Chapter Text
The first thing Rio notices is how sleek the office space is. Located at the top of a high rise facing New York City, she expected nothing less.
“Miss Vidal?”
Rio looks up to find an older woman with kind eyes and curly, greyed hair. Rio’s always been keen on people’s identification and she could automatically tell this woman was a very kind Dominant. “Yes, hello, nice to meet you,” Rio says after a moment, holding out her hand.
The woman has a sturdy handshake, despite her age and gentle demeanor. “Pleasure,” she says. “Lilia Calderu. I’m the CHRO of Harkness Industries, and I’m meant to do the whole—” Her arms make some fluttery motions. “—Shebang.” Rio likes her already. “Please, follow me.”
Rio does, walking forward through the building until she’s brought to a pair of wood double doors. They’re closed, but Rio can hear the voices coming through. She strains to listen, because she has always been a little bit nosy.
“This merger is important, Agatha.”
“We could have opened new positions instead of dealing with an acquisition.” The woman’s voice is low, a little gravelly. She sounds pissed off, she sounds powerful. Rio is intrigued.
“The merger was the best bet. The Board agrees. Your mother would have agreed, too.”
“My mother died three years ago. She wasn’t even CEO when she passed. Using her as a crutch when I’ve been interim Chief Executive for half a decade.”
There’s more hushed talking but Rio isn’t able to make out what’s being said. When she looks to Lilia, she sees the woman looking at her with her eyebrows raised and her mouth quirked up. “If you’re done eavesdropping, we can probably knock and let them know their new COO is here.”
“Lead the way,” Rio says, motioning for Lilia to walk forward.
Lilia does, knocking assuredly twice on the door before opening it and propping it open with a doorstopper. Rio walks in. There’s only three people in there; a black woman in a chic pink dress, a tall man with a goatee and a woman with extremely long hair and blazing blue eyes.
“Rio, let me introduce you to Jennifer Kale, the head marketer for Harkness Industries.” Rio reaches out, shakes her hand. She’s another Dominant, Rio suspects. “This is Stephen Strange, the CFO.” Another handshake, another Dominant. Which isn’t atypical in a big company like this. Bigwigs in corporate positions tend to be Dominants. “And this is Agatha Harkness, the CEO.”
Unlike Stephen and Jennifer, and Lilia before, Agatha doesn’t offer her hand to shake. She merely looks at Rio studiously, sizing Rio up. Her eyebrows knit together, her eyes are slightly narrowed, lips slightly pursed. Her arms are crossed over herself, closing herself off.
And Rio… well, Rio can’t get a read on her. She can typically tell from first introduction, her first impression always being correct but Rio’s read on Agatha is coming up as indecisive. She’s younger than she’d expected for a CEO, that’s for sure.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Agatha,” Rio says with a polite smile. She doesn’t offer her hand either, knowing that it’d be futile and honestly a little bit of an ego sore. “I’m sorry to hear that you’re not fond of the idea of the merger. Would you like to discuss it?”
“No.” Agatha flips her hair over her shoulder and walks out. Rio watches after her, watching as the crazy mane of hair disappears.
That’s never happened to Rio before. Not only as a Dominant, but in general. She can already tell that Agatha was going to be a little bit of a firecracker.
“Don’t take it personally. She’s a bitch to everyone.” Rio turns to Jennifer, surprised. She then looks over at Lilia who just shrugs and smiles. “Don’t worry. Agatha herself wears it like a badge of honour.”
Rio chuckles. “I’d prefer to make my own opinion of her, if that’s alright. I don’t believe in allowing other people to dictate my impressions of somebody.”
“Take it from me,” Jennifer says, leaning forward with a coy smile on her lips, “she’s a nightmare.”
“That’s not a nice way to speak about your CEO,” Rio says, but it’s light. She did her research about Agatha, sans a photo, sans any personal information. She’d read that Agatha is considered to have a strong personality.
“I’ve known her longer than she was CEO.” Jennifer rolls her eyes. “I must admit, though, I’m a little wary about the merger, too. So I’m actually on her side there. Stephen, here, pushed for it with the board. It’s causing a bit of a divide between them. Which means headaches for everybody else.”
