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marril96 · 1 day ago

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Just as Promised

Pairing: Agatha Harkness x Reader

Summary: Agatha saving your life leads to a heart-to-heart.

A split second was all it took for your entire world to crumble down like a house of cards.

You and Agatha usually got along fine, but today, tensions were through the roof since the moment you opened your eyes.

You were sick of the cat and mouse games, sick of longing stares that led to nothing and comforting hands on shoulders and bodies brushing against one another, convenient accidents that were anything but.

You demanded an answer: did she want to be with you or not?

You weren't opposed to staying friends; having her in your life, even as a casual acquaintance, would have been more than enough. But you needed her to say it. If she didn't want to take whatever it was the two of you had going on further, so be it. All she needed to do was speak up.

Agatha being Agatha, she kept giving vague answers that eventually became jokes, until she straight up refused to speak at all. Furious, you started screaming at her. She retorted with sarcasm, which only made you angrier.

Today, of all days, being your trial didn't help matters.

You were distracted, unable to concentrate. Even with the help of the rest of the coven, your mind kept straying to Agatha and your undefined relationship. Her snippy comments didn't help the situation; if anything, they made it worse.

Alice, ever the peacemaker, kept trying to get the two of you to knock it off. Unsuccessfully so, for it was hard to lower the tensions when one side seemed intent on raising them by any means necessary.

Thankfully, you managed to find enough willpower to push through and successfully complete the trial.

The door of the house you were locked in opened.

And then the furniture and cutlery and various appliances started rattling and flying about as if they had a mind of their own. As if it wanted you and the coven out as soon as possible, or there would be hell to pay for overstaying your welcome.

Everyone rushed out, avoiding chairs and knives and random junk, hands covering their heads in protection.

You followed in kind, yelping as your foot got caught on a toaster and you fell down like a sack of potatoes. Shit. It was just your luck to trip and fall at the most inconvenient time.

What was next? Was an anvil going to drop on your head?

The thought hadn't fully left your head before you heard Agatha screaming your name. She shoved you, hard, to the left; it was going to leave a mark hours from now.

You didn't have time to process what had just happened when a chandelier smashed to the ground, right at the spot you'd occupied just a second before.

Right at the spot where Agatha now stood.

"No!" you screamed, stomach twisting into knots, heart soaring, booming in your chest like a bomb.

As if a switch inside of you had flipped, none of what had happened earlier mattered anymore. Agatha's refusal to tell you what she wanted, if she wanted you. Her constant snide remarks. The roll of her eyes and the mockery in her tone.

She could have slaughtered someone in front of you, and it wouldn't have mattered. You would have forgiven her.

So long as she was okay.

"Agatha!" you yelled, frantic. "Help! Help!"

Don't die, you pleaded. Begged. Demanded. Please, don't die. Please. You couldn't lose her now, just as the two of you had reconnected after years of being apart. You needed her in your life. You couldn't imagine your life without her.

Alice and Teen ran up to you, having heard your pleas amidst the ruckus of flying furniture and trash. It took a few tries, but, with joint effort and a little bit of magic, you managed to push the chandelier off Agatha.

She was on the ground, seemingly unharmed. Unconscious, but alive. Relief flooded you as you felt the pulse on her neck. She was okay. She was going to be okay.

The three of you held her up and got her out. You bared your magic, eyes glowing as you willed the flying items away from you. Sparks enveloping your hands as you blasted them away.

It was over. Finally, you could put the nightmare of your trial and that weird house behind.

Then the realization that Agatha wasn't waking up set in and you were back where you started; nervous, terrified, shaking like a leaf in fall wind.

It took some pleading and begging for Jen to agree to make a potion — much alike to the one she'd made for Teen when he'd gotten impaled by glass, with slight changes for, unlike his, Agatha's injuries were internal. Internal bleeding, concussion, something else, all of the above; you didn't know what was wrong, couldn't possibly make a guess, but you owed it to her to fix it.

The only reason she was in this predicament was that she was protecting you.

Once the potion was done, and, with help, ingested, you and the others found a comfortable, quiet spot for Agatha to rest. Her head was on your lap, her coat spread over her like a blanket, one of your hands gently stroking her head while the other held onto her hand. It was strange to see her so vulnerable, so fragile. As if one wrong move would break her. And to think it was all because of you…

Jen could accuse her of having no humanity all she wanted. Agatha had a soul. She had a heart. She cared. She loved. She felt. No different than anyone else. Just because she hid her true self better didn't mean she was heartless.

She was just scared.

From all she's told you of her life, starting from her early childhood, she had every right to be.

"She saved you," Teen said. The others had left to make a fire; he wanted to stick around.

