Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Categories:
Fandom:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of Andrew's World (The complete edition)
Stats:
Published:
2021-08-07
Completed:
2022-02-09
Words:
80,344
Chapters:
21/21
Comments:
166
Kudos:
105
Bookmarks:
9
Hits:
4,555

Andrew's World (Seasons 1 and 2)

Summary:

"I swear, I'll catch my death following you."

"Then why follow me?"

This is a sequel work to the events in Little Witch Academia, except instead of centering around everyone's favorite accident-prone witch, it centers around everyone's favorite handsome viscount: Andrew Hanbridge. This is a tale of honor, friendship, and love. Through high school, college, and beyond, we follow our dear Andrew through all of his adventures. Andrew is my muse and quite possibly the love of my life, and this fanfiction is dedicated to him and to everyone else who loves him.
-
Seasons 1 and 2 include: the events of the first few months after Andrew realizes his feelings for Akko, and the summer adventures of Andrew, Akko, and Diana.

(Not for reproduction. Please consult me before posting this anywhere else)

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: Insidious Flutterings

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Odī et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requīris.

Nesciō, sed fierī sentiō et excrucior.

I love and I hate. Perhaps you ask why I do this.

I do not know, but I feel it happening and I am tormented.

- Catullus 

_________

Lord Andrew Hanbridge, Viscount of Appleton, had a job to do, but for the first time in his life, he was putting it off for as long as he could.

He glanced at the hat on his desk. It had been sitting there for days. The purple cone-shaped hat had been in his care since she had left it beside him on the bench, running off chasing cubes and ending up saving the world as he sat in parliament, watching her breathlessly on the screen, believing with all he had to help her as best he could. Andrew didn’t want to return Akko’s hat because returning the hat meant he would have to talk to Akko, which for some reason he was adamant about doing.

Andrew’s feelings had always made sense before. Pride, anger, annoyance. But his ambivalence toward the young witch was new, and confusing. He had no idea why he grew nervous at the thought of seeing her. She had always interested him, first annoying him, then captivating him- but briefly- then he was quite fond of her, but secretly, and his feelings had settled on that. She was like a lost baby animal that he felt he needed to protect, even if he knew she could protect herself. She had saved the world, after all. Well, with Diana Cavendish’s help. In all, Akko was a mystery to him. His feelings for her were confusing. He was intrigued by her drive, her joy, her relentless pursuit of her dream. He wanted to investigate further by being closer friends with her, so what made him hesitant to return her hat? It would be so easy. They could meet up in town, or he could visit Luna Nova and return it. She was probably needing her hat. She probably wondered where it was. She was scatterbrained like that.

It was a Friday afternoon. Andrew did not have any extracurriculars today, model parliament wasn’t meeting, track practice had been canceled, and the honor council had no situations to sort through. He was bored. There was probably some social event he had been invited to, but he didn’t want to interact with people today. Even Frank, who he was used to by now, and the few hangers-on who followed him and Frank around that he called friends were draining. Appleton Academy was something Andrew had conquered, but often he felt it was conquering him. He needn’t be bored. There was homework he could be doing. He had to write an essay and study for a latin quiz on Monday, to name a few assignments. But he didn’t want to do homework. There was also the piano music he had just started sight-reading, but he couldn’t be bothered to leave his room and walk all the way to the ballroom. It was in an entirely different wing of the house, after all. And the piano always reminded him of the person who had given him the courage to play.

No, don’t think about her. Too confusing.

Neither of his parents were home. The Earl and Countess of Hanbridge usually weren’t. Andrew’s father was busy with work, in London, and his mother was off in some underprivileged country working for one of her charities, as usual. She came home every few months to make sure her son was still alive and well and to pretend to like, or even tolerate, her husband. Andrew didn’t mind either of their absences. He preferred being alone, But solitude was not going to be Andrew’s comfort today. There was a knock at his door. Andrew stretched and lifted himself from where he had been sprawled out on the floor in boredom. He answered the door. It was the butler.

 

“Master Frank is here to see you, sir.”

“Can you send him away? Tell him I’m not here.”

Frank stepped out from behind the butler. “Wow, Andrew, that was harsh.” Andrew didn’t care. The butler left.

“Why are you here?”

“I thought you might be lonely.”

“You know I don’t care about being lonely.”

“And you know I know you better than that.” Frank peered into Andrew’s room and caught sight of the hat on his desk. “Pining after Miss Kagari again?” Andrew sighed, mourning his peaceful boredom.

“Not pining. Just wondering when to return her hat.”

“You should go to Luna Nova to return it. And you should bring me.”

“I’m not going to help in your foolish chases after girls.”

“Not girls plural. I just wanna see Lotte.”

“I’m surprised you still like her. What has it been, three, four months?”

“Five, since the party. And of course I still like her. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because she shows no indication of liking you back, and you have a short attention span.”

“That’s not true! We’re just taking things slow because she wanted to start out as friends.”

“You’re in denial. This is sad to watch.”

“You haven’t seen us together. There’s chemistry, Andrew!!”

“Knowing your grades in chemistry, I highly doubt that means anything.”

Frank glared. “You’re not bringing up the magnesium lab again, are you?”

“What amount of money did your parents donate to the school to rebuild the lab again? Millions? Or am I forgetting?”

“As my lab partner, you should have stopped me.”

“As your lab partner, I failed the lab. And messed up my average. Which I will not let you forget.”

“Will you shut up about your average? Mine’s in the gutter too, okay?”

“Please, Frank, don’t compare our grades. It depresses me that you think there are similarities. Don’t be so generous to yourself.”

Andrew and Frank were the sort of friends where no one, not even them, really knows why they are friends. They met in fourth grade, when Frank was being bullied for his hairstyle choices and Andrew happened to call attention to the bully’s mullet, thus defending Frank. After that, Frank followed Andrew around forever, and eventually Andrew learned to accept him. But that was so long ago, and no one had expected it to last.

“So when should I visit Luna Nova? And what do I even do? Just walk in and magically- pardon the allusion- run into Miss Kagari?”

Frank shrugged. “I don’t know…”

Andrew sighed again. “She always shows up right where I least expect her. So if we go where she normally is, chances are she won’t be there.”

“Do you ever think about how weird it is that she is always randomly falling into your life? Like the amount of coincidences that have forced you guys together?”

“No, why would I?”

“I don’t know. I just think it’s funny. Fate or something? Nothing ever happens by chance… I mean, if you look at just one encounter, there’s so many things behind it that need to happen for it to happen. Like when I met Lotte. What if Akko didn’t want to sneak into a party? What if the gray one who scares me so much, what’s her name- Sucy! What if Sucy hadn’t bought that wasp thing that stung all of us? Would I just have not met Lotte?”

“Aww, look at you, trying to be deep.”

“But really though! You and Miss Kagari keep crossing paths somehow. Don’t you ever think there might be a reason?”

“I don’t believe in fate. She just shows up sometimes.”

“I don’t know, Andrew. I think you guys are meant to be.”

“Pfft. You think about romance too much. Some of us have responsibilities.”

“Well, you are responsible for returning her hat, I guess.”

Andrew yielded. “That’s true. I guess we can visit tomorrow.”

“We? Yessssss!”

And so, Andrew fulfilled that promise, and he and Frank found themselves outside the main door to Luna Nova, beside the Ley line portal for cars and other non-broom vehicles. Andrew shuddered. “I hate the Ley line. Something about it makes me very uncomfortable.”

“Lotte says it hates salt. So it must be your salty personality."

Andrew didn’t have the energy to argue. “Could be.”

“So do we just… go in?”

“Yeah.”

“The doors are kind of intimidating.”

“Frank, we are Appleton men. We walk through more imposing doors than this one on a daily basis.”

“Then why aren’t you going in?”

It wasn’t the door that was imposing to Andrew, but the people inside. Or one person, in particular- but that wasn’t quite fair, Akko herself didn’t intimidate him. So why did he fear speaking to her? But Andrew had a method for conquering fear. Fear was not an emotion a great statesman needed to hold. All he needed to do was conquer it head-on. He stepped up to the door. Andrew had barely laid a hand on the door handle when both doors flew open, with the faintest shimmer of magic. Of course. How had he not remembered this. No magic school would have a regular door. They walked through the halls, confused, not sure what to do. Andrew had been taught growing up to never act confused, he must always seem to have a sense of purpose even if in reality he had no idea what he was doing, like now. But Frank had a lot of practice being confused, so he looked around for someone vaguely familiar. They walked through the halls, passing robots who ignored them, troll janitors who ignored them, students who blushed and giggled at Andrew and ignored Frank, until they caught sight of a flash of bright red hair behind a stack of books. The stack of books turned a corner and walked directly into a wall. As the books fell away from her face, Andrew recognized the professor who had helped him and Akko out from being stuck forever with animal ears a few months ago. She had changed her hair. Andrew sighed. Akko’s teacher had most definitely rubbed off on her. He extended a hand.

“Good morning, Miss Callistis.”

“Ahh… It’s Miss DuNord now. Long story.” She declined his hand, choosing instead to pick up all the books and stack them again, pulling herself to her feet by means of the wall, balancing the stack on her hip to talk to the two young men. “Oh! Lord Hanbridge!” Chariot racked her brain for Frank’s last name. Did Frank even have a last name? She did not know, so she decided to just not greet him altogether. “What are you doing here?”

Andrew showed her the hat. “I’ve come to return this to Miss Kagari. Again.”

“Oh… I was wondering where Akko’s hat had gotten off to. She’s already gotten demerits for not being in uniform at assemblies! I can take it to her if you want.”

Andrew panicked, irrationally, for a moment. He didn’t know why, but the idea of not seeing Akko was worse than the idea of seeing her. “I-If you don’t mind, I’d rather deliver it personally.”

“Oh. I see. Well, I just have to take these books to the library, and I can take you to Akko. She and some of her friends are having tea. She’ll be happy to see you.”

Frank spoke up. “Is Lotte there?”

“I believe she is.”

“Sweet.”

Andrew, being the gentleman that Akko yelled at him for not being, took some of Chariot’s books to help. The three of them walked to the library, attracting more stares from the students. Boys were rare at Luna Nova. Andrew was more interesting, as always, but Frank was also an abnormality. While Andrew ignored the students, Frank smiled at them, albeit less than usual because his heart belonged to Lotte. After returning the books, Chariot led Andrew and Frank through a cloister to another door. Andrew recognized this cloister. It brought back memories. And he recognized the door as well. And sure enough, a few yards away from the non-dangerous side of the ruins of the taped-off building where he and Akko had almost died, there they were. Akko and her friends, some standing around or sitting on the chunks of ruins, some sitting at a table drinking tea and watching as Akko ran on a low wall and jumped off the edge with a broom between her legs, yelling spells as she went, trying and failing over and over again to fly. Everyone cringed as she hit the ground yet again, with an audible thump. Andrew, Frank, Chariot, and Headmistress Holbrooke and Professor Finnelan, who had joined them, approached Akko. As soon as she looked up from the ground, she saw Andrew with her hat, and ran up to him to claim it.

“You forgot this again.”

“I’m so sorry!! But thanks for bringing it to me.”

“It’s nothing,” he lied, as she took the hat. He almost didn’t want to let it go. But he did.

Shortly after Andrew returned Akko’s hat, there was a great commotion. “Guys! Guys I did it! I can fly!!” 

veryone was very surprised to see that Akko was finally flying. After the initial surprise, the scattered bystanders erupted with applause. Many cheered, but not Andrew. He clapped and absentmindedly gazed up at his friend, smiling. Suddenly a thought entered his head.

She’s so beautiful.

A look of surprise flashed through his smile. Where had that thought come from? It didn’t make sense. And yet it did. Andrew felt almost sick. His feelings were all fitting together now, and it was terrifyingly familiar. There it was again. A swelling in his heart, a deep happiness mixed with a nervous pain. The same feeling he had felt at the fountain, watching her dance and profess her dreams. But this was different, this time he wasn’t affected by magic or any external source. These feelings, this deep and overwhelming love, was his and his alone.

Well then.

He swallowed the shock, and tried his best to clap as Akko hovered above the low wall. She levitated there for an instant, smiling beatifically, and then fell abruptly with a crash. He sighed. It wasn’t a surprise. It wasn’t a surprise at all. He had been vaguely aware of the feelings, subconsciously hiding them for the past few weeks. In moments of weakness they came to the light, when he laid awake at three in the morning agonizing over the insidious flutterings that he didn’t understand. But in the dawn, whenever his mind took back control over his heart, he shoved the feelings deeper down, refusing to recognize them. But he couldn’t refuse anymore, he could not push the feelings away. He had fought against love and lost. And now it was time for Andrew to surrender.

Akko, fallen in a heap on the ground, groaned in pain. “Ooooof-"

Andrew had wanted to help her up, but Diana got there first. “Akko, are you okay?”

“It’s alright!”

“But you hit your head.”

Amanda laughed from her place a few feet away. “Hah! Her skull’s too thick for that to matter.”

“Amand-AAAA!!! I don’t have a thick skull!”

Akko clambered to her feet to stand, drawing her whole five-something into the most adorable display of anger. No one really took her seriously, but Amanda humored her, holding her hands up and raising her eyebrows in mock apology. “Hey man, I mean no disrespect to those with extra head protection. You and your thick skull are chill.”

“That’s more like it.” Akko turned on her heel, her emotions changing almost as quickly as her position. From her angry glower, she had shifted to a grateful smile.

“See, I couldn’t have flied without my hat!!!”

“Flown,” Chariot corrected. “Wait. Flew?”

“Whatever. Thank you for bringing it to me, Andrew!” He bowed. It was the only thing he could think to do.

“Pleased to be of service, Miss Kagari.”

She bonked him over the head, gently, with the end of her wand. Akko quite missed the Shiny Rod. It would have been better for bonking Andrew over the head. “Ow.”

“I told you not to be so formal!! Call me Akko.”

“I had to be formal while bowing, for consistency’s sake.” He smiled at her.

A few feet away, Lotte and Frank were watching the interaction.

“He never smiles like that… it’s obvious he likes her.”

“Oh, I agree. People only smile like that in romance novels. And fan art.”

“Yeah…”

Lotte was mildly annoyed, and at a crossroads in life. She wasn’t sure how to proceed. She and Frank had met up several times before, building a normal friendship, but nothing more had happened. Even though she had grown fond of him and had realized she did want to date him, she wasn’t sure what to do. This had been the goal of wanting to be friends, for her to decide what she wanted, but now that she had, she felt stuck. Just the other day, she had been asking Akko and Sucy for advice.

“Awwww, so you realized you liked him too late!?!?! That’s so sad!!!”

“Well, I hope it’s not too late.”

“Why don’t ya just tell him?”

“I-I can’t do that!!”

“Why not? Sucy’s right. You should just tell him. C’mon, Lotte, it’s the 21st century! You’re a strong independent witch!”

“I-I’m just too shy to talk to him like that.”

Sucy briefly looked up from her worktable. Lotte and Akko were seated on Akko’s bed, and Sucy was at her desk working on a new potion.

“And do we know if he still likes you? You might have missed your chance.”

Lotte held Akko’s pillow a little tighter and hung her head, embarrassed. “I know… there’s no way he still likes me now that he actually knows me.” Akko gripped Lotte’s shoulders and shook her. “Don’t talk like that, Lotte! You’re amazing and any guy would be lucky to have you!”

Lotte’s glasses fell off in the violence of Akko’s shaking. She struggled out of Akko’s grip to go and pick them up, sighing. Returning, she collapsed back onto Akko’s bed. “I just don’t know… he told me he’d wait for me to like him, as long as it took. But I don’t know if he’s just staying friends to be nice.”

“Well, you should shoot your shot.”

“Yeah, I looked up Frank’s family the other day and they’re pretty rich. You could easily embezzle-“

“Sucy!!! Lotte’s too pure for embezzling!!”

“Or I could be the one embezzling, if you guys get close. It would be a little harder, but I could work something out.”

Lotte shook her head. “I don’t want to date someone just so I can embezzle from his family! I want to date someone because I genuinely like them. And maybe I could find my fated love, like in Night Fall. But that’s probably too much to ask.”

“Want me to be a wingwoman? I can help- I’ll get Andrew to help me figure something out-"

“No, I’ll figure it out myself. I’ll drop small hints!”

“That boy is too dense for small hints.”

Sucy’s prophecy had proved true. Lotte and Frank did not have their usual conversational ease, things were awkward today. Frank had run out of things to say and was instead just awkwardly watching Andrew and Akko talk, wishing he could think of something to ask Lotte about. Lotte was looking at the ground. She wished she had the courage to look up at him, stare straight into his deep brown eyes, and yell her true feelings. “Frank, you idiot!!” She would say. “Can’t you see I’m in love with you?” She would ask. And she would deal with whatever happened next, if she were only brave enough to speak. Her heart ached. This wasn’t enough. She couldn’t just be friends with him anymore. She was tired of it. She furrowed her eyebrows in determination and looked up at Frank, savoring the last few moments before she had to be brave and everything would change. He eventually sensed her watching him and glanced at her. For lack of something better to say, he simply greeted her again.

“Hi.”

He couldn’t see some of her expression, the light was reflecting off her glasses so he couldn’t see her eyes. But he could see her frown and furrowed brow, at least for a moment before she looked back to the ground. Now he could see that she was blushing and her eyes were sad.

“Frank?”

“Yeah?”

The crowd was back to watching Akko try to fly, completely ignoring them. Lotte summoned all of her courage. Why was this so hard? She had fought missles, Akko’s botched spells, a giant cockratice! Why was it so hard to talk to one sweet young lad who perhaps liked her?

“Do you still like me?” She glanced up at him, blushing more than ever. He was blushing too. “Of course I still like you! W-why do you ask?”

She exhaled in relief. “I was worried you didn’t like me any more…”

“I tried not to show it too much, I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable and I know you wanted to be friends first so…yeah. But I do like you. A lot. Like, really. You’re amazing- and I should stop talking.”

“That’s such a relief…” Even now that she knew it was safe, she was still afraid. But she had to do this! Her beloved was probably confused! She looked up at him and smiled through her fear. “I think- no, I-I know- I like you back now.”

He smiled perhaps the most excited smile she had ever seen in her life. “I- wow- That’s great!!!!!”

She continued her confession. “I wanted to start out as friends so I could get to know you… and now that I know you, I like you. Sorry it took so long.”

“Don’t apologize!! I understand why you wanted to wait. It was actually pretty smart.”

“So, uh, what now?”

“Um…. I guess we date?”

“That would be lovely.”

They both smiled at each other and blushed uncontrollably, neither knowing what to do. But the silence wasn’t awkward anymore.

The group had scattered, as Akko had given up trying to fly for the day. Diana, Hannah, and Jazminka were sitting at the table, drinking tea. Barbara was there as well, engrossed in the first volume of night fall. Amanda was sprawled out on the grass, watching the sky. Sucy was lying face-down near her, smiling demonically at the blades of grass and the solidity of the ground. Constanze was sitting near them, tinkering with a prototype for a new version of stanbot. Chariot was talking to Headmistress Holbrooke, and Professor Finnelan had wandered off to go chastise some students she had seen roughhousing. Akko was sitting on the low stone wall, her broom on one side of her and Andrew on the other. They were chatting, and their conversation seemed serious.

“Ok, Andrew, there’s one thing I need to sort out. I think we should come to an agreement.”

“On what?”

Akko stuck out her hand for him to shake. “Let’s be friends.”

“You sound so serious. And I thought we were friends.”

“Well- I was confused-“

“You wound me, Miss Kagari. to think we were never really friends.” He pressed a hand to his heart and pretended to be in great pain. She did not buy it.

“Alright then,” he said, taking her hand and shaking it firmly. “Friends.”

“Friends. And call me Akko,” she said with a wink. That one wink stabbed him directly in the stomach with a flutter of butterflies. Instead of ignoring them, for the first time in his life Andrew embraced the uncertainty. She turned away to survey her friends, but he kept his eyes on her profile. The sight of her made him almost giddy, and he thought that perhaps being in love with her wouldn’t be so bad. Seventeen years of evading the most human of emotions, and it had finally caught him. But maybe he wanted to be caught.

Akko spied Lotte and Frank talking. “Oh, looks like something good happened! She didn’t need me to be her wingwoman after all.”

“They do seem to be getting along well. It’s good, I’d rather see him happy- you have no idea how annoying Frank is when he is sad.”

“They look so cute together.”

“…yeah. They do.”

Akko clutched her heart. “And here I am, forever alone.”

“Being single isn’t that bad.”

“How can you say that when you have people chasing after you all the time? You’re single by choice.”

“I am, and it is wonderful.”

Andrew started to think. He was single because he had never liked anyone. He could have had his choice among any of his admirers, but if he didn’t care about any of them, then what was the point of dating one? It would only distract from his studies. The irony did not escape him. He had his choice of the society set, the high-ranking young ladies who stared at him from behind fans and glasses of punch at balls, the giggling schoolgirls who hid behind columns, anyone around him, really, except for the one girl he found himself in love with. Akko would never date him. They were friends, she had said it herself. So he wouldn’t pursue her. Maybe jokingly, masking his real feelings through sarcasm, as he often did, but nothing further than that. To accidentally chase her away through the act of chasing her would hurt too much. She caught him staring at her and looked over.

“Oh. Also I have a problem I need help with.”

“What’s that?”

“So I got invited to this fancy ball, for all the people who’ll have been knighted this year? Because we’re getting knighted, not sure if you’ve heard about that-"

“I did hear about that. Congragulations.”

“Thanks. But I need help.”

“How so? With the etiquette?”

“Yeah. Hannah and Barbara taught me all the curtsying and stuff, they gave me the benefit of the doubt ‘cause I’m not from England but they just laughed hysterically at me when I said I didn’t know how to ballroom dance because no commoner could possibly be that uneducated so I just sort of laughed awkwardly and I need help. Can you teach me to dance please the ball is in a week.”

“You sound awfully desperate.”

“I am. I mean, sure, I could just stand by the punch the whole time and not dance but I’m such a desirable young lass that someone is bound to ask me to dance and maybe this is my chance to finally meet someone…” Those words hit Andrew hard for a moment. What was he, chopped liver? But he already knew that Akko regarded him as only a friend, and he was fine with that. “…so I need to know how to dance.”

He rose from the wall and stood in front of her, taking her right hand in his left. The gesture felt oddly familiar to Akko, then she remembered the night of the cupid bee incident when he had held her hand that way right after he had been stung. His hand felt the same, something in his grip that was both gentle and firm could either mean that he really cared about her, or that his hands were always like that. Akko’s hands, on the other hand, were bruised, and one of her palms was wrapped snugly in a bandage.

“What happened to your hands?” Andrew asked while taking her left hand as well and holding both of her hands in his own, inspecting them with concern. Akko looked him dead in the eye and gave her response.

“Splinters.”

“But why splinters?”

“Broom handles.” She said it solemnly, like it was something he was supposed to understand.

“Ah, yes. Broom handles. Of course.” He pulled her to her feet so that she faced him standing up. Then, he gently placed her left hand on his right shoulder and rested his left hand on her ribs, holding her left hand aloft with his right, their arms together in a perfect right angle. The bystanders were perplexed, Diana in particular was irritated, but they all turned back to their activities, not caring all that much.

“Well, what dance do you want to learn? I’m best at the waltz, …alright at the cha-cha-cha I’d suppose… but please don’t ask for the foxtrot. I can’t foxtrot to save my life.”

“Amanda taught me the cotton-eye-joe once. Where should I start with my experience?”

“It’s not related to… whatever the cotton-eye-joe is, but you should start with the waltz. You should always start with the waltz. If you know a box-step, you can do anything.”

“Uh, okay?”

“I’m not the best teacher, but basically just do everything I do, but backwards.” He stepped forward with his right foot. They were too close, almost touching. She stared up at him for an awkward second. His heart quivered nervously. “So this is when you step back.”

“O-oh. Backwards. Right.” She seemed to be as nervous as he was, but she managed to step back with her left foot, so that their original distance had been restored. “There. yes. Like that.”

Diana’s attention had been awakened. With the grace of a queen, she rose from her table and walked towards Andrew and Akko, Hannah and Barbara (who was walking while reading and almost fell over) flanking her. Though Diana was infinitely more friendly to her, Akko knew that she still hated Andrew. “What are you doing?”

Akko spoke first. “He’s teaching me how to waltz.”

“You could have asked me. I took six years of etiquette classes, Andrew only took four.”

“Perhaps I only needed four.”

“And what, Lord Hanbridge, is that supposed to mean?”

He ignored her and continued. “In any event, I still remember how to dance, and I know how to lead.”

They had continued dancing through the whole interaction. Andrew was able to talk and dance at the same time, but Akko had to concentrate on reversing Andrew’s steps in her mind and executing them. Once she got into a rhythm, it was easy. Front, side, together, back, side, together, and repeat. Forming a box. Forming a box step. It wasn’t so hard. “Haha! This is fun!”

“I’m glad you like it. Ballroom dancing is a skill that will be useful for your whole life.”

“Eheh… I don’t know how many fancy parties I’ll be invited to.”

“Why, many of course!” He dropped her hand, holding his out to gesture toward the future.“In the company of myself and Miss Cavendish here-“

“That’s Lady Cavendish to you.”

“Then you may call me Viscount Appleton. Two can play at that game.” He took Akko’s hand again and looked down at her, smiling. “Anyway, in the company of myself and Lady Cavendish- well, I can’t speak for Diana, but if you can scrape some manners together I will invite you to whatever gatherings I host.” He wished that someday she would host them with him, but there was no time to dream about that.

“I have a perfectly good amount of manners!!!”

“And why wouldn’t I invite her?”

“I’m not saying you wouldn’t invite her. But I don’t think you’d host anything worth attending.”

“Why, you-"

Akko’s eyes flicked back and forth as she watched Diana and Andrew compete. She allowed it to go on for quite some time. They were now insulting each other’s entire bloodlines, but in a way that used polite statements in insulting ways. Akko found it fascinating. “Quick question.”

Diana and Andrew snapped away from their argument to look at Akko. They had forgotten she was there, and Andrew had forgotten they were still dancing. But that is how waltzing is, when you get into a flow, you forget you’re doing it.

“Is insulting each other’s families the aristocracy equivalent of a yo mama joke? Because I’m pretty good at those. But if I’m going to go to fancy parties that you guys are going to invite me to, I think I’ll need to phrase them better.” They both smiled at her and stopped arguing. Akko knew it would work. As interesting as it was, she didn’t like seeing her friends bicker so much.

“So, are you figuring out how to dance?”

“Yeah, I think I got the hang of it. Thanks for teaching me, Andrew.”

He let her go, and bowed again. “It was my pleasure.”

Frank yelled to Andrew. “Hey, Andrew!!! We need to go!!” Andrew checked his watch.

“Oh… he’s right. Well then. Farewell, Akko. Congratulations on flying, and on your knighthood.”

“Thanks, Andrew. And thanks for using my first name for once.”

“You’re welcome.”

He nodded to Diana, and walked away.

“That insufferable-“

“C’mon, Diana, he’s not that bad.”

Notes:

I wanted to explore some of Andrew's initial confusion before he realizes his feelings, but I also wanted to just dive in. Shall we, then, dive in?

(I finally fixed the end notes huzzah)

Chapter 2: Necesse Est

Notes:

Author's note: I have given Andrew's friends names. I tried to add a picture for reference, but I am not technology enough for that. From right (or starboard) in the order they are standing in when they are stung by the cupid bee, if you care enough to look up the picture I wanted to add, we have George, Sean, Rupert, and of course, Frank.
Here I am writing a key, because I realize it is necessary (see what I did there)
The blond guy with the pompadour- Frank, as we all know
The one with blue eyes and reddish-brown hair in the Tintin hairstyle who has a sort of squarish face- Rupert
The shortest one with dark hair and dark eyes- Sean
The blond who isn't Frank- George
I hope this helps. I also hope their names fit their faces. I just chose names based on the vibes I got.

Chapter Text

 

It had been a long week, and it was only Tuesday. Andrew’s friends knew this. Frank and Rupert were even arguing about it. When Sean, the shortest of the bunch, had joined their lunch table, he had said the unfortunate phrase, and Rupert spoke through bites of a sandwich that he couldn’t say it had been a long week, as they had only lived through one day of it. Frank then jumped into the argument, saying that it had, in fact, been a long week. Then Frank and Sean had begun saying the phrase as much as they possibly could, making Rupert irritated. Save for George, who was eating his lunch quietly as usual, the whole group was squabbling when Andrew arrived. Their fearless leader pulled out the chair at the head of their table and sat in it, tilting his head back and closing his eyes out of exhaustion.

Frank looked over at him. “You good there, bro?”

Andrew didn’t answer.

George was concerned. “Did something happen, Andrew?”

Andrew did his best to snap back to life, leaning forward with as much energy as he could muster. “No. Everything’s fine.”

Sean noticed the dark circles under Andrew’s eyes. “Dude… what happened to your sleep schedule?”

“Nothing, everything’s fine.”

Frank scoffed. “He’s been staying up late pining for this girl he likes.”

“Wait, really?”

“Andrew likes a girl?”

“Wow, that’s never happened before.”

He didn’t want to tell anyone. “It hasn’t happened yet. I don’t like anyone.”

Frank continued. “The thought of her robs him from his sleep, the torture of her not loving him back.”

The rest of the lads caught on and begin to tease Andrew as well. “He can’t sleep from dreaming of her! tragic.”

“Like Romeo agonizing over Rosaline, an unrequited love…”

“Even the most stalwart of guys falls in love eventually, guess it’s your turn, eh, Andrew? Eh?”

“Nonsense. I’m going to get food.” He stood up from the table abruptly.

Frank could sense his anger. “….we probably shouldn’t tease him, guys.”

“Yeah, he seems mad.”

“More mad than usual.”

“Mad…. With love.”

“Shut up Rupert.”

“Yeah, Rupert, the joke’s over.”

Andrew returned in a few minutes with a bowl of soup. He set it down delicately and sat, unfolding his napkin as he issued a command. “Now. I shall hear no more talk of Miss Kagari.”

“Oh, she has a NAME!!??!?!!”

“Wow- gosh- so there is a girl in particular??!?!!!?” George was stunned. Frank cringed. He didn’t know Andrew would mess up like this. He also didn’t know that Andrew really did like Akko. But Andrew did the best damage control he could. “She’s not the girl I like. She’s just the one Frank teases me about. I assumed you meant her.”

“We didn’t know this was a real person- wow.”

Andrew did his best to shoo the conversation away from himself. “Anyway. Something else. Frank, tell us about your girlfriend.”

“Not again!!! He talked about her for all of lunch yesterday!!”

“And all the breaks!!”

“And all of football practice!!”

“And all of class! I got detention because he wouldn’t shut up!!”

“Yeah, we’ve heard everything there is to tell about Lotte Jansson!”

“Oh, have you now? Haven’t you heard how they met? And how you all met Lotte?”

“Wait, we’ve met her?”

“Can’t be,” Rupert said with a chuckle. “If she’s as great as Frank says, we would’ve remembered her. We would’ve dated her first.”

Andrew sipped at his soup. “No… I don’t think she’d date louts like you. Although, Frank isn’t that much of an upgrade.”

“Hey! I’m an upgrade…”

Andrew’s favorite way to draw attention away from himself was to call it to others, often in the form of insults. It worked, as the group set to squabbling again, and he was ignored, left to his soup and his thoughts. Andrew was the master of their attention, if he didn’t want to be ignored, he could make it so, but for now, he just wanted to be left alone. It bothered him, but Frank had been right as to why he wasn’t sleeping.

Akko, in those moments, far away, was completely oblivious to all that she was causing. What she was thinking about was dress shopping. The nine new witches were mostly excited for the ball after they would be knighted. Hannah and Barbara, who were not lucky enough to be there when their friends saved the world, were pitching a royal-sized fit.

“C-can’t you bring us as guests??”

“I wanna meet the queeeeeen!!!!”

Diana had had enough of this. “Girls. Quiet. I’m sure that you will meet our sovereign someday, but you simply weren’t invited. But what you can do is help me find Akko a dress so she can look…. Slightly presentable.”

“I am slightly presentable!!!”

Lotte flipped through racks of dresses, concentrating on finding the perfect shade. “She would look good in yellow, but I don’t think yellow is… enough for Akko. What do you think, Sucy?”

“I don’t care. I’m not going.”

“Aww, I wish you would come… you only get one chance in a lifetime to go to a royal ball. And we’re getting knighted…”

“I told you. I'm going on a mushroom quest that weekend. It took forever to get permission and I’m not wasting it, okay?!”

Amanda sighed. “I wish I didn’t have to wear a dress just to look the part… I just wanna sneak in, steal some silverware or something, and leave. Diana, do you think I could find a jumpsuit? I wanna reenact a vine.”

Amanda ran off in search of a jumpsuit, while Chariot sat on a nearby white leather couch. Couch wasn’t quite accurate, actually. It was more of an over glorified ottoman. Or a throw pillow that was somehow enlarged. She enjoyed shopping alone, but trapped in a department store with nine of her students who were all arguing or running away, she was exhausted. Her social battery had run out long ago, and she felt just about ready to throw herself down an escalator. So she sat, drinking a bottle of water to ease her headache, as Akko, who had insisted Chariot come in the first place, wandered away from her friends who were trying to find her a dress and sat by her teacher.

“Are you going to buy a dress, Professor Chariot?”

“Uh- No, Akko, I already have one.”

“Is it the one you wore to the awards back in 2006? That was my favorite. The blue one from when you won-“

“Akko, you remember my wardrobe better than I do!”

“I guess that might be true… is Croix going to be at the ball? She’s one of the nine new witches, but I didn’t hear if she was getting knighted or not.”

“I don’t believe she is, Akko. Croix is still trying to atone for everything, I don’t think they’re going to award the person who caused the whole mess. She’s lucky she wasn’t arrested.” She sighed. “But Croix’s lucky like that.”

“You must really miss her.”

“Yeah…. For all she’s done, Croix is still my best friend. I wish she’d come back and teach. But she will when she’s ready.”

Chariot felt a pang of nostalgia, using the old ‘freinds’ explanation. She and Croix were more than that- but it was complicated. And though they had talked extensively about their feelings before Croix left, neither of them were ready. But now, apart, missing her old flame, Chariot wished she had been.

A commotion arose from a rack of dresses. Hannah and Lotte came to drag Akko away. “Akko! We found it!”

“What? Amanda’s vine jumpsuit?”

“No! We found the perfect dress.”

“It’s your size, a beautiful fabric, and best of all, not one of the other colors that we’re wearing! So you can be unique or whatever.”

“What color is it?”

“Fushcia!!” They said it in unison.

“…eh?”

Diana held the dress aloft on the hanger. “Behold!”

“Ooooohhh….”

“Go try it on… this has to be the one. We’ve been looking for hours…”

“Why do you care so much that Akko looks good? There’s not much hope for her.”

“Sucy!! Akko does look good!”

Akko stepped out of the dressing room. Sucy was surprised. “Huh. She does.”

“I what?”

“This-this is good!”

Akko looked in the mirror. “Hey, yeah, it is!”

Chariot sighed in relief. “They found a dress… we can go home…”

So they did. And when they got back to Diana’s dorm, where the witches who had chosen to go to the ball were storing their dresses in Diana’s walk-in closet.

“You’re so lucky… our dorm doesn’t even have a closet…. I wish I had somewhere to store my surplus Chariot merch…” Akko jealously looked over at a box of Diana’s formerly secret Chariot merch.

Diana hung Akko’s dress next to all the others. “There. We’ve finally found a dress for everyone.”

“Finally. I can’t wait for the ball!!!”

“Really? I think you might have some unrealistic expectations…”

“No, Diana!! My expectations will come true!!! Picture it, guys. It’s dark. Or light? Whatever…. anyway, I walk into the ball, in my lovely fuchsia dress, flanked by my squad.” Akko put her arms around her squad. “Suddenly- a royal eye is caught in the sparkle of our awesome magic. A prince! Or- like a lord or something. Ooh, or- or a count? No- a Viscount- No!! A Duke!!! Like in the romance novels!!!”

Diana squinted. “….You don’t know any actual dukes, do you.”

Lotte was concerned. “Were you reading the steamy regency books again? I thought they were banned.”

“Perhaps! But anyway, still. It’s going to be awesome. She twirled around the room, flopping onto Diana’s bed. “I shall dance the night away with the handsome young aristocrats!!”

Hannah looked down on her in pity. “There probably won’t be any handsome aristocrats… it’s to celebrate people who have been knighted. So you’ll just get… fellow knights.”

“Won’t there be people celebrating them?”

Diana read through the invitation again, having fetched it to tame Akko’s expectations. “It doesn’t say anything about the other guests. But I wouldn’t get your hopes up, Akko. These things are usually pretty stuffy.”

“Then we’ll just have to unstuff it!!!”

“Please, Akko, if you cause a scene, we’ll all be in disgrace forever. The reputation of Luna Nova is on the line.”

Sucy chuckled. “Now I almost wanna go. Just to release a cupid bee.”

Everyone yelled “NO!!” In unison.

Akko stepped toward Sucy and looked her in the eye. “Didn’t you learn your lesson last time??!!”

Sucy responded smugly. “I learned that cupid bees provide hours of fun and entertainment~”

“NOT the right lesson!!!!!”

Andrew had considered attending the ball, but he wasn’t sure if he could finagle himself an invitation. It would take a lot of work, but he wanted to see Akko. He had reached the point in his steady ascent of love that he always wanted to see her, a glimpse of her would be precious, a conversation- almost unthinkable in terms of value. His happiness was a concept entirely new to him. He tried his best to hide it at school or with his father, but he found himself smiling all the time. The world was so different, and so many things made sense. he understood now, or at least had insight into, all the strange things people do for love, and why it was so important to so many. Some higher function saw how foolish he was being, but for once, Andrew let himself be foolish. After all, he was a fool in love, and no human could escape love. He had given in to it already. However, it was severely disrupting his sleep schedule. Like now, for instance. Andrew had rolled over some time ago to check his alarm clock, and it had been two in the morning then. He wanted to check again, but he couldn’t gather the energy. At this point, he had given up on sleep and instead only wanted it to be day, so he wouldn’t have to live through the night. He had so many thoughts bouncing about his head but no way to express them. Andrew was wondering if anyone would hear if he were to play the piano at this hour. The ballroom was in a different wing than all of the bedrooms and the servant’s quarters, so he probably wouldn’t wake anyone. Attempting to sleep was futile anyway, so if he were to be scolded, at least he would be entertained.

Some minutes later, Count Hanbridge, who also struggled with insomnia, espied a light outside his window. He put on his glasses to see the light in the ballroom on, in the middle wing of the house. And in the light of the window sat Andrew, in his school uniform, at three am, playing the piano. What was wrong with that boy.

He was too far away for Paul to tell, but Andrew was smiling. He was slowly playing music in dramatic swells, letting it echo about the room. It was the best feeling in the world. Andrew watched the sun rise from the ballroom window, and the outside world slowly turn from night to day. It was going to be a slow, sleepy, morning, one where he would have to transition from being blissfully alone to interacting with others. His sense awoke, and it hit him that waking up so early would have consequences when he didn’t have energy later, but he would just have to deal with that.

By the time Andrew got to school, his exhaustion still hadn’t caught up with him. It was a strange, almost surreal morning. The commons were filled with lads in tails and vests that clashed with their modern backpacks, waiting for a bell to ring that would signal them to go to class. Andrew wanted to sit and read, but he was disrupted by Louis Blackwell. He stood in front of Andrew, clearly waiting to be noticed. Andrew sensed him, but did not look up from his book. Louis was not really worth acknowledging, and he knew that every moment he ignored him was torture for Louis. It was sort of an unrequited rivalry, as Andrew didn’t care about being Louis’s rival. He wasn’t a threat to his position as top of the class, or whatever sort of most popular alpha he was among his peers. But Louis considered himself a threat, and his misplaced confidence bothered Andrew. In addition to that, he had despised Louis with a passion ever since he had wanted to torture Akko and Amanda. Just thinking about what might have happened if he hadn’t stopped him in time made Andrew shiver. Maybe he should acknowledge Louis, after all. He deserved the humiliation he would undoubtedly receive. So he looked up, for a second, glaring up at Louis with an arresting stare, then looking back to his book and speaking.

“What do you want, Blackwell.”

“Well, well. Not even the slightest tone of politeness. Have you lost all grasp on gentlemanly conduct, Hanbridge?” Andrew did not respond. All he did was turn a page and continue reading. “Well, since you’re so insistent about knowing what I want, I’ll tell you. Are you still in contact with the witches of Luna Nova?”

Andrew looked up again, slowly. “I am. But knowing how you treated them on their last visit, I don’t think they’d want you to be.”

Louis brushed off the insult. “Good. I need you to deliver this letter to the red one.”

“The… red one?”

“Yes, the red one.” Andrew stared at him like he wasn’t making sense, and Louis grew impatient. “The one that wasn’t the mouse.”

The mouse. Andrew’s heart leapt. He recovered in a half-instant and returned to antagonizing Louis. “Oh, you mean Amanda O’Neill. The one who not only exposed you at cheating at cards, but beat you in fencing even though you cheated at that as well, and saved your life. I should hope it’s a letter of thanks.”

“The contents are none of your concern.”

Andrew raised his eyebrows and flipped the enevelope over, perhaps to unseal it.

“Don’t! Don’t read it. It isn't yours to read.”

Success was sweet. Andrew exhaled, smirking, and placed the letter in his coat pocket. “Fine, then. I won’t.” His expression changed. “But hear this, Blackwell. Those witches are my friends, and I’m trusting you not to do them any harm.”

Louis said the first thing he could think of as a retort. “It’s cute that you’re so protective of the witches. But based on their accomplishments thus far, I think we can all agree that they can handle themselves. They don’t need you, Hanbridge.”

He said it with a laugh, turning on his heel and walking away. Andrew felt like laughing at the absurdity. He hadn’t said they needed him. He knew Akko was strong enough to handle herself- but this wasn’t even about Akko, this was all of the witches. He had to stop thinking about Akko, he wouldn’t be able to pay attention all day. And he wasn’t able to pay attention all day. Andrew’s higher consciousness knew that Louis’s comment meant nothing, but he was still overthinking it. Of course he was protective of Akko, he had already saved her life twice- three times? Four? And he would do anything to protect her, of course, even if she didn’t need him.

She didn’t need him.

That thought stuck with him. He wasn’t very necessary to Akko. She had other friends, he was replaceable. Did anyone need him?

“Hey, Andrew! Stop daydreaming! We need you!” It was Frank. He looked quite distressed, they all did. “Help with this latin sentence!!!”

It was study hall. Andrew, not having much homework to do, was simply looking out the window. He had zoned out, until Frank had interrupted his thoughts. Andrew leaned forward and looked over the circle of papers that were his friends’ Latin homework. Andrew often helped them out, short of simply doing it for them. It was easy, as he was in the honors class, and they were regular Latin students.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“No one died.”

“……..’The soldier, who was angry, killed the swords in the circus Maximus?’ Why would you put gladio in the accusative? That’s an ablative.”

“But where does the second milites fit??”

“Frank, this is comically easy. That’s an accusative- do- do you not even know basic cases?! Or are you all too lazy to figure it out yourself, so you ask me?”

They all looked sheepish. A moment passed before Andrew gave up the notion that they would figure it out. “Think about who is killing whom with what.”

“Ohhh….” recognition flashed across George’s face first. “Guys- milltem is the accusative, the soldier is killing the other soldier with the sword.”

Rupert scribbled down his answer. “Yeah, that’s it. I’ll say by means of so we don’t have all the same translation.”

“I’ll use using.” Andrew stopped Frank from writing.

“Don’t use using. Using is a verb, there isn’t a verb.”

“Oh yeah thanks- I’ll use by means of- that’s my favorite ‘cause no one says it in English. Except you, Andrew.”

“Latin tends to affect one’s mind…”

Sean scribbled out his translation. “Thanks dude.”

George sighed. “What would we do without him.”

Andrew was genuinely touched, but he had an image to maintain. “Fail latin?”

“Hah. Yeah… so, next sentence. ‘Sextus vexabat Aureliam quod puer molestus est et…”

His overthinking had been chased away. Andrew didn’t know what he would do without people to look up to him- no, not quite. People to care about him. Andrew had a place! He had a role to fill! Top student of his grade, well-respected member of Appleton’s social circles. He had friends to inspire, a trifling rival who he didn’t care about, and a captivating love interest. Ah, yes. Being important was nice. Andrew got up, not announcing his plans.

“Where are you going? We still have five more sentences to translate!!”

“I’m going to go get some tea. You can puzzle through the ablatives without me.”

“But… but is this a prepositional phrase? Or is it actually a locative of from where?”

“Figure it out.”

Tea was a loophole that not many students knew about. Technically, they weren’t supposed to be able to sneak into the teachers’ break room and steal boiling water from their coffee station, but a few of them, like Andrew, were confident enough to pull it off, and the teachers didn’t really mind at all. When Andrew arrived, there were already some teachers there, the English and political science teachers. Classes he excelled in. Perfect.

“Good afternoon, Andrew.”

“Afternoon, Mrs. Zbornak, Mr. Dewey.”

Mr. Dewey, the political science teacher, spoke. “I’ve graded your essay, Andrew.”

“Oh…” Andrew was focusing on not scalding himself.

“Your viewpoint on witches was really quite fascinating. What I found interesting is how it compares to your father’s views in real-world politics.”

“Past or present? My father’s views have adjusted slightly since recent events.”

“Both. You both seem to view magic as non-threatening, but while he sees it as worthless, you recognize that it has some worth in many different fields. Quite fun to read. You get an A.”

“Thank you.”

Andrew finished making his tea, and left, thinking about magic and its place in the world. His father had opened up to listening to Andrew’s views, and they had had a few debates on magic, but not much progress was being made. And in addition to convincing his father that witches were not worthless, he still had to convince most of Appleton… he knew he could rely on Frank, but some of the students (Louis) had been anti-magic, and dangerously, violently, anti-magic at that. Appleton Academy certainly had a long way to go, and Andrew was going to push it along. He was formulating a plan by the time he got back to study hall. He wasn’t sure how to change the minds of the school, but with some revisions, an essay might be something he could present to his father. Andrew sat down elegantly at the table with his friends and whipped open his computer.

“Thank God you’re back. Frank forgot what the dative endings are. We’re doomed.”

“Shut up Rupert, you don’t know them either.”

“If it ends in o, it’s probably a dative.”

“Thanks, Sean. See, I told you we didn’t need Andrew for that. It’s too simple.”

Andrew chose to ignore that his young wards were growing up. He had work to do. Typing furiously, he opened his essay, gave it a cursory glance for anything that needed to be changed, switched a few words, and sent the whole thing, without context, to his father. He took a deep breath, and closed his computer, instead taking out his page of sentences.

“I suppose I’ll join you in your studies of Latin.”

“We need to conjugate the pluperfect subjunctive of conspexio…”

“Do you mean conspicio?”

“Then what have we been conjugating for the past five minutes.”

“If it’s the pluperfect subjunctive, then you are going to want conspexi. So you’re not wrong.” Andrew looked at George’s paper, squinting at the chart.“But… what are these endings.”

“I- I don’t know, Rupert said they were correct.”

Rupert looked scared. “You mean -us -ī endings aren’t correct? I’ve put those on all the charts this year!!”

Andrew hung his head pinched the bridge of his nose, his face pinched in an expression of irritated shame. His right eyebrow twitched.

“No, Rupert. They are not correct.”

Sean and George were pale with dread. “Then what are??”

Andrew lifted his head from his hands and stared at them in full angry disappointment. “O s t mus tis nt.”

“Ohhhhh. right….”

“How could you possibly forget the endings. You absolute fools. You embarrassing simpletons.”

“Heh! We’re not that dumb, Andrew.”

“I don’t think he’s joking…”

Andrew felt like crying. He slumped onto the desk, hiding his face.

“C’mon, Andrew, stop being dramatic.”

“Shut up, Rupert. He needs a minute.”

“Looks like he needs a few minutes.”

Sean chuckled. “He looks like Magister Richards did during Latin today when he asked what “amo” meant and the entire class was silent… except I don’t think he was serious.”

“What does amo mean though.”

“I don’t know. Neither did the class.”

Andrew looked up, still irritated. “Come on. You must know amo.”

No one spoke.

“It’s the easiest verb. Amo, Amare, amatus……”

His prompts stirred no response.

“If this is some sort of joke, it’s not amusing.”

There was still no admission of answer.