Stephen sighs. “Agatha will realize that this is the right thing for the company. Hopefully later rather than sooner, but you know how she is.” Jennifer looks like she has an insult on the tip of her tongue, but Stephen continues, “she has the pride of a lion. She hates being wrong and she hates being outvoted.”
“She probably feels betrayed that her CFO went against what she wanted for the company,” Rio murmurs, playing devil’s advocate. She doesn’t disagree with Stephen, she herself believes that this merger will be good for both Rio and Harkness Industries. “My role here is to get ready for the acquisition. I know she probably won’t go down without a fight, but it will be much easier for the crossover if she plays nice.”
Jennifer snorts. “She doesn’t know how to play nice, so I wouldn’t hold your breath. She will be kicking, scratching and screaming the whole time, even if she’s in the wrong.”
“How about you show me around and introduce me to the rest of the staff?” Rio asks Lilia and Jennifer. “I’m sure you and I will have a meeting very soon, Mr. Strange.”
“Stephen, please, Rio,” Stephen says amiably.
Rio nods, smiles, even though she’ll surely still call him Mr. Strange, at least to start. Luckily Jennifer and Lilia steal her away and lead her out of the conference room before the conversation can continue.
“A lot of the office staff are in three to four days a week. A lot of people have children so we allow them to work from home one or two days a week. Except for the intermediate and high up staff members, that is. It’s not necessarily required, but it’s just something to be expected.” Rio nods. She plans on being in the office five days a week, regardless of whether or not she’s offered the hybrid schedule.
Rio is introduced to everyone currently in the office from the lower level team as well as marketing and accounting. Everyone seems nice, in Rio’s honest opinion. It’s a good group, a mixed bag of people as well. Not just Submissives, but Switches and Dominants. It’s nice.
There is a spacious kitchen, which includes a full stove and two fridges. Rio’s honestly impressed by this level of care toward the staff. She guesses that there are a lot of long days, so having a full kitchen is good for those who are here late. She thinks she likes this a lot.
Lilia bows out when Rio is finally she’s brought to her own office. It’s nice, full glass. Her desk is spacious, her chair looks comfortable, there’s room on her walls for decor. It feels homey in a way that her prior office just didn’t.
There is a kid with curly hair sitting in a desk outside. He waves happily at Rio and Jennifer.
“That’s William,” Jennifer tells her. “Agatha never remembers his name, calls him Teen. He seems to find it hilarious. He’s interning, but he’s mostly just a glorified secretary. He’s yours, Stephen’s and Agatha’s. And don’t worry, he looks young but he’s shockingly good at keeping up.”
Rio feels her lips twitch and she raises her hand to wave back at him. He looks delighted before turning back to his work.
“Your office is right beside Agatha’s, by the way,” Jennifer says. “Sorry about that. We just felt like it would be important considering how much of your jobs will overlap with each other. Makes it easier.”
Rio merely shrugs. “It’s no problem, Jennifer.” And she means that. Rio has met her fair share of hard-to-get-along-with people while in corporate. It’s not anything new, and she’s not intimidated by the likes of Agatha Harkness.
But she is curious. Undeniably so, as she cranes her neck to look through the clear glass of Agatha’s office. Agatha is in there, sitting at her desk. Her blouse is a button looser than it was when Rio was introduced to her, and she’s on the phone, hand splayed against the desk. She looks frustrated.
“Don’t worry,” Jennifer says from behind her, “she’s always like that.”
Rio almost finds the pettiness amusing. But she can’t help but ask, “what’s her deal?”
“She’s a bitch,” Jennifer responds, tone flat and bored. “There’s not much of a story there. Her mom was the founder of this company, she was a nightmare. She forced Agatha into the company and when she died, Agatha had to take over her position whether she wanted to or not.” Rio assumes she hadn’t wanted to. She doesn’t say it out loud, but from the look on Jennifer’s face, she thinks it might be an obvious thought. “She’s honestly not that bad of a boss. I honestly think she’s better than Evanora.” Jennifer’s eyes turn sharp. “Never tell anyone I said that.”
Rio raises her fingers. “Scout’s honour.”
Jennifer doesn’t offer anymore information, and doesn’t give the information Rio wants. And just when Rio opens her mouth to ask, or to prompt Jennifer into giving her what she wants to know, she hears the doors to Agatha’s office open and then close behind her. The heels clack until she’s in Rio’s doorway.
