger having their arms/hands directly on the other person’s body, and the one being hugged just put their hands over the former’s just to hold onto them somehow too. It makes them both feel safe. It’s just so cute. And nothing’s cuter than Akko nuzzling into Diana’s shoulder/cheek. They’re both so relaxed, resting against each other. I haven’t mentioned yet how I love how Neon does eyelashes, so here’s a great time. They just look so pretty, especially against their blushy cheeks.
How the anime should’ve ended. New outfits for both of them, plenty of color, and all the most beautiful colors. The colors, shading, the background (again with the galaxy stuff!) And the magic and the light, sparkling exactly like the Seven Stars do. And of course in the shape of a heart. I can’t even imagine how much effort a piece like this takes. I also really appreciate the red and blue embroidery on their hats to match their sashes.teams. And the outfits overall are red/blue in reflection of them. It’s such a gorgeous blend of colors. And the Shiny Rod looks straight out of the anime. I had this as my laptop bg for a while cuz I just love looking at it.
Art for one of my fics ;w; Which absolutely kills me. Knowing that my writing could inspire someone to draw/create something out of just images spawned from words I jotted down will never cease to astound and flatter me. Especially when it’s a scene like this. The climax of the story, the most desperate/intimate/important part. Akko’s crying so hard, clinging to Diana, her ring glowing again to remind us of their relationship at his point. And Diana’s unresponsiveness and lack of reciprocation. Again, you don’t need to read the fic or know exactly what’s going on in order to feel the raw emotion and understand how Akko is feeling as opposed to how Diana is feeling at this moment. And I have to mention I love Neon’s choice of their Years Later sleepwear. Akko’s basically the same as her younger canon pjs (because she’ll always be a kid at heart), and Diana in a nightgown, which is the only kind of pjs I can see her in. The smaller final panel reassures us of the happy ending. Because the first image might scare you a little, wondering if Diana is all right, so leaving just that would’ve been a little worrisome. But Neon reassures us with that little bit at the end, and knowing it ends well makes looking at the first image not as worrisome the second and third time around - we can enjoy that more in knowing it ends happily.
Red and blue. Okay. Anyone who’s been with me since RWBY (where my main otp of gals also have blue and red colors) KNOWS I am the ultimate sucker for color scheme things like this. Akko being red, Diana being blue, but the best part is the purple blending them together. Dash does this in her art a lot and I tell her all the time how much I love it. Neon does it even more beautifully and very smoothly. The blend is in such a small part, only their bangs and chests. It’s hardly noticeable, because it’s so subtly well-done. This pieces is like watercolor and gives off a hydrangea kind of feeling. Usually for Years Later pics, Diana’s hair is loose (for bedtime scenes) or over her shoulder in its ponytail. So I really enjoy seeing it in this new style, still in a ponytail but all down her back. And Diana’s threading Akko’s hair again. Though all kisses Neon draws are unique, some elements reappear more than others, like how Diana threads Akko’s hair and how Akko cradles the back of Diana’s head. Reoccuring small things like that in the art gives them a sense of normalcy, so we can establish and understand these two girls kiss a lot, and they have come to realize what things they like to do best when engaged in a kiss. Those things each of them do more often than others are things you’ll only notice if you look at all of Neon’s art. We kinda start to accept them as ‘headcanons’ of how Dianakko kiss when Neon draws them.
The Kimono piece is lovely. Seeing them both with new hairstyles, the jewelry, the hair accessories. As if the colors aren’t gorgeous enough, there’s the patterns of the clothing. I didn’t notice my first time looking at it that Akko’s actually tying Diana’s bow for her, implying she helped her put the whole thing on, or at least helped with finishing touches, which implies a bit of closeness right there. You know Akko is a pro at kimonos since she’s from Japan and Diana has no clue what to do with them, so having Akko tie it for her was a perfect touch.
Soft As Cotton art absolutely murders me. Another draw from one of my fics like holy shit I absolutely fucking died. This one is just pure adorableness. I love Akko’s disbelieving face and Diana’s twitchy tail but even though she’s annoyed she’s still blushing this gay nerd. And the chibis again AHH so cute. I love how Diana’s tail poofs up and Akko gets that look in her eyes like “I gotta... do it again...” My fav might be the one of Diana leaning into Akko’s hand and purring she just looks so damn happy. It’s just such a soft moment and such a soft picture with soft colors. But no wait I think my favorite is the big bonus image cuz I had that as my phone bg for a long time. Diana’s annoyed at getting hit in the face with ears, but Akko is just. So content. So damn happy. I love the closeness, how Akko’s pressed right up there against her chest, and god her little nose ugh. And her arms are underneath Diana’s in this hug, which is a detail I love that I haven’t even been able to recognize for YEARS until very recently. When my fav gets hugged with the other person’s arms under theirs, because the person in Akko’s position is as close to Diana as physically possible, without her arms obstructing her grip. Again, a small detail, but one that makes it for me. I might be biased but I love this comic so much. It’s just so soft, as the title of the fic says, soft in every possible way. Soft and lovely.
Comfort kiss. Oh my gosh I was looking through Neon’s art tag the other week and spotted this one and I just stopped and gushed about it all over again. You can tell by my fics being 90% hurt/comfort that I love this sort of thing and this art fucking slew me. Diana’s just breaking down after all this time and you can tell how much pain she’s in, but that it’s emotional, not physical. Because Akko is level-headed for a change, taking on the role of the comforter. Her hands gently cupping Diana’s face, not her shoulders or sides where the clothes would skew her touch. She touches Diana’s skin directly to let her know she’s here and this is real. And she’s kissing Diana’s cheek, not her lips. I’ve seen comfort/crying art before of other fandoms/ships where they kiss lips but like... would you really wanna do that? I think cheek is the best. Not only does Akko get to brush away Diana’s tears but she’s allowing her to breathe freely as she cries. And look at how Diana’s hands are just loosely holding onto Akko, like she’s not even sure how hard she should be holding her back and she’s shaking too hard to tell anyway. But fuck me the final panel of Akko cupping her face and touching her lip so gently and shushing her... it fucking ruins me. AKKO being the one to take control of such a delicate situation. AKKO being the one to comfort/hush her. It’s a major role-reversal from their canon personalities and it’s so beautiful to see Diana being taken care of for once. I could stare at this one for hours (and sometimes I do I swear to god). And the colors are kinda dull/sad to match the tone of what’s happening, but it’s still oddly calming in a way.
Casual date okay if we don’t all already know by now that I love seeing my fav characters in different clothes and with different hairstyles so hello. Have a look at this gorgeous piece. If I’m a sucker for small details being colored in a colorless piece, where is nothing that gets me more than color-reversal things. Like ask Dash and Leo I always freak out whenever why do it in their art and here goes Neon. Akko’s got the bluish clothes and Diana’s got the reddish and they both look so GOOD. Even their shoes are different but still so cute. And for Akko to be having mint/vanilla and Diana to be having a chocolatey thing which is also a general color contrast for them is really nice. I love Akko’s smooth, stylish hair and Diana’s messier ponytail, again a little contrast from what we might typically expect from these two. And the colors are just so... summery. This entire piece screams summer to me, so bright and sparkly and it just kinda looks like marble soda in and of itself. The colors are so gorgeous and light and pleasant, like sherbet ice cream.
Another beautiful kiss. I just love how Akko is all but lying herself onto Diana, lazily wrapping her arms around her shoulders in a loose kinda hug. Looks like she’s about to just fall on top of her and take a lazy kissy nap, which is definitely something Akko would do. It’s such an ‘Akko’ kind of pose too. In contrast Diana is hugging her more tightly, a little more responsibly, probably trying to keep them from actually toppling over lol. Neon’s really good with not making the kisses too obvious. I mean the actual drawing of their lips. It’s done in such a simple little line or two, but the curve/angle of those tiny lines are so important to show whose mouth is where. I feel profile kisses are such a difficult thing to get right but Neon nails it every time. This is another piece where I love to look at their hair, but I think Akko’s lazy huggy pose is my favorite part. Their arms being lifted up lets them press chest-to-chest and man that closeness is so nice.
Surprise blue kiss agh so cute. There’s black-and-white pieces with just a bit of color, and then there are pieces that are all one color, like blue, and then just the red/pink blushy highlights. Akko’s got a little smirk on her lips and you know she probably got Diana to look up from her work by saying something dumb or saying her name in a sing-songy way and Diana was kinda focused on her work and she just looked up with a neutral/tired expression and then suddenly Akko’s kissing her and Diana’s heart is skipping a beat. Like we didn’t even see what was going on before this, but we just know that’s exactly what happened. It’s such a perfect pose too, with Akko leaning slightly down over her, taking prestigious Diana Cavendish by surprise, which probably nothing/no one else in the would could ever do. Even in the show, Diana’s eyes rarely ever go so wide, only in ep20 when Akko got right up in her face. So it’s always cute to see her shocked into an expression she doesn’t usually show. I like that this is just a simplistic, school setting kind of thing, cuz we need those too.
