Two months. Two months without updates on this fic. Main reason? I've been a little slow with writing in general.

And yeah, yeah, I know, sorta-Christmas chapter in the middle of October, yeah, well, I can't hold the story back for holidays. And I have to admit, I've had some trouble with writing here. Whereas I've gotten to the point where I can sorta handle Akko and Sucy in writing (And I think I might have messed up even here a bit), other characters? Not so much.

Lack of reviews makes me sad.

(Current in-story month: December)

"Okay, so I think we have everything done. Now to just go over our list to make sure we didn't miss anything."

Sucy and Akko weren't really the types to shop for the Christmas necessities at any large malls. Sucy hated crowded places, and Akko tended to get lost in such large buildings, and they both certainly agreed that sometimes, the prices skyrocketed instead of dropping down near the holidays. That being said, on that particular day, Akko had requested that they'd go over to the Blytonbury mall, as she still had some gifts to get for most of her close friends. A certain limited edition book for Lotte – apparently, the nerdy girl has gotten off of Nightfall just recently, and gotten into the Magical Catastrophe Agency series, written by an author that seemingly hailed from Jasminka's homeland. – a new set of super-precise tools for Constanze – for all her usage of magic during her tinkering, the German raven-haired girl had often needed some more mundane tools every now and then, especially considering that she had a habit of repurposing some tools magically as well, and she needed some new "toys to play with", so to speak – and a few other things that would probably end up as a particularly huge list.

"We still have to get that one book for Lotte. I can't believe we actually managed to live to see the day she laid off of the Nightfall series." – Sucy remarked as she led Akko over to one of the mall's book shops. Oftentimes, the violette wondered just how Akko can continue going as cheerfully as she usually did, considering that the japanese witch's pregnant belly was supposed to slow her down at least a tiny bit, not to mention that she would complain about back pains and soreness a lot more often during the second trimester rather than now. Perhaps she might have gotten used to the extra weight by now.

Or not, as a couple steps from the mall plan stand, Akko groaned in pain and clutched her back once more.

"Wow, Aiko's certainly being quite a handful, ain't she…" – Akko remarked, referring to her as-of-yet unborn child. It seems that the couple decided to settle on that particular name, as while initially Sucy would remark that this name sounds a little too unoriginal, now she seemed more used to it, and they decided that they might just as well go with it.

"Alright, sit down for a bit. I think your back's been putting up with this for long enough." – Sucy certainly had a point, considering that Akko didn't even so much as stop to sit down for at least a tiny while, only slowing down to take a breather every now and then. And the brunette wasn't going to protest against it anyway, quietly complying as she sat down next to the alchemist on one of the mall benches.

However, Sucy felt like this wasn't nearly enough, and decided she might as well help Akko alleviate her back pain a bit. As the violette went on to undo her wife's coat to give her a slight shoulder rub, however, she heard someone clear their throat right behind them and subsequently remark: "You two are surprisingly forward, you know."

Oh, that voice was just too difficult to not recognize. And sure enough, as both girls turned back slightly to look at the person standing behind them, their suspicions were confirmed.

"Oh, hi Diana!" – Akko greeted in her usual chipper tone, while Sucy just rolled her eyes back and continued on with her procedure, beginning to rub Akko's shoulders to alleviate her pain a bit.

"I take it that your burden is leading to quite a bit of discomfort, isn't it?" – The blonde remarked as she sat down next to the couple. While at first neither of them paid attention to it, it took just a few moments to notice that something's…Changed about Diana. And sure enough, Sucy's suspicions were further confirmed when Diana undid her coat for a moment.

"Huh. I guess Akko's not the only one stuck with a bun in the oven here, is she now." – Sucy remarked as she looked over Diana's small but noticeable baby bump, indicating that she was at least three months in. Akko took a few moments to comprehend her wife's words and gave a few quizzical looks over at the blonde until…

"Ohhh… Well, congrats to the mother-to-be, then!" – The asian witch remarked as she turned around and gave Diana a friendly hug. – "I didn't think you'd actually get around to having children until about another year or so!"

