Chapter Text
After waiting patiently for a considerable amount of time, Diana couldn’t hope to contain her smile as soon as she heard the telltale knocking on her door. She had spent the entire Saturday trying to find random tasks to occupy herself with. Distract herself with, more accurately. But now, finally, the time she had been looking forward to since the afternoon in the Archives several days ago was finally at hand. Her informal ‘date’ with a certain lovely girl.
Taking the briefest moment to brush any stray hairs from her face, and another to calm any loose nerves, Diana opened the door to find Akko standing there, shifting on her feet. The girl almost dropped the papers in her hand, clamoring to catch them before she looked up with a bright smile.
“Diana! H-hi!” Akko stood up straighter. “So! Um…you…wanna do this study d-…session…thing?”
“Good evening, Akko.” She greeted her cordially. “Please, come in. Make yourself comfortable.”
The girl nodded simply as she was allowed in. They exchanged a polite, if somewhat awkward inquiry of each other’s days (Akko’s had been “you know, whatever”) and truthfully assured each other they had both been looking forward to this and were happy to see the other there, though neither said it in so many words. Conversation came with a slight tension to it. As a Cavendish, Diana was fairly used to talking to people whilst under pressure, but the current context is not one she typically dealt with. There was a difference between talking to people and connecting to people, after all, and she was more than aware of her shortcomings when it came to more intimate interpersonal relationships. Akko was doing a fairly commendable job of hiding her own anxieties as she took a seat at the coffee table.
Akko’s (very lovely) red eyes (but where had that thought come from?) absent-mindedly wandered around her room, in clear search of an ice-breaker. “You know something?” Akko said. “Always kinda forget how big your room is…”
Diana hummed as she sat down next to her. “It will be a bit emptier than usual tonight. Hannah and Barbara left morning to go visit family for the weekend.”
There was a hopeful look in Akko’s eyes. “So it’ll be just us?”
“Yes, I suppose it will be.”
Akko stared at her, and the smile grew on her face. It was only when Diana returned the expression with an arched brow did the girl catch herself. She quickly averted her gaze with a light blush and a quieted laugh, and all but jabbed the stack of papers in her direction.
“O-oh, um! Anyway, here’s my…paper or whatever. If you wanna look at it.”
“I…yes, we should get started.” With a gentle sigh, Diana took the girl’s report and brought it closer to her eyes to begin reading it over.
Punctual Diana fiddled with the Eye Projector’s remote until the image came in clear on the far wall, an image of the brunette girl sitting at the coffee table, fidgeting in her seat. The mental persona continued to press buttons on the remote, until she was satisfied with the image’s clarity, where she then dimmed the room’s lights and turned on the Projector’s audio.
"O-oh, um! Anyway, here’s my…paper or whatever. If you wanna look at it.”
The voice of the girl, their date, filled the darkened conference room as Punctual Diana took her seat at the table with the other personas who had gathered to run this event of paramount importance. There were five of them, including herself. The One Who is Knowledgeable, The One Who is Altruistic, The One Who is in Love with Akko, and finally Officer Diana.
“Now, we all know why we’re here.” Punctual Diana addressed them. “The Original has declared this date, or more formally, this study session, to be of top priority. We need to keep this event progressing in a timely manner.”
The Officer crossed her arms in her seat. “We also need to make sure we keep our social standing. The Original wants us on our best behavior for this.”
Rose sighed dreamily. “This is so exciting though! Can you all even believe it? After months of waiting, we’re finally dating Akko!” She sat up straighter, leveling the rest of the council with a serious look. “We have to make sure she leaves feeling impressed with us!”
Fortunately, the event began with them reading over their date’s report for their shared class, giving the personas plenty of time to get situated and prepared for the task at hand. As their body in the real world took the report in her hand, the Eye Projector displayed the image of the sight for the room to eagerly read over.
After taking a moment to read, Altruistic Diana spoke up first. “You know, you can tell her team has improved their academic writing since the last report we’ve seen.” She said appraisingly. “I think it would be fair to give them a compliment for that.”
Rose leaned against her elbow with a bright smile. “Isn’t it adorable how you can tell which sentences in this she wrote? Just look at that third paragraph. Those are definitely Akko’s words.”
