Diana.

Ms. Perfect.

Everyone’s favorite witch.

The one who, until very recently, used to let her cronies and everyone in school mock Akko, and just glared at Akko like she was beneath her.

The girl Akko had gone so far to help, even when by all means she didn’t have too.

The girl that helped Akko save the world.

Who had saved Akko at her lowest. Just her. By herself.

And not…

And not any of Akko’s other friends.

Sucy Manbavaran stared, face completely still. She couldn’t come up with anything to say, despite already expecting Akko’s answer. The thoughts and feelings in her head were so loud and intense she had trouble telling what they were. Her throat felt clogged as she tried to decide what she should say, what she could say.

And all while a growl rumbled through her like thunder before a storm.

“Diana,” was what came out of her mouth.

“Y-yeah.” Very nervously, Akko rubbed the back of her head, suddenly unable to meet Sucy’s gaze. “Diana.”

Sucy’s lips pressed into a thin line. She let out a “hmm”, and then went quiet. Akko kept rubbing her head, and Sucy never stopped staring.

“When did you two…schedule this?” Sucy asked.

“It, um…i-it was a month after we stopped Croix’s Noir Missile,” Akko said, and never in the entire time Sucy had known her had Akko looked so awkward. “We, uh, we're talking about all the magic stuff that had come back, and I remembered the tree, and how it should've come back too. I told her about it, she got interested, and thought maybe she'd have some more info on it some of the old books she had in her house and, uh, she did. That was, that was where she found the rumors about the cure. She showed me, we talked about it, talked to Ursula, then talked to Croix, and…figured out where it should be. Kind of. ‘Cuz even when it came back, it’s…it’s invisible, so…we need to do some more spells when we go to Ireland to try and figure out the spot it’s in.”

The more Akko spoke, the more the awkwardness turned to worry.

Sucy still hadn’t blinked. Akko visibly had trouble holding her gaze. Sucy opened her mouth slightly, then closed it. The words failed to form, even in her head. How could they, when she could barely part through all the noise going on in there?

“Sounds neat,” Sucy eventually mumbled out. And no more words came after. Akko frowned at her, and Sucy looked away, as if bored of staring. Neither said anything; they just stood there, under the dimming glow of their wands. And all the while, her expression never once twitched, and her eye never showed an ounce of emotion.

“Please don’t be upset.”

Sucy blinked. Slowly, she looked back at Akko, eyebrow raised. “What?”

“Don’t be upset.” Akko suddenly looked incredibly guilty. “I know you and Diana… haven’t gotten along yet,” she said, and it was clear to both of them she was understating things. “But that wasn’t why I didn’t tell you, I honestly just forgot, so please don’t be mad at her or think this was her fault or something.”

It took Sucy a moment to respond. “Akko, I’m not upset about this,” she said. “I know you're dumb enough to forget to tell me stuff like this.” Sucy rolled her eye, but the motion felt harder to do than usual.

“O-okay,” Akko said, with a lot more hesitance than Sucy would’ve liked. “That’s…good.”

They were silent for a bit. A few crickets chirped. A breeze blew by, ice cold like the night air had suddenly become.

“When are you leaving?” Sucy asked, voice as blank as her face.

Akko glanced to the floor. “In…two days.”

“Two days.” Sucy stared, her eye still half-lidded and neutral.

“Yeah.” Akko rubbed the back of her head again, mouth drooping like the ground itself was pulling at the corners. “Sorry.”

Sucy just let out a quiet, bored sounding noise. Her lips threatened to twitch, but she held them in a firm, neutral line. “How long, exactly, are you going to be gone?” she asked. “You said ‘a week-ish,’ but do you mean more, or less than a week?”

“Ah, um…m-more.”

“How much more?”

“Maybe…a week-and-a-half? T-two weeks at most. Ireland’s really big, and the spells are gonna take some time to set up to help us find the tree, so…yeah.”

Sucy processed that. She let out a tiny, almost unnoticeable breath, closing her eye.

Two weeks. Just two weeks, that was it.

All of which Akko would be spending with Diana. Everyone’s favorite.

Something hot like acid rose up in her throat, trying to crawl out of her mouth and work its way onto her face. That tried to stay alive inside her.

And she could still hear that growl.

Sucy thought of mushrooms, a whole world of them. She named off every mushroom she could see in her head, ordered from the ones she liked least—which was still a lot—to the ones she liked the most. It was a where she knew everything, where she understood everything. And understood that those blood pounding and headache inducing things inside her weren’t needed.

So, she got rid of them.

With almost surgical precision, what felt like a blade chopped the head off those idiotic things running around in her mind, and did not stop until none were left. The very slight, burning sensation in her throat faded; her chest felt lighter.

And all those troublesome thoughts and feelings were dead now. For the most part.

The growl in her head was still there, lower now, but echoing hatefully.

She kept stabbing at the source until she couldn’t hear it anymore.

Sucy opened her eye, and made her mouth smirk. But it felt a little more uneven than usual. “Two weeks with Ms. Perfect, huh?” she asked, letting out a laugh that was closer to a scoff. “Sounds like a real pain.”

Akko frowned. “Hey, don’t call her that.”

“Oh, c’mon, it’s accurate. She acts perfect, thinks she’s perfect, so she’s Ms—”

“Sucy, seriously, stop calling her that.” Akko’s frown went from firm to hard-as-steel, and Sucy’s mouth clicked shut. “I told you before: she really doesn’t like that ‘nickname’ you gave her. And she doesn’t think she’s ‘perfect’ either. So don’t call her that. Please.”

Despite that last word, Akko wasn’t really asking. Not with that tone.

Sucy scowled a little, and clicked her tongue in displeasure. “Yeah, yeah,” she muttered, not agreeing to anything.

Akko realized that, and this time her frown turned sad. She sighed. “Look, Sucy,” She started, only to quickly stop talking. It took her a moment of visible contemplation to work out what to say next. “I…I get that you and Diana…are pretty mad at each other, after everything that happened in Blytonbury.”

Sucy’s face tightened, taut like a razor-wire.

“And,” Akko continued quickly, eyes darting around like the right words she should say were hidden just out of sight. “I know I can’t force you to stop being mad, not that I would ever force you to ignore your own feelings to make me happy, but I just hate seeing you this upset, just like I hate seeing Diana being upset, and I’m trying to find some way to get you two to work out everything and just be friends with each other, but…but…”

Akko trailed off helplessly, clearly at a lost.

