Hanna and Barbara were still going at it.

After a whole three hours and some change of nonstop cuddling, giggling and being disgustingly cute, Sucy wasn't sure if her little social experiment with the LoveLove venom had been a success or a failure. Sure, on the one hand, Akko and Diana had finally been forced to confront their rather obvious feelings for each other instead of skirting around the edges like they had been for the longest (frustrating) time, so that could be considered a small victory. And Sucy herself had managed to avoid nabbing a detention in the process, another definite bonus.

But on the other hand and the most critical part of the experiment, testing the effects of diluted LoveLove venom in actual human participants? Those results were frustratingly inconclusive.

Hmm. Maybe a second round of tests was in order.

Sucy watched, chin in the palm of her hand, the very picture of affected boredom, as Hanna nipped at a spot beneath Barbara's chin before darting back with a coy giggle. Akko had left an hour ago, muttering something about fireworks and asking Professor Ursula to borrow some sort of suit, and Lotte had tagged along, taking Amanda's team with her, which left only Sucy and the disgusting lovebirds in the suite.

Sucy sighed. She picked up a relatively intact pastry off the ground and sniffed it. Ughh. Way too sweet. With another sigh, she dropped it. If she had known that dinner was going to be thrown out the window by Amanda, she would've packed some (edible) deathcaps to nibble on. Science was long, unforgiving work and her own contributions to the field were criminally underappreciated.

Another delighted squeal drew her attention back to the two, and Sucy rolled her eyes. As entertaining as it was observing her two guinea pigs, their scientific usefulness had run its due course.

"Are you two done yet?" she called out. Sucy didn't care what Hanna and Barbara did, really, but for the sake of keeping her test case as accurate as possible, she would have to put a stop to their fun. "I'm hungry."

Barbara paused long enough in her nuzzling of Hanna's cheek to glare indignantly at Sucy, as if she had asked her for a kidney transplant as opposed to food. "God, you're still here?" she returned to her nuzzling. "Don't you have like, a carnivorous mushroom you need to feed or something on your schedule?"

Hanna's response was much more succinct. "Buzz off, Sucy."

"Yeah, like, split."

With another sigh, this one long-suffering, Sucy took out her pocket watch and clicked it open. She tried being nice, she really did.

"You two do know that the venom wears off after two hours, don't you?"

Hanna and Barbara froze. "Say what?" said Hanna.

Oh. Right. Sucy was the only one who knew that. "Yeah. Two hours," she said, pocketing the watch. She continued, heedless of the mounting expressions of horror on Hanna and Barabara's faces. "I tested it on a mouse and its reflection before we came here." She stopped to think before correcting herself. "Actually, it should be even less time for the two of you since you shared the same cup."

Hanna and Barbara weren't listening. They quickly leaped apart, as if actually stung, and began rubbing furiously at their lips and face in a futile attempt to purge themselves.

"BARBARA, WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?!"

"Me?! Why didn't you say something?"

"Don't put this on me! Do you have any idea how awkward it would've been if I stopped and you just kept going?

"Like, not at all, because we would've both stopped then!

"Oh don't act like you weren't enjoying it!"

Barbara threw her hands up. "Oh my gawd, you are so full of yourself. You think that makes you the queen of the school just because I liked it? Well, newsflash! It doesn't!"

"Well, newsflash, right back at you! In fact, I- wait," Hanna did a double take, thrown off her stride. "You actually... liked it?"

"Like, duh! I...uh. Oh." Barbara stopped mid-sentence, hand hanging awkwardly in the air, looking like she realized only then what she had just admitted. "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh…" her cheeks lit up like a stop sign. "Like… I guess so?" she mumbled.

Sucy raised an eyebrow.

Hanna's face was a mirror of Barbara's. She opened her mouth, then closed it. Open. Close. "W-well," she crossed her arms, looking straight down at the floor. "I-I guess I liked it too."

Barbara's head perked. "Really?"

"Really," admitted Hanna with a shy smile that Barbara unconsciously returned.

Sucy glanced at the two of them. "Do you two want to make sure, just in case? I still have some leftover LoveLove venom for just-"

"OUT." Hanna and Barbara said at the same time.

Sucy just sighed. So, criminally, underappreciated.

Me: Actually, all things considered, everything went pretty well.

To each viewer who took time out of their busy schedule to read my silly story, thank you! I appreciate every like/review/view and I'm super grateful to all the love and attention you gave Shooting Star. So, once again, thank you very much!

Also, if you ever want to see what I'm writing next or just want to chat about LWA or other shared interests, you can find me on tumblr at zenzam / tumblr .com. I'm pretty awful at it so please bear with me! Thank you again and I hope to see you soon with my next fic!