Chapter 4 - I'm Probably Not a Masochist, I Promise

"So, Akko," Sucy began, casually popping a chip into her mouth, "Why'd you have to rush out of class early like that?"

Akko was frozen stiff, and unmoving such that if Sucy so much as tapped her, she might have shattered.

"Were you really that needy, it couldn't wait another ten minutes?"

Sucy's tone was playful enough, her intentions clearly telegraphed: to simply get a rise out of her. Still, Akko felt the heat of the lamp overhead only complimented the police interrogation aesthetic of the current scene she found herself in.

"...why are you asking me about this?"

Akko only asked that much, hesitating to defend herself further. Sucy's sharp toothed smile fixed Akko.

"Well, I'm just curious. This incident didn't have anything to do with the potion, did it?"

'...What If I tell her the truth? Will She laugh at me? or be disgusted?'

If she wanted to find out, she figured, she'd have to tread lightly.

"...A-and what if it did?" Akko tried, cautiously.

Sucy raised her visible brow, and leaned in a little.

"Well if it did, then we'd have a big problem."

"W-What problem?"

A hypothetical played out suddenly in Akko's mind:

'"Akko, I figured out your secret and I totally want to strap you to this table and do lewd, painful things to you! For several hours!"'

'...Yeah, sure,' Akko mused, 'Riiight.'

The real Sucy interrupted this fantasy.

"If you had to... attend to to yourself like that so abruptly, because of my potion, it must have had some unintended aphrodisiac-like side effect. So..."

Sucy shifted closer to Akko, suddenly cupping her mouth. Akko squealed.

'Close! Very, very close...'

"Open up. Say ahh."

Akko complied, but saying "ahh" was more like mewling than anything else. The clinical, familiar pale taste of a tongue depressor entered Akko's mouth, and with a wave of her wand, Sucy shone a light down her throat.

"Hmm... no residue, no new scars. Seems about the same as last time."

Akko nearly choked on the urge to squirm under the clasp of Sucy's cool, slender fingers around her jaw and pressing firmly against her jugular. She felt like some doll, or an animal being inspected. The proximity ensured that Akko could feel the heat of Sucy's body against her own.

'Oh... please," She begged internally, "Please keep touching me.'

"Unrelated, but you might want to consider removing your tonsils soon. Otherwise, nothing adverse."

Sucy released the poor witch. Akko shivered, and gulped, half relieved and half disappointed.

"Of course, if there really were some side effect like that, it would mean I made a mistake somewhere. You know my potions are subjected to vigorous QC."

Akko didn't respond immediately.

'...QC?'

"Quality Control."

"Y-You can read my mind?!"

Sucy chortled.

"Um, no...?"

"Oh."

'...Stupid.'

"Even if I could, if your handwriting's anything to go by, I don't think a mind like yours would be legible, Akko."

"...Hey!"

Sucy giggled. Akko joined her, feeling a little better, and for a fleeting moment, normal again. But, it was short lived.

"Anyway, the only other way my potion could have had that kind of effect..."

Akko gulped.

"...Is if you actually liked that pain." Sucy fixed her menacingly, with an accusatory air that felt like a dozen harpoons all aimed squarely at Atsuko Kagari.

'Well. yeah.'

Akko didn't dare let so much as a peep out. She blinked, and averted her gaze. To Akko, months and then centuries must have passed. Silence and nervousness filled Akko's lungs like a burst dam rushing over an innocent, indefensible valley, overwhelming the villagers below and sweeping away the complacent life that was-

"Nah, I'm just fucking with you Akko."

The blinds opened and the door unlocked.

'What.'

"Nani?!"

Sucy cackled.

"Oh come on, Akko. You know I like toying with you. Seeing you suffer brings me a lot of joy."

Sucy was about to turn back and return to her other seat, but was held back by Akko's sudden, desperate grasp on her wrist. She turned back to her brunette companion, expecting to dodge a jab or counter a magical attempt, but instead met the gaze of a needy, pleading Atsuko Kagari.

"...you really mean that?"

Sucy tilted her head curiously, but ultimately decided on a toothy smile.

"C'mon, Akko. You're a one of a kind entertainer. Seeing the look on your face...makes me giggle every single time...there's never a dull moment with you. "

Akko's grip loosened, but didn't release the other witch from the questioning.

"...But, I guess sometimes it can be a bit much for you. These past couple potions were more cruel and unusual than, well, usual. I'm sorry about that."

Sucy looked genuinely remorseful, which alarmed Akko. She'd just discovered this great, if terrible and weird and gross thing that she found a lot of enjoyment in, and the one person who could give this to her was feeling guilty about doing so.

"Well hey! It's alright. I forgive you!"

"...Are you sure? You've got a big gash in your head from just trying to...alleviate that pain."

"O-of course. I mean...you were just messing with me, right? I know these potions are super important to you, you stay up way later than Lotte and me, just to get them right! Plus..."

Akko felt a blush coming on, but shrugged it off as a new 'symptom,'

"...I've got a big mouth, and I don't always think ahead very much, so I guess sometimes I kinda... need a little..."

Akko couldn't find the word, but cursed herself for stressing the "need" part of the sentence. Stuttering, she looked to Sucy to finish the thought for her.

"...kick in the head? A slap to the face?"

"Yeah. Um, exactly."

"I can see that...So, you're really not mad at me, then?"

"Um, no. I'm not that mad at you."

"Wow. Thanks Akko...You can let go, now."

"Oh, right..."

