Chapter Text
Akko laced her fingers around her wand, flicking it to side and pulling the imagery of a flower blooming in her mind. With a word she spoke, pulling the imagery of the flower growing larger. Her intention was sound, her desires clear. The spell poured from her mouth and into the wand.
“Floradel bloom!”
She closed her eyes, scrunching them up as she felt the magic course through her stomach. Any second now she’d feel her feet lifted up by the plant in the pot beneath her. Any second.
She peeked an eye open. A flower drifted back and forth as it poked up from the pot beneath her. Her shoulders dropped and a frown crept up onto her face, “Seriously! I pulled it off perfectly. What could I be doing wrong?”
Her face fell and she slumped down onto the bench. Her head rolled against the top of the bench and she stared up art the sky, sighing. Another failed spell. Another thing she didn’t understand. She followed the instructions, she followed the invocation, the prep, and she was SURE that her desire was there. She had the visualization. But there were the lilies.
Small.
Fragile.
Weak.
Maybe she just needed to do it again! Maybe she just needed to try it again. She gritted her teeth and adjusted the plant. Two inches to the left. Right that’s perfect because left is best. She took her stance, feet apart, Back straight and wand in two hands at the core of her body.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The flower, the flower. The lilies blooming right underneath her, pushing her up into the sky. The flowers that she loves would-
“Akko, What are you doing here? Botanical magics isn’t until next tomorrow.”
Akko knew that voice. The tilt of her breath and the cadence of her voice was something she knew all too well. She opened her eyes, losing her balance. “Dianna, you broke my focus!” She folded her arms and took a step forward, her hair bouncing in time with her steps and that glint in her eyes just-
“Lilies? You know this spell is intended for sunflowers right?”
“Wait they are? The book I read said that it could be used on all flowers, not just Sunflowers.”
Dianna gave Akko a look she knew all too well, “And who was the author this book? I’ve never heard of it being used anywhere else.”
Akko pulled the book out from under the bench and showed it to her, “some girl named Vivi it looks like!”
Dianna extended a hand for the book and Akko placed it in her hands. Her eyes immediately lit up, “Oh Vivianne Mindfang? Oh akko you poor thing. This woman is a practical jokester in the magic world.”
Akko scratched her chin, “Wait, she is? I thought she sounded pretty convincing when I read through it and it had a few pictures of it done with roses too!”
Dianna closed the book and shook her head, “No. Perhaps. The theory is there I suppose but you’d need a stronger spell because the magical signature of the lily is a bit harder to manipulate. You see they have an inherent magic absorption property inside it that causes you to have to double the energy you place in it.”
Akko was floored, Showed up again by her bewitching words. “Whoa, How do you know all this Dianna?”
Dianna looked up from the book and met Akko’s eyes. Her bright red eyes shone in the light of the sun, “Well, Lilies are my favorite flower after all.”
Akko nodded, “Yeah. They’re mine too!”
Dianna sighed and handed the book back, “Of course. You just had to pick the most difficult flower to perform this on didn’t you?”
Akko leapt up from the bench, getting far too close to Dianna’s face, “Well! That just means that when I pull it off it’ll be that much cooler right?”
Dianna took a step back, clearing her throat and holding a hand over her face, “Yes. I do believe so. That is if you can pull it off.”
“Well you said it should be possible right? That means I have to try twice as hard!”
Akko immediately took her stance again over the lilies and held a breath in her. She just had to think twice as hard. She had to focus twice as hard. Put twice as much of herself into it and visualize it twice as much.
She visualized the lilies beneath her, Dianna standing a few feet away. The lilies pushed up against her wrapping around them both and-
“Akko!”
“shush!”
The flowers bloomed in her mind and she felt a surge within her. Now was the time for the words, now was the moment,
“Akko wait!”
She poured her will into the words, she poured herself into the words and spoke from her heart. She loved lilies. Dianna liked Lilies. Chariot liked lilies. If she could master this then maybe she could put a smile on Dianna’s face and a smile on chariot’s face when she finally met her.
“Floradel BLOOM!”
She opened her eyes and the magic pulsed through her. Dianna took a step forward to grab Akko before it was too late but the flower pushed up around them. The pot shattered as roots took hold in the courtyard and two quickly fell into the center of the blooming lily.
The stone walls outside them cracked as roots began to bore into the main hall of luna nova academy and the two of them tumbled into the center of the white easter lily that they found themselves in.
Dianna quickly intertwined her fingers into Akko’s and gripped her hand tight as she held tight together.
Eventually the flower stopped growing. The two of them only seeing the vague sunlight
Dianna cleared her throat, “I’m… Sorry. I got it mixed up. Lilies have a magical amplification in them that uh. Yes. I am sure it does not need explaining.”
Akko laughed and pulled herself up to rest against the wall of the lilies, “Okay but did you SEE how big this grew! How much magic must that have taken?”
Dianna smiled, Akko’s excitment was contagious, “Yes, you really have come so far. She squeezed her fingers in akko’s grasp as she leaned against the wall with her.
Akko looked down at her hand, “Dianna?”
Dianna looked over, meeting her piercing red eyes again, “hm?”
“Your hand.”
Dianna pulled her gaze away from akko’s eyes and looked down, quickly pulling herself away and moving her head away to hide the growing blush on her cheeks, “it’s nothing sorry, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t get lost!”
Akko beamed, “Aww! Thanks! Now… How do we get out?”