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Chapter Text

Agatha shoved clothes into her duffel bag, blinking furiously to stop the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. She knew her mother didn't love her, probably had never loved her, but of all the fucked-up things to do...

She had to get out of this house. She just had to.

That morning had seemed so normal. She'd rolled out of bed as her mother called for her to come downstairs, put on an oversized black hoodie and red Converse, and done up her hair in a messy bun ^[1] before heading downstairs. For once, her mother had been in a good mood, not glaring at her, and she'd handed her a cup of tea. That was unusual, but Agatha took a sip anyway and went to grab a bagel. She was just taking a seat at the table when she heard her mother say, "Don't worry, she's drinking it now. It'll work like a charm. And don't forget, bring her back here once you're done."

She'd frozen in terror, unable to process what was going on, until a strange man had rounded the corner and was leering at her. He handed her mother a wad of bills and then said in her direction, "C'mon, sweetheart, we have a date." Agatha's head had started to spin and her vision blurred, but instinctively she jumped to her feet and ran back upstairs, feeling the effects of whatever her mother had put in the tea as she ran. She'd barely managed to stumble to her room and lock the door before she heard her mother coming up the stairs, saying "Now Agatha, don't be unreasonable." The last thing she remembers before blacking out was her mother banging on the door.

When she woke up again, three hours later, her head was fuzzy and it took her a moment to remember what had happened. Then it all came flooding back, and she knew she had to run.

After packing her bag with as much as she could carry, she listened carefully to see if anyone was still in the house. She'd always had exceptionally good hearing and had never been more grateful for that. The house appeared to be empty. Carefully, she opened her door and tiptoed down the stairs, just in case, then ran to the door and out of the house.

She wasn't even sure where she would go - maybe to her best friend Alice's house? Alice's mom was a famous singer and away on tour a lot, but that probably meant there was space at her house for Agatha.

She was so lost in thought, walking as fast as she could, that she didn't notice when she plowed right into someone. "Hey!" whoever it was grunted. "Stop!"

Immediately, Agatha panicked, thinking of the strange man in her kitchen, and started struggling as she felt the other person put their arms around her. "Let go of me!" she said. "Help! Let me go! ^{[2] [3]} He's after me!"

"Stop struggling!" the person said, and it was a woman's voice. But that didn't mean anything - maybe she was in cahoots with the strange man. She didn't let go of Agatha, and just kept saying things like "Calm down, calm down. You don't know what's happening" which, naturally, had the opposite effect. Agatha responded by turning her head and biting the woman's hand, hard.

Two things happened: the woman screamed "Fuck!" and let go of her entirely, and there was a sudden burst of strange purple light that left Agatha dazed. She should have run, but between the strange flash of light and the effects of the drugs still in her system, she just stood there, blinking. The woman seemed equally dazed, and Agatha heard her say "no way" like Agatha wasn't even there. But Agatha didn't have time to worry about whatever was going on with this woman. She pelted off down the sidewalk without even glancing back.

--

Agatha ended up going to class, because she didn't know what else to do. Alice's house had been empty, as it turned out she was gone on tour with her mom, and Agatha didn't have any other friends. Actually, everyone at school hated her, but especially the Salem Seven, the group of popular girls who especially hated her. Most days they'd follow her around whispering insults to her, or try to get her in trouble with one of the professors. She tried to ignore them, but it wore on her.

Today she walked into the classroom and saw two of them crouched over the desk she usually sat at. She glared at them until they scattered, and then she could see that they'd written WHORE across the top of the desk in lipstick.^[4] She sighed and used her sweatshirt sleeve to rub it off.

"Told you she'd just wipe it off," whispered the one called Fox. "Frickin' maniac." The rest of them giggled and Agatha gritted her teeth, trying to block them out.

After a long day of classes, she dragged her duffel bag home, hoping maybe her mother had stayed out wherever she was. She really didn't want to talk to her. Unfortunately, when she opened the front door, she could hear laughter from inside. "Agatha!" her mother called, like it was just a normal day. "Come in, we have a guest!"

Agatha winced, walking slowly into the house. She glanced at the table where her mother was sitting with someone, half-expected to see the strange man leering at her again, but instead, it was...

"This is Rio," her mother said, and Agatha blinked as she stared at the woman who she'd run into earlier that day.

She hadn't noticed because she'd been in a hurry, but Rio was pretty. Like really pretty, with big brown eyes rimmed with shadowy eyeliner, long dark hair, and soft-looking lips painted with dark lipstick. She probably had a nice smile, although at the moment she was scowling a little. "I know you," Rio said, narrowing her eyes. "From... earlier today."

"Hi," Agatha said, not in the mood to be nice. "Mother-"

But before she could continue, her mother said, "Rio is going to be your new stepsister. I was hoping to be able to introduce you to her mother, but she had a work emergency so it'll just be the three of us for dinner tonight."

Agatha was so startled she dropped the duffel bag on the floor. "Wait, what?" Her mouth dropped open. "Stepsister? What the fuck?"

"Don't swear at me," her mother scolded. "Her mother and I have been seeing each other awhile, and, well, it's going very well. So we thought you two should get to know each other." Her mother gestured for her to sit down. "Sit, eat. I'm sure you will like her. She's a lovely girl."

Agatha wasn't so sure about this, considering Rio was looking at her like she was something she'd picked off of her shoe^[5] . But she was too tired to fight and just sat down, reaching to dish up some pasta for herself.

"Rio works as a professor," Agatha's mother said. "Of history, right, Rio?"

"Yes." Rio now seemed to be pretending that Agatha wasn't there, looking directly at Agatha's mother as she spoke. "I'm teaching a class at Westview U this semester, actually."

"Oh, that's where Agatha goes!" Agatha's mother's tone was annoyingly bright, and it made Agatha want to hit her. "I wonder if you'll see each other on campus."

"Probably," said Agatha, pushing the pasta around on her plate. "Mother, I'd like to talk to you about-"

"It's really a shame your mother couldn't be here, Rio," her mother said, cutting her off. "Agatha, I think you'll like her too. She's a very successful businesswoman, just the kind of person that could be good for us." Agatha heard the undertone of her mother's words: don't mess this up, because we need the money we'll get from marrying rich.

At one point during dinner, Agatha's mother's phone rang and she said, "Oh, Rio, it's your mother!" She said "Hello?" in the most sickening tone Agatha had ever heard, then giggled and got up from the table, saying, "Just a minute, baby, let me step away-"

The second she was out of earshot, Rio turned to Agatha, her dark eyes blazing with fury. "Stop trying to seduce me."

"I'm... not?" Agatha stares at her, baffled.

"We've crossed paths before, and that must be for a reason. Now, you listen to me." Rio stared into her eyes intensely. "I don't care who you are or what kind of connection we have, but you need to keep your distance, understand?"

"Okay, okay," Agatha said, putting up her hands in self-defense. "Whatever, I won't go near you. I don't care. I'm so not interested in some step-sibling thing anyway. Even if our parents get together, consider me persona non grata where you're concerned."

"Good." Rio finally broke the intense eye contact and went back to eating, like nothing had happened.

Agatha suffered through the rest of the dinner, then retreated to her room, giving up on talking to her mother about the morning's events. It was clear that she didn't care, and Agatha would just have to be vigilant from now on.

--

When Agatha woke the next morning, she half-expected to see the strange man in her kitchen again. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and her mother wasn't even home, which she counted as a win. She went to class feeling cautiously optimistic about the day.

Until she sat down for the first class of the day, Medieval European History, and the professor walked in. The professor who was Rio.

The Salem Seven were gossiping quietly amongst themselves, as usual, but when Rio entered they all sat straight up and stared at her. "She's our new professor?" Coyote whispered to Fox. "Well, shit!"

Agatha stared at Rio too, but for a different reason. Maybe this was some kind of terrible nightmare. Maybe she was about to wake up for real and there would be a strange man in her kitchen, handing her mother money.

"Hello, class," Rio said, glancing at them with a small smile. "I'm afraid Professor Hart was unable to teach this class as she has fallen ill, so I will be taking over." She writes out "Professor Rio" across the whiteboard. "I'm Professor Rio."

Then she looked right at Agatha with the nastiest look Agatha had ever seen. "I hope we'll all be able to keep things professional here." Agatha stared right back at her, having no idea what she meant but also not interested in rolling over for this weird lady who had it out for her for some reason.

Class seemed fairly normal, although every time she raised her hand to answer a question Rio pointedly ignored it. It only happened a couple times, but it was enough for Agatha to get suspicious. Rio refused to meet her eyes when she looked around the room at the class as she talked, too, like Agatha didn't even exist. Agatha clenched her teeth and decided to just ride it out; it was only for a semester anyway.

For the rest of the week, she kept her guard up around both her mother and Rio. On Thursday morning, her mother met her in the kitchen and held out a paper bag. "Give this to Rio, please," her mother said.

Agatha stared at it like it might contain a live snake. "Why?"

"It's for her lunch."

"You don't make me lunch," Agatha protested, but her mother had already turned away. She sighed and walked out the door; no point in being late and getting into a fight with her mother.

As she walked, she inspected the contents of the bag: a ham sandwich on wheat bread with extra mayo. Agatha had considered stealing it for her own lunch as payback for Rio being so weird to her, but this was about the grossest sandwich she could imagine, so she just gripped the bag tighter and walked faster.

When she got to the classroom, Rio was already there, seated at the desk and flipping through some notes, and only gave Agatha a pointed glare when she walked in. Agatha barely suppressed an eyeroll and held out the paper bag. "Here," she said. "Your lunch, or whatever."

Rio curls her lip slightly. "You're way too obvious, y'know. Stop trying to flirt with me."

Agatha sighed. "Look, I don't have energy for whatever this is today. My mom gave this to me and now I'm giving it to you, and I'm absolutely not flirting with you." She tossed the bag onto Rio's desk and went to sit down, pulling out her notebook and making a point of ignoring Rio as she got ready for class.

Rio muttered something that Agatha had trouble making out. It sounded sort of like "you'll never be my mate," but since that was clearly an insane thing to say, she'd probably just heard her wrong. Maybe Rio was cursing her out in another language or something. Agatha didn't have the energy to worry about it either way.

--

By the second week of class, Agatha had determined that Rio was for sure ignoring her when she raised her hand. Since participation was part of the grade for the class, that was definitely cause for concern - not that she gave a fuck about this class, but it fulfilled her history requirement and attempting to transfer to another class felt like giving up and letting Rio win. And Agatha wasn't about to do that. One week after Rio accused her of trying to seduce her, Agatha thought up a plan.

Rio always spent a few minutes after class gathering up her notes, so Agatha waited outside the classroom until she saw Rio leaving. "Professor Rio!" she called out, stepping in Rio's way. "I'd like to talk to you."

"I don't have time." As always, Rio avoided her eyes and tried to shove past her. But Agatha held her ground.

"Well, I don't have time to risk failing this class because you won't call on me when I raise my hand," retorted Agatha. "So what is it with you? I'm participating in your class, that's what you want, isn't it?"

"What I want is for you to leave me alone," Rio said, still trying to slip away.

"Well, too bad!" Agatha moved to block her again, grabbing her arm to stop her from wriggling past her. "Look, I don't know what problem you have with me, but you're my professor and, apparently, about to be my stepsister or whatever. I know you don't wanna be my sister any more than I want to be yours, but it seems like we'll be forced to be around each other one way or another, so can we call truce at least? Just until the class finishes?"

Rio finally met her eyes, and Agatha was shocked to see how angry Rio was. At her? That didn't even make any sense. "I'll call a true when you stop trying to seduce me," Rio said, wrenching her arm out of Agatha's grasp. "Do you think you can do that?"

Agatha narrowed her eyes. Rio wasn't making any sense, but she was also breathing pretty hard... and her top was strangely low-cut for a professor. Was that a hint of fear in her eyes? Was she that intimidated by Agatha, that anything Agatha did could come across as sexual? "Maybe," Agatha said, almost whispering, "I need to show you what seduction really looks like." She leaned in like she was about to kiss Rio and then breathed, "Because I promise if I was trying to seduce you, you'd know it."

Before she was really aware of what was happening, Rio grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around, slamming her back against the wall. "I warned you," Rio snarled, though her eyes were still on Agatha's lips. "You don't want to do this, little girl. You can't handle it."

