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Diana was a woman of routines. Often it was less about needing things done a specific way as much as the reliability and comfort of a repeated schedule. Her day commonly started and ended with routines. First, she’d wake up around 6:30 a.m. Her body was already finely attuned to that schedule, enough that she hadn’t needed an alarm in some time. Then she’d do some light stretches; nothing intensive, just enough to get the blood flowing. Then she’d brush her teeth, shower, get dressed, read for a short while, then head to the cafeteria for breakfast.
There was some room for flexibility within her routine. What she’d eat for breakfast or pick to read often depended on how she was feeling that morning, but the order of her routine seldom changed and was kept on schedule, even on weekends.
Diana awoke and looked at her clock:
6:31 am.
As usual, she started to rise with no hesitation to begin the next stage of her routine.
Except…
She’d found herself unable to stand up, and instead, she pulled her covers up to reveal a sleeping Atsuko Kagari holding onto her waist.
Oh, that’s right
She remembered the night before. Akko had come over to study and insisted she was too tired to walk back to her dorm room. Inviting her to stay the night was no issue, however, the lack of beds meant the need to share one. Akko was more than fine with it, going as far as to say it’d be a “rite of passage” for them as girlfriends. They’d cuddled plenty, but never actually slept in the same bed together. With how enthusiastic Akko was about it though, Diana could hardly say no. Or rather she could but felt compelled to less and less.
And so she found herself in her current situation, with Akko once again making a strong argument to simply fall asleep with her and ignore her typical way of doing things, even if she wasn’t awake to make said argument verbally.
As she carefully slipped back beneath the covers in order to not to wake her bedmate, she began to hope that Akko, by her very existence, swaying her away from her routines to simply spend time with her wouldn't be a common occurrence. She looked so peaceful snuggled up against Diana’s side, as if she could easily sleep the rest of the day away. The way she unconsciously brought her head up to rest against the shoulder closest to her and the sounds of her soft, unlabored breaths were enough to distract Diana’s mind from overthinking and lull her back to sleep.
Diana awoke with a strange feeling of liveliness. She was still in her pajamas, she hadn’t yet changed nor eaten breakfast, yet she felt a sense of vitality inside her that felt foreign so early into the morning.
“Morning,” Diana heard come from her left side. Akko was lying to her side wide awake with her head propped up on her hand, glancing down attentively at Diana’s features.
“How long have you been watching me?”
“Not long, but once I started it was hard to stop,” She said, before bringing herself down to wrap her arm around her girlfriend, tightly embraced as they were not long before. “And here I thought the great Diana Cavendish would be up first thing in the morning to get an early start on a bunch of boring who-knows-what. But looks like I’m the early one that gets to see your cute sleeping face this time,” she teased, poking the exposed section of Diana’s sides just underneath her nightshirt.
Of course, she could have made Akko aware that ‘the great Diana Cavendish’ elected to be a thoughtful partner and sleep in for a change to not end their time together, but Akko seemed to enjoy beating her to be the first up and she didn’t feel like ruining her fun. Instead, she merely sat up and cupped Akkos's cheek while looking on her with adoration, “Next time you’ll be the one waking to my gaze on you, I’ll assure you of that now,” she said, meaning it to have a competitive tinge only for it to come across carrying more fondness than anything. Perhaps she just couldn’t bring herself to be especially combative so early in the morning. Speaking of which...
She looked away from Akkos's face for one moment to check the clock that sat at the side of her bed.
9:35?!
She was never up that late. This would impact her entire day! So much she’d have to move around, so much that needed to be done, she felt like she was wasting time by still sitting on her bed instead of getting moving to make up for lost time. How on Earth had so much time passed without her waking up?
“Whatcha thinking about?” Akko asked, hanging her head over the shoulder of her girlfriend who, in her surprise, had almost forgotten she had company.
“Oh, um, nothing I suppose. Anyways, we should probably get dressed and out of bed soon, we’ve already slept for quite a while more than I planned.” Diana had said, already switching gears to what needed to be done first and how having a guest would impact that.
“Aw, why? It’s a Saturday, it’s not like we have class,” Akko reasoned. “Besides it's still morning, we’ve still got the whole rest of the day.”
While she did consider what Akko had to say, it was hard not to feel as if after such a late start to her day, what she should be doing was getting to work immediately on correcting the delay to her normal morning routine.
The real issue was that the interference to her regular schedule had yet to come to an end, as Diana still felt Akko’s arms wrapped around her waist, keeping her locked in her own bed and adding more time to the delay. While she certainly didn’t find her current situation undesirable, before long she’d have to start considering what she’d do if she wasn’t able to get to the cafeteria before they stopped serving breakfast, in which case even more alterations would have to be made.
Akko however, didn’t seem the least bit worried. “Come on, it’ll be nice. Besides, you never sleep in! It’s always work work work until it drains you dry. What’s the harm in just taking a day or just a morning for yourself? Trust me, your body’ll thank you for it later when you’re not walking around on like 5 hours of sleep.”
Akko was certainly making compelling points as she usually managed to when she wanted Diana to either spend time with her or let her do something she shouldn’t, but for Diana, it was bigger than just that one morning or the few extra hours of rest. Beyond just the reliability that a structured but flexible routine allowed Diana to start her day with, it afforded her comfort in her own way of doing things. She knew what to expect, what she allowed herself to look forward to, and where each part of her day needed to be in relation to each other.
Although, she couldn’t deny the truth in what Akko was saying. Unlike most mornings, her mind felt clear and her body revitalized; instead of trying to push onward so she could start and stay in motion for the rest of the day while fighting off exhaustion, her body simply felt like it was content with being awake. She could stop and just take a moment, not have to think about what needed to be done next or where she needed to be other than completely unwound$ beside Atsuko.
“We don’t have to sleep anymore if you don’t wanna. We could just sit together, or ooh! I have a ton of videos on my phone I saved 'cause I thought you might like them,” Akko suggested, still not having left Diana’s side.
Diana had a feeling that if she got up then Akko would follow, or at the very least begrudgingly accept that she had her routine that she was comfortable using to start off her day. Although, as her girlfriend looked at her with eyes that practically pleaded with her to stay…
…well, she supposed there was a different type of comfort to be found in a new way of doing things.