Chapter 1: Wherein an innocent curiosity begets a troubling realization
Summary:
Diana just had the most confounding realization. It was unwanted if not downright troublesome to say the least. Falling in love was never in her agenda, much less was it included at all in any annotation in her Eleven-Step Plan of Restoring Her Family's Honor. Thankfully, she has a handy reference…on hand. Listening to Barbara's rants had finally proved fruitful as Night Fall now has become a great source of dealing with, if not blatantly eliminating, any abounding feelings she has for her best friend.
Alternatively:
Diana has made a set of rules when dealing with her… less than desirable feelings for Akko. She's certain that if she abides by these rules right to the dot, she'll manage to survive any obstacle thrown her way. Any such negative repercussions to this plan would be minimal at best.
or
An account of Diana breaking each and every one of her own rules.
She was baffled, to say the least. Of all the people in the world, she never once thought she'd somehow fallen victim to such a cliché.
On the other hand, she is quite familiar of the said cliché. It wrought within her a certain sense of relief and shame to admit this. Relief, in that she won't be going into this absurd, if not downright vexatious situation, blindly. And shame, oh how ashamed was she to admit that she'd acquired a troubling taste for 'trashy literature'.
She never was one to scorn people who take an interest on such sort of romantic literature.
To each their own, she'd said, when Barbara had confessed her obsession for Night Fall to both her friends. And Diana figured her encounter with the genre would end there.
Oh how wrong was she to assume her fate.
It was much later, during one of Barbara's fanatic ravings (a development that she and Hannah have the most unfortunate burden of sitting through once every two days), that she learned of a theme that was relevant to her interests. Namely, falling in love with your best friend.
What's more, she'd been surprised that the theme revolves around two men. So to say, she hadn't initially understood why it had caught her attention quite so.
Behind the veil of innocent curiosity, she had asked Barbara about the volumes of which the two characters would initially appear. The girl was all too eager to answer, of course, and in detail no less. As Barbara babbles about the semi spin-off version of Night Fall, Diana's countenance remained bereft of any expression other than polite intrigue. In truth, she was mentally taking note of every such information about these two characters that had unexpectedly piqued her interest.
It was not long after Barbara's long winding rants when she found herself in the private comfort of her space, hidden behind the bookshelves, intently reading volume #222 of Night Fall.
The first few chapters had been a recap on the previous arc and how the three main protagonists had been getting on with their lives afterwards.
Diana couldn't care less about them, other than their physical appearance that's suspiciously too attractive in ways normal people are not, she couldn't find anything remotely riveting about these characters. She had to restrain herself from throwing the book across the room after reading about the love interest's (Eddard- Edric – Eddie- or whatever his name was) glowing skin, whenever he basks himself so gloriously underneath the sun.
Other than their supposed good looks, Eddie's rivalry with the other bloke (Alfred or Aldrich was his name), and the girl's (Bernadette or Beatrice) awful case of Mary Sue, all three protagonists are painstakingly two-dimensional.
She had to skip several chapters worth of what she'd deemed to be complete filth, before stopping at chapter 112, where a character she cares about finally shows up.
She was then taken by the story- one chapter after another. She couldn't pry herself from the book, readily intrigued after every sentence.
It wasn't after the sun's rays had harshly shone through the peeks of her curtains that she realized she'd read three volumes through the evening.
It was most fortunate that she had the foresight of reading the book on a Friday night. On the other hand, she must still start her day early so as to not worry her friends as she's quite known to have a strict routine that she follows through every day.
Not to mention, by afternoon, they'd be meeting the rest of the girls for a picnic/Akko's flying lessons that had just started to become a regular occurrence.
Thoughts of the book was momentarily forgotten as Diana tries to power through her day with little to no sleep. She had sneaked a 30-minute nap on her desk, but Hannah and Barbara had woken her for a homework question. They had apologized profusely when they realized the disturbance they'd unintentionally caused, but Diana had none of it and instead, suggested that they do the homework together to speed their collective progress.
