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Getting a scar wasn’t new for Coco, she was an artisan and a kid.
Being an artisan meant getting blisters when you hold your pigment stone for hours at a time, straining your eyes and drawing the straightest lines you can muster. And being a kid means exploring, scraping your knees and falling down only to get back up again.
And boy has she.. From Dadah range, to the second test, to the Silver Eye Festival. Scraps, cuts and bruises became normal, getting roughed up was normal. It was scary, but Coco was braver than her fear– albeit to the point where she became awfully reckless but regardless.
This scar was different, she has had mud, ink, brush buddy fur, food, all of the above on her face from her countless endeavours.
But never a scar.
Those were reserved for her hands, knees, anything but her face. Bandages and long dresses covered the unseen markings of time, and never were they inflicted on purpose.
This is why it was different.
It was inflicted, and it was visible.
–
“Yikes.. That looks bad Coco..” Tetia murmured as she looked at the scar that plagued the left side of her friend's face, the hit that dealt it wasn’t just a scrap. It dug into her skin and pulled the thin layer protecting her blood, causing it to drip down the side of her face when it happened. Her poor uniform became stained with the red and by the time she noticed it had dried.
The red against the green became arid and faded into brown, even when cleaned with magic– despite having no trace whatsoever she couldn’t shake knowing that her own blood once soaked the cloak she had grown to treasure so much.
She wore it like armour, and it didn’t protect her.
Held and stretched flat in her hands while Tetia chattered worriedly by her side, her eyes never strayed from the clean patch of fabric. Where the stain used to be.
“--Coco?”
“Huh?” She turned her head to look at Tetia, strands of her hair blocking her view for a single moment before being met with her friend’s worried eyes. Her brows furrowed with concentrated worry, “Are you okay?” She asked.
Coco nodded with a quiet smile, “..Mhm, please don’t worry about me Tetia!” She replied, scooping up her cloak and clothes into her arms, rushing upstairs as the longer length pieces dragged behind her on the floor by her side.
Tetia watched with concern seeing her close friend disappear out of view, from the dinner table, Richeh watched before sighing, “Don’t fret too much..” she said, eating from her bowl of bread and soup, swiping long bits of her hair behind her ears.
“But Coco..”
“She has Agott, and what can you say that you haven’t already?”
“I guess..” Tetia sighed, walking over to pull out a chair as it scraped against the cobblestone floor. She took a seat, pulling the chair with her weight in by holding the table and slumping over it with a sad sigh, “I’m just worried..”
Richeh took another bite of her bread, swallowing it before talking. “You’re always worried Tetia, if you have concerns then go to Master Olly or Master Qifrey..”
Tetia pushed her lips out in a pout, pushing them to the side as she sulked. “But they’re busy.. Master Olly went straight back to work and Master Qifrey is who knows where..!!”
“Then that’s that, leave it Tetia. Have some food.”
The pink haired girl sat up, trilling her lips as she fluffed back her hair, “Okay I guess..”
–
Coco rushed upstairs, collapsing onto the ground as she slammed the door, tripping over her loose bits of laundry and hitting the wooden panels of the flooring. “Ouch..!” she yelped from the impact, whacking her chin hard against the floor.
Having heard the impact, Agott ran out of her side of the room, “Coco?!”
“Hey Agott..” She said with a smile which most certainly did not hide her painful grimace as she winced, pushing herself up with her arms. Agott quickly walked over, crouching down and placing a hand out for Coco to grab. “Thanks..” she sighed, taking the girl’s hand with a pitiful smile full of thanks.
“Why were you rushing around like that..” Agott sighed, “Wait here, I’ll go get Master Olruggio.”
“Wait-” Coco grabbed her wrist just as she was about to leave, Agott turned her body halfway to look at the other with a creased brow wrinkled in confusion. “Wait?”
Coco’s expression turned determined as she nodded with conviction, “Mhm, I.. I don’t want to bother him.” She gently let go of Agott.
