Akko and Diana found a small party waiting for them at the red team’s room.
“What are you all doing here?” Akko asked, looking as Sucy, Jasminka and Constanze did their own thing inside the room. “Not that you’re not welcome, but we were gonna get ready for bed and…”
“The other two couples are having sex. And since you two share bed, I figured letting them stay here for the night was the right thing to do,” Sucy explained, clearly preparing to go to bed, as she was looking over a couple vials with her pajamas already on.
“Oh, so that’s why they had those spells in front of their doors,” Akko said, blushing slightly.
Diana squeezed her hand, as if trying to transmit her feelings through it. Akko thought she understood.
“Yes,” Sucy said. She turned around, looking the couple up and down. “If you’re gonna start having sex too, try to coordinate with the others to at least leave one room available. That or you can have us watching, I guess. Won’t judge you if that turns you on…”
“Sucy!” Akko said, burning red, looking apologetically at Diana.
But Diana was smiling at the joke. She simply shook her head as she stepped into the bathroom. She wouldn’t be able to go for her pajamas, so Akko would probably offer her one of the oversized t-shirts she sometimes used for that and be on with it.
Akko started to undress, uncaring of the eyes of the others, who clearly weren’t interested in her average body. Jasminka climbed on the bed above Akko’s, while Constanze used a stanbot to get to the one above Sucy’s. After putting on her pajamas, Akko sat, waiting for her girlfriend. The room was quiet, safe for the soft crunch of Jasminka’s snacks, and when Diana finally came out of the bathroom – in her underwear – Akko was entranced.
“Careful now, you wouldn’t want to eat an insect,” Sucy joked, and Akko realized her mouth had been open.
Diana nodded thankfully as Akko handed her a t-shirt.
Sucy was the last one to crawl into bed, and when everyone had stopped moving for a while, the lights went out. Jasminka stopped eating, Constanze stopped tinkering with her machines. Soon, everyone in the room was falling asleep. Akko yawned, nesting her head in Diana’s chest as she so much liked to do. Diana kissed Akko’s head a couple times, and warmth ran through her whole body.
Soon, Akko found herself weighed down by tiredness and her consciousness faded.
“That was absolutely incredible,” Akko said to Croix as they walked around a marbled corridor Akko didn’t recognize. “I don’t know if I would’ve made it past that curve before your modifications.”
“You probably wouldn’t,” Croix said, and Akko finally snapped into the realization that this was yet another dream.
“You still won’t tell me what it is, though,” Chariot playfully complained.
“I maximized the magic output, nothing weird,” Croix said, though Akko could see she was deflecting. That wasn’t exactly an answer. “In any case, let’s just get back to the rooms. I don’t like this place. It’s creepy.”
“It’s not that different from the Dragon, though.”
“It’s plenty different. This place is cold and lifeless. Rocks are… well, rocks. The Dragon is metal, metal is cool. It was forged by us, it was heated and shaped. It’s so much more interesting.”
“Who the hells talk about metal like if it was some kind of living thing?” Chariot asked, amused.
Croix shrugged. “I do. Now can we please go back. Night walks are fun and all but we don’t even know if it’s night outside. The days and nights in this place last only a few hours.”
“Fairly certain it’s night,” Chariot said, pointing to a window. The outside world was dark and mysterious. Akko tried to remember the planet’s name, but she was fairly certain this was chronologically at some point after Chariot’s eight IPR race, just before she vanished on the ninth. She wondered, subconsciously, if these dreams were maybe guiding her towards that, towards learning what happened and why Chariot had disappeared without a trace.
Chariot and Croix turned a corner, and to Akko’s surprise they found themselves in a garage, where the Shiny Rod floated as it always did. It hadn’t changed one bit in ten years. Not a scratch, not a dent. Pristine, always pristine. A self-repairing ship, the only one of its kind.
“Oh no, we’re not doing another night session. We’re leaving in a few hours, don’t even try it, Chariot,” Croix said.