It was not long after finishing their work that they're finally headed towards the open field where the others are already waiting. From a distance, Diana could already hear Amanda's passionate description of a flying trick to the group. Akko had been nodding eagerly with stars in her eyes, no doubt making a mental note to try it out after she's mastered the basics of flight.
Seeing Akko's determined expression brought Diana a few weeks back, on a similar afternoon.
Akko had been so thrilled when she managed to float a few inches above ground. Her determination grew with each passing day, and practice has become integrated in her routine as promising results fueled her resolve.
Her excitement easily drew in a like-minded, fiery red-head that had an ardent love for flying herself. Amanda was spouting crazy aerial tricks one after another. She spoke with such fervor that any starry-eyed, hopeful, beginner would no doubt aspire to do the same. If not, much too soon, without proper training.
Her warnings of Akko learning the very basics first before going into such complicated moves had fallen to deaf ears.
Amanda brushed her worries aside, saying if she herself had had the skill to do it as a child, Akko would no doubt be capable of doing the same. Diana had urged that Akko had no training and wasn't acquainted with the broom at a very young age much like everyone else. But the two had somehow tuned her out and had excitedly conversed about the specifics and forms of the said trick.
Diana sighed and stood back, holding her breath as Akko perched herself on her broom.
It wasn't a difficult trick, in fact, Diana herself could do it with her eyes closed. Amanda also wasn't far off when she said even children could manage it. In the end, this doesn't stop her from worrying for Akko. After all, she'd seen the girl fall from the sky far too many times. And she's not about to watch when she'd one day fail to catch her.
No. Of course Diana wouldn't allow such a thing to happen on her watch. Not if she can help it. Still, her worry remains.
She held her breath as Akko's feet flew off the ground. She had to give Amanda some credit for advising Akko to start at a low altitude. It was, of course, anticipated to fall on the first few times.
Finally, Akko had done it. A perfect loop.
Everyone cheered for her and she'd bowed, accepting the praise. Amanda had ruffled her hair when she came down. "That was awesome! Now you can try doing it higher!"
Diana released her breath at the same time she felt a strong tap on her shoulder. She turned to see Jasminika giving her a comforting yet knowing smile, kindly offering her a cookie with her other hand.
It only took a second.
Diana had dropped the offered snack, and with a loud "Tia Freyre!" she was rushing through the air in a sharp speed.
Everything had been a blur as she'll realize much later, that she had flown faster than the speed of sound.
She hadn't even been vaguely aware that she had been balancing on the broom with her feet, her arms outstretched, in an attempt to catch the falling girl in time.
Akko's weight dipped the broom by a few meters before Diana had steadied them, settling herself back down with a wide-eyed girl in her arms.
The girl shifted uncomfortably in her arms, so Diana laid her gently on her lap. Her hands however, remain on Akko's back and underneath her knees to keep her stable.
"Diana! You saved me!" before she knew it, Akko had her arms wound tightly around her neck, squeezing the life out of her in, what Diana could only assume, relief.
When Akko pulled back, their faces were still drawn a bit close together, their breaths heavy from the rush of the fall, and their noses only inches apart as Akko's arms had only loosened itself around her.
"Don't ever do that again." Diana whispered gravely. She was a bit short of breath as she'd been a little winded when she had caught the full weight of Akko just seconds earlier.
Akko, the little devil, only giggled. "Nobody falls intentionally, Diana." She said, having the gall to roll her eyes at her savior.
Diana only glared sternly in return. This girl will be the death of her.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm just so glad you caught me." Akko pulled closer, burrowing herself in the crook of Diana's neck.
It took Diana a few heartbeats to respond, "I won't always be with you, Akko." She said softly, unconsciously pulling the warm girl in her arms closer against her chest.
"I know." Akko whispered, almost sadly.
