Diana lifted her gaze, meeting Professor Du Nord's eyes. Her name had just been called, hadn't it? Hopefully, she hadn't noticed Diana's wandering eyes. "I apologize, Professor, could you repeat the question?" At either side of her, Diana could feel Hannah and Barbara's eyes boring into her. 'They really do like to fuss over me; I'm grateful, even if their worry is unwarranted.'
"Of course, Ms. Cavendish: what common precautions should be taken into consideration when spellcasting during the apsides of the Moon?" Chariot said, giving no outward impression of having noticed anything amiss.
Diana stood and answered as she always did: with clarity, precision, and insight. She was loath to admit to her minor, passing lapse in attention by asking the Professor to repeat herself, but she could more than make up for this slight against Ms. Du Nord by providing ample proof of her attentiveness during the rest of the class.
Diana made sure to append some material yet to be covered in class to her answer as further assurance to not only the Professor, but Hannah and Barbara as well, that everything was perfectly fine with her. Diana sat down gently after giving her answer, giving both her friends a reassuring smile; she stifled a giggle at the matching faces of astonishment Hannah and Barbara directed her way. 'Goodness, these two are as effusive as ever; they look ready to faint!'
"T-thank you for your thoroughness as always, Diana," Professor Du Nord began, adjusting her glasses as Diana nodded with a smile, "Now class, as Ms. Cavendish has correctly stated, there are ten common precautions, of which she has named nine. Can anyone give me the final—"
"—Ooh! Me! Me! Meee!" Akko shot from her seat, startling most of the students seated around her. "Pick me, Ursula-sensei! I know, I know!" she said, flailing her arms above her head even as Lotte gently tugged at her vest, trying to get Akko to sit down.
"Ah, go ahead, A– Ms. Kagari," Professor Du Nord replied, gesturing towards Akko with her upturned palm.
"Yay!" Akko replied, turning for a moment to smile and give a thumbs up at Diana, who sat behind her, before facing the Professor once more. "The effective range of astral spells increases with the perigee and decreases with the apogee!"
"Excellent, Ms. Kagari," Professor Du Nord said, smiling warmly at her student. It had become a daily struggle to remain professional during class and temper her overflowing pride and affection for her appren—
"—Hell yeah!" Akko shouted, pumping her fist and stamping her foot on her desk, startling everyone seated around her. Again.
"Akko!" Professor Du Nord shouted back, bringing her hands to her desk. "Settle down!" This was her other daily struggle with regards to her apprentice; one struggle often went hand-in-hand with the other.
"Ah-he-hee," Akko gingerly brought her foot down, smiling sheepishly and reddening at the giggling of her peers. She slid back into her seat, unable to keep herself from beaming at both her teammates.
Diana had remained impassive throughout, her features unchanging, unmoving. A creeping numbness had blossomed in her stomach, spreading its tendrils outward and into the rest of her body. Haltingly, she looked down and saw that Hannah and Barbara had both taken one of her hands each into one of their own. 'I failed to give a complete answer.' Diana had to let that sink in for a moment; how could she have slipped up like that? Even worse, over an answer that she knew? She had read the material beforehand; in fact, she'd read the entire book!
Following the Noir Missile Crisis, Diana's extracurricular workload had been reduced; she had more time than ever to study, even factoring in all the time she dedicated to socializing with the Red and Green Teams. Diana was well aware that she didn't have all the answers; she wasn't as conceited as some people believed her to be. Diana was, however, quite confident in the answers she did have, and this one had most certainly been one of them. Most gallingly, she'd gone over the material with Akko just the night before!
Diana's eyes snapped to the cute little ponytail adorning the head of the girl seated in front of her. She glared at it, projecting as much despair as she could muster. 'Your owner is to blame for my disgrace.' Sometimes, Diana swore the almost-top-knot had a mind of its own, bobbing and dancing independent of Akko's body. Once, the brunette had oh-so-humbly admitted that it was as necessary as it was adorable; it restrained a rebellious lock that refused to cascade down her back like the rest of her dark, lustrous hair. Uncombable; untameable.
It made sense to Diana, for Akko danced and twirled and reveled in defiance; flourished in it. Of course every part of her embodied obstinacy! Sometimes, it was easy to believe that malcontentedness was her magic. Akko was the sort of girl that would continue asking 'Why should I?' even after being supplied a seemingly perfect, sound reason; it was awe-inspiring at times, and downright infuriating at others.
