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cassiebones · 28 days ago

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Happy birthday to @imyouraziraphale and here is your bday ficlet

Agatha hated her mother. It had taken her quite a while to admit that to herself, let alone aloud to the only person who may have had an equal hatred for Evanora Harkness: Rio Vidal.

Agatha had spent her entire life trying to earn her mother's love, watching the other children in her coven receive their mothers' love so freely and openly. Agatha was envious of them from the beginning, glaring at them as a small child, watching as they held their mothers' hands and received hugs and kisses that Agatha never got from Evanora.

Instead, she received whacks on her behind. She received sharp-tongued insults and admonishments for...well, she often didn't know what she had done wrong, but she always replied with the same four words: "I can be good!" Her mother scoffed at those words, but Agatha still tried. She wanted to be good so badly. For her mother.

Whom she loved.

But then her mother had tried to have her executed and Agatha had to confront the fact that, while she had loved her mother, her mother had not loved her.

It still took a decade to really come to terms with it. It took another decade before Agatha realized that she did not love her mother at all. She loathed her. She was happy that she was dead, rather than relief, which had been her first reaction despite her guilt at the killing.

Rio was right there with her, hating her mother. She had watched Agatha's execution, staying silent with the knowledge of what was about to happen. It hadn't been Agatha's time; Rio knew that. She grinned when all eight of the witches blasted Agatha with their magic, silencing her begging for mercy. She knew what was about to happen and she thrilled at the power this young witch had. She was practically salivating.

The blue rays turned to purple and Agatha's eyes widened in shock as she involuntarily drained the other witches of their magic, of the lives. Her eyes widened further as the euphoria of siphoning hit her, the relief that came with it. She released her hands from their bindings and faced her mother head on, though she was once again begging for mercy. Mercy that a mother should not be begged for.

"Please!" Agatha had said. "I can be good!"

"No," Evanora said, sighing as if the information disappointed her, "you cannot." She blasted Agatha again, apparently learning absolutely nothing from what had just happened before her very eyes, and had her powers almost instantly drained by her daughter.

Imbecile.

Rio continued to watch Agatha as the young woman stumbled away from the stake, walking toward her mother's body, her chin angled up (though she couldn't truly hide the tears in her eyes) as she leaned down, snatching her mother's locket. Then she flew off like some kind of beautiful bird, leaving Rio gazing after her in awe.

"Who are you?" Rio jumped then glared at the spirit of Evanora Harkness, who was glaring at her with her hands on her hips.

"I am Death," Rio growled at her. "I have come to take you to-"

"You aren't taking me anywhere," Evanora huffed. "I cannot leave this earth until that evil girl has been sent straight to hell, where she belongs!"

"She's not the one who has a spot reserved in hell," Rio huffed, leaning closer. Evanora's eyes practically filled with fire as she refused to move from her spot above her own body.

Rio just rolled her eyes, turning to the other spirits floating around, trying to ignore their wails as they lamented not only the loss of their own lives, but the fear and devastation their children must soon feel once they learned of their deaths.

At least there were some good mothers in this coven, Rio thought bitterly as she collected their souls, ignoring their pleas for more time and protection for their young children. She led them to the other side, ignoring Evanora, who stayed back as she preferred to stay a ghost (Rio hated ghosts, the stubborn bastards), and quickly returned to the land of the living, seeking out the powerful young witch.

She found her sitting beneath a tree by the river, looking out at the water as she played with the locket she'd taken off her own mother's body. As Rio watched her from behind a neighboring tree, she looked down at the locket, glaring at it for a moment, then made as if to toss it into the water....then she didn't. Instead, she placed it into her pocket, then pulled her knees up to her chest, then buried her face into her skirts and sobbed.

Rio felt something in that moment, in her chest. It felt...uncomfortable, beating out a rhythm against her ribcage. She placed her skeletal hand against her chest and closed her eyes, listening. She had heard this sound before. It sounded like...a heartbeat.

That was impossible, though. Death had no heart. Where could that be coming from, though? What could it be if not a heart? Like humans had.

She looked back up at the girl, who rested her chin on her folded arms, her blue eyes deep as the ocean as she stared out at the river, tears still falling down soft, beautiful cheeks. She was so beautiful...

"Show yourself," her voice said, suddenly. "I can hear you breathing. You might as well come out of hiding."

"I do not breathe," Rio huffed. Well, okay, that was a breath. But that was atypical for her. She schooled her features, putting on the visage of a girl approximately this one's age, and stepped out of the shadows.

