A/N: Okay! So I’m really sorry if day 2 confused y’all ;-;. I just couldn’t reveal as much info to be clear as I thought ;-; I dunno if this chapter will do any good of explaining, but here’s to hoping that it does! T-T Also apologies if the whole story goes south or off the rails since I’m really running on fumes this week and am at peak exhaustion capacity woo! So these chapters/days might just be getting weird and incoherent idk. Sorry. This is kind of like… going back and forth between days 2-4 in terms of theme, I think. But well. uh… Idk anymore.
Enjoy?
~Shintori Khazumi
Day 3: Familiars/Animals
“There’s no way she tamed that.”
“I’m just glad you’ve all settled in just fine.”
“Honestly? Same.” Barbara sighed, looking into the orb that showed Lotte and Sucy’s faces. “I guess it’s just that we’ve been here for a few months- two? Three? It’s a good start.”
“How’s her majesty holding up?” Sucy asked teasingly, but with concern clear in her visible eye.
Barbara bit her lip, not really sure of the answer herself. “She never showed me or Han, but I know that she’s cried to Akko-with Akko” Barbara shook her head fondly, recalling their sweet dork. “-when we all went to bed. It went on for a few weeks. Right now, she’s… she’s holding up. She’s tough, we all know.”
“Yes. You all are.” Lotte said with a smile that quickly melted away into a deep frown. “I can’t believe they burned down the mansion.”
“Ican’t believe they were able to get through Diana’s cloaking spell.” Sucy commented. “Something isn’t right, but no one can pinpoint just what it is yet.” She said, swirling an ominous-looking fluid in one of her flasks.
Barbara nodded. “Well, anyway, I’ll get back to you later. I’m on dinner duty and the sun has been sending me warnings.” She chuckled, noticing the changing hues of the horizon. “Talk to you again sometime?”
“We’ll update you on the situation.” Lotte assured, waving to her friend before the connection cut and the orb turned blank.
Barbara sighed, standing up from the table to return the orb on their shelf in the living room of the cozy stone cottage they had settled in, deep in a forest of some unknown country far away from home.
It was a new world with so many unknowns. Maybe too many. Including why Diana and Akko had been targeted this way. Diana had told them that she’d been stripped of her position on the magic council, and had been ‘warned’ that she would someday suffer the consequences of not complying with the other members. So far, that was all they knew. They just found that Diana had a hunch that they needed to leave soon. They were so glad they did.
Barbara began prepping in the kitchen, getting all her ingredients from the fridge that she’d need for the dish she wanted to cook. Suddenly, a chorus of yells from her two teammates caught her attention, telling her that they were close to home, along with their other friend whose name was pronounced loud on their lips-
“AKKO?!”
//
“What?” Akko shrugged, clearly not getting why this was such a big deal. Florence was one of her sweetest familiars!
“No, no, no. Not ‘what?’, Akko… how… why? Who? Where did you even-” Hannah stammered. “There’s no way she tamed that. Right, Diana?” She turned to their team leader, still staring up at the very real, and very large griffin.
“Akko… how did you even… you say this is your familiar??? A gryphon of this size? We all know that contracting familiars are difficult, but you just-”
She and Hannah watched as Akko continued to play with the somehow puppy-like griffin, Akko rubbing it’s belly as it rolled on the grass in front of their home.
“Diana.” Akko deadpanned. “You literally kept a Kelpie at home.” She saw Diana open her mouth about to deny the statement, and cut her off. “Don’t lie. I saw you feeding it by the lake the other day.”
“Well…”
“I watched you train it the other day.”
“I-”
“I’ve also seen it playing in the fountain in the yard back at home-” As that word slipped, Akko realized her mistake, seeing Hannah giving her a disproving look as Diana’s face looked momentarily downcast, before masking it with a smile.
“Diana-” Akko tried to reach out, but her girlfriend had taken a careful step back, leaving a pang in Akko’s heart. “I’m sor-”
“I’ve been caught red-handed, I suppose.” Diana laughed mirthlessly, a hand rubbing up and down her opposite arm as she looked off into the distance. “Oh look at that! The sun is setting. We should go inside.” She quickly changed the topic, being the first one to turn around and head for their house, not waiting for her companions to follow.
Hannah groaned, smacking the back of Akko’s head. “Nice going, Akko.”
“Hey!”
“Make sure to hide that familiar somewhere and wash your hands before dinner! Barbara’s going to have your head the next time you touch her table with those filthy hands.” She warned before disappearing into the cottage after Diana.