"You don't know what I can handle," Agatha whispered, leaning in to brush her lips against Rio's neck. But she was quickly overpowered, with Rio crushing her lips against Agatha's. Agatha was barely able to let out a squeak of shock as Rio kissed her hard.

"You see?" Rio said lowly, once she'd broken apart and left Agatha panting. "You have no idea what you're messing with, Agatha. I-"

The laughter of a group of students floated down the hall, and Rio sprang back from Agatha like she'd been hit. Rio waited until they'd passed to hiss, "Don't mess with me, Agatha. I mean it," before disappearing down the hall.

--

Agatha tried her best to stay out of Rio's way, since she clearly wasn't interested in playing nice. She was over at their house for dinner most evenings, with her mysterious mother "working late." Agatha was starting to suspect that Rio maybe didn't even have a mother, and it was all some weird plot between her and Agatha's mother to... well, she didn't know what, but she kept her guard up whenever Rio was around just in case.

At least today was Friday, and Alice was back from touring with her mother. Agatha had seen her briefly when she arrived on campus this morning, but she hadn't had time for more than a quick wave and a "talk later" before Alice had to get to her music class. Still, it made Agatha feel a little better knowing she had someone on campus who didn't hate her guts.

When she sat down in the classroom for American Lit, she saw a note left at her usual spot in the room. She frowned and opened it. Meet me after this class in the women's changing room - important secret to tell you! -A

That was a weird place to meet, but Alice was good friends with some of the female soccer players. Maybe that was the only place on campus she could think of that was secure enough to meet, for whatever secret she had to spill to Agatha. 

The class was nothing special, and Agatha found herself more and more curious about what Alice had to tell her that was so secret they had to meet in such a weird place. She made her way over to the building with the facilities for the school's sports teams, and ambled over to the door to the women's changing room. She didn't bother knocking, because the place looked basically deserted.

She swung the door open and called, "Hello? Alice? What'd you want to tell me that was so secret I-"

But she didn't get to finish her sentence, because she was too busy gaping at Rio, who was sitting on one of the benches topless and with only a towel wrapped around her lower half.

Rio shrieked "Get out!" and launched herself at her, and Agatha instinctively put up her hands in self-defense, backing up. She was able to at least duck behind a row of lockers, and she called, "Jesus, Rio, why are you naked? Why are you here?"

"I am showering because our water at home got turned off! Some idiot dug too deep and hit the water main and now we don't have running water!" There are some soft shuffling noises and a few colorful curses. "Agatha, why are you here?"

"I- I got a note from Alice asking me to meet her here-" Agatha stopped, groaning. "It must have been the fucking Salem Seven. Those bitches."

"The who?" Rio growled. "That doesn't explain why you would just barge in without knocking! Where you raised in a barn, for god's sake?"

"Excuse me for assuming nobody would be here!" retorted Agatha. "Anyway, I'll just leave you to-"

"I'll be telling your mother about this!" Rio spat. She came roaring around the corner, now wearing a loose tank top and sweatpants. Her hair was dripping onto the tank top and Agatha noticed (not on purpose) that she wasn't wearing a bra, and also that she had impressive arm muscles. "I can't believe you walked in on me while I was naked, and you want me to believe you're not coming onto me?"

Agatha pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look. It was some kind of insane misunderstanding and, once again, if I was trying to come onto you, you would know it." She didn't mention their kiss; neither of them had brought it up again.

Rio just turned her back on her, and Agatha rolled her eyes and left. She opened the door and heard a yelp, then poked her head around the door to see the Salem Seven gathered around. "What do you want?" Agatha asked, glaring. A couple of them had their phones up like they were recording her. 

"Oh, nothing," said Fox, smirking. "We were just wondering why you were visiting Professor Rio in the changing room. Y'know, while she was showering." The nasty look on her face told Agatha everything she needed to know about where the note from "Alice" came from. 

She did notice, with some satisfaction, that one of the Salem Seven, Crow, was glaring at her and rubbing her cheek, which had a nasty fresh bruise. So that explained the yelp she'd heard - Crow must have been at the door listening. "You okay there?" Agatha asked sweetly. "Run into a door, maybe?"

"No thanks to you," muttered Crow, flipping her off. 

"Never mind," Fox said, waving at Crow to shut her up. "Agatha, is something going on between you and Professor Rio?" She batted her eyes cartoonishly. "Worried about your grades? You know there are other ways to pass a class, you slut."

"I don't have time for this," said Agatha, shoving past them to leave. "See you later." 

A chorus of laughter followed her, and Fox called, "We will see you later, Agatha!" which didn't exactly sound like a threat.

--

Rio's mother, Hela, finally had time for dinner at Agatha's house that night, which was just as awkward as all of the other "family dinners" had been. 

Hela was even stiffer than her daughter, if that was possible, though with Agatha's mother she was almost grossly affectionate. Apparently she'd proposed to Agatha's mother that afternoon, and were blissfully indifferent to their daughters' mutual hatred of their relationship. They traded sweet nothings from across the table while Agatha tried to hold in her disgust. More than once she and Rio locked eyes and, at least, Agatha could tell Rio didn't like this any more than she did. 

"I never thought Rio would be Agatha's professor," Agatha's mother remarked casually as she dished out some pasta. "What a wonderful coincidence. Now you two can get to know each other very well." 

"Agatha's adorable," Hela said. Even though somehow Agatha's mother missed her deep sarcasm, Agatha didn't. 

"Thanks, Aunt Hela," she said, barely suppressing an eyeroll. She'd been told by her mother to call Hela "Aunt," even though that didn't make any sense. 

"Well, I hear Rio stole all the girls' hearts at school," Agatha's mother said, which made Agatha nearly barf right there in the middle of dinner.^[6] "I certainly understand it; she's such a beauty. I'm so glad we'll all be family." Agatha's only comfort in that moment was that Rio also looked like she wanted to first stab everyone else at the table and then herself. 

Somewhere amidst the torment of that dinner, Agatha absentmindedly stretched her leg out under the table. She was expecting to feel only air - and then her foot hit something soft, and Rio choked on a bite of her food. "Are you alright, darling?" asked Hela with a glance at her daughter.

After a second of coughing and then downing some water, Rio sputtered, "I'm fine," and glared at Agatha. For a moment Agatha was confused before she realized that she must have accidentally prodded Rio's leg with her foot. What a weird reaction. 

She did it again a moment later, careful to aim her foot away from Rio, when to her shock she felt something grab her foot. She almost cried out before biting her own tongue to stop it. Luckily, her mother was in the middle of telling some inane story and therefore not paying any attention at all to her. Agatha glared at Rio, the obvious culprit. Rio just smirked at her and moved her foot around a little, as if to prove that she could. Agatha tried to pull her foot back, but Rio's grip was too strong to do it without drawing both their parents' attention. Agatha adjusted herself so she wasn't about to get dragged under the table and shoved another bite of pasta into her mouth, determined to ignore Rio. 

Eventually, Rio let go of her foot and went back to eating her dinner normally, with no further comment. But she met Agatha's eyes and gave her a warning look nonetheless.

Chapter Text

Agatha had done her best to put the awkward encounter in the changing room out of her mind, and by the next morning she was more concerned about an upcoming paper she really needed to start working on. That is, until she walked into the history classroom and saw the state of the whiteboard. 

It was covered in candids of Agatha, some of her emerging from the women's locker room and some from other days. God only knew when those had been taken, but Agatha had a pretty good idea who had taken them. Around the photos there were arrows pointing to various pictures with captions such as I LOVE RIO, DIRTY WHORE, SUCH A BITCH, and other things that were equally insulting and baffling. Agatha just stared at it for a second, trying to absorb what was even going on. 

A burst of giggles snapped her out of it, and she turned to see the Salem Seven grinning at her. "Told you we'd see you later," Fox says with a nasty little wink. Agatha just glared at them and went over to start taking down the pictures. 

Unfortunately, before she could get more than a couple of them down, Rio walked into the room and then stopped, staring at the display. "What is this?" she asked, her voice like ice. 

"Rio," Agatha said with a nod. "This wasn't me. I-" 

"I don't care who it was, clean it up," snapped Rio, storming over to her desk. "We have important topics to go over today."

Agatha could feel her cheeks burning as she quickly gathered up the rest of the pictures and erased the insults. She tossed the pictures into the garbage and took her seat as Rio coughed pointedly and said to the class, "Please refrain from personal use of the whiteboard from now on." 

During that class, it felt like Rio was ignoring her even more than usual, if that was possible. Only a few people had even seen the embarrassing display on the whiteboard, but Rio seemed especially interested in pretending she'd never heard of or spoken to Agatha in her life. Maybe it was to head off any rumors, maybe it was just to try to save face, but either way, it was aggravating. 

By the time class had wrapped up, Agatha had had enough. Between this latest public humiliation session and the agonizing "family dinner" last night, something had to give. "Professor Rio," she said sweetly as the last of the students filed out of the room, "can I talk to you for a second?"

Rio ignored her for a long moment, to the point where Agatha was considering just giving up and turning away. But finally Rio stood up from her desk and gathered her things. "What?" she snapped. "What do you want, Agatha?"

"Look," Agatha said, cutting right to the chase, "you and I both know there's nothing going on between us. You don't wanna be my sister, or anything else, and I absolutely don't wanna be yours. But if we don't figure something out quick, we'll never be out of each other's lives. I don't know about you, but my mother doesn't give a fuck about what I think or listen to me at all." 

"And?" 

"And I'm sure if we tried to tell them to break up, they would just laugh at us. But..." Agatha stepped closer to Rio and let the silence between them linger, glancing pointedly at Rio's lips. "If, say, they found out we were actually involved... like, in a way that step-siblings shouldn't be... that might be enough to convince them to call off the wedding." 

Rio blinked at her. "What?" 

"I'm saying, we fake a relationship to freak out our parents and make them break up." Agatha smiled and reached for Rio's hand. "So what do you say, Professor Rio? You wanna team up with me?" She brushed her fingers against Rio's hand, coaxing her to open it.

Rio sucked in a deep breath and yanked her hand away as if Agatha had bitten her instead. "Maybe you need to study more," she snapped, "because you're not as smart as you think you are." She left in a huff, with Agatha staring after her. 

"Okay, fine!" she called, though Rio might have been out of earshot already. "Don't say I didn't try to stop them!"

--

One of Agatha's afternoon classes was on the upper floor of Schaeffer, the humanities building. It wasn't that popular because it was the oldest building on campus, but Agatha didn't mind it; it was always quiet in there. She sometimes went to hang out there if she had an hour to kill between classes. The stairs could be a little steep, but she'd never slipped on them or otherwise felt unsafe. 

Then again, the Salem Seven had never followed her into this building, either.

She was lost in her own thoughts and barely registered the sound of someone coming up behind her before she felt someone shoving her forward and she was sprawling down the stairs, with very familiar laughter echoing in her ears. It all happened in the blink of an eye, and then she was tumbling down, crashing into-

Rather than landing on the hard ground like she was expecting, she felt herself make impact with something warm and solid. Or someone.

With the breath knocked out of her, she wasn't able to do more than let out a weak whimper before a pair of strong arms encircled her and a familiar voice barked, "Fox!" 

Agatha blinked and looked up to see - Rio?

Rio's arms were around her, though only for a second, and then she helped Agatha to stand. Agatha winced as a sharp pain burst from her ankle - she must have done something to it in the fall. Rio seemed more concerned with Fox and Coyote, who were standing at the top of the stairs watching. "I saw what you two just did! Consider this a final warning!" Rio said, her eyes blazing with fury. "Now - get out of my sight!" And maybe it was the shock, or maybe she'd hit her head and not realized it - but Agatha could swear that Rio's dark eyes flashed gold for a second as she shouted at her assailants. 

The two girls apparently weren't interested in a rematch, because they made themselves scarce, and Rio turned to Agatha. "Are you hurt?" 

Rio sounded... concerned? It was so startling that Agatha took a second to respond. "My ankle," she gasped, adjusting so she wasn't standing on it anymore. "I think I twisted it or something." 

