Chapter 27

Despite the end of the season coming and going, the Luna Nova Fastpitch Witches get one last chance to say goodbye to their uniforms for the make-up date of their team photo.

Epilogue: The Final Score

"Akko! Lotte! Sucy! HEYYYY!"

The three girls search through the large courtyard filled with various Luna Nova sports team uniforms. It takes a moment to find the source of the calling voice until at last they settle their eyes on Amanda's waving arms as she stands beside a cheery Jasminka and a drowsy looking Constanze.

"Wangari said our picture's getting' done over here! Come on!" The redhead shouts over the crowd buzzing with conversation.

Despite it being 7am on a Saturday, Akko enthusiastically pulls Lotte and Sucy along towards the rest of their friends. Just the idea of seeing everybody together in uniform again is enough to make her giddy.

While it has only been a couple weeks since their last game, and she still sees all of her friends throughout the school day, there has been something sad about not getting to see everyone in their uniforms again for practice. So, when the yearbook committee had told them the rescheduled date for their team photograph would have to take place after the end of the season due to being rained out during the original date, Akko had found herself looking forward to being able to stand together donning their colors as one one last time.

But now that the day has come, that morning as she pulled her uniform over her head and laced her belt around her waist, she had gotten hit by the bittersweet realization that the feeling of the jersey fabric on her skin reminded her of a warm hug before a farewell. After today, only the longing memories of dirt stained pants will work to brighten her spirits from the cold promise of final exams.

Sure, she could still wear the uniform (it's not like she can return it with her last name all over it), but without the context of actually playing softball it would be a little weird... right?

Despite the melancholy weight sitting on her heart, with a beaming smile she leads Lotte and Sucy towards their friends, savoring the moment of jogging through the sea of navy and maroon to keep safe in her memory.

"Good morning!" Akko says cheerily as she hops to a stop in front of the other three girls. Lotte and Sucy follow behind with tired smiles and slightly less enthusiasm.

Constanze waves her hand while taking a sip of her coffee as Jasminka wishes them a good morning and offers a tiny peeled orange to the three. Lotte accepts it with a soft 'thank you'.

"Yo," Amanda groans, stretching her arms above her head prompting her shoulders to pop. "It's too damn early for this. Couldn't they have made this a little bit later?"

"We used to get up this early for practice… and every day for school." Sucy yawns.

"Still, it's Saturday. They didn't HAVE to make this at the ass crack of dawn…" Amanda whips her head to the side, cracking her neck. "Ughhh… doesn't it feel weird being in uniform without having a glove on you? Man, I didn't think I'd say it, but I kinda miss choking on dirt and doing laps."

"I know what you mean…" Lotte says as she breaks the orange into segments, handing a piece to an appreciative Sucy. "I mean, not that so much has changed, but it's really strange not having practice anymore. I feel like I have so much time now."

"Speak for yourself." Akko sighs as she takes an offered orange slice and pops it in her mouth. "Since finals are coming up, Diana's been making me study with her like crazy. Heck, it's like I only get the chance to relax when I go to the gym…"

"Welp, s'what you get for dating the top nerd in the school. At least you have less of a chance of failing." Amanda shrugs as Akko looks at her, wanting to, but not really able to contest Amanda's dig on her girlfriend's 'top nerd' status. "Speaking of which, where is blondie? Didn't think you'd get here before she did." She says looking around the dozens of uniform clad girls across the courtyard before snorting. "Don't think she's Caven-ditching, do you?"

Akko and Sucy look over at the redhead giggling at her own joke with unfiltered disgust.

"No," Akko sighs before distractedly sweeping her eyes over the courtyard in search of the blonde. "She should be here soon. I… think she said she'd be coming with Hannah and Barbara."

"Is that so?" A mischievous smirk crosses the redhead's face as she pulls her phone from her back pocket. "In that case... before the fun police get here, I'm gonna try prank calling Finnelan again. Now's your chance at redemption!"