"She did," you said. "She's saved me many times."

He nodded in acknowledgment. "People are saying all kinds of things about her."

"Don't believe everything you hear." Especially about Agatha. People loved making up stories about her. The worse the slander, the juicier the gossip.

"Can you tell me, then? The truth."

"It's not mine to tell "

You'd asked her once why she allowed people to say horrid things about her. Her response was pretty much, "Let them talk." It wasn't worth it to get worked up over it. Rumors would spread either way. She knew the truth, and so did you. That was all that mattered to her.

She didn't want you to get involved.

So, you didn't.

Her secrets were hers to reveal.

"I can tell you one thing," you said. "She isn't the monster they make her out to be. Don't get me wrong, she's far from an angel, but she's no monster, either. Keep that in mind the next time you hear some wild story."

To his credit, the kid took in every word. "I will."

The two of you sat in silence for a while, until he stood up to join the rest of the coven around the fire. "Take care of her."

"Of course."

It was a given, after everything she's done for you over the centuries.

After she'd pushed you out of the way and saved your life at the cost of her own.

The arguments the two of you had had throughout the day seemed silly now. Ridiculous. Completely and utterly unnecessary. What did it matter how your relationship was defined? She cared about you. She almost died for you. In her own wordless way, she loved you.

In the grand scheme of things, romance didn't matter.

Life wasn't a genie. There was no lamp to rub, no wishes to yell at the top of your lungs. You didn't always get what you wanted.

It would do you good to be happy with what you had.

A living friend was better than a dead lover.

Silence engulfed you like a blanket. You tuned out the cracking of the fire, the jokes and laughter of your coven. Useless background noise you neither had the strength nor willpower to entertain. Leaned against a tree, your eyes were on Agatha, safe and warm in your lap. She looked so peaceful. As if she were in deep slumber instead of rid of consciousness.

You should have been there when she'd gone up against Wanda Maximoff. You should have had her back. If you'd helped her, fought with her, maybe she wouldn't have been forced to lose three years of her life to a mind control spell.

She wouldn't have lost three years of her life to torture.

Because that was what that was. Wanda could have just let her be. She was powerless. She couldn't hurt anyone. Locking her inside her mind was cruelty for the sake of being cruel.

Why hadn't she asked you to go with her? Why hadn't she told you what she was planning?

Would it have done her any good?

You were with her now, and she'd almost died.

You'd let her down.

You would have let her down back then, too.

Tears pricked at your eyes like needles. Maybe that was why she didn't give you straight answers when you demanded she make a choice about your relationship. You were a sucky witch. Even now, sucked dry, powerless, Agatha was more powerful than you.

She'd been with Death herself, for fuck's sake. The woman had a type, and it wasn't lowly witches like you.

She was trying to let you down gently.

Tenderly, you stroked her hair and rubbed her shoulder. It's okay, you thought. I'm not mad. Reality was a bitch. That was just a fact. There was no use getting worked up over it. You would never reach the power level of someone like Rio. She liked them big and bad, and you were neither. You would always be neither.

You would always be a friend. Nothing less, and nothing more.

Agatha stirring shook you from your thoughts. A small moan escaped her mouth, one of pain, discomfort. She blinked, once, twice, three times, before her eyes settled on yours up above.

You smiled. "Hey, you. Welcome back."

"What happened?"

"You got crushed by a chandelier."

"Oh. Right." She sighed, nonchalant. As if that sort of thing happened every day.

"You probably shouldn't move much. Jen said it'll take a few hours for the potion to heal everything up."

Agatha grunted as she shifted to a more comfortable position. "That's just peachy."

A pang of guilt twisted in your heart. "Sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault."

Wasn't it? "It is, though. You saved me."

Agatha groaned. "Oh, don't get all sappy. It's a bad look."

For whom? For you, or for her?

Only one of you had a reputation to uphold.

"Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Agatha, I'm serious. You saved my life."

"Consider it tit for tat, toots."

That was how the two of you had first met a couple centuries ago. You were hunting a witch hunter, and he was hunting her. You'd gotten to him just as he was about to put a bullet in her brain — from behind, covertly, of course, for hunters were nothing if not cowards.

Agatha was intrigued by your tenacity to make the predator into prey.

You were enthralled by her presence, itself.

She'd matched your freak, and you'd matched hers.

The rest was history.

You couldn't hold back a laugh. Expect her to crack jokes at most inconvenient times. Agatha laughed along, but her face instantly twisted and a hiss burst from her mouth.

"Hey, hey. Be careful," you told her.

"This is a drag," she said, frustrated. She hated being helpless. As if losing her power wasn't enough; now she could barely move without being in pain.

