AN:Chapter 2 is here! I hope to upload chapters at about this pace (or hopefully faster) so I hope you all look forward to that. Oh and while it isn't hyper detailed or prevalent of anything, I feel like I should add a warning: there is mentioning of vomiting in this chapter. So uh, on that cherry note, I hope you enjoy!
Akko would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Ever since she had left the alchemist's cottage, Akko just couldn't get her dark smile out of her head. Seeing those razors of teeth pull up into that grin made her blood run cold. Still, she had to consider herself pretty lucky (for what was probably the first time in her life). To think that she would be able to find the one alchemist in the land to be working on an Emerald Blood cure. Having to work as her personal test subject hardly seemed like an unfair trade when she thought about it that way. In fact, she still felt kinda bad that she wasn't able to pay Sucy with anything more material. So she was 100% determined to make sure she would be the best damn lab assistant she could be.
With that silent promise of determination made, Akko decided to set out for Sucy's cottage the first thing in the morning. Remembering the blustery winds of the other day, Akko made sure to dress a good bit warmer than before, wearing her orange winter coat over her apprentice uniform. A bright orange coat wasn't really the dress of a proper witch, but she was sure that Chariot wouldn't mind, given the weather. The older witch always had been very understanding. Making sure to lock the door behind her, Akko started on her trek to the alchemist's house. Considering her apparent attitude towards visitors, Sucy's house was much closer to Akko's village than one would think. If one knew the way, it wouldn't take them more than a half hour's trip by foot, even less if they went by horse. That being said, it wasn't like the house was particularly easy to find. Tucked away in a forest clearing, pressed against a grassy hillside, the small building was easily missable, even more so considering it lay off the main forest path. Still, Akko couldn't help but notice that it was far from an unreachable destination. Sucy certainly wasn't inviting visitors, but she wasn't keeping herself so isolated that they couldn't come.
Making her way through the winding forest trees, Akko soon found herself at the worn wooden door of her destination.
"Alright Akko, This is it," she muttered to herself in an attempt to steel her nerves. "Just knock on that door, and be the best alchemy assistant that Sucy has ever seen!"
And with that, Akko moved to knock on the door...only for it to instantly swing open and for her to fall flat on her face. Slowly, the brunette girl moved to pick herself up, letting out a groan as she rose. As her vision came back into focus, she noticed Sucy standing nearby, one hand on the door handle, the other over her mouth as she tried to (poorly) hide her snickering.
"Good morning Mrs. Kagari. I didn't expect you in so early." Sucy said with a chuckle as reached down, helping Akko to her feet.
"You're certainly more excited to be my test subject than I thought~"
The alchemist gave a dark chuckle at this, one that only got louder as Akko's face flushed. She had just wanted to be punctual, and show that she was taking their agreement seriously. That was it. She certainly wasn't excited to return and be experimented on. Sure, Sucy was quite pretty, but that had absolutely nothing to do with her desire to be a good assistant. Nothing at all.
"I-I just wanted to er," Akko stuttered. "Make sure you knew I was serious about this…" the brunette trailed off as she looked down in slight embarrassment.
Sucy responded with a simple pleased hum. Despite not looking her in the eye, Akko could just tell the other girl was looking her over.
"Alright then!" Sucy said, breaking a period of silence with a clap. "Why don't we get right to it and put you to work?"
Akko sprung into action at this, leaping forward to grab the other girl's hands in her own.
"Of course! I'm ready to do anything you want me to!" Akko said determinedly, her fiery eyes meeting the calm red of Sucy's.
Akko had expected the alchemist to give another one of her dark laughs at this, that sly, toothy grin from before accompanying it. She did not expect the other girl's eyes to widen slightly in surprise, nor the slight dusting of pink that spread across her cheeks. That was when Akko registered just how forward she had sounded with her declaration, and just close their faces had gotten. Dropping Sucy's hands, Akko took a good step or two back, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
"Uh yeah, um. Just tell me what to do," she said in a much more quiet, and less desperate sounding voice.
Sucy didn't respond immediately, continuing to stare until she suddenly shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. Giving a small cough, the alchemist gestured towards the work bench where she and Akko had sat two days ago.
