Much to Akko's surprise, she was actually going to make it to school on time. Something like that hadn't happened since the time she ran out of her apartment with a piece of bread in her mouth, no socks, and hair still wrapped in a towel, all the while completely oblivious to the fact that there was a two hour delay thanks to snow.

But today, I'm just oozing with luck! Akko told herself. Didn't sleep through my alarm, Aunt Mako made me my favorite breakfast, managed to get the first train down to Manhattan, and I even won an impromptu dance off! Nothing's gonna get in my way, now! All of a sudden, there was a tingling sensation in the back of Akko's head.

"Except that," Akko said. "Can't even get one day, apparently…" With an audible sigh, Akko dashed into a nearby alley, getting as far back as she could so as much of her was obscured by shadows, as possible. Then, after making sure no one was near the alley, she threw her bag down next to a dumpster, put the ring and middle finger of each hand down on her palm, and pointed her hands at herself.

In an instant, streams of white material, Akko's webbing, shot out of her wrists and wrapped around her body. As it did, certain parts of the webbing on certain parts of her body began to change color and take on unique designs. The webbing around her head turned into a red, full face mask with large, white eyes. The webbing around her legs turned into blue leggings with red tips at the toes. The webbing around the arms and torso stayed its original white, save for the yellow coloring around her hands and seven spots on her chest shaped like the Big Dipper. The spots weren't just regular spots, though; the spots were shaped like spiders, a design complimented by the web pattern spread across the entirety of Akko's costume.

"Show time," Akko said as her costume was complete. Akko jumped onto the wall across from, her hands and feet sticking to the surface with ease, and crawled up the wall until she was on the roof. After that, she fired another shot of web onto a nearby building and swung herself through the air, repeating the process whenever it became necessary.

Okay, Spider-Sense is telling me that there's trouble over… there! Down below was the standard New York scene of violence. A gaggle of tough guys (in this case four)dragging a defenseless girl into an alleyway, either wanting to rob her, kill her, violate her, or some combination of all of them.

"Oh, hell to the no!" The defenseless girl in this case was apparently one Diana Cavendish, meaning Akko had incentive to go full-ass on this instead of half-ass. As such, before one of the guys could even touch Diana, Akko shot herself down towards the ground like a rocket and kicked him to the ground, knocking him out in one blow.

"'Scuse me, gents, but I'm looking for the local jail. You mind directing me towards it? I have to warn you, though, I'm bad at remembering directions, so you'll probably have to come with me for me to get it."

"Hey, it's that Spider-Chick!" One of the guys said.

"He says, ten seconds after my arrival. I'm guessing you weren't one of the bright ones in school. I'd say that that's why you're a criminal, but I know, like, five baddies with PhDs, so who can say?"

"Get them!" Another guy shouted as they all pulled out knives.

"You better run, Di-miss!" Akko said to Diana. "Don't want you getting hurt on my-" Before Akko could finish, Diana had ran up to one of the crooks, disarmed him with a powerful palm strike to the wrist, then kicked him into a wall. "Actually, you do you." Akko then proceeded to duck a stabbing without even turning towards her assailant, followed by throwing said assailant into the air and sticking him to a wall with a shot of web.

"Damn Spider-Chick!" The last robber shouted as he charged at Akko.

"Girl. Spider-Girl. You know, I wanted to be Spider-Woman, but you guys were the ones who decided to call me Spider-Girl, so the least you can do is remember it." Akko fired a ball of web at the hand the robber held the knife in, completely wrapping it up. The man continued to charge at Akko, but before he could reach her, Dian ran in and punched him in the face, sending the man hurtling towards the ground with no consciousness to speak of.

"You know, you are definitely one of the toughest damsels I've taken out of distress," Akko said.

"Thanks. I've studied a great deal of martial arts, so I tend to be prepared for these kinds of situations," Diana said. "I'd also be lying if I said I wasn't running on adrenaline brought out from the excitement of meeting you."

"Really?"

"I'm sort of, kind of, a great fan of your work."

"R-Really?" Now more than ever was Akko glad that she went with red for her mask. "I-I mean, of course you are! I have lots of fans! Fans for days! Fans out the wazoo! This is no surprise at all, really! Not one bit!"

"Oh, okay," Diana said, her face appearing crestfallen. That was certainly a damper on Akko's mood. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong?!" Akko shouted, moving right in front of Diana. Spidey-Sense wasn't telling her anything, so that couldn't be good.

"I'm going to be late for school!" Akko just stared at Diana (taking care to not be a weirdo about it)before breathing a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I guess it'd be pretty hard to get to Luna Nova before the first bell, at this time of day."

"You know I go to Luna Nova?" Akko really wanted to punch herself.

"Whoa, what?! I do?! Guess the ol' Spidey-Sense is stronger than I thought! Hahaha!"

"Either that or you saw the logo on my backpack."

"Yeah, let's go with that! Anyway, um… need a ride?"

