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It’s official she’s filing for divorce. After a long day of meeting subjects and learning their needs in order to best form her plan for social reform in Camelot, to say she’s a little stressed would be an understatement; she's about a minor inconvenience from keeling over and reaching an early grave.
So when she entered her and Tedros’ room it was quiet and any quiet involving tedros is too quiet. A slight unease settled onto her stomach knowing his habit of disappearing for hours on end when memories begin to drown him and he gets lost in his own mind. But She was almost sure she had seen him head towards their Room an hour ago and normally he waits up for her to finish her duties for the day so an empty room is weird.
She decides that he’s probably got cagey and bored and is running around the castle grounds and will return in half an hour gross, sweaty and desperately needing a shower ( he will also try to get Agatha to kiss his sweaty lips and fail spectacularly ). Agatha’s about to use this time to finally start a thriller novel she picked up from the library weeks ago , when she hears a loud and alarming thud from the bathroom and a screech so high pitched that it could only belong to two things (her cat or her husband)
Agatha gives her book and bed one last wistful look before rushing in the direction of the sound. Her brain is running 100 miles a minute as she tries to estimate what's waiting behind that door doing this while remaining calm is almost impossible as her brain juggles reaper drowning with Tedros accidentally using her combined shampoo-conditioner instead of his three step hair routine. She shakes her head and rolls her eyes knowing that her husband wouldn’t even look at her 2in1 let alone use it that would cause a kingdom-wide crisis.
She opens the bathroom door and only one thought registers in her mind bubbles . Bubbles everywhere.
“What are you doing ?” She’s so shocked that her volume is all off and she seems to fade between whispering and yelling.
Tedros at least has the gall to look a little ashamed as he turns around to face her covered in bubbles, sitting on the bathroom tiles and holding a very aggravated and very soapy reaper.
“Surprise?” He shrugs giving her sheepish but still bright grin, the soap has congregated around his mouth giving him a white fluffy beard and kinda reminding her of merlin.
She blinks once rubs her eyes before sighing and saying
“Surprise is one way to describe the plethora of emotions I'm experiencing right now. ”Tedros just smiles brighter and She doesn’t know how he does it but she somehow enters a state of even deeper disbelief.
“Plethora, wasn’t that on the crossword we did this morning.”
Nevermind he just pushed her even deeper into the confused purgatory of frustration, confusion and tiredness she’s currently sat in. Reaper has also managed to escape Tedros’ grasp and she scoops him up into her arms without breaking her unimpressed gaze from Tedros. She’s also too confused to really register that he got the definition of plethora right even though he calls her crosswords ‘ the lamest spy game ever’ .
“I’m honestly astounded at the state of this-” The words come out in a long sigh
“-Astounded that was on the crossword this morning as well-” He cuts her off to reference the morning crossword AGAIN when agatha’s exhaustion manifests fully into frustration.
“TEDROS! As much as i appreciate how much attention you paid when we did the crossword this morning can you kindly explain why THE FUCK OUR BATHROOM IS COVERED WALL TO WALL WITH BUBBLES!?”
He stares at her blinks twice and still sat on the floor says;
“I was running you a bath.” He looks so bewildered she almost feels bad for yelling at him. Emphasis on the almost.
Agatha’s anger merges with disbelief again as her adult husband somehow managed to fuck up a bubble bath to almost comidic heights. Again emphasis on the almost .
“Right of course, you were running me a bath AND SOMEHOW FLOODED THE BATHROOM WITH BLOODY BUBBLES!?”
“I wanted to make you one of those fancy relaxing baths Sophie’s always going on about and I didn't wanna ask the maids for help and it was going well until the bubble bath and there was a lot of water so I poured in half the bottle.” He replies to her calmly like he had predicted her reaction beforehand.
“You poured in half a bottle?” Her voice has died back down into whispers of disbelief and amusement.
“Yeah you know to like balance it out anyway everything was going well until your evil cat came in-” He sounds so genuinely serious about this logic Agatha decides she’s too tired to correct it now and keeps her mouth shut.
“Reapers not evil.” The useless defence of her cat comes out on instinct knowing that Reaper and Tedros are long decided enemies who tolerate each other on behalf of Agatha but she can’t help but hope that one day tedros will look into reapers’ snake like eyes and feel love for the hairless,scraggly, violent animal.