“Settling in?” Agatha asks, leaning against the doorframe. Her hip is jutted out, the purple of her pants a stark contrast to the crystal clear of the glass. Her white blouse has the sleeves pulled up to her elbows.
“It’s a nice space,” Rio says. “Nicer than my last office, that’s for sure.” Jennifer gives a small smile, but Agatha’s mouth doesn’t even twitch. Her arms seem to cross more firmly over herself.
Agatha doesn’t say anything, and Rio assumes that it’s likely because she doesn’t remember Rio’s resume, assuming she’s even seen it at all. She’s staring at Rio in a way that can only make Rio feel like she’s being studied, and Rio can’t say she hates it. Her blue eyes are full of scrutiny and judgment.
“You seem to have a very happy staff. They seem to enjoy working here.”
Agatha’s shoulders roll back and she finally unfolds her arms to flick her hair away from her face. Interesting.
“Yeah, well.” She seems genuinely uncomfortable with the praise. “If you want people to do their job properly, you need to give them a certain incentive. I’m sure Stark Industries gave you a nice cushion to sit on while you were there.” So Agatha has seen Rio’s resume. Enough that she remembers the fact that she got her start at Stark Industries.
“It was definitely a good starting company,” Rio says diplomatically. Stark Industries actually has stock in Rio’s current company, but Rio isn’t about to tell their biggest competition that. Not when there’s a merger that Agatha already doesn’t like. And Rio isn’t particularly interested in being on the receiving end of that anger.
Agatha tilts her head. “What made you decide to join Oscorp? What is your official position there, anyway? Considering you were shipped to my company to make the acquisition more palatable.”
Rio smiles tightly. “I was the Vice President of Operations at Oscorp and when your Board conceded to a merger, they chose me to be interim COO as a gap bridger.” She’s rehearsed this, it comes out like she’s said it a hundred times. But she’s not used to feeling like she has to explain herself and well, but Agatha is making her second guess.
There’s an awkward silence, and before Rio can break it to try to learn more about Agatha, William knocks on the window to try to get Agatha’s attention. He mouths something that Rio can’t make out at her and Agatha rolls her eyes and makes her depart. Without a goodbye.
Even after that conversation, Rio still can’t seem to pick up on Agatha’s category. And it infuriates her.
As far as onboarding goes, Harkness Industries is pretty standard. Rio spends a little more time with William and Lilia, and occasionally Jennifer when she’s around. She comes to like these three the most, realizing that they are very gentle and kind people, even though Jennifer is a little prickly.
She also likes that Lilia will bring too much food and force Rio to eat when Rio doesn’t leave her office for hours on end.
(Rio notices that Lilia is the only one able to crack through whatever armour Agatha has around herself. When Lilia talks to Agatha, Agatha listens. When Lilia tells Agatha to eat, to drink water, to take a break, Agatha does. That’s interesting.)
Rio also comes to learn that Agatha isn’t the CEO that sits idly by and lets their CFO and COO do the grunt work for them. Rio is, admittedly, used to this behaviour when it comes to company owners and CEO’s. And she has to say, she doesn’t hate it. Especially when Agatha is unbearably hands on. And Rio doesn’t think that it’s necessarily an issue, but she seems to be combative about everything.
“Agatha,” Rio says slowly, like she’s trying to pick up a cornered feral kitten. “We’re on the same side here. Me, Stephen, you… we all want what’s best for Harkness Industries and your customers. And your employees. We aren’t the enemy.”
Agatha scoffs. “You’ve been here for five minutes and your position was a throwaway. It was only given to you because Oscorp wants their best puppet front and center.” Okay, ouch. And not even a complete lie. Rio knows why Oscorp picked her, and Agatha’s not that far off.
Rio has to admit it pisses her off. She almost can’t keep her composure when she speaks next. “I am here so that your company can get the technology it needs to keep your customers happy.” Rio’s voice is a little forceful. “Your Board reached out to Oscorp, Agatha. It’s time to get over this. You need to think beyond your own feelings and think about your company.”
And, well, Agatha doesn’t like that. She gets a sort of crazed, manic look in her eyes and for a moment, Rio thinks she might actually physically fight her. Which could be fun, but not what Rio had planned for today, after all.
