Chapter Text
By the time Agatha arrived mismatched dishes were scattered over the table in a chaotic, yet familiar spread.
Ever since moving in together, Jen and Alice always did go all out when it was their night to host. Agatha thinks it’s mainly an excuse for Jen to burn her signature scents on some poor unassuming victims. They were already dotted around the table, and Agatha could spot the warm glow coming through from the living room to the right. On the table in the centre of the kitchen there were three untouched salads, and on the oven, a pan boiling, smelling expensive, and worryingly to Agatha, slightly experimental.
“You’re late,” Alice commented without looking up from the stove where she was mixing the suspicious concoction.
“I’m fashionably delayed,” Agatha replied, shrugging off her favourite long deep purple coat and hanging it on the hook to the left in the entry way, already overflowing with jackets. "There’s a difference."
"Not in this house.”
“Does this help?” Alice turns around at Agatha’s question, attention drawn from the stove and to the expensive bottle of wine Agatha proceeds to flourish with a grin on her face. Rolling her eyes at Agathas characteristic performance, Alice chuckles. During this interaction, Jen had floated in holding, you’ve guessed it, more candles. She spots the bottle, face lightening up, "Oooh wine. Okay that cancels it out you’re forgiven, Alice forgive her,” She demands.
Jen reaches for the bottle, placing it in the fridge. “Thanks Jennifer” Agathas eyebrows raise and she gestures forward to Alice in a told you so way, “See? I am generous and late. A winning combination.”
From the adjoining living room Agatha heard Lilia call, “We heard that. It’s not as charming as you think it is.”
Agatha glared at her through the open door, through which she could make out Wanda curled at one end of the sofa, leaning against Vision who had his arm draped around the back of the couch. Lilia was sat on the chair opposite, a full tarot draw laid out on the table in front of her.
It was comfortable, predictably normal.
Agatha exhaled into it.
That was the point of these dinners - the noise, familiarity, a rhythm she didn’t have to learn the choreography too. There was no performing or hiding. It was where she could simply be.
Absolutely no surprises.
*
It wasn’t long before everyone had gathered around the table. Plates were full, glasses poured, conversation overlapping in the way that developed from years of knowing each other a little too well.
The attention was focused on Wanda and Vision as they delved into their third parenting story of the evening. Don’t be mistaken, Agatha adored those boys. Loved babysitting. Loved playing with them, reading stories, chasing them through the garden. But most importantly also loved when she was allowed to leave them.
Wanda was finishing her mouthful, putting down her fork, “So I go upstairs, just to check. And they are both in Billy’s room, giggling, with the door closed. ”
Vision nodded along, “Already a suspicious variable.”
“Exactly. We may be figuring out this parenting thing, but even novices like us know a closed door means plotting,” Wanda said, “So I reach to open it and -“ She paused, already trying to force back a laugh, hiding her mouth behind her hand.
Jen, sitting to the right of Agatha, leaned forward, “God what did they do?”
Wanda breathed in, pressed her lips together, “they had um well redecorated”
Agatha raised a brow, “Define what you mean by redecorated”
“With flour”
Silence.
Forks held still on route to the recipients mouth. Glasses perched on the edges of lips.
“Flour?” Alice repeated.
Vision had his hand on his forehead, leaning back in his chair. “They had accessed the kitchen storage unsupervised.” Agatha hide a smirk behind her wine glass.
“And we are not talking about little bit. I mean all of it. The floor, the bed, themselves, God Tommy looked like he had aged thirty years”
Agatha burst out laughing as Lilia exclaimed, “No!”
“Oh yes,” Wanda said. “And Billy - ”
Vision interjected, almost proudly, “had drawn what he described as ‘protective symbols’ on every single wall.”
Agatha choked on her drink, “With flour?”
“With water and flour,” Vision clarified, pointing certainly into the table. “He created a paste and we actually heard the words improved adhesion leave his mouth.”
Jen covered her mouth, laughing. “That’s… honestly impressive.”
Wanda shook her head. “He told me it was to ‘keep monsters out.’”
Agatha tilted her head curiously. “Did it work?”
Wanda glanced at her, deadpan. “Well, I didn’t see any monsters.”
