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Fitting nine people into Chateau d’Akko (and Lotte and Sucy) wasn’t easy at the best of times, never mind when one of those people was Amanda who’d decided to bring a literal beer keg to a “casual hangout.” Sure, it’d been a negotiation from “pre-drinks then go get smashed and hit on cute lesbians at the Shooting Star,” down to “just the pre-drinks part, thanks,” but Akko realised now she’d been a fool to think Amanda would concede so easily.
At least Constanze had brought enough Switch controllers. Not even JoyCons either, Pro Controllers and a Gamecube adapter. Akko always knew Conz was a real one but that’d been truly above and beyond the call of duty, she made a mental note to thank her sometime.
Well, maybe all the times Constanze’s R.O.B. had kicked her ass would make up for it, she thought sourly. And Amanda’s crap beer wasn’t helping but then if no one else drank the beer then Amanda would probably down the whole keg on her own over the course of the night and then Akko would have to put a drunk Amanda on her bed with a towel under her face and she’d probably still find some way to get sick on Akko’s bed and she’d have to wash it out again and the smell hadn’t really cleared up from last time and-
Oh God, Amanda had found Sucy’s spirits cupboard.
“Holy shit. Mushrooms, this is the good stuff.” Amanda turned to Sucy with approval. “How’d you find all this? Or afford it?”
Sucy glanced over from her seat next to Constanze on the excessively large couch that Akko had found near the communal garden one time and dragged back because, like, free couch? Hello? “Scholarship bursary, and that one internship I did at the lab where they make poisons strong enough to kill you with a single drop if you even touch my good shit.”
“Aight, remind me not to ask Sucy any favours when she’s on a ten match loss streak.” Amanda grinned.
“Says the one who gave up after like twenty minutes of free-for-alls,” Akko said.
“We all did! Sucy and you are the only ones stubborn enough to keep trying,” Amanda said. “Seriously, give it up, Conz doesn’t lose.”
“Diana nearly got her that one time,” Lotte said, taking a sip and scowling at the beer.
“Beginner’s luck,” Sucy growled as the victory screen for R.O.B. flashed up again. “No way she meant that lightning kick to connect.”
Ah yes, Diana. Diana Cavendish. The Diana Cavendish. Top of the year Medicine student, pristine queen, and That One Girl Who Roasted Akko’s Taste In Anime In The Student Union Bar At Freshers Week.
So maybe “Diana” was a bit snappier but that had been what she was known as among their group for a good few weeks until they’d found out her actual name.
Theirs was… an unlikely friendship to say the least. Any normal person would have simply taken the roasting in stride, but not Akko. Any time she saw Diana for the rest of first term she went out of her way to confront her. To demand an apology not just to Akko for insulting her shirt, but to the writers, directors and cast of Mahou Shoujo Shiny Chariot, for having dared to insult the greatest magical girl anime of all time.
She never did receive that apology, but the few times they continued talking after Akko’s impassioned rants she’d found that she and Diana actually kind of got along? In a weird way. A similar sense of humour helped. For all Diana appeared to be stuck up, she actually laughed at Akko’s silly puns and goofy jokes.
Similar politics too. Ish. Akko figured “Lib Dem supporter” was about as good as it was gonna get for a literal member of the nobility, but damn if she hadn’t lost her mind when Diana had told her about the time she, at age thirteen no less, put her aunt’s Conservative Party membership card through the paper shredder.
Twice, just to be sure.
So now, a year later, Diana had a few more titles in Akko’s head than “Medical Genius” and “Shiny Chariot Hater.” And she was sure she could think of a dozen more if it meant not thinking about the very uncomfortable elephant in the room that was Akko’s mind when it came to thoughts about Diana.
God she was hot.
Like, so hot. Unfairly hot. Seriously the girl could be sitting studying in the library and she’d look like a painting. And, like, OK so maybe all those thoughts about how well they got along also meant something. A lot of something. And maybe Akko was big enough and smart enough to know what that something was but also she was two beers in and kind of a lightweight and really should not be thinking about that right now while Diana was sitting right over there on a plastic chair in the kitchen and somehow making that look pretty.