For all that she was a moron, Akko could be smart. And she had recognized there was some tension between her and Diana, back when she and the rest of her friends started to “bond”—her words—with the blue team. And that was before even mentioning all the little fights she had with Diana. Like when Sucy focused more on her potion work instead of whatever was being talked about during some group hang out thing, and Diana somewhat scolded her out for not paying attention to whoever had been talking; or when her blunt comments were met with Diana politely, if firmly, telling her she “didn’t have to be so hash”; or her making a quip about Akko being dumb, and Diana immediately defending her, like she thought she meant it as a genuine insult. Small things that, at the time, hadn’t bothered her that much; of course they didn’t. But it added up.

But to Akko’s credit, she never tried to force her and Diana to interact. After she got a handle of scheduling when and how she could spend time with her friends, and when they could all spend time with each other, Akko had set up almost every “fun group stuff day” in a way that Sucy and Diana didn’t have to interact, but could if they wanted too. And how doing that would “really make me happy, so please give her a chance, Sucy, pretty please!” Most of the time they both chose not too, but there had been times when Sucy talked with Diana about some topic that, somehow, caught both of their interest. A potion she had been researching that Diana had never heard of before and wondered about the origins, and Sucy had explained, sparking a discussion on magic and potion theory. Or Diana using some ancient spell that Sucy thought could be useful for her own work and she asked her some questions about it, and Diana explained all the little intricacies with expert ease, and did it so clearly it was simple for her to understand, putting every teacher at Luna Nova to shame. Which wasn’t a high bar, but still.

Moments like those that had been short, definitely not as “friendly” as someone like Akko had been hoping for, more a result of clinical interest than anything else, but…they hadn’t been unpleasant.

Akko had thought that was a great step in being friends, though. It had led to her asking both Sucy and Diana if they wanted to go wandering around Blytonbury with her, and only her, as the rest of their friends had been busy. She had just wanted to go to random stores or cafes that “looked cool and maybe head to Last Wednesday at the end for some hot chocolate!” Sucy wouldn’t say she wanted to hang out with Diana, and with Akko acting as the only buffer between them, but she didn’t really have anything better to do that day. And Akko clearly wanted her to try and get closer to Diana, so at the very least she decided to try; to make sure Akko didn’t bother her later about it or something. At the time, Sucy thought the worst case would be Diana just sternly telling her not to be so rude like the little taskmaster she was, and Sucy would just roll her eye and ignore her.

That was not the worst case.

No, the worst case had turned out to be Akko stepping in to stop her from throwing a somewhat toxic potion at Diana’s face, and Akko also stopping Diana from trying to blast Sucy with her wand. After they had already fought for like a minute, because she hadn’t been around at the start.

Akko had been through a lot since she’d started Luna Nova, even being her literal guinea pig, but it was only when she was holding Sucy back that she looked so horrified.

And seeing that face had…had bothered her.

A lot.

Akko had wanted to know just what was going on, but Sucy hadn’t answered because she couldn’t stop glaring at Diana, stop feeling so angry she couldn’t speak, the pain in the left side of her face only making it even more intense, and it took everything she had not to hit Diana with some of her actually nasty potions. And Diana had just glared back with eyes of pure ice so cold they practically burned.

Then, in the middle of Akko’s frantic questions, Diana apologized for “making a scene,” voice showing no emotion whatsoever, and then she said it would be best if she leaved. But not before she said one last barb to Sucy.

“Be sure not to let your present company try to kill you again.”

And after that…

After that, she…didn’t like thinking, about what happened.

Because it wasn’t important. It didn’t mean anything; everything was fine. It was just…just…

Not important.

The only thing that was important was that ever since that day, any chances of “bonding” with Diana had died. In the almost two week since then, Sucy had barely interacted with Diana. Akko hadn’t really scheduled any “big” group meetups with all of her friends since then; because of all the tests and junk the teachers were giving out before break, everyone’s schedules were getting busier and busier, especially Diana’s, so there wasn’t really a chance to have another “meetup,” at least according to Akko. Which meant that the only times Sucy actually saw Diana were in classes or in the halls, and every time she did, they glared at each other in silent contempt, or made spiteful jabs at each other. Well, more like spiteful “punches,” really.

Something all their other friends noticed. Especially Akko.

Sucy looked at Akko’s very nervous face, and she realized she had been quiet for a while now.

“Akko,” she said slowly, tone carefully indifferent. Sucy paused for a moment, staring at Akko’s guilt-ridden, helpless look. Sucy closed her eye, gathered the words, and sighed. “I’m not upset. If you want to spend time with Diana, you can. I told you before, just because I think Cavendish is a massive—witch,” she corrected at the last second, knowing Akko wouldn’t like her saying the obvious. “Doesn’t mean you can’t…have fun with her, or whatever. I’m not upset about something like that.”

Her words just made Akko frown deeply. “Sucy…”

“Seriously. It’s fine.” She waved her hand as dismissively as she could. “You like spending time with her”—For some reason—“so spend time with her. It’s your choice, not mine.”

Akko was silent, and Sucy could tell she was carefully deciding what to say next.

“I just want you two to get along,” Akko said softly, eyes big and pleading. “I know you don’t think so, but I really think you two could be—”

“Akko, I really doubt Diana even wants to be my friend.” Sucy frowned, and looked away. “Especially after a fight that bad.” Not that Sucy wanted to either.

“I think she might surprise you,” Akko said, lips hesitantly pulling into a small smile. “She’s kind. Like…really kind.”

Sucy’s frown deepened; just a little bit. “You don’t say.”

“Yeah! Seriously, she’s one of the kindest girls I’ve ever met. So, you know, you shouldn’t think that she’ll never want to be your friend. She might even try tomorrow!” Akko’s smile turned sheepish. “Or…you could be the first one to try?”

Sucy stared, unblinking.

“I am like, 90 percent certain if you said you wanted to talk, she’d be willing to listen and—”

“Akko.” Sucy’s eyes narrowed into a tight, barely restrained glare. “I don’t want to talk to Diana, or be her friend.”

Akko’s face crumpled into a million pieces. Her shoulders almost audibly fell, and the dejected look her suddenly gloomy red eyes gained was one Sucy had been seeing a lot more than she liked. And, like every other time, she had caused it.

Sucy looked away again, and her frown felt heavier.

Sucy wasn’t oblivious to just how, to put it lightly, “awkward” Diana was making things. And…how Sucy was making things more “awkward” too. Akko had the biggest heart out of every person she’d ever met. She wanted to make the people around her smile. And that especially applied to her friends. For all that she could sometimes be a bit oblivious or get too emotional or just be plain dumb, Akko always wanted to make sure her friends were happy.

But what happened when two of her friends couldn’t be happy, just because they were in the same room together. When each time they so much as saw each others’ face, instead of trying to fix their problems, at best, they either chose to pretend the other wasn’t their, threw out increasingly mean-spirited insults, or just glared at each other with barely restrained distaste and anger?