Diana didn't know what else to say, a little guilty that she had to warn Akko about something like this. If only Diana could promise that she'd always be here to catch her, she would do so almost instantaneously. The problem, however, was that she knew firsthand how such a promise could easily become nothing more than empty words.
With the memory of her long-deceased mother in mind, she kept her mouth shut.
"Look, I'll try not to be stupid again and end up hurting myself, alright?" Akko said a bit irritated, her arms now crossed against her chest.
"You're not stupid, Akko." Diana was quick to defend, before giving it a second thought, "You just do foolish things sometimes."
"And those sound like two completely different things to you?" Akko raised a brow.
"You're not stupid." Diana repeated, resolutely.
"Try saying that to me the next time I fall off my broom. Speaking of which, have you seen where it flew off?" Akko darted her head in search for it.
"I'm sorry, I didn't get to see where it went. You were my priority."
"Oh um, no, it's no big deal. I'm sure it's just lying around some tree or something. I can just go look for it later." Akko looked down at her hands as she twirled her fingers on her lap, obscuring Diana's view of the girl's face.
"Diana," She looked back up with a small smile, "thanks for always catching me, you always do." She said, the sincerity in her voice made Diana's heart skip a beat. Especially with the way she said the latter part, as if she's sure Diana always has her best interests in mind.
"You don't have to thank me for this, Akko" Diana shook her head, lightly nudging the other girl's cheek with her nose, "I'm just glad you're unhurt." after a beat, "Are you?" she asked a bit apprehensively, scanning her eyes down the girl's body for any fractures.
"I'm okay." She chuckled, firmly touching her hand against Diana's jaw and cheek, effectively holding her gaze. "You worry too much."
"I'm- " A ready apology at her lips.
"I think it's sweet." Akko cut her off. Her eyes had darted down at Diana's lips for half a second, before meeting her eyes.
"Uh" Diana responded dumbly, mesmerized by the soft touch of Akko's hand against her face and a hint of Akko's sweet scent that smells vaguely like pastries.
"Should we head back?"
"I-I'm -uh" she's stuttering, how unbecoming.
"I'm actually taking a moment to- uh catch my breath." She drew in a sharp inhale as she explained, "I may have miscalculated the speed at which I've rushed towards you in my panic." She admitted abashedly.
"Yeah, you were so fast! One second I was falling, but then when I was about to scream for help, you were suddenly there!" Akko recounted, waving her arms as she did so.
"I'm glad I caught you in time, then." Diana cracked a smile at her adorable gestures.
"You were so fast!" Akko repeated in amazement "Were you watching me or something?" she tilted her head.
"No, I had my back turned at the time." Diana scrunched her brows, trying to recall how she'd known Akko was falling, "I think I may have felt a change in the way the wind whistled." She said uncertainly, shrugging at the thought. It hardly mattered anyway, she'd caught Akko, and that's the end of it.
"That doesn't even make sense." Akko chuckled "So, are you going to take us down now?"
"Yes, just- just give me a moment." Diana took a breath and closed her eyes, trying to steady her still racing heart.
Akko tilted her head at this. She placed a hand against the center of Diana's chest curiously. The girl's eyes flew open at the sudden contact.
"A-Akko?" her heart had hammered against her chest, and she could feel her face heating up.
"Wow, it's really going crazy." She said, her hand hadn't left from its place.
"The adrenaline rush may have caused this." Diana explained wearily, deeming this development far too troublesome.
Akko hummed in response, moving a warm finger up from its place against her chest to her collarbone, then up to the line of her neck and ending its journey by repeatedly tracing her jawline.
Diana had heated up considerably. She was now very conscious of the other girl's warm body pressed solidly against her.
Before she could lose herself any further to the sweet smell of Akko's hair, the girl's voice snapped her back to reality.
"I just had an idea. It might help you calm down." Akko had the slyest of grins forming her lips.
