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It took Coco a moment to realize why exactly she felt there was something strange about what she saw when she walked into their room. Agott was at her desk with her usual hard-at-work expression, the one she wore whenever she was working on her circles, focused yet serene, almost solemn. It was easily in Coco's top three of Agott expressions.
It was only when Agott paused to consider her work, absently brushing her lips with her quill, that it hit Coco: Agott was using a regular quill instead of her wand. She wasn't drawing, she was writing. Coco didn't think she'd ever seen Agott or Richeh write before. Neither of them seemed to be very interested in keeping in touch with other witches outside the atelier, and they had little practical use for it. Tetia was another matter: Coco had seen her send a few letters, and she also enjoyed writing for less practical reasons (Coco suspected she was simultaneously working on a cookbook, a novel, and a diary).
But Agott, writing? This was new. Someone less familiar with the girl might have suspected Agott was working on a letter of great importance, that only a most dire matter could have her considering her words so carefully, writing with such practiced precision, but Coco knew better. This was just how Agott worked. She didn't do half measures: anything worth her effort was also worth her entire attention, no matter how significant or insignificant it might be. It had been entirely too endearing, if a little silly, that time Coco had caught her moving a plant to a new pot with the same grave expression she'd seen on doctors treating severely ill patients.
So Coco did not know, really, how important whatever Agott was writing could be, but she definitely knew that Agott cared about it, because Agott cared about everything, even when she often pretended she didn't care about most things.
All this to say, Coco was not about to pull a Coco and annoy Agott by distracting her from her work at the wrong time.
It turned out, she didn't have to. Agott put down the quill and turned around to look at her.
They stared at each other in silence.
“Did you need anything, Coco?” Agott asked calmly.
“I didn't want to interrupt…” Coco said, feeling guilty of having done exactly that.
Agott frowned for a moment.
“I don't mind,” she said, and really seemed to mean it.
“I, um, was just coming to check in on you. You've been in here a while. And, um, I thought you might want to have some tea with us.”
Coco really had to wonder how transparent she was being about the fact that she just had some flimsy excuses and really just missed Agott despite the fact that they saw each other all the time and even shared a room. If Agott noticed, she didn't show it. She merely blinked and gave her a small smile.
“Sure,” she said, “I'll be down in a minute, I'm almost done with my letter anyway.”
“Oh!” Coco said, slightly surprised at how easy that had been, “okay. Um. Great.”
They stared at each other in silence. Coco had to leave. She had to take the win. She had to not ruin this.
“Did you…need anything else?” Agott asked.
“Who are you writing to?” Coco's dumb mouth blurted out before she could stop herself. She sighed. Agott was going to hate her for being so nosy and uncouth and dumb and–
“Oh,” Agott said, “Just Jujy. Don't worry, it's nothing serious.”
Coco stared.
“Jujy?” She repeated dumbly, like a dumb person who was dumb.
“Yes, the girl from Silver Eve, remember?”
“I know who she is!” Coco said, a bit too loud.
“Oh. Well, I just thought I'd thank her again. She was very helpful that night.”
“Oh. Haha, yeah. That makes sense. Leave it to you to be thorough and thoughtful like that.”
Agott's jaw clenched slightly as she looked to the side, slightly flustered by the compliment (another top three Agott expression! Wow!).
“She was very competent and mature,” Agott went on, “not a bad friend to have.”
Coco smiled. She couldn't do much else. Of course. Agott had met a cool witch their age who was clever and cool and pretty and cool and kind and cool and now Agott was writing letters to her and it was all very normal and reasonable (and cool) and really, Coco should have seen this coming.
“Coco?” Agott asked. Coco realized she'd zoned out and missed something.
“Um, yeah?” She asked. Why couldn't she stop embarrassing herself in front of Agott?
“I asked, is everything okay?”
“Oh. Oh! Yes! Everything is fine, perfect, peachy! I'll, uh, downstairs. Tea. And all that.”
Agott nodded.
“I'll be right there,” she said.
Coco nodded.
“Cool. Great. Agotta go. I mean, um. Sorry. Bye.”
And with that she turned around and left the room, closed the door behind her, and leaned back against it, eyes closed.
She sighed.
She opened her eyes.
Tetia and Richeh were right in front of her, staring at her. Coco scrambled to adopt a composed posture.
“Hi,” she said.
The girls kept staring.
“Uh, weren't you guys supposed to get started with the tea?”
“You were taking too long,” Tetia said.
“Suspicious,” Richeh added.
“I was not!” Coco said, her voice rising and octave.
“Is Agott not joining us, then?” Tetia asked, looking at the closed door over Coco's shoulder.
“She is. She just needs to finish something first,” Coco said, being very casual and cool about it.
“Told you she'd agree if we sent Coco,” Richeh said, nodding as if she was basking in her own wisdom.
“No one sends Coco,” Tetia said, “Coco happens.”
“Hey!”
“What? I didn't say it was a bad thing.”
“Can we not have this conversation here? Agott is busy, I don't want to disturb her,” Coco said, pushing them down the hallway.
“Suspicious,” Richeh said again.
“Nothing about this is suspicious,” Coco said, “we're just letting Agott work on her letter in peace while we enjoy a nice cup of tea together.”
Suddenly, the two girls froze in their places, no longer allowing Coco to push them. They turned around as one.
“A letter?” Tetia asked.
“Hm,” Richeh said.