Akko cared about all her friends deeply, but what was she supposed to do when all her efforts to get two of her friends to get along kept failing, and became more and more obvious they would just never get along?

“Akko.”

Her name left Sucy’s mouth before she could even really think about it. Akko looked up from morosely staring at the floor, and blinked.

“Yeah?” she asked.

There were so many thing she wanted to say, that she didn’t even know how to begin saying. But seeing Akko’s hurtful look on her face, what she decided to say was, “You don’t have to do this.”

“Eh?” Akko blinked again, with even more confusion.

“You don’t have to keep trying to fix my problems with Diana, or her problems with me. It’s not your job to try and get us to be friends. Especially when neither of us wants to be friends.” Sucy gave her a lazy looking shrug. “ So…if you want to hang out with Diana, or me, you can. It’s your choice. I’m not gonna make a big deal out of it.”

Sucy had told Akko similar things before. That she shouldn’t feel the need to fix problems that weren’t her fault. That she could leave things be, and not try to change anything. There would be no risks that way. But, just like all those times before, Akko’s eyes became defiant, and her lips pulled into a tight, determined frown.

“Sucy, I get why you’re saying all this stuff”—No, she absolutely did not—“But I know things can get better.”

“I really doubt that,” Sucy groused, and the sigh that left her was more annoyed than usual.

“They can! I know you two really well,” she said, despite the fact she knew Sucy for over a year, and Diana had at best started being somewhat tolerable to Akko only three months ago, after that little visit to her house. “And I know that you two can get over this fight. You’re more similar than you think—and that’s not an insult,” Akko added quickly when Sucy’s frown went a little deeper. “You just need a chance to see that.”

“Akko, I gave Cavendish a chance.” Her glare was ice-cold. “And it didn’t work out.”

Akko’s gaze wavered, but the conviction quickly came back just as strong. “Look, if you don’t want to give her another chance now, I get it. It’s probably too soon.” She slammed a fist into her chest, right where her heart was. “But I’m not gonna give up on making you two the kind of friends I know you can be! If I can save magic, I can definitely save this friendship!”

Sucy stared. There wasn’t a single ounce of doubt in Akko’s face as she spoke. She really meant every word. Not that Sucy was surprised; Akko Kagari never gave up on something. Under normal circumstances, she even found that endearing, not that she showed it.

But right now, all that unending optimism did was make Sucy frown.

“Akko, you really, really don’t have to do this.”

“I want to,” Akko instantly replied.

Sucy let out a loud groan. “Why do you have to care so much?”

“Because I’m your friend! And I’m Diana’s friend too. I don’t like seeing you guys fighting, and I wanna fix this. That’s what friends do.” She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And to Akko, it was.

But those earnest words did nothing to help her steadily rising irritation.

“Akko, you are the only one trying to ‘fix’ this,” Sucy said, trying not to sound that annoyed. “The rest of our friends don’t care, so, maybe, you should follow their lead.”

Akko blinked. When she spoke, her lips slowly moved into a confused, and concerned, frown.

“Sucy…they do care that you’re fighting with Diana. You know that, right?”

Yeah. She did.

But they weren’t concerned like Akko was.

Sucy remembered Hannah and Barbara giving her icy glares and fierce scowls every time she passed them in the hallway. Lotte fearfully looking between her and Diana, like she was a fight to break out any moment. Jasminka, Amanda and Constanze looking at Akko as she dejectedly looked down at the ground after Sucy rejected yet another attempt at trying to reconcile with Diana, each of their faces having varying degrees of confusion and concern, before looking to Sucy with different intensities of narrowed eyes. Ursula talking with Akko from a distance Sucy couldn’t hear, but could see Akko’s frustrated and confused face, and, for just a moment, see Ursula’s eyes flicker to her and frown with an emotion Sucy couldn’t place.

Every one of Akko’s friends, and even her favorite teacher, had noticed her and Diana fighting with far more disdain than before. No one had really said anything to her, but it was obvious what they weren’t exactly okay with her being so resentful to Diana. That wasn’t even mentioning whatever Diana was telling them about her and the reason they were fighting. It wasn’t causing that many problems now, but that was really only because they hadn’t all hung out as one big group in a while, and because Diana was busy with her little tests. But at some point, whether it be a group thing or something else, even if it were for just a minute, Sucy would have to spend time again with Diana.

And none of them wanted to see Sucy throw even more spiteful jabs at Ms. Perfect. Akko wouldn’t either, especially when it became more and more clear to her things would not get better. That Sucy wasn’t going to be friends with Diana.

And in that case…when that happened…

“Sucy?” Akko asked, her frown getting deeper. “You know they care, right—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Sucy said, killing those thoughts to focus. Her eye narrowed at Akko. “But be honest: has Cavendish even said anything to make you think she’d be willing to talk things out.”

“Well, not recently, but—”

“Then it sounds like that’s your bigger problem,” Sucy pushed on, speaking somewhat more aggressively than normal. “ Like I’ve been saying, even if I did want to make up things with Diana, she wouldn’t. I’ve never seen her so much as apologize to you for all the stuff she and her minions did to you over the last year—”

“Hey, she has—”

”—Not to mention how she can’t recognize a joke if it hit her on the head,” She went on, words becoming more fast paced.

“Look, Sucy, I know Diana can, take things a bit to seriously, but—”

“Akko, she doesn’t know what the word ‘fun’ means.” Sucy’s tone was getting noticeably sharper with every syllable. “She’s a massive teacher’s pet, has the biggest stick up her ‘you-know-what’ I have ever seen—”

“Hey—”

“—is always acting like she thinks she’s better than us like the arrogant little witch she is—”

“Sucy, seriously—”

“—and she’s just so much of a pain to be around to be around.” At some point Sucy had started glaring, lips threatening to split into a scowl. It actually took some effort to have only a little venom in her voice, and not an entire cobra’s worth in it. “So, if Ms. Perfect doesn’t want to stop being such a massive witch, then maybe she isn’t worth the effort to care about, so just stop being her—”

“Sucy.”

Sucy stopped.

Akko was glaring at her. Not in her usual “Sucy, you big meanie!” kind of way; not in her pouty, more annoyed than actually upset kind of way; not in any of her usual ways that made Sucy smile and want to tease her about it.

The glare on Akko’s face was just stone-cold; foreboding in a way that genuinely made Akko look almost…threatening.

It was almost as intense as that look she gave her back then.

“I’m not gonna stop caring about Diana,” Akko said, and her the way her voice turned the already chilly air even colder made it clear no one would tell her otherwise. She crossed her arms, and her glare somehow became even harder. “I don’t abandon my friends. Not now, or ever.”

Sucy didn’t move. Couldn’t.

Yeah.

Yeah, she figured Akko would say that. Of course she would.

Of course, she’d choose to stay with Diana.

