Chapter Text
Agatha wasn't ashamed of her sexuality. That wasn't why she'd been sitting in her car for the last 30 minutes while she tried to build up the courage to go inside. No, that was another reason, one that was entirely to do with the hot Latina who had just walked out to flip the ‘closed’ sign to ‘open’.
Agatha had mentioned wanting a tattoo to Jen and Wanda before, but often after a few glasses of wine when Nicky was asleep, and always as a joke. They'd laugh about how funny it would be for her to come out to her students through a tattoo, get distracted by some gossip Jen’s girlfriend had told her, and move on.
She never thought she'd be sitting in her car, a design ready in her phone gallery, trying to build up the nerve to walk into the tattoo parlour.
Just do it, she told herself, if you don't go in now, you never will.
Cursing herself for ever having this idea, and her friends for encouraging it, Agatha entered the parlour, glancing towards the door as she heard the faint tinkle of a bell echo from above her.
Her gaze was first drawn to the giant Pride flag that was hung behind the counter that held a cash register, and the tension she held in her shoulders relaxed slightly.
“No, Mamá, no puedo venir el fin de semana. Porque tengo que trabajar, Mamá!”
Agatha's head snapped to where the Latina woman had entered the main room from a side office, talking in animated Spanish while her phone was held to her ear. When she noticed Agatha, she hurriedly muttered a goodbye and put her phone in her pocket, before leaning on the counter. She looked Agatha up and down approvingly, and suddenly grinned widely at her, showing a slight gap between her front two teeth.
“I'm Rio. What's your name?” her voice was different when speaking English - lower, slightly less animated.
“Agatha.”
Rio nodded. “Are you here for a tattoo or a piercing?”
“Tattoo, please.” Agatha replied calmly. Rio hummed and walked over to a chair that was partly obscured by various earring displays. Agatha took the opportunity to look over her outfit: a forest green, short sleeved blouse with the front neatly tucked into grey jeans. Her hair was tucked into a claw clip and she had curtain bangs framing her face.
Agatha stayed by the counter, unsure whether she should follow or not, when Rio turned back to her and crooked her index and middle finger in a beckoning motion, and any rational thoughts in Agatha's brain evaporated. Rio smirked when she walked over with very little hesitation.
Agatha pulled out her phone and located the image of the design in her gallery: a butterfly in the lesbian colours. “I'd like this on the inside of my wrist.” She didn't ask - if Rio refused or couldn't do it, she'd find another place to get it done.
Agatha thought she saw a flicker of recognition in Rio's eyes when she looked at the image, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. “I'm surprised you're not going for purple.” Rio's lips twitched at Agatha’s confused expression, and she gestured at her dark purple blazer and nails that were painted lilac.
“Well, when they add purple to the lesbian flag, I'll consider it.” Agatha quipped, and felt a light flutter in her stomach at the grin that it produced from Rio.
“You make a fair argument.” Rio hummed and gestured to the chair in front of her. “Take a seat, m'lady.”
45 minutes later, Agatha had learned that getting a tattoo in an area of the body with a thin layer of skin was very rarely a good idea, and the only reason Rio hadn't had to pause to give her time to recover partway through was due to her unreasonably high tolerance for pain. Her mother could take the credit for that, she thought bitterly, but pushed that particular thought to the back of her head in an attempt to focus on Rio instead.
She stood up to roll her shoulders and was about to flex her right wrist - it had started to go numb from a mixture of getting tattooed and being still for so long - when Rio's hand shot out to grab her forearm.
“Don't move it yet.”Agatha was tempted to move it just because she'd been told not to, but something about Rio's grip on her arm made her freeze.
“Why not?” She questioned, pushing down the part of her that had reacted to the woman's touch and masking it with irritation.
“There's rules about tattoos that you need to know before you leave. I need to cover it, and I have a booklet with instructions to give you.”
Agatha watched as Rio carefully wrapped her wrist with cling film, handed her a small leaflet, paused, and then grabbed it back to scribble something on it. When Agatha regained possession of the paper, she stayed still for a few seconds in case Rio was yet again possessed by the sudden need to write over her instructions.
