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superevilbadguy · 6 years

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Diakko One-Shot Fic (part 2)

So I’m not really sure if this can be considered a ‘One-shot’ any longer... buuuuuuuuut..... whatever.

So first off, I’d like to thank everyone who liked and commented on the first part of this story and to say that I really REALLY appreciate all the support! I wasn’t planning on continuing this story (I do not consider myself a writer), though I did have a few visuals in mind, but after hearing from some of you, I realized I had more cute shenanigans I wanted to share. So thank you for the encouragement and I hope you enjoy my shamelessly fluffly continuation of the Bar/Band AU fic (with pictures!) .

Update: Part 3 can be found “here” and the full story can be read on AO3!

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“What do you mean it’s cancelled?!” the brunette yells, shaking her friend by the shoulders.

Unfazed by her friend’s panic, Amanda responds, “It’s cancelled. The sound guy couldn’t show. What’s the big deal?”

“No no no no,” Akko releases Amanda and begins to pace around the room in a panic. “I’m supposed to meet up with Diana before the show, and then we were supposed to go on and play. But now if there’s no show, she has no reason to come early to the not happening show to meet up with me!” She walks over to the couch and falls face first into the cushions.

“…”

“Are you being serious right now?” Sucy says looking incredulously over towards her slump of a friend.

“Come on Akko,” Lotte takes a seat on the couch and comfortingly pats her friend’s head. “I’m sure Diana will still want to meet up.”

“Though I can’t imagine why-” Sucy deadpans. Lotte shoots a disapproving glare over towards her before she continues, “In all seriousness, are you that dumb to think that she only said yes to come for the show?”

Akko turns her face out of the cushion to look towards her friends. A light indent of the couch seam red across her face.

“You both looked like you were having a really nice time talking at the bar. She probably just wants to get to know you better.” Lotte says continuing to pat her head.

Sucy leans against the back of the couch and toys with Akko ponytail, “Yeah, with you there’s no lack of interesting stories.”

Jasminka steps over towards the couch, offering a salt and vinegar chip to Akko’s exposed face. “And you’re really nice.” Akko accepts the chip.

Constanze holds up a notepad ‘sometimes almost too nice’ scribbled on the page.

Lotte takes her hand from Akko’s head and begins counting off fingers, “and you’re genuine and driven and-”

“Or maybe blondie’s just really into badasses with Shiny Chariot tattoos.” Amanda smiles cheekily.

The room fills with laughter. A blushing Akko rolls her eyes and lets out a light chuckle.

“Alright, alright.” Akko pushes herself off her face and sits herself on the couch properly. She nestles back into the cushion, looking down at her fidgeting hands. “But what if she decides she doesn’t want to-” her face is pushed upward by Amanda poking her forehead.

“Then she’s missing out!” she removes her finger from Akko’s head. “If it goes bad, we’ll be here for you okay?”

“But don’t assume it will!” Lotte interjects. “You’re going to have fun, it’s all going to work out!” She says with a big smile and a thumbs up.

“Akko smiles and looks around at her friends. “Okay… thanks guys.” She straightens up and takes a deep breath. “You’re right, it’s all gonna be okay!”

_____

“Not okay, NOT OKAY!” Akko panics in the bathroom of Café Meridies trying to dry her pants under the hand dryer. She came early in hopes of de-stressing before meeting up with the blonde, unfortunately, her nerves caused her to spill her coffee and do the exact opposite of calm her down. Luckily, the coffee she was drinking had time to cool before spilling on her pants, however, her lap and right leg was damp and smelled heavily of vanilla roast.

“Oh come on!” She rubs at her pant leg, the friction helping it dry.

‘Good job Akko. At least you picked black pants!’ she thought to herself as she checked herself in the mirror. Her pants were dry enough, she would be fine letting the rest air dry.

She sighs and looks into the mirror “Okay Akko. This is fine. YOU’RE fine. You’re gonna have a nice time with Diana and she’s not going to notice your wet pants.”

She steps closer to the mirror, a determined look in her eyes and a tremble in her fingers. “You’re just getting a drink with a girl, don’t be so nervous. A really nice, really smart, and… really… pretty…” her determined face begins to soften with a blush before she catches herself and refocuses. “Definitely nothing to worry about. You, Akko Kagari, are a CATCH!”