“Bother? Coco, they're our caretakers.” She deadpanned, fixing her crinkled sleeve around her wrist from Coco’s earlier grasp. Agott looked towards her friend, she was originally planning to go against her wishes and ask Olruggio for help, but the reservation in Coco’s face made her hesitate.
Regardless, Agott stepped away, turning her body back and leaving through the door of their room. Coco watched with a sour expression, sighing as she gathered up her clothes and dropped them on her bed, grabbing a nearby mirror and looking at the damage. On her chin was an already forming sizeable bruise, turning her face to the left, slightly drafted attention to the scar under her eye that sat on the cheekbone on her skin.
Her left hand touched it gently, it was healed– certainly. But it was still sensitive given the recency of its arrival. The small rectangular mirror she held tilted at an angle to let her better see the scar, running her fingers over the mended wound. She winced at the nonexistent pain, flinching and causing micro reactions to nothing.
Coco’s eyes began to water, her lips quivered as she gave the scar even more attention, dragging her hand across the skin, stretching it to see the mark better. The darkened, thin skin began to get irritated at all her poking and prodding, the surrounding unmarred colour becoming redder and redder as she kept vexing it.
“Just stop it..” She complained in a gruff, quiet tone of voice, her hand shaking as it rubbed harder at her skin. Nails grating clutching at her skin and dragging down to dig into her palm, the pale pink stabbing into her flesh.
Just as they pierced deeper into the inside of her hand, she felt a pressure of wind force her hand away from her face, she gaped and dropped the mirror, head snapping towards the direction the wind was driven from. Across the room stood Agott with her notepad in one hand and a hefty kit with a handle in the other.
“What are you doing?!” She screamed, dropping her notepad and running over as her steps hit the floor, thumping against the wooden planks with all her weight. Agott fell to her knees, sliding over at the last second and letting the kit hit the floor and spill open, revealing that it was a medkit as bandages rolled across the floor like webs from a spider.
“I- Agott I didn’t mean to!?” Coco shouted defensively, arms raising to cover her face while cringing at her friends’ sudden appearance, but before she could Agott grabbed her wrist, putting her arms back to her side. Face crinkling in thought, “Don’t- We’ll talk about this later.” She said, grabbing the kit and gathering up its spilled contents, placing it between herself and Coco.
Her hands deftly arranged the medical articles and sighed, grabbing the side of Coco’s face as the girl winced and felt her neck turn uncomfortably so Agott could further see the damage she inflicted onto herself. “Coco..” Agott muttered under her breath, the scar had begun to peel from all her scraping, compelling the skin to split and bleed. A slow droplet of blood percolated down the side of her face onto the bruise from her previous fall, clearly she did more damage than she meant to.
Agott’s ink stained fingertips skimmed her injury before pulling away to clean it, she grabbed her abandoned notepad and drew a small water sigil to clean the blood and soothe the vexed skin. After which she seized the bandages, unravelling enough to take care of Coco’s originally healed wound. Sticking the gauze onto her cheek bone, her eyes shifted to see if her friend was feeling any pain, thankfully she seemed fine, just uncomfortable.
She then drafted her attention to Coco’s bruise, using the cold water from her spell to alleviate its pain, the vague pressure of it aching her chin. Thankfully Agott dabbed the injury with a clean cloth and stuck a plaster onto it, she packed up the kit over again before placing it aside and looking at Coco.
“.. Are you going to tell me what that was about?”
“It was nothing..! I didn’t mean to-”
“If you didn’t mean to then why did you?!” Agott snapped, hand slamming against the floor in anger. Coco startled, she flinched, shoulders rising with the tension of the moment. “I don’t know..!” She choked out, the words clawing at her throat, weighing heavy. Tears ripped out of its barrier to her eyes and dribbled down her face, she hid her face in her hand. Letting all her sobs out as if she could control it– which she couldn’t even if she tried.
Agott frowned, the spot between her brows wrinkled as she was hit with guilt. Maybe she shouldn’t have snapped, but how else should she react when her friend was hurting herself?
