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“HOW FUCKING HARD CAN IT BE,” an unmistakable voice bellowed through the house, startling Rio and Nicky who were busy lining up his favourite dinosaurs on the bedroom floor. What followed was a chain of expletives that definitely weren't meant for little dinosaur ears and Rio crushed her hands over Nicky’s.
What on earth was her wife doing now!? Nicky let out a muffled “Oomph.” Making sure the coast was clear, Rio finally released him and promptly provided him with headphones (noise-cancelling, duh) before she went to look for the cause of the commotion.
The cause, it appeared, was done screaming but not done fuming. She found her wife in their study, brows furrowed in angry concentration, as she hacked away on her laptop, puncturing each key with dedicated precision.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Agatha jumped, spinning around in her chair to gawk at the intruder. Recognizing Rio she simply rolled her eyes and spun back towards the screen, resuming her attack on the keyboard.
“I said,” Rio was beginning to lose her patience, “what the fuck are you doing that’s important enough to teach our five year-old son every curse word known to man from three doors down at 6pm on a Thursday evening.”
“Very specific,” Agatha grumbled, not bothering to stop what she was doing.
“Agatha…”
“Oh come on now,” Agatha finally relented, tapping her mouse one last time and then swinging back to face her wife. “My list of curse words included twenty-one items by the time I was four.”
“And we both agreed that your childhood probably wasn’t the best to model our son’s after, Agatha.”
“Details!” Agatha leaned back in her chair, challenging Rio from across the room.
“Just tell me what it is this time,” Rio insisted watching her wife avert her eyes and start fiddling with her wedding ring in her lap.
“Agatha…”
“Okay fine,” the woman in question threw her hair back in frustration. “Someone used casted instead of cast, again, okay? I had to say something, sue me!”
Rio might. “What the fuck, Agatha.”
“Now who’s cursing.”
A glare was all it took for Agatha to raise her arms in mock surrender.
“They are butchering the English language, piece by piece, Rio. You know I couldn’t let it pass.”
Rio pushed her out of the way, moving to study the screen in front of her.
“Twitter? You are fighting people on Twitter?? Again???”
Agatha had the audacity to shrug.
“Is this even an adult?” Rio let out a sigh. “Please don’t tell me you are fighting 17-year-olds on the internet again.”
“First of all, he was 19,” Agatha stood, circling in on Rio, “and second of all it is ‘would have’ and never, ever, in a billion years, ‘would of’.”
“It’s TWITTER,” Rio shouted and was promptly muffled by a finger being pressed to her lips.
“Shhh,” Agatha teased, “you’re gonna scare Nicky.”
“Fuck you,” Rio groaned swapping away her partner’s hand.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” Agatha leaned closer, letting the words ghost over Rio’s lips. Rio's rage faltered, warmth spreading to her cheeks. Fuck, how did they always end up like this. Nothing turned her on more than— No, this was a matter of principles.
“It’s Twitter,” she shoved Agatha away, “it’s full of BTWs, LOLs and IJBOLs. And nazis if we are being precise. So what if some person says ‘casted’ instead of ‘cast’, it’s just people chatting. It’s not one of your classes, don’t make it into such a huge fucking problem.”
Annoyed, Agatha rounded back in on her. “Oh, so people butchering our beautiful language isn’t a problem ,” she spat out the final word, “but when I call one of your precious Apatosauruses a Brontosaurus, that is a problem!?”
“IT WAS A DIPLODOCUS ,” Rio glared at her.
“Are you fighting?” A sad voice sounded from the door. Nicky, his dinosaur pjs on backwards, cradled a struggling Señor Scratchy to his chest and had tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. Scratchy stared at the pair of them accusingly. Clearly his current predicament was their fault.
“Oh, honey,” Rio said at the same time Agatha lit up and exclaimed “Come here, Nicky!”
Rio glowered at her in suspicion, then watched their son shuffle into the room, holding on to Señor Scratchy for dear life, and climbing up to sit in Agatha’s lap who had sunk back into her chair.
“Mama has a grammar lesson for you,” Agatha started, releasing the bunny from Nicky’s strong grip and setting it down onto the floor.
“Agatha…,” Rio warned as Scratchy kicked his legs and rushed out of the room, clearly having decided that this one was on the human parents to handle. Agatha waved her off.
“Do you remember when we watched The Lion King,” she took Nicky’s small hand into her own, leaning down to meet his eyes.
“Agatha, he is five,” Rio tried again.