When the leaflet remained in her hand, she stepped towards the counter and reached for her wallet.
“How much?”
Rio's lips pursed as she moved to stand behind the counter. “Would you accept it if I told you that it's free for beautiful women?”
Agatha's eyes narrowed and she slid her card across the counter that now stood between them. “No, although the compliment is appreciated. How much for the tattoo, Rio?”
Rio poked her tongue into the inside of her cheek as she thought, and the effort it took for Agatha not to let her eyes track the movement should be studied.
After what felt like an eternity, she sighed and pointed to a small sign on the counter that detailed prices for timings, as well as the size and complexity of the design. Agatha frowned at the lack of verbal response, but quickly did the maths. “$65.”
Rio nodded and a smirk tugged at her lips. “If you won't let it be free, I figured I could at least make you work to know the price. Cash or card?”
Agatha snorted slightly at Rio's response. When the payment went through, she took the card back and walked to the door.
As it shut behind her, she heard Rio shout, “Follow the instructions and come back if you need anything!”
Agatha shook her head, though a small, amused smile teased at her lips, and fished in her bag for her keys to unlock her car.
The minute Agatha connected her phone to her car's Bluetooth, the ringtone she’d specifically set to Wanda’s contact filled the space. She groaned and accepted the call.
“Thank God you picked up! You've been at the tattoo parlour for nearly two hours!”
“Wanda, the tattoo itself took about 45 minutes, and Rio made me calculate the price-” Agatha paused as she replayed what Wanda had said, “How do you know where I am?”
Her friend's sheepish silence told Agatha everything she needed to know. “You were looking at my location!”
“Just to make sure you were okay! I knew you had to pick up Nicky from school today and if you were going to be late I could have picked him up when I got Billy and Tommy.”
Agatha forced her instinctive annoyance at the lack of privacy to the back of her mind as she considered how helpful Wanda's plan actually was. She checked her phone: 2:45pm. “Actually, Wanda, are you still able to pick up Nicky? I need to buy some-” she glanced at the booklet she'd been given, “non-scented body wash.”
As she flipped the leaflet over to check if there was any more information she needed to know immediately, she froze as she saw a hastily scribbled message and a string of numbers. Agatha's eyebrows shot up towards her hairline when she realised that Rio had left her a message: ‘Agatha, text me if you have any questions about taking care of the tattoo. Or if you're interested in being friends.’
Something about the tone of Rio's message - and the way she'd been looking at Agatha during her appointment - suggested to her that she didn't mean being strictly friends.
“Agatha?” Wanda's voice broke through her thoughts and the leaflet was thrown towards the passenger seat, despite Wanda being unable to see that Agatha had been staring good at the messy writing for longer than was necessary.
“Don’t you have kids to pick up from school, including mine?” she snapped as she retrieved the booklet of instructions, folded it and shoved it into the glove compartment in front of the passenger seat before ending the call with Wanda and driving away from the tattoo parlour.
By the time Agatha arrived home, she had spent 45 minutes searching for the recommended brand of body wash, as well as some E45 to keep in the bathroom. She hung her coat on the hook by the door and made her way towards the kitchen, where she was greeted by Wanda’s voice, the laughter of three children, and four plates: one empty, three close enough to avoid a lecture.
Agatha pressed a kiss to Nicky's head and smiled gratefully towards her friend. “You fed them? I didn't ask you to do that.”
Wanda shook her head and started to empty the plates and place them in the dishwasher. “You didn't have to, Agatha. That's what friends do. They were all just about to start their homework.” her eyebrow raised as Nicky bounded towards his backpack while the twins pulled faces but trudged up the stairs, their school bags in tow.
“How do you keep Nicky so excited about homework? The boys act like I’ve just told them they’re banned from doing anything fun for life when I tell them to do theirs.”
Agatha chuckled and shook her head. “He's been taught that not getting his homework done means I won't play Mariokart with him, or we only get to watch half a film if it's movie night. I'm really bad at it and he loves watching me lose my mind at the fake players.” She raised her voice just enough to be sure that the boys could hear her from upstairs. “Either way, Billy should have his homework already done, considering I assigned it to him last week!”