"Want me to move? Maybe you'll be more comfortable on the ground," you said.

"No," Agatha said before the final word was out of your mouth. "Stay. I'm good like this."

"Okay."

Whatever she wanted, she would get. You owed her that much after she'd saved your life. If that meant holding back the need to pee for hours so she could rest her head on your lap, so be it.

You were a grownass woman. You could do this.

"Sorry for being such a bitch today," you said. "It wasn't fair to put you on the spot like that."

Pressuring her into something she clearly wasn't comfortable with was wrong. If she wanted to be more than friends, she would've told you. She had a mouth, and she wasn't afraid to use it.

She was trying to let you down gently, and you'd escalated the situation.

Agatha sighed. "I was hoping that particular topic wouldn't come up."

"I'm sorry," you said, and you meant it. "I just thought we could talk about it now that we're alone."

"Thought you'd take advantage of me being unable to leave?"

You weren't sure how to read her tone. Your cheeks burned. "N-No, of course not. I-I just—"

"Relax, honey." She grinned. "I'm just pulling your leg."

You let out a breath of the kind of relief you'd never experienced before. Gritting your teeth, you slid an arm down Agatha's body and gently put pressure on her side.

A yelp much like that of a wounded puppy escaped her mouth.

You smirked. "That's what you get for being mean."

"Are you seriously gonna torture me when I can't even defend myself?"

No. You weren't Wanda.

"Totally. It's my entire goal in life," you snarked. Then, voice softening, "Did I hurt you bad?"

"You do know I'm not made of glass, right?"

"Just checking. You did get hurt because of me, after all." And you would never forget it. If, for no other reason, than to remind people that she wasn't the heartless bitch they all thought of her as.

"That's one way of putting it," Agatha said.

The other being that she had made a conscious choice to push you out of the way of that chandelier. She'd made a choice to get hurt.

She'd made a choice to protect you at the cost of herself.

"I really am sorry," you told her. "For everything. I'm happy with the way things are between us. Nothing needs to change."

Agatha sighed. "Y/N…"

"It's fine. Really." A tear slid down your cheek. You wiped it away like a speck of dust marring a spotless surface. Another followed suit, dripping onto Agatha's forehead.

She looked up, then, a painted grimace contorting her face, she moved sideways, just enough so her eyes could connect with yours and her hands could cup your cheeks from below. Her touch was tender, comforting; you leaned into it, closing your eyes for a moment to savor it, to bask in the sensation.

"You are, by far, one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me," she said with such intent, such fervor that could come from nothing but the absolute truth.

Your heart sped up, a marathon that was well on its way to kill you.

Were your ears fooling you? Did she really just say that?

Did she…?

She did.

Her eyes all but confirmed the words you couldn't believe had come out of her mouth.

Agatha Harkness didn't speak like that. She never said things like that, especially not to you.

It wasn't possible. It couldn't be.

Yet, somehow, it was. It could.

You took in a large breath to steady yourself. Don't freak out, you were telling yourself. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. This was a serious conversation. You couldn't afford to ruin it with childish antics. Goddamn it, Agatha!

Why did she have to spring it on you like that, as if it was the most casual thing in the world? As if speaking to you like that was an everyday occurrence.

In your daydreams, absolutely. In real life? You might as well have been dreaming.

Clearing your throat, in your most totally-not-falling-apart tone, you asked, "Why the runaround, then?"

A sad smile flickered on Agatha's mouth. A wordless admittance of defeat before the battle had even started. "I ruin everything I touch."

"That's not true!" You didn't let Jen talk shit about her in your presence, and you sure as hell weren't going to let her do that, either.

"Yes, it is," she insisted, relentless. Dead set on putting herself down, denying herself what she deserved for that was what everyone had done her entire life. "And I refuse to ruin you."

You, on the other hand, refused to let her ruin this. You refused to let her ruin the potential of something beautiful.

"Dunno if you've noticed, but I'm pretty much ruined all on my own." You'd killed, too. You'd ruined lives, manipulated, destroyed just as she had. She wasn't special.

And even if you were pure, if you were to turn back time and make your ledger white and untainted like it used to be, once upon a time, you would happily let her paint it red.

You would let her ruin you all over again.

Agatha was silent for a moment. Then, in her weakest, most vulnerable tone, she uttered, "You're still alive."

Her son. Taken from her too soon. Gone in the night without a goodbye. Destined to die before he'd even taken his first death. Living on borrowed time until it had expired just as suddenly as it had been gifted.

A fresh batch of tears poured from your eyes, spilling over her fingers. "Don't do that. Don't go there."