No, instead, Agatha walks out of the room. Distantly, Rio can hear Jennifer’s snide so fucking dramatic, but she pays it no mind. Instead she follows behind Agatha, because this needs to be settled here and now before Rio reports back to Oscorp, and if she says Agatha isn’t playing nice and is making it difficult, Oscorp will pull out.
And honestly? Rio doesn’t want that. She likes Harkness Industries, both as a company and as an actual workplace. She certainly likes it more than Oscorp.
“Agatha, stop, come on. We have to learn to work together or else this is going to be hell for everybody involved. Not just us, not just Stephen, not even just Jennifer. There’s a lot of employees who have their jobs at stake if this merger doesn’t go through properly.”
Agatha’s jaw rocks, her fists at her side are clenched tightly. For a moment, Rio thinks that Agatha is going to respond, going to say something to her, but she doesn’t. She just huffs and goes to walk off again, toward her office.
Before Rio can stop herself, she grabs Agatha by the wrist. A little too hard, Rio admits, but she’s frustrated and Agatha needs to get it through her head.
Agatha gasps and stumbles at the contact, obviously not expecting it, forcing Rio to catch her before she falls onto the floor. Rio’s grip is tight, probably too tight, and Rio expects Agatha to lash out but she… doesn’t.
Rio maneuvers herself until she’s able to get a good, clear look at Agatha’s face. Her cheeks are dusted with pink, her lips are parted, her eyes are a little darker. She seems frozen in place, almost like she’s placated, like a kitten whose getting its scruff tugged on. Almost like—
Oh.
Holy fuck.
“Agatha,” Rio starts, voice a little too thick for her own liking, and that seems to kickstart Agatha back into motion. Agatha pushes Rio away, a look of disgust on her face. “Agatha,” Rio tries again.
When Agatha walks away this time, Rio doesn’t stop her.
Chapter 2
Summary:
“I’m not going to out you, Agatha,” Rio swears. She leans forward. “I can’t pretend like I understand what it is you feel, but I can definitely understand why you might want to hide it. Especially in your position.”
“‘In my position,’” Agatha repeats, slowly, like she’s trying the words out for the first time. She shakes her head, looking incredulous. Her blue eyes are blazing. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. And frankly, neither do I, Miss Vidal. It’s highly inappropriate and unprofessional to make assumptions on my category based on a conversation.”
Notes:
whatever the opposite of slowburn is, my writing is that. sorry to all those who enjoy slowburn, i am notoriously bad at it and i don't think it fits the narrative of dominant rio seeing submissive agatha for who she really is and wanting a piece of it.
i hope you enjoy! this was very fun to write.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Rio is, like, 85% sure that Agatha Harkness is a Submissive. If their last interaction was any indication, Agatha is not only a Submissive but a closeted one at that.
Laying in bed, thinking about how Agatha had reacted when Rio had gripped her too tight, when she had roughly grabbed her to keep her upright, it makes Rio a little bit delirious. If she’s not a Submissive, there’s only about a 15% chance that she’s a Switch. Rio can feel it in her bones that Agatha is not a Dominant, and that’s for sure.
Her mind is racing. Agatha Harkness. Agatha Harkness, CEO. The witch of the corporate world. The youngest operating female CEO. A Submissive. It’s crazy, and Rio can understand from Agatha’s perspective why she might want to keep it a secret.
But Rio’s not an asshole. She’s not one of those Dominants that thinks Submissives don’t belong in high paying, high stake jobs. If a Submissive is good for the job, then they’re good for the job. Category almost doesn’t matter.
But Agatha shocks her. She seems so sure of herself. She must have grown up in an environment that makes her think Submissives are less than. And sure, society says they are, but from Rio’s limited knowledge of Agatha Harkness, she doesn’t seem like the type to let society dictate her.
And Rio, for the life of her, can’t understand why she’s so interested. But she wants to know more. She wants to know everything.
Rio gets to the office nice and early, before William even gets there. But Agatha is also there, already at her desk, already working diligently.
This is the perfect time for this confrontation, when no one is around and where Agatha won’t make a scene. Hopefully. Probably.
Rio taps the glass with her knuckle twice before she lets herself into Agatha’s office. Agatha’s movements halt, her entire body freezing. Slowly, her eyes move from her computer to Rio’s face.
“We need to talk,” Rio says.