The ep 19/20 kiss that definitely happened off-screen. The face touching/holding fits really nicely here because this is a reunion scene (even though they’ve only been separated for like 12 hours, these gay babies). I know I’m repeating myself at this point but just. Look how soft this is. The tender caressing of Akko’s face and Diana’s hair, Akko holding the back of her head again. I don’t know why but this one always gives me a “christmas” kind of vibe. Probably because of Diana’s green shirt underneath and reddish warmer colors on the top, but also the lighting sort of makes it look like sunlight/snowfall, and that they’re beneath mistletoe or something. That’s just me I know, but I love it. It makes this piece really unique, and I plan to make it my phone bg soon over the summer to give me a cool/christmasy feeling in the heat of July. I love how the colors are all within the same palette/range (Idk terms but) they’re all very close to each other, browns and reds and purples and peachy colors. It all seems to almost blend and it’s just beautiful. I love seeing them in different outfits, but there’s a really cute charm of seeing one girl in normal clothes and the other in different clothes. Kinda tells the story right there that Diana wasn’t where she was meant to be because she has different clothes than usual.
Boop. A nose bump piece and it’s so cute and sketchy and light and fun. I love how Neon always matches the emotional tone of a piece to the literal color tone. Their noses pushing up together is so cute, and their little miles are to die for. This one isn’t as intimate/tight as some of the others, but it still portrays its own level of closeness between them. I love how Neon does blushes, not just as little lines usually, but with smudgey sort of brushes. It’s much easier to look at quite frankly, I think it looks fucking adorable. This is another one of those things, even non-romantic, that Diana would never do with anyone else. Even in canon, it only happened with Akko.
Fake marriage AU is the most precious thing. In all of the Years Later art, Neon has them both look a bit older and dress/look different than usual. But they also just fucking nail the canon Akko and Diana. This comic shocked me from day one because it just looks... exactly like canon Diana and Akko, just without color. It’s exactly them in this scene - DIana’s shock and hesitance, Akko’s tearful joy and excitement, the way she’s holding Diana’s hands so earnestly. And here, the blushes are a combo of the smudgey pink and the little lines. And how adorable is that. I love their robes and cloaks/shawls and how they’re different yet similar, revealing the same amount of each of their arms. I also really like Diana’s hair in this one, with the shading of grey on white. And Akko this sly cutie pie slipping her fingers between Diana’s as the images go on, instead of just holding around Diana’s hands. She interlocks them by the end, and I KNOW people overlooked this detail but I fucking drink it in like a crusty old sponge. And the kiss, Diana being shocked again while Akko is almost puffing her cheeks up with the effort to just “do it! kiss her now! prove to the world you’re the best fake fiancee ever!” cuz Akko is Akko and she doesn’t always THINk she just Does the Thing. There’s a cute contrast to Akko’s earnestness and Diana’s surprise. And Diana’s mostly composed after it all, but you can tell she’s realizing she liked it. I also love how in chibi form at the end, their hands kinda turn to little paws and Akko’s ponytail sticks up in embarrassment.
Tummy rubs ;w; this one is probably the darkest (literally the colors, but emotionally, neon has done MUCH darker stuff haha) but visually this one is very dark, all/most of the light coming from Akko’s ring. It matches the scenario so well - being stabbed through the heart and poisoned into being infertile is about as dark and devastating as you can get. But Akko’s ring (their marriage/love) is a glow in that darkness, small but constant. Just the bit of sweat on Diana demonstrates how she’s suffering (maybe not as badly as other times, but you can tell it’s that kind of awful discomfort where you can’t eve find a comfortable position to lie in for bed, sweating and in pain all night). You can see it in Diana’s eyes how tired she is. But Akko is diligently taking care of her however she can. And so Diana looking back at her also portrays how grateful she is for Akko’s help.
The ep23 kiss oh lord. It’s such a difficult thing to choose only one phone bg image and one lock screen. I literally have to flip coins because I can’t choose. But god I love this one. Warm colors in contrast to the snow you know they were just in, fending off the cold. And the color palette is barely different colors, so similar they blend in so easily and pleasantly. It’s just so nice to look at, so cute, so easy o the eyes. It’s all sort of shaded/darker colors but ranging from orange to purple, their clothes their blushes, everything is just so smooth. I like that Akko’s cupping Diana’s cheek again, playing with her hair like Diana plays with hers in some of the other art. And Diana’s got a hand on Akko’s collar kind of just pulling her in closer, keeping her there, making sure she doesn’t run away again. There’s just love and warmth radiating from this picture, and I don’t know how but Neon pulls it off beautifully as always. I’m definitely making this my next bg or phone lock screen for the summer.
I scrolled through the rest of my Neon art tag and was a lil sad to see that it’s ended there FOR NOW but aahhh how nice it was to go back and look through it all again for a long time and write up some reactions/notes.
I know a lot of things I said here are probably just... explaining what’s obviously happening in the image. But I just wanted to show how like... Neon makes it so clear what’s happening, can express the emotions so expertly.
It just astounds me. Even more than the idea of someone creating a drawing from something they read, making an image painted with words into one painted with brushes, more than that I am astounded by how artists like Neon can just think of pieces without prompts/writing. Just. Out of nothing. And they make it into a thing that never existed before and will never exist again. Something only they could have made.
I am just blown away. I love all my artist friends but Neon’s art strikes something within me that the others don’t. And I can’t really explain it, but I wanted to do this and make this post for Neon anyway, to show them how much I love and appreciate their hard work. When I say I spend minutes to hours just looking at these pieces before bed at night, I’m not joking.
So thank you, Neon, for sharing these beautiful pieces with us! I wish I could write about EVERY single piece you’ve done, not only Dianakko, but I hope you get the gist of my feelings from this post!!
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Tempest CH 2: Rift
Fandom: Little Witch Academia | Ship: Charoix | Verse: Time Travel
Word Count:1,653 | Read Time: 7 minutes | First Chapter
Summary: Chariot gets scolded for her time travel misadventures, but refuses to listen to Croix, past or present.
An apology gift to @akilice
Croix stared at the screen, watching the loading bar as it inched by, pixel by pixel. Red. Red like the color of Chariot’s eyes, full of light and warmth. Croix couldn’t look at the screen anymore. She turned around in her chair, turned the pen in her hands over and over, clicking it as she thought. She could have changed everything. She could have told Chariot what she had planned to do, how to stop it, how to convince her to stay. She wished she could have stopped herself from hurting Chariot, from all those years of bitter hatred and loneliness that followed, but she knew better. She knew she couldn’t. She knew that changing the timeline would have drastic effects on reality, consequences that would solidify in other forms. Perhaps an injury, to either herself, or Chariot, or maybe to someone else, someone she knew.
She watched the screens on the wall flip through security feeds, and watched Chariot, her Chariot, the Chariot of the present, as she went through the halls, Akko at her side. She watched the way her mouth curled into a smile, the bite behind it. She knew that was her fault, that shimmer of distain behind the embers of her eyes, those eyes that were once aglow. Croix had doused that flame, and she was choking on the smoke and ashes of her mistakes.
She wondered if Chariot would even remember their conversation, to her it had happened so long ago, to Croix it was only moments prior, and the conversation after she could still picture, though far more faint, ten years held such a rift in her memory. in the wake of where the young Chariot once stood, Croix sat, wading in the waters of shallow tear streams. She thought about her project, the one she had spent so long putting together, and thought about the ghost that had come back to haunt her. Chariot had called her a friend. Could she really save things between them? Not in the state things were. Chariot must have known that. Or at least known that Croix could not make that decision.
“Tch. Impossible choices…” Croix watched as the program on her laptop opened up and she got to work. There were only so many hours left in the day and she needed to get this done. Chariot or no Chariot. There was work to do.
————————————————————————
Chariot had landed on something… fluffy? and squishy…
“Oh! Hey, Arcas! Sorry, I didn’t mean to crush you!” She rolled over to hug the bear she’d landed on before rolling off and standing up. “Ugh. Okay. Where’s my hat.” She stood up, glancing around before noticing Croix, her Croix, young teenaged Croix, on the other side of her polar bear, holding the hat in her hands with a smirk.
“Care to explain where you’ve been?”
“I was… uh… elsewhere?”
