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When Diana touched down in front of the Cavendish manor, Akko’s arms wrapped around her waist, the two of them were both still laughing from their day out in the town. They’d gone out together for a day full of shopping for goods both magical or not, full of jokes and laughter and misadventure, full of Akko making a fool of herself as always and Diana reprimanding her but not-so-secretly loving every minute.
And, before they’d even realized, it was already night, and it was time for Diana to take Akko back home.
“Wait, huh? Why’d we come here?” said Akko, looking around and belatedly realizing she was not home. She made a face and tapped her fingers together. “You know I can’t get all the way home by myself…”
Diana, unsurprisingly, didn’t seem to think she’d made a mistake at all.
“Stay here tonight,” she said coolly, confidently, turning around and looking Akko right in the eyes. Akko felt her heart skip a few beats.
“W-w-what?” she stammered, raising her hands up to the sides of her face and nearly falling off the broom.
“You heard me,” said Diana, smiling softly. There was a light blush on her cheeks, which Akko thought was impossibly cute.
“But… but my parents…” Akko insisted, looking away to hide the blush on her own cheeks. “I don’t want to worry them, you know?”
“Don’t worry,” Diana replied. “There’s a phone in the manor. You can call them.”
Akko opened her mouth to protest further, but she took one look at Diana and couldn’t bring herself to.
“Fine…” she sighed. “But I better not get in trouble.”
The moment the two of them entered the manor, Diana’s family descended on them like a pack of hungry wolves. Or, perhaps more accurately, snakes.
“You’re going to have her stay over?” said Maril.
“Where she’s going to stay? Surely not in your room? ” added Merrill.
At first, Daryl made her disapproval known simply by crossing her arms and stamping her foot, but once her daughters had spoken, she opened her mouth to say, “Diana, you know this is unacceptable. Need I remind you -”
Diana lifted one hand, palm outward, and Daryl instantly closed her mouth again.
“I’m not the head of the House of Cavendish. I know,” Diana said, while Akko stood behind her and angrily clutched her wand. She couldn’t believe that Diana’s family was still trying to interfere with her life, even after everything that’d happened! “But that doesn’t change the facts. I see no valid reason why Ms. Kagari cannot stay with us tonight. We have dozens of guest rooms for this express purpose, do we not? And I believe Ms. Kagari has as much a right to stay in them as anyone else.”
Diana’s twin cousins looked back towards their mother, who sucked air through her teeth before speaking again. “Very well. It’s not as if I have any right to stop you.”
“Then we will be on our way,” said Diana, before marching right past them and up the stairs. “Come, Akko.”
Akko stuck her tongue out at Diana’s cousins as she passed them, then for good measure, pulled one eyelid down and made a ‘bleh’ sound.
Diana was giggling when Akko caught up with her, covering her mouth politely, and Akko felt a twinge of embarrassment that she’d been caught doing something so rude to Diana’s family. Even if they did totally deserve it.
“I’m sorry about them,” Diana said as they climbed the stairs. “They still act like they own the place.”
“What a bunch of jerks!” Akko agreed.
Diana went through a set of wooden double doors, then down a hallway Akko’s brain managed to recognize as leading to Diana’s room.
“I thought we were going to a, uh, a guest room...?” she said, pointing towards a set of doors. “Is this where those are?”
“No. I lied,” said Diana casually. “You’re sleeping in my room.”
Akko stopped dead in her tracks and made a face. “Like… on your floor?”
Diana stared at her blankly. “No. In my bed.”
Akko instantly turned a deep, deep shade of red, deeper than her eyes. If she was in a cartoon, steam might have shot out her ears.
“Will that be a problem?” Diana asked.
“Hahaha, no, no!” Akko replied instantly, waving her hands wildly. “Why would that be a problem? Of course it’s not a problem! It’s just us girls, right? Hahaha!”
“Right,” Diana agreed. “Well, at any rate, I have some last-minute business to take care of. Just go in and wait right there. Anna will be with you in a moment.”
And, rather than wait for an answer, Diana opened the door, literally shoved Akko through it, and shut it behind herself.
Akko didn’t know any magic to see through walls, but if she did, she would have seen Diana lean her back against the door and sigh.
Sure enough, once the door was shut and Diana’s footsteps had disappeared down the hallway, Anna was there in moments.
“Good evening, Ms. Kagiri,” she said as she entered the room. “It’s… a pleasure to see you again.”