“To love! It means to love.” He exhaled, deflating, muttering something that none of them could hear. “They don’t know amo, this is the best school in the country and they don’t know amo, how can they not know amo, it’s the most basic verb there is, volo e vida excidere.”

Rupert leaned forward. “Ahhhh, yes. To love. A topic you are most farmiliar with, eh, Andrew?” He said it while elbowing the annoyed viscount. “Eh?”

“Enough. You would all benefit to retake your first year of Latin. Clearly my help has made you soft.” He got up.

“Noooooo Andrew don’t leave us!!”

He left anyway.

Sometimes, people were just exhausting. Scratch that. People were always exhausting. Or so he had thought, until he had realized one day how happy he felt in the presence of one person in particular. But Akko was the only exception to the truths Andrew had come to realize in his life. He learned to deal with people, but his energy suffered.

By now, Andrew was just wandering about the campus. Though he wasn’t going anywhere in particular, he walked with purpose. He crossed a bridge, stopping to observe the quad below. There wasn’t much going on, so he continued his walk. Andrew walked through the cloisters around the quad, along the area with the benches, eventually reaching the building that held the stairwell to the tower. For no reason in particular, he decided to climb it. Whenever there was a duel, Andrew always watched from the balcony. It was fitting. But he rarely went up there without a reason. He leaned over the edge and looked out over the surrounding landscape. The day was calm. The sky was blotched with clouds, but it was still sunny. He surveyed the sky for witches. There were none. He spent a few minutes up there, before tearing himself away to return to his walk. The day was almost over, and soon all the students went home. It had been a trying day, but Andrew was oddly calm when he walked through the door of his house, to be greeted by the butler.

“Welcome home, Master Andrew.”

“Thank you, Martin.”

“Your father wishes to see you.”

“Oh?”

That was never a good sign, but Andrew tried his best not to worry as he climbed the stairs to the second floor and traversed the long hallway to his father’s office. He took a deep breath, and opened the door.

“Andrew.”

“Good afternoon, Father.”

“I’ve read your essay.”

“Oh?”

“It was interesting to read your opinions in writing.” Andrew was silent. He didn’t know how to respond.

“The points you raise are worth considering-"

“Thank you, Father.”

Paul continued, slightly irritated from being interrupted. “But some of them I do not agree with.” Andrew grew nervous.

“However, while I wish we could see eye to eye on issues like this, I am happy that you are mature enough to have a different opinion.” Andrew was confused.

“It would be easy to blindly follow everything I say. It would also be easy to hide any dissent you may have out of fear. So while I disagree with some of your ideas, I’m glad that you have the courage to have ideas of your own.”

Andrew was very, very confused. Was this— praise??

“Independent thinking shows a strong mind. It is a trait of a great statesman.”

“I’m glad you think so, Father. I look forward to finding a solution to these issues.”

Paul didn’t often let on, but he was incredibly proud of his son. When he observed the children of his peers, he saw that they were spoiled, conceited, and incompetent. If any of them were to excel in life, it would be inevitably because of nepotism. But not his son. Andrew really did work hard, and he really did seem to care about keeping the family legacy alive. And Andrew did. All he wanted from his future career was to make his family and his country proud, and maybe Akko as well.

Chapter 3: Fall from grace

Chapter Text

(Hello. Having given up on beginning and end notes, I shall be writing them *directly into the text* and no one can stop me.)

Author's note: I could stuff several useless decorative pillows with the fluff in this chapter _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Akko was alone, and disappointed.

She was standing by the refreshment table, drinking a glass of punch. She had already eaten half a platter of small cakes, in addition to the dinner that was served at the banquet for her and the other newly minted knights. She had been looking forward to the food, but now she was too full to enjoy herself. So she stood there, at the refreshment table, and drank punch. She hadn’t expected to be alone, but everyone else had scattered. Sucy had left after the knighting ceremony to go off on her mushroom quest. Lotte had brought a book and was reading on the other side of the room, taking in all the glamour of the ball through osmosis rather than participation. Amanda had ran off to go steal something interesting, Jazminka had gone in search of the royal kitchens, Constanze was hiding under a table engineering a robot. Akko had tried to find her, but she couldn’t, even though she had (conspicuously) checked under all the tables. Diana was trapped talking to a bunch of older nobles, dazzling them with her child prodigy status. Akko could tell Diana didn’t want to be there and talk to them, but her manners got the better of her. Chariot was sitting near Lotte, watching over her students and wondering how she had lost track of all but three. Akko would have gone to join Chariot and Lotte, but they were sort of closed off. Akko knew she could sit near them and create a small circle, but she wanted to be approachable. She wanted to dance with all the handsome nobles that didn’t seem to exist. But no one approached her. The awkwardness was awful. Akko felt so out of place standing there. Did she stick out? Would she look better with someone to talk to? Why did no one want to dance with her?? She learned the waltz for nothing. hmph. Of course it was a waste of time.

I should have listened to Diana, balls aren’t fun.

Hmm, this is good punch.

Well, maybe it’s not a complete waste… I get punch I guess.

But I’m lonely.

Akko was just taking a gulp of punch when a voice spoke behind her. “May I have this dance?”

She swallowed her gulp of punch and turned around to see a smirking Andrew, bowing and extending his hand. “Oh hi, Andrew. I thought you were-“

She was going to say “a handsome nobleman.” But at that particular moment, Akko realized that Andrew was, in fact, a very handsome nobleman. She didn’t think he could get more formal or more handsome, but here he was, tailed and tuxedoed and white-tied, almost like his school uniform but— better, more elegant, more crisp, shining in the lights of the ball. She had never seen something so handsome. All she could do was just stand there and take in the sight of him. She almost hated him for being so attractive. Hankersore, it was called. (She had been researching obscure emotions.) But Andrew was her friend, so she could look past how unfair it was. Snapping back to life, (And hoping he hadn’t noticed her hesitation) she answered his question.

“Sure, we can dance.” She accepted his hand and let him dance her away from the refreshment table.

“So, Miss Kagari, how is your evening? Does it meet all your expectations?”

“I’d ask you to call me Akko, but you could always call me Dame Kagari.”

“I’m not sure I can.”

“Hm?”

“I’ve looked it up. You don’t get the title sir or dame unless you’re a British citizen.”

“What-“

“But you still get a medal and the knighthood.”

“This is so disappointing. I wanted to be a titled nobleperson!!! Just think- I could go to fancy things and be Dame Kagari…”

The thought flashed into his mind that she could always be a Viscountess, but he didn’t dare say it. He didn’t dare think it, either. It was too much. He pushed it back down to his subconscious. “Miss Kagari sounds good enough.”

“Just call me Akko…”

“You can’t possibly ask me to be informal now, Miss Kagari. Look where we are.”

She looked around. “Oh. Yeah. Wait, why are you here? I didn’t know you were coming. Wait, did you get knighted?”

“No. A knighthood would make my name too long. I have enough titles already.” She laughed. He hadn’t intended to be funny, but her happiness thrilled him. “I’m just here to celebrate.”

“Oh. fun. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“I wanted to surprise you. Also I only finagled myself an invitation yesterday.”

“How do you just- finagle yourself into a royal ball?”

“You’re not the only one who knows how to sneak into parties, Akko. Except I did it… shall we say…. legally?”

“Hmph. I didn’t do anything illegal.”

“Breaking and entering?”

“What did I break??!!? It’s just entering!!!”

“Maybe so, but you’re also guilty of theft.”

“What did I steal?? Food can’t possibly count.”

He chuckled. “Why, my heart of course.”

“Stop. It was just that dumb bee.”

“I know. And yes, the food counts. Anyway, I’m here because my family got an invitation, but my father didn’t want to come and my mother isn’t even in the country, so I took it.”

“Oh, your mom’s alive?”

“Why wouldn’t she be alive?”

“Sorry, that was a strange thing to ask.”

“Please, enlighten me.”

“I don’t know, I feel like in books and stuff the handsome brooding nobleman always has a dead mom sort of dark backstory.”

Handsome. He tried not to blush, knowing it wasn’t a compliment. It might be flattering for someone else, but for Andrew it was just a truth. “…You read too many books. My mother is alive, she does charity work overseas most of the time.”

“Oh. Well, that breaks the stereotypes.”

“She was at the party you broke into.”

“Well, Andrew, not sure if you remember, but I was kind of busy at that party. Maybe if you hadn’t been chasing me around the whole time, I would have been able to go and introduce myself to your parents, the hosts of the party I broke into, who -come to think of it- would probably kick me out!!”

“I can’t argue with that logic.”

“Haha! I win.” He couldn’t help but hold her hand a little tighter. He hoped she didn’t notice. She didn’t seem to.

“So where is everyone else? I would think that you would be with your friends.”

She responded coolly, with a fraction of mock hurt pride. “They all deserted me.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“I could have sat with Chariot and Lotte but they're trying to look unapproachable and I wanted to dance.”

“Well, here you are.”

“Yeah.”

They danced for a few minutes, both looking around the room, heads gazing in other directions to avoid the awkwardness of looking at each other when neither had anything to say. Andrew was so nervous, and yet so calm. He had been dreaming of Akko since the moment he realized he loved her. And here she was, his for the evening, there in his arms. Sort of. She was so close. He stole a look at her, intending to turn away after an instant. But his eyes lingered on the way she looked across the room, both absentmindedly and intently.

Suddenly her head snapped back to him. “Andrew! I remembered something I wanted to do.”

“Oh?”

“Spin me. I want to do a dramatic spin.”

He laughed gently. “Okay.”

Still holding her hand, he extended his arm so she could spin. But unlike what he expected, Akko executed what could only be described as a pirouette, twisting Andrew’s wrist along with her. He let go of her hand out of pain and she started to fall over from her own momentum. Thinking quickly, he caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist and yanking her out of her intended fall. Her flailing hands settled on his elbows, and the two of them were frozen there for an instant, both surprised. Then Akko laughed. She had such a beautiful laugh.

Andrew laughed too. “Akko, <laughter>  That’s not how you’re supposed to spin.”

“Sorry! <laughter> I thought it would work. <more laughter> Thanks for catching me.”

“Well I can’t just let you fall.”

“So my spin wasn’t correct? I thought that’s how you’re supposed to do it.”

“No, your spin wasn’t correct.”

“Well, what is correct?”

“You have to stay in the box step, I think. I never learned to spin.”

“Well, neither did I.”

“Evidently.”

“But you know more about spins than I do.”

“Well, I’ve seen them done properly.”

“So could you do one?”

“No.” Then he thought for a moment. “Well, yes. But no.”

“Why not?”

“Society. Appearances.”

“Andrew, it seems to me like you let those two things keep you from having any fun.”

He thought for a moment, and sighed. “I suppose you’re right.”

“So are you going to do a spin?”

“No.”

She hit him gently. “C’mon, Andrew. What did I just tell you?”

“That I let society stop me from having fun. But I accept that.”

“That- that makes me so sad.” She genuinely looked dejected. Andrew’s heart squeezed. He had never wanted to make her sad.

“But I’m not going to give up! You will ignore society and spin!”

“Oh? I’ll take that challenge.”

“Ok- let’s see. I’ll appeal to your cold dead heart.”

“Excuse me?” His heart wasn’t cold or dead. It was very much alive, she had taught him that.

She inched closer and craned her neck to look up at him, sending his very much alive heart into a fluttering shock. She looked at him with a pout. “Please, Andrew? For me?”

He was absolutely powerless. “Fine," he said, trying not to appear flustered. 

“Yay!”

She lifted her arm so that Andrew had room to spin. He sighed, and walked in a small, boxy circle. It was quite elegant. Akko enjoyed watching it very much. Andrew was always nice to watch. Finishing the circle, he walked back into her arms as quickly as he could, embarrassed.

Akko beamed.“That was awesome!”

“Eh. My reputation will pay for it, I’m sure. I hope you’re happy.”

“I am!”

“Notice how I stayed in the box step? It’s not like a twirl, like you did.”

“Mine was a lot more interesting.”

“That’s true. Let’s avoid spins for now.”

“Agreed.”

The song changed, and another young man came up to Andrew and Akko. “May I cut in?” Andrew was supposed to answer, but Akko did before he could.

“No.”

She said it smiling with great pleasure, and though she had broken many etiquette rules with one word, Andrew was proud of her. She didn’t want to leave him, that counted for something. A few more people tried to cut in, but Akko declined them all. In an interval where no one was bothering them, Andrew commented on it.

“You know, you shouldn’t turn so many people down.”

“Eh… I don’t really want to dance with them.”

“Still, it makes it look like you’d rather dance with me.”

“But I would. I mean, I actually know you.”

“Part of these events is being obligated to dance with people you don’t know.”

“Well, that isn’t fun.”

“These things aren’t supposed to be fun.”

“I’m starting to understand that… But I still don’t want to dance with all these other people.”

“If you dance with only me, people will think.” He wasn’t sure why he was doing this. He wanted to dance with her. He was undermining himself.

“Think what? That we’re dating or something?” She burst out in laughter. He ignored the way that made him feel.

“Laugh all you want, Miss Kagari, but I’ve been reported to be dating many, many people.”

“Like who?”

Andrew inhaled and let out a long list of noble ladies, the names of whom Akko did not recognize. He neared the end. “Baroness Cornwall, Lady Byron, Frank,-“

“Frank??”

“Yep. That particular tabloid was quite far-out from reality. Frank and I found it quite amusing.”

“Who else?”

“Diana. That’s the end of my list. I ranked it in terms of most likeliness.”

“Why not Diana? There’s nothing wrong with Diana.”

“There are many things wrong with dating her. A, She’s my cousin. Well, very distantly, but still. B, She hates me. And C, I hadn’t seen her in years until the night you and I met. So it was an absolutely ridiculous claim.”

“That is ridiculous. Yeah, I can’t see you guys dating. Anyway, want to go get some food? That’s technically not dancing.”

“Good idea.”

They walked over to the table of refreshments. Akko poured herself yet another glass of punch. Andrew drank champagne.

“Is that even legal? What’s the drinking age here?”

“It’s eighteen.”

“And how old are you?”

“…..seventeen.”

“Tsk tsk!!!”

“Oh, since when have you cared about the law.”

“Good point.”

They danced for the entire evening. As friends, who enjoyed each other’s company. When Akko tired of dancing, they went to sit with Chariot and Lotte. Well, Akko did, and Andrew followed her, not wanting to leave her side. They greeted him politely.

“Good evening, Lord Hanbridge.”

“Evening, Miss DuNord.”

Lotte looked up from her book. “Oh hi, Andrew. I didn’t know you were here.”

Chariot sighed. She had been telling Lotte to look up and see Akko and Andrew dancing for the whole evening.

“Is Frank here?”

“No, I didn’t bring him with me. But I’ll send him your regards.”

“That would be lovely.”

Chariot turned to Akko. “Akko, have you seen Amanda?”

“She went off to…. explore.” Akko figured that she shouldn’t give away that Amanda had gone in search of something interesting to steal, not to a teacher at least.

“Oh… are Jazminka and Constanze with her?”

“Ehhhh…. Jazminka went exploring too, Constanze is…. Under a table somewhere. I lost track of which one.”

Chariot sighed. “I can’t believe I lost three of my students…”

“It’s okay! You still have three left! I’ll help you find them. Amanda will be the hardest-“

Andrew suddenly remembered something. “Wait. Speaking of Amanda.” He elegantly pulled a letter from the inner pocket of his jacket and handed it to Akko. “Will you pass this onto her?”

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure. I’m just the messenger. I was asked to send it by Louis Blackwell.”

“GRRRRR!!!! I’m not giving anything from him to someone I care about!!!!”

“It could teach him a lesson. He seemed pretty embarrassed about the contents.”

“Ooh!” Her voice changed to excitement. “Do you think it’s a love letter?”

He shrugged, smiling and playing along. “Could be. If it is, I’d pay to watch him get rejected.”

“We should sell tickets, haha. She’d never date him.”

“Not after everything he’s done.”

“He’s a loser!!!!” Akko went on and on with as many insults as she could think of. “—And- And he looks awful in curtain bangs!!!!!!”

Chariot gasped jokingly. “Oh no!!”

“Haven’t you met him… once?”

“Once is enough. He’s not worth meeting again.”

Andrew sighed. “I think there’s some good in Louis. Some good, very, very, very, very deep down… or maybe good’s not quite the right word. But he has some honor.”

“He does?”

“He keeps getting worse, though. So I don’t know if it will last long. And his idea of honor can be… twisted sometimes.”

“I’d say it’s pretty twisted.”

Just then, Amanda arrived. “Hey, can we leave soon? This is a drag.” Akko noticed she had her hands in the pockets of her vine jumpsuit and wondered what she had stolen.

Chariot responded to her question. “Yeah, I was going to round everyone up in a couple minutes.”

Andrew handed Amanda the letter. “Louis Blackwell told me to give you this, Miss O’Neill.”

“Oh. thanks. What does that [expletive] want?” She ripped it open and read it.

“Well? What does he want?”

“He wants a rematch.”

“Ooooooh.” Lotte stopped reading. “Are you going to accept?”

“Ehhhh…. Yeah, I think I will. I’d love to beat him again. And fencing is fun and I need more practice.”

“Does he want a rematch for the duel? Or for just fencing?”

“No, I won the duel. I’ll see what he wants later.”

“So you’re going to meet him???”

“Yeah.” Akko was visibly worried.

The song in the background changed. Andrew turned to Akko. “Do you want to dance again?”

He worried about seeming too forward, especially in front of her friends. Akko and Andrew both knew that they were only friends, but sometimes other people didn’t understand that. Frank thought they should be more than friends, and Andrew didn’t know Akko’s friends’ opinion on the matter. So he worried what they would think.

Akko started to decline him. “I think I need to stay here and have a talk with Amanda about this whole-“

Amanda pushed her towards Andrew. “Nope. Go dance with your boyfriend, Akko.”

Akko whipped around violently. “He’s not my boyfriend!!!!”

Andrew scowled. “Our relationship is entirely platonic.”

“Haha!” Amanda crowed. “I knew that would make y’all mad.”

Akko turned around again, storming off and dragging Andrew along with her. “Hmph! C’mon, Andrew, let’s go dance platonically as friends and nothing more than that to prove her wrong!”

“My thoughts exactly, Miss Kagari.”

When they were dancing again, Akko asked a question. “So what should we do about Amanda?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m worried about her…”

“Ah. Because of Louis?”

“Yeah… I wanna keep an eye on them.”

“I think it will be alright.”

“Even so… I should spy on them. Do you want to come?”

The ethics of her invitation were questionable, but he couldn’t turn her down. “You know what? Sure. I’d like to watch him lose.”

“Yeah. We’ll do that.”

“Okay.”

The dance ended, and Andrew reluctantly let Akko go. Her friends were calling her. She bade him farewell quickly and skipped off. He missed her instantly, but he was content. While walking out of the ball, Akko came up behind Amanda. “So what did you steal?”

Amanda hushed her, and pulled a slightly worn bar of soap out of the pocket of her jumpsuit. Akko was amazed, even though she didn’t know what it was. “Oooh, soap!”

“Yep.” Amanda seemed very proud.

“Why soap?”

“This isn’t just any soap, Akko. The is the Queen’s soap.”

“How do you know?”

“I stole it from her bathroom myself.”

“And none of the guards with the hats stopped you?”

“They didn’t even see me. I’m telling you, this is a great steal. Anyone can steal like a napkin or a fork or something. But I stole Queen Elizabeth’s soap.”

“And it’s scented, too.”

“It’s perfect. Personal enough to be a challenge- as well as a collectible item. But not valuable or noticeable enough to get me in trouble.”

“That is smart.”

They reached the area where they had kept their vehicles. Amanda hopped onto her broom. “Well, I’m off. See you later, Akko.”

She took off before Akko could say goodbye. Lotte followed her lead and grabbed her broom. “I’m going to head back too. See you in the dorm.”

“Bye, Lotte!”

Diana found her broom and prepared to leave. Akko turned to her. “You too, Diana?”

“I want to get home and rest, Akko. I don’t have the energy for a car ride. Not after talking to all those people. You have no idea how boring the nobility are. They didn’t care about me until we saved the world.”

“Yeah, people are fickle like that.”

Diana bade Akko goodbye and left. One by one, all the witches flew off, until it was just Akko and Chariot left. Akko sighed.

“I wish I could fly home.”

“You’ll be able to soon.”

Akko got in the car that she and Chariot had to take, neither of them being able to fly. She was visibly sad.

“Just getting off the ground is so much progress, Akko. You’re doing great and I’m so sorry-“

“You don’t need to apologize, Professor Chariot!!! You’ve saved my life like five times already and I can get my magic back!! I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you!!”

Chariot smiled. The guilt was horrible, but if Akko believed she could be better, then she could be better. “Alright, Akko.”

“I’ll be flying long distances in no time! And so will you!!”

“Well, the dream fuel spirit and the effects of the pollen are different so-“

“We’ll fly together!!”

Chariot knew she might never fly again, but Akko was so determined. So she smiled sadly and spoke. “I hope we will.”

Coming home from an event always holds a certain softness. Changing out of your outfit, removing uncomfortable shoes, drinking tea and decompressing, synthesizing all the information you’ve taken in. And that is what our Luna Nova students did. Amanda, Constanze, and Jazminka went back to their room to talk and eat the food Jazminka had collected from the kitchen.

“So I stole the soap. What did you guys do?”

Constanze held up a half-finished robot. “I see. Jaz?”

Jazminka opened her purse and pulled out several rolls. “Want some?”

“Heck yes.”

She distributed the rolls. They all ate. Amanda spoke with her mouth full. “So I got a message from that guy who tried to kill me an’ Akko.”

“Oh?”

“He wants a rematch.”

Constanze hopped up from her bed and began rummaging under it, pulling out several pieces of armor and sharp things. She picked up the entire pile and held it out to Amanda.

“Thanks. I won’t need these, though. I’m going to kick his [Andrew] with only a sword and the American dream.”

Diana had to climb another flight of stairs to get to her dorm, and by the time she made it to the door, her heels felt like murder and she just wanted to lie down, perhaps drink tea, and not talk to another human for several hours. She opened the door, not announcing her presence, and was greeted by the faint sound of snoring. Hannah and Barbara were both asleep in one of the better reading chairs. The lamp was on, and the room was peaceful. They had fallen asleep in each other’s arms. Diana was not surprised. She had suspected that Hannah and Barbara were in love, and with any other couple she would accept this as proof, but displays of affection like this were normal for their friendship, too. In any event, she didn’t have the mental energy to deal with their romantic tension. Diana took a deep breath, shut the door, and knocked.

“Girls, I’m home.” She opened the door slowly, giving them time to spring apart. By the time she saw them again, Barbara was sitting on the floor. They both looked awkward. If they were hiding this from her, then she could definitely take it as proof. But Diana decided to be merciful, and look the other way for now.

“How was the ball?”

“Exhausting.”

“Oh. Do you want some tea?”

“Please.”

Chariot had come home a little bit later than her students, as a result of taking the car. Like Diana, she just wanted to relax. But she too was greeted with an unexpected surprise. She opened her door and saw Croix, digging through her pantry.

“Croix?!?”

“Hey. Do you have any chips? I-"

“What are you doing here?”

“Visiting. Shouldn’t I be able to visit you?”

“Just- tell me next time, okay?”

Chariot walked up to Croix, and they hugged. Croix pushed Chariot away gently, so she could remove a vial from her pocket.

“So I think I made a breakthrough in my research.”

“Oh? For the Wagandea pollen cure?”

“Yeah. I was able to bring a little of your magic back with the last one, but I think this potion could help you fly again. Maybe. I’m not sure.”

“Why not?”

“It’s hard to find test subjects if the potion only applies to you, babe. So do you want to drink this now, or- are you okay?”

Chariot had been sniffling. “I just missed you so much.”

Croix smiled and hugged Chariot again.

Akko was also late, and by the time she got back to her dorm, Lotte was already there. She had changed into her pajamas and was making hot chocolate, which their dorm always drank after a long day or a late evening. She was excited to see Akko.

“Ready to discuss the entire ball?”

Akko smiled. “SO ready!! Where’s Sucy?”

“She’s still on her mushroom quest. I think she’ll be back on Monday.”

“Nooooooo!!! She can’t help me and Andrew spy on Amanda’s meeting with that blond kid… now what will I do if I need to stab someone???”

“Won’t Amanda have a sword? And can’t she handle herself?”

“Yeah… but I’m still gonna spy on them. Just in case.”

“Also, I wanted to ask you. What’s going on between you and Andrew?”

Akko narrowed her eyes. “….what do you mean.”

“Are you guys dating or something?”

Akko clutched at her face in anger.“ARGH!!!! NO!!!”

“I was just asking. I won’t ship you guys if you don’t want me to.”

Akko was pleasantly surprised. “Th-thanks Lotte, that’s actually really sweet of you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

When Andrew got home, he was happy, which wasn’t common. He floated to the ballroom in his house and sat at the piano. He wasn’t ready to go to bed just yet, and he needed an outlet for his joy. The startling potential of the keys was a blank canvas to him, exhilarating. Andrew was filled with an uncertain expectation and an excitement as he decided which song he was going to pull to life. He had all the power here, at the piano. Things made sense. Andrew flipped through his mental catalog of songs and settled on one of the many old love songs he listened to when he felt happy and floaty, like now. They didn’t fit his normal persona, but he liked them anyway. These days especially, something in the lyrics appealed to him. His hands settled over the first note and he began, throwing himself into the intro. The notes all fell into place at the same time, forming the dramatic nostalgia of the song. He thought the lyrics in his head, playing the words through the notes.

You must remember this

A kiss is just a kiss

A sigh is just a sigh

The fundamental things apply, as time goes by

Andrew liked the notes. There was a hopelessness in them, a memory. He played and played, blending melodies and leitmotifs of different songs, building backgrounds and countermelodies, experimenting and creating. This was his favorite thing to do, just play. He ended his amalgam of songs with a flourish, and sat there, lifted by the high, starting another song with the intent of doing the same thing. It started with a familiar base, the same notes that built up the solidity of the song, until the lyrics began. Andrew added special flourish to the lyrics, making them tremble and spill from low to high and high to low with notes and energy. I don’t want to set the world on fire I just want to start a flame in your heart He didn’t normally relate the lyrics of songs to his life, but these spoke to him.

In my heart, there is but one desire

And that one is you, no other will do

That one was relatable enough. He knew how it felt to focus on one person only.

I’ve lost all ambition for worldly acclaim,

Now that wasn’t quite true.

I JUST WANT TO BE THE ONE YOU LOVE

He played it in all capitals, too, each note became a chord, spilling down the scale in total yielding to the subject of the song. Andrew smiled and closed his eyes, it was just so satisfying a refrain to play. And he understood the need to love someone and the simple desire to be near them, no matter what.

And with your admission, that you feel the same-

Andrew stopped playing. He couldn’t move his hands, they hovered over the keys expectantly, but he could not play the next verse. What was he doing? What in the world was he doing? He was just- loving her, going through the motions of life with loving her being a part of it. But what did he want? Where was he going to go? What was he going to do with this love? What would become, of it, of him? For all his life, Andrew always had a plan, be it thought-out and foolproof or made up on the fly. No matter what he was doing, he was always carrying out a plan. For instance- Go to Appleton, work hard, succeed, graduate, succeed at college, enter the real world, climb the political ladder to greatness, achieve greatness. Or- grab the witch, run away from the angry bear, survive. But for the first time, Andrew realized he didn’t have a plan. What’s the endgame for this? What do I even want to achieve? He didn’t know. He replayed the string of lyrics that had started this all.
And with your admission-

There wouldn’t be an admission. She didn’t love him- wait.

She doesn’t love me. Andrew bonked his head against the keys in a dissonant chord. It was hitting him for the first time. He hadn’t even considered whether or not Akko loved him- he knew she didn’t, but he hadn’t realized what that would mean to him. His love was unrequited. Did he want it to be requited?The dream of Akko’s love entered his mind for a half-second and he chased it away. It was too beautiful, too much to hope for, and it wouldn’t happen. But would it? Should he ask her? Should he confess? Andrew, confused, weakly played the next line.

I’ll have reached the goal I’m dreaming of.

There it was again! What’s the goal? Where does he go from here? Andrew tried to use his imagination- what would happen if he told her… she wouldn’t feel the same way. Things would be awkward. Things would be different. They surely couldn’t be friends after something like that.

Oh, and she didn’t love him, she never would. It was an immense concept to grasp. Andrew’s heart was sinking- no, that wasn’t quite right, it was falling fast. He lifted his head from the keys and stared at the ceiling. She didn’t love him. He didn’t mean much to her- what was he, anyway, a side character in her life? She was closer to so many others, he was just someone she saw occasionally. Would she care if he wasn’t there? Would she mind? Of course she wouldn’t. She was busy with her dreams and her other friends. She had enough people in her life to not need him. It was unbalanced. She was his everything. He was her something. If he was even something at all, he might be nothing. He would never be an important part of her life, she probably didn’t even care about him at all. He was just someone to talk to. Did she even like him? For all he knew, she could be at that very moment telling everyone she knew about how annoying he was, how she hated to dance with him, how he was still as awful and arrogant as the day they met. She could hate him, and he wasn’t close enough to her to know. He stopped himself, he was overthinking it. She didn’t hate him, they wouldn’t be friends if she did. She was honest. And she cared, she listened to him. He could be himself around her- but that wasn’t special, so many others could. Akko was beloved by all, he was just another in the crowd. So many others probably loved her the way he did- and yet could anyone? He liked to think that his love for her made him special, but it was probably pretty common.

And she didn’t love him, there would be someone she loved eventually and it wouldn’t be him, ever. Someone would be her everything- something already was, her dreams. And her friends at Luna Nova. Andrew was an outsider to Akko’s life, and yet she was perhaps the most important part of his. He felt so small, and for the first time sad to only have two real friends. Akko and Frank were the only true friendships he had, but Akko had a whole network of them. That was how she was, of course, she made friends wherever she went. Akko connected with people, she made them feel special and seen. She had made Andrew feel that way, but he wasn’t any different from all the other lives she had changed, was he?

And she didn’t love him. It kept hitting him again and again, like waves in a storm. And Andrew was pushed back and back again from whatever shore of sanity he was perpetually fighting to reach. He looked at his watch. It was three in the morning. A terrible time to make decisions. Andrew laughed recklessly. He was doomed. No one was in their right mind at three in the morning, he was going to mess something up, there was no doubt. But there was no way he could help himself in this state of mind. Once he got going on something like this, there was no stopping him. He decided he needed help. If he just agonized over this by himself, he would waste away. Andrew never shared his problems with other people, but he didn’t think he would be able to handle this on his own. He pulled out his phone and almost dialed, then stopped himself.

No. We’re not calling Frank.

To distract him from the dumb idea, Andrew went upstairs to go to bed and try to sleep. That, of course, didn’t happen. The pain and confusion kept him awake. (In the morning, he would blame the lack of sleep for what he did.) He would be angry at himself, but he’d worry about that later. Andrew needed help. Frank was awake, of course. He had the worst sleep schedule. It was worrying, but it made him a very reliable friend. Andrew could call him at any hour and he would respond, and it was only in the late hours of the night that Andrew ever needed Frank’s help.

“Hey, dude! I’m surprised, you never call me. What’s up.”

“I need your help.”

“Dang, this must be serious. You never need my help.”

“I’ve swallowed my pride enough to do this. Don’t push it.”

“Ok. So this is really serious then. What’s going on? And also if it’s serious then why call me?”

“It’s…. A problem you’re well acquainted with.” Andrew was beginning to regret his choice to call Frank. He wasn’t sure how to even tell the truth out loud.

“Oh?”

“I- um- To tell the truth, this is a very stupid idea and I should not have called you. I’ll leave you to-“

“Nope. You can’t just call me and say you have a problem and then leave. You’re telling me every-“

“I’m in love with Miss Kagari.”

“HOLY-"

Andrew winced after saying it. Such a mistake. And an irrevocable one. There was a thud and audible yelling on the other end of the line. Then Frank's voice returned.

“Sorry. Dropped my phone there.” There was more yelling, from Frank’s household. Andrew could hear Frank’s parents asking him if he had any idea what time it was and why he was being so loud. Frank continued talking, in a whisper.

“Anyway, what?!!?!? I mean I knew you liked her but I didn’t think you’d actually tell me and oh my lord, Andrew that’s huge-“

“Frank. Stop talking. I already regret telling you.”

“Sorry. But what’s the problem?”

“What do I do? I’ve never loved anyone before. Where do I go from here, Frank? What do I do now?”

He sounded really desperate, and Frank didn’t have any good advice. It didn’t seem so serious to him, but he knew that Andrew hadn’t ever been in love before and was wholly unprepared. He wasn’t well aquatinted with the desperate, frantic, four in the morning Andrew that he was talking to now, but he had seen glimpses of him before, and he knew that only a serious problem could bring this on, and it scared him. Andrew was the competent one. Nothing could bring him down, and when something did, what did that mean for the rest of them? Frank hesitated before giving his answer.

“…I don’t know, woo her?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I know she doesn’t feel the same, and I don’t want to lose her by making things awkward.”

“Makes sense. So what are you going to do?”

“Gee, Frank," he snapped, "I don’t know. Why do you think I called you?”

“No need to be so mean about it.”

“There is need. There is a lot of need. Dear God, Frank, I don’t have a plan, I don’t have any idea what I’m doing-“

“You sound desperate.”

“I AM desperate!! I wouldn’t be asking for help from the likes of you if I weren’t. Tell me what I should do. I need a plan.”

“Dude, chill. It’s just love.”

“Maybe love isn’t important to you anymore,-“

“It’s important- it’s hard to explain, my guy. You’ll figure that out soon enough. Ha! I finally get to be the wise one for once. Ah, how the turn tables…”

“This was a mistake.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

“I should not have told you.”

“No, dude, I have so much experience.”

“This was a mistake.”

Andrew hung up. Perhaps, he thought, I can talk Frank into thinking this was all a dream. Frank called him back at that exact moment. He declined. Frank kept calling, until eventually he just left a voicemail. Andrew let it play.

Hey dude, I know it’s probably embarrassing to have told me all that, but it’s gonna be okay. It gets easier if you have someone to talk to about it. I’m here for you, man.

Andrew sighed. He didn’t deserve a friend like Frank.

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

if anyone was wondering about the songs or hasn't heard them before, here-

https://open.spotify.com/track/5X0M16GjlZYN1WjPNzerb5?si=52ec74b6000541f7

https://open.spotify.com/track/777zXDJpBufzttU4AJ2dGO?si=66325a5d9e304c17

oh, and this-

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6DdwO5SJdGjqjWkY7G4ESK?si=8fc963e0eabb4e62

 

Chapter 4: Forward from here

Chapter Text

 

“Ok, so the first thing to figure out is what you want from this.”

“But I have no idea what I want.”

“Like, do you want to date her?”

“Ideally, yes, but- wait, why am I telling you all this. I didn’t even ask for your help.”

“This is all your advice from every time I used to fall in love. You said some of it so much, I started writing it down.”

“…”

“Figure out what you want, then make a plan and follow it. That’s the basic gist of it.”

“Stop using my life philosophy as dating advice.”

“But it’s so vague it works for anything. And not just your life philosophy, you’ve given me lots of helpful advice. I still don’t understand how someone who’s never dated knows so much about women. It’s strange.”

“It’s not that I know so much about women. One has to know people. Normally I don’t attempt to win people over, but it’s networking skills. Important for a good career-"

“Shush. I thought I told you to stop focusing on work so much?? You’re seventeen, for gosh sakes. Enjoy life while you still can. Go out, frolic in a field or something, make friends, date Miss Kagari if you want to.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“Too risky.”

“….ok, so you’ll have to build courage. Build up your relationship, perhaps.”

“Sure, Frank. Sure.”

“Great. Are you gonna see her soon?”

“Yeah.”

“Oooooh! A date???” “Not a date. Calm down. She wants me to help her spy on one of her friends.”

“I’m confused.”

“That’s alright.”

Andrew and Frank were in the common room, during their morning break. Andrew, desperate for a way out of this conversation, was looking around for something else to comment on. Frank was easy to distract. Andrew stared up at the doorframe to the room, with the school’s motto inscribed in the stone. Primum dignitas. He flicked his eyes over to the window, there was nothing interesting going on outside. The weather was cloudy, and the trees were beginning to grow buds. Andrew continued to sweep the room. His gaze settled on a bunch of boys crowded around a computer. He tuned his ears into their conversation.

“So you got her number!? Wow!!”

“Yeah but I’m not sure what to say- these pickup lines from the internet should help.”

“Yeah, they totally will. How about: ‘Hey girl are you a Minecraft fence ‘cause I can’t get over you?’”

“No… too nerdy. I need something more… attractive.”

“OOOH!! OOH! How about that one?”

“That one’s too… creepy… I think that’s moving a little too fast.”

“Shut up, this is definitely the one I’m sending.” All the unfortunate lads held their breath as the original typed the message into his phone and sent it.

“She blocked me!?!!”

“Awww, man!”

“Nooooo!”

“Told you.”

Andrew stopped looking at the scene, because he was pinching the bridge of his nose and resting his head on his elbow. “For the love of-“

Frank was also looking in that direction, with a look of shame on his face. “Gosh. Some guys here really don’t know how to treat a lady.”

“Sometimes I wish this school was coed. At least then they wouldn’t be such fools, if women weren’t so rare.”

“Wouldn’t they just be more foolish more often?”

“Probably. It’s a shame Appleton doesn’t have a sister school.”

“Well, I mean, the only nearby girls’ school is Luna Nova, and you know how they feel about witches. Not the way you and I feel about witches. Especially you. And certain witches in particular. Like Miss Kagari for example.” Frank nudged Andrew, knowing this would annoy him. Andrew sighed.

“You’re only making me regret my life choices more and more.”

“Sorry.”

Andrew looked for something else to watch. His eyes drifted to the card-playing table. Andrew had visited that table in the past, whenever he had a desire to absolutely obliterate Louis at poker. But for the sake of the card-players’ dignity, he didn’t go there often. Today, it had the usual suspects around the table, but they weren’t playing cards. Louis was talking, vehemently defending himself it seemed. “It isn’t a date.”

“There’s no way Louis could get a date, haha!” (This was said by one of Louis’s cronies, who was clearly scared for his life if the joke didn’t go over well.)

“Bosh. I can get any date I please. But I would never date a witch. This is simply a rematch, so that I may fight for my honor.” Andrew wasn’t the only one questioning his life choices that day. Louis was also regretting telling his friends significant information, but in his case, it was that he and Amanda were meeting. And unlike Andrew, Louis was still figuring out his feelings toward a certain witch. When he was watching the footage of the nine new witches saving the world, his mind could only see Amanda. It was confusing, since when was he rooting for her? Why did he feel so fond of her? She had saved his life, but that didn’t mean he wanted her to be a part of it. Or so he told himself.

“Ahhh, your honor.”

“Gosh, I wish I was honorable enough to go swordfight a cute redhead.”

“Don’t say it like that! She’s a witch, she can’t be cute!”

“Yeah, witches are supposed to be ugly!!”

“Heheh, I don’t know about that. The ones who saved the world were pretty cute. Especially the brunette.” Andrew tensed, hearing that.

“I preferred the blonde.”

“Louis prefers the redhead!”

An eruption of laughter occurred. Andrew steamed with irritation, at so many things. So did Frank. “Ugh. Should we step in?”

“I know. To judge them by their looks like that, it’s so shallow. But no. It’s Louis, he’s trying to get a reaction, let him run his mouth.”

“And why did none of them say they preferred the ginger??? Lotte is the most beautiful person to ever exist and I have half a mind to-"

“Do you really want them to say that they liked her? If they did, you would just be jealous.”

“…fair.”

“But still. Are you seeing the same theme that I am?”

“Yeah. This school loves saying we’re gentlemen, but are we?”

“You’re entirely correct, Frank. Gentlemen has sort of a double meaning, hasn’t it? Same with honor… sure, we might be honorable gentlemen, but are we really..?”

Frank knew the look in Andrew’s eyes. He was staring at nothing, but looking at everything, squinting with concentration, entirely distant, in his own world at this point. He was thinking. Well, Andrew was always thinking, but sometimes, he was really thinking. Plotting, if you will. Frank would be afraid of this look if he didn’t know Andrew wouldn’t make a plot that would hurt him. Frank was affable, approachable, popular in the exact way that Andrew wasn’t. People often asked him why they were friends. Frank tended to respond with “He’s a good guy if you get to know him.” But getting to know Andrew wasn’t a choice a person made, it was a choice Andrew made, and it was a rare one. Andrew was popular because he was cool, to put it bluntly. He was aloof, confident, and dangerously intelligent. Frank was liked, but Andrew was respected and feared. And Frank knew that was exactly the way Andrew wanted it. “What are you thinking about?”

Andrew snapped out of his trance, but not really. He still wasn’t paying attention to Frank, his mind was elsewhere. “Hm?”

“What are you thinking about?”

“Oh… nothing…”

Frank looked back to Louis’s table. Louis was monologuing. “Preposterous! I would never date a witch. I am of the Blackwell family, one of the most honored names in all of England! It would be simply beneath me to interact with a witch. I am only fighting her because I wish to settle the score. I must win, so I can prove to the world that witches are entirely useless!”

Frank turned to Andrew. “I’m done letting him run his mouth.”

Andrew snapped out of his trance again. “What?”

Frank got up and walked toward Louis. Andrew followed. “Hey, Louis!”

“Eh?”

“If witches are useless, then how are you even alive at this point? If it weren’t for that one redhead, you would still be stuck in that possessed suit of armor, dude.”

Andrew chose to keep silent at this point and omit what Akko had told him, which was the fact that the whole possessed suit of armor affair was Croix’s fault in the first place, as was the missile. He let Frank continue.

“And also, we’d probably be fighting in a war with France right now if it weren’t for the nine witches who stopped that missile! And not to flex, but my girlfriend was one of those nine witches. And so was that witch you’re going to go sword fight. So who do you think has more honor in this situation, you, or witches, who have endured crap from people like you for centuries now, and still saved all of your sorry [selves]?”

Louis was gobsmacked for a second. He wasn't used to being told off. Andrew stepped into the situation before Louis could respond. “Well said, Frank. I agree that he should endeavor to think about what honor really means.”

Andrew half-turned to walk away, but Louis spoke up, stopping him. “Like you’re so honorable. You consort with witches even more than I do.”

“Have you completely missed the point? I’m not saying your lack of honor has anything to do with your relationship with any witches. Your honor doesn’t come from your family, it doesn’t come from your money, it doesn’t come from your name or your title. So few people at this school understand that.”

Andrew outstretched a hand, gesturing to the doorframe again. “Honor first. And it comes from your character.”

He turned elegantly and walked away. Frank lingered a second more, slightly annoyed at Andrew having gotten the last word in telling Louis off. instead of continuing the speech, he gave Louis a certain look and turned to follow Andrew. It was time for class, anyway. The bell rang, the students scattered down different hallways. Andrew had a study hall, so he walked toward the library.

Sometimes, the library was a place for Andrew to hold court. He would sit at one of the tables and people would approach him with various requests. But ever since yesterday, when he had been caught in the middle of a fight between the mathletes and the varsity certamen team over which group he would join, Andrew’s introvertedness had been a little fried, so today he decided to sit where he knew no one would go- an obscure corner of the stacks. He passed literature, classics, science, until he reached it- history. The history section was immense, but Andrew’s corner was not often visited. It was a specific area that had been designated by one of the librarians for Appleton history specifically. Andrew half-wished more of his fellow students would be interested in Appleton’s rich history, but the other half of him was glad that his quiet corner was always empty. He had a few such hideouts around campus, like the tower, the bench where he had taken Akko on her chaotic visit, and the secret tunnels. Andrew sat on the ground and laid the briefcase that he used in place of a backpack next to him. Leaning his back against the shelf and stretching his long legs out in front of him, Andrew sighed. It was good to be alone with his thoughts after such a long day. The book behind him was poking him in the ribs. He turned around to see what it was.

Witch Persecution in the 17th Century

Andrew wanted to ask himself why this was in the Appleton history section, but he already knew the answer. With a sigh, he opened the book. It was worth reading. Doing research on the history of witches was probably a good idea in his current situation of being in love with a witch. An hour later, he had read the entire book. “Fascinating,” he whispered to himself. He shelved the book back where it belonged, behind his ribs, and moved so it wouldn’t be poking him in the ribs anymore. After reading it, he had more respect for the pointy-cornered volume and the story it told. Andrew had moved nearer to the window by his corner. He couldn’t resist, there was a sunbeam streaming through it. Out of all of Andrew’s favorite things, like Akko, pianos, homework, and honor, sunny libraries weren’t necessarily nearest to the top of the list, but they were certainly present. the sunbeam was warm and calming, especially after the turbulent past few nights Andrew had had.

After he had called Frank, his stress did not subside, in fact, it only intensified. He had told someone, this was real, this was happening. He laid awake all night with the most dismal of headaches, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, pining for Akko. His thoughts and feelings churned in his mind, threatening to split his very skull in two, or so he imagined. He didn’t know what to do, but he had to get his feelings out somehow. He turned on the light, rolled out of bed, and walked to his desk, shuffling papers and random objects around to try and find a blank piece of paper. He was going to write it out. That had always worked before. He would write her a letter.

My dear witch-

I am afraid that I have fallen for you.

Well, there it was. All written out. He continued the letter, scribbling down everything he could think.

And I have written it. In addition to that, I told Frank, which had to have been a terrible idea. Except it is four in the morning, and now is not the time for good ideas. But it is also a time for truth. Which is why I am writing this. You will never read this letter, but I need to write it. I am far too afraid to tell you, I could never let on. However, it is necessary at this point to compose my feelings somehow, and this is all I can think to do. I had such good control of my mind before I met you, and now everything is different. I should have realized my feelings long before I actually did, for it was the confusion that made me catch on, I believe. I realized how I felt when you first learned to fly. I just looked up at you and it dawned on me. But I think I had felt it long before then- maybe not when we first met exactly, but I’ll never know. But once I realized, it all made so much sense. I had been lying to myself for so long. I look back and see that I was terribly confused. I never told anyone this, and I never really wanted to think of it myself, but I cannot deny that I had the same feeling when I was stung by the cupid bee. Naturally I don’t remember my initial reaction. Witnesses (Frank) (And yourself, now that I think of it) have told me about my foolish confession, and apparently I said something along the lines of “since the moment I first laid eyes on you”… et cetera, et cetera as I’m sure you remember. It is a painful memory. I am thankful for the spell, because you weren’t taking me seriously. But I wonder just how serious I was. Nothing made sense when I was stung, but I remember feeling relief. It’s hard to put into words- but I think perhaps I was happy not to hide my real feelings, subconsciously. It would make more sense if I knew more about magic, which, as you are well aware of, I do not. Being the victim of a cupid bee would be a good excuse to research them, but it’s been too long and I don’t want to ask you. Anyway, I really have no idea how that thing affected me and why. Because later, in the courtyard- I was rational again, wasn’t I? Do the effects wear off? Because I still loved you then, but I wasn’t foolish anymore. You thought I was still under the spell after you danced on the fountain, but I wonder if perhaps I wasn’t. When you finally killed the bee, I felt relief again- but not really. I felt an obligation to stop loving you. Things were back to normal, you had fixed everything. But my heart still wondered, deep down inside, and I fought it until I realized. But it can’t be fought anymore. He reached the bottom of the back of the page, and the end of his declaration. I am not yet sure what I shall do. But I’ll figure it out. I always manage to, somehow.

Yours, Andrew

His hand was sore from writing. He reread his work, again and again. In the years to come would always give him an odd satisfaction to read his own unsent letters, to see his thoughts scribbled passionately in his own elegant (yet messy) hand. Andrew, who was blessed with a quick mind that moved faster than his hand could keep up in writing, normally tried his best to make his handwriting at least slightly legible, but he didn’t have to worry about that now. No one would ever read this letter, least of all Akko. He folded the letter and placed it in the back corner of his desk drawer. She would never know how he felt. Sitting in the sunbeam in the library, he thought about that folded letter in the darkest corner of his desk. It may never see the light of day, but he would. Here he was, in the light of day, and it was warm and bright and maybe he could be happy, or at least calm.

