Chapter 1: Revelation

Here, Akko participates in yet another one of Sucy's experiments. But something goes awry... and this time it's not a bad potion or miscast spell....

Akko eyed the potion in front of her, as if to interrogate it via telepathy. Though, if the thought to do so literally had crossed Atsuko Kagari's mind, it wouldn't be out of the question to imagine her trying with all her willpower. Still, Akko didn't need to go to such lengths to understand the dangers inherent in partaking in one of Sucy's experiments. Akko understood better than anyone the Terms and Conditions (TM) of being best friends with the Mushroom Connoisseur, the Luna Nova Alchemist, The Potions Prodigy A.K.A. Sucy Manbavaran - she was her designated guinea pig.

"Sucy, what's this one again?"

"This one is a conductor potion. The host becomes an electric conductor, and based on my particular recipe, about one point five ounces, or-" Sucy produced a shot glass. "One of these..." She tossed the shot glass to Akko, who reluctantly poured her fill, "...should yield a capacity roughly around twenty-thousand milliamps."

"That sounds like a dangerous number. Couldn't that kill me?"

"Technically a nine volt battery would kill you, if I wanted to rip out your heart and hold it directly against the battery for a few seconds."

"...Are you serious?"

"Something like that. Constanze mentioned some fun facts when I was asking her about it. But for your understanding, if all goes well you'd be able to withstand an irresponsibly dangerous amount of electricity for a short burst. Hopefully."

"What do you mean, hopefully?"

"Ready?"

"No!"

"Well do you want to help me or not? You don't have to, you know. It'll just be a lot less fun to test it on someone other than you."

Akko sighed, and downed the shot, shivering at the cold, dark aftertaste. Sucy giggled at the sight of this.

"Okay, Sucy. I'm ready." Even after all they'd been through, Akko still silently wondered how Sucy could still convince her to try something like this.

Sucy smiled, handing Akko the electric probes.

"Alright, then. Hold these."

Akko held the probes, cringing slightly at the icy metal in each hand.

"No, no. Like this."

Akko adjusted to Sucy's instructions, and held the probes parallel.

"Here we go, on the count of three. Three..."

And she threw the switch. Akko felt the jolt of what had to have been, to her, a million and a half volts. She yelped, and screamed as the electricity coursed through the entirety of her frail, mortal coil. Sucy monitored her brunette friend's convulsions, taking note of the input and output readings on her machine, courtesy of Constanze. Akko was, evidently, a very good conductor, and only dissipated a negligible amount of current, considering the intake. Sucy mused for a second that the energy consumed by Akko was expelled in her screams of pain.

Sucy observed for another four seconds, and switched the machine off. Akko's screaming faded, as she tried catching her breath. She collapsed to her knees, just barely hearing Sucy asking "How do you feel?" over her heart beat hammering away in her ear drums. How did she feel? 'The nerve of her.' She felt weak, light-headed, anemic, even, and above all else...

...hot.

A warmth that was not entirely unpleasant was now present, and seemed to slither up and down Akko's body, as if she were being tucked into a warm bed after being out in a snowstorm. She didn't know why, or what exactly it meant. And with her friend awaiting a response, in part to confirm that she was, in fact, still alive, Akko only sputtered out,

"I-I don't know."

"Don't know, huh?" Sucy scribbled something on her note pad, then casually tossed it aside. 'What was in that potion? Did that electricity cook my insides? Why am I so damn hot?' Akko didn't realize Sucy had approached her until she felt her hand cupping her face, tilting her head up a little forcefully. Sucy inspected the twitching mess of a witch, shining a light in Akko's eyes, asking her to follow her finger back and forth.

"Yep. Still not dead."

Knock knock. It was Amanda. She barged in without hesitation, nearly hollering,

"Yo, Akko! Here's your thing back, I didn't need-"

Amanda froze in the doorway, witnessing a paler than usual Atsuko Kagari, slightly drooling, on her knees, and Sucy Manbavaran towering above her, holding her face. Amanda darted her eyes between the two. Sucy pulled her hand away from Akko's face, but the saliva had spilled a bit onto her hand by then, leaving a lewd and suggestive trail suspended in the air, only to be broken when Sucy nonchalantly wiped it off on her nightgown.

Amanda walked in on Sucy and Akko like this, alone in their dorm, at night.

"Oh. Oh, shit, I'm sorry. I'll uh..."

Amanda tiptoed to the left and placed Akko's shiny chariot cards on her bed. She stepped back.

"I'm gonna get outta here. You kids have fun." Amanda was mostly sarcastic, but more than a little uncomfortable and caught off-guard as she shut the door behind her, leaving in quick, I-don't-need-to-see-more footsteps.

Akko shot up, dusting herself off.

"Amanda!" Akko was even redder and hotter now, feeling an embarrassment she couldn't articulate-not that 'articulate' was a typical word in Atsuko Kagari's everyday vocabulary, but more so that it seemed, at the time, no words were sufficient to describe the strange phenomena happening to her.

"Sucy!"

"Yes, Akko?" Akko tried her damnedest to be mad at the mad alchemist for putting her life in the balance again and again, to be mad at herself for allowing her to do these stupid experiments. But, Sucy's devious smile extinguished her billowing anger. It wasn't innocent, far from it, but it was honest and playful. Akko thought Sucy had a perfect smile.

"Um, Akko? I didn't jolt your voice box now, did I?"

"Hm? Oh, no, it's just..."

"That's good to hear. The less trips to the nurse the better. " Sucy yawned, and began tidying up her and Constanze's equipment, wrapping cables and filing away test tubes.

"Welp. I'm going to bed."

"...You just electrocuted me and now you need sleep?"

"Well yeah. It's been past curfew for an hour now. We still have classes, you know. Besides, I think you're the one whose going to have trouble sleeping."

Sucy casually produced a balloon, inflated it, and rubbed it against her hair. When the balloon had sufficient static charge, she released it, Akko nearly knocked off her feet from the high-velocity impact of the balloon kissing her on the cheek. Sucy giggled softly, and sighed as she slipped under her covers.

"Thanks again, I know you don't like this a whole lot, but it really helps me. Night Akko."

With a flick of her wand, the candles were out, leaving Akko in the moonlight.

"...Goodnight, Sucy."

Akko was swirling. Her reflection in the mirror matched that-she was flustered and confused, her face halfway between scrunched and limp, and her hair standing on its ends in more ways than one.

In one way she felt used. Not that she was betrayed or tricked, but that she was thoroughly spent and exhausted. And yet...

"Why do I want more?" The words escaped as a mouse-like whisper, and Akko covered her mouth the instant she said it. She froze, eyes wandering over to Sucy, curious if she had heard it. The alchemist had seemingly already gone on to the world of slumber.

'She left me all alone.'

This thought didn't escape, but Akko internally cursed herself, with a one-two punch of 'Why did you think that?' and 'I don't know!'

Akko slipped into her own bed and shut her eyes tight, trying, at least, to pretend to be asleep.

'Maybe...these experiments are kind of... fun.'

Akko giggled nervously, "Y-yeah, as if..."

A/N: Hi! Thanks for reading. This is my first fanfiction on this site, and I hope this was an intruiging first chapter. Please do feel free to leave constructive criticism, I won't be able to finish this fic without it!