“He knows 23 kinds of dinosaurs,” Agatha didn’t even bother to look at her, drawing small circles on their son’s palm instead. Godfuckingdamnit. Rio couldn’t really argue with that.
“Remember how Mama told you that the lions were voiced by actors?”
“You said Mufasa died for real.”
Rio groaned. Was there anything sacred in this house?
“Exactly,” Agatha let her hand weave through his hair, a proud smile settling on her face.
“When people decide which actor gets to play a character, that’s what they call casting.”
“Casting,” Nicky repeated, tasting the new word on his tongue. An idea seemed to strike him. “Like Mami’s cast last year when she broke her leg?”
Agatha laughed, turning her head to smirk at Rio who was trying not to groan extensively at the way this conversation unfolded. “No,” she continued, “it’s a similar word but it does not quite have the same meaning. When an actor gets chosen for a role, we say that we cast them. For example, I want to cast you right now to be the cutest little dinosaur in the world.” She stroked over the stuffy teeth of his pajamas and Nicky giggled, letting out a tiny roar.
Agatha stilled. “Do you take the job?”
He stopped, his face turning serious. “I take the job,” he agreed earnestly, eyes not leaving his mother’s face.
“Perfect!” Agatha cheered, “I just cast you as the cutest little dinosaur in the world,” and she lifted him into the air in celebration.
“You casted me,” Nicky joined her enthusiasm and Rio folded in half. Even Agatha’s instant death stare couldn’t stop the laughter bubbling out of her in waves. Nicky cast a confused look between the two of them.
Shushing Rio, Agatha faced their son again, making sure his focus was on her before continuing her lesson. “No, Nicky, – and this is very important – when we speak of casting someone in the past we do not change the word, okay? We still say cast . So, I just cast you a few minutes ago. Can you try that?”
“You just cast me as the cutest little dinosaur in the world,” Nicky beamed and Agatha nodded, smugly twirling them around to face his other mother.
“Now, show Mami what you learned.”
And Rio gave in, staring at the pair of them, one with messy hair, the other being the cutest little dinosaur in the world, and she applauded when Nicky repeated what he had learned and then they cast each other as the cutest and the wildest and the greatest of them all, over and over again. And when that wasn’t enough they cast Mr. Scratchy as a T-Rex and Nicky as a Triceratops, and finally Agatha cast a Velociraptor as a Deinonychus and that’s where Rio put an end to it. There was only so much casting mania she could allow.
Later, much later, when Nicky had fallen asleep after appointing Agatha as his dedicated goodnight-story-teller, the woman in question found Rio on their couch, book in hand and nothing but boxers and a tank top gracing her body. Agatha shuffled in behind her, letting her finish the chapter in peace and stealing some of the heat that wafted off her body.
Setting the book down neatly on their coffee table, Rio let her freed hand tangle in Agatha’s hair, softly brushing through its knots and massaging her scalp. Agatha hummed, her own hand dipping down to draw circles on Rio’s thigh.
“That kid is gonna be his teacher’s worst nightmare someday,” Rio chuckled.
“Hmm, not my problem,” Agatha let her mouth settle near her wife’s collar bone, hand travelling higher and grabbing onto Rio's top.
“No,” Rio laughed again, “you just torture your own students instead.”
“My students would never butcher the English language. They wouldn’t dare.” Agatha whispered into her ear, lips grazing the edge of her ear lobe as she nuzzled her nose into Rio’s hair. Her hand dipped under her Rio's top, softly stroking the exposed skin and leaving goosebumps all over her belly.
“They’re wayyyy too scared of you,” Rio felt her face grow warmer.
“What can I say, I’m great at what I do,” Agatha moved to press a kiss into her neck, humming softly as Rio stilled her head and turned it so they faced each other.
“Hmm,” Rio mouthed and she ghosted a kiss over Agatha’s lips, letting it linger for a second, skin prickling and goosebumps spreading up her chest, before separating their faces again. Brown eyes found blue, glazed over with anticipation, the soft light of the room catching in Agatha’s pupil, blown open wide. Rio cocked her head, right hand weaving into long, messy curls, not letting Agatha any closer. Yet.
“Rio…” A frustrated look flew over Agatha’s face, eyes nearly closing as she tried to lean in.
Rio smirked, continuing her strokes on the back of her head, capturing her wife’s soft moan open mouthed.
“You are indeed a great teacher, Mrs. Vidal,” she finally breathed, and then she crashed their mouths together and pulled her closer and straddled her lap and let Agatha show her just how much she could still teach her.