"Let's just say that, since my and Constanze's family seems to be stable now, we decided to take things a little further." – The blonde remarked as she attempted to pry the ever-so-affectionate brunette off of herself. And while normally Sucy would be more than a little upset with Akko showing such affection to anyone else, she was also quite used to the japanese witch's rather odd contact boundaries, and found her disregard for others' personal space more amusing than annoying over the years. If anything, the only reason Sucy was slightly annoyed at the situation was that Akko just interrupted her own massage procedure for no good reason. As for Diana, there was something else that bothered the violette about her…

"Hang on, by just what means did you get yourself "witched up", through? After all, I don't recall you ordering any of the potions that are normally used for the deed. " – The filipino witch remarked, pulling Akko back into position to continue on with her massage.

"Well, the Cavendish family has it's own ways. The Heir's Ritual, to be specific." – The blonde replied, looking off into the distance as she was seemingly waiting for someone else to show up, presumably Constanze – after all, for all her assertive nature, even Diana wouldn't want to go off shopping all alone in her current state. After looking back and seeing Akko's confused expression and Sucy's skeptically raised eyebrow, she elaborated: "Long story short, in most noble witch families, there exists a ritual that allows the bloodline to persist onward even if the current heir or heiress doesn't have a more "traditional" partner, so to speak. I was on the receiving end, while Constanze contributed a taglock necessary for the ritual, and, well, there I am. "

"I'm fairly certain it was supposed to be used in case the current heir or heiress was infertile, not for the sake of preserving a bloodline despite the current heir's sexual orientation." – Sucy remarked, giving out her usual toothy grin as she finished speaking, prompting Diana to silently roll her eyes while Akko giggled at the whole thing.

Before the trio got to continue on with their conversation, it wasn't long before someone else showed up…

"Hey, all the familiar witches here, huh?" – A certain redhead remarked as she noticed the three witches from not too far away, with a familiar ginger girl following right behind her.

"Greetings, Amanda and Lotte O'Neill." – Just about everyone by this point was used to Diana's rather formal greetings, so there wasn't any exasperated groans sent the blonde's way.

After both girls greeted back, Akko was rather quick to ask: "You girls are gift shopping today too, huh?"

"For the most part, I guess. Although, the gifts we'd usually get each other are not exactly of the type to be found in mundane malls. We're here mostly for some usual holiday necessities. And, eh, to get a gift for Lavender while we're at it." – Amanda answered, the name "Lavender" referring to her and Lotte's adoptive daughter. – "What about you?"

Before Akko had a chance to speak up, Sucy shut her mouth with her hand and remarked: "Eh, mostly the same deal – just the holiday necessities. As for the gifts – you know full well we prefer to get them for each other in advance. And you, Diana?"

"Mostly the same, considering that Constanze and I rarely get each other anything. By the way, we're not going to be having any holiday banquets this year. Let's just say that my relatives will be visiting this year, so it's going to be just a family dinner, and leave it at that." – While Diana tried to keep some respect for her aunt and cousins, it was rather difficult considering quite the animosity going on throughout the family. And most of Diana's close friends who got acquainted with the rest of her family at least once certainly knew how the blonde's relatives were like… Which led to quite a bit of brutal honesty.

"Good on us, I don't want to hear an entire lecture on which of the dozen slightly different forks I should use for this, and which one for that, all over again." – Akko remarked, remembering full well her difficulty with those full arrays of cutlery, while Sucy just quietly nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, and I don't want to have to hear at least a dozen of comments from Merrill or Maril about the "lineage" of their current guests, including me and Lotte." – Amanda seconded, with Lotte adding a quiet "No offense" as her wife finished speaking, with Akko nodding again while Sucy deadpanned: "Heard plenty assumptions about my lineage from everyone else already."

"It's alright. We all know how it is with my relatives. With the way these three are, it's little wonder why the family's reputation been less than stellar until Constanze and I began working to change that." – Diana responded, once again sighing and wondering to herself just when Constanze was going to show up, as they were already separated for quite a while now.

And speak of the quiet German, there she was, returning from the grocery section and carrying at least a few full bags of ingredients for varying meals, as well as having some other bags on her already.

"Finally showed up, huh?" – Amanda remarked as the quiet German girl walked over to the group and put both her bags down for a couple moments.