"Dammit." Rio let go of her, and for a second Agatha wondered if Rio was just going to leave her here. Then, to her shock, she felt Rio grab onto her and wrap one arm around her back and another below her knees. Agatha yelped as Rio lifted her up, bridal-carrying her towards the doors. 

"What are you doing?"

"I'm getting you out of here," Rio said tersely. "Since you're hurt, this is the way to do that. I promise I will never drop you."^[1]

Agatha blinked. "Why are you even here?" 

"I was coming this way and heard a commotion." Rio was carrying her like she weighed nothing, which was odd since they were about the same size. She didn't even seem to be breathing hard. Maybe she worked out? But Agatha certainly hadn't gotten that impression. "I'm taking you home now. You don't have any more classes today."

"I don't," Agatha said, a little dazed. "How do you know that?" Rio didn't answer.

Luckily, Agatha's house was a ten minute walk away. Rio didn't seem to have any issues carrying her, and she didn't say much, which was fine by Agatha. When they arrived, she brought Agatha inside and deposited her on the couch. 

"Do you need ice for your ankle?" Rio asked. "It doesn't look like it's broken." 

"Sure." Agatha watched Rio walk to the fridge and return with a bag of frozen peas. "Thanks."

"You seem to get into scrapes often," Rio commented, sitting on the other end of the couch. She seemed to be deliberately keeping her body away from Agatha's, which Agatha tried not to take personally.

"Yeah, well, the Salem Seven have it out for me," sighed Agatha. "Dunno why." She didn't want to talk about this. "Have you thought any more about what I asked you earlier?" she asked, angling her body so it was facing Rio. "You know I'm right. If we don't do something, we'll be stuck together forever."

Rio appeared to be deliberately facing away from her. "I know that."

"So," Agatha continued, adjusting herself so their thighs were almost touching, "we're all alone right now, but my mother should be coming home from work soon. If she found us making out on the couch, she'd freak out. Why don't we try it out? C'mon, you can't just give up before we even try to stop this." She reached for Rio's arm and rested a hand on it, gently, like she was trying to touch a feral cat. 

Rio looked down at Agatha's hand, then locked eyes with her. Agatha could swear she saw the flash of gold in her eyes again. "If you really want to do this, you should understand the rules," Rio whispered, sounding intense. "This will be temporary, and you will understand that this changes nothing between us. I have plans for my life that do not include you."

"Sure, whatever you say, Professor." Agatha shrugged and leaned over to press herself against Rio. 

Their hallway kiss had been such a shock, and over so quickly, that Agatha hadn't really known how to process it. This was different; this was intentional, with Rio gripping her hips as Agatha straddled her and Agatha cupping Rio's cheek in her hand to kiss her, softly at first and then less so. She gently traced Rio's lips with her tongue and was delighted to hear Rio's soft sigh as she opened her mouth and allowed Agatha to lick into her. For someone who seemed so uptight, she didn't hesitate to run her hands down Agatha's body, one of her hands creeping closer to Agatha's center and another coming up to cup a breast. 

Agatha had no idea how long they spent kissing. All of their clothes technically stayed on, but at one point one of Rio's hands crept into her shirt and slipped under her bra. It wasn't that Agatha was a virgin, but it had been awhile since she'd had any action, and she couldn't help the little noises that escaped her as Rio touched her. 

She did put a stop to Rio reaching to unhook her bra though. "No need to take it that far, hotshot," she gasped, gently twisting away from Rio to sit back down on the couch. She smirked as Rio looked affronted, but then Rio quickly stood up, glaring at Agatha. 

"Now you're the one giving up," Rio said. She looked disgusted. "Do you know what being a mate means?"

"What?" Agatha blinked up at her. Truth be told, she still felt a little dizzy from the making out.

"It means finding someone who will stand by you no matter what." Rio curled her lip and continued, "When I find someone to spend my life with, she will be my mate. I want my mate to be elegant and loyal, got it? You certainly don't fit the bill."

Agatha just stared at her. "Okay? Sorry, I guess? Why do you keep saying 'mate,' what are you, a wolf or a swan or something?" 

Rio shook her head. "You wouldn't understand. You have your rules and I have mine. Stop manipulating me." Before Agatha could ask what she meant by any of that, she turned and walked out the door.

All Agatha could do was stare after her.

--

Sometimes, to Agatha's dismay, Rio and her mother spent the night at her house. At least Rio stayed in the guest room, which was all the way downstairs, but Agatha wore noise-cancelling headphones to bed when they stayed over just in case. She wasn't about to risk accidentally hearing any nighttime activities her mother and Hela got up to. 

On one of these mornings, she got up like normal and went to shower. However, to her dismay when she stepped into the shower a stream of icy water hit her back. "Fuck!" she hissed, jumping out right away. Half of her hair had gotten soaked, but there was no way she was taking an ice-cold shower, so she grabbed her towel off the rack and stormed out to find an explanation. 

Her mother's bedroom door was closed and the idea of walking in on whatever might have been going on in there was too horrible to comprehend. So instead, she started downstairs to see if the guest bathroom's water heater was working.

Unfortunately, the bathroom door was locked. She pounded on it, not interested in decorum at 7 AM. Rio cracked the door open and eyed her suspiciously. She was still clothed, at least. "What do you want, Agatha? I'm getting ready for work." 

"Yeah, and I was getting ready for class." Agatha shivered a little as the cool morning air raised goosebumps on her skin, and she tried to pull her towel tighter. "The upstairs water heater is broken and when I tried to take a shower the water was freezing. I was hoping maybe your shower had hot water." 

Rio stared at her, eyes narrowed. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"What?" Agatha gritted her teeth to stop them from chattering. "Just answer the question, goddammit! Do you have hot water or not?"

"I don't know what kind of game you're trying to play, but I'm not having it." Rio glared at her and shut the bathroom door. 

"Hey!" Agatha knocked loudly again, but a moment later she heard the water start. There was no corresponding shriek from Rio, so either she did have hot water or she was a freak who loved freezing showers (which wasn't totally out of the question). "Hey!" Agatha called again, louder this time. "If you don't let me in, then I'm gonna come in and I'm taking over the shower!" 

The water abruptly shut off and Agatha barely had time to take a breath before Rio opened the door. She had a robe on, but it was untied, and Agatha couldn't help glancing at her chest. "What is your problem?" Rio snapped. "I told you, I have to get ready for work!" 

"So what, I'm just supposed to suffer?" 

"What is going on here?" 

Apparently their shouting had woken Agatha's mother. "Girls, what's all this noise about?" She crossed her arms and frowned. 

"The water heater in my bathroom isn't working," Agatha explained, "and she has a working one, so I need to use her shower." Then something occurred to her. "Or," she added with a sly smile, stepping closer to Rio, "we could always shower together and save water." She grabbed the hanging tie on Rio's robe as if she were going to pull it open, and Rio tugged it back with a furious glare. 

Agatha's mother rolled her eyes. "Rio's your stepsister; that's not funny! You'll just have to wait until she's done. There should be enough hot water for both of you, and I'll call someone to fix yours this afternoon."

Agatha groaned and tried to protest, but her mother held up a hand. "You'll have to get used to things like this now, Agatha. I don't want to hear any whining." 

With such an awful start to the morning, Agatha didn't have high hopes for the rest of the day. She also had to stay late at the library to work on a sociology paper, which was really just the cherry on top of a shit sundae. History class was mercifully almost normal, with Rio even deigning to call on her one time. (She didn't miss the nasty giggling from a couple of the Salem Seven behind her when she answered, but at least she knew she'd get her participation credit.) She was supposed to have lunch on campus with Alice, but Alice had to cancel last-minute since something had come up with her mom, so Agatha bought a sandwich and snuck off to a secluded picnic table under her favorite tree on campus. It was a huge maple tree with leaves almost as big as her face, and she felt calmer every time she visited it. 

She ate her sandwich slowly, enjoying the quiet, when she heard footsteps coming from behind her. "Hi," someone said. "Do you mind if I sit with you?" 

Agatha whirled around, half expecting it to be one of the Salem Seven smirking at her, but instead it was a redheaded girl she didn't know. The girl had pale skin and big green eyes and was wearing a red leather jacket. She tilted her head, watching Agatha with a shy smile.

"Uh," Agatha said, "sure, I guess so. Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

The girl laughed nervously. "Not really. I just transferred here and I don't know anyone yet. The dining hall seemed loud, so I figured I would find a quieter place to eat." She had the slightest hint of an accent, though from where Agatha couldn't tell. "I'm Wanda, by the way."

"Agatha." Agatha scooted over on the bench. "I thought you might have been sent here to throw a drink on me or something."

Wanda gave her an alarmed look as she started unpacking her lunch. "Does that happen a lot here?"

"Not to most people. I just have a group of bitches who like to do that kind of shit to me." Agatha sighed. "I don't know why. They're also convinced I'm dating one of the professors, which I'm not because she hates me and I'm not that keen on her either. But she's around all the time 'cause our moms are dating, and if we don't stop them she's gonna become my stepsister and then be around even more."

"Wow." Wanda blinked. "I'm sorry, that sounds very complicated."

Agatha shrugged. "Anyway, enough about me. Welcome to Westview U, I guess. What are you studying?"

"I don't know yet. I'm still getting my core credits out of the way." Wanda tucked some hair behind her ear. "How about you?"

"I think business? Whatever will get me a decent job so I can move far away from this shithole." Agatha took a sip from her soda. "Especially if my mom shacks up with Rio's mom, I really gotta get outta here."

"Rio? Like Professor Rio?"

Scowling, Agatha nodded. "I see you've had the displeasure of meeting her already."

"I have European History with her, and I stopped by her office to introduce myself because I wasn't able to make it to class this morning. She's... certainly intense." Wanda laughed. "I can't imagine it's fun having her around your house all the time."

"It's really not. Like, she stayed over last night in our guest room and my shower ran out of hot water and she made me wait to use her shower until she was done!"

Wanda gaped at her. "I live with my twin brother and even he wouldn't do something like that. He always lets me have first shower."

"Damn, maybe I should crash with you," teased Agatha. Immediately Wanda flushed a little, but she also smiled like she liked the idea. 

"I like your bracelet," Wanda added suddenly, like she wanted to draw attention away from herself. "Did you make it yourself?"

"What? Oh." Agatha glanced at the woven bracelet Alice had made for her years ago. She wore it all the time, so much that she honestly forgot about it most of the time. "No, my best friend made it for me. She's got one too."

"That's nice." Wanda smiled. "I guess my brother is my best friend. I haven't really had that many friends before."

"Well, hey, I'm right here," Agatha said with a wink. "So what do you do when you're not attending a decidedly mediocre college?"

They talked for a while longer, until Wanda had to dash off to her next class, but she left Agatha her phone number. Wanda was only a freshman, but had apparently tested really well and skipped straight to sophomore-level history and English. She was pretty naive, and not Agatha's usual type, but Wanda was pretty clearly into her, so Agatha flirted back a little because why not? Nobody said she couldn't have a little fun while riding out the forced proximity from hell. If nothing else, maybe she could get Wanda to help her in Rio's stupid class.

She had one more late afternoon class, which was uneventful, and then headed to the library to start gathering sources for her paper. The sun was still out, but it was rapidly dipping toward the horizon.

Several hours later (some of which actually involved her working, and some of which involved her taking a two hour angry nap in the study room), Agatha emerged from the library to an empty campus. A few lamps lit portions of the path from the library to the next building, but most of them were burned out, casting large eerie shadows across Agatha's path.

She started walking anyway, ignoring her growling stomach. She'd stop off at the convenience store and get food there, because no way would her mother have saved dinner for her. She was crossing under the overhang of the next building when she heard footsteps behind her.

Agatha stopped and looked back, sure it was just a fellow student working late or maybe a security guard. There was nothing behind her, but when she took a few more steps she heard someone breathing heavily. "Okay, I can hear you," she snapped, whipping her head around again. "Fox, is that you?"

Everything was quiet for a second, and then someone grabbed her by the throat, slamming her against the wall. She let out an instinctive yelp as her back made contact with the building's brick wall. "Easy there," a deep voice said, and then she got a look at whoever was holding her: a tall man wearing a ski mask. "Ooh, you're a pretty one," said the man. She heard the unmistakable sound of a knife being removed from a sheath. "Good, that'll make this more fun."