“What about?” Agatha asks, and it’s glaringly obvious that she’s trying to appear nonchalant. But Rio can tell by the slight changes in her demeanor, the way she’s ready to run, that she’s nervous. Rio doesn’t want her to be nervous.
Trying to make herself as non-threatening as possible, Rio sits in the chair across from Agatha. Putting space between them, putting them on the same level, so Agatha isn’t looking up at her.
“I wasn’t able to get a read on you on my first day. You avoided me until yesterday.” Agatha’s hand twitches on her keyboard. “I know we all have category identifications, and typically I don’t need anyone to trigger theirs because I’m pretty good at guessing. Call it a superpower. But I couldn’t figure you out. Until yesterday.”
“And what, exactly, do you think you figured out?” Clever. The type of language she’s using is very clever, and Rio has to applaud her for it. “Because you don’t know me, Miss Vidal. You’re my new COO. We’ve had a total of two conversations since you started working for me. Don’t make assumptions about me based off of one ill-fated interaction.”
Rio almost scoffs, but she shows restraint. Being antagonistic toward Agatha right now would not do herself, or anyone else for that matter, any favours.
“I’m not going to out you, Agatha,” Rio swears. She leans forward. “I can’t pretend like I understand what it is you feel, but I can definitely understand why you might want to hide it. Especially in your position.”
“‘In my position,’” Agatha repeats, slowly, like she’s trying the words out for the first time. She shakes her head, looking incredulous. Her blue eyes are blazing. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. And frankly, neither do I, Miss Vidal. It’s highly inappropriate and unprofessional to make assumptions on my category based on a conversation.”
“Then show me your ID badge,” Rio says before she can stop herself. She doesn’t mean to challenge Agatha, but maybe it’s not the worst thing. Especially when Agatha’s eyes light up.
Agatha’s hand curls into a fist before she goes into her desk, tugs out her ID badge. It looks just like Rio’s, right down to the Dominant ID. Right down to the signature. It’s not even counterfeit, Rio is sure of that. And no one would probably think that it’s false, or fake, because anyone would assume Agatha is a Dominant when she’s at arms length.
With a smirk, Agatha tucks the ID badge back into her desk. “Now, is there anything else I can do for you, Miss Vidal? Or can I get back to the work I was doing before you rudely interrupted me with your pointless and inappropriate questions?”
Rio bites down her frustration and just smiles, pleasantly, but she’s sure it looks wooden. “I have many more questions, actually, but I have a feeling you won’t be forthcoming.”
“Your feeling would be correct,” Agatha says. Then she goes back to what she was doing at her computer, as if Rio isn’t still here. She’s dismissed.
After a couple more seconds, Rio gets up and walks toward the door to Agatha’s office. Before tugging it open, she turns back to look at Agatha. Agatha, who is trying very hard to look like Rio’s presence isn’t affecting her, who is trying not to look up and meet Rio’s eyes.
“It must be a very lonely life to lie about who you are,” Rio says, her voice unwavering. She turns to leave before she does something stupid like turn back around to see if Agatha finally looks at her.
William is just setting up at his desk when Rio goes to walk past him.
“Good morning, Miss Vidal,” he says cheerily.
“Rio, please, William,” Rio tells him. Again. The kid is sweet, he’s diligent, but he’s far too respectful and calling her Miss Vidal just makes her feel ancient, especially in comparison to him. And even to Agatha.
William just smiles placatingly at her before turning his attention to his computer.
Rio walks past her own office and heads toward the kitchen, needing her daily dose of coffee to wake herself up and to hopefully make her forget about her conversation with Agatha. But she knows she won’t be forgetting anything that was said, or how Agatha looked like when Rio made her assumptions.
Jennifer and Lilia are obviously in the kitchen and Rio catches the, “I never bring anyone to these things, so why would I start now?” from Jennifer. She has no idea what’s going on but she definitely wants the distraction.
“To what?” Rio asks curiously, walking past Jennifer and Lilia to get to the coffee machine. Thank God it’s freshly brewed. She pours a cup, adds a bunch of sugar, and gulps it down. It burns her tongue.
“The work event tomorrow night. Did nobody tell you about it?” Jennifer asks, staring at Lilia.
Lilia has a smile on her face as if to say oops , and Rio can’t be mad at her.