BANG BANG BANG

She jumps with a yelp as she is interrupted by a rather urgent sounding knock on the door.

“S-sorry! Just a minute!”

As Akko leaves the bathroom trying not to make eye contact with the line leading to the women’s room, she feels a buzz in her pocket.

She pulls out her phone and brightens seeing that it is a text from Diana.

‘I’m so sorry, I may be a few minutes late. I got caught up at home. I am on my way now.’

Akko looks down at the text and smiles for a moment before sucking in a breath and responding.

‘No problem! I just thought you should know though, the show got cancelled, so unfortunately the Broom Stix won’t be playing.’

She hits send nervously, an empty feeling welling in her chest. ‘What if she just decides to not come? I hope she didn’t have plans that she cancelled to come. Should I just reschedule or-‘ Akko continued her train of thought until she received a response from Diana a minute or so later.

‘My apologies, I just got to a red light. I’m sorry to hear you won’t be playing. Are you still available to get a drink?’

Akko beams at the text. Practically vibrating from the force of her heart beat, she lets out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. She types in a response as she gets in line for the counter.

‘Absolutely! As long as that’s okay with you.’

A few moments pass as she wait for the next text. Akko is fully aware of the goofy smile spread across her face but can’t bring herself to try to hide it.

‘Of course! I will see you shortly.’

Akko smiles, typing in a response reading ‘eyes on the road!’ but decides against sending it.

When she got to the front of the line she ordered herself a hot chocolate, picked up some extra napkins (just in case), and sat back down, looking out the window across the café, waiting.

About ten leg-bouncing, cocoa sipping minutes later, Akko sees Diana walk through the doors of the café. She calls her name, getting her attention, and waves her over to the table.

“I am sorry for being late, I hope I didn’t make you wait too long.” Diana says while removing her coat and placing it on the back of her chair.

Akko, distracted by looking at Diana’s button up shirt, snaps herself out of her daze before getting caught. “I-It’s no problem, I just got here myself.” She lied. “I’M sorry about there not being a show… I heard it was cancelled this morning and I didn’t know what to tell you… but I brought my guitar so um, I hope you’re not disappointed…”

“Akko, please.” Diana looks at her kindly, “It is no problem whatsoever. While I would have loved to see you play of course, I’m glad to have the time to talk with you.”

Akko blushes and looks down at the table. “Well, that’s a relief.” She laughs a little as she looks back up at the blonde. “I’m glad you came.”

A warm, genuine smile graces Diana’s lips as a light tinge of pink crosses her cheeks. “I-I’m going to get a drink, would you like anything?”

“Oh, I’ll come with you.” Akko jumps out of her seat and accompanies Diana to the counter.

After a few moments of contemplation, Diana orders a chai tea from the counter. As she reaches into her pocket to pull out her money, Akko gives her card to the barista. She looks up at Akko surprised.

The brunette looks back at her smiling and raising her shoulders. “I wanted to make it up to you for the beer.”

Diana smiles and lets a small laugh escape her lips. “While I don’t think that is necessary, thank you.” She lightly bumps Akko’s shoulder with her own.

The look, the smile, the laugh, and the brief contact were enough to make Akko’s chest fill with sudden warmth. She lets out a small cough, getting out of her daze. “n-no problem, I’m happy to.”

The two head back to the table, tea in hand and heat in chest.

“So,” Diana blows on her steaming tea, “how’d you and your friends get back the other night? The singer I believe, looked to be in pretty rough shape.”

“Oh! Amanda.” She blushed remembering just how inappropriately drunk her friend was when she and Diana had said their goodbyes. “Well, she’s alright now… not so much through the night… or the next morning. But we got everyone home alright.”

“That’s good.” Diana takes a sip from her cup. “Do you all room with each other?”

“Nuh uh. I mean, I live with Lotte and Sucy.” She says while toying with the rim of her cup. “Amanda lives on the other side of town with Cons and Jaz, but we spend a lot of time at each other’s apartments, so we might as well be.” She chuckles, “We kinda have this thing where we have a sleepover after shows so we kind of just leave our stuff all over the place.

Akko thinks back to that night’s sleepover and how all her friends grilled her over the cute blonde at the bar. Between Amanda’s trips to the bathroom and bouts of dozing off, she had quite a bit to say about her. Some of the things she said begin to come to mind causing a slow heat to rise in her cheeks.