“Hello, Mrs… um, Anna,” Akko replied awkwardly. She wasn’t sure what Anna’s last name was. “Diana’s acting super weird. Is something going on? She’s not under some spell, right? It’s not her mean cousins, right?!”
“No, no, I assure you, the young lady is acting of her own volition,” Anna sighed, crossing the room and going to the wardrobe. “For whatever reason, she always acts rather strangely when it comes to you, Ms. Kagiri.”
Akko put a finger against her chin and thought. “Well, I don’t know why that would be.”
“At any rate, Ms. Kagiri, I have chosen some sleeping garments for you to wear tonight,” Anna continued, taking two pairs of pajamas out of the wardrobe. They looked identical, except that one was pink and the other was purple, but they were both rather… frumpy-looking, in Akko’s opinion. Like grandma clothes. “Choose whatever color suits you best and I will escort you to the bath.”
“The purple one!” Akko said instantly, before realizing what Anna had said. “Wait, what?! I don’t need a bath!”
Anna sniffed the air.
“I assure you, you do.”
“No, I don’t!”
“I’m afraid you have little say in the matter,” Anna continued, a little testily and more than a little ominously. “I desire only the best for Diana, and while you may have clearly proven yourself a worthy companion to her, I will not have her sleeping alongside your… odor.”
“Hey! That’s rude!” shouted Akko, stamping her foot.
“Diana herself has insisted that you take this bath! Please cooperate and come along with me.”
“So what?!” Akko insisted. Normally, she might have been a little offended that even Diana thought she stank - why hadn’t she said anything about it earlier then? - but she was too busy being angry at Anna’s treatment of her to really care. Hadn’t she earned better than this?! “I’m not taking a bath and that’s final!”
But Anna ignored her. She simply crossed the room, grabbed Akko by one of her ears, and started to drag her out of the room.
“Ow, ow, ow…”
“Please, Diana, forgive me,” Anna muttered to herself.
Akko sat in the Cavendish’s shower room, the one which lead to their private hot spring, and glared angrily at the tiles on the walls. Water splashed down from a nearby shower rod onto her head.
A private hot spring! For a bath! How bourgeois!
And to believe she’d been treated like that! Her ear still hurt from Anna pulling on it - she pressed a finger to her ear and winced. It was still tender.
But not as tender as her feelings! She couldn’t believe Diana, of all people, had insisted she needed a bath. They’d been out the whole day! And, sure, maybe Akko was a little sweaty - she’d given herself the good old armpit sniff once Anna had left to make sure - but that was no reason to be so rude!
Suddenly, there was the ring of a bell - the same bell that’d rung when Akko had entered the hot spring lobby. Akko nearly stood up from the stool she was sitting on, startled.
“Um, occupied?” she tried yelling over the noise of the shower, but there was no answer.
Instead, through the entrance to the showers, Diana emerged, her eyes closed as she adjusted her hair. There was a towel wrapped around her waist.
Akko instantly turned crimson.
“W-w-whoa! Diana!” she said, covering her eyes with one hand and wildly waving the other in what was vaguely Diana’s direction. “I can’t see you yet! Not until we’re married!”
“...What?” Akko heard Diana say. “I have a towel on. And aren’t you Japanese? I’m surprised this bothers you.”
She was right, Akko thought as she peeked through her fingers at Diana. She couldn’t see a thing yet - the room was so covered in steam she wouldn’t have been able to see anything even if Diana didn’t have a towel. And Akko was used to being totally naked around other girls her age anyway.
But it was different when it was Diana!
Diana, though, looked completely nonplussed about the whole thing. She smoothly crossed the room, sat on a stool in front of one of the showers, and set aside her towel. Akko pointedly looked the other direction as she reached forward and turned on the hot water.
“Are you enjoying yourself?” Diana asked. Akko peeked over and saw her washing her hair. “We had these built over a hundred years ago, after my grandfather visited Japan and enjoyed the onsen there. I don’t tend to use them very much, to tell the truth - I prefer an ordinary, private bath.”
“Uh…” said Akko, definitely not used to people making small talk in the showers. “I like those… what are they called… oh, yeah, bubble baths! And those rubber duck things!”
Diana smiled. “That sounds like you. I heard those were a luxury in Japan. Is that right?”
“...Rubber ducks?”
Diana laughed softly. “No, bubble baths.”
“Oh!” Akko pressed a finger to her chin, looking up at the ceiling. “Not really. It’s a Western thing, but it’s becoming pretty popular, I guess.”