“I wasn’t aware,” Rio says, gulping down the rest of her cup and going for a second. “Is it an annual thing or is it a special occasion?”
“Annual. The conception of the company and all that. It’ll be good for you to be there, actually. You can introduce yourself to the rest of the staff and to some of the investors. Honestly, as far as work functions go, it’s pretty fun,” Lilia tells her. Rio just nods along.
Jennifer snorts. “Not nearly as good as the Christmas party, though.”
“Why don’t you ask Alice?”
“Alice is already going. There’s no point in asking her to go with me if she’s already attending.”
Lilia rolls her eyes. “That’s not the point, Jennifer. You should ask her. She probably wants you to ask her. And you know she won’t make the move first and ask you, she’s nervous.”
“I’ll ask her to dance if I get drunk enough,” Jennifer reasons.
“Coward,” Lilia sing-songs, but there’s no heat behind it and Jennifer isn’t offended.
Rio smiles at the scene. She likes when Dominants, specifically female Dominants, are close like this with each other. It’s pretty easy, to be fair, since Lilia seems like a nurturing Dom and Jennifer seems to enjoy that kind of energy around her.
“What’s the dress code?” Rio asks. “Business casual? Elegant?”
“Mm, probably more than business casual but not like you’re going to prom,” Jennifer responds. “Although, I’ll take any opportunity I can to dress up. Stuffy work function or not. It’s fun.”
Rio clears her throat. “Will, uh, Agatha be there, or does she skip these things?” Jennifer smiles behind her cup and Lilia looks at her curiously. “I’m just wondering if I’ll have to avoid her looks of contempt all night as I meet the very Board members who overthrew her decision and hired me.”
Lilia doesn’t look like she believes that even a little, but she still says, “Agatha will be there. She usually makes an appearance and disappears. She’s not very social.”
“Understatement,” Jennifer mutters.
Rio smiles. She’s horribly curious about what has transpired between Jennifer and Agatha to make them go at each other’s throats like this, but she won’t ask yet. Maybe at the event when everyone is a little looser with alcohol.
Everyone disperses, going back to work, and Rio tries her hardest to keep her mind off of Agatha. Tries, and fails, but she manages. Even though she can’t help but notice that Agatha hasn’t come out of her office all day.
“Good night, Miss Vidal,” William calls out to her.
Rio gives a smile and a salute, and gets back to work. When she looks at her watch again, it’s 7:00 PM. She sighs. She hadn’t meant to work so long, stay so late. She supposes it’s too late now to eat the dinner she’d packed for herself. She cracks her neck, lets out a little groan, and then peers over to Agatha’s office. She’s still in there, still looking at her laptop with rapt attention.
Well, just because Rio isn’t eating the food she brought for herself doesn’t mean someone else can’t. And she knows Agatha hadn’t eaten today, because she was watching. She didn’t see her leave her office once and Agatha doesn’t seem like the type to pre-pack her food.
She stretches her legs and heads off for the kitchen. She lays the food out on a plate, puts it in the microwave, puts a bit of seasoning on it. She hopes Agatha likes it. She hopes Agatha sees this act for what it is.
Rio knocks on Agatha’s office door. When Agatha doesn’t berate her or tell her to go away, Rio steps inside.
“Miss Vidal,” Agatha says, not looking away from her laptop. Again. “You’re here late.”
“So are you,” Rio responds. She brings the plate over to Agatha’s desk, setting it front of her. Agatha finally tears her eyes away from her computer and looks at it, and then back to Rio. Her eyebrow raises. “You haven’t left your office all day. I wasn’t sure if you had anything to eat, so I brought you something.”
Agatha stares down at the rice and chicken like it might possibly bite her and give her rabies. It’s almost comical, really, the way Agatha moves through life thinking everyone is out to get her, but if Rio thinks too hard about why that is, she doesn’t think it would be funny at all.
Her thoughts are derailed when Agatha says, “thank you,” in a way that actually sounds like she means it. Even if she’s still being cautious, Rio reasons, it doesn’t sound like it’s a thank you to merely appease Rio. It sounds genuine.
“You’re welcome,” Rio says. “Don’t stay too late.”
Agatha doesn’t respond, and Rio doesn’t expect her to. But when Rio turns to look over her shoulder after she lets the door close, she notices how Agatha goes in for a bite, and then another, and another, and she looks like she’s actually enjoying it. That warms Rio in a way she’s never felt before, and she has to fight her smile all the way to her car.
