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“I am the one of the most powerful witches in the world, I can wield the powers of any witch who crosses my path, I have extensive knowledge of all spells and hexes, and yet,” Agatha aggressively blew her nose, “I am felled by a cold.”
Rio passed a cup of tea to Agatha and chuckled. “As much as you try to pretend you’re not, you are a human.”
“Don’t remind me.” Agatha sipped the tea and groaned, looking utterly annoyed. “It amazes me that there isn’t a spell that can rid me of this.”
“It is called the common cold.”
“I am not common,” Agatha said with a sniff.
“No, you are not, Agatha. But you are an adorable human with adorable human weaknesses.”
Rio always had a fascination with humans in general, more so than any other animal she had seen come and go in these billions of years of evolution. They were both brilliant and incredibly stupid. Not Agatha, though, she had a mind that Rio had never seen in other humans. But it was so cute when Agatha got frustrated with her human body, it reminded her of how vulnerable she still was.
Agatha made an unpleasant sniffling noise before blowing her nose again. “So disgusting,” she grumbled.
“I would help you if I could, but even my healing abilities can’t even reach this.”
“Maybe if I drain some more witches I can heal myself, maybe I’m still too weak?” Agatha looked up at Rio hopefully.
“Honestly, you might’ve gotten this cold from draining a witch who had a cold.”
Agatha’s face dropped. “Oh, God dammit.” Agatha sipped at her tea and sighed. “Oh, that’s nice though.”
“Agatha, sit on the bed,” Rio ordered, gesturing to the bed.
“Oh?” Agatha grinned cheekily. “Why?”
Agatha was beautiful no matter what, but right now, her nose beet-red, lips chapped, eyes watery, she was slightly less so. Not that Rio wouldn’t, just that Agatha clearly wasn’t her full self.
“Just do it.”
Agatha did as she was told and sat on the edge of the bed. Rio hopped onto the bed and got behind her. She wiggled her fingers before pressing her hands against Agatha’s shoulders, pushing slightly. Agatha sighed softly.
“Oh, that’s good.”
Rio wrapped her hands around the top of Agatha’s shoulders, squeezing the fleshy parts next to her neck, sliding up the back of Agatha’s neck, and going down her back. She stopped at Agatha’s lower back, digging her knuckles into the small of Agatha’s back.
“Mmm. You’re so good at that.”
“I know. Just relax.”
Rio reached up to Agatha’s shoulders against and slowly pulled Agatha’s dress down, exposing her bodice, which she burned off.
“What is happening here?” Agatha asked, turning her head to grin toothily at Rio.
“I’m just giving you a massage, Agatha,” Rio answered honestly. Not that even sick Agatha was starting to seem appealing, Rio had hesitation.
“I am so aroused right now,” Agatha said in a raspy voice. Well, that hesitation was starting to disappear. She then went into a coughing fit, and spit. She was so disgustingly beautiful.
“I know, sweetheart. When you’re feeling better we’ll come back to that.”
“I feel fantastic!” Agatha started to stand up, got dizzy, then sat back down.
“Relax.”
Rio warmed her hands and ran them over the top of Agatha’s head, massaging Agatha’s scalp. A shudder went through Agatha’s body. Or was it a shiver?
“Are you cold?” Rio asked.
“No, I’m fine.”
She was lying, Rio could feel Agatha’s heart beat faster. Wordlessly she wrapped a quilt around Agatha’s shoulders.
“Normally I would be able to warm my body with magic, but,” Agatha sighed, “I feel off. I can feel my magic weakened.”
“You’ll be over this in a couple days and you’ll go back to your powerful self.”
“You’ve never been sick, you don’t know.”
“True that I’ve never been sick, but know a lot of about, well, everything. You know spells, I know life. Remember I’ve seen the birth and death of so many species, from a variety of things. Illnesses.”
Rio’s right hand rested back on top of Agatha’s head, warming it further. Agatha leaned back and Rio held her up with her other hand.
“You just have to let your silly human body rest.”
“I am choosing to ignore that,” Agatha said in a quiet voice. “One day I will find a spell to cure certain illnesses.”
“Surely you can handle something as simple as a cold, the powerful Agatha Harkness.”