“D-do you live with anyone?” She asks, trying to ignore Amanda’s slurring voice in her head.

“I share an apartment with my close friends Hannah and Barbara. We had grown up together.” Diana places her cup onto the table, careful not to spill. “When they heard I was going to school around here, they practically broke into my dorm and moved my things into their spare room.”

“Are they the ones you came with to the show?” Akko tries to remember the group of girls standing by the stage.

“Yes, plus a few high school friends.”

“That’s cool.” Akko smiles with a short laugh, “they have good taste in bars!”

The blonde smiles, “I suppose they do.” Her blue eyes meet Akko’s crimson. “They encourage me to go out a bit more than I would typically, so I have them to thank for the other night.”

“Well, thank you Hannah and Barbara.” Akko says holding up her cup in a toast.

Diana taps her cup to Akko’s and they both take a sip from their respective drinks.

Akko’s eyes flit up to look towards Diana, who is covering her mouth, a humorous glint in her eyes. Akko looks at her confusedly as she sees the blonde swallow her tea and brush a finger over her top lip. It takes the brunette a moment before she mimics the movement and feels the residue of a hot chocolate mustache. Her eyes widen at the revelation as Diana holds out a napkin to her.

“Thank you.” Akko laughs as she takes the offered napkin.

“Is that hot chocolate?” Diana asks as Akko wipes her face.

“Yeah. I um… had some coffee earlier and uh, think it was making me jumpy.”

Diana gives her a sympathetic smile, “I understand that. I usually drink tea to calm my nerves.”

Akko smiles and glances down at the cup in front of the blonde. ‘Ok, cool. So, I’m not the only one who’s nervous.’

“Akko.” Akko’s head snaps to attention. “If you don’t mind my asking. When we first met you began introducing yourself by another name. Do you prefer to be called Akko?”

Akko raises her eyebrows at the question, honestly surprised she remembered… and a little flustered that she cared. “Oh, um, well, my name is actually Atsuko… but all my friends call me Akko… and...everyone else really.” She pauses, scrunching her face, remembering back. “Really, the only people who ever called me Atsuko were my old professors who didn’t like me too much.” She laughs.

“Atsuko.” Diana says quietly.

A swarm of butterflies flutter through the brunette as she hears her name from Diana’s lips. It had never sounded so… wow. ‘But you can definitely call me whatever you want…’ the thought crossed her mind.

“Yyyup. Um.” She snaps out of her thoughts hoping that the pounding of her racing heart couldn't be felt through the table. “H-how about you?”

Diana looks at her, clearly noticing her abrupt return. She shakes her head, “Nope, nothing special. I am just Diana.”

Akko raises her eyebrow, her mouth spreading into a smile. Her better judgment begs her to stop to no avail. “That’s interesting. Well… okay, ‘JUST Diana’.”

A dramatic exhale leaves Diana’s lips as she hangs her head. “I feel like I should have seen that coming…”

Akko stretches in her seat and laughs out loud.

Two hours and a double order of hot chocolate later, the girls continue deep in conversation. Comfort completely setting in after the first dad joke, their conversation was filled with genuine smiles and attentive interest.

“Excuse me a moment, I will be right back. Do you know where the restroom is?” Diana asks as she pushes out her chair.

After Akko directs her towards the bathroom, she catches herself biting her lip and staring as the blonde walks away. She feels the heat climb up her neck as she quickly turns herself to face forward. It was then that she noticed, a few tables away, a very poorly disguised Amanda and Constanze looking over towards her.

Akko’s fiery eyes shot open and she suddenly paled. What expression she could see behind the wrinkled newspaper, aviator sunglasses and ridiculous fake mustache, clearly indicated that Amanda had caught her staring. The redhead’s smile peeked out from under the peeling mustache as her eyebrows wiggled over the tops of the sunglasses.

Akko panics and looks behind her to make sure Diana wasn’t heading back to the table. By the time she looked back at Amanda she was demonstrating some very lewd actions with a doughnut.

With cheeks rivaling her eye color, Akko angrily mouthed ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!’ to her friend. Amanda just smiled, sensually licking the frosting from her fingers. Akko covered her burning face with her hands to try to hide her embarrassment.