More to the point, Diana was the reason this party was happening at Chateau d’Akko and not Shooting Star. Diana had told Akko she didn’t like clubs or pubs much, and so Akko, as the group’s de facto social secretary, tried to avoid them where possible. And there was something nice about just hanging out with all her closest friends at her flat with nothing else to worry about.
Well, nothing else to worry about aside from the usual Amanda shenanigans, but at least here the damage could be kept to a minimum.
“Yo, what’s the password to the bluetooth speaker?” Amanda yelled.
Somewhat to a minimum, anyway.
“Oh my God, please no,” Hannah whined. “If you make me listen to any more of that screaming shit I will die.”
“You’re not a true feminist if you can’t appreciate Bikini Kill.” Amanda shook her head sadly.
“Still better than Akko’s anime soundtrack playlists,” Sucy quipped.
“Hey my playlists are fire!” Akko protested, hauling out her phone. “Here check this-”
“How about,” Lotte interrupted, “you provide the soundtrack yourself, Akko?”
Akko froze still.
“I haven’t heard you playing in so long, I’d love to,” Lotte added with a smile.
“You play an instrument?” Diana asked from behind her.
Akko wheeled around with a squeak. “Ack! Uh, yeah. Guitar. A bit. I’m not great.”
“She’s very good she just holds herself to silly standards because she’s such a great animator,” Lotte said and wow Akko’s heart just grew three sizes and it was already pretty big when it came to Lotte.
“Lotteeeeeee stooooooop,” Akko whined.
“I would love to hear you play, Akko,” Diana said, lowering her glass with a smile.
Ah crap.
“I, uhhh, OK just gimme a sec to go grab it.”
Amanda let out a whoop. “Hell yeah, we love to see it.”
“You realise she’s just gonna play anime songs, right?” Sucy said while Akko made her exit.
Akko shuffled some clothes across her floor with her foot, pulling her guitar case out past them. So maybe it had been a while. The case clicked open and she cringed a little as she looked inside. Strings looked pretty dead, hopefully wouldn’t be too much of an issue.
She pulled it out, balancing it on one leg and giving an experimental strum of G Major.
Yeesh.
Well, maybe a particularly avant-garde, microtonal interpretation of G Major. Please say the tuner was still in the case. Oh thank God.
Akko slumped down onto her bed, the guitar settling into a familiar, comfortable balance on her leg as she affixed the tuner to the head. How long had it been since she’d last practiced, two months? Three? Maybe she should warm up a little once she was done tuning. Or maybe she should play more often when she had a goddamn beautiful instrument her parents had spent like forty thousand yen on.
She pulled a pick from her bedside table - they just ended up there, there were probably a half-dozen at least on the floor - and strummed out an E Minor. Close enough to in-tune, she figured.
Her ear had never been amazing, which was irritating because most tabs for anime songs were horrendously inaccurate. It had taken her like three hours of going through the Youtube video in slow motion to figure out the Shiny Chariot OP.
So worth it though.
She started playing it. How could she not? Happened basically every time she thought of the song. Oof, scuffed the decorative part there. The little violin flourish was always hard to nail down, especially with the arrangement she did where she tried to keep the chords going while she played the melodies.
She tried it again. Maybe if she let the open D string ring during the third bar it’d make the transition into the flourish a little easier?
She scuffed the same part again.
“God damnit,” Akko growled, slapping her left hand off the bed as if to punish it.
“Akko?” came a soft voice at the door.
“Ah!” Akko startled, turning towards the door. “Diana?”
“Are you alright? You’ve been gone for some time,” Diana said.
“It’s fine, just warming up,” Akko called through the door. “Not played in a while, don’t wanna embarrass myself.”
“You won’t embarrass yourself, Akko,” Diana said with a soft sigh. “May I come in?”
“Uhhhh.” Akko looked around at the state of her room. She quickly flung the yuri manga on her bedside table under her pillow. “I guess, but it’s a bit of a mess, sorry!”
The door cracked open and Diana made her way in, shutting it gently behind herself and standing quietly in the middle of Akko’s room and oh God she’d made a mistake she could already feel her heart pounding a million miles an hour and Diana had only been here for five seconds at most.