Agatha's eyes sparkled with tears of her own. "How can I not?"

"I won't leave you," you said, and you meant it. You meant every word, and more. "I won't die. Not anytime soon."

"You can't promise that."

"I can promise I'll do my best to try. Why is that not enough?"

You couldn't promise her forever — there was no such thing — but what you could promise was as close to that as was possible. Home. Shelter. Warmth. All in the shape of you. She would never have to be alone again. Centuries of not just friendship, but a partnership. Even closer than you were now.

All you needed was her permission.

All you needed was a yes.

"I can't lose yet another person I…"

Love.

Though she would never say it out loud, especially not around other people.

"Agatha," you said softly. Warmly. Lovingly. "I'm not going anywhere. That's one of the few things I can promise you. No matter what happens, I won't leave you, and I won't hurt you. Ever."

You never have, and you never would. You loved her too much to cause her harm. You cared about her too much to allow for anything of the sort to happen.

"We don't have to be together. I'm not trying to force you into anything you aren't comfortable with," you continued. "I just don't think it's fair that you're denying yourself good things in life based on a what if. You deserve for good things to happen to you. You deserve to be happy again."

It didn't have to be with you. She could look for happiness wherever she wanted. But she deserved it. You would be damned if you allowed her to take it away from herself.

Agatha gave a chuckle; a sad, broken one. "You're the only one who thinks so."

"Since when do you care what people think?"

She allowed them to think she murdered her own son, that she had traded him for a book of dark magic. She allowed them to think her heartless. Cruel. A monster. She allowed them to think the worst, and had never said a word to correct them. Had banned you from setting the record straight.

Why did it matter if they didn't think she deserved to be happy?

They were nothing.

She was everything.

"I don't," she agreed. "I care about what you think."

She took hold of one of your hands and brought it down to her mouth. Her lips pressed to your fingers, a soft, tender kiss that sent electric sparks through your entire body. Your eyes fell closed for a moment. You were lost in this little gesture; you could get lost in it forever.

Her lips were a welcome presence everywhere, on every part of your body. Whichever part of you she wanted to claim, she could. You were hers in any way she desired, spoils of a war you never fought. You surrendered willingly.

"Don't say that just because you think that's what I wanna hear," you said, just in case. Still in disbelief that this was happening, that she was so vulnerable, so exposed with you. That she wasn't scared that you were going to hurt her, or turn your back on her.

Agatha frowned. "When have you ever known me to do that?"

Fair point.

You smiled. "Just making sure."

"If I wasn't injured, I would kiss you silly for being such an idiot."

Your cheeks burned. "Is that a promise?"

"It's a threat," she clarified with a smirk.

"I hope you intend to make good on it."

"Oh, honey, I do. Trust me."

"I'm holding you to it."

"Have I ever lied to you?"

You pondered on it. "Well, there was that time back in—"

Agatha smacked your hand, prompting both of you to laugh.

"You're my pet now," she said.

You raised an eyebrow. "Pet? Really?"

"What? Did you have something else in mind?" she said with feigned ignorance, mouth pulled into a mocking pout.

"Well, I was thinking something more… equal." But you would take pet.

Pet was fine.

She pretended to think about it. "I suppose I could upgrade you to a girlfriend."

Girlfriend.

Your heart was in shambles. You, all of you, were in shambles. A wooden house barely holding itself together after a hurricane had passed through it, destroying everything in its path. One wrong move, or breath, or thought, and you would crumble

Girlfriend.

You repeated the word in your head, again and again, Agatha's voice an echo in the vast hallway that was your mind.

Girlfriend. Girlfriend. Girlfriend.

This was real. It wasn't a hallucination, or a dream, or a cruel prank.

After a long, hard day of hissy fits and arguments, Agatha had finally told you what she wanted.

And it was you.

"I-I like that," you muttered, too stunned to say much else. Gods knew you wanted to say a lot, much more than your mouth could currently handle.

Agatha smirked, ever the tease. "You do, don't you?"

"Mmhm." You took her hands in yours and laid a kiss — two, three — to her knuckles, just as she had to yours. "Hurry up getting better. I want that threat-kiss."

"Oh, honey, you won't know what hit you."

"I better not."

"Are you doubting me?"

Never. "Just building anticipation."

Agatha licked her lips. "In that case, keep it up."

So, you did.

And, a couple hours later, she kissed you as if both your lives depended on it. As if you would die if your mouths were ever to part.

Just as promised.

*****

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#agatha harkness #agatha harkness x reader #agatha x reader #aaa #agatha all along #marvel #mcu #fanfic #fanfiction #my fics #edit

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