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"I think we should each take shifts, while the others sleep. We don't know what else may be in the woods."
"I can take a shift."
“No, Alice. You sleep. You had a hard trial.” Agatha stopped partway through the trees. She sensed Rio’s presence behind her; far enough so as not to spook her, but close enough to listen. “Alice, Teen, and Jen. You’ll sleep. The rest of us will rotate.” Lilia cocked her brow in Agatha's direction.
She didn't comment on it, thankfully. Agatha didn’t know how to respond if she did.
”Wh-“ Jen interrupted Alice.
”She’s being kind to us, because we’ve had a rough day. Shut up, or she’ll take it back.”
Agatha’s gaze drifted over to the boy curled up beside Alice by the fire. He’d taken a liking to the girl, being closer in age than the rest of them, but Agatha encouraged it. Though she’d never admit it aloud, they needed to hang onto some level of innocence.
”I’m going to collect more firewood.” Rio appeared a fair distance away from her, and Agatha felt a surge of worry rise in her chest.
“Don’t get killed. I’m not summoning another green witch.” Rio huffed and disappeared back into the forest.
Agatha slowly walked back over to the fire, and eased herself onto the ground. Resting her back against the wood, she let out a tired sigh, as her back cracked against the hard surface. As her eyes settled shut, she felt a presence at her right, and opened an eye to see Lilia.
”Are you okay? Do I need to get rid of her?” Lilia dropped her voice a few octaves and whispered so quietly, that Agatha wouldn’t have heard it, had she not been expecting the question.
”I’ll be fine. If I need her gone, I’ll kill her myself,” Agatha muttered, and glanced over at Lilia. A soft smile graced her lips, and the older witch grabbed the younger’s hand.
”I’m proud of you. You’ve become quite the witch.”
The unspoken question hung in the air; despite the darkness?
”I mean it, Agatha. You’ve made me incredibly proud, despite it all.”
”Thank you…”
”You’re quite welcome, dear. A young woman such as yourself has faced more turmoil than the average witch does in a lifetime.”
Words fail her, and a soft smile curves itself on Agatha’s lips.
”You should get some rest, you hag, before you’re too nice to me.”
Lilia just grinned, and squeezed her hand, as she moved to stand up. “Don’t forget what I said, my dear. You’re stronger than you know.”
With that, Lilia moved and settled down beside Jen, fading into the shadows and flickers of the fire.
Agatha felt around beside her, for the book the boy had lent her. He’d asked her to read it over and make any edits he’d missed, if she’d gotten bored while doing lookout.
“Whatcha doing?”
“Never you mind, Vidal.”
”I’m bored, Harkness.”
”I told you to go to sleep and Lilia will wake you for your shift.”
”I wanted to stay up and mind you. It’s been a while, mi amor.”
”Don’t call me that.” Agatha was grateful her red cheeks weren’t visible in through the projection of the fire onto her, but she knew that Rio saw it. She always did.
”Lo siento.”
Agatha tried to hide her surprise. The woman she knew decades ago, would never have backed down so soon…
The words left her mouth before her mind caught up to her.
”So you finally learned how to listen, huh.”
”The last time I had to ignore you, I lost you. This is the closest you’ve let me.”
They let the unspoken words hang in the air between them. Since we lost Nicky.
Agatha’s heart pinched, and she felt the raise of panic rise in her throat. She clenched her fists tightly, and felt her sharp nails press into her palms.
She released a breath, and stood up, grabbing her coat behind her, and draping it over her arm.
She ignored the deep brown eyes following her movements, as she crept over to the sleeping Teen and Alice. The older of the pair had moved closer, and they slept back to back, as if ensuring they were protected the whole way through.
Agatha silently crouched down, to lay the jacket over the top of the pair, and watched as the younger one reached for the sleeve. He pulled it to his chest like a teddy bear, and his face softened.
She rose again and moved back to sitting beside Rio, grabbing the Teen’s notebook and pen, ignoring her completely.
“Go to sleep, Ri. Tomorrow we walk again.”
”Okay,” she mumbled and she leaned back against the wooden log.
Agatha felt the shift in the air, as Rio fell asleep. Silence, except for the soft snores of her ex-wife, and the scratch of her pen correcting the misspellings of Latin, and making notes in the back of the book to remind herself to work on his pronunciation.
A rustle had her startled, and looking up, but all it was, was Rio shifting beside her, and curling herself down to sleep on the ground.
It was all instinct, when Agatha adjusted herself, so that Rio had a place to rest her head… on her lap.
Rio sighed, and Agatha ignored all sense as she stroked the younger witch’s hair.
An hour later, Rio stirred again, and Agatha resumed running her hands through her hair. A sleepy voice whispered out something sounding like, “mm. Love you, Ags.”
Even in sleep, Rio still loved her. Awake now, Agatha loved her. A grin plastered onto her face, and Agatha felt the beginnings of Rio waking up.
they didn’t mention it to Lilia the next morning, why Agatha was curled up into Rio’s side, practically on top of her. When the oldest of the coven asked why she hadn’t been woken, Rio replied quickly.
”You can take tomorrow night. She took half the night, I took the other half.”
Rio tried to avoid looking down lovingly at the woman asleep in her arms, but she knew she failed when she saw Lilia’s soft smile.
”She loves you. While her mind may not have forgotten, her heart had certainly forgiven.”