Diana's footsteps reverberated down the hallway with a light clack, filling the surrounding air with urgency.

There was a satisfying tempo set this way. Diana walked with purpose and the other students could pick up on it, whether subconscious or not. What they couldn't pick up on (and this was convenient for Diana) was the cyclical pattern of her thoughts, endlessly spinning in circles. Not the most favorable way of thinking - she knew that. This cycle, however, was not without its justified reason: Diana was musing about dreams; specifically, nightmares.

She would be a fool not to acknowledge the negative effects they were beginning to have on her. Her normal eight hours of sleep shrank to six at the most and, while she had been used to little sleep during finals week, it annoyed her to no end when she couldn't get proper rest during her downtime. Her usual cognitive focus had also taken a hit; Finnelan had to repeat herself multiple times when asking for Diana's input on the rune translations. That was abnormal for her. Though she wasn't ignorant to this issue, she still requested space to mull it over. But even in the current silence, the nagging voices in her mind were growing tiresome, and she was tired of being tired.

How unnerving it would be, she thought, if Akko were to see me in such a state. The rapid tapping of her footsteps synced with her heartbeat. That was strange. Why would she be bothered by Akko seeing her like this? Maybe it was that, whether she accepted it or not, she enjoyed maintaining her usual image of composure and sophistication, even though Akko had been the only other student, besides Hannah and Barbara at times, to see behind her infamous concrete wall. So why would it be upsetting now, after everything shared between them? This was just another thing that Diana had to analyze.

For now, the dreams were more important.

Diana knew she wasn't under a spell or a curse, nor had she ingested anything that would alter her dreams in any way. She knew well about emotional tampering magic: the Cupid Bee was a prime (and embarrassing) example of this, as well as the multitudes of dream-altering spells she encountered in her years of study. But what drew her away from any magic-induced hypothesis was that dream magic was exceedingly difficult to perform without rigorous practice, and unless someone who was expertly skilled in dream manipulation was sneaking into her room and casting spells on her every night, (which was absurdly unlikely) she had no reason to conclude that these nightmares had any magical source.

The frightening part of that conclusion, however, was that the only viable source left was a psychological one.

Diana did not like psychology.

Whenever she revised the subject, it forced awareness to her own inner conflicts. It was uncomfortable to think about, to put it simply, and when Diana was uncomfortable with things, they were neatly folded up and filed away into the farthest corner of her mind to collect cobwebs and thick layers of dust. They would stay that way for a while, until an event of extreme significance caused them to resurface again.

Significance-

Diana turned the corner and a realization smacked her in the face.

Literally smacked her in the face.

Lost in her thoughts, she had accidentally collided with another student, who emitted a comical yelp in response as she fell backwards on her rear. Diana reeled back, snapping out of her rumination. She held out a hand to help the other student up, furiously apologizing as she did so.

"My sincerest apologies, I wasn't paying attention-" Diana paused when her blue eyes were met with fiery, red ones. "A-Akko?"

"Ah, looks like we found her," Sucy's usual underwhelmed tone could be heard from a few feet behind them.

"Are you okay, Akko?" Lotte said as she ran to Akko's side.

Akko closed her eyes, laughed to herself, and grinned in her usual sheepish way, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand. When she blinked again, the air left her lungs, her focus hovering over Diana's outstretched hand before flickering up to her face and looking into those familiar, sharp, yet, concerned eyes. Akko lifted her brows, as if finally registering who it was she collided with. Her mouth opened and closed, then opened again.

"Ah... Diana," her voice trailed off, forgetting how to form coherent sentences for a moment. Where was she? A hallway? In a dream? All that was in focus was Diana leaning over her, the daylight from the windows bleeding in behind her, illuminating her form in a warm, yellow glow. It was so hypnotizing that she was momentarily unable to remember what she was going to ask, or why she was searching for her in the first place. And for some reason, she didn't mind that she didn't know because gosh, Diana looked sorta like an angel if she ever saw one and gosh, her hands! She probably takes really good care of them; my hands are so calloused in comparison from doing so many chores that they would probably mess hers up somehow- and wow, that was a strange thought.

Diana cleared her throat, snapping Akko out of her weird trance. She hesitated before finally taking Diana's hand to not seem rude, (it was as soft as she remembered) and hoisted herself up from the floor.

"Ah, sorry, sorry," Akko regained her ability to speak once she was on her feet again. "We were looking for you."

"Actually, just Akko was. We came for 'moral support'-"

She swiveled her head to glare at Sucy. Way to throw me under the bus, she said in her mind, assuming Sucy could hear her. She couldn't. Instead, she just snickered in response to the fury building in Akko's face. It was amusing.

"Erm- Akko…"

Akko relaxed at the sound of Diana's voice and, pivoting back to face her, noticed that she wasn't meeting her eyes; face turned away, a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks. Akko looked down and noticed that she still had a firm grip on her hand.

Oh. Awkward.

Akko let go immediately and moved her hand to rub her neck again. A strange tic of hers.

"You were looking for me?" Diana said, creasing her brow in worry. "Is everything alright?"