"An idea?" Diana had been too blinded by the girl's sweet tone to notice.
"Yeah, my mother used to do it to me when I was small." She bit her lip, still softly tracing a line up and down Diana's jaw, "Can I give it a try?"
Diana could only nod, entranced and a bit mesmerized by the hypnotic touch.
"Okay, close your eyes." She said excitedly. And Diana obeyed.
She felt a soft hand against her cheek, a thumb stroking it gently. She sighed at its tenderness.
A warm breath had drawn closer against her other cheek, before she felt the softest things lay itself gently upon her.
Her eyes shot open. Akko had been looking away when she looked down at her.
"Wh-what-?"
"So, have you calmed down yet?" Akko asked.
"A-Akko? What- wh-?" she couldn't even form proper words at this point, as she's left completely bewildered at what Akko had just done, or perhaps what Diana thought she'd done.
Of course, Diana's eyes were closed after all. The soft thing she felt on her cheek may well have been Akko's fingers for all she knows.
Yes, Akko had just lightly pinched her cheek to shock her heart from beating itself out of her chest.
It made perfect sense, why would Akko even kiss her? Surely that was just part of her wild, if not incredibly disconcerting, imagination.
Diana mentally patted herself on the back. Thank heavens she kept her cool and used her head and didn't make any disastrous assumptions. Imagine if she'd confronted Akko about kissing her, how great of a misunderstanding would that have been. That is after she'd hypothetically gotten out of her pathetic stupor, of course.
She coughed lightly to straighten herself.
"Yes, I think I've calmed down. Thank you for pinching my cheek, Akko. You seem to have woken up my nerves, and now I think I can finally function properly as a human being." Diana nodded sagely. She's thankful she has friends like Akko who's always there to help in situations like this.
Diana was about to turn back towards the others, her eyes trained forward, when she felt a pair of hands gently cupping her face.
"Wait," Akko pulled Diana's face down to look at her "one last thing." She leaned her own face closer, pressing her soft, familiar lips against the corner of Diana's mouth.
"Okay, now you can take me back." Akko leaned back against her arms cheerfully.
"Alright, great! That's what I'm going to do, and that's what I'm doing now!" Diana replied just as cheerily. Her mind and body have gone into autopilot by such an unfamiliar occurrence.
Their descent couldn't have gone any faster.
She tried exercising restraint in her speed, but her heart hadn't really stopped slamming against the walls of her chest.
She saw the others watching them as they touched down, she just hoped that they hadn't seen what had just transpired up in the air. She really can't take any of Amanda's endless teasing right now.
After gently settling Akko down, their friends had swarmed them at once. Lotte and Sucy had of course, zeroed in on Akko. But for some reason, everyone else had made a beeline for her.
"HOLY Fuck, Diana!" Diana paled at Amanda's less than proper greeting. Fearing for the worst of what she might have seen.
"You were so fast! Holy fuck!"
"You like, zoomed right past us" Barbara joined.
"We didn't even know what was happening! Sorry, Akko, we didn't really see you fall. Before we knew what happened, Diana had already caught you!" Hannah explained.
"That shit has gotta be the speed of light!" Amanda exclaimed, excited at the possibility of traveling at such a speed.
Constanze grunted in disagreement, shaking her head profusely. She pointed at the numbers on a device she's holding and then on some equations written on her small board that she'd presumably worked on while Diana had been in the air.
"Hey, isn't that one of those radar guns that cops use?" Akko said, trying to make a grab for it. Constanze had seen through her and snatched her arm away before the sly girl could get a hold of it.
"It is, but Conz modified it a bit so it can measure the amount of magic as well. I don't really know the details." Jasminika supplied for her friend, taking a healthy bite from her cookie as she did. She hummed thoughtfully before adding, "She uses it on Amanda a lot."
Constanze nods this time, erasing the equation from her small board and writing something on it, before flipping it over for everyone to see:
FASTER THAN SOUND.
