"Letting out a little steam?" an all too familiar voice sounds behind me.
I sigh, "Please go, I'm not... I don't want to talk to you." I turn around, keeping my eyes toward the floor. I hear her footsteps move across the floor before I feel her hand on my cheek.
"But you called for me?" She says in that smooth, gentle voice that makes me think I actually want her here. Its raspy undertone reminds me I don't. Her question is not really a question, I probably call for her every day, but Rio likes to mingle. She likes to stick her nose where it doesn't belong. I move my head away from her too soft fingers, but she keeps them pressed lightly against my face.
"You never answer," I mutter, but before I can step away, her thumb slides to my other cheek, and her gentle touch turns violent. My teeth are tightly pressed together. It's almost as if I can feel her fingers on them. I wonder what they might taste like.
"Well, I thought I might give it a try today." My magic reacts before I can even comprehend her words. White sparks jump from my hands in her direction. She looks down and releases her grip, then breaks into a smile before looking back up.
"Your magic's no fun," she squints her nose but keeps her smile plastered across her face.
I sigh again. Looking around, I know I won't stay in this house for much longer. I don't want to be this close to Agatha if I'm not going to be close to Agatha.
"Tea?" My voice sounds irritated, like another sigh the word leaves my mouth, but Rio ignores it and nods.
Just a few moments later, I sit at the table in front of Rio on a small stool. The both of us are leaned far too close to each other while we use low, whispering voices as we talk about the woman I feel too strongly about. Rio keeps adding extra sugar to her tea, which makes me realise she didn't really stay for tea.
"So?" She tilts her head ever so slightly.
"So," I repeat, keeping my eyes lowered.
"Well, aren't you supposed to be furious?" She asks, leaning closer, forgetting her tea as she grabs my hand. She lays my upturned hand in hers and uses her other to draw small circles in my palm. It tickles a little, and I want to pull my hand away, but I'm starving. I haven't been touched in so long before Agatha led me to her bed, and I remembered what it was like. I wish I could close my eyes and imagine she was in front of me now and not Rio. But Rio doesn't smell like Agatha. She smells a bit like fresh soil and grass, with the tiniest hint of a flower I can not remember. Agatha's smell is rich and homey, and only with that aroma can my starvation be cured.
"I suppose I should," I say, but I let her keep my hand in hers, "why didn't you tell me she was alive?"
She shrugs and places her thumb in the middle of my palm, but as I look up her eyes is telling another story, "I suppose I've been envious," she says and her eyes meet mine. I don't understand. Rio must know how little I mean to Agatha since she decided to just not look for me.
"I thought I hated you... you and Agatha were so obnoxiously in love, I wanted that," Rio mumbles the last part, but I hear her just fine. I had no idea she desired that, a relationship. To me, Rio has always been independent and likes to annoy people every chance she gets. But she seems rather sincere with her eyes so full of hurt. Her hands leave mine, cold, and without the touch, I'm still craving, and she wraps them around her cooling teacup.
"I tried to have that, I thought I could have what you had, but I- it was never like yours, then my job got in the way, I ruined everything," Rio is bent over her teacup, closing in on herself. She loved Agatha. Agatha has been with Rio.
I blink. I haven't thought about Agatha being with anyone else. I didn't think she wanted to, but of course, she had been seeking power, but her magic hadn't been acting like it had a will of its own. She could have an ordinary life without me. She hadn't been burning down the barns she hid in because she couldn't control her anxiety. She hadn't been running from her own shadow. Of course, she wanted to move on, believing I was dead, and of course Rio had been perfect because, as much as I hate to admit it, Rio holds some of the values Agatha admires.
I shake my head while my eyes stay fixed on Rio's fingers, playing with the teaspoon, a lock of hair falls in front of my face. "Agatha has a way to make people fall madly in love with her, and then she turns her shoulder, and you realise she only ever loves power."
I look back up at Rio, her dark eyes are on me, over and over again, they follow my y/h/c lock from my roots to my ends.
I'd never have thought Rio and I would have anything remotely similar to this in common, I had always thought the one thing we had in common was the wish never to hear my beating heart again. But here we are, talking about the woman we both love.
"You're wrong," she says and knot her hand midair before giving in and brushing the lock behind my ear, "she loves you."
"Oh no," I say and lean back, "don't let her fool you too, as soon as she has wooed you she has satisfied her needs and might return to you after a couple hundred years but no sooner."
"She really did hurt you," Rio notices with an uncomfortable pity in her voice.
I don't want to talk about Agatha anymore. I don't want to talk about her ever again. I want Rio to do what she does best, but it seems my greatest curse is my everlasting heartache and heartbeat. Of all the times she's been wanting to break the rules and kill someone herself, now would be the time to do it. I'm incapable of acting against my magic, but she should have the upper hand. She should be able to kill me. I feel my magic stir as my mind is searching for words it doesn't approve of.
"Why..." I bite my tongue, questioning how I ask properly, but decide there's no proper way to ask, Why haven't you killed me yet? Lik, can't you just... euthanasia?" A spark of pure, painful magic tears throw my skin but suffocates in the air around it. I look at Rio, who's looking at me with curious, questioning eyes.
"Y/n?" She asks, "What's going on? What are you doing?" Her voice is oddly concerning. It makes me wince as she reaches out for my hand again.
"You shouldn't," touch me, I was trying to say, but another wave of angered magic crush over me. Hot tears spring to my eyes as Rio fades out of focus. I have begged Rio to kill me so many times that I've lost count, but my magic has never reacted like this before.
My vision turns white. Rio's green retreats out of my head while my hot white magic is wailing inside it. I feel my hands spasm as a reflex to keep my magic locked up so I won't burn down Westview in a bright light that comes like the dead of the night and level the town with the ground.
Rio can't kill me unless my magic allows her to. There's no difference there, so why it is acting up, I've no idea. But a searing pain stretches from my fingertips to every part of my body.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I whimper, but my magic's fury is deafening. A high-pitched noise is filling up my ears to the point I barely feel the ice-cold hand on my forehead. My magic prickles at my skin, tears through my muscles as if it'll rip them apart while the blood in my veins reach what feels like boiling point. I can feel the sweat clamming to my body.
"Rio, please," her name tears itself from my throat like an involuntary sob. I don't know what I'm begging for. She knows just as well as I that if she tries to kill me now, my magic will be in full control of the outcome. But I want it to end, I desperately want this pain to end.
"Rio," I gasp and feel a pair of cold hands on my cheek and around my throat before my body is pulled back against another. The hands are firm but gentle. My magic roars at the kindness, but there's nothing it can do. My mind is drifting towards darkness.
My tears are stinging my cheeks as small hiccups of agony leave my mouth. Rio's eerily quiet voice and my magic's whooshing fury is the last I register before I drift off.
_______________________________________
I'm not sorry for bringing Rio into this story
Aubrey Plaza was born to play a sapphic witch. There's no choice but to stan, but I promise we'll get back to Agatha in the next chapter.
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Behind Lock & Key
Fanfiction[before I start I want to give proper credit to Marvel. I do not own any of the characters except Y/n] Y/n was once a young witch, back in Salem she was at least. Now she's a fully grown witch but still looks like one in her early twenties. Her mag...