"NOPE! NOPE THANK YOU!" Akko's eyes tear away from the large crowd and focus anxiously on the redheaded girl tapping at her phone screen. "Amandaaa… I don't want to be a part of iiit!

"Come on! She's got my voice burned into memory, so I can't do it. It'll be hilarious. I have it up. Ready?"

"Amanda waiiiit!" Akko dives for the phone trying to knock it out of the taller girl's hands.

As the two of them fight for possession over the phone, the rest of the girls move a safe distance away from flailing limbs before seeing their coaches approaching from across the courtyard.

"Hello girls!" Coach Chariot waves with a smile as she and Croix walk over towards their grouping. "It's nice to see you all back in uniform."

"Morning Coach!" Lotte, Sucy, and Jasminka say with a smile as Constanze responds with a wave and another sip of coffee.

"What's going on over there?" Croix asks pointing towards the scene of Akko currently climbing up Amanda's back and pulling on her hair.

"They're trying to get signal…" Sucy says not at all convincingly. Croix simply meets her eye laying the look of disbelief on thick.

"Akko's trying to stop Amanda from prank calling Finnelan." Sucy relents.

"Oh is she now?" Croix's eyes turn entertained as a grin spreads across her face before Chariot elbows her in the side. "Ahh ah fine. I mean we...can't have that…"

Croix strides over and plucks the phone from the distracted redhead's hand prompting the two girls to freeze and look up at her in surprise.

"Oh wait, Coach! Shit. I think I—"

"O'Neill, do you know how much trouble—"

"Hello? Who on Earth is…? Meridies is that you?" The sound of a groggy and agitated Finnelan bursts from the speaker of the phone.

The lilac haired woman's eyes go wide as she looks in panic at the two girls with lips sealed tight.

Uhh,, come on Meridies…Think quick! Think quick!

Quickly gathering herself, the head coach turns the phone off of speaker mode and with an almost robotic tone responds— "I'm sorry, your call did not go through, please hang up and try your call again" and hits the end call button before the raucous laughter of the two girls watching can reach the receiver.

With a sigh and mentally checking off a box on her bucket list, Croix fixes the red headed girl a stern look before returning her phone. "Don't. Do that again. Got it?" Her eyes then turn sly as she leans in so her fiancé can't hear her, "Especially not before the sun comes up." She adds with a wink before straightening herself and walking back towards Chariot.

As she leaves the two girls coming down from their fit of poorly concealed laughter, Chariot fixes her with disapproving glance. "I heard that... You are a terrible influence."

Croix raises her hands defensively and feigns surprise. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Croix…"

"Whaaat? She's a good kid… it's just a little harmless fun. Besides," she mumbles, "Finnelan's gonna have her same cheery disposition whether she's woken up by a phone call at 4:30 in the morning or at noon."

Red eyes squint at teal before Chariot's stern expression cracks with the sound of muted chuckle and the shake of her head. Croix smiles, content with the little victory of negating her scolding as Chariot lightly shoves her shoulder.

"Why didn't you just hang the phone up?" Chariot asks through a giggle.

"That… would have been far too suspicious…" Croix says averting her eyes away, although, at this point she was sure her fiancé can tell that the little phone interaction had succeeded in making her day.

"Hey hey hey! Wait a sec!" The two look up towards Amanda as she holds up her left hand and wiggles her fingers. "When were you gonna tell us you guys were getting hitched!?"

Both older women take on a shade of pink as Jasminka and Constanze look on with raised brows and Lotte grabs onto a barely phased Sucy's arm with an excited gasp.

Croix and Chariot look at one another nervously before the assistant coach and shrugs her shoulders, accepting that there is no longer a point of keeping their relationship a secret.

They had tried to keep their engagement quiet. While it had been simple during the season because they would remove their rings for practices, since the season had ended, it had easily become second nature to slip them on in the morning. As everyone looks down at the matching bands around their fingers, evidentially, this morning had not been an exception.

Croix caps her blush before clearing her throat and crossing her arms. "We were planning on it when our personal lives became any of your business, O'Neill."