“Uh-huh. Up to no good again, Char-Bear?”
“Croooooooiiiiix,” Chariot whined. “I promise I wasn’t, now can I have my hat back?”
“Can I know where you went?” Croix raised a brow.
Chariot thought about the older Croix, the way she raised her brow in the same exact fashion and how she spoke of altering timelines and dangers. “Something tells me you wouldn’t want me telling you…”
“What is that supposed to mean? I just asked you…” Croix crossed her arms. “You totally did go somewhere you weren’t supposed to!”
“N-no! I just- well… Okay, yeah I did! But it’s only because I wanted to know what the next word was!”
“And did you find the next word?”
“No. But that’s because you wouldn’t give it to me—” Crap. Chariot you just gave everything away.
“Oh my god,” Chariot you’re fucked. “Chariot Du Nord, you did NOT go into the future!”
“It wasn’t like you didn’t totally wanna try time travel spells yourself! You were talking about it last week, and it seemed like a good idea, til I got to the future, and you were there, and you told me—”
“Oh no you don’t- Stop right there, Chariot! I do not want to hear anything about the future.”
“That’s what your future self said! I’m not supposed to say anything because it will- I dunno…”
“Alter the timeline.” Croix sighed. “Chariot, you have no idea what you’ve done.”
“I haven’t done anything!” Chariot tried to defend herself, tried being the key word. “Or at least, I haven’t done anything yet. I want to know why you were acting so strange. I need to find out- I think something happened to me and I…” Chariot felt her eyes swell up in tears.
“Hey- none of that either,” Croix quickly moved to close the distance between them, hugging Chariot close. “There’s no guarantee that that is even our future you saw. The future is always in flux and as long as you keep making your own choices, then you should be fine. You can’t let your fear of what this possibility might entail take root and steer you off the path you are meant to be on.”
Chariot nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Y-you’re right. Thanks. I should probably be focusing on here and now anyway, right?”
“Right,” Croix nodded. “Now, do you wanna go study?”
“Sure,” Chariot nodded back, giving a sheepish smile and taking Croix’s hand.
————————————————————————
Weeks passed, Croix had continued on with her experiments. She hadn’t thought back to that moment since. Not when she had buried herself in her work and tons of cup-o-noodle packages. She had just dismissed her class, and was packing up her teaching materials when a portal opened overhead, and out came yet another instance of Chariot, a young Chariot just like the one who had visited her the first time. “You haven’t learned your lesson,” Croix said, not glancing up from her box of supplies as she tucked away tablets neatly. “I thought I told you not to come back.”
“You did,” Chariot said, leaning against one of the desks, as she rubbed her side. The classroom had not made for a soft landing like Arcas had. “But…”
“But? You don’t listen.”
“I don’t,” Chariot agreed. “And I wanted to ask you a few questions.”
“I told you—“
“Yeah, yeah, I’m not allowed to know too much about my future, it’ll effect the timeline.” Chariot rolled her eyes. “That’s why I’m not here to ask you about my future.”
“Ah,” Croix glanced up, ceasing her motions to give Chariot a soft smirk. “You think you can use my words against me. Nice try. I’m not telling you anything about the future. Yours or mine.”
“Come on, Croix! That’s not fair!” Chariot groaned. “I don’t want this to be my future if you’re just going to ignore me.”
Croix froze for an entirely different reason now. She let the words sink in before she continued the task at hand, closing the box and pulling out her personal Tablet to call forth one of her roombas. “Fine. You can ask questions. But I get to choose whether or not to answer them.”
Chariot’s eyes lit up. There was the fire Croix had longed for, just as real as she remembered. She smiled more genuinely, that same tint of melancholy. Chariot picked up on it this time, but she didn’t say anything, only interrupted it wth her first inquiry. “Are you a teacher?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like teaching?”
“On some days. I prefer being by myself mostly. Though it’s nice to feel appreciated by my students.”
“Do the students like you?”
“Most adore me, yes.”
‘Why are you giving me this information?”
“Because it has no relevance to the timeline. Why are you asking for it?”
Chariot shrugged, “frame of reference? What are you working on?”
“Classified,” Croix crossed her arms. “Next.”
“What happened to me?”
“Also classified. No knowing about your future, Chariot.” Croix gave her a stern look.
“Sorry, sorry, I just got curious.” Chariot sighed. “Alright. What is the discus thing?”
“A Roomba. An evolved broom, if you will. It runs on its own system of magic and therefore doesn’t require spell casting to fly.”
“Why would you need that?” Chariot raised a brow. “What happened to your broom?”
“… Classified.” Croix looked away.
“Oh.” Chariot frowned. “I’m sorry, Croix.”
“I’ve heard that before,” Croix sighed. “Anything else?”
“Are you…” Chariot paused, thinking long and hard about how she wanted to phrase this question. “Are you okay, Croix?”
“That’s…” Croix frowned. “I think that’s enough questions. I’m going to have to ask you to leave before anyone sees you. I do have other places to be besides this lecture hall you know.”
“Okay,” Chariot said, sliding off the desk before turning back to Croix. “One more question though, just before I leave.”
Croix took in a sharp breath, “hit me.”
“Are we still friends?”
Pause. Croix wasn’t entirely sure how to answer. She smiled through the pain, and lied the way she had lied to herself all these years. “Of course, Chariot. Always.”
————————————————————————
“What did I tell you?” Croix said, younger Croix, as she stood over Chariot. There was no Arcas to catch her fall this time. “Not to go off into the future looking for trouble, and what do you do? Go off into the future! Unbelievable!”
“I’m sorry, Croix! I just had to know!” Chariot threw up her arms in defense.
“Know what, Chariot? I told you, the future is in flux. It’s not going to be exactly as it appears.”
Chariot looked down at the ground now, biting her lip in silence for a long moment before she answered Croix. “I just wanted to know if we were still friends.”
“Oh…” Now it was Croix’s turn to fall silent.
“We’ll always be friends, yes?” Chariot looked up at Croix, tears in her eyes.
Croix got down on her knees and hugged Chariot once more. “Of course, Chariot. Always.”
(Next Chapter)
#Charoix#Chariot Du Nord#Chariot DuNord#Croix Meridies#LWA#Little Witch Academia#LWA Fics#Rae's Fics
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The Masterplan (Diakko)
[LWA, Diakko, kind of an AU?, funny, absolutely disastrous, nothing goes according to plan, but their friends are so supportive!!!!! ...car chase??]
Summary: Akko is planning a confession. On the other side of the playing field - Hannah and Barbara are dead-set on their best-friend getting the girl of her dreams.So of course nothing goes to plan. Not even close. It's a complete, fast-paced, adorable disaster. [Modern AU]
--
Akko was on a mission.
She was riding shotgun in Lotte’s car, speeding through the highways of Glastonbury city with the urgency of a government spy. It was finally go-time.
She was finally confessing to Diana Cavendish.
They’ve gone over The Plan three-times over by now—Sucy, Lotte, and herself—and the warm glow of a perfect Friday afternoon felt like an omen for good-and-romantic things to come. The time was nigh—it was now or never.
Now, Akko was no fool. She knew that Lotte and Sucy were only in it so she’d shut up about The Masterplan once and for all, but she appreciated their help nonetheless. And maybe she’d take back what she just said because Lotte seemed genuinely invested in planting the seeds of love and romance.
“Flowers. Lights. Confession.” Akko muttered to herself for the hundredth time, earning an eyeroll from Lotte (who was in charge of lights) behind the wheel.
“It will be fine, Akko.”
“It’s me!” She groaned, throwing a hand up to gesture emphasis. “Anything that can possibly go wrong goes wrong with me!”
“I second this.”
“Thanks for the support, Sucy.” Akko groaned sarcastically. “I ate way too much, way too fast in my nervousness earlier and now I’m bloated and likely ruined my appetite for our dinner!”
“Dinner?” Lotte spared her a sidelong glance, zipping through the highway and causing her passengers to lurch in their seats. “That wasn’t part of The Masterplan. You completely overlooked any sort of food-prep.”
“Kuso!” Akko groaned. “I’ll just wing it! Let’s just get those flowers.”
“Take a left here,” Sucy tapped on Lotte’s shoulders. She was a botanist and therefore assigned to help with the flowers. She made plans to arrange a bouquet with her contact at the local shop, and had reluctantly sworn an oath to forego anything poisonous—with sucked—but it was for Akko, and it was just for one night.
Time was of the essence.
Lotte drummed her fingertips against the steering wheel in anticipation when they came to halt along a stoplight. The Masterplan’s execution was set for eight o’clock, and it was already four-thirty in the afternoon.