Chariot stepped forward. Both of them wore casual clothing. The air of this planet was breathable. “Come on, it’s gonna be fun.”
“For you, I hate doing this,” Croix said.
Chariot pouted. “Fine,” she leaned against the Rod, and Akko could feel its sharp edge against Chariot’s back. Wait, no. She wasn’t feeling the Rod against Chariot, she was feeling Chariot against the Rod. Despite her first person perspective, all of this was, of course, coming from the white ship. The feeling quickly faded, however, and everything started being a normal dream again.
“Don’t be so sad,” Croix patted Chariot’s head. “You won today, be happier.”
“I want to fly,” Chariot complained.
“Wouldn’t you rather be with me?” Croix leaned forward slowly, and Akko was kind of glad she wasn’t truly able to feel what was going on. Doing this felt too much like she was accidentally cheating on Diana or something.
Chariot was into girls, too. Akko would have found that information way more exciting, probably, if she hadn’t met Diana. She had already known, kind of, from her conversation with Croix, but this was a different kind of confirmation.
When they separated, Akko found the expression on Croix’s face strangely cold. As if the kiss had meant little for her, or as if she was focused on other things. Chariot didn’t seem to notice – or didn’t want to – as she stepped forward and sighed. “Come on,” she said to Croix, “let’s go back. If I can’t fly I might as well sleep.”
“Finally,” Croix said, smiling. “Now let’s rest properly and…”
But both of them paused. Akko felt something. A strange jolt through her body. “You felt that, right?” Chariot asked.
“Guess we’re flying anyways,” Croix sighed, turning. Akko saw something in her eyes. They were now sparked with interest. Chariot nodded, and both of them stepped towards the broom.
Akko woke up, eyes still closed, in the darkness. She could hear Diana’s rhythmic breathing, feel the soft breeze it created on her hair. She could smell Diana’s scent, feel her warmth. Akko cuddled against her, smiling as she found a position comfortable enough. However, she didn’t fall back asleep. She didn’t feel like she’d slept at all, but she also was rested. She inadvertently fidgeted with the hem of Diana’s shirt – her shirt, actually – and tried to think back to the dream.
Should she speak about them with the others? She really felt like she shouldn’t. A lot of them seemed to be these really private moments, so why was Akko seeing them? She felt like she was intruding in her idol’s life. And Croix’s too, but mostly Chariot’s. What if the end of the dreams revealed where Chariot was? What if in the end Akko learnt everything she wanted? Then she’d have no more reason to win the race. Somehow, that didn’t feel correct. As she nuzzled her face in between Diana’s boobs, she wondered if she should try to talk with Croix about them.
So many of the ones she’d had in the past were fuzzy now. She really felt like she should have written them down, but with her dismissive attitude, at first, she hadn’t even considered the possibility of them being real.
Diana shifted a little under the covers, the arm she had around Akko’s waist relaxing and moving to rest on her side. She let out a sigh. Akko wondered if she was dreaming something. About her, maybe? Unlikely, but it was fun to imagine it.
Then, Akko slowly moved to get out of Diana’s grasp. She clearly wasn’t going to sleep more. She pecked her girlfriend’s lips before slipping out of bed and going to the bathroom as quietly as she could. The lights would require a little more movement from her part to turn on – lest anybody activate them while simply moving on their sleep. She managed to not turn them on, and since she was at it, she turned off the automatic lighting in the control panel of the room. Akko looked at herself in the mirror.
Wait, were her eyes weird?
She looked closer, but then she noticed those weren’t her eyes. She blinked and the strange afterimage of what she believed to be Chariot’s eyes faded. Was she still dreaming? She pinched her arm, and the answer was clearly not. Great, so she was losing her mind.
