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The house echoed in its own silence as Olruggio sat in the living room, staring at the drawings Agott had made, still sitting in the places she hung them on the walls or left them on tables– untouched, unbothered, fading from the drift of the July sunlight through the windows. Olruggio takes a swig from his glass that stays wobbling in his hands. The beard he had begun to grow over the years is disheveled and patchy.
Qifrey silently sits next to his husband, headache drowned in the white noise of breathing.
“Olly, I’m applying to take on a student,” he announces as he runs his hand along his husband’s back. Olruggio’s dead eyes drift over Qifrey’s waiting face, waiting for his response.
“Okay.”
“Olruggio, you’ll need to stop drinking so much. I need you to be in your right mind more often than not,” he demands. Olruggio’s dead eyes flicker before he lifts the glass. Qifrey snatches his wrist, spilling the little wine on the couch.
“What– What the hell, Qifrey?!” Olruggio shouts. He drops the glass from his hand, magical rim shattering on the floor from the force and wine splattering the drawings.
“That means starting right now, Olruggio. You need to fix yourself before I can accept students,” Qifrey retaliates. “You’re a part of this, too. We have let this problem fester for far too long. I let you start and you let it fester.”
“Qif, we both know you can’t let up hunting for Brimmed Hats. You have to give that long dead thread, too.”
“Olruggio, I gave that thread up weeks ago. I have found nothing in every single place I’ve looked! Give up the damn alcohol.”
Olruggio looks to his husband in disbelief, “You– You gave it up? You expect me to just believe that? After years of doing nothing but looking?”
“I have been home every single night, lying in our bed waiting for you to drudge you black out drunk ass up the stairs. I have only left the house to go buy what I need for our new apprentice that doesn’t require them to be here or groceries that I can’t get from our garden. I have stayed up night after night till you came to bed or dragged you up after your hangover decided to kick you in the ass in our living room. Olruggio, I have been preparing this house so that someone can live with us. I know nothing will be the same after Adina reclaimed Agott, but you– we– need to move on. It has been three years.”
Olruggio looks up to his now standing husband, white hair and piercing blue eye daggering him behind the dainty gold and black circle frames he boasts. His hand runs up into his own dark hair before he pushes himself up using the table, wobbling still as he stands to match his husband.
“Fine, but if I find out you’re hunting the Brimmed Hats again, I’m telling Beldaruit,” Olruggio says. Qifrey gives his husband a sharp look.
“I promise,” a lie he’ll repeat and resay with every wipe of his husband’s memory when he inevitably finds out.
It’s September by the time Olruggio is sober enough by Qifrey’s standards to truly accept students into their little country home. Qifrey and Olruggio often venture to the Great Hall together, strolling and watching young witches choose who they want or teachers with their gaggles of students running amok looking for supplies. Qifrey often laments that they still don’t have a student within a week of them officially being open to students. Olruggio often reprimands him for his complaints.
Yet fate was always a funny thing.
It’s the day before Olruggio’s birthday when a young witch comes up to him and tugs on his cloak. His soft brown hair and the letter in his hand for a teaching placement was strange.
“Sorry, but I’m not a teacher. Let me find–”
“This is for Mister Qifrey. A student will arrive at your Atelier at precisely 2 pm today and not a moment later. Her mother insisted I deliver this to you before noon.”
Olruggio looks at the little letter in his hands, the Arklaum family crest branded in the corner.
“Th– Thank you. I’ll get this to my husband as soon as possible. Thank you,” he rushes before turning and dashing. He slides around the corners of buildings and streets until he comes to the window way and bursts through.
Olruggio tumbles through the house, looking for his husband. Each step bumbles and bounces like a fire lit underneath his feet.
“Qifrey!” he shouts as he slides down the stairs. “Qifrey!”
Olruggio bounds into the kitchen, feet sliding on the kitchen mat by the sink.
“Qifrey!”
“Olly, what is it? You have been yelling up a storm while I’ve been trying to keep this milk from boiling over!” Qifrey complains in exasperation. He stirs the pot as he adjusts his hair over his eye.
“We have a student, and they’re arriving today!” he exhales. “They’re from the Arklaums.”
“Wait, give me that,” Qifrey says as he reaches out with his free hand. His eyes run over the letter, sounds of the September rain pelting the window, filling the silence. His eyes drift up, slowly dropping his spoon in the milk. Olruggio’s deep stare softens when he sees Qifrey’s face, mixed with shock and wonder.
“It– It's Agott. We’re teaching– We’re teaching our daughter,” Qifrey says in a dazed state.
Olruggio steps shakily forward to his husband, slowly drifting his hands to Qifrey’s face. Qifrey pulls him into a tight hug, tears dripping from his eye. Olruggio buries his face into his husband’s shoulder.
“God– Holy– holy god she’s– she’s coming back,” he whispers through the welling tears. Olruggio runs his hand under his husband’s eye, wiping away the remaining tears from his face.
Qifrey’s eye goes wide, panic settling in, “We need to prepare. We need to– we need to make an appointment with the tailor. I need to set up a time with Mr. Nolnoa for wand assessment. I need to make the bed in her room again. We–”
“We should plan dinner before she gets here, or we can plan dinner with her,” Olruggio calmly redirects. Qifrey feels the bubble of the milk as it drips onto the back of his sock. “Or clean up the milk mess?”
2 PM comes and goes with little sound from both the front door and the window way. Olruggio begins to pace while Qifrey calmly but firmly reminds him that Agott tended to crop up unexpectedly, from appearing in his office at random hours to occasionally being found in cupboards or on shelves the last time she lived with them. The pair eventually end up sitting in the living room, waiting for their daughter to come home, watching the clock ticks go by.
“What– What if she doesn’t come back?” Olruggio whispers. “What if she can’t come–”
A sharp knock on the door.
A second knock, more subtle than the last.
“That’s her,” Qifrey dully notes. “THAT’S HER!” he shouts as he explodes to life, heading to the front door. Olruggio stumbles after him, tripping on his cape in the foyer.
The front door flies open when Qifrey grips the handle, rain slowly drizzling down. A girl with long dark curls and grey-purple eyes stares at the blue-eyed witches.
“A– Ago–” Olruggio chokes. Agott rushes forward, curling her arms into a tighter grip around Olruggio, sweltering tears drowning her face. Qifrey joins in on the hug, the little family on the foyer floor.
“Dad! D– Dad, I’ve– I–” her tears choke her words.
“I've missed you. More than anything in this world,” he finally says. “My little Agott is– is an apprentice now.”
"I did it, Dad. Mr. Qifrey, I did it."