"Uh- y-yeah, everything's fine!" Akko said, thrown off by the amount of genuine concern in the question. "I was just wondering if- like- if- uh- it would be- uh," Akko gulped. Her mouth was insanely dry. When did that happen? Also, when did it get so warm in here? She tugged at the collar of her shirt. The inside of her brain sounded all garbled and staticky, like the noise her clunky, old television would make when she flipped through channels at three in the morning. She pushed through the white noise, forcing the words to come through. "If maybe- if you were alright with it- and had- uh- time and all- if it was possible-" She took a deep breath. "That you could help me study?" Her voice cracked on the last syllable, to further add to the embarrassment.

Diana didn't respond for a bit, instead folding her arms and sighing. Akko felt her heart drop into her stomach with a loud plop! Lotte gave her support via thumbs up, although the anxious look on her face wasn't selling it very well. If she could read Diana's mind, she was probably thinking how silly of a request that was and what a waste of time it would be-

"Forgive my silence," Diana said. "Judging by your nervousness, I had assumed that, perhaps, something terrible had happened."

"N-nervousness?" Akko nonchalantly wiped the beads of sweat off her forehead. "Psh! I was just- thrown off from my fall- yeah… lost my train of thought for a second, that's it..."

"I see," Diana nodded her head. "Although I don't want to deter you from your flying practice, I see no harm in tutoring you when we have spare time."

"I'm sorry, I completely understan- eh?" Akko had already anticipated a rejection. "Wait? You're okay with helping me?"

"We'll need to figure out a time, but yes," Her lips turned up slightly into a ghost of a smile. "Honestly, I'm surprised you hadn't asked me earlier."

"Eheh, I hadn't really given it much thought until today. Although, it was more Lotte's idea than mine."

"It was entirely Lotte's idea," Sucy said, who had quietly moved right next to Lotte during the conversation.

Lotte's face flared red at the attention being drawn to her, she looked down at her hands and steepled her fingers. Sucy placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Good idea, Lotte," Diana flicked her eyes briefly in Lotte's direction. "I'm glad your friends are as concerned with your academic well-being as they are with your safety, Akko."

"Aw, don't worry about me! You know I can handle myself!" Akko said with a hue of defensiveness in her tone.

Since Diana's schedule kept her from knowing what Akko was getting into most of the time, she was glad that Lotte and Sucy, for the most part, kept their friend from sticking her nose in any unnecessary danger. But, knowing Akko as well as she did, she knew that wasn't always possible. In all truth, it ached at her. Since their battle with the Noir Missile, the two of them had formed an attachment that was hard to properly explain, even for Diana; she couldn't bear the thought of something bad happening to Akko again. The very notion felt like a hand squeezing her heart, digging its fingers into the chambers, and yanking it hard.

So, if attempting to teach an easily-distracted Akko kept her out of harm's way for at least a couple hours, then Diana could find satisfaction in that.

"I have some free time tomorrow after five o'clock, if you want to start right away," Diana said.

"So soon?" Akko's mouth dropped open. "I mean- I'm sure that w-would work."

Damn! I thought I'd have some time to study enough to not seem completely incompetent in front of Diana.

"Excellent. I'll see you then," Diana said as she continued on her way back to her room, her shoes picking up their thin echo.

Akko watched Diana leave until she was completely out of sight. When she was, Akko slumped her shoulders and hung her head down in defeat, emitting a pathetic whine to go along with the whole display.

"What is it now?" Sucy said, being unsympathetic to Akko's plight as usual.

"I have to agree with Sucy," Lotte chimed in. "Diana said yes, isn't that what you wanted?"

"Yeah…" Akko replied without lifting her head. "I dunno… I just feel… bad?"

"Why would you feel bad?" Lotte asked.

"I…" Akko's brain felt all mushy again. Why couldn't she say anything when she first saw her? Why did she stutter so much? Like she was scared or something. "I'm actually not sure why…"

She admitted she had compared herself to Diana in the past and would be lying if she thought she wasn't jealous. But since then, they had grown so close. They had seen each other in their most vulnerable moments and maybe part of the reason she felt so nervous was that every time she looked in Diana's eyes she felt transported back into that exchange in the magic item cafe, one of the few times she saw Diana smile at her, telling her that her magic was extraordinary.

The Chariot card. The ritual room. The thermosphere. Pocket memories would flood over her every time she looked at Diana or even touched her hand. It wasn't fair that she had to continue school like it was all okay. How could she downplay the shift between them? How could Diana do the same so easily? Why did the thought of proving herself to her make her heart jump, while the thought of failing made her hands shake, despite doing just that so many times before?

And Diana - god, she was just so good at everything. In contrast to her, she still felt lacking. But Diana, she understood Akko's struggle more than anyone could, and that was something special.

She wanted to hold onto that. She couldn't disappoint Diana. She had to prove herself even further than she already had. Akko was determined this time, an ember sparking in the well of her stomach.

She straightened up.

"Sucy, Lotte, let's hurry back to the room," Akko said, surprising both her friends with her sudden shift in attitude.

"I have some revising I need to do."

A/N: This chapter was originally going to have two segments, but this exchange with Diana and Akko went a lot longer than anticipated and honestly... I'm not gonna try and hinder the natural flow of things, so I'm just letting this be its own chapter. The story is picking up, I swear... but I mean, what's the point of a slow burn if it's not slow, right? (:

(Next chapter will have some good H&B and Sulotte feels, I promise! There's plenty of gay angst to go around!)