Agatha cackled as her teasing was met with a slammed door, though it swiftly died as Wanda spoke, “You mentioned a ‘Rio’ on the phone earlier.”
Agatha groaned. “She was my tattoo artist, did you expect me not to know her name?”
“You repeatedly call Sharon ‘Mrs Hart’. You've done it to her face at least twice!”
Wanda’s objection was met with a scoff. “Mrs-Sharon is a nosy chatterbox. Maybe I'd remember her name if she stopped talking so much!”
Agatha paused her tirade when Wanda slid a glass of wine over to her. “Is this for me?”
Wanda sighed. “It's certainly not for me, I have to drive the boys home later.”
At the confirmation, Agatha smirked and took a long sip from the glass, before placing it down as her eyebrows knitted together in a frown. “Wanda,” she began, her tone laced with suspicion, “was this an effort to ply me with alcohol so I'll tell you about Rio?”
Wanda shook her head and feigned an affronted expression. “Of course not! That was so you'd relax a bit, your shoulders are tense.”
While Agatha relaxed her shoulders, Wanda refilled her glass. “This is so you'll tell me about Rio.”
“Wanda!” Agatha raised her voice and pushed the glass away. Her action was met with a laugh as her friend jokingly pushed the glass back to her. “Just tell me two things about her.”
Agatha made a show of rolling her eyes and sighing dramatically, though she conceded, aware that only sharing two pieces of information was the best deal she was going to get. “She's hot and she gave me her phone number.”
Wanda gasped. “She gave you her phone number?” At Agatha’s nod, the questioning continued, “How hot is she? Was she flirting with you? Are you going to text her?”
As Wanda asked her fourth question, Agatha groaned and dropped her head into her hands. “Stop asking me things. If, and that’s a big if, anything happens between us, I will tell you.”
“So you want something to happen between you two?”
“Wanda!”
“Okay, fine, I’ll stop!”
“Thank you.” Agatha thanked any and every deity that existed that she’d managed to get Wanda to stop talking, as less than 5 minutes later, Nicky ran down the stairs, followed closely by Billy and Tommy.
“Mama! We finished our homework!” Agatha smiled at her son and playfully glared at Billy. “Have you finished your homework, Teen?”
Billy nodded. “It was mostly already done, I just needed to add a conclusion.” His response was met with a hum and a raised eyebrow. Luckily for him, any retort that was about to be fired at him was interrupted Wanda thanking Agatha for letting them stay for a little bit after they'd eaten. Agatha rolled her eyes, fully aware that the only reason they'd stayed was so that she could be interrogated.
Wanda ignored Agatha's reaction and continued to speak. “Now, I need to get these two,” she gestured to Billy and Tommy, who groaned in unison, “home before we're all up too late tomorrow morning.”
“Goodnight Billy, see you soon Toby. Wanda, I'll text you tomorrow, if not later.” Agatha watched the trio leave, then turned to Nicky and crouched down, smiling as her open arms were instantly wrapped around her 6 year old.
“How was school, baby? I'm sorry I couldn't pick you up today.”
“It was so fun, Mama! We did reading and addition!” Agatha stood and Nicky continued to ramble about his day while she reorganised the living room, which was slightly untidy after having excitable children over unexpectedly, and tuned out the boring parts of her son’s chatter. While tuning out your child while they were talking wasn’t exactly recommended in the various parenting books available, Agatha had never missed anything important before, and she was fairly confident that today’s conversation wouldn't include anything too significant.
As she cleaned, the sleeve of her blazer shifted, and allowed Nicky a glimpse of the colourful butterfly that now lived on her wrist.
“Mama, why's your wrist got colour on it?”
Agatha held in a sigh as she, not for the first time, wondered what she’d done to end up with such a curious child. While most of the time Nicky’s endless curiosity and questions about the world he lived in made Agatha proud, and had led to many humorous conversations in the past, it now meant that she’d have to explain a tattoo to a 6 year old.
“Well Nicky, I had a day off work today and a nice lady drew this for me. It’s made of ink, so it won’t wash off, but I have to be careful with it for a few weeks, so I bought some non-scented things like body wash on my way home. That’s why Wanda picked you up today, and I didn’t.”
