AN: Hi there! As some of you readers within the LWA community know, I am working on another story called Watering the Seed. While I was on vacation and taking a break from that story, this idea came to mind and I had to write it down as soon as I fleshed it out fully. So consider it a freebee while I'm on vacation. After that I'll be back to my original work.
Please enjoy and feel free to critique!
Kind Regards,
Symbiotic
The table was perfectly set. Two plates at the table. Each one with two cups, one filled with tea and one filled with orange juice. The plates contained a nearly full English breakfast; toast, scrambled eggs, and breakfast sausage along with two pieces of toast each. There were small containers of jam and butter in the middle. To top it off the silverware was perfectly arranged in the manner dictated by standards of etiquette, and at the top of each plate was a folded cloth napkin. Each plate was also placed on a placemat and a fresh vase of flowers was present upon the table to top it off. It was a picturesque table for an otherwise picturesque morning in Blytonbury for a picturesque couple of witches. Only this was no ordinary breakfast. For Atsuko "Akko" Kagari-Cavendish had painstakingly prepared this breakfast for one specific reason and one reason alone.
After she finished setting the table and admiring her handiwork, Akko sat down at one of the chairs and waited. She squirmed in her seat and held her hands in her lap, not just in anticipation but for a few other reasons as well. As she held still she could hear the sounds of the shower in her small streetside house shut off and the door to the bathroom open up. Smiling from ear to ear, she stepped out of her chair with anticipation and stood near the table. Her knees were shaking in place from all that she was holding in, and she grinned from ear to ear as the bedroom door opened up and she heard the sound of footsteps down the stairs.
When the person she was waiting for finally arrived Akko could hardly hold in her emotions in anymore. She was just as beautiful from the day the two of them had first met. She was taller now, about 5'6", still taller than Akko but not as drastically as she once did when they were younger. She had filled out her figure immaculately, her abdomen perfectly shaped and her breasts just the perfect size. But even at age 28, Diana Cavendish-Kagari still had two features that always made Akko swoon. The first was her wheaten blonde hair that still flowed down in perfectly wavy locks to almost her waist, and the second were the deep pools of cerulean that were her eyes. Akko never tired of that hair and those eyes. They were her favorite parts of the woman who had now been her wife for ten years. Every time she saw them she felt her heart melt and her eyes glimmer at the thought of just how lucky she was to be betrothed to Diana. They were signs of outer beauty that belied just how beautiful Diana was inside.
Hardly able to contain her emotions Akko sprinted across the kitchen with her arms wide. Her wife only briefly catching a glance, Akko wrapped Diana up in a massive hug. Akko could tell she caught her wife off guard based off the stiff reaction of how she was held and the fact that her cheeks were now what Akko thought was a pretty shade of pink. Akko couldn't resist but to kiss each cheek, and give a small peck upon Diana's lips before embracing her wife more gently and playing with the hair that flowed down Diana's back.
"Good morning," she said with a smile that was grinning from ear to ear. Her wife loosened up in the embrace and sagged her shoulders, content after the initial surprise of being greeted so enthusiastically this early in the morning.
Diana bent her head down and looked at her shorter wife with a smile. "Good morning to you too," she replied. She wrapped her arms around her wife and planted a kiss on Akko's forehead, which made the shorter witch turn an equally deep shade of pink and giggle with glee.
"I made us breakfast," Akko said with a large smile. She turned around to point at the table that she had prepared, grinning from ear to ear at her handiwork. "I know you have a busy schedule and I figured you needed all the fuel you could to get through the day."
Diana smiled at the sight of the table and turned back to to her wife. "Oh, Akko," she said kindly. "You shouldn't have." She walked over to the table, which made Akko smile with glee. She couldn't wait for Diana to take in all that she had prepared.
"Oh you know me, Diana," she said happily as she stood at the edge of the kitchen. "Only the best for the greatest Luna Nova professor that I know." She held up her hands and smiled in anticipation. She couldn't wait until Diana saw what she had planned for her.
She watched Diana turn back to her as she walked to the table, taking her eyes away from the meal before her. "I'll be sure to let Headmistress Du Nord know that when I see her today," Diana stated. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled to know her old charge no longer considers her the best."
Akko smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of her head. "Oh well you know she may have been my mentor but you're the greatest serving professor at Luna Nova that I know," she replied sheepishly. She just wanted Diana to get to the table already.
She clenched her hands and nearly jumped up and down in place as Diana arrived at the table and bent over to look at the food. Akko couldn't wait for her wife to start digging into the meal. She could hardly contain herself in more ways than one, especially when Diana did just as Akko wanted and reached right for the toast that she inscribed a very special message upon. Akko smiled from ear to ear and began to squeal with glee. Her wife was doing exactly what she had hoped for and would surely get the message she was trying to send. "This is it," she thought. "She's gonna find out just like I hoped!"
Diana picked up two slices of toast and held them in her hands. All she needed to do was bring them to her face. But instead of holding them close so she could examine the symbol that Akko had carefully etched into them, she watched as Diana took her butter knife and slathered both in some jam and butter. Akko felt her heart sink a little but recovered quickly. The jam was still translucent enough to reveal the message. Surely Diana would see it.
Instead Diana took a bite out of the toast, cutting the message that Akko had inscribed in it half. She watched as Diana wiped her face with a napkin and took a sip of her tea before returning to the toast, eating what was left of it without ever looking down at it for even a brief moment. Diana then picked up her satchel, wiped her mouth again with the napkin, and walked past Akko out of the kitchen. "I appreciate the thought of preparing me a full breakfast, Akko, but I really must be going," the blonde witch stated calmly. Akko stood in complete silence and watched her walk past her toward the door, where she grabbed a broom leaning up against the wall along with her witch's hat that was hanging on a coat rack in the corner of the hallway. "Thank you though for the toast and jam. Your choices on the spreads were immaculate as always."
"You're welcome, Diana," Akko choked out of her throat, standing absolutely still as her wife walked past her toward the door. Her knees were buckling before her and her throat was drying out as the milliseconds went by.
She watched Diana wife picked up on the cracking tone of her voice and turned to face her. Diana could now clearly see the sparkles growing in Akko's eyes, which were not from awe but rather from tears. The blonde witch raised her eyebrow at the scene. "Are you okay, Akko?" Diana asked curiously.
"Yep," she squeaked. She wiped the tears out of her eyes and sniffed. "Just hate to see you walk out the door like this," she muttered with a shaky tone in her voice. She fiddled with her hands nervously as Diana looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I-I'm gonna miss you a lot t-today," she stammered. She didn't know what to say from there.
Much to Akko's surprise, her wife set her broom and satchel down and walked back over to her. Akko looked up at her as more tears welled up in her eyes. Before the tears could fall down Diana bent over and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. Akko felt her heart go warm and gently returned the kiss on her own, fiddling with Diana's locks as their lips were held interlocked.
"I'll be home soon," Diana said lovingly. She caressed Akko's cheek and moved one of her bangs out of her wife's face. Akko smiled at the warmth that came off of Diana's hand. It was incredibly comforting, though it made her look away from her wife bashfully as she blushed like a tomato. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her wife smile gently, clearly amused at how much her touch was making Akko melt. Diana then moved the hand away and walked back toward the door, where she grabbed her broom and her satchel. "Have a great day, Akko."
