The heat and pain was one she knew intimately. One that she hadn’t felt in so long, and hoped it meant that she’d never feel them again. But she was wrong, and she hated that she was.

But not nearly as much as she hated how much it burned.

Sucy Manbavaran pushed Akko away so hard they both almost fell back.

“What?” Sucy stepped back, all the warmth she felt just a second ago replaced with pure ice, one eye wide. “Wha-what did you just say?”

Akko’s eyes were wide too, still stumbling before she forced herself to stop, and she stared at Sucy with what almost looked like confusion mixed with worry. “Sucy?”

“What did you just call me!?” She hissed, and the ice that filled her got colder with every second; she almost tripped on her own feet as she kept rapidly stepping back.

That face Akko made kept repeating in her mind. And her words.

“Ew, gross.”

There was no longer a growl in her head; just an all consuming roar.

There was no way, no way. Akko couldn’t have said that, she couldn’t have. It couldn’t be happening again, she made sure to always—to make sure that no one would ever find—how did Akko see them? That protection was still their, she could feel it. Did Diana somehow figure it out and tell Akko how to see them for herself, just to make sure Akko would never choose her. Because why would Akko want to be with someone who had—someone who’s face—someone who was disgusting—

The heat on her face got worse; scalding in all the worst way, like her blood was boiling underneath skin, and made it impossible to ignore the pain.

To ignore it.

Akko still had on that perplexed and concerned look for a second, but then her face turned ashen, as if she was the one that should be panicking right now. “No, no, no-no-no-no-no-no NO! Sucy, I—I wasn’t talking about you, I was—”

“Don’t you lie to me!”

Akko froze.

For the first time in years, Sucy shouted. Raised her voice so much it scratched and tore at her throat. She glared at Akko with emotions so intense and hot, that she could feel changing every of second, it made it impossible to form any kind of apathetic mask. The snarl that broke across her face was equal parts angry as it was just pained. “You called me disgusting!”

It wasn’t supposed to happen again. She did everything she could to make sure it wouldn’t. But then she met Akko, let her get close because she thought she could trust her, that things were different, that things were better, but she was wrong again.

“No, no, no!” Akko was moving again, frantically waving her hands, rushing to Sucy with eyes that just kept getting wider. “I was talking about—”

She pointed at her face, her mouth moving.

And Sucy could only hear those voices again, all their scorn and mockery and laughter, and that word. Always that word, never ending, echoing loudly inside her head.

Right alongside that hateful roar.

Akko’s mouth kept moving, no sounds coming out, but then, as the voices kept rising, her face flickered like the pure white of a damaged movie screen just starting up, and then her eyes were covered in shadows, but the smirk on her face, one that looked just like all the ones she’d seen before, was impossible to miss.

“Ew, disgusting.”

It felt like her guts had been ripped out, and she couldn’t breathe.

No. No, not again. She didn’t—she couldn’t—

She clenched her eye shut, fingers clenched so hard on her arms she felt her nails start to pierce her skin, forcing herself to breathe again. When she opened her eye to glare, to let venom hide the pain and hurt, Akko’s face had changed again. The smirk was gone, and her face was twisted with panic Sucy had never been more sure was a lie.

“S-Sucy, why are you looking like—you heard what I said, right—”

Akko had gotten close enough to where she could reach out, her hand bridging the gap between them.

Sucy smacked it away with every ounce of rage inside her. Akko’s hand didn’t feel warm any more.

It just hurt to touch.

“Did you plan all of, this!?”” Sucy was shouting again, eye glaring with pure hate that felt just as hot as the pain inside her. “Was this just setup for, for a joke!?”

“I—what?” Akko still looked at her with that fake confusion. “Sucy, what are you—”

“How did you know?” Sucy kept stepping back, her chest so tight her ribs felt like they were piercing her lungs. Every breath that left her was heavy; like she had to fight to get even a molecule of air into her body. “How did—who told you? Who told you!?”

“I don’t—told me what?"

“You know what! That I have—that I’m—you—” Sucy couldn’t remember the last time she stuttered over her words so badly. The last time she trembled so badly she had trouble standing. Or the last time her face hurt so much.

The last time it burned so badly.

Blue eyes were suddenly judging her, and then her voice echoed like a banshee through her.

“What is wrong with you?”

Another roar came, all but making her ears bleed.

“Sucy, please, I swear I wasn’t—”

“Shut up! Just shut up already!” Sucy screamed, hands going over her ears. She kept stepping back, shaking her head, trying to get kill off all the voice shouting insults in her head, to silence Diana’s words.

But all that other noise paled in comparison to that cracking deep in her chest. A crack that let heat seep in and made her chest feel like it was being ripped apart by razor-sharp claws from the inside-out as something tried to get out.

And more cracks were forming by the second. Breaking down all the restraints she built over a lifetime.

The roar came again, loud and deafening.

Even louder than her own heart, which was beating so loud it sounded like a moment away from exploding.

Akko quickly ran towards her, reaching out with a hand, but Sucy smacked it away again. And she hated that. Hated how doing just that took far more effort than it should’ve. Hated how her skin felt so tight all the air left her, squeezing her and locking her inside her own body. She hated how Akko’s hands suddenly just hurt to touch, even for just a second, when she wished that it didn’t, that it still felt warm and filled her with warmth and wished that things had actually been different this time.

The voices came again, all their loud words stabbing her with every echo, and the crack inside her kept getting bigger. Just like that horrible burning. Like how her thundering heart got louder. Like that roar.

It was suddenly so hard to see past all blood in her eye.

It was happening again.

“Sucy—”

She could barely hear Akko’s voice through all that painful sound, but it was enough to make the blood go away. Sharp teeth bit into her lip, trying to distract herself with pain, clenching her eye shut, fingers digging even deeper into her arms, like that would somehow help her deal with skin that was clammy and cold and hot and that felt like chains coiling around her from the inside out.

It was happening again.

She tried to think of mushrooms, but their was no way to order her thoughts into something calming, or kill off her feelings when she couldn’t even get her stupid lungs to breathe again. When Akko called her disgusting and everything was too loud and her heart kept beating so hard and felt a moment away from bursting into paste and the cracks kept getting bigger and the heat spreading throughout her became fire.

And then, all she could see was some thing looming over her, breathing flames and hate.

And all while her eye burned and burned and burned.

It was happening again.

She was about to be thrown away like disgusting trash again—

Sucy’s foot stepped back, but instead of ground, all she felt was empty air.

Sucy’s eye shot open, head whipping around.

She had been moving back to a part of the grove that suddenly went from a flat ground to a very steep hill. And now she was falling back. Her arms flailed, trying to regain her balance, but her body kept leaning back, her feet just about to leave the ground.

“Sucy!”

Something grabbed her by her arm, and pulled, stopping her fall. Sucy stumbled forward, and found herself looking at Akko’s panicking, wide-eyed face.