Everyone started speaking all at once.
Diana heard Hannah and Barbara animatedly talking about telling Professor Nelson about another one of Diana's impressive achievements and how she might have broken some sort of world record.
Lotte and Sucy were quietly talking to Akko, asking her if she was fine or if she did break any bones, would it be okay to graft some off her body for an experiment.
However, Amanda was as always, the loudest of the bunch.
"Motherfu- That's fucking it. Conz! We're recreating this shit! I'm not gonna stop until I've passed Cavendish's record here."
Diana was a bit surprised at Amanda's semi-challenge. In all honesty, she was just relieved that nobody had seen them. It would make sense as they were about a thousand meters off the ground.
"I don't think even I could recreate this, Amanda. This was something wrought from instant panic. And I must say, that's quite a unique situation to be in. Not unless, you'll also recreate this whole ordeal." Diana argued.
Amanda just grinned, an idea no doubt brewing in her head "I guess I'll have no choice but have Akko fall on me as well."
What the redhead had said didn't really make any sense. But most of the time with Amanda, it's the way that she said it that rubbed her the wrong way.
"My speed had nothing to do with Akko's weight falling on top of me when I caught her." Diana scrunched her brows in slight irritation at having to explain such an obvious thing, much less to a flight enthusiast.
"Oh trust me, Cavendish- It had everything to do with Akko falling for you." Amanda grinned mysteriously before getting tackled by Akko to the ground.
She was suddenly engulfed by a pair of arms in a familiar warmth. The sudden weight slung over her shoulders brought her thoughts back to the present.
"You're late." Akko said with a playful grin as she pulled back, sliding her warm hands down Diana's arms, and gently wrapping her fingers around Diana's hands.
Diana stood stiffly in her place. Her countenance was short of any sort of reaction.
Her heart, however, told another story. If Akko had placed her hand against her chest like she'd done before, she'd find out sooner about Diana's borderline panic attack.
Her thoughts snapped back to reality for a second time that day as she felt Akko pulling her towards the others. She's going on about the desserts Jasminika baked and how each one is a fantasy come to life.
Topics of which holds Akko's fervent interest aside from Chariot, Magic, and Astrology, were pastries. Diana had always loved listening to Akko talk endlessly about things she's very passionate about.
Ordinarily, she'd give her full attention to the girl, basking in her radiance and taking in all her warmth. Mulling about how one girl could make her smile so much and how the same girl could be the cause of all her worries.
But Diana was having none of the ordinary sort of contemplation.
None of the usual thoughts that would never conclusively reveal itself within her. The sort of questionable thoughts that would run in her head for a few minutes, before being quickly dashed by another wave of Akko's world-turning smiles.
All that was left of her now was a crushing, sinking realization of a predestined horror.
A horror of which she had sworn herself to never commit in her entire lifetime, not as long as she's yet to restore her family's honor.
She has fallen in love.
All thoughts of Akko's smile and warmth were put aside as dread bubbled within her consciousness. A putrid bile went up her throat, she swallowed it down as she maintains her nonchalance even as her hands became clammy in Akko's grasp.
Perhaps it was now an appropriate time to pull a page from Amanda's book.
Realizations beyond her emotional comprehension certainly deems it so.
Because, Holy mother of all fucks. She's in love with her best friend.
It wasn't easy for Diana to come to terms with this whole debacle.
She sat by her desk, limply staring off into space as her brain ran a quick analysis of her day and how she'd come to this most unfortunate conclusion of being in love with Akko.
She hadn't really paid any attention to how much time they've been spending together. And when Diana had done the math, the time she spent with Akko had been far greater than the time she spent with Hannah or Barbara.
Now that she thought about it, she and Akko do spend most of their Sundays together. Sundays of which Diana had offered to teach Akko about the basics of flying a broom.
On most days, they'd grab a light breakfast together before getting into the lessons of the day. After said lessons, Akko's stomach would grumble, a sign that it was almost lunchtime. It only made sense to get a meal together by then.