Knowledgeable Diana’s expression darkened as she judged their date’s writing. “Hmm…This introduction is terrible. This attention getter needs way more work, the thesis statement is all wrong, and there’s barely any transition sentences. Grammatically, it’s almost appalling. This attractive girl is clearly not a writer in any sense.”
“Now now.” Altruistic Diana tutted. “Remember she’s our friend and we’re here to have a good time.”
The Officer nodded in agreement. “Yes, it’s very bad etiquette to just insult someone’s work. We should be honest, but gentle here. Let’s not forget the social context of why this girl is here, after all.”
With a curt nod in agreement, Knowledgeable Diana leaned across the table and took the Projector’s remote. She pressed the button, sending her words up to the Original, for her to filter and speak out loud.
“Your introduction could use a little more impact.” Diana explained, pointing to various points on the paper. “And these transitions are rather sudden. You could stand to spend a bit more time explaining your argument here. I’m left confused as to what this paragraph means.”
“Eh?” Akko tilted her head, utterly lost. “I don’t really get it, but…is it really messy then? How bad is it?”
“Don’t fret. You’ve clearly improved considerably. For a first draft, this is more than acceptable. It just needs a little work here and there. I’m sure you can manage that.”
After a few minutes of going over specific parts on the paper, Diana couldn’t help but smile at the way Akko’s face contorted as she concentrated on all the advice she was given. She was drawn into the bewildered, but nonetheless firm, resolve in her red eyes. It always had appealed to her, perhaps even before she had actively realized her feelings.
“I never did thank you properly, did I?” She asked. Akko looked up in confusion.
“For what?”
Diana scoffed incredulously. “For what.” She shook her head with a small smile. “For how much you helped me, of course. I may not know much about it, but there is considerable danger involved in this…mind melding business. You put yourself on the line, for my sake, and I want you to know how much it means to me.”
“Well, yeah.” Akko shrugged. “Of course I’m gonna help you! I don’t wanna leave anyone feeling sad, but especially not you!”
The heat rose to her cheeks at Akko’s emphasis. “…B-be that as it may, I still cannot overstate my appreciation. For everything you did in there. I know you might be disappointed with how…hesitant I am when it comes to certain subjects, but I-“
Akko just waved her hand. “Ah, but nothing. I’m not disappointed with anything. The Shiny Rod made me learn patience like, a bunch of times. If you don’t wanna talk about stuff yet, then we won’t! I always told you, you gotta follow your dreams and do what makes you happy!”
It took the typically well-aware Cavendish a moment to register her mouth hanging open. She suppressed a chuckle, simply shaking her head. No matter how hard she tried to plan out her conversations ahead of time, only Akko seem to find so much almost unintentional success in leaving her speechless. “…You truly are too kind to me, Akko.”
“Oh…curses.” Punctual Diana groaned. “We spent all that time pre-preparing a response, and now we don’t even need it.”
“She’s just…so good!” Rose squealed. “Why are we even talking about this report? We should talk about her instead! Let’s tell her she’s the most beautiful girl in the world!”
Rose grabbed the remote and sent the suggestion up to the Original. The table’s attention snapped to the projection to watch helplessly as they turned back to the brunette girl and complimented her appearance. To their collective horror, they outright told her that she looked nice today.
Their date blinked. “I look…?” She suddenly began to blush red, scratching the side of her head with an embarrassed chuckle. “O-oh! Wow! T-thanks! You look really nice too. But you always look really nice…b-but I mean-! Y-you know what I mean…”
“Give me that!” The Officer said as she snatched the remote back. “Are you trying to make us look foolish right now?”
With the Officer’s button press, they quickly shot out an apology for being so forward. She handed control off to Punctual Diana, who then recommended to their date they return to their task and work on their report.
“Y-yeah. Sure. We should…keep talking about this thing.” Their date agreed, biting her lip. After a moment, she looked back up. “A-and for the record I’m not like…weirded out or anything. I thought it was…s-sorta cool, what you said. So thanks.”
Punctual Diana sat up. “She responded positively?”
The Officer clutched her chest, letting out a sigh of relief. “Thank Goodness. We dodged a bullet. She didn’t hate us for flirting with her. We may make it out of this ordeal yet…”
Meanwhile, Knowledgeable Diana tapped her chin, cataloging the new information. “Update to the database on Atsuko ‘Akko’ Kagari; responded positively to a comment about looking nice, referred to it as ‘sorta cool.’ Noted.” She chuckled to herself. “This is valuable information for future interactions indeed!”