"You too," Akko sniffled. She watched Diana walk out the door and waved as her wife walked out into the world and headed on her way.
Once she was gone Akko quit holding her emotions back and fell on her knees to the floor. She held her hands in her face, tears staining her palms as she cried into the floor. She had no idea why she was crying so hard. It was really a harmless misfire to convey an important message to Diana, one that she may have been better off just telling Diana outright rather than trying to be cute as she was about it. In this moment though she felt truly devastated, and all she could do is slam her fists on the ground in defeat.
"She didn't even look at the toast," Akko squeaked as her tears fell upon the floorboards of her and Diana's home. She cried a few more moments before she clenched her fists from her doubled over position and slammed them on the ground in anger. "She didn't even look at the toast!"
It was then that Akko forgot that she was holding something else in and felt a dripping sensation down her leg. Her eyes growing wide, she quickly bolted out of the hallway and ran like an olympic athlete all the way to the bathroom.
Over the next two days Akko got over the failed attempt to convey her message and began to scheme new ways to get her news across to Diana. She tried her hardest to think of more cute ways that she could get Diana to pay attention to her and understand what was happening, because something very big was happening to her and she couldn't keep it hidden for much longer. Akko knew fully what was wrong based purely off the internet and a phone call with her mother, but she needed some way to show Diana what was going on with her and share the news with her wife before it became all too obvious just what was going on.
Trouble was Akko didn't even know if Diana would see what was going on even if it became obvious given the way she seemed to have her head buried in her work lately. Inspiration struck Akko the following morning when she decided she would have enough of doing things in a cutesy convoluted manner and would just tell her wife straight up over a romantic dinner between the two of them. It took some coaxing to get Diana to agree to the plan. Luna Nova's new professor of healing magic often spent her nights grading papers and perfecting lesson plans for her classes, but remarkably the blonde heiress found it within her to take time out of her schedule and agree to go to dinner.
They chose a French restaurant in Blytonbury that was highly recommended by Andrew Hanbridge as the place for their night out. And at first everything went absolutely perfectly. Diana got dressed up in her favorite white one piece sleeveless dress that Akko always loved to see her wear. She even put lipstick on and did her mascara more ornately than usual, which Akko thought was an extra beautiful touch that only made her heart melt even more. Akko herself wore her own red dress and flats. Even at twenty eight she was still rather klutzy and could hardly walk around in high heels, a proposition which seemed doubly dangerous given the condition she was in. She left that to Diana, who looked absolutely gorgeous in the white high heels she was wearing.
Diana arranged for a cab to pick them up and take them to the restaurant. Once they got there and checked their reservation Akko asked if they could sit outside at one of the lovely tables in the garden section at the back of the restaurant. The night was absolutely beautiful weather wise and the sky was so clear the stars could be seen for miles, so Diana raised no objections to her wife's proposition. The server then led them back into the ornately decorated outdoor dining section and sat them down at a metal table, where he lit two small red candles with a lighter before turning back to the two women.
"Shall I get anything for you two lovely ladies to drink?" the server proposed. "Perhaps something from our wine list?"
"I think that would be delightful," Diana replied courteously. "In fact, what does your sommelier recommend for this evening?"
"Ah yes, he recommends the Olivier Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc," their server explained. "It's subtle oak notes blend perfectly with its wide variety of seasonal flavors. I would highly recommend it for your evening tonight."
"That sounds perfect," Diana replied gently. She turned to look at her wife. "Honey, does that sound good with you?"
Akko was squirming in her seat and held her hands between her legs. Her face was growing an increasingly deep shade of red as she held her breath sharply and continued to writhe in the chair, having a hard time keeping both the emotions that were swelling up within her and her bladder under control. She was struggling so hard her face began to twitch and her body was trembling like she had ants crawling up her thigh. Diana looked at her curiously. Her wife looked she was about to explode in her seat.
"Akko?" she began slowly. Her wife quickly looked her in the eyes with a very intense and focused gaze that Diana actually found mildly off putting. "Does the wine choice sound good to you?"
"Ah-ha-ha what?" Akko burst out quickly. She looked around between her wife and the server. "The wine choice?" She put her finger on her chin as she continued to squirm in her seat. "You know, I think I'll pass. I don't think wine is the best choice for me tonight. But you go ahead and get it if you want. It's fine with me!"
"Nonsense," Diana said with a gentle smile. She turned back to the server and shook her head. "I'll stand in solidarity with my wife and just have some water, thank you very much."
"Very well," the server replied. He reached down with a pitcher and poured some water into the two wine glasses that were sitting above their plates on the table. "I shall be back for your orders soon." He nodded his head and Diana and Akko and walked away, leaving the two women in peace for a brief moment. Akko continued to fidget in her seat, which made Diana raise her eyebrow further.
"You seem very fidgety today," Diana said in her typical polite but calm manner. She took a sip of her water slowly, which made Akko want to release herself all over the stone floor of the outdoor dining area. She contorted her face to hide her pain.
"Oh you know," she said with a knot in her throat. "Just glad we could finally go out on a date given your busy schedule."
Diana smiled lightly and took another sip of her water. It only brought Akko closer to an embarrassing release. "I'm glad we could too," the blonde said calmly. "It's a nice diversion from all the...how should I put this...crap, as you would probably say?" she remarked with a contemplative smile. She took another sip of her water.
Akko couldn't help but chuckle but wanted to get as far away from the table as possible to relieve all that she was holding within herself. "Well you sure seem like you have a lot of crap on your plate lately, Babe," Akko laughed with a grimace. She desperately hoped Diana would quit this stalling and just let her leave already.
"You have no idea," Diana remarked with a shake of her head. She took another sip of her water. Akko felt like she was about to fall off a cliff. "Papers, papers, and more papers. Lesson plans, quizzes, and we haven't even gotten to midterm exams," she sighed with a roll of her eyes. She put her head in her hand and leaned it sideways. "Sometimes I wonder if taking up a job at Luna Nova was worth it given what I put up with on a daily basis, Akko."
"S-stop that!" Akko stammered. She slapped her thigh and looked Diana down sharply, which made the blonde lean back slightly. "That's nonsense! It was so worth it. You're passing on an important art down to a new generation of witches! They look up to you, Diana. You're their mentor and for some you may even be one of their closest confidants. I would kill to be in your position. Please don't ever think that taking up the job as Professor of Healing Magic at Luna Nova was a mistake, Diana. It's a position that a klutz like me could only dream of having, and you get to live that dream every day!"
Diana felt her cheeks go rosy at Akko's declaration. It was so typical of her wife to stubbornly offer her encouragement when she was feeling down on something. Akko was a never ending fountain of positivity. It was just part of her demeanor, a demeanor which Diana loved everything about and offset her typical stoic measured pragmatism well. She smiled at Akko's words and took another sip of her water, not realizing how much it was trying Akko's patience and making her want to burst like a balloon.
"So do you know what you want, my darling?" Diana said. She looked over the menu as Akko continued to writhe in agony. "I'm thinking the turkey with the roasted maple glaze. What about you? Would you like an appetizer?"