Right now, for Diana, it was the latter. Professor Du Nord's voice faded away as Diana recalled and stewed over what had transpired that very same morning…
Diana had noticed it first thing in the morning during the shuffle to the first class of the day: Akko's nearly bare legs, peeking through a dense forest of indigo skirts. Even if Akko were following regulations, the cadence of her walk was unmistakeable; Akko rarely moved anywhere at a sedate pace. Her steps were often purposeful strides, hyperactive tapping, eager hops, and dead runs to everywhere. For a while, Diana had wondered if Akko had joined Luna Nova through an athletics scholarship.
The crowd had parted to give way to Diana's resolute course as she beelined towards Akko to further verify what she already knew: instead of heeding Diana's warning, Akko had doubled down and kept her skirt dangerously short. 'Could she have… No!' Indignation bloomed within her as she quickened her pace to catch up to Akko, who walked a bit further down the hall ahead of her. 'Such recalcitrance; the sheer audacity of…' Diana's thoughts were interrupted as she bumped shoulders with another student; she'd been so focused on catching up to Akko's retreating form that she'd failed to keep her wits about her. Diana had been about to voice her apologies when she realized just who'd she bumped into.
Amanda's smirk seemed almost predatory to Diana as the redhead made a show of staring at Akko's retreating backside. "I think her eyes are a little further up, Diana... and, you know, on the other side," Amanda spoke softly, just for Diana's ears, "Not that I blame ya."
Of course O'Neill would misunderstand! Diana's cheeks tinged at the clear and clearly incorrect implication espoused by her most contentious friend; how could Amanda conflate her brazen, licentious leering with Diana's concerned observations? "Do not presume to know my intentions towards Atsuko, O'Neill," Diana whispered back, a bit more icily than she perhaps should have.
"Oh-ho-ho!" Amanda brightened, apparently beyond chuffed by Diana's response, "Put the claws away, Cavendish, I'm not the one that plowed down a hallway full of students just to chase a skirt. You even left Larry and Curly behind," she said, swinging her arm at the elbow and pointing back down the hall with her thumb.
Diana frowned; perhaps not icily enough, then. She turned around just in time to see Hannah and Barbara catching up to her. "Diana!" they echoed as they approached.
"Yes, girls?"
"Diana...!"
Diana blinked, coming back to the present as she realized her name was being called once more. "Yes, Hannah?"
"Ah," Hannah bit her lip, hesitating for a second. She leaned closer and lowered her voice, "Class is over, Diana," she said, her eyes looking past Diana for a second.
Diana turned, knowing Barbara would continue Hannah's thought. "Yeah, um, is everything alright, Diana?"
Diana looked towards the front of the classroom, the students calmly filing out to the halls while Akko stayed behind, talking animatedly with Professor Du Nord about something completely unrelated to the class, as per usual. As her gaze slowly crawled down Akko's svelte form, a question bubbled to the surface of her thoughts: could Akko have taken inspiration from Shiny Chariot's provocative performing attire? Certainly, their idol-turned-professor was a striking beauty, no matter how much she tried to downplay it.
How would Akko even look in such a form-fitting— Diana's cheeks burned as she immediately struck the image from her mind before it could fully form; that was an entirely inappropriate train of thought to be entertaining! Diana blinked; she'd been asked a question, hadn't she? Right, her friends. "I'm fine, girls," she replied, turning back to Hannah, only to find her face brimming with wide-eyed curiosity. Diana caught the redhead throwing a blatant, eager look over her shoulder.
Diana turned once again, catching Barbara in the midsts of utterly failing to hide the excitement beaming from her face. Diana had to arch an eyebrow at that. "Barbara, is something the matter?"
"What? No, perish the thought, Diana!" Barbara replied, straining not to smile.
Diana turned, finding Hannah's eyebrows perched as high as they could go. "Y-yeah! We were maybe a little worried 'cause you like, spaced out on us," she continued, waving her hands nervously.
"...But everything is totally fine! More than fine!"
"Better than 'more than fine!'"
Diana immediately realized the reason why Hannah and Barbara never hid their occasionally rude behavior: 'They are absolutely terrible at subterfuge.' Movement caught her attention; Diana brought her eyes forward and caught Akko skipping away from the classroom in a hurry, cheerfully waving back at her as she stepped out. Diana's eyes had been glued to Akko's bouncing hemline the entire time; it was but for the grace of Beatrix that Akko's virtue hadn't been put on display for the rest of the class to see!
A smoldering ire sparked within Diana at the thought of Amanda, or anyone else, but mostly Amanda, entertaining unbecoming thoughts about Akko. Diana needed to make Akko understand the danger she was in: O'Neill had already admitted to her lascivious conduct—who knew who else could be staring at Akko with such hungry eyes? 'This will simply not do.'