“I already know that. You don’t have to tell me.” Akko scoffed, crossing her arms before getting nuzzled by her Griffin, a cute confused look on his face. She smiled, petting it’s side before doing what Hannah had told her to do. “Come on, Florence. Let’s get you back in with the others?”
Reaching into her shirt, Akko pulled out a locket, casting a spell on it that made it larger, revealing a briefcase that looked like any other. However, as she turned the dials of it’s lock code, multiple sounds spring forth from it as the case shook.
Florence nuzzled against her back, whining about her actions. Akko got the message. “Sorry, buddy. I know it’s been a while since I let you out free, but I don’t have anywhere better to keep you all yet. Hang on just a bit more? For me?” She rubbed the Griffin’s head before holding the briefcase closer to him and Florence disappeared into the container. “Thank you.” She patted the lid.
After closing it securely, she spun the numbers to form a different code that brought about silence before shrinking it back into the size that she kept around her neck.
“I hope they waited for me for dinner.”
//
“Are you alright?”
Diana looked up from her seat on the small porch, gaze warming as she was met by the sight of her old friend with two mugs in hand, steaming and warm. She simply nodded, patting the seat next to her.
Hannah nodded, settling down next to Diana and handing her her drink. Before Diana could even greet and thank her, a thick blanket was draped across her shoulders from her other side. Barbara promptly took seat on that free space, leaning her weight against Diana and closing her eyes.
“Girls…”
“You can trust us with your pain as much as you do with Akko, you know?” Hannah murmured, Barbara nodding against Diana’s side.
“…I know.” Biting her lip, Diana tried her best to form the appropriate words. Seconds slipped by and she continued failing at being open to her best friends. “I’m sorry. It’s still a little difficult.” She felt the pair sigh on each side of her, and felt a little bad.
“We suppose that one is on us for constantly placing you up on a pedestal. Both then and now.” Barbara chuckled, the statement supposedly lighthearted despite all three knowing it was the heavy truth. “Just know that when you’re ready, we will always be willing to listen, yes?” She turned her body around, enough to embrace Diana, Hannah mirroring the action as they both squeezed her tight.
Diana squeaked as they planted a kiss on each side of her face before laughing at how bashful she was being.
“Well, that’s all from us. We’ll be heading in now.”
Diana had wanted a few more minutes of time with them, but as she followed them with her eyes, she saw someone else waiting by the door.
“Fix this.” She heard Hannah whisper to the dejected-looking Akko, loud enough for all of them to hear. Barbara giggled as she entered the house first, and Diana found her own chuckles slipping out as Akko grumbled her way towards Diana until she stood face to face with her.
“…”
“…”
“Hi.”
“Hello, dear.”
Diana felt her heart ache in a bittersweet way as she saw tears form in Akko’s eyes, and the girl kneeled in front of her, relocating Diana’s mug of hot chocolate somewhere safe on the wooden porch before taking both of her hands in hers and kissing each knuckle.
“I love you…” She whispered, holding Diana’s hands to her forehead as Akko bowed her head to hide her face from her. “And I’m sorry…”
“Darling…” Diana sighed with a smile. “Come here.”
Diana watched Akko briefly hesitate before gingerly snaking her arms round about Diana, snuggling into her fully.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. You didn’t mean to hurt me or anything.”
“But I did.” Akko sniffled, remembering that Diana had entrusted her sorrows and fears to her for nights and nights since they lost their old home, and how carelessly Akko had mentioned it while Diana was still touchy about the subject. “So I’m still sorry.”
Diana turned her head slightly to the side, enough to place a tender kiss on Akko’s cheek, “Then, Thank you. Thank you for apologizing, Love.”
“Mmm.”
They stayed that a way a few moments before Akko pulled away, a big grin plastered over her face.
“I have something to show you. Just to make it up to you.” She’d said, turning to the sky with lips pursed to release a unique whistling sound that Diana was not so familiar with.
She decided to face where Akko had been directing her attention, squinting at the night sky dotted with stars she knew all too well. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so what was Akko trying to do-
There was a flash of gold and of a passionate color. It wasn’t lightning, Diana knew; neither was it the twinkling of the stars overhead. So what exactly…
Thenit came closer, perching on Akko’s arm that she had left outstretched.
Diana’s mouth gaped, a surprise much similar to what she had experienced earlier today, returning.
“Akko, this is a…”
Akko scratched the back of her head sheepishly, smiling adorably awkward as she attempted to ‘introduce’ them. “Alfred, this is Diana. Diana, this is Alfred.”