Agatha tried to cackle but it turned into another coughing fit, followed by loud mouth-breathing. “Perhaps I am dying, many people die from coughs.”
Agatha was joking, but Rio moved her hand around Agatha’s back, humming. “Hm. Your lungs do seem weak, and your heart beat is faster. It could be possible you are more sick than you think.”
Agatha twisted her head around to look right at Rio. Rio tried to keep her fact neutral.
“That’s not funny,” Agatha scoffed.
“I am not joking. Humans can be taken out by the simplest of disease. Intestinal issues seem to be one of the worst, dehydration the end cause, usually.”
“That is not my issue,” Agatha said with an eye roll.
“No, but you never know when one thing can turn into something else.”
“I don’t find this funny.”
Rio made Agatha turn back around, her fingers massaging the area where Agatha’s skull met her spine. “Because you do not feel well, my love. Normally you would find me quite hilarious.”
Rio moved Agatha’s hair away and placed a kiss to the back of Agatha’s neck, slowly moving to the shell of her ear.
“Are you trying to start something?” Agatha whispered, her voice raspier, probably not just from the cold.
“I suppose if that takes your mind off this, but only if you want to.”
Truth be told, Rio was beginning to feel it the longer she stared at Agatha’s lithe back, the way her back muscles moved under Rio’s hand. She hadn’t planned it initially because even Death wouldn’t take advantage of a sick Agatha. Being around a human so much had given her some human urges. And had also made her a little soft, even being around someone like Agatha.
“Mmm, I do. Keep going.”
Rio ran her tongue around the edge of Agatha’s ear, and somewhat roughly pushed Agatha’s face closer to her to continue the path of her tongue across Agatha’s cheek until she was able to reach Agatha’s mouth. Rio kissed her, slowly, then nipped at her lower lip.
Agatha shimmied the quilt off her shoulders, turned around to sit in front of Rio’s knees, and pressed her chest against Rio. Rio lowered herself down, pressing kisses down Agatha’s chest, down between the middle of Agatha’s breasts, then licking at the bottom of her rib cage. Agatha was breathing fast.
“Are you okay?” Rio asked, looking up at Agatha.
“I’m fine, keep going.” Agatha reached down and pushed Rio back towards her.
Rio didn’t fully believe her, but she wasn’t going to argue with her.
She ran her tongue on the underside of Agatha’s right breast, reaching the nipple and sucking hard. Her hand slipped down Agatha’s front, meeting the bunched up dress at Agatha’s hips. The damned layers. Rio hoped in the future that clothing would become less complicated. With a flick of her wrist, her removable nails appeared on her hand.
“I usually save these for the souls,” Rio purred. “But your dress is in my way.”
Before Agatha could even say anything, Rio hooked her fingers into the fabric of the dress and pulled until it started to tear. The dress was high-quality—Agatha would never have anything less—so it turn some time and force to get through it.
“You could just burn it or just make it disappear,” Agatha said in a breathy voice.
“Where’s the fun in that?”
While Rio was doing that, Agatha had wound her hand into Rio’s hair and was pulling on it, not gently.
“Hurry up.”
“So impatient,” Rio chuckled. “We could just stop and you could go to sleep.”
“Absolutely not,” Agatha snapped. “I feel fine.”
Agatha punctuating that statement with a sniff was not convincing, but again, there was no arguing with her.
Rio ripped the fabric enough to dip her hand underneath it, sliding it down inside and reaching between Agatha’s legs. She was soaking wet.
“For goodness sake, Agatha,” Rio laughed.
“You drive me to insanity,” Agatha said hoarsely. “Just looking at you.”
“Hm, then what do you want me to do about that?”
Agatha pulled Rio’s hair harder, until it almost hurt. Rio turned her head up to look at Agatha again, catching a glimpse of Agatha’s bearing all of her teeth, looking utterly feral. Rio smirked up at her, and immediately plunged two fingers into Agatha. Agatha’s mouth quickly went into a sneer, her eyes snapped shut.
“Oh, God dammit. Your nails.”
“Oh?” Rio did not forget that she didn’t remove her nails. “Does that hurt?”
“Yesss… Keep going.”
Rio slid them out almost completely, before sliding the back in, fast. She repeated this a few more times, watching Agatha’s face the whole time. Agatha went back and forth between grimacing and her eyes rolling back in her head. She was already very close.