Andrew was anything but calm. It was a few hours before he and Akko were going to spy on Louis and Amanda’s fencing match. He was going to see her- it wouldn’t be the first time he had seen her since he realized his feelings, but things had escalated since their last meeting. All his emotions were whooshing about and crashing into one another within him. He was elated and terrified, ambivalent, overjoyed and petrified and unsettled all at once. He wondered if this was what people were talking about when they mentioned butterflies in the stomach, because if it was then it wasn’t accurate. He felt like he was filled with ice. And waves. Shuddery with nerves, Andrew paced back and forth in his bedroom. his phone was pinging over and over again from it’s place on his desk. Texts from Frank, no doubt. He picked up his phone, checking to see if his suspicions were correct. And they were.

Frank: hey Andrew your date with Akko is today are you stoked or what

Frank: oops forgot it’s “not a date” lol

Frank: you’re probably super nervous tho

Frank: you good bro

Frank: yeah you’re probably super nervous

Frank: but chill it’ll be ok!!!

Frank: you alive

Frank: probably doing some sort of pregame ritual instead of texting lol

Andrew: Stop spamming me.

Frank: oh good you’re alive

Andrew: I’m muting you. Goodbye.

He silenced his phone and put it into the pocket of his jacket. Frank would only serve to frazzle his nerves more. Andrew inhaled, trying to calm himself with oxygen. Ahh, oxygen. So necessary to humanity’s survival, but it did not help Andrew’s cause. When he met up with Akko, he was even more nervous. But when she greeted him, he managed to calm down by some miracle. This was Akko, after all. His friend. He was always at ease with her, she was the one person he could be fully himself around. She smiled. “Hi.”

“Hey. So what are we going to do? How exactly do you want to spy on them?”

“I don’t know. Like a spy montage in a movie. You know, the kind where they hide behind walls and wear oversized sunglasses.” “Really?”

“Yeah. Here, put these on.” She handed him a pair of oversized sunglasses, the type one buys off a rack in a gas station or an airport just for the sake of laughs or eye protection, never actually for fashion.

He put them on. “Um… just for clarification, you don’t want us to be noticed, right?”

“Yes. Why?”

“We’re going to look more noticeable with sunglasses. Particularly these.”

“Hmmm… good point.” She took the sunglasses back. “Let’s just go hide behind a wall.” 

“Where are they, anyway?”

“Over here.”

They walked to the outskirts of the town, where, near the tor, in a flat area, stood Louis and Amanda. Akko tucked into an alley parallel to them, poked her head out, and looked down the street/path towards the field so she could see them from that distance. Andrew did the same. Akko pulled a pair of binoculars out of her skirt pocket, tossed the strap over her head, and lifted them to her face. “They don’t seem to be doing anything… just talking… not too casually though?”

“Wow, you really planned this out.”

“Spying is life, Andrew.”

“Can I see?” She handed him the binoculars that were still hanging from her neck. He had to lean closer to her to see through them. “Oh… you’re right, not too casually. They seem sort of jokingly standoffish. Challenging each other, if you will.”

“Yeah… you’re right.”

Andrew and Akko were correct. Louis was standing as tall as he could, hands on his hips, clearly confrontational. Amanda mirrored his position, but she pulled it off so effortlessly, almost like she was laughing at him.

“You look awfully confident.”

“I am, witch. I shall defeat you this time.”

“You’re also awfully arrogant and not very grateful to someone who saved your life.”

“Saved my life or not, you still beat me. I lost dignity that day, it is my duty as a member of the Blackwell line to win it back.”

A thousand eye rolls could not capture what Amanda felt. If she had a friend by her side, she would nudge them and say “look at this guy” within plain view of the guy in question. She tried to make eye contact with Akko, but she wasn’t watching her expressions. (Akko didn’t know Amanda knew she was there, Akko was trying to be sneaky. But she had failed.) And Amanda wasn’t going to wait around for Akko to get the joke. She picked up her sword, one that she had borrowed from Constanze, who apparently was in the middle of building the ultimate practice fencing robot. (Just so Amanda wouldn’t need Louis anymore.)

“Well? Do you want to regain your honor or what?”

“Yes. Well then. Shall we start?”

“Sure.”

Akko was starting to get bored, until they started to fence. “Look! They’re fighting!”

“So they are.”

“Wow, Amanda’s really good at this. So is that blond kid, ugh.”

“Louis has had a lot of practice. He’s often in disputes with seniors, the ones who don’t fear his father at least. Or other people in our grade who aren’t afraid of him. Disputes don’t often escalate into duels, but when you have as much trouble playing nice as Louis does, there’s bound to be a few that do.”

“Have you ever dueled him? Or anyone?”

“Yes, once.” Akko expected more details, but Andrew was silent.

“…. are you going to tell the story?” “

Oh. I can, if you wish. He challenged me to a duel in our first semester at Appleton. I wanted to decline, because it was over a trifling matter, and I held our school’s traditions in higher esteem. But Louis didn’t understand that, and he really wanted to duel. He bothered me about it for weeks, calling me a coward and everything else he could think of. Eventually I agreed, just so he would leave me alone.” He was silent again. Akko thought for a moment that Andrew might not know how to tell a story.

“Well???!?! Did you win!?!! What happened?”

“I won. Quickly.”

“That’s good, right? I don’t know anything about fencing.”

“It wasn’t good for Louis. He was humiliated in front of everyone. He never challenged me to a duel again.”

“Wow, a happy ending.”

“Not really. He avoided dueling altogether for a while, but since Amanda beat him, he’s been getting into a lot of them. Maybe he’s training, maybe he’s bitter. I don’t really know or care.”

“…what do you mean by bitter?”

“You know. Haven’t you seen it happen before? When you’re just angry at the world that you argue with everyone and nothing seems to matter anymore?” She stared at him blankly. “Or maybe you haven’t. You don’t seem like that kind of person.”

“Andrew…”

“What?”

“…you speak from experience, don’t you.”

He took a moment to analyze her expression. She looked dejected, and there was something else- a hurt in her eyes. Was she hurting in his place? Did she care that much, enough for his pain to affect her too? He nodded silently.

“That- that makes me so sad!”

“Don’t be sad.”

“But I don’t want you to feel that way!”

“It’s alright. I’m happier now.”

“Still, I don’t want you to be bitter. If you’re ever feeling bad and you just want to rant, please tell me! Telling people helps.”

“Thanks, Akko.”

“Don’t mention it! My dream is to make people happy and that extends to taking care of my friends!”

“A good dream to have.”

They had gotten distracted from spying, and hiding. Having edged out of the alley, they were visible from the field now. And Louis saw them. Right in the intensity of the sword fight, he looked over to the street. Was that Andrew Hanbridge? And that other witch? Spying on him? Akko and Andrew noticed Louis’s noticing them. if it really were a spy montage, that moment would have been in slow motion, as it only took a fraction of a second. Thinking quickly, they both had the same idea at the same time, which was to pull each other back into the alley quickly. Akko was backed up against the wall, holding onto Andrew’s forearm from yoinking him into the alley. Andrew had been holding Akko’s shoulder, standing in front of her. It all happened so fast, Andrew stepped back and they started to laugh together. “H-he saw us!”

“Ohhhh… we’re not very good spies.”

“The look on his face I-“

“He’ll probably confront me… ahaha…”

“Wh-what will you do?”

“I’ll play dumb or something.”

“Ah. Smart.”

A few minutes of uncontrollable laughter eventually subsided. “Well, I guess we’ve blown our cover.”

“We’re such bad spies though.”

“Yeah.”

“So what now?”

“I don’t know. You’re supposed to be the one with the plan.”

“Andrew. Do you really think I have a plan? For anything?”

“Heh. No.”

“Well… we could keep spying on them from somewhere else. If only we had a car, then it could be a stakeout. Oh well.”

“We can use my car. Come on.”

“I didn’t know you had a car… I thought you had a chauffeur?”

“I used to. It’s actually rather inconvenient to have one. My father needed him most of the time, and having a servant just to drive you places is somewhat awkward anyway. I prefer freedom. So I took initiative to pass all the tests and now I can drive.”

“Congratulations.” Akko sat in the passenger seat. “This is a nice car.”

“Thank you.”

“But at the same time it’s like really nice and humble. Like you’re not buying a sports car just to show off and then crashing it. I get the vibe that you really take care of this car.” She was just voicing her running mind-commentary at this point.

“I do indeed.”

“Does it have a name?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well you should give it a name. I like when cars have names. It adds character. Not just cars, too. I named my broom Lord Broomsley Broomingsworth the Broomth, Earl of Broomingdon.”

“That should be Count Broom-“

“I know. Diana already lectured me on how titles work. But you should name your car.”

You should name it.”

“I couldn’t, it’s your car.”

“No, really. Name my car.”

“Ok.” Akko thought for a moment. She was serious about this. “Okay. I think you should name it Thomas.”

“Any reasons for that?”

“No reason. I just… feel it.”

“That’s a good choice. I like the name Thomas.” Andrew could go on a tangent about St. Thomas More, the patron saint of statesmen, or Thomas Atkins, the stereotypical redcoat and Tommy-this-Tommy-that from Kipling’s famous poem, but he chose not to. His tangents tended to scare people, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. He drove to an area where they could watch the fencing, but Louis and Amanda were just talking again.

Akko scrunched down in her seat. “We need to be inconspicuous.”

“You’re making yourself conspicuous.”

She reached over, grabbed his arm, and pulled him down so he was at eye level with the dashboard. “Okay,” he said, irritation brimming in his voice, “Now I can’t see.”

“I’m shorter than you, you think I can see?”

“Then… then why are you doing this.”

She rested her head on the console. “Because, Andrew. You have to respect the stakeout energy.”

He rested his head next to hers. “Ah yes. The stakeout energy.”

Then he realized they were too close. Or were they? He second guessed and overthought everything. Why did he overthink so much when he was close to her? He sat up straight and awkwardly looked ahead. “Well, you can’t have a stakeout without actually looking at what you’re staking out.”

Akko poked her head up to see. “Ah… they just seem to be talking. Why is he on the ground?”

Louis had lost the match, of course, after having noticed the spies he was distracted. In the half-second that he looked away, Amanda had poked him with her sword. He fell from shock and sat on the ground in disgrace.

“Ha! I win.” She wooshed her sword around her head and rested it on her shoulder. “How’s that dignity feeling now, honor boy?”

“Not fair!!! I demand a rematch!!! I was distracted!!!”

Amanda blew out her cheeks. “Heh. And whoooose fault was that??”

“T’WAS THE FAULT OF THE WITCH I CAUGHT SPYING ON US!! AND HANBRIDGE TOO!!!”

Akko and Andrew heard that and flinched. The whole town probably heard it. But only they understood.

“…whaddaya mean.”

“I saw her! I swear I did! As a matter of fact, I bet you two are in cahoots! You set her up to distract me, I’m sure of it!!!”

“Noooo I didn’t.”

“LIAR!!! LIAR!!! Cheater!! Conniving-“ she hit him on the head with her sword, then poked him square in the chest with the tip of it.

“I'm gonna stop you there. You’re starting to mess with my honor. And I won’t stand for that.” He looked up, awestruck. She continued. “If you think this match wasn’t fair, then I’ll just beat you again. I’ll beat you as many times as you want me to.”

“Well then.” He climbed to his feet, picked up his sword, and poked her in the chest with it, as she had done to him. “We’ll rematch. EN GARDE!!!”

Not giving her time to prepare, that seemed to be his style. She plunged right into the action and the intensity of the fight. Amanda relished the chaos and the energy that came from battling someone who took it so seriously. “Haha! You’re really angry!”

“Of course I’m angry, witch!”

“Good! That makes this fun!” She ducked under a swoosh of his sword. The intensity was such a rush.

Akko and Andrew weren’t really watching at this point, they were just talking. “So how’s Appleton? Is it still all witch-hater-y even after we saved the world?”

“It’s… complicated. A lot of people have changed their minds, but some are struggling with it. Realizing you were wrong is hard, and a handful of people are still hanging on to their old beliefs.”

“Hmm.”

“It kind of gave me an idea.”

“What’s that?”

“I think there should be some sort of partnership between our schools.”

“How? I don’t think the faculty would want that.”

“Naturally, I would never be able to create a formal partnership on my own. The chairman would never allow it. But I think I could start on a smaller scale.”

“How so?”

“I was thinking of starting some sort of club or something… to try and build up a better understanding of witches.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“And it would be really beneficial to the student body as well! I’ve been observing some of the students, and because the school is all-boys, some of them really don’t know how to interact with women. They need to learn manners and have more experience being social.”

“You know… same at Luna Nova. Our schools don’t have the experience that coed schools do. Meeting and interacting with lots of different types of people is sure to be helpful, right?”

“Yeah. It’s good practice for when they go out into the real world and deal with people who aren’t just one specific community.”

“Yeah!!”

“I’m glad you understand.”

“It makes sense. You should do that. I think that sort of club would really help. I can help you if you want.”

“Thanks for the encouragement.” This was the first time that Andrew had put his idea into words. It had just been floating around in his head, but something about being near Akko gave him the courage to make it real.

Louis and Amanda dueled over and over again, Amanda winning each time. Eventually, Louis checked his watch. “I should be getting home.”

“Ah, yeah. Me too. I’ve probably exceeded however long we’re supposed to stay in town.”

“Well, then. I shall bid you farewell, witch.”

“I have a name, you know. Anyway, so you acknowledge that I won?”

He exhaled. “Fine. But it won’t last forever. I challenge you to a rematch.”

“You know what? Sure. Fencing’s a nice hobby.”

“Same time. Same place. Next week.”

“Whatever.” She grabbed her broom and hopped onto it, flying up the tor back to the Ley line terminal.

“I shall defeat you!!”

She scoffed from her broom. Sure you will.

Akko and Andrew watched in silence as Amanda flew away.

“Welp.”

“Guess she won.”

“I should go back to school- ack I’m late.”

Akko caught up to Amanda in the Ley line. She slowed down so Akko could catch up to her and so they could talk.

“So, uh, did you win?”

“You oughta know that, you were watching.”

“Nooooo I wasn’t.”

“Pfft. Yes you were.”

“Fine. I was spying on you.”

“Yeah, I saw you the whole time. And you ended up distracting Louis, so there’s that. He said Andrew was there too?”

“…he was…”

“I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting that.”

“He wanted to watch Louis lose.”

“Ah yes, watching Louis fail, a great couples activity.”

“WE’RE NOT A COUPLE!!!”

“Heh.”

“I know you just say stuff like that to annoy me, so I’m going to ignore you.”

“Ah, shoot, she’s onto me.”

Akko continued with her day, socialized, became involved in hijinks, practiced flying, all of her usual antics. But when the day grew quiet and she didn’t have many distractions left, the moment entered her head again. It was when they had dashed back into the alley after being seen by Louis. When she was up against the wall and they were so dangerously close. It brought back memories of the cupid bee incident, except so much had changed since then. And that was when the thought had struck her. Kiss him. As she furiously tried to sweep the thought out of her mind, he stepped back. She had hoped she wasn’t blushing, though she felt hot. Where had that thought come from? She wasn’t going to kiss Andrew. She chalked it up to a random impulse, and put it out of her mind as they laughed about getting caught. But here she was, recalling it. Imagine if she did kiss him. Imagine if she had, in fact, leaned forward and given in to the impulse? What would his reaction have been? Would he have been surprised? Would he have kissed her back? These thoughts made her stomach feel fluttery and nervous. Like she was being stabbed, but by a puppy. Why was she even thinking this way? She didn’t like him. She had had crushes before, she recognized how love was supposed to feel, and she knew she didn’t feel it. It had to have been a random impulse, brought on by their closeness, the memories, his stupidly handsome face. It was totally a random impulse.

Like I would ever kiss Andrew. Hmph.

She squeezed her stuffed Alcor and flipped onto her side, falling asleep within minutes.

Chapter 5: Setbacks

Chapter Text

AN: I sincerely apologize for the events in this chapter. Sometimes you have to destroy things...

________

It was a Thursday afternoon. Andrew had taken part in a track meet. He wasn’t usually interested in sports, but Appleton students were required to take some sports as activities. So he chose track. And even though he didn’t really care, he excelled at it. He didn’t have many friends on the track team, most of the people he knew played contact sports. But Andrew wanted to protect his brain cells, and he didn’t know why his acquaintances were endangering the few they had left. That afternoon, he had done very well. The meet was over, and people were bunching into groups of friends, spectators, parents, athletes, and the like. Neither of Andrew’s parents had come to watch him, of course, so he was alone for the moment. Until he heard Frank calling for him.

“Andrew!!!”

He turned around to see not only Frank, but Lotte, and Akko. That was a surprise. Andrew was a surprise as well, for Akko. She expected to see him, of course, but seeing him in a different context than normal affected her in a way she couldn’t quite place. Something about Andrew in an outfit other than a suit, having run for a whole afternoon, tired but casually triumphant- something about all that made her feel fluttery and uncomfortable. But she brushed it off as he started talking.

“Oh. Hi, Frank. Good afternoon, Miss Jansson, Miss Kagari. I’ll admit I was not expecting you.”

Frank answered his implied question. “I invited them.” He gave Andrew a look that said thank me later.

Lotte spoke next. “Congratulations on winning all those events.”

They chatted for a minute, and then Lotte and Frank fell into their own side conversation, virtually ignoring Andrew and Akko, so they started their own separate conversation. Akko spoke first. “You’re really good at track! It explains a lot.”

“I don’t follow?”

She seemed a little embarrassed that he had forgotten. “Remember? The night we met? A lot of running then.”

It dawned on him. “Oh, yes. And a lot of jumping, too.”

“And falling.”

“And you landing on me, there’s that.”

“Sorry.”

“My ribs were sore for weeks.”

“I said sorry!”

“It’s alright.”

“Being sore is the worst. But it generally means you’ve gotten some exercise. Like my core hurts so much from climbing onto my broom because I fall off a lot, but now I have rock-hard abs.”

“There’s satisfaction in being sore from exercise. Not so much from being sat on.”

“Yeah… if a muscle is sore because you’ve been using it a lot that’s fun. it’s rewarding because you’re going to be stronger.”

“That’s true.” My heart, for example, is sore from loving you. That random thought struck him, and it struck him hard. It had flown out of nowhere into his head, and it caught him off-guard. He decided to change the subject.

“So!” He said it a bit too enthusiastically and adjusted his tone to be more nonchalant as he gestured to Frank and Lotte. “Those two seem happy.”

“Yeah… they’re just completely ignoring us!”

“They’re in their own little world…”

Andrew knew what it was like to love, and to love and be loved in return seemed like the best thing that could ever happen to anyone. He could easily imagine how two people who had found that would not be able to notice anything else except each other. A little part of him died inside, thinking of it. He stared at Akko as she spoke, taking in the irony of it all. “Couples kinda annoy me… I mean they’re so freaking cute but it’s like… it makes me even more lonely.”

“I understand.”

“But… do you? Because, I mean, people like you, you could be in a relationship if you wanted. You have options… I wish someone liked me.”

I’m right here, his heart said. I like you. He wanted to say it, so badly. But he knew that only chaos would ensue. So he held his tongue, and said something else.

“You have options too, you know,” I’m one, you know. No. Not saying that. “You saved the world, the footage is everywhere. I bet you have some fans somewhere in some corner of the internet who would date you.” Except you should date me, and not them, because they don’t even know you and I thought you were cool before it was cool to think- He really needed to do something about that impulsive inner voice.

“Sure. Whatever. Even if people on the internet simp for me, I’d want to date someone who actually knows me and likes me. The people who like you know you.”

“But they don’t.”

“What?”

“They don’t know me. Well, it depends by what you mean by know. I keep a small circle.” He wanted to say that she was the only one who really knew him, but he wasn’t ready to confess that.

“Am I in your circle?”

“Yes.”

'“Yay!!”

“Am I part of your circle?” The question seemed innocent enough, and really, he did want to know, but he realized it was maybe too serious to say. Too important.

She considered it for a moment. “wellll…”

The tone of her voice was negative. He tried to stop her. “Don’t tell me. I don’t think I want to know.”

She continued anyway. “I mean, my circle is kind of my school friends…”

“I get it.”

“We’re still friends, but I guess my circle is more of my friend group.”

“I understand.”

He really just wanted her to stop talking. It was just too hard to listen. He hoped his irritation wasn’t too obvious. Luckily, Frank saved him from the moment by including him in the conversation, the rest of which passed uneventfully. Andrew could see that Frank was trying to make him look good, but he wasn’t sure if it worked. He was angry inside, trying his best to put on a polite face. After Akko and Lotte left, Andrew let the facade slip away. Not waiting for Frank, he walked away, grumbling to himself.

I should have known. I shouldn’t have asked. Of course I’m not part of her circle. How could I think I was important enough to her.

And he hated himself for thinking so irrationally, of course he wasn’t part of her circle, he couldn’t be. He wasn’t part of her friend group, he had no chance of that. But his circle wasn’t a friend group, it was just Akko and Frank. He didn’t really have a circle, they were just the closest people to him. A triangle, perhaps? Oh, why did he bring it up. Did some subconscious part of him just want to see him suffer? Why, why did he keep putting himself through this?

“Hey, man. Wait up!” Frank jogged to catch up with Andrew. “So? Am I a good wingman, or am I a good wingman.”

“Pardon me for saying so, but I think a wingman’s services are usually asked for.”

“It’s not like you were ever going to ask for help. I had to take matters into my own hands.”

“What I want to know is how.”

“Hehe! I get to explain! See, I kind of understand how villains in movies always tell the hero their plan before it’s finished. Like it seems so dumb, but when you have a really genius plan, it’s so hard not to tell people about it.”

“Stop monologuing and just explain, please.”

“Well. I got Lotte to help. It took a little while because she promised Akko she wouldn’t ship you guys if Akko didn’t want her to, which apparently she really didn’t.”

“Please don’t rub it in.”

“Well anyway. Then I told Lotte that you like Akko, and-“

Andrew stopped in his tracks. “How deep.”

“How deep what?”

“Do you want your grave to be dug.”

“ummm… maybe don’t kill me please.”

“UM, HOW ABOUT YOU DON’T TELL EVERYONE WHAT I TOLD YOU TO KEEP SECRET?!”

“Dude, calm down. I only told Lotte. And besides, I said you like Akko. I kept it on the level of casual attraction. So it’s not like I told her what you told me, because I already knew you liked Akko. It was pretty obvious, to be honest.”

Frank noticed that Andrew’s hands were twitching, perhaps yearning for the feel of his neck between them. “Please don’t strangle me.”

“Believe me, I am TEMPTED.”

Andrew rarely showed emotion, including anger of this degree. Frank was genuinely scared. “Ah…. Anyway, Lotte is helping me. We arranged for Akko to come. D-did it go well?” 

“It was good to talk with her.”

“Ah. Good.”

Andrew didn’t want to tell Frank about the circle incident, not yet at least. And like everyone, however well a conversation goes, Andrew could only dwell on that one moment. It haunted him, late into the night. How many nights of sleep had he lost over her at this point? How many hours? How much caffeinated tea had he consumed to make up for it? Too much. Maybe it was contributing to his insomnia. He chose to write her another letter- it had become commonplace at this point. This letter was a soliloquy to the pain of not being in her circle- really just a stream of consciousness of the same chain of thoughts he had been revolving around all evening. This one was scribbly and angry, full of whatever pent-up angst he felt.

As usual, when he had written the letter, he felt less burdened. It was a good way to express his feelings, if he was going to keep them secret. After all, no feelings can really be shouldered alone. People talk to therapists, friends, pets, plants, to express them. Some keep diaries, write essays or books, create art, write long rants in their notes apps to make their thoughts physical. Andrew had chosen to write letters. He was worried about someone reading them, but it wasn’t really a risk. No one came into his room except the maids, every once in a while. And they didn’t go into his desk. The housekeeper had tried to straighten it out once, and she had nearly had a breakdown at the mess. She had to restrain herself from yelling at Andrew to keep her job, (a fact he hated, as he wished the staff could be more honest with him), but he could tell how frustrated she was. So his desk was always untouched. He didn't mind, he knew where everything was. And when it got to be too much for even him, he would sometimes arrange the loose books and papers into stacks. Andrew sighed- he had given up on sleep altogether, and decided to at least be productive. He turned to an empty page in a spiral notebook and started mapping out a loose plan for his club.

It was hard work, but in a month, the club was established. Andrew’s ideas were approved by the teachers in charge of establishing clubs, but when the chairman saw that there was a club devoted to learning about witches, he was livid. Andrew was called into his office one day. It had been an interesting experience for everyone.

Frank looked over at Andrew with pity. “Oof, man. Oof.”

“It’s not so bad. It’s only the chairman.”

“He’s scary. Good luck, Andrew.”

Andrew was nonchalant. “I won’t be needing it.”

That same nonchalance was not scared away when Andrew saw Chairman Blackwell. In fact, it was only increased. They met in the chairman’s office, a place so ridiculous that Andrew could not help but feel at ease. It was rarely used, since Chairman Blackwell was off working most of the time, but they still have him an office, which Andrew thought was a waste of money. And it was filled with pictures of the chairman, sports trophies, things that he used to make himself look better. But they failed. For Andrew knew who was intellectually superior. Even if he could trust his smarts, Andrew knew better than to be off his guard here. The chairman wasn’t without his own cleverness, and he had lower morals. He could not be trusted to be honorable, so Andrew would need to work harder to convince him of his cause. As soon as he stepped into the room, the psychological warfare began.

“Ah, young Hanbridge,” the chairman said, writing something on a piece of paper to try and look busy, even though Andrew knew he wasn’t. “Sit down.”

He gestured to a pair of chairs in front of his desk. Andrew sat in one of the chairs, using his own psychological tactics. The way the chairs were aligned in the room were clearly intended to cause fear, surely dozens of students had sat here before, in front of the imposing desk, shuddering with fear of punishment. But Andrew did not shudder, he did not cower in his place. He sat as he usually did, elegantly yet casually, crossing his legs and placing the book he had brought with him at his side. He was not going to let the chairman get the upper hand. He laughed (internally) at his intimidation tactics.

“So. I’m sure you know why I’ve called you here today.”

Andrew nodded. “Yes, sir, I do.”

“Do you understand, boy, how your club is not tolerated here?”

“I understand perfectly, sir. And I believe that my club is necessary, for that reason.”

“Elaborate on that.”

He was giving Andrew the chance to state his case. He didn’t want to bend to Blackwell’s whims, but he already had a plan. “Well, sir, I’m sure you know the way witches have been perceived at Appleton. They are seen as mysterious, dangerous temptresses who only care about inflicting chaos and terror. However, being in the company of witches, I have seen firsthand that they are exactly the opposite. I think that it could be beneficial to the students here if we built up a better relationship with our neighbors at Luna Nova.”

“Why, exactly, could it be beneficial? I see no benefit in such... distractions.”

“Well, sir, I believe that it is critical for my peers to socialize outside the Appleton circle, especially with women. And especially witches. Those perceptions need to change, sir. We prize honor here, and that includes not being afraid of the truth.”

“Don’t invoke the Appleton values, lad. Remember that you are desecrating one of our traditions. This establishment stands firmly against the occult.”

Andrew suppressed a bolt of irritation and continued speaking. “Ah, yes, our traditions. Exactly the way into my next point, and I think this one will mean a little more to you, sir. While the world viewed witches over the past century as more obsolete than dangerous, this school took a more aggressive approach. But this is a completely different era. Witches are more favorable to the public, and to take a stance against them may cause the school to lose face. I would hate to have another incident like the last time witches visited our school. As you are aware, they came close to being tortured. Allegations like that could completely destroy the reputation of Appleton, and your own reputation, Chairman.” This was low. Andrew wasn’t happy that he had to resort to this to defend his idea, but he knew that his opponent would never agree with ideals like “honor” or “kindness” or “dignity.” But as a politician, he cared deeply about his image, and Andrew understood that much.

Chairman Blackwell was caught off guard. Andrew had to try not to smile, but he failed and smirked slightly while he gave the next part of his speech. “And while Appleton may not support magic, cruelty to witches is not part of that tradition.” He opened his book, the one which had been poking him in the ribs a month earlier, to a page that he had already flagged. “This is a history of Appleton’s role in the witch burnings in the seventeenth century. Here, at the end, it details the golden age of magic. Believe it or not, we had an amicable relationship with Luna Nova towards the end of that era. The two schools would frequently host events so the students could interact. It was a very brief period, and it ended when Luna Nova fell under financial hardship and magic fell out of fashion at the beginning of the industrial revolution. But our schools have had a friendship in the past, and I’d like to reestablish it.”

He tried to stop himself from being nervous in the silence that followed. The chairman was thinking hard. he seemed to have trouble grasping these possibilities. (Andrew did not think he had many brain cells.) After what felt like forever, he spoke. “Alright, Hanbridge, I’ll allow it.”

“Thank you, sir.” Andrew stood, intending to leave. But the chairman spoke again.

“But I have my eye on you, boy. Any smidgen of disrespect to this school, and believe me, your little club is finished.”

Andrew looked down at the floor, wishing he didn’t have to bend like this. “Of course, sir.”

That was the first challenge. Andrew was elated as he left the room. Everything was cleared. He was ready to start his club. For another student, it may have been hard to get approval, for clubs were normally founded in the fall, in time for the club fair. But Andrew Hanbridge was special, and if Andrew Hanbridge wanted to start a club in the spring, the teachers would let him. So he had gotten approval, he had negotiated the use of a classroom for meetings, he had gotten a teacher to hold the formality of the supervising position, now all he needed to do was find members.

So Andrew and Frank set up a card table in the common room with flyers, visual aids, and an elevator pitch if anyone would listen. They were the only two members so far, but Andrew knew that would change. And sure enough, soon a student came to the table, a freshman. He seemed intimidated, but he was there nonetheless. “Y-you guys are starting a club?”

“Yes. It’s dedicated to building a better relationship with witches.”

“Oh.”

Frank held out the sign-up sheet to the freshman. “Would you like to join?”

“Is this allowed?”

“Yes. The chairman himself approved it.” Because I threatened his reputation.

“Wow. That doesn’t seem like something he would do… are there conditions?”

Frank exhaled. “Well, he wasn’t completely sold on the idea. He told Andrew he would be watching for disrespect. Which is why we need to work hard to prove that this school can keep it’s values and be friendly with witches! Would you like to join?”

“Um… I don’t really wanna be under that much scrutiny. Bye.”

The freshman left. Frank sighed. “I told you we should have a thing of Oreos. That’s what the debate club did, and they filled their entire sign up sheet, back during the club fair.”

“You have to bribe people with Oreos to join the debate team. No one wants to interact with debaters. They’re so argumentative and hotheaded.”

“Dude, you’re argumentative and hotheaded.”

“But I’m not on the debate team.”

“Thank god for that.”

“Food aside, maybe you shouldn’t have said we’re being watched.”

“I was just trying to answer his question.”

“Remember, we need to stretch the truth.” Andrew leaned forward and stared intently at the room. “This isn’t as solid as most of our endeavors, Frank. We need to pretend it is, until it can be.”

“Fake it until we make it, right.”

“Heads up, time to act competent.”

A group of boys had come up to their table. Sophomores. They didn’t look serious, they were smirking and laughing. Clearly they didn’t take the club seriously. Andrew didn’t like the sophomores, and especially not this group. It bothered him that they didn’t seem to care who he was.

“Good morning, gentlemen. Are you interested in joining this club?”

The club’s actual name was the Coalition for Building a Respectful Relationship With Luna Nova And Magic in General, or CBRRWLNAMG, but it was very awkward to say. Andrew wished he had chosen an acronym that could be pronounced. The ringleader of the sophomores came to the front. He was an overly confident lad with bright red hair and an untucked shirt. His very presence irked Andrew. “Maybe. What’s in it for us?”

“That sort of mentality is not what we’re looking for,” Andrew snapped. “This club is for the greater good of Appleton and it’s student body.”

“Chill, Andrew,” Frank turned to the students. “It’s a great way to learn more about magic, which is in the news a lot these days. Remember the witches who saved the world a month or so ago? Not to brag, but one of them’s my girlfriend. And she and her friends at Luna Nova are going to work with our club on their end. It’s also a good way to build social skills and learn how to talk to girls, because obviously we can’t do that here.”

One of the boys smirked. Andrew bit back a scowl. “So, what you’re saying is, it’s a way to meet girls?” Frank and Andrew had opposite reactions.

“Well, yeah!”

“Absolutely not. We will be working with the witches, learning respect for them and gaining knowledge of their craft. This club does not exist for social purposes. Like I said earlier, your attitude is not what we need.”

“Andrew, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Frank put the clipboard that was the sign-up sheet in front of himself and Andrew’s faces. “Dude, what are you doing? We need members!”

“Not these members. They don’t understand our mission, Frank. I’m serious about this club.”

“So am I! You think I like the way this school looks at magic? But we’re here to change things, and maybe we can help them change too! They don’t understand the mission now, but it’s our job to teach them.”

“Fine. Let them join.”

The meeting adjourned. “Sorry about that,” Frank said, holding the clipboard and a pen out to the lads. They passed it around, signing their names. The redhead went first, and they all signed, the last one giving it to Andrew. The redhead nodded and walked away. “Can’t wait to meet some witches. Apparently they’re pretty hot.”

Andrew seethed. “I wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t desperate for members.”

Frank looked at the clipboard. “But hey, we got seven signatures!”

Andrew looked at the first name. “Billy Wickham. Now where have I heard that name…”

“I don’t know.”

Andrew realized it with a slight shock. “Wait. I remember now.”

There was a silence. “….are you gonna tell me?”

Andrew sighed. “I will. But it’s honor council business. Confidential, as you know.”

“You can trust me. You have my solemn word.”

“I sense that you are being sarcastic.”

“No really. I won’t tell. Besides, you shouldn’t take the confidentiality stuff so seriously.”

“Frank, I am a member of Appleton’s honor council. I agreed to protect the privacy of people involved in the cases we investigate. Confidentiality is-“

“Serious. I know. But you tell me this stuff all the time and I always keep your secrets.”

“Fine, then. Billy Wickham cheated on a math test earlier this year.”

“…so?”

“His honor is compromised.”

“Dude. Chill.”

“Even so. I don’t like him and his crowd.”

Frank sighed. “You just don’t like them because they’re sophomores and they don’t worship you.”

“That isn’t true. It’s just that I feel an air of disobedience from them, and they seem troublesome.”

“What did I just say.”

Andrew sighed. “Whatever. Let’s just hope the next batch is better.”

They got many more signatures over the course of the day. Andrew’s mood improved, too. The rest of the new club members were all people he had no reason to dislike. Some of them he even respected. Two boys from the certamen team, one of the library aides, a freshman whose brother he had known, and a boy he had been acquainted with at his summer home years before. He remembered that lad in particular pining secretly but obviously after Diana all summer, so he thought he must still remember her. From what Akko had told him, Diana wanted no part in the club, which he understood. Akko was a little disappointed that Diana had been so against joining. She had asked Hannah and Barbara to help convince her, but their efforts didn’t work either.

“Come on, Diana, don’t you want to hang out with Appleton boys?”

“Absolutely not.”

“But most of them are from noble families! And they have a reputation for being handsome.”

“I would rather not.”

Diana still hadn’t told Hannah and Barbara what she knew. And now, she wondered if their interest in the boys was genuine or not. Since the night of the ball, she had seen even more signs that they were together. It was obvious to her, and she could tell they did not know she had caught on. For some reason, Diana didn’t want them to know. She wanted everything to be the way it always had been, the three of them as friends. They had always been closer to each other than to her, of course, she had met them as friends and they were always a duo, while she was their leader. They were her sidekick, almost one entity at times. If Diana had not been the leader, she would without a doubt be the third wheel. She felt a little left out of their world at times, and she knew that if they were open about their relationship, she would be even more lonely. It wasn’t their fault, she knew they loved her and made a great effort to include her out of admiration, they always had. She wanted things to stay the way they were, the way the three of them had worked to make them together. Diana loved their little status quo, and while their new friends were wonderful, things had already changed so much since she had helped Akko save the world. Diana would keep the secret just a little longer. She would tell them soon, she told herself. But she wouldn’t join Akko’s club.

Even without Diana, Akko had managed to gather a good amount of people. When the two groups finally met up after another month’s worth of meetings, all the grades at Luna Nova were represented. Andrew was proud. He had only asked Akko to gather a few witches so that his club could meet them, and she had almost matched the amount of members in the Coalition for Building a Respectful Relationship With Luna Nova And Magic in General. Andrew had not planned to hold a gathering so soon after starting the club, but he had been pressured by Frank and the members who were only there to meet girls. So there they were, at a social in town that Andrew had planned for one Friday afternoon, after classes, during athletics. He had enlisted the help of their supervisor, Mr. Dewey, to have a field trip to the ruins of the cathedral, where they would meet Akko and her brigade. It was a beautiful day, a full two months from the fog and chill of the track meet. Spring had slowly grown into place, and it was the most beautiful spring Andrew had ever seen. Perhaps it was because he was in love, perhaps it was because it had been a hard winter and a hard early spring, but everything seemed so much more alive, and so did he. The hydrangeas around the ruins were in full bloom. Andrew recalled, from reading about Victorian flower language, that they meant boastfulness. He felt like boasting about the success of this event, but he had Akko to thank first. Everyone was milling around and talking, groups of pointy hats and black coats mixing together like they were already friends. He found Akko in the crowd, and materialized suddenly to her side. “Hey.”

“Hey! Where’d you come from- never mind. This is doing so well! I’m proud of us.”

“Thanks for helping out. It wouldn’t be much of a club without the promise of actually meeting witches.”

“Well, this is just part of my dream! I want to make magic more accessible to people who don’t use it. This is all part of my evil agenda, haha.”

Things had been going well with Akko. Andrew hadn’t started the club exclusively as an excuse to talk to her, but it certainly was a benefit. They had collaborated a lot in the past two months, and he only felt closer to her. He knew she only thought of the club and her part in it as business, and Andrew as someone to help and nothing more, but he was satisfied to talk to her. He tried to fool himself into thinking they were better friends. Maybe he could be part of her circle. But then came today’s event, and he saw her with her friends. They were more important to her, of course. She was theirs, not his. But he tried not to feel too bad about it.

“Heh. Well, your evil agenda has done a lot of good.” They looked around the ruins, at the success of their work.

“You’re right! Well, I’m going to go and talk to people. See you around!”

His heart ached as she fluttered off, but now wasn’t the time for that. He was a leader here, he had a job to do. Socializing. He wandered around, until he overheard Billy talking to some of his friends. “The brunette over there is cute.”

“Are you going to ask her out?”

“Yeah, I think I will.”

Andrew’s heart sunk as he watched Billy jog over to Akko and talk to her. Of course he meant that brunette. He could not hear the details of their conversation, but it seemed to be going well for both of them. They were chatting and laughing. Surely he wouldn’t ask her out. He didn’t even known her name. They had just met, he had watched them meet. He couldn’t possibly love her. He didn’t even know her. And she would say no, right? Akko would want a more meaningful connection, right? She wouldn’t date someone she didn’t know, right? Then, there was a pause- she looked surprised, perplexed, and suddenly smiled in agreement. Billy smiled too. Andrew felt like crying. No. Stop. There was a job to do, a role to play.

How could she? How could she say yes to him? Why Billy and not Andrew? How could she like someone she had just met- she probably didn’t even have feelings for him at all. So then why date him? Was Akko really so superficial- but there was nothing to be superficial about with Billy. She couldn’t like him for his looks, she knew nothing about his background, he couldn’t possibly have been charming. Why? Why would she date him? Andrew stewed internally, pondering over that question, for the rest of the event. At the end, he gave his closing remarks, and encountered Akko as everyone was finding their friends to return to their respective schools.

“Hey, Andrew!”

“Hi.” He faked a smile. “How was the event for you?”

“It was great! Thanks for organizing it. Guess what?”

He knew what already. “What?”

“I’m dating one of the guys I met today! Haha!”

His false happiness faltered. “Why would you date someone you’ve just met?”

“I don’t know, really. He kinda surprised me so I said yes. I’ve been single my whole life… the idea of having a boyfriend is nice.”

“But you can’t possibly have feelings for each other if you just met. Didn’t you say you wanted to date someone who knows you and likes you? It seems so… shallow.”

She brushed it off. “Eh, I’m sure we’ll develop feelings along the way. And when did I say that?”

“…like two months ago.”

“Why do you even remember it?”

“Just a random detail. I’ll try to be happy for you if you want me to.” He did his best to smile, and she mirrored it with a genuine one.

“Thanks. I’m so happy! Sucy’s gonna be so shocked!”

“It isn't that shocking.”

“Ahh, you flatter me. Well, I guess it’s reality now! I’ll see you later.”

She skipped off to go talk to Billy. For the first time ever, Andrew was grateful she had gone. He wasn’t sure if he could keep up the pretense of happiness, or even indifference. Frank came up to Andrew, who was intensely staring at Billy and Akko. If he was tying to be discreet, he was failing. He was verdant with jealousy, flames of envy simmering behind his eyes.

“Heh. You look angry. Mad that there’s some other guy talking to your girl?”

“…”

Frank began to sing mockingly, with several intentional voice cracks. “jEaLoUsY, sOmEtHiNg SoMeThInG jEaLoUsY, cHoKiNg On YoUr AlIbIs”

“Shut up. You don’t even know the words. And guess what?” He snapped. “They’re dating.”

Frank’s mocking smirk fell instantly, and it was replaced with an expression of sadness and true empathy. “Oh, dude, I am so sorry. I know how it feels.”

“You don’t. You could never.”

“I’ve had girls I liked be taken, trust me. It hurts and I get it.”

“You don’t get it, though. You never felt the way I feel about her.”

Frank didn’t think this was the time to argue. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Andrew’s voice broke infinitesimally, but he didn’t cry. “He doesn’t even know her.”

“Yeah…”

“He- he doesn’t even know her! But that’s his advantage, isn’t it.”

“..?”

“I couldn’t ever date her, because I already know her. We already have a relationship that I can’t risk losing. But Billy- he had nothing to lose. And he gained what I never could. I didn’t have a chance, even before. It’s not that I’m too late, I never had a chance to begin with.”

Frank felt that Andrew was tying to convince himself. “Yeah. But you actually know her. Your friendship is way more valuable than whatever she has with Billy.”

“But he’s her boyfriend. Agh, I hate the word.”

“I’m sorry, Andrew.”

Andrew inhaled, adjusted his lapels, and opened his eyes with a new outlook. Frank could see him masking the pain, saving it for later. The discussion was over. It had been as brief as the instances where Andrew showed his feelings to Frank always were. “It’s alright. Her happiness is my first concern. And she seems happy, so I can be content with that.”

Frank knew it was a lie, but he didn’t press the subject. When the bus returned to Appleton, Andrew caught Billy as he was departing.

“Wickham, a word?”

“Uh, sure?”

“I understand you are courting Miss Kagari?”

“Yeah, you got a problem?”

“No. I wish you two happiness. But if you hurt her, we will, indeed, have a problem.”

He scoffed, perhaps to hide fear. “Why do you care? Do you like her or something?”

Andrew avoided the question. “She’s a very dear friend of mine. I would hate to see harm come to her, do you understand?”

“Yeah, whatever, I’ll treat her right. But it’s really not your place.”

“Glad you understand. That is all.”

Andrew walked away, hoping he hadn’t appeared as foolish as he felt.

_________

Sorry again

Also, shoutout to the time I founded a club and only four people signed up, and then my so-called friend was bragging about debate club 'only' getting 30 people. 

well, Dog Club had more fun anyway. 

also- he *doesn't* know all the words to Mr. Brightside

(I actually like to think Frank does know all the words, he just pretends not to because he feels embarrassed.)

 

Chapter 6: Oh, my emotions feel like implosions

Chapter Text

Frank and Lotte had a date that Saturday. Both seemed unhappy when they met.

“I have bad news.”

“What is it?”

“Akko invited us on a double date with her and some guy she’s dating. And it isn’t Andrew.”

“Yeah, I know. Billy Wickham, right?”

“Yes, that’s him. How’d you know?”

“I dealt with the aftermath. Andrew got to watch him ask Akko out. He’s… not taking it well.”

“I don’t blame him. I didn’t really like that Billy guy either.” She sighed. “But Akko is so desperate to say she has a boyfriend that she’ll date anyone who asks her out.”

Frank could hear irritation in Lotte’s voice. Clearly Andrew wasn’t the only one upset with the situation.

“I used to be like that…”

“But you’re not anymore. And Akko… I just hope she’ll be okay.”

“Why wouldn’t she be?”

“I don’t know. But we have no idea what type of guy he is! She has no idea what kind of guy he is! Sucy and I are worried.”

Worried wasn’t exactly what Sucy had been. The three of them were flying through the Ley line when Akko told them.

“Hey guys, guess what!”

She didn’t give them any time to guess. “I’m not single anymore!!!”

Lotte had been surprised and confused, trying to put the pieces together. “Are you dating Andrew?!?!”

“What- no! I thought you weren’t going to ship us!! I’m dating this guy named Billy.”

“Who? I’ve never heard of anyone named Billy. He must be insignificant.”

“Sucy!! He’s significant because he’s my boyfriend now.”

Lotte looked concerned. “When did you two meet?”

“Today.”

“How?”

“Ah, he just walked up to me and asked me out.”

“…Akko…”

“What’s with that look? Your boyfriend did the same thing.”

“But that’s not how we started dating. Don’t you think you should get to know him first? It’s not a good idea just to date someone for the sake of dating. You should date someone for the sake of someone.”

“But I’m going to get to know him.”

Sucy looked at Lotte. “You’ll never be able to convince her.”

“I-“

“She’s being an idiot. But let’s just drop the subject. She’ll deal with the consequences of her actions later.”

“I’m right here, you know.”

Lotte sighed. “You’re right.”

Sucy looked to Akko. “Okay, Akko, go be an idiot.”

Lotte looked conflicted, but she didn’t say anything. She had that same look now, and Frank was sorry to see it. The match between Billy and Akko was advantageous to no one, and it brought so many people unhappiness. From Andrew, who had been shut up in his room ever since he got home from the fateful event, to Lotte, distraught and worrying for her friend, the people Frank loved were unhappy because of Billy and Akko’s spontaneous agreement. Was it really even worth it? And he couldn’t do anything about it. He put an arm around Lotte’s shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

“Hey, don’t worry. We’ll go on the double date and scope him out. We can see if he’s worthy.”

She sighed. “Okay. It’s just- this is so dumb!” She clearly needed someone to rant to, and Frank was happy to listen.

“Sucy called him insignificant and really I agree. Like she’s going against our advice and everything just for the sake of saying she’s in a relationship… is it more important than her friendships? I wouldn’t prioritize a guy over my friends, ever.”

“I’m sure that’s not what she’s doing. She’s just being stubborn.”

“I sure hope so. But she’s taking it too far… she’s only known this guy for like a week, and she’s already getting into all these arguments over him. No man is worth that! If Sucy and Akko didn’t like you, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“And I understand that completely. Friendship is way more important than romance.”

 

Lotte and Frank had tried to put the issue out of their minds, but Andrew continued to struggle. Frank waited until after the date to call Andrew and tell him what was going on. Andrew let his phone ring for a while, then mustered the motivation to answer it. Seeing that it was Frank, he spared all formalities. “What do you want.”

“Geez. No need to snap at me like that.”

Andrew exhaled and stared at the ceiling. “Sorry. Little known fact, but I’m not in the best mood right now.” Snapping again, of course. He was deeply irritated, poking at the flames of his annoyance to distract him from the deep, sharp, pains of heartbreak.

“I get it. But guess what.”

Andrew was silent, so Frank answered his own question. “Apparently Lotte and I are going on a double date with Akko and her idiot boyfriend whom we hate. So I can judge him for you.”

“I already judge him enough. The [expletive] doesn’t even know how [expletive]ing lucky he is.”

Andrew didn’t curse often. He told Frank it was because of his manners, but internally he wanted to use the words sparsely so they would have more impact. And this was a time for impact.

“Yeah… it’s pretty unfair.”

“It’s not unfair- because it isn't like I tried. But someone who just noticed her a minute before they started dating gets to date her, and I’m too late, even though I care so much more for her than he even has the capacity to.”

“It sucks. But I can see if they’ll break up soon. I shall be your spy, Andrew.”

Andrew responded with a note of sarcasm that completely went over Frank’s head. “Alright, you do that. Go and spy on them for me, henchman.”

“Will do. You can count on me!!!”

“Good.”