“We should do it again, then!” Rose argued. “Take it up a notch! We should talk about her eyes! I bet she’d love that!”
Altruistic Diana hummed in contemplation. “Well…she did refer to our appraisal as cool, but then, she was also very bashful. We don’t wish to make her uncomfortable after all.”
“I agree.” Punctual Diana said. “We can’t be reckless with this…but then…the Original is definitely happy with her reaction. We should continue this conversation, but gently. Diana Who is Altruistic, I recommend a more…chaste compliment.”
Altruistic Diana took a deep breath and pressed the button on the Projector’s remote. A suggestion went up to the Original, and they found themselves complimenting her work ethic and its improvement as of late. Their date, as Knowledgeable Diana dutifully noted she was wont to do, scratched the side of her head.
“Aw. Heheh. It’s not like I’m that good or anything, but thanks. I’m still working on being a great witch and all that. It’s tough sometimes, you know?”
At the second button press, they then assured their date they thought her bouts of intuitiveness and ingenuity in the face of crisis were impressive.
“I mean, sure. I do try to fix my messes. But it’s not like I’m doing it on my own. I usually have you, or all my friends to help back me up!”
They then followed up with a much more personal and honest comment on how inspiring she was as a person, and how admirable they found her.
“I-inspirational…? I…um, wow. I always wanted to inspire people like Shiny Chariot and stuff, but…wow. Do you really think I’ve…?”
The Officer slapped the remote from Rose’s hand. “Would you stop stealing that thing?! You’re going to make us say something inane, and then the whole date will be ruined!” With an annoyed grumble, the Officer pressed the button, rephrasing their statement on inspiration on a much more appropriately platonic level. Their date cleared her throat, somewhat abashed.
“O-oh, yeah. I knew that. Still…do you think when we graduate, I can do magic to help make people happy? I still think that would be amazing, to help bring everyone smiles!”
They followed with a vague comment about not knowing what the future holds. Altruistic Diana added a comment about believing in her accomplishments so far. Punctual Diana sunk back into her seat. “This is too much.” She moaned. “I can’t handle all this stress. Dating is a terrible idea.”
Knowledgeable Diana wiped the sweat from her brow. “We’re definitely learning about her, more than I thought we would. For such a braggart around strangers, her confidence seems to deflate when in more intimate situations. Theoretically, these interactions could signify she is allowing us to see her more vulnerable side, a sign of a close trust.”
“But think about how much social standing we’re risking with her here!” The Officer said. “If this date takes a negative turn, she might…she might think less of us.”
The five of them quietly murmured, trying to suppress their considerable fear. Even the very thoughts sent a flash of panic through the Original, and them by extension. No one could disagree. Atsuko ‘Akko’ Kagari thinking, God forbid, less of them would be an emotional disaster of unfathomable proportions. Could they truly risk such a scenario? A suggestion cropped up, that perhaps they should lie, say something convincing like they needed to leave and feed their dog or their mother was calling them, in order to save their status and end the date early.
“But she asked us out!” Rose threw up her hands. “We can’t lie to her! Besides, how are we supposed to impress Akko and become her girlfriend and potential future fiancé if we call off this date?”
“That would be rude.” Altruistic Diana agreed. “She was clearly excited for this study session. She would be disappointed if we just leave like that.”
Punctual Diana tapped her pen on her clipboard. “Not to mention, we already invested the past few days convincing our roommates to visit their parents for the weekend. We can’t waste that effort.”
After another unfortunately short moment of discussion regarding the report, their date had looked back up with a particular glint in her eyes. “I’m just…you know, I think it’s super amazing how much you’re always helping me. You’re always going out of your way, and I think it’s just…nice, you know? I know you’re always really busy with stuff and things and whatever, so it really means a lot that you do this stuff.”
“We should confess!” Rose made a grab for the remote. “She already knows how we feel! Let’s make it official! Let’s tell her how important she is to us!”
Altruistic Diana shook her head, making her own grab for the remote. “We should return the sentiment instead, tell her we appreciate how much emotional support she provides to us.”