Three and half hours.
Set-up their small backyard patio with lights.
Get ready with the best flowers.
And let Akko handle the confession.
Simple. Effective.
Ultimately, disastrous.
---
“She said it’d be just the two of you?” Barbara leaned forward, watching with a mixture of excitement and apprehension as Diana paced around her office at the hospital.
“Yes.” The blonde woman had sunk into a trance-like state of thought. Thinking. Thinking at a hundred miles per hour. This was the opportunity she had been waiting for.
“I—I’m going to confess.”
“Finally!” Hannah practically slammed her fist down the table.
“It must be done perfectly.” Diana said with conviction. “I must get her flowers, and I should at least offer to cover our meal. Do you think she likes Japanese?”
“Likes? She is Japanese! Though she might be sick of it.” Barbara shrugged.
“Or—” Hannah perked up. “—missing it terribly after having stayed in London for so long.”
Curses. They were only at ‘food’ and it was already beginning to get complicated.
“Should I just ask her?”
“No way!” Barbara gasped. “You’re gonna blow Kagari away with a surprise without spoiling anything.”
“She is rather fond of surprises.” Diana stopped her pacing to run her hand through perfect, blonde hair.
“So what’s the plan, Dia?” Hannah urged, already sharing a grin with Barbara.
“Flowers. Food. Confession.”
Simple.
Hannah was already calling the flower store.
---
“What do you mean someone reserved them already?!”
Sucy glowered at the shopkeeper, and Lotte and Akko had to physically back away as though she had grown fangs.
“I’m sorry!” The clerk raised his hands defensively. “Like, just five minutes ago!”
“After everything we’ve been through, Hendrick?! I even called that I was coming by!”
“You always buy the weird stuff you know? And besides, I’ve got other roses aside from Ecuadorian ones, I think—”
“Not settling for anything other than the best.” Sucy was determined. “Names. I need names. Who bought them?”
“I can’t tell you—”
“You can and will.”
“Look, I—”
“You two!” Sucy had spun around, locking her eyes with Lotte. “Get back and get the garden ready. I’ll deal with this mystery buyer and follow in a minute.”
“’Deal with’?” Lotte gawked. “How are you even going to—”
Sucy Manbavaran would never be outdone when it came to plants. This was personal now.
“Go!”
---
“I’ll pick them up and meet you in a few!” Hannah grinned excitedly. “Barbs, you know what to do!”
“She does?��� Diana blinked, allowing herself to get dragged by the wrist towards Barbara’s car in the hospital parking lot.
“You’re not going on a date wearing your scrubs.”
“I had no such plans to.”
“Casual won’t do either!” Barbara nagged, fishing for her keys. “You’ve gotta look drop-dead gorgeous.”
“I—I don’t think it’s necessary to.”
“Shush, hon. I just want you to relax and think Akko thoughts, or whatever.”
“Akko thoughts aren’t exactly… relaxing as of the moment.”
“Fair point.”
“Where to?”
Barbara took a quick glance towards her watch and pursed her lips in thought. “Shopping. Then food.”
“Shopping—?”
“Shut up and get in the car!”
---
“She’s crazy!” Akko shrieked. “She had that crazy look in her eyes, like she’s about to poison someone!”
“Well we’re going to have to trust her because it’s five-fifteen and the patio is far from ready!”
Lotte was back behind the wheel, zooming through traffic towards her trinket shop. It was a lot less time than she was comfortable with. Lacing the gazebo with firefly lights and battery-operated teacup candles likely took longer than her mental estimate.
“How are you feeling?” She glanced towards Akko. “You’re looking pale.”
“I—I’m fine.” The brunette said in a contorted voice. Lotte brushed it off as nervousness (which was a rare enough emotion for Akko).
“You sure?”
“Yup!” Akko nodded in determination, steeling her resolve. “Kami-sama, why can’t we just be dating already?”
“Just a few more hours until you are, Akko.”
“If she likes me back!”
“Which she will.”
“But have you seen her Lotte?” Akko began to ramble.
“Many times, yes.”
“How is she even real—what am I doing?! Oh no, oh no, oh no am I seriously going to confess—”
“Breathe!”
Lotte gave her best friend the surest smile she could muster.
“She will.”
---
It was now five forty-seven.
“You.”
Sucy narrowed her eyes, staring straight into hazel. She had camped out in the flower shop, figuring that whoever placed such an urgent order would show up any minute to pick them up. True enough, a familiar woman in a white-coat with auburn hair came bursting through, shouting for her order of Ecuadorian roses.
“Sucy.” Hannah sneered, crossing her arms. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“Those flowers you ordered are mine. I got here first.”
“No way!” Hannah challenged. “I put in the call. He said they were available.”
“How can that take precedence over a client already in-store and paying on the spot?” Sucy turned her calm but heavy glare towards Hendrick, who was sweating bullets while looking between the two women.
“I already paid!” Hannah pulled out her phone triumphantly, showing the screenshot of an online payment transfer. Sucy cursed herself for not having the foresight to have done so earlier.
“I—I don’t make the rules ma’am.” Hendrick conceded, carefully presenting the lovely bouquet of twenty-four roses to the woman who happened to be Sucy’s friend—if only through the sheer force of Akko’s gravitational-friendship-pull. The poor shopkeeper looked pale, trapped between the two very different yet equally threatening auras.
“I’m leaving. Buy something else!” Hannah had turned around dramatically, stepping out through the door with her hair bouncing through the motions.
“You never told me you had online orders.” Sucy told Hendrick evenly.
“I—It was launched recently.”
“Screw that,” she said with gritted teeth. On whim, she decided to follow Hannah, walking into the street and whistling as loudly as she can towards the nearest cab.
A middle-aged man with a bushy moustache looked up from behind the window. “Where to, missy?”
“No questions!” Sucy jumped into the front seat. “Follow that car—and don’t fucking call me missy!”
---
“You’re being—what?” Barbara shrieked as quietly as she could. Just as Diana entered the dressing room a minute ago, her phone began ringing with Hannah’s photo popping up. “Chased? By Sucy? For the flowers?”
[“Yes! She’s a madwoman! Probably going to blow something up with another potion or—"]
“Don’t call me while you’re driving!” Barbara hissed, looking back towards the dressing room which was slowly opening.
Diana stepped out, looking lovely in a sheer white top and cream slacks. She asked how she looked and Barbara had quickly tossed another top for her to try, desperately trying to keep up with Hannah’s rambling on the other line.
“You look great—love the pants—try this blue one! Come on, come on! In you go, nothing to stress about!”
“Stress about?” Diana blinked, frowning. “Is that Hans on the phone?”
“Yeah, it’s all going swell!” Barbara’s voice pitched a little too high. “In you go!”
“O—Okay.”
She had practically slammed the door into Diana’s face, and with a deep breath she diverted her attention back to Hannah.
“Don’t overspeed, and why are you two having a car chase?! It’s just flowers!”
---
“Just flowers?!” Hannah repeated, aghast. “Not when it’s for one of the most important days of our best friend’s life, they aren’t!”
She took a sharp turn at the nearest street, going nowhere in particular if only to shake Sucy off. It was an unfortunately wide road and she was opposite the rush hour lane, leaving it relatively traffic free. She had no intention of breaking speed limits and was forced to stay at seventy. Soon enough, the cab pulled up at her right.
Sucy rolled down the window, looking as worked up as Hannah had ever seen her in their time knowing each other. The driver seemed like he was having the time of his life. “I’ll pay for its price plus ten pounds on top!”
“You think I’m cheap?!” She shouted back, doing her best to keep her driving steady.
“Twenty!”
“You can’t buy me, Sucy! Not for this occasion—not ever!” She grit her teeth and banked towards the left, putting a truck in between them.
Barbara was still in the call.
[“By the nines, Hannah!”]
---
“Whoa!” Akko blinked, head whipping to the side while she followed a familiar-looking SUV speed down the road, seemingly chased by a cab. “Shit’s crazy today!”
“Come on, Akko!” Lotte led her out of the trinket shop’s front and back to her parked car. It took them around forty-five minutes just trying to find the perfect set of lights and the clock was ticking. Akko’s nerves were beginning to fray, and the woman was jumpy, reckless (more so than usual) and generally hyper—
“Akko, be careful!”
—active.
By the nine.
There was a loud thud—and the resonance of something very hard bumping into metal.
That was it.
The Masterplan would have to wait.
Akko ran into a lamppost and passed out with a bleeding nose.
---
“I haven’t heard from Akko.”
It was now seven in the evening and Diana was beginning to fret. She and her friends had returned to her flat to get her ready, but she thought the brunette would at least message her. Should she send another text? She did just half-an-hour ago, informing the brunette she was heading home to get ready. Is a call too forward?