The girl's eyes widened at the sight of her, her cheeks turning pink. Rio felt the rhythm of her new heart pick up in response. The girl stood as Rio approached her. Up close, she was even more gorgeous than Rio had first thought. She was the most beautiful human that Rio had ever seen (and she'd been around since the very first humans died, so that was truly saying something).

Her hair was long and dark brown, a contrast to the bright blue eyes. Her skin was almost as pale as the moonlight, but her cheeks were still pink, showing her the proof of the heart that pumped in her chest, the blood that ran through her veins. She was still pulsing with the power of eight witches, plus her own. She seemed to glow with it.

Rio swallowed thickly at the sight of her. She'd never had to swallow before. She was not human, not bound by human rules and impulses, but being this close to this woman...she felt distinctly human.

"Who are you?" she asked once Rio was just a few feet away. Rio paused in her steps when she saw the other girl's hands glow purple with her magic.

"I've had many names," Rio said, "over the years. Many have been unkind, but some have been...respectful." She shrugged. "You, however," she smiled at Agatha, softly, "may call me Rio."

"Rio." Oh, Rio's chosen name sounded absolutely musical on her tongue. Her lips wrapped around it perfectly.

"And what is yours?" Rio asked, tilting her head to the side, offering her another grin.

"Agatha," she said, but she offered no surname.

"Agatha," Rio echoed. "Beautiful."

The flush on Agatha's cheeks deepened and spread to the tips of her ears, sending a thrill through Rio. She loved being the one to elicit this reaction from such a beautiful human. She wanted to do it again. And again. And again and again and again.

Until the very end of time.

"Why are you here?" Agatha asked, her voice trying for firm but ending up a little shaky. "What has brought you to my covens' land?"

The coven had set up cabins around the lake just outside Salem. They were close enough that they could go to the markets for food and other materials they might need, but far enough that they could perform spells without alerting the townspeople. These were dangerous times for witches, after all.

"Death," Rio said, simply. Agatha's face blanched, all color leaving her at once. "Not yours, obviously," Rio said. "But there are about eight other corpses in a circle about..." She turned in the direction of the stake, which she could not see through the thicket of trees, "a mile that way. Good job, by the-"

When she turned back, Agatha was running away, her hands sparking purple at her sides, refusing to carry her in flight. Rio rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, appearing in Agatha's path. Agatha did not react quickly enough to stop and ended up nearly knocking Rio over instead. Rio was sturdy, though, and was able to stay upright. She grasped Agatha's arms, holding onto her as she attempted to run away again.

"Please stop," Rio sighed. "I am not going to hurt you."

"Lies! You will tell the townspeople! I will be tried as a witch!"

"Are you not one?" Rio snorted. "You could have fooled me."

"What do you want from me?" Agatha hissed, still struggling.

"I want to teach you," Rio said, remembering Agatha's pleas from before. Agatha stopped struggling and Rio smiled. "I want to help you. I want you to take more power."

"Take more...why?" Agatha asked, furrowing her brow. "Why would I take the power of others? I've killed them!"

"I saw," Rio said, giving her an almost unhinged grin, it was so excited. "I liked it. It makes my job that much easier."

"Your...job?" Agatha looked Rio up and down, not quite understanding. Rio sighed, closing her eyes as she shifted her features. She didn't open her eyes again. She didn't want to see Agatha's reaction.

Humans had always been put off by Rio's skull-like features. They had screamed and ran and pleaded for her not to hurt them. Agatha had run even from Rio's most attractive visage, so how would she react to--

She felt the fingers brush against her jaw and her eyes opened immediately, staring into wide blue ones. Agatha's gaze was soft as it traced over every ridge and line of Rio's skull, her thumbs brushing over the ridge of her cheekbones. Rio felt hot under her touch, grateful that her skull could not blush lest she be found out.

"Magnificent," Agatha breathed. Rio leaned into her touch, feeling her heartbeat quicken again. Her eyes fluttered closed as she inhaled deeply. Rio's hold on Agatha loosened, but the other woman did not move away. Instead, she stepped closer, her fingers now running over the place where Rio's lips would have been. "So beautiful," she breathed, her eyes going wide and cheeks going pink as if she hadn't meant to say those words aloud.

"You, too," Rio replied, softly, lifting one skeletal hand to cup Agatha's cheek. The other woman gasped slightly, but she too leaned into the touch.

It was that moment that made Rio certain that she would do anything to protect Agatha Harkness, at all costs.

And she did.