“Look- I’m sorry..” She said, bringing Coco into a close hug, her arms wrapped around her as the recipient hugged her back, squeezing her tightly as she cried into Agott’s shoulder. Her tears soaking her friend’s shoulder as she sobbed, her fingers curled into the back of Agott’s dress, feeling the buttons in her grasp.
Agott merely held her close, biting her bottom lip as it quivered, she hated seeing her friend cry, she cared for her more than anyone else. For as much as she wanted her mother’s approval, when she had Coco’s? It felt like enough for a moment. The weight of their bodies together began to slouch as they grew tired, adjusting to rest against the wall. “Are you done..” Agott asked, she didn’t receive a verbal response but she felt Coco move her head against her shoulder, the movements mimicking a nod so she took it as such.
“Come on.. Get up..” She stood up on shaky legs as they regained their strength, her hands held out as Coco took them, heaving herself up. Carefully Agott helped support her, checking over her to make sure there weren’t any other injuries she missed, she glanced to the mirror that Coco dropped earlier. Thankfully it didn’t shatter upon impact, the wooden frame was cracked in the corner presumably from the impact, meanwhile the glass remained unmarred.
She led the other over to her bed and cleared any loose pieces of paper. Placing the half finished spells on Coco’s desk as she moved her blanket, Coco flopped down onto her bed, rolling flat onto it as she huffed tiredly. From the side her friend watched with tension still affecting her face, watching her Coco sighed. “Agott I’m fine..”
“Mhm.” She replied, pushing the sound through her lips as they tightly cemented together.
Coco hummed, “Do you mind getting me some water?”
“Of course.” She said, turning and opening the door to their room, the sound of her steps echoed until the sound grew dull. Troubled with fatigue Coco held her pillow close to her chest and cuddled it, being able to let out her emotions, while it made her feel better– also exhausted her to no end as she felt her eyes blink slowly. Her head buried itself into the pillow as her hair tickled her ear, with a soft hum she went asleep to the feeling of being held, having someone.
‘Agott..’ She thought before her thoughts stilled and went blank, her breathing shifted automatically, rhythmically inhaling and exhaling.
–
While that happened, Agott poured purified water into a cup while her foot tapped apprehensively. Still on edge given that the last time she left Coco alone she ended up forcing her healed scar to need more healing, but she just put the water away and held the cup. When she turned she came face to face with her teacher– Qifrey.
“Agott? Up later than I’d expect..” He said, glancing at the darkened sky as the stars peppered in it became unclear against the lantern's light beside the window.
“I didn’t realise..” She said, picking up the cup she held it with both hands as she walked past him and went upstairs. Qifrey watched her head back upstairs to her room, from behind him Olruggio came in, “Everything alright?”
“I think there’s something going on with the girls..” He replied, Olruggio sighed, approaching him to stand side by side, placing a hand on Qifrey’s shoulder. He looked at his friend, shrugging off the hand which fell back to the side as he held it with a smile, “I won’t interfere, don’t worry.”
Olruggio smiled in relief, “Good.” He held his hand back, rubbing the back of it with his thumb, stroking it gently back and forth, “Let’s just look out for the girls and step in when we need to.”
It didn’t take long for them to retire to their respective rooms for the night after that.
–
“Coco-” Agott said once she entered, carefully pushing the door open with one hand while holding the cup of water in the other. She wanted to make her presence known but stopped when she peered in and noticed Coco laying flat on her bed, breathing softly.
Taking a few more steps in she shut the door and placed the cup down on her desk, checking to see if she really was asleep, which she was. Seeing how serene she looked, Agott didn’t bother her, just placed the water in reach of her friend and put the dropped mirror aside before extinguishing the flames that lit the room and taking off her shoes to rest in her own bed.
Glancing over at Coco’s side of the room while she readied herself for bed, trying her best to be quiet and not disturb her roommate. She ran her fingers through her hair, rubbing at her scalp tiredly, settling her head on her pillow as her curls crowded the edges of her face.
Her mind was occupied by the newest apprentice of the atelier, the one who was determined to be an equal to her. They admired each other, their skills and their entirety, into the air Agott whispered:
“Goodnight Coco..”
Before shutting her eyes and falling victim to slumber.