"Oh come on! It's great! We're happy for you guys!" She beams as Jasminka and Constanze nod their heads happily. "We've been shipping you two since day one!"

"Shi-?" Croix pinches her brows together. "What on Earth does that mean?"

As Amanda mortifies the head coach with every word further convincing her that their entire team had more or less been imagining her and Chariot in less than scholarly positions, Akko watches with mild secondhand embarrassment as her English teacher tries to melt into the ground beneath her feet.

During the party at the cafe following their last game— aside from a dance rematch between Amanda and Hannah, a beautiful duet by Avery and Lotte, and an off-pitch rendition of 'Everytime We Touch' that Barbara had practically dragged Diana up to perform with her (MUCH to their girlfriends' and Amanda's amusement—she had secretly taken a video recording), Akko had gotten a little time to talk with her idol.

Since their talk in the locker room, Coach Chariot had been taking steps to confront her past so she's ready to move on with her future.

A short time before their last game, she and Croix had gone to Polaris University to watch a Bears game and while in attendance, she had been able to catch up with her old coaches. Much of her worry put to rest by their assured support and nostalgic reminiscing, Chariot had taken the press snapping pictures of her with her old coach in stride and prepared for the possibility of a conversation about her disappearance in the media.

While nothing had popped up in the mainstream sports world yet, her Alma Mater had written a small article in the school paper to accompany the photograph, and so, making the first mention of Chariot DuNord coming back above ground.

In order to help her transition back into the sunlight, Croix had presented the idea of her being the figurehead of a charity (or as she calls it, a "Chariot-y", earning an exhausted glare from her fiancé every single time), to earn money for kids suffering from athletic related injuries to help them get low cost and effective prosthetics made (by her) and help reacquaint them to sports.

By Croix's logic, at the very least it could associate a new image to Chariot's name; at most, her story could help and inspire others to overcome their obstacles of circumstance just as she had.

Heart welling at the thought of her idol working to make a difference to others as she did for her in a new way, Akko had practically leapt over the cafe table to wrap her teacher in a hug after hearing the explanation as to the timing and why she decided to come out about her past to the rest of the team.

Ever since, Akko had been paying very close attention in class to the bright red roots steadily growing in at her teacher's hairline as she slowly reclaims her identity as Chariot DuNord.

Akko smiles noting the red peeking out from beneath her coach's cap before turning her head to the sound of Hannah and Barbara's voices approaching from across the courtyard.

"No, yeah, I'm absolutely okay with that." Barbara says expressively nodding her head as she and Hannah walk hand in hand beside Diana.

"See? Come on Diana. It's like… karma." The auburn-haired girl pleads.

"It is highly immature." Diana says as she looks up from their conversation, a bright smile growing on her face at the sight of her girlfriend waving excitedly at her. "That behavior merely puts us in equal standing, do you wish to degrade yourself to her level?"

"Ahh, fine. You don't have to do it..." Hannah pouts. "I thought dating Akko would have made you more fun..."

"Pardon me," Diana turns back to them with a shadow of hurt in her eyes. "I am… fun. I just don't deem petty vengeance as a viable form of it…"

Not expecting to have offended her, Hannah and Barbara immediately start waving the comment away with their hands. "I mean yeah…of course you're fun...but…"

"I am not opposed if it is earned…" The blonde counters defensively.

"And she hasn't?" Barbara looks at her with a quirked brow.

Face scrunched in conflict, Diana looks at her and bites her bottom lip. She quickly schools her expression as she notices Akko jogging towards them with a questioning look.

"We shouldn't…" The blonde whispers, the statement coming out of her mouth with little conviction.

Hannah and Barbara, sensing her wavering resolve, pressure her with narrowed eyes.

Attention stuck in their hold, Diana bites at the inside of her cheek before having the trance broken by shining eyes and a bouncing ponytail.

"Hey guys!" Akko bounds up to them throwing her arms around Diana who unthinkingly holds out her own to accommodate. "What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing Akko." Barbara hums, satisfied with the progress of the seed planted in the blonde's mind. "You're awfully…awake."