“It’s a beautiful instrument,” Diana said. “What make is it?”
“Oh.” Akko looked down. It was pretty, with a cherry red sunburst across the wooden body that had apparently cost a couple thousand extra yen that she never would have asked her parents to spend but it was a fourteenth birthday present and she was pretty happy cause it looked pretty cool and- wait, answer the question. “Yeah I love it. It’s a Yamaha APX 600, kind of an all-rounder, bit better than your usual beginner fare,” oh and now she was rambling.
“Does it sound as lovely as it looks?” Diana asked.
Oh wow that statement was doing things to Akko’s heart. “Uh, the strings kinda need changed so it won’t really sound its best…” She strummed a couple chords, bit of a G-Cadd9-D progression, bit of flourish around the top of the D chord for taste.
Diana’s face relaxed, sighing contentedly as she listened to Akko play one of the most basic things imaginable. Akko resolved then and there that she was going to play a lot more especially any time Diana was visiting because wow making her do that face was just wonderful.
But a tiny part of Akko felt… almost frustrated? She’d spent a lot of effort getting quite good and OK maybe she was rusty but she could play much better than that and how was she meant to know if Diana was actually impressed when playing three chords and twiddling around the F# on the high string had caused this reaction?
Stupid brain. Stupid Akko why can’t you just be happy that you impressed a pretty girl by playing guitar god dammit.
Maybe this was why she’d stopped playing so much.
Akko played a few more chords, picking out the notes, letting them fall like a gentle rain. Nothing complicated, basically just noodling around a few open chords, but this kinda thing always felt so relaxing to her.
Diana clearly felt so too, shutting her eyes with the ghost of a smile on her face as she listened to Akko play. Akko’s hands stilled in place, letting the G chord ring out, as Diana’s eyes opened again.
“I believe the quality of the player more than makes up for any deficiency in the quality of the strings,” Diana said with a soft smile.
“Thanks,” Akko mumbled, not sure where to look.
“I’m surprised I’ve never heard you mention this,” Diana said. “You’re clearly quite practiced, it must be a large part of your life.”
“Ehh, kinda?” Akko rubbed at her neck with her left hand. “I was always focused more on like, art and animation cause it’s what I wanna do with myself, y’know? Guitar’s fun but like, just fun?”
Diana quirked an eyebrow. “Strange sentiment from you. Aren’t you the one who informed me that, what was it, ‘things that are silly and fun can be good for their own sake and nothing more than that?’”
Akko sat dumbfounded, flapping her mouth uselessly. “I, uh, yeah I did say that. I think? Sounds like the kinda thing I’d say anyway. Surprised you remember.”
“Of course I remembered,” Diana said. “It was… an important thing for me to hear, I believe.”
“Oh,” Akko said. “Uh, you’re welcome, I guess?”
Diana laughed gently. “You truly are one of a kind.”
How was Akko meant to respond to that? “Thanks, Diana. You too, y’know.”
“Oh, before we return, if you don’t mind my asking,” Diana started. “What was it you were trying to play before I came in? It was oddly familiar but I couldn’t quite place it.”
Akko looked up, eyes wide. A sly smile grew on her face. “Oh, you were probably mistaking it for something else, I doubt you’d know it.”
“No, I was quite sure I recognised the melody,” Diana said.
“So you’re saying you do know the intro to Mahou Shoujo Shiny Chariot?” Akko grinned widely.
Diana paled. Deer in headlights had nothing on the expression marking Diana Cavendish’s face right now. “I. Ahem. Well we had best be going, I believe you’ve had sufficient time to warm up, the others will be wondering what’s kept us.”
“Sure, sure.” Akko grinned. “Y’know I always did wonder how you knew so much about the show when you were ripping into it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Look, we were all mad that Charoix never became canon but you really need to find a healthier way to deal with it.”
“Akko. Main room. Guitar. Now.”
“Sure thing, Finnelan.” And oh-ho Akko did not miss the way Diana bristled at being compared to that character.
Sometimes life really was beautiful.
