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“How are you so great at everything?” Asked the green haired witch. They sat almost shoulder to shoulder, Agott seemingly busy with practicing specific keystones, or perhaps creating a new spell that's somewhat helpful in a future adventure.
Coco, on the other hand, had her head laid on her arms as she watched Agott work. An answer wasn't given until Agott closed up a spell, and it created a small malleable type of stone. She played around with it, with an amused huff. “It's part of the work ethic. And determination. And a lot of motivation.”
Watching Agott so entranced into her creation, Coco just couldn't help but smile and scoot over, that they're now touching shoulders. The green haired witch then drew up the same spell, a blob of stone was now fully in her manipulation.
Agott, however, feels a bit flustered from the proximity. “You don't have to be so close..” A comment, yet it ended up sounding softer than her usual firm tone.
“What? You're flustered from a little shoulder-touching?” Coco gets into a small fit of laughter, leaving her stone worm in progress, (a brushbuddy) at bay.
The purple eyed witch blushes visibly, but keeps silent, continuing to mold what seemed like a bust. “What're you making?” Coco peers in, a bit curious now since it was just a blank, bald, and non-expressive bust.
“Isn't it obvious?” She rolls her eyes, hands still toying with the moldable stone. Hoping her tone was too unserious for Coco to be able to understand it.
“Okay, Captain Obvious. I have done nothing but be nice to you.” Rolling her eyes as well, Coco scoots back to her original place, in which Agott visibly slouches, her face flaring a silent message of utter confusion. But the pout that Coco had? It was really adorable that Agott just can't be pissed for too long. So then she looks at Coco with earnest eyes,
“..Sorry, I didn't mean to like.. Offend you.” A slurred, but awkward apology comes out of the purple eyed witch, and Coco tackles Agott down the floor in a hug, and bursts out in another fit of laughter, her head resting on the latter's shoulder.
“You really need to work on your sarcasm tone, Arklaum!” With Coco's arms wrapped around her in a hug, Agott just couldn't help but laugh along, her arms wrapped around Coco as well, holding her close. After their laughs die down into a comfortable silence, Agott stares at the ceiling, a smile adorns her face for once, seemingly genuine.
As for Coco, she feels safe within Agott's arms, yet she snuggles a bit closer onto her shoulder, feeling the need to be clingier to her.
“We can't do that! That's Agott's birthday! I promised to give something to her by then..”
“We have to do it on that date. No more extensions, Coco.”
“What's up, pup?” Agott's call broke Coco's trance, and when the purple eyed witch saw her teary eyed face, she sat them both up, her hands were already on the latter's face, wiping away stray tears.
“Something on your mind? Something about your mother?” She asks gently, while Coco just nods and moves to hug her again, but this time, it was tighter, but not too tight. With the room filled with Coco's sobs, Agott soothes her down by rubbing a hand on her back, trying her best not to overwhelm the witch.
“We're closer to finding the spell, I promise.” A white lie that Coco's always heard, yet when Agott says it, it just feels really different. As if it wasn't really a lie at all. “You think?”
“Mhm.” Hummed the righteous one. “Put your trust in us, okay?” The sobbing seemed to lessen, and Agott sighs in relief.
“I wish it were that easy.”
There was a moment of silence until a few loud squeaks came from the table, and they both were shocked to see the brushbuddy become stuck in recently hardened stone.
“I forgot I put a timer on the spell!” Agott gets panicky, well, they both do, while the poor brushbuddy tries to claw its way out of it.
In the end, they just laughed it off, with Agott learning a few things: Never cuddle with a roommate, never practice timed spells while in the midst of comforting said roommate, and keep the brushbuddy away from the study table at all costs.
“There's a week left until Agott's birthday.” Coco thought, her feet practically moving on their own as the smell of delicious soup serenaded the whole atelier. Master Qifrey, Richeh, and Tetia were out for the time being, but they never said why. Or maybe she just never heard the reason.
Her shoes clack softly on the wood, and then it stops when she hugs a familiar person from the back. Her height is just right to settle her chin on the latter's shoulder. They didn't seem surprised, just a bit flustered as their shoulders visibly tensed.
“And good morning to you too, Coco.” Agott's infamous deadpan strikes its morning bell as the gleeful witch just chuckles it off in a groggy manner.
“What're you doing?” With the reminder of Qifrey's motivational words to be curious, Coco took that way too seriously.