But she couldn’t even focus on Akko’s bright red eyes when she felt constricted in her own skin, when she couldn’t breathe, when the burn was so bad it was like everything was on fire, and Akko touching her just reminded her about how awful everything felt and her hand was so close to her wrist—

Akko let go, and immediately took a few steps back, hands raised. It was so unexpected Sucy had to blink. Akko then stopped, and pointed at her cheek.

“You-have-blue-junk-on-your-face!” she shouted in a rapid-fire burst of words.

What?

Akko was still pointing to at herself, jabbing the air to emphasize the gesture. Sucy slowly mirrored her, and when her finger touched her cheek, she felt something warm and sticky. She brought her finger up to her face, and saw that the tip was covered in some blue, viscous liquid.

And then their was the smell. It wasn’t the worst thing that she’d ever smelled, but it did make her nose wrinkle and frown. What even was this—

She suddenly remembered the bluebloods, and the foul smelling spit they could unleash. And she realized that Akko had been looking more at her cheek than her face when she…when she called her…

Oh.

“One of the bats spat some gunk on you and I didn’t notice until you were really close and I could smell it!” Akko shouted, frantically waving her arms. “That was what I was calling gross! The bat spit, not you!”

Sucy stared, needing a moment to let the realization settle in.

Akko hadn’t been talking about her. It…

It wasn’t happening again.

The roar went silent.

“Oh,” Sucy said, blinking slowly. “That…that was what you meant.”

“Ye-yeah! That was it.” Akko chuckled; it was as awkward as her smile was strained. “This was just one big misunderstanding. Kinda…kinda funny, right?”

Sucy kept staring. Another realizations slowly came into her head. She didn’t move.

Akko’s facsimile smile fell off, and then there was just regret on her face. “No, of course it isn’t, stupid Akko,” she muttered, lowering her gaze as she rapped her head a few times with her fist. She looked back up, bright eyes staring right at her, and said, “Sucy, I’m so sorry. I would never call you gross. Or disgusting.”

Sucy still hadn’t so much as twitched.

Akko’s eyes filled with even more concern. “Sucy?”

She didn’t respond. Couldn’t. Not when the air she could get into her still shrunk lungs felt stilted. Not when her skin was still too tight on her bones.

Not when Akko had seen her freak out.

Her heart was still beating so fast, in that too loud, moment away from exploding out of her chest way, not at all like how it beat so fast when Akko was holding her hand. When it had been pleasant, and didn’t just keep reminding her how tight and awful and cold everything was.

But she had to say something. To convince Akko she was fine, and show her what happened wasn’t anything worth talking about. Or even acknowledge happened in the first place.

Opening her mouth felt like brewing a potion where she forgot all the steps, and all while dealing with limbs that had turned to stone and a heart that wouldn’t stop beating so fast, and when part of her face felt like burning even when she was so cold.

“O-okay,” Sucy said, monotone back, if a little shaky. And with a tremor to her voice. She tried to swallow, but nothing was going down her throat. “Okay. I…that’s…” The words weren’t forming in her head; couldn’t, when her thoughts were crushed under the weight of all the things happening in her body. That locked her inside her own skin with that too loud heartbeat she couldn’t just get to slow down already.

The worry on Akko’s face kept rising, twisting into something that almost made her look scared. “Sucy, you look kind of pale.”

“I…always am,” she said, and it took so much effort just to get those words out. Especially when the air wasn’t doing it’s job and getting her lungs to work for some stupid reason.

“I mean more than usual. Like a lot more than usual.” Akko stepped closer, but it was suddenly harder to see her face. Why was Akko’s face getting darker? Even the forest look like it had entered a new stage of rapidly darkening night. “And, and you’re kind of breathing pretty hard right now.”

Sucy tried to respond, but when she tried to speak, only a short, choking kind of gasp left her. More darkness rose as her face kept getting hotter while the rest of her got cold. All other sounds went deathly quiet as her rapid heartbeat became the only thing she could hear. She bit her lip again, focusing on the pain, lowering her head that became heavier than cement, hands clenching into tight, shaking fists.

But even in her current state, she could make out Akko getting even closer to her, one hand reaching towards her. A hand that looked more shadowy by the second, that suddenly looked so cold and so much like the hands from her past and didn’t look warm at all.

Sucy whipped around, and the glare she sent Akko made it clear what would happen if she continued.

Akko froze, and quickly pulled her hand back. She took several slow, careful steps back.

Sucy kept glaring, even when Akko was nowhere near her and couldn’t touch her, even when she knew she shouldn’t be so harsh to Akko and that she was acting like a complete idiot right now in front of her. This didn’t make sense; it wasn’t happening again, so why was she acing like, this? So what if Akko saw? So what if she acted, a bit off when Akko called her—called her that? So what if it meant that she would want to ask questions and meant that she would want to know why she was acting so weirdly? That…

That she would want to know about then.

She could still hear their voices. Feel that scalding heat on her face. It made everything so much harder; from trying to think, to getting her heart to stop beating so painfully fast. To stop feeling like if she so much as moved an inch, it would stop beating, but never start again.

And Akko was right there, watching her in the rising shadows. Seeing everything. Sucy had no idea what expression she had on right now, but she knew it was about as far from blank or neutral as possible. And Akko could see it. See all the emotions she failed to kill before they bled onto her face.

Akko had a front row seat to Sucy losing more control of herself than she had in years, and she hated that. Hated how…exposed she felt. Raw, like a festering, poisoned wound that kept bleeding something deeper and darker than blood, something that no one was supposed to see.

And the longer that wound was uncovered, seen by everyone and everything, the more her heart kept beating harder, to the point the pain there started to overwhelm that scalding sting on her face. The voices rose and matched the sound of her heart bursting inside her crumbling ribs and lungs.

And then Diana’s voice deafened everything else.

“What is wrong with you?”

Another growl quickly followed those judging, cold words, just as loud as them, if not louder.

Sucy fists went even tighter, nails digging into her skin, teeth biting deeper into her lip. She wanted it to stop. She wanted all those voices to be quiet. She wanted Diana’s words to stop hitting her again and again from inside her own head. She wanted to stop shaking and for her chest to stop feeling so tight and get past the fact she felt like throwing up even when her stomach had never felt emptier and to just be able to breathe again.

But that awful burn on her face and the coldness from everything else just kept reminding her how wrong her body was, and things kept getting darker, and Akko was right there and seeing her act so pathetic and was probably just about to—

“Sucy, what was that potion you gave me that made my nose really long?”

Through sheer incredulity, Akko’s voice got through all the noise in her head; her too-tight skin and icy blood and shrinking lungs. Slowly, Sucy blinked, processing those words.

“Wha…what?” she said, voice small.

“That potion that gave me a long nose. You know, like a few weeks after winter started? And I got a really bad cold, and I asked you to help make it go away.”

The memories of that day Akko was talking about came forward. It had been cold enough to bite into her skin and almost make her shiver, so she made sure to brew her potions near Ilo, and Lotte also stood close by her familiar while she fed them cherrywood—one of Ilo’s favorites to snack on. It made their flames warmer, turning them a pinkish shade of red, and also left a kind of sweet tang in the air that was pleasant on her tongue, and made the cold a bit more bearable.