“Then really,” Agatha said, lifting her glass, “Who are you to question the method?”
Alice groaned. “Do not encourage them.”
“They’re menaces,” Wanda said with fondness.
Vision nodded. “Highly energetic. Exceptionally creative.”
“And completely incapable of being quiet,” Wanda added.
Agatha leaned back in her chair, smirking. “Sounds like they take after you.”
The table breaks into laughter and Agatha lets her gaze wander across the table, smiling at her friends.
Jen was her roommate from college, who she spent the first few months bickering with, with a certain intensity that only two very stubborn people could manage. They fought about anything that could matter, no matter how minor - noise, mess, clothes, there was a long term disagreement about whether dishes actually needed to be washed immediately, or according to Jen, whether they could ‘develop character’. The only reason they really came up for air and stopped fighting was when they realised that no one else would tolerate either of them quite as completely as they did themselves.
As a consequence of the chaos, Alice presence also became a permanent fixture following Jen accidentally stumbling into her music class. She had been forced into a clarinet solo, offending every single music student in the room with every note she attempted to play. Agatha is pretty convinced Alice only said yes to a date due to pity.
The three of them were largely inseparable and it worked.
Oh, the three of them and Rio of course. Even when she wasn’t in the room. Back then especially. She was the missing piece that somehow managed to take up a space in every tale, every memory, every drunken late night conversation.
Wanda had slipped into their lives following Alices graduation. They had worked together, both teaching at an elementary school and bonded over their hatred for this one specific child. Her presence in the group was always a steady anchor. She had bought Vision, her high school sweetheart and new fiancé, with her. He was somehow accepted immediately as the only man that was allowed in their group without being interrogated for it, although he got his fair share of bullying.
Lilia was the newest addition. A colleague of Agathas. She had been an inconvenience, a persistent presence at the law firm where Agatha worked. She had refused to be polite in her distance, chipping away at Agatha’s stone walls with an unsettling patience that felt rarely directed towards her. One day Agatha had annoying realised that she was no longer just tolerated but liked, and that week Lilia received an invitation to the next dinner party.
Agatha let out a quiet breath. God she was lucky. Ew. She immediately recoiled from the thought. Nope. Absolutely not. That was the wine talking, or exhaustion, or most likely the weird experimental disaster Alice had fermented on the stove.
Alice clears her throat, drawing attentive eyes towards where she sat at the head of the table between Jen and Vision.
“Um so actually”, she begins smiling, “I have some news” Alice is practically beaming now.
Agatha didn’t think anything of it at first. People always had news - jobs, moves, minor life updates dressed up as big announcements. She reached for her almost empty glass.
Jen, who looked as excited as Alice did (oh God they aren’t pregnant are they? Not that Agatha wouldn’t be thrilled for them but babysitting for Wanda and Vision was already taxing enough, and she didn’t want her only role in this group to be the fun single aunt babysitter!).
Alice glanced quickly towards Jen, then back to the table,
“Rio’s moving back”
*
The world didn’t stop. That would have been easier. Instead, because the universe hated her, the room continued to move. Cutlery clinked, someone shifted in their chair, one of Jens candles flickered like it had opinions - and Agatha’s heart just…misfired.
Once. Hard.
She gripped her glass stem tight, knuckles white.
“Wait - what?” Lilia shook her head in disbelief as she spoke over Wanda’s excited, “When?”
Agatha took a sip of wine like she hadn’t just forgotten how to breathe.
Alice continued, “Three weeks. She got a new job based here, said she was sick of the travel.”
Well that confused Agatha. Rio loved to travel. It was why she took the job with the National Geographic in the first place, why she initially left three years ago. Ever since Agatha had known Rio, her dream was to travel, see the world, immerse herself in new habitats and cultures. She never openly said it. Never had to. But Rio hated the stillness. She needed to be moving through the world, learning and growing, god forbid she ever stayed in one place too long. Before Agatha could comment Wanda chimed in.
“Sick of travelling?” She repeated. “Wow has the Rio Vidal finally outgrown her sea legs. Thought we’d always be limited to birthdays, weddings and funerals with her.”