Diana was silent for a moment. “Akko…you’ve supported me so much over the course of these past few months. I’m not going out of my way at all. I’m merely returning the favor to someone who has become so very important to me.”
“H-have I really?”
Diana snorted, looking down at the other girl fondly. “Akko, do I truly need to remind you again you did everything in your power to free my mind only days ago? Or perhaps I should mention the many other times you’ve encouraged me and even saved my life? You’re not that forgetful.”
Akko laughed, scratching the side of her head once more. “I mean…still, you helped me a lot too…”
“And as I said, it is something I’m always willing to do. S-so please, just remember that in the future. If I can, I’d like to…” With an almost inaudible sigh, she spoke almost under her breath. “…support you, in any way I can. At any time…f-for anything you need.”
Her gaze dropped down to her lap, and the blonde girl blinked in subdued surprise. Neither had noticed until then how Akko’s hand had drifted over to hold Diana’s own. Akko flushed, and quickly pulled the offending hand back to her side.
“O-oh! Um! S-sorry! Sorry, I didn’t even…!”
“…it’s fine, Akko. I don’t truly mind.”
Akko blinked, gaping at the growing redness on her cheeks. “You…don’t mind if I…?”
“…If it makes you happy, then by all means.” Staring pointedly down at the report on her coffee table, the blonde girl raised her hand in offering. Akko swallowed, turning her gaze to the report as well. But hesitantly, she reached over, quietly giggling to herself.
When she felt Akko’s thumb begin to absent-mindedly massage the side of her palm, Diana couldn’t help but beam, squeezing her hand in response.
“AAAAAAAAAAHHH!”
Rose, knocking over her chair as she stood, had begun to scream. Completely overwhelmed with excitement, she grabbed the nearest object and shook it as hard as she could. The nearest object ended up being Altruistic Diana, who didn’t even get a chance to cover her ears before the second scream came. “AAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAHHH!”
Rose made a grab for the remote, only for the Officer to snatch it away before she had the chance to influence the Original. The Officer was almost tackled as Rose set her sights on the coveted object.
“We have to kiss her!” Rose said as she tried to wrestle the remote away. “Give me that remote! We need to tell her we love her already and kiss her!”
The Officer looked at her incredulously, holding the device just out of her reach. “We can’t just kiss her out of the blue! We were not raised to act like animals!”
“Just look at her!” Rose argued, gesturing towards the projection. “Look how kissable she is! We have to!”
“Society has rules!”
Knowledgeable Diana frantically pointed to the projection. “Look, look! What is she doing? Her shoulder is pressing against us! She’s holding our hand and leaning against us!”
Punctual Diana fumbled with her clipboard in a panic. “Wait! This…this is a lot of physical contact. This is going too fast! Officer, what’s the protocol for this?”
“Don’t ask me! We never went over this in basic braining!”
Altruistic Diana grabbed the remote from her hand. “Alright! Settle down everyone! We’ll just…say something simple. There’s no need to panic.”
With a calm button press, they simply said to their date they were happy she was here. It was benign, polite, and devoid of any overly intimate connotations. The five of them watched with apprehension to how the platitude would be received. Their date let out a light giggle. “I’m happy you’re here too, Diana.”
A collective sigh of relief filled the conference room, and Altruistic Diana couldn’t help but smile smugly. “See? There’s no problem. We can handle it jus-“
“I mean it, too.” Their date said. “Not just with this report thing. I…I know I said I didn’t find anything in your head, a-and I’m sticking with that, but…I feel like I got to know you even better, and that’s…that’s kinda exciting you know?”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!” Rose screamed again.
“What? I didn’t think she’d respond like-!” Altruistic Diana ran a hand through her hair. “How do we interpret this? Is this just a kind sentiment? Is it something more?”
“Stop asking me!” The Officer complained. “I already told you people, I don’t know the specific social cues for this dating context!”
“Okay, quiet everyone!” Knowledgeable Diana covered her ears. “I just…I need to add all that to the database. That is a lot of new information to deal with!”
“We just need to stay calm!” Punctual Diana said, trying to convince herself as well. “This psyche has dealt with plenty! We can handle this, right? It’s just a girl. It’s just a gi-”
“I know I’m not really making much sense here. But like…I know how you said you trust me to see when you’re…unguarded or something, a-and I feel the same way too. I…I’m really happy that we got that close. I just want you to know that.”