Akko had been there too, sniffling and sneezing every other second because she had been out late the night before doing…what was it?

“Making giant snowmen with the green team, and having Wangari, Marianne and Molly judge ‘em.”

Oh, right. Sucy and Lotte hadn’t joined in because she had some protections for some of her mushrooms she had growing in their room to protect them against the cold so they didn't die, and she wanted to make sure they were strong enough not to fail. And Lotte had to study for a test and also call her parents, so she couldn’t go either. It meant there was no one around to make sure Akko didn’t do something dumb. Like say, give the snowmen’s “kids” her jacket and mittens so they’d “stay warm,” and did so in the middle of the night.

Which was what she had done. Again.

It lead to Akko basically using every tissue Luna Nova had to offer and looking honestly pretty miserable for most of the morning. She spent most of it in her bed, face red, tears in her eyes, and smile nowhere in sight. So, to get her to stop distracting her with her begging and crying and sneezing, Sucy decided to cure her cold.

But she hadn’t used a potion; she told Akko multiple times it wasn’t a potion, it was a—

Sucy frowned. “You…you mean the elixir?”

“There’s a difference?”

That made a different kind of burn rise in her face: the heat from a not small amount of annoyance rising behind her eye as it just held back from twitching. “Yes, Akko. There is a difference. We’ve been over this.”

“Sorry. Really sorry.” Akko’s voice sounded different; still gentle, but just a bit more quiet than usual. Like she was doing her best to make sure her words were still calming, and that they didn’t disturb the air around Sucy. Or just Sucy herself “Could you explain it again?”

“Why should I?” she muttered, even though she was forming the explanation in her head already, a force of habit she had when talking about magic around Akko. It was either explain the same thing again and again, or risk her whining for hours until she did. Sucy would much rather deal with the former.

At least by actually explaining, Akko wouldn’t whine, and would instead just smile and giggle and stand close to her. That was way more pleasant, compared to her whining.

“Because you always make it sound so cool. Way more than Professor Lukíc does. Honestly, you should probably be the one teaching her classes.”

Sucy gave the area of pitch black she assumed Akko was talking from a side-long, shrewd glance. “You’re laying it on a little thick, Akko.”

“I’m really not,” she said, with the kind of casual certainty that made it clear she meant every word. “I could listen to you talk about potions for hours.” Akko’s footsteps echoed quietly, and she could feel her bright eyes looking at her with that big, pleading look she always got on when she was asking her for a favor. “So…please?”

It was easy to focus on Akko’s words. On her warm tone, and how it sounded so much nicer than all the noise going on in her head. That honestly reminded Sucy a little of her singing voice, not in the sense it was all that melodic just, that, it was…

It was nice to listen to.

Her chest felt lighter. Heart slowing down for the first time.

Sucy sucked in a breath through lungs that could finally take in a little air, and said, “Elixirs are distilled magical liquids that generally have stronger magical effects on the body than most potions, and are also aimed more to ‘heal’ someone’s body from an illness, or strengthen their magic in some way, or both. Sometimes potions are used as a ‘base’ for the elixir, but calling an elixir a potion would be like calling a smoothie ‘water’ just because you used a lot of water to make it.”

“Oh, I get it now! Thanks.” Akko let out an appreciative hum. She sounded closer. “What did you use?”

“Some fire spirit essence,” Sucy continued, and the words got easier, her throat less of a knot. “Month old gouda to cool down the essence, since that cheese works best with the potion. Squid ink to make sure the color was right. Fermented Garlic to help stabilize the whole thing. A few mushrooms.”

“Mushrooms, huh? What kind?”

“Dragon’s breath to make sure the potion was strong enough.” She paused for a second. “They’re…they’re the ones with skin that kind of looks like scales. They even release these spores that are like green, purpleish fireballs.”

“Oh, that sounds really pretty!” Akko’s enthusiasm couldn’t be faked.

Sucy chuckled a little. “It is,” she said, tension oozing out of her shoulders. Dragon’s breath was one of her favorite mushrooms, actually. “I’d show you if I had one, but they’re out of season here, so they’re had for me to get, or grow.”

“That’s okay, Sucy. We can find some another time.” Somehow, she knew that Akko was already imagining going on some adventure to get some dragon’s breaths, no matter how hard it might be, just because Sucy might want some. “What else did you use?”

“A quarter of a silver hareblooms to make sure the elixir acted fast. About half of a nourishcap to make sure your body could absorb all the nutrients in the elixir, and that your nose could expel the cold without any problems.” She paused. Something new welled up in her own stomach; it made her feet fidget. “A…a shiitake.”

“Shiitake?” She could all but hear Akko blinking. “I thought you said shiitake wasn’t that good of a mushroom for elixirs?”

It wasn’t. There were about a dozen different mushrooms that could do the same job as a shiitake for most elixirs, outside of very rare circumstances and potions. And that cold elixir hadn’t been one of them. But…

“I had one on hand, so I just used it out of convenience,” she said, and that was true. “Besides, it…it made it less likely you’d vomit it out all over me, since…”

Since Akko liked shiitake.

“Since it helped with the tase,” she muttered.

Akko didn’t respond right away. She could feel her presence, how close she was, but still didn’t try to touch her skin that wasn’t so tight anymore, but was still wrapped around her lungs like icy chains. And that burn was still there on her face, smaller, yes, but noticeable, and it just made her hate how her body was acting. How it was noticing the smallest things, things that she knew shouldn’t bother her, but did.

“You really know a lot about mushrooms, huh, Sucy?” Akko asked, and her words snapped Sucy’s focus away from that burn and everything wrong with her body. “It’s really cool how much you love them.”

Sucy blinked. “You…You think that’s cool?”

“Of course!” Sucy actually heard the nod Akko gave her. “It’s…it’s really nice, hearing what you’re passionate about. Mushrooms, potions, mushrooms and potions, all that other stuff you think is cool. Seeing you gush about how much those things mean to you always makes me smile.”

She could all but feel one of those smiles aimed at her, bright like the sun and with kindness to match.

The tightness that made everything so suffocating went away, and the shadows started to follow.

“I don’t ‘gush’ about things, Akko,” Sucy said, some of her dry, blunt snark returning to her voice. But she couldn’t hide the small little grin on her face. “You gush. Like about all your ‘Chariot Merch.’ I just state facts.”

“C’mon, Sucy, no need to be shy.” She heard Akko step closer. Sucy didn’t back away. “You can admit you fangirl over mushrooms as much as I fangirl over Chariot.”

“I am not a fangirl, Akko.”

“You kinda are.”

“Shut it.”

“Won’t make it not true.”

“I will use your Chariot poster as kindling for my cauldron.”

“Wha—you wouldn’t!”

“Try me, Guinea Pig.”

Neither spoke. She could feel Akko’s outraged glare on her. Then, Akko started chuckling, for seemingly no reason at all. And then, Sucy did too, more quietly, but still genuine. At some point, Sucy realized she had lifted her head up when moments ago it felt too heavy to move. That her heart wasn’t beating a hundred times a second and was at a steady, calm rate, and that she could breathe again.