Rio’s never really been a social person. Sure, she knows how to socialize and how to talk to people to get what she needs from them, but she’s never been particularly keen on things like partying or events. Social events made her tired, if she’s being honest.
Normally she skips them, especially work events. But this is the first event Harkness Industries is holding since she’d begun her position and as the COO, she feels like her attendance is mandatory.
She settles on a black dress with a modest slit on the left leg. She doesn’t want to go all out and get too much attention, but she wants to look good and doesn’t want to blend. She wants to make an impression. She puts on her bold red lipstick, the pop of colour being exactly what she needs to pull the entire look together.
(Distantly, she hopes Agatha takes a second glance at her. Or three.)
Rio doesn’t drive, she takes an Uber, because she wants to drink and she’s going to be responsible. The address she’s given is a luxury hotel, where she guesses some of the investors are staying. It’s grand in every sense of the word, and all for an event that’s essentially a glorified anniversary party.
“Rio!” It’s Lilia. Rio lets out a breath of relief and walks over to her. “Why, don’t you look beautiful,” Lilia says with a big smile.
“Thank you,” Rio says. “You look great. I love that dress.”
Lilia’s face lights up. Within seconds, Jennifer finds her way over to them. She’s wearing pink, an obvious signature colour, and she looks beautiful, too. Rio tells her so. A moment later, a shorter Asian woman comes up behind Jennifer.
“Oh, Rio, this is Alice Wu-Gulliver. She works with the company, too, but she’s mostly working from home.”
Alice is cute. She’s also a Switch, Rio thinks. Rio holds out her hand and Alice shakes it, smiling politely but keeping close to Jennifer.
“It’s nice to meet you, Alice.”
“Likewise, Rio. I’m happy to finally meet you. Jennifer and Lilia both have mentioned you. So has Stephen, actually, but only in passing and that was before you started.” Rio must give her a look because Alice rushes to add on, “all good things, of course!”
Rio chuckles, and she’s about to respond but her eyes are drawn toward the entrance. Agatha walks through with an air of confidence and sophistication. She’s wearing a maroon coloured suit that’s obviously tailored to her. Rio’s mouth is suddenly dry as she watches the woman. As she notices that the top buttons are undone, showing a cheeky amount of chest. The pants are fitted, hugging her curves like they were made specifically for her and honestly? They probably are.
And then Rio notices her. A pretty redhead attached to Agatha’s arm. She’s got big green eyes. Probably a Submissive, if Rio is reading her properly from this distance. Rio grits her teeth as she watches the woman tuck a piece of hair behind Agatha’s ear, as she runs her hand up Agatha’s arm.
“Earth to Rio,” Jennifer says, an indulgent smile on her face.
“Sorry,” Rio mutters. “Who’s that with Agatha?”
“Wanda Maximoff,” Lilia tells her. “They’ve known each other for… years.”
Alice nods, leaning in. “I think they go way back. Like, they met at boarding school.”
“Married?”
“No one really knows. We just know that Agatha brings her with her to every event. I don’t think Agatha has collared or claimed Wanda yet, but—”
Rio nods, but she’s not listening anymore. It’s insane. Agatha is so deep in her shame, so far in her little closet, that she’s putting this woman at risk. No matter how much training Agatha might have as a Dominant, and Rio doesn’t think she’s received any, it will still be dangerous. Things can go wrong.
“I need a drink,” Rio mutters.
She heads toward the bar, orders herself a fruity little drink because even though she is a Dominant, even though she is of high authority, she cannot stomach dark liquor and she will never pretend she can. She sips on her margarita happily, but her eyes are drawn back to Agatha and Wanda.
Agatha is looking at her. Wanda is talking to her, about something Rio would probably find mundane, but Agatha isn’t paying her any mind. No, she’s looking at Rio. Her eyes are trailing down Rio’s body, landing on the slit of her dress, before they move back up to Rio’s face.
And then after a moment, Agatha moves her attention back to Wanda. As if she hadn’t just ogled Rio. As if she can’t feel Rio’s heated gaze on her.
“Come on, Rio,” Jennifer says, bounding up beside her. “They’re going to be serving dinner soon.”