"Yeah, who gave you coffee?" Hannah teases.

As Akko rolls her eyes with a humored tilt of her lips, she feels Diana's hand move from around her back and travel down her arm.

Slipping her hand into the brunette's and slowly interlocking their fingers, with a warm smile Diana looks down allowing cerulean to meet crimson. "Good morning." She says softly.

"Good morning." Akko says just as softly, blushing as she returns the smile with a squeeze of her hand.

"Welp." Barbara says popping the 'p' with an awkward smile, "Weeeee'll be heading over to everybody else now…"

"Guess we'll see you over there." Hannah waves with her free hand as the two of them begin walking away. "Diaanaaa~" she sing songs with a raised brow insisting one last time that the blonde reconsider her previous standpoint.

"No…" The blonde says curtly, still not convincing enough for the hazel eyed girl.

"Suit yourself~" Hannah continues to sing as she begins rolling her wrist.

Akko looks between the retreating couple and her girlfriend before cocking her head curiously. "What was that about?"

"I... promise to tell you later…" The blonde sighs, relieved that the conversation with her best friends had taken a hiatus. She isn't quite sure how much more convincing she would have needed to succumb to their request.

"Like...maybe over breakfast?" Akko looks up at the blonde hopefully, pulling cerulean eyes to meet her own with the tilt of her head. Akko shrugs her shoulders as she takes a nervous gulp. "There's this place in Blytonbury Frank told me about and I was thinking...maybe if you weren't busy after the picture…I could um...take you there...and you know… we could have a breakfast date. You know… if you want."

Any conflict she had been feeling due to Hannah's plea vanishes as Diana watches Akko begin to scratch at herself anxiously. It's been about a month and she still gets as nervous asking her to go out as she had on their first date. She found it adorable.

Her warm smile making its way back onto her lips, Diana lifts her hand and brushes a blonde hair from beneath her hat back behind her ear. "I'd love that, Akko."

An unnecessary relief washes over the brunette as she nervously giggles herself into a smile. "Y-Yeah? Cool. He said he thinks we would like it...Oh! And Andrew said that they have really really good chocolate chip pancakes!"

"Oh, do they?" Diana's eyebrows fly up towards the brim of her hat, an amused smile on her face as she tries to imagine her (admittedly less stuffy than she gives him credit for) older cousin ordering chocolate chip pancakes for a meal.

The two continue on in conversation for a short while until they see a bright flash of light from a slight distance away.

They look over to see Wangari laughing, Kimberly, the journalism head scribbling feverishly onto a notepad, and Joanne abruptly redirecting her camera away from them as Amanda, surrounded by several of their teammates, talks animatedly.

"…So they crash into each other, Akko lands flat on her back, right? And then Diana falls on top of her right between her legs, pinning her and getting two handfuls of sports bra." She cups her hands as she regales the event. "The absolute height of lesbian fantasy run-ins. Let me tell you, it was the greatest thing I've ever seen. And then Diana-"

"Excuse me, what is going on here?" A bright red Diana storms over, interrupting before Amanda can say anymore. As she turns to look at the yearbook committee trying to school their humored expressions, she catches a glimpse of the scrawled title 'In the Diamond of Hearts' at the top of Kimberly's notepad.

"Ah, Diana!" Wangari smiles. "Amanda was just telling us a few stories to help us with an editorial for the school newspaper about how your and Akko's blossoming relationship came to be. Finding love on the field is so romantic and is sure to be a hot sell!"

"Wait, what's going on?" Akko, a little late to the conversation, asks as she follows after Diana into the group of girls.

Joanne snaps another picture of the two girls standing next to each other, momentarily blinding them with the flash of the camera.

"I apologize," Diana addresses Wangari and her group as she blinks away the afterimage of the camera flash dancing in her eyes, "While we are not hiding our relationship, I am by no means comfortable with our personal lives being published in the school paper. So, we would both appreciate it if you did not broadcast Amanda's exaggerated retellings." She says shooting the redhead with a biting glare.

