This particular one-shot is inspired by "What Tangled Webs We Weave" over on Archive of Our Own. This idea was lingering around in my head for quite a while now, to be honest, but it wasn't until this week that I've gotten around to writing it, and even then it took me an entire week to finish.
Terribly sorry for any OOC-ness, especially on Diana's part. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be the outright jealous type, but probably the kind of person to keep her feelings to herself.

Diana Cavendish wasn't exactly the type of person for any kind of romantic feelings. It wasn't that she didn't know how to express her feelings, it's just that, with her spending most of her time on academy work, she never really gave much thought to the idea of relationships.

So why was it that she fell for a certain Japanese air-headed brunette just over halfway through their first studying year?

Honestly, the relationship between Akko and Diana had an incredibly rocky start. The two witches were pretty much at each other's throats when they first met. And it was a best-case scenario if it was just them debating over something, as the worst that they've did was just end the debate on a couple of petty insults, but whenever either of their respective roommates decided to chime into the discussion, things began getting out of control, to the point where someone had to separate the two groups before they began attempting to tear each other's hair out.

At a certain point, however, things seemed to take a turn for the different. The blonde and the brunette began to slowly mellow out towards each other, even more so after particular sympathetic events. Sure, their eventual friendship was still stuck deep in the vitriolic territory, but honestly, with the way they were, no one could expect anything less. And even their roommates seemed to sort of mellow out and stopped getting into any further fights. Eventually, however, Diana seemed to have gained some…Other feelings for Akko.

It was really hard for her to pinpoint the exact moment it happened, really. The closest moment she could think of was probably sometime during the Noire Rod crisis. Then again, she did begin mellowing out towards that dim-witted witch even before that, when Akko basically went all the way from Luna Nova over to Cavendish Manor to convince the sole heiress to return to the academy. But the point is, Diana began thinking of Akko as less of a "vitriolic best friend", and more of a…

Tch, no, that was just plain dumb. She was not the type of person to fall in love with anyone, let alone another girl… Right?

But it was actually becoming only ever-so-harder for Diana to continue lying to herself. At one point, after one of her occasional studying sessions with Akko ended on a somewhat awkward note because Diana felt a little bothered by Akko sitting just way too close to her, all the doubts about the situation were cleared. She was, in fact, in love with that hyperactive Japanese brunette.

But the previous doubts, however, were immediately replaced by a metric ton of insecurities. Diana thought it would be incredibly awkward if Akko were to find out that the one other student who seems to have the lowest opinion of her in the entire Academy – and that's saying a lot, considering that even Hannah and Barbera were a lot less toxic to others nowadays, including Akko – was now head over heels for her.

Tthere were many opportunities for Diana to just throw away all her doubts and thoughts of how awkward it would be, and just confess to that lovable idiot. But she had taken none of them – whether it was out of pride, or out of fear of rejection, nobody could really know.

Instead, she decided to take the "wink and nudge" approach, giving Akko subtle hints every now and then. She wasn't above sitting next to the Japanese witch during the lunch break – much to both Lotte's and Sucy's confusion – and would still offer the occasional tutoring sessions when the asian witch seemed to be struggling with one subject or another. The blonde just didn't have the patience or courage to ask the girl out legitimately. Whichever one was the case, it seemed that her slow acting wouldn't do her much good.

Honestly, she wasn't surprised when she found out that Akko eventually ended up in a relationship with someone else. Mostly because she was secretly sure that the brunette probably had her sights set on someone else, but was just too nice to tell Diana how she really felt. That, or Akko was being her usual oblivious self.

However, the fact that the person the Japanese witch fell for was Sucy, of all people, did surprise Diana.

From what she had occasionally oveheard, Akko had an even rougher start with Sucy than she had with her. Credit where credit's due, at least Diana didn't sic poisonous snakes on Akko. And didn't turn a bird doll to life just so that it could try to peck Akko's eye out. And didn't experiment on her whenever any opportunity would arise. And- Okay, you readers probably get the point by now.

And even when the puce-haired witch began to mellow out towards Akko, she was still being her usual sarcastic prankster self – still testing some rather nasty potions on her, still teasing her on some things – specifically, her problems with potion-making, as even after getting her magic back, the witch still had troubles with the theoretical stuff. – but she seemed to have a somewhat softer approach in that regard. The previous "turn Akko's ponytail into a sprout" prank instead ended with Sucy making a lilly or some odd heart-shaped pink plant sprout out of the girl's head. The teasing wasn't usually punctuated by Sucy's trademark shroom-eating grin, but by a quiet smile. The first steps – they were already there.