“I'm redrawing the spell for the food pot. Master Qifrey taught me beforehand so that the food doesn't spoil.” With that explanation, the curious witch just hums about, leaving the hug, in which Agott's body softens up, and she just sits down on a nearby chair, watching Agott work.
“Pretty, yet scared of the rain. She tends to the rows of her irises, yet her eyes are all over me.” Coco thought. It was the way Agott looks focused all the time, it was kind of driving Coco mad. She liked pissing off Agott, but sometimes she looked too good just doing normal witch stuff. And it just makes her flustered.
“Teach me too.” She expresses freely, her eyes glued on how Agott finishes up on the redrawn spell, lets it dry for a moment, and closes the pot of soup back up.
“Didn't Master Qifrey already teach you half of the basics of handling the kitchen?” Agott asks with a curious gaze, as she slides a platter of a freshly cooked meal to Coco's side of the table. With the soup pot there if ever they wanted some after the meal.
“Master Qifrey doesn't teach me enough of the damn pot. I only know how it works.” The curiosity of said witch deflates from saying that, mindlessly stabbing the vegetables with her fork lazily.
“And, I want you to teach me. You don't really do that and it's making me feel kind of left out since you teach Tetia and Richeh all your tricks.”
“I can't because I'll probably faint in doing so,” Agott thought. Yet, that thought ended up making her have a grimaced face, yet a hint of redness from her ears and cheeks were present.
“..Soon. Maybe. Perhaps.” Just a word salad at this rate. Even the great ol' Agott can't form a retort.
It was a rainy day, and poor Agott over here couldn't focus. Today was a Wednesday, which meant she was grinding extra hard to tinker with the sculpture spell. Yet that was forgotten about by the pitter-patter of the rain.
It's not that Agott hated the rain. It's just that whenever she comes to work on spells, and it suddenly rains.. She gets pissed off, and it ruins her schedule.
And that meant Coco had Agott to her whims the whole time the rain was there. So it was a win-win for everybody. And by everybody, it was every bone in Coco's body to tease Agott.
“You're going to turn fifteen in a few days. Any last words to the 14th year of your life?" The green haired witch asks, head propped up on her palms on the bed as she watches Agott scribbling on a notebook.
“You suck at processing emotions, perhaps?” Agott replied, stopping her writing, and decided to sit on her chair backwards. And never in a million lifetimes will Coco ever see Agott so lax. It was kind of refreshing.
And the reason why Agott is so lax is because she decided to soften up a whole lot more to Coco. She wanted to confess to her on her own birthday, and has been practicing the sculpture spell in private, trying to make a bigger scale of a bust of the witch she has fallen for so deeply.
She was even practicing on what to say, for god's sake! What she was scribbling earlier was stuff like:
“Maybe we should consider becoming something more?” (This is okay. I think.)
“Are you inclined to take this relationship a step further?” (Incredibly stupid, SCRATCH THAT!)
“Coco, I really like you, do you like me back?” (That's so generic… And forceful. Ew.)
Just be normal for once. Okay? You got this, I guess.
— 07/06/XXXX
And so what if they ended up talking for hours, and ended up laying next to one another, facing each other as Coco talked, and Agott listened, and listened, and listened until all was muffled.
“Pretty girl, with natural grass stained blond hair. With burn marks on her uniform, yet her eyes are all over me.” All those thoughts, complimenting everything about Coco. What Agott truly loved about her was her ability to be genuine, yet steadfast. She transcended everything Agott first thought about her.
And there ended the night where they slept in the same bed, Agott's arm numb from Coco's head, yet it never really mattered when they were comfortable in each other's presence.
“Can I tell you something on my birthday? it's really important.”
“Why can't you tell me now?”
“Because I want to make it a surprise.”
“But I have a surprise for you too!”
“Then I guess we'll have to show each other our gifts. How about we show it to each other here, in this room, after the party?”
“Mhm. I can do that.”
Today was the day, and everybody's busy. Agott was specifically told to stay put. (Said by Master Qifrey himself), while the others prepared the dinner. Coco was even busier, since she was the one handling the decoration, even though Agott told her to not go too hard on it.
But since the birthday girl couldn't stay put, she instead went ahead and gave the bust one last adjustment before hiding it in the corner of their room, covering it with a cloth, and making it seem like it blended in with the room.
