"Rise and shine, airhead."

Ugh. Akko's Sunday mornings were always soured by Sucy waking her up as early as she could, usually to help her test some gross-tasting potion or poison, and usually an even-worse tasting antidote afterwards in the latter case. And even after the two ended up in a romantic relationship, this didn't change the slightest bit.

However, Akko was a little alarmed when her sorta-girlfriend didn't punctuate her morning greeting with a usual "time to take your medicine" phrase. Which gave her the idea that maybe the mauve-haired witch had other plans for her.

"Suce, what did I tell you about getting me up in the butt of the morning like this?" – The brunette remarked, still half-asleep.

"Unless it's for potion testing, then don't bother, I remember." – The violette deadpanned. –"Except that, today, I kind of wanted to make it up to you for all those soured Sundays. Just an ordinary, no-potion-testing-or-magic-catastrophes day. Does that sound good to you, bunny?"

Okay, now Akko was getting suspicious. Even if Sucy was her girlfriend for quite a while now, she was still being her usual self, with the only difference in her potion-testing schedule being that instead of testing potions on her every convenient day, she only did it on Sundays. And now she suddenly decided to miss out on that day as well? Something was up.

"And what plans do you have?" – Akko asked, getting up from her bed ever-so-slowly.

"Well, after we take care of the usual morning routine, I thought we might go out into town for a while."

The fish took the bait rather quickly, it seems, as Akko sprung up out of her bed immediately and replied: "Oh, okay then."

As the brunette ran off to the showers, Sucy couldn't help but remark:"Well, that was easy enough."


Stranger still, Sucy's reason to go out into Blytonbury seemed relatively mundane. No broom practice – reasonable, considering the place was declared a no-fly zone recently – no shopping for potion ingredients, no wicked field experiments or ingredient gathering, none of that. The one activity that Sucy took Akko out for was…

"Shopping?" – Akko asked, a little skeptical.

"Why yes. Considering how miserable this week's blandest cafeteria dishes made you, I figured I'd buy you some of your favorite sweets. Maybe I'll throw in a jar of umeboshi, entirely at my expense." – Oh, she just knew that this was the perfect way to manipulate Akko – after all, a promise of the brunette's favorite treat was one of Sucy's favorite tactics to get her to cooperate with her in her experiments.

And it worked, as Akko gasped, once again nearly crushing the slender girl in a grateful bearhug, then hurriedly apologizing and letting go of Sucy the moment she heard a pained grunt from the mauve-haired witch.

The shopping proper was going on without a hitch – the most messing with Akko that Sucy did was pretending to take a little too long with her choice of one product or another, if only because how hilarious the sight of Akko stomping in impatience was. But she couldn't be too cruel, so she didn't drag her little prank out for too long, and even got her girlfriend that jar of pickled plums – AKA umeboshi – she promised.

Naturally, when the two paid up for the groceries and headed over to the leyline from the shop, it wasn't long before Akko asked: "So, what is that all about?"

"Hm?" – Sucy lifted her eyebrow in slight confusion.

"You know, this whole shopping trip? Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?" – Akko asked, her tone strangely accusative – "I mean, after we've became, like, a couple, you're still not exactly lena…Lenu…"

"Lenient to you?" – The violette barely held back a snicker due to how much trouble Akko had getting that particular word out. Even if that asian witch did naturally learn English very quickly, she still had trouble with the "big words" after all.

"Yes, that! Why the heck are you suddenly so nice to me, especially on experiment day, which, strangely enough, went without any experiments?" – The brunette asked, her tone indicating that she expected Sucy to either ask her some ridiculous favor or make her test an extra bad potion in exchange for the shopping trip and for getting Akko her favorite treat.

Well, if she was going to mess with her, she figured she might as well play nice, Sucy thought.

"Okay, fine, you got me. I'd need to ask of you just one thing for this particular moment." – The violette replied in a faux-confessing voice.

"I knew it! So, what kind of weird favor I have to do for you? What kind of potion will I have to taste when we get back to the Academy?" – Akko impatiently shouted, having had put her packet full of groceries down on the ground so as to not damage the "valuable cargo" that the jar of pickled plums was.

"Right now, I just need you to close your eyes. You'll know why pretty soon." – Sucy remarked in her usual deadpan tone. Akko seemed a little skeptical, but complied anyway.

"Why? Because you can't wait to force that latest potion of yours down my throat and decided to do it right now?" – The Japanese girl asked, and, after a couple moments, was pleasantly surprised.

Sucy went on and kissed Akko right on the lips. Even if there were quite a few people around, right now, Sucy decided she might as well go through with her plan. Not that the passerby seemed to be troubled by it that much. When the violette pulled away, Akko opened her eyes and moved her hand over her lips, still a little confused.

"I don't get it." – The brunette uttered.

"I knew I'd have to voice it to you. Look, you've had a tough week, spent any and all free time you've had studying, and we didn't even get to go out anywhere this Saturday because you've had a lot of homework to do." – Sucy replied, having had placed her hands on Akko's shoulders. – "So I decided to make it up to you for the overly hectic week, because the last thing you needed is an experiment with some gross-tasting potions after you're so utterly exhausted."

"…Oh." – Was all that the witch could utter.

"Now, pick that bag up and let's get going to the leyline." – Sucy remarked, gesturing Akko to follow her. – "I'm sure you can't wait to open that jar up and chow down on those pickled plums like no tomorrow, huh?"

"Yeah..." – Was the only reply that Akko managed at the moment, although she did continue it further in her thoughts:

"After such a sweet kiss, I definitely need something salty to dumb down that taste."