“Ah, I see. But you put… fruits in your baths, don’t you?” Diana asked.
Now it was Akko’s turn to laugh, sharp and brightly. “No, not, like, apples and stuff. Yuzu! And only in winter - it smells really good.”
“You’ll have to show me sometime,” Diana said casually. “Maybe we could…”
Akko’s face turned red again.
“Take one…”
Akko’s face turned redder.
“Together.”
Akko’s face turned as red as the color spectrum would allow. Her vision filled with images of her and Diana in a cramped Japanese-style bathtub together, filled with yuzu. Akko imagined herself laying on Diana’s shoulder, their huge shoujo manga eyes sparkling at each other.
Diana just looked confused. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, no, no!” Akko insisted, trying desperately to get her train of thought back on track. “That sounds… awesome!”
“...Awesome?” said Diana, sounding more than a little skeptical.
“Yeah! Totally radical!” Akko replied, shooting Diana a thumbs up.
Diana looked unconvinced. She continued to stare at Akko, which just made Akko do the impossible and blush harder.
“Well, at any rate,” Diana said, “do you need assistance? You haven’t washed yourself at all since I came in.”
“A-a-assistance?” Akko stammered, raising both hands. “No, of course not! I can wash myself!”
Diana smiled. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Akko. I’d be happy to help you - I’ve already finished anyway.”
And she stood up, carrying her stool over behind Akko. Akko froze to the spot, feeling sweat trickling down her back even with the water still running.
“Uhhhhhh… there’s really…” she tried to say. “No need…?”
“Nonsense, Akko,” said Diana. She was really close to Akko now - Akko could practically feel her breath against her ear. “You can hardly reach your back on your own. And your hair is so long… you need to clean it.”
Akko’s overactive brain filled with images of Diana shampooing her hair. Washing her back.
And that was all she could take. She stood up, her expression carefully blank. Without even looking at Diana, she started to march out of the showers, her face redder than levels heretofore thought possible by mankind or witches alike.
“W-what?” Diana said to her retreating back. “Where are you going?!”
“Home!”
And, without a second thought, she stomped out of the showers, out into the hot springs lobby, and out into the hallway, dripping a raincloud’s worth of steaming water all the way.
It wasn’t until Anna screamed that she realized she hadn’t gotten dressed. Or remembered a towel.
Akko screamed too.
Diana was facepalming when Akko was forcefully shoved back into the shower room.
“Well, now that you’ve traumatized my maid…” said Diana. “Do you think we can finish this shower?”
Akko covered her face with both hands, sliding them down her cheeks. “Oh my god, Diana, I’m sooooo sorry… I don’t know what came over me!”
Diana just sighed, putting her hand down. “No. No, actually, it’s my fault. I’m the one who should apologize.”
Akko peeked from between her fingers at her and saw that Diana was… blushing. She was looking at the floor, looking more ashamed of herself than Akko had seen her in a long time.
“Huh?” said Akko, rushing over to her side. “What do you mean?”
“Akko,” Diana said slowly, unable to meet Akko’s gaze. “I planned all of this.”
Akko was baffled. “Planned all of what?”
“Everything,” Diana replied. “Inviting you to stay at my house… asking you to sleep in my bed… getting in the hot springs… taking this shower with you… it was all part of my plan.”
Akko still didn’t understand. “What plan?! You’re not making any sense!”
Diana looked up into Akko’s eyes, her blush growing deeper. “My plan to… my plan to get control of my feelings!”
Akko blushed right back. “Your… your feelings?”
“My feelings… for you,” Diana admitted. “All of this was because I thought those feelings were… abnormal. I thought if I did all these things, I could… I could get control of them.”
Diana curled into a ball, bringing her knees up into herself and looking nowhere in particular. Her blush was almost as deep as Akko’s. “Was… was that stupid?”
Akko didn’t even take a moment to process what she’d said. She just instantly threw her arms around Diana, making Diana blush even deeper.
“Of course it wasn’t stupid, Diana,” Akko said, hugging her as tightly as she could. “You’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met - how could you ever do anything stupid?”
“Remember when you lead a strike at Luna Nova and you said that I was just an ignorant rich girl?”
“OK, but you were acting pretty stupid then,” Akko confessed, unable to keep herself from smiling at the memory. “That’s not the point! The point is: you’re still super smart!”
“So…” said Diana. “You aren’t angry at me?”
