“You look very wet,” Sucy mutters, her voice low and ever so slightly croaky, a cold hand scrunching Lotte’s jacket.

“Mmh, yes, I think I’m a bit damp,” Lotte nods, raising a wrist to wipe a smudge on her glasses as she returns a shivery smile. In truth, she’s more concerned about the trail of soaked footsteps that would have followed her through the halls. Freezing in the school pond is one thing, but there’ll be a lot more trouble if anyone discovers Lotte was collecting restricted ingredients instead of being in the dormitory for lights-out.

“I thought you must’ve fallen asleep in the library,” Sucy shrugs, her flat tone betraying neither curiosity nor any sense that she might've hunted through the bookshelves if that were the case. But Sucy doesn’t move from Lotte’s side either, despite the muddy water droplets that keep dripping from Lotte’s jacket onto her socks.

“Ah no, I’m not Akko!” Lotte giggles, trying to joke. “But… oh, I guess Akko probably wouldn’t be in the library in the first place. Um, wait... Akko did make it back, right?”

A small line furrows her brow as Lotte peers around the room, half-expecting their roomate to leap out from behind the desk, or roll enthusiastically from beneath the bunk… even dropping on a rope from the ceiling seems like a reasonable option.

“No,” says Sucy, though her gaze does follow Lotte’s toward the non-existent opening in the ceiling, Lotte brimming to a smile when she realises a similar image crossed Sucy’s mind too.

Sucy tilts her head, the slightest hint of amusement shadowing her visible eye.

“Probably still chasing that phoenix broom,” Lotte laughs, her cheeks warming as she hears the suggestion out loud. Lotte’s never been good at fibbing, even if it’s for a really good reason, and she’s certain Sucy will spot something amiss.

And Sucy probably would have, if a sudden clatter hadn’t echoed down the corridor outside, the loud pelt of approaching footsteps interrupting their conversation and leaving no further doubt of their wayward companion’s whereabouts. Akko bursts through the door, Lotte swiftly holding up her hands to try and hush her and Sucy’s expression remaining completely unchanged.

“Don’t worry, Lotte! No one spotted me!” Akko announces with a grin, while Lotte tries her best to communicate a question with a hopeful grimace and squinty eyes alone.

Did you get it?

Akko’s grin only broadens, her hands clasped together in victory as she attempts a subtle but determined nod. Lotte’s clothes suddenly feel a lot less pond-ridden as her chest swells with joy. The last ingredients had been some of the more difficult to find, and Lotte can’t help feeling a surge of pride at Akko’s achievement, and also excitement at finally being able to reveal their mysterious mission to Sucy, who-

“-Sucy?” Lotte blurts in surprise. While she and Akko had been busy exchanging pointed but secret signals, Sucy had blinked, offered a wide yawn, then deposited herself back on her bed and curled up in a contented sleep before either of them were any the wiser.

“Ack- Sucy!” Akko starts, looking personally affronted by her friend’s apparent indifference as Lotte has to restrain her from bouncing onto the bed. Sucy gives a blurry-sounding mumble, her lips curling upward as if whisked away in some nefarious dream.

Lotte points toward Sucy’s study books instead, Akko’s eyes brightening with purpose as she understands. Akko puffs out her cheeks as they creep toward the desk, Sucy’s scribbled potion recipe still clearly legible by candlelight.

“Here,” Lotte whispers, and she empties her pockets of leechweed from Luna Nova’s marshes, the stings on her hands and fingers providing an all-too-accurate reminder of just how the plant received such a nickname. Akko looks just as guilty as she holds out her own hands, her palms covered in itchy-looking burns from picking a rare breed of flamethorn. Lotte tries not to meet Akko’s eyes as she suddenly finds the moment far funnier and sillier as she should, and the fact that they’re trying to stay silent definitely isn’t helping. Holding her breath to re-focus, Lotte gently reaches for one of Sucy’s storage beakers, her fingertips barely hovering near the glass before Sucy jerks upright as if summoned from the dead.

“Hey,” Sucy snaps, the edges of her teeth showing as her right eye narrows. Akko yelps as Lotte breathes out a startled laugh, glad at least she wasn’t holding anything she might have dropped. Sucy doesn’t move or question them, but Lotte can’t help but find the growling noise she seems to be making ever-so-slightly cute.

“Surprise!” Akko bursts out. “I know we didn’t win the broom relay prize-”

“-so we wanted you to have something from us instead,” Lotte finishes, her hands clumsily knotting together as she tries not to blush. As unfamiliar as Sucy appears to be with receiving presents, Lotte’s not sure she wants them both to know how unused she is to giving them.

Or more to the point, having friends to give them to.

“We wouldn’t have got nearly so far without you,” Lotte continues, her voice oddly steady in spite of her nerves. As blunt as Sucy can (sometimes, occasionally, always...) be, she’s also the person who makes Lotte feel calm no matter what else is happening, who listens even when the words don’t come.

“-tch,” Sucy mutters dismissively, but something less-prickly uncurls in her expression too, and Lotte knows, with an inner confidence that she almost never trusts, that she can speak from the heart and it’ll be okay.

“When I was the first to lift-off that platform, I felt like I was soaring,” Lotte whispers, her eyes watering with happiness as she stares toward the ground. “It wasn’t the winning that mattered to me. When I realised you made that whole plan for us… for the first time, I felt what it was like to be part of a team.”

Akko makes a sincere noise of agreement, and they both stand aside to reveal the ingredients they’d spent the evening collecting.

“Not quite as lethal as a gift from Professor Lukić,” Lotte admits. “But enough to complete that potion you’ve been wanting to-”

She pauses, only realising Sucy has gotten up and walked over to her as Sucy holds out both her hands, palms up.

“Leechweed stings. Flamethorn burns,” Sucy mumbles, when Lotte and Akko sheepishly allow her to peer over the damage. Sucy shakes her head, meets their eyes, then slowly, almost softly offers a small smile, the type she only ever lets her friends see.

-

“Those take a while to heal, you know,” Sucy says later, when Lotte and Akko have warmed-up with cups of tea and are sitting cross-legged on her bed, hands wrapped in bandages and a makeshift soothing balm.

“Yeah yeah,” Akko says fondly, her voice thick and eyes heavy-lidded before she closes them, nestling into Sucy’s Anthology of Venom: third edition as a pillow.

“At least I’ll be able to make an effective paralysis now,” Sucy adds quietly, and Lotte’s too sleepy to wonder why Sucy isn’t already doing so, she’d been obsessing over that potion for weeks.

“Fast acting and untraceable,” Sucy tries again, making Lotte smile despite being half-asleep. Sucy shuffles down in the bed in an attempt to make her bony shoulder more comfortable, Lotte hadn’t even noticed her head had drooped into the crook of Sucy’s neck.

“Lotte. Thank you,” Sucy says softly, her voice somewhere between a rasp and a tentative hum as she pulls her blanket over Lotte’s shoulders, then, when Lotte still shivers, takes off the floppy hat she wears to bed and tucks it over Lotte’s ears.

Lotte blinks a few extra times so no further happy-tears mess up Sucy’s nightshirt, and Sucy keeps one eye slitted open so she’ll be awake to mix another healing balm in a few hours.

Outside the window, they can nearly imagine the shape of fire in the sky.

-