Goodness. She shook her head—why would it be too forward? They were by no means strangers. Far from it! She blushed, this whole thing was getting to her and she hated it. Deciding she could very much call Atsuko Kagari whenever she pleased, she slipped out her phone and dialed.
“She has a heart emoji after her name?” Hannah snickered.
Diana ignored it, flushing red. Her phone rang. And rang. But Akko never picked up.
She exhaled in frustration, wondering if Akko had gotten herself mixed up in another form of disaster. It wasn’t a far-fetched assumption. Or did she ditch her? No, she wasn’t like that. Was she?
Her eyes fell towards the navy-blue top she had picked from the store, and then towards the most beautiful bundle of roses she had ever seen.
It looked perfect. Except—
“Did you really get into a car chase for this?”
“Yup!” Hannah raised a fist in victory. “And I won too. Sucy just up and backed off.”
“That’s suspicious.” Barbara narrowed her eyes. “But I still insist you are absolutely insane for pulling that!”
“What matters—” Hannah crossed her arms. “—is I got the job done.”
Diana sighed, growing anxious and excited at the same time. She glanced back towards her phone. “Let’s just hope I get to give them.”
---
“A lamppost.” Sucy stared at Lotte evenly. “Unbelievable. I got into a fucking car chase only for this moron to walk into a lamppost.”
“That’s what you’re worried about?”
“It’s Akko. She’ll be fine. Hasn’t she broken like, every bone in her body at this point?”
Well. She wasn’t wrong. They were in the Glastobury hospital and Lotte hoped Diana would be on-duty, but upon asking the nurse’s station she clocked out early for today.
“What did Diana say?” Lotte asked Sucy.
“Huh?”
“You didn’t text her?”
“I thought you did.”
“Sucy!”
“You’re the one with her number.”
“But I—”
“Are you her flat-mates?” A young-looking doctor peered through the door of Akko’s recovery room. She broke her nose—but there was no need for a rhinoplasty and therefore she didn’t need admission. Broken nose aside, Akko was in surprisingly good health, bearing an almost-Olympic endurance which in hindsight explained her ability to recover from seemingly anything.
“Yes!” Lotte nodded diligently.
“Well you can take her home now. This one is crazy—she’s already sitting up after an hour of recovery. But I do need to warn you she’s—uh—”
“She’s?” Sucy prodded, hiding her concern under the guise of impatience.
“High as a kite?”
---
Akko was having a good time.
A good time.
She laughed, her head feeling woozy, her hands moving as though they were floating in water and—it was just so funny! By the nines this was the shit!
Her nose kinda felt funny though. Weird.
“Akko?”
Huh? Is—it’s a friend! Akko grinned. Her best friend! “Oh Lotte.”
“That’s just trippy.” Another voice said.
One eye only? Oh it must be Sucy!
“Your hair—” Akko smiled whimsically. “It’s freaking whack, Sucy.”
“Why does she still sound like herself?” Sucy turned to Lotte.
“I told you to be careful!” Lotte wailed, moving to her side to help her up.
“This is place is so bright.” Akko narrowed her groggy eyes, her head lolling about while she inspected her surroundings. Then she gasped. “Where’s Diana! This is Diana’s work!”
“She isn’t here.” Lotte placated. “And sit down—you’ll hurt yourself again!”
In the snap of a finger, Akko was done laughing and suddenly began to pout.
“I miss Diana.”
“I’m sure she’ll be here any second—”
“She said she’d go hooooome first.” Akko pointed towards her phone, sitting on the bedside of the outpatient recovery room.
Lotte sighed. “Come on, you need to go home too.”
“Can you do me a favor?” Akko asked innocently before leaning in and whispering to the two as though to share a secret. Then she broke into another grin—a charming, lopsided grin that screamed ‘painkillers!’
Lotte looked towards Sucy. The latter just shrugged. “Why the hell not? Saves her the time to go here and she’d know what to do with Akko.”
---
It was now seven-forty-six.
Barbara sped down the highway to the hospital, feeling every bit sorry for Diana who was cradling her head in her palms in the passenger’s seat. Although it was a little funny, and apparently Hannah thought so too, based on the snickering in the back.
“That’s just like her, though!” Hannah finally grinned.
Hannah was right. And honestly, Diana knew she’d be fine. But of course this would happen—and only to Akko. The world wasn’t so kind as to allow the night she finally decided to confess to be easy, right?
Dr. Strenger had dutifully informed her that a patient he recognized as Diana’s friend was admitted for a nasal fracture. All she needed to hear was ‘brown hair’, ‘red eyes’, and ‘lamppost’ and it was enough. Thankfully, it seemed Akko’s recovery was marvelous (unsurprising) and that Lotte and Sucy had accompanied her.
They pulled up into the parking lot and Hannah groaned. “Back to our workplace, yikes. You better do good by that bouquet, Diana! I almost died for that!”
She huffed, stepping into the familiar entry way dressed way too nicely for the hospital and holding a gigantic bouquet of flowers.
The receptionist blinked. A few of the nurses had turned their heads at the sight of her. “Dr. Cavendish?”
“Spare me the comments.” She lamented. “What room us is—ah.” Why was she blushing? In front of her colleagues! “Atsuko Kagari.”
“Oh, miss Akko!”
Right. Between accidents and visiting Diana, the staff knew her by now.
“She came in a pretty bad shape, but she didn’t need to be admitted. Dr. Strenger sent her home.”
“She isn’t here?”
“Actually,” the receptionist tilted her head. “On their way out she was screaming rather loudly that she was going to straight to your place?”
Her—what?
---
“I don’t think this is Diana’s house.”
Sucy elbowed Lotte, the pair of them standing behind a still-delirious Akko who rang the doorbell to a three-story tall apartment. It looked every bit as posh as its red-brick façade suggested. It was imposing. Classical. Nestled in a street of similarly luxurious dwellings that had cars Lotte had only seen in magazines—parked in garages or even right at the streets.
“But this is where Akko directed us to.” Lotte shrugged.
The door finally opened, and they tried so very hard not to face-palm.
---
“Atsuko.”
Akko grinned, feeling woozy, and reaching forward to shake the hand reluctantly offered to her. As she’s told herself earlier in the day, she was no fool. She knew she was tripping—her guess was either anesthesia or painkillers—or wait, were those the same things? Or like… not? Huh. She should ask Diana alter and—oh-right-she-was-still-shaking-Aunt-Daryl’s-hand!
“Hello!”
“A—Are you quite alright?” The elder Cavendish tentatively asked, eyeing her nose.
“Oh yah.” Akko waived a hand, giggling. “Lamppost.”
“Of course.”
Akko swore that was a little smile! It was a lot of work, but they at very least didn’t hate each other anymore. Unlike at first. Charming—that was Akko’s middle name! Actually it wasn’t, but—
“It may as well be.” Daryl commented.
Holy shit, did she say that out loud?
“You did.”
“Anyway—” Akko squeaked “—I came to visit Dia?”
Daryl blinked, then looked over to the two friends Akko had brought with her.
“I think you should come inside.”
Akko nodded, the action of it made her still-groggy head spin and eventually she lost her balance, falling forward—
—and getting caught by the wrong Cavendish’s arms. So wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Not this one!
“I’mma take you up on that offer.” Akko mumbled, apologizing profusely while she righted herself.
---
A soft 'ping' alerted Diana to a text message.
Daryl Cavendish (1)
“What on earth does she want at this hour?” Diana mumbled to herself, sulking once again in Barbara’s passenger seat. “As if I don’t have enough to worry with Akko—oh by the nines!”
The sheer volume of her voice was enough to make both Hannah and Barbara snap in attention.
8:26 Daryl Cavendish: Diana. Someone very interesting has come to visit, although I’m afraid she forgot your updated address.
“Christ.” Barbara groaned. “That’s at the opposite end of where we’re going. I love you but I’m getting real tired of driving you around.”
8:27 Daryl Cavendish: I look forward to hearing your side of this story.
8:27 Daryl Cavendish: 😉
Diana’s ears turned bright red. Hannah looked over her shoulder to read and outright laughed.
“Just drive, Barbs. Have mercy on Diana’s poor soul.”
---
“She said that?” Daryl’s eyebrows inched upwards every so lightly.
“She totally did! Diana’s a lot cheesier than people think.” Akko smiled smugly.
She had checked her nose via a mirror in the living room, and all she could do was laugh. Cause she didn’t feel like she had a nose. Or an… anything. It was so weird to move her hands around and like, not feel them moving.