"R-right. You can start by, uh, cleaning my cauldron," Sucy said, pulling some cleaning supplies from herself, and handing them to a now bewildered Akko. While she had literally just promised her compliance to do anything, Akko couldn't help but respond with.
"That's it? Cleaning?"
"Uh yeah," Sucy said dryly. "I have other things to focus on right now, and don't really have time to do it myself. You can use the big sink in the kitchen, the one on the far right," she said, pointing over Akko's shoulder.
Akko didn't know why, but she couldn't help but feel a sting of disappointment. She should have felt relieved, excited even, that she wouldn't be forced to drink some vile concoction and sprout ears or turn blue or something. Instead, she felt more like she was being slighted. Did Sucy not trust her to help with something more important? Did she doubt Akko's resolve to stay and help with the more dangerous testing?
"Come on Akko, get ahold of yourself!" She shouted internally at herself. "Sucy's just being nice, starting you off with something simple. Gotta get yourself acquainted with things before the real work starts."
Nodding her head in resolve, Akko made her way to the cauldron. The young witch in training couldn't help but feel slight awe as she approached the old stone basin. Having been a student under Chariot for several years now, Akko was quite accustomed to magic. Well, she was at least accustomed to seeing magic (her actual creation of magic could still use some work). Yet something about the cauldron, the tools around it, and all the various vials on the shelves excited her. Alchemy was just so fundamentally different than the magic that Chariot was teaching her. Witches used magic to create the impossible, conjuring things for their use or to augment their abilities. Alchemist on the other hand, used their magic to draw out the properties of their ingredients, exemplifying traits that already exist. The intricate differences were fascinating to think about. Part of Akko really wanted to ask Sucy all kinds of questions about alchemy and the type of magic she used, but a much larger more responsible part realized it was probably a much better idea to just focus on her task at hand.
Hefting the cauldron from its place on the workbench, Akko turned to face Sucy with a determined smile.
"Leave it to me! One clean cauldron coming up!" as she spoke, Akko moved to rest the cauldron on her left shoulder, freeing up her right hand for a salute.
For a second time, Sucy simply stood and stared before responding. It was pretty obvious that she was quite surprised to see Akko lift the fairly heavy cauldron so easily. The brunette had never been one to brag about it, but she had to admit she was proud of the strength she had built up from years of helping Chariot with chores.
"Oh yeah, um, guess I'm a bit stronger than I look, huh?" Akko said with a giggle. "Compared to chopping firewood all day for Chariot, this is nothing, trust me!" she said, smiling.
Sucy seemed to have once again returned to her normal self, turning around and lazily waving a hand over her shoulder.
"Yeah yeah whatever," the alchemist said flatly. "Just try not to break it or anything yeah? Cauldrons aren't easy to replace."
Moving towards her front door, Sucy stopped to take what looked like some garden tools that were hanging on a rack nearby.
"I'll be out in the garden, inspecting some...specimens I have growing there. Don't bother me unless it's an emergency, and you better be done cleaning that when I get back."
And with that, Sucy turned and shuffled out her front door, leaving Akko alone in the cottage. Deciding she should just get right to it, Akko walked over to the kitchen. It wasn't hard to spot the sink Sucy had been referring to. With a slight grunt, she set the hunk of rock into the large basin, and took a step back to inspect it. The cauldron was mostly unremarkable in appearance. It was made of a dull, gray stone, and seemed to have been carved unevenly. The only real feature of note was the dark blue etchings on its sides. They must have been some kind of symbol, Akko vaguely remembered reading something about alchemy circles at one point, but she was far from sure. It was strange, to think that such wonders, both beneficial and deadly, could come out of such a simple, and quite frankly, ugly lump of stone. Still, it was her job to clean said lump of stone, not judge it's beauty, so Akko rolled up her sleeves, turned on the faucet, and furiously began to scrub the inside of the cauldron with a brush.
Things had been going quite well, Akko scrubbing away diligently, when an absolutely repulsive smell struck her. Dropping her brush and taking several steps back, Akko covered her mouth and nose in disgust.
"Urgh! それは何ですか!?" Akko shouted, slipping into her native language amidst her surprise.
