And here I am, writing yet another fanfic for this fandom! Partly because I just can't help it, partly because this fandom seems to lack some Diasukko love triangle goodness. Hopefully I didn't start this fic off with a cliche storm, because honestly, love triangle fics just feel like the most overdone thing to ever grace any fandom…Well, next to Coffee Shop AUs, that is.
So, yeah, hope this didn't turn out too cringeworthy! I do hope to try and make it a tad more dramatic in later chapters, because I feel that the prologue may have made the fic go off to a less-than-serious start.
In any case, have fun reading it, I guess.

"Ugh, this is hopeless!"

Akko faceplanted into her textbook and groaned in frustration. She knew that she would have even more difficulties with Magical Linguistics during the second year, as it only got more difficult, but it still felt incredibly frustrating. Especially the homework they've got, that was the worst part.

"Well, what else did you expect?" – Sucy, who was currently sitting next to Akko, deadpanned as per her usual manner, while Lotte added: "It shouldn't be that bad – by the looks of it, the assignment is relatively average. We're merely repeating last year's material, that's all there is to it."

"Sure, but I still hardly have any grasp on the subject!" – Akko whined once again.

As much as Sucy wanted to help Akko out, she herself barely managed to get through with a B last year – although at least one part of her was sure that, had Finnelan not been biased to anyone not named Diana, she would probably get at least an A- – , so she thought that she was not one to even try to help the asian witch. However, one "trigger" was all it took for her to change her mind.

That trigger was Diana.

"Akko, if you need any help, you can come over to the Blue Team dormitory this evening and I could help you out with your homework." – The blonde said from not too far away.

"Now, that wouldn't be necessary, I can help Akko out just fine." – Sucy retorted as she stood up from her seat, slamming both her palms onto the desk and giving Diana a death glare.

The sole heiress sighed, and, looking over at the violette, asked: "Need I remind you that you had barely managed a B in Magical Linguistics last year? If anything, Akko would be better off studying with someone who has a better grasp on the subject."

"Oh lordy, here we go again." – Lotte quietly uttered, knowing that another "heated debate", as Diana sometimes referred to them in conversations, was imminent.

Meanwhile, the flame of an imminent debate between Diana and Sucy was already lit, and now both witches stood up from their desks and went into a full-on argument.

"Maybe I had low grades because that hag Finnelan is biased against anyone not named Diana in this class?" – Sucy fumed out, lucky that the teacher she was speaking ill about wasn't currently present in the classroom.

"If anything, she merely wants us all to succeed, and doesn't tolerate failure. Not that you would ever know how that works." – Diana answered, currently having had stuffed her textbook into her bag.

As much as Akko wanted to butt in and protest, she figured that if the two were to drag her into their argument, it would probably persist for the remainder of the day, so she just groaned and slammed her face onto the desk once more.

"Even then, what's in it to you from those study sessions with Akko?" – The violette once again responded, her jealousy already slightly evident.

"I merely wanted to help a struggling student out with their studies." – While Diana was busy making up excuses, Lotte had slipped Akko a note saying that she'll help the asian witch out with her lessons instead. Akko figured this would be the right time to shut the two arguing witches up.

"Um, girls…"

"By that logic, half the bloody class needs your help!" – Akko was genuinely surprised how loudly Sucy could shout sometimes, especially how it sounded compared to her quiet and subdued voice most of the time.

"Oh, now you're resorting to loopholes in others' speech? Talk about running out of sensible arguments." – Now there was a slight note of smugness in Diana's voice, which was punctuated by what Sucy described as "that stuck-up smirk", which, to her, was basically akin to a piece of cloth being waved at a mad bull.

"And here we have the one most tolerable student in our class. Totally not stuck-up and totally not overusing fancy English to make herself seem smarter than she really is. " – The violette retorted sarcastically.

"Oh, like you're one to talk about being tolerable, Miss Unhealthy-Obsession-With-Mushrooms-And-Poisons." – That haughty tone was beginning to set Sucy even further off. Luckily, before the argument could escalate any further…

"Damare!" ( Jap. "Shut up!" – A/N) – Akko shouted out, silencing both witches. – "While you two were busy shouting at each other, Lotte already agreed to help me out instead and left class together with everyone else!"