"Uh…" Akko muttered. She looked over the menu quickly with trembling sweaty hands. Perspiration was dripping down her forehead rapidly and she was on the verge of a majorly embarrassing moment that she was trying to do everything in her power to contain. Diana was not making it easy.
The server came back and refilled Diana's water, which only made Akko feel worse. Diana placed her order calmly before he turned back to Akko. Without even thinking she spoke the first thing that came to mind, which just happened to be the kind of food that she was dying to have.
"This is a French restaurant, right?" Akko blurted out. The server and Diana looked at her with their eyebrows raised in a curious manner. The way she exclaimed that statement seemed very out of character given the setting they were in. "Well I want an omelette. A big omelette, the biggest omelette you can possibly make. And I want it super spicy. Just cover it in sriracha, or better yet make with a whole habanero pepper, okay? Maybe one of those super hot Carolina Reaper peppers that I heard about?"
"Pardon me, Mademoiselle, but we do not have any…" the waiter began nervously.
"I said I want a freaking omelette and I want it as spicy as possible!" Akko shouted at the top of her lungs, smashing her fists on the table to make her point. She saw how Diana winced at the way she yelled and that everyone in the outdoor area of the restaurant, including the other servers, were looking at her with curious gazes, trying to figure out just why Akko was screaming at the waiter. Not only that she was hyperventilating and her shoulders were moving up and down like they had weights on them.
Akko decided she couldn't wait any longer and got up from the table, but she resolved to compose herself and speak in a tone that was more befitting of someone with the last name Cavendish. "And I want the biggest slice of chocolate cake you can possibly give me on the side, alright?" She watched the waiter write things down on his pad nervously as Akko stared him down. Her eyes were flaming straight into him and her fists were still clenched anxiously. Her shoulders heaved up and down as she hyperventilated toward the waiter. The waiter swallowed and wrote everything down with a shaky hand as Akko stepped aside and sprinted away. She was not going to hold it in any longer.
After she relieved herself she slowly took her place at the table across from Diana. Tears were dripping down her face, making the makeup she had put on run down her cheeks. Diana looked up at her concerned, looking deep into Akko's eyes. Akko couldn't avert falling into the pools of cerulean that were so integral to Diana's intense gaze. Even when she wasn't angry and trying to be gentle the gaze could still be intimidating and emotionally overwhelming to her, no matter how used she was to look into it.
"Are you okay, Akko?" Diana asked her as she held her wife's hand. Akko sniffled and cupped Diana's hand gently, trying hard to stop the flow of tears down her face. "Akko?"
"I'm fine," Akko squeaked. She wiped the tears and the makeup from her face. "Gosh I must look like such a mess."
Diana turned and reached into her handbag for a moist towelette. "Here," she said as she handed the towelette. Akko took it and wiped her cheeks, staining the towelette with makeup and getting it off of her face.
"I'm sorry for that tantrum I threw earlier," she muttered. She inhaled deeply and rolled her shoulders back before she let out her breathe in a long sigh. "I don't know what came over me before. I just…"
"Shh shh shh," Diana replied, rubbing Akko's hand gently in her own. Akko felt her anxiety began to fall down a few notches as Diana rubbed her hand. "It's okay," she gently replied. "It's okay. The night is still beautiful. I'm sure the dinner will be exemplary if Andrew is to be believed. And I'm still here with you. There is nowhere else I'd rather be than here with you, Akko."
The last point made Akko's heart melt and made her feel even better about what she was about to do. "Diana, you promise you love me no matter what, right?" Akko said with a tremble in her voice.
"Of course," Diana replied lovingly. She cupped Akko's hands in both of them and looked deep into Akko's gaze. "You are the sun to my moon. You are the beach to my sea. You are the tempest to my calm. You are my whole world, Akko." She held onto Akko's hand gently and looked her down with her signature penetrating but calm gaze. Akko couldn't help but swallow. No matter how nice Diana was trying to be she couldn't help but feel herself brought low by the gaze that Diana faced her with.
"I-I-I'm g-glad," Akko stammered. Diana looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. "B-because I have something really important I want to tell you."
"Oh?" Diana muttered curiously. "What is it?"
Akko swallowed nervously to stop the butterflies and spiders that were crawling up her throat. I'm gonna do this, she thought. I can do this. Nothing will stop me from doing this. She swallowed again and went to speak up. "I want you to know," she said carefully. "That the thing we've been trying…"
Before she could say anything further the waiter came out with Akko's omelette and chocolate cake. Akko stopped, caught off guard by the quick manner by which the food was presented to her. She looked at Diana and then back at the food. Then back at Diana. Then back at the food. Then she remembered what she was supposed to tell something to Diana that was extremely important, but she couldn't remember what due to the smell of the spicy omelette and the sight of the massive hunk of chocolate cake. She looked back at Diana, then back at the food. Then back at Diana, then back at the food.
Without giving it a second thought she immediately cut into her omelette and began to shove it down her throat, alternating between eating the eggs before her and the chocolate cake that was in her way. The omelette wasn't necessarily spicy beyond a mild curry sauce the chef was able to throw together with available ingredients, but it was good enough to her. The chocolate cake was more than satisfactory, ,and that helped her ignore the fact that the omelette wasn't prepared the way she wanted it.
"Um, Akko?" Diana said. Akko looked up from the food she was shoving into her mouth at breakneck speed to take a glance at her wife. She didn't even bother wiping her face with the cloth napkin that was set for her at the table. "You were telling me something?"
"Oh yeah," she said with her mouth half full. She went to remember just what she had been wanting to tell Diana, but couldn't think clearly with the smells of all the food around her and the sight of the massive hunk of chocolate cake in front of her. "I wanted you to know…" she began. She paused for a moment to think about what she was going to say. "I want you to know...that shampoo we've been trying the past week is awesome! Absolutely awesome! Thank you so much for picking that up last time we went shopping, Babe. You're the best!"
Akko went back to inhaling the food as Diana looked on confused from the other side of the table. The blonde heiress had a feeling that Akko was trying to divert her attention away from something else, but given Akko's seemingly abnormal mood tonight she figured it was best not to press the question. She simply sat back and drank her water while she waited for her food to arrive, watching her wife devour the omelette and the chocolate cake at a rate that would've made a champion hot dog eater blush.
"So you couldn't bring yourself to tell her?" the red haired woman sat from behind her desk. Her hands were folded under her chin and she looked at Akko with a straight face. The brown haired Japanese witch sat across from her in a space lit by nothing more than candles on the walls.
"I tried," Akko said glumly from her place within the study. She frowned and hung her head low in her seat, rocking back and forth in the chair. "I really did. I just forgot what to say in the moment."
"You forgot what to say?" the red haired woman said with a raised eyebrow. "I mean…" She sighed and rubbed her temples. She could hardly believe she was stuck in this kind of conversation. She had much better uses of her time, even if she was entertaining a prized former pupil who was clearly stuck in a very interesting and somewhat embarrassing situation. "Akko...given the nature of the situation at hand..."