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That at some point, the shadows and darkness that had lingered in her vision completely vanished, just like all the rest of the voices and sounds in her head and that tightness in her skin. And she could see Akko, standing so close to her, and beaming at her with a warm, sunny smile.

The burning was gone like it was never there in the first place. Sucy laughed a little louder.

“Feeling better?”

Sucy blinked. Akko’s gaze was still bright, but the worry was there, just underneath her smile.

“You’re not…not still feeling so bad, right?” she asked.

Sucy stared. When she opened her mouth, all the came out was denial.

“I…Akko, I was fine—”

“Sucy.” Akko’s smile was gone, lips in a firm, if gentle, line. “Don’t lie. You weren’t ‘fine.’ You looked really, really…” Akko seemed struggled on her next word. “Upset,” she said, and from the increasingly worried look on her face, it was clear Akko thought she was understating things.

Sucy looked away. It…it hadn’t been that bad. She had just been kind of surprised when Akko had, had seemingly called her that. And had been a bit…embarrassed, when she realized Akko had seen her freak out over nothing. She had been through worse than that. Way worse.

“Can I…” Akko sounded hesitant. Sucy glanced back, and saw that Akko was half-reaching out with her hand to Sucy’s own. And that Sucy’s own hand was shaking a little. It was obvious what she wanted to ask; to do again, but wanted to make sure Sucy was okay with it first.

Without really thinking, Sucy reached out to Akko’s hand. So that…so that Akko…so that she could feel…

Akko gently clasped her fingers around Sucy’s hand, and filled it with warmth. Her shaking stopped like it was never there. “Sucy…can you please tell me what just happened?” Akko asked, and there was more concern on her face than Sucy had seen all night. “I’ve never seen you act like that before. Was that all because you thought I…I called you ‘disgusting?’”

Sucy swallowed something that tasted like cement mixed with acid, burning and clogging her throat. “I…” The words weren’t there. Not that she even wanted to find them. Because she knew what Akko wanted her to say, but she wasn’t…if she said it, that would mean she’d have to explain why she…that she hated being called…

There was another squeeze, and her hand felt even warmer. Sucy realized that she was staring at the ground. And because of that, she could see Akko stepping closer. And see her reaching for her other hand.

“It’s okay.” There was a tenderness in Akko’s words now that, as impossible as may sound, made her voice even more kind and caring than it had been throughout the night. “I said it before, and I’ll keep saying it again and again…”

Akko took her other hand. Her callused fingers slowly interlocked with Sucy’s. More warmth flooded her hand, then her whole body. She looked up.

Akko’s face was inches away, salty breath brushing against her skin.

Sucy went unnaturally still, and her heart started beating faster. Not in the painful way, but in that pleasant, warm way that made the world fade away and left just Akko’s soft, kind face.

“You can talk to me about anything, Sucy.” Akko tilted her head, and smiled with nothing but honesty, and care so few people ever showed her. “Always.”

Akko’s eyes gazed right into her own. Eyes that were still so bright, still so understanding. And they still had the same message as before, softly echoing in her ears like a song.

I’m here.

They were two simple words. Words she rarely heard before. Words that could so easily be lies. But with Akko, it was so easy to believe them. That she cared for her. That she would be here for her. That she’d stay with her.

Always.

Sucy looked down at the hands holding her own. Hands that were so warm, and made her feel just as warm, even warmer, and more than anything else made her feel…feel so…

She kept staring.

Akko gently squeezed her hands again. And that made her heart beat even harder.

“So…can we talk about what just happened?” Akko asked. Her smile faded, and worry took away some of the brightness in her eyes. “Because I’m worried, Sucy.”

So many thoughts and feelings came from nowhere yet everywhere inside her, and warred in her head; there was a part that was shouting at her to deny, to say she was fine; another part that wanted to try to explain at least some things if it meant Akko stop worrying about her; another that just wanted to keep holding Akko’s hand and keep feeling that warmth for the rest of the night. So many things running inside her that she didn’t—couldn’t—deal with to get them to stop, or even know if she…if she should stop them. All she did know was that the way her chest was all but bursting with, with something that made her want to talk more than she had in years because she just felt so…so…

Safe.

That was it.

She felt safe with Akko.

To the point that she was actually considering talking about then.

Sucy opened her mouth. To say what, she had no idea.

But Akko’s next words made her freeze.

“You…you looked kind of like how you did when we were fighting and I said—”

There was another high-pitched screech; one that saved her from reliving that moment again. Akko turned around, and Sucy did too.

Another blueblood bat was flying towards them with an ear-piercing screech. And before either Sucy or Akko could react, it was suddenly right in front of Akko’s face.

And then, at the last moment, it suddenly swerved around her.

And slammed into Sucy’s face.

Sucy let out a muffled gasp, hands letting go of Akko as they instinctively went to the bat that was trying to bite her eye. She pulled and swatted at the bat, and, without thinking, she took a step back.

Once again, onto open air.

Sucy had just pried the bat off her face when she realized she was falling back to the steep hill, her eye widening.

Almost as wide as Akko’s own eyes had become as she rushed to her, hand outstretched, inches away. “Sucy—”

The bat suddenly flew out of Sucy’s hands, and, whether on purpose or just because it was panicking so badly, went right to Akko, crashing into her face hard. Akko shrieked, and her arms flailed as she fell onto her back from the unexpected crash.

Sucy had just enough time to see that before she fell over the edge, and Akko vanished from sight, and her world turned upside down.

…This was gonna suck.

Sucy hit the hill with the back of her head first, and her skull practically rang like a bell. Then she was flipping and rolling on her sides, limbs flailing with every impact, bouncing around all the trees and brambles and shrubs so quickly all her surroundings became blurs of dark greens and grays. And every impact her body took seemed to be worst than the last, to the point it felt like the forest was sucker punching her every other second.

Sucy did her best to protect her face and minimize the damage. She kept tumbling down and down the hill, ricocheting like an out of control pinball off a few trees and bushes. Pained grunt after pained grunt left her as she tried to find a way to stop herself, but her fingers couldn’t grab anything to slow her down, and she just kept rolling and rolling down the hill.

And as she tumbled, the scream Akko let out echoed through her head and the entire forest.

“Sucy!”

For all the experiments she put her through and the life-threatening adventures they went on, Sucy couldn’t remember the last time Akko sounded that scared. Not that she could really focus on that when she was still tumbling.

Something cracked, and Sucy didn’t like how the odds weren’t zero the sound came from a bone.

She wasn’t sure how long she continued to roll, time kinda got hard to keep track of when the world wouldn’t stop spinning, but, eventually, she reached the bottom, crashing through another bush before landing face first in the ground.

Sucy didn’t move, still as a corpse. She laid there for several seconds, every part of her aching.

Then, when the dizziness faded and the world stabilized, she pushed herself off the ground, and spat dirt, a scowl on her face.