After that, the remaining students opted to just leave the classroom and head back to their respective dormitories, since it was the last lesson of the day after all, although both Diana and Sucy couldn't help but pass the occasional death glare in each other's direction.

"Ugh, that was a hectic day."

Currently, Hannah and Barbera were quietly lying in the latter's bed, the blunette resting her head in the redhead's lap.

"Yeah, tell me about it. Getting back into the studying flow, and then there's the whole thing with Red Team and us going back to square one and arguing all over again…" - Hannah replied, running her hand through the blunette's long hair.

"Nah, it's not with all of them. It seems to be just between Sucy and Diana. And I think I know why." – As Barbera said that, her girlfriend raised her eyebrow in confusion.

"Please, don't say "love triangle", Barbs. Because otherwise I'm just going to brush it off as the result of you having a little too much Nightfall fanfiction to read in your spare time." – The redhead retorted in a slightly deadpan tone.

"Come on now, Hannah-bee, you know these two are after that asian idiot. It's just that obvious." – As Barbera said that, she punctuated that last sentence with a shrug.

"Alright, let's presume I fell for your delusions, and wondered which one of them you personally think should be with Akko." – For all her love for the blue-haired girl, Hannah really had a hard time tolerating Barbera's occasional bouts of fanfiction-reading nerdiness.

"Well, personally, I think Diana and Akko would look rather cute together. I even came up with a couple name for these two. Diakko. Dai-ah-ko. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

"Maybe it does. But I still fail to see how these two would be a couple – for all I know, they're just too different for one another! Diana is a hard-working successful pretty girl, and Akko is, well, Akko." – Now it was Hannah's turn to shrug.

Had Diana not come back to the dorm by that moment, the discussion would have gone completely off the rails.

"Diana! How…Much…Did you hear?" – Barbara awkwardly asked, grinning nervously while Hannah just groaned, thinking "Yup, idiocy is contagious, and I'm going to have to treat her later."

"Heard what?" – Either the blonde didn't hear their discussion, or pretended that she didn't. Either way, after a bit of uncomfortable silence, the sole heiress added: "Anyway, I suggest you two stop with your cuddling and get over to doing your homework. After all, I'm sure it would be unsatisfying for either of you to be spending the weekend working instead of… You know, continuing with your constant display of affection."

The blonde certainly had a point, both girls agreed, and decided they might as well get off their bed and over to working on their assignment. Right now, matters of the mind were higher on the priorities list than matters of the heart – or others' hearts, for that matter.

"Wow, and here I thought this was going to be a rather scary amount of work for one assignment! Thanks for helping me out, Lotte!"

Just an hour after that, in the Red Team dormitory, Akko and Lotte had just finished working on their Magical Linguistics assignment for the Monday. Turns out that Akko ended up not having too much difficulties with it after all, and that, at the very least, she managed to retrace some of the knowledge she had from last year.

"Hey, don't thank me, you did this entirely on your own." – Lotte replied quietly. – "Besides, the assignment really wasn't all that difficult."

"But still, if you hadn't helped, I'd struggle with it for the entire weekend and then some!" – After the brunette said that, she immediately pulled the Finnish witch into a friendly hug.

"Akko, too tight!" – The ginger barely wheezed out, making Akko immediately release her grip on her. – "Anyway, now that we're done with that, I actually wanted to talk about something."

"It is about today's incident, isn't it?" – Akko asked, a slight note of annoyance in her voice.

"Well, more like an observation I've had about Sucy and Diana. I mean, have you noticed how oddly these two were acting in regards to you?" – Lotte remarked as she closed her textbook and placed it at the usual spot, as she had actually finished her assignment even before Akko did.

"Like how?" – Oh lordy, Akko had just set off an entire torrent of explanations with that question alone.

"Well, to begin with, there is the fact that they're both offering you study sessions freely, without you having to do any favors for either of them in return." – That was a rather true point – usually if Diana or Sucy offered Akko a study session, the catch was always that the brunette either had to do some favor for Diana or help Sucy out with her experiments respectively. – "Then there is how they always seem to try and sneak in a few extra seconds of contact whenever you end up close by with either of them." – And straight to a less reasonable observation that Akko was sure Lotte had to look extra hard for to notice. – "And don't even get me started on what was going on during the first year – with Sucy's odd tendency to play pranks exclusively on you and with them getting progressively less cruel with each iteration, and with Diana eventually mellowing out towards you and ending up on much friendlier terms with you, but staying neutral with me or Sucy. None of this rings any bells with you, Akko?"