"Look, I forgot okay!" she yelled out quickly at the red haired woman. Akko coiled back in her seat and stopped rocking. Quickly though she realized that she had yelled at her former teacher and she eased up on her aggressive position. Her head hung low and she breathed in deeply before continuing on. "I'm sorry, Professor Chariot. But I really just can't figure out a way to do this, so that's why I turned to you. I really need some help here."
Chariot Du Nord sighed briefly and then gave her former pupil a warm smile. She couldn't stay annoyed at Akko forever. The Japanese girl was her favorite student and one of the most celebrated in the history of Luna Nova; a hero who had restored magic to the world and made it possible for a whole new generation of witches to come and take the place that her and Diana once held. Not only that but Akko had always idolized her and Chariot had come to idolize Akko. She was proud of her former student's never ending commitment to make magic be both a beautiful and positive force in the world at large, just as she had done under the guise of Shiny Chariot many years ago. She would never give up on showing that true magic came from a believing heart, even when she was stuck behind a desk as the headmistress of Luna Nova Academy and was still afflicted with Wagandea's curse, which left her unable to fly a broom no matter what she tried. Many were surprised that she was voted to be headmistress of the academy after long time headmistress Miranda Holbrooke went off into retirement, but many more of the professors and alumni who donated to Luna Nova felt that an older, wiser and still potent Chariot Du Nord was more than adequate to be the head of Luna Nova, not to mention the acclaim her name recognition would bring to the school. Akko was thrilled for her, even if it meant her former mentor and hero was a little less accessible now than she was before. Chariot however always left her door open for students both old and new, and Akko was no exception to the rule.
"Akko," the older redhead began. She looked up at the ceiling before continuing on to her star pupil. "I'm really not sure I'm the person you should be going to in this situation. I'm not exactly…"
"But you're Chariot!" Akko retorted loudly She stood up from her chair and put her hands on her former mentor's desk.. "You helped us stop the missile even when you couldn't ride a broom. You saved the world and you inspired me to become a witch! And you're the only one who believed in me when no one else did." She gripped the edge of the desk and furrowed her brow. "That's why I need your help, now more than ever!"
Chariot could see tears start to well up in the girl's eyes and smiled gently. "I'm glad you feel that way about me, Akko," she said as she stood up from her chair. "But I'm not a miracle worker. I'm just an old witch who can't even fly on her broom. I don't have all the answers." She walked around her desk and toward a window in her study, looking longingly out the night sky. Alcor, her trusty raven familiar, remained sitting on his perch. He watched the exchange between the young witch and her old mentor unfold closely.
"I don't need all the answers, Professor," Akko stated as she moved away from the desk and toward her hero's side. "I just need some inspiration here. I can't figure out how to break this news to Diana and I have to tell her somehow."
"To be honest if I was in your position I wouldn't know how to either," Chariot said frankly. She looked down at Akko with a straight face that spoke volumes. "I hope you're proud what Diana has accomplished here, Akko. She successfully performed a feat that very few people since the time of the Nine Olde Witches have done. And that's all because of your actions."
"You mean our actions," Akko said as she looked up at her professor. "I couldn't have done it without her." She looked up at the night sky and focused on the north star, thinking about the day that Diana and her stopped the missile and the Grand Triskelion spread magic throughout the world. The day was so long ago, but the magic unleashed felt as strong as ever. The magic only helped to keep Diana and Akko closer, and what Diana had done wasn't possible without it. She turned back to her mentor. "And I am proud of her, Professor. I just don't know how to share this news with her without it looking really stupid."
"Have you tried contacting your classmates?" Chariot questioned. She went away from the window and began to pace about her study, trying to come up with a solution for Akko to run with in this trying moment. "Surely they must have some advice for you."
"Lotte and Amanda weren't much help. Neither were Jasminka or Constanze," Akko explained glumly. "Sucy offered to send me some kind of apathy potion to help dull Diana's emotions as I explained it to her, but I turned her down. It wouldn't be right to use a potion on my wife just to break this to her."
"And have you tried talking to Andrew?" the red haired witch questioned.
Akko shook her head as she stood near the window. "He wouldn't know how to handle it," she explained. "I normally could tell him anything, but if I told him what I was going through he'd feel my life was in danger and would tell Diana behind my back. As much as I'd appreciate him looking out for me I really want to do this on my own terms."
"I see." The red haired witch continued to pace about her study with Akko and Alcor looking at her. Her former student posed an interesting set of circumstances that certainly didn't help the French witch navigate the predicament her old pupil had set for her to solve. If her friends weren't going to be of any use and Akko tried many different manners at which to approach this matter than Chariot was truly at a loss for what to do. But then she remembered the way that Akko had stuck by her even through all the disappointments, through all the struggles she went through as she shed her Ursula Calistis persona and retook the identity of Chariot Du Nord for herself. And it was in those fond reminiscing moments that Chariot came up with a solution.
"Akko, I think you've been going about this incorrectly to put it bluntly," the older witch stated as she walked about the study. "While I can appreciate the nuanced, cute approach of trying to break your news through messages written in food and trying to do it over a romantic, candle lit dinner, none of those approaches are really your style."
Akko raised her eyebrow and tilted her head at her former professor. She didn't quite understand what Chariot was getting at. "What do you mean?" she asked curiously.
"Akko, I hope you realize that Diana fell in love with you not because of some front you put on or an image you tried to project to her," Chariot explained as she continued to pace about slowly. "She fell in love with you for who you are. No matter how hard you struggled with basic magic, how idiotic you may have sounded when you tried to defend a washed up witch like me, and how much everyone else thought of you as a nuisance. She fell in love with the real Atsuko Kagari, not some phony who just tried to impress her like every other person who tried to win her heart."
Akko felt her eyes begin to move back and forth as she began to think about what her mentor was saying and put her chin in her hand. "So you're saying I'm trying to put up a front by doing things the way I tried," she replied. "And that's why I'm having trouble breaking this news to her?"
"Precisely!" Chariot exclaimed with a smile and a smack of her fist against her palm. "That's precisely what I'm getting at, Akko." She looked at her former pupil as she stood back near the window and let the moonlight bathe her body in an ethereal glow. "None of the things you've tried to do to break the news to Diana are things that the Atsuko Kagari Diana knows, loves, and married would understand. They're just things that the Atsuko Kagari she loves would do to impress her."
Akko thought about it more as Chariot went on with her explanation. The more she kept her mind on just what her former professor was getting at the more it made sense. She was acting like a try hard going about it in the ways she had gone about it before. Diana wouldn't listen to her and she wouldn't be able to do it successfully unless she did things on her own terms, the only way she knew how to do them. The way that Diana would know the Akko she fell in love with would do them. And then it came to her.
"I got it!" she exclaimed. Chariot turned around and looked at her former pupil. Akko was now grinning from ear to ear and her eyes as wide as they could be. "I know what I gotta do! I know how I'm gonna tell her, Professor!" She ran up to her mentor and enveloped her in a large hug, which Chariot reciprocated kindly.
But just as quickly as she gave the hug Akko broke out of it and ran for the door after giving a hasty goodbye. Her bladder was reaching capacity again.