The forest fell away, and Sucy was back in that moment at Blytonbury. She was shaking so badly, blood roaring in her ears, and pain on the left side of her face was that was just so bad, but she refused to let it show, even when Cavendish walked away with a furious gait to her every step. And then, as anger left her every breath, when her lips started to peel back into a vicious snarl and she prepared to do something to that witch, she turned.

And she saw Akko, her face more worried than she’d ever seen before, looking at Diana’s retreating back.

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Her boiling blood suddenly went cold. Something like sludge rose in her throat, noxious and asphyxiating. Akko frantically looked back to Sucy, then quickly back at Diana. She repeated that a few times, and with that sludge-like feeling in her throat getting worse and making her insides feel sick in a way she’d never felt before, Sucy watched her, every other sight vanishing from view.

And then Akko left her.

“Sucy, hold on, I’ll be back!”

Akko hadn’t so much as glanced at Sucy as she said that, running after Diana with a worried shout of her name. Akko left her; alone, and in pain.

She left her. The girl she…

The girl she cared about the most, left her. For Diana.

Sucy didn’t respond. Her face suddenly felt very odd; heavy in a way she’d never really felt before. Akko’s glare fell off her face so fast it was like it had practically burned her, and her eyes were suddenly wide.

“Sucy, I—I didn’t mean to sound like I’m angry at—I know she’s been mean to you, but—”Akko was gesticulating wildly; panicking, really. Sucy didn’t know why. She wasn’t upset about something she long since figured out. The choice Akko would always—she pushed that thought down. “I just, I want you both to, I want you to—”

Akko clapped her hands in front of her, and she stopped talking. She closed her eyes, took deep breath, and when she opened them, her eyes were calm, sympathetic in a way that tried to tell Sucy she understood.

As impossible as that was.

Sucy was so very still as Akko continued.

“I know you're angry at Diana, and you have a right to be angry,” Akko said, and her voice went quiet, the words struggling to reach Sucy. “But…she’s nice. It doesn’t seem like it to you, and I get that and it probably sounds so dumb to hear me say that, but she is. Just like you. That’s why I think you two can get along. And I’m doing my very best to come up with some way to get you see to see that side of her, just like I’m trying to convince her you're nice and not…you know.”

Yeah.

Yeah. She knew.

Her mind brought up the memory of cold blue glaring at her like she was less the dirt, and the phantom pains of her wrist being grabbed in a grip made of iron.

“What is wrong with you?”

Cavendish made it very clear what she thought Sucy was.

And ‘friend’ had been the farthest thing from her mind.

Akko was still staring at her, eyes still wide with concern, and she almost frantically kept going. “I wouldn’t be friends with someone if they were just a big jerk, Sucy. I’d never be with someone if they were always mean to the people I cared about.”

No. No, she wouldn’t, would she? Who would want to be friends with someone that was just a jerk? That was mean to her or her friends and never really showed them, or could show them, anything other than apathy and deadpan quips?

Or who couldn’t get along with everyone’s favorite person who was so nice and oh-so perfect?

“And, I, know she’s hurt you, but, she had her reasons—not that that’s an excuse or, uh, invalidates—I think that’s the word—your pain, but, it makes everything kind of, a complicated mess, and I think the best way to clean up that mess, and make you two stop fighting, is—”

“Akko.”

Akko abruptly stopped rambling.

Sucy stared at her, eye half-lidded, looking practically dead to the world, and sighed. “I get it, Akko. I…shouldn’t have said you should ditch Diana.” Like she ever would. Akko made that abundantly clear. Nothing Sucy could say would change that. “I’m…”

The word was right their. All she had to do was say it.

But she couldn’t get it past all those stupid emotions that made her mouth feel like lead. So she just stood there; saying nothing.

All while Akko grew more and more concerned.

“Sucy, I’m sorry,” Akko said, even though they both knew she had nothing to apologize for. “I know it looks like I’m being a bigger idiot than usual, but I’m not ignoring the fact you…you kinda hate Diana. I…I’ve never had two of my own friends not like each other before, and I’m trying to find the best way to fix everything between you two. Because I just…” She looked down, and after a pause, slowly looked back up. “I just…I just want all my friends to be happy and smiling together, ya know?”

Akko smiled, but it was a hesitant, fragile thing. More of a desperate plea, really; like Sucy should’ve gotten over herself and just get along with Cavendish already so Akko would stop smiling like that. But she couldn’t.

And never would.

It was only a matter of time until Akko realized that. And the choice she’d have to make.

That she already made.

With the grace of a guillotine descending on a criminal to be executed, she killed those thoughts, and every single feeling that came with it. She thought of all the mushrooms in her bag, remembering every location she picked them up from, listing them in alphabetic order, listing all the other times she found mushrooms from the same species, listing every single potion she could think of she could make with them. She just kept listing and listing and listing until mushrooms were the only thing in her head, and nothing else.

In, and out.

She was calm.

Calm.

She was always calm. She had to be.

Sucy was silent. Ice-cold air brushed against her skin; there were no buzzing of insects; no rustle of leaves, or animals running around the ground. Arcturus was completely still, just like Akko’s tiny, strained smile that didn’t belong on a face usually so warm.

And then, the smile fell off her face with a crash Sucy swore she could hear, and its place, there was only worry. “Su…Sucy? Are…what’s wrong?”

Sucy’s mouth didn’t so much as twitch. All she did was turn around, and start to slouch away.

“Sucy?”

Step by step, she kept going deeper into the shadows of the forest.

“Sucy, I—I’m sorry! I don’t know what I said, but I’m sorry it upset you!”

“I’m not upset,” Sucy said, the response automatic. “We got all the stuff for the potion, so I’m heading back to Lotte.”

Footsteps quickly came from behind her. “Sucy, what did I say? I didn’t mean to—”

“I’m not upset, Akko.” Sucy didn’t turn around, and her mouth twitched. In and out.

“You don’t sound like you aren’t.”

“Then get your ears checked.” It was almost painful to keep sounding that neutral. In and out. In and—

“Sucy, c’mon! I’m worried about you–”

Sucy turned.

Akko backed away the moment she saw the scowl on her face.

“Does it look like I care?” Sucy said, not shouting, but the anger in her voice more than made up for it, her eye full of venom, and her glare just as deadly. “Just shut up already Akko. Is that seriously so hard for an absolute idiot like you to do, for once?”

Akko looked like she slapped her. Hard.

Sucy immediately turned back, and she realized the grip she had on her wand was a little tight. Like how her chest was a little tight, and made it hard to breathe with all the emotion their. She took a steadying breath, thought of mushrooms, and killed every stupid feeling that just wouldn’t stay dead.

In and out.

In and out.

In and out.