Daryl paused for a moment to check at her phone. “Hm. Diana will be here shortly.”
“Yeesh.” Akko grinned, rubbing at the back of her head sheepishly. “I can’t believe I forgot she moved out last year.”
“You helped her move.” Daryl said pointedly.
“I know!” Akko shrugged. “I forgot that too. Head’s all woozy. Having a good a time though!”
“I… am glad to hear that?” The elder Cavendish turned towards Lotte and Sucy. “Are you two alright?”
The two women held up their hands, shaking their heads with jumbled responses of “Yep!” and “We’re fine!” and “Just go ahead and talk!” and “Take your time!”
---
“Well this takes me back.” Barbara peaked up at Daryl’s excessive apartment through the driver’s side window. “Alright”, she elbowed Diana. “Go get your woman!”
Diana looked absolutely spent. But also, a bit relieved. She’ll finally see her—the circumstances didn’t matter. Somehow all this craziness felt just like Akko and after hours of chasing her around she was… just excited to see her again.
She felt a swell of affection in her chest. The same feeling that pushed her to think about confessing in the first place.
“Will—Will you two come with me?”
Hannah clapped her shoulder. “You think after this entire afternoon we’d ditch on you now?”
Barbara grinned at her, encouragingly. “Come on, lover girl.”
“Please don’t ever call me that again.”
---
“Diana!”
Akko practically wept, running across Daryl’s living room (“Akko, no!”) and into the (proper) Cavendish’s arms.
“I missed you todaaay!” The brunette whined.
The reaction was a bit excessive, even for Akko, and at Diana’s confused reaction Sucy had helpfully supplied that she was—“Still high as kite. Painkillers, or whatever.”
Akko pulled back, lip trembling. “You’re so pretty.”
“Th—Thank you. Goodness, your nose!”
“Lamppost.”
“I heard,” Diana said softly, hand coming up to cup Akko’s cheek. She had been so worried. She inspected the wound with such tenderness that she could hear Barbara swooning in the back.
“Ahem.”
Right.
“Aunt Daryl. Thank you for taking care of her.”
“No worries.” Daryl replied with a lilt in her voice, smirking. “I’ve grown rather fond of this one.”
The miracles of Akko’s charm, Diana supposed.
The next thing she noticed was Sucy glowering towards Hannah—and the flowers. Her eyes widened, suddenly remembering their car-chase, and that the entire point of the evening was supposed to be—
“Easy now.” Diana said carefully, intent on alleviating whatever tension remained. “At least we know Akko’s alright.”
---
Oh she’s pretty.
What the hell! She’s already in her arms but she’s so so pretty and Akko could just breathe in the smell of her hair and oh Diana is right here!
Never-mind Daryl, and Sucy, and Lotte, and Barbara, and Hannah—Hannah?
Akko blinked, looking towards the auburn-haired woman. Then she grinned. Flowers! The sight of the bouquet triggered what felt like a distant memory through the hazy fog of her mind:
Flowers. Lights. Confession.
Diana.
She gasped.
Akko then suddenly grabbed the bundle straight out of Hannah’s hands—faster than anyone thought she could move.
“Hey!”
But she didn’t care, she pulled on Diana’s arm, urging her to look back towards her—and oh the lights were so pretty in this house—it felt perfect, it really did, the only word that echoed in Akko’s addled mind was:
Confess!
“Diana.”
She said softly, as if in a moment of clarity. She shoved the flowers towards the blonde.
“I love you!”
---
I love you.
Diana’s jaw had dropped.
She said I love you.
All she could see was the blinding grin that Akko was shooting her way and really—really Akko? Right now? In this situation?
But she couldn’t believe that she was smiling back. Because she realized she didn’t care. Akko had just told her she loves her.
This entire day was a disaster.
But she loves her.
She loves her!
Diana wants to say she loves her back. Goodness, when did her mouth stop working? She settled for pulling her closer—keeping her steady, Akko was still a little out of it—but she couldn’t help it. Diana pulled Akko in, cupping her cheek and—and—
Diana kissed her.
It wasn’t easy—she had to do so gently to avoid disturbing the gauze and plaster on top of Akko’s broken nose.
But Akko’s eyes had fluttered to a close so prettily, and she actually kissed her back. They pulled apart—Diana was suddenly aware of the people and their surroundings—and Akko looked up to her. Smiling. Surprised. And then—
Between the blood-loss, being heavily drugged, and Diana kissing her?
Akko’s eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted.
-
fin
-
A/N: Every time I write something I realized I like to focus on singular, detailed moments that are slow and soft. Then I read this hilarious twitter thread about a guy who interviewed George Clooney despite rupturing his gall bladder who got high as kite on his pain killers, and then I throught "That's some big fucking Akko energy", and likewise decided, "what if I just wrote whatever the hell I wanted and get tripping" and here we are
Hope you enjoy this - this is something a bit different for me and I just sat down for like four hours straight and spweded this out, am i ok, LOL
#Diakko#Dianakko#Diana Cavendish#Atsuko Kagari#Akko Kagari#Kagari Atsuko#LWA#Little Witch Academia#lotte yanson#Sucy Manbaravan#Barbara Parker#Hannah England#Luna Nova#Daryl Cavendish#Fluff#Cute#wlw#Fanfic#AU#LWA Akko#LWA Diana#LWA Sucy#LWA Lotte
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And The AWRD Goes To... (Part 35)
“Why did you lead that thing back here?!” Freya screamed as she fired frost dust at the grave lord with her SMG, propelled herself with her glyphs over the shattered trees, deep craters, and upturned earth it left in its wake.
“We didn’t know it was following us!” Winter cried as she jumped and dashed about with her own glyphs. “We were just getting swarmed by gravers earlier, and our house just seemed like a good exit point, what with all the munitions and security systems we already have here!”
“And before you rail on us on adding to your Grimm problem: we’ve been underground since Wednesday afternoon!” Qrow said, slashing through fallen trees and clearing paths for the others. “Whatever the hell was going on above ground, we were cut-off from news and the CCT the entire time!”
Freya groaned as she dashed up a fallen tree, launched herself into the air. “Points taken, I apologize, let’s all focus on saving Akko now!” she cried as she ejected the dust canister of her gun.
The canister went arcing off to the grave lord, exploding just before its hind claws. Icicles jutted out, but just barely missed it; it retaliated by digging its free claws in front of it, throwing dirt, boulders, and hunks of trees back at the hunters.
They all braced themselves or ran straight into the attack, getting blinded by the dirt, knocked back by chunks of rock, or dodging the remains of shattered trees. The grave lord took the opportunity to dash up a nearby mountain, Akko still in its grasp.
“Well, that’s gonna take a while to scale the normal way!” Eun-jin said as she held up her prosthetic arm, the claws at its end shifting and reforming into a drill head. “What’s say we take a different route…?” she asked.
Ruby squealed as it started spinning and whirring.
Meanwhile, Akko cursed the grave lord with the foulest words and phrases of her mother tongue, International Standard, and all the other languages she had picked up from Nick, Freya, and Snowie over the years. She was just in the middle of calling it “A poorly crafted and shoddily-built commodore, unfit to be shit in by even the filthiest of beggars!” in Valencia, when the grave lord reached a plateau, stopped, and held her right up to its face.
The grave lord had no eyes, but it wasn’t hard to imagine it glaring as hard as it possibly could at Akko.
She was unintimidated, sucking in a deep breath in preparation for another prolonged barrage of verbal abuse.
Then, the grave lord roared.
The rocks and boulders all around them shook and jumped around from the sheer force of its voice, Akko’s hair and her lips flapped about from the air rushing past her. Head ringing and ears deafened, she didn’t even realize the grave lord was putting her into its mouth until the bright noon sun suddenly disappeared.
Crack!
The grave lord grunted as it tried and failed to crush Akko between its warped and scorched jaws, her whole body glowing golden and pushing back against its teeth. The both of them strained and grunted as Akko tried to push its mouth open, the gold replaced by a ruby red hue crackling up and down her limbs.
Memories flashed in her mind.
Another weighted block sliding onto the machine, Akko crying out as she was suddenly forced downwards, all of the Schnees cheering for her on the sides.
“Come on, Akko! You can do this!”
“Mind over matter! Go beyond your limit!”
Akko teared up as she felt the grave lord’s jaws closing down on her again, her knees and arms shaking and buckling from the strain.
“A believing heart is your power, Akko!”
One of the gems of the Shiny Rod began to glow—ruby red like Akko’s eyes. A rumble began in her throat as she glowed golden once more. The grave lord grabbed its muzzle with both claws, struggled to keep them from opening wider and wider.