Andrew hung up, cutting off the call and falling back into his loneliness. He had been lying in bed all day. Normally, he woke up at five in the morning, but today, when his alarm went off, he just didn’t bother. What was the point, anyway. He’d get up tomorrow, perhaps energized, or perhaps even more exhausted. It wasn’t even fully because of Akko dating someone else. He was tired. The default response for dodging questions about one’s mental state was finally true in this case, our hero truly was just tired. Tired of a lot of things, in fact. Tired of loving and loving and giving his energy to a void. Tired of watching her skip away from him too much, and never skip towards him enough. Tired of no one understanding because the only person he could open up to was the one who couldn’t know the truth, ever. Tired of sleepless nights and getting his hopes up to watch them fall and shatter. Tired of being alone. Tired of being surrounded by people. Tired of life itself, or maybe just the one he was living. He just wanted to sleep. Even though it wasn’t fun anymore, and he just felt sluggish and lazy by now, he still couldn’t gather the willpower to get out of bed. It was a matter of pride at this point. It was one in the afternoon, and he had just laid in bed all day. It was heroic. Triumphant, even. Andrew was the champion of the lazy. Or so he was thinking, when he heard a knock at his door. He made no response, the door opened anyway. It was his father.

“Andrew.”

“Hm?”

“It is the afternoon. The maids are telling me that you have refused to start the day.”

He responded defensively. “I’m not feeling well.”

Paul sighed. He was concerned, but also annoyed. Andrew was normally more composed than this. “Well, please try to pull yourself together within the next few hours. Your mother returns tonight, and the both of us need to be presentable.”

Paul looked about Andrew’s room. It was dark. Perhaps Andrew would rather wallow in this artificial night. But it was the daytime, and he had to wake up and face the facts. He walked briskly towards the window and pulled the drapes open. “Wake up.” Andrew pulled the covers over his face to shield himself from the light. “I’d rather not,” he grumbled.

Paul looked at the lump that was Andrew wondered for a second whether he should be worried. His son wasn’t like this normally. Other kids his age might sleep in until one, but not Andrew. Andrew wasn’t normal, and whose fault was that? Paul was struck with shame. Let the boy sleep in for once, he told himself. Don’t put so much pressure on him. He sighed. “Just be awake by dinner. That’s all I ask.”

“Perhaps.”

Paul sighed again as he left. “Teenagers.”

Andrew scoffed, and he was alone yet again. He was almost honored that his father had come to try and wake him up. He had sent away three maids and the butler already, he supposed they had just worked their way up the chain of command. Well, he supposed he should probably get up. It was boring to be lazy all day. He was secretly happy to have an excuse to be more active. It was almost time for Frank to be a spy. He was ready. He was bustling through his house, anxious and looking for stuff, as he always did before a date- and this one was more important than normal. Because it was a double date, and he had a job to do for Andrew. He could finally do Andrew a favor, after everything his friend had done for him. He breezed through the kitchen, looking around. “Mom, have you seen my green jacket?”

Frank’s mom was sitting at the kitchen island, drinking coffee (Even though it was the evening) and amusing herself by watching her son’s frantic searching. “I don’t know. Check the mudroom.”

Frank ran off. “Aha! Found it. Wait, where are my keys??”

Frank found his keys and left the house. He was early, but Lotte and Akko were earlier than he was. They had all agreed to meet at the base of the tor, so the three of them stood there, chatting, until Billy showed up. He was a quarter hour late. Andrew would never do that. While they were waiting, Frank was texting Andrew updates.

Frank: lol he’s late

Frank: you wouldn’t be late

Frank: should I say that?

Andrew: No.

Frank: I wasn’t going to

Andrew: I must go

Andrew: my mother is coming home and my father and I need to appear normal.

Frank was surprised. Andrew never said goodbye or announced that he was leaving, normally when they were talking he just left. But he seemed more interested when Akko was involved.

Frank: ok i’ll keep texting you updates

Andrew: Send Miss Kagari my regards

Frank: will do

Akko laughed sadly. “Imagine still having a phone. Wouldn’t that be fun… eh, Lotte?”

“Who are you texting?”

“Andrew.” He turned to Akko. “He sends his regards to you, Akko.”

Akko scoffed in mock annoyance. “Why just me? Why doesn’t he send his regards to Lotte? Or you? Or Billy?”

She laughed. “So rude. Typical Andrew.”

Frank shrugged. “You’re special to him, I guess.”

“Aw, shucks.”

Billy arrived after that.The date was altogether uneventful. Nothing went wrong, but something felt off. And Frank knew what it was. The two couples were walking separately to the Ley line near the end. Frank and Lotte were out of earshot of Billy and Akko, which was convenient, because they were discussing them.

“I just don’t like him… they don’t have chemistry. I don’t ship it, Frank.”

“I don’t ship it either. It just keeps nagging at me, it should be Andrew.”

Lotte laughed gently. “You’d enjoy this a lot more if it were, wouldn’t you.”

“I would! And also, I just feel bad for him. And he would treat her a lot better than Billy.”

“Yeah. I don’t like the way that guy talks to her. She’s just too stubborn to admit this relationship is built on wishes.”

Akko and Billy were having a different conversation entirely. “So, you’re friends with Andrew Hanbridge, right?”

“Yeah. You guys know each other from school, right? He’s in charge of the club where we met-“

“Yeah, I know who he is. To be honest, I don’t really like him that much.”

“Why not?”

“He’s arrogant. He thinks he’s better than everyone else. But like, why. And he takes the school too seriously. It’s dumb.”

“I don’t think it’s dumb to take something seriously.” Akko felt almost personally attacked by this. She had heard her fair share of snide comments about her devotion to her dream. “At least Andrew has a purpose.”

“Whoa, chill. I just mean that he scares me… he’s so intense about everything.”

Akko always liked the intensity. It was admirable that he cared. She found herself jumping to Andrew’s defense in her mind, and with her voice as well. “And why is that a problem?”

“He was intense about us.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Like after I asked you out, he straight-up threatened me.”

Akko paused in her step. “…what?”

“When we got back to Appleton, he pulled me aside and told me that if I hurt you there would be consequences or something.”

Akko was silent, and serious. And angry. When the group returned to the Ley line, Akko approached Frank. “Frank, can you tell Andrew I want to talk to him?” Frank suppressed a flinch. It didn’t seem like a good talk. “Okay.”

Andrew was blissfully oblivious to all this, (figuratively speaking, of course, as Andrew had never really experienced the feeling of bliss) but he was still trying to forget about the fact that at that very moment, Akko was on a date with someone else. But he couldn’t forget, and it was all that he could think about as he stared intensely at the dinner table. He was stuck stranded in the middle of the table. Normally, he sat at the head, but since his mother was supposed to return, his father made him move. But it had been in vain, they had already eaten, and he was still stuck in the middle. His mother was late. It had been half an hour already, and nothing had happened. Since Andrew’s mind wasn’t otherwise occupied, he could only think about Akko. He was mentally composing a letter when his mother finally arrived, bustling into the dining room. “I’m so sorry, there was this terrible layover in Bosnia, and-“

Paul looked up. “It’s alright, Winifred.”

She walked over to Andrew, hugged him, and kissed the top of his head. She wouldn’t be able to do that if he were standing, as he was taller than her. Ignoring her husband, she took her seat (or Andrew’s seat) at the other head of the table. Her husband asked her a question. “What work have you been doing?”

“Well, I was at an orphanage- several orphanages, actually. I went to check in on them, after I donated some money, to see how they were spending it. But the system there is so corrupt, the money never even got to them. So I had to take things into my own hands… It was just disgusting. Keeping funding from those poor orphans, it was almost inhuman.”

Paul scoffed. “I’m inclined to disagree. Corruption is the most human thing there is. We’re a greedy, rotten species at our core.”

“A life in politics has made you too cynical, Paul.”

Andrew joined the conversation. “I think the opposite, Father.”

“Oh? Do elaborate.”

Andrew stared off into nowhere as he spoke. “What makes us inherently human is a set of ethics. In my opinion, that’s all that sets us apart from animals. That and, well, anthropomorphic qualities of course.” He struggled to keep his normal composure, putting the vague philosophies into words. “Yes, we do have greed. But most people have some standard of honor that keeps them from giving into it. If we didn’t have that, civilization itself would collapse. But we have ethics, and a basic desire to be better. Greed is an instinct to preserve our survival, but humanity has already done much that has no benefit to that. We create art, we learn things that aren't necessary for us to know, we care for one another, we move beyond our basic needs. We’d be primitive if we didn’t. We’re human because we have morals.” He was a little disappointed with his explanation. Perhaps, with more time, he could phrase it better.

Paul laughed. “The boy takes after you, Winifred! Believing the best in everyone.”

“I don’t believe the best in everyone. Honor is a basic human quality, but I’ve seen it ignored enough that don’t have faith in people acting on it.”

His mother agreed. “You’re exactly right, Andrew. People have the capacity to be so much better. It’s frustrating to see when they aren’t.”

Andrew was thinking about the behavior of some Appleton students. “Yes. But I still hold out hope, and that’s the problem.”

Paul continued to laugh. “You’re a starry-eyed idealist! I think you’ve been spending too much time with that witch of yours, Andrew.”

Andrew’s countenance changed almost instantly. It was like a storm blowing in out of nowhere, dark and angry. His eyes were dark and glaring as he spoke, quickly and deeply. “Do not mention Miss Kagari.”

Andrew’s parents mistook his anger and pain for embarrassment, which it was, in a way. And Winifred was surprised. A witch? A witch that made Andrew so upset? She hadn’t known about this important development. She raised her eyebrows. “Who’s Miss Kagari?”

Paul's tone was disdainful. “A friend of Andrew’s. Remember the witch from the party?”

“Oh! Oh, my.” She said it in a teasing tone, recalling, of course, Andrew’s confession and the aftermath.

“Mother- please don’t.”

“So you two are ‘friends??’”

Paul scoffed. “Heaven forbid.”

Andrew sat, squinting his eyes, feeling his right eyebrow twitch in frustration. He chose his words carefully, his voice simmering with vexation. “If you are asking if Miss Kagari and I are in a romantic relationship, then the answer is no.”

“I am so confused. Clearly I’ve been gone for too long.”

“Clearly. You have no idea what your son’s life is like and-“

“Oh, I’m so sure you’re the better parent. Making him go to parliament and care about your job. All that pressure. Upholding the family lineage is one thing, but-"

“Andrew wants to be a statesman. And maybe you’d know that if you didn’t go flying off to god knows where to do charity work while ignoring your own family.”

The argument raged on. Neither the Earl or Countess noticed their son stand up until he spoke.

“Father. Mother.” They both looked up, still angry, but distracted. “If I may be excused.”

He walked away elegantly, leaving silence behind him. Andrew returned to his room, closed the door behind him, and bonked his head into it. At least his parents had gone longer than usual without arguing. He wished they wouldn't blame each other that way, they were good parents in his opinion. He knew they tried their best, even if they were often busy and disliked each other. Their arguing had bothered him when he was younger, but he was used to it by now. Andrew slouched out of his jacket and tossed it onto a chair, doing the same with his tie and unbuttoning his first few shirt buttons as he walked towards his bed, flopping down onto it and thinking about how he had come full circle from that morning. He was back at the beginning. Andrew looked to his side and picked up his phone from where he had left it. He had more texts from Frank. They made him nervous to think about, but he figured he might as well read about the rest of Frank’s espionage. He picked up his phone and scrolled through the texts.

Frank: she asked why you only sent your regards to her and not the rest of us and I said idk you’re special to him ig

Frank: is that ok

Frank: ok your rival is finally here

Frank: hes late

Frank: bye for now

Frank: ok so the date’s over.

Frank: I have no conclusions

Frank: Akko wants to talk to you

Andrew stared at his ceiling and cursed internally before picking up his phone to respond to Frank.

Andrew: Context

Andrew: Now

Frank must have been away from his phone, and he never had his ringer on after a traumatic time it went off in class. Andrew didn’t keep his ringer on either, learning from Frank’s mistakes, and normally he wouldn’t mind it. But now, he was trapped in suspense. His situational awareness was failing him. There was nothing he could gain from Frank’s few words on a screen. He couldn’t analyze anything. Oh, he wished he had been there. He wished he had been there, with her, instead of Billy. But that was beside the point. Andrew called upon sheer intuition alone to decipher the meaning, and he got nothing.

“Agh.”

He stared at his ceiling. It was a nice celling, a high one. It was the sort of celling the movie protagonists wake up and don’t recognize. Like in Roman Holiday, except less fancy. Andrew and Frank had watched a bunch of Audrey Hepburn movies one day when they were bored. They were on a half-hearted mission to watch old-fashioned movies. Andrew’s favorite had been How To Steal a Million. He liked plans. Especially convoluted ones. But he couldn’t plan if he didn’t have information. Frank’s response had finally come.

Frank: she seemed mad.

Frank: she was just talking to billy and then when she and Lotte left she came over to me and said to tell you she wanted to talk to you

Andrew cursed aloud. She was mad at him. The thought was almost too much to bear. But she wanted to talk to him, and he could at least oblige her request. He couldn’t say no to her, no matter how much he wanted to save his neck. He had seen Akko irritated at him before, but never actually angry. Her anger had always been sort of a joke to him, because he knew she didn’t take it seriously either. But maybe she was really angry now. He sat in town, waiting for her, until she came.

“Hey, Andrew.”

“Hey. Now tell me. What have I done this time.”

“I just wanted to say please don’t threaten Billy.”

“Ah… that.”

“It isn’t necessary. You don’t need to be protective like that.”

Andrew debated the next step. Should he blindly agree or speak freely? He made his choice. “I’m sorry, Akko, but I just don’t like him. He’s disrespectful and it worries me.”

“Why don’t you like him? There’s nothing bad about him!”

“How do you know? You hardly know him.”

“Yeah, but I’m getting to know him, so don’t scare him off!”

“I’m not trying to scare him off. I just wanted to give him fair warning that if he hurts you I will be angry. And vengeful. I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, believe me. But something about him bothers me, and I don’t want to have to say I told you so. I just- don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“I appreciate that, but you really don’t have to get involved. Please. Just stay out of my relationship.”

Please, I don’t want to fight with you. I only wanted to fight for you. I just wanted to help. Andrew felt like his heart was imploding in on itself. Guilt, hurt pride, frustration, heartbreak and yearning were all falling down on top of one another. He hadn’t thought he would ever feel this way because of someone who made him so happy. But it wasn’t just happiness, when she was around his emotions were just intense. Multiplied tenfold were his happiness, but also his pain that she didn’t feel the same way he did. That was the normal way things were, and in an abnormal situation such as this, it was so much worse.

“I’m sorry.” Andrew hung his head. He sounded truly unhappy.

She felt bad for him. “It’s okay.”

She sat down next to him. He looked at her and managed to smile. “No, really. I’m sorry. If you’re happy, why should I mind?” 

There were times when Andrew didn’t keep his secret, times when he simply acted as he really wanted to. He was telling the truth here, in the wrong context, but it was still the truth. The same statement could apply whether she knew how he felt about her or not. Akko smiled, but Andrew wasn’t done talking.

“…Are you? Happy?”

She thought for a moment. “Yeah.”

Andrew’s smile betrayed the pain in his eyes. Akko could see it, but she didn’t want to ask questions. She didn’t think he would want to discuss it. “Good, then. Are you going to see him soon?”

“Yeah, tomorrow.”

“Great.”

“Are you okay? You look sort of pained.”

“I’m fine.”

She sighed. “I was pretty mad there, but the whole situation is actually kinda funny. Threatening my boyfriend is like a brotherly thing to do. Like an overprotective brother in a tv show.”

“…”

She continued talking. “Or like a dad… but with a shotgun.”

He couldn't suffer much more of this. “How about a friend.”

“That works too.”

Andrew felt a little defeated. But if this was the way it was going to be, he could live with it. If Akko viewed him as a friend or some sort of family member, that was alright. It wasn’t really, of course, but he could manage. All he wanted was to be a part of her life, but he couldn’t help dreaming of more. He wrote these feelings into a new letter.

Dear Miss Kagari,

I told you today that I just want you to be happy. This, of course, is true. And I wish I could just let go and watch you be happy with someone else without it hurting the way that this does, but I can’t. I can’t control my heart. But it makes me so happy to see you smile. That’s what I want, but it isn’t all I want. I can’t help wanting to be the one who makes you happy. I never thought I’d envy someone like Billy, but I do. He gets to date you, and show how he feels about you openly, and he’s the one who has your heart. Or at least your time. He doesn’t even know how lucky he is.

And I want all that. Everything that he has. It’s so cruelly ironic that I have to keep this secret from you, when you’re the only one I can be myself around. I wish I could tell you, but I don’t want to lose you. So even if I’m only your friend and I don’t get to be anything more, I will gladly accept that. If I told you, there would always be a risk that you’d not only reject me, but that my confession would ruin our friendship as a whole. And I can’t take that chance. Losing you (even if I’ll never really have you) would end me. You’re all I have, and being near you is all I care about.

Akko, I don’t have much hope anymore.

He paused after the last line. These things always happened when he was writing letters. He didn’t plan them out beforehand, and sometimes the truth just spilled out onto the page before he had even thought about it. He left the sentence isolated, in it’s own line, starting a new paragraph to continue the thought. He wasn’t sure how to fully express it, but he tried.

I can’t say that I ever did, really. I never expected you to love me. But now it’s certain. I am going to spend the rest of my life as your friend, and only that. But it’s the best that I can wish for. And it’s enough for me. And yet, it isn’t. It will always be there, nagging at me. It isn’t enough. There’s nothing I can do about it, though. So I’ll be satisfied with what we have. I’ll try my best to be alright like this. And I am. As long as I’m around you, I’ll be okay. But maybe never content.

Yours, Andrew

He finished the letter, and he didn’t want to reread it. He folded it and placed it underneath it’s several companions in his desk.

______

Hello, my dear readers. I have an important announcement

As summer ends and my life gets busier, I don't have as much time to write so I want my stockpile of chapters to last longer. Thus, I'm going to switch from posting twice a week to once. Instead of Tuesdays and Fridays, I will post on only Tuesdays, because Fridays have enough going for them. Thanks for reading this fanfiction and this announcement!!!

Chapter 7: Love in the time of lawsuits

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Warning: someone is kissed without their consent
(This is pretty tame as far as stuff you have to warn people over go, but I figured I should give a heads-up because this kind of stuff makes me very angry and I don’t know what sort of effects it would have on others)

____

It was Sunday afternoon at Luna Nova, and the witches were sitting in the lunchroom, crowding around Akko, who had a story to tell. This was the sight Amanda was greeted with when she walked in and stood down across from her friend, hovering above Jazminka, who was enthralled in what Akko was saying. (And still managing to eat.)

“What’s going on?”

Lotte, who was sitting beside Akko, looked up to answer Amanda’s question. “Akko’s telling the story of her date today.”

Sucy chimed in. “It was a disaster.”

Akko was moving through her tale with an angry intensity. She was still worked up from whatever had happened that day. “So I told him that I had talked to Andrew, and he started to get all worried which was kind of annoying. He tried to tell me to stay away from Andrew because he’s scared of him and possessive of me but like- bruh. I’ve known Andrew way longer than he has and I don’t think he’s scary. And also, I’ve known Andrew way longer than I’ve known Billy and I’m not about to throw away a friendship over him. Andrew is one of my best friends and-“

(Everyone at that table was one of Akko’s best friends. One would think she wouldn’t be able to maintain so many close friendships and value everyone equally, but somehow she did. Making people feel special was a skill of hers.)

Diana interjected. “Wait. He told you not to be friends with Andrew?”

“Yeah. …Diana, don’t give me that look.”

“I’m kidding. I wouldn’t actually agree with something like that.”

“Good.”

“So anyway. I start to go on the little rant I went on just now, but he wouldn’t let me talk. I think he was just trying to keep us from arguing. So I stop talking because he says he gets it. And we just sit in silence for a little bit. And then he asks if he can kiss me and I try to say no but that- that-, uh, that that kisses me before I can even answer and I-“

Everyone cut Akko off with an outburst of outrage.

“NOPE. He’s a nope. Dump him.”

“Well, I never!”

“Please just throw the whole man away.”

“So how did you kill him? I hope it was painful~”

“How terribly undignified!”

“So he asked for consent, but he didn’t wait for it? His train of thought doesn’t add up.“

“Red flag!!”

“So many red flags.”

“All the red flags!”

“That raises more red flags than communism,” Amanda said at the end of the clamor, “And I’m about to go full McCarthy on that [unsavory character].”

Akko continued her story. “I don’t know what that means. And Sucy, no I didn’t kill him.” She smirked through her anger and unhappiness. “Don’t worry, though. He got what was coming to him.”
Lotte put a hand on Akko’s shoulder. “That’s so awful!”

Akko sighed. “Yeah. It was a pretty terrible experience.” She snapped out of her sadness and continued with anger, a notch louder than before. “I mean, my first kiss and it’s wasted on him!! I wanted it to be special and it’s not even someone I like!! And now I can’t get that experience back and I’m so mad!!”

Hannah tried to console her, and Barbara followed.

“Don’t worry, it isn’t a real kiss.”

“Yeah, that definitely doesn’t count.”

Akko deflated. “Yeah, I guess. But still. I did not want to be kissed by him. And he went and did it anyway! I’m so angry at him!! And then afterwards he said it was okay because he asked.”

Everyone grimaced. “Red flags, I know. But it doesn’t matter now, because I dumped him on the spot.”

Lotte clapped. “Yes, Akko!! I’m so happy for you!! You’re lucky to be rid of him!”

Amanda scoffed. “Guess he's the next person's problem.”

Akko smiled devilishly. “On the contrary, Amanda, I don’t think anyone will be dating him for a while…”

“Wait… what did you do to him.”

__

It was late enough in the year that the teachers at Appleton considered it warm enough to send the students outside for break. So, on Monday morning, the majority of the lads were standing out by the athletic fields. A few of them, including Andrew and his friends, were playing discus. A few were watching, many more were spaced out on the field, chatting in small groups or playing football or spikeball or however else they chose to amuse themselves.

Andrew had just hurled a discus across the small gravel semi-circle that was the discus court. Frank marveled at the distance of the throw.

“Hey, that’s pretty good!”

“Thanks.”

Rupert jogged over to where the discus had landed and scooped it up for himself to throw. He returned to the throwing point.

“Yeet!”

The discus landed with a thud. George squinted at it. “That’s okay… still not as far as Andrew’s.”

Sean started out to retrieve it, but his turn never came. There was a commotion on the field, uncontrollable cachinnations were bursting forth from the scattered group. Andrew strode out to see what the matter was, and his friends followed like lost baby ducks. When they reached the middle of the crowd, Andrew immediately saw what was so funny. There, with a blush that rivaled his hair, stood Billy Wickham, with the ears of a pig. Andrew’s friends all began laughing, and Andrew tried to hold back a smirk. The schadenfreude was tempting, but Billy had enough people laughing at him already. Andrew stepped forward, and the crowd quieted slightly as he spoke.

“Tell me. What exactly did you do to make Miss Kagari angry?”

“None of your business. How’d you even know it was her, anyway? You’re not involved.”

“Call it personal experience.”

Andrew addressed the crowd, un-condescending, completely serious. “Let’s not mock him too much, everyone. It would seem he has enough on his plate.”

Billy yelled at him. “Don’t you dare be noble! Don’t assume I need you to save me! I can handle this on my own!”

Andrew looked at Billy, and though the crowd was there, no one really saw the glint in his eye. But Billy did, and it struck him to the core. That glint showed just how far he was willing to go for Akko, and the things he was willing to do. He was holding back. The anger in his eyes was an unspoken threat.

“Whatever you did to hurt her, I think she’s gotten her revenge. If I didn’t pity you, Wickham, I too would have mine. Good luck finding a witch in this area who isn’t too loyal to Akko to undo that.”

Andrew turned and walked away, and his friends and a few more hangers-on followed him. The crowd dissipated after that. Billy was red with rage, and Andrew had never been so proud of Akko. The bell rang for class, and after the initial confusion of figuring out whose jacket was whose in the pile they had left them in next to the discus court, Andrew’s friends went their separate ways to their separate classes.

That afternoon after class, the initial rush of Akko’s revenge had worn off, and she just felt down. Neither Sucy, nor Lotte, nor Akko had anything to do, so they were all sitting around. Sucy was reading a coffee table book of mushroom photography that she had bought in town. Lotte was rereading her favorite volume of night fall, admiring the shipbuilding. Akko wasn’t doing anything, just sitting on her bunk and looking about the room. It was sunny, and warm. The people she loved were here, and she was generally happy in this dorm. But now, she felt sad. Did she really put her stupid relationship over her friends’ feelings?

“Hey, Lotte?”

“Yeah, Akko?”

“I’m really sorry.”

“For what?”

“For going and dating Billy even though you were against it. I should have listened. To you too, Sucy.”

“It’s okay.” Lotte climbed down from her bunk and sat next to Akko. “You can do what you want. But I think you learned your lesson.”

“Ah… yeah. I’ve completely changed my philosophy on dating.”

“Oh? What’s your new philosophy?”

“Well, like you’ve said before, I don’t want to date someone for the sake of having a boyfriend. From now on, I’m going to date people that I’m sure I have feelings for. And only people that I already have a good relationship with friendship-wise. But more than that, like an actual emotional connection. I never really connected with Billy at all.”

“That’s a good philosophy to have.”

“Yeah. I don’t want to date again unless I have someone I really love. I want it to be that important.”

Sucy looked over. “So you’re not going to date anyone unless they’re the right person for you? How will you know?”

“Ehhh… I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

If you come to it.”

“Sucy! I’m sure Akko will find someone.”

“We must not be talking about the same Akko, because no one would want to date our Akko.”

“That’s not true! Billy did!”

“And look where that got you.”

Akko sighed. “Thanks, I was trying not to think about that.”

Lotte patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Akko. The next person you date will be better.”

“I sure hope so. But I don’t think I’ll date for a while. I wanna focus on my dream.”

“That’s a pretty admirable goal.”

Akko flopped onto her back. “Gee, I’ve got a lot of apologizing to do.”

“Really? To who?”

“Everyone who told me not to date him. And… and Andrew. I really need to apologize to him.”

“Why?”

“I yelled at him for giving Billy some sort of warning… He had a bad feeling about him just like the rest of you and I gave him such a hard time for it. He was right all along.”

Lotte laughed. “I bet he’ll be happy to know he was right.”

“Yeah. He’ll probably gloat about it a lot. But I still need to apologize.”

An unexpected knock came at the door. Akko got up to open it.

“Good afternoon, Miss Kagari.”

Akko was surprised at the visitors. “Headmistress Holbrooke? Professor Finnelan? Ch- Professor Chariot? What are you guys doing here?”

Finnelan was annoyed at Akko’s lack of manners, but she didn’t reprimand her. The headmistress was speaking. “Miss Kagari, can we have a word with you?”

“Sure. Why?”

“You have some… unexpected visitors. It’s a rather serious matter, so you need to come with me.”

The teachers led Akko to Headmistress Holbrooke’s office. Inside, there were some rather unexpected visitors. The Chairman of Appleton, a man in a suit who Akko didn’t recognize, Billy with the ears she had given him, and the least expected of all, Andrew. Akko was confused. Her teachers looked solemn, and Chariot looked disappointed and a little scared. Headmistress Holbrooke spoke again, trying to clarify the situation for Akko.

“Miss Kagari, these gentlemen are here to talk to you about-“

The chairman cut her off, rudely. Akko began to dislike him more than she already did. “I’ll explain, madam. Young witch, you are in a lot of trouble. Allow me to introduce one of Appleton Academy’s lawyers, Mr. Mouska. And I think you know Mr. Wickham and Mr. Hanbridge.”

That’s Lord Hanbridge, Andrew wanted to say. Akko grew flustered, ignoring the hand that Mr. Mouska had extended for her to shake. “What? Why is there a lawyer? What’s going on?”

The chairman started to speak, but Andrew cut him off. There was a lot of cutting off today. “Chairman Blackwell, may I explain the situation to Miss Kagari?”

“She should already know the situation she’s in. And it’s time for her to face the consequences, as well as you, Andrew.“

Andrew gestured to Akko. “She’s clearly confused and scared. You can’t talk to her like that when she doesn’t even know what’s going on. And if she and I are to be punished together, I think I’m entitled to confer with her first.”

“Fine then. I’ll be merciful. You have five minutes.”

Andrew approached Akko, took hold of her arm, and led her toward the door. “Let’s talk in the hall.”

“Andrew, what’s happening? Why is there a lawyer?”

“I don’t have a lot of time to explain, but pretty much, Appleton wants to sue you for what you did to Billy’s ears.”

“What?! That’s a personal matter!!”

“I know it’s a personal matter. That’s why I’m angry. The chairman’s just getting involved because he hates magic and he’s out to get the club I founded. I’m sorry, Akko, I think I made things worse.”

“How?”

“Because I was insolent when I heard what was going on. And because Blackwell’s been looking for a reason to shut down the club and this is what he’s chosen. See, the school- at the command of the chairman- is suing you, and Luna Nova, on behalf of Billy, for a number of reasons. I’ll explain the rest later but I promised to vouch for you because I know you wouldn’t do something like that without a reason. We don’t have a lot of time so I need you to tell me what happened.”

“You were right about him.”

Andrew inhaled sharply. “Please tell me he didn’t do anything to harm you.”

“I’m fine. But I broke up with him. After everything that happened.”

Akko told Andrew the story. He had been agitated before, but he was solemn now, steaming with anger. “That- that cad.”

She was on the verge of tears, from both anger and fear. “I can’t believe he’d want to sue me- What am I going to do? I could get expelled for this and then what? My life here- my dreams are on the line, how do I fix this? I never should have cursed him. It was such a stupid mistake.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder, trying his best to comfort her. “Hey. Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”

She looked up, and he smiled at her. “You can?”

“I don’t know if I can, but I promise that somehow I will. I won’t let anything bad happen to you, Akko.”

“Thanks, Andrew.”

“Don’t mention it. Besides, we’re in this together.” Andrew’s tone changed to sarcasm. “They’re blaming me for putting poor defenseless Billy into the path of an evil, dangerous, enchantress such as yourself.”

“Hmph. It’s so annoying.”

Chairman Blackwell stuck his head out of the headmistress’s door. “Time’s up.”

The chairman was sitting at Headmistress Holbrooke’s desk. The headmistress herself, attempting to regain some sense of authority, was standing next to it. She would have stood behind it, but she didn’t want to stand behind the chairman and make it seem like they were allies. They most definitely weren’t. She didn’t know what Akko did to cause a lawsuit for Luna Nova, but she didn’t think she would do something that truly deserved that punishment. Not on purpose, at least. She had already half-decided to fight the lawsuit on principle, but she wanted to see what Akko had to say. Akko opened her mouth to tell her side of the story. She was nervous, but her bravery shone through more than her fear.

“I wasn’t given an opportunity to say why I gave Billy the ears of a pig, and I don’t think he ever told you the truth either. But like Andrew said, I had a good reason. He kissed me without my permission, and I was really upset, so I used a harmless spell on him.”

“That’s not true. I asked.”

“But I didn’t say yes!”

Billy didn’t have an excuse for that, but the Chairman had a retaliation to Akko’s speech. “Harmless, you say? Well, this poor child has been subject to bullying and humiliation. The emotional distress that you caused, witch, has been immense. And the good reason you claim to have seems to be simply revenge- which is never the answer.”

His tone was so saccharine that in a different context, it would be taken for irony. And ironic it was, since the chairman had never before had qualms with bullying, humiliation, and exacting revenge, having done those things himself in the past. Andrew decided it was time to step in, so he stepped forward and began to speak.

“What Miss Kagari did was wrong, yes. But what Mr. Wickham did to provoke her was far worse. Chairman, I don’t think you should be excusing or defending his behavior. You want to sue Miss Kagari, but in my opinion, she has a far stronger case than you do. This is not a battle Appleton can win, sir. Even if you did somehow manage to win the case, the publicity would be terrible. And that’s only considering the legal angle. Ethically, it would be wrong to punish Miss Kagari for an act that is entirely the fault of Mr. Wickham.” Andrew looked directly at the teachers, hoping they would understand what he wanted them to do. “I would not blame the administrators here at Luna Nova if they were to choose to sue our establishment over all this trouble.”

Headmistress Holbrooke took the hint, and nodded. “Yes, I can see how we perhaps should choose that course.”

The chairman changed his tune when he was the one being sued. He was already under fire from the media for his anti-witch policies, among a myriad of other things. A hit like this could destroy his career. Headmistress Holbrooke was bluffing, of course. Luna Nova did not have the funds for any legal procedures. But the chairman didn’t know that. He frantically looked about the room, trying to find a friendly eye. His allies were not much help. Billy was hanging his head, and the lawyer was solemn. “He’s right, sir. This type of situation is not taken lightly.”

“I-I-I… I had not heard the witch’s side of the story…” He turned to Billy, placing all of the blame on him. “You will be punished harshly, young man. You should not have let me go this far. You’ve humiliated Appleton today, boy.”

Everyone in the room knew who had really humiliated Appleton. And it did not exactly help Chairman Blackwell’s reputation to throw Billy under the bus, either. But the chaos would not leave that room. Wisely choosing not to humiliate himself further, Chairman Blackwell pandered and pleaded, bending over backwards to keep Appleton out of disgrace while also charging further punishments to Billy’s ever-lengthening scroll. Akko had changed Billy’s ears back to normal as a courtesy, (enjoying the power as she did) but he still had a mountain of problems ahead of him. The chairman even offered to settle right then and there, an offer Headmistress Holbrooke declined.

“I won’t press charges, and I won’t accept your money this time, Chairman Blackwell. Just make sure it doesn’t ever happen again, and our two schools don’t need to be in conflict.”

It was cathartic for her to be the one in power, after he had talked over her and stolen her desk. He bowed several times and left, taking his entourage with him with their tails between their legs (Literally, in Billy’s case, considering his uniform). Andrew stayed behind to talk to Akko. He explained the whole story, how Billy had been yelling about the danger of witches in their club meeting that day and the chairman had overheard, seen an opportunity to badmouth magic, and ran with it.

“I really don’t know how to thank you.”

“There’s no need. I told you I’d handle it.”

She sighed, laughing. “Why is it always you handling it? I feel like whenever we crash into each other, you’re always cleaning up the mess I leave behind.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

“But really. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention. Akko, I promise that if you ever get into a situation you can’t fix with your magic or your charm, I’ll get you out of it. No matter what.”

“That’s kind of a solemn vow to take… that’s another thing you do. Saying serious things out of serious contexts.”

“I think it’s in context. And I mean it. Please, count on me. I’m in your debt, anyway.”

“For what?”

He smiled enigmatically. “A million things.”

Sensing a pause in their conversation, Headmistress Holbrooke approached Andrew to thank him, stopping Akko from asking him what he meant. She shook his hand. “Thank you, Lord Hanbridge.”

“There’s no need to thank me.” Andrew was getting uncomfortable with all these thanks. He didn’t mind recognition for his accomplishments, but he didn’t think standing up for Akko was an accomplishment. It was just a matter of right and wrong.

Headmistress Holbrooke ignored him. “You’ve saved Luna Nova a large amount of trouble and money today.” She sighed. “Even with the surge in support for magic, we still struggle with finances, and I don’t think we could afford a lawsuit.”

“Please, don’t mention it. You’d win, anyway. I was just trying to help Miss Kagari.”

“Well, you certainly accomplished that.”

Andrew bowed to everyone present. “I should be going. I need to get back to school.” He sighed. “This is going to be an uncomfortable car ride… ah well.”

“Andrew, wait!”

Akko ran up to him and whispered into his ear. “I was gonna give him donkey ears, but that’s kind of our thing.”

“True, true.”

“See, I don’t give donkey ears to just anyone.”

“Ha. I’m honored to hear that.”

“As you should be.”

Andrew left, and everyone stood around in silence for a little while. Akko spoke first, inching toward the door.

“So… can I leave now?”

Professor Finnelan answered. “Yes, Miss Kagari. You may go.”

Headmistress Holbrooke stopped her. “If I may suggest, maybe try not to talk too much about what happened here? I think we should keep it under wraps.”

Akko nodded as she left. Chariot walked with Akko. “I’ll walk you back to your room.”

“Thanks.”

They left Headmistress Holbrooke’s office. Chariot sighed. “Wow, that was tense.”

“Yeah.” Akko seemed tense too, and anxious, but also relieved, and solemn. “I’m so sorry, Professor Chariot.”

“You don’t need to be sorry.”

“But I’ve already caused so much trouble to the school. And this could have been so much worse than it was. I shouldn’t have messed with Billy’s ears.”

Chariot frowned pensively. “I think he got exactly what he deserved. And hey, don’t worry about what might have happened. The fact of the matter is that everything is fine. You’re not in trouble.”

“Yeah, thanks to Andrew.”

“You should write him a thank you note.”

“You sound like a mom.”

“W-what? I’m not a mom- I’m young and hip and all that!!”

Akko and Chariot had left the teachers to sigh in relief. Back in the office, Professor Finnelan and Headmistress Holbrooke were discussing the day’s events.

Finnelan’s face was blank. “Thank heaven Miss Kagari has friends in high places.”

Headmistress Holbrooke took back her seat at her desk. “We are in a great debt to the Hanbridge family.”

“Indeed.”

The headmistress, with considerable effort pulled out an old-fashioned phone and a wheel of business cards from one of her desk drawers. “Well, I suppose I’d better call the count. He deserves to be very proud of his son, and I don’t think he will hear of his actions in a favorable light if I don’t tell him before Mr. Blackwell does.”

Paul was working when his phone rang, but he answered it anyway. Not many people called him directly, and the paperwork he was filing wasn’t very interesting, so he put down his pencil to see what was going on. On the other end of the line was Miranda Holbrooke, of all people.

“Good afternoon, Count Hanbridge.”

Paul sighed. She was probably calling to ask for donations again. “Afternoon, Headmistress Holbrooke.”

“Luna Nova is in a great debt to your family, so I’m calling to offer thanks.”

“Oh? What’s happened? I don’t recall anything of note that we may have done.”

“It was just this afternoon.” She explained the whole story, placing special emphasis on everything Andrew had done for them. “He singlehandedly saved us from a great deal of trouble. You ought to be very proud of him.”

“Yes, yes, very proud. But please, pardon me, the chairman did what?”

“Exactly what I told you. He threatened to sue us over one of Appleton’s students having been cursed by one of our students after he forcefully kissed her against her permission.”

“That bloody idiot- pardon my language.”

She laughed. “You’re pardoned.”

“I will have to have a word with Minister Blackwell. Actions like that could cost him his job.”

“Oh, I don’t mean to cause him any trouble. The point of my call is that you should be proud of Andrew. He’s a born lawyer.”

“Actually, he’s a statesman.”

“In any event, you ought to be proud of him.”

“Ah… Thank you, Headmistress. Goodbye.”

He hung up. Headmistress Holbrooke was disappointed. She turned to the other teachers. “He seems to have missed the point.”

Notes:

Rereading this months after writing it, Billy was definitely influenced by my ex. Rip.

Chapter 8: Running up that hill

Notes:

Here I am having posted this chapter noticing a LOT of problems with my description of Andrew's friends. I accidentally wrote from left in the hypothetical photo, when it is really from right. (it took me a long time to learn my lefts and rights as a kid okay) I thought I should post that here since this is a chapter with them in it. I'm going to go back and edit the original key so new readers will know what's going on, so look out for that.
Apologies.

Chapter Text

By the time I post this, I will have been editing this yesterday. And today, which will be yesterday tomorrow which is your today, is Lotte's birthday. So happy Lotte's birthday yesterday, or today-tomorrow.

- A time traveler 

(But not really, because I respect the space-time continuum)

____________

It was finals week at Appleton, and everyone was dying. Even Andrew, who could normally stay afloat in stressful situations, always seemed tired and a little off. At lunch after the first of the exams, no one could say anything that wasn’t a complaint about how hard it had been or how badly they had failed. Each voice was slurred with sleepiness, or lilting with a precarious loss of hope. Rupert was groaning his tired complaints with his head facedown on the table.

“Dude… I forgot… what even is the vocative subjunctive transitive verb.”

“That’s too many -ives… you can’t have that many it’s not allowed.”

“Latin shouldn’t be allowed. It’s a dead language anyway.”

From the elevation of his head resting on the table, Frank looked up at Andrew, expecting him to launch into his usual speech about the usefulness of Latin, but he didn’t. Andrew was just absentmindedly staring into space.

“I wanna die. Magister Richards is gonna be so ashamed of us.”

“He tried his best… it isn’t his fault we can’t pay attention in class.”

Sean poked George. “Side note, is George dead?”

George snored. 

“Guess not then.”

Frank sighed. “George has the right idea. They say you gotta be well-rested for these tests you know.” He let out an unstable laugh. “I didn’t get any sleep last night because I stayed up studying until my alarm went off and I was so tired I didn’t even learn anything.”

“Frank you should sleep. You’re gonna fail. What class do you have next?”

“Biology.”

Everyone at the table who was still awake or mentally there grimaced. 

“Oof, man.”

“We’re gonna miss you, buddy.”

“Tell Lotte I loved her. But also like, don’t. Because I haven’t said it yet and it’s kind of important? So just tell her I like her a lot and I would have told her I loved her if I don’t die today. Actually, I think that’ll be my solemn promise of the day. If I make it out alive, I’m going to tell Lotte I love her. Hold me to it, guys.”

“You are not making it out alive. Not with Biology.”

Andrew looked over. Ah, Frank thought. So he is listening. He spoke slowly, his voice conveying his own mental lethargy. He always seemed sharper than this, but Frank still thought there was at least a little fight in him, still. He was the only one who could hold onto it during finals week. “He’ll live. It’s just Biology.”

“My guy. It’s punnet squares. He’s dying. He’s going extinct. Natural selection. Darwin awards.” 

“You clearly don’t fully understand genetics. Punnet squares are easy.”

Sean slammed his face into the table. “But DIHYBRID CROSSES.”

His outburst woke George, who contributed to the conversation. “I had Bio last block. I couldn’t remember the symbols for the blood types? But Ms. Mendel couldn’t help me, because it’s a test. So she just kept giving me vague clues. I think she felt bad for me. So I just wrote down AA and BB like the genotypes normally are. There’s no way it’s correct. I struggled so much. And the worst part? Everyone else in the class had already finished and she let them go outside? And they all came back in at the end of class, when I’m still doing the test, and they’re talking about the answers and she’s like ‘someone’s still working’ and everyone looked at me and I just wanted to die. I still want to die. I’m going to fail.”

George never talked this much. Tiredness and hopelessness brought everyone’s guards down. Andrew’s as well. Which is why he wasn’t speaking. His exams didn’t bother him, but the energy from the rest of Appleton was affecting his mood. He couldn’t help but pick up on the exhaustion and absorb it a little. The bell rang all too soon, and everyone scattered to their next class, wishing each other good luck. Andrew had History, which wasn’t near the hallway of laboratories, but it was in the same wing, so he and Frank walked together.

“Hey, how are things going with Akko?”

“Eh… I think they’re going pretty well.”

Frank noticed that Andrew was smiling absentmindedly as he walked down the hall. Things had changed so much since Andrew had met Akko, he had never smiled before. She had changed him so much, and Frank was glad. He had been trying to get Andrew to be less serious for years, and Akko had done it with barely any effort. He understood why Andrew loved her so much, because she was the first person to make him truly happy.

Andrew hadn’t told Frank about how he helped Akko out with the lawsuit. He thought he should keep it quiet, and he also wanted to keep their interactions to himself. His heart was still fluttering from how she had whispered in his ear, how she had thanked him, how he was able to serve her. And while Frank might tell Andrew if a thing like that happened to him, Andrew wasn’t used to sharing such anecdotes. He wasn’t the type to come running to tell his friends if something happened with his crush. 

“That’s good. Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

“…I am going to do absolutely nothing.”

“um… run that by me again? Sorry, it might be the exams but my brain can’t comprehend.”

“I’m not going to do anything. I’m just going to be normal. Act as if I don’t love her.”

Frank laughed knowingly. “Dude, there is no way that’s possible.”

“Why not?”

“Because things aren’t normal for you. Whether you like it or not, you do love her, and that’s gonna seep into your actions unless you’re crazy good at hiding it.”

“I’ll take that challenge.”

“Maybe, but you won’t win it.”

They split ways, heading to their classes. 

“See you. Good luck out there, dude.”

“Farewell. Godspeed.”

Since the students were all fried mentally, most of the teachers and coaches were being as merciful to them as they could. At track practice that day, no one had to run, but Andrew was running laps around the track anyway. The other track team members were sitting around, some watching him run. 

Why are you running. Like seriously why is he running.”

“Dang, is that his fourth lap?”

“That’s a mile. And no one’s even making him do this.”

“I swear, Andrew’s living purpose is to flex on everyone else.”

“No… I think that’s just how he operates. He doesn’t care about the rest of us enough to flex.”

The assessment was true. Andrew did not care what people thought of his unnecessary running, he did it because he liked it. And he had a million things to think about- Akko, primarily, of course, but also the scare of the lawsuit, the exams, and the threats to his club. Even Andrew was beginning to question whether it should be open. Had he endangered Akko by staring it? He felt awful for accidentally bringing her and Billy together. He had partially started the club so that Appleton students would be able to learn how to treat women and girls with respect, but was that happening? Was it just causing more conflict because they didn’t know how to behave? But he had to keep the club open, he couldn’t admit defeat now. Ah well, he’d think about that next fall. The end was nigh, or the end of the school year at least. Andrew was keenly aware of this, as it was his metaphorical finish line. Just make it to the end of the year, he kept telling himself. Make it to the summer and we can sort all this out. Andrew didn’t have many summer plans he was obligated to attend, so he had made a loose one for himself. He wanted to go somewhere secluded and think things through. Sort of a sit on a cliff and look dramatically at the sea and contemplate life kind of vacation. He needed the self-care, and he was too tired of dealing with people. Except Akko. She gave him energy. But that was Akko’s nature, she was like a sunbeam, or a shooting star, illuminating everything in his life. He liked the way he felt around her. He liked the person he was when she was there. But she wasn’t there quite enough, she could never be there enough for him. He wanted to spend all the time he had with her, all the life he had left by her side. It was like everyone was translucent, and Akko was a light shining through them all and helping everyone who knew her to glow. He could probably put that into a letter. He found himself planning them all the time, thinking of her every waking minute and in his dreams. She haunted him, and he needed some time to figure that out. He finished his fifth or sixth lap - he had lost count- and returned to the area where the rest of the team was sitting. He found his water bottle and drank half of it in one gulp. One of his teammates looked up at him. 

“Why are you running, Andrew? We don’t have to.”

“I’m aware of that,” he said in between heavy breaths. He would have snapped his answer, but he didn’t have the energy. He flopped down on the ground and closed his eyes from exhaustion, trying to catch his breath. He’d be sore later. Good. The rest of him could match his heart and mind. He had been running more often as of late. The grounds surrounding his house were good for it. Running was misery, but Andrew liked the feeling he got from enduring it. Exercise was a good way to spend his energy, and it helped him sleep. He needed the advantage of physical exhaustion over his ever-active mind. It didn’t work most nights, but it helped. Andrew hoped he would be able to rest more over the summer, but he wasn’t counting on it. In the final days of the year, he always found himself reflecting on it's events. This one had been interesting, for sure. His many accomplishments flittered through his mind, as well as the massive changes in his life. Everything was different. When he looked back on the person he was this time last year, he barely recognized himself. Andrew had experienced a whole new world of emotion, adventure, and pain. And he knew there was more ahead. Suddenly feeling restless, he decided to run another few laps before practice ended.

There were still three more weeks of school at Luna Nova, and their finals were a bit more spread out. Akko was doing relatively well. Relative, of course, to her scores from earlier in the year. She hadn’t flushed any professors or exploded any classrooms (yet), and for Akko, that was cause for celebration. As they did more often than not, during their lunch break, her friends were all hanging out on the lawn where she had learned to fly. 

“How are you all doing today?”

Sucy answered first. “Ehh… normal.”

Everyone echoed some variation of fine or good. Akko continued. “Well, I’m doing great. Because I haven’t caused any major disasters in my exams yet! I might even pass all of them!!”

“That’s great, Akko!”

“Wow, the times must be changing. Akko isn’t causing disasters anymore?”

“The times are changing, Amanda! From now on I won’t cause any chaos!”

“Aw, but chaos is part of your personality!”

Hannah chimed in. “Chaos is Akko’s one character trait.”

Barbara added on. “Akko without some sort of calamity is like a witch without magic!”

“Which, coincidentally, is also Akko.”