A few moments later she feels a hand on her shoulder and jumps.

“Are you alright?” Diana looks down at her, blue eyes swimming with concern.

Akko tries her best to quell the burning in her cheeks. “I-I’m fine.” She said almost convincingly. She spares a quick glance over towards Amanda and Constanze, seeing only Amanda’s sunglasses peeking above the newspaper and Constanze looking down blankly at the doughnut in front of her.

“Uh um…” she looks up at Diana, her eyes about to follow her gaze to the table across from them. “Do you want to go for a walk?!” She said, maybe a little too loudly as evidenced by the sudden quiet in the café; but it did the trick since Diana returned her eyes to her, albeit a little startled.

“I-it’s a little cool, but it’s so beautiful out.” Akko began to recover. “There’s a nice park around the corner and um, I can bring my guitar?”

Still confused about the brunette’s outburst, a small smile finds its way to her lips and she responds, “S-sure, that sounds nice.”

As they finish their drinks and begin putting on their coats, Akko looks over Diana’s shoulder towards her friends- Amanda giving her a thumbs-up and Constanze still looking blankly at her doughnut.

She gives Amanda a glare who then lowers her glasses and gives her a wink. Akko shifts her eyes back to Diana, watching her as she pulls her hair out from under her coat allowing it to fall over her hood and shoulders. ‘So soft.’ She was mesmerized for a moment before pulling her attention away trying to hide her re-reddening cheeks.

“Ready?” A strange humored expression crosses the blonde’s face.

“Y-yup!” Akko responds, eyes being drawn back to Diana’s hair. She wills herself to look out the window to keep from staring. “I just want to grab my guitar from my car and then we’ll head over! It’s a really nice park, I go there to write sometimes. They put in a new swing set and picnic tables over the summer…” she stops herself ‘Stop rambling, why am I getting all nervous again?!’

The two leave the café, the chilled winter air a vast change from the warmth of the café. Akko leads Diana to her car, a small four door sedan, the back adorned with a decal of Shiny Chariot’s first album cover. Akko unlocks the car door and reaches into the backseat, pulling out a guitar case.

After slipping the straps of the case over her shoulders and re-locking the car, the two girls head towards the park.

The walk was quiet. ‘Ohhhh! What did I do? C’mon Akko, say something. Why is this so much harder all of a sudden??’ Akko panics, shifting her eyes between the girl next to her and the apparently very interesting sidewalk. ‘I can’t believe Amanda was spying on us! Did Diana recognize her? Oh, please no.’

Suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of a suppressed giggle. Akko worriedly looks over to the blonde next to her to see her forcing her lips shut.

“I’m sorry.” Her barely controlled expression cracks, her eyes shining. “I… just... really like your jacket.” She says through a laugh. “It’s um, a lovely color.”

Akko looks down at her magnificently bright orange jacket and begins laughing alongside Diana. She then strikes a pose. “Well, I wanted to make sure you wouldn’t miss me!”

Diana laughs, “Well, mission accomplished. I don’t think I could if I tried.

They both laugh and then a moment of silence comes over them, far less daunting than before.

“So, Diana.” The blonde turns her head towards Akko. “Tell me something I’d be surprised to learn about you.”

She pauses for a moment, brows furrowed, thinking. Suddenly she brightens with a thoughtful expression.

“You’ll probably appreciate this.” She starts before putting her hands in her pockets. “I… used to play the flute.”

Akko’s mouth dropped. “Seriously?”

“Yup. I wasn’t very good, but my mother used to love it.” She says, a soft smile on her lips. “I picked it up a year or so before her passing. But once school got more competitive I put it down. So, it’s been a few years.”

“That’s so cool!” Akko bursts. “When you get the time, you should totally start playing again! I’d love to hear! We could jam together!!!”

Flustered from the girl’s enthusiastic response, Diana blushes, “Maybe.” Her face takes on a slightly more serious expression. “I’ll have to see if my aunt still has it…” She pauses in thought before returning the question to the brunette.

“Hmm, well… This is a good one.” She laughs while rubbing the back of her neck. “When I was little I wanted to be a witch so soo badly. One time I broke my ankle jumping out of a tree with my mom’s broom. Needless to say, I didn’t fly, but that didn’t stop me from trying again.”