And the statement sent the conference room into complete and utter pandemonium. Chairs clattered to the ground and the table shook as each and every persona stood up in a blind panic, flailing to try to even begin to articulate the proper response.
“Is this a confession?! Does this mean that she loves us too?! Oh no, I’m going to faint!”
“Do we return the sentiment or not? Whose jurisdiction is this? What did she mean by that?!”
“What is this?! This has progressed so far beyond experienced social norms!”
“Stop talking already, stupid attractive girl! This is too much information to process!”
“Just-! Stay calm everyone! We…we can’t lose track of time here!”
The room froze at the word. Collectively, they all suddenly were overwhelmed by the same realization. And slowly, they turned to the remote, sitting untouched on the middle of the table. No one had even looked its way this entire time.
“Wait…have…have we responded yet?” The Officer paled. “Wait, how long have we just been just staring at her?!”
“Are you saying we just blanked out?” Rose gasped. “Oh no, that’s not good! She’s going to think we’re weird!”
“No!” The Officer desperately looked for who had the control. “We can’t blank out! She’s going to think less of us! Quick! Someone grab the remote!”
“…I…A-Akko, that’s…” Diana cleared her throat. “T-thank you. Truly.”
“What was that?!” Punctual Diana sputtered. “That was barely even a sentence!”
The Officer began to fan herself with her hat. “She’s going to think we’re foolish. We just sabotaged our standing with her. What have we done?”
“I mean…we can fix this right?” Altruistic Diana asked hopefully. “She’s our friend, she’s forgiving. Maybe if we just apologize…?”
“What if she’s not impressed by us?” Rose bit her finger. “How will we ever get to kiss her again if she isn’t impressed by us?”
“The Original is going to fire us.” Knowledgeable Diana gasped. “We’ll all be deemed irrelevant for sure!”
Their panic was interrupted when they heard a light and cheery laugh.
Their attention snapped back to the projection. Their date was smiling brightly, and at them. She didn’t say anything, but her expression was fond and happy. Their date…was happy. She had smiled at them. After a moment, the conference room erupted in joyous and relieved cheers.
“She smiled!”
“She didn’t hate us!”
“How can Akko be so perfect?”
They all clamored in agreement, and reveled in the relieved feeling the Original sent back to them. Perhaps they had dropped the ball considerably there, but they had gotten very lucky indeed. They had dealt with great emotional hardships thus far, and had somehow come through unscathed. It was hard not to feel proud of themselves for a job well-done, and Knowledgeable Diana took no shame in doing just that.
“You know, my fellow mental constructs?” She said. “I’d say we’re doing very well at this dating thing. Diana Who is Punctual, how long has it been? Surely we’re nearing the end?”
As the persona checked her watch, the light smile on her face dropped almost instantly. “…It’s been about eleven minutes.”
The conference room went dead silent. The remote dropped from Altruistic Diana’s hand, skidded across the table, and fell to the floor. The Officer swallowed, and began wringing her hat in her hands. “We are going to die.”
After just under three hours, the study session had drawn to a close. Akko had gotten hungry and consequently, they reluctantly decided to call it a night. Diana had merely scribbled her critiques on the paper’s margins, figuring Akko wouldn’t remember most of them, and that Lotte and Sucy wouldn’t appreciate their roommate taking their assignment for three hours and returning empty-handed.
The report, the explicit reason for Akko’s visit, had ended up being the least discussed topic. They had talked, and often joked, about the work ethic behind it as opposed to its actual content. Which of course led into a discussion of personalities, a lot of happy reminiscing about shared experiences, and several traitorous and bashful compliments. Akko herself had been surprised when she learned what time it was, remarking that the hours had flown by.
“I’m probably gonna go get dinner with Lotte and Sucy in a little bit.” Akko said, looking everywhere but at her face. “Do you…maybe wanna come? You could eat with us, if you want.”
Diana nodded. “I think that would be-“ She paused, and her smile faded. “…Oh, I’m sorry Akko, but I can’t. I have something else I need to take care of tonight.”
“Aw, no problem.” Akko shrugged. “We can always eat together some other time! Besides, we had fun already, right?”