But even as she tried to deal with her feelings, the silence from Akko was still noticeable. Still something that made it oh-so-easy to see her upset face in Sucy’s mind, and red eyes suddenly full of hurt she had caused. Not from her words, but from how she said them. How angry she sounded, when Akko didn’t deserve it. When she was just concerned.

“What is wrong with—”

Shut. Up.

Sucy let a deep, long breath. She killed that voice and her words, and did the same for the unmistakable rumblings of another growl before it even had the chance to echo through her head.

Just shut up.

Another breath left her, and this one was closer to a sigh. “Akko, I,” Sucy began, and the words immediately got stuck in her throat. She paused for a few seconds, lips pulling down. “I…I didn’t mean that.”

That was an awful apology. She didn’t even sound sorry. But it was honestly the best she could manage. All she could say, when her mouth was so heavy and her throat was so choked.

Akko didn’t respond. Sucy kept working the muscles in her jaw, trying to push past that cement that shut her mouth, to say what should’ve been obvious, but she just…it was just so…

She was silent, frown deepening. Thinking about mushrooms didn’t help her open her mouth to just say something. She just stood still, glaring at nothing.

And then, she felt a familiar warmth on her fingers.

Sucy blinked. She looked down at her hand, the one not clenching her wand so hard. There were fingers their, delicately, almost shyly, really, wrapping around a few of her own. She blinked again, and looked up.

Akko was staring at her, eyes gentle and caring. And, was holding her hand.

“I’m sorry,” Akko said, voice softer than a whisper; her lips were set in a deep, remorseful frown. She glanced down at Sucy’s hand, and then back to her, the question on her face clear.

Sucy said nothing. But, she didn’t try to pull her hand away from Akko’s. It…wasn’t a bad feeling, like being touched usually was for her.

Sucy had a…thing, about people touching her. Of the very few people she was even okay with touching her in the first place, she had certain…preferences, for how they could and couldn’t touch her. To simplify things, in general, as in outside dangerous situations, like how they just ran away from a Cockatrice, or a few very rare circumstances, Sucy didn’t like it when her friends touched her without giving her a warning. She did her best not to show it, but she always hated it when someone touched her when she wasn’t expecting it; that went double for anyone she didn’t like touching her.

Akko knew that. She had discovered that about a day after the Papiliodia thing, when she surprised Sucy with a hug. The exact details, weren’t all that important, but after she had splashed Akko with one of her more “sadistic” potions, it had led to a…surprisingly understanding conversation. After Sucy had gotten Akko to stop rapidly apologizing for making her “uncomfortable.” Which was way too overdramatic, and implied things that weren’t true in the slightest.

But, ever since that day, Akko had learned the “okay” and “bad” ways—Akko’s words—to touch Sucy. Hugs were okay, just so long as she made them obvious, gave her enough time for a chance to deny them, and weren’t too tight—at least, by Akko standards. Pulling on her arm or shaking her shoulders she would allow if, again, Akko made it obvious, and only if it didn’t go on longer for a few seconds. Grabbing her wrist was a no-go; always. And that especially applied to—part of her face.

But touching her hand was…situational. Mostly, it depended on her mood, and how the other person gripped it.

And whenever Akko gripped it, there was never a painfully sharp, prickling sensation on her skin, like scalding needles stabbing into her bones. There was just warmth.

Sucy gazed into Akko’s hesitant, guilty red eyes. She felt Akko’s fingers pull back a little, like she was preparing to let her hand go.

Sucy lightly squeezed Akko’s hand, and her fingers stopped moving.

“Why are you apologizing?” Sucy asked, still staring at Akko’s far too dark, sad eyes.

“For…for forgetting to tell you about the trip,” Akko said, voice a regretful, tiny sounding thing. “For making you upset.”

“I’m not upset,” Sucy groused, but the words came out more tired than annoyed.

“And,” Akko continued, eyes dropping all the way to the floor. “I’m sorry for…for everything that happened in Blytonbury.”

Sucy thought of cold eyes glaring fiercely at her.

Of the burning pain on her face.

And how Akko left her.

Sucy’s thoughts became nothing but mushrooms, and she took in a long breath, letting it out in a silent whisper.

“That wasn’t your fault,” she said. “You were just…trying to make your friends happy. It’s not your fault me and Cavendish got into a fight.”

“It feels like it is,” Akko muttered.

“It’s not.”

Akko didn’t believe her. She opened her mouth, but quickly closed it, like she was hesitant about what she was going to say next. So instead, she said nothing else, gaze still on the floor, facing scrunching up as she contemplated something heavy. Sucy couldn’t stop staring at her conflicted, guilty look; something she had caused, and something that did not belong on Akko’s face. Not at all.

Sucy took in a breath. And, hesitantly, she squeezed Akko’s hand again. It took a second, but Akko slowly looked up from the floor.

“You did nothing wrong, Akko,” Sucy whispered, trying to smooth out her face into something…comforting. “Nothing at all.”

That…that was the right thing to say, wasn’t it? Those were the words she should’ve said, right?

So why did Akko look even sadder now?

“Sucy, we both know I did. Especially when…” She trailed off. And just by the look on her face, Sucy knew what she was thinking about, and it made her go still.

Don’t say it.

“When I…”

Don’t say it.

“When…”

Don’t.

“When I came back from talking with Diana to see you.”

Despite all her efforts, the memories came, and Sucy’s world changed.

She was trudging through Blytonbury, alone, hand on her face, and heading back to the leyline with a scowl that tore her lips apart. Then, she was suddenly on the leyline, alone, shaking so badly she had trouble keeping her grip on her broom. Then she was walking through Luna Nova, alone, and everyone was giving her space like she was leaking poison from her every breath. And no matter who or what tried to get her attention, she was dead silent all the way to the door of her room, even to Lotte, who kept trying to get her to talk, but her only response had been to shove her out of the way, and slam the door right in her face.

She went to her desk, roughly pulled her chair back, and sat down. She didn’t say anything, didn’t even take out her cauldron to make a potion or work on previous ones, didn’t even try to dry out her wet, tea-stained hair. She just kept letting out ragged, guttural breaths, her whole body shaking with heat so intense all she could feel was fire.

And all while she gripped the left side of her face so hard she swore she felt blood on her fingers.

She had no idea how long she stayed like that, how long the rest of the world faded to static as her rage burned and burned, despite all her attempts at thinking of just mushrooms and all the years worth of mediation methods she knew but failed in that moment. And even as more time passed, her anger didn’t really lessen, but just clawed its’ way deeper inside her, until it reached the center of her being; and it stayed there, lurking; slowly changing into something else.

Something she could only describe as dark and scaly and alive when she just wanted it to be dead.