Akko arrived back into the main room to a chorus of whoops and cheers, led by Amanda. Constanze and Sucy even muted the TV, interrupting their session - Amanda had been updating Constanze’s blackboard to show the record was now Conz 19-0 Sucy - as they shifted over to give Akko and her guitar room, Sucy moving across to sit on the arm of Lotte’s chair.
Diana sat down directly opposite Akko. Because of course she did.
“Gather round, gather round, one and all!” Amanda declared, landing on the couch next to Constanze. “The Japanese Hendrix is about to shred our faces off!”
“On an acoustic?” Sucy said.
“Akko could shred on a ukelele!” Amanda declared.
Akko rolled her eyes, quickly checking the tuning again with harmonics just to be sure. “OK, anyone got any requests?”
“No anime,” Sucy said.
“Denied,” Akko responded. “Anyone else?”
Constanze’s hand shot up immediately.
“Yeah, Conz?”
She grabbed her blackboard back from Amanda, rubbing out the score and quickly scratching something in to make her request.
She held it up, revealing a surprisingly impressive ten-second sketch of the Gurren Lagann.
“Have I mentioned before that I love you?” Akko grinned, before launching straight into Sorairo Days.
She could have sung along. She did actually know the words, both the original Japanese and an English translation she’d figured out herself. But honestly, playing guitar in front of eight people - probably the most she’d ever played to - was nerve wracking enough without adding her very average voice into the matter.
The song was a blast to play though, even if standard tuning made that Gsus2 chord in the main riff a bit of a stretch to play with her small hands. The staccato chords translated pretty well to acoustic though, and she maybe caught herself singing along just a bit in the chorus.
Constanze was mouthing along silently too. Akko shot her a grin as she went back into the riff to close out the song, and Constanze grinned back, flashing a thumbs up.
They needed to watch that together some time. Maybe drag Amanda along too.
Polite applause greeted her as the final E Major chord rang out. “Thank you, thank you.” Akko faked a bow over her guitar’s body. “Any more requests? If not, I’m playing Don’t Lose Your Way.”
“Um,” Lotte piped up. “Could you play that one?”
“Hm?” Akko said.
“My mother’s song,” Lotte said quietly.
“Oh,” Akko said. “Yeah, definitely! Just gimme a sec to see if I can remember it.”
Akko quietly played through what she remembered of the chord progression. G Major first, right? Wait no it was E Minor, the melody started with a G. Then there was that bit with the lovely dissonant C# so if she played an A Major under it then followed with a B chord that usually worked…
“Yeah I think I got it.” Akko lifted her head. “You wanna start on your own?”
“No.” Lotte shook her head furiously. “You can accompany me, thanks.”
“Sure.” Akko smiled. “Then a one, two, three, and-”
Barbara audibly gasped when Lotte started singing, Amanda let out a low whistle, and Akko had to focus a lot on getting the chords right because wow Lotte’s singing was almost overwhelmingly gorgeous.
It never ceased to amaze her. Lotte’s voice was as gentle as you’d expect from hearing her talk, but there was a wonderful richness to her singing that came from deep in her chest and filled the listener’s mind like sweet honey.
The song was short, not even a minute in total, and before long Lotte was trailing off her last word. There was barely a dry eye in the room.
“Holy shit,” Amanda whispered.
“I had no idea you were such a talented singer,” Diana said, wiping delicately at one eye.
“That was,” Barbara spoke through a sob. “So beautiful. Oh my God I don’t understand a word of Finnish but it was so pretty, Lotte.”
“What does it mean?” Jasminka asked, offering a clearly flustered Lotte a glass of water.
“It’s a lullaby,” Lotte said, wilting under the attention. “My mother used to sing it for me when I was young. The lyrics are, hm, I guess it’s like a lullaby to the Earth? Singing it to sleep so it can rest for the winter.”
“That is so pretty I can’t." Barbara sobbed into Hannah’s shoulder.
“I’m really glad you all like it,” Lotte said. “And thank you for the music, Akko.”
“No problem, I forgot how sweet it is to play,” Akko said.