“I hate bats,” Sucy muttered. If she saw that blueblood again, she’d take its wings as a trophy. And if she found that stupid forsakenwing, the whole reason for this mess, she was killing it with her bare hands.

But revenge would have to wait. For now.

Sucy grunted, slowly standing up, trying not to wince in pain. She glanced around; it was hard to see, but it looked like she had ended up in another groove, one with less trees and one that was much smaller and more cramped than usual, but that was all she could make out really in the dark.

Of course, she was also more focused on her body than her surroundings. She could feel bruises of all sizes forming on most parts of her body, though none on her face; and she didn’t have any broken bones, so that was good too. She reached for her wand to cast another spell, but when she found nothing but empty air, she remembered how she never picked it up after it was knocked out of her hand. And she didn’t have any healing potions on hand because she needed those ingredients for the elixir.

Great.

Sucy grunted again, this time far more annoyed. She patted away at the dirt on her clothes with a frown. Usually it was Akko that ended up rolling around in the dirt and looking like an idiot, not her. She couldn’t say she cared for the sudden role reversal.

Speaking of her guinea pig, Sucy was still surprised at how scared she sounded. It wasn’t like Sucy hadn’t taken worse things than falling down a hill, so she shouldn’t have been that worried—

Wait. Did Akko know it was a hill? It was pretty dark, and Sucy really only saw because her vision was used to adjusting to the dark fast, but Akko’s wasn’t. So to her, did it, what, looked like she fell off a cliff?

Sucy looked back up, gaze impassive. Then, raising her hand next to her mouth, she said, “Hey, Guinea Pig. I’m alive.”

No response from. Which, to be fair, she hadn’t really shouted that loudly, so she probably didn’t hear her. Even if, with how quiet the forest was, her voice still should’ve reached Akko.

“Hey. I’m down here.”

Still nothing. Sucy frowned, and raised her voice as much as she could.

“Akko!”

Dead silence. She couldn’t see much from the bottom of the hill, but there were no signs of anything having heard her. Or anyone climbing down it to try and find her.

…Did Akko—

No.

No, of course not. This was Akko. There was no reason to think she’d, do that. Especially not after what everything she just told Sucy. Moron probably just got lost or something, or tripped and fell down to some other part of Arcturus. And probably got caught up in trouble too, and would need her friends to bail her out, like usual. So, she should focus on helping Akko, and get out of here.

Sucy’s hand went to her skirt, intent on pulling out some of her potions to try and see which one was best to get her out of here, but she paused. On the way to one of her pockets, her fingers hadn’t brushed up against anything there.

Where was her pouch?

Sucy’s frown deepened. She looked around at the ground, but it was still too dark to see anything, even for her. She reached for a pocket in her jacket, and pulled out a vial full of blue liquid. She shook the vial a few times, and it started to glow a light blue. With one last shake, she undid the cork, and from the vial, the liquid popped out like a small set of fireworks, rapidly swirling in the air and taking the shape of several small, blue orbs that floated around her. Together they produced a little bit more light than the amount her wand could produce, but the orbs wouldn’t last long, so she had to be quick and—

Sucy took in her surroundings. Really took them in.

This part of the forest looked…off, from the rest. It wasn’t like the restored, storybook fantasy world Arcturus had become. It looked more like it did before magic had been brought back. Mostly.

Because even back then, no part of Arcturus looked this dead. The ground itself looked like it was made of ash, more like chalky gravel than it was dirt. What little patches of grass she could see were a decaying, broken shade of grey, and she could make out bits of the grass crumbling from the silent breeze. The few trees that were here all just looked withered and lifeless; there were faces on them, like most of the trees in Arcturus, but the ones she saw were broken, like something had burst from within the bark and shattered them. But from what she could make out of the remnants of those faces, it kind of looked like they had been screaming.

And then there was one tree that caught her eye the most, one not that far away from her, and somehow, looked even more unnaturally placed than anything else she’d seen. It was arguably the most “alive” one—and she used that word very loosely. It’s bark was as black as a starless sky, gnarled branches extending like claws from withering, sickly thin limbs. What caught Sucy’s eye the most, was that on its trunk, more of its almost burnt bark extended, taking shape into something that almost looked like a body; a witch’s body, even, going by the broken, tree-bark looking hat on its head. The “witch” was connected to the tree with pitch-black wood that almost looked like stings, her head tilted down, and hat covering whatever face the she had on.

And right in front of that tree, with some of the many potion ingredients she gathered spilled out in front of it, was her pouch.

Sucy stared at her pouch. Then, she stared at the tree. The orbs from her flashlight potion cast most of its body in eerie, flickering shadows.

…Yeah, no. She’d seen this horror movie before.

Sucy reached into her pocket, took a purple vial, and then, chucked it at the tree’s trunk.

It instantly caught on fire.

A murky, neon-ish green flame consumed the entirety of the trees body, controlled enough not to burn anything but the ashy grass and dirt around it. For several seconds, the green flames burned and burned, rising and flickering, spreading little embers of green around that didn’t burn anything save for the tree and its roots, and all while Sucy watched with a half-lidded, emotionless eye.

Green flames were always better than red and orange.

The flames suddenly vanished in an instant, like they had never been there before. And the tree…honestly, it looked better than it had before. Sure, some of its branches were now hanging limply, branches swinging and barely holding together, and there was a new coat of burns, normal black ones and deep green ones, all over its body, but it all somehow made the tree look less dead.

But since the tree wasn’t screaming, it very clearly wasn’t alive. Or wasn’t alive anymore. And that potion also would have scared off or burned any malevolent spirits, so it wasn’t possessed by one. It was just a weird tree.

Just a tree, that looked creepy even by her standards.

Sucy stared at the tree. At that weird, witch-like body that fused into the trunk. She frowned, took a step forward—

There was a crack, and she instantly stepped back. Her eye darted around, and she saw one of the branches limply hanging off one of the tree limbs breaking bit by bit; she watched the last of the strands of bark connecting it to the tree shattered with a pathetic crack, and then hit the ground with a whimper.

Sucy stared, not so much as twitching. Slowly, she let out a breath, and frowned.

It just surprised her. The noise had just surprised her, that was it. It was a tree. A weird tree, even by Arcturus’ standards, but just a tree. The fact she just lit it on fire with her potion proved it wasn’t alive, or possessed by any dangerous spirits. It looked unsettling, but she was Sucy Manbavaran. The definition of “unsettling.” She was the meanest, most sadistic, scariest witch around.

And she did not, ever, get scared.

She kept frowning at that witch-looking body on the tree. Then, she let out a grunt, and walked toward her pouch, the orbs of light following her closely. Her footsteps echoed in the silence of the night—had the forest ever been so quiet before?—and when she was right in front of her pouch, she gave one last glance at the tree. At that witch.

It only creaked with its gnarled, burnt branches, the sound like a slow, dying moan. And the witch was still looking at the ground.