Nicky's lips curved into a little ‘o’ of surprise. “Is it forever?”
Agatha nodded. “Yes, baby. It's forever. That's why I was really careful with the design I chose. I actually chose it a week ago, but I waited until today to do it because I wanted to make sure I'd like it when it was done.”
Her son nodded slowly, his eyes wide. “Can I ask two more questions before bedtime?”
Agatha checked the clock on the kitchen wall. “How about you ask me your questions while we get ready for bed?”
Nicky nodded enthusiastically and bounded up the stairs to his bedroom. After he had wriggled into his pyjamas, he frowned and turned to Agatha. “Who were you and Aunt Wanda talking about earlier?”
Agatha froze, unaware that he'd been able to hear them from upstairs. “Just the woman who did my tattoo today. Aunt Wanda was trying to get me to contact her.”
“Why?”
Agatha’s eyes met her son's. “Because she asked me to contact her if I wanted to be friends, and Aunt Wanda seems to think that I'd want to call or text her. Go brush your teeth.”
When Nicky returned to his room a few minutes later, he bounced onto his bed and his eyes never strayed from the woman in front of him. “Do you want to?”
“You asked for two questions, not three.” Although it was delivered with a teasing smile, Agatha's response was quick, and her son accepted it immediately with a small nod, though a small frown still tugged at his eyebrows. “Now, I believe it's time for you to go to bed so that we can both be on time for school tomorrow.”
After Agatha had tucked Nicky in, she went through the motions of getting herself ready for bed, though her thoughts were elsewhere.
By the time she'd shuffled under her blankets, every thought that wasn't about teaching the next day was taken up by Rio.
Rio, with her stupid little gap between her front two teeth.
Rio, who'd effortlessly teased her, despite Agatha's initial curtness.
Rio, whose ability to instantly switch from speaking frustrated Spanish to polite, even friendly, English had impressed her. She wanted to hear more of it.
Muttering to herself in frustration, Agatha reached for her phone. She was about to type ‘Rio’ into Instagram's search bar, but paused when she realised that she had no idea what her last name was. She barely managed to stop herself from screaming in annoyance as it took her three attempts to type ‘Green Witch Tattoo Parlour Rio’ into Google, not wanting to wake up Nicky.
Her efforts were rewarded when Rio Vidal was listed as the owner of the tattoo shop she had spent almost two hours at that day. Smirking in victory, Agatha entered ‘Rio Vidal’ into Instagram and clicked on the first account that popped up: Rio_Vidal. She had expected to see various posts about her business, a Christmas post and maybe a few birthday posts.
She didn’t expect to see Rio’s account filled with selfies and photos of her with friends in various places, and at gatherings with people who looked so similar to her that they could only be family. Agatha spent much longer than she’d care to admit staring at a photo of a grinning Rio in shorts and a sleeveless shirt that showed off a tattoo of vines on her collarbone.
Snapping herself out of the daze she’d been in, Agatha clicked the ‘follow’ button on Rio’s account, and, before she could overthink it, opened the messaging section of the app.
It's Agatha. You said to contact you if I had questions or wanted to be friends.
Rio_Vidal: Hi Agatha!
Rio_Vidal: Do you have any questions?
No.
Rio_Vidal: Okay. Do you still have the leaflet I gave you? Lots of customers contact me via Instagram, and I don’t want you to get lost. ;)
Agatha rolled her eyes at the winking face that Rio had included in her response, and sighed deeply when she remembered that she’d left the leaflet in the glove compartment of her car.
It's in my car. I can get it in the morning when Nicky isn't asleep.
Rio_Vidal: I'm a little scared to ask, but who's Nicky?
He's my son. Why were you scared to ask?
Rio_Vidal: In case I had any competition.
No competition here ;).
Agatha regretted the winking face as soon as she sent it. The regret only grew as Rio spent an obnoxious amount of time typing, only to leave her on fucking read.
She groaned quietly and plugged the charging wire into her phone before closing her eyes in an attempt to get some sleep before having to deal with a class full of teenagers.