“You do not want me to remove these, correct?”
Agatha just shook her head.
Rio added a third finger, and pressed her thumb to Agatha’s clit, rubbing circles with the side of it. A full body shudder went through Agatha’s body and Rio pulled away immediately. Agatha growled.
“Not yet,” Rio said. “You’re going to finish too quickly.”
“I feel I should be able to finish whenever I want,” Agatha said, her chest heaving. “I’m sick, you’re supposed to take care of me.”
“This is not a typical remedy, I’m pretty sure.”
“It’ll make me relax,” Agatha pointed out.
“Hm, clever.” Rio sat up and kissed Agatha on the lips. “You need to take some breaths, though. I feel you may pass out.”
For once Agatha listened to her and paused, taking a few deep breaths through her mouth.
“Who knew you could be so… maternal.”
“Don’t get used to this, once you’re better I will be much rougher.” Rio gave her another quick kiss, removed her nails, and slid her hand back to where it was, three fingers all at once. She wrapped her other arm around Agatha’s back, holding her up. Agatha let out a guttural groan as Rio pumped her fingers in and out, crooking them in the right spots. Her thumb was on her clit again, pressing lightly and swiping up and down.
Agatha was already close again, Rio could feel it in Agatha’s heartbeat, her breathing. She felt her body start to tense. When she looked at Agatha’s face, she had the oddest expression—she was sneering and one of her eyes were twitching. She had seen Agatha’s face at the moment of completion many times, it was never that.
“Wait, wait, I’m going to…” Agatha started to say. Rio thought she was knew what Agatha was about to do, but she turned out to be wrong when Agatha pushed Rio away from her, turned her head, and sneezed loudly—three times in a row.
Rio bit her lip to hold back laughter, and did a terrible job at that.
“Are you okay?” Rio asked, attempting to be sympathetic, reaching over to rub her back.
Agatha shot her a look, wiping her nose on her arm. “I am fine.”
Agatha’s face was turning red from embarrassment. Rio felt herself soften a little bit. “Perhaps we should stop. I can make you some soup?”
Agatha made a growling noise, grabbed Rio’s hand, and pushed it back down into her dress. “Absolutely not. About the stopping, I mean—you can make me soup after.”
Rio did as she was told, and immediately pushed her hand back into Agatha, without much prelude. “You remember I am not the best at cooking, seeing as how I don’t eat.”
Agatha let out a loud moan, leaning back on her arms. Rio grabbed her by the back of the neck, pulling her in for a hard, teeth-knocking kiss. Agatha, while aggressively riding Rio’s hand, bit Rio’s upper lip. Agatha was so wet on Rio’s fingers that there was hardly any friction and she kept slipping out of Agatha.
“Hold still,” Rio growled. She held Agatha down by the hip, trying to get her bearings. In one swift movement, she crawled around Agatha and got behind her. “Maybe this will be better.”
Before Agatha could say anything, Rio slid her hand back down and ran tight circles around Agatha’s clit. With her other hand, she pressed against Agatha’s upper back. She could feel the muscles tighten under her hand, clenching with each movement of her other hand. Agatha’s head lolled back, turning just enough that Rio could see one of Agatha’s sharp, blue eyes look at her from the side.
“I am almost there,” she gasped.
“I know.” Rio rested her face into the crook of Agatha’s shoulder. “Let go.”
Rio sped up just slightly and after a couple more swipes, Agatha’s body jerked back into Rio and she let out a long, low moan. Rio wrapped her arm around the front of Agatha’s body, holding her close while Agatha spasmed. Rio gradually slowed her hand, then removed it to take Agatha’s hand, squeezing it hard.
“I love you,” Agatha gasped into Rio’s ear.
“I love you too, mi amor.”
“I would really love to return the favor, but I really don’t feel well.”
Rio pushed away from Agatha to look at her, and could immediately tell Agatha wasn’t lying.
“I did promise you soup. Lie down.”
Agatha fully pulled off her dress and crawled under the covers.
Rio could have conjured the soup, but decided to just conjure the ingredients and cooked the soup herself. She let Agatha taste it before she served it.