"What?" Agatha croaked. "Who- who sent you? This is a crime!" Immediately after she said it she wanted to smack herself, because, duh, of course attacking someone with a knife was a crime.

A second voice, also probably a man's, said, "Don't worry, darlin', we'll make this quick. We were just sent to, y'know, pass along a message."

Agatha tried to squirm away and spit in the face of the man holding her. It didn't appear to do anything more than piss him off, and he dragged the knife down her cheek, sending a burst of pain through her. "There we go," he said, leaning in close enough that she was terrified he might lick the blood off her cheek. She kicked at him, to no avail and screamed, "Stop!"

The other man stepped forward, reaching for her too. "Lemme think about it," he said, leering at her. "No."^[2]

Then Agatha heard someone yell "Hey!" and both of the men turned to look at the speaker. "What the hell?" one of them muttered.

Agatha was still being held by the throat, tears coating her vision, but she blinked and saw Rio standing there looking furious. "Which one of you do you want me to start with first? The one who just looked at her, or the one who put hands on her?"

The one not still holding onto Agatha laughed nastily and stepped towards Rio. "Oh, you think you're gonna do something about it, girlie?" He rushed her, and then Rio - Rio launched herself at him like she was more than ready for a brawl. 

The second man, the one holding onto Agatha, swore and shoved Agatha away, sending her sprawling to the ground. It hurt, but Agatha ignored the pain, rolling to get herself to her feet so she could run if the men came at her again. She couldn't help turning to watch Rio fight, though. 

Rio was like a wildcat, using her smaller size against the men to put them off balance and send them sprawling rather than trying to simply overpower them. One of them tried to pick her up and she managed to wriggle out of his grasp and headbutt him hard in the chest instead, making him choke and curse as he staggered away. She managed to get the knife away from the other and pressed it against his throat, grinning. "I don't like using knives," she said, so quietly Agatha almost couldn't hear her. "Nasty implements. Much better to use our bare hands and... other natural weapons, don't you think?" She grinned, and Agatha could swear that her teeth looked sharper in the dim moonlight. Then she tossed the knife away and throat-punched the man. 

He fell with a soft thud, making a gurgling noise, while the other man had managed to stagger to his feet but had apparently decided whatever this was wasn't worth it. He fled, and Rio gave the one she'd punched a hard kick. "Now get out of my sight before I truly finish the job!" she hissed, and Agatha once again saw her eyes reflect gold, like a cat's at night. The man managed to crawl away, moaning. 

Agatha quickly wiped her face with her sleeve, not wanting to appear like some kind of helpless damsel. "Wh-what are you doing here, Rio?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. "Shouldn't you be at home?" 

Rio walked slowly toward her and, for just a moment, Agatha felt more like Rio was a creature stalking its prey than a human. Then that feeling passed and Rio seemed like herself again, though she still looked furious. "I was working late," Rio said quietly, "and I heard a commotion, so I came to see what was the matter. I should've known it would be you." 

Agatha scowled, though she felt her eyes fill with tears again and wiped at them quickly. "Well... I'm sorry to interrupt your precious grading time," she said tartly. "This wasn't exactly my idea of a good time either." 

Rio stepped closer, gently pressing Agatha up against the wall. Unlike with the man, she didn't grab Agatha's throat or treat her roughly. To Agatha's shock, she was sort of gentle, though her next words were, "Do you think just because of our bond that I'll always be there to save you?" Her tone was almost teasing, though, not cruel. 

Agatha blinked and shook her head. She could feel adrenaline still coursing through her body and tears of shock still threatened to spill over. "I don't know what you're talking about," she whispered, and it came out sounding more helpless than she meant it to. 

Instead of answering, Rio leaned in and kissed her. This time it wasn't harsh, or even urgent; it was gentle, almost sweet. When she pulled back, she reached to wipe away some of the tears on Agatha's cheek. "It's alright," Rio whispered. "C'mon, let's get you home." 

Agatha's head spun a little as Rio gently guided her away from the building and toward home. "You- I- we-" She shook her head. "One moment you act like I'm a huge inconvenience and the next you kiss me? What is that all about, Rio?" 

Rio didn't stop, still holding onto her like she was afraid she might run away. "You wouldn't understand," she said. "It's complicated. There are... things you're not aware of, things I have to deal with. I have more important things to worry about than who my mother is marrying, Agatha." 

" What ?" Agatha tried to pull away, but Rio really was strong. "You can't treat me like this, you know. Ignoring me all day and then randomly kissing me - what was that shit you were saying about a mate or whatever? How would whoever your mate is feel if she knew you were treating me like this, huh?" 

That got Rio to stop in her tracks. She grasped Agatha's arm so firmly that it actually hurt, and spun her around so they were face to face. "Look here, little girl," Rio snarled, "you're messing with things you have no concept of, alright? You're better off not knowing. Don't push it, alright?" 

Agatha was taken aback by Rio's sudden intensity, and all she could do was nod. Apparently satisfied with that, Rio continued to lead her home, and Agatha followed, her mind whirring with questions. 

When they arrived at Agatha's house, all was quiet. Agatha suddenly remembered her mother and Hela had had some kind of date night planned tonight; just as well. If her mother saw Agatha in this state, she'd probably scold her for getting herself into dangerous situations. "Thank you," Agatha said, fumbling for her keys. "I can take it from here-"

"No you can't," Rio said firmly. "You're shaking like a leaf. And I don't know if those men know where you live either. It seems obvious they were sent by the Salem Seven, and we can't trust them not to have had some kind of contingency plan. You need to go clean up, but you can use the shower near my room, and you'll sleep in my bed tonight."

Agatha was suddenly too exhausted to argue. She stumbled into the house and into the bathroom, shedding her clothes and turning the water on hot enough to hurt. When she emerged, wearing the robe Rio sometimes used, Rio had heated up a plate of leftovers. "Eat," Rio said, and the gentleness in her voice was back. 

Once Agatha had wolfed down the food, she realized she had no pajamas. "Uh," she said, glancing at Rio. "I need to get something to sleep in, I'll be right back." 

"I'll get you something," Rio said, leaving the room before Agatha could protest. She half-expected her to return with something completely ridiculous, but when Rio came back she was just holding one of Agatha's ratty old sleep shirts and the boxers she slept in. 

"Thanks," Agatha said, taking them from her gingerly. "I'll just go change-"

"I can just turn around, you know," Rio said, doing so. "You don't have to walk all the way over to the bathroom." 

"Oh, sure." Agatha kept an eye on Rio while she threw on her pajamas, but Rio kept her back turned the whole time like a gentleman. She didn't even twitch until Agatha said, "Alright, I'm good." 

Rio drew the blankets back and climbed into bed, then looked expectantly at Agatha. "Are you coming?" 

"Oh..." Agatha hesitated. "I thought you were just going to take the couch or something." 

Rio rolled her eyes. "It's just sleeping in the same bed, Agatha. It doesn't have to mean anything. I don't want you to have to be alone tonight, that's all." 

"Okay, okay." Agatha slid under the covers, slowly, careful not to touch Rio at all. "Well," she said, once she was settled in, "good night, I guess."

"Good night, Agatha."

Chapter Text

Agatha was awakened by a stern knocking on the bedroom door. She blinked sleepily, her eyes adjusting to the light in the room, and then sat bolt upright, realizing exactly where she was. "Rio!" she hissed, jabbing an elbow into the lump next to her. "Wake up!"

"Hwuh?" Rio sat up and, taking in the noise at the door, called, "Who is it?" 

"It's Evanora," called Agatha's mother. "Can I come in?" 

"Oh, I actually-"

But the handle was already turning. Agatha closed her eyes and was barely able to dive under the blankets before her mother got the door open. "Rio, I wondered if you'd seen- oh my god!"

Agatha froze, wondering if her mother had recognized her somehow. It was only then that she realized that she'd managed to sprawl herself across Rio's lap, with her head basically on top of Rio's crotch. But instead of yelling Agatha's name and demanding she explain herself, her mother just continued, "Um, I'm really sorry to interrupt... you two, but I don't know if Agatha came home at all last night. You're her professor, Rio, so I thought you might know something..."

Rio had also frozen in panic, but had apparently recovered rather quickly. Agatha felt her rest a hand on Agatha's shoulders (inadvertently shoving her face a bit more into her crotch) and all she said was, "Sorry, Ms. Harkness, I'm afraid I don't keep abreast of her whereabouts." It was impossible for Agatha not to breathe in her scent, which was shockingly intense, musky and rich and reminding Agatha vaguely of the forest. Something about that scent made Agatha want more of it.

"That's alright." Agatha's mother sounded downright embarrassed, which would have been funny if Agatha wasn't literally hiding from her under a blanket. "Uh, nice to meet you, miss..." Her composure failed her and Agatha's mother retreated, practically slamming the door behind her. 

Once she was definitely out of earshot, Rio yanked the blanket off of her. "Whatever happened to making our parents think we were together, hm?" Strangely, she was smirking. "Or was shoving your head in my lap too much of a distraction for you?" 

Agatha flushed, not wanting to admit the effect that Rio's scent had had on her, and sat up quickly. "No," she snapped, "it was just instinct. I guess maybe you've never had to hide after a hookup, huh?" 

Rio just smirked some more. "I told you it's just sleeping in the same bed, and now you're making it into a hookup? You have quite an imagination."

"Shut up!" Agatha scrambled out of the bed, rooting around for yesterday's clothes. "I need to go get ready for class, and so do you, Professor. Could you keep my mother occupied while I sneak back up to my room, please?"

For a moment she worried Rio would say no, or maybe deliberately sabotage her and get her in trouble with her mother. But to her relief, Rio nodded. "I'll take care of it," she promised, getting up and leaving the room. After a moment Agatha could hear Rio loudly greeting her mother in the kitchen, giving her the opportunity to sneak out and over to the stairs. By the time she was dressed and heading downstairs, her mother was just surprised to see her in the house and barely scolded her for "staying out late." 

When she arrived at history class, Wanda was there, taking the desk next to her as she'd started doing. "Agatha!" she said, sounding startled. "What happened to your cheek?" 

Agatha blinked and reached up to feel the cut that the man with the knife had left her. "If I said it's a battle scar would that make you more or less worried?" She kept her tone light, almost chirpy, hoping Wanda would think it was a joke.

No such luck. Wanda looked more alarmed, if anything. "Does this have something to do with those girls you mentioned?" she asked, leaning closer to Agatha, her eyes wide. "Did they do this to you?" 

"Wanda, really, don't worry about it," insisted Agatha. "I'll be fine. Rio rescued me and got me home okay."

"Rio?" Wanda glanced at their professor, who was sorting through papers and appeared to be ignoring them. "I thought you said she hates you?" 

"Yeah, well... long story." Agatha sighed. "But I'm alright, promise." 

"Okay." Wanda didn't look convinced, but she changed the subject. "What do you think your topic will be for the final paper?" 

It was sort of nice, getting closer to Wanda and having, well, normal experiences with someone. Since Alice was so busy catching up on the classes she missed while on tour, Agatha started eating lunch with Wanda most days. Wanda really seemed to care, not only about Agatha but about everyone she came across; she was thinking of becoming a therapist, which sounded like Agatha's worst nightmare but Wanda wanted to understand how to help people. It was sort of cute, if hopelessly naive. 

--

One Saturday morning, since she was the only one home, Agatha was eating a lazy breakfast of frozen waffles and whipped cream when there was a sudden knocking on the door. 

For a second, she froze, hoping maybe it was just someone dropping off a package or a solicitor. Then she heard Rio's voice, sounding strange and hoarse, calling, "Hello? Anyone home?" 

Agatha went to the door, still wary, and opened it just a crack. "Rio?" She expected Rio to be standing there looking sheepish, like she'd forgotten her key (after the near-miss incident, Agatha's mother had insisted on giving her a key "in case you're staying out late," with a nauseating wink at Rio). 

Instead, Rio basically fell against her, groaning, "Please let me in," in a helpless tone Agatha had never heard from her before.

"What-?" Agatha bundled her inside and led her to the closest chair, staring in horror at Rio. Her clothes were in shreds, covered in dark stains that Agatha didn't even want to guess the origin of, and Rio herself was covered in a series of bruises and bites that looked like she'd gotten into a fight with some kind of wild animal. "Rio, what happened?" 

