Chapter Text
i)
There’s a smudge on Agott’s table when she gets back from the kitchen.
It’s tiny, relative to the universe and all. She’s done this song and dance before and the days where she bursts into tiny agotty flames are long behind her. Well– maybe a couple of months behind her. But progress was progress.
She can hear the tell-tale sign of her footsteps, skipping all the odd numbered stairs. Agott notices of course, the weirdness of it all too much to ignore.
“Oi” she says, mustering the best Orluggio she can with her vocal chords, back still turned to the door.
No answer.
She glances back just a peek and realises she’s totally messed up the timing of that, Or Coco, predicting her flair for the dramatic, just chose to pause by the door. Both reasons annoy her.
Agott stomps her way to the door and swings it open in a wide arc and— yes.
Coco stands there, her hand, stained with conjuring ink pausing in the air, mid reach.
Her guileless smile is knowing. She tilts her head while trying to peek beyond Agott.
“Were you talking to someone, Agott?” she asks and Agott can hear the teasing lilt of her voice and feel the heat in her own cheeks.
“You did that on purpose.”
Coco laughs lightly and steps around Agott, entering the room. “I have nooooo idea what you’re talking about”.
She stops in front of Agott’s desk, seemingly eyeing her own fingerprint. A second later she just starts smudging the ink on the table.
Agott rubs her forehead and sighs, the unpredictability very predictable at this point and she marches over to stop Coco’s (probably) well intentioned attempt at cleaning.
She reaches her desk just as Coco turns to her with a grin and Agott can feel her heart drop to her stomach.
She walks over to the desk and— well. She's seen better. Obviously. But Coco has gently smudged the little ink stain into a crudely petalled flower
There’s something very Coco about it all that sends a spark of warmth down her ribcage.
Before, the frustration of being overshadowed by Coco’s brilliance felt like a tendril slowly choking her on the inside.
Lately though, Agott finds herself feeling lucky. Lucky to be able to catch some of the light coming off her.
“This is dumb” she says.
Coco laughs, like she knows what Agott really means. “I know” she says with a smile that can tell, Agott will never wipe her crappy little flower doodle away.
Agott has to bite her lip to keep herself from smiling. She has an image to uphold.
“Like reallyyy dumb.”
Coco uses her pinky finger to draw another terrible crappy looking flower next to the other one in retaliation and this has Agott letting out a laugh in surprise.
She reaches out and takes Coco’s hand before it can draw a third offending flower, her own fingers getting ink on them in the process.
Coco grins and interlaces their fingers, to get maximum ink coverage and Agott feels like a child again, when her hands didn't know how to hold a pen properly, the ink spilling and staining her.
Agott takes her hand away and stares at the ink on it.
“I’m asking Professor to toss this desk out tomorrow” she says and plops three fingers in a circle on Coco’s forehead.