And then someone knocked on the door. Sucy ignored it. They knocked again, a bit more insistent. Sucy kept ignoring it, still gripping her face so hard, rasping breaths leaving her mouth like smoke from a furnace. The knocking came again, and this time it was more insistent, somehow conveying they weren’t gonna leave until the door was open.

So with a deep, monstrous scowl, Sucy stood up, stomped her way to the door, and opened it with a glare that promised poison and flames and death.

And she paused.

Because Akko was the one had been knocking. Her anger, for the first time, cooled down, because it was Akko, because she was here, and not with Ms. Perfect.

But then, she saw Akko’s face. And even with how angry Sucy was, even though this was Akko, for a moment, Sucy felt herself freeze on the spot.

Akko looked serious in a way Sucy had never seen before. And she didn’t like it. She didn’t like that look on her face, like it was cut from hard, unfeeling stone. Didn’t like the weight to Akko’s frown and narrowed eyes that seemed so judgmental, aimed at her with a knife-like intensity. She didn’t like it one bit. It made her…uncomfortable. A tiny bit. But it was something she never thought Akko could make her feel.

And that feeling proved to be completely justified when Akko opened her mouth, and spoke in with a tone that had no emotion whatsoever.

“Sucy…we need to talk.”

Sucy didn’t know it was even possible for Akko to sound so cold. And she would quickly learn that, as unfeeling and lifeless and devoid of any warmth Akko’s voice had been, it was nothing compared to when Akko got furious.

“Sucy?”

That one word broke her world of cold glares and imminent shouts. Bit by bit, the forest returned to her; the cold air that bit into her skin, the haunting trees surrounding her; the fading glow of her wand.

Akko’s worried look on her face.

It took some effort, but Sucy got her jaw unclenched.

“It’s fine,” she said, through the weight in her throat that made speaking difficult. When did it get like that?

Akko’s worry only grew. “Sucy—”

“It’s fine,” she repeated.

“No, Sucy, what I said was really mean and—”

“Akko, I get it.” Sucy’s eye narrowed at Akko, a slight edge to her words. She closed her eye, and thought of mushrooms, focusing on those thoughts, and only those thoughts. “You already apologized for, saying all that stuff, and I forgave you,” she said, voice indifferent, just like usual. “I wasn’t even that upset in the first place.”

Akko, for some reason, looked unconvinced.

“Look, what you said, it wasn’t even that bad.” Sucy had heard worse. Been called worse, than anything Akko had said to her back then. Honestly, it was more like Akko had been less insulting her, and more just…stating facts.

Fact after cold, hard fact.

Sucy sighed, and looked away. “So stop apologizing. I’m fine. Everything’s fine. You can go off with Ursula and Ms—Cavendish, to Ireland. I don’t care. It’s—”

In her mind, she was back in Blytonbury, and she could see Akko leaving her for Diana.

See the worry on her face for Cavendish.

And then that worry turned to a judgmental stare when she looked at Sucy, stepping into their room without so much as blinking, and then as they talked, that judgement slowly turned to anger, and then to outright fury in a way she’d never seen from Akko before, and then Sucy was backing away into a wall and then Akko had screamed at her that she—

Stop.

She killed those thoughts, and then there was only calm.

“—fine,” she finished, after a slight pause. And her voice…changed a little, mid-word. Almost cracking, really.

She was just tired. She’d spent more time talking now than she usually did in a month. She was calm. She was always calm.

Sucy let out a breath, still looking away, still filling her head with every kind of mushroom she could list off. She rubbed her throat a little, having a bit of trouble swallowing. She could all but feel Akko’s eyes on her, and her big, worried frown. Which was stupid, because she was fine. How many times did she have to say it before it sunk in? Before she believed that?

She would’ve said it again if her throat wasn’t so ridiculously tight right now. If her own chest wasn’t constricting and constricting so much it stopped her blood flow and made that part of her numb, and if her own head would just stop replaying all the things Akko shouted at her as she stood frozen to the spot or stop those stupid phantom sensations of her heart being stabbed again and again when it was just words and she didn’t mean them—she didn’t—and they weren’t even that bad.

Sucy suddenly felt another squeeze on her hand, the warmth and touch enough to distract her. But it was the words she heard that brought her back to the forest.

“I’ll be back.”

Sucy went still. It took her a second to process that, to make sure those words were really spoken, and then, so slowly the air wasn’t even disturbed, she looked back.

Akko was staring at her with a firm, yet somehow so gentle, and so warm, gaze.

“I’ll be back before you know it, Sucy. And then we’ll do a bunch of fun, probably kind of dangerous potion stuff!” she said, thrusting her other arm up into the air for emphasis. She lost some of her energy, and her expression became more subdued. “I’m sorry if I ruined any big plans you had, just like I’m sorry about all this big, complicated messy stuff going on right now between you and me and, and Diana, and that…that I can’t spend time with you for the first few weeks of break.”

Sucy could practically feel the regret coming out of Akko’s every word. Regret that she couldn’t spend time with her.

She stared, unblinking, and then, the sorrow vanished from Akko’s face, and she smiled brightly. “But we still have two days before I leave! Tomorrow it’s gonna be kind of busy ‘cuz I’m going to see Andrew in Blytonbury to catch up and hang out with him, and then we’re gonna meet up with the green team at that new pizza place—” Akko abruptly stopped talking, face going pale. “I, I did tell you about that at least. R-right?”

“Yeah, you did,” Sucy said, almost without thinking, nodding with an eye that still hadn’t blinked as Akko sighed in relief. “But, what about after that? On Friday? You’re leaving than, aren’t you? How can we spend time together?”

“Yeah, but I’m leaving pretty late at night. Like, eleven-o-clock-to-midnight late. I think it has something to do with the timezones, and making sure we can actually take the fastest ley lines to Ireland since some connect further, or ‘have more potent magic’ to let witches travel faster, but are only open during certain times and phases of the moon. Or something like that. So, since I don’t have any other plans that day, I’m one hundred percent free to spend the whole day with you!” She gave her a thumbs up.

Sucy stared.

“And Lotte,” Akko added, like she forgot about her and was quickly correcting herself. “All three of us can do whatever we want on Friday!”

Akko looked at her, smile warm, red eyes shining. She looked completely sincere, and there was no reason to think otherwise.

But her chest still felt tight. Too tight.

“You…mean that?” Sucy asked.

Akko blinked, but quickly smiled again with just as much excitement. “Yeah! I’m completely free on Friday, so it’ll be you and me and Lotte havin’ fun—”

“You really mean that?”

The words left her before she could stop them. And before she knew it, she was right in front of Akko.

Sucy clamped her mouth shut, and Akko’s smile slowly fell, replaced by confusion.

“I, yeah. I mean it, Sucy,” Akko said. “There’s nothing going on for me on Friday, so we can do whatever we want.”

