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The sun coming in through the window is blinding.
No matter how Agott twists and turns, she can’t seem to avoid it. She’s tried sitting at both her desk and in her bedroom, but everywhere is just too bright. It’s only midday, and it certainly doesn’t appear as if the weather is going to change any time soon, which means she’s stuck in the light for several more clock marks.
She bites the inside of her cheek, burying her head in her hands. It wouldn’t be so bad, if not for the debilitating ache pulsing through her skull. She can hardly think over it, let alone study. She’d like to take the third test as soon as possible—both for her own sake and for Coco’s—but she’s getting absolutely nowhere with that right now.
Somewhere outside of her and Coco’s shared study room, she can hear the other three girls screeching with laughter. They must be done with lunch, then. Which means Coco will be parading back in here with all her bluster and vivid smiles that put even the sun to shame, and Agott quite literally cannot handle that right now. She’s long-since gotten over her initial distaste towards Coco, but that doesn’t mean the sound of her voice and having to watch her moving around won’t aggravate the pain Agott is barely managing.
She digs her fingers into her hair, blunt nails pressing into her scalp, and tries to pour all of her focus into breathing.
Inhale, exhale.
Her head just continues pounding.
And this is how Coco finds her, when she throws open the door and skips into the room. Agott lifts her gaze just enough to glare, but it must not come across quite right, because when Coco immediately freezes, it’s with a concerned expression instead of a wary one.
She turns, closing the door quickly but quietly, then strides over to Agott, worrying her lip between her teeth all the while. “Is something wrong? I’m sorry if we were being a bit loud, I know you’re trying to study—”
“It’s fine,” Agott lies through a clenched jaw. “I don’t mind.”
Coco tilts her head. “Are you sure? You look a little, um…”
Agott’s glare hardens. Maybe if she acts mean enough, Coco will just leave her alone. She can apologize tomorrow, after she’s gotten some sleep in the quiet dark. Usually, that’s enough to soothe the problem. Until then, she just has to power through.
“…hurt?” Coco finishes sheepishly. She fiddles with the fabric of her dress. Agott presses her eyes shut, but it doesn’t offer much relief when this entire room is just so bright.
“It’s just a headache,” she replies, hating the monumental effort it takes to keep her voice steady. “I’m fine.” She has to be, because it’s literally just a headache. It’s not an excuse to stop studying or play sick. She couldn’t run to the Medical Spire in the Great Hall every time her head started to hurt, and she certainly can’t bother Qifrey with this now when the closest doctors are in Kalhn. It’s not that big of a deal. Everyone gets headaches sometimes, and they all just keep working through them. So Agott will do the same.
“It looks like it’s a pretty bad headache,” Coco whispers. “I know witches can’t learn about medicine, but…is there anything that could be done to make it hurt less? A cooling pack, maybe?”
Agott starts to shake her head no, but the movement has nausea welling in her stomach, so she stops. “N-no, I’m fine, Coco. Really. You don’t have to coddle me just ‘cause my head hurts. I’m sure you’ve got better stuff to do.”
She figures that will be the end of it. There’s no need for her to waste Coco’s time—or anyone else’s, for that matter. She’s assured Coco that she can deal with it herself and she knows she’s just being overdramatic about a little pain, which means Coco should just leave the matter alone. At least for long enough that Agott can get herself together.
Instead, Coco shifts, reaching for a blank sheet of paper on Agott’s desk. “It isn’t meant to be coddling,” she says. She takes a pen and ink from Agott’s things too, even though it’s not as if her own things are that far away. But Agott is too out of it to argue over that right now. “And I know headaches aren’t at all uncommon, but I also know some people get them a lot worse than others. Mine are never too bad, and I usually only get them if I haven’t been drinking enough water or I didn’t get enough sleep or I’m just sick for other reasons. But my mama would get them really bad sometimes—so bad she’d have to go lay down in the dark with a cool, wet, cloth over her head. She had some sort of medicine for it too, but I’m not really sure what it was…” Coco shakes her head. “Anyway, what I’m saying is, you look like your headache is more like my mama’s than mine. So…”
She finishes a spell Agott hadn’t even realized she was drawing, creating a cooling pack like she did for Qifrey in the Great Hall back after the incident at Serpent’s Pass. She’s perfected the spell since then, so it holds shape better and lasts longer. And when she leans forward, Agott lets her pry her hands away, substituting them for the cooling back instead.
“O-oh,” she whimpers, because—it feels so nice. Her eyelids flutter shut, and she takes a deep breath. It doesn’t chase the pain away entirely, but it does offer relief. More than Agott expected, if she’s being honest.
“Is that okay?” Coco asks hesitantly. Agott can picture the furrow of her brow even with her eyes shut.
She nods, swallowing thickly. Then, she cracks her eyes open once more just to see the smile she knows will appear on Coco’s face at the affirmative response.
Sure enough, she grins like it’s the greatest news she’s ever heard. And it’s so very bright, but it doesn’t worsen Agott’s pain at all—if anything, it serves to distract her from it. For as long as she stares into Coco’s shining eyes, she can focus only on the warmth seeping through her chest rather than the pulsating ache that has been overwhelming her senses all morning. Maybe she doesn’t need any sort of medicine at all when she has Coco by her side.