Akko exited the bathroom and shook her head. She should take a shower, but doing so would probably wake everyone else. Instead, she put on simple clothes and walked out of the room. She looked at the time in her clock, and was surprised to find that she had slept for only six hours. What should she do, now? She really felt fully rested. There was nothing left for her to do until they resumed practice – it would be long hours of sitting around looking at a radar – so now she had to wonder what to do. She passed some people on the hallways as she walked, and was surprised to see they recognized her and spoke in hushed voices and quiet whispers. She really was famous.
Eventually, she found her way to the Shiny Rod. It wasn’t much of a surprise. She rarely went to the decks nowadays, with how harsh training was, and the Rod was probably the only place where she felt like she belonged – save for, obviously, in bed next to Diana. It was hard to explain, but being inside the Shiny Rod felt like home. It reminded Akko of her time watching Chariot race as a kid, getting excited about her races and merchandising. It reminded her of her parents buying the toy of the Shiny Rod that used actual magic to float around, of the fake white g-suit she wore to Halloween parties until she was ten. It reminded her of… wait, who was that?
Next to the Shiny Rod someone stood. He wore a hoodie and jeans, and his straight hair came down, barely long enough to cover his ears. When Akko approached him, about to ask him who he was, he turned.
“Andrew?” Akko frowned. Without his suit and fancy hair he almost looked like a different person, save for his green eyes. He really was handsome. Akko wasn’t surprised that he had so many fans.
He couldn’t even start to compare to how beautiful Diana was, though.
“Hello, Akko,” Andrew said, waving. “I recently discovered that by dressing in casual clothing I could actually go out and not be recognized. I see it worked even on you,” he smiled.
Akko nodded. “You look like a different person,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“I… I don’t really know. The rules for the next race have been bothering me. They’re not something the IPR committee should have allowed,” he explained. “I’m not fond of the event in general, but this is particularly bad. Have you seen the reactions online? No, you probably haven’t. Anyways, people are really angry, and with reason.”
Akko sighed. “I know. It’s a boring race.”
“It’s not ‘boring’. It’s dangerous,” Andrew shook his head. “Do you know what the grand prize is, Akko?”
Akko’s eyes widened. “No, do you?”
“No,” he seemed disappointed. “But I think it’s a weapon or something like that. I’ve heard my father speak about it, sometimes. He doesn’t exactly want it, he just doesn’t want anyone else to get it.”
“Something dangerous, then,” Akko pressed her lips.
Andrew nodded. “I’d look for more information, but I can’t. Father thinks I’m studying right now. He stopped taking me to all of his meetings after what happened back in Vorago. He didn’t like me raising my voice at him,” he said.
“Well, we didn’t really need the help in the end, but… Thanks to him, in a way, we’re still in the race,” Akko said. She didn’t really want to give credit to that oily old man, but she couldn’t close her eyes to the truth either.
“Don’t give him so much credit. He abuses his authority. If Ursula had called your representative in the Planetary Alliance she could have pulled you out, since you’re minors.”
Akko hadn’t known that, and it came as kind of a shock. So they had someone who technically could at any point declare things had gone too far and take them out of the race? “Who is the representative?”
Andrew shrugged. “I’ve no idea. I think father knows, and the few times he mentioned her it was clear he didn’t like her. Whatever the reason, I assume she’s a nice enough lady.”
Akko nodded. Then, she sat on the Shiny Rod. “Good thing you didn’t touch it. It could have teleported away.”
“I’m aware,” Andrew said. He was looking at the white broom with a mixture of reverence and wonder. “Isn’t it scary? Thinking what might happen if this broom goes haywire? You could end up in the far reaches of space, unable to get back. Dying alone in some undiscovered planet.”
Akko shrugged. “I’m not afraid of the rod, really,” she admitted. “It’s impossible for it to break, so it’s no…” she trailed off. “Well, mostly impossible for it to break,” she cringed as she recalled falling into the chasm. What had, exactly, broken the capacitor? She had the feeling it had been the strain of trying to lift the Unicorn like that, but she wasn’t sure. They’d checked the new capacitor, and the Rod had literally transformed it so that it looked like its old one.