Diana looks at her sympathetically, humor dancing in her eyes. “I’m sorry you didn’t fly.”

“Right? It would have been so much fun!”

They continue their conversation until reaching the park’s chain link fence.

“I can’t believe you were the horse girl!!!” Akko yells over a laugh.

“I wouldn’t say that…” Diana denies to no result.

Akko tries to look at her seriously but cracks the second she reaches her eyes. She erupts into laughter “I’m sorry!”

Diana relents and starts laughing along with her, “Yeah that was bad. I can’t say I miss that year very much. I’m honestly surprised Hannah and Barbara stuck around.”

“I’m sure you were adorable.” Akko tries to calm her laughing as she holds the park gate open for a pink cheeked Diana.

“Aaaand we’re here!” Akko announces, holding her arms out in front of the park sign reading ‘Arcturus Park’. “Taa daa! Want me to show you around?”

Diana grins looking at the goofball doing spirit fingers in front of her. “Lead the way.”

They walked around the park which consisted of a pretty small woodchip covered playground area and a second grassy area behind a grouping of winter bared bushes for newly installed picnic tables. Akko’s tour consisted of memories; this park had been where she first met her friends, it was the location of her final attempt to fly on a broom (it was done in front of her friends which then resulted in them naming the band), where she played her first “show” (air quotes included), where she “ran away” to (also air quotes) when she heard Shiny Chariot quit performing, and to this day persists to be her favorite place to write songs.

“In the summer, all back here is covered in dandelions and flowers, it’s really, really pretty.” Akko gushes as they approach the picnic tables.

“I imagine it’s lovely.” Diana says, never taking her eyes off the girl in front of her. She was so captivating in her own energy, a genuine passion in every action. She shifts her attention towards her surroundings as crimson eyes turns to face her.

“Do you want to sit?” Akko gestures towards a wooden table.

They settle down at a nearby picnic table, Akko removes her guitar bag from her back and places it on the table. Akko then looks over to Diana, an anxious expression across her face.

Nervously she begins, “So, I um, have been working on writing a song, and I was wondering if you would mind telling me what you think? There’s no words… yet… but um, would you be interested in…”

Diana, fully aware of how nervous this was making the girl in front of her, calmly puts her hand on Akko’s coat sleeve hoping to put her at ease. “I’d love to hear it.” Diana says with a smile before shifting her expression “I did come for the show after all.” She winks jokingly.

“Psssh,” Akko laughs and takes a breath, a new feeling taking place of the nervousness from a moment before. She turns and unzips her guitar case, pulling out an acoustic guitar decorated with stickers. She then steps on the bench, carful to not hit the guitar on anything, and settles herself on the tabletop.

Diana watches her face closely as she rests the guitar in her lap and begins to tune it. ‘Her focused face is adorable.’ A welcoming warmth fills her chest.

“This is my first guitar… good ol’ Woodward acoustic.” She says as she continues to tune the guitar. “It was a little hard to learn on because the neck is big and the strings are a little harder to push down… but it made learning electric so much easier. They’re so different.” She continues, closing her eyes listening to the strings.

She played a few chords and ran a scale before pausing and turning the tuning peg on the highest string just a bit. She strums, and decides she is happy with the sound. She looks over to Diana who is looking back, color on her cheeks.

“Okay, so… let me know what you think…”

Diana nods and Akko takes a deep breath. ‘Don’t mess up don’t mess up.’ She exhales and begins moving her fingers over the strings, settling into her picking pattern.

Diana watches Akko as she moves to the sound of the guitar. All her movements were fluidly drifting with the music, her fingers gliding from chord to chord. She was temporarily distracted by the bobbing of her ponytail to the cheery rhythm of the song, almost making her miss Akko’s side glance towards her before quickly averting her eyes to the neck of the guitar. ‘She wrote this? It’s simple, but what she’s doing with it is beautiful. She really is something else.’ Diana mused, suddenly focusing on Akko’s fingerpicking hand, mesmerized by its movement, concentrating on the sound they’re creating. ‘I suppose I can’t blame the alcohol for today.’ She chuckles to herself.

Meanwhile, Akko is caught between the exciting calm of performing and complete panic. ‘Okay okay, doing good. Don’t mess up. Don’t make a weird face. Oh god what if she thinks this song is for her? I mean it sorta is. But would that be weird for her? Is it too much? Oh god why am I so warm? Is she bored? Ahhh. Oh it’s too late now.’

