She's worried. Concern and uncertainty fills her, when she can't find The brunette, she goes as far as going to her dorm room, and she finds that Akko had yet to appear. A worried Lotte gets curious and asks her why she's looking for her, and she nervously waves the question off and turns around to quickly leave.

She spends hours in her search for the brunette, the sun taking it's dip as the moon soon replaced it's position in the sky. Curfew rolls around and she just can't find herself going to back to her dorm, she just can't, she feels oddly compelled to find the brunette and comfort her. Seeing the tears roll down Akko's cheeks broke her heart. She should have protected Akko, stood up for her, she could have told her friends to stop.

But she didn't.

She had frozen up, upon hearing the first few words of endearment escaping passed the brunette's lips.

'Diana, I-I Love you'

The words repeating in her head, she felt her chest tighten and her heart quicken.

Akko was truly a bold one.

"Akko's not here", Lotte whispered to Sucy as she looked around for her roommate and friend, she sighed softly, a hand reaching up to adjust her glasses, "she didn't come back to the dorm either."

Sucy wore her usual bored expression, she merely shrugged, her attention fixated on the open book laying in front of her.

Lotte pouted slightly at Sucy's lack of interest in their missing friend. "Sucy-"

"Oh there she is, late and with a note", Sucy said as she rose a hand and pointed toward the brunette that just entered the class and handed a note to the teacher.

Lotte hummed softly and shifted in her seat, her eyes on the brunette, she rose an eyebrow when the brunette turned away from the teacher, and seemed to be leaving again. Lotte was going to get out of her seat and ask to use the bathroom so she could catch up to Akko and figure out why Akko had been suddenly distant, but as she rose her hand, So did someone else.

"Yes Diana?", the professor looked toward the blond.

"May I be excused to see the nurse? I do not feel well", Diana asked.

The professor quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, dear, go on ahead."

Diana nodded and stood up, collecting her things and shuffled out of her row, she quickly made her exit.

Lotte sighed softly and put her hand down, her eyes following Diana out until the blonde had left, closing the door behind her. 'Weird'

"Weird, right?", Sucy said suddenly suspiciously.

Lotte nodded, her eyes narrowed slightly, "Diana's been looking for Akko since yesterday.", the girl shifted in her seat, "Do you think something happened?"

Sucy shrugged, she brought a hand to her chin as if in thought, "Maybe she did something stupid, the usual things she does"

Lotte hummed, slipping into thought as she brought her attention to her text book. She knew Akko was a loose cannon, but under all the mistakes and mishaps, Akko was a sincere and kind person, ever since the whole grand triskellion thing, everyone saw Akko in a much better light. But of course, Akko was still Akko, and she still made a few errors.

Sucy sighed softly, "You're worried aren't you?", she asked as she turned the page in her book.

Lotte nodded, "Of course I am, she isn't acting right, or at least, like herself. Ever since The whole grand triskellion thing, I've felt that Akko's been a little off."

"Me too", Sucy said with a slight grunt, her tone came out as if she'd been forced to admit something, "she's being a submissive Guinea pig, it was much more entertaining when she resisted."

"Sucy!", Lotte whispered harshly.

"What?" Sucy said, "I'm just being honest here".

The teens both then ended the conversation, both pushing their worries for the brunette into the back of their heads until the end of class, they'll discuss their thoughts later, and maybe get answers from their friend.

Akko sighed heavily, she managed to get a note from the nurse, thanks to Ursula of course, the woman had gone with her to the nurse's office and spoken with the nurse, explaining to the nurse that she wasn't feeling well enough to attend her classes.

And so, she was excused.

'I should have just kept my big mouth shut', The brunette thought to herself. She felt her chest tighten, a knot ever so present in her throat, the urge to cry still lingered. She felt foolish, foolish for even thinking that she actually might have had a chance with Diana, the blonde was just too far out of her league, but she was too childish to accept that, and now, because of her confession, Hannah and Barbara would no doubt hold it against her whenever they felt like it, and they'd keep her under their thumb.

She gained nothing but humiliation.

Akko felt her eyes tear up again, she quickly rose a hand and used her sleeve to wipe the unshed tears. 'I'm a joke', the teen sucked in a breath, she continued walking the empty halls, eager to just get to her room and sleep in the comfort of her own bed.

Akko was the only student walking around, every other student and teacher was stuck inside a classroom, or at least she thought.

"Akko"

A voice that usually filled Akko with giddiness, but now didn't, cut through Akko's self loathing thoughts.

Steps coming close and close to the brunette.

Akko didnt respond, she just kept walking, even going as far as to speed up a bit, eager to just get to her room.

"Akko, wait", The voice took on a more anxious tone.

She wasn't ready for this, she couldn't possibly be able to face Diana with a straight face. No way.

"Akko!"

Suddenly the voice was just beside her, a hand grabbed her by the arm and made her halt.