"That is a shame." Wangari sighs as Kimberly frustratedly closes her notepad. "I think it would have made a good story..." With barely a second of difference, the orange haired girl claps her hands together and gets back to business. "Anyway! Coaches! Is everybody from JV Softball here?"

Croix does a quick headcount of all the girls, counting 13 in total. "Looks like it!"

"Excellent!" Wangari smiles before stepping aside for Joanne to take the reins.

"Alright everyone! Set up over here facing the sun." The photographer says pointing over towards an open section of field. "Make two rows, the front row kneeling in front of the back. Coaches, stand to the sides of the back row."

After a few last-minute straightening ups of hair and uniforms, the girls follow the photographer's instructions and settle themselves into rows. Amanda, who has been deemed less capable of mischief while kneeling front and center, was joined on the ground by Hannah and Barbara on one side and Diana and Akko on the other. A nervous chuckle leaves her throat as Diana sits herself directly beside her.

"Sorry 'bout that, I didn't think it was that big of a deal since you two are all... y'know, exclusive and whatnot." Amanda whispers to the blonde staring forward with an almost eerie calm.

Just as quietly, Diana responds, "While that may be true, that is hardly reason to offer the details of our relationship before there even was a relationship."

"Hey, they asked. I was merely sharing the beautiful love story of two softball gays."

With a sigh, Diana rolls her eyes. "What stories were you telling them?"

"Don't worry, just the stuff that happened at practice… you know, that everybody already saw." She whispers as she lightly bumps the blonde's shoulder. "Come on Dee, it's not like I'd tell them anything about the carwash or..."

Amanda's eyes go wide as she turns to look towards the blonde and sees the brunette staring and listening intently at her from over Diana's shoulder.

Oh...shit.

"Wait... what happened at the carwash?" Akko asks looking confusedly between Amanda and Diana as the blonde spins around to look at the brunette in alarm. At Akko's question and Diana's abrupt reaction, the undivided attention of the yearbook committee and the rest of the team turns onto them with ill-concealed curiosity.

Soapy legs and a red bikini bottom flash across Diana's mind as her face takes on a violent shade of pink.

"O-oh….um… you don't remember?!" Amanda sweats as she tries to diffuse the result of her slip-up. "The um… After! At the cafe. Diana bought you that drink after you spilled yours, right?"

Come on come on come on!

With a slight blush, remembering that just a few minutes prior to the blonde presenting her with a new coffee she had first realized that she had a crush, Akko takes the bait and affectionately bumps Diana's shoulder. "Thank you again for that…" She smiles warmly at the blonde before returning her attention to Joanne and Wangari redirecting themselves back to the job at hand.

"It was my pleasure." Diana quickly recovers before turning her still red face towards Amanda. The redhead merely gives her an awkward smile before leaning in and whispering in her ear.

"If just thinking about that bathing suit gets you so hot, you sh-"

"Amanda… don't say another word."

The pitcher's eyes turn sly, "I'm just saying… if they somehow go missing...."

"I would never!" The blonde sputters quietly as she pulls away from Amanda. The redhead, proud of the glowing blush across Diana's face, winks at her before turning her smug face towards the camera.

Diana, on the other hand, looks past Amanda and finds Hannah's eyes looking amusedly back at her. With a cool steely glint in her irises contrasting the heated red of her cheeks, Diana simply nods her head at the auburn-haired girl, accepting her earlier request and causing her friend to break into a wide canine showcasing grin.

"OH!" Akko suddenly slaps her legs. "That reminds me! Constanze! I forgot to give you back your shirt! I'll bring it in on Monday, okay?" From behind her, she hears the catcher hum, unconcerned on whether she gets the shirt back or not.

"Okay girls!" Wangari yells as she stands behind Joanne as she focuses her camera. "Hold your conversations and face forward! Let's get clickin'!"

"You heard her ladies, hush up." Croix says standing on the edge of her team. "O'Neill, I want your hands folded in front of you, got it?" She adds sternly as she looks through the group at the redhead.

As she's come to learn over the last few months and due to the reputation that precedes her, Croix has come to the conclusion that it would not be beneath Amanda to ruin the picture doing something akin to bunny ears to her teammates. Especially now seeing that Hannah and Diana are at her sides, oh, she can just tell if she leaves the redhead to her own devices, it could prove to be a recipe for disaster.

Yup, let's nip that one in the bud RIGHT now...

Amanda throws her hand to her chest as she looks over her shoulder at her coach. "I am offended! What do you think I'd do Coach?"

"Only you have that creative of a mind O'Neill, I don't think you need me to give you any ideas."

With a roll of her eyes and a disappointed yet understanding smile on her face, Amanda turns to face forward making a big show of slapping her folded hands into her lap.

"Okay ladies! Are you all ready?" Wangari says looking over them all. "Sucy, come on! Get that hair out of your beautiful face."

"No."

"Ve~ry well~" The yearbook head sings before refocusing and commenting on the rest of the team.

With some last-minute leg stretches before settling into a kneel, and some already working on their practice smiles, the girls shift into their final positions.

Hannah and Diana share one last glance before determinedly facing forward, innocent smiles already plastered across their faces.

"Looks good." Joanna calls out as she looks through her eyepiece, her camera ready to shoot.

"Okay!" Wangari calls out, stepping behind the photographer. "Everybody! Witches on three!"

"One!"

"Two!"

Hannah and Diana pull their hands back. Their intended trajectory set on the seat of Amanda's pants.

"Three!"

"WITCHES!"

SLAP! *click*

Author's Notes:

And that is a wrap guys! HOOOOLY CRAP.

First off, I would like to note a little easter egg: The title of Kimberly's editorial, 'In the Diamond of Hearts', was the original name for this story before I decided on more of a comical tone direction. So... there's that... I am happy I was able to make mention and leave that as a little homage to the very beginning.

I want to thank you all so much from the bottom, top, middle, front, behind, and side of my heart for taking the time to read this goofy little story that started out as a post-it note doodle of Diana in a baseball cap. Being that this was my first attempt at a long-fic, since the beginning, I have been so thankful and blown away by all of your kind words and support for this story- it's honestly really sad to see it come to an end, but man, you guys pushed me to continue until the very last word. (TBH it was chapter 5 where I looked at my outline and went "wtf, how the hell am I going to do this?" and from every chapter onward I'm not really sure how it got written, just that I enjoyed it week to week.) It was fun digging into old high school softball memories, the gay ones (when I didn't realize my sexuality- NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE!), the game anxiety (I couldn't hit for squat), the rush of cheering and sweating with a whole bunch of people (not that my experience was nearly as friendly as what it was in this story), and ultimately just overall playing softball (I didn't realize just how much I missed it...), so I hope you enjoyed the little pinches of some of the most awkward memories I had experienced and I hope anyone who has had like experiences thought back fondly on them.

There are a few people I would like to make a quick shout-out to: omaomae, veramoray, onhiro, worldsinwords, tibbsgirl, myrtenasterrose. You guys have been such an inspiration to me. Thank you for your kindness, support, writing help, talks, and overall camaraderie within the Little Witch Academia fandom. While each and every comment or message in tags left me feeling like a goober smiling at my phone notifications, you guys and your work really helped push this forward until the end. I never thought I would write fan fiction (and post it), but if I had not I may not have had the opportunity to meet you amazing people, and for that I am obscenely grateful. You guys keep being outstanding. (AND EVERYONE GO CHECK THEM OUT, THEY ARE AMAZING)

Thank you all again for reading Bats and Brooms (and checking out the bits of art each week! There's two this time around and I hope ya'll like them!)

I am truly thankful for every one of you who took the time to read this story and I hope you got a couple laughs and enjoyed this guilty pleasure story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I'm not sure what's coming up next, but I will see ya'll next time!

With love,

-Superevilbadguy