It had to be one of the most repulsive things she had ever smelled, a cross somewhere between spoiled meat and rotten eggs. Where the heck had it come from? It definitely hadn't been present a few minutes ago? Akko's train of thought was interrupted as she was hit by another wave of the mystery stench. This was just great. How was she supposed to finish cleaning the cauldron when all she could think about was this nasty smell?
That's when something clicked in Akko's mind, and she slowly approached the cauldron, which had now overflowed with water. No, it couldn't be. The cauldron wasn't stinking like that before! All it took was one wif for Akko's worry to become reality. Maybe this who assistant thing really wasn't for her after all.
"No!" Akko shouted internally. "You've got to do this Akko! Sucy must be testing you after all! Testing your resolve to clean something that smells this nasty!" the brunette reasoned to herself.
"Little does she know that it's gonna take a lot more than some crappy smelling rock to stop Atsuko Kagari!" and with that thought, Akko took a big breath of Air, slipped her robe over her nose and resumed cleaning.
This had to be some sort of test! She just knew it! There was a perfectly good reason why Sucy had her first task be cleaning this cauldron!
"R-right. You can start by, uh, cleaning my cauldron," and Sucy had absolutely no idea why she just said that.
"What the hell was that!?" she screamed in her head.
She had been planning to have pick the morgue blooms in her garden for her, and see how the girl would react to their hallucinogenic spores, so why in the world did she ask her to clean her cauldron. It was all Akko's fault! The girl had caught her off guard. Sucy had to admit she had been quite excited for the girls arrival, and had woken up pretty early to make sure she was ready when she arrived. She had never really had any help with her work before (mostly by her own design) let alone someone willing to be a test subject. She had the entire day and the various test she was going to conduct all lined up and meticulously planned...until that oaf of a girl had said what she did.
"Of course! I'm ready to do anything you want me to!" Sucy heard Akko exclaim as she replayed the moment in her head.
The conviction that had been burning in her eyes, the sudden closeness of her face, the actual words of her statement; it had all been too much, too overwhelming. Sucy had tried to focus once the shorter girl had stepped back, but her brain had betrayed her, echoing Akko's words throughout her mind. Her mind was all but shot, and when it came time for her to issue her new assistant a command she panicked and said the first thing that came to mind.
"That's it? Cleaning?"
Sucy fought the urge to cringe at the other girl's obvious confusion and disappointment. Apparently even she had been expecting much more out of today. Well it was too late for that now. The only way she could get Akko to do something else was backpedal her previous words and no way was she doing that. That would only lead to questions on Akko's part about why she had changed her mind and Sucy would much rather swallow her most toxic ingredients than explain why.
"Well I got all hot and bothered earlier when you basically swore yourself to me and it threw me off."
Yeah. Definitely not happening.
"Uh yeah," Sucy said dryly. "I have other things to focus on right now, and don't really have time to do it myself. You can use the big sink in the kitchen, the one on the far right," she said, pointing over Akko's shoulder.
This was not how she had wanted to start the day. Sucy had to resist the urge to groan in frustration at this whole stupid ordeal. What was she even embarrassed about? So what a cute girl had promised to do whatever she wanted her to. No, correction. Not cute, stupid. She most certainly did not find Akko cute. She was simply her guinea pig, nothing else. Huffing slightly to herself, Sucy decided the best thing right now would be some fresh air. Looks like she would be picking the morgue blooms herself. She was just about to inform Akko of her plans when the brunette's actions shook her from her thoughts.
Annoyingly, for the second time today, a matter of minutes apart no less, Sucy found herself absolutely dumbfounded as the short brunette girl lifted her solid stone cauldron with ease. It took every bit of will power the alchemist had to keep her mouth from gaping like a fish. It duly registered in her now shot mind that Akko was saying something. Exactly what, she had no idea, but it was quite clear that she needed to leave. Now. She heard herself make up some lame comment about not breaking the cauldron, Mention the mushrooms in the garden, and the next thing she knew, she was out the door. Once she was outside, and out of the eyesight of her new assistant, Sucy felt herself blush.
How the hell was that even possible!? How was a girl that small that strong!? Impossible! Sucy tried not to, and failed, to think about how easily Akko could lift her. The brunette's word once again echoed in her head, this time accompanied with a rather embarrassing image of Akko carrying her bridal style.
