Holiday!

By EmmaUnnie

Chapter 1: Arrival

A few days before holiday begins at Luna Nova, Aksuko Kagari can barely contain her excitement. She's lost much of her focus during classes, due to plotting a non-awkward-or-cringy-way on how to simply ask Diana Cavendish something extremely important to her.

Yesterday, she had begged Amanda O'Neill for help during lunch. The red-headed witch told her to just play it cool, and to not be overly-excited. As you may have guessed, that plan failed the next day.

When the first class is over and the witches begin to exit, Akko (quite dramatically..) scans the room for Diana's blonde hair. She finds her and instantly bolts towards the poor girl before she reaches the door to leave, earning a few amused stares.

Diana, startled, asks, "A-Akko! It is considered very impolite to—"

"I have something super duper important to ask you!" Akko's eyes seem to have stars in them again, Diana thought.

"...Well, what is it?"

"Um...you see, I was wondering if..." Akko racked her brain, trying to remember what Amanda had told her, completely forgetting.

"Go on, then," Diana gave a subtle nod, and sensed the brunette's obvious anxiety.

"I...Ihumblyinviteyoutostaywithmeand—...I humbly invite you..to stay with me..and our friends...at Furou Island for a week and we would beverygratefulifyoucouldcome!" Akko breathed heavily, mentally facepalming herself and trying to avoid eye contact.

Diana took a moment, and delicately rested her forefinger on her raised chin, trying to process what the little mouse just said. A few seconds later she looks back at the nervous girl in front of her.

"..I was planning to stay with Hannah and Barbara since they begged me to," she said coolly. "But...yes, I believe I can accompany you to Fur-..Furou Island." Diana was taken aback a bit at the amount of pure happiness radiating from Akko.

Akko's huge smile were joined by those pair of sparkling eyes. She jumps up and down excessively, and then checks to see if anyone's watching the little show, blushing out of embarrassment. She turns back to Diana's amused face and quickly hugs her tightly before taking off. Diana stood frozen, and her cheeks turned to the color of a pastel pink. She tried to compose herself before walking briskly on to the next class with her usual, mature demeanor.

It was then that Akko remembered what Amanda had told her.

At night, Akko opened her dorm room door and shut it silently. She ran over to sit down on her bed and joined Lotte and Sucy's conversation. "It looks like things went well," Sucy said, switching topics from the loud grasshopper outside to her extroverted friend who had a seemingly never-ending smile.

"Extremely well, I think," Akko said, laying down.

"To be honest, I never thought Diana would actually say no Akko," Lotte said, yawning quietly.

Akko lifted her head up and looked at her with tired, happy eyes. "You're right. I really had nothing to worry about. I mean, I think Diana and I have become really good friends."

"Maybe a bit more than that.." Sucy whispered.

"Huh?" Akko cocked her head to the side.

Lotte discreetly gave Sucy a look and said, "She said that you're totally right."

"Yeah, we'll all have an AMAAAAAAZING time!" She raised her arms up in the air.

Lotte giggled at her sunshine-like friend. "Even before the two of them stopped the missed, I believe there was a connection growing." She stated. Akko blushed, setting her arms on her lap.

Sucy smiled. "Exactly. But I think it all started a Andrew's party..."

Akko's embarrassed blush intensified to a rose red and glared at Sucy along with Lotte. "No it did not! That was YOUR fault by the way. And the magic has already worn out by now. That bee is long gone." She folded her arms, failing at looking serious and ended up looking cutely upset.

Sucy's smile just widened. "Come on, Akko. We all know you like—"

"Sucy, Akko, it's clear we're all very tired," Lotte interrupts. "And I think it's best for us to go to sleep before we get in trouble."

Akko and Sucy sighed and pulled up their covers.

Akko, Sucy, Lotte, Amanda, Jasminka, and Contanze stood at the Ley Line Terminal and waited for Diana. "Ah, we're gonna have so much fun! I can't wait!" Said an enthusiastic Akko.

"I can't wait to just relax on the beach," Lotte sighed.

'I heard that there's a rare type of mushroom that grows on the island," Sucy murmured, creepily rubbing her hands together.

"I heard that- oh, here she comes." Amanda said, pointing the edge of her broom at Diana.

Diana smiled shyly. "Hello everyone. I hope I'm not late,"

Akko returned the smile. "Nah, you're right on time! Let's get out of here!"

And with that, everyone set their suitcases on their brooms and said, "Tia frele!" The brooms levitated off the stone floor and sent them—yes, Akko can fly— higher and higher as sparkling turquoise and purple magic enveloped their bodies. And off they went.

After they entered the maze of lights and colors, Akko said, "The Ley Line still amazes me."

Diana glanced at her and a small smile formed on her face. "Yes, it has always been a quick way for witches near stored magical energy, like the Sorcerer's Stone, to arrive at their destination."

"I thought we left the academy already." Amanda said nonchalantly, earning a deadpanned glare from Akko.

"Ah, we've arrived." Diana said, who apparently didn't hear Amanda, or just chose to ignore her.

Akko looked forward and the Ley Line disappeared to reveal their landing point on Furou Island. She then realized she'd have to land. "Umm, I don't quite have the uh, landing thing down yet.."