“Yes, this date of ours was fun. I’m…I’m glad we did it.” Diana cleared her throat. “P-perhaps we should do it again, sometime soon.”
She marveled at the way Akko flushed. “Y-yeah! J-just, I dunno, let me know whenever you’re up for it!”
Akko stood from the table and made her way to the door, and Diana followed close behind to see her off. Despite already thanking her three times, she was still left with a burning desire to show Akko her gratitude for everything that had happened regarding the possession. It was increasingly clear she had very little means of truly communicating the feeling.
Diana stopped her in the doorway, handing her a stack of papers. “Don’t forget your report.”
“Oh yeah! Sucy would definitely get mad if I forgot this here.”
A thought struck her as she watched Akko rather clumsily fumble with her papers, babbling about her roommates. Against her better judgement, Diana took a breath. “…Akko, I’m not sure I can…communicate the full effect quite yet, but there’s one more thing I need to give you.”
Akko didn’t look up, flipping through the pages to make sure she had all of them. “What’s that mean?”
Silently, Diana leaned over, placing a soft kiss on the shorter girl’s forehead. She could hear the sound of paper crumpling as Akko froze. She leaned back, brushing stray blonde hairs from her face, and she couldn’t help the burst of satisfaction at the wide-eyed look on Akko’s face.
“D-Diana?” She breathed. “Y-you really just-?”
“Goodnight Akko.”
She closed the door before either of them could say another word. From the other side, she silently listened to Akko floundering for a question to ask, tripping over every word coming out of her mouth. She was almost afraid Akko would knock and demand answers, but eventually she sighed, murmuring rather excitedly to herself under her breath as she walked back to her room.
And Rose’s head thumped down on the table as she fainted. She was completely burned out.
The Officer breathed heavier and heavier, leaning her head against her elbow. “That was way too risky. I can’t believe we did that. Thank goodness we closed the door in time. She might’ve said something…”
“Ah, but do you feel that?” Knowledgeable Diana gestured upwards. “The emotion the Original is sending out? That risk paid off. We’re in the clear.”
Punctual Diana, with a long sigh of relief, began to adjust the day’s schedule once more. “Excellent job, Dianas.” She said to the table. “We completed this task with minimal incident.”
And the council all sent out congratulations to each other. It was hard not to feel accomplished. After a long and stress-inducing time, they had completed the high priority event. The study session, their informal date, was finally over. They could relax for a while. Or at least, that had been the plan, before a realization struck.
“Wait a minute.” The Officer stiffened. “At the end. We…we called it a date.”
The conference room froze and turned to stare. It took them a moment to truly register the significance of what she was talking about. And then when they realized the full extent, they erupted into a panic.
“We did what?!” Altruistic Diana paled. “Oh no. Oh this is not good. It was a study session this whole time. We can’t just switch to date.”
Knowledgeable Diana clasped her hands in front of her face. “Just…we should stay calm. There is a chance that she didn’t notice our faux pas. We just have to hope. Maybe she missed it.”
“But…!” Punctual Diana rapidly flipped through the papers on her clipboard. “The schedule called it a date!”
The Officer grabbed her the shoulders. “But they referred to it as a study session in the real world! That was the official term!”
Altruistic Diana bit her knuckle. “Maybe…maybe this isn’t so bad, right? I mean, she already knows about our feelings for her. She made a really mature decision when she saved us in the Archives, almost uncharacteristically empathetic. So perhaps it’s fine if she heard us, right? Right?”
“Not right!” The Officer argued. “Not right at all! We are not ready to talk about this subject yet! It’s too soon!”
Punctual Diana pulled her hair out of its bun in her stress. “Okay, stay calm everyone! We don’t have a class with her until Monday at 11:00! If we can just…avoid her tomorrow and up until then, we’ll have plenty of time to think of something!”
Knowledgeable Diana began hyperventilating. “But what explanation can we give?! Especially since we kissed her! We’d have to talk about that too!”
“Oh no, you’re right! We did do that! What do we do now? What can we even do?”
“Can we still talk to her again? She’ll definitely think differently of us!”
“This is bad! This is an awful turn of events! Oh, what have we done?!”
“What’s wrong with us?! What were we thinking?!”
Diana leaned her back against the door, with a tired and embarrassed groan. “Oh god…what was I thinking?”