Sucy forced out another grunt, and went to pick up her pouch. The orbs of light flickered, the sign that they were starting to lose juice, but she only needed them for a few more moments. Once she secured her pouch around her hips, she picked up some of the ingredients that had spilled from it. She had to hurry up though, Akko was probably still looking for her.

Probably. If she hadn’t gotten into some trouble. Or if she hadn’t just—

Sucy thought of mushrooms, and kept picking up more of her ingredients. The purple toads feet were shoved into her pouch, the mugwort in the shape of a helix quickly following, and then she got into a rhythm and put away as much as she can as fast as she could.

There was no way. She was being dumb. She was. It wouldn’t happen again. It wouldn’t be like back when—

Sucy’s hand picked up a vial of forsakenwing blood, but paused when she felt something wet on her fingers. She pulled it back, the flickering lights of her orbs starting to dim by the second, but she could just make out the cracks there, and see how the blood leaked from it.

And then those memories hit her.

Her hand was suddenly smaller, holding another vial, with a different, much more important liquid; one that was red as blood, held by an equal tiny hand.

Then it was almost taken by bigger hands.

Then held gently by hands she had always been so sure would never leave her.

And then the vial was on the ground, just like her, red liquid bleeding from the cracks on it like blood, bleeding just like her as she desperately held onto it, as fires surrounded her and burned and burned but not nearly as bad as her face burned, and as she stared at her reflection in the vials cracked glass, she could see that her eye was—

Sucy dropped the vial from limp fingers, her heart feeling like it was trying to explode.

Mushrooms. Mushrooms, think of those. They reproduce through spores and grow in the dark, in places nothing else could ever survive in. And that when double for the magic ones, like dragon’s breath, like all the other ones that thrived in a dark world where they had no one, where everything was out to get them, but they still adapted and fought and grew into something amazing that no one could ever hurt again.

Akko had even said they were cool. And she would come find her. She would. Always.

So breathe.

A shaky breath left lungs that felt like they had been ripped to shreds, and only just barely got put back together. Hands that were hugging her body so hard it felt like her fingers had made dents in bones that suddenly became glass started to go slack. Skin that coiled tighter than any snake slowly went loose. The abyss that had opened right under her heart and filled her with nothing but sheer cold started to fade back to nothing.

But heart still beat so fast and so loud, and the heat on her face was still there.

Sucy clenched her eye shut, ignoring flames and the pain and the everything from that day that kept appearing from the dark and surrounded her, and just kept breathing, kept thinking about mushrooms and nothing but mushrooms and then thought about how Akko would be here any second.

She kept thinking like that, crouching on the ground and gripping herself tightly, breathing in and out even when it was so painful. Her heart started to slow down. Her face stopped burning.

And then, Sucy let out another breath, and slowly, the forest returned, and with one last thought of mushrooms, those memories were sent to their deaths.

That…it had been a while since she…since her thoughts gotten that bad.

It didn’t matter. That was in the past. She was fine. Completely fine.

She always had to be.

On shaky legs, she stood up. She wiped away the cold sweat on her forehead with a trembling hand. Her breathing was still a bit heavy, and she slowly picked up the rest of her spilled ingredients and put them away.

She was fine. There was no reason not to be. No reason at all to think keep thinking back to moments she hadn’t thought of in years. She was just a bit…off balance, because of everything going on with her and Akko.

And Diana.

Sucy frowned, and as she moved around to gather the rest of her ingredients, as the tree branches started to creak, a different heat from the one her face had just felt started to rise inside her, and she didn’t try to stop it.

That was really why she’d been acting like this. Ms.Perfect was the reason her thoughts and feelings had become so, so intense. She was why Sucy kept thinking about things that were better off forgotten. She was why she was losing more control of her thoughts and feelings than she had in years. She was why she couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d been treating Akko ever since she met her. She was why things were changing between her and Akko, and not for the better.

Diana was why it had started to feel like she couldn’t be safe with Akko.

The heat kept rising, going from uncomfortably hot to scalding; embers to raging torrents.

And she let it keep burning, twisting her face into something angry.

It was because of Cavendish that everything was so wrong. Just because Akko for some reason liked her even when she was the biggest witch in all of Luna Nova. When she was the one that had grabbed her wrist so hard and had said all those things to her and lead to that fight and was why the rest of Akko’s friends looked at her with those faces that Sucy couldn’t read and that she hated how she couldn’t tell what they meant or what they were thinking but Akko didn’t even care about that or that Ms. Perfect had hit her so hard on that part of her because of a joke!

Her hands were clenched into fists so hard they were shaking, and she heard that growl again. For once, she did nothing to kill the source, and just let her blood continue to boil away, preventing anything else from forming inside her. She rapidly stood up after picking up another toad’s foot, the orbs around her flickering more and more as they circled around her, the tree creaking louder and louder. She glanced around, and saw that the last thing she needed to pick up was the vial forsakenwing blood she’d dropped, and was now by the fallen branch of the tree.

Lips in a snarl that was barely human and mouth tasting like ash and smoke, Sucy stomped towards the vial with anger so hot and raging it was draconic, and reached over the branch to grab it.

It was because of Diana that she kept having all these stupid thoughts and feelings about Akko and why she had that stupid fight with the best friend she ever and would ever had and why Akko had said—

Red eyes, angry as they were judgmental, so lacking in warmth she’d always seen in them, glared so hard they practically stabbed her.

Just like how the words screaming in her mind tore open her heart.

“So I guess it’s time we stop being friends and I just leave, huh, SUCY!?”

All her anger was snuffed out.

Her eye went wide as it burned.

And as those horrible, horrible words kept echoing, emotions she didn’t want to name and wounds that she could never bury no matter how hard she tried consumed her from within, and left an empty, abandoned cold.

And that was when there was an echoing creak, she pulled her hand back on instinct, and something stabbed into it.

Sucy let out a hiss as she instantly pulled her right hand back, grabbing it with her left one. Something wet was leaking down it, and she turned it around.

There was a small gash across her palm, dripping blood down her hand and arm. Sucy looked at the fallen branch, and with the fading light of her orbs, she could just make out a surprisingly sharp piece of broken bark that jutted out right in the path she reached for the vial. How did she miss that?

Sucy looked at the branch, then to the tree and the witch sticking out of it, her glare tight with pain and accusation. But the tree and the weird humanish body on its trunk didn’t twitch. It just stood there, silent as a corpse, not even creaking any more.

Sucy scowled. She tore her eyes away from the tree, and looked at her hand. The pain was getting worse, and more blood kept leaking.

“Shit,” she muttered, switching back to Bisaya. The orbs around her died without warning, and left her in the dark. Great. Wonderful. Now she was going to have to get out of her without any light. Completely alone, because no one had found her. Like she’d been—

Sucy’s hand was shaking. From the pain. She let out a breath, killed those other thoughts, and focused on her hand and the pain. With her other hand, she started to reach for the bandages in her robes.

But that was when she noticed something. A small, green light that was rapidly descending down the hill. Sucy squinted, the light getting bigger, and she could just make out what looked a person. A very Akko shaped person.