“It’s such a curious ship. I wonder who built it. I’m fairly certain no human could’ve done it. Some of the technology used is way too similar to daemon tech, but then you have the way the crystal balls popped out that one time, looking awfully like something from the armors. And the way it shifts and changes, that’s like the shapeshifters. The Noir Rod clearly tries to imitate that, but fails. Its transformations are too mechanical. When the Shiny Rod changes form it feels alive,” Andrew examined the Rod up and down. He seemed hesitant to step closer, and Akko didn’t really encourage him to do so. She hadn’t given Alcor a direct command not to react to him and she wasn’t sure how that could go. Even now, if anyone outside the racer team touched the Key-wand, no matter how close a friend they were to Akko, the broom would still disappear and lock down until Akko retrieved the wand.
“It probably isn’t a human creation. Though I don’t see it being daemon, either,” Akko paused. “I don’t really know where it comes from.”
“Have you tried asking it?” Andrew looked at her.
“I dunno. Maybe? It needs a password. I used it, once, but then I locked it again. I’m not sure what was it that did it.”
Andrew sighed. “You have easily one of the most mysterious things in the known universe and you don’t seem at all interested in uncovering its secrets. You baffle me.”
“I just want to find Chariot, really,” Akko said. “I don’t need to know where this came from to know it’s great. So what if I find out who built it? What’s that gonna bring me? For all we know they could be dead anyways.”
“But what if it wasn’t any known race? What if it came from some advanced species at the opposite side of the galaxy, or at the other side of the universe? We’re but a speck of dust in the infinite space, Akko. What could a race that built something like the Shiny Rod bring to the table?”
“You sound so much like Diana,” Akko shook her head. “Always talking about how this and that could change humanity, marveling at the technology.”
“Don’t you?”
Akko shook her head. “It’s dangerous. The Shiny Rod is… It’s not really meant to be used by all kinds of people,” she thought back to that uncannily real simulation of Diana, how touching her had felt. She shuddered. “No, humanity – and probably none of the species in the Planetary Alliance – isn’t ready for this.”
“You look unsettled,” Andrew pointed out.
Akko couldn’t really hide her discomfort. “I know some things about the Shiny Rod I’d rather not speak about, honestly.”
Andrew looked at her, pondering over her words. Damn, even the way his face morphed when he was thinking about something was uncannily similar to Diana’s. Did that come with being rich and important? Probably. Akko found herself thinking about the way Diana always looked when thinking. Her brow slightly furrowed, her eyes looking towards infinity…
“What’s with the smile?” Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m thinking about Diana,” Akko explained.
“Oh,” Andrew grew quiet for a moment. “How are things going with her?”
Akko cocked her head at him.
“I know she doesn’t like me very much, and I can’t say she’s my favorite person either, but I’ve known her for a long time,” Andrew explains. “I was just curious. You don’t have to answer,” he shrugged.
“Well, she’s great,” Akko didn’t hesitate longer. “I’d try to put it into words, but no words can do justice to how amazing Diana truly is.”
Andrew chuckled. “I see,” he nodded at Akko. “I wonder what being in love feels like. Can’t say I’ve felt much of that myself.”
Akko smiled at him. He surprisingly easy to talk to. “Well, it’s like a red dot on a white sheet,” she tried explaining. When Andrew raised an eyebrow, she continued. “You can’t see it, and you want to wash it, but it kind of sticks around, and then there are more of them, and…” she paused, noticing the confusion in Andrew’s eyes. “No, wait, I… I don’t think that’s how it went…” she pressed her lips. “You know what? Just ask Lotte, she’s great at it.”
For a second, Akko thought Andrew would mock her. Instead, he laughed. “I think I get what you were trying to explain,” he said between breaths, “but you explained it horribly.”