Akko continues to play until the end of the song, her fingers slowing in their movement ending in one final flourish before letting the strings ring out. Once the sound stops she looks over to Diana who begins to applaud softly.

“That was beautiful!” she pauses to find the words to describe it, “It was… warm.” she clasps her hands together and places them on her lap. “I’m afraid I am a poor music critic, but it was lovely, Akko.”

Akko pauses for a moment staring into bright blue eyes. The same kind eyes that she thought of as she picked up her guitar later that night after they met. “I- I’m glad you liked it. I’m uh, I’m working on lyrics, but I haven’t settled on anything yet.”

“Well, if you ever want to play for me again, I’d love to hear it.”

A huge smile crosses the brunettes face as she scratches the back of her neck. “Would um, you want me to play something else? The acoustic version of Afterimage is a little different than the full band version… or wait, are you getting cold?”

“Not at all, I’m actually quite warm. I’d love to hear more, unless you’re cold?”

“No, I’m pretty warm too.”

-----

Time and songs pass, and eventually the sound of music turns yet again into laughter and conversation. The sun begins to set, taking with it what little warmth was in the air. The girls, caught off guard by the darkening sky decide to leave the park and head back to the café.

“I didn’t realize how late it was. I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t keep you too long…” Akko apologizes, a small cloud forming from her breath.

“Not at all! The time did seem to go by quite fast didn’t it?” Diana says looking towards her.

“Yeah, it just started getting dark out of nowh-” the lip of the sidewalk catches the toe of her sneaker, causing Akko’s feet to come out from underneath her. Before she gets the chance to brace her fall, she feels Diana’s hand grab her own, allowing her the time to steady herself.

“Are you alright?” She asks.

Akko, not quite sure if she was slightly in shock because of the close call of eating pavement in front of her date, or if it was because of said date’s hand holding her own.

“I-I uh” she stutters, absentmindedly looking down to their joined hands. ‘Yup, definitely because of the hands. Oh my gosh she’s so warm.’

Diana follows her gaze to their hands and for a moment worry comes over her expression, until she feels Akko’s hand tighten around hers.

Blue eyes meet red. “T-thank you, that would have been embarrassing.” Akko says blushing, her free hand scratching the back of her head.

“Of course.” Diana smiles, squeezing Akko’s hand in return.

A light snowfall begins as the two walk back to the café hand in hand. Their walk is a little quieter than before, warm thoughts and the calm sound of footsteps taking the places of stories and laughter.

‘How is her hand so soft??’

‘Calm down Diana, she’s going to feel your heartbeat… Her hand feels so nice.’

The sunset made way for darkness as they approach the entrance of the café. Colored fairy lights decorate the outside window, Café Meridies written in gold on the glass.

They face one another as they reach the window, interlocking their free hands. Standing in silence, their breath forms a cloud between them.

‘What do I do? Do I… kiss her? Isn’t that too fast? I mean it’s only our first time going out. I mean, I’d do it, but I don’t know if she’d be into that. My gosh she’s beautiful.’

Diana shivers slightly, snapping Akko out of her inner monologue. “Well, I suppose I should be heading home.” She says softly, never shifting her eyes from Akko’s.

“Y-yeah. Me too.” They keep their hands interlocked, warm. A few more moments of silence as the two search each other’s faces.

Diana takes in a deep breath and releases it into the air. She squeezes Akko’s hands. “I had a very nice time today.” She gives her a small smile before looking down at their hands. “I was wondering if you would be interested in maybe seeing a movie… um… with me… next weekend? If you aren’t busy of course.”

“I’d love to!” Akko interjects, a giddiness resonating through her.

The blonde is slightly taken aback by the speed of the response. “Oh, wonderful! Um. I… you said you enjoyed adventure films right? Would you be interested in that one, um, Triskellion? I think?”

“Sure! But, I think I heard it’s supposed to be a little scary…”

“I’ll keep you safe.”

Both girls flush red. Diana stands there frozen, wondering what on earth just came out of her mouth. And Akko stands there praying that the furnace burning inside of her won’t cause noticeable steam to rise from her body into the cold night.