"~anything you want me to…"
With an annoyed groan Sucy made her way towards her garden. This girl was going to end up being the death of her. Maybe this assistant mess wasn't the great idea she thought it was.
It turns out picking deadly mushrooms in the crisp winter wind was just what Sucy needed to clear her head. The lavender haired alchemist let out a relaxed sigh as she made her way back to her cottage, a bundle of morgue blooms held securely under her arm. So Akko had a problem with personal space. That could be dealt with. No use in getting flustered everytime the other girl put her face close to her own. She'd just have to tell her to back off more, maybe adding in some punishment if necessary. Sucy chuckled darkly to herself as she imagined the other girl yelping in surprise as a toothed plant hidden in her hood bit her on the nose. Yes there was no reason Akko still couldn't make a good test subject.
Putting the more...emotionally confusing events that had occurred earlier that morning behind her, Sucy decided that it was probably best to check up on Akko. She highly doubted that she could really mess anything up just from cleaning a cauldron, but remembering back to just how carelessly Akko had grabbed a random vial from her shelves because it 'looked pretty' told her it wasn't a good idea to leave the brunette alone for too long. As she reached the front door, Sucy suddenly became aware of a faint sound coming from her kitchen window. Curious, she left the front door, and made her way closer to the small, round window, stopping just beside it to listen closer. It wasn't long before Sucy recognized the sound. After all, when one worked with potions, that more often than not tasted terribly, they got quite familiar with the sound of someone retching. That only left the question of why? It was almost certainly Akko, as there was no one else in her home. Did she make herself sick somehow?
Sucy couldn't help but feel a twinge of worry as she thought about it. Making her way back to the front door, Sucy stepped inside her home, closing the door behind her and making her way to the kitchen.
"Akko, are you alright? I heard you through the window, and it sounded like you were gonna puke your guts ou-"
Sucy cut herself off mid sentence as a powerful odor hit her nose. What the hell was that? The cottage certainly hadn't smelled like this earlier. With a sigh, she continued into the kitchen. The sight that greeted her was almost comical. An exasperated Akko, looking rather green in the face, was running back and forth between the open kitchen window, and her cauldron, still sitting in the alchemy sink. The brunette girl would stop at the cauldron, scrubbing furiously for several seconds, before darting towards the window, coughing and retching loudly. Then, after taking a deep breath, she would return to the cauldron, repeating the cycle. After watching for several minutes, and holding back several raspy laughs, Sucy cleared her throat. Akko stopped mid dash, whipping her head around to face Sucy.
"Hey, uh, whatcha doing there?" Sucy said, biting back a laugh.
If Sucy had been expecting any sort of reaction, it definitely wasn't Akko throwing herself onto her knees, and wrapping her arms around her legs.
"I'm so sorry!" the brunette wailed as she pressed her face against Sucy's legs.
The alchemist felt her blush from earlier threatening to return.
"W-what the heck are you talking about? Sorry about what?" Sucy asked confused.
"I tried!" Akko responded, seemingly on the verge of tears. "I really tried to clean it honest! But it just started to stink so BAD, and I didn't I didn't want to puke on your floor, so I came up with the window idea, but that cut my progress time in half and i-"
"Akko!" Sucy said curtly, cutting off the other girl's stream of words. "Just, shut up. Tell me what happened, but, normally."
Standing up, Akko took a deep breath...which instantly caused her to divulge into a coughing fit for several seconds. Sucy rolled her eyes as she patiently waited for the other girl to regain her talking abilities. Finally, Akko calmed down enough to explain herself.
"I was cleanin' the cauldron like you asked, but it started to stink, like superbad," Akko said matter-o-factly.
Sucy gave a contemplative hum, as she turned to look at the cauldron. It didn't take her long to realize the problem.
"Don't tell me...you didn't try to use water to clean it did you?"
Akko simply stared back at her slack jawed
"OF COURSE I USED WATER! WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT!?" Akko shouted in frustration, pulling in her hair.
Sucy merely chuckled before responding.