Akko blushed slightly. Yeah, she had completely butchered up that discussion. The way Sucy had done it was so impressive. How was it, again? Damn, she really couldn’t remember it…
“I was surprised after the last race, really. When she came out of her broom she looked surprisingly calm and she even smiled when you hugged her,” Andrew said.
Akko frowned. “Hey, how do you know about that? You weren’t there.”
Andrew paused. “Uhm, I guess I shouldn’t have said that…” he looked away, speaking in a softer voice. “There’s a good number of reporters that take photos of you when you’re not looking. Spirits are particularly useful for that. They take videos, too. And they’re kind of desperate, since some higher up is threatening to get them all kicked out of the Dragon if they dare approach you lot.”
Taking this in, Akko suddenly felt like she was being watched. She looked around, and Andrew shook his head. “There’s no-one here right now. Probably,” his eyes darted across the hangar a couple times in a slightly paranoid way. “They mostly do that before and after races. They want to catch particularly emotional moments, but after your first couple of breakdowns there hasn’t been much in the way of that.”
“Well, I can’t be a kid all the time, can I?” Akko shook her head. “Anyways, why exactly are you here next to the Shiny Rod?”
“I just wanted to watch it closely,” he replied. “I wonder what it feels like, to ride it.”
Akko looked at him. “Want a ride?”
He turned his head sharply. “You’d let me?”
Akko shrugged. “Sure. I can’t really move it since it’s connected to the unicorn, but the simulator is literally the same as flying it, you can’t tell the difference.”
Andrew paused, as if considering the offer. Then he nodded hesitantly. “I would certainly like to try it, at least once.”
Akko nodded. “Gimmie a minute,” she said, turning. She entered the Rod, making sure Alcor didn’t freak out when Alcor entered, and then called the guy over, getting off her seat.
Andrew stood at the edge of the cockpit, looking down at the empty seat and at Akko behind it. “Wait, you’re not…”
“Come and pilot, rich boy. I set the controls to easy for your first try,” Akko said with a smile.
Andrew very awkwardly came down into the cockpit, trying to climb down and slipping on the panels before barely making it into the seat with as much poise as he can muster. “I’ve done some basic practice with brooms, but I’d… Wait, there’s only the joysticks and pedals here,” he sounded surprised.
“As I’ve said, controls are on easy, mostly automatic. Wouldn’t want you to crash and burn, now would we?”
“I’m certainly not as bad as you were on that first simulation,” Andrew commented. Akko staggered, jaw dropping. “What? Wondering how I know it? People talk, Akko, particularly about famous people,” he winked at her before. “Welcome to the club,” he sounded a lot more bitter about that part.
Akko shook herself out of her surprise and commanded Alcor to start the simulation as the cockpit closed. Andrew stretched around a little, and the controls soon adapted to his size. Once everything was ready, an infinite expanse of green grass and blue skies opened before them. Andrew stared at it with a nod, turning the Shiny Rod on and getting ready to move.
He nose-dived into the ground. “Hey! Inverted controls?!” He complained.
Akko laughed. “What were you saying, again?” She asked, still laughing as he groaned in frustration.
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” He looked at her with unmeant anger. “Just for the record: This is not fair,” he stated.
Akko kept laughing as she asked Alcor to put the controls back to normal. Despite his annoyance, Andrew ended up chuckling too, and soon he was actually flying through the green fields. Akko didn’t feel the same kind of vertigo he must, as somehow the Rod could isolate those to the pilot, which was the reason Akko had put Andrew in there in the first place. He smiled as he flew, and he even tried some maneuvers – which would have probably failed on a normal broom, but the Rod autocorrected for him.
“It’s incredible,” he said, turning. “It really does feel different from other ships, almost like flying in a VR game. It’s so easy. And you don’t fly like this?”
“Used to,” Akko explained. “But to take advantage of the Rod’s capabilities I had to learn to control everything myself. It’s… Uhm… I don’t really remember what the explanation was, sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Andrew said. “Can I get some obstacles?” He sounded excited, like a kid.