The overload of emotions running through Akko is too much to keep contained, causing her to blurt out in laughter, instantly breaking the tension. Diana follows suit shortly after, falling victim to the brunette’s contagious laughter. “You’re such a flirt.” Akko teases as she goes in for a hug, wrapping her arms around the other girl’s waist.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Diana eases her laughter, feigning surprise. She hugs Akko in return, laying her cheek against her hair.

‘She smells so good.’

The girls pull apart from their warm embrace. Akko immediately missing Diana’s body against hers.

“Can I walk you to your car?” Akko asks, holding her hand out once more.

The snow comes down harder as the two reach the parking lot. Once they reach Diana’s car the two turn to face each other once more, separating their hands.

“Alright, so I’ll text you about the movie.” Akko says, shoving her hands into her pockets. “Have a goodnight, Dian-”

Diana reaches up to Akko’s face brushing a piece of snow off her cheek with her thumb. Her eyes looking at her softly. She seems to freeze in a slight panic from what she’s doing as she notices the wide-eyed brunette looking back at her slack jawed. She takes her hand from Akko’s face with as much composure as she can gather, which amounted to a similar amount to what someone has when accidentally touching a hot stove.

“Y-you as well, Akko.” She unlocks her car and opens the door, pausing before getting in to turn back to face her. “Goodnight.” She smiles.

Akko stands there adorably touching her face, trying and failing to make it look like that is not exactly what she is doing. “G-goodnight.” Blue eyes lock on red as Diana gets into her car. Akko stands there for a while and watches the car drive away before heading to her own a few spaces away.

She unlocks the car, places her guitar in the backseat and climbs into the front. She sits there for a moment just looking through the windshield at the snow coming down. She closes her eyes calmly before throwing her head back, squealing, touching her heated cheek and stomping her feet excitedly.

Her whole drive home, a grin was spread across her burning face. Her smile only faltered, turning to surprise, when she walked through her front door to see her friends all waiting.

“How did it go!?” Lotte and Amanda exploded as she steps inside, the rest huddling, listening intently.

After a moment of recovery, Akko responds, “It was really nice!” Her smile temporarily reappearing on her face before shifting as she focuses her attention on Amanda, “EXCEPT for when some PERVY OLD MAN was SPYING on us!”

The redhead shrugs her shoulders, unaffected her by the accusation, “I said I’d be there for ya, didn’t I?” she winks. “Besides, you’re welcome for getting you out of there… did you have fun at the park? All alone… keeping each other warm-”

“Nothing like that happened at all!” Akko’s face flushed a deep red. “We- we just talked and I played some songs for her…”

“Awww!” Lotte sighs.

“I… I had a wonderful time with her.” Akko finishes, her blush calming.

“When’s the next date?” Amanda chimes in.

Akko’s blush returns with renewed vigor as she sputters out, “We-well she asked if I wanted to go see a movie with her next weekend.”

“She asked YOU?? Man, Akko, how desperate is she?” Sucy jokes, coming up behind the brunette poking her reddened cheek.

“Hey!” Akko turns to her, “She’s not desperate! She’s smart, and caring, and funny, and gorgeo-” she is interrupted by a loud growl from her stomach.

Her friends look at her wide-eyed.

“Did you eat anything?” Lotte asks seriously.

“I… kinda forgot, we were on a walk and I guess I kind of lost track of time…” Akko responds embarrassed.

“Woah, Akko missed a meal for this girl. This must be serious.” Sucy teases.

“Hey!” Akko puffs her cheeks out.

Amanda’s face cracks into a wicked smile. “I thought for sure you would have eaten out tonight…”

“AMANDA!!!”

_____

Diana brushes the snow off her jacket as she reaches her apartment door. When she walks thought the threshold she finds both Hannah and Barbara in matching robes sitting on the couch waiting for her.

“What are you doing back so late?” Hannah looks at her disapprovingly.

“And why haven’t you answered any of your texts?” Barbara matching Hannah’s look.

“We were worried!!!” the two yell in chorus, losing their serious expressions.

“I-I’m sorry, I-” Diana flinches for a moment before pulling out her phone to see 9 unopened texts as well as two missed calls from the two of them. “I had put my phone on silent because I didn’t want to interrupt the show. I’m sorry, I forgot to turn it back off.” She switches her phone off of silent mode.