“Just a little more, Akko! Just a little more!”
With a mighty roar, Akko jumped out of the grave lord’s mouth, and fell down to the plateau below.
Crack!
The grave lord howled in pain as it accidentally crushed and broke its own teeth, but Akko only heard the click of the weight-lifting machine’s safety measures locking into place as it shut off, the cheers and howls from the Schnees. The hard rock of the plateau was not nearly as forgiving as a weight lifting mat, there were no friends and mentors rushing to pick her up and congratulate her, and the grave lord was about to crush her underneath its hind paw, but still:
Akko smiled.
Thoom! Thoom! Thoom!
A series of explosive shells hit the grave lord, forcing it to stagger back and shield itself; Nick jumped out of an airship with a skyglider strapped to his back, his sword and pistol securely fastened to his belt, and his sights set on Akko.
“READY…!” he yelled.
The cannons were reloaded, Nick folded the wings and dropped the rest of the way, rolling to a stop beside Akko.
“AIM…!”
He picked himself up, scooped Akko into his arms, and ran for the nearest cover. The grave lord saw, and started running after them.
“FIRE!”
More shots rang out, the grave lord stopped in its tracks, raised its massive arms in front of it as it backpedaled from the blasts. The airship began to turn, its wings and rotor whirring noisily as the crew hurriedly steered it away from the side of a nearby mountain. The grave lord heard, pretending it was still guarding, before it scooped up several boulders in its claws, and launched them at the direction of the airship.
Crash!
Some of the boulders hit, the airship lost a wing and started veering wildly to the forest below.
“We’re hit, we’re hit!” Nick heard over his scroll. “Losing control and altitude—we’re going down, I repeat, we’re going down!”
Nick gritted his teeth as he laid Akko down on the ground, placed his organic hand on her, the burning red of the dust core in his chest gradually turning to a fiery orange glow as he transferred his aura.
Akko gasped and coughed, her burning lungs struggling to take in air; Nick held her steady as he guided her breathing, until it normalized somewhat. Akko gave a weary smile to Nick, until she noticed the grim expression on his face, saw the grave lord slowly walking towards them as it spat and pulled out shattered pieces of its teeth from its mouth.
“You wouldn’t happen to have dropped Shooting Star somewhere around here, would you, Akko?” Nick asked as he stood up, and put himself in front of her.
“No, Uncle Nick: I dropped it back at the house, when the grave lord grabbed me,” Akko replied as she pulled the Shiny Rod from her belt, held it in her arms. “I just found out the Shiny Rod works really well as a club, though. Do you want me to try fighting with it?”
“Nah, it’s fine, just sit tight, Akko,” Nick said as he unholstered Fides, loaded a new dust bullet, and took aim. “Let me just buy some time before the second batch of help arrives.”
The pistol started to glow and crackle with the red-gold of his aura before Nick pulled the trigger. A supercharged bullet cut through the air, striking the grave lord in the center of its face plate, in the space between the red streaks on the sides. It hissed and reeled, slowing to a stop as it threw its claw up over its face plate, incredible pain exploding from the entry wound.
Nick grinned as he unsheathed Tenacitas with his other hand, waved the sword about in the air a few times as the rotors inside his mechanical limbs began to switch to high gear, adrenaline started flowing through the organic parts of him.
“Let’s fucking do this.”
He started running just as the grave lord recovered from the shot, it scowled and slammed its fist down on him. Nick dashed forward and into a slide, his sword’s blade crackling and charged before he slashed it at one of the grave lord’s ankles. It squealed as his aura surged and crackled into its body, crippling that leg.
The grave lord listened to the sound of gravel crunching underneath Nick, it slammed its other claw down when he was starting to slow down. It shot back up as it struck a shell of red-gold aura, the grave lord flinched and pulled it back after Nick shot its claw with a different bullet, ice rapidly spreading all over the bone.
For minutes, the two dueled, a complete stalemate as Nick did no significant damage to the grave lord as he distracted and disabled it, but neither did the grave lord take any real toll on Nick, the glow of the dust core in his chest still burning bright like his grin and his eyes.
Nick did however buy the others enough time enough to climb up to the plateau.
Akko screamed as a hole appeared just before, clapped her hand over her mouth when she realized it was Eun-jin’s masked face peering out. She climbed out, the others followed, miserable and covered in dirt and rocks, carrying Shooting Star and plenty of ammo and explosives to spare for all of them.
“Think we should start preparing for when that thing notices us?” Eun-jin asked as they dusted the dirt off themselves, or checked their weapons.
“Please!” Freya replied. “This is my husband: I swear, he can—and has!—literally kept Grimm like that occupied for hours at a time.”
“Come on, you rat-faced motherfucker!” Nick yelled. “Are you really a grave lord, or are you just this big from all the times you’ve run away like a coward?!”
The grave lord roared and continued trying to crush and silence Nick, to no avail.
Eun-jin looked back at Freya, and smiled underneath her mask. “Huh. I can really see why. So, any plans on how to take it down?”
“Give me a moment to take stock: ammo, munitions, and weapons out, everyone!” Freya said, pulling open her coat and mentally counting all the SMG canisters, sniper rounds, dust vials, and other munitions she had on her, then what everyone else was carrying.
“Excuse me, Dr. Schnee, may I ask a question?” Diana asked. After Freya gave her a silent okay, she continued, “How exactly are we supposed to take a grave lord down? All the literature and reports I’ve read on the subject generally advise incredibly liberal use of explosive charges to collapse their tunnels and lead it to a trap laden with even more explosives, let the trauma of a catastrophic cave-in, or gravity and a sheer drop straight down to the ground do the killing blow.
“Not to insult the capabilities of any of the hunters present here, but… we’re just us, no vehicles, no artillery, no air support, and it’ll be a while still before they can route their forces from Hoshiko’s defense to our situation.”
“The answer is actually quite simple, Cavendish,” Freya replied as she counted. “We simply tackle it like any other big project: whittle it down, little by little...”
They formed a plan and distributed munitions, Eun-jin diving back into the ground to get her part ready in time. Everything was going rather smoothly, until Freya handed Diana several vials of ice dust, all lined up and nestled in an arm strap.
“Cavendish: you’re on herding and slowing duty,” she explained. “Stab its legs and freeze it as much as you can, or force it where we want it with icicle walls.”
Diana’s eyes widened, she hesitated to take the vials from Freya.
“Is there going to be a problem, Cavendish?” Freya asked calmly.
“It’s just that I haven’t really practiced using dust with my weapon since combat school,” Diana replied as she took them. “My own capabilities, my semblance, and simple water canisters were always enough.”
“Well, that’s probably not going to cut it for that,” Freya said, gesturing to the still distracted grave lord. “In my opinion, Cavendish, if there ever was a time to start applying CAD in the field, it’s now.”
“You sure about this, Freya?” Qrow asked. “Giving dust to someone who isn’t really that used to them generally tends to be a pretty bad idea.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Diana said as she strapped the vials to her arm. “I’m used to stepping out of my comfort zone, especially when the situation requires it.”
“Are you sure, Cavendish?” Freya asked, her expression serious. “Mishandled munitions are much more dangerous than an under-equipped hunter.”
Diana nodded. “I’m sure.”
Qrow still looked unconvinced, but Freya was already back to distributing munitions and duties to the others. They broke and took positions around the plateau and the ridges surrounding it; both Nick and the grave lord noticed, but another bullet to the face-plate and some more pointed insults kept its ire off of them.
Fresh clips, canisters, cartridges, vials, and every other form of ammo were loaded as everyone watched the grave lord, waiting for Nick to walk into Eunj-jin’s trap. Diana pulled one of the ice dust vials out, hesitated as she opened a slot in Gwragedd Annwn’s shaft, took out the distilled water canister that usually filled it.
Beside her, Ruby frowned. “Want to call Dr. Schnee and change the plan?”
Diana scowled, and inserted the vial. “No… please don’t, Ruby,” she said as the grooves on the spear began to hum and glow an icy blue, frost started to pour out the almost imperceptible holes in the head. “It’s far too late to change the plan now, anyway...”
Ruby saw Diana shiver, her grip on her spear loosen for a moment, but the signal started blaring through all their scrolls before Ruby could get a word out.
The grave lord walked over the center of the plateau, Nick shot it one more time before he turned around, and ran as quickly as he could. Before the grave lord could even begin to think of why he would do such a thing, Eun-jin detonated the explosives just underneath it.
Boom.
The grave lord suddenly found itself waist-deep in a new hole in the ground.
“Now!” Freya cried, before she and the other hunters descended on it.