“He’s out to get me, Agatha, I just can’t prove it yet and well satan cat knocks the rest of the bottle into the bath and before i know it the bubbles are just growing and growing. At this point I'm fearing for my life. I mean death by bubble will definitely be the most embarrassing of all my deaths.” Tedros' voice is somehow both light and distressed and he looks almost genuinely shaken by his run in with bubbles, reminding her wet dog which just had an unappreciated bath.
“100% very embarrassing. I would be ashamed to be your widow.”
“So I try to run out but then your demonic cat starts wailing its hellscreams and being the honourable king I am I reenter the warzone to rescue the enemy.”
“Right…” She barely blinks at Tedros’s dramatics after nearly one year of marriage learning to just entertain his theatrics.
“So I get in there to search through the bubble maze and find the devil and then he starts kicking and wailing around and I lose balance and slip on some bubbles and now I'm on the floor.” He says with a sigh glancing around the room defeated.
“Death by bubble…” Agatha mutters looking at her husband whose sat in a defeated bewildered soapy heap on the floor and finds all the anger she was feeling before has faded into a warm feeling in her chest. Yeah she’s married to an idiot but he’s her idiot.
“Death by bubble…” Tedros repeats, shaking his head mournfully.
That's when she lets a snort escape then a giggle then a laugh and then before she knows it she’s dissolved into full howling cackles she just cannot stop laughing,maybe its the exhaustion of the day mixed with how fucking ridiculous this entire situation is and the sight of her husband the mighty ruler of Camelot sat on the floor perplexed and defeated by a bubble bath is why she cannot stop laughing.
She hears Tedros ask her a question she can’t quite make out and then he’s laughing too, bright and bold and the exhaustion and frustration of the day melts away as the sound enters through her ears and rests in her heart.
Some point during the laughing fit she had settled down on the floor next to him resting her head on his shoulder and sighing contently when he places a soft kiss on her forehead and links their fingers together. She moves her gaze away from the mess of their bathroom and instead watches him. She watches the steady rise and fall of his chest, a steady reminder he’s alive and here with her. She watches his face as he smiles softly at her and gently brushes a blonde lock away from his forehead, she watches this soaked soapy mess of man and all she feels is complete love and adoration. She curses her sappy thoughts because she feels like the luckiest girl alive, lucky she gets to love him and lucky that everyday he loves her back.
“A penny for your thoughts?” He says wiggling his eyebrows and grinning while dramatically handing her a toffee from his pocket.
“Just wondering why you didn’t just ask for help?” She pops the toffee in her mouth, not trying to hide the amusement in her tone (or her face).
“Well it wouldn’t have been as special if I hadn’t of done it, I just underestimated how complex it would be,” the corners of his eyes crinkling as he earnestly explains it to her ,pupils darting around the room and avoiding her piercing stare. “You’ve been working so hard on your reform and I haven't been able to help much because I've been so busy with restoring the round table that I've left you to carry that side of things on your own.I mean it’s not your burden” A beat. “And you haven’t read that murder book on our bedside table since you got it three weeks ago, I've seen you finish whole books in a night.So I wanted you to have at least a couple hours of rest for reading catch up you know...”
She looks at him feeling that warmth even stronger, a warmth she hopes never dies and studies him again why? Is all she can think why do you love me so much? What about her is so great that he loves her so much? She has a selfish thought that he never realises the ‘plethora’of flaws she has so he keeps loving her like this forever. She has an even more selfish thought that maybe he’s seen all her flaws and loves her anyway.
“First of all thank you, second of all you're right it's not my burden it's our burden.” She emphasises the simple gold band on both of their fingers, it's physical proof of a promise to lean on each other, a promise to hold onto to each other for richer and for poorer in sickness and in health until death do them part. “I’m not carrying anything alone and neither are you. We promised to carry this burden together. I think you're doing a pretty good job of carrying this load with me and a pretty good job of loving me too.”
They lean their foreheads together breathing the same air staring into eachothers eyes and just grounding themselves in the moment. Then he grins at her wide and bright and she feels the most energised she has all day and says;
“Wait who said anything about love?”
Agatha releases an amused sigh rolls her eyes grabs his face with both hands pulling him even closer to her
“You’re such an idiot.”
Then she kisses him warm,steady and soapy and feels the rest of the world melt away into a Tedros bubble filled haze.
When they finally pull away to breathe Tedros has this dopey starstruck expression all over his face and struggles to find his words again as they sit in a golden silence regaining their breath.
“But you love me anyways…” He says after a while.
“Yeah, I love you anyways.”