Diana nodded at the creature that stared at her with it’s bright beady eyes. Literally bright, it was in its entirety.
“He’s a baby phoenix.”
Diana nodded solemnly, still in awe. Of both the creature and Akko who was currently petting it with a magically protected hand.
Diana knew that Akko always had a strange affinity for communicating with animals. Even back in her years as ‘Luna Nova’s Dunce’- or so many had labeled her as (Diana was forever mad at that fact)- Akko had already shown her uncanny ability to empathize with non-human beings. She so easily befriended fae, was able to get along with both of Chariot’s own familiars: Alcor and Arcas of all creatures. There was also the fact that she had learned fish language in her own unconventional way and had become increasingly fluent in it and other magical creature languages over the next few years.
Now that she really about it, she realized that she usually saw Akko tending to the magical animals used by the security sector of the council, or doing work related to that. She had at first seen it as them pushing all the mucky work onto her like cleaning stables for pegasi, or feeding the more exotic research birds.
Seeing Akko right now, she felt like it should explain a whole lot more than she thought she knew about her. It made Diana feel slightly ashamed and insecure that she had yet to uncover this fact about her own lover that she had been with for so long now.
Diana shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts. This wasn’t the time to doubt their relationship with one another.
In this new light she was now viewing Akko in, Diana now suspected one of the reasons why the council desperately tried to keep Akko from quitting back then despite not making much use of her at her actual supposed job. They had probably realized all too quickly, and for reasons Diana doubted were good.
But did Akko know this? Was she aware?
Diana fiddled with her hands. Maybe she should ask.
“Akko?” She tugged on the girl’s shirt sleeve.
“Hmm?”
Diana took a breath. “I know… that one of the reasons you left your old duties behind was because you didn’t really love the job at the council… and all that.” She watched Akko nod slowly, hands stilling from caressing Alfred.
“Go on?”
“But I can’t help but think now that there’s another reason… you know, something more?” Diana looked at her dearest friend and lover with hopeful eyes, wondering if she’d tell her something she didn’t know. Something that wasn’t in the written letters Akko’s various familiars had brought to her during the moments they were apart, something that she couldn’t have observed despite having worked in generally the same establishment because they had been firmly kept apart.
Why did it suddenly feel like Diana… didn’t know a lot about Akko?
She felt a pang in her heart, only supplemented by the silence that Akko had met her with.
“Sorry.” She quickly said. “Maybe it wasn’t right of me to ask.” She was about to get up when Akko stopped her, a hand holding onto Diana’s, silently bidding her to stay.
Diana sat back down and Akko rested her head on her shoulder, rubbing patterns on Diana’s hand with her thumb as she began to speak.
“Diana, did you know? That magical creatures have so much more magical energy stored in their bodies than any other living things? So much so that a magical sparrow could probably power Luna Nova for almost a week, maybe.” Akko chuckled and Diana smiled at the lovely sound.
Nodding, she responded. “Well, I knew something of that nature, yes. Did Pisces teach you that? Chariot?” She asked, squeezing Akko’s hand gently in hers.
“Partially… but…” Akko sighed. “I also found it out myself.”
Diana nodded, not wanting to interrupt anything.
“You know me so well Diana, so I’m sure that you’ve noticed by now that I have…” Akko paused, in thought of how she should word it. “Quite a few? Familiars?”
Diana snorted, bringing their joined hands up to her lips and kissing the back of Akko’s hand. “A lot, dear. A wholelot.”
Akko giggled alongside her before calming and adopting a more serious look. Diana lent her ears once more, preparing herself for what was to come.
“It started when they discovered I could easily befriend them. The magical beasts and creatures.” Akko frowned, surely remembering things she did not want to. “They sent me out to catch, acquire, and well tame magical beasts. Pfft-Like I could do that.”
Diana was about to argue that Akko could- as could clearly be observed, but was beaten to the punch.
“It was much easier than I believed it should be.” She admitted. “At first, I had no clue what they needed it for. I assumed more research on animals, extending our knowledge, and all that good stuff, you know?” Akko huffed, lifting her other hand up to guide her little phoenix into flight so that it would return to where it came from.
Diana guessed it was because Akko didn’t want it understanding what she was about to reveal next.
“Of course, I had felt bad about intruding into their habitats and taking one of their kind, but I had hoped that after whatever observations the council and researchers had, I could just return them to their families and homes.”
Diana felt Akko’s grip tightening around her hand, breathing shallowing.