“It’s a shame you can’t taste,” Agatha said. “It is one of the most amazing parts of being alive.”
“I probably could figure out how to make that happen, I did make this,” she gestured to her own body. “Remember, I didn’t always look like this, I made this body to make death easier for humans. Your ancient ancestors didn’t care what I looked like, those simple creatures.”
“You’ve explained this a little bit, but I don’t fully understand. You say humans looked different in the past?”
Rio added a couple more ingredients to the soup, before bringing it over to the bed, sliding the tray onto Agatha’s lap. Agatha was very intelligent, but the concept of evolution might be a bit much for her, especially while sick. She didn’t need to get into the fact that it took many steps and different animals to get to humans.
“I will explain later, eat your soup.”
Agatha shrugged, and slurped the soup. “Tastes pretty good. You’re getting better.”
Rio slid into the bed next to her, burying herself under the blankets. She stared at Agatha’s profile while she ate. Despite the soup dribbling down her chin, and her wet, raw nose, she was still the most beautiful woman Rio had ever seen. This silly human had turned her into such a sap.
Agatha Harkness was hard, snarky, witty, mean, both secure and insecure, filled with parental trauma, and powerful. She also secretly had a big heart, for very specific things. Not that she would ever admit that. And loving her caused the personification of Death to actually develop a heart.
She couldn’t help herself, but she had to kiss Agatha on the cheek. So she did. Agatha turned to her, spoon still in her mouth.
“I am sorry, but you’re still going to have to wait until tomorrow, perhaps. I want to be my best for you,” Agatha said, after removing the spoon. “Thank you for the soup, it really was good.”
“That honestly wasn’t on my mind. You’re just very beautiful.”
Agatha’s face turned red. She then yawned and rubbed her eye, a childlike look coming across her face. Rio took the bowl and tray from Agatha and placed them on the floor. Agatha grabbed a hankerchief and blew her nose into it. She suddenly look exhausted.
“I think it’s time for some sleep,” Rio said, wrapping the blanket tighter around Agatha. “Because I do want you at your best, because you owe me at least two.”
Agatha smiled, sliding down further into the bed, nestling her head into the pillow. Rio did the same so they were facing each other. Rio tucked a strand of hair behind Agatha’s ear and gently stroked her cheek, in a repeated motion. Agatha watched her for a moment before her eyes started to flutter closed.
Rio thought she had fallen asleep after a couple minutes of silence, until Agatha opened her eyes. “It’s been a while since you’ve stayed with me this long.”
“I do have help,” Rio reminded her. “And you needed me.”
Rio placed her hand on Agatha’s cheek and stroked her cheekbone with her thumb.
Agatha’s eyes closed again. “You’re also not usually so gentle with me.”
“Again, the moment you feel better, that will change.”
“Hm, I’m sure,” Agatha mumbled, her voice petering out as she fell asleep.
Rio held her hand in place for a moment longer, making sure Agatha was fully asleep, then carefully removed it. Agatha breathed loudly through her mouth, looking heartbreakingly sweet. Oh, Rio was in it bad.
Rio didn’t sleep, but she often liked to lie next to Agatha and close her eyes; she found she could turn off her mind for awhile. She liked to listen to Agatha’s breathing, even the ragged mouth-breathing coming from her right now. It grounded her, made her feel more physical, rather than the cosmic entity she was. Before Agatha she just existed between worlds, existing between life and death. Now she had this tether, something that made her life—or whatever it was—make more sense. Sometimes she didn’t know how Agatha felt about her, Agatha expressed her love in unusual ways, and it took Rio a while to understand that.
Despite Rio never having family or really experiencing love, she felt she understood love better than Agatha—who got no love growing up. A mother who hated her existence and a coven who didn’t give her much either—why Agatha felt no remorse for killing them.
They had been together a few decades at this point and it took Agatha nearly ten years to actually say “I love you.” And it had been an accident. She said it when Rio gifted her a brand new garden. She immediately looked embarrassed and Rio fell more in love with her. After that moment, though, Agatha let herself be more vulnerable with Rio.
Rio took Agatha’s hand and held it with such tightness that Agatha reacted in her sleep with a slight smile. Rio kissed the top of the hand, then each knuckle.
“Feel better, my love.”