“Sure. Alcor, put us in a forest or something,” Akko said.
The infinite plains soon morphed, trees sprouting from the ground and growing, the grass soon being replaced by a smaller kind and with a bunch of leaves and other stuff on the ground. Akko had the distinct impression that this forest was also infinite.
“I understand why you were able to fly so well now,” Andrew said. “Truly magnificent. With a system like this, anyone would be able to get a broom license after probably just a couple weeks of practice. Can Alcor be an assistant? Because if it can, we could reduce the number of accidents and… What?”
Akko was pressing her lips, and her face was clearly showing how uncomfortable she truly was. “Nothing. It’s just weird when you or Diana start saying stuff like that. It kind of makes me feel guilty for not letting anyone study the Rod.”
Andrew’s smile faded. “Oh, sorry, it wasn’t my intention,” he made sure to look forward as he dodged trees. He was pretty good, though Akko could see his movements were amateurish, and he didn’t really understand how to control the broom. Wait, wasn’t she an amateur, still? It felt like so much had happened since she’d first piloted the Shiny Rod… “I was just talking about hypothetical futures, no need to grow nervous. I understand why you don’t want to study the Shiny Rod.”
Akko didn’t say much more, watching as Andrew flew around. He slowly regained his eager attitude, and sometimes he asked Akko to change the environment to feel how flying in different terrains was, and at some point he just started asking for different planets.
“How about the Crystal Peaks in Machina?” He asked. Akko obliged, and she was stunned to find herself in the peak of a mountain, looking down on the metallic world of Machina but with crystals sprouting out of the ground everywhere. Andrew hovered slowly, marveled at the simulation. The grass was still copper colored, though this one in the mountains seemed to have lost a lot of its shine, as if it was old. There was little in the form of trees and such, but their silver leaves seemed to, again, have lost their luster. The trunks were mostly fine, though. The crystals, though, those were beautiful
They were marbled with plenty different colors. Gold, bronze and silver the most common, but some non-metallic ones also sneaked in, like green or red on occasion. In being translucent, the crystals created reflections of like around them, rainbows of different shades that carpeted the grass or – though it was unusual – snow. The snow itself almost had a platinum tint to it. Ever so slightly reflective. Trying to look through a crystal proved to be simple enough, but as they moved around them they seemed to shift and change, their colors mingling on the inside and forming new ones.
“I didn’t know this place existed,” Akko said.
“I’ve always wanted to visit it,” Andrew explained. “I wanted to go when we were on Machina, but of course I didn’t get the chance. It’s said to be the most beautiful mountain range on the entire planetary alliance,” Akko saw, in the simulation, a blue metal bird flying overhead. She squinted, wondering if it could be Elizabeth. But the bird in the simulation had a silver beak, not a golden one, so it wouldn’t be. A shame – though, even if it had been Elizabeth, it would have only been a simulation anyways.
The things beyond the crystals – small trees, boulders and such – deformed behind them, and Akko found it incredibly interesting. These mountains truly were beautiful. “I need to show this to Diana,” Akko said. Diana probably knew of this place, but she had clearly not seen it. It would make a beautiful place for a race, honestly.
And then, Akko began noticing the flowers.
They were similar to human flowers, but also ever so different. Their petals were dark, instead of colorful, but they still had metallic shines to them. From black to a whole rainbow of dark colors, they extended on the entire west – or at least, Akko thought it was the west – side of the mountains. Their stalks, however, were strange. Some were of a strange green, while others were orange or… a strange brown. Only then Akko noticed those colors were awfully similar to the different rusted colors of different metals. The sight, among the countless crystals – some as small as a head, some as big as the Shiny Rod – left Akko completely stunned.