Akko stared at her, eyes bright and earnest. Sucy impassively stared back.

She still sounded sincere. Still sounded like she had every intention of keeping that promise.

So why did it feel like she wouldn’t?

A judgmental stare, then an angry and furious glare, was all she could see.

“Sucy?” Akko asked, stepping a little closer.

Sucy looked away, mouth set in a neutral line. All she had to do was nod, and showed she believed her. Or just say she believed her. It was easy.

But her mouth wouldn’t open. Her head felt to heavy to move. Why? Why couldn’t she just do that one simple thing? Why couldn’t she get past that stupid bile-like clog in her throat and just talk to stop Akko from looking so concerned?

Again, she saw red eyes glaring, and enraged words echoed in her head.

What was…why was she so—

There was a squeeze on her hand, gentle, and warm enough to make her forget about the cold night air. Sucy looked down.

Oh. Right.

She was still holding Akko’s hand. Akko had never once let her go.

“Sucy.”

Sucy looked up.

Akko was staring at her like nothing else in the world mattered.

“You’re important to me,” she said.

Sucy’s chest did something at those words. Something that both made it feel tighter yet somehow lighter at the same time, and something that made her unable to look away.

“Wha—”Her mouth was heavy, but, somehow, the weight felt different from the one she’d been feeling most of the night. “What?”

“You’re important to me,” Akko repeated, not hesitating for a moment. “I know that I haven’t been spending as much time with you lately because of, you know, everything that’s been happening, and…and me forgetting to tell you I’m leaving probably just made you feel like I was avoiding you or something, and made you feel bad—”

“I didn’t say that,” Sucy almost instantly denied.

”—but that doesn’t mean you still aren’t one of the most important people in my life.”

Akko said it casually. Like it was the easiest thing in the world, to admit how much she cared about her. Sucy felt a bit bitter, and something not-so-bitter.

But she mostly felt the warmth from Akko’s hand as she kept gently squeezing.

“I know I keep trying to get you and Diana to be friends, but I don’t want you to think I’m upset at you for still being mad at her, or that I don’t want to spend time with you because of it. And…if I ever made you feel otherwise, I’m sorry.” Akko lowered her gaze in guilt. “I’d never abandon you like that, Sucy.”

Sucy’s eye had widened, just a fraction, and her breath caught in her throat. She suddenly squeezed Akko’s hand again. To…let her know she could keep holding it, if she wanted too. Akko was, still feeling guilty and all that other stuff, and Sucy…didn’t want to upset her again by denying her. So she kept holding her hand.

Holding it with a steadily tightening grip. Wanting to make sure she held on. That Akko…wasn’t gonna let go.

Akko didn’t seem to notice her grip, and looked back up. “I…I don’t know how I’m gonna fix everything with Diana. But, no matter what happens, I just want you to know…” She seemed to struggle with the words. Akko glanced down at Sucy’s hand, still held in her own, then back at her face. Akko let out a breath, and looked right into her eye with a firm, unwavering conviction. “If you ever feel alone, I’ll always be there for you. Always.”

Akko squeezed her hand, and Sucy realized that it was…quivering; just a little. But as the warmth from Akko’s hand filled her palm, it stopped. Sucy was reminded that, for all her rules, the more Akko kept hanging around her and staying with her, the more she was…fine, with however Akko wanted to touch her. Even on the rare times she surprised her by mistake, Sucy…Sucy was starting to mind less and less. She was getting more and more fine with her bone-crushing hugs every day. Fine with just how close she liked to get, and how she had come to expect Akko to try and touch her, and when she did, would do nothing to stop her.

It honestly surprised her just how much she didn’t hate Akko holding her. How much she…

Liked it.

Sucy couldn’t so much as blink as Akko kept staring at her, still so close.

“So…if you wanna talk, about anything”—Akko’s eyes were full of warmth, just like her voice and the rest of her face—“I’ll listen.”

Sucy stared. Not so much as twitching. That tight-but-lighter feeling in her chest was stronger than ever, and now, she could hear what sounded like a steady, rhythmic beat that was echoing throughout her entire body and getting louder. It took her a moment to realize what it was.

Her heart.

It was beating faster.

Just a little.

Sucy swallowed. She opened her mouth, and sucked in a quick breath, but it didn’t feel like any air had gotten through the tight knot her throat had become. Her hand was shaking in Akko’s grip, and, and was it sweating?

No. Of course it wasn’t. Akko’s was. And even Sucy’s hand was sweating a tiny bit, it was just from the fact that Akko’s hands were so warm it suddenly felt like she was gripping a furnace. Not because she was….because she…

The beat of her heart kept echoing. Her eye was unblinking as Akko kept staring at her with her sincere, bright eyes; the message in them was clear.

You can talk to me.

I’m here.

Sucy’s mouth practically opened on its own.

“Anything?” she asked, and her voice was quieter than it had been all night.

“Yeah. Anything.”

Once again, there was no hesitation in Akko’s voice. In her eyes.

“Anything?” Sucy repeated, more forcefully, to get through the tight, tight knot in her throat.

Akko nodded, as solemn as Sucy had ever seen her. “Anything, Sucy.”

She squeezed her hand again. The warmth had never once changed. And that was what made it a bit easier to find the words.

“Akko,” Sucy began, clenching Akko’s hand a bit tighter. “If you…”

Diana’s cold eyes, and then the image of Akko running after Diana, were all she could see.

Her stomach became lead. Her voice got slower; hesitant, in a way it hadn’t been in years.

“If…if you…if you…”

She didn’t finish. Her mind wouldn’t stop bringing up memories of Diana glaring, or Akko leaving her for Diana, or Akko glaring at her and then shouting at her and the words she said, how things had just kept getting worse no matter what she did, and the words died in her throat before they ever properly form.

But then there was a rush of warmth from her hand, slowly spreading through the rest of her, pushing away those thoughts. Akko had squeezed her hand again.

“Take your time,” Akko whispered, warm red eyes patient and understanding in ways Sucy wasn’t used to seeing from anyone.

Sucy stared. The weight inside her started to fade. Slowly, she breathed in, and let out a small breath, calming herself faster than she had the entire night.

“Akko,” she started, focusing only on Akko’s smile, not her thoughts, and let the words, simplified, but the meaning still so important, come out. “If you had to…choose…”

Her heart was in her throat, beating painfully. She had no idea what would come next.

A breath that was shakier than any before left her.

“If you had to, would you choose—”

There was a tiny, squeaking like noise that sounded almost like a groan. Sucy blinked. Akko did too, and they both looked down.