“So did Lotte teach you the song?” Diana asked. “I wasn’t aware Lotte played an instrument as well.”
“No,” Lotte said. “It was always a sung lullaby, then Akko heard me singing it one day and said she wanted to set it to music.”
“Yeah, we got her mom to send us the sheet music for how she sang it and I figured out some chords to go with it.” Akko shrugged. “It was an honour, really. Super pretty song.”
“Absolutely,” Diana said. “You should be very proud, your voice is wonderful, Lotte.”
“Thanks.” Lotte curled into herself a little further, sipping at her water as Jasminka patted her shoulder.
Akko figured it was probably time to take the attention away from her notoriously shy housemate, so she decided for the nuclear option.
“So anyways, here’s Wonderwall.”
An Em7 clanged obnoxiously loud from her guitar. It wasn’t even the right chord, she’d left her capo in the case and she was not grabbing it just so she could play Wonderwall.
Despite that, it had the desired effect. Amanda doubled over laughing as Akko played the rest of the chord progression. Sucy rolled her eyes, but was smiling despite herself. “Seriously?” Hannah deadpanned.
“What, never heard this one before?” Akko asked, starting on the second repeat.
“OK very funny, you can stop now,” Sucy said.
“No, let her play,” Diana spoke up.
“Huh?” Akko’s hands actually stopped, looking over at Diana in shock.
“I thought what you were playing was quite lovely, please do continue,” Diana said.
“Um, do you know what it is?” Akko asked.
Diana shook her head. “No, but I liked it.”
“Well, OK then,” Akko said, and started to actually, for real, play Wonderwall at a house party.
It was almost surreal. You always heard about this happening but no one ever actually did it. It was like playing Stairway to Heaven at a guitar shop, you couldn’t do it.
But she was.
The laughter had stopped, everyone was listening in, paying attention.
It was then that she realised something horrifying.
This song did not work without vocals.
She couldn’t just play the chord progression like eight times, she would actually have to sing it. In front of eight people. One of whom was Diana.
Please, God, Kami-sama, hell Shiva would do, just as long as they would strike her down here and now before she had to- “Today is gonna be the day that I’m gonna throw it back to you.”
Save me, she prayed.
Someone answered.
“By now you should’ve somehow realised what you gotta do,” Barbara sang back, a silly grin on her face.
“I don’t believe that anybody,” Amanda cut in, obnoxiously loud and off-key, “feels the way I do, about you now.”
Well, at least with Wonderwall, it didn’t matter how off-key you were cause the original was Liam bloody Gallagher anyway.
The three of them sang the rest of the first verse together, Akko’s voice quieting as Amanda yelled over the top.
“Quiet.” Diana shushed her. “I want to hear Akko sing.”
Why.
Why.
Amanda grinned at Akko, zipping her mouth shut as the pre-chorus began.
“And all the roads-” oh crap she was the only one singing, “-have to walk are winding.” Aaand she missed a word. Crap crap crap. “And all the lights that light the way are blinding.” Wait was that the first pre-chorus or the second one? Shit it was the second wasn’t it?
Wait crap how did the next bit go? There was an A in it, wasn’t there? Wait crap that was at the end get back to that G chord Akko ok we’re safe wait crap I forgot to sing. “-I would like to say to you, but I dunno how.” Well if that ain’t true right now. Oh well, at least she ended up on the Asus4 chord.
“Sing along for the chorus!” Oldest trick in the book. Never failed.
“Because maybeeeeee,” Akko, and only Akko, sang.
Traitors!
She glared at Amanda, who just zipped her mouth again and bowed, graciously clearing the floor for Akko.
Fine, she’d just look at Diana.
That was a mistake.
“You’re gonna be the one that saves me,” she sang.
Oh Christ she should not have looked at Diana while singing that line. OK, look somewhere else-
Diana was smiling at her with such a gentle warmth that Akko’s breath nearly caught, making her half-sing half-hiccup the “And after all.”
She was going to get through this. So what if it was a song that had been overplayed into memehood, Diana didn’t know that. Diana was hearing it for the first time and had such genuine joy at hearing it that Akko was damned if she was going to ruin it for her.