Akko took a deep breath, for a long explanation warranted that she split the answer into several parts. After exhaling deeply, she spoke up: "Firstly, all of the things you mentioned have nothing to do with bells. Secondly, they're just trying to make it up for me for the rough start we've had in the first year. And thirdly, I presume that today's incident was caused by them probably just venting their stress on each other."

The ginger fin groaned in frustration, then proceeded to shout out: "You really don't get it? Both Diana and Sucy have a crush on you!"

"Nani?!" – There it was again, the Japanese slippage. As a small mental note to self, Akko figured she might need to have some extra English practice in her spare time, so that she at least wouldn't have those language slippages every now and then. But right now, there was a more pressing matter at hand.

What Lotte didn't expect from Akko, however, was for the girl to laugh out loud and outright fall to the floor as she did.

"Oh my gosh… Sucy…And Diana… Having a crush… On me?" – Soon enough, the brunette had stopped laughing, then, getting up from the floor, added: "Lotte, you're gonna kill me with your jokes someday, I swear!"

"But I wasn't joking!" – The ginger defensively retorted.

"Don't get me wrong, Lotte, I have a thing for girls more than for guys, but I doubt that it's going to be with anyone within this academy's walls." – After a few moments, she added, blushing a bit: "Not to mention that I'm just plain not ready for any relationships right now. And these two? Come on now, they've merely began mellowing out towards me. We're just on friendly terms, nothing further than that!"

At this moment, and thankfully not having heard the discussion, Sucy had come back to the dorm room.

"Hey, Suce, can you believe it? Lotte thinks you and Diana each have a crush on me!" – Akko blurted out, leading Lotte to gesture her not to go any further. As for Sucy, she immediately froze up on the spot.

Why did these words suddenly hit her so hard? She… She never had any of those feelings for anyone, let alone another girl… So why was it that hearing this from Akko, of all people, hurt her so badly? Whether it was the fact that Akko had Diana included in the "equation", or the fact that she didn't take the whole thing seriously, it seemed to noticeably sting the Filipino witch right in the heart.

"Yeah… Heh… You probably just read too many Nightfall fanfics in your spare time Lotte…" – Sucy chuckled nervously, trying to keep her feelings to herself.

After that, the remainder of the day went by rather uneventfully, although Sucy still couldn't help but feel a little hurt after the incident.

Later that night, when both Blue and Red teams were asleep in their dormitories, Sucy and Diana were probably the only ones who had trouble falling asleep, as neither could stop thinking about the recent events.

"Why did Diana suddenly get so generous?"

"What's up with Sucy getting so defensive when I merely offered her close friend a study session?"

"Well, I merely didn't want Akko to hang out with that stuck-up snob, that's all!"

"It was for Akko's own good, I just wanted to help…"

And then came a thought that they both had at almost the same time.

"Or maybe… There really is something else?"

Of course, soon came the denial…

"Tch, seriously now, Sucy… You're enough of a creep as you are, and now you're falling for another girl?"

"Come on now, Cavendish, keep this kind of thoughts out. What would your family think if they found out you were a lesbian?"

"Then again… Who wouldn't fall for Akko, anyways?" – Sucy thought, then turned over to her side to look at Akko, who was currently peacefully sleeping. – "She is actually rather cute, in her own dorky way…"

"And there's more to her than just cute looks." - Diana thought, looking up at the ceiling of the dorm room. - "She is nice to others, always willing to help, and believes that there is good in everyone…"

"I'm surprised that, despite all the cruel jokes I played on her…"

"It's interesting how, despite all the unsavory things I may have said about her…"

"She still puts up with me. And it seems that I may have a crush on her." - Both girls thought at almost the same time.

Surely, that second year was going to get very, very interesting…

I needed to switch on to something else. And I needed to vent a little bit after bumping into a little too much Diakko fanart and fanfics recently, so there's that. However, venting the same way I did in a certain other fic of mine is a big no-no, so i decided to put that excess energy to better use.
And with that said, and an exam I should have been studying for on the next day after I uploaded this instead of, well, uploading...
Darky Out!