It hadn't been easy. She had to go home, get barely any sleep, leave a hastily written and barely believable note about running errands on the side of the bed, and had to sneak back into Luna Nova with the help of Chariot, but it was all worth it for Akko in the end. Standing inside the lecture hall that Diana used, Akko marveled at the sliding chalkboard that her wife so often used as part of her class. Now the inner chalkboard, which was covered by two smaller chalkboards that slid in and out on tracks, bore the mark of the handiwork she had spent the better part of a few hours creating was complete. It would have been done sooner but her bladder issues prevented her from doing it any quicker, and she was thankful she was able to get it done in as timely of a fashion as she was able to do before.
Now all that was left was the final portion of her plan. And this part was totally within Akko's power to control. Deftly she drew her wand, closed the chalkboard and smiled. I got this, she thought. I took care of myself and made sure not to drink anything beforehand. Now all I'll have to do is wait until she makes the discovery.
With a wave of her wand she went about casting the spell. "Metamorphie Faciesse!" she called out. With that a cloud of smoke emanated throughout the room and when it subsided, Akko was no longer standing on her feet in the room but instead was on all fours on the floor of the room. Now the desk that she was easily able to stand over in the center of the floor of the lecture hall now towered over her massively, imposing itself like a monolith in front of her. Such was life however for Akko now that she had taken the form of a mouse, one of her signature spellcasting techniques. Objects unfortunately that she was once able to stand over easily were now like skyscrapers to her, but it was all part of the plan.
The floor beneath her began to shake with pulsating vibrations. Perking her little head up, Akko watched as the doorknob for the classroom began to turn over and the door opened up slowly. Her heart racing, Akko quickly bolted away from her position at the front of the desk and hid underneath it, backing up against a panel underneath as her little body curled up against the wall of the desk. She watched as two feet in black flat shoes walked next to the desk and stopped. Akko listened closely and felt the vibrations through the wood of the desk as a heavy satchel was set down upon it. Curious as to just who it was, Akko poked her head out from underneath to see. True to her initial suspicions it was only Diana.
Akko felt her heart race as she looked at her wife from below, her formal witch regalia giving her already regal allure and officialness that no other attire could possibly give her. Akko also loved it because it was the mark of a hard working witch, one who didn't rest upon her laurels and was always trying her best. On top of that the long blonde locks and the deep blue eyes that Akko had fallen in love with many years ago only looked deeper and more majestic from her mouse form. Akko felt her tiny heart race and her feet grow stuck to the floor. She couldn't believe how beautiful her wife truly was.
She quickly composed herself and went back to hiding underneath Diana's desk, but she occasionally poked her head out to see if she was doing anything with the chalkboard. Akko grinned with anticipation as her wife drew some notes and scrawled some introductions to the lesson upon the chalkboard. Part of Akko hoped Diana would open up the chalkboard already and see all of her handiwork, but a greater part of her said otherwise. Mayenab Dysheebudo, she reminded herself. To see it through, patience is important. She nodded her head and remained still as Diana continued arranging things for her classes throughout the day. Besides, being patient meant more time for her to take in her wife's beauty.
After waiting for another half hour or so the door opened again. Akko looked up to see a group of girls who were no younger than fourteen begin walking into the classroom, each one making their way up the stairs of the lecture hall to take their places. Akko realized that Diana was about to start her class, and as the students filed their way into the room she decided to leave her position from under Diana's desk and go to the top of the lecture hall to watch. Moving quickly and out of the way of anyone's feet, Akko scaled her way up a desk and onto a wall at the back of the lecture hall that wrapped around a pathway connecting the uppermost seats of the lecture hall to the stairs. Akko ducked and took her place behind a group of young witches. Once she was in position she turned back to the front of the classroom and gave her full attention. This was her first time sitting in on Diana's healing magic class, and she was eager to see just how her wife taught the next generation of witches. She smiled and wiggled her tiny body in anticipation. She felt like a new student at Luna Nova all over again.
After the last of the girls filed in and Diana quieted the class down she began by recounting a lesson from last night's textbook reading on the fundamentals of healing magic. Akko listened intently as Diana gave her lesson, watching every stroke of the chalk piece she was writing with closely. The lesson was on some difficult subject matter for her to comprehend. Even in her current age and knowing what she knew now about magic Akko still wouldn't attempt anything that Diana was teaching, for fear of screwing up and hurting someone. Her students however intently took notes and would answer her questions dutifully when they were asked. She would in turn answer their questions to the best of her ability.
One student in particular caught Akko's eye. She had dark brown hair, not all that different from Akko's own, tied back into a long pony tail. Her eyes were a bright shade of green and she held herself up with immaculate posture. But most striking of all was the fact that as she took her seat she held a tabby colored cat within her arms. The sight of the cat made Akko a bit nervous. It was part of a new policy implemented at Luna Nova that students could bring their familiars to class upon a written request and the permission of the professor, and only if said familiar was able to stay calm within the confines of the lesson. Even with her ability to transform back into a human Akko still was leery at the sight of the feline familiar in the room. She didn't want to transform back until Diana had seen her surprise. Thankfully for her the cat appeared well behaved and sat still in the girl's arms, which gave Akko a sense of ease.
Akko turned her attention away from the girl and back to her wife."Now then," Diana began as she continued to write on the chalkboard, taking up more and more space. "Who can tell me what is the maximum length and width of a cut upon human flesh that can be healed without the touch of a wand?" She watched as Diana filled the chalkboard with more and more notes, which made her squirm in her tiny little form.
The girl with the cat raised her hand after Diana finished her question. Akko's wife directed her attention at the girl. "Ms. Brennan, can you tell us how long and wide a cut can be before the touch of wand is required along with the spell to heal it?"
The girl sat up in her seat with her cat in her arms. "Fifteen centimeters, Professor Cavendish," she stated. "But precaution should be taken at any cut or gash wider than ten centimeters to ensure expedient closure of the wound and proper magical cleansing is allowed to take hold."
"Very good, Eve," Diana replied impressed. "Fifteen centimeters is the maximum length and width by which a cut can be healed safely without the touch of a wand." Akko nodded her head impressed. She would have never guessed that was the answer. She glanced back at Eve and her cat familiar before turning back to Diana, who was now walking back toward the chalkboard when another student raised her hand.
"Professor Cavendish," a black haired girl said as she raised her hand. Diana turned back to the girl with her eyebrow raised. "What is the margin of error upon which a magical wound can be safely closed and cleansed before the touch of a wand is required?"
"That's a good question," Diana replied. She walked away from the chalkboard and toward her bag, which made Akko gloom slightly. Diana was sure taking her time with what Akko had planned for her. "Pardon my rudeness but I seem to have forgotten, what is your name again?"
"Tihana Petrovic," the girl stated.
Diana began to reach into her bag while talking to the student. "Ms. Petrovic, do you happen to know by chance how long the average hand of an adult woman is?"
"I believe it's anywhere from six to just over six inches, Professor," Tihana replied. Akko watched curiously as Diana reached around in her bag until she found what she was looking for; a long silver Bowie knife about seven inches in length with a mother of pearl handle. Akko recognized it immediately. It was a gift given to Diana by Amanda O'Neil the last time she and Akko went to visit the red haired American. Akko had always wondered what had happened to the knife, and was curious just what Diana was going to do with it.