They both laughed. Diana thought it cute, their banter. They were in tune enough to banter like that. She still hadn’t told them what she knew, even though she had encountered even more clues that they were together. Holding hands when they thought she wasn’t looking, whispering, suspicious kissing noises, the signs were abundant. But Diana still hadn’t said anything. Akko sprung to her feet. “HEY!!! I do so have magic!!”

Diana looked up from her tea. “She’s right, girls. Akko’s magic is greatly improving.”

Chariot and Diana were both spending extra time tutoring Akko, often together. She still had a long way to go to accomplish her dreams, but she was making progress. 

“See? Diana says I’m good at magic. You guys listen to her. And Professor Chariot says I’m getting better too!”

“She’s just being nice.”

Diana checked her watch and stood up. “Lunch is over, everyone.”

They all went to their separate classes. Akko stood up to go, but Diana placed a hand on her shoulder. “Wait a minute, Akko. I need to talk to you.”

“Sure, Diana, what’s up?”

“Have you noticed that Chariot has been flying lately?”

“Wait… yeah. She is flying again! Why didn’t I notice?”

“You’re just oblivious like that. But did she tell you anything about a cure for the Wagandea poison? I can’t imagine any other way she’d be able to fly.”

“No… she hasn’t talked to me about anything like that.”

“She hasn’t told me either. Hm. That’s odd. Well, I’ll see you later.”

They went to class.

Andrew’s friends all survived their exams, and after all the stress of finals week, the week of useless filler before summer break was a welcome change. Every class became study hall, even though the students no longer had homework, which was a sign that the teachers, too, had mentally checked out. The one interesting thing of that everyone received their grades. This was the topic of discussion for Andrew and his friends, sitting on the quad during lunch. Sean read his grades first.

“It’s all B’s…. Wait how did I get a D in Bio?!?!!”

George chimed in. “I got an A minus in Bio… After having B’s all year! Guess the <ahem> 98 I got on the final helped.”

“A 98? Didn’t you forget important details and frantically work on it until you ran out of time?”

He shrugged. “I don’t understand it either, Andrew. Extra credit and a miracle, I guess.”

Sean frowned. “I got a C in bio. At this point I’m too tired to care. What about you, Frank?”

“All B’s except an A minus in history and a C in math. Eh, I’ve been worse.”

Rupert laughed. “STRAIGHT C’S, MY BOYS!!!”

“Oof.”

Andrew’s face pinched in annoyance. “Why are we discussing this? We’ve been actively told not to.”

“C’mon, Andrew, there’s nothing wrong with a little friendly comparison. I think you take the rules too seriously with the whole honor thing you got going on there.”

“Yeah… it’s kinda dumb. No one really cares what the school says.”

“Hah. Or like their ‘values,’ lol.”

“I-“ Andrew was genuinely hurt. “Without values, society would- collapse.” He felt like storming off, but he couldn’t lose his temper like that.

“Don’t worry, Andrew we don’t mean it.”

“Yeah, we like the values.”

Some people though….”

“Rupert! I thought we weren’t gonna tell him about that!”

“Dude. I wasn’t. But you just did.”

“Tell me what. Tell me, George.”

George bit his lower lip nervously. “I- heard Billy Wickham- you know, the guy who had the pig ears- wait, of course you know who Billy is-“

“Just cut to the chase, please.”

Rupert talked instead of George. “George can’t say a mean thing to save his life. Even if it isn’t his own mean thing. You want me to tell it?”

“Sure. It still makes me pretty mad.”

“Ok. So we were standing in the lunch line the other day, and we were behind Billy and his cronies.”

“Dude. Who uses the word ‘cronies.’”

“Shut up, Frank, and let me tell the story. So naturally we’re just chilling in the line and then we hear him say your name.”

George cut in. “So naturally, we eavesdropped.”

Rupert’s story was very interesting to Andrew. He and George had overheard Billy talking about his sense of honor.

“I mean, he just takes it all too seriously. Everyone cheats on quizzes and stuff, and all the other honor council members only join so they can look good on college applications.”

“Yeah. Do you think he knows everyone’s just laughing at him?”

“Hah. We certainly are.”

That wasn’t true. Frank, George, Rupert, and Sean were well-liked and popular, but they were also Andrew’s spies. Through their robust social lives, they funneled information to their leader. Andrew knew everything, and he knew everything that was being said about himself. And neither George nor Rupert had ever heard anyone laugh at Andrew’s respect for the school values. Most people feared him, many admired him, but no one had ever laughed. Until now. Rupert and George exchanged looks, and decided it was time to step in. Rupert clapped a hand over Billy’s shoulder, and Billy turned around slowly. He hadn’t realized Andrew’s friends were behind him.

“Oh sh-“

“Hey, little man. You’re the only one laughing.”

George stepped out from behind Rupert to help. “And I don’t see you doing half of what Andrew accomplishes, so maybe taking the values seriously might be a good idea.”

Billy’s group moved through the lunch line hastily and scampered away. 

“Good talk, kiddos!” Rupert yelled after them.

“Remember to respect your elders!”

Andrew laughed at the story. “Oh, man. I’ll bet that put him in his place. But now I’m going to be forever suspicious that people are laughing. I have little enough faith in this community as is.”

“Don’t worry. That’s the only thing we’ve heard like that.”

“I should hope so. And I hope you taught him a lesson… he clearly doesn’t have much honor. Not after the way he treated… never mind” Andrew remembered the secrecy surrounding the lawsuit. But it was too late. 

“Wait, what?”

“It’s, um, honor council business. Confidentiality and all.”

“Ah okay.” He was surprised that they bought the excuse, but Frank asked him about it later 

“So what was the honor council business that Billy was involved in?” They were sitting in the commons after class, in the interim between academics and athletics. 

“I can’t say.”

“But you always tell me honor council stuff. Or at least some of it.”

“I don’t tell you as much as you think I do. And besides, that might have been a falsehood.”

“Oh? So it’s not honor council?”

“No. Far more serious.”

Frank’s eyebrows went up. “I can’t see how you’d hype it up like that and not tell me.”

Andrew sighed and gave Frank a brief summary of the events. “But you can’t tell anyone.”

“Wow. So you helped her?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I helped.”

“Was she grateful?”

“Yes, but it was my duty to help. I can’t just let the girl I love get sued.”

“Still. You did her a big favor. That will be helpful for you, probably. She probably likes you or at least holds you in pretty high regard.”

“Eh… I didn’t do it for my own benefit. Let’s not talk about it anymore. And don’t tell a soul.”

In the study halls, for lack of something better to do, Andrew worked on a project of his own design. He stood at the printer in the library on one such day, his computer balanced on his hip, watching the sheets of paper be printed in the ever-repetitive noise of the machine. The librarian, a cool librarian who everyone respected, approached to see what was going on, her dog at her heels. Teachers weren’t supposed to bring dogs into school, but the librarian often hid hers behind the front desk. She took one look at the papers and was instantly confused.

“Why are you printing… lines?”

“Sheet music, actually. Blank sheet music.”

“Oh, I should have recognized it.”

In addition to the sheet music, the librarian also recognized Andrew’s determination, and decided not to ask questions. Andrew lingered for a few minutes to pet the librarian’s dog, and then returned to his English class. Mrs. Zbornak glanced up to see who was entering the classroom, not remembering Andrew having left. He didn’t think study hall was worth asking permission to leave. He returned to his desk and opened his computer. Andrew had research to do, questions to ask, and a mysterious gift to arrange. He couldn’t sit idle, even so close to a vacation. 

Beside the endless study halls, there were many assemblies. Though Andrew would never admit it, they all made him sentimental. Now, on the last day of school, the sentiment was at an all-time high. He and Frank walked into the auditorium for the final assembly and took their seats as everyone was filing in.

“Just this assembly, and then we get to leave!”

“You’re right, we don’t have much left. Savor it while you still can.”

“Why would I savor school?”

“Because. It’s school. It’s ending. We’ll be seniors next year, and it will be different. Think of the memories.”

“Haha. Yeah, the memories.” Frank recalled a chain of memories. “Like the time Louis Blackwell got whooped in a duel by a witch?”

“That’s a memory. Very good.”

“Or the time you started a club, and we had to sit around attracting members and you got really mad at a sophomore?”

“That wasn’t too long ago…”

Frank chuckled. “Or the time that same sophomore dated Akko, and-“

“Alright. Enough with the memories. Let more time pass, please.” 

“Fine. I’m just trying to make the point that I’m happy to get out of here. What are you going to do this summer?”

“Barricade myself in my summer home and not talk to anyone for several months, you?”

“…Dude. You good?”

‘Yeah, I’m fine. I just don’t want to deal with people.”

“Are you sure you won’t get lonely?”

“If I get lonely, I’ll talk to the servants.”

“Okay… don’t completely write off being social, though. Summer is the time for fun.”

“Trust me, being alone will be fun.”

“Okay. But still. If you wanna have a party or something, you know who to call.”

The assembly began before Andrew had time to answer. Speeches, performances from the music ensembles, singing the alma mater, a few awards for the seniors, and more speeches went by almost in a blur. Andrew looked about the room. Most of the younger grades looked bored, as did his own. But the seniors were rapt with attention, clearly as sentimental as Andrew himself. It was bittersweet, and he understood. What would it be like to be one of them, next year? What would it be like to leave? Andrew’s life revolved around school, politics, and Akko, he imagined it would be the same with college. But leaving Appleton wasn’t something he could think about now. He still had another year. The assembly ended, and everyone left in chaos. Andrew somehow found himself in a blob with Frank, George, Rupert, and Sean. 

“Men! We’re free!”

The chaos was getting on Andrew’s nerves. Rupert clapped him on the back, and he glared at him before clearing his throat. “Free indeed. I can’t wait to not see any of you.”

“Harsh, dude.”

“It’s the truth.”

Frank looked over at Andrew. “He isn’t kidding, y’all. He’s just gonna leave and hide from us all summer.”

Sean sighed in mock hurt. “Personally, I’m offended. Why don’t you wanna spend time with us, Andrew?” He had to reach up higher than his height to mess up Andrew’s hair jokingly. Andrew was overwhelmed by all this. He stared blankly and intently ahead of himself, unable to form a sentence. George, the other introvert in the group, had some empathy. “Sean?”

“Eh?”

“I think that’s why.”

“Ah. Sorry, dude.”

Andrew composed himself. “Don’t worry about it. No, really, don’t. It just makes the idea of a vacation from you barbarians seem even better.” He grinned, the delicious sting of his mean streak coming through, happy to be part of the group. Maybe he would miss his friends, after all. It was fun, insulting each other. 

“So when are you leaving? Can’t we hang out a little before you flee our society?”

“Eh… maybe a week or two. I have some commitments here.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“That’s none of your concern.”

 

Later, Frank would ask Andrew: “Do your commitments have anything to do with Miss Kagari?”

And Andrew would answer: “Yes.”

_______________________

George's story about the Biology test is my own... it all turned out okay for both myself and George, however. This chapter is 100% based on my own last week of school, in which the first chapter of this fanfiction was written during class. 

Also

Is this the first chapter I have named after a Kate Bush song? Yes. 

Will it be the last? Absolutely not.

Chapter 9: Encounters

Chapter Text

Sorry, this chapter is a little short. It may or may not be filler so that the season finale can be chapter 10. But enjoy the filler.

_______

Akko had been wondering about what Diana had told her ever since their conversation. That Saturday morning, she tried to find Chariot so she could ask her about how she had been flying. She wandered through the hallways of the school, eventually walking out to the lawn out front to see Chariot coming in for a landing. “Professor Chariot!!!!”

“Ah- Oh- hi, Akko!?”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, how are you flying?”

“Ahahah- well, that’s a good question, Akko- um… I really… uh, I need to go!”

She flew off with incredible speed. Akko was left bewildered.

“Huh. That’s suspicious.”

She tried not to think about it and went back to her dorm. Sucy was there, reading.

“Hey, Sucy.” She looked around. “Where’s Lotte?”

“She has a date.”

“Oh, right.”

-

Frank’s summer was off to a good start. He woke up on Saturday afternoon and immediately began preparing for the day’s schedule. All he had was a date with Lotte, but that was very important. Once he was ready, he took a moment to think back on the last week of school. Even though Andrew had told him not to tell anyone about the lawsuit and the surrounding drama, he was still going to discuss it with Lotte. He didn’t keep anything from her. Frank had, in fact, passed his Biology exam, and since he was still alive he was now obligated to tell Lotte he loved her, and he was considering when he would accomplish that. Maybe today? He wasn’t sure. It had been a few months, the timing was probably enough. He didn’t want to be too soon, but he also didn’t want to be too late. And it was the most serious love that Frank had ever felt, so he wanted to take his confession seriously. They met in town, as usual.

“Hi Frank.”

“Good morning, Lotte.”

She took hold of his arm to look at his watch. “It’s not morning.”

“Ah. It feels like morning. I just woke up an hour ago.”

She laughed. “Lucky. You’ve adjusted to summer, I see.”

“Yep! Too bad you guys are still in school.”

“Only one more week, though. We’ve finished almost everything.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.”

Arm in arm, they walked through the streets, neither knowing where to go. Frank tried to address that problem. “You know, we should probably plan these a little better. We always end up just walking around.”

“You’re right. But I like walking around with you.”

She took his hand and his heart briefly short-circuited. “I-I can’t argue with that.”

Dang, Frank thought. I’m really smitten. And he was. Months had gone by and he still felt so fluttery and vulnerable at her every action, even the slightest touch. As if it were the day they met. His initial attraction hadn’t worn off, and he hoped it never would. He squeezed her hand. “This is random, but I’m really happy.”

“Me too. Watching Akko’s relationship fail has really made me thankful for ours.”

“Well, Billy was a scumbag. And neither of us are like him.”

“That’s true.”

“Did you hear about all the chaos about… all that?”

“Yeah. I imagine he was the laughingstock of Appleton for a while.”

“Well yeah, he was, and he still is, but I mean the legal trouble.”

Lotte lowered her voice. “Oh. You heard about that? I thought it was being kept a secret. Akko swore me and Sucy to secrecy.”

“Yeah… come to think of it, I should probably not be talking about this. Andrew told me not to tell anyone, but if you already know…”

“Isn’t it scandalous?”

“Yeah! It’s a shame we can’t spread it around the school, because then Billy would really be ostracized.”

“I’m glad Akko got her revenge. She didn’t deserve to go through so much trouble for it, though. Poor thing. I could tell it was really stressful for her.”

“Yeah. Sure, he can’t live the rest of his life with pig ears. But I think he could find or hire another witch to change them back. And to want to sue Akko and Luna Nova over that is just cruel. She must have been so angry.”

“She was… but it was sweet what Andrew did for her.”

“He didn’t go into detail when he told me that. He just said he helped and that was it.”

“Well, Akko went into more detail… apparently he was there in the first place because he had defended her, and once he heard her side of the story he gave this whole speech and completely flipped things around so that it seemed like Luna Nova was suing Appleton- which we definitely could- and that made the chairman change his attitude.”

“Wow. Of course he did that, that’s such an Andrew thing to do. And especially for Akko.”

“I don’t know how she doesn’t realize that he likes her. It was such a huge gesture, and when she told us I said ‘wow, he must really care about you to do so much,’ and she laughed and said they were just good friends.”

“You know, he’d say the same, probably. It’s so weird. He just refuses to do anything to try to flirt with her, he just wants to stay friends. I think he could probably date her if he wanted to.”

“Aww… he seems scared.”

“Maybe a little.”

“It can be hard to confess to someone.”

“Eh. I’ve done it so many times that it comes naturally to me now. Or at least asking people out.”

“With the amount of times you’ve been rejected, one would think you’d be scared too.”

“Ouch. Thank goodness I never have to ask anyone out again.”

He didn’t mean to say that, but it was true, so he didn’t try to explain it away. Lotte blushed. Did he really think she would be his last love? She certainly wanted to be. She knew it was foolish to think that this early on, though, and so she tried not to rush into any decisions. Lotte chose to simply appreciate what she had now, instead of worrying about the future. Even so, she couldn’t help hoping it would last.

They walked a ways like that, hand in hand, and ended up going to the library. They both liked it there, for entirely different reasons. Lotte just loved libraries for the idea of a library. Even if this one wasn’t beautiful and wood-paneled, it was still a place of quiet and books, and in the end, that is all that matters. One can always find kind souls in a library, and in the times in her life when Lotte had been more alone, she would go and find a deserted shelf and talk to the souls of the books for hours upon hours, listening to the stories of the neglected ones. She still did, sometimes, when she could steal a moment from everything else in her life. Frank liked libraries because Lotte liked libraries, and he felt closer to her whenever they visited one. They’d acquire a tall stack of books and find a table in a sunbeam, and sit and read in silence until they ran out of time. Whenever Lotte made plans, this was what they ended up doing, and he surprisingly liked it. It was like no other date Frank had ever been on before. But then again, Lotte was like no one he had ever dated before. She showed him whole new worlds, and not in a take-your-hand-drag-you-on-an-adventure kind of way. Just by being quiet and listening to the world he never noticed. Like sitting in a library, reading a book of poetry, and occasionally looking across the table at a girl he never expected to love so much. He’d tell her later. The silence was too peaceful to break. Lotte looked up and saw him staring. She smiled as he bushed awkwardly.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“What are you reading?”

“Eh, this book of poetry. It’s kind of going over my head… I’m not smart enough for this.”

She laughed. “Don’t worry. No one understands poetry. What’s this one?”

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I’ve been reading this for half an hour and I’ve had to reread each line several times and I think what’s going on is there’s a zombie apocalypse… on a boat? Because of a bird? And this whole thing is also at a wedding.”

“Yeah… that one needs a couple tries.”

He flipped through the book. “And it’s also… two, three, four- several pages long.”

She took the book from him and flipped to the index, finding what she wanted to show him and turning to the desired page. “Here. Try this one.”

He read it. “This is just a diss track of another monk roasting Brother Lawrence.”

“I know. Isn’t poetry awesome?”

“I will be using the insult ‘my heart’s abhorrence’ in the future.”Frank wondered what the opposite of a heart’s abhorrence was. Whatever it was, Lotte was that.

“I used to read these huge poetry anthologies that they have in the library back home. It’s amazing, the way they’re able to write feelings into words. So I have a lot of favorite poems.”

“I tried to do that once. Write feelings into words.” “Oh? How did it go?” “It’s a cringey story, so I’ll just skip to the end. She broke up with me.”

Lotte laughed. “That makes sense. Unless you’re super talented, love poetry is just… sickening to say the least. And I read romance novels.”

“I also tried to make it rhyme… didn’t end well. But I managed to repurpose it for a girl I dated who said she liked poetry. She broke up with me too.”

“Just how many people have you dated?”

Frank thought for a moment. “Eh… many. I get dumped a lot. But I rebound quickly.”

“That’s a good skill to have. I’ve never been in a relationship before… but I think if I were dumped it would be really emotionally damaging.”

“It was… the first few times. But I got used to it.”

“It’s so sad when people get used to pain.”

“Yeah…”

He wanted to tell her how shattered he’d be if she was the one dumping him, he wanted to tell her so many things. But he couldn’t figure out how to, and the conversation had ended anyway. So he sat in the silence, feeling peaceful but just a little bit disappointed in himself.

-

Silence and peace weren’t everywhere in town that day. At a flat part at the base of the tor, things were loud. Things were clashing. And those things were none other than Louis Blackwell and his adversary, Amanda O’Neill, fencing yet again. They had come to do this every Saturday, it was tradition. He’d always lose, and challenge her again, and she’d accept.

Amanda would never admit it, never in a million years, but she liked it. The crashing staccato of the swords, the whooshing and dashing around, motion and conflict, and yet, connection. Fencing was a bit like dancing, and a bit like love, and a bit like war, and a bit of stabbing people with swords, which was quite cathartic. It looked so boring normally, the actual sport of it, with the face guards and white outfits and all. Just shuffling forward while holding a sword. But this, this was intense, this was energetic, this was exciting. Amanda loved chasing the thrills that life had to offer, and this felt like living. So she kept accepting his challenges.

Amanda would never, ever, admit this either, but she was beginning to grow fond of Louis. Maybe fond wasn’t quite the word… It wasn’t a ‘he’s not so bad when you get to know him’ situation, he was still bad. Annoying, conceited, arrogant, cowardly… it all still applied. He was a stupid sarcastic little weasel of a guy, yes. But she liked that about him. He was almost an underdog of sorts. Almost. Even though he was so proud and wealthy and lacking in morals or common sense, sometimes she caught a glimpse of a vulnerability and a fear in him that made her want to spring in front of everything he faced and fiercely protect him, but then he’d say or do something so annoying that she just wanted to stab him and leave. It was a delicate balance, but she liked annoying him, so she kept fencing with him.

On this particular day, Louis seemed off. She beat him faster than normal, and when he stormed off to go sit on a nearby bench, she followed, trying to play it cool and act like she didn’t care, which she didn’t. She just wanted fencing with more effort, an effort he wasn’t giving today.

“You’re acting more lame than usual. What’s going on?”

“It’s none of your concern, witch.”

“You always say that.”

He was silent for a moment, then yielded with a sigh. “It’s my father.”

“What about him?”

“You know how he’s the chairman of Appleton?”

“Yes. I know. You’ve bragged about it multiple times.”

“Well… he’s facing a serious inquiry there.”

“Oh? What’d he do?”

“Like I’d tell you.”

He ended up telling her.

“Oof.”

“Don’t pretend to feel sorry for me, witch. You’re probably rejoicing inside, given the matter.”

“Well, yeah. He’s in the wrong. I think he deserves to lose his job at this point. Not for a waste of legal activity or whatever the official reasons are, but he shouldn’t have [duck]ing tried to sue Akko. She didn’t deserve that. Poor thing… This was the first I’ve heard of any of this.” Amanda was fuming with anger. Louis looked over and noticed this, he could see the way her eyes flashed. For a moment, it looked as if she were aflame. He looked away while he still could.

“So the other witch didn’t tell you?”

“……dude, do you think there are only two of us??” She said it quickly, quietly, and with confusion, and the question and response were both awkward.

“Uh- no.”

“Uh, if you mean Akko, no, she didn’t tell me. She’s probably not supposed to talk about it. Come to think of it, how do you know any of this?”

“My father. I caught part of it from when he was on the phone with Count Hanbridge… he’s the reason for all of this. Andrew was involved somehow, and the headmistress was so impressed that she called his father to tell him and then he called my father to tell him he could lose his job- Curse Hanbridge! I hate him. I hate him so. Adults are always so impressed with him, and never me. I work just as hard-"

He looked over to see Amanda listening intently, almost staring into his soul, and caught himself. “I-I shouldn’t be telling this to a witch.” She sighed. Typical Louis. He gathered his composure huffily and continued his story. “Anyway. I overheard part of the story on the phone, and he was fuming about it at dinner- I asked a question and he was so angry he threw a fork.”

“At you?”

“No… maybe? In my general direction. But he doesn’t have the best hand-eye coordination. So it just hit the table.”

“Can’t blame him…”

“Come on. You stab me enough already.”

“That I do.”

“Anyway, I left dinner shortly after that, but I overheard more detail about the situation when he was on the phone with the board, and then, his lawyer.”

“So this is a real threat to his chairman-ness?”

“Yeah.”

“In my opinion…” Amanda started to make a point, and Louis looked over at her, expecting an unnecessary condemnation of his father that he didn’t want to hear. She was looking not at him, but up at the tower that was the Ley line terminal. “He deserves to be fired. But I know how much being the chairman’s son or whatever means to you. You’re nothing without your nepotism. So that sucks.”

“Is this- sympathy from a witch?! I don’t want your pity.”

“I’m not pitying you. Enjoy being just a regular student at Appleton from now on.”

He matched her sarcasm. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Another match?”

“Sure.” He rose from the bench, towering over her and trying to seem intimidating. He wasn’t. “It would feel good to win at this point.”

She stood up quickly. “Ha! Like I’d let you!”

As they fenced, Amanda sparked a conversation.

“I didn’t do this before, but mentally I have been criticizing your outfit choice.”

“What? Why?”

“It’s a light blue polo shirt. The most bourgeois type of shirt. You look like you should be wearing a sweater around your neck. You look like a pretentious Martha’s Vineyard boy. That, or a dad.”

“What’s Martha’s Vineyard?”

“America thing. People who use summer as a verb.”

“What, you’re saying you use it as a noun? Where do you summer, Amanda?” He smirked jokingly. The sound of his voice saying her name surprised her and made her feel a way she didn’t want to think about, so she tried to continue proving her point.

“See? You’re exactly the type of guy I would have been enemies with back home. There’s like six American versions of you from my old school that I hate.”

“Gosh, Amanda. I always considered us friends, or at least frenemies.”

“Frenemies? Who are you, Nikki Maxwell?”

Louis laughed awkwardly, inwardly wondering how she had found out about his old dork diaries phase. “Er- I don’t know who that is.”

“I shouldn’t either. Those books are crap…”

“I’ll bet those American versions of me can’t beat you in fencing!” He said, thrusting his sword forward, expecting to stab her, but failing, as she dodged the point with superhuman speed.

“Well yeah, polo boy, but neither can you.”

“H-how did you do that??”

“Reflexes. Athleticism. Which,” she said, winning the match, “you don’t seem to have.”

“You,” he said, catching his breath, “Cannot possibly be human.”

“Oh, I’m human alright. You’re the one who sometimes doesn’t act like one.”

“How generous an assessment, coming from you.”

“Hey, I can’t be all insults all the time.”

“Of course not.”

“But I am going to keep insulting your outfit.”

“Please, have mercy.”

“You look like you should be wearing seersucker pants and golfing. Or like those pants that are, like, pink. I don’t wanna say nantucket red because I don’t want to admit to knowing what that is. But no, you’re wearing khakis- which works, considering the vibe you’ve got going on over here.”

“Are you finished?”

“Yep. I won’t rip into you too much. Just felt like roasting someone today.”

“Well, I could insult you as well.”

“Ha! I’ll bet you can’t think of anything good. But have at it.”

“Well, I could begin by roasting your entire country…”

“There’s plenty to roast yours about.”

“You guys don’t have a queen.”

“Yeah… your queen’s pretty awesome. But we also don’t have a monarchy. And if we did, it wouldn’t be useless like yours.”

“And you are all common peasants.”

“Because we don’t have an aristocracy. So everyone’s equal.”

“….maybe I just don’t know enough about America.”

“Yeah. I mean, we did leave England in 1776. So you guys were chased out by a bunch of really determined farmers. Makes sense you don’t know much.”

“…what?”

“Oh. I forgot. You’ve lost so many colonies you don’t remember the specifics of all the wars.”

“Can we just get back to stabbing each other?”

“Sure.”

And they did. They fought and fought, Amanda won again and again. They both grew tired, but both refused to yield. This was why Amanda liked him, they were similar enough for her to fundamentally understand him. She knew he was stubborn, clever, and could take everything she could dish out. He was a good person to have around, and she didn’t mind spending time with him, fighting with him that is. They fenced until the sky began to blush and Amanda realized she needed to get back to Luna Nova. Since Louis didn’t have any other commitments and no one would miss him at home, he wandered the streets of Blytonbury, passing groups of kids his age, other travelers in the world’s sphere, gazing into the windows of restaurants and stores and wondering why he was so lonely.

_________

AN: what Frank reads is Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister. It’s a real poem. Check it out, it’s awesome. Also, next chapter will be the season finale. Get ready.

Chapter 10: Fear

Notes:

SEASON FINALE
I've been hyping this up to my friends since last Tuesday so I really hope it lives up to expectations

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

It was a lovely Saturday morning in early summer. Atsuko Kagari was asleep, with a heavy book open on top of her face. Sucy and Lotte were standing over her, commenting on her situation.

“Did she fall asleep like that?”

“She was probably reading it…”

“I’ll bet she’ll have words on her face. That would be hilarious.”

Lotte lifted the book from Akko’s face. To Sucy’s disappointment, none of the ink had made an impression. The removal of a heavy object on her face caused Akko to wake up, sputtering nonsense and clearly confused. Lotte eyed the title of the book. “Monster Anthology? Are you reading this for class?”

“Ehhh?”

“Let her wake up a little.”

A few minutes later, Akko had gained enough consciousness to answer Lotte’s question. “No, I just think it’s cool,” she said as she put on her uniform, brushed her hair, and prepared for the day.

“Come on, let’s go downstairs.”

“We have something to show you!!”

Flanked by Lotte to her right and Sucy to her left, Akko kept reading while walking. Her friends took turns keeping her from running into walls. “There’s a monster here called the Errator. It’s summoned when you conjugate a latin verb wrong, apparently.”

“That’s cool.”

“Then there’s this thing here,” she pointed to an etching of a menacing-looking dog. “a Gytrash. It’s native to England, actually. It appears to solitary travelers in the form of a horse, or a mule, or a dog. Doesn’t that one sound cool?”

“Sounds scary.”

“Then you’ve got your typical banshees, chupacabras, phantoms, will ‘o’ the wisps- anyone else remember that one Disney movie with those? I kept looking for them when I was little after I watched it. Kitsunes, other types of yokai- we’ve got those back home, apparently- ooh! And my personal favorite. This one is called the Anghenfil Ofn. I think it’s welsh? And you summon it by saying ‘sillafu i wysio dwi ddim yn gwybod’- wait.”

Sucy cringed. “Why wait? To think about how you mangled those words?”

“No, did I really just say that? Did I summon it?”

“I don’t think you need to worry about summoning it. You didn’t seem to pronounce the spell right. And it might not even be real.”

“Yeah… I won’t worry about it. Thanks, Lotte.”

They led her to the area where they normally sat. Everyone was already there. Including Andrew. She was quite confused. Then she noticed the decorations.

“Surprise!!!!”

Akko was, in fact, surprised. “Happy Birthday, Akko!!”

“Eh? This is so sweet, but my birthday isn’t until later?”

“Yes,” said Diana, “But we won’t all be together during the summer, so this is early.”

“Aw… yeah. I keep forgetting we won’t all be able to hang out until next year!”

“Don’t be sad. We’re celebrating today!”

They all sat and drank tea and politely celebrated. Chariot smiled, as if she was apologizing. “I tried to make a cake. But it went horribly wrong. We don’t need to talk about it, but know that there should be a cake.”

“Ah. Thank you!!”

Andrew tried to figure out how he should give Akko his gift. It wasn’t something that could just be handed off. He had also brought flowers, but now he was wondering if that was too forward. A few other people had gifts for her, and no one had given them to her yet, so he supposed he should wait. Andrew had thought that maybe joining Akko’s normal friend group would help himself feel like a part of her circle, but it was just the opposite. He already knew he wasn’t special, but seeing her treat everyone else the way she treated him only made that more clear. Feelings were so different from facts. Facts only hit you once. But feelings hit again and again, the cold penetrating deeper and deeper each time. Andrew could feel the pain seeping in, dangerously close to his heart. He felt so out of place, something so dark as him in a place so full of light and happiness. But such is the nature of unrequited love. It’s always there, in the background, quiet at times, and often louder, drowning out everything else in an empty silence.

Akko was oblivious to Andrew’s unhappiness. How could she know, he was putting up a very good front. Giving his best effort to hide. This was her day after all. She was surrounded by her loved ones, and he didn’t want to affect her happiness. He gazed at her, past everyone she was talking to. Akko… he repeated the ever-familiar phrase in his mind. I want you to be happy.

Everyone wanted Akko to be happy that day, and for a little while, she was. And a little sentimental. “You guys!!! You didn’t have to do this!!”

Diana disagreed with her. “Yes, we did. You changed all our lives, Akko. The least we can give you is a birthday party.”

“Thanks so much!!!”

They didn’t really have a plan for what they would do at the party, so everyone gave Akko their gifts at once. Sucy and Lotte were closest to her, so she opened Sucy’s first. “Wow! Is this poison?”

“Yes, it’s the one I tested on you last month. This is your pay for being my guinea pig. Appreciate it.”

“Oooh, cool! What does it do?”

“You should remember that.”

Akko opened Lotte’s present after Sucy’s. “I have no idea what this is but it’s beautiful!!!!!”

“It’s a bookmark. A really fancy bookmark!!”

“This is awesome! I’ll probably forget to use it… but it’s so pretty. Oh, I should frame this…”

“Well of course you’ll forget to use it, that’s how bookmarks work.”

Akko laughed, and Amanda thrust her gift into Akko’s face. “My turn.”

Akko opened the present. “Is this stolen?”

“Maybe.”

Akko received all sorts of gifts, and each one made her tear up with happiness. Her friends knew her so well. Andrew was still rethinking and overthinking his gift when Diana noticed something. “Do you guys hear that?”

Akko focused on the sounds for a minute. “Yeah… sounds like… screaming.”

Sucy smiled. “Ahhh, screaming…”

Chariot walked towards the school. “I’m going to go make sure everything’s okay.”

They all watched her walk. A dark cloud seeped out of the windows of the school and started advancing toward Chariot at breakneck speed. Before she could escape, the cloud was upon her. Chariot’s reality changed in an instant. She saw only darkness, and then a thousand voices bombarded her.

It’s your fault we can’t do magic

How dare you take this from us

What have you done

They all came at her at once, and she broke down crying. Her students ran to her, not hearing any of the torment in her world. “Chariot! Are you okay?” Akko called to her, but there was no response. Chariot’s eyes were empty. She was staring straight ahead, but she couldn’t see Akko. There was faint black smoke coming off her, fragments of the cloud. The cloud itself had moved forward, towards Akko.

“Akko! Get out of the way!”

Diana pushed Akko aside as she cast a defense spell, intending to defeat the cloud. It didn’t work, and Diana was engulfed. She too saw darkness, and then her aunt. “You’ve failed us, Diana. The Cavendish name is forever tarnished because of you.”

“I-I didn’t mean to-"

“We’ll sell the house, we’ll sell the land, we’ll sell the name, we’ll sell your mother’s memory-“

“No! Please don’t! We can hold on! I-"

Akko shook her, but Diana couldn’t see or feel her. Neither could she hear her as Akko yelled. “Diana, no! Wake up! What are you holding onto!?”

Diana began to shudder. “No, no no!”

Akko recognized the fear in her eyes and knew immediately what they were dealing with. “Oh no,” she breathed. “It’s the Anghenfil Ofn.” She looked back to see her friends. Some of them had been engulfed by the cloud already, and were battling the effects. She ran towards Sucy and Lotte, who hadn’t been taken yet. “You guys, it’s the monster I was telling you about! I summoned it! Oh no… what have I done?”

“Do you know how to fix it?”

They were hiding behind the low stone wall as the cloud seemed to look for them. Andrew, Amanda, Hannah, Constanze, Lotte, Sucy, and Akko remained. The others had either been consumed or were running from the Anghenfil Ofn. “No. I don’t. How to beat all of the monsters is volume two. Agh, and I only checked out volume one! I could try to make a mad dash to the library to get it, but I don’t know if I-"

A chilling scream ripped through Akko’s sentence. Hannah recognized the voice and became hysterical. It was Barbara. She jumped over the wall to try and help. “Hannah, no! There isn’t anything you can do!”

She didn’t listen to Akko. Instead, Hannah ran to help Barbara. She shook her and tried to snap her out of her trance, but nothing helped. Akko and the others behind the wall watched as Hannah fearfully looked over her shoulder to see the cloud approaching. They saw the look in her eyes as she realized there was nothing she could do to help or escape. They watched as she held Barbara tightly as the cloud engulfed the both of them.

“Well, that’s one down.” Amanda said. “Not entirely our fault.”

Akko saluted their fallen comrade. “Yes, it may have been dumb. But it was certainly romantic.”

Andrew spoke up. He would have made some smart remark about how things like this never happened at Appleton, but he was used to the chaos by now. “So, what’s the plan. What are we going to do.”

“I say we try to get to the library. The teachers could probably fix this, but it might take some time for them to figure out what’s going on. I think we could make it.”

Constanze nodded, and Sucy added an idea to Akko’s plan. “We could also sacrifice people along the way,” she said, shrugging. “You know, to slow it down.”

“There will be no sacrifices!!! Everyone here is going to stay safe, until we can help the others. I assume they’ll go back to normal if we can get rid of the Anghenfil Ofn.” Akko stood. “So let’s run!!”

They all attempted a mad dash to the building. This had been Amanda’s idea. “It’ll have a harder time catching us if we’re not out in the open. Let’s go through the school.”

Akko agreed. “Yeah! And the school is pretty much a maze of hallways, so it won’t be able to find us.”

As they ran through the cloister, Andrew asked the question everyone besides Sucy, Lotte, and Akko were wondering. “What even is this thing?”

“It’s a Welsh monster that I accidentally summoned this morning,” Akko said through heavy breaths, “And what it does is it takes hold of you and it manifests as your worst fear. I don’t know how that works and frankly I don’t want to so let’s keep running.”

Amanda scoffed in the face of danger. “Ha! That thing can’t touch me. I’m fearless.”

Sucy looked behind them. “Crap. Akko, it’s following us.”

Akko turned her head around and echoed Sucy. “Crap!!! Run faster you guys!!!”

Sucy grabbed Lotte’s shoulders. “Lotte, do you want to be a sacrifice. Okay this is for the greater good. Thank you for your service.”

“Um-"

“Yeet.”

"Sucy!!! Stop throwing people into the Anghenfil Ofn!!!”

Lotte called out to them from behind. “It’s okay! Just do your best to-“ The cloud absorbed her. Like the other victims, Lotte saw darkness, and then her worst fear. She saw a life without anyone she loved, complete and utter loneliness.

Her cries made Akko’s heart hurt as she ran, chiding Sucy. “Sucy!! Why’d you do that!?”

“She said it was okay. And besides, it bought us some time.”

“She said it was okay after you chucked her into a monster!! And it only bought us like five seconds!! It’s chasing us again already!”

Amanda outran Akko and started to lead the way. “Come on, let’s turn some corners. Confuse it a little.”

“Alright!”

They darted through halls, past other students who had already been caught, and in and out of rooms, until finding themselves yet again running down a hallway, with the Anghenfil Ofn right behind them. Amanda cursed. “[Fie]! It didn’t work. That was just a waste of time!”

“It’s okay, Amanda! It was a good try!”

Sucy made an executive decision. “Time for another sacrifice. Constanze, it’s your turn.”

Constanze made no complaint as Sucy hurled her toward the monster. Akko whipped her head around to yell at Sucy and saw Constanze giving her a thumbs-up. “Sucy!!! You have got to stop doing that!!”

Amanda yelled. “Let’s not dwell on it, Constanze is resilient, she’ll be fine! Keep going!!”

Constanze was resilient, but she was still paralyzed with fear when she found herself blinded by spotlights above her. In shock, she looked ahead to see an enormous crowd. “Speech! Speech! Speech!” They chanted. Constanze whimpered and the microphone squeaked shrilly. Everyone began to boo and she hoped Akko would stop this monster soon.

Akko and the remnants of her group kept going. They ran through the cafeteria, Amanda jumping over a table for no particular purpose than to show off. They passed more students, paralyzed with fear, some crying or screaming. The situation became more dire with every victim they saw. Akko pointed to a door leading to a stairwell. “Up those stairs! We’re close! Just a few more hallways!!”

They were slower on the stairs. Akko could almost feel a chill emanating from the Anghenfil Ofn at their heels.

“Crapcrapcrap… it’s gonna catch us! Sucy- what are you doing!? Don’t stop!!”

Sucy smiled. “Saaaacrifice.” She watched her friends run away before seeing her own worst fear, a vision of herself doing good deeds. Illusion Sucy saved a kitten from a tree. Illusion Sucy smiled brightly and volunteered to do useless jobs. Illusion Sucy saved a small child from accidentally eating a poisonous mushroom. Sucy shuddered. Akko saluted her. “So brave…”

“Well, she did throw two other people in before herself.”

“That’s true. Still!”

Andrew was still a little shocked at the absurdity of all this, but he threw himself into the cause. “Let’s keep going, so their sacrifices aren’t in vain! How close is the library?”

“Close!! We’re so close!! We just have to keep moving!”

They reached the top of the staircase and bolted down the hallway. They were only a few yards in, however, when the cloud caught up to them again. This time, it took hold of Amanda, wrapping around her leg and pulling her to the ground. The last thing Akko and Andrew heard was Amanda yelling expletives before her vision changed to darkness. Suddenly, she saw a vision of herself as an adult, wearing boring glasses, with her hair brushed down into boring flatness. She was wearing all grey and sitting in a cubicle which didn’t even have a plant or a lame cat poster for any amusement. She was clicking through a spreadsheet on her computer with a sigh. “No- no, God no, make it stop, I can’t take it!”

“Gee, I wonder what she sees in there.”

The monster was taking it’s time with Amanda. They turned a corner, hoping it hadn’t noticed them.

“Must be something awful. She seems so distraught.”

They ran, and Akko felt the need to apologize. “Stuff like this always happens, doesn’t it…”

He laughed. “I swear, I’m going to catch my death following you.”

“Then why follow me?”

Because I love you, of course.

He pushed that thought out of his head and scrambled for an appropriate response. “Someone’s got to keep you from catching yours, I suppose.”

“I do find danger a lot… this is all my fault, anyway.”

Those words stuck with Akko as she and Andrew ran down the hall. She felt herself slowing down and coming to a stop. Her lungs were burning, her legs were sore, and her heart felt a pain worse than her physical exhaustion could cause. Andrew looked back to see Akko standing there, the portrait of dejection, staring at the floor. “What- Akko!? Keep going!!”

“No.”

He stopped and turned to face her, breathing heavily, tired and sore from running but still standing proud. “Why? You can’t just stop now?!”

“This is all my fault.”

He couldn’t disagree with that, but he wanted to comfort her anyway. “Don’t feel bad. Not now. Please.”

“Why not? I think I deserve to feel bad.”

Please don’t. Because I can’t stand to see you sad. Because it breaks my heart even more than it’s already been broken. Because all I want is to see you happy.

She continued speaking. “I should just let it take me.”

“No.”

“Why not? My friends… all of you guys did so much today for me, and this is what I did in return! It’s all my fault that the monster got them. I ruined everything.” Her voice caught on the last word and the tears began to roll down her face. “I ruined everything because I’m so dumb. Stuff like this always happens. Why can’t I keep out of trouble? I always put the people I love in danger.”

Andrew began to panic. There was nothing he could do. He was useless to help her. She continued talking. “I mean, even you. You don’t even go to Luna Nova. And whenever I see you, I just bring the danger with me. You’ve almost died because of me. So many times! I must be some sort of curse.”

“Please.”

She looked up. His voice was shaky, and he seemed upset and angry, as well as hurt. “Please don’t talk like that. I can’t listen to it.”

“?”

“You mean too much to me for you to say you’re a curse. So what if my life has been in danger because of you. Maybe I needed a little danger. Maybe we all did. It’s like Diana said earlier, you changed all our lives, Akko. Especially mine. Do you have any idea the type of person I would be right now if I had never met you?”

She stared at him and listened. There was a strange feeling in her heart, an instability she didn’t quite understand. He looked up to meet her gaze, his emerald eyes flashing with emotion. “I don’t care if I’ve almost died. Because all the things we’ve done together, life-threatening or not, have been my happiest memories.”

For another moment, the truth shone through. Andrew didn’t worry about hiding his feelings, sometimes he let his guard down and spoke his mind. “So you blame yourself? Then keep going! You can’t just stand here and give in. This is your responsibility to fix. If you think you’ve put your friends in danger, then go help them. It goes against everything you’ve ever done or said or worked for to give up.”

“I…”

Akko stood there, a hand over her heart, as the words sunk in. A rush of motivation overcame her, a surge of energy rushed through her exhausted body and mind. “You’re right!! Let’s keep going, Andrew!”

To his great surprise, she grabbed his hand and dragged him forward. They both ran with renewed energy towards the library. The door was closer and closer with every step. “We’re gonna make it!”

No sooner had she said those words than Akko felt Andrew’s hand slip out of hers. She looked back for a second to see that same hand, almost disembodied by the Anghenfil Ofn, reaching toward her desperately. Andrew had been taken.

“Andrew!”

There was no time to mourn the defeat of her last companion. Akko burst through the doors of the library, skidding to a half-stop by the librarian’s desk.

“HelpIneedyoutotellmewherethemonsteranthologybooksarethere’snotimetolose!!”

The confused librarian pointed Akko in the direction she needed.

“Thankyousomuchalsowatchout!” She said as the Anghenfil Ofn seeped through the door.

Akko ran through the stacks, looking desperately for a familiar call number or friendly spine. “Volume two, volume two… Agh where is it!”

She ran like a witch possessed, scanning shelves and frantically searching for the book. She saw the monster advancing and it struck fear into her pounding heart.

“Agh I don’t have time for this!!! Wait- there it is!”

The book was at a shelf she couldn’t reach. “Nooo! I’m too short! I wish Andrew was still here-“

Akko looked around for a stool and couldn’t find one. Seeing the Anghenfil Ofn at her heels already, she ran along the wall, looking for a ladder. She found one, and climbed it hastily, kicking one of the shelves to propel the ladder, with Akko on it, to the book. She was so close, she pulled it off the shelf and flipped through it hastily as the black fog crept up her legs and swallowed her whole. The book landed on the ground with a thud and Akko’s vision went dark.

She saw a shadowy panel of teachers, all condemning her. “Miss Atsuko Kagari, you are henceforth expelled from Luna Nova.”

“What- why?”

“You’re a failure. You can hardly do magic. You cause trouble wherever you go. We don’t want you here at our school.”

“Please? I’ve tried my hardest, I promise! Just give me one more chance and I can prove myself!”

“You’ve run out of chances.”

Akko shook her head back and forth rapidly, trying to break out of her trance. “S-stop! I know you’re just the Anghenfil Ofn messing with me! It won’t work!!” The shadowy figures faded, and she smiled. “Wait, did that really work?”

She was laying on the library floor, next to the fallen ladder, but the second volume of the Akko looked around to see the ceiling of the library two stories above her, shelves around her, and a familiar pair of red boots. She sat up.

“Croix?”

“Hey, Akko. I just banished the Anghenfil Ofn back to where it belongs. Did you need it for something?”

“Oh, no, I summoned it by accident. Thanks. Huh, guess I didn’t get out of there by willpower alone.” Akko climbed to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve accepted a job offer here. For next year. Looks like I showed up just in time!”

“Wow! That’s awesome! I’d love to stay and talk… but I think I should go check on my friends. They all got… sorta… consumed.”

“Oh, of course.”

Akko and Croix retraced Akko’s path through the library, checking on the librarian and the few students they passed to make sure they were okay. They exited, and Akko started looking around for Andrew. “Huh… Andrew was right here. I hope he’s okay.”

Then Akko noticed Andrew sitting against the wall, with his head between his knees. He looked like he had been through a lot. Akko wondered what he had seen. She went to sit next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, Andrew.” she said in a calm voice. “Are you okay?”

He looked up and smiled weakly. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

After they had collected everyone back together, Akko’s birthday party resumed. But now, both Chariot and Croix were there. And they had some explaining to do. Chariot approached Akko. “So… you found Croix?”

“Yeah. Did you know she was here?”

“Yes… she was staying with me the entire time.”

“Whoa, Chariot… I didn’t tell her that one.”

Chariot cringed. “oops.”

Croix turned to Chariot. “So, just how much are we going to tell her? We should get our story straight.”

“Croix… she’s right there.”

“Hi!”

“I know. And she’s listening to us, isn’t she? So we ought to figure out just how much she should hear.”

Chariot looked towards Akko. “Akko, Croix is going to teach here next year. She was going to keep it a secret, but-“

“I had to make a dramatic entrance. Surprise!”

“Yay! I’m so glad to have you back! Will you be teaching modern magic again?”

“Sort of, but it’s a little different. It’s magic in a modern context. Sort of related to current events. And naturally, I won’t be, you know, harnessing people’s anger for my evil plans.”

“That’s probably for the best.”

Andrew hovered around Akko, simultaneously keeping his distance. He still wanted to give her his gift, but he needed her attention. He needed to be able to explain it. It wasn’t something that could just be left, and he didn’t trust that she’d understand it on her own. Why couldn’t he have gotten her something conventional? If this gift didn’t confuse her, it would only give him away. But he had to give it to her, he had come this far. Surely he could wait until her conversation ended. The party was even more relaxed than it had been before. They all celebrated having survived, and discussed their experiences.

“So, what did you guys see in there?”

“That’s kind of a personal question, Akko. Everyone might not want to answer it.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. I, for one, saw the ruin of my family.”

“Oh, oof. I saw me getting expelled and all my dreams failing.”

“That’s awful!” Sucy chuckled. “Not too far from reality, eh? I saw myself…” she shuddered. “All saccharine. It was awful.”