“Do you want to lay down?” Coco asks. “I can tell Qifrey-sensei you aren’t feeling well—”
“No!” Agott replies quickly. She shakes her head emphatically, and then immediately regrets it when a fresh wave of pain hits. Her stomach rolls, and she lists to the side—only for Coco to catch her before the dizziness can make her lose her balance while she’s literally already sitting. And she knows she should be humiliated by it—she is, somewhere in the back of her mind—but her thoughts are all jumbled and all she can really focus on is just how warm and comfortable Coco is. Better than her bed, even. Plus, when she twists her head and buries her face in the fabric of Coco’s clothing, she can block out the light better than anywhere else.
Against all better judgment, her body begins to relax.
Coco doesn’t push her off or anything either. She breathes out a sigh that Agott can feel more than hear, and then places a hand in her hair, idly running her fingers through it. “I don’t think you can use the cooling pack very well like this,” she comments.
So? Agott thinks. Although, even with her newly-acquired pillow and the darkness it offers, her head is still hurting pretty badly without Coco’s spell. Besides, she really shouldn’t spend the entire afternoon clinging to Coco, preventing her from doing any studying of her own. She told Agott she wanted them to take on the Tower of Tomes together, after all.
She lets out a quiet groan before prying herself away from Coco. It’s worth it when that allows her to see Coco’s smile again, though—softer around the edges now, but still just as pretty. When this headache passes, Agott is seriously going to hate herself for not suppressing these thoughts running rampant, but it’s much too difficult to wrangle any mental spirals right now. And admiring Coco really isn’t the worst thing in the worst. Right now, it’s just making her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
“I’ll walk you to your room,” Coco offers. She stands, then offers Agott a hand.
Agott looks away. “It’s…too bright in there.”
Coco scrunches up her brow. Her gaze drifts over to the window, and she mumbles to herself as she taps a finger against her chin. Agott sort of just watches as she brings the cooling pack back to her head. Admittedly, her room is darker than out here, but it also doesn’t have Coco in it. If she’s going to be suffering from light exposure either way, she’d rather be by Coco.
(Is there something wrong with her? Why is she feeling so clingy all of a sudden? She should just go—)
Coco snaps her fingers. “I’ve got it! You head to your room; I’ll be there in just a moment.”
With that, she darts away.
Agott blinks as she leaves. After several moments where her brain catches up with everything that just happened, and then promptly shuts down again on account of the impending shame spiral, she hauls herself to her feet and trudges into her bedroom. She throws herself onto her bed, lying the cooling pack over her eyes in an attempt to block out some of the light while also numbing the pain.
It doesn’t take long for Coco to return, barging into the room with armfuls of thick, black, fabric.
“Blackout curtains!” she explains. “I remembered Olly-sensei had some in his room. I asked if you could borrow them, don’t worry!”
Just as she says that, Olruggio steps into the room behind her, looking as if he was just woken up from a nap. Although, Agott supposes that isn’t an abnormal appearance for him regardless of when the last time he slept was.
“Sor—” she starts.
Olruggio waves his hand vaguely. “You obviously need them more than I do right now. Coco and I will hang them up, then leave you to rest.”
Agott feels bad just sitting by uselessly while Coco and Olruggio replace the curtains over her window with the ones from Olruggio’s room, but also, as soon as the original curtains are even moved aside to take them down, she has to turn her back and squeeze her eyes shut, pressing the heels of her hands against them in order to block out the light.
Thankfully, the process doesn’t take too long to complete. Olruggio carries out the old curtains, claiming that it’s probably about time to wash them anyway, which leaves Agott and Coco alone in a room that is now sufficiently dark. Agott settles back into her bed, lying on her back and exhaling slowly.
“Coco?” she asks, before she can stop the word from slipping off her tongue.
“Hm?”
“I don’t…” She presses her lips together, not quite sure how to phrase her thoughts. You don’t think I’m overreacting? sounds pitiful, but it’s the reaction she’s gotten from everyone else, until she learned it was better to simply not speak up when she was in this sort of pain. Coco is the only one to suggest maybe her headaches really are worth the attention she tried to get for them when she was little.
She swallows thickly. “Do you really think…that my headache pain might be worse than other people’s?”
After a moment of silence, she cracks one eye open to find Coco frowning down at her.
“Wh—”
“I’d say there’s no doubt they are,” Coco interrupts. “The Agott I know would never let something like this slow her down if it wasn’t serious. If anyone thinks you’re exaggerating your pain, they must not know you very well.” She says it with a sense of finality, like there’s no space for argument.
Agott doesn’t have the energy for a fight regardless, so she simply closes her eyes and mumbles out a, “Thanks,” as her lips twitch up into a slight smile.
“Rest well, Agott,” Coco replies. Her fingers brush against Agott’s shoulder, and then she slips out of the room.
Agott drifts off to sleep with a smile still on her face.