Rio blinked, seeming a little out of it. "Water?" 

Agatha sighed and fetched her a glass of water. Rio drained it in seconds and then, after breathing deeply for a second, finally spoke again. "You weren't supposed to find out about this," she said, hanging her head like she was ashamed. "I thought I could keep you and your mother out of it. But it's gone too far now." 

"What are you talking about, Rio?" 

Rio met her eyes for the first time and, again, Agatha saw a flash of gold in them before they reverted back to their regular dark brown. "You'll want to sit down for this." 

--

"A werewolf?"

Agatha gaped at Rio, unsure if the other woman was fucking with her or just very, very out of touch with reality. "You mean to tell me that not only are werewolves real, apparently, but you are one, and not only are you one, but you're the leader of a pack of other werewolves?"

This was the craziest thing Agatha had ever heard. But Rio certainly wasn't acting crazy. She nodded, her expression almost painfully earnest. "You remember how I talked to you about mates before? That's because werewolves are naturally drawn to our destined mate. When I meet whoever is destined to be my mate, I will know her on sight." Her lips twitched, which seemed odd because as Agatha remembered it, Rio seemed pretty adamant about this whole mate thing, so why would she not like the idea? "I am what's called the Alpha of my pack, and she will be my Luna. Right now it's just me making decisions for the pack, but when I meet her we will make those decisions together."

Agatha blinked, rubbing at her eyes for a second in case maybe she'd drifted off and was having the weirdest dream ever. "You seem very lucid for someone saying a bunch of insane things," she said. 

"It's true!" snapped Rio. "That's why I'm... in less than ideal condition at the moment. The pack went out to try and deal with a threat last night, and it didn't go very well. We had to run, and I didn't know where else to go." She looked very small all of a sudden. 

Well, that was at least an explanation for why Rio looked like she'd been used as a chew toy. "You're serious.”

"As the grave." Rio smiled wryly at her. "That's why I was able to fight off those men the other night, and then carry you home. I'm strong, Agatha, stronger than any human. But I can be hurt, obviously. And speaking of which..." She gestured pointedly at one of her wounds.

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Agatha stood up and retreated to get the first aid kit, her head spinning. 

Rio didn't say much more as Agatha cleaned and bandaged her bites and scratches, aside from hissing and flinching every now and then. About halfway through the process she said, "After you've finished here, I need to go back out and find the rest of my pack. Some of them were in even worse shape than me and I-"

"No!" Agatha said, putting a hand on Rio's shoulder as if that would stop her from getting up. "You're in no condition to do anything like that. I'm worried some of these bites might get infected if you don't rest ." Rio started to protest, but Agatha held up a finger. "You came to me for help, so I'm the one in charge now, got it, Ms. Alpha Wolf? And I say you're staying in this house for the foreseeable future."

Rio smirked at her. "If you wanna be in charge so bad, I'm sure I can think of a few ideas." 

That just made Agatha roll her eyes. "You can't possibly be thinking horny thoughts while I'm patching you up after you got chunks ripped out of you."

Shrugging, Rio said playfully, "You don't know what I'm capable of. Maybe I need sexy help, and no other help will do."^[1]

Once Rio was suitably checked over and didn't have any more open wounds exposed to the air, Agatha herded her towards the guest room. "You need to rest ," she said, trying for stern. "Get in that bed and stay there."

"Ooh, I think I like you being bossy." Rio's eyes gleamed with mischief. "We'll have to put that to use later." 

"Shut up." Agatha shoved her into the guest bedroom. "Or I'll lock you in there."

Rio pouted. "All alone?"

"I have things to do today."

"Do you?" Rio went over to the bed and slid in, but patted the space next to her. "C'mon. You know you want to get in this nice, warm, cozy bed with me."

Agatha paused for a second and took in Rio's expression. Sure, she had on a teasing smile, but she also looked... depleted, somehow, after her defeat and her confession to Agatha. She suddenly realized that Rio had been more honest with her in the last half hour than she ever had. "You certainly seem desperate for me to stay," she said, letting a slow smile creep onto her face. "What if I were to leave you alone, though, what would you do?" 

Rio let out what could only be described as a whine. "Agatha, please..."

"You can't resist me right now, can you?" Agatha went over slowly, kicking the bedroom door shut behind her, and climbed onto the bed, carefully straddling Rio's lap. "Big strong werewolf all in pieces because of me, huh? Because you can't stand the idea of me leaving?" 

Rio put up a hand, reaching for Agatha's cheek, but Agatha grabbed it and shook her head. "Stay right where you are, Rio." She didn't miss the way Rio audibly swallowed at that. "Now, if you really want me to stay with you in this bed all day, the first thing you are going to do is sleep, understand?" Rio nodded. Her eyes hadn't left Agatha's face the whole time. "Good girl," Agatha said, watching Rio's pupils dilate in real time. "Maybe after you've gotten some good rest, we can think of something else to do in this bed, hm?"

--

The next thing Agatha knew, she was awakened by the weight of Rio on top of her, screaming. Rio had wrapped herself around Agatha in a vice grip and appeared to be having some kind of intense nightmare, judging from the way her eyes were screwed shut and her head was tucked against her shoulder.

Agatha did a bit of screaming herself, because she didn't know what else to do, and then she tried to sit up and grab Rio's arms to get her to let go. When that didn't work, she started just shaking Rio until she woke up. "Rio!" she hissed. "Rio, wake up! Whatever you're dreaming, it isn't real!" 

It took a few seconds, but finally Rio's wailing stopped and she jerked awake, gasping. "A-Agatha?" she asked, looking at her, eyes wide. "What's-"

"You were having a nightmare," Agatha explained, deciding not to point out that Rio's death grip on her arms had probably left her with bruises. "Seems like it was a pretty bad one. Do you wanna talk about it?" 

Rio gave an intense full-body shudder and then shook her head. "No, no, but it was... bad. It was bad, Agatha. I really need to go find the rest of my pack now."

"Okay, okay, just wait a second." Agatha reached to tuck a piece of hair behind Rio's ear. "Don't you want to talk about... earlier?" Considering the truly filthy sex they'd had earlier, there really wasn't any reason for her to be so embarrassed about referring to it as sex, but somehow she was.

"No, I... I should get going." Rio rolled herself off of Agatha. Agatha tried not to be hurt. After all, Rio had said before that this sort of thing didn't have to mean anything. But then, as if thinking twice about it, Rio leaned down and kissed her on the lips. "But I'll be back soon," she said, sounding almost nervous. "I... thank you for... looking after me."

"Sure." Agatha reached to pat Rio on the arm, a little awkwardly. "Go kick werewolf ass, or whatever." 

Rio laughed a little, and then her gaze drifted down to Agatha's arm and her entire expression changed. "What's this?"

"What?" Agatha followed Rio's gaze to her bracelet. "Oh... the bracelet? It's just something Alice gave me years ago."

Rio grabbed her arm and Agatha let out a cry at the sudden pain, but Rio didn't seem to notice. "This bracelet has magic in it," Rio said, like she was just figuring something out. "Have you worn this every day since we met?" 

"Uh, yeah, I think so." Agatha tried to yank her arm back, to no avail. "What's the big deal? And what do you mean there's magic in it? It's just a stupid friendship bracelet."

"It's not just a stupid friendship bracelet," Rio growled, apparently so furious she could barely get the words out. "Don't play coy with me, Agatha. You did all this on purpose! You knew exactly what would happen if you wore that bracelet around me!"

Agatha just blinked, and Rio continued shouting. "You're a human and I'm a wolf, Agatha. It isn't natural for us to be together like... like we have been. Wolves and humans can't form bonds unless there's magic involved, which you must have known because you used the magic contained in that bracelet to seduce me! You fooled me, Agatha, and there can be no forgiveness for that." Her eyes flashed gold again. "You've angered an Alpha, which is a severe mistake." 

"Hang on!" Agatha protested. "I don't even know what you mean by magic! This bracelet is just something Alice gave me years ago!" She ripped it off and tossed it away, onto the floor. "Look, I took it off. And how do you feel about me now, hm?" 

Rio just stared at her, eyes blazing with rage. "I can't even look at you right now," she said, and turned to go. Agatha blinked, not sure whether to storm after her or retreat to her bedroom. 

She eventually retrieved the bracelet and decided to go to her room, pulling out her cell phone to text Alice. Are you free right now? I need to talk to you about something.

Fortunately, Alice didn't take too long to respond, and soon enough they were on a video call. "What's going on?" Alice answered, smiling. Then she gasped. "What's that on your cheek?" 

"What?” With everything going on, Agatha had honestly forgotten about the slowly-healing cut on her cheek. “Oh, nothing, never mind. Listen, I have a weird question and I need you to swear you'll tell me the truth."

"Okay." Alice furrowed her brow. "What's up?"

Agatha held up her arm with the bracelet on it. "You remember this, right?"

"Uh, sure." Was that a flash of anxiety in Alice's face? "Why?" 

"Alice, please don't lie to me right now, and don't laugh. I need a real answer to this question. Did you put magic in this bracelet?"

Alice laughed. “What are you talking about? Magic? C’mon, Agatha.” But Agatha just kept staring at her until, finally, Alice sighed. “It’s a protection spell. I gave it to you so you would be safe from harm.”

“Safe from-“ The statement was so ludicrous in the face of what Agatha had been through lately that she just laughed. “Okay, well, whatever book you got it out of is bullshit because I’ve been anything but safe lately.”

Alice frowned. “I didn’t get it out of a book. I’ve given bracelets to my mother and all her employees and they protect them on tour. If the protection magic is failing you, then…” She trailed off. “Well, something really bad is going on.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Agatha snarked, before she absorbed what Alice had said. “Wait, what do you mean you’ve given a bunch of other people bracelets too? Alice, what the fuck is going on?”

They stared at each other for a long time (it felt like ten minutes). Finally, she said, “I’m a witch, Agatha. I don’t know how you found out your bracelet was magic, but it is, and that’s because I wanted to keep you safe.”

Agatha truly wasn't sure how to respond to that. "...thanks?" she finally said, after a long silence.

"I still don't know a lot about this," admitted Alice. "My mom won't tell me very much, so I've had to figure out a lot of magic stuff on my own. But my witch instincts tell me that you're the person I'm meant to protect for life, Agatha."

"Sorry, what?" Agatha boggled at the screen. "What, like, you're my mate or something?"

"What? Ew, no, why would you think of that? It's just like, I'm your guardian angel or something, except I'm a witch instead." Alice shrugged. "Nothing weird or romantic about it, I swear."

Agatha shook her head slowly. The last few hours had truly been some of the wildest of her entire life. "Okay," she said slowly. "I... I think I need some time to digest this, Alice."

"I get it." Alice smiled at her, a little nervously. "But hey, at least we get along? Imagine if it had been someone you fucking hated, like one of the Salem Seven."

"God, don't remind me. Okay, I should go. Thank you for being honest."

"Always, Agatha. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before."

"I get it. It's just... I found out some other stuff and I had to know if you had done this on purpose or not."

"Wait, what other stuff?" Alice looked alarmed. "More stuff than the Salem Seven messing with you again?"

"I'll tell you later," promised Agatha. "I need a minute to think, alright?"

Alice frowned, but she said, "Okay. I'll talk to you later."

--

After Rio's weird blowup about the bracelet, she went back to either treating Agatha as if she didn't exist or being outright cruel to her. When Agatha answered incorrectly in class, Rio sneered and said things like, "Everyone, Ms. Harkness has given us a prime example of why it's important to comprehend the assigned texts, not just read them." Agatha did her best to ignore it, soldiered on. There was no point in fighting back; Rio didn't want to listen to her side of things, it seemed.

Once, after a particularly rough class, Wanda leaned over as Agatha was gathering her things and whispered, "I wish you could stand up to her when she talks to you like that."

Agatha sighed. "Yeah, well, it's not worth it," she said, standing up to leave.

"Well, it's worth it to me," argued Wanda. "I'm going to talk to her." Then, before Agatha could protest, she'd made her way over to Rio's desk.

Agatha took that as her cue to split. While it was sweet of Wanda to care, the fact of the matter was that Rio was determined to make things difficult for Agatha, and she didn't know how to get her to see reason. 