Andrew was awkwardly standing around. Akko turned to him next. “What did you see, Andrew?”

“Ah… I’d rather not discuss it.”

“Okay.”

He finally got the words out. “I’ve been meaning to give you this. And these.”

Akko looked perplexedly at the piece of paper Andrew had handed her. She understood the flowers, but the paper needed some explanation. “Is this sheet music?”

He looked a little embarrassed. “Yeah. I wrote you a song.”

“I- that-" 

She looked like she was on the verge of tears, so he tried to explain. “I figured it was fitting. Because without you, I wouldn’t have the courage to pursue music in any way except in secret, and that means a lot to me.”

Akko wiped away a tear. “I’m so proud of you… for following your dreams…”

“Thanks.”

“Now I wanna listen to it! Too bad I can’t read music.”

Sucy laughed. “I thought you were going to say ‘too bad I can’t read.’ And I would have believed you.”

Akko whipped her head around to yell at Sucy and then whipped back to Andrew. “Do you have a recording?”

He searched his jacket pockets for his phone. “Yeah, somewhere.”

Eventually he found it, and handed it to Akko, along with a tangled mess of earbuds so only she could hear it and not the others. He was embarrassed enough as is, standing there awkwardly as she listened. Akko smiled. “Is this Chariot’s theme song??!”

Andrew smiled. She understood! “Variations on Chariot’s leitmotif. Because you want to be like Chariot,-”

“-But also different and unique! I love this symbolism!”

The song ended and Akko handed Andrew his phone back, gushing with praise. “I love it! It’s so thoughtful. This is one of the sweetest things anyone’s ever done for me. Thank you, Andrew!!”

Without warning, she hugged him spontaneously. He wasn’t sure what to do, so instead of holding her tightly and never letting go, he gently put his arms around her and tried not to combust from happiness or awkwardness. Lotte noticed the smile on Andrew’s face. Things were going well, she would have to tell Frank. He would be pleased to know his friend was happy. Then she noticed the flowers Andrew had given Akko. They were familiar. Gladioluses, buttercups, pansies. “Hm,” she said, picking them up from the table where Akko had left them. “Andrew, do you know victorian flower language?”

Andrew paused, and lied. “Er, no.”

They all sat, and drank tea, and celebrated. And for the first time, Andrew felt like maybe he belonged there. He was part of the conversation.

“Chariot!! Chariot guess what?”

“What?”

“Andrew knows your theme song!!”

“I just did a lot of research, that’s all. The last week of school at Appleton is only assemblies and useless study halls, so I had a lot of time.”

Diana sighed. “It’s the same way here. I wish we could do something substantial, but everyone else in the class just wants to go outside.”

“Exactly. And how can you study when there’s nothing left in the year?”

Amanda shook her head. “You two are too focused on school. I, for one, am thankful to do nothing all day.”

Akko agreed with her. “Yeah. I love working towards my dream,” she looked around at her friends. “But I don’t think any of us came here today to work.”

“That’s for sure.”

Lotte sighed. “We won’t have to do any work at all soon. Summer’s almost here.”

Akko laughed. “Yeah! I can’t wait!”

-

Dear Miss Kagari,

I may have acted a little out of sorts today. And I apologize for not telling you what I experienced when I fell to the Anghenfil Ofn. I could not possibly have told you, you would not have understood why it was you that I saw.

It makes sense to me, of course. Watching you reject me is evidently my worst fear. In my trance, I watched you laughed in the face of my hypothetical confession, asked how I could ever think you’d feel the same, and walked away. I felt all the light and all the happiness leave my life as you did, and the nightmare was drawn out until whenever you managed to get rid of the monster. Nothing is as important to me as you are, Akko. And because of that, nothing scares me more than you do. You’ve always scared me, since the moment I first saw you. At first it was because you were something I could not understand, and I still cannot. But neither can I understand my feelings for you.

It’s important for you to know that I have never gone through this before. In the beginning, I tried to comfort myself by thinking of it as an experiment of sorts, an adventure to understand love and emotion. But as time went by, I grew to realize that it’s nothing more than a sentence. I am doomed to love you, and I choose to love you in secret. If you were to know of my feelings and leave me, I would not be able to go on. I wouldn’t be able to live without you, so I can’t ever tell the truth. You are my greatest happiness, but I fear you, Akko. I fear what you could do to me. What you have already done.

-Andrew

 

End season one

Notes:

And thus we reach the end of the first season. I've already written most of the second one, but since it's the summer arc, I'm going to stall a little before posting it, because it would be out of place so close after the end of summer. I'll be back next week with some sort of author's note and/or special features. Thank you for reading season one!
Also: I was thinking of publishing an edited version of this as a one-shot to attract more readers because I think this could stand on it's own, do you guys think that would work?

Chapter 11: Author's note and Q+A

Chapter Text

Hello all!!

We've finished the first season, and though this is really only the beginning and I have a *lot* more to write, I already have so many people to thank that I think I should write some acknowledgments, and just a note in general.

I'd like to thank

-The creators and developers of Ao3, this website has given me a chance to publish my writing that I never thought I'd have, and I'm so thankful that it exists and that it is run so well.

- my friends, those who will nerd out about Andrew's many merits with me, those who will listen to my scene ideas, those who read this fanfiction even though they have no idea what's going on or who the characters are. If not for some of my friends, I would not have had the courage to make this account in the first place and I'm so happy to have your support.

-my parents, who let me get this account

-my sister, who stalked this page in the early days and celebrated all the small milestones

-my teachers, who make cameos and have no idea about it

-everyone who has read this fanfiction, of course. It would be nothing without readers, and especially

-everyone who has commented. It has been so awesome to see that people are enjoying my work and it brings me so much joy to hear from those who do. Your comments cheer me up when I need it and make me proud to be a writer here!

This fanfiction is really my brainchild and I've worked so hard to write it over the past few months. It's been a while since I wrote my first LWA fanfiction and all the hot-mess off-character sequels to it, but with a lot of rewriting and revising I've started something I'm really proud of. I've been writing and composing stories since I was small, but this is the first work I've had enough confidence in to share it with people outside my immediate circle. Yes, this, and not all the odd self-inserts with my crush as the love interest, this and not all the unrealistic messes that I based on dreams. I always wanted to publish a book, but I look back and see I hadn't a prayer of that. But this website has given me a chance to follow my dream of being a writer, and I'm so thankful for it. I've always wanted to meet people who understand my writing and all the work I put into it, and here I've finally done that.

My sister once told me that when she read this fanfiction, she could tell it was me writing it, because there was so much of me in the characters. I think she meant it in a "it needs to be more canon" way, but she's right. I may not have created these characters, but I love them like my own children. I do my best to write them to have my feelings, my philosophies, my interests. (but in a canon way, I hope.) This fanfiction is really taken from my own soul, and it's given me an outlet to turn my own experiences into something meaningful. My hope is that people who have gone through similar experiences as the ones that I write will read this and think it's accurate, because I try my best to make it that way.

I've been going through some interesting times (a breakup that hasn't gone according to plan), but this fanfiction gives me a purpose. It makes me happy and I'm glad it makes others happy as well. This is the first season, but there's going to be so much more and I'm so excited for it.

The next arc happens to be a summer arc, and I don't want to post it so soon after the death of summer, so I'm trying to kill time. To do this, I've decided to have a Q and A. Just to put a little more time in between the seasons. You can ask about this work, my writing process, or really anything, I'll answer in a way that doesn't compromise my secret identity. I've tried this before on another platform and no one asked anything, so we'll see how this goes. If you have questions, please comment them and I'll post answers this time next week.

See you then and thank you for reading!

-Griffonage

Chapter 12: Q and A answers

Chapter Text

So I'm back with the answers to everyone's questions from last week's Q and A. Thanks to those of you who asked questions, I hope the answers make sense. They're all a little longer than they should be, but that's okay.

not_griffonage:
What makes you love Andrew so much?

Well… many reasons.

I always really related to him as a character, I just sort of felt like I understood him on a level that wasn’t explicitly stated in the show. I just sort of got the vibes that he feels like he needs to live up to his potential as an honor student and make his family proud, that he does whatever he wants (piano) as long as it’s under the radar, that he questions authority even though he understands that he needs to respect it. Also I shipped him with Akko, so my first time around watching LWA I tended to get pretty excited when he came into the story.

The other reason is a little weirder, but I feel like I used to know him from somewhere. Like someone I was friends with when I was really small and I’ve almost forgotten, or someone from a past life. I get those vibes from Andrew, and from brick walls with vines on them and one particular song from the 2000's. But like… only those three things. I don’t know why. I honestly hope it’s premonitions of someone I’ll meet someday, because I really want to meet an Andrew. When I broke up with my ex, one of my friends said “You’ll find your Andrew someday” and that’s what keeps me going. I want to find someone like him.

He’s also very handsome…. And I’ve a soft spot for green eyes and musical talent. *coughs in Adrien*

Secretficjunkie:
So I think it’s no secret that the boy characters aren’t crazy beloved in the LWA fandom and truly the story isn’t about them but ever since the beginning I found them charming, even when they’re bad. With the boys taking an equal stage with the girls in your work, what makes you want to write them and flesh out their characters?

Answer
I never actually really thought about this before… I guess it just really stems from Andrew. This might be a long explanation, but bear with me. Like I said before for the mysterious stranger who definitely wasn’t me on a guest account, I love Andrew a lot and I wanted to write about his life. I’ve written fanfiction for other fandoms before, mainly in the form of comics. (I think I’ve come a long way from my awful greatest showman and miraculous fan comics… they were really terrible to be honest.) So I started to do the same thing with LWA, and they all had Andrew in them. I wasn’t very good at drawing, but I liked the story element, so I started writing out scripts that I intended to draw when my skills improved. My early fanfiction is entirely in script format, actually. And once again, Andrew was in all of it. I wrote a lot that way, years worth of material on the characters’ lives. All I wanted to do was write about Andrew, but I felt pressure to include scenes with Akko because she’s the protagonist. I stopped writing this way after a while, because it was really off-canon and not very good. However I continued to make up head canons, and one day I thought I should put them all down in my notes app, in order, so I wouldn’t forget them, and that’s what this fanfiction is. Still written in my notes app. I’ve kept the skeleton of the old fanfiction, it’s just revised and written a lot better and not in script format.
When I started the new edition, the one that I post, in my notes app, I decided that I would make Andrew the protagonist because I have more material about him and I like to write from his point of view. (It also makes my fanfiction more unique and I can say it centers around a random side character, that’s the gimmick.)
To really get to the answer of your question, naturally, because of this, I had to write more about the other characters in Andrew’s circle to create his environment almost entirely from scratch, since Appleton isn’t featured canonically as much as I’d like it to be. Frank is also a favorite character of mine, and he’s an important part of Andrew’s life, so I write about him a lot, and I have plans for Louis and Andrew’s paths to cross a lot more in the future, so he’s there too. And I think he’s an underrated character who deserves more attention, which I plan to give him.

Also, I find men as a species interesting and confusing, so this fanfiction is sort of my idealistic view of what I wish boys were like. Oh, if they could be sharp and intellectual and handsome… most of the boys at my school have mushroom-shaped hair and simp over each other’s moms. (No really, I had to sit behind a bunch of them on a 2 1/2 hour bus ride and they played kiss marry kill with EACH OTHER’S MOMS.)

I also just think they’re nice.

I also just really like Eton uniforms.

Secretficjunkie:
Hey what’s up I’m back. As an extension to my first question sort of, everyone loves a good redemption. Croix, Hannah and Barbara, and such. However, not so much for Louis Blackwell, who most authors continue to write as a [jerk] despite him having a clear canonical change in his character. Why do you suppose that is and why are you mapping a road to go the other way toward redemption? Which I love by the way.

Well… I think we tend to redeem what we want to ship. And I ship Louis with Amanda, so clearly he needs a redemption arc because she deserves better.
Croix is shipped with Chariot and Hannah and Barbara are shipped with many different people and each other, so they get redemption, but when Louis isn’t being shipped with anyone it’s pretty clear why he can serve as an easy antagonist. But I like his character and I wish he was in more episodes, so we could see more of his redemption.
I’ve done a lot of research on emotional abuse and there’s definitely something a little sus about his dad and it makes sense why Louis has the views that he does, even if he has *some* morals deep down, considering how he treats Amanda after she saves his life. I also like writing him as a foil to Andrew in some ways, so I try to keep him in the story. I have a few more… shall we say, *twists and turns* planned for Louis’s redemption and he has a way to go, but it’s really fun to write and with some character development I think he’s a really good addition to the story because he’s pretty much that one friend we all have that we sometimes love and sometimes hate and can be very annoying.

Secretficjunkie:
Is Andrew the character you identify with the most like his traits or background reflect yours?

Well, as I explained to the mysterious stranger who isn’t me, I identify with Andrew and he has a certain vibe to him that’s oddly familiar. We don’t have a similar background, me not being a British viscount and all, but I feel like I have a lot in common with him nonetheless. On a surface level, we both play instruments (though I gave up on the piano long ago and I’m so awful at the euphonium, my current instrument), we both have fathers who bear an oddly surprising resemblance to Colin Firth (though mine denies it), and we both can read Latin.
Personality-wise, we’re both pretty arrogant (though I take the trouble to hide it) and surrounded by idiots. It’s hard to explain without going full mbti nerd (and even then, it doesn’t really make sense) but I relate to Andrew a lot that way. I just love him and he’s helped me find myself. Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same.

Secretficjunkie:
Amanda and Louis is my favorite ship in the series (couldn’t you guess lol). I think they are textbook perfect for each other. Why do you think they click?

I didn’t really ship it at first, but my sister did and after a while I sort of saw it. I like shipping them, and especially in this, because the other couples are all wholesome but these two are just so… not, and that’s entertaining, and I think there could be a lot of drama if they got together based on the dynamic I try to write.
I love the ship because she’s A REDHEADED RECKLESS AMERICAN and he’s a POMPOUS BRITISH JERK RICH BOY and it just- it just works. It’s like fire and ice.
I am very sorry and to you in particular, as they aren’t really in the next arc a lot… at all… but I’m about to write an episode with them, as I’m currently writing the third season. (I'm sad because I'm really excited about the arc I'm currently working on but I won't get to post it for another two or three months...)

Akkogang:
Hey there! I was wondering, did you have any scrapped ideas for scenes or arcs for this fic that you couldn't fit in for whatever reason? I'd love to hear about some of them if you do ( ̄ω ̄)

Well… in the first episode, in my very early drafts of that part, I had a scene where Andrew and Frank have to ride on brooms and Andrew hates it. But I scrapped it because the whole thing was kind of awkward. I have a few other ideas I scrapped, but either I can’t remember them right now or they’re spoilers. I might reuse the broom thing because I have a feeling Andrew would be afraid of heights, or really anything that puts Akko in danger.
I’ve also scrapped *several* breakup arcs, because I like to write drama, but I kept one that will come up in a few years (for the characters)… now all of you forget about that I want it to be a surprise.
I’d need to go through my old fanfiction for the scrapped ideas… which I don’t really want to do, but for this Q and A…
I went through my old drafts and found a footnote saying “ If you get this subtle reference, Griffonage respects you” and I DIDN’T GET THE REFRENCE, I forgot whatever it was… did I just lose my own respect?

Secretficjunkie:
Also when is the next installment starting and can we have a preview of some of the new things to come?
As per my usual update schedule, the next installment will start next Tuesday. As I’ve mentioned, it’s a summer arc, with a different trio than the ones that are presented in the show. There’s going to be a lot of fluff and what I like to think of as heartwarming unlikely friendship, so I’m excited. It’s kind of off from the main story but that’s a metaphor for how it’s a break from Andrew’s normal life. It’s a little shorter than the last season, and it’s much less serious, which we need, since the third season is… a little darker.

Nocturnearound:
Hi! I've been following this fic for a while (since the beginning!) and I really like the way you flesh out the characters and add so many small details. Season One of this story has been amazing and I love the way you give a stage to all the characters, something which unfortunately doesn't happen in many fics. I was wondering if there are any small easter eggs within the story that you might want to point out to us.

Thank you so much for the praise! There are a lot of Easter eggs here, skimming the chapters the obvious ones I can remember what they reference are
- In chapter 2, the characters have to translate a latin sentence with Sextus et Aurelia, who are, of course, characters in the iconic Latin textbook/meme Ecce Romani
- Also in chapter 2, Amanda’s vine jumpsuit (ey look at this dress my mom bought me- Psych! It’s a jumpsuit! You were fooled!)
- Mrs. Zbornak is named after Dorothy from golden girls (Secretficjunkie pointed this out)
- The first song Andrew plays in chapter 3 is from Casablanca
- Frank says “How the turntables” from the office (Secretficjunkie pointed this out)
- Chapter 4 mentions the varsity certamen team. Certamen’s a sport I play. It’s kind of obscure, a bunch of latin nerds meet up to see who is latinest. We describe it as Latin jeopardy.
- Andrew’s car, as mentioned in the text, is named Thomas coincidentally by Akko, but not coincidentally by me. (St. Thomas More and Thomas Atkins)
- Billy is named after like every stereotypical school bully
- As Secretficjunkie noticed, Billy’s also named after Wickham from Pride and Prejudice because he’s a dishonorable cad. And because I guess it’s sort of compared to Mr. and Mrs. Wickham in chapter 6 when it says “the match between Billy and Akko was advantageous to no one, and it brought so many people unhappiness” and come to think of it, that sentence also applies to my ex and his homecoming date.
- In the AN of chapter 5, I’m not sure anyone understood, but “he *doesn't* know all the words to Mr. Brightside” is a reference to the song Vintage by Blu DeTiger
- Chapter 6- “Perhaps Andrew would rather wallow in this artificial night” yeah we got the Shakespeare. Romeo does that.
- Chapter 7- “That raises more red flags than communism,” Amanda said at the end of the clamor, “And I’m about to go full McCarthy on that [unsavory character].” - this is a reference to McCarthyism, which was the intense fear and subsequent extermination of communism during the last century. (Sitting in my history class right now, but I learned all of this two years ago.) Joseph McCarthy himself (director of the house un-american activities committee I think, I’m remembering this off the top of my head) was very dedicated and overzealous and actually accused the entire U.S. Army of communism…
- Chapter 7 - the lawyer, Mr. Mouska, is named after the villain from Castle in the Sky. I pictured the lawyer as him when I was writing this.
- Chapter 10- the Gytrash is mentioned in Jane Eyre, also, the movie Akko’s talking about is Brave. (Merida would come in second in the Disney princess hunger games. Mulan betrays her. My friends and I came up with the lore.)
- Chapter 10- the flowers that Andrew gives Akko have specific translations in flower language. They are, respectively, “You pierce my heart,” “you are radiant with charm,” and “You occupy my thoughts.”
- I referenced Wuthering Heights (the book, not the song) in this very Q and A. Can you find it?

I try to reference LWA itself sometimes, like I have Andrew run track since he seems pretty good at running when he’s introduced. In chapter 3, Amanda says “I’m going to kick his [Andrew] with only a sword and the American dream” which is a reference to Andrew being a donkey.
There’s also a number of loosely placed song lyrics and poem lines, but there are too many of those for me to remember them.
All of the chapter titles are also references. I have a running note of what they mean, I guess I can copy and paste the ones for season one.

Insidious flutterings- In looking for titles for the first chapter I turned, as I often do, to poetry, and this is inspired by the phrase ‘insidious intent’ in the beginning of T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. I chose this title because insidious (which I googled) means seemingly harmless, but leads to more trouble or pain- which applies, in this case, to Andrew’s feelings, or the little flutters he feels around Akko

Necesse est- Latin, because Andrew and his friends are translating Latin. It translates directly to it is necessary, or he is necessary, which I mean here, as Andrew worries about whether anyone really needs him

Fall from grace- this is sort of on the grace of the ball, and how our hero falls into despair afterwards, as the grace period of his love is ending. This is a chapter title I didn’t try very hard on

Forward from here- this is taken from one of my favorite and most relatable literary moments, in Fahrenheit 451 when Montag’s life is turned upside down and he keeps repeating “Where do we go from here?” (I love that line). This title is supposed to allude to Andrew’s plan, or lack thereof. The need to always have a plan is my own, and I hope I represented it well.

Setbacks- double meaning from the setbacks in Andrew forming his club and the ship, as Akko is dating Billy

Oh, my emotions feel like implosions- taken from Line Without a Hook by Ricky Montgomery, one of my favorite songs, and a reference to the text where Andrew feels like he is imploding

Love in the time of lawsuits- Taken from love in the time of cholera which I tried and failed to read, but alteration. As for the meaning, I think it’s clear.

Running up that hill- it’s a Kate Bush song, and I interpreted the meaning as watching someone else be in pain and wishing to switch places and help them, like Frank wishes to help Andrew, and also, less seriously, like all the Appleton boys struggle with their exams. Also a play on running, as Andrew runs literally and figuratively away from his feelings

Encounters- another one I didn’t try very hard on. This is really just because the characters encounter one another. I tried to give it a more mediocre title as it is filler

Fear- The monster’s name translates to Fear Monster, the fear in the title alludes to both that and to Andrew’s fear of his own feelings

The chapter title explanations touch on the symbolism and metaphors and all those literary devices I use. (I just want to make my junior high English teacher proud…) But I won’t explain all that. I would really like future generations to analyze this work because I don’t know if anyone reads very far into it, but I write way too far into deeper meaning of a tv y-7 anime fanfiction written by an amateur like myself. It’s not like it’s the next great novel and I probably couldn’t publish it without some copyright lawsuits… so…

Anyway. There’s the Easter eggs for season one. If you noticed them, as said in this work’s description, points to you. It took me a whole day to track them all down and write that answer. There’s more in the other seasons.

 

Thanks to you all for reading this behind the scenes of my work! I’ll be back next week with the first chapter of season two!

Chapter 13: Human Voices

Chapter Text

Early chapter!! because tomorrow my schedule is weird. But early chapter! and the beginning of the lovely season two.

 

Warning: Andrew’s mental health gets a little iffy here

(We’ve all been there)


 

Andrew had been at his summer home for several weeks now. He couldn’t say it was exactly what he needed, but it was close. He could spend his days alone, for one, and whether that was a good thing or not was still up for debate. He had gone whole days without interacting with another human. Naturally, he would greet the servants when he saw them, but they were too busy to converse, and he didn’t fit in with them anyway. He sat in the drawing room in the darkness, read, went for walks in the rain, and thought. It was an introvert’s paradise, and Andrew could be alone with his thoughts, of which he had many. He thought about life, death, his own loneliness, work, his family, his obligations, his friends, and Akko. He thought of Akko often. She occupied his mind from dawn until dusk most days. He couldn’t decide if the solitude made his pain better or worse. 

 

To distract himself from Akko, he tried to think of the few things he had done before he had left home. In the middle of his packing, when he was sitting in the sitting room (of course), going through the checklist he had prepared on his computer, when he received an email from his father. He opened it to find a request. He cursed aloud, then glanced to his mother, who was sitting across the room, secretly watching him.

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright. What’s wrong?”

“Father says I have to go golfing. With him and the Minister of Defense.”

Winifred cringed. She had suffered through her own share of pretending to be nice to Mr. Blackwell. But then she remembered the drama Paul had mentioned. “Wasn’t he fired as Chairman of Appleton?”

“He’s going to be.”

“Do you know why?”

“Considering the chain of events, I am why,” he said under his breath.

“What’s that?”

“Er- nothing. I do know why. I was sort of involved.”

“Do tell.”

There could be no harm in telling his mother. And besides, he rarely saw her, and she wanted to know what was happening in his life. So Andrew closed his computer and told Winifred the whole story, in detail. 

“Wow,” she said when he finished. “That’s what happened?”

“Yes. I can’t believe he did that to her. So I stepped in, and someone along the line told Father, who contacted the board.”

“You seem to really care about that girl, Akko.”

He looked down. “Yes. I do. She’s my friend.”

“Now that you’re friends with witches, do you ever see Diana Cavendish?”

“Yes, she’s a friend of Miss Kagari, so we cross paths occasionally. I can’t say our interactions are entirely friendly, however.”

“I worry about that girl. Bernadette would have wanted one of us to look out for her, you know.”

“She doesn’t need looking out for. Diana’s a prodigy.”

“I know. I’ve heard.”

 

Andrew’s and Diana’s respective mothers had been good friends during Mrs. Cavendish’s lifetime. Winifred felt a responsibility to make sure her friend’s only child was safe and well, but she wasn’t even around her own child enough to have time for someone else’s. But she still worried. She worried about children everywhere, and anyone who needed her help, and she had lost her own family in the process. Her son was an example of that, she had seen enough of him in the past few weeks to know he had become a miniature version of her husband. She had never wanted that to happen, and while Paul said Andrew was all too much like her, it was like looking into the past and seeing another particular young Appleton student who she had given up on decades ago. But Winifred wasn’t the type to give up, and she wanted to be a part of Andrew’s life. Except, of course, his summer plans were to live like a recluse for two months, and she wasn’t invited.

 

The friendship between Count Hanbridge and Mr. Blackwell had taken some damage after the recent scandal, but they both knew the importance of being civil to keep their alliance in a complicated political world, even if one had gotten the other fired for the good of their shared alma mater. So Andrew suffered through a very awkward game of golf, wondering how Louis had managed to get out of it. He alternated between wanting to die, or burrow underground, or steal a golf cart and escape the whole time, and the minute he got home, he changed out of his god-awful plaid pants and left for his improvised vacation. He was done being social.

 

But now, he was lonely. He had little to do here, just sit around and think. Occasionally, for a thrill, he would watch the sun rise over the sea, or set over the fields, streams of light stretching across the green. He wanted to run in that field and try to expend some energy, but the nonexistent neighbors would judge him, and he didn’t have the motivation. Sometimes, he drove into town and went to a pub, pretending to be older than he was to see who he could fool. No one ever questioned a suit, even if it was worn by a teenager with little to no idea of what he was doing. Andrew was beginning to lose his grasp on reality, or at least of the material world. With less stimulation to worry about, he grew more and more into his own mind. And his aforementioned thoughts. Most of which, as previously mentioned, were Akko.

 

He was obsessed, in the original sense of the word. Being the student of languages that he was, he knew that the word had changed little from the latin verb for to besiege. And it was true. His heart was besieged by the thought of her. The walls he had built up to protect himself had been absolutely annihilated by the catapult-bullets of her glance, the way she wore her hair, the light in her eyes when she talked of her dreams. Every precaution he took had been useless in the end. He was in love with her. That was the reality he had to accept. And he had accepted it, over and over again. But it hit him again as many times as he could come to terms with it. 

 

She never left his mind. In all the quiet moments, which were all of the moments, she would creep into his thoughts, like a dream, like the fog that breezed into the area most mornings. The thought of her brought him happiness, and agony, and what he worried might be the start of insanity. 

 

He was beginning to think this had been a bad idea. No man is an island, so why had Andrew stranded himself? The last time he had had a conversation was weeks ago, when he had arrived and been spontaneously ambushed by Darryl Cavendish and her daughters, who happened to be in their summer house at the moment. He was forced to attend dinner with them, which had given him enough reverse energy to stay by himself for a good long while with minimal human contact. If he ever struggled, he just had to think back to that dinner. But now he was wondering why he was here in the first place. He just felt isolated. Sometimes he would look out at the sea and fancy himself a recluse, and then it would be a more romantic idea, but sometimes he would sit in darkness and wonder why he had done this to himself. But to go home would be to admit defeat, and he was too stubborn for that. And something was so unappealing about his life at home. He would be lonely there, too. The Cavendishes hadn’t overlapped with Andrew’s visit much longer, thankfully, and no other neighbors were visiting for the season, so Andrew’s house was the only one inhabited on the row. He was hardly an inhabitant anyway, he was barely there. Mentally, he was everywhere else. He would walk through the house, talking to mirrors and other objects. 

“Shall I part my hair behind?” He asked a lamp. “Do I dare to eat a peach?” He asked a door. 

He walked out onto the porch and looked out. “I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk along the beach.”

Vaulting over the porch’s railing, he strode towards the sea, stopping a few yards from the tides. 

“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.”

There was silence in return.

“I do not think that they will sing to me.”

 

It was mid-afternoon. The weather was grey, it had been foggy earlier and Andrew had wandered the fields that morning until he had found his way back to his house. But the fog had drifted away to go brush through some other corner of the world, and the day was simply grey, the stereotypical English weather. Andrew missed the sun, and wondered what a winter in the mental fog of love would be like. He didn’t want to think about that darkness, so he chose instead to think about his own darkness. He stood by the sea, his mood as grey as the weather. It was a soft sort of day, perfect for long socks and cashmere sweaters and writing, if one is of the reclusive writing persuasion. Andrew had considered writing his memoirs, but there wasn’t much to say. The entire book would end up being one long soliloquy about Akko, anyway, and he had written about her, or to her, enough already. A substantial stack of letters was forming. He had brought the ones he kept at home along with him, he didn’t want to leave them vulnerable. Andrew would have to find a box or a folder for them eventually. But he couldn’t help writing, with all the time he had spent thinking of her, his mind naturally began to sort emotions into words and sentences, and before he knew it he was writing them down. But Andrew wasn’t writing at the moment, he was standing by the sea, talking to himself. 

“I shouldn’t be here. I’ve gone too far this time.”

“But I don’t want to go home, I don’t want to deal with the parents or Frank or summer at home… what am I to do there, anyway? Just languish in that house? Encourage Mother’s attempts to socialize? She’s probably already left, anyway. I’d just end up playing the piano for hours on end until I went insane.”

“But I’m insane enough here.”

 

Andrew sometimes felt his hands moving, playing phantom notes on a keyboard that didn’t exist. He drummed them on tabletops, the sides of his legs, windowsills, the very air. He had few outlets for all the churning emotions inside. So he talked to himself, or the sea, or the moon. He called her Selene and tipped an imaginary hat to the crescent in the late nights and the early mornings.

 

“I shouldn’t be here. This is damaging.”

“Where would we be that isn’t damaging? The idea of home is… oddly repulsive. I just- can’t go back there. Not right now.”

“What a mess this is. Don’t want to go home, don’t want to stay- what do I want?”

“Akko.”

“Shut up.”

 

Andrew walked toward the sea. “What say you?”

There was no reply, just the tides. He kept walking, to his own surprise, and just walked until he was waist deep in water. “Fine, then. I’ll ruin this outfit.” It wasn’t anything special, anyway. He let the spray of the sea and the waves splash him.

 

“Fine, then,” he said to the sea. “I’ll just stand here a little while and see if the answer to all my problems I don’t understand just comes to me somehow.”

 

The answer didn’t come to him. Instead, a huge wave splashed him and drenched everything that wasn’t already soaked. Andrew spat out water, feeling his sanity come back. “What am I doing here.” Then he turned and sloshed back to shore, cursing himself. He was still cursing himself when he heard her. While trying to get into the side door of his house, he heard a voice. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t possibly be, he was hallucinating, he really had lost his mind this time.

 

“Andrew?”

He turned around to humor the voice, expecting to see nothing. But he saw Akko, who seemed to have crossed the field that separated the houses. And Diana. This couldn’t be a hallucination, he wouldn’t hallucinate Diana. “Miss Kagari? Miss Cavendish?”

Diana frowned, casting a disdainful eye over his appearance. Andrew wished he looked a little more presentable. “I didn’t think you’d be here.”

“And I didn’t think you’d be here. And Akko even less so.”

“We’ve come for vacation.”

“As have I.”

Akko asked him the obvious question. “Why are you wet? Did you just… emerge from the sea?”

He laughed. “No, I’m no Aphrodite. I walked into the sea myself. And then I emerged.”

“Why did you walk into the sea?”

“Because, my dear, I have lost my mind.”

“Are you joking? I hope you are…”

“I’m half joking.”

Akko seemed very concerned. Andrew figured he was probably very concerning. “I hope you’re okay…”

He smiled, feeling overwhelmingly happy. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

 

Diana was rather put out. Andrew was not part of the plan. Andrew annoyed her, and he did not need to be here. And clearly Akko felt sorry for him. What was he even doing? How far had he fallen?

 

Akko was having an entirely different reaction, trying to ignore the way Andrew’s shirt clung to him. She didn’t know how to end the conversation. “Well, uh, okay. Guess we’re neighbors!”

“Guess so.”

Andrew was also feeling awkward, so he just went inside, through the side door. Then he jumped high into the air, landed, and tried to calm down. She was there. She was right there, in the house next to him. Akko! He couldn’t tell if his wildest dreams or his wildest fears had come true, but either way, he was excited. 

 

Diana was showing Akko around the house. “You can use this room.”

“Thanks! I gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting to see Andrew.”

“I wasn’t either. I wonder why he’s here.”

“We’ll have to ask him.”

Diana sighed. “Must we? I didn’t come here to interact with him.”

“He seems lonely. I hope he’s doing okay.”

Diana thought back to the last time she and Andrew had both been here at the same time. Ten years ago. Had it really been that long? It seemed like not so long ago that they clashed in the same group of playmates and were forced to be nice to each other by their mothers. Her mother would have wanted her to play nice. And so would Akko. 

“We can invite him over for tea if you want,” she said with a yielding sigh. 

“Yay! Wow, this is all so polite. Inviting people for tea. Almost old fashioned!”

“Eh, a little.”

Akko pranced around the room, pantomiming Victorian manners, as Diana rolled her eyes. Akko went to invite Andrew over for tea the next day, and as they crossed the field to Diana’s house, he asked the obvious question.

 

“So, I’ve been wondering. Diana makes sense, but why are you here? You’re clearly not part of the summer home crowd.”

“Oh, Diana invited me. Well, she invited Hannah and Barbara first, but they were busy, so I was her second choice.”

“I cannot see how you could be anything but first in everyone’s hearts.”

“Is that sarcasm?!”

It wasn’t, but he couldn’t explain that. “Perhaps.”

 

The tea was rather polite. The three of them sat in the sitting room and politely chatted. 

“So how long will you be here?”

Akko smiled. “A few weeks. How about you?”

“I intended to come for the whole summer.”

Diana asked the next question. “Are you here alone?”

“I am.”

She politely inquired after his parents, and he responded that they were well. Akko watched the conversation bounce between them like the ball during a tennis match. She had no idea how two people who resented each other so much could be so polite. Must be an aristocracy thing, she thought. 

“What are your plans for the week? I must warn you, it isn’t shaping up to be a very lively season. Not many people are here, and as usual, there isn’t anything to do in town.”

“I trust the stables are still open?”

“They are.” Many of the noble families that had summer homes in the area kept horses at a stable near the town. Andrew had gone riding a few times, but it had done nothing to help his solitude or his sanity. 

“Well, I planned for us to go riding.”

“Oh? I thought your family had sold most of your horses.”

 Oh snap, thought Akko. Andrew hadn’t been able to resist a jab at how far the Cavendishes had fallen in recent years. Diana’s pride could not suffer the insult, surely, and Andrew would certainly pay for it. 

“We sold them because we rarely make use of the ones here. There are still several horses at our main estate, but at the summer home, they are all but useless. Come to think of it, Andrew, when was the last time you’ve ridden one of your horses?”

“Recently. And you may ride them, if you still plan to go riding.”

“Thanks, Andrew!” Akko had felt she should step in, to avoid conflict. She felt she might be stepping in to avoid conflict a lot this summer. 

 

Andrew ended up staying for dinner, he was invited for Akko’s sake. The dinner conversation was the same as everything that had happened over tea, except Andrew was petting Diana’s dogs, who had come along, from under the table. She had two hounds, and Andrew wondered how they had flown there with them. He’d have to ask later. And there would be a later, undoubtedly. 

 

When he finally returned to his house, he laughed to himself. What an interesting summer it was going to be.

 


AN: Sorry, this chapter was a little short, but it’s sort of an intro to one of my favorite arcs I have planned.]

The poem that Andrew quotes (This is my favorite poem, or one of them.): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock

 

Chapter 14: Stable boy vs. unstable boy

Notes:

This is my favorite chapter title

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

They set out to go riding the next morning. It was a long walk down the lane, and Akko skipped ahead, enjoying the scenery. Diana and Andrew walked in silence for a few paces, the tension building until Diana broke the silence.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Likewise.”

“Unfortunately, Akko seems to want to socialize with you.”

“Unfortunately for whom?”

“Unfortunately for me.”

“Because you don’t want to socialize with me, but you aren’t about to give up socializing with Akko because I’m there. A matter of jealousy and stubbornness, correct?”

“If you’re going to put it that way. But I know you dislike me as much as I dislike you, so perhaps you’re just describing your own situation.”

He was silent. She continued. “In any event, it seems we’ll be seeing a lot of each other. I propose we at least try to be civil. For Akko’s sake.”

He gazed out onto the road ahead of them. Akko was smiling at the wildflowers. She waved to Andrew and Diana. 

“Yes. For Akko’s sake.”

Akko ran back to them. “It’s so pretty here!”

The way Andrew smiled at her just then made her feel a little off for a second, but she brushed it away. Akko had to admit that Andrew looked good that day. His riding boots reminded her of all the male leads of the regency novels she and Lotte had read at the little free library in Blytonbury. Sucy always mocked them for reading those books, but Akko and Lotte were really only reading them so they could mock them. 

“I’m excited to go riding. I’ve never been on a horse before. On a broom, yes, but not a horse.”

“You’ll figure it out soon enough.”

“It should be easier than a broom.”

“Yeah, I hope so!” She started walking so she was in between the two of them, the natural order of things. “This is gonna be fun.” 

Akko was trying her best to be the happy median, but she could still sense the tension between Diana and Andrew. Yes, she had probably caused it by trying to have them both with her, but she would be darned if they wouldn’t bond on this vacation. 

They reached the stables. Akko walked in first. “Hi!”

The stable boy looked up, and Akko became a little overwhelmed. He, too, had tall riding boots. And it didn’t hurt that he, too, was incredibly handsome, in a rugged way, most unlike Andrew. He walked over to Akko as she tried to gather her composure. 

“Hi, can I help you?”

Andrew and Diana approached, and Andrew tried to stop the situation that was unfolding. “This way, Akko.”

Akko was dragged away by her friends. The stable boy watched her leave and wondered who she was. 

-

The riding was eventful. Akko was having some difficulty with her horse.

“You guys lied to me- this isn’t easy at AAAAALLLLL!!!”

She had been bucked into the air, and landed on the ground. Andrew and Diana practically tripped over themselves and each other to go and help her. To Andrew’s disappointment, Diana got to her first. 

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve had worse falls before.”

“That’s… concerning.”

“Don’t worry about it… I’ll probably have worse falls than this in the future, too.”

“Maybe we should get you a different horse…”

Akko climbed back onto her horse. “No, I like this one. He’s feisty. And I think I’m getting the hang of it.”
“Good.”

She looked over at Andrew. On horseback, he was even more regency-looking. If he were wearing his school uniform, with the tails, she might not have been able to tell what era he was from. First Regency Andrew, and then the stable boy, there were so many guys who could probably fit into the plots of romance novels. Or the cover, in the stable boy’s case. Akko resolved not to get injured or otherwise messed up on this ride, so she could present herself well when they returned and introduce herself to him. But the best laid plans of mice or women or Akko, who had been both before, oft go askew, and she found herself at the mercy of the horse. 

“I can’t control him.”

“Use the reins.”

“He’s eating the bark of this tree!”

“Don’t let him do that.” 

“He’s eating my shoe!!” She yelled at the horse. “STOP EATING MY SHOE OR I’LL KICK YOU IN THE FACE!!”

“I wouldn’t advise you to get into a kicking match with a horse.”

“You two are no help.”

“Well, what are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, instruct me? You guys just magically know how to do this but some people don’t grow up around horses!! Us commoners struggle with this!!”

Akko was anything but common, Andrew thought. He considered saying it, to annoy Diana, but decided against it, as Akko wasn’t finished speaking. “I should get the stable boy to teach me.”

“No.” Andrew and Diana said it in unison. 

“Why not?”

They looked over at each other in panic, trying to find an excuse. This did not go unnoticed by Akko. Andrew, thinking quickly as usual, came up with something. “We can teach you.”

Diana raised an eyebrow. “We can?”

“We can.”

They couldn’t. Diana and Andrew were both horrible teachers. Whether Akko’s horse was randomly running away with her on it, throwing her, or otherwise misbehaving, she grew irritated after many such shenanigans. 

“You guys suck at teaching.”

She slid off her horse and landed on the ground with a thud, laying there and staring up at them. She had run out of energy. “You really do.”

“Sorry, Akko.”

She looked at Diana. “I really expected better from you. You’re so good at teaching me magic skills. Why not riding?”

Akko turned to Andrew. “And you. Someone who looks so good on a horse has no business knowing so little about them.”

If he were still on the horse, he would have fallen off. “What-“

“Sorry. My filter was lost somewhere in all those branches the horse dragged me through.”

Andrew was still a little frazzled. Akko thought he looked good on a horse! He tried his best not to freak out over this. Diana rolled her eyes at his lost composure, but she couldn’t dwell on it for long because Akko had gotten back on her horse and had started talking to it.

“Hi buddy! Hi! My name’s Akko. Can you do me a favor? Can you go back to the stables? Please? For me?”

The horse did nothing. Andrew was confused. He turned to Diana. “Does she have some sort of Disney princess complex or-“

The horse started trotting. Akko looked back and smirked as it went. Diana and Andrew watched in gobsmacked silence, until Akko was out of earshot and Diana snapped back to life and spoke, swiftly walking back to her horse. “I’m going to get her. I do not want her talking to that stable boy.”

“Why?”

“Because this was supposed to be a girls trip,” she snapped, mounting her horse. “And Akko’s already dragged one… wrench into the gears, and I aim to prevent another.”

“I resent that.”

She began to ride off. “Are you coming?”

He snapped into action and jumped onto his horse. “Yes.”

 

They were too late. Akko was already talking to the stable boy when they arrived. They both cursed internally, and then tried to act civil as they approached. 

“Hi guys! This is Trevor. He’s going to teach me how to ride a horse. Trevor, this is Andrew and Diana.”

Trevor waved. Andrew hated him instantly. “Hey.”

“Hi.”

He turned to Akko. “So, are these, like, your siblings or something?”

“No.”

“NO.”

Andrew and Diana were both so annoyed with this stable boy. As politely as they could, they tried to extract Akko from the stables.

“He’s gonna give me riding lessons. It’s all settled.”

Diana tried to discourage her. “I don’t know if that will be necessary. We probably won’t go riding again.”

Andrew attempted to help. “Yes! There are other things to do. You ought to do the other things.”

“Didn’t you say there was nothing to do and you were super bored?”

“Miss Kagari, nothing is boring when you are around.”

She laughed. “And you say I’m the one with twisted logic.”

“Maybe it’s twisted. But there is some stuff to do here."

“Like what?”

“Well… one can go to the pub. One can swim. It’s cold, but you could try. One could, um, read? Play board games?”

“What exactly have you been doing for the past few weeks?”

“Losing my mind from boredom.”

Diana sighed. She knew Andrew was trying to help her distract Akko from the stable boy, but he wasn’t doing a very good job. “Why don’t we go to the beach. The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow.”

Akko pulled out her phone to check. “Yeah, it’s going to be sunny. Wait, I just remembered.” She handed Andrew her phone. “Here, make yourself a contact. I’ve been trying to collect all the numbers of the people I know during the summer, since I can’t have my phone at school.”

He took her phone and handed it back to her after some typing. She took one look at the contact he had made and grew embarrassed.

“WHAT??? I THOUGHT YOU HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT?!!”

He laughed. “I’ll never forget. You just thought I’d let you live it down?”

“YES!!!”

Diana was confused, and annoyed to be left out of the joke. “What is it, Akko?”

Akko thrust her phone into Diana’s hands. “Look. Look what he did.”

“‘The handsome Andrew?’ I don’t get it.”

“Yeah, I suppose it takes some telling… when we first met, he introduced himself and we had been talking about him in class, you know, because he was visiting the school? And because I’m an idiot, of course I yell ‘you’re the handsome Andrew?’ like the idiot I was.”

“And I waited for the right moment to tease her about that. And this is the right moment.”

Akko sighed, saving the contact. She'd change it later. “Dang, Andrew. Playing the long con.”

“Indeed.”

Diana couldn’t help but laugh. Akko noticed this fleeting moment of camaraderie and cherished it. It was one of few parts of the day when Andrew and Diana actually got along. The other times, they had been teaming up to keep her away from Trevor. Oh, well. At least they agreed on something. When they returned to Diana’s house, Andrew waved and started down the path back to his house, but Akko wouldn’t let him leave. 

“You should come in, Andrew. I’m going to look up interesting things to do around here. And then I’m going to make a plan. And I know you like plans.”

Diana frowned. She did not want Andrew to be part of the plan. But Akko seemed to, so Andrew came inside with them. Diana’s dogs sniffed him thoroughly, and approved, already knowing him from the few times they had met. The dogs, Andrew had come to learn, were retired hunting dogs from the Cavendish estate that Diana had taken in, and their names were Barnaby and Cornelius. Andrew didn’t often have the opportunity to pet dogs, so he sat in the living room and petted Cornelius. Akko flopped down on the couch, Barnaby hopping up to follow her, and started googling the town.

“There’s a pub…”

“I’ve been there. It’s nothing special. They think I’m an adult.”

“Uh… okay. We can go there instead of making dinner one night.”

“You can borrow my cook if you want.”

“You have servants in your house?”

“Yeah, a few. Do you not?”

“No,” Diana mused awkwardly, “Not anymore.”

“We’ve cooked our own food and I haven’t burned anything down yet, so maybe I’m good at cooking.”

“Akko, you have barely done anything.”

“But I haven’t done anything bad.”

There’s the twisted logic.”

Diana sighed. “Would she be Akko without it?”

“No, she wouldn’t.”

Akko beamed. “I can make toast. And microwave ramen. So I think I’m set to be an adult.”

“You need to be able to know how to make tea.”

Andrew laughed self-deprecatingly. “I can’t make anything.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Diana nodded .“When you grow up with servants, Akko, you become pretty helpless. Thank goodness my mother taught me to be self-sufficient.”

“Huh. That makes sense.”

“I only how to make tea.”

Akko patted him on the shoulder. “Cheer up, Andrew. You know how to talk people out of lawsuits. And motivate me not to get eaten by monsters. And drag me out of the way of danger. And pretty much just win at school. So I think not knowing how to cook is okay.” 

Diana scoffed. “I can do all of those things, and cook.”

“Then we’ll just have to teach Andrew how to cook!!”

“Akko, I don’t think that’s necessary-“

“Absolutely not. I don’t want both of you burning down the kitchen.”

“Fine, we’ll order pizza or something.”

“Did you find a restaurant or something online?”

“I found a bowling alley. We can go there tomorrow.”

“But… did you find somewhere to order pizza from?”

“No. But if you just order it they’ll find you somehow.”

Diana pinched the bridge of her nose. Akko kept talking. “I always thought there should be a magical pizza service. You order it and they just yeet it into the Ley line, like a frisbee, and it comes out at your portal and you have to catch it, and if you don’t, there’s no refunds. Wouldn’t that be cool? If the whole bringing people joy Chariot-style thing doesn’t work out, I think I should do that. It’s still bringing people joy, right?”

“Yeah. But do you know how to make pizza?”

“No. But I can hire someone for that.”

“And do you know how to do business?”

“No, but you could figure it out, couldn’t you?”

“Oh, so I’m part of this now?”

By the time Diana had actually figured out how to order the pizza, Andrew and Akko had a whole Ley line frisbee pizza empire planned out. Diana came back into the living room as they were figuring out where to open the 53rd outlet.

“You’ve already said Moscow.”

“Okay, then… what are the other cities in Russia? I want to have a restaurant in every country, but Russia counts as it’s own continent, probably.”

“Are there even that many portals?”

“I have no idea.”

“Come to think of it, we really only need one outlet. If the frisbee technique works, you can deliver them from anywhere.”

“We could have a mega-pizza-factory, but I want them to be more fresh. So I think a lot of restaurants is best.”

“That’s too expensive.”

“What are you guys talking about?”

“Ah, nothing. Did you order the pizza?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Diana sat down on the living room floor, completing the triangle between herself, Andrew, and Akko who had fallen off the couch. The dogs had sprawled out next to Andrew, and he was petting one of them with each hand.

“Hey, Diana,” said Akko. “Remember that time we went to that antique emporium to try and find limited-edition Chariot merch, but we didn’t find it?”

“How could I forget, we walked around that emporium for hours… you wouldn’t let us go home. But it was fun in the end.”