"Um, Diana, you're squeezing kinda hard…"
"Y-yeah, I need that hand to write..."
"Apologies," Diana said, releasing her friends' hands, "Come, we've got a class to get to," she added, rising from her seat and realizing they were the only ones left in the classroom save for Ms. Du Nord, 'And I've got a troublemaker to confront.'
The Red-Green sextet shared a laugh as they sat gathered around a table in one of the busier common rooms at the academy. They had assembled there after the final class of the day to wait for the Blue Team to be done with their extracurricular work so that they could all spend the afternoon together.
The Green Team, as usual, had brought snacks and refreshments with them, which they happily shared with the Red Team on the condition that Sucy never ever be allowed ever never to bring refreshments again. Ever. Akko, Lotte and Sucy sat together on an ornate sofa, while Amanda, Constanze and Jasminka sat across from them in another. At the moment, five of the six girls found themselves unable to stop themselves from laughing as Akko grabbed both sides of her head in frustration, twisting about as she loosed a wailing groan.
"Mouuu, I'm serious guys, you should've seen her in it!" Akko half-shouted, her eyes wide, "I didn't even know having a thing for riding suits was a thing you could have!"
"Atsuko Kagari." Diana's words carried an intensity few students had ever heard the blonde express herself with. Despite being spoken at a normal volume, Diana's voice had cut through the din and conversation in the common room. The dozens of students present had been startled into absolute silence as they all turned their heads first towards Diana, and then towards Akko, who'd been sitting with her back to the entrance and grasped at her chest like she might be suffering through a mild heart attack.
A heaviness draped over everyone in the room as Akko remained paralyzed where she sat, stunned by Diana's ardor. Every girl in the room held her breath; they too frozen where they stood, unable to tear their eyes away from the unfolding scene. What was going on? What had Akko done this time? What did she have to say for herself? What was she going to do?
"Oh crap," Akko finally said, immediately jumping from her seat and stepping on the table before vaulting from it with an impressive front flip that sent her up and over the sofa on the other side. Landing on her feet, Akko looked back once, took stock of Diana's red-faced, mounting anger, and bolted.
Diana's face burned, having gotten quite the show from the combination of Akko's acrobatics and her cheeky skirt. Of course, so had everyone else in the room, and especially Amanda, over whom Akko had flown over during her escape. "A-Akko!" Her call had drawn everyone's attention back to herself, but Diana was beyond caring; how could she, when she'd already made such a fool of herself in six different classes that day? Oh yes, Akko would pay for every wrong answer Diana had given while otherwise preoccupied.
Diana gave chase as quickly as she could without breaking into a run; there was no running in the halls of Luna Nova, and Diana wasn't about to encourage such behavior. Diana's mission was clear: she needed to stop Akko from consuming her thoughts with such alarming frequency lest she single-handedly bring about the second downfall of the House of Cavendish!
Silence followed as Diana stalked out of the room; to many of the students present, it had been their first time seeing Diana be anything but the very image of British collectedness. To some, an illusion had been shattered; 'So... Diana was human after all, huh?' To others, a new appreciation for Akko emerged; 'So Diana was human after all, huh!'
"Okay, show of hands," Amanda said, breaking the silence as she raised her arm, "Who else thinks the way Diana said Akko's name all furious like that was actually kinda hot?" She smirked as she watched a number of hesitant hands go up. "Thought so."
Whoo! Birthday chapter! Okay, so, er, remember when I said this would be a two-shot? I lied.
I think this'll be a three-shot. Hopefully.
Maybe.
So yes! Who told Akko Diana was into her, anyways? We have Red Team, Blue Team, Green Team... But do we have a Rainbow Team? Don't miss out all the answers and action next time, on Witches Balls Z!
Okay, so yeah, we're probably gonna change that title...
Anyways, lemme reply to some of you lovely reviewers out there:
pessoabaka: I have now kept going!
Anon: I'll be bringing up Amanda's skirt, don't worry about that!
SupeR: Second chapter granted! Thanks!
Loli Hitler: I have met your demands, mein fuehrer.
Psykoakuma: The miscommunication continues, and Akko is none the wiser!
FeliciaRei: I'm glad I could make you smile; that makes me smile!
Nyx Sigma ZERO: Haha, English is my second language too, so I know that words from your own language sometimes slip in like that!
8ytan: Oh man, wait til you see in chapter 3 how bad Diana missed the signals.
UruruSan: I agree with Akko, it's much cuter than scandalous.
Hydrocity3: Love the handle. Funnily enough, her skirt was long in the first episode, so she definitely modified it.
eternalovers: Boom! Two chapters now!