For decades, she held Agatha through her night terrors, rocking with her in her lap, pressing kisses to her cheeks and her forehead and her nose and anywhere she could reach as she assured Agatha that she was not evil and that her mother could not get to her. She taught Agatha everything she could about magic, collecting spells for her to place in her own journal, watching in awe as Agatha mastered each one. She watched from a safe distance as Agatha lured powerful witches to her with promises she never intended to keep, collecting their bodies with a smile and a kiss to her love's lips as she ferried their souls.

She proposed to Agatha next to the lake where they first met, pledging her very existence to Agatha, all her love and devotion pouring from her heart. Agatha accepted this proposal by knocking Rio to the ground, placing kisses all over her face, then her neck, then lower.

They married there later that week, neither able to wait much longer to entwine their souls.

Rio vowed to protect Agatha from anything and everything that might do her true harm. She sealed that vow with a kiss that took Agatha's breath away as well as her own.

Over three hundred years later, that still had not changed.

"Leave her," Evanora's ghost said, an evil smile spreading across her lips, "with me."

Agatha's eyes immediately widened with fear as she looked down at her mother. Rio's body flushed with rage, her hand gripping her knife more tightly.

"No!" she growled. "No way!"

She felt Agatha's gaze snap toward her.

"A minute ago, you were ready to slit her throat!" Jennifer Kale (annoying ass bitch that she was) exclaimed.

It's called foreplay, Jennifer!

"Yeah, well," Rio said, still glaring at Evanora, "her mother can't have her!" Over Rio's dead body.

And Rio was Death, so...

Agatha started to descend the steps, eyes locked on Rio, shock and awe in her tear-filled gaze. Rio's eyes softened on hers for a moment before returning her glare full-force to Evanora, who floated toward her. Rio adjusted her stance, unafraid.

This bitch...

She didn't know how to get rid of ghosts. If she did, the world would be rid of each and every phantom that had ever existed. But she'd be damned if she let this particular spooky bitch near her wife.

Not a chance in hell.

So she surged toward Evanora, brandishing her knife. Weapons were typically useless against those with incorporeal forms, but Rio was Death and this blade in her hand, however changed it was by the Maximoff abomination, was still forged for Death, so it must be able to do something, right?

Evanora must have thought so because she moved back, away from Rio as she pointed said knife straight at her, marching forward, ready to slit her throat now (in a very not foreplay way, for the record).

"You are making a mistake!" Evanora cried out, her voice not quite as strong as before. "She will kill you all!"

"Leave!" Rio boomed, using her Death voice. "Go back to hell where you came from, bitch!"

"You--" Evanora tried.

"Leave!" Rio raised the knife above her head and Evanora faded away in a matter of seconds. Her body heaved with her heavy breaths, her glared still fixed on the spot where Evanora had been.

"Rio," a voice gasped next to her. Rio turned, eyes wide, as Agatha surged into her, hugging her again like she had the night before. Rio wrapped her tightly in her arms, squeezing her tight. She felt a few sobs from Agatha's body, but they were so light so as to not be noticed by anybody else. She pressed a kiss to Agatha's temple as she pulled back, cupping her love's cheeks, swiping away the tears on Agatha's skin with her thumb. "You...why did you...?"

"I told you that I'd always protect you, didn't I?" Rio replied, her lips curving up in a tiny smile. "It was part of our vows."

"Your vows!?" Alice exclaimed.

"You two are married?" Lilia asked.

"Of course Agatha would be married to the creepy bitch," Jen huffed.

"Guys, time is running out!" Teen said, pointing at his watch.

"Go say goodbye then," Rio huffed, motioning to the Ouija Board as she continued to hold her wife in her arms. Agatha melted against her body, pressing her face into Rio's shoulder. Rio sheathed her knife and ran her fingers through the tangle of Agatha's curls. Wow, she really liked this hairstyle on her. She wanted to see more of it, for sure.

The rest of the group used the Ouija Board to spell out goodbye, but Agatha and Rio stayed holding one another. Rio pressed a kiss to Agatha's cheek. Agatha pulled back and kissed her lips, running her hands through Rio's hair like she'd done for decades. Rio held her wrists, as she had always done.

"Gross," she heard Jen Kale huff behind her. "Quit making out; the trial is over. We can leave."

Rio didn't stop kissing her wife. But she did take one of her hands off of Agatha's wrist to flip Jen the bird.

Agatha kissed her harder for that.

#Agathario #Agatha All Along #It needed backstory okay?#Agatha Harkness #Rio Vidal #Evanora Bitch Harkness #<- should be the new tag js #birthday prompt #happy birthday!!

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