Andrew listened to them reminisce, a little sad to be left out, but content to sit there, and pet the dogs, and listen. He had to say that Diana’s house was superior to his, not in size or decoration, but in warmth, and the happiness of it’s inhabitants. His house seemed cold and lonely in comparison. He wished he could stay here, in this living room, listening to Akko and Diana talk. Eventually the pizza arrived.

“Andrew, do you want to stay for dinner again?”

“Sure.” 

After spending the day with them, he didn’t want to go home. The thought of being so lonely again scared him, especially after how much he enjoyed the company of other humans.  They ate, but hijinks arose when Akko kept getting her food stolen by the dogs. 

“Barnaby!! No!!”

“I’m sorry, Akko, they really should be better behaved…”

Andrew scoffed. “Clearly someone didn’t grow up with dogs.”

“Did you?”

“?”

“Have a dog growing up?”

He looked a little sad. “Yeah. You have to be more careful with food.”

“I see.” 

Andrew, already feeling like he had overstayed his welcome, left after dinner. But while he left Akko’s company, he didn’t leave her mind. She was agonizing about the comment she had made when she fell off her horse. 

‘Someone who looks so good on a horse has no business knowing so little about them??’ Argh, why did I say that???

She felt so awkward now, and guilty. Poor Andrew probably had to deal with comments on his appearance enough, she shouldn’t add onto that.

Andrew was also thinking about it, of course. He knew Akko didn’t mean anything by the comment, but it still bothered him. Just because she thought he looked good didn’t correlate to her having feelings for him. He heard things like that all the time, they weren’t anything special. Even if they came from a special person. 

Or so he told himself. But still, he wondered. But hope was a dangerous emotion, so Andrew tried to kill his. He woke up and turned on the light, facing the situation awake. He walked into the bathroom and stared intensely at himself in the mirror. Andrew didn’t think he was that handsome, but maybe he had just gotten used to his own face. Snap out of it, he told himself. She didn’t mean anything. 

Diana, too, couldn’t sleep. She was worrying about a million different things, chiefly Akko and the stable boy, and the fact that Andrew had somehow been lumped into the vacation.  Things were not going according to plan, but it was okay. She hadn’t realized she would need backup keeping Akko away from yet another distraction. 

Akko, however, was the only one able to fall asleep at will, so she did. After all, she had to wake up early for her riding lesson. 


AN: Akko’s horse-riding experience (just the eating part really) is slightly based on a horse I rode a trail with once. His name was Cosmo. Good boi 10/10 but he did try to eat my shoe. 

Notes:

I never thought I would have a double post day with my other work but this was kind of stressful

Chapter 15: Strange Phenomena, or Bowled Over

Notes:

Today is costume day, I am dressed as the iconic Kate Bush 1978 British folk hit, Wuthering Heights

It is also... picture day

Don't cry for me, I chose this fate.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

It was a drizzly morning and Andrew was sitting in his sitting room, drinking a cup of tea, when there was a knock at the door. Being the man of the house that he esteemed himself to be, and not having a butler to open the door, he answered the knock. It was Diana, who seemed stressed. 

“Is Akko with you?”

“Regrettably, no. I thought she was with you.”

“She isn’t. Have you seen her?”

“I haven’t.”

Diana stood there on the porch, looking at the doormat and pressing her lips together as she tried to formulate a plan. Andrew tried to understand what was happening.

“Is Akko missing?”

“Yes. I’ve no idea where she could be.”

Remembering his manners, Andrew invited Diana in. “Here, come inside and we’ll figure it out.”

She accepted his invitation and they stood in the foyer, puzzled. “Well then. if we were Akko, where would we go.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “I haven’t the foggiest.”

“Stop making weather puns and help.”

“Sorry. But really, she doesn’t know the area. There’s no attractions in town that I can think of, unless she researched one.”

“But she’d tell us about that, wouldn’t she? Akko isn’t the type to go on some mystery trip and not drag us along.”

“Exactly. And she’d probably bring one of us so not to get lost. The only place we’ve been so far that she’d know is…”

“Oh, no…”

They pulled on their boots and started down the muddy road.

“You never should have taken her riding.”

“You never should have offered your horses.”

“Well, you should have stopped her from leaving.”

“I didn’t know. And you should have warned me about the stable boy.”

“I didn’t know he was worth warning you about.”

“You’ve been here longer- have you heard anything about him? Has he a good reputation?”

“I don’t know anything about him. I haven’t exactly been socializing, Miss Cavendish.”

She sighed. “Why are we even arguing? We have the same goal. Let’s hurry so we can stop her.”

“Exactly. We don’t need another Billy Wickham on our hands.”

The truth was that they were both jealous. Diana didn’t want to have to share Akko’s attention with yet another person, and Andrew didn’t think he could bear to watch her be romanced by someone else. Neither of them had any idea what was happening between Akko and the stable boy, but if they were to have a relationship, it would destroy both Andrew and Diana’s summers. They both walked quickly, each refusing to be behind the other. Andrew had the advantage of longer legs, so Diana was struggling to keep up. But Andrew kept straining to outpace her. Akko would have laughed at the two of them speedwalking like that, but Akko was not there. So the speedwalking was necessary.

They met Akko on the road to the stables. She was going the opposite way. The stable boy was with her.

“Hi! What are you doing here?”

“We were coming to look for you.”

“Oh. Didn’t I tell you guys about my riding lesson today?”
“You might have mentioned it…”

Andrew and Diana stared at the stable boy intently. Akko answered their unspoken question.

“Trevor’s walking me home. Are you guys going back there?”

“Yeah.”

The stable boy turned to Akko. “I sense I’m not wanted, so I’ll let them take you from here.”

Andrew and Diana could have remembered their manners and tried to do something to convince him that wasn’t true, but it was. Damn right you’re not wanted. As Trevor turned to leave, he winked at Akko. She winked back. Seeing that, Andrew felt like dying, and Diana felt like murder. As soon as he walked away, Andrew and Diana turned too. 

“Come on, Akko.”

They both took one of her arms and led her back to the house. Diana and Andrew were relieved to have her back.
“Y’all are pretty rude to Trevor.”

“Well, Akko, you see, we want you all to ourselves.”

“Andrew- why was that so cute-“

He blushed and tried to hide his internal distress. “Well enjoy it now, because I won’t say anything like that ever again.”

She squeezed her friends’ arms. “What do you guys want to do today? I was thinking we could go bowling like I had researched. Maybe we could do that tonight. I’ve never been able to go bowling without causing chaos. Maybe I shouldn’t be trusted around bowling balls. But it’s fine, I’m sure this time will be different.”

Andrew and Diana made eye contact above Akko’s head, both knowing they needed to keep her occupied and away from the stables. 

So the three of them went bowling, at Akko’s request. Andrew offered to drive, Diana wanted to fly, and Akko didn’t care either way so they argued until Andrew eventually won from making the point that it would be dark when they came home, and he didn’t want them flying at night. Akko agreed with him there, not fully trusting her own flying skills yet. 

“I call shotgun!!!”

Akko ran ahead to the car so she could clutch the door of her desired seat. No one cared. “I don’t think you have any competition for it,” Diana yelled to her. 

“Still, it’s a victory!!” she said as Andrew unlocked the car and she got in. “Ah, Thomas. We meet again.”

“Thomas?”

“That’s what she named my car.”

“Oh. Typical Akko.”

“I’m right here.”

“She tried to name my broom. I wouldn’t let her.”

“I just really think it should have a name.”

Akko absentmindedly stared out the window and remembered something. “Hey, weren’t we going to go to the beach today?”

“We were.”

“Guess we forgot.”

Diana looked outside. It was still drizzling. “The weather didn’t go the way we thought it would, did it.”

“We’ll have to go tomorrow.”

Diana wasn’t happy that Andrew had become part of the plan yet again, but there wasn’t much she could do. 

In a little while, they reached the bowling alley. It was pretty much deserted, but Akko didn’t mind. There was no one to scold her when her ball rolled through the gutter, into another lane, through another gutter, into a third lane, and knocked down one pin. Andrew scoffed at her. 

“Well, at least it’s better than last time.”

“Stop being so mean to me!!! I’m trying!!”

Diana looked up at the screen that displayed their scores. “That’s… three points for Akko. Still.”

Akko sighed. “And now I have to go all the way over there to get my ball back.”

Diana and Andrew watched Akko walk all the way over to the other lane and stand at the ball return machine, tapping her foot, until her ball was returned. She carried it back to their lane as Andrew stood up. 

“Guess it’s my turn now.”

He picked a random ball from the machine and rolled it forth with oddly accurate precision. Akko watched him do so and walk backwards elegantly, admiring his form as he did. 

“Wow! Such elegance! Such form.”

He looked over at her, a laugh in his eyes. “Are you being sarcastic?”

“No! That was really good!”

He shrugged. “I try.”

Akko was mentally trying to check herself. You were just staring at him because he’s good at bowling. It’s a good bowling swing? Throw? Wait, what is a bowl even called? Whatever. It’s just that. 

It was Diana’s turn. She waited for the pins to reset, and took a random ball, throwing it without any vigor. It hit two pins, and knocked another down. Akko frowned. She had brought a camera along, wanting to capture summer memories, but nothing interesting was happening.

“Diana, do you not even care?”

“No, Akko, not really.”

“But it’s bowling! You have to care!”

“I’m still beating you. Maybe you should care more.”

Andrew laughed. “Wow, Diana. That was cold.”

She went back to the shelf where she was sitting. Akko seized her ball. “Hmph. I’ll show you, Diana!”

“Oh, please try.”

Akko turned to Andrew. “Andrew. You seem good at this. Help.”

“As you know, I’m a terrible teacher, but I’ll try.”

He walked over to her and tried to help. Akko felt a little guilty at needing his assistance, she couldn’t help but think herself a character on a sitcom who pretends to be helpless at something so that their love interest will help. But Andrew wasn’t her love interest, why was she thinking like that? And she really was helpless at this, and she needed his help to win against Diana, but why did the feeling of his hand over hers make her so unsettled? Akko was so stressed about these feelings that she barely felt Andrew’s arm guiding hers in the way she was supposed to throw the ball. She tried to snap out of whatever this was.

“I’m not very good at bowling, so it’s probably not correct, but anything’s better than what you’ve been doing. So I guess you could try to throw like that.”

She hadn’t been listening. “Thanks, Andrew, but maybe I’ll throw like this.”

Akko lifted the ball above her head with both hands and, using all her strength, threw it overhand onto the lane. It landed with a thud and the creaking of wood and rolled slowly towards the pins. Andrew stood there in shock and annoyance. He turned to Diana. 

“Did she just… ignore everything I just said?”

“Yep.”

Akko grinned in apology. Andrew turned to her next. “Did I just… waste all that time and effort teaching you for nothing?”

Diana yawned. “It wasn’t really that much effort. Or time.” 

“Maybe. But look, I knocked over a pin!”

“So you did.” Andrew sighed. “Good job, Akko.”

“Thanks. Your turn, Diana!”

Diana stood and took a ball from the machine. As time went on, the game became more a competition between Andrew and Diana, with Akko in between, being ridiculous. Akko threw another ball overhand, somehow getting a spare.

“Huh! That one was actually good!”

“It was.”

“Maybe I’ll win!!”

“Doesn’t throwing it like that hurt your arm?”

“Yeah. It does. But it’s fun! And maybe I’ll win.”

Akko returned to where she had been sitting. “Your turn again, Diana.”

Diana cared now. She wasn’t messing around, like Akko was. Instead, she was playing to win. She had to beat Andrew. She threw the ball, and half the pins fell.

“That’s pretty good!”

“I wanted a strike.”

Andrew rose to the challenge. “Don’t worry, I’ll get one.”

He didn’t get a strike. He got a spare. While it was still a good outcome, Andrew was embarrassed. Diana laughed at him. And he was laughing at himself, too, behind his hands, for he was hiding his face. The three of them laughed uncontrollably. It wasn’t even that funny, but the laughter was infectuous. Akko, through laughter, tried to ease Andrew’s mock shame. 

“It’s- it’s still a good score!”

He looked at her through the shelter of his hands and she caught sight, for a moment, of one of his eyes, full of laughter and a vulnerability of sorts, green as usual and filled with emotion, and in that moment, her heart swelled with a comfort and a discomfort, an instability and a safety, and an unmistakable confusion, followed immediately by a wave of guilt. Akko stopped laughing. What in the world is wrong with me??

As Akko stopped laughing, the laughter died down, and it was her turn. She failed miserably, of course, but Andrew and Diana chalked it up to Akko’s natural lack of skill at bowling, and, well, everything else. The game ended shortly after that. Andrew had won, but he didn’t really care. Neither Andrew or Diana realized the distress Akko was in, even when she took Diana’s seat instead of the front seat. No one asked why, and Akko was grateful, for she didn’t think she could sit next to Andrew as she had done before. Half of her wanted to be near him, and half of her dreaded it. Pretending to be tired, she laid on the back seats and looked up out the window into the darkness, wondering what was making her feel so strange. 

When they returned to their houses, Akko left quickly and darted back to Diana’s house, yelling a farewell. Diana and Andrew sat there in confusion, until Diana suddenly spoke.

“I have a question for you.”

Her voice was calm, but the tension overwhelmed Andrew. He was more on guard than usual when he answered. “….And what would it be?”

“You’re in love with Akko, no?”

He was silent. There was no way out of this situation, she had figured it out and no answer he could think of would change her mind. But his silence only confirmed her suspicions. 

“I thought so.”

He could hear her smug smile, even if the darkness hid it from view. Andrew was afraid. He had no idea what to do. There was no defense he could put up, nor offense he could send out. He had only one option, to bend to her will.

“Please don’t tell her.”

“I won’t.”

“Thanks.”

“It just makes so much sense,” she mused. “I’m surprised Akko herself hasn’t figured it out. But then again, Akko’s pretty oblivious.”

“That she is.”

Andrew was trying to lighten the mood, because he was genuinely scared. Diana hadn’t mean to come off as a supervillain, she just wanted to seem smug. 

“So you’re keeping it a secret from her?”

“Yes. If possible.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to mess up what we already have.”

Diana was silent for a moment. “I understand that. The truth would ruin everything for you.”

“I take it you speak from experience? Is there something you don’t want to ruin? ”

There was silence. Then, she exhaled. “My two best friends are in love. I don’t want to tell them I know.”

“I understand how that must be. They’ll act different if they know you know. And you don’t want things to change.”

“Indeed. It’s just disarming when nothing goes to plan.”

“I can agree with that.”

A window lit up in Diana’s house, Akko’s room, logically. And Akko passed before the window, looking for something. Andrew and Diana looked up at her, and Diana sighed. 

“She probably forgot to let the dogs out. I’ll go tend to them.” She got out of the car. “Good night, Andrew.”

“Good night.”

Diana left, and soon enough more windows in her house were lit up. Andrew sat in his car for a good long while, wondering what had just happened to him.

Notes:

Author's note because several of my test readers have been confused-
when Diana says "my two best friends are in love" she does not mean Andrew and Akko, she means Hannah and Barbara. take the double meaning as you will, but for story comprehension she means Hannah and Barbara.

Chapter 16: As the light hits you

Notes:

Romantic = Romance
Platonic = Platonce?

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Akko was sitting on her bed trying to breathe when Diana poked her head into Akko’s room.

“You forgot to let the dogs out.”

Akko feigned composure and gave a shaky smile. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Akko expected Diana to leave, but she stayed, squinting at her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

Diana could have prodded, but she chose to leave Akko alone. When the door closed again, Akko deflated and fell over, sinking her face into the covers and trying not to cry. She had become such a mess. What in the world was going on? How could Andrew, of all people, make her feel this way? And what even was this way? She couldn’t possibly have feelings for him, she just couldn’t. It was Andrew, after all. They were friends, and nothing more. This was to be a long night of soul-searching for Akko. Unable to sleep, her stress stretched her into the early hours of the morning. She cried and cried until she had had enough of staying awake. She needed her energy if they were to go to the beach tomorrow, right? So why couldn’t she sleep… why? Akko had cried her eyes out by now from the confusion and fear of the truth, whatever the truth was. She had cried so much, her eyeballs hurt and her sinuses ached. She wondered if she had cried herself sick. After thinking and overthinking herself in circles, she forced herself into the conclusion that she didn’t love Andrew. But she was still awake. Akko turned on the light and looked at the clock on her nightstand. It was one in the morning. Not too bad in terms of lateness. She got up and walked to the bathroom, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror and startling. She almost didn’t recognize herself, she had cried so much. 

“Gosh.”

After splashing some water in her face, albeit aggressively, she stared at herself in the mirror. It had been a long, lonely night and Akko wished she could talk to someone about her problems. But none of the friends she could contact would understand, Diana would be angry, and Andrew- she couldn’t tell Andrew. He simply wasn’t an option. So Akko shouldered the burden of her confusion alone. But it wasn’t a burden anymore, if she had deduced she didn’t love him. She was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine. Now, if she did like Andrew, things wouldn’t be fine. But her feelings were platonic. Akko put on a serious face and stared at herself in the mirror. 

Listen up, she said to herself, you don’t like him. You’re not gonna ever like him, so there’s no need for you to be all flustered around him. Sure, he’s handsome and all, but that’s just a matter of aesthetics. With him being aesthetically pleasing and you being aesthetically pleased, I guess. Where is this pep talk even going? It doesn’t make sense anymore. Eh, whatever. I’m fine. I’m fine. 

She stared into her own eyes. “You’re fine,” she whispered. “You’re fine.”

Still feeling a little shaky, Akko took deep breaths, sitting on the bathroom floor with the light on to try and steady herself. She didn’t want to turn the light off, because in darkness she might not be able to sort through all her chaos. But it was sorted, it was all sorted. Yes. All sorted! Or so she told herself. After a little while of sitting in the light, Akko felt composed enough to go back to bed. She slept well.

The next day, our heroes were to go to the beach. Akko knew this, but she was not prepared. There were alarm bells going off in her subconscious. Shirtless Andrew!!!! her subconscious yelled. But Akko brushed it off. That would be a problem, she said to herself, if I hadn’t unscrambled my feelings. But my feelings for Andrew are totally platonic!! So I’m totally fine!!!

Or so she told herself. But she was still a little uncomfortable around him, which she chalked up to platonic awkwardness, because everything was platonic. Even so, Akko made a hasty escape from the triangle they stood chatting in. 

“I’m gonna go jump over waves!!”

She ran into the sea, wincing at the cold, but nevertheless pushing through the tides until she was waist deep in water. That was far enough. She felt better now. True to her promise, Akko was jumping over the coming waves, or ducking under them, and having a grand time. The water washing around her was cold and refreshing, and the waves repetitive and calming. It was a beautiful day, uncharacteristically warm, with a white sun beaming down on Akko from above. She felt happy, and peaceful, even though the crashing waves were anything but. She looked up- a huge wave was coming. Akko waited for it, and jumped, floating on the wave as it passed, letting it carry her higher. She floated back down as the wave hit Andrew, who was behind her, in the face. 

“Oof.”

“Oh! You startled me.”

“Hey.”

“Hi. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

A wave hit Akko in the face. After spitting out a good deal of seawater, she turned back to Andrew, a little annoyed. “You distracted me.”

“Sorry. What is it that you’re doing, exactly?”

“Jumping over waves.” Another wave came. “I just kinda- float over them.” She floated back down. “Like so. It’s really fun, you should try.”

“Ah.”

Another wave came, and Andrew floated over it alongside Akko. “You were right. This is nice.”

“Isn’t it? Sometimes I like to go under the waves.”

Another wave came along, and Akko dove under it, letting it roll over her and popping back up once it had passed. “-blub- like so.”

“I see.”

Diana approached them. 

“Hey, Diana! We’re jumping over waves.”

“Okay. I was going to watch the dogs, but they won’t stop digging holes, so I think they’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine.”

They jumped over a few more waves.

“Is it just me, or are we getting kinda deep?”

“It’s just you, Akko.”

“You’re short.”

Akko splashed Andrew. “Maybe you’re just way too tall.”

“Hey,” he said, laughing. “I’m really not. Frank’s taller than me, by like, two inches, and he calls me short.”

Diana smirked. “But the difference is, Akko actually is short.”

Akko splashed Diana, and Andrew splashed Akko. Avenging her friend, Diana splashed Andrew, and then everyone started splashing each other. What started as a splash fight became a splash war. they were all hiding underwater to avoid each other, popping up to breathe every now and then. Akko felt she would have to breathe soon, but she was maneuvering around her friends to strike them from behind the next time they came up for air. She popped up to gulp in a breath of oxygen and found herself face to face with Andrew. Both were stunned for a split second, until Akko yelled AMBUSH and splashed him in the face with all the water she could muster. He sputtered saltwater and smirked at her.

“Oh, it’s on.”

“Nope!” She ducked down again.

“Ha. Coward.”

He decided to wait until she came back up and then attack, but while he was waiting, he was hit from behind by Diana, and as he whipped around to splash her back, Akko resurfaced and splashed him. But she wasn’t as quick as Diana, so she received the full force of Andrew’s arm moving through the water and sending a splash directly at her. Akko fell over from surprise, laughing.

“Stop! Stop. Time out.”

Andrew and Diana eventually stopped splashing each other and looked over at Akko. She was floating on her back, or trying to, what with the waves. 

“The clouds are really pretty.”

Andrew fell backwards with a splash to float next to Akko. “You’re right. They are.”

Diana was the only one standing. “We should go in. We’ll be able to watch the clouds better there, without all these waves.”

They walked back to shore. Akko intentionally fell and let a wave carry her in. She rolled onto the beach, in a heap from the chaos of the wave. Akko sat up and brushed the sand off of herself. “I got all sandy, but that was worth it.”

“Was it really?” Andrew extended a hand to help her up and she took it, grateful that she felt nothing when their hands touched. 

“Yeah. Felt like a washing machine.”

He kept holding her hand, and put his other hand over hers as a gesture of platonic sympathy. “I do hope you’ve never actually sat in a washing machine.”

“No, just a dryer.”

Diana overheard and gave her response to this in the form of a very confused and concerned facial expression, as did Andrew, while not letting go of Akko’s hand. 

“Not while it was on!!! Haven’t you guys ever just half-sat in there for a lil while when your laundry is all warm? It’s so comforting and safe…”

“I’ve never done laundry.”

Akko frowned. “Right. Sometimes I forget you guys have servants… but it’s just so sad that some people don’t ever have the joy of sticking your entire torso into a dryer.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“One time, I got my entire body in there once. And then the clothes cooled off and I realized I was stuck.”

“That sounds very dangerous.”

Andrew let go of Akko’s hand, and an inner voice that she hated mourned the loss of the feeling. But she shushed it quickly, looking to the sky.

“You were right, Diana, I can focus on the clouds a lot more over here. That one looks like a washing machine, haha.”

“You’re correct, oddly enough. I’ve never seen a cloud so… square.”

“Yeah… that one over there looks like a dog.”

“You’re right, Diana!! It looks like Barnaby.”

Barnaby poked his head out of the hole he was digging at the sound of his own name. Akko pointed to another cloud. “And that one can be Cornelius.” Cornelius did the same.

Andrew was incredulous. “Eh, it doesn’t really look like Cornelius. I think that one’s just a blob.”

“C’mon, Andrew, use your imagination.”

“I imagine it’s a blob.”

“Shut up.”

Diana squinted at the sky and pointed at a cloud. “Akko, that one kind of looks like a hat. Vaguely.”

“Yeah, it does!!” She turned to Andrew. “See, Diana has an imagination.”

“I have an imagination, Akko. But that does not look like Cornelius. Not at all.”

“That one looks like the Anghenfil Ofn.”

Andrew sighed. “Please don’t remind me of that.”

Diana stared at the cloud. “You’re oddly correct… that one’s kind of dark.”

“It looks like a storm. We’d better go in.”

A raindrop fell from the sky and landed on Akko. “Huh. It was so sunny a moment ago.”

The rain unleashed it’s full force on the three, all of a sudden. They all stood there for a moment, then they left the beach. 

The next day, it was still raining. It hadn’t stopped, and Akko was starting to get cabin fever. Andrew had barely left Akko and Diana’s house, he didn’t want to be alone in such rain. Normally, the rain was lovely for being alone, reading poetry and acting like a recluse, but there was nothing that made Andrew happier than sitting on the carpet next to Akko, playing board games she had found in the attic to pass the time. He gazed at her as she moved her game piece intently, focusing on her smile as she finished counting out the number she had rolled the dice to get.

“Yes! I pass go. I get $200. Haha, Diana, you’re still stuck in jail!”

“Eh, I’ll get out eventually.”

Like any other game of monopoly, this one had been going on for a few hours now. Akko was the only one still playing. Diana had lost interest, and Andrew was only interested in Akko. Akko could tell her friends didn’t really care that they were both in jail.

“I sense you guys are bored with this.”

“Yeah, kind of.”

Akko dropped her facade. “Me too. I was just trying to act interested to try and keep everyone entertained.”

She walked to the window and pressed her forehead to the glass. “I’m so bored. What should we do?”

“We could make more tea?”

“You guys have already made enough tea today. We’re going to run out.”

Andrew sighed. “Well, think about it this way. If we could go outside, what would we be doing anyway? The rain is just affecting our state of mind. It’s sort of melancholy.”

Akko missed his point entirely. She smiled ambitiously. “I’ll tell you what I’d be doing. I want to dance in that field. Frolic, if you will.”

“It is a nice field, yes.”
“Isn’t it? So big, and the grass looks so soft. The rain would just make it more dramatic, I bet I could still frolic in the rain.” She made up her mind and turned back to face her companions. “In fact, that’s what I’m going to do. Who’s with me?”

Andrew smiled. “You know what, why not. I’m with you.” I’ll always stand with you. No matter what.

Diana shook her head. “No. You two will catch your deaths of cold. I’m staying in here.”

Akko pouted. “Oh, well. Maybe you’ll change your mind when you see how much fun we’re having! Come on, Andrew!” 

Andrew and Akko left the house and Akko skipped into the meadow, dragging Andrew behind her. Once they reached it, the vigor of the day overtook him and he spun around, ending in a bow and extending his hand.

“May I have this dance, my lady?”

He figured she might understand. After all, frolicking in a field was such a loose thing. And if Andrew loosened his guard a little, it might make sense to her. And dancing made sense. She wouldn’t guess at his true feelings. And she didn’t.

She took his hand. “Of course.”

He pulled her in and they began to waltz and spin, quickly, almost frantically, almost falling over with joy. Akko leaned her head back and laughed into the rain. Her smile was so beautiful. Andrew gazed at her with so much love he thought his heart might explode, right then and there, and then there would be no hiding his feelings. He dared to dream, to wonder if he should kiss her dramatically, like in the movies. After all, it was raining and it would have been terribly romantic. 

By coincidence, or maybe telepathy, Akko was thinking she could do the same thing, her heart beating quickly, fearing what kissing Andrew might do to her. But it was just a foolish dream, neither of them would never do something like that. Platonic, platonic, platonic, she told herself. And their platonic love was wonderful! She was more than happy to be his friend. She held onto both of his hands and the two of them spun around in a dizzying circle, laughing. Diana watched this from the window and turns to the dogs.

“Well now, I can’t let those two be alone, can I?” 

She opened the door, dogs crowding around her, and walked out into the field. Akko was delighted to see her. 

“Hi, Diana!! So you decided to come out after all!”

“Indeed I did. Here I am.” 

Akko dropped one of Andrew’s hands and stood there holding the other one, waiting for Diana and extending her empty hand when she approached. Diana took Akko’s hand, and smiled. All three of them looked at the dogs, who were sniffing and munching at a clump of grass. Andrew sighed.

“Aren’t dogs funny? You could give them the fields of Elysium to run in, and they would spend the whole time sniffing one clump of grass.”

Diana nodded. “Exactly.”

As if in response to their mocking, the dogs began to run, their ears flopping up and down as they do. They ran up and down the gentle rolls of earth, relishing life. Akko decided to join them, dragging her friends alongside her. She let go of their hands and they all ran, twirling as they do.

“I feel so alive!!” Akko stopped on a dime and spun aggressively. “Whee!!”

Diana awkardly twirled around, trying to frolic like Akko. “Am I doing it right?”

“There’s no wrong way to frolic!!” Akko was trying to click her heels. She kept jumping up and falling over, laughing all the while. She fell into the grass yet again, letting Andrew help her up. Once she was standing again, she tilted her head toward the sky and smiled at the rain. 

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

Andrew wanted to say that Akko was beautiful, but he decided against it when she looked at him. She meant too much to him for him to be so reckless. Akko stared at Andrew for a little longer than she should have, marveling at the way the rain and the motion had messed up his hair. Half of her wanted to smooth it back to the way it had been, another half was dying to mess it up further. But the third half decided it would be way out of line for her to do either. She dropped his hand to spin around again. 

They frolicked until the rain began to fade and the sun burst through the clouds and the whole world was saturated with color. They frolicked even though their legs hurt and their lungs ached, for they were happy. Andrew didn’t think he had ever been happier, and he knew he never would be again. Such joy, such heart-bursting joy, could only be achieved in certain conditions that Andrew didn’t ever come across. But here he was, and he was already mourning the moment, trying to savor it before time marched on in its inevitable path and he would lose this. 

Akko flopped to the ground and Diana sat near her, as did Andrew. They lie in a triangle, their legs forming a three-pointed star that Akko had wanted to form. 

“Gosh, we need a fourth person to make Chariot’s logo thing… you guys know the moon? We could make that.”

Diana sighs. “We could. But look at the sky.”

It was late afternoon, not yet twilight and not yet sunset. The meadow was golden with slanted sunshine, and the sky was only just beginning to darken, a clear, crisp, cornflower blue. They all stared up at that endless sky, breathing hard and tired from frolicking. The ground was wet, but so were they, so it didn’t really matter. They watched as the sky changed and the sun set over the edge of the field, they watched as the stars and moon slowly appear, one by one, and fireflies rose up out of the tall grass. It was peaceful until Akko sprung to her feet suddenly.

“Race y’all back to the house!!!”

 

Notes:

Frolicking is very dear to my heart

Chapter 17: Stars, hide your fires

Notes:

You thought I post on Tuesdays only now

But it was me, temporary return of the bi-weekly update schedule!!

(I just needed something to be excited about today and I wanted to share this early)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

 

After declaring her race, Akko started sprinting through the field, back towards Diana’s porch. Andrew scampered to his feet and started running after her, Diana, and the dogs. Sprinting back to the house filled all five of them with such life and such energy, and the wind on their faces and around their bodies was exhilarating in the purest way. As Andrew ran, he felt that same happiness in motion, bidding it goodbye when they ran up the stairs to the front porch. Akko fell onto the porch swing, tired from her run. She smiled and tried to catch her breath.
“So, what should we do now?”

Diana sighed. “I don’t know.”

Andrew looked at the sky sadly. “It’s getting late. I guess I should go home.”

Akko frowned. “Don’t leave! The night is still young!” 

He shrugged, and an idea struck her. Andrew could see her eyes light up. She turned to Diana. “Hey, Diana, what if Andrew stayed with us?”

Andrew realized the situation Akko was putting Diana in and tried to abstain. “I-I wouldn’t want to impose…”

To his surprise, Diana sighed and agreed with Akko. “I suppose that would be more convenient.”

“Yay!” Akko turned to Andrew. “How fast can you pack a suitcase?”

“You sound like you’re about to drag me on some adventure.”

“This will be an adventure!!! The three of us are going to be the iconic housemates. It will be like a sitcom.”

“Okay… I guess I’ll go get my things.”

Akko hopped to join him. “I’ll go with you. I’ve wanted to see your house.”

They started off across the field. “Oh, you haven’t come over?”

“No… we’ve hung out at Diana’s house most often.”

“That’s true.”

They reached Andrew’s house and went in. Akko paused in the doorframe for a moment, taking in the decoration and the smell. It all reminded her of Andrew, which made sense, considering it was his house. She nosed around the living room while he went upstairs to get his stuff. 

Andrew pulled several things into his suitcase, thinking of the things he would need to do to move. He would have to tell one of his parents where he had gone, in case they needed to contact him. And he would have to inform the servants, and-

“Andrew?”

He looked up. Akko had come up to the second floor, evidently. She stood in the doorway of his room, with her arms full of DVDs. 

“I found all these movies downstairs. Can we take them? Diana doesn’t have any.”

“Oh. Oh, sure.”

Akko sat on Andrew’s bed as he packed and looked around. “This is a nice room.”

“Thanks. Excuse me.”

He had to dig under his bed to find the stack of letters. It was risky pulling them out in front of Akko, but he couldn’t leave them here unsupervised, he had to bring them along to Diana’s house. And suddenly- quickly, striking a pang of desperate fear into Andrew, Akko caught sight of the letters. 

“What are those?”

He pulled the stack to his chest quickly, hoping she hadn’t seen. “Nothing! They’re nothing.”

“Ah- okay.”

She looked a little hurt and surprised. He tried to undo the damage. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

She sat in silence and he finished packing without another word. As they returned across the field, Andrew tried to bring back the conversation.

“So… do you want to watch one of those movies?”

“Yeah, I think we should.”

When Diana heard Akko’s plan, she seemed a little dismayed. “But Akko, we don’t have a DVD player.”

Andrew offered his, but Diana declined. “You know… this is a challenge. I’ll see if I can make it work with magic.”

Akko smiled. “I know you can do it! You’re a magic prodigy! Do you need my help?”

Diana was already fiddling with the DVD. “No. You go somewhere you won’t distract me.”

Her candor rolled off of Akko easily. She was used to it. “Okay. Good luck. I’m going to go sit out on the back porch.”

“I’ll join you.”

Andrew and Akko walked back out into the cool night air. Akko skipped down the stairs from the porch and stood on the path to the beach, staring at the sky. Andrew followed her.

“Wow!!!”

“Huh. You can see a lot of stars out here.”

“You really can!! But we get a lot at Luna Nova, too.”

“I’ll bet it’s beautiful.” 

She pointed to the Big Dipper. “There’s what’s left of the shiny rod.”
“Ah.”
She looked directly upwards. “And there’s Arcturus. Like the forest. And Ursa Major. And over there’s the Pleiades. And that bright one is Vega.”

“You sure know a lot of stars.”

“Magic Astronomy is Chariot’s class, so I pay attention.”

“Makes sense.”

He walked back and sat on the porch stairs. She joined him, and they stared at the sky until it seemed to turn grey with the haze of stars, and listened to the noise of the ocean in the darkness. After some time, Akko sighed and spoke, her voice quiet and soft in the beauty of the night.

“The noise is so nice. It makes sense why people think it’s so relaxing.”

“Yeah. It reminds me of a poem.” 

“Oh? What’s it called?”

“Dover Beach, but the excerpt I know is The Sea of Faith. It was in a book I read, so I memorized it.”

“Can I hear it?”

“Sure.”

He recited the poem. She couldn’t see him well in the shadows, and she was staring at the sky anyway, so all there was of Andrew in that moment was his voice. He said the words slowly, and steadily. 

“The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.”

He took a half-second break in between the stanzas, and Akko thought for the first time what a nice voice Andrew had.

“Ah, love, let us be true

To one another! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.”

There was something disarming in that soft voice, in those words. An offer, or a promise, or a secret. Something that made her want to follow, or want to be lured. Something that gently challenged the lack of feelings she swore by. Spoken in the darkness, those words made her question everything she knew. His voice was such a mystery, suddenly. 

Akko waited a moment before she wanted to speak, fearing the great danger and the call of the void. She looked over at Andrew and was surprised to see he was staring at her with a vulnerable look she couldn’t quite place. She could hardly make out his expression in the dim yet illuminating glow of the house, but she didn’t have to see him clearly to tell. She stared back, and for a moment everything was so tenuous and deep, so fluttery and dark, so terrifying to Akko that she was simultaneously disappointed and grateful when Diana opened the door to the porch to say she had figured out how to play a movie with magic.

“Hey, Akko. I figured it out- oh, did I interrupt something?”

“Uh- no.”

As they walked inside, Akko made a mental note. Remind me to thank Diana later, she told herself. That was too much for me to handle. She felt like she had been caught doing something illicit, and now she was sheepish. But what had they done? What was so intimate about a poem and eye contact? Innocent as she assured herself it was, the memory still stressed her out. There was so much stressing her out, and it all seemed to orbit Andrew. From the mysterious papers he had been so quick to hide from her, to the note of his voice that made her feel so abnormal, the Andrew she knew seemed different. Did she really know him that well? She tried not to think about it all as they watched the movie.

When the credits rolled, Diana went to walk the dogs before everyone went to bed, and Akko turned to Andrew. 

“Hey, Andrew?”

“Hm?”

“That poem you read? I don’t agree with it.”

“Why not?”

She looked out ahead of her, puzzled, thinking. “I don’t think the world’s so… disoriented. I don’t think we’re just plunged into nothingness.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I think I have more faith in humans than that. And I wanna believe in joy, and light, and dreams.”

“Typical of you.”

“Well, yeah. Don’t you believe in those things?”

He didn’t answer. He just shook his head while smiling sadly. 

Akko would have spent the night pondering over all this confusion, but she was tired from frolicking, so she dropped off to sleep quickly. Andrew, however, couldn’t. Sleeping under the same roof as Akko gave him an irrational excitement. He cursed himself for still being awake so late, staring at the wall she was on the other side of. Eventually, he fell asleep, dreaming of dancing with her in the rain and wishing he could have her light and hope.

When Akko woke up the next morning, she didn’t feel confused at all. The whole thing felt settled, and Akko was sleepy and calm as she sat up in bed and looked out the window. It was raining again. She was disappointed, but she didn’t mind all that much. Another day of board games and movies wouldn’t be so bad. Akko pulled on a cardigan and long socks and went downstairs. She went into the kitchen and saw Andrew and Diana sitting at the kitchen table, discussing the merits of earl grey tea. Akko’s heart swelled with love to see the two of them there. Her friends, her trio. She stood in the doorway and watched them talk, overflowing with happiness. 

“I agree that the flavor of earl grey tea is superior to all other tea. And the distinctive orange box adds tradition and dignity.”

“Yes. Orange was clearly the best color choice there. And the flavor too, it’s been perfected over the years.”

Andrew sighed. “This is probably the most British conversation I’ve ever had outside of parliament.” 

Diana nodded. “Tea is a very British thing to speak of. I’ve been trying to get Akko to drink it more, if she’s to live here. But she doesn’t drink it very often.”

“I made an entire pot of tea, hoping she’d want some.”

“I guess I’ll have some tea if it would make you guys happy.”

“Oh, hi, Akko. How long have you been there?”

“Not too long.”

She approached and sat in an empty chair, resting her head on the table. Andrew offered her a cup of tea.

“I don’t want to move my head. Can I have a straw?”

“What kind of straw would even work in this situation…”

Diana sighed. “Sit up and drink your tea, Akko.”

“We should get silly straws. Is there a store or anything nearby?”

“I mean, there’s a supermarket in town, but it isn’t anything special.”

“We’ll go there on a field trip soon. But not today.” She sat up and sipped at her tea, gazing out the window at the field. “Today is more of a lazy day, don’t you guys think?”

“Hasn’t every day been a lazy day?”

“Yeah… with this rain.”

Akko put her head back onto the table. “Ahhh… what a nice day.”

“Agreed.”

 

(remember children, premarital eye contact is a sin)

 

Notes:

inner me: don't name a chapter after Macbeth, that will raise confusing literary questions and that's the wrong vibe of witches
also inner me: hehe stars go brrr

Chapter 18: Schisma Antiqua

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

 

After they ate breakfast, the trio just sat on the back porch, watching the rain. For the first time that day,  Akko remembered the events of the evening before, and laughed at herself for being so silly. There was nothing between herself and Andrew, just friendship. And now that he and Diana seemed to finally have bonded, Akko refused to mess up their perfect trio. But that wouldn’t be hard for her, since she didn’t have feelings for Andrew. Just a whole lot of platonic love for both of them.

Andrew was sitting on one of the couches on the porch, gazing through the screen at the scenery. He was tired from not sleeping, of course, and the silence, except for the noise of the waves, was lulling him into lethargy. Akko spoke, and her voice sounded quiet and otherworldly in his sleepiness.
“Guess I’ll skip my riding lesson today.”

Diana definitely wanted Akko to do that. “Yes, it would be hard to get there. I’m sure the road has dissolved into mud in this weather.”

Andrew tried to help Diana. “That’s right. It would be like crossing a river.”

Diana laughed. “That wouldn’t deter Akko. She’d just yell alea iacta est- in the wrong context, of course, and charge across.”

“What an Akko thing to do, misquote Caesar.”

“I probably don’t even know any Caesar quotes anyway.”

Diana looked over. “You should really learn Latin.” 

Andrew nodded. “It’s a fascinating language.”

Akko shrugged. “I know a little because of school, but really that’s just mottos and stuff. How much Latin do you guys know?”

“Enough to read it, but I wouldn’t be able to speak it. No one speaks it, though, it’s a dead language.”

“I could speak it. I’m close to fluent.”

Akko smiled. “I wanna hear! Say something in Latin!!”

“Alright. Aliquid.”

Diana smirked. “Ita vero. Iocus antiqua est.”

“Wait, what does that mean?”

“Aliquid means something. He, quite literally, said ‘something’ in Latin.”

Akko scowled. “I mean say something that means something.”

“Ali-“

“Something that means something other than something!!”

He thought for a moment, and spoke carefully. “Amor mea est tuua, contines cor mea in manī, et volo tibi continere totum meam. Es regina mea, es dea mea, vinco urbem tibi. Te desidero, amo, omnia sum est tibi.”

Diana’s eyebrows went up. “Impressive.”

“What did he say??”

“Ah… it’s a poem. An ancient roman one.”

Diana knew full well that Andrew had made it up on the spot (and probably conjugated and declined everything completely wrong in the process, (as Latin students do)) and she understood that Akko couldn’t know the truth. 

“Oh. That explains why it sounded so dramatic. That was pretty, Andrew!”

He shrugged. “Everything sounds better in Latin.”

“That’s probably true. I’m going to get more tea.”

She left, and Andrew breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Thanks for that.”

“Don’t mention it. I like the dynamic of this group as is, and things would be very different if she knew what that meant.”

“And if she knew I meant it.”

“And, I do not want you two to be together.”

“That’s… fair, coming from you.”

“She’d probably combust to hear someone say all that about her. You’re lucky she doesn’t know Latin.”

“I wish I could say it in English.”

Akko came back out on the last word. “Hi guys, I’m back. What was that about English?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Akko sat in her chair. “Well, I’m not multilingual like you guys, but I do speak Japanese.”

“That’s logical.”

“I’ll speak it now, as a demonstration.”

She said something in Japanese to both of them. 

“What does that mean?”

“You tell me. Could be a compliment, could be an insult. But you guys don’t know Japanese, so I guess you’ll never know how I really feel about you.”

Andrew spoke under his breath. “That makes two of us.”

“What?”

“What?”

“I thought you said- never mind.”

He changed the subject. “What do you want to do today?”

“Honestly, I kind of just want to sleep.”

“Fair enough.”

Akko curled up in her chair. Neither Andrew nor Diana knew whether she was sleeping or not, but she seemed happy, so they tried not to make any noise. Diana read, and Andrew looked out at the sea, all the while glancing back at Akko and trying not to stare at her, because he knew he wouldn’t be able to look away. How was it possible for one person to be so cute? Diana caught him blushing at Akko and rolled her eyes. But Diana was happy. Even if, once again, she was stuck in between two idiots with annoying romantic tension. She could handle that. Diana had already decided to tell Hannah and Barbara what she knew. She wasn’t looking forward to it, but it had to be done. Andrew and Akko, however, were a completely different story. Diana saw how awkward Akko was feeling, but she knew she didn’t want to love Andrew, so he didn’t have much of a chance. And she felt for him. She hadn’t seen him so vulnerable in years, perhaps ever. It was sad to watch, but also entertaining. And still, annoying. 

Diana realized she had been reading the same paragraph over and over again and became frustrated. But she didn’t have much time to continue reading, because the dogs appeared at the screen door, panting and demanding to be let in. She opened the door, not expecting Barnaby and Cornelius to barge right through the open door to the house and shake on everything, which is what they did. Diana got up to go after them, and the noise woke Akko, who had just been falling asleep, and she made eye contact with Andrew, who had been watching her and blushed aggressively, and got up to follow Diana to hid his emotions. The peace of the moment was over. Akko climbed out of her chair and followed her friends inside to see Diana stressed about the state of some furniture the dogs had shaken onto and were now rolling on.

“Dogs- no!!” She was very angry. “My aunt is going to kill me!” Diana tugged at Barnaby’s collar. “Do you understand how much this upholstery cost?”

Andrew and Akko stood and watched Diana’s histrionics in trying to save the couch. 

“Say, Andrew, do you think we should help?”

“Maybe?”

“I think you ought to help.”

“Okay! Doggies!! Treats!!” 

The dogs joyously ran towards Akko and sat at her feet, staring up at her and expecting treats while Diana flipped the couch cushions over. 

“Um, Diana?”

“Just keep them occupied, Akko, while I get the fur off this-“

“I don’t actually have treats. They’re drooling all over the floor.”

Andrew shook his head. “That was a bad decision on your part.”

Cornelius grew impatient and jumped up towards Akko. “Ah! Down! Andrew, maybe you could help?”

“Well what am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, help!!”

“Fine.”

Andrew first removed his sweater.

“That’s not helping!!” 

He walked forward, picked up a squirming Barnaby, and carried him to the porch. Then he did the same with Cornelius, and locked the two of them outside. “There. Consider yourself helped.”

“Okay, yeah, that was a help. But I don’t get why you needed to take your sweater off.”

“Because it’s cashmere, and I’m not about to ruin it.”

Akko sighed. “You rich people…”

“It’s just common sense. You saw what they did to that couch.”

They looked to a scowling Diana, who was trying to repair a pillow. “She paid a fortune for this one… she’s driving the family into the ground, I tell you.”

“Wait. Those dogs have really short hair. How did they shed so much??”

“Wet dog hair sticks to everything.”

“Huh.”

Andrew lifted his arms and gestured to the dog fur stuck to the sides of his shirt. “See?”

Diana was trying to fix the couch with magic. “I think I can handle this…. Akko, why don’t you give the dogs the treats you promised them? They tend to get… angry.”

Akko went into the kitchen and took the ceramic container of dog treats out onto the porch.

“Wait, not the whole jar-“

In a few minutes, they had settled the situation. Diana sat on the (fixed) couch and sighed. “I don’t know why they behaved so badly. Normally, they’re much better. I guess I’ve spoiled them too much.”

“Well, let’s just be glad your aunt wasn’t here to see this.”

“Yes. Indeed. She was here earlier in the summer, so I’m glad she didn’t want to come while I was here.”

Andrew nodded. “Oh, I saw her.”

“You did?”

“Yes. I had to attend dinner with her and your cousins.”

“That must have been interesting. I’m sorry you had to endure that.”

“It was most interesting. She kept trying to set me up with one of her daughters. Either one, she didn’t care.”

Diana winced, then scowled. “That woman. She’d do anything to bring more money into the family.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t end up an in-law of yours. My father would never allow me to marry a witch, even if I wanted to.”

Akko smiled. “So both of us are safe.”

“I’ll choose to ignore that insult, Miss Kagari.”

Diana stared at the ceiling. “I hope I become head of the family before she ever tries anything like that again. Because I will not allow any such quasi-incestuous arranged marriages either.”

“Oh, right. I keep forgetting you guys are related.”

“We aren’t, really.”

“Yes. Enough time has passed that the blood has been considerably watered down.”

“Enough time has passed since what?”

Andrew and Diana exchanged a look. “Shall we tell the story?”

“I suppose.”

“Alright, then.” 

“Yay, story time.”

Andrew began the tale. “This is a great shame to both of our families, so you can’t go around repeating it.” 

Akko nodded. 

“A little over two centuries ago, back when magic was more respected, one of the young Hanbridge ladies fell in love with a gentleman from the Cavendish house. Now, even though magic was not as frowned upon back then, the Cavendishes were not well-esteemed due to their reclusive nature and rumors of interbreeding to keep the bloodline-“

Diana glared at him. “That isn’t true. My family had a spotless reputation. And as for such rumors, your family had just as many of their own.”

“Fine, then. Rumors. But whatever the truth, the gossip wasn’t in their favor. They were haughty and often patronizing or rude to those not in the magic world.”

Diana interjected. “I’ll tell it from here if you’re going to be that way. A young man from the Cavendish line left the family’s domain to seek his fortune, and he happened to marry a young lady from one of the country’s political dynasties. He brought her back to his family home and they had two children.”