Qrow, Winter, Ruby, Winter, and Eun-jin assaulted it with slashes, cuts, and thrusts, blood red wounds appearing all over its hide, bone armour plating falling to the ground as it was shattered or drilled straight through.
Akko and Freya ravaged it with dust, fiery blasts from Shooting Star, all manner of elements spewing out from Freya’s SMG, the depleted ammo canisters turning into grenades as soon as they were ejected.
Diana and Nick supported them all the while, slowing the grave lord’s movements, crippling its limbs or distracting it while the others reloaded, or took a few moments to catch their breaths.
Eventually, however, their luck started shifting.
It began with the grave lord finally digging itself out, swiping like mad and stomping its hind claws about, breaking and shaking the ground beneath them. They struggled to keep their footing as the ground shook, plates of rock shifted beneath their feet, some of them even found themselves buried waist-deep in new holes like their prey was.
Attacks began to miss for the treacherous ground: shots that only grazed their target, swings that went wide, and thrusts that only pierced empty air as the grave lord moved faster and more agilely than something that large and powerful should be able to. Grenade arcs veered dangerously off-course as the mountain winds started to pick up, almost seemed to come straight for the others at times, the flames burning all over the grave lord’s hide grew larger and wilder than anyone was comfortable with.
Then, the problems with semblances began.
Snowie’s enfeebling mist had grown to engulf almost the entire plateau now, its ravages stronger and more dramatic the longer they fought; the veterans, Ruby, and Akko could easily shrug it off, but Diana was starting to feel a chill settling into her bones, her lungs burning from fatigue, her movements beginning to slow as she loaded her spear with a new ice dust vial.
“Diana!” Freya cried, summoning a new glyph near Diana. “Help Qrow!”
Diana looked around, saw Qrow trapped in a hole, and about to get stomped on by the grave lord; she stepped on the glyph, and launched herself through the air like a missile, landing just in front of him. Blue tendrils ran up her arms and legs as she concentrated, the grooves of her spear pulsing and flowing wildly before she thrust it up into the grave lord’s hind paw.
The grave lord howled as Gwragedd Annwn bored straight through the bone, ice rapidly exploding up its hind claw, its leg… and Diana’s arms.
Qrow’s eyes widened as he saw her fly up into the air with the grave lord’s foot. “SHIT! DIANA’S STUCK!” he cried as he struggled to dig himself out.
The grave lord heard and felt their distress, started forcing its frozen leg back down to the ground as it continued to fight off the other hunters. They halted their attacks as they saw Diana underneath the grave lord’s frozen hind claw, her knees buckling as she struggled to push her spear upwards, keep from getting crushed.
Akko and Snowie rushed to her side, grabbed the frozen shaft and started pushing with her, but they only managed to slow its hind claw down to a snail’s pace. Unseen for the chaos, one of the Shiny Rod’s gems began to glow a light blue, and the three of them slowly began to lift it up, little by little.
The grave lord gritted its remaining teeth, tried to reach down and grab them with its front claws. Winter summoned two massive glyphs, giant, disembodied arms shot out and grabbed the grave lord and wrestled with it. It roared in frustration as Winter summoned more creatures to pester and distract it, while the others regrouped.
“NICK!” Freya screamed. “WHAT DO WE DO?!”
Nick looked at the situation, thought for a moment, then turned to Ruby and Qrow. “Think either one of you can chop its leg off? I need a STRAIGHT, clean cut—anything less and Diana’s bones might shatter from the impact, too.”
“Uh, normally, I’d happily volunteer for Grimm Dismemberment Duty, but you know, I’ve got this feeling that things will just go horribly awry if it’s me that does it in this situation...” Qrow replied.
“I’ll do it!” Ruby cried, holding her scythe up. “I’ve even got a mode SPECIFICALLY for this!” she said as she activated a mechanism that turned the blade 90, now in line with the shaft.
“You sure about this, kiddo?” Nick asked.
Ruby smiled and nodded.
Nick nodded back. “Alright.” He pulled out his sword, charged the blade with as much of his aura as he could before he pointed it at Ruby. The energy arced from the tip and into her, Ruby tensed up for a moment, before she began to glow an ethereal silver, and grinned even wider.
“Give it all you’ve got, kiddo!” Nick cried as the glow of his chest core turned a pale orange.
Freya formed a line of glyhps on the ground, ending at just before the grave lord’s ankle. “And please make this count!”
Ruby laughed. “Don’t worry: I will!” Then, she braced herself, and launched at the grave lord like a bullet.
Time seemed to slow down.
Akko, Snowie, and Diana noticed the glow of the glyphs in their peripheral vision, spared a glance at the red blur that was coming straight for them.
Ruby stopped just before the end of the very last glyph, standing on one foot, her whole body turning as she put all her momentum into her swing, pulled the trigger just before the blade met the ice.
Sching!
The grave lord’s leg seemed to still be whole as Ruby spun around and away from them. Then, the two severed sections began to slide off as Akko, Snowie, and Diana kept pushing from below, Winter’s summons continued to wrestle with it above.
Time began to move back to normal.
The hunk of frozen, dismembered hind claw crashed to the ground, Akko, Snowie, and Diana dragged it along the ground as they ran to Nick.
The grave lord fell onto its frozen leg, it cried out as it shattered on the ground, Eun-jin and Winter shielded themselves from the spray of icicles.
Qrow and Freya rushed back into the fray, attacking the grave lord as it tried to dig through the rock of the plateau and escape.
The ice on Gwragedd Annwn and the frozen chunk of grave lord melted and evaporated, freeing Akko, Snowie, and Diana. The first two were fine except for some chills in their hands, Diana screamed as she let go of her spear, her skin looking unharmed, but stinging and burning like they were frostbitten all the same.
“Gloves interfere with your semblance, too?” Nick asked as he rushed over clasped both of her hands between his, red-gold aura surging into her body.
“Yes...” Diana hissed through gritted teeth.
Akko turned back to the grave lord, found Winter’s giant summoned arms holding it down again as the others attacked it. “Geeze, what’s it going to take to kill that thing?!” she cried.
One of the Shiny Rod’s stones started glowing—silver.
Ruby noticed, she pulled it from Akko’s belt, and held it her hands.
Akko jumped. “Hey—oh. What’s it say?”
Ruby grinned as she handed it back, the silver glow faded and was replaced by a different one—ruby red. “It just said, ‘It’s time, Akko.’”
“IT’S GETTING AWAY!” Eun-jin yelled as the grave lord wrenched itself free, knocked down her, Winter, and Qrow, then sent Freya flying towards the others.
Nick caught her, put her back down on her feet. “You okay, Frosty?”
“YES, NOW LET ME BACK AT THAT MOTHERFUCKER!” Freya said as she staggered about, dazed and confused.
Nick calmly picked her up again, Freya’s legs flailed uselessly in the air as she swore in a variety of languages. He looked back at the others, found Ruby straddling her scythe, Akko loading a Showstopper into Shooting Star as she sat near the head, Diana sitting between them and holding them together, the Shiny Rod pressed to Akko’s stomach.
He smiled, Freya stopped struggling. “Kagari Express?” Nick asked.
Diana sighed heavily. “Kagari Express...”
Freya was set back on her feet, and quickly formed the necessary glyphs. After a moment’s double-checking, Akko took aim, and fired.
Thoom.
The three of them disappeared in a gigantic flash of fire and red dust, leaving Nick, Freya, and Snowie shielding their eyes from the air and gravel flying off in their wake.
Meanwhile, the grave lord threw itself off the edge of the plateau, grunting as it fell down the side of the mountain, taking huge chunks out of the face, breaking rocks and formations it hit along the way, ignoring the pain as it put much needed distance between it and the hunters. It eventually tumbled back down to the dirt and on its back, its three remaining limbs sprawled out around it, and over crushed trees and upturned tracks of earth.
The grave lord began to flip itself over, before it heard a series of sounds it had never heard before in its many centuries of existence:
The sound of a high-velocity sniper-scythe being repeatedly fired to correct the course of a Kagari Express that almost sent its passengers sailing beyond their target.
The sound of Diana’s panicked screaming as she used her semblance to shift their weight about, send them spinning in mid-air so the blade of Crescent Rose faced the ground and the grave lord like a spear.
The sounds of Akko and Ruby joining in with battlecries, as Akko raised Shining Star up with both hands for an overhead chop, all seven of the gems on the weapon shining ruby red.
The grave lord had no eyes, but it wasn’t hard to imagine it staring blankly at its impending doom.
Note: CAD = Combat Applications of Dust, one of the core subjects of any Combat School curricilum.
Majority of Grimm can’t actually understand human speech, but they always know when they’re being insulted.
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