“I don't remember Agott ever writing a letter in all our time here.”
“Sus–”
“Richeh, I swear, if you say ‘suspicious’ one more time,” Coco threatened.
“Hm.”
“Must be important,” Tetia went on, clearly intrigued. Richeh nodded.
“She's just writing to a friend she– we made during Silver Eve, okay? No biggie.”
The other two looked at her. Tetia shrugged.
“Okay,” she said, turning around, grabbing Richeh's arm and began to drag her along, “Tea, right?”
“Um, right,” Coco said, following them. It was fine. Everything was fine. She could do this.
“Must be some friend,” Tetia mused.
She could not do this.
Coco was slumped on the table, absently stirring her tea. She sighed.
Tetia looked at Richeh. Richeh looked back at her. They both looked at Coco.
“Everything okay?” Tetia tried.
“Uh-huh,” Coco said.
Richeh sipped some tea.
“Anything you want to talk about?” Tetia asked.
“Nuh-uh,” Coco said.
“Who's this new friend anyway?” Richeh asked. Coco's stirring suddenly gained force, almost knocking the teacup over, then stabilized.
“No one!” She said, “well, not no one-no one, obviously. Someone. Well, not just someone, that's rude isn't it? Some girl. Wait, no, that's worse. Ugh,” she rested her forehead against the table, “Jujy,” she said without looking up, “her name is Jujy.”
“And you don't like Jujy because…” Tetia said, trying to encourage Coco to go on. Coco sat up, eyes wide.
“What? No! I like Jujy! Jujy is great! She was so helpful! And nice! And cool!”
“Oh. Oh!” Tetia said.
“I don't get it,” Richeh said.
“She likes Jujy,” Tetia said knowingly. Richeh frowned.
“What. No she doesn't, she likes–”
Tetia elbowed her.
“I do not!” Coco said, “Agott likes her, obviously!”
“Uh-huh,” Tetia said, “and that's a problem because…” she tried again.
“There is no problem! Who said there was a problem?”
“There's a problem?” Agott asked from the doorway behind Coco.
Coco froze. She smiled and turned around.
“Nope,” she said.
Agott looked at her for a few seconds.
“Okay,” she said as she sat next to Coco, “what are we having?”
“Richeh special,” Richeh said proudly, referring to the herbal blend she had perfected during her stay at the atelier.
“Nice,” Agott said as she poured herself a cup.
“Who's Jujy?” Richeh asked.
Coco, who'd finally begun drinking her tea, spat it. Agott looked at her, confused.
“Are you okay?” She asked.
“I'm sorry,” Coco said, wiping the tea off her clothes, “I mentioned your letter to them. I didn't mean to–”
“It's fine,” Agott said as she grabbed a napkin and began to help Coco with her clothes, entirely unaware of the way Coco's eyes fixed on her as she worked, “it wasn't exactly a secret missive, Coco.”
“Oh. Um. Okay.”
Agott pulled back, frowning as she inspected Coco.
“Coco. Are you…afraid of me?”
“W-what?” Coco asked weakly.
“I suppose it's my fault. I've been unkind to you. I just thought, after that night–,” Agott paused, sparing a glance towards Tetia and Richeh. Ah well, Tetia would have to wait until some other time to hear more about ‘that night’, “I thought maybe I'd made it clear that you have nothing to fear from me.”
“I– no! Nonononono!” Coco said, waving her arms in that panicked way of hers, “Agott, I'm not afraid of you!”
“Then why are you acting like I might lose my temper so easily at you?”
“I'm not! That's not it at all!”
“Then what is it?”
“She thinks you're cool,” Richeh whispered into her teacup, loud enough for all to hear. Tetia elbowed her again.
“I don't think she's cool!” Coco protested, slamming her hands on the table, “Agott is cool!”
Wait. Maybe Richeh was onto something.
“What does that have to do with–” Agott began.
“You're cool, and awesome, and I'm just–” Coco sighed, “I just don't want to be the dumb outsider you need to look after forever, okay? I want to be reliable. A-and helpful! Like Jujy! And not spill tea on my robes!”
Agott and Coco looked into each other's eyes for a second. Then Agott took her hand to her mouth and laughed a soft, musical laugh Tetia did not remember hearing before.
“Third top three…” Coco mumbled, barely audible and completely nonsensical.
“Coco, I thought we had an understanding,” Agott said, hiding her smile behind her mouth, “we look after each other.”
She turned to look at Tetia and Richeh, suddenly serious.
“All of us,” she said.
Tetia nodded.
“That's right,” Richeh said.
“Besides,” Agott said, “you don't need to be helpful and reliable like Jujy. I like that you're helpful and reliable like Coco.”
“Uh…” Coco said.
“Great,” Richeh said, “she broke her.”
Suddenly, Agott's eyes widened as she seemed to realize what she was saying.
Tetia let out a small sigh. And here she thought they might be done with the patented Arklaum emotional walls.
Agott rose from her seat, her fists tight.
“Now, if you'll excuse me, I forgot to alphabetize my library.”
“But it's already alphabetized…” Coco mumbled as she watched Agott hurriedly walk away, “I–”
She froze, staring into the darkness Agott had disappeared into.
“Agott, wait!” She said as she chased after her, “I want to hear more about what you like about me!”
Richeh sipped her tea.
“You think they'll figure it out?” She asked.
Tetia scoffed.
“In a month or two, maybe.”