After lunch, Akko would convince Diana to hang out with her, saying that Sunday was supposed to be a student's rest day. And in Akko's words, Diana studies every day during weekdays anyway so she should definitely reward herself.
Diana doesn't even know why she bothers resisting. Akko's bound to get what she wants. Especially when she's very convincing with all her short skirts and toothy, heartwarming smiles.
In the end, Diana blames it all on the damning book that made her question her sanity altogether with a simple, if not downright obvious yet confounding realization, all at the same time.
As Akko had ran into her arms earlier that day, a scene from that very book played in her mind. The damning similarities of which were unquestionably resolute. Which had then sparked yet another scene featuring the same two characters that she had unconsciously likened to the events the week before. A shock ran through her then, which had been enough to daze her into an impromptu flashback in the middle of a fine afternoon.
Drake Murphy had caught his long-time rival, Harold, in his arms just as he was about to hit the ground. The raucous boy had climbed a tree to get a better vantage point of the area to find their way back to Hogwash. They had shared a startled gaze before Drake was brought back to his senses and had dropped Harold just inches off the ground. They had bickered the rest of their way back to the school gates.
Alright, maybe the scene might not be too similar. In fact, Diana attests that the only comparable thing in the scene would be Drake wrapping his arms around the other boy, carrying him tenderly in his strong arms as they'd gaze into each other's eyes in those few milliseconds. And one really couldn't blame Diana as those milliseconds had been so beautifully and profoundly described that she can't help but feel a sort of kinship in these two fictional characters. Especially when she had a sort-of-if-not-very similar encounter just a week prior.
It wasn't long before Diana ran various 'similar' scenes in her head. Scenes that are almost too familiar in ways that she could almost see herself and Akko playing it out themselves. She scoffs at the absurdity of it all. She was ashamed and a bit surprised to learn that her own brain would be capable of such blatant impudence.
In all honesty, if she'd picked up the book much earlier, she wouldn't really have any sort of interest in it. Ultimately, it was the knowledge of the forthcoming relationship between Drake and Harold that had her at the edge of her seat. So to speak, if Barbara hadn't spoiled her of this fact, she wouldn't even notice the small lingering touches and the brief doe eyed stares the two boys have so often exchanged.
She huffed, smacking her forehead gracelessly onto her desk. The slight tremor caused some of the books that had been vertically perched atop the table to fall right on her head.
She examined the array of disaster, barely feeling the pain of the heavy books. Her muddled thoughts had served to numb any such external calamity as she mechanically rearranged the books on her desk.
She was halfway done when a certain damning book fell into her grasp.
As if being reanimated by the simple contact, a brilliant idea ran through her mind.
She'd been looking at this the wrong way. All this time, she'd been blaming the book for making her reconsider everything she'd ever known about her relationship with Akko.
What she hadn't realized sooner was that this same damning book holds an abundant source of reliable information to negate her growing feelings for her best friend. If she didn't have her hands full, she'd have put a palm on her face in shame of not having thought of this sooner.
She worked quickly on organizing her other books, excited at the prospect of finally going somewhere with her seemingly hopeless dilemma.
After everything on her desk had been niftily put back into place, she pulled out a pen and paper from her drawer, opened the damning book, and started working on her rules.
"Herald- y'er a wee-zerd." Said the dwarf in his heavy Scottish accent. His breath carried a stingy alcoholic smell that almost made Harold blanch. The freakishly small man had been standing on the dinner table so as to make proper eye contact with everyone in the room. He had leaned forward when he said his bit to the awe-struck boy. The moment he'd bent, Harold saw his foster family's horrified faces who were sitting just across the table. Harold raised a confused brow at this, ignorant of being spared of the horrors beneath a five-inch kilt.
-excerpt from Night Fall: Herald Vaus and Schrodinger's stone