The chorus finished, and she let the chord ring out for a second before bringing the rhythm back for the second verse. She could do this. She would do this!
As Akko opened her mouth to sing the second verse, she was greeted by the wonderful melodious sound of Lotte, phone sitting on her lap with the lyrics. “Today was gonna be the day, but they’ll never throw it back to you.”
Akko shot her a grateful smile, joining her for, “By now you should’ve somehow realised what you’re not to do,” and wow Lotte was harmonising with her and how was Akko getting this emotional over playing Wonderwall.
Lotte nudged Sucy with her elbow. Sucy glared at her, about to protest before Lotte fixed her with a pointed stare. Sucy, regret plain as day on her face, deadpanned completely tunelessly through, “I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I do.”
“Happy?” she snapped, as Lotte and Akko finished the line together.
“You guys are the best.” Akko was struggling to keep the tears from her eyes as she played through the last couple of chords leading into the pre-chorus.
“And all the roads-” Lotte dropped out as Amanda joined in, and her singing was actually surprisingly decent when she wasn’t being ridiculous. She even pulled out a lighter and waved it slowly, grin on her face the whole time, for, “And all the lights that light the way are blinding.”
Constanze finished scribbling and held up her board, reading, “There are many things that I would like to say to you but I dunno how.” She tilted it around, showing it off to the whole room as Akko finally lost her battle with the tears forming at the corner of her eye and Amanda and Jasminka wrapped Constanze in a crushing hug.
“I said maybeee,” Akko sang, joined by most of the others this time, a little quieter. They were letting her take the lead, but Lotte’s melodious voice carried through, joining the small choir of Amanda, Hannah, and Barbara. Even Jasminka and Sucy joined for a line or two.
Amanda bowed out again for the final repeat of the chorus, the others agreeing to let Akko take this one on her own. She was grateful. She was actually grateful that her friends were letting her sing Wonderwall on her own while looking at a pretty girl that she was kinda sorta maybe starting to fall in something with and Akko don’t forget your line!
“You’re gonna be the one that saves me.” Diana sang, having clearly figured out the words by the third time through. She looked up, suddenly panicked as she realised Akko had stopped and it was just her.
“And after all.” Akko came back in, smiling apologetically at Diana’s flushed face. Akko nodded, inviting Diana to join her for the final line.
“You’re my Wonderwall,” they sang together. And like, the line was dumb and it didn’t mean anything it was just a reference to a George Harrison album that Oasis were fans of it wasn’t even a lo- something- song or anything.
But.
But wow it felt amazing to sing that with Diana. Diana’s voice was, well, surprisingly average? Akko had kinda just assumed she’d have a wonderful singing voice but she was a little flat and wasn’t really projecting and OK maybe it was just nice that little miss perfect wasn’t perfect at something that Akko was kinda good at except singing together with Diana had been incredible this wasn’t even a competition thing - for once - she just wanted to burn this moment into her memory for the rest of her life.
Amanda had linked arms with her flatmates, swaying back and forth on the other end of the couch as Akko played out the chords for the ending. Well, she was meant to sing “You’re gonna be the one that saves me” over the outro but there was no way she was following that moment of singing with Diana with anything.
The final chord rang out. Akko brought her picking hand up to rub at her eyes as her left hand held the Em7 (should’ve been an F#m7 but her damn capo was in her room and-).
“I can’t believe,” Hannah said, “you made us cry over Wonderwall.”
“I mean, it’s popular for a reason.” Barbara sniffled a bit, accepting a tissue gratefully from Hannah.
“I confess to never having heard it before,” Diana said. “I don’t understand why you all seem to dislike it so much. I thought the song was lovely, and Akko’s performance was marvellous.”
Akko flushed under the praise, feeling her cheeks heat up. “It’s, uh, I guess it’s kind of a meme?”
“How can a song be a meme?” Diana asked.
“Spoken like a girl who’s never been RickRolled.” Amanda grinned at her.
“Rick what?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Akko said, laughing. “Basically there’s like, a running joke about guitarists playing Wonderwall at house parties to impress girls or whatever.” Akko why did you say that how stupid are you!? “And- uh- I was kinda just referencing the joke.”