"Six to just over six inches," Diana stated, holding the knife in her hand as she tapped the flat side of the blade against her palm. "So that is any length starting from about fifteen centimeters or so too..oh I don't know...seventeen centimeters, eighteen centimeters, nineteen, even twenty centimeters in an exceptionally large hand belonging to someone like a professional athlete perhaps. There's a lot of leeway in the measurement of six to just over six inches, is there not?"
"Yes, Professor Cavendish," Tihana replied nervously. Akko raised her eyebrow. Diana could still be intimidating to her students, especially given all her advanced knowledge of complicated spells like those in the field of healing magic. Akko knew it wasn't because her wife was trying to be a bully. It was only because her knowledge of magic was so vast that it seemed endless. Even Akko was somewhat awed by her wife's vast accumulation of magical know how. It was truly no wonder she was asked to teach such a difficult subject to the newest generation of witches coming through Luna Nova's halls.
"Take my hand, for example," Diana stated. Akko watched as she turned the knife in her hand toward the sharp edge. "My hand measures just around six and three quarters inches." She watched Diana grip the blade of the knife tightly in her hand. Akko and the rest of the students widened their eyes and raised their eyebrows. Just what was she going to do with the knife?
"So if I were to have a gash running the length of my hand," Diana explained. "One perhaps like this…"
With that Diana gripped the sharp edge of the blade tightly and drew it down her hand. The blade cut deeply through her flesh like it was cutting butter, as clean of a cut as any blade could possibly make. Akko and the rest of the classroom gasped at their professor, unable to comprehend just what she had done. Some of the students held their hands over their mouths and felt themselves go pale, clearly squeamish at the sight of their professor mutilating herself and bleeding profusely all over the blade. Akko herself began to bite her paws nervously. Would Diana be able to heal the wound? Of course she would, Akko thought. She's Diana, she can do anything. Right?
Akko's thoughts were calmed when Diana drew her wand quicker than a gunfighter in an American Old West movie and touched it to the wound. After muttering a brief incantation, her wand began to glow an ethereal blue. Holding it against the wound for a few moments, Akko and the class watched as the wound began to slowly close at each level of skin, the very fibers of skin cells rebonding themselves together rapidly until the cut was no longer bleeding. After thirty seconds the cut was completely sealed with no sign of scar tissue. Diana's hand looked as if she hadn't cut herself at all, which made Akko and the rest of the class gasp in surprise. It was a perfect example of the healing spell she was capable of. Hyaa, Diana! Akko thought to herself with a pump of her tiny fist. I knew you could do it! You're so perfect. She blushed at just how amazing her wife was. She then turned to focus on the rest of Diana's lesson.
"Now then, based off my demonstration, Ms. Petrovic, you can see that the margin of error for just how long the cut can be healed without the touch of a wand is incredibly small, mere millimeters in fact," Diana explained carefully as she wiped the knife off with a cloth. "One could have healed the wound I inflicted upon myself without the touch of a wand, but only in the sense that one could get the bleeding to stop. The wound would not be properly cleansed of bacteria and grime, not to mention a large amount of scar tissue would have accumulated, so realistically it could not be properly healed. And that defeats the purpose of healing magic, now does it?"
Akko nodded her head in agreement at the statement. It made perfect sense. She went to pay attention to the lesson. Then she heard something that threw her entire plan to the wind.
"Bastet!" Eve called out in surprise. "Bastet, come back here!"
Akko looked in the direction of the brown haired witch who had perfectly answered Diana's question. The cat she had been holding and petting dutifully to get her to stay put had writhed her way out of Eve's arms and into the pews of seats that lined the lecture hall. Akko looked about nervously with the rest of the students. Commotion erupted in the lecture hall as the students began to look around for Bastet, trying their best to recover the familiar for Eve. Diana however was having none of it.
"Ahem!" she called out, clearing her throat. The rest of the class quickly turned their attention back to their professor. "Ms. Brennan, your familiar can wait. Unless she has the ability to phase through walls, which I highly doubt, you can collect her after class."
"But Professor Cavendish!" Eve exclaimed.
"You can collect her after class!" Diana shot back sharply. Eve and the rest of the class shrunk back into their seats, and even Akko winced at the way Diana shouted at her student. It wasn't as if Akko hadn't heard Diana use her voice to restore order, but it was so different from what she had seen in her own life since she graduated from Luna Nova. It brought her back to the days of when they were just starting at Luna Nova and Diana her were rivals before they became lovers.
For the next few minutes no more commotion occurred and Akko stayed put. Everything seemed fine given the fact that a cat was now running about the aisles of seats that lined the lecture hall. Akko swallowed nervously but remained focused on the chalkboard. Diana was filling up the board with so many notes that it was only a matter of time before she opened it up and saw Akko's messages. Akko wiggled her little body with anticipation. Nothing was going to stop her.
That was until a hissing sound coming from right next to her.
Akko turned her head nervously to meet the noise. Bastet, the tabby cat that Eve had brought with her into the classroom, was now standing right over her salivating and staring at her with wide wide green eyes. Akko swallowed nervously. This was exactly what she had feared when she saw Eve bring the cat into the classroom. Without thinking anything else, she quickly reacted.
Akko quickly turned her back to the Bastet and sprinted away as fast as her little body possibly could. The cat yowled and began the chase, moving quickly after Akko as the little witch in mouse form quickly ran across the top barrier separating the seats from the pathways that allowed the young witches to navigate to her seats. The tabby cat remained hot in pursuit of the little witch in mouse form, yowling and hissing as it continued the chase after Akko, causing a commotion that got the attention of Diana and every other student. All of them began shouting and exclaiming as they saw the cat chase after the mouse. Many of them tried to catch both animals before the cat got to Akko and tore her apart. Akko needed a getaway, and she needed it fast.
Without so much as a second thought she formulated a plan in her mind. Quickly she jumped down the back seat of one of the young witches chairs, making the girl yell in fear as the mouse crawled down the side of the chair and down the pew. Bastet remained hot on Akko's tail, following her through the pew and down into the main aisle of steps leading up through the lecture hall. Diana struggled to maintain control of the class, trying to find some point which she could latch onto to help get the class under control as the pursuit between cat and mouse continued on. Akko meanwhile continued her breakneck sprint toward the center of the classroom. She didn't even bother looking behind her. Her eyes were totally on her target.
She bolted to the bottom of the steps and deftly dodged all the feet that were coming into the aisle as the younger witches tried to catch her and Bastet. Akko continued on as much as her little heart could take, moving fast and furiously past each foot and down each step as she neared closer and closer to her target. After only a few more seconds of scurrying and sprinting Akko neared her target. And it was then that her target made a hasty move, a strafing maneuver to the left that put her right out of the path of the mouse. Akko gasped but continued on, strafing to the side as well as Bastet closed the path between the two of them. Once she was close enough to her target only then did Akko make her move.
Without a second thought Akko latched onto Diana's outfit, grasping with her little paws as hard as she possibly could. Diana gasped, initially trying to shake the mouse off of her as Bastet reached her and got up on her hind legs. Akko feverishly climbed up Diana's outfit, trying hard to avoid Diana's swiping hands and the claws of the tabby cat who had been chasing after her. She avoided them all, climbing like she was climbing a mountain with her life depending on it as much as her little mouse heart would allow.
