Work Text:
Agatha’s phone buzzed once and went still.
She didn’t need to look. She already knew.
She stood outside the Student Union, staring at the final vote count taped to the door.
Wanda Maximoff – 312
Agatha Harkness – 300
Twelve votes.
Twelve votes between her and a second term.
The campaign posters still clung to the bulletin boards. Re-Elect Agatha Harkness – Bold Ideas. Real Change. Plum purple. Elegant serif font. Her name, centered. Clean. Intentional. Like her.
She’d done the work. The real work.
The behind-the-scenes work no one noticed.
She’d rewritten policies. Fought for gender-inclusive washrooms. Created accessibility audits. Built the entire menstrual equity initiative from the ground up. And she’d lost to a bright-eyed first-year who livestreamed study dates and handed out matching friendship bracelets during campaign week.
Agatha didn’t cry.
She just walked away.
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
Rio saw the vote count pop up in the group chat while halfway through a jazz theory essay.
She stared at the numbers. Then she closed her laptop, grabbed her coat, and made a detour to the café.
Blue raspberry slushie. Extra syrup. It was Agatha’s sugar-crash comfort drink.
When she reached Agatha’s dorm, the door was already slightly ajar.
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
“I swear to god, if one more person tells me ‘it’s just student council,’ I’m going to strangle someone with their own lanyard,” Agatha mumbled into a pillow.
Rio didn’t say anything. She just sat down beside her and passed over the slushie like a treaty.
Agatha blinked, then took it. “You’re a menace.”
“I’m also your menace.”
Agatha slurped dramatically. “I did everything right. Everything. I carried that council, Rio. I wrote their damn bylaws. I restocked their bathrooms. I scheduled Wanda’s last-minute presentation when she forgot to book a room.”
“I know.”
“And she beat me. With pastel TikToks and a Canva template.”
“You’re allowed to be mad.”
Agatha looked down at the melting ice in her cup. “I just thought doing the work would be enough.”
Rio reached for her hand. “It was. She got the votes. But you got the legacy.”
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
The first time Rio saw Agatha, she was three drinks into a campus jazz night, half-listening to a bad Coltrane cover, and wondering if anyone else there actually practiced.
Then she saw her—back row, arms crossed, dressed like she could command a courtroom and make you feel underdressed while doing it.
Later she’d learn Agatha had come straight from a three-hour student council meeting, where she’d rewired the budgeting process because the treasurer didn’t know how percentages worked.
Agatha hated spectacle. But she hated inefficiency more.
Rio sat down next to her and slid a drink her way. “You look like you need this.”
“I don’t drink anything green,” Agatha replied.
“It’s blue.”
Agatha squinted. “It’s debatably blue.”
Rio laughed. “Okay, so what brings you to Jazz Night if you hate fun?”
“I don’t hate fun. I hate chaos disguised as artistry.”
“That was me playing,” Rio said with a grin.
Agatha gave her a slow, appraising look. “Then I hate you a little less.”
They talked until the bar closed.
And kissed under a streetlamp like a secret neither of them had meant to spill.
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
Back in the present, Agatha sighed, curled into Rio’s side.
“She’s a first-year,” she whispered. “And I still lost.”
“Because people like shiny things. But you built foundations.”
Agatha looked up at her. “You’re gonna kiss me again, aren’t you?”
“Only if you’re ready.”
“I am.”
And this time, it wasn’t impulsive. It was a promise.
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
Agatha didn’t go to the final council meeting.
No point. She wasn’t needed. Not anymore.
Instead, she and Rio spent Saturday morning clearing out her tiny student council office—just a converted closet, really, stacked with binders, whiteboard markers, and a broken stapler she never replaced.
Agatha filed the last of her old project templates, stacked her laminated signage, and opened the bottom drawer.
There, on top of a pile of old agendas, was a folded sheet of thick paper that definitely wasn’t hers.
She opened it.
Agenda: The Department of Rio Being Madly in Love with Agatha
- Approval of past kisses
- Motion to initiate cuddling
- Proposal for late-night sushi run (passed unanimously)
- Emergency resolution: Agatha is the most competent, underappreciated badass on this campus
- Adjournment: Pending another kiss
Agatha blinked. “You hid this here?”
Rio shrugged from across the room. “I figured you’d find it when you needed it.”
Agatha stared at the page like it had unlocked something in her ribcage. Something still sore, but maybe… healing.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You love me.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
She kissed her slowly—like punctuation at the end of a very long sentence.
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
The next day, Rio kidnapped her.
Not literally. But she took her to a quiet hill near the back of campus, past the parking lot and half-forgotten faculty building, where the grass hadn’t yet shaken off winter but the sky smelled like spring.
They spread out a blanket. Rio brought snacks, a thermos of coffee, and a playlist labeled “For Agatha’s Overachieving Brain (soft edition).”
“No agendas today,” Rio said. “We’re just… here.”
Agatha was twitchy at first. She checked her phone. Fidgeted. Tried to reorganize the snacks.
But eventually, her shoulders dropped. Her breathing slowed.
She stared up at the sky and whispered, “I don’t know who I am without the job.”
Rio, sketching nearby, didn’t look up. “Then let’s figure her out. I bet she’s pretty great.”
Agatha rolled onto her side and watched Rio draw.
“Do you think I’ll still make a difference?”
Rio smiled. “You already have.”
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
Rio found the campaign posters in the recycling bin outside Agatha’s dorm.
Plum purple. Elegant. Crumpled.
She rescued one and showed up at her door, poster in hand.
“Please don’t,” Agatha groaned.
“I will,” Rio said. “Because you don’t get to throw yourself out with the junk mail.”
She grabbed a marker and scribbled on the bottom:
Not elected. Still effective. Also hot.
Then she added, across the top:
AGATHA HARKNESS IS STILL THAT BITCH.
Agatha stared. “You’re the worst.”
“I’m your worst.”
The poster went up above Rio’s desk. Every time Agatha came over, it made her laugh just enough to forget how much the loss still stung.
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
The email came two weeks later.
Subject line: Board of Governors – Inclusive Education Advisory Seat
They’d seen Agatha’s work. The policies. The accessibility audits. The quiet revolution she’d led through spreadsheets and relentless care.
They wanted her on the Board. As a student rep. To shape future policies through the Division of Inclusive Education.
Agatha reread the message three times.
Then she forwarded it to Rio with one line:
Is this real life???
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
Rio met her outside the music building that evening.
“You’re gonna do it, right?” she asked.
Agatha bit her lip. “It’s not what I planned.”
“Nope. It’s better.”
Agatha hesitated. “I’m scared.”
“I know. But you’re also brilliant. And I’ll be there. Every step.”
Agatha smiled, kissed her on the sidewalk, and whispered, “Motion approved.”
~~HTLAEAKAG~~
Later, Rio added one last note to the poster on her wall:
Now on the Board. Still that bitch.
Agatha laughed so hard she nearly knocked it down.
THE END.
Or the start of something even better.