Because it was Akko, sprinting down the hill at an uncontrollably fast pace.

“Sucy, are you here!?” Akko shouted, and with every step the worry and fear in her eyes became more clear. She reached the bottom of the hill, but immediately tripped, arms flailing as she shrieked and fell into a roll. Like the world’s loudest armadillo, she screamed and rolled and rolled on the ground until she crashed into a tree, face first, and came to a stop, face slowly sliding down the bark with painful cracking sounds.

Sucy stared. Her shaking stopped.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow,” Akko muttered, pulling herself away from the tree, still holding onto her glowing wand. There was an angry red mark on her face as she rubbed her head. When she looked up with pained, squinted eyes, she saw the half broken, seemingly screaming face on the tree, stared for a moment, and immediately shrieked again in pure fright, jumping to her feet and running back.

Right into Sucy. They both stumbled, Sucy more so than Akko.

“Ah, sorry, Sucy!” Akko said, recovering first. “That was my—” She stopped talking, eyes going wide, and then she smiled in pure relief. “Sucy, you’re okay!”

Sucy kept staring. Akko was here. She found her.

She hadn’t left.

“Ye-yeah,” Sucy muttered, trying to keep her voice in its monotone, a tension she didn’t know was there leaving her. “I’m fine.”

Akko instantly ran up to her, standing a few feet away. “Sucy, I was so worried when you fell, because it was so dark I thought you fell off a cliff or something, and I was really worried when you didn’t—” Akko’s eyes dipped, and she stopped talking. Her relieved smile plummeted to a concerned frown. “Wait, Sucy, your hand’s bleeding!” she shouted, pointing at her hand.

Sucy blinked, and looked down. “Ah. Yeah.”

“Don’t just say ‘yeah!’” Akko was suddenly right in front of her, gently grabbing her hand in a way that there was no chance of her hurting it. “Do you still have those bandages from before?”

“I—yeah I do.”

“Gimme.”

“What?”

“Gimme them so I can bandage you up!”

“Akko, I can do it—”

Akko leaned closer, and Sucy could clearly the resolute look on her face, the determined line her lips were set in, all highlighted by that glow of her wand that cast her face in ethereal light. She wouldn’t be swayed. Because she wanted to make sure Sucy was okay.

Her chest did that weird, lurching kind of motion from before, when Akko told her how important she was to her, but Sucy ignored it. She looked away, sighed, and reached into her pockets and pulled out a roll of gauze. “You remember how I told you to wrap gauze?”

“Yep!”

She tossed the gauze. “Go nuts, Guinea Pig.”

Akko caught it, and instantly began to work. With a delicate care that most wouldn’t expect, Akko wrapped the gauze around her palm. “Don’t worry, I’ll fix you up real quick.”

“Akko, it’s a cut. It’s not that big a deal.”

“It is to me,” came Akko’s instant response, looking up for a moment with eyes that showed just how seriously she was taking this. How much she cared for her.

Sucy’s chest lurched again, heart beat quickening. Akko looked down, and Sucy stared. Heat rose, but it wasn’t like any she was used to feeling, and it made her face feel…pleasantly warm.

She was glad Akko wasn’t looking up.

“How’d you hurt yourself?” Akko asked, not looking up and still applying the gauze, and doing a good job at that.

It took a moment before she responded—before her heart beat started to slow down. “Blame that tree over there,” she muttered

“Tree?” Akko looked up, and Sucy gestured as lazily as she could her head. Akko turned, looked over Sucy’s shoulder, and went a little pale. There was just enough light from her wand to make out the tree in all its eeriness. “S-Sucy, why does it look like there’s a person coming out of it?!”

“Because that’s what it is,” Sucy deadpanned.

Akko shuddered. She then looked around her, seemed to only now realize just how this spot of Arcturus looked more like the set of a horror movie, and her eyes went wide as saucers. “Wh-what’s with this place!? I thought the last Word made everything here look pretty!?”

“I guess you missed some spots,” Sucy said,

Akko’s eyes kept darting around. “Y-yeah. Guess I did,” she said. She frowned slightly. “Should….should that have happened?”

“Don’t know. Not like many people have ever cast the last Word of Arcturus.” Sucy smirked. “But honestly, I’d be more surprised if you somehow pulled off a spell perfectly the first time.”

Akko pouted. Then, she sighed. “Well, if you can insult me, I guess you really are fine.”

Sucy chuckled, and grinned. A genuine grin. She really was fine, wasn’t she? Even after reliving those memories just a few seconds ago. It really was amazing just how quickly Akko could make her smile. How Akko helped her deal with those thoughts and feelings better than she ever could by herself. Just by being acting like herself. By being her with her.

Her grin started to change. Turning into something more…something different than the grins she usually wore. Not that Akko could see, as she went back to focusing on her gauze.

“But if you weren’t hurt, you could’ve at least told me so when I called out for you!” Akko said, a bit sullenly. “I was really worried something happened.”

Sucy stopped grinning, and frowned. “You…called out for me?”

“Who do you think was shouting your name so loud?”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

Akko blinked. “What?”

“I didn’t hear anything,” Sucy repeated.

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” Akko looked a little confused. “I…thought I was pretty loud. All the animals definitely thought I was when they ran away from me. And I’m pretty sure the cockatrice heard me. At least, I think those angry chicken sounds were it. Did you really not hear anything from me?”

“Not a word.”

“Huh.”

They were silent. Sucy frowned as Akko kept putting on the gauze. She…she should’ve heard Akko. If Akko had been shouting so loud it woke up a cockatrice, she should’ve heard her, right?

Then again, she was aware just how badly she could get lost in her head. Especially during those moments. So, maybe that was why.

But still, something about this…bothered her. Like a little itch she couldn’t scratch.

The gauze went tight, and Akko finished tying the knot on it. “There we go!” Akko said, smiling proudly. “How does it feel?”

Pretty good, in all honesty.

“It’s decent,” Sucy said, rubbing her hand. “Better than the first few times.”

Akko chuckled sheepishly. “Y-yeah. I’ve been practicing to get better.” She looked around at the trees, and there was no missing the fear there. “But, uh, can we, maybe, leave here, please? This place is givin’ me some bad vibes.”

Sucy rolled her eye. “Okay, you big baby, we'll leave in a second.” Really, they were all just trees. There was nothing to be scared of. "I just need to—"

There was a crack so loud it was almost a scream.

Sucy jumped, and Akko did too with a little shriek. They whirled around, Akko increasing the glow of her wand.

And they could clearly see the body of the witch on that tree cracking, the bark that extended like strings from it s back starting to break. There was a loud, crumbling crack.

And then the witches head fell off its body. It rolled and rolled away from the tree, and ended up only a few feet away from Sucy and Akko, looking up at them.

And under the light of Akko’s wand, they could see the head didn’t have a face. It was like looking at a mannequin, except somehow more lifeless, like something had wiped away at any traces of even imitation humanity.

Sucy took a step back.

“Sucy?”

She turned.