"Get off of me!" Diana exclaimed as she tried to swat the little rodent away. Diana watched as the mouse scurried up her outfit and onto her shoulder. She immediately went to swipe the mouse away, until she heard some frantic squeaking and saw the mouse wave her arms at her. Only when Diana saw this and looked into the mouse's red and white eyes did she understand what was going. "Akko?" she muttered perplexedly. The mouse nodded it's head and smiled from ear to ear.
Diana quickly but gently moved Bastet away with her foot and then drew her wand. "Ein Ein Sof. Ein Sof Ohr. Luna Lana!" she called out with wave of her wind. Akko swallowed as she felt Diana undo the spell that had been keeping her in the form of of a mouse and back into a human. Immediately the weight of her being on Diana's body made the two witches fall down to the floor in front of the whole class to see, Akko holding herself up on her wife's abdomen. "Akko, get off of me!" Diana gasped. "Please!"
She looked down at her wife with a piercing stare until she realized her wife was beginning to turn blue in the face. Without a second thought she got off of her wife and picked her up, dusting off Diana shoulders as her wife composed herself. "I'm sorry," Akko muttered nervously. "I just have something really important to tell you."
"Something important?!" Diana exclaimed. She looked over and gestured with her hands toward all the young witches sitting and watching the exchange. "Can't it wait? I'm teaching a class right now and..."
"No it can't!" she yelled back at her wife. Diana stepped back at just how loud her wife shouted at her. "It can't wait! It can't wait anymore. I had this big surprise all planned for you to find out and then I was going to reveal myself to tell you more, but then that stupid cat had to get in the way and ruin everything! So I'm just going to tell you right now, okay? It can't wait any longer."
Akko hyperventilated after she finished shouting at Diana. Her fists were clenched so hard she could crush rocks, but not out of anger. It was only out of sheer anxiety to what she was about to do and how much she had to just get this out of the way. It didn't help that not only was Diana looking her down but the entire class of new witches as looking at Akko and her wife. Akko now realized just what she was about to do and who she was doing it in front of. This all seemed too good to be true.
She paused and looked away nervously. Diana crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow to her. "Well, Akko?" Diana said with nonchalant but almost taunting tone. "What is it that you want to tell me so bad?" She stared down her wife with her eyebrows furrowed, directing her piercing gaze directly into her wife to try to squeeze out an answer.
I can do this, Akko thought. I have something important to tell her, and she needs to hear it. I have to do this. And I know I can! With that Akko picked her head up and began to tell Diana the news that she wanted to share.
"Diana," Akko began slowly. She inhaled deeply and exhaled before continuing on. The blonde witch and the rest of the class looked on curiously. "You know that one spell we've been trying recently?"
"What spell, Akko?" Diana said with a raised eyebrow. "We use a lot of spells in our daily lives to do numerous tasks. I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific."
Akko growled and clenched her fists again. "Come on, are you really that dense, Diana?" she yelled. She watched Diana lean back at the tone she brought out through her voice, but she didn't bother changing it. "You know damn well what spell I'm talking about!"
"No I don't!" she retorted sharply. "I don't know what spell you're talking about, Akko. So unless you can be more specific, I'll have to ask you to leave."
The rest of the class looked on curiously at the exchange, unsure of just what was happening between their professor and this woman who had taken the form of a mouse. Akko groaned and rolled her eyes. Things were becoming just like they were in their freshman year at Luna Nova, only now it was Akko trying to educate Diana rather than the other way around.
She put her head in her hands. "Oh my gosh," she l sighed. "You really don't know?" For a moment both of them were silent as Akko tried to come up with the words. "Okay, maybe I'm not being clear enough. You know that one spell that we've been trying once a month for the past seven months on certain nights of each month?"
Akko watched as Diana raised her eyebrow further and began to piece together just what Akko was getting at. "The one that required the night of a full moon to cast?" she replied curiously. "You mean that spell?" Akko nodded her head rapidly. "Akko, that spell…" she began. Akko could see the gears in her wife's head spin. She spoke calmly and slowly. "What do you mean when you bring up that spell?"
"Diana," Akko said quickly and excitedly. "The spell worked! On the seventh try the spell worked!" She stormed across the space between them and grabbed the blonde witch on the shoulders. Diana looked at her with an expression of shock upon her face. "Do you know what this means?!"
Diana felt her face go red as her mind began to race with thoughts and emotions that she never expected. Her heart was beating rapidly, like she had just ran a marathon, and the wind was getting sucked out of her lungs. She couldn't believe what her wife was telling her. "N-no," she stammered nervously. "T-that's...that's...that's not possible." She grabbed her wife by the shoulders tightly and stared her down as hard as she could. "Akko, please tell me this is all just some kind of a prank. It's just one of your practical jokes that you pull around the house all the time just to get me to laugh a little, right? Is that all this is?"
"No it's not!" Akko exclaimed happily. She held her hands on Diana's shoulders tightly as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Diana…" she began. Tears began to fall down her face as her lips quivered in happiness. "Diana, I'm pregnant," she squeaked through her quivering lips. "We're going to have a baby!"
At the sound of those words the entire classroom gasped. Many of the girls who had been holding up pencils or their notebooks dropped them in a large cacophony. They could not believe the revelation that just occurred between the two women who they now were able to deduce were lovers rather than just colleagues. The notion to many of them was absurd. A spell that could bring about a pregnancy? Conceiving a child through magic alone? That was impossible, they all thought. There was no way that something like that was achievable. But now Akko was claiming it was?
Diana shook her head quickly as her face began to turn pink. "N-no," she stuttered. "N-no that can't be. That can't be!" She stepped out of Akko's grasp and held her hands close to her. "That can't be possible, Akko!" She froze in place and began to look about nervously. "The spell failed six times. We even tested to see if it worked and it was clear it failed, including the last time. There's no way that it worked!"
"But it did!" Akko exclaimed happily through eyes of tears and cries of joy. "It worked, Diana. The spell worked on me! I'm carrying our baby!"
"But how can that be when I was trying the spell on myself?!" Diana shot back emotionally. The rest of the class looked on with a brief moment of silence. "We both agreed that I would be best fit to carry a child and that I would be the one who would be the target of the spell. And each time we did the test to make sure it worked it failed no matter what we tried. And now you're telling me that it worked but with you?" Akko nodded her head up and down quickly as she stood across the space between them. "How is that even possible?"
"Professor Chariot explained it to me," Akko explained carefully. "We both wanted this spell to work so bad that each one of us was giving their all and no one was willing to take anything. The way she explained it to me was that on the seventh try I must have subconsciously wanted the spell to work so bad and was willing to do anything to do so that I took on your life essence, Diana, instead of you taking on mine. Together we created a child. Our child!" Tears were now streaming down Akko's face as she looked happily at her wife, who was still looking at her with complete disbelief.
"B-but how," Diana stuttered. She was so uncomposed it was unique for Akko to see her like this. Akko couldn't recall a time she saw Diana this surprised, not even the time when she snuck into the Cavendish estate to get her wife to be to come back to Luna Nova. "How do you know it worked? Have you…"
"Tested for it? Yes!" Akko blurted out quickly. "The test was positive. And on top of that you've been seeing me have symptoms for weeks. The mood swings, the on and off nausea, the food cravings, the fact that I always seem like I have to pee no matter what time of day it is," she recounted on her fingers. "It's all too clear what's going on."
"But if that was the case," Diana began. The more her wife explained to her the more it began to make some sense, though not completely. "Then why didn't you tell me, Akko? Why wouldn't you let me know about this?"
"Because I didn't know how!" Akko cried out through her tears. She took a moment to get in some sobs before continuing one. "You're so focused and committed to this class, which I'm proud of you for, but it's really taken time away from us and I wanted to tell you without stressing you out. This is a big deal, but I didn't want it to take away from what you've been doing with your life because your work is so important." She paused and sobbed a bit. "The last thing I'd want is for you to put your life and work on hold because of what's happening to me, Diana. I couldn't live with myself if I did that to you."
She looked away from her wife and cried, stuttering as tears fell down from her face to the floor and she held her arms across her chest. The two women didn't speak for a few moments. Diana and her class remained silent. Akko continued to cry as she looked away from her, sniffling and sobbing lightly as tears continued to fall upon the wood floor. It was then that Diana made her move, slowly approaching her wife again.
"Akko," she said quietly. Her Japanese wife continued to sob. "Akko, look at me." Akko continued to sob and remained turned away from her wife. Diana gently clasped Akko's shoulders with one hand while she caressed her wife's cheek with the other. Akko felt the warmth of Diana's hand and turned toward her, her lips quivering and tears still flowing down her face. Then, without so much as a second thought Akko felt her shirt collar grabbed and her lips pressed against Diana's. Her eyes went wide at first, wider than almost every of the witches who were watching what was happen unfold. Eventually she settled into the kiss, returning the passion gently as Diana held her close.
The blonde let Akko go and pulled away before touching her shoulders. "How dare you," Diana seethed.
"Diana?" she asked curiously. Akko looked up at her wife curiously, unsure why she was speaking in such a tone. It was only after she looked and saw the tears in Diana's eyes that she understood why her wife was speaking that way.
"How dare you!" Diana exclaimed through sobs of her own. "How dare you ever withhold this from me!" She wanted to slap Akko in the face but realized that would be extremely problematic in front of her students. "How dare you withhold this from me! Especially when your well being was at risk. How dare you, Akko!"
"Diana I…" Akko replied nervously.
"Why would you ever think I would put my work before you?!" Diana cried as she held Akko tightly by the shoulders. "My job could never come before you Akko, especially now that you're…" She looked down at Akko's belly and put her hands around it gently. "Now that you're the mother of our child. My work could never come before someone like that."
A silence fell again between the two women. Briefly in the classroom it was so quiet that a speck of dust could be heard falling onto the floor. Akko quickly broke that silence by reaching over and hugging Diana, crying into her bosom as she held on to her wife tightly. Diana returned the hug and gently ran her hands up and down Akko's back, tears pouring down her own face as well.
Akko looked up at her wife and sniffled, trying to get rid of the last of her tears. "So, I don't know if it matters anymore, but did you still want to see the surprise I had made for you?"
"Of course I do," Diana replied quickly. "Anything you wish."
With that she watched as Akko went over to the chalkboard and pulled each end aside, revealing the larger board behind it. Diana looked closely and gasped when it was revealed to her. It was a fully drawn chalk drawing of her and Diana firing the Shiny Arc into the nuclear missile before the release of the Grand Triskelion. But more than just being them, a third hand clasped over theirs as it held the arc. Diana couldn't help but gasp and put her hand over her mouth, tears again streaming from her eyes at the sight of the picture. It was a truly unbelievable display that conveyed Akko's love and excitement for what had happened to them better than Diana could have ever imagined.
And then something most surprising to both witches happen. The crowd of students slowly began to clap, their applause raising in volume until it filled the room completely. Akko and Diana looked up at the students, many of whom were standing in applause to cheer on their professor and her wife. It only made Akko and Diana cry more, though they took a moment to laugh at the adulation they were both receiving. Akko knew that she had taken up much of Diana's day, and she nodded toward her wife to show she approved of her next course of action. Diana let out a heavy sigh and turned back to her students.
"Thank you," she said bashfully to her students. "Thank you very much for putting up with that highly charged display." Akko and the students laughed while Diana wiped tears from her eyes. "But really we must be getting back to our lecture." She paused and wiped one round of tears from her eyes before turning back to Akko. "Would you like to stay or will I see you later?"
"I think I'm gonna split," Akko said with a sheepish grin. "I really gotta use the bathroom right now." Both women chuckled before embracing each other. "I love you, Diana."
"I love you too, Akko," the blonde witch replied. "Take care and I will see you tonight." With that Akko broke the embrace and waved to the students before she walked out the door.
Once she was on the other side she smiled and bolted for the nearest bathroom to relieve herself. After she was done she walked out of the bathroom and for the exit to Luna Nova, but not before being stopped by Luna Nova's headmistress on her way out the door.
"Did it work?" Chariot asked as she approached Akko from behind.
Akko turned to face her mentor and nodded quickly with a smile. "It did," she said. "It didn't go completely according to my plan, but it worked. She was more than happy to find out."
"I'm glad," Chariot replied. She took her place by the side of her old protege and walked with her toward the door. "I suppose it won't be long before I'll be approving maternity leave for Professor Cavendish, now will it?"
"Well I'm not quite through my first trimester so we still got time," Akko said wryly. She looked up at her mentor and idol. "But the sooner you could get that approved the better."
"I'll advise her to put it in as soon as possible," Chariot stated as the two witches walked along. They approached the grand entrance to Luna Nova and stopped before Chariot turned to face Akko. "Now I hope you don't have any other schemes you want to ask me for advice on," she said with a chuckle.
"I think I'll be taking a break from schemes and plans for a little while, Professor," Akko chuckled back. She reached over and wrapped Chariot up in a tight embrace, which the redhead returned kindly. "You know Diana and I will need a godmother for our baby someday. You think you could…"
"I think we'll cross that bridge when we get there, Akko," Chariot remarked coyly. Akko chuckled again and gave her idol one last embrace before walking out of Luna Nova, making a promise with her professor to remain in contact as her pregnancy further developed.
More than anything though she was glad that she was able to share the news with Diana, and that Diana was able to reaffirm their love for one another in light of the revelation that was made. That to her, more than the baby she was holding within, was the greatest gift of all.
AN: Wow, that was so fun to write! One of those most fun stories I've had the pleasure of writing in quite some time, in both real fiction and regular fiction.
Just some interesting facts and tidbits on certain things I wrote into the story.
-The symbol Akko carved onto the toast is the one that is the cover image of this story, a Celtic symbol of fertility that I figured Diana would have recognized if she actually paid attention given her British heritage.
-Eve's familiar Bastet was named for an Egyptian god of fertility and protection. Hopefully you find some humor going back and reading that now as I found when writing it.
Now back to my original story and reviewing other people's work for DianaxAkko week. Thanks again for reading!
-Symbiotic