And the sole heiress' suspicions were confirmed further when the two girls actually began getting a bit less subtle with their affection – from holding hands on their way between classes or to the dorms, to going out on dates out in town whenever possible – only a completely oblivious person wouldn't see the obvious details.

And for all her stoicness and seriousness, Diana still couldn't help but feel a painful pang of jealousy whenever she saw these two together.

On one of the quieter days, Diana was just quietly sitting in the cafeteria, munching on another tasteless meal and watching the two main objects of her attention idly chattering, not even bothering with their meals – although considering the sheer blandness of cafeteria meals, this was perfectly justified – , while Lotte, who would normally sit next to these two, was instead sitting at another table entirely, chatting about something with the members of the Green Team – okay, she was mostly chatting with Amanda, while Jasminka and Constanze merely occasionally chimed in, but you get the point.

And sure enough, she soon noticed that Sucy and Akko had gone back to being full-on sickening yuri-hearts. Specifically, Sucy was once again spoon-feeding Akko her lunch, leading to several mixed reactions from their fellow students – from the slightly weirded out, to annoyed shouts of "Get a room, you two!" or "Hey, no PDA in the cafeteria, you're making me lose my appetite!". As for Diana, she just shook her head and sighed.

Wow, and here the blonde thought that jealousy was an entirely foreign concept to her. And yet even such a sickeningly sweetheart situation was still enough to provoke it.

"Hey, is everything alright?" – One of the two all-too-familiar voices of Diana's roommates chimed in behind the blonde. She turned around to see that Hannah and Barbera actually sat down next to her and she didn't notice.

"Nothing that you two should be worried about, that's for certain." – Diana remarked defiantly. She was far from being a good liar, even despite any of her other accomplishments, so neither of her roommates bought into her confident facade.

"You're still upset over the fact that Akko is dating Sucy?" – Barbera asked, going in right for the weakspot. Of course, her girlfriend immediately scolded her for that: "Barbera, insensitive."

Diana let out an exasperated sigh and remarked: "Girls, can you please leave me be for now? I'd like to sit the remainder of the lunchtime out alone."

The two other witches nodded and ran off to an unoccupied table just nearby, chattering about some of their usual stuff once there, and leaving Diana with her own thoughts.

The sole heiress soon noticed how Sucy covertly poured one of her potions right on Akko's head, which resulted in a lily sprouting from the top of her head. After a quick joke about a rather interesting meaning behind lilies in Japan, and a quick kiss, the two continued on with their meals, having at least five minutes left before having to go to another lesson. Diana sighed and figured that she might as well head over to class earlier.

On the way there, the blonde thought about how her relationship with Akko would fare if she were to actually confess to Akko. On one hand, she thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad, and that they would still eventually mellow out towards one another. But on the other hand, she honestly felt like they're bickering a tad too often even as friends, and that if they were lovers, their relationship would just get incredibly toxic.

Even if Akko did make her change her mind about leaving Luna Nova, even if Diana did the same for Akko, even if they ended up saving each other's lives at least once…

One simple question within the blonde's mind was enough to snap her out of her thoughts and back into reality.

Did all of that really obligate them to a relationship?

The answer was no. If anything, Diana had a persistent feeling that none of that warranted enough of a merit to the relationship that could have been. The prerequisites would not justify the potential conflict that would result from this relationship. Not to mention that trying to take someone else's girlfriend was far from a honorable thing to do.

And if she really loved Akko, Diana thought, then she didn't need to drag her into any relationships, and should just let her be happy with the person she's already in love with.

Later that day, during the evening, Diana snuck out of her dorms and followed Akko and Sucy off to the school balcony. The two witches were quietly enjoying the view from the balcony, only occasionally idly chattering with each other. However, soon the idle chatter went into a full-on conversation – specifically, about their plans after they graduate from the Academy. The conversation trailed between sweet and sour notes, but eventually both paths converged on one simple thought – that Sucy would never leave Akko's side, even if their differing fields of work would end up making them go separate ways.

Just before Akko could say anything else, Sucy shut her up with a well-timed kiss on the lips.

Imperceptibly to the couple, Diana was standing in the balcony doorway, seeing all the events unfolding before her. Not a single hint of jealousy, or shock, or sadness was on her face – in fact, the blonde was quietly smiling as she watched over the couple.

In the end, maybe she really did make the right choice by not confessing to Akko when she had the chance.

Welp, I've tried. Subtle jealousy and eventual acceptance is one of those things that I probably can't write to save my life. And with that being said...
Darky Out!