She was halfway down the empty hall when she heard familiar laughter behind her. "What do you dipshits want?" she sighed, turning to face the Salem Seven, who had started following her out of nowhere. "What's it gonna be today? Coffee over my head, a wedgie or a swirlie? You guys are clearly pussies who have to hire out your dirty work."

"Oh, I wouldn't be too smug if I were you," said Fox, smirking. "You might've escaped once, but your knight in shining armor can't be there to protect you all the time." Then she pulled out, of all things, a wicked-looking taser, and pushed the button to make it spark.

"Jesus." Agatha took a careful step back, glancing around to see if they were really alone. "Don't you guys have better things to do than obsess over me and Rio? We're not even a thing, y'know, except in your twisted little imaginations. She wants nothing to do with me."

"I'm so sure," sneered Coyote. "You know just what Professor Rio wants, don't you?"

"I know what she wants," Fox cooed. "Professor Rio wants nothing more than to see you in pain!" Then she leapt forward and jammed the taser into Agatha's side, making her shriek and shudder with the sudden intense pain. The members of the Salem Seven laughed, sounding like shrieking vultures circling a dying animal.

"Fuck!" wailed Agatha. She tried to stumble away, but the pain had made her head suddenly foggy, and one of the Salem Seven pushed her up against the wall while Fox tased her again. "Fucking- stop it!" She didn't even care that she sounded terrified and pathetic, she just wanted the pain to stop.

And then, suddenly it did, and someone roared ”I warned you!" Agatha collapsed on the floor, unable to do anything but shut her eyes. There were a few shrieks from the girls, and some snarling and a nasty ripping sound amidst more screaming and the sound of several people pelting away. Then Agatha felt someone lifting her up. She didn't have to do more than breathe in to catch the familiar scent and know who it was. "I'm sorry," Rio whispered. "I thought it was... another trick." Agatha didn't open her eyes in case maybe she was hallucinating. Then she felt lips brush her forehead before she heard Rio's footsteps walking down the hall, away from her.

--

When Agatha arrived home that night, she was beyond disinterested in dealing with more bullshit. Which of course meant that she came home to more bullshit. 

"We've picked the date for our wedding!" announced Agatha's mother, beaming as she held Hela's hand. "It'll be next month!"

Agatha's ears started ringing. "But- but you can't!" she said before she could think of a better strategy.

"What?" Agatha's mother laughed like she'd just told a joke. "What are you talking about, Agatha?"

"I'm telling you right now, you cannot get married!" insisted Agatha.

But her mother reached out and slapped her cheek before she could say anything more. "Now stop it!" hissed her mother, immediately switching from doting lovebird to the cruel person Agatha knew her to be. "If you're about to say it's because you and Rio are engaged in some perverted relationship, well, I'm afraid that lie won't work on me! Rio's told me all about your little schemes, how you tried to flirt with her. I know you were doing it to sabotage our relationship." She laid a hand on Hela's arm. "And I'm telling you right now that I won't have it. You won't be doing any more of that, you little... harlot!"

Agatha put her hand to the spot where her mother had slapped her. "Well, I'm not the one abandoning my family for a new one!" she shouted, retreating upstairs to her room.

She was half-expecting her mother to try to talk to her, smooth things over - which was near-impossible to imagine, since her mother had slapped her and called her a whore. But instead, half an hour later there was a soft knock at her door and Rio's voice called, "Agatha?"

"I'm busy!" Agatha said. "I'm doing homework!" Which was true, but she also didn't want to talk to Rio.

"I just want to talk for a minute. Please."

Something about the "please" rankled Agatha more than if Rio had been insistent and rude. She swung her door open, scowling. "Fine. What could you possibly have to say to me, Rio? After you told my mother I was flirting with you?"

Rio sighed. "That isn't what I told her."

"Oh, so what did you tell her, that I was just some horrible slut?" snapped Agatha, trying to close the door in Rio's face. "I don't want to hear it, Rio."

"That's not the point," Rio said, forcing a gap in the door with her werewolf strength. Agatha had forgotten about that for a second and the casual way Rio pried her door open without even breaking a sweat annoyed her even more. "I told you we can't be in a relationship, Agatha. It's too dangerous and it won't work out because you're a human and I'm a wolf."

"So you threw me under the bus to my own mother?" Agatha glared at her. "Y'know, you could've just taken me out to dinner and broken up with me like a normal person. Or is that not something alphas do?"

Rio sighed. "You're being so childish about this. Never mind."

Agatha wasn't sure what to say to that, so she just firmly closed the door on Rio.

They went back to having some kind of stalemate, where Rio would occasionally acknowledge that she existed but mostly ignore her. That was fine by Agatha. Even Wanda seemed to notice the difference. "Maybe what I said to her actually worked," she said, beaming at Agatha after a class in which Rio called on her twice.

"Maybe." Agatha shrugged. "Thanks, either way. Most people wouldn't go out of their way for me."

"Well, I'm not most people." Wanda bit her lip and then said, "Agatha... what are you doing this weekend?"

"Oh, I dunno, homework probably. Alice and I might hang out. Why?"

"Because... well, I was wondering if you and I could..."

But before Wanda could finish speaking, Rio cleared her throat. "Agatha won't be available this weekend," she said, her voice cold. "Our mothers need help looking for a wedding venue."

Agatha turned and glared at Rio. "This is the first I'm hearing about it."

"Really? Must've slipped my mind." Rio smiled at her, and Agatha wished she could spit in her face. "Well, we need you there to help out."

"Fine," Agatha said through gritted teeth. She glanced back at Wanda, who was looking nervously between her and Rio. "Sorry, Wanda, rain check?" 

Wanda nodded. "Of course, uh, later, I... I'll see you later, Agatha!" She practically bolted from the room. 

Agatha glared at Rio. "Can you not freak out my friends, please? Is that too difficult a concept?" 

"As if all that girl wants from you is friendship," scoffed Rio.

"Well, at least she won't fuck me one minute and then treat me like shit the next!" exclaimed Agatha. Rio reeled back as if she'd been slapped. Agatha decided to take that as a victory, and retreated before Rio could come up with a retort. 

--

The weekend was just as obnoxious as Agatha expected, given that her mother seemed to only want venues that were ridiculously extravagant. To top it all off, on Sunday morning when she woke up she felt stuffy and overheated, even though it was a crisp fall morning. "I'm going for a walk outside," she announced after suffering through an hour of her mother and Hela debating decorations and venues. "I feel way too hot. I can’t just keep sitting here."

"I hope you're not getting sick," Agatha's mother said. "If I catch anything from you, that'll throw off the wedding prep schedule." She scooted a little ways away from Agatha pointedly.

Agatha sighed. "No, I think I just need some fresh air." She stood up and went out, not really knowing where she wanted to go besides out . 

Much to her dismay, being outside didn't seem to help at all. She reached up to wipe sweat off of her forehead. "What the fuck," she groaned, " am I getting sick?" She did feel sort of weird, like her skin was tingling or electric somehow, but it didn't feel like the flu or any illness she'd had before. 

She decided to call Alice so she wouldn't be alone during the walk. "Hey," she said when Alice answered. "Hope you're not busy, I just couldn't stand one more second of wedding bullshit." 

"Ugh," Alice said sympathetically. "Are they driving you crazy?"

"Yeah, my mom is like ‘oh, I want fresh-cut flowers from the Swedish mountains’ and Hela will be all ‘well, we have to buy them, then.’”^[2] Agatha made an exaggerated gagging noise. “And on top of everything else I'm weirdly overheated. I thought going outside would help, but I'm literally sweating. I'm really uncomfortable, I don't know what's up." 

"Weird." Alice frowned. "You're not getting sick, are you?" 

"Nah, I don't think so. I mean, my skin feels weird..."

"Weird how?" 

"Tingly, maybe? Like, maybe it's just because I haven't gotten laid in awhile, but it feels kind of like... I want to touch someone? I don't know, that's weird."

Alice frowned even more. "Hmm. How much has Rio told you about werewolf stuff, anyway?"

"What? I don't know, not much. She's back to treating me like I don't exist." Agatha mopped more sweat off her brow. "Why?"

"Well..." Alice looked a little uncomfortable. "I don't know a ton about werewolves, but I do know they experience something called heat, which-"

"Ew, like an animal?" 

"Yeah. And I know that it can involve weird body temperatures and kind of feeling like you describe. But you're a human, you don't go into heat. So..." Alice shrugged. "But maybe being around Rio for so long has, I don't know, caused something weird to happen. Ask her about it."

Agatha groaned. "That's the last thing I want to do."

"Sorry." 

Sighing, Agatha said, "Whatever. Tell me about the last tour, you still haven't." 

She was happy to let Alice tell her stories about her time on the road while she walked slowly around the block, reluctantly heading inside once she made it back to her house. "I think I am getting sick," she called to her mother and the others from the doorway. "I'm going to go try and sleep it off." 

"Okay!" called her mother. "Feel better!" Agatha just rolled her eyes. 

She had no idea how long she lay in bed, hot and uncomfortable despite the window being open and a nice breeze floating in, before someone knocked on the door. "Hello?" Agatha groaned, squinting at the closed door. 

"It's Rio. Can I come in?"

"Well, I can't stop you," groaned Agatha. Rio opened the door and stared at her. "What?" snapped Agatha. "Shouldn't you be out there helping them with planning the wedding?" 

"I think you need me more," said Rio, putting out her hand to feel Agatha's forehead. "You're too warm, aren't you? And you feel like your skin might vibrate off?" 

Agatha winces at the graphic description, but nods. "Yeah, I guess so. How do you...?" Then she remembers what Alice said and groans. "Don't tell me I got werewolf flu or something from being around you."

Rio laughed at that. "No, not that. I think you've gone into heat, though." 

"What?" Agatha tried to sit up. "But I-"

"It's a wolf thing, it's perfectly natural." Rio closed the bedroom door and then pulled off her sweatshirt. 

Agatha yelped in shock, causing Rio to slap her hand over her mouth. "Shut up!" she hissed. "We can't have your mother coming in to investigate. Now, hurry up, get undressed. This won't take long."

"What won't take long?" Agatha's eyes trailed over Rio's well-defined abs before she forced herself to look away. "And why are you stripping?"

Rio sighed impatiently. "Because the way to deal with someone's heat is to, well, take care of them. Sexually. And I can help you with that, if you think you can be quiet." The last word was said with a pointed glare. "I told your mother I was going to come see if you wanted someone to read to you while you were falling asleep. So we have a little while, but if she hears anything, we'll both be in for it."

Shaking her head, Agatha asked, "Why would you want to help me with... this... when you treat me like shit most of the time?"

Rio growled, much too deep for a human throat. "It doesn't have to mean anything, alright? I just... don't want to see you suffer. If you want me to leave, I can-"

"No!" Agatha was embarrassed at how desperate she sounded, and tossed her head to try to feign indifference. "I mean, fine, if it'll be over as easy as that. I seem to recall you were a bit of a hair-trigger before."

Rolling her eyes, Rio shed her pants and crept up the bed towards her. "I don't think we'll need to worry about my response, unless you feel like returning the favor. C'mon, off with your clothes."

"How sexy," muttered Agatha, stripping quickly and then leaning back against the pillow. "Well, alright, hotshot, if you really think it'll help."

"I do like you laid out for me like this," Rio said, nuzzling her way up Agatha's thigh. "And I think you like it too."

Ten minutes and two nearly silent orgasms later Agatha lay there dazed, while Rio slipped her clothes back on. "I'll let you sleep it off," she said with an audible smirk. "By the time you wake up, you should be back to normal."

Agatha bit her lip to stop herself from asking Rio to stay.

--

The next day, she took advantage of being alone with Wanda at lunch to say, "Hey, so I'm going to a movie tonight, do you want to come? We can also do dinner or whatever. If you want to, no pressure."

Wanda turned an interesting shade of pink and nodded. "I... I would like that a lot, yes. I was really hoping on the weekend.. but then Rio..."

"Don't worry about her." Agatha reached over and put her hand on Wanda's arm. "She doesn't have any say in what I do or who I'm seeing."

"And this is a date, right?" Wanda suddenly looked nervous. "Just checking. I don't want to give you the wrong idea."