The yellow sky and the cyan sun contrasted quite beautifully with the landscape of dark flowers, and Akko wondered if she could maybe teleport there, grab a couple of them, and bring them back to Diana…
“These are called ‘The Rustflowers’ by us,” Andrew explained as the Shiny Rod slowly floated through them. “They’re of interest to us as they feed off the minerals in the ground, rusting them with chemicals and using the energy released by that to grow. Their dark petals absorb incredible amounts of energy for such small things, which they use to produce the chemical that rusts the metals and bla bla bla,” he explained. Akko nodded. The flowers couldn’t be bigger than Akko’s extended hand, or the stalks longer than her arm, and though they varied, they looked a lot like poppies or maybe roses in some cases. “The way they get their energy through metals could be a really interesting source of energy for when magic stops being viable. They suck it out of the same substance running under these mountains, that when secreted by the earth is what forms the crystals. They take millennia to form, and the local cyborgs have prohibited their mining.”
Akko didn’t really pay much attention to his speech. She was absorbed in watching the way the flowers looked when bathed in light, the way they coldly absorbed the colors shone upon them. It was kind of hypnotic, really.
“Do you know of other places like this?” Akko asked to Andrew.
Andrew hesitated. “Maybe. Let’s see…” He thought for a while. “Oh, it’s said the underwater capital of the northern kingdom in one of the original Octopus planets – though I can’t recall which one right now – has forests of something akin to coral that glow and bathe the oceanic world in a myriad of colorful rainbows. The octopuses on that planet build with crystal and so the light is reflected and amplified, creating what’s called ‘The Rainbow City of Wonders’,” his face got a dreamy expression as he spoke.
Akko tried to imagine it. She was actually about to ask Alcor to take them there when both her and Andrew were startled by knocking on the windshield. Akko reluctantly stopped the simulation and opened the cockpit.
Akko’s annoyance faded in a heartbeat.
Diana was outside. Her eyes widened as she saw Andrew on the pilot seat – with confusion at first, then recognition and lastly skepticism. Akko smiled as she saw her girlfriend. Why was she awake? How much time had she and Andrew spent flying around?
“I didn’t expect to find you here,” Diana said. “Andrew, I mean. Akko I was looking for,” she looked between them.
“I was letting Andrew test the Shiny Rod,” Akko explained.
Diana nodded. Was she angry? Akko paused. Being alone in the cockpit with Andrew… it could be misinterpreted, pretty badly. However, Diana’s expression softened. “If you’ve had your fun, we should probably get started on training,” she said.
Andrew was blushing slightly, as a kid caught doing something he shouldn’t. “Uhm, sure,” he climbed out of the cockpit awkwardly. “Thanks for letting me pilot, Akko. It was fun,” he said. “I should go back anyways, father probably knows I’m not where I’m supposed to by now.”
“See you,” Akko waved. Andrew nodded as he climbed down from the Rod.
“Hey Andrew,” Diana said. He paused once in the floor, looking up. “You look better in casual clothing. You should try it more often,” she pointed out.
Andrew seemed surprised by the compliment, but he smiled and waved as he walked away. “And you should try wearing something that isn’t a g-suit,” he spoke loudly.
“You’ve no right to tell me something like that,” Diana complained, but Andrew kept smiling as he turned and disappeared between the other brooms.
Akko waited for a few seconds. She stood with her arms against the edge of the cockpit, and Diana crouched so that they were basically face to face, though Diana was still a little higher. “Slept well?” Akko asked.
“Mostly,” Diana nodded. A smile overtook her face as she leaned forward and kissed Akko, slowly and softly. A bolt of electricity seemed to run through Akko’s body. When they separated, Diana was still smiling. “Now I can say that yes, I slept well.”
Akko was still a little stunned by the turn of events, but she didn’t complain as the others arrived. Ursula was quick to round up everyone and tell them to get into the brooms to practice, and in five minutes, everyone was ready for the day.
I’m gonna go visit that rainbow city with Diana, later, Akko decided, smiling to herself.