"Did you hear what happened with Diana Cavendish?"

"She got jumped by some guys on her way to school, but then Spider-Girl saved her."

"No way! That's awesome!"

"I wish Spider-Girl would save me!"

"I saw Spider-Girl swing into the school parking lot and drop Diana off for first period."

"Diana totally had her face in her boobs, too, and Spider-Girl looked like she liked it."

"I knew Spider-Girl was gay!"

"Man, why do the hottest chicks have to be lesbians?"

"I'm not gay, but if it was Diana Cavendish…"

"No question about Spider-Girl, though. Switch teams in a heartbeat for her."

"Amen!"

It was at this point that Akko slammed her head into the cafeteria table, groaning out as much of her frustrations that she could.

"Are you alright, Akko?" Lotte asked.

"Obviously not, Lotte," Akko said. "Haven't you been listening? Thanks to my little morning rendezvous with Diana, there's all sorts of crazy rumors going around about Spider-Girl being a lesbian going around picking up high school girls."

"That's not inaccurate, though," Sucy said, biting into a slice of mushroom pizza. "The only part they're getting wrong is that you actually can get girls."

"Sucy, when was the last time you had a girlfriend?"

"Point taken." Sucy didn't really look defeated, though.

"This isn't how I wanted to start off my superhero career. I mean, yeah, Spider-Girl was gonna come out eventually, but it would've been after at least a year, not five months."

"Aw, quit your whining, Akko," Amanda said, biting into an apple. "Do you not get how this is a good thing? You just found out that Diana's Spider-Girl's biggest fan!"

"She didn't say biggest, Diana's above those kinds of cliches, and what's your point?"

"My point is that if Diana has a thing for Spider-Girl, then that means she has a thing for you." Akko's head shot up from the table, red as the marinara sauce on her tray.

"Th-Th-That doesn't mean that! Even if it does, so what?! It's not like I can just tell Diana so she'll go out with me. There's a reason it's called a secret identity."

"Mmmrm," Constanze mumbled.

"None of you count! You were all just freak accidents! ...Except Jasminka, I was just really stressed out from having so many people learn it so fast."

"I'm just happy to be included," Jasminka said, biting into a sandwich.

"All I'm saying is that if you want to get anywhere with Diana, you need to do something other than just pussyfooting around," Amanda said.

"Last time I checked, I never hired you to be my wingman!" Akko shouted, standing up from her seat. "The way I deal with Diana has nothing to do with you, or anyone else!"

"And how, exactly, do you need to deal with me?"

"BWAH!" The appearance of a new voice shocked Akko, and even though she turned to face the speaker, she already knew that it was Diana who, of course, was with Hannah and Barbara.

"Well?"

"O-Oh, that? I just meant that they couldn't tell me how to deal with you when I asked how you were doing! How are you doing, Diana? Are you okay?"

"She's perfectly fine, obviously," Hannah said.

"Didn't you hear? Diana got saved by Spider-Girl! That's someone who can give a girl comfort, unlike you," Barbara said, Hannah joining in for a laugh.

"Yeah, because you two are a couple of teddy bears," Akko said.

"What was that-"

"That's enough," Diana cut in, stopping Barbara and making her and Hannah step back. "As for your question, Akko, I'm fine. I'm still a little rattled from this morning, but otherwise, I'll manage. However, I do want to go straight home today, so there won't be LGBT association, today."

"Oh, okay," Akko said. She was about to open her mouth and say something more, but the school bell rang. Lunch was over.

"I'll see you in calculus, Akko."

"Y-Yeah, same." Diana, Hannah, and Barbara turned from Akko and her group to head for their next class. Before they left the cafeteria, however, Diana turned back to Akko, looked at her for a few seconds, and smiled before turning away, again.

"Well would you look at that!" Amanda sneered.

"There's nothing to look at!"

Akko was being stupid. Completely and utterly stupid. The fact that she was aware of this, yet did nothing to change her course of action, only served to make her even stupider, when it really came down it. Yet here she was, talking to Diana, in the middle of the city.

"Hey. How's it going?" While dressed as Spider-Girl.

"S-Spider-Girl! Um… it's going fine," Diana managed to say. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well there I was, punching Doc Ock in the face to stop him from robbing a bank." This is something that actually did happen. "I get the guy all tied up, hand him off to the cops, but then I get the strangest feeling that the kickass chick I saved this morning might not be feeling all that hot. Am I on the money?"

"Um, I guess…" Diana said, gripping the strap on her backpack and staring at the sidewalk. "Would it be alright if we could talk?"

"Talk? Yeah, sure! Let's talk! You and me, one on one, womano a womano, let's do that! ...But not here. We're kind of drawing a crowd.

Five minutes later, Akko and Diana were sitting on a rooftop with half-eaten Burger King at their sides.

"When I arrived at school, everyone started talking about the two of us," Diana said.