Agatha smiled. "Of course it's a date, cutie." She enjoyed the way Wanda's cheeks darkened a little. "How about we walk over to the theater after my last class is over? You're done at 2:30, right?"

Wanda nodded. "I'd like that."

They ended up seeing some random slasher movie, which Agatha would have found boring except that Wanda alternated between seeming fascinated and repulsed by the kills. Sometimes she put her hand over her eyes or tried to bury her face in Agatha's shoulder, and sometimes she watched the killer stalk his prey as if she would be quizzed on the details later. "I can't tell if you picked this movie so you could cuddle into me or so you could study the killer's technique," teased Agatha as the credits rolled.

Wanda laughed and shrugged. "Sometimes it's interesting and sometimes it's just too much. I never know how it'll go from scene to scene, I guess."

Dinner was at the local pizza joint, mercifully almost empty except for a pair of younger teens similarly on a date. Agatha found that conversation with Wanda while on a date wasn't at all dissimilar from their usual lunch conversations; it wasn't as if the prospect of romance made things awkward or strange. If anything, Wanda seemed even more outgoing than she was at school, laughing more and telling more personal stories. Agatha learned that she and her brother had grown up in foster care together after losing their parents in a tragic car accident, that she had a pair of kittens named Billy and Tommy, and that she loved old sitcoms. "It's one of the clearest memories I have of my parents before the accident," she said, "all of us gathering around the TV to watch DVDs of the shows from the library. When I watch them, it... it sort of feels like they're with me, a little bit. Is that stupid?"

Agatha had no idea what it was like to miss your parents, or to have positive feelings about them at all. But she could tell Wanda was hoping for support, so she shook her head and said, "No, it's not stupid at all" and reached across the table to squeeze Wanda's hand. Then Wanda smiled at her so sweetly it almost broke Agatha's heart. 

She walked Wanda home, because she didn't live too far away from the restaurant. When they reached her building, Wanda said, "Good night," and looked at her with her big green eyes, and before Agatha knew it she had leaned in and kissed her.

It wasn't a very long kiss. Nor was it needy, or passionate, or hungry, like all the kisses Agatha had had lately with Rio. It was gentle, and sweet. The kind of kiss Agatha should want. But all she could think was how much she missed the heat.

When she pulled back, Wanda was still looking at her with those big green eyes. Agatha wasn't sure what to say, so she just said, "Good night," and retreated.

Chapter Text

Dating Wanda was nice, honestly. Uncomplicated. They usually hung out two or three nights a week, unless one of them had a big assignment due, and even then sometimes they would designate an afternoon as a "library date" and work alongside each other in a study room. Agatha enjoyed the excuse to be out of the house more often, and even though she noticed Rio being frostier to Wanda in class, she couldn't really do anything except glare at them occasionally. It pleased Agatha, to know that Rio knew she had a form of happiness that had nothing to do with Rio. It had to be driving Rio crazy.

This lasted for a couple of weeks, and the wedding loomed ever closer. One night at dinner, her mother asked, "Why don't you have that girlfriend of yours over for dinner tomorrow, Agatha? I can make my famous meatloaf."

Agatha barely restrained herself from gagging at the thought. "I don't know if she's available tonight," she said carefully.

"Oh, well, if not tonight then sometime this week," her mother insisted. "I want to meet the person who is making my little girl so happy." At this, Agatha allowed herself a small grimace. She felt better when she glanced over at Rio and saw the way that her jaw was clenched, like she was having trouble not screaming at the talk of Agatha's new girlfriend. Agatha just smirked at her.

She might not actually be interested in Wanda, but she definitely liked the way Wanda was nice to her, and the nasty looks they got from not only Rio but the Salem Seven when they saw them holding hands on campus. Agatha had no idea why her dating life pissed off her bullies so much, but she couldn't bring herself to care either.

About a week before Evanora and Hela's wedding, Agatha was walking Wanda home after a nice dinner out and noticed how bright the moon was. "Oh, it's a full moon," she said idly. "Rio will-" Then she cut herself off quickly.

Wanda noticed, unfortunately. "Rio will what?" she asked, sounding a little suspicious.

"Oh... Rio just has a thing about the phases of the moon. I don't know, it's a superstition thing." Agatha was normally a better liar than that, but she'd been caught off-guard. "She has specific things she does on full moon nights."

"I see." Wanda didn't ask any more questions, and Agatha quickly changed the subject.

"I know you haven't met my mom yet, but would it be too much to invite you to the wedding next week? They're making a much bigger deal out of it than it needs to be, really, but I do get a plus-one. You can just wear whatever, it doesn't have to be fancy."

Wanda seemed taken aback. "Oh... are you sure Rio would be okay with that?"

"What?" Agatha whipped her head around to stare at Wanda.

"Agatha, I'm not stupid. I can tell Rio has a weird thing for you." Wanda rolled her eyes. "And I know you also like pushing her buttons for some reason. I don't want to get in the middle of anything messy, okay? I like you, a lot, but I'm not interested in being some kind of pawn in whatever game you two are playing." 

"No, no, that's not it." Agatha squeezed her hand. "It's mostly that... well, you know how much my mom sucks, and I thought maybe introducing you to her on a day where she'll actually be in a good mood, and not focused too much on either of us, might be smart. I wasn't even talking about Rio, I promise." This lie came much easier.

Wanda still seemed hesitant, but she nodded. "Okay. Then yes, I'll go to your mother's wedding with you."

Relieved, Agatha dropped her off at her home with a quick kiss and started toward her house.

She spotted Hela's car pulling into the driveway, and sighed, quickly slapping on a smile for her soon-to-be stepmother. "You're home late," was all Hela said when she spotted Agatha walking up the driveway. "And just where have you been on a night like this?" She glanced up at the full moon pointedly. "You know how dangerous the full moon can be, Agatha."

"I'm home now," Agatha snapped, not in the mood to be chastised. "And I-"

Before she could continue, the quiet night air was split with a nasty growling noise.

"What the fuck?" She and Hela met eyes, and for the first time Agatha saw actual fear on her face.

"Get inside!" Hela said, with none of her usual composure. She pulled a knife out of her pocket and brandished it just as an enormous silver wolf stepped out from behind one of the cars parked on the street. Its unnaturally blue eyes glinted in the moonlight and it snarled, showing wicked-looking teeth.

Agatha was more than happy to listen to Hela and started bolting up the driveway. Unfortunately, before she could get more than halfway to the door, another wolf, this one so black she almost couldn't see it, leapt out from the shadows and blocked her way.

She looked around in a panic for anything she could throw at the wolf, eventually hurling off her backpack and tossing it at the animal. The black wolf seemed utterly indifferent, stepping aside as easily as if she hadn't thrown anything at all. Then she heard a horrible screech from behind her and a crunch, followed by more snarling. She closed her eyes and turned, running back down the driveway but not wanting to see what had become of Hela.

She ran and then kept running down the street, opening her eyes to make sure she wasn't going to hit any trees or other obstacles. The snarling of the black wolf was still behind her, but maybe if she-

Then something huge and furry crashed into her and she felt a dizzying pain as her body hit the ground, her head cracking against the pavement. She lay, dazed, on the road while two enormous wolves stared down at her. Then she closed her eyes, hoping that would make the pain go away.

--

When Agatha woke up next, she was in a strange room with no windows, her arms and legs zip-tied to a metal chair. Her throat felt dry, like she'd been passed out for hours, and her head ached. "Hello?" she called, her voice raspy. "Is anyone there?"

"Good morning, sweetheart." The voice was rough and dripping with sarcasm. "I hope you like your accommodations." A tall man with a well-kept goatee and bright blue eyes stepped into view and smiled down at her.

She glared at him. "What do you mean? What's going on?^[1] Who are you?"

"Ah, the million-dollar question." He took a few steps forward until he was standing directly in front of her, then leaned down until he was mere inches from her face. "Who am I, indeed? I'm guessing you don't have the faintest idea, do you? Your Alpha sweetheart didn't see fit to tell you, I guess. She really should have."

"What?" Agatha blinked. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, pardon my manners. I should have introduced myself." The man coughed like he was getting ready to make an announcement. "I'm Alpha James, of the Dark Shadows pack. And as for where you are? Well, you're currently receiving the hospitality of our pack, darling. We'll just need you to stick around a little bit longer before things get really interesting. Now, you know all about your Alpha's pack, don't you?"

Agatha just glared at him. That seemed only to amuse him, and he continued, "The Frostfangs pack. Smaller than mine, and certainly less dangerous, but just enough of a nuisance to cause us trouble every now and again. Recently they saw fit to challenge us for territory that is rightfully ours, and has been ours for many moons. We were able to send them running, but not without great cost to some of our own members. And so we have been thinking... what would harm their Alpha the very most? Why, striking right at the heart of her family, of course." He gave her a particularly nasty smile. "Our prime target was you, but we were able to take out the mother in one fell swoop as well. A real stroke of luck."

"What-" Agatha swallowed. She may not have liked Hela at all, but being eaten by wolves seemed too cruel a fate even for her. "So I'm, what, the bait for Rio, is that it?"

"Ah, she learns quickly." He nodded, looking pleased. "It's too bad you're so... set in your ways, or I'd consider taking you for my Luna myself." He ran a hand down her cheek. "Unless you're interested in joining a much more powerful pack, that is. I'm sure I could make that worth your while."

Agatha immediately turned and tried to bite his hand, which he yanked back with a laugh. "Such spirit. I would expect nothing less from Rio's mate." He looked at her for a moment, then added, "Don't worry, as I said this will all be over soon. We expect her to strike tonight, at moonrise, and we will utterly overwhelm her. Once you've served your purpose, you can go, I suppose."

Agatha shut her mouth, not interested in entertaining his weird bullshit anymore. This lasted for about five seconds before the door opened again and her mother walked in.

" Mother ?" Agatha gaped at her. Her mother gazed down at her, face expressionless.

"Darling, I'm sorry you were caught up in this," she said, not sounding at all sorry. "We just couldn't be sure that Rio would act upon only losing her mother."

"What the fuck? So you were using her?"

Her mother shrugged. "I wasn't using her, not totally.^[2] Hela was a means to an end. We figured that if I were able to get close to her, I could get close to Rio in turn, and be able to provide Alpha James with important intel about her. But we weren't expecting anything so fortuitous as you being her destined mate." She laughed, as if to herself. "I suppose I should thank you for that. It makes it ever so much easier to get rid of the Frostfangs pack if their alpha is fighting to save a living hostage rather than for revenge. We'll have her under our thumb in no time."

"You're psychotic." Agatha narrowed her eyes. "What do you even have to do with this? What could you possibly be getting out of it?"

"Oh, what else? Riches^[3] , of course." Her mother smirked at her. "More money than we ever could've dreamed of. We won't have to worry about anything ever again, if you'll just sit tight and wait until moonrise. And don't squint your eyes, dear, it'll give you crow's feet." Without another word, she linked arms with Alpha James and they left the room, slamming the door behind them. 

Agatha was left alone, her head throbbing. She thought about screaming, but decided against it given that her throat already burned. Instead, she settled for imagining all the ways she could get revenge on her mother once she was let out of here: identity fraud, poison, simply beating her to death with a shovel... Eventually she closed her eyes and dozed poorly just to try and dull the pain in her head a little.

A loud noise jerked her awake. At first she thought it must be moonrise, though it was impossible to see in this room with no natural light, only the dim overhead lamp. She could hear sounds of a struggle; they sounded so close she felt like it was happening in the room next to her. Footsteps, human voices, gunshots and cries of pain and fear. She closed her eyes and tried to block it all out, hoping maybe she could will herself back to sleep.

Then, to her shock, the door burst open. "Agatha!" Alice said, running in. Her hands were lit up in a warm orange shade, like she was holding them over a campfire. "Oh my god!" She ran over and started to cut Agatha free. "Are you okay?"

Agatha tried to answer, but her voice only came out as a croak. Finally she was able to say, "Yeah... what..."

"I was able to track you here," Alice explained, "because of your bracelet, and then Wanda-"

As if on cue, Wanda appeared in the doorway, her hands glowing red. "Agatha!" she said, running over to her. "Did they hurt you?" Her eyes flashed red too, as if the very thought upset her.