"Sorry for offloading the groceries on to you, dear." – Diana apologized while Constanze stood there, trying to catch her breath.

"No big deal." – The navy-haired girl replied, giving her wife a hug.

"Make that two thirds of our main nine to have showed up here." – Amanda remarked, then looked around for a bit and, turning towards Diana, asked: "Speaking of which, how are Hannah and Barbera doing so far? We were all kinda out of touch with them lately, especially considering they moved over to Wedinburgh quite a while ago."

"They're doing alright so far. They did have to deal with some medical problems their daughters had, but nothing too major." – Diana replied as Constanze let go of her.

"I guess it was wrong of us to think that these two wouldn't last even two years. If they could, they'd probably live together for several lifetimes over." – Sucy mused in her usual tone, prompting quite a few laughs from Amanda and Akko.

"Speaking of the "absentees", I heard Jasminka decided to move over from Russia to somewhere else entirely just a couple months ago, but she didn't quite elaborate where she was emigrating to. Anyone have any idea on her whereabouts?" – Akko asked, soon sensing that Sucy had let go of her shoulders for the time being.

"First off, it's "immigrating"." – Diana groaned, a bit surprised that Akko still had her occasional slippages despite having had known English near-perfectly for several years over.

"Second, she moved all the way over to Canada. Something about the weather being the same, but the locals being more tolerant of those like her. She didn't really bother with the whole story, but I guess it's not too hard to see where she was going with this. " – Amanda explained.

"Considering how much of a bigot-filled hellhole her homeland is-" – Seems like it was Sucy's turn to get interrupted, as Akko immediately elbowed her in the side, prompting a deadpan "Just stating the obvious."

And with that, the conversation trailed off to a bit of awkward silence until…

"So… I think we all still have some other things left to buy, don't we?" – Lotte remarked, attempting to alleviate the uneasy quietness and looking over at her shopping list.

"Whoa, hang on there a second, honey! Don't you think that this isn't the way to go off with this reunion? We just talked for a bit, and then we just run off in different directions all over again? That just plain won't do!" – Amanda protested, fully confident in that at least someone might agree with her. And, well, at least no one seemed to voice their disagreement. Or at least complete disagreement, that is.

"Well, sure, but do you have any bright ideas on the matter?" – Sucy retorted, not too keen on the whole idea due to Amanda's lack of specifics.

"I dunno, maybe go over to a some sort of café or coffee shop, sit down for a cup of coffee – or tea, if that's what one would prefer – and perhaps talk about something else?" – The redhead replied, shrugging.

"There's actually a café not too far from here. I suppose I speak for everyone when I say we need a quick coffee break. Or, for at least two of the people here, a tea break." – Diana remarked.

"And here I thought you'd never come anywhere near a mall café, what with you only visiting those fancy as heck restaurants and all." – Sucy deadpanned, although this time there wasn't much of a reaction to her words.

"Several years already past, and you still have the same presumptions…" – The blonde groaned out in frustration. Well, at least everyone else agreed to her proposal before that.

The "coffee break" was going relatively quiet. The most anyone ordered was just a cup of either coffee or tea, except Akko, who decided to at least have a slice of cheesecake to go with her drink.

There was quite a bit of casual talk going on throughout the group, with the main subjects being either how everyone's life was going right now, or memories of their student years.

"And don't get me started on the cleanup costs for when Constanze graduated. In the end, the remaining staff just went "screw it" and remade the whole damn place into a techmaturgy section!" – Amanda remarked, going off of the stories from after their graduation for the time being.

"For all her violation of academy rules, I have to admit that my wife's enthusiasm in techmaturgy certainly helped us all on more than one occasion. " – Diana added, taking another quiet sip, to which the German girl she spoke of just quietly nodded and did the same.

"Speaking of which, I have to admit, it was quite the sight when I found out that you guys did get together after all! There I was, walking over to Constanze's lab to apologize to you, and next thing I see-"

"TMI, Akko. No need to embarrass neither the stick-in-the-mud nor the Miss Laconic any further. " – Sucy interrupted, tugging at the brunette's shoulder. As Akko realized just what she was about to tell, she preferred to just jam her mouth shut with the remaining spoonful of her cheesecake for the time being.