“This is good!” Lilia said sitting up grinning, her hands clasped together in front of her, “really good.”
Vision was nodding from next to Alice, “It will be nice to have her presence restored to regular intervals.”
Agatha almost laughed at that.
Restored to regular intervals.
As if Rio’s departure had been merely a scheduling inconvenience. Something to work around. Like she hadn’t - She set her glass down, removing her vice like grip on the innocent glass.
“Yeah,” Agatha said, aiming for casual, and to give her some credit she landed somewhere in the same postcode. “That’s, well, that’s great. Good for her.”
No one at the table looked at her too closely. Or maybe they did, but knew better than to push.
Lilia who was situated to the left of Agatha, at the other head of the table, leaned forward. “So did she say where she plans on living?”
“No not yet,” replied Alice. “I think she’ll end up in a temporary place for a while. She’s still sorting it”
Agatha had begun fiddling with her napkin on the table. Twisting it between her fingers. Grounding her. The rough fabric providing suitable distraction.
Jen took a drink from her glass before adding, “She sounded excited though. Nervous, but excited.”
Agatha forced a smirk. “Nervous? Rio? Sure, I will believe it when I see it.”
Something tightened inside. Because she could see it. She had seen it.
She could see Rio pretending that everything was fine, playing it down and smiling as though nothing mattered more than the next step forward. Like the previous step hadn’t meant anything at all.
-
We’re good, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Of course we are.
-
It was casual. Light. Some would say laughable. There was no drama. No raised voices, big blow ups. It was just a simple mutual decision made in the quiet that made perfect sense at the time.
And then Rio had left. And Agatha had let herself believe that it made it easier.
Three weeks, three weeks and Rio would no longer just be passing through anymore, she would be…here. Indefinitely.
Agatha reached across Jen and grabbed the half opened bottle of wine. “Hey! Rude!” Jen exclaimed but Agatha just rolled her eyes.
It’s fine she told herself as she poured herself another large glass. They were through the hard part surely, and they had seen each other since…well since everything. It was always in groups, briefly, occasionally, and always easy. Nothing lingering. Nothing -
“Agatha?”
She blinked.
Wanda was looking at her, with something resembling knowing concern.
“Hmm?”
“You’ve gone quiet”
Agatha smiled, appearing effortless on the surface. “I’m busy drinking.” She raises her glass as evidence before taking a gulp from it, the liquid soothing her chest.
Wanda held her gaze for a second longer than Agatha thought was realistically needed, then turned towards Alice, letting it go.
“Anyway,” Alice went on, clapping her hands lightly on the table, shifting attention. “We should do something when she’s back. Like properly. Not just a quick coffee between flights.”
“Ooo I know!” Jen said loudly, sitting up straight and grabbing onto Alices shoulder, “Lets have a little party at the Witches Crossing. Rio loved that place and we used to go all the time after we had graduated.”
“Or we could do a nice sophisticated dinner?” Vision suggested. “With structure.”
“A party at the Witches crossing” Lilia repeated as Wanda chuckled and reached over to place her hand on top of Visions thigh in affection.
Agatha, still holding her full wine glass. “A party sounds dangerous,” she takes a sip, lips tightening “I’m in.” And there it was - her voice, steady, amused, and completely unaffected.
Three weeks.
Around her, the night continued, conversations splintering, warm familiar and seemingly unchanged.
*
The next three weeks passed without note. Agatha managed to avoid any conversation about Rio. Casually changing conversation when asked, or finding a reason to leave the room. Sure it wasn’t exactly mature but hey, it worked to an extent. What it didn’t do however was stop her from thinking about it.
Three years. Three whole years of brief reunions and strategically maintained distance. But now Rio was coming back to Westview. She was coming back without any exit date attached, not longer temporary or passing through. She was staying. Here. In this city. In these familiar rooms.
It’s fine she told herself over and over. They were different people now, older, wiser and all that crap. Whatever they had been, whatever they hadn’t said, it belonged to a historic version of themselves that no longer exists.
She could handle a few dinners. More shared spaces. Plenty of time to prepare. To get a grip. To become a picture of emotional stability.
God she was fucked.