Akko whimpered softly and quickly looked down to her shoes, averting what she knew would be Diana's fierce gaze.

Diana gasped softly, "I...I'm sorry, I did not intend to hurt your arm", the blonde was under the impression she had accidentally put too much strength into her grip.

The air between them quickly grows awkward, uncomfortable and tense, at least it does for Akko.

"Akko, can we talk? I really think we should", the blonde speaks again, not willing to really take no for answer, she removes her hand from Akko's arm and places it over the middle of Akko's back, gently coaxing her to walk. "Please"

Akko quietly begins to walk, her heart racing in her chest.

The two walk in silence the rest of the way towards wherever Diana is leading them, her hand still resting over Akko's back.

The entire time they walk, Akko finds herself anxious, nervous and afraid, she doesn't feel ready to talk about what took place yesterday, and she on top of that, she just doesn't want to be around Diana.

Lost in her thoughts, Akko has to be reminded that the girl of her thoughts is physically touching her.

Diana gently pulls at the uniform, halting the distant looking Akko in place. "Akko", she speaks, her voice somehow cuts the tension in the air.

Akko reluctantly takes in her surroundings, she finds that they are outside of the school, a bench just feet away from them.

"I...I don't know exactly where to start, Akko.", Diana sighs softly, she stands in front of brunette who just seems bent on not looking at her. "But I think maybe starting with an apology is best.", Diana takes a deep breath and softly releases it, "I am so sorry, Akko. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for you, for you to actually gather enough courage to approach me the way you did and just...end up being-"

"Humiliated? Yeah, good times", Akko said dryly, her tone filled with sarcasm, she finally looked up, her eyes shining with tears, a frown pulled at her lips.

Diana's eyes widened for the shortest moment, she frowned slightly, "I really did not intent for that to happen, I had no idea that Hannah and Barbara would do that.", Her voice began to grow softer and softer, the gravity of the situation was starting to slowly dawn upon her, "I care about you-"

Akko turned away from Diana, "Really? Cause I couldn't quite tell then", The brunette bit her bottom lip, tears finally rolled down her cheeks.

Diana didnt have to really think deeply to understand what Akko meant, she knew all too well.

"I...I just, I was trying to process what was happening, Hannah and Barbara just...they took it out of proportion and believe me, I already had a really long talk with them about apologizing to you."

"What was there to process?", Akko finally turned to face the blonde directly. "That some lowly witch caught feelings for you?"

The blonde shook her head, "No.", The witch sighed softly, she really did care for Akko, more so than she would have ever thought. "It was that of my close, dear friend professing her love for me.", Diana felt her own heart speeding up slightly, she felt her cheeks burn slightly, "I wasn't sure of what to do, what to say, I care about you, deeply, you've become someone I hold dear to my heart, but...I just, I didn't want to drive you away, or lead you on. I got too stuck in thoughts and I just lost myself in the situation and because of that Hannah and Barbara hurt you.", Diana reached out and put her hands over Akko's arms, oddly eager to touch the girl in front of her, "I never intended for anything to go the way it did. I should have collected myself much better."

Akko falls silent for a brief moment, thinking of what to say, how to handle the situation.

"I value our friendship, I made that clear to Hannah and Barbara now. I want us to be able to move past this and-"

"Put it all behind us", Akko says, a sadness ever so present in her gaze.

"No!", Diana rose her voice and then winced when Akko stepped back a bit. "I...I mean yes, but no at the same time. Just, I think we can work through this.", she pauses for a moment, her lips part to speak again, Her voice grows softer as she continues, "your feelings."

The brunette feels her heart begin it's routine acrobatics in her chest, her cheeks quickly flushed dark pink.

"Akko, I can't stress enough how much I've grown to care about you. How much you mean to me, but...I can't return your feelings", The Cavendish whispered softly, she looks down, scared to see-

"It's fine, I didn't really expect you to return them anyway.", Akko chuckled dryly, a watery smile taking over her lips, tears rolling down her rosy cheeks.

Diana looked up, her own heart began to thump slightly faster at the sight before her, Akko looked sad, but not as sad as yesterday, almost as if closure helped Akko.

"I'm sorry", the heiress apologized, she felt her eyes watering up.

"There's no reason for you to apologize. It's really my fault, I'm the dummy that caught feelings.".

The heiress couldn't help it, she leaned forwards and wrapped her arms around The clumsy witch, she felt relief wash over her when she felt Akko return her hug. Everything suddenly felt lighter, a weight had no doubt been lifted from Akko's shoulders, and Diana felt better, they talked it out, and while they both knew there would be more ahead for them to face, at least they knew they had each other. Diana wasn't uncomfortable with the knowledge that her friend had feelings for her, no, in fact, she felt that it was okay, and that she and Akko were both going to only grow closer as friends as Akko grew out of said 'feelings'. They'd grow a much stronger bond as friends.

Yes.

Friends.