“Whatever!” Hannah waves her hand quickly dismissing the issue. Suddenly she and Barbara are at Diana’s sides peppering her with questions about the date.

“How did it go?”

“What was she like?”

“Was she as cute without booze on board?”

“Did she pluck any heartstrings? OOH! Oh my gosh, did she write you a song?!?”

Diana just blushes and says “We had talked at the café and then went for a walk after. I had a very nice time with her…and... I’m hoping to see her next weekend for a movie.”

Her friends hold each other squealing happily.

“Do you want us to come and watch out for you? You know, in case you get uncomfortable?” Hannah asks seriously.

“We could go in disguise!” Barbara adds excitedly.

“You won’t even know we’re there.” Hannah waves any worry away.

Diana nearly visibly sweat drops, “T-that won’t be necessary. But I do appreciate the offer…”

“DID SHE KISS YOU?” Barbara blurts out excitedly.

Diana turns beet red. Despite thinking about how badly she wanted to kiss Akko’s snow-covered cheek, she manages to sputter out a “N-no. We- we’re not at that point. Th-this is only the first time we’ve gone out.” She looks away from her who friends who look at her with sly smiles and sharp eyes.

“Methinks the lady Cavendish doth protest too much~” Hannah sings out as Barbara stifles a giggle.

Diana rolls her eyes, willing the blush away, praying they would think it’s because of the cold, but she’s smart, she knows better.

“I’m going to go change into something a little warmer.” Diana tries to steer the topic in another direction. “Have you eaten yet? I know I made you wait longer than expected.” She asks turning towards her bedroom.

“We were just going order some takeout, did you want anything?” Hannah answers, fully aware of the diversion. “Maybe some… Japanese?” She and Barbara smile slyly.

Diana turns her head to look at them, with an exhausted expression on her face, a tired laugh escapes her lips. “I’ll have whatever you two are having. Thank you. I’ll be back in a moment.” She continues to head to her room.

Hannah and Barbara wait quietly until they hear Diana’s door close.

“That will be ten dollars and a back massage please!” Barbara holds her hand out cheerily.

“Are you kidding? She outright said ponytail didn’t kiss her!” Hannah looks at her, putting her hand on her hip defiantly.

“But did you see her blushing? That was totally a lie.”

“No way!”

Diana reaches her bed and falls back onto her comforter and stares at the ceiling. ‘Oh gosh, what was I thinking? I shouldn’t have touched her face like that.’ She reaches up to her face and feels the red hotness emanating from her cheeks. ‘I can’t believe I did that. Have a little more self-control!’ she scolds herself. ‘I can’t believe what I’m thinking...But her laugh, her smile is contagious. And the way she looked when she was lost in her guitar… she smelled like vanilla…’ She closes her eyes, concentrating on her heartbeat. ‘I am happy to find my attraction to her had very little to do with the alcohol’ thinking about Hannah’s earlier question. She then feels a vibration from her phone in her back pocket.

Diana pulls the phone from her back pocket, still laying on the bed and smiles as she reads the sender’s name.

‘I feel like such a jerk! I should have taken you out for dinner!! Please forgive me <3’

‘Thank goodness...” She smiles relieved. Slightly caught up by the text heart, she types in a response.

‘Maybe you can make it up to me by joining me for dinner before the movie?’ She hits send and sits herself up on her bed.

A few moments pass and the phone vibrates in her hand.

‘Deal! But it’s my treat!’

‘Well, if I have no choice. Though I do believe you are treat enough already.’ She sends the text, immediately questioning whether or not she may have overstepped.

She doesn’t receive a response right away, which adds to her nervousness. She changes into a sweatshirt and flannel pants and is in the middle of putting her hair into a ponytail by the time she hears the vibration on her bed. She practically runs over to her phone to read:

‘FLIRT!!!!!’

She rolls her eyes, smiling, and starts typing.

‘I suppose I am. ;) Should I stop?’

She waits for a response, this time it comes quickly.

‘Absolutely not! Have a goodnight Diana! o^_^o’

‘Goodnight Akko :)‘ She texts back. Taking a moment to tame the smile on her face, she places her phone in her sweatshirt pocket and takes a breath. With a warm fullness in her chest she heads towards the kitchen.

‘Actually, Japanese would be nice.’

END

Bonus:

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