"I-Is that right?" Akko asked.

"They started talking about how great it was to be saved by you." Akko breathed a sigh of relief. "How jealous they were that I, and I, alone, was saved by the Spectacular Spider-Girl. I know I put up a brave front, I even beat up some of those guys-"

"You sure did."

"-but the truth is that I was just really scared the whole time that was happening. If I made one misstep or if you came just a second later than you did, I could have… God, I must sound so pathetic."

"No way!" Akko said, turning to be right in front of Diana. "Being scared doesn't make you pathetic, Diana! Acknowledging your fear makes you strong because only an idiot doesn't own up to their fears! I may be super strong and have spider webs coming out of my wrists, but I'm still always really scared that something bad's gonna happen! But I still go out there, so don't be afraid of being afraid!" Diana just stared at Akko for a few seconds before grabbing her hands and nodding her head.

"Oh, sorry!" Diana said, sheepishly letting go of Akko's hands.

"D-Don't worry about it! I have strong hands, so I didn't even feel a thing!" Akko said, her words underlined with laughter.

"Right. How did you get your powers, anyway?"

"Same old story. Girl meets magical radioactive spider, magical radioactive spider's fangs meet girl's flesh, next thing the girl knows, she's got all sorts of spider powers. Super strength, wall climbing, web-slinging, the works. Even made my body go from zero to hero. Grew a couple of inches, got some tone in my stomach, my boobs got bigger-"

"Really?" Diana asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They did! Before that spider, I was flat as a board! Sure, I still don't really have anything, but at least I went from nothing to 'Hey, look, those exist!'" Diana burst out in laughter. "Bet if my body was as great as yours, I'd have people calling me Spider-Woman. What do you do, anyway?"

"Nothing, really. Just some basic workouts."

"I hate you, so much," Akko said, this time joining Diana in her laughter.

"You know, Spider-Girl, you kind of remind me of this friend of mine."

"Really?" Akko asked, raising an eyebrow under her mask.

"Really. She was one of the first people I met when I moved to the States two years ago. When I first got to know her, I thought that she was just this loud, obnoxious moron who only cared about herself-"

"This is me?"

"No, what's you is what I realised she was like when we started to get to know each other: strong, brave, determined, always seeing the best in people, and always lending someone a hand not because she wants something, but because it's the right thing to do. Before I even knew it, this girl started being one of the best people I knew, and whenever I look at you, it makes me think of her."

"R-Really?"

"That's not weird, is it?"

"N-No! Of course it isn't weird! It's flattering, really! I'm honored to be compared to someone as great as Akko, and I'm sure Akko would be honored to know that someone thinks of her when they think of me!"

"That's a relief to hear."

"Good!"

"But speaking of hearing…"

"Yeah?"

"I don't remember hearing myself ever say the name Akko."

"...What?" Time seemed to come to a halt as the weight of Diana's words sunk in.

"I said that I never said Akko before you did, 'Spider-Girl'."

"Um… Spidey-Sense?"

"Spider-Girl." Diana stared at Akko with a familiar stare. The same stare she gave Akko whenever she dozed off in one of their tutoring sessions or acted up in class or bought her honeydew from the fruit bar. It was a stare that, under no special circumstances, ever accepted any amount of nonsense.

"How did you know?"

"Well, unlike the rest of our class, I actually noticed that Spider-Girl tends to show up whenever you disappear. I also noticed the… the physical enhancements you mentioned." Once more, Akko was glad that her mask was red. "Then there was today. Our school's logo is on our backpack, but it wasn't actually in your line of sight. You also don't talk as quietly with your friends as you think you do."

"What?!"

"Don't worry. No one else heard because no one else was paying attention. Then there's the fact that a few hours after I made it clear to Akko that I wasn't feeling all that good, Spider-Girl showed up to check in on me. So…"

"So…"

"So you think I have a great body, do you? How long has that been going on, for?"

"Um… probably since the day we met," Akko said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.

"Then I feel pretty stupid for taking a year to feel the same," Diana said, the statement nearly making Akko fall over.

"I really wish this wasn't happening now. I really wish this wasn't happening when things in my life weren't so complicated. I got all these powers, and there's the Green Goblin, and five different evil doctors, and this vampire from another dimension who wants to eat my soul, or something. Plus the Avengers never want me around, and Aunt Mako needs help with the bills-"

"Akko." Diana cut Akko off with a kiss to where her lips would be if she wasn't wearing a mask.

"...But I can forget about that every once in awhile."

"Good to hear." Diana started pulling Akko's mask up, but Akko quickly pulled her hands away.

"Not like this. Let's go somewhere just as private as this, but with things to hang on so I can be upside-down. I've always wanted to kiss you while being upside-down!"

With this, I finish my first ever pairing week… minus two days. Not as easy an activity as I thought it was, but still fun, nonetheless. Let's see if I can do every day, the next time one of these rolls around!