“Then one day, I saw these beautiful, beautiful creatures in one of the outer courtyards…” Akko squeezed her eyes shut, painfully recalling the memory of what she saw that day. “They killed them, Diana. Killed them in order to power some device that I have no clue about. I saw it in passing when I accompanied the secretary around before I was shut out.” Akko confessed.
Diana leaned her head on Akko’s, mind flying to places she had tried forgetting about because of the pain they caused her as she tried to make sense of what Akko knew, and what she had also found out.
“That’s when I decided to quit and go to the places I believed more beasts resided in… especially the more endangered and possibly more powerful ones from what I had looked into, and what Chariot and Pisces had told me. I thought that maybe I could keep them safe that way. I’m sure the council had someone replace me in my… ‘work’.”
Akko allowed herself to fall over and lay herself on Diana’s lap, turning around to bury her face in the woman’s stomach.
Diana felt arms wrap around her waist, and she brought her hands atop Akko’s head to comb through silky chocolate strands. She felt the tension in Akko’s body release, before hearing another quiet, “I’m sorry”.
Diana would have asked what for, but they both already knew that.
“I just couldn’t tell you at that time. Not when you were also trying your best to establish your position in that very same council. I thought it would put you at risk of losing your job… or worse.”
Diana could just hear her choke up on that word, having now been acquainted with the ‘worse’ bit.
“So I decided to distance myself for a bit. I’m sorry, Diana. I’m sorry.” Akko murmured against her stomach. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
Diana could feel a wet patch growing on her stomach. She continued to gently run her fingers through Akko’s hair in hopes of soothing her lover and reassuring her that it was all alright. That she understood. That she was grateful that Akko did it to protect her.
“I just wish I had told you back then, now that all of this happened. It’s still very much my fault, isn’t it?” Akko sniffled, turning away to wipe her nose on her sleeve. “Aaagghh, I really am sorry. To you, to Hannah and Barbara, and to everyone else.” Akko tried to slow her breathing in order to stop crying as she looked straight up at the night sky. “This is all my fault.”
Her view of the starry sky was obstructed, but replaced with the blues of a summery morning, even though it was the dead of night.
She was entranced, just like she’d always been since a long time ago.
Akko felt her eyelids flutter shut as Diana leaned down, closer, closer, and closer…
Thwack-
“Ouch!”
Akko’s eyes shot open as she was met with a stern Diana.
“Don’t just take all the blame like that and treat this whole thing as your decision solely. We all came here on our own accord. Hannah, Barbara, and I. Actually, didn’t we drag you hear in the first place?” Diana scolded a thoroughly shocked Akko.
“Y-yes.”
Diana’s expression relaxed as she chuckled, finally giving Akko the kiss she’d been expecting. “That’s why, my love, please.Continue to trust us.”
Diana could swear she could read a million I love you’s written all over Akko’s face. The sweetheart.
“Besides.I have things I need to discuss with you all as well. And I think-no. I know that it is connected with what you’ve just told me tonight.”
Diana nudged Akko up, guiding them both back on their feet.
“But for now, can we finally get some shut-eye?” She looked at Akko with a pleading face that the latter dared not say no to.
“Definitely.”
Diana squealed as she was hoisted up into strong arms and carried into the house, across their small living room and into their shared bedroom, careful not to make as much noise when they passed by their friends’.
As Akko lay Diana down on the soft sheets, she peppered kisses about her face, the pair giggling and whispering until they were all out of mirth.
Tomorrow was another day, and it might just be another frightful one.
But well, they had each other and it didn’t matter as much anymore.
“I love you.”
“I love you more.”
Snuggled beneath the covers, to the soft cooing of the breezes of the forest, they began to drift to slumber-
“Oh, that’s right, Love.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you mind showing me your other animals?”
“Not at all, dear.”
“Great.”
“Any reason why?”
“I just want to see Hannah’s shocked face again if we ever find something like a manticore or minotaur with you, haha.”
“…”
“I’m jesting, Love- Akko… why are you wearing that expression? Akko… no way… No. Really?!”
“…You see…”
“There’s no way you tamed that!”
A/N: If you’ve seen fantastic beasts- I just loved the suitcase concept. Also I dunno, I thought of the whistling thing and wondered if it was an actual summoning technique and found a transcendental- was it- whistling. Welp. It’s almost 2am and I’m doing this while also doing my lab reports skgmdsoigndfngsdr okay. Time to di-p. Time to dip into work. Ciao!