“Aww!! Did they live happily ever after?”

They answered in unison. “No.”

“As I was saying, he brought her back to the family home and they had two children. However, she was antisocial and rude to most, so she wasn’t well-liked.”

“It was hard for her to be so isolated and far from her family, and her in-laws were unkind to her because she could not use magic.”

“They were hospitable to her, but she treated them coldly in return.”

“Whatever. The fact of the matter is, they didn’t get along. She was disliked, but she always had her husband to protect her from any real harm.”

“Aww… love against all odds. I hope they were happy.”

Diana and Andrew spoke in unison again. “They weren’t.”

Akko sighed, and Diana continued the story. “Unfortunately, her husband soon died, and she had no link to the family anymore.”

“She feared for her safety without his protection. She was shut out and forced to flee. Her in-laws gave her none of the grace or charity that she deserved as a widow.”

“She deserted her child! No matter the reasons, she left her daughter behind when she fled. That is unforgivable.”

“No matter the reasons? I’ll tell you the reasons. Your matriarchal family cared little for her son, but they wanted to train her daughter to be a witch. So they took her from her mother and didn’t allow them any contact. She had no choice but to flee without her daughter. And she regretted it for the rest of her life. Which wasn’t long, anyway.”

“She died from sickness because she left a magic family. If she had stayed, they would have been able to cure her. She lost her life because whatever doctors your family could hire didn’t use magic.”

“Like they would have offered her help anyway.”

“Like they wouldn’t have! My family offers help to anyone in need, no matter their history!”

“Guys. Calm down. Stop arguing, I want to hear the end of the story.”

“Fine. Here’s the end. The children were separated. After his mother’s death, the son took on her maiden name and continued the Hanbridge line. He hated the Cavendishes until the day he died, for the way they had treated him and his mother.”

“He threw away his family. And his father’s legacy.”

“What legacy was there for him to be proud of? They rejected him.”

“In any event, the daughter stayed with the Cavendishes, kept their name and their heritage, and grew up to be a powerful witch. She was deeply hurt by her mother abandoning her-“

“That’s what they told her had happened. Your family turned her against her mother for their own gain.”

“-And she also grew bitter against her brother for renouncing and badmouthing the family name in public.”

“So there was a family feud?”

“It wasn’t exactly a feud. It was more of a bitter silence, for the sake of manners. It wasn’t publicly known that the two family leaders were siblings, and they didn’t want their parents’ mistake of marrying each other to bring shame to both lines. So it’s been more of a… polite mutual hatred, masked in recent years by my father’s need for political alliances.”

“Wow. That story is so tragic! It explains why you guys used to hate each other so much… but you guys are friends now, right?”

There was a silence. Retelling the story had brought back old arguments and old tensions. To appease Akko, Andrew shrugged halfheartedly. Akko accepted that and continued talking. 

“Wow… I wish they hadn’t been so bitter toward each other. Two siblings divided by their own different perceptions of the same event. And it seems like those perceptions have been passed down through the generations.”

“I guess you could say that.”

The rest of the day was tense, and Akko felt like she had gone back in time. They had been doing so well. She really thought that Diana and Andrew were on their way to being friends, and she had messed it all up by opening a can of worms. 

Of course, it wasn’t really Akko’s fault. There was no way she could solve such deep-rooted family conflicts in such a short time frame. 

But our dear Akko was still going to try. 

 

 

Notes:

English translation of the Latin

Andrew: something
Diana: yes, an old joke

Andrew: My love is yours, you hold my heart in your hands and I wish for you to hold all of me. You are my queen, you are my goddess, for you I would conquer cities. I long for you, I love you, all that I am is for you.”

(This is probably translated horribly wrong, but I’m writing this with my current knowledge of Latin, which is not a lot, because I write fanfiction during class. I also wrote this using only my memory and the glossary of Ecce Romani volume two, and not any of my notes, so there’s no way it means what I say it means. But I got the idea across, I hope. Everything sounds better in Latin and that’s all that matters.)

Also- I pictured Diana’s dogs as German shorthaired pointers, but they’re really acting like labs in this chapter

Chapter 19: Witching Hours

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

She snapped back to attention again. “Sorry. I was distracted by the children outside. What were you saying?”

“I was asking how the hospital is doing.”

“Oh, it’s doing very well. My sister keeps trying to cut funding, but I’ve been holding the line.”

“That’s good. I’m glad things are prosperous.”

“How is your charity work?”

A joyful sigh preceded her companion’s answer. “Busy! I spend much more time away from home, but I hate to just languish away in my husband’s mansion doing nothing. The work is my escape.”

“I can imagine you’d want to escape, with a husband like yours.”

“Well, yes, but I miss my son. I worry about him, spending so much time with his father.”

“As you should.”

There was a lull in conversation. Bernadette clutched her mug of tea with both hands as she looked out the window to where the children were playing in the field. She had been doing this all afternoon, and Winifred had noticed. She followed her friend’s gaze to see Bernadette’s only child, Diana, sitting alone. Winifred knit her eyebrows and turned back to Bernadette, observing the worry in her stare. She had known about the trouble with Diana, but seeing it in person made her all the more pained for the unfortunate witch. Even though Winifred was not from a magic family herself, she had learned enough about Bernadette’s life to know that a witch without magic was rare and terrifying in a clan focused around magic ability. It was clear, even to an outsider such as herself, that most of the Cavendishes were seriously concerned about Diana. Winifred patted Bernadette’s hand.

“Still worrying?”

She seemed to snap out of a trance when she gave her answer. “Oh- yes. Has it been so obvious?”

Winifred nodded. “She seems to be trying very hard. I’m sure a breakthrough’s on the horizon.”

“I should hope so. But I’ve been working with her extensively, and she doesn’t show any signs of magic. I don’t know what could be the matter. It’s as if it’s been simply sucked away, and nothing we’ve tried has worked.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Bernadette looked at the table. “I don’t know what to do, Winnie.”

A somber silence filled the room as Bernadette continued. “I wanted this to be a normal summer for her. For heaven’s sake, it might be the last. But she’s different from her cousins, and from the other magical children, and all of her relatives are whispering, and she’s such an observant child, I’m sure she’s realized that they don’t believe in her as much as I do.”

“You believe in her. That’s all that matters. She’ll make it, with your guidance.”

“I hoped.”

“Don’t stop hoping.”

“My health is failing. I don’t have much time. Even if I want to, I won’t be there to see her grow up.” Bernadette’s voice broke, and Winifred’s heart came a little closer to breaking. It had taken her long enough to accept that her friend was going to die, and it was still hard to talk about it as something that was really coming.

“Diana will be alright.”

“But I have no way of knowing. I may never know what becomes of her.”

“She’ll be a talented witch like her mother. I’m sure of it.”

“But what if she isn’t? What if she never learns magic? She was supposed to be my heir, the heir to the entire Cavendish name. What’s going to happen if neither she nor I can carry that mantle?”

Winifred didn’t know what to say. A promise that everything would be alright seemed too hollow here. Because Bernadette was dying, Diana couldn’t use magic, Darryl was misusing the Cavendish fortune, and there was nothing that could be done by someone like her, who was really just orbiting the situation. Winifred’s duty as a friend was to give Bernadette support, but she didn’t know how. Luckily, Bernadette changed the subject. 

“Enough of this. We ought to talk about something happy. How’s Andrew?”

“Oh, he’s doing well. Top of his class again, even though it doesn’t mean much for second grade.”

Bernadette laughed. “I’m sure Paul is pleased.”

“Paul has already planned a career for him. I suppose we’re both proud in our own ways.”

“Well, that’s good. I’m happy he’s doing so well.”

“I had hoped he and Diana would be closer friends.”

“Ah… they’ve been arguing all summer.”

“And the summer before this one.”

“And the one before that, and so on. Oh well, maybe they’ll find something to bond over when they’re older.”

Winifred and Bernadette chatted for the rest of the afternoon, trying to ignore the darker truths beneath their happy camaraderie. “We ought to go fetch the children. And I’m sure Paul will be expecting me over at our house.”

“Alright, then.”

Winifred stood to leave, and so did Bernadette. “Oh, and Winifred?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you, for talking to me today. You make me feel normal, sometimes. Thank you for helping me forget.”

She smiled sadly. “It’s my pleasure.”

-

“You guys? I found some interesting stuff when I went to put the board games away.”

Andrew and Diana looked up from their respective occupations to see Akko, holding a large, thick, book. “This was in the attic. I think it’s a photo album. With you guys in it. And I thought we could go through it together.”

Akko had done her part to repair their friendship, or at least she was trying. It had been a few days since Akko had learned about the tension between their families, and things had gotten better. It had also been sunnier lately, and since they didn’t need their rainy day activities, Akko had been putting the board games away with the rest of the collection when she was distracted by the photo album. 

Diana approached. “I must have forgotten about that one.”

Andrew followed, leaning over Akko’s shoulder to stare at the cover of the album. “Doesn’t look familiar to me, either.”

“Well, then. We’ll have to go through it! To the living room!”

Akko marched into the living room, clutching the book. She flopped down on the couch with it in her lap, and Diana and Andrew sat down on either side of her, curious as to what she had found. Akko opened the cover, and all three of them read the inscription on the first page. It contained the year that the album was made, the location where the photos were taken, and a short message from the chroniclers.

A feeble attempt to capture this summer (And some from before)

Humbly created by Winifred Hanbridge and Bernadette Cavendish

Akko put the pieces together. “So this was…”

“My mother.”

“And mine.”

On the other side of the spread, there was an older photo of the two of them when they were teenagers. It was faded and worn, clearly well-loved. How has it already been twenty years! The caption read. We have spent so many happy summers here. 

“Aww, that’s sweet. Wow, and you can really see the resemblance. You guys both look like your moms."

"Most people say I look like my father."

"Well yeah, normally, but I can see you in this picture. You too, Diana."

Akko turned the page. It was thin, but heavy with photos. The first one was one of Andrew and Diana as toddlers. They were both scowling, probably not enjoying staying still to take the photo. Akko burst out laughing.

“Those facial expressions!! So little has changed!!”

She shook the entire couch with her laughter, but Andrew and Diana were not amused. Akko read the caption. This is from a few years ago, but they’re still both equally grumpy now. At least around each other. As if to reinforce that point, the next picture was a blurry one of Andrew and Diana, a little older and arguing. 

“Wait a minute. I think I remember that.”

“So do I. We had a lot of arguments, though.”

“No, I remember this one in particular. You were angry because you were still trying to do magic, and I asked what the point was, because it’s useless anyway.”

“Andrew!! I thought I had convinced you!! Magic isn’t useless!!”

“That’s what I said.”

“There’s no need. I believe. I understand why it means so much to you.”

“Good.”

Akko turned the page. The next set of pictures were a collection of Andrew frowning at the camera. In the last one, he had smiled, and there was an elegant black dog next to him. The caption was in what Akko assumed to be Winifred’s handwriting, as it was the same as her name. Andrew hates smiling, the caption read. And after all these tries, he smiles because of the dog.

Diana squinted at the dog in question. “Wait, that’s Regina, isn’t it?”

“Yes. You remember her?”

“Of course I remember her. She was an angel.”

 “She’s really pretty.”

“Yeah. She really was. She would have been a show dog if I didn’t have her. But she had incorrect teeth. So she wasn’t able to compete.”

“…incorrect teeth? How can teeth be incorrect? I’m picturing…. Dog braces.”

“She had an overbite.”

“Oh. I bet that was cute.”

Akko turned the page to see a picture of Diana asleep in a sunbeam, with the same dog stretched out beneath her head, serving as a pillow. And we never did find out how Regina got into our house, the caption read in Bernadette’s handwriting. 

I knew how she got into the house,” Diana said. “I let her in.”

“You tried to steal my dog.”

“I borrowed your dog, Andrew.”

Akko turned the page again to see yet another picture of Andrew and Diana together. They seemed to be scowling again. And we had hoped they would be better friends. Oh well, maybe when they’re older. 

Akko was delighted to go through the photo album and see how her friends were when they were young. And Andrew and Diana were happy to further explain some memories, occasionally reviving old arguments, which Akko had to pacify. When they reached the end of the photo album, Akko chattered lightheartedly, while Diana took the album from her lap

“This was so cute! Andrew, do you still wear sweater vests?”

“Ah… those were more of a childhood thing.”

“You were a cute child. So were you, Diana. Diana? Are you okay?”

Diana was cradling the album and staring at her mother’s handwriting. She looked like she was biting back tears. She swallowed, trying to regain her composure. “I- I just miss her, that’s all.”

She made an attempt to smile at Akko, but Akko saw right through her and hugged her before she could cry any more, and Andrew sat there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. 

Diana tried to explain herself. “Normally, I’m fine, but seeing all this… it reminds me of her. I wish she could be here to see me today.”

“She’d be proud of you. I know she would.”

Diana gazed at a younger picture of herself, focusing on an insecurity in her eyes. “That summer wasn’t so idyllic, you know. I couldn’t do magic at all back then.” She sighed. “My mother tried to hide it, but I could tell she was worried. All the other adults, too. She tried to socialize me with other children who didn’t use magic, as well as other witches, but we all know how that went.” 

Andrew laughed. 

Diana sighed shakily, smiling. “This ended up being the last summer… she tried her best, and I’m happy we had that. I know she’d be proud of all I’ve accomplished today. I just wish she could have seen it all.”

“You’ve made her proud. And you inspire the rest of us, too. If it weren’t for you, I might give up on magic after the dream fuel spirit. But if it affected you and you managed to accomplish… everything, I don’t have an excuse for how bad at magic I am. I have to do better, so I can be not just like Chariot, but like you! Both of us have had to work a little harder than most, but that just means that we’re stronger.”

Akko turned to Andrew. “And if we could learn magic from scratch, I’m sure there’s hope for you, too, Andrew!”

He put his hands up in defense. “No. I’m not dabbling in any dark arts.”

She smiled devilishly. “I’ll convert you someday. I think everyone should be able to do magic… not being able to do magic really sucks.”

“Yes, it does. Especially when the yearning to do magic isolates you from your peers. All of the magical children thought I was a failure, and all of the non-magical children thought me strange for defending something I repeatedly failed at.”

“Can confirm.”

“Andrew, don’t be so mean to her.”

“Historical accuracy, my dear. I’m a primary source that Diana was an outcast.”

Akko told her own story. “I was an outcast too, back in the day. I mean, back when Chariot was cool, no one really cared about my obsession. But as we all got older…. Let’s just say middle school was an interesting time. No one wanted to be friends with the kid who stole brooms from the supply closet and jumped down hills trying to fly. I got a rapport going with the school nurse, though. She was cool.”

“We all regret middle school.”

Akko turned to Andrew. “What about you? What’s your tragic life story?”

He sighed. “Well, what’s there to say? I’m being forced into a career for the good of my family, I’m perpetually surrounded by people who don’t understand me, oh, and my parents’ marriage is falling apart, so there’s that.”

He laughed, so Akko did too. “No, really. My mother does a lot of charity work, but I think helping others is really just a side benefit of being able to escape from my father.”

“That’s kinda sad.”

“Eh. I don’t really care. Except each one says I’m too much like the other, which is pretty insulting, considering their relationship.”

“Oof-“

“But I know they’re proud. And at least I have them.”

Diana was still trying not to cry. “It’s hard to be in a family that places so much value on family itself and still be essentially an orphan. But I know I can still make my parents proud and I need to carry on their legacy. Thank you for finding this album, Akko. It means a lot.”

So many tears were shed and stories told that evening. It was one of those times when the conditions are somehow perfect for everyone to tell their life stories and be heard. They laid on the living room floor, each taking turns to talk. When all the pain had been spilled, they talked of lighthearted things.

Diana sat up. “Do either of you realize how absurd this is?”

Akko laughed, happy to not be crying anymore. “Yeah. Just three friends spilling their guts late at night… what time is it, anyway?”

Andrew checked his watch. “It’s one.”

“In the morning?”

“Yes. The witching hour. Come to think of it, what do witches even do in the witching hour?”

Diana shrugged. “Sleep? Read? I don’t know any witches that are active that late at night.”

“Ah… Sucy and Lotte and I sometimes steal food. We stole a tart once. We were almost expelled.”

Diana shook her head. "I wish I could say I was surprised..."

All of their guards were down, but as they all emerged from the chaos of it all and returned to their normal selves, Akko noticed Diana and Andrew building up their walls again.

“It’s too late at night to have serious discussions. One always gives away too much.”

“You’re entirely correct.”

“You guys… there’s nothing wrong with having really emotional one AM discussions.”

“Yes, there is. You ought to keep such sensitive information to yourself.” Andrew composed himself, not fully believing everything that had happened.

“Indeed. I am embarrassed of everything I said today.”

“This will not happen again.”

Akko sighed. “Come on, guys. You can’t keep everything inside. What harm is there in oversharing when it’s with people you trust? I know you guys weren’t friends before this trip, but I feel like the three of us bonded a lot. I trust you and I hope you’ve grown to trust each other. I care about you both and I really want you guys to be friends. Don’t just go back into your shells.”

There was a momentary silence. Then Andrew laid back down on the floor, next to her. “Okay, Akko,” he said softly. “Whatever you want.”

Diana sat down. “I suppose I can keep oversharing, if it pleases you.”

Akko started to cry. “You guys…”

Andrew and Diana began to stress, both hating to see her cry. “Don’t cry, Akko!”

“No! I’ll cry as much as I want! I love our trio and I’m so happy you two are friends.”

Diana smiled. “Well… I’m glad you’re happy.”

“Also, I have a confession to make.”

“Oh?”

“You guys remember Trevor?”

“Akko, what did you do.”

“Don’t say it like that!!”

“Well when you say you have a confession and you mention him-“

“-how do you expect us not to worry?”

“Finishing each other’s sentences…”

“Akko, what did you do?”

She giggled, relishing her secret. “I probably shouldn’t give all this away, but I was never actually flirting with him, I was only pretending to. And he was in on it the entire time. When I rode back to the stables that day? I was explaining my evil plot to him.”

“What was your evil plot?"

“Well, see, I was sort of attracted to him the day we first met. And I saw how annoyed the two of you were- see? See? You’re still annoyed, now, haha. I saw that. And I saw how you guys worked together to keep me away from him. So I figured the only way I could get you two to bond would be to flirt with him, so you’d have a common enemy. And it worked, didn’t it?”

Andrew laughed in surprise. “Wow. You’re not as dumb as you look.”

Akko snapped upwards. “What was that?”

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, muffled by the throw pillow she was smothering him with. 

Diana laughed. “He’s right, though.”

Akko snatched the pillow off of Andrew’s face and brandished it at Diana. “Do you want some of this as well?”

Andrew sat up, a little dazed, with his hair messed up from the smothering. Diana smirked. “It was a good plan. I didn’t think you were capable of such deviousness.”

She laughed. “Ha! I’m not as innocent as you think.”

They both raised their eyebrows and looked concerned. “Um…”

She turned red, hit Andrew in the face with another pillow, and then thwacked Diana in a similar manner. “Stop jumping to conclusions like that.”

“Fine, fine, we won’t.”

“I’m mature and worldly and jaded and not immature.”

“We never said you were immature. Just innocent.”

“There’s a measure of it if you want to prove that. Akko, have you ever taken the rice purity test?”

“Yeah. Amanda made a bunch of us take it on one of the library computers in town so she could brag about having the lowest score. She has like a seventy something. I got a 98, but I should probably retake it after the whole Billy fiasco.”

“Billy was a fiasco, wasn’t he.”

“Billy Fiasco sounds like a bad 2000’s cartoon.” 

“It does! What did you get on the rice purity test, Andrew?”

“I’d prefer not to say.”

“Why, was it really low?”

“No… really high. Frank mocked me for a while.”

Akko laughed. “Have you ever taken it, Diana?”

“No. I have better things to do with my time.”

“You should take it!!!”

Akko found her phone and pulled up the test. “Take it! Take it!”

Diana sighed and took Akko’s phone as Akko cheered. She clicked through the first few questions easily, then the test intensified. “Wh- what is this??”

She aggressively clicked no to every single question. “I am disgusted. I am appalled.” After finishing the test, Diana returned Akko’s phone. “Let’s never speak of this again.”

“Huh,” Akko said, looking at the screen. “Guess we’re all in the nineties.”

“Let’s treat it as something to be proud of.”

“Indeed. What should we do now?”

Diana stared at the ceiling. “Logically, we should go to bed, if we want to have any semblance of energy tomorrow.”

“But I have too much energy now for that. Hey! We should just stay up all night!”

Andrew looked at his watch. “What are we going to do for five more hours?”

Diana shrugged. “Let Akko choose. This is her idea, anyway.”

Akko smiled brightly. “You know what this is like?! This is like a sleepover. Let’s do all the things I would have done at a sleepover if I had had friends in middle school. Besides, none of us really had normal childhoods, but now’s our chance!” She stood up and continued giving her impassioned speech. “Who says we have to grow up! Sure we’re supposed to be mature adults- uh, mature teenagers, but I’m not very mature! So let’s act on that!”

Andrew stared up at her from where he was lying on the floor. “You’re pretty good at coming up with dramatic speeches out of nowhere.”

“Yes! I am!”

Diana smiled. “You’re correct, Akko. This is highly immature.”

Andrew nodded. 

“You guys are just saying that because you’re boring.”

Akko eventually convinced them to help her build a blanket fort. After she had collected all the blankets and couch cushions from the house, Akko and Diana stared at the pile, scoping it out. Diana pulled out her wand, cast a spell over all the materials, and as they began to float and assemble a structure, Akko slapped her wand out of her hand and the blankets and pillows fell back down into their pile.

“Why’d you do that? I was building the fort.”

“There’s no fun in using magic to do it!”

“Then how do you propose we build the fort.”

“Well… I think we should just stack things on top of each other until it looks like rooms. Andrew! Get off the couch and come help!”

“Why are you even still on the couch? She took all the cushions off.”

“Yes, it’s incredibly uncomfortable.”

“Then come help!”

Andrew came and stood next to Akko. “What’s your plan?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Well, then make one.”

“We don’t always need to have a plan. Come on, let’s start building!”

She approached the pile and tried to lean two couch cushions on one another. They fell over when Akko attempted to build another room. “No!”

Andrew and Diana looked at each other. Both were confused. “What does she want us to do?”

“I really and truly have no idea.”

“Guys! Help me!”

After some time, way too much effort, and a lot of collapses, they managed to build something that could be described as a fort. If Akko smushed herself into a corner, and Diana was careful not to touch the blanket that served as a roof, and Andrew laid on the ground with only his head and arms in the structure, then it wouldn’t fall. 

“So, what do we do now?”

“It’s only two-thirty in the morning. You’ve got a lot of time to kill, Akko.”

“We’re all in this together.”

“This was your idea.”

Akko needed to come up with more ideas to entertain her friends and defend her dream of someday having a normal sleepover. She racked her brain again for the list of things that that entailed. “Uh, let’s see. Sleepover stuff. Let’s… tell scary stories? Play truth or dare? I don’t have that many ideas.”

Diana sighed. “Fine, then. I’ll tell a scary story.”

“Knowing you, it will probably be something like getting a B on a test or being beaten at something.”

“Be quiet, Andrew.”

“I will. I want to hear this.”

Diana was making up the whole thing as she went. “Um, once upon a time, at a magic school quite like ours, there was a witch who couldn’t really use magic, and she was always messing things up. One day, she died in a terrible explosion that was entirely her fault.”

“Um… that’s a little morbid.”

“However, even if she was a ghost, she still wanted to achieve her dream to be like Chariot.”

“Wait a minute. This is sounding kinda familiar.”

“She haunted the students who actually knew what they were doing, and stole their knowledge. Then, they all failed their tests. The end.”

“I was right.”

“That sounds like it was just made up on the spot.”

“Gosh. I wonder why you had that impression, Akko. What a mystery, that Akko felt like it was made up on the spot. Don’t you agree that that’s utterly perplexing, Andrew?”

“Yes, of course, Diana, I would. I haven’t the foggiest notion how Akko could possibly have come to that conclusion. It simply bamboozles me as well.”

Akko had no patience. “So was it made up?”

“Yes, Akko, it was made up.”

She sat up a little straighter, to rebuke them for mocking her, but her head brushed against the ceiling of the fort and the whole thing came crashing down. For a moment, there was a disappointed silence from the victims of the crash, but then Akko wrestled her way out from under the pillows, Andrew backed out from where he was stuck, and Diana found the edge of the blanket so she could remove it from her head. Then they all sat in the wreckage of their work. Andrew and Diana were not pleased.

“Come on, Akko.”

“We worked so hard.”

“Sorry…”

“We can’t possibly rebuild all of this.”

“It was only one room! I didn’t destroy that much.”

“But it took us over an hour to build.”

“Because it kept falling over. See, it was never really a good structure anyway. This isn’t my fault.”

“Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“But we’re not sleeping, so I guess I don’t need to worry about that.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

Andrew sighed. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I would be able to sleep anyway, but I feel like we’re losing energy.”

“I agree with Andrew.”

Akko shook her head at the both of them. “No! We said we would stay up all night, and we’re going to! We can’t give up now!”

“Okay, fine. If it will make you happy.”

“What can we do that will keep us entertained enough to stay awake?”

Akko sighed. “I don’t know. Why don’t we go eat something?”

“We could have a competition to see who can stay awake the longest.”

“No! That’s too boring. We can’t just give up now.” 

Ironically, Akko yawned at that exact moment. Diana smirked. “See?”

“Fine. But this will be an actual competition. This is WAR. And you both will fall asleep first, I’m sure of it.”

Andrew smirked at her challenge. “You’d have to be a lot more boring for that to work.”

“Was that a compliment or an insult?”

“Both, I like to imagine.”

The three of them sat at the kitchen table, and turned off every light in the house, save one intimidating light above the table, to add gravitas. It was reminiscent of an interrogation table in a police drama, and the competition between the trio was every bit as tense as such a scene. Andrew folded his arms on the table and rested his head on them, and Akko frowned. 

“You look like you’re trying to sleep.”

He scoffed. “Please. I couldn’t sleep if I tried.”

“You’re very confident in your insomnia, Andrew.”

“It’s a curse. But at least now it will be of some use.”

Unfortunately for his pride, Andrew fell asleep twenty minutes later. Akko smirked and looked down on him. “That’s what he gets for being so cocky. He’ll never hear the end of this when he wakes up.”

Diana watched Akko closely and noticed the way her eyes lingered on Andrew, how she gazed at the illusion of his innocence as he slept, how she hoped he was dreaming, and asked Akko a question.

“Do you like him?”

Diana expected Akko to blush like crazy and deny everything vehemently in a moment of flustered chaos, but to her surprise, her friend simply clasped her hands together and stared absentmindedly at the table. “No. I used to think I might, but we’re really just friends. A lot of people think I like him, but really I don’t. He’s a good person, and I can see why other people like him, but not me. Well, nothing more than platonic feelings, I guess. Why do you ask?”

Diana got over her surprise and explained herself. “Just the way you were looking at him, is all.”

Diana hoped Andrew really was asleep, because it would hurt to hear something like that. It was clear that he knew he didn’t have a chance, but logic can rarely dissuade hope, and feelings hold on even in all adversity. And she knew Andrew wasn’t one to give up on anything, at least not deep down in his heart of hearts, even though he told himself over and over again to give up on Akko. Diana knew a little about determination herself, and she knew hope was, in many situations, an emotion that only made failure more painful. It would be easier for Andrew if he let go of whatever hope he still had now, but hope cannot be dropped, hope cannot be crushed, hope cannot be killed. Perhaps hope cannot be destroyed, but the person who carries it can. And that was what made it so dangerous.

Akko and Diana chatted quietly for the rest of the competition, so not to wake Andrew. During a lull in conversation, Akko dropped off to sleep, and Diana was left alone in her victory. She, too, rested her head on the table and drifted in and out of a hazy rest, until she noticed the time on the kitchen clock. It was almost time for the sun to rise. She gently shook Akko.

“Akko, wake up.”

“Huh- Wha- ???”

“You lost the game. And it’s almost time for the sunrise.”

“What?! I lost the game?”

“Yes, you’ve been asleep for about an hour and a half.”

Akko poked Andrew. “Andrew, wake up.”

“Eh?"

Andrew stared at Akko in confusion. His green eyes were squinted from adjusting to the sudden light, and the weariness and confusion from waking up so abruptly. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and half-heartedly smoothed his hair back into place from how it had been disheveled. Then he leaned back in his chair and stared at Akko for a moment. His resting face looked a little critical to her, and she wondered why he was staring like that, but he was really just thinking how nice it was to wake up to her. 

Once all three of them had adjusted to being awake, they went outside and stood on the beach, staring at the sea. It wasn’t quite morning, but the night would soon be over. The air was cold and soft with the anticipation of what was to come. Slowly, the bright orange sphere of the sun, as if sinking backwards, simmered over the horizon and into the sky. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation, but Akko was unimpressed.

“This is it?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s just the sun. I could look at the sun anytime.”

“Please don’t look directly into the sun, Akko.”

“Don’t worry, I know about eye protection. Future so bright, I gotta wear shades.”

Diana cringed in exasperation at the joke. “Well, sun’s up. Let’s go make tea.”

Andrew agreed, and Akko followed, and the three of them went back inside.

 

Notes:

Sleep? I don't need sleep! it's summertime!

Chapter 20: Summer home

Summary:

I saw something about dedications and I figured I should write the one I have for this

 

This season is dedicated to the rest of my own summer trio. I miss making you guys laugh. I'd give anything for another summer together.

Notes:

warning: underage drinking

3/22- edits for accuracy/safety

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“Good morning, guys!!!”

Akko took a step down the stairs and fell the rest of the way, landing in a groaning heap. “Oof.”

Andrew, being the lovesick swain that he was, got up from the kitchen table to go and help her, but she had already climbed to her feet by the time he reached her. 

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need to remember to be careful on stairs when I’m wearing long socks.”

“I doubt you’ll need the long socks today, it’s a little warmer.”

“Still. It’s been so cold lately.”

“I guess it means summer’s ending.”

Akko sighed as she sat down at the table. “Don’t remind me.”

Diana ignored her request. “Can you believe it’s the last day?”

“No. Absolutely not. It feels like you guys just got here.”

“How long were you here before us? I forgot.”

“Too long. Far too long.”

“Ah. Well, what do you guys want to do today? It’s our last day, so we’d better live it up!”

“It’s warm today, if that affects your choice.”

“Maybe we’ll go to the beach. That’s probably our last chance to do something summery.”

“Okay then. It’s better than just sitting here moping about how we have to leave.”

They went out not too long after. The beach was as fun as always, but it was a very sunny day for the time of year, and this had consequences. By the time they all came back in, they were sunburned. Akko herself looked like a tomato, but she couldn’t stop laughing at Andrew and Diana’s predicament.

“Stop laughing at us. You’re sunburned too- ow.”

“Does it hurt to talk?”

“It hurts to move my face.”

“I knew this would happen. This is the consequence of getting good grades, you guys. When you study so much and don’t ever go outside, the sun is kinda intense.”

Andrew frowned. “It’s England, the sun’s hardly even out. You can’t blame us for being pale.”

“Andrew, you aren’t even pale anymore. You are pink. You look like you’re embarrassed about something. I can’t tell if either of you are blushing or not.”

“Whatever. Can you fix it with magic? I can’t go home like this.”

Diana chided him. “We aren’t supposed to use magic for trivial injuries. The logic is that we’ll never learn the consequences of our actions if those consequences can simply be whisked away with the flick of a wand. Medical magic is used for serious ailments, and it should be saved for such situations.”

Akko had already whipped out her wand and healed her own sunburn. “Akko, what did I just say.”

“Don’t you come from a family of healers? And doesn’t your sunburn hurt?”

 She healed Andrew. “Thanks, Akko.”

Diana sighed and let Akko heal her. “Fine. But next time, we’re wearing sunscreen.”

There probably wouldn’t be a next time. But none of them wanted to mention that.

“We used it all last time.”

“Ah. Should we go buy more? I need a few more boxes of camera film.”

“Oh, right, you were trying to take pictures of everything. How’s that going?”

“Pretty well. I’ll show you!”

She ran off to go get her collection of photos. “I’ve been meaning to show you guys these. I was thinking we could all keep some.”

She dumped a pile of polaroids onto the kitchen table. “Here they are.”

Diana sat down. “So how are we going to divide these?”

“I don’t know, fight over each one individually?”

Akko pulled one memory from the pile. It was of Diana, looking incredibly tired and frustrated with her companions, dunking a teabag in a mug of scalding water. The picture had been taken on the wrong light setting, and the whole effect seemed a little cursed. Akko smiled. “Oh, I want this one.”

Diana took it from her and squinted at the image of herself. “Why? It isn’t anything special.”

“It’s a nice picture of you. And I like it. I like to have pictures of my friends.”

Andrew took the next polaroid out of the rest. “Oh, wow,” he said. “Photographic proof that I slept once. Which one of you took this?”

It was, of course, taken in the moment that he had fallen asleep on the kitchen table so many nights before. Akko smiled. “I took it. And, I think I want it.”

Andrew slid the picture towards her. “Sure. Take it.”

Polaroids were, in Akko’s opinion, one of the truest ways to capture a memory. She felt that she could reach into the snapshots she claimed, which were, so far, a picture of the dogs on the couch, one of Diana’s magic DVD setup, one of Andrew and Diana sprawled across the porch couches on a gray morning, one of herself lying on the living room rug, and one of the sea with herself standing in front of it. The next photo she took from the ever-shrinking pile was one from the night they had gone bowling, a slightly blurry shot of herself throwing the ball overhand towards the pins. She smiled and claimed that one for herself too.

“I have to have this one too!”

“Save some for the rest of us, Akko.”

“But you guys don’t want any.”

Diana and Andrew were less zealous than Akko was in claiming pictures for themselves. All Diana had was a picture Akko had managed to take of the three of them in a mirror, one of herself and Andrew arguing, and one of herself and Akko smiling in front of the sea. Andrew, who really did want some pictures of Akko for himself but was too shy to take them, only had another of Akko’s attempts at photographing all of them in the mirror, and one of the dogs. Diana picked the next polaroid from the rest. “Oh,” she said, recognizing it, “I took this one. Andrew, do you want it?”

Reservation flew out the window at a time like this. His yes was urgent and serious. And Akko was curious. “What is it?”

She leaned over Andrew’s shoulder to see the picture and smiled. It was of the two of them dancing in the rain. “Oh, this is a nice one. Thanks for taking it, Diana.”

Diana looked at the two of them. Andrew was just smiling at the picture, happy to have a record of the memory. And Akko looked happy too. Hm, Diana thought to herself. They do look good together, even if I hate to admit it.

Andrew thanked her later, of course. Akko wasn’t anywhere around, she had gone to say farewell to the stable boy. Before, that would have made Andrew jealous, but he was trying not to care. Diana was cleaning out the fridge, another bitter reminder that the three of them would not live there for much longer. 

“Hey…” Andrew said slowly, looking out the window and trying to seem like he cared less than he did, “Thanks for offering me that picture. And taking it.”

“Don’t mention it. I thought one of you would want it.”

“No, really. Thank you. It gives me something to remember all this by.”

“I understand why you cling to the little things.”

He sighed. “Yeah… clinging to the little things is really the only way to get through.”

It was true. As long as he didn’t think about the fact that she didn’t love him in return, as long as he didn’t consider the fear of his own vulnerability, or explore the darkness in the truth or the gaping chasms that hid deep within his own heart and in his love for her, he could get through. Andrew, like anyone who understands his ordeal, cherished the small victories. She had smiled at him that morning. She had danced with him in the rain. She wanted him as her friend. 

Diana sighed. He needed to know. “She doesn’t love you.”

“I know.”

“She told me herself.”

“I believe you.”

“It must hurt, doesn’t it.”

He was silent for a moment, then spoke in a sigh. “Yes. Excruciatingly. But like I said, I have the little things.”

She nodded, and they didn’t speak anymore until she pulled a bottle of champagne out of the fridge with a smirk.

“Look what I found.”

“Interesting. Why’s that even in there?”

“I don’t know. It must belong to my aunt.”
“Should we drink it?”
“I don’t think so. Akko and alcohol probably aren’t a good pair.”

Akko came home at that exact moment, bursting through the door and looking into the kitchen.

“Hey, guys! Ooh, what’s that?”

 

Akko smiled. “Well, if it’s our last full day, I think I’d like to give a toast.” They were sitting on the living room floor, drinking the champagne at Akko’s request. She raised her flute of champagne. 

“I’ve been thinking about this all day, so here goes. I guess I never thought I’d be here. When I first met you, Diana, I saw you as a rival and someone I desperately wanted to beat. I thought of you as self-centered, spoiled, and annoying. You weren’t someone I ever thought I’d befriend.”

“Wow, harsh.”

“Let me finish!” She turned to Andrew. “And you. I especially hated you. The night we met, I just thought of you as a swarmy, arrogant rich boy who looked down on magic and annoyed me to no end. And so, back then, if I could look into the future and see myself here, I would be really surprised, and probably a little angry.” She took a sip of her drink. “But, knowing the both of you, I’m really glad to be here and I’m really glad to have you both as friends. I’m happy to say you’ve both proved me wrong, and I am absolutely overjoyed-“ her voice broke and she started crying from the sentiment. “-I’m absolutely overjoyed to be part of the trio and the family we’ve become. I will never forget this summer, and I hope you guys won’t either.”

Diana smiled. “Don’t cry, Akko.”

“I- I won’t. I’m just happy.”

Andrew raised his glass. “Well, after that, I suppose I should say something as well.”

“Okay. You’re pretty good at coming up with random speeches too.”

“Well… I’m not sure what my plan was when I came here. And I think I realized pretty quickly that whatever I intended to do wasn’t going to work. It was terrible for me to be so lonely. I’m glad you both are here, because if you weren’t, things probably would have gotten… weird, to say the least.”

Akko laughed, and Andrew continued his speech. “Like you said, Akko, I never expected to be here. And my father probably won’t be too pleased that I spent the summer hanging out with witches. But I’ve never been happier than I have been here, in your company. So I thank you both. It’s been a wonderful summer.”

Akko clapped politely, and Diana raised her glass. “Well, as the hostess, it would be remiss if I didn’t join in. I’ll say, I never thought this house could hold so much happiness. I don’t come here much, and when I do, my companions are either what’s left of my family, or Hannah and Barbara, who, while I love the both of them very much, can be… trying to live with. I am happy to have lived with you two. Both of you know how much this house reminds me of my mother, and I think she’d be happy that I’m finally friends with you, Andrew,”

“I can tell you my mother will be pleased.”

“And Akko, I just wish she could have met you.”

“Aww… I think we all found a home here. At least for a little while.”

Akko had a remarkable ability to find home anywhere, or to make anywhere feel like home for others, or at least for Andrew, or so he thought as the three of them clinked their glasses together. 

The friends would learn that night that Akko happened to have a very low alcohol tolerance. 

Andrew watched the giggling lump that was Akko for a moment and turned to Diana. “We should have seen this coming.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I thought she could handle it.”

“Hey! I can handle it!” Her words were slightly slurred and her face was flushed.

Andrew tried to take her glass. “Stop.”

She didn’t resist, but she did seize him by the tie.”

“Ach-“

“What are ties even for?”

“Decoration, could you please let go of mine.”

She did. “I just think it’s weird. You’re just sorta wearing a fabric around your neck? Makes you more vulnerable if you ask me. Someone could just come up to you and -yoink!”

“Not again.”

“And there you have it, you get strangled.”

To avoid his own strangulation, Andrew loosened his tie and slid it over his head. Akko, finding herself with an empty loop, put Andrew’s tie over her own head. 

“Mine.”

“Sure, whatever.”

The tie wouldn’t be the last article of clothing Akko stole from Andrew. About an hour later, the initial buzz of her champagne would have dimmed, had she not stolen Diana’s glass. Now, she was squinting at the buttons on Andrew’s shirt. Andrew was quite uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to mention it. So Diana did.

“Akko, what’s so interesting about Andrew’s shirt that you need to stare at it so?”

“I was just wondering. I mean, he wore a full on coat and tie -until I stole it, hehe,- and we’re all just hanging out. Why do you always dress so formally, Andrew?”

“I don’t know, it’s just a good habit to have, I think. One should always present oneself with dignity and- what are you doing.”

“I think I’ll steal your shirt.”

She was trying to unbutton it from the neck. The shade of red that Andrew had turned dwarfed his former sunburn. Diana watched in a compound emotion of shock, entertainment, and horror. 

“Akko- why do you feel the need to steal my shirt.”

“Because you dress too formally.”

“You know what-“

Andrew quickly shed his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, handing it to Akko in a crumple. “If you really want it so badly.”

“I do.”

Andrew looked so unsettled, sitting there in his undershirt while Akko wore his shirt as a coat and twirled around the room. He picked up his jacket from the floor and put it back on, though the effect of the outfit was spoiled, Akko having stolen his shirt and tie. Diana smirked. “We should take pictures.”

“Indeed. We need proof.”

“She’ll be so embarrassed.”

Diana picked Akko’s camera up from where it was laying on the floor near where Akko had been sitting. Diana followed her around the room, waiting for her to stay still enough to not be blurry. Andrew stared at Akko and felt his heart hurt. She was so bright. Always so bright and shining, illuminating everything around her. He and Diana could never have been friends if not for Akko. He could never have felt any joy this summer if not for Akko. He couldn’t put it into words, only into feelings. She was so much. She meant so much. He just wanted to hold her and be close to her and maybe be able to bask in her light forever. 

Andrew could feel it all ending. He could see himself going back home, back to school, losing the happiness he had felt here with these witches. He saw himself only seeing Akko on odd weekends, losing her. He cursed himself for ever agreeing to come live here. It was too much to be around her so often. Going back to the way things were would be awful.

He steeled his jaw and tried to endure the clenching feeling in his heart. They came and went, the little bouts of pain. He tried to put the thoughts out of his mind. Suddenly they were chased away by Akko’s voice.

“Andrew, come dance!”

It was a lilt, it was a laugh, it was an invitation. Her smile. It was too much for him to handle. Diana snapped at Akko in response. “I’m not dancing. Will you be still!”

“Hehe! No.”

Andrew got up off the floor and walked towards Akko. She smiled to see him. “See, now you look less formal. Still formal, but less formal."

Akko was finally still, so Diana took a picture of her. She would later give it to Andrew. When it developed, it was a lovely portrait of Akko. Her face in profile, looking at him. Her arms, slightly blurry from her constant motion, her hands half-hidden by the cuffs of his shirt, his tie looking much better on her than he could ever wear it. He’d stare at that photo a lot, alongside the one of them dancing in the rain. He’d stare at those two polaroids, those two captured memories, in the late nights up crying for her, in the gray afternoons when he couldn’t stop thinking about her, he’d think of these moments for the rest of his life. But he couldn’t see them as memories now, he was still in the present. He took it all in, the lamplight, the camaraderie, Akko dancing around in his shirt and tie and Diana laughing at her. If he could just stay in this moment, he would be happy. 

But it ended. 

Akko woke up the next morning in a state of great confusion. She was lying on top of her bed in her room in Diana’s summer home, staring at the ceiling. She was also wearing an oversized shirt and a loose tie around her neck. She vaguely remembered stealing them from Andrew. She had a splitting headache and what was probably a hangover, now that the fuzzy memories of champagne were coming back to her. How did she get up here?  

Akko forced herself to get up and go downstairs. She expected to see Andrew and Diana sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea as they always did, but they weren’t there. She walked to the kitchen table and laid a hand on the wood. 

So many memories…

She tried to hold on, but she knew she would have to leave. Searching for her friends, she went back upstairs and found Andrew in his room.

“Hey, Andrew. What’s going on?”

“I’m packing.”

“Oh. I need to pack. I’ll probably just end up shoving everything into my suitcase.”

“That’s what I’m doing.”

She walked into the room and sat on his bed. “I can’t believe we’re really leaving today.”

“Me neither.”

“My head really hurts… I shouldn’t have drank so much.”

“You had like two glasses. The problem is, you have no self-restraint and a very low alcohol tolerance.”

“Gee. Someone’s salty today.”

“Apologies.”

She remembered something. “Oh, here’s your tie back. I stole it, right?”

She lifted it over her head and handed it to him. “Thanks. And you did steal it, as well as my shirt.”

“Oh, so that’s where this came from. Yeah, I remember that now. Can I keep it? It’s really comfortable.”

He sighed. “Consider it a gift.”

“Thanks.”

Akko gazed out the window. “Did I do anything else dumb? It's all kind of hazy.”

“Besides dancing around and stealing several articles of my clothing? No, not that I can think of.”

She chose to ignore the sarcasm. “That’s… good. Well… relatively good.”

“Well… there was also the matter of when we were carrying you up the stairs. You might want to apologize to Diana.”

Akko thought hard. “I only remember sort of being carried. What did I do? Where’s Diana?”

“I think she’s cleaning.”

“Okay. I’ll go find her.”

He carefully folded a pair of pants. “Good talk.”

Akko wandered around the house until she found Diana. As Andrew had said, she was cleaning. 

“Hey, Diana.”

“Morning, Akko.”

“What did I do last night? Andrew said I should apologize to you.”

“You kicked me. Several times. When we were on the stairs.”

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay, you weren’t thinking. You really caused us a lot of trouble.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know… you just really didn’t want me to carry you. I’m not sure we were carrying you very well. Andrew had your arms, and I had your legs until you kicked me. If you have any bruises or anything, it’s likely because I dropped you. I didn’t mean to, but you wouldn’t cooperate.”

“Oh, thanks for explaining that. I was kinda sore.”

Diana smirked. “You probably don’t want to hear this… but you were much more agreeable when it was just Andrew carrying you up the stairs…. Like a bride…”

Akko hid her face in her hands. “That… can I plead insanity? Stupid drunk me.”

Diana smiled, knowing Akko definitely had been overplaying it subconsciously. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, you were very amusing.”

Akko flopped down on the couch and glanced about the room, looking back on everything that had happened there. “Do we really have to leave today?”

“Yes. You have a flight to catch back to Japan, and I have preparations to make before the school year begins. You know that."

She sighed. “Yeah, but I don’t want to leave… we’ve had so much fun here.”

“You’re right. But I’m excited to go back to school.”

“Me too! I can’t wait to see everyone. And continue following my dream!!”

Andrew strolled into the room. “Always going on about that dream of yours.”

“Are you excited to start a new year of school, Andrew? You’ll be a senior this year, right?”

“Eh… not really. I’m not looking forward to it, no. I’ve got to fix the reputation of the club and clean up after the Billy scandal. And recruiting new members is going to be a nightmare. Not to mention managing my regular workload, and preparing for university.”

“You’re already thinking about college?”

“I’ve already gotten offers from several.”

Diana sighed. “But you still have another year of school to worry about.”

“Yeah, don’t get senioritis already.”

“Believe me, I understand there’s more I have to do at Appleton.”

Akko thought for a moment. “I can help with the club. We should do more events with our schools.”

“Yes, indeed.”

They were still finalizing the details of some plans when they finally had to go. Akko and Diana had harnessed the dogs onto their brooms, the bags were packed, they were about to leave. Akko finished her sentence.

“Well… I guess we’ll figure out the rest when we get back to school.”

“Yes… we ought to leave.”

“Alright. I’ll see you two off and then leave myself.”

“Okay.”

Akko hugged Andrew goodbye. He resisted the urge to squeeze her too hard and hold her the way he wanted to. “Bye, Andrew.”

“See you in the fall.”

Akko smiled sadly. “This was really fun. We should come back next year!!”

Diana agreed. “Of course.”

Diana shook Andrew’s hand in a moment of silent respect, and she and Akko flew off. He watched them go until they were but specks in the sky. Now it was really over. 

He turned and got into his car to drive home.

 

Notes:

Well, here we have season 2. I'm not going to do special features for this one, because 20 chapters is a nice clean end. I was thinking of doing a reverse q and a where the tables turn and I ask the readers questions but I'll save that for season 3.

Chapter 21: if you're still subscribed to this volume I'm sorry

Summary:

you do what you have to do to keep your fic on the top of the feed

Chapter Text

Hello

I said I would be periodically deleting and reposting this chapter in the last edition of this chapter that I deleted and am now reposting. 

 

 

The things I do for hits. Gotta make it more recent. 

Notes:

Nota Bene: This fanfiction is riddled with references to other things. If you spot one that you know, you win points. The points are utterly worthless, but you get the joy of participating.

Series this work belongs to: