Chapter Text
Walking into her vivarium for the afternoon, Akina was disappointed but not surprised to see two of her friends already camped out on the verdant grass of the forested biome. Don’t get her wrong, all her friends were welcome to join her in her trips to the Room of Requirement, she enjoyed their company immensely.
However, the Ravenclaw had already planned on spending her free period tending to her beasts and finishing a particularly difficult charms essay.
Dropping her bag by the feeding station, Akina abandoned any notion of completing (or even starting) her essay as she approached her friends.
Denki and Mina were holed up under one of the large trees in the vivarium, lounging in the sun that filtered through the full leaves of the canopy above.
Stopping just before them, hands on hips, Akina observed her friends.
“How many times have I told you that my vivarium is for emergencies only when I’m not here?” She scolded.
Now, the Ravenclaw would consider herself very easygoing; not a lot bothered her. But she would also consider herself protective. And after one unchaperoned visit to her vivariums, Denki, Mina, and Sero had accidentally caused more harm to her beloved beasts than their good intentions meant.
Now, the three of them were only allowed in with company. That being herself, Kirishima, or Katsuki. A quick survey of the area told her that neither one of the Gryffindors were there to keep an eye on the pair before her.
Mina at least had the decency to look guilty as she smiled up at her white-haired friend. “But, Akina, there was an emergency!” The Hufflepuff insisted, her arms full of the family of Puffskeins that Akina and Katsuki had rescued from a poachers camp the week before. “These adorable things needed cuddles!!”
Laughing at the other girl fondly, Akina happily fell into the grass beside her.
“Oh? I didn’t realise you were such an expert in beast care, Mina”.
Mina let out a loud laugh. “I am when they’re this cute!”
Across from them, and hunched over a softly bubbling cauldron, Denki made a noise in the back of his throat that could be interpreted as disgust.
“Cute is not the word I would use for those things. You know they eat bogies, right?” Denki suppressed a shiver at the sight of the blue puffskein sitting on Mina’s knee grooming itself with its large tongue.
“So do you but we still love you all the same,” Akina teased, giggling as the blond boy tossed a small stone from his ingredient pouch at her.
Catching the stone, she turned it over in her hands, noting the blue and pink flashes among the white stone.
“Moonstone?” She mused before gasping and throwing the stone back at the Gryffindor, nailing him in the side of the head, “Denki Kaminari, you had better not be brewing your homework in here because you intend to use Marigold to get unicorn horn dust for your draught of peace!”
Marigold was another one of Akina’s beasts. One of her most precious ones, on a personal level. Named for the golden sheen of her coat, Akina found Marigold in the dark forest as a foal after her mother had been killed by poachers. She had taken the orphaned animal in and tended to it as best she could with Professor Sekijiro’s guidance. They had tried to release the animal into a herd of wild unicorns when it was old enough but the creature refused to go, having bonded with Akina.
Denki waved his hands in front of himself in surrender, “Woah, woah, no need to reach for the wand! I’m not going near Marigold!”
Glancing at Mina, who nodded in agreement with Denki, Akina put her wand away.
“What are you doing then?,” she asked, watching as the boy began stirring his simmering cauldron anticlockwise.
Denki grinned.
“I am settling a bet!”
Shuffling to lie beside Mina in the grass, and accepting two puffskeins to cuddle, Akina raised an eyebrow at the boy.
“A bet? What? Did Katsuki bet you that you couldn’t brew a potion better than him or something?”
Chuckling mischievously, Denki grinned at her.
“Something like that.”
Still chuckling, Denki took his ladle and, none too carefully, decanted a portion of his brew into a dark vial. Swirling it around a few times, Denki held the vial out to the Ravenclaw girl.
“Here!,” he exclaimed.
Blankly, Akina cast her eyes between the boy and the offered vial a few times.
“Denki, I am not drinking anything you offer me ever again. Not after last time.” She said sternly.
‘Last time’ happened to be an occasion where Denki had tried to brew his own form of Giggle Water and, when he had offered Akina the first try of it at a common room party, it did not have the desired effect. She had spent the better part of the weekend in the hospital wing, hiccupping almost constantly and expelling bubbles of various colours.
Denki also joined her in the hospital wing for the first night. Not from his own concoctions, but from the volley of potent hexes Bakugo had sent his way after learning what the boy had done.
Denki pouted but persistently held the vial out towards her even more.
“I’m not asking you to drink it, Akina!,” he argued. “I just need you to smell it this time! The smell is the most important part of this potion and I want to know if I did it right.”
Accepting the vial, albeit hesitantly and with the countenance that the vial would spontaneously transfigure into a chinese chomping cabbage, Akina glanced between her friends.
“Why can’t Mina smell it?” She questioned.