“Oh.” Diana looked crestfallen.
“It’s fine!” Akko said immediately. “I mean, the whole reason it became a thing in the first place is cause the song’s so popular, right?”
“I can understand why,” Diana said. “The piece was quite powerful being performed in a setting such as this, among treasured friends.”
Treasured friends, huh? Akko glanced around the room, at her friends who’d given up their Saturday night to come here and hang out in some random apartment and just enjoy one another’s company for the sheer sake of it. “Yeah, definitely.”
“I do have one question, though,” Diana said.
“Yeah?”
“What is a Wonderwall?”
“Hell if I know.” Akko burst out laughing, and the rest of the room followed with her.
Midnight rolled around, then 1 am shortly after, and Hannah was starting to feel her drink a little too much so Diana called a cab to bring the three of them back home. To their house, not flat. Lucky for some, eh?
The party wound down pretty much as soon as the call was made. Amanda, Constanze and Jasminka packed up (although Amanda left her goddamn beer keg) to walk the couple of minutes down the road to their own place. Sucy disappeared to her room almost immediately after, leaving Lotte and Akko in the living room keeping an eye on Hannah and her concerned housemates.
The taxi pulled up outside, and Barbara wrapped Hannah’s arm over her shoulder, moving unsteadily towards the door.
“Do you need my assistance?” Diana asked.
“Nah, I got this,” Barbara said. “Been through worse, you go say your goodbyes.” She winked at Diana and Akko really did not want to read into that.
“I’ll be going to bed now,” Lotte said, standing from the couch. “It’s been lovely seeing you all!”
“Same, same,” Barbara said, closing the door behind the lurching form of herself and Hannah.
And then there were two.
“I’m sorry I never told you about my guitar playing,” Akko said, looking down.
“Hm? It’s quite alright, Akko,” Diana said. “I was merely surprised it never came up, I never imagined it as a personal insult.”
Akko smiled gratefully. “I hadn’t played in a while. I guess with all the stress of uni and everything it kinda fell by the wayside, then I felt all guilty about not playing it when my parents spend like forty thousand on it-”
“Forty thousand!?” Diana said, alarmed.
“Yen, silly.” Akko grinned. “That’s like, three hundred quid maybe. Besides, isn’t forty grand like pocket change to you aristocrats?”
“Hardly.” Diana rolled her eyes. “And I’m not sure I understand why you would feel guilty?”
Akko looked up, trying to think of how to express it. “It’s like, it mattered a lot to me. And I spent a lot of time and my parents’ money getting kinda good at it. Then when I stopped playing for a bit, every time I looked at my guitar case it’d remind me that I was wasting all that effort and it’d make me not wanna touch it at all, y’know?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know, Akko,” Diana said. Akko’s face started to fall, and Diana held up a finger to silence her. “Allow me to continue. I don’t understand because I have nothing like that in my life. The closest thing I have to a hobby is horse riding, and I certainly have no creative endeavours to undertake. If anything, I’m somewhat jealous.”
“Why would you be jealous of me.” Akko laughed it off, trying to calm the frantic patter of her heartbeat.
“It is as I said earlier, Akko. When you told me that things can be fun for their own sake, I took that to heart. I realised I hadn’t been allowing myself to enjoy things. That I was viewing everything, even hobbies, in terms of value and what could be gained from them.” She shook her head. “What value can be placed on a moment like earlier? On treasured friends enjoying something as simple as singing a song together?”
“Wouldn’t trade it for the world.” Akko grinned.
“Nor would I.” Diana smiled back.
Diana’s phone buzzed, she took a quick glance, and blushed a little red. “Ah. I’m afraid the taxi driver is starting to complain, I must be going.”
“Oh, sure. See you around!” Akko said.
Diana stopped with her hand on the door. “One last thing.” She gestured at Akko’s guitar. “That’s not the only thing that sounds as lovely as it looks.”
The door swung shut, leaving a bewildered Akko clutching her guitar and trying to process everything that had just happened and across the night and-
“Oh.”