"Dathomirian roots react poorly to water. They let off a noxious smell when they get wet. The last potion I made used them as a key ingredient. Their residue is all over that cauldron." Sucy explained dryly.
Akko crossed her arms unamused. She narrowed her eyes at the alchemist.
"Then what the heck was I supposed to use?" Akko asked crossly.
"Uh, the bottle of cleaner I handed you," Sucy said, pointing to the bottle she had given Akko earlier along with the scrub brush.
The bottle sat on the counter, clearly forgotten. Sucy watched as Akko turned to look at it, the slowly turn to look back at her.
"You could have told me that!" Akko exclaimed, waving her hands in the air.
She had a point there. Sucy was just so used to cleaning things like this herself, she hadn't even stopped to consider that Akko had absolutely none of her ingredient know how. This was going to be harder than she thought.
"Yeah you're not wrong," Sucy admitted as she walked towards the cauldron. "Sorry about that. I'm not used to working with someone else."
Sucy felt herself smirk as she looked her cauldron over. It was actually pretty clean, considering it had been done incorrectly.
"I gotta admit, you did a pretty good job cleaning it. You pretty much got all of it." Sucy said approvingly.
The alchemist quirked an eyebrow as she noticed a sizeable glob of purple root residue sticking to the edge of the cauldron. Pulling her wand from her side, Sucy scrapped the glob onto the tip of it, turning to face her assistant.
"Well, almost all of it," she said slyly.
Akko's face immediately turn several shades greener as she recoiled from the goo.
"Ugh! That stuff doesn't bother you!?" the shorter girl asked incredulously.
Sucy cackled before answering.
"Not anymore. Trust me, any alchemist worth their salt has smelled WAY worse."
Akko seemed to think about that. Suddenly, a flash of her earlier conviction streaked across her eyes. Slowly, Akko ever so carefully moved closer to Sucy and the foul smelling goop.
"What...are you doing?" Sucy asked, genuinely confused.
Akko merely tightened her gaze in determination.
"You said it yourself, alchemists are totally used to this kind of stuff. If I'm going to be a good alchemist's assistant, I have to get used to it to!" Akko explained confidently.
Sucy blinked in surprise at this. What was with this girl? Combined with her declaration from earlier in the day, there was no doubt left in Sucy's mind that she was taking their deal beyond seriously.
"Akko, I uh, appreciate the sentiment, but you don't have to-" Whatever Sucy was about to say however, was cut off, as Akko suddenly wretched, ran hurriedly to the window, and proceed to violent puke out it. With a sigh, Sucy set her wand down in the cleaner and moved to rub Akko's back as she emptied her stomach.
"Maybe we should just call it for today," Sucy said somewhat quitely.
While she had surprised herself by suggesting it, she realized that it was probably for the best. Letting Akko take one thing at time really did seem like the best option, and she was suddenly thankful that her more ambitious plans for today had been tabled. The last thing she wanted to do was scare Akko off, or even worse, genuinely harm her in some way.
Akko however, didn't seem to agree. As soon as she was done throwing up, the brunette girl swung her head back inside, turning to face Sucy determinedly.
"No way! I'm not giving up yet! So what I got a little sick to my stomach? That's just part of the job!" Akko said. Sucy was less than convinced
"I promise I'm fine! Honest! Give me something else to do!"
Against her better judgement, Sucy moved a contemplative hand to her chin. It was true that she had plenty of other experiments initially planned for today, the morgue blooms she had set down on the counter seemed to sparkle at her as she remembered her earlier plan of having Akko test the effects of the sopres. It shouldn't be too strenuous on her, if what she had read was correct it would be like experiencing sleep walking, and Akko had said she was okay…
Turning to look at the other girl, Sucy couldn't help but notice the determined twinkle in her gaze. The brunette girl bunched her hands into fists in front of her excitedly. Sucy was about to give in and explain Akko's next assignment, when a flash of disgust and horror crossed Akko's face.
"OH GODS THE SMELL GOT ON MY HANDS!" was the last thing Akko screeched before returning to puke out the window.
Sucy sighed as she once again rubbed Akko's back.
"Okay yeah we are definitely done for today."
She wasn't 100% certain, but Sucy was pretty sure she saw Akko nod in agreement the best she could.