After all that, she was finally called down, in which she was showered with immense love, getting hugs from everybody, all of them having presents of their own, but Coco insisted hers come last, and she intends on keeping their promise from a day ago.
The atelier was busy, yet happy at the same time during the night. It took a while for everything to settle down, and Agott had to help with putting down the decorations, which she didn't mind. Considering she was bored half of the day and overthinking the whole confession conundrum in her head.
“How was the party?” Qifrey asks with a big smile on his face. He's always so smug.
“It was enjoyable.” Agott replies, yet in truth, she loved it. She sat next to Coco the entire time and everybody was just giving her a few “I know what you are..” looks. It was funny, even to her, actually. How everybody but the person herself doesn't even know.
“Enjoyable is an understatement.” The master witch chuckles softly, petting her head softly, in which Agott feels comfortable with.
“Hope everything goes well with Coco,” He adds in a whisper, wherein Agott crosses her arms, feeling a bit flushed.
Speaking of, after Qifrey left, Coco approached the birthday girl, and even came in with a really good mood.
“How about you go in the room first? I'll follow up.” They had a small staring contest until Agott nodded softly.
“Yeah, sure. Don't make me wait for too long.” Said the purple eyed witch with a smile. She didn't even know she grabbed the latter's hand and intertwined it with her own.
“..Agott?”
“S..Sorry, my bad. You can go get your gift.” They both chuckle, before Agott walks up to their room, while Coco goes downstairs to the underground rooms to grab the surprise.
As Agott entered the room, the stars were twinkling, and the window was open. The same window she flew in and Coco saw her for the first time. But before sitting down on it, she approached the covered bust, and took off the cloth, looking at it again. It was Coco's smiling face, her head with a flower wreath as her eyes were closed. Agott places a hand on its cheek one last time, before covering it back up with the cloth.
She then prepares herself, sitting on the window frame, waiting in hopes of finally being able confess every single feeling, negative or positive. She was willing to bare her heart to her, be vulnerable for once.
She started rehearsing her lines, fixing her posture, looking at the room every now and then, until it felt like it was taking too long.
“Did she forget? She can't, possibly. That'd be..” She started talking to herself, until a familiar pink haired witch barges in with a very panicked and serious face.
“Agott, Coco is missing!”
Everything just slowed in Agott's eyes. Voices were muffled, the creaking of wood from people running in the atelier. The purple eyed witch found it in herself to get off of the window, but her feet never moved any further. Her eyes, devoid of life, as if the grim reaper sucked it out of her.
Qifrey rushed to check in on her, only for shock to flash across his face as he saw the poor girl too stunned to move. “Agott, stay put, okay? We'll find her for you. You can join in later on.” He says in an effort to bring Agott a sense of comfort, but it was only a dead letter in her hands.
As he leaves, he makes an effort to find Coco for her, even if it costs him his life. The urgency in his eyes spoke in volumes, and before Agott knew it, stray tears started to flow down her own eyes.
“Pretty girl, consumed by death. With the holes in her heart, she lies. With her eyes all over me, over me, over me.”
Teleported from the basement, to an empty labyrinth, Coco walks with Iguin, the Brimmed Cap praising her for her good decision.
“Bravo, child. Bravo!” Iguin’s voice echoes through the chambers of the labyrinth. “It was about time you joined us, Coco. A marvelous act you've given Qifrey and his apprentices. You even managed to move me with your little love story.” He adds, even with a gesture such as clapping to help soothe the tension.
“Don't worry, we even managed to help with the de-pretrification spell for your mother. I'll pay you back nicely. You'll love it here.”
All those years manipulating, pulling at Coco's mental strings, it broke her senseless. Even Agott couldn't save her. Even if she wanted to stay, the Brimmed Caps would rather skin everybody in the atelier alive to have her. She mulled over it for so long, yet never found it in herself to leave Agott a goodbye. Because she knew if she did, she'd find it harder to leave. Both options were bad, but she couldn't find it in her body to choose violence over submitting to the society that the Pointed Hats hated with every inch of their body.
It was hypocritical, at best. Once she gets inked, she'll never have a place in society anymore. And not to anyone. And she's ashamed of that. Embarrassed. The guilt settled somewhere deep within her chest, heavy and unmoving. And the only way she knew how to bear it was to sculpt what she loved the most. A memory she kept saving.
Agott Arklaum.