Denki opened his mouth to answer but after stuttering out a few failed excuses, the pink haired girl answered for him..
“I know what potion he’s trying to make,” Mina reasoned, a puffskein now on each shoulder and a darker pink one nestled in her hair. “I could just lie and say it smells like it should when Denki has obviously messed the potion up.”
“Hey!” The boy protested.
Mina continued as if she hadn’t heard him.
“If you smell it, without knowing what it should smell like, at least we’ll know you’re being honest and not just trying to make Denks feel better about his sub par potion brewing skills.”
“I can hear you!”
“I don’t know,” Akina mumbled, holding the vial back out to her friend, “I really don’t want to go back to the hospital wing, Denki.”
“Please, Akina! I’m begging! I need to know if I brewed it right!” Denki insisted, pushing the vial towards her again. “Just tell me what it smells like so I know if I’m right or not.”
Taking the bottle back from her overeager friend, Akina uncorked it and swirled it around. The glass was black, hiding all indication of colour and viscosity of the potion. They were the first tells you used to identify unknown potions.
Glancing back up at her friends apprehensively, who only offered her encouraging nods and matching smiles, Akina brought the vial up to under her nose and inhaled.
A strong odour emanated from the vial. acrid and sharp initially but it quickly mellowed out and became saturated with sweetness. Akina found herself pleasantly surprised at her friend’s brewing prowess. A small part of her expected Denki to have shoved a vial of troll dung under her nose as a prank.
“So..?” Mina prompted, sitting up to lean towards the other witch. “What do you smell?”
“I smell smoke, like after a bonfire or a particularly strong bombarda cast. But it has a saccharine tint to it, like burnt sugar or caramel just before it burns.” Akina revealed, taking another gentle inhale from the spiralling vapour as she tried to pick apart the notes assaulting her senses in the most blissfully dizzying way.
It smelt warm, comforting. Like the gentle burn of a hot bath when you first slip in. The heat softly scalding your skin before all tension leaves your muscles and you can relax. Like reading a book in the common room by the fireplace, listening to the crackling of the fire and the falling of the rain outside.
“I can smell spices, like the ones Katsuki uses in that stew he makes for us sometimes. Then there’s a bit of a woodsy smell, like the forbidden forest and quidditch equipment.”
Putting the vial’s stopper back in place, Akina turned her attention back to her friends. Denki’s elated grin made her smile back at him.
“Is that what it was meant to smell like?” She questioned, tilting her head slightly.
Denki and Mina seemed to be vibrating with glee and barely restrained giggles. Denki opened his mouth to reply but was cut off as a voice echoed across the grassy plains.
“Oi! What are you idiots up to?”
Potion seemingly forgotten, the three spun around to the entrance of the vivarium where two familiar Gryffindors were approaching from.
Denki gave his housemates a toothy grin, trying (and failing) to appear nonchalant as he replied to the ash blond who questioned them.
“Oh nothing,” Denki said gleefully, “Just getting a lesson from Akina about the ins and outs of Amortentia.”
Akina stiffened, her face burning as she stared at the vial in her hand in horror. The dots connected and she felt her flush creeping further down her neck. She had smelt Katsuki. That sweet smokiness that always clung to him after Crossed Wands and fights with poachers because he had a tendency to overuse the bombarda hex.
Watching in horror as Katsuki settled beside her, the puffskein on her lap quickly abandoned her for the newcomer, seemingly remembering his hand in their rescue.
Katsuki scowled at the creature, but regardless, he scooped it up and placed it on his knee.
Akina bit back a whimper as she caught a whiff of that saccharine smell that could only come from the boy next to her as she had already replaced the stopper on the vial before Katsuki and Ejirou had come in.
Suddenly, thoughts of drowning herself in the black lake or throwing herself from the viaduct bridge became a far more appealing way she could spend her afternoon.
Dazed, Akina barely heard Ejirou giving Denki a reproachful lecture about even thinking of using a love potion on anyone. Slowly, her eyes climbed up the set of slightly singed ropes that sat next to her.
As if he could feel her eyes on him, Katsuki glanced up at her from where he had been dangling his quill in front of the puffskein, the small creature chirping in delight at the ticklish sensation. His crimson eyes burning like the ruby of his robes.
“You okay, Quartz?,” he asked.
Releasing what was most definitely a squeak, Akina stumbled to her feet. She mumbled something about needing to speak with Momo about a problem in their shared dorm room before she swiftly exited the vivarium.
Frowning after her, Katsuki watched her retreating form in a flurry of blue robes before he turned to his remaining friends, who all held expressions of varying degrees of amusement.
“What the fuck was that about?” He barked.
“I don’t know,” Mina cackled, “But Hanta owes me five Galleons!”