"Speaking of which, the whole academy certainly had a field day with that old "Diasukko" debacle back in the day, didn't it?" – Lotte remarked, trying to divert the conversation elsewhere.

"Yeah, and it was real funny how it led to an accident that almost resulted in a yurei in England of all places. " – Akko retorted, not really wanting to go over the subject.

"Hey, at the very least, everything just resolved itself. You guys stopped trying to tear each other's hair out, and Akko just went on with her choice. No losses from any of this, either, even if the end result was just one letter away from what Akko's mentioned. " – Amanda added, trying to lighten the mood.

"That being said, I do have to admit that both Sucy and I acted quite irrational during that time. I suppose it was just our raging hormones getting the best of us." – Diana stated, apparently having had finished her cup of tea.

"Yeah, I guess they were also at fault for the school nearly ending with another documented case of a witchsplat." – Sucy deadpanned, looking off to the side.

"At least it was all resolved peacefully." – Constanze chimed in.

"And no one's regretting their choices so far." – Lotte added.

After a quick bout of laughter, everyone went back to somewhat different conversation subjects – mostly talking about things like how their jobs were going on so far, what events happened in their life lately, all that.

After a few minutes, however, everyone decided they might as well go back to their usual shopping, although at least this time, everyone had a bit of assistance in the matter from one another, and it wasn't too long before everyone parted ways, going back to their respective homes… Or they would have, if…

"Okay… I think everyone's in just the right position – except you, Suce, but I'm gonna fix that real quick!"

Akko had insisted on taking a commemorative photo for the year, so she couldn't help but conjure up one of those instant-photo cameras just for that purpose. Seems like she really was the type to bring her wand along just for such occasions.

"Admittedly, her conjuration skills are quite the far cry from her academy years' magic skills in general" – Diana whispered to Constanze, who had her left hand sorta wrapped around the blonde's waist. The German witch's sole comment was "Hopefully the photos won't dissipate randomly."

"Come on, you guys. She's a dummy, yes, but she's my dummy. So only I am allowed to joke at her expense." – Sucy deadpanned, eliciting Constanze to remark: "No jokes, just observations."

Meanwhile, Amanda and Lotte, who stayed just slightly off to the side to still be part of the resulting picture, with Lotte kneeling so that Amanda was basically leaning on the ginger's shoulders, didn't really feel like chiming into the conversation, but Lotte couldn't help but wonder aloud: "Do you think we should have let Lavender come on with us?"

"Come on, Lotte, she herself said she hates shopping, even if it's for gifts and Christmas necessities – and in case of the former, she said she kind of wanted it to be a surprise anyway. If anything, I think we did her a favor by not letting her tag along." – The redhead replied, trying to reassure her wife. It seemed to have worked, as the only thing that Lotte uttered was a quiet "Well, if that's how you want to think of it" as she continued waiting patiently for Akko to set the camera up.

After Akko had set the timer, she waddled over to where Sucy stood and positioned herself so that she was standing just to her side, with them holding hands as they finished repositioning. Midway through the timer, Diana couldn't help but turn towards these two and ask: "Are you sure the photos aren't going to end up dissipating together with the camera after the conjuration spell ends?"

"Oh no-no-no, I made absolute sure of it." – Akko reassured, with Sucy adding in her usual deadpan tone: "Same assumptions after several years, huh?"

Diana just sighed and looked back in the direction of the camera.

Moments before the camera went off, however, Sucy couldn't help but give Akko a slight kiss on the cheek… Timing it right for when the photo was taken.

It was only natural that a single collective scream, followed by an outright signature shroom-eating grin courtesy of the witch it was aimed at.

"Sucy!"

(To be continued in Part 2)

Huh. And here I thought I swore off of splitting entire chapters into multiple parts.

Any~way! I'll probably have a bit of a delay till I post part 2 of this, which is going to be just Akko and Sucy with some of that good ol' holiday comfiness. Probably going to get a bit more feelsy, too.

After that, I'll get back to Twin Passions, posting the second-to-last chapter, and then I think I'll finally start up on my large-scale AU fanfic. Let's just say that it's inspired by one of tama's works all over again, and leave it at that.

And with a not-so-subtle spoiler...

Darky Out!