Agatha's head was spinning and she just stared at Wanda in confusion. "I'm a witch," Wanda explained. "The first day we met, I could tell you had multiple spells cast on you, including Alice's protection spell, and I had to know more. When you went missing, Alice contacted me - she could tell I was a witch right away," she added a little sheepishly, "but she didn't want to push. That is, until we knew you were in danger. Alice tried to follow your trail from your house, but ran into Rio, who knew that you'd been taken by the Dark Shadows pack but not where. So we all worked together to track you here."

"Okay." That was all Agatha could think to say. Then she added, "Rio...?" and glanced around.

It was impossible to miss the dismay on Wanda's face. "She's outside," she said, swallowing hard, "taking down some of the Dark Shadows guys. They were expecting us to come at night, when the pack was in wolf form, but I thought that attacking earlier would give us the element of surprise."

"And you were right," Alice agreed, smiling at her. "I don't think it would've worked without your idea."

Wanda didn't seem at all cheered by that praise, still looking at Agatha. "You never liked me at all, did you?" she whispered. "It was all for Rio. It was just to make Rio jealous."

Agatha didn't know what to say to that, and apparently that was enough of an answer. Wanda sighed. "I understand. And I think I know why you've been so drawn to her too. Can I..." She hesitated, putting a hand up like she was going to touch Agatha's forehead. "You have a second spell on you, like I said, and I think I can remove it. Will you let me do that?"

Baffled, Agatha nodded. Wanda put her fingers to Agatha's forehead and murmured a few words in a language Agatha didn't recognize. Then there was a bright red flash that left Agatha blinded for a few seconds. She blinked, dazed, and shook her head. "I don't..."

In seconds, a flood of memories engulfed her.

She was young, so young the world felt enormous, and she was watching shadows cast by the full moon dance across the ground with the gentle breeze. She heard a soft growling noise and looked up, not afraid because she recognized the enormous black wolf padding towards her with a bird in its mouth. She exclaimed in delight and stood up, running over to hug the wolf around its neck. "Mama!" The wolf growled again - she felt the rumbling in her whole body - and she corrected herself, "Mother!"

Another night, this time walking with her human-shaped mother through the woods. She was maybe seven or eight, and saw no issue with the ways her mother worked to obtain food for them on full moon nights. "Mother, what color wolf will I be?" her younger self asked.

"I don't know," her mother said, clearly exasperated. "You have to wait until you're sixteen to find out, so don't worry about it right now."

"I hope I'm a black wolf," young Agatha said. "Just like you."

Her mother stared at her for a long time. "We'll see."

And another night, her mother drawing runes in the dirt while a preteen Agatha watched, her expression skeptical. "Are you sure this will work to bring us prosperity?"

"It will." Her mother finished and stood up, dusting off her hands. "Come here, I need to paint them on your forehead too."

Agatha rolled her eyes, glancing at the sky. "You better hurry up before the sun sets and we both change."

"Hush, girl." Her mother dipped her finger into the bowl full of a mixture of herbs and blood and started her work. Once Agatha's forehead was completed, she did the same for herself, and then looked at Agatha. "Now, repeat after me."

The words of the spell were strange, and Agatha did her best to pronounce them. By the time they were completed, the sun had sunk well below the horizon and the full moon was rising. Agatha blinked at her mother. "That's it?" She grimaced and reached to wipe off her forehead. "Can we go inside now?"

"Yes, we can."

Agatha blinked and found herself in the windowless room again, Alice and Wanda both staring at her. "I..." She shook her head, trying to make sense of the memories now in her head. "I... my mother... is a werewolf? But that means..."

"You're a werewolf too," Wanda said, nodding. "Your mother put a spell on you and on herself to stop you both from changing and make you forget it."

This was perhaps the final straw of a truly insane series of revelations, and Agatha sat back down on the chair for a second. "I'm... a werewolf. Which means Rio and I..."

There was some sort of commotion that cut her off, and then Rio ran into the room, eyes flashing gold. "Agatha!" she said. "There you are! Did they hurt you? I've killed some of them already but I'll kill anyone who touched you." She held up a knife, already covered in blood.

"I'm okay," Agatha said. "Rio... did you know I'm a werewolf?"

Rio's eyes went wide. "No - what do you mean, a werewolf?"

"My... my mother..." Agatha shook her head. "Wanda did something and it gave me back my memories, of... of my mother being a werewolf, and that I hadn't changed yet, but then she did a spell to make us stop changing and to make me forget it all. Where is she, anyway?"

"Oh, I killed her." Rio smiled at her, showing all her teeth. "She tried to stop me from getting to you and I couldn't have that."

"Oh." This probably should've made Agatha sad, but all things considered, she was more relieved than anything. "Well, she probably wouldn't have given me a straight answer if I asked why she did this, anyway."

"You're better off without her," Rio said with a nod, reaching for her hand. "And... if you're a werewolf, then that means... our bond wasn't because of magic after all. It means you really are my soulmate, Agatha."

Agatha took her hand and looked into her brown eyes. "And you're mine," she said, scarcely able to believe it.

Alice coughed. "I'm really happy for both of you, but we should probably get out of here, yeah? It took us awhile to find where they were keeping you, and it's not that far away from sunset. I don't know if any of the Dark Shadows guys are still here but I don't wanna take the chance of running into them again."

The four of them made their way out of the room. To Agatha's shock, she'd been held in some kind of proper compound - a building with what seemed like infinite corridors and rooms, and very little in the way of distinguishing features for anyone who didn't know their way around. "They probably had the routes to some of the rooms memorized," Rio said, "to make sure the compound stayed secure."

Agatha closed her eyes for a second and took several deep breaths. "The air is a little fresher this way," she said, gesturing down one corridor.

"I guess you being a werewolf all along explains your crazy sharp senses," Alice joked. "I just thought you were kind of a freak." Agatha rolled her eyes and didn't respond.

Finally, by testing the air and listening for sounds, she was able to navigate up out of the basement where she'd been held and through the maze of the ground floor to the exit door. Wanda closed her eyes and twirled around with her arms spread out once they were properly outside, looking relieved. "I hate being cooped up," she said with a shudder. "I'm so sorry they did that to you, Agatha."

Agatha shrugged it off and scanned their surroundings in case any of the Dark Shadows members were lying in wait for them. The coast seemed to be clear, but the sun was dipping slowly below the horizon. "We'd better move it, before we have to fight more wolves."

Then she heard a very familiar laugh coming towards her. "Not so fast, bitch." 

Agatha's head whipped around and she whispered "No" just as seven shapes floated over the grass toward them. "You're not getting away that easy," cackled Fox as she flew over the grass, with the rest of the Salem Seven right on her heels. They were all wearing flowing black cloaks and their hands were glowing with a white light.

"Shit!" Alice stared at them in horror as her hands lit up orange again. "They're-"

"-witches!" Wanda chimed in, firing off a red blast toward the group. They scattered, but just tittered as the blast bounced harmlessly off a tree. "I had no idea!"

"Neither did I!" Alice began firing off orange bolts, a few of which hit, but the Salem Seven were just as quick in the air as they were with their insults.

Fox was making a beeline straight for Agatha and fired a bolt of light at her, which Agatha was able to dodge at the last second but which hit close enough for her to feel the energy crackling in the air against her skin. "C'mon, Agatha, don't you want to play?" Fox called with a laugh.

"Rio," Agatha whispered, "if I'm a werewolf, I'm about to change, right?"

"Yes." Rio had dropped into a fighting crouch and was eyeing the horizon. "Any second now..."

But she didn't have to say any more, because Agatha could feel her skin buzzing like it had when she went into heat. Except this time it wasn't just her skin, it was her bones and hair and tendons and every part of her body. Everything suddenly hurt more than anything had ever hurt, and she screamed in a way that started out human and evolved into the howl of her wolf-self. Her hands became enormous paws with sharp claws, and she could feel her body reshaping itself in what felt like an eternity but couldn't have been more than an instant.

She shook herself, taking a moment to adjust to her new form, and then leapt at the nearest witch, jaws open wide.

As a wolf, she couldn't tell the difference between Wanda and Alice's blasts, but she could definitely see the white of the Salem Seven's, and she went after them with a vengeance. At one point she stood up on her hind legs and snatched one of them out of the air by her leg, then tossed her away screaming. She could see Rio fighting too, a beautiful black wolf with the golden eyes Agatha recognized immediately. Once, when one of the Salem Seven hit Rio with a blast, Agatha was able to take her revenge by knocking her out of the air and ramming her into a tree. Agatha smelled blood and her mouth watered for a second, but then she let the witch's corpse drop to the ground and ran back to the battle.

It was so chaotic that she didn't even realize that there was only one member of the Salem Seven left until she heard Alice shout, "Give it up, Fox! You've lost!"

"Never!" shrieked Fox, chanting something that made the shadows cast by the full moon jump up and snake around Alice's limbs. She twisted her hand and Alice shrieked and tried to get herself free.

Agatha circled around to try and get behind Fox, but Fox apparently saw that coming and turned to sic shadows on her as well. "I refuse to be beaten by some mangy dogs! " Agatha was barely able to avoid the grasping shadows, aided by Wanda blasting them with her magic.

Fox snarled and changed her tactic, firing a series of blasts at Rio so intense that black smoke surrounded her. There was a horrible shriek that Agatha knew in her bones came from her mate. She let out a deep growl and sprang at Fox, knocking her off balance. They tumbled together for a moment before Fox was able to get her bearings and send Agatha sprawling with another blast.

But Agatha was driven by instinct now, and instinct told her that her prey was close. She rolled herself back onto her feet and ran, leaping into the air and colliding with Fox's body before sinking her teeth into her shoulder. Fox shrieked and tried to run, but Agatha let her hunter's instincts take over, biting and ripping at her until, finally, Fox was quiet and still.

Satisfied, Agatha got up and, with a triumphant howl, left Fox's body there.

She limped back to the others, favoring the side where her shoulder had been hit. Rio let out a little yelp and came over to nuzzle her gently, then lick her mouth. Agatha leaned against her and closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in Rio's scent. It was mixed with the strong scents of blood and fear, but under that her mate was alive and safe.

--

With both of their mothers dead, Rio and Agatha figured out the path their lives would take together.

Once the full moon had passed, Rio began slowly introducing Agatha to the rest of her pack, the Frostfangs. Many of them seemed happy to meet her, though a few were suspicious or confused, and she didn't blame them. She'd found a letter in her mother's desk addressed to her, explaining that Evanora had done the spell to erase their memories because she wanted Agatha to have an easier life than she had. Agatha wasn't sure how to feel about that, considering that almost everything else her mother had ever done for and to her had made her life significantly shittier, but there was no point arguing with a ghost. She was doing her best to put that behind her, and embrace her new reality as the Luna of the Frostfangs.

Of course, she kept up her classes as usual. She and Rio were careful about public displays of affection, even though with the Salem Seven gone no one even seemed to care enough about Agatha to spread nasty rumors. Agatha found her grades improved significantly when she wasn't looking over her shoulder constantly for the next attack.

She and Wanda were a little awkward with each other for awhile. They stopped eating lunch together every day, with Agatha opting to either eat with Alice or alone. (Alice and Wanda seemed to hit it off and spent a lot of time together, which Alice denied "meant anything" even though Agatha could hear how fast her heart beat when she was around Wanda). Eventually Agatha and Wanda were able to be cordial, though they both seemed to agree that there was no chance of returning to the same level of friendliness they'd shared prior to Agatha's revelation.

And, of course, when they were alone Agatha and Rio teased each other as they always had. But now there was a warmth to it, an understanding that deepened as they worked together to lead the Frostfangs pack.

"Were you sneaking out without eating breakfast again?" Rio playfully scolded as Agatha opened the front door. "And here I was going to make pancakes."

Agatha snorted and turned around. "Well, for once I was trying to get there with plenty of time to go over my notes before the test."

"Look at them while you're waiting for pancakes." Rio brandished the spatula like a weapon. "I can't have you taking a test on an empty stomach. What kind of Alpha would I be?"

"Fine." Agatha closed the door and walked over to give Rio a kiss.

When Rio brought over a plate of pancakes a few minutes later, Agatha grabbed her by the tie and pulled her down for another kiss, whispering, "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, my Alpha."