Diana smiled understandably. "You've practiced time and time again. Just...don't lose focus, and—"

"Don't crash like last time," Amanda interrupted.

"...Yes, that." Diana said.

As the landing point approached them, Akko reared her broom, and stopped just before crashing into bright green grass. She breathed, not realizing she was even holding her breath.

"Nice job, Aksuko." Diana praised, hopping gracefully off of her broom.

"Thanks! It was easy, really." Akko beamed, acting like she wasn't nervous just a few seconds earlier.

"I see tiny house!" Jasminka exclaimed, munching on potato chips (where they came from, I don't know) while pointing to a house in the distance.

"Yeah, that's where we're staying. It actually belongs to my parents as a little summer home. They're letting us use it while their on their own vacation."

"You're parents must really trust you," Lotte said.

"Yeah, I suppose they do," Akko said, raising her chin up boastfully.

"That's quite surprising.." Diana said.

"Yeah, they let the craziest witch in the world use their precious summer home." Sucy said, shaking her head. Contanze, who can't speak, grunted in agreement, and Akko's chin lowered.

"Well anyway, let's go already." She marched off towards the house, not even bothering to wait for anyone. The others rolled their eyes (except for Diana~) and followed her.

Akko showed everyone around the house, and introduced them to the nature fairies —who take good care of it when it's not in use— before they left the house to them. After that, everyone chose a room and unpacked their belongings. There were three rooms. The first room had three beds and a globe theme to it. Amanda, Jasminka, and Constanze claimed it immediately. The second room had a witchy theme to it, with old incantations and skulls hanging on the walls. Naturally, Sucy and Lotte exchanged no words as they walked inside. That left Akko and Diana to room three. With the mint-blonde girl behind her, Akko opened the door to reveal her room, which consisted of Shiny Chariot posters and even some special magical items. "This is the room I stay in on vacation, actually," Akko said.

"Yes, it's very obvious." Diana hid a smile and looked at the single, sparkly purple bed in the middle.

Akko said, "Oh yeah...I forgot to mention room three has one bed. There is an extra room four for more guests, but it's super boring. I figured we'd be more comfortable here. If you don't like it—"

"No, it's fine. I don't think Lotte and Sucy would want to sleep under Shiny Chariot posters, let alone together." Sleep together. Her face reddened when she realized what had come out of her mouth. "Um, not that we would rather—well—...n-nevermind." She sat down on the bouncy childish bed in embarrassment. Akko sat down next to her, unfazed but a little amused and found her embarrassed attitude to be cute; but she'd never say that out loud.

"Cute~.." She thou—...whispered out loud to herself, hoping that Diana didn't hear her. Diana sat facing her shoes, apparently unaware of what she whispered. There was a painfully awkward silence.

Akko broke the silence, saying, "Diana..." She lost her train of thought, completely forgetting what the heck she was going to say when Diana gave her her full attention, her baby blue eyes resting on two very close chocolate ones. Suddenly a feeling like tension blew through the room and seemed to dim the already faint sunlight.

Diana blushed and looked the other way, and their lips brushed against each other. She jumped a little at the contact, trying to hide her uncommonly flustered face. Akko blinked a few times before following suit. "We should unpack," Diana said, getting up and having returned to her usually calm self. But when she turned around she placed her hand on her heart and breathed heavily, and tried to not think about the previous situation. Akko simply turned the other way and started to unpack as well, also trying to hide her feelings being all over her face.

Diana heard an angry grunt from behind her and hesitantly turned around to see the brunette struggling with her suitcase. "I can't...get it...OPEN!" Akko exclaimed, her face now red from pure frustration. Diana hid yet another smile behind her hand and reluctantly bent down next to her, making Akko jump.

"Sorry. Here, let me help." She tugged at the zipper, but to no avail. She tried two more times before Akko decided to that they should pull together. Her hand stopped for a split second before wrapping around Diana's when she had the strangest thought of them holding hands. She mentally shook it off and they pulled on the suitcase. It flung open and clothes flew everywhere, sending the two witches backwards. After a stunned and somewhat victorious moment, they started to giggle, which erupted into a emotionally exhausted/being-tickled-to-death laughter. The pair heard footsteps coming towards their door and all the other witches appeared at the entrance to where an apparent tornado came through.

"Are you guys ok? We heard a loud bang." Lotte said, looking astounded.

"Y-yes, we're *haha* fine!" Akko laugh-said as Diana covers her mouth, trying to contain the childish noise that was threatening to be exposed.

"It sounds you guys are having fun in here," Sucy said cheekily.

"We might need a little help," Diana replied shyly.

After the room was cleaned up, the sunlight began to dim as the sun slowly hid behind the mountains.

"That, like, took forever." Amanda grunted.

"You're tellin' me." Akko said wearily.

"Hungry." Jasminka said, which was the only word that came from her mouth that they're used to hearing. Everyone's stomach rumbled on cue.

"Hey, wanna go to the boardwalk? There's lots of places to eat there! I heard there's a restaurant named after Chariot!" Akko exclaimed. Murmurs of agreement swept through the room and exploded in a "Let's go!~"