Akko helped, vaguely voluntarily this time, in a myriad experiments over the days after their awkward conversation. Often, she found, she had to suppress the urge to squeal and shiver in delight when the otherwise undeniably uncomfortable sensations wrought the poor witch with an addicting concoction of pain and pleasure. Akko didn't want to risk Sucy finding out, but the thrill of the experiments riled her, and kept her up at night.

On one day in particular, proved to be particularly taxing.

It was Tuesday evening in a secluded forest the two of them had scouted out, far enough from school grounds but still close enough to the leyline. Sucy peered across the way, safely behind her levy of sandbags, and underneath a WW2 era U.S. soldier's helmet for protection, at her willing guinea pig, staring back wild eyed yet patient.

Akko nodded.

Sucy nodded back.

Akko threw her head back, gulping down the black potion she'd been holding in a few coarse swigs. She erupted into a magnificent display of sparks and fireworks. Her body erupted into flames. She wailed into the lonely forest evening, where not a single soul but Sucy's would know. When the effects had run off, the trees and greenery surrounding the test subject were covered in rainbow smattering of paint and burn marks. Sucy cautiously approached the singed, colorfully barbeque'd witch. She was squealing a soft, but constant and shrill tone, the kind someone would mistake for a tea kettle if they were eavesdropping. Akko required a few liberal coats from a fire extinguisher before she was safe to touch again. Sucy handed Akko a light pink potion.

"Here, this should take care of your burns."

Akko quickly chugged the liquid, and her body was awash with the replenishing potion. She could breathe again, and she was sparkling.

"Th-thanks."

"So, could you taste sounds? Hear colors?"

"...Everything was very loud, so it just tasted very very spicy. And warm colors sounded like violins. Cool colors sounded like a trombone."

"Oh? That is interesting."

Sucy kneeled down, emptied her bag full of materials. Akko's pavlovian response by now was to involuntarily perk up. This was the part of the experiments where Sucy would have to touch her. Typically, yes, the potions themselves were somewhat disappointing, they didn't pack as much 'punch' as Akko would have liked. But every time, Sucy needed to check her vitals, which involved Sucy placing her hands and some basic medical equipment on her. Akko made well enough to feign slight discomfort the first several times.

"I'm going to just take your vitals."

Sucy picked up a stopwatch, and pressed her fingers against Akko's jugular. Akko moaned, without restraint. Just straight up cried out in a horny pleasure at the contact.

"Ahn~..."

Terrible silence. Worse with eye contact. Sucy blinked.

"what was that"

"W-What was what?" Akko spat out as innocently as she could.

"The noise you just made."

"What noise? I made a noise? I don't remember any noise? Did I make a noise?"

Sucy just looked at her. The longer she fixed her gaze, the more she felt Akko's pulse hasten under her fingertips. She opted to remove herself suddenly from her test subject, and turn towards her notepad, side eyeing her guinea pig.

"Increased...palpitations...Involuntary vocalizations..."

Akko sighed.

'Oh god that was close. If she ever found out...'

Akko moaned again, louder, before realizing Sucy had pressed a cold stethoscope to her back.

"Can you...not moan, please? You're...it's distracting."

"S-sorry...! It's like you said, it was inevitable."

"Involuntary."

"Yeah that."

"...Yeah. That. Just stay still while I listen to your breathing."

Akko managed to breathe in and out slowly and deeply, but kept fidgeting.

"Alright, I'm just going to do a vitals scan since you can't keep still."

"W-what kind of scan?" Akko had to wipe away her kinky smirk before Sucy caught it. In truth, Akko was a little too excited whenever Sucy mentioned some new testing method or apparatus now.

"I'm just going to use a spell to monitor your changes in body heat. I'm expecting changes in the chest cavity, where your lungs are, and in your skull where your brain should be. Anywhere else will be..."

Sucy flicked her wand, thrusting Akko suddenly upright, and leaving her floating slightly above ground. beginning her scan at the top of Akko's head, drifting slowly downward like a magical TSA agent.

"...an anomaly."

Sucy scanned her human test dummy, her wand beeping quickly near Akko's skull and lungs. When Sucy reached Akko's navel, her wand beeped incredibly quickly, and with a shrill pitch that pierced their ears. Sucy looked at Akko. Akko looked at Sucy.

Akko sputtered out first,

"It-its not what it looks like!"

The cool forest breeze flowed through Akko's skirt, causing her to shudder. Her fluid had pooled at the bottom of her underwear, and had already spilled onto her thighs. The shuddering didn't help her situation.

Drip.

"...Oh."

Neither Sucy nor Akko knew how best to handle a situation like this. Akko's fight or flight instincts couldn't come to a compromise, so she stayed silent and frozen. It wasn't as though she could run either, as Sucy had the same problem, and found herself stuck, holding her wand and clipboard genuinely surprised and vexed.

"I just...wow. I guess I never really considered..."

She trailed off. At length, Sucy wordlessly released Akko from her spell, letting her tumble to her knees. Neither of them made eye contact.

Akko found herself sobbing, the world around her blurring into a complete mess.

"I...I'm sorry! I'm a freak!" Akko darted off into the woods, not daring to look behind her.

"Akko!"

But she was already gone into the night.

A/N: Fuuuuck this took a long time to update. Please, tell me what you think of this update! It's late as I'm publishing this, all I can say is thank you internet strangers for reviewing and following my trash fanfic. We're fast approaching a...conclusion! (That's the word, ha ha.) Will Sucy and Akko resolve this and finally have highly kinky and elaborate magical lesbian schoolgirl sex? Probably in the next and probably final chapter of this particular fanfiction! Woahhhhh!

Thanks for tuning in this time on "Atsuko Kagari finds out she's a masochist"