In Akko’s other, bandaged hand, the forsakenwing—which Sucy had completely forgotten about—was waking up. Its unscarred eye blink, the scarred one only doing a facsimile of one, as the eyelid their barely even twitched. It shook its tiny head, the drowsiness quickly leaving its gaze, and looked up at both her and Akko. It stared at them for a second.

And then it started screaming.

Sucy and Akko flinched at the noise, badly. It was like having a pair of drills shoved in both ears that met in the middle of her skull.

Yet somehow, Akko’s voice was louder.

“OWOWOWOWOW!” She screamed, and Sucy flinched again. With tears in her eyes and painfully grit teeth, Akko looked down at the bat, and shouted again, but this time at a much lower volume to be heard, while also trying to sound soothing. “Hey, calm down! We’re friends! We’re not gonna hurt—”

There was a loud rustling from behind them, like the unfurling of wings. As one, they turned, Sucy lifting her wand up higher.

There was a tree behind them. One that had an entire colony of bats on every branch. Not forsakenwings, but nosferatu blue-bloods, bats that looked almost exactly like regualr bats save for their longer fangs, pitch black sclera, and a dark blue patagium—a membrane of skin—on its wings, and could also launch a dark-blue, viscous liquid that was almost like blood from their mouths, that would release a powerful odor a few moments after contact with whatever they had deemed as their prey. They were also extremely territorial, and more than willing to sink their fangs into anything and anything they considered an enemy.

Sucy got a first hand look of that aggression as the bats all but collectively glared at her and Akko, let out an angry cacophony of screeches, and then flew off the branches on jet black wings and headed right for them.

The forsakenwing, meanwhile, flew out of Akko’s hand, unexpectedly into Sucy’s wand, knocking it out of her grasp and to the ground, and then flew into the night.

Sucy looked at her now empty hand, and then to the ground where it was to far away to grab in time. She then looked at the retreating back of the forsakenwing flatly.

“I should’ve plucked your heart out,” Sucy said.

Akko just screamed again as a mass of pure black descended towards them, letting go of Sucy’s hand.

Sucy frowned, quickly running through the potions she that could best deal with these bats, hand reaching for her robes and scouring inside them.

But she never got a chance to, because Akko was suddenly in front of her, her wand whipped out with lighting speed as, at the same time, she grabbed Sucy by the waist and pulled her close, and faster than she’d ever heard, Akko shouted, “Metamorphie Fociesse!”

She wiped her arm out in front of her, and green energy suddenly washed over the bats like a crashing wave. There was a poof of smoke, and then, bright pink butterflies, ones that almost looked like the shape of hearts, came from within, harmlessly flying past them. The fading green lights of the spell cast a perfect glow on her face, highlighting her protective frown, and the determination in her eyes made it clear no one was getting past her.

Sucy’s somewhat wide eye blinked. A few times, actually. The night air was suddenly less cold on her face.

Akko’s head whirled to Sucy, and she was still holding her. “Are you okay?” she asked, bright eyes wide, and looking way more panicked than she really should’ve been. But that didn’t mean Sucy…didn’t appreciate the concern. And Akko was still holding her. “Ah, wait, did I grab you to hard? I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking and—”

“You’re fine,” Sucy said, keeping her monotone steady. She was still staring, and her stomach was suddenly full of an odd, almost tickling sensation that made something bubble up to her throat. She swallowed, with some difficulty. “You’ve…gotten really good at that spell, huh?”

Akko practically preened. “Ah, nah, that was nothing!” She bashfully rubbed the back of her head, smiling widely. Like turning a bunch of living creatures into a bunch of harmless insects in less than a second and on the fly wasn’t impressive on its own. Akko looked away, eyes closed, and said,“You should see what I can pull off when I’m practicing with Ursula. I can turn a whole statue into a bunch of cute, mini-glowing elephants that can fly. And I’ve almost got down that, ‘turn into a bunch butterflies and flying in sync’ trick she did in all her shows! It’s way more impressive than this.”

“You…”Akko’s hold on her felt so tight; she could feel her fingers dig into her waist, not painfully, but firmly enough to remind her just how strong she was. How close she was holding her. “You don’t say?”

“Yep!”

Akko giggled, smile still so warm; and close.

Sucy kept staring at Akko; in her mind, she still clearly saw that determined face Akko had on. The way her eyes all but shined, how she looked so protective of her, in a way Sucy hadn’t seen in…she couldn’t really say. But, as she stared at Akko’s lips and the shy smile on them, and as her mind kept repeating that Akko was still holding her, here and now, it suddenly felt like she’d keep doing that; protecting her, choosing her and no one else, like she’d really would always be here for her, and it made her chest flip with that tight-yet-lightening sensation again.

Made her warm, from head to toe.

“But uh, what were you trying to say before about choosing—”

Akko turned, opening her eyes. She quickly stopped talking.

And Sucy realized just how close she was to Akko. At some point, her arms had moved to wrap around Akko’s waist and back, her head leaning closer, and now, her face was probably not even inches away. Their noses were almost touching.

Sucy went still, like her whole body had become stone. She couldn’t so much as twitch. Akko didn’t either. She could feel Akko’s breath on her face. Her heartbeat, through the fingers on her neck, and even through her own chest.

Could Akko feel her own?

They both kept standing still. Kept waiting for…she didn’t know. Some signal for when it was okay to break, whatever this was? Sucy didn’t know. She just kept holding Akko. And Akko did the same.

But then, Akko’s face did something Sucy had never seen it do before, when looking at Sucy’s own: screw up in pure disgust.

“Ew, gross.”

Every bit of warmth inside her died.

It was the tone that did it. That one full of revulsion and disdain. That made Sucy’s heart just stop as that word echoed in her head, and brought back hundreds of different words from hundreds of different voices that were screaming in her head; words she had heard so many times, that she never wanted to hear again, that she thought she’d never hear from Akko of all people, and one word, the loudest, the one she always heard the most, that stabbed her the most, stood out.

“Disgusting.”

Disgusting.

Always that word.

She thought she had escaped it.

She thought things were different with Akko.

But Akko just called her that.

Akko just called her that.

Something inside her chest let out a horrible crack as a part of her face burned.

-0-

In a rapidly decaying groove, a dying tree let out a crack. It was not a crack of age, nor a crack of an inevitable death.

No, this crack was a signal for something. Of the walls of an ancient prison crumbling, even if just slightly.

The tree’s branches creaked again, but this time, while still weak, they sounded determined. The excited moans of a beast slowly breaking its chains.

And with every creak, the grass around it started to change; from alive, to decaying, and then, dead. Some of the others trees followed, their faces twisting, bodies falling apart.

And on the face of that dying tree’s body, its prison keeper could do nothing but watch as the trees branches continued to creak and moan with sounds that were almost like laughs as its continued to try and reach one witch who’s feelings were roaring to all who could hear.