Akko’s face was very pale, eyes wide and afraid. “I really think we should—”

Sucy didn’t let Akko finish.

She grabbed her hand like lightning with her un-bandaged hand, and began to briskly walk away, Akko letting out a surprised little shout as she pulled her along. Sucy kept walking with Akko’s hand in her own, not turning back to look at the vial of forsakenwing blood she’d left at the tree. Because it was cracked, she didn’t want to get blood on her fingers again, and she wanted to get to work on her potion right away.

“Yeah,” Sucy said, swallowing through a very dry throat, walking away just a bit faster, because they really should meet up with Lotte as fast as possible. “Let’s go. Now.”

Akko quickly matched her pace. “Y-yeah. Um, you know, I can probably turn into a big elephant and fly us out of here—I’ve gotten pretty good at it and can definitely carry people safely. And flying is really, really fast.”

Sucy considered that, but shook her head reluctantly. “There’s too many trees here that would smack me and knock me off, and there’s a not zero chance something might try and turn a big juicy elephant into a snack.” They were almost at at the base of the hill. “You remember how to do Tia Freyre to let yourself basically walk on air?” She asked, not turning to look at her.

“I—yeah, I’ve even been practicing it a lot with Ursula—”

“Okay, good.” With a few more quick steps, they were at the base of the hill, Sucy’s breathing coming out a little heavy; from the walking. “So cast it right now, and we can get out of here—” Sucy’s hand shot to the holster for her wand, and found empty air. She let out a choking, muffled swear as she remembered. “My wand.”

“What?”

“My—I dropped my wand when the bats attacked.” She let out a groan, and she brought her other hand up to massage her somewhat sweaty brow. “Now what—”

“I have it.”

Sucy whirled around. “What?”

“I saw you drop it and picked it up.” Akko reached into her jacket, and held out her wand. “Here—”

Sucy snatched it out of her hand. “Tell me that sooner, dumbass!” she hissed out, glaring with an angry red eye.

Akko leaned back a little, eyes a little wide. And it was that look that instantly reminded Sucy that, for all the times she insulted her she rarely, if ever, swore at her. Least of all in a hiss that was closer to a scream than it wasn’t.

“Sucy?” Akko said, more confused than angry, quiet voice carrying in the stilted air.

Sucy let out a breath. Then another. She swallowed again, throat tight, and her heat beat a little quick. She closed her eye, taking in another breath. “I—I didn’t mean to sound mad at you,” she said, as calmly as she could. “I just…we wasted enough time here, and I want to start working on my potion.”

Akko was still staring, and now her face started to shift to concerned. “Um, Sucy, are you—”

“Akko, we don’t have time for dumb questions. Let’s just go.This night hasn’t exactly been the greatest for me, and I’d like to go home already—”

Akko winced. It took Sucy a second to understand why.

Her grip on Akko’s hand had gotten tight. So tight she started to feel Akko’s delicate fingers shake underneath her grip, not in fear, but pain.

Sucy let go of Akko like she’d been burned.

Akko cradled her hand, looked at it for a second, and then stared at Sucy.

Sucy said nothing. She just looked at her with a somewhat wide eye, chest tight in all the worst ways and with all the breath squeezed out of her.

“Sucy?” Akko stepped closer, eyes kind and gentle. “Are…did something happen here after you fell?” She frowned, concern rising, and Sucy instantly knew what she was about to say. “Because you look—”

“I’m not scared,” She denied instantly, glaring at Akko. Akko met it with her calm, caring gaze. After a few moment, Sucy had to look away. “I just want to get back to our dorms sooner than later. There’s…nothing to be scared of here. There’s just trees. I checked.”

Yeah. There was nothing to be scared of. That tree wasn’t alive, her potion made sure of that. There was nothing to be scared of. She just wanted to go back to their home, and rest after a long, long night.

Sucy let out a breath, thinking of mushrooms again. “I’m not scared, Akko.”

Akko didn’t say anything. It was quiet again.

Sucy turned, and let out another breath. She brought a clammy hand up, and massaged her sweaty head. “Let’s…let’s just go. Please.”

Akko still didn’t say anything.

“A-Akko?” Sucy turned.

Akko was staring at her. And whatever she saw made her swiftly walk up to Sucy, and then grab her hand; gently, but firmly. Sucy made no moves to get her to let go.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” Akko raised her wand up, nodding firmly. Sucy was about to let out a relived sigh, but then Akko added, “We can talk later.”

Sucy went a little still.

Talk?

What did she mean by talk?

She was suddenly hit with memories from that fight. Of images of Akko’s bright eyes looking madder than ever. Was, was that what she meant. Was she actually going to follow through with what she—

What was she thinking? Akko wasn’t going to do that. Not now. Not ever. Her head needed to stop coming up with those stupid thoughts and the rest of her needed to stop feeling so cold when there was nothing to worry about, to be so—

“What’s the best wand movements again for Tia Freyre?” Akko asked.

Sucy blinked, looking at Akko’s bright eyes and raised eyebrows. “I—there are none.”

“Really?”

“Yes. You’ve done this spell a hundred times.”

“Ah, sorry, thought it might be different since I didn’t have a broom to use it with.”

Sucy frowned. “Wait, didn’t you just say you’ve been practicing with Ursula to do this spell without one?”

“What—oh! Er, I, we have, yeah, but…” She chuckled awkwardly. “We haven’t been practicing the spell that much, ya know?”

There was something about what she just said that seemed kind of strange. But before she had time to think, Akko had stepped even closer, smiling that dopey, sheepish smile of hers.

“So…can you show your guinea pig how to do it. Please?”

Akko fluttered her eyelashes, eyes big and pleading. And warm.

Sucy focused on that; on Akko’s warm eyes and tone, her smile, the way she was still fluttering her eyelashes. Sucy let out a breath, chest not so tight—at least, not in a bad way, even though tightness shouldn’t feel so light and almost comforting—and formed the words.

“Okay. When you do Tia Freyre without a broom, you have to focus more on the air, and then…”

As she explained the spell to Akko, Sucy found it easy to forget about how she had been a bit—unsettled, by everything that had happened in the night. To forget about weird tree-witch and its inhumanely blank face. Just being with Akko took her mind off everything but her dumb face, big, warm smile, and bright red eyes that were impossible to look away from.

So it was easy to miss how her hand started to sting more than it should.

Easy to miss how the witch’s face, for less than a second, gained an actual expression, but one that was worse than all the screaming, agonized faces of the trees in the groove, just before it vanished and its face split into a dozen, impossibly quiet fissures.

It was easy to miss how that old tree and its pitch black skin and burns suddenly throbbed like an old heart just starting to pump blood.

And it was easy to think that the sudden shiver that went through her was just from the cold, even as a growl echoed through her.

One that almost sounded the same as the ones she always heard, but was just a little different than usual.

And it would only be when everything went wrong that she’d get the first idea of what, exactly, made that growl sound so intrigued.

Just like how she’d realize that sound she thought was creaking, dying branches, was in reality cruel, malicious giggles.