“Of course not!” Akko said, breaking the hug and beaming at her. “You’re not mad at me, right?”
“I could never be mad at you,” Diana replied, smiling back. Akko grinned.
“Hey, you know what’d feel really good right now?” she said, flexing. “A dip in the hot springs! We should finish this shower so we can get in!”
Diana nodded. “That sounds lovely, Akko.”
“Great!” Akko sat back down on the stool, putting her back to Diana. Diana sat down behind her and Akko tried not to blush again. “Then could you wash my hair? It’s really hard for me to get it all…”
“I’d love to.”
Akko let out a deep sigh as she sank further into the hot springs, her towel nearly falling off her head. Diana sat next to her, smiling softly.
“This is the best!” Akko suddenly shouted, throwing her hands up into the air and accidentally splashing Diana with hot spring water. Diana just giggled, covering her face.
“Isn’t it lovely?” said Diana, once she’d opened her eyes again. “My grandfather was right. There’s nothing like a good bathe in the hot springs to soothe the spirit.”
Akko grinned back, but when she took one look at Diana’s gentle smile, she found herself blushing again. She hadn’t really been thinking about it, but it suddenly came to mind what Diana had said earlier.
My feelings... for you…
She looked away from Diana, lifting her hand up and curling a strand of her hair around a finger. “So… so… about those feelings you mentioned…”
Diana froze, looking not unlike a deer in headlights. “What… what about them?”
“What… what feelings… were they, exactly?” she finally said, shutting her eyes tightly.
Akko couldn’t see how Diana reacted, but she could hear it - Diana’s soft chuckle. “You really are dense, Akko.”
Akko was about to protest, but then she felt something on her cheek. It was soft and warm and a little bit wet - it took her a moment to realize that what she’d felt were Diana’s lips.
“I love you, silly.”
Akko felt a blush to defeat all other blushes rise up her cheeks. She quickly sank into the water to hide it, but her cheeks felt even warmer than the water did.
“Akko?” she heard Diana say.
“Blblblblblbl,” Akko tried to say back, still underwater. Slowly, she rose up out of it, her eyes still shut tightly - when she finally managed to get the nerve to speak again, her voice was barely above a whisper. “I… I love you too.”
Diana smiled. “I know.”
Eventually, the two girls exited the hot springs, got changed into their pajamas, and began the walk back to Diana’s room. The whole time, in spite of whoever might be watching, they held each other’s hands tightly - neither of them could look the other in the eyes, and neither of them could stop blushing, but they could still manage that much.
“So… so does this make you… my girlfriend?” Akko managed to say eventually, once they’d reached the doors leading back into Diana’s room.
“Of course,” said Diana, brushing a strand of hair out of the way of Akko’s eyes. “If that’s what you want, Akko.”
Diana might have been acting cool as a cucumber, Akko thought, but Akko saw the blush on her cheeks and knew she was just putting up a front.
So she knew it was her turn to act. Someone had to!
“So… if we’re girlfriends…” she started to say. Diana blinked. “You won’t mind if I do this?! ”
And she reached forward, cupped both of Diana’s cheeks in her hands, and clumsily planted a kiss right on Diana’s lips.
But instead of being shocked, or even slapping her, Diana instead... leaned into the kiss, closing the distance between them. It lasted only seconds, but in Akko Time, it seemed to last minutes. It wasn’t her first kiss, but it was her first kiss with Diana , and that counted for everything.
“W-wow,” stammered Akko, once Diana broke the kiss. Diana didn’t reply. She only blushed deeply, nervously combing back her hair. She didn’t seem like she could look Akko in the eyes.
Instead, she clutched Akko’s hand, opened her bedroom door, and dragged Akko through it. Akko struggled to keep up as Diana lead her to the side of her gigantic bed and climbed up into it.
“W-what are we doing?” Akko managed to say.
Diana only responded by tapping the brown bedsheets. “Come here.”
Anxiously, Akko climbed up onto the bed next to her. When she did, she saw that Diana had laid down on the sheets, resting her head against one of her pillows. Akko started to lay down on the other pillow, but Diana shook her head.
“Come closer.”
Akko scooted closer. When she did, Diana wrapped her arms around her, pulling them tightly together. Akko couldn’t help but let out a giggle, and Diana giggled back.
“I love you, Atsuko,” she said, before kissing Akko’s forehead.
“I love you too, Diana,” Akko replied, cuddling up to Diana.
In moments, she fell asleep.