Rio nods. “Who’s at our table?”
“Us, Alice, Lilia, Agatha and Wanda. Stephen brought a plus-one so he is sitting at the table on beside us with his wife.”
Of course. Agatha and Wanda are sitting at the same table as her. Rio honestly isn’t sure why she’s shocked. It makes sense.
Luckily, dinner is mostly a quiet affair. The food is delicious and everyone is too busy eating. But Rio keeps catching Agatha’s eyes when Agatha tries to sneak glances at her, and each time she almost seems to jolt before turning back to Wanda with a smile so fake it almost looks drawn on.
As the dinner plates are being taken away, Agatha excuses herself. Rio presumes she’s going to the washrooms. After a couple of moments, Rio follows closely behind. She’s sure Agatha can hear her following but she doesn’t it away.
Once they’re shut away in the bathroom, which is empty, by some stroke of luck, Agatha turns on her. “Why are you following me?” Before Rio can even answer her, Agatha continues, “why have you been staring at me all night? I could feel your judgment all throughout dinner.”
“This is irresponsible,” Rio hisses at her, walking closer to her.
Agatha looks taken aback, her mouth an ‘o’ of shock. “What are you talking about? Fuck off, Vidal.” She tries to walk off, back toward the party, but Rio snags her by the waist and pulls her, pins her to the countertops so she can’t leave. Rio hears the way Agatha’s breath hitches.
“Agatha,” Rio says, determined. “Stop fighting. And stop lying to me.”
“Let me go.” She doesn’t yell, but her voice is steadier than Rio had anticipated it to be. Rio doesn’t budge, though. She stands tall, staring Agatha down until Agatha eventually recedes. “So you know my secret.” There is unshed tears in her eyes, it makes Rio’s heart lurch uncomfortably in her chest, in a way she’s never felt before. “You figured it out, congratulations. Go you. Do you want a party in your honour?”
“No,” Rio tells her. “Masquerading as a Dominant when you’re a Submissive is one thing, but parading around with a Submissive on your arm when you know the training you received was lackluster is irresponsible.”
Agatha pushes Rio away, off of her, creating space between her. Rio lets her, because Agatha isn’t hers. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Agatha mutters. She fixes the creases in her dress from being manhandled by Rio, fixes her hair, trying to look presentable but there’s still a flush to her cheeks, her eyes are still a little dilated.
“You’re going to get hurt. And you could hurt her—”
Agatha interrupts her, voice curt. “For fucks sake, she’s a Switch.” That makes Rio’s mouth snap shut, almost audibly. “Wanda is one of my closest friends. She’s a Switch. When we’re in public, she pretends to be my Submissive to keep up appearances. In private, we’ve only done the bare minimum. Mostly vanilla sex, sometimes she’ll choke me like she was taught to, because I ask.” She sniffs. “We aren’t even together,” Agatha mutters. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“It is my business,” Rio blurts out, mouth working before her brain.
“How on earth could this be any of your business? What I do, how I choose to live, impacts nobody but myself. It has absolutely nothing to do with you.” Agatha’s voice wobbles, just a little bit, despite how sure and strong her words are. Before Rio can speak, before she can even think of a response, Agatha backs up more, straightens her back. “Now, if that’s all, Miss Vidal, I’ll be getting back to the party. You should, too.” It’s almost terrifying how quickly the mask slips back on.
Rio just watches, dumbfounded, as Agatha walks back toward the event. Agatha doesn’t even spare her a backwards glance.
Agatha isn’t at work on Monday.
“She’s still working, just from home. She says she’s not feeling well,” William recites.
“Did she say what was wrong?” Rio asks.
William hesitates before he shakes his head.
“Has she ever done this before?”
“Not while I’ve been here,” he tells her.
Rio is silent for a second before she takes out her phone, hands it to William. “Can you type in her address? I’m going to go check on her.”
William worries his lip but he does what he’s told. Nervousness radiates off of him in waves. “Please don’t tell her I told you anything. She’s actually nice to me even though she pretends not to be.”
That makes Rio smile. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
And she doesn’t. She goes through most of her day before she heads out early. She goes to her apartment, deciding that she was going to confront Agatha. She’s not going to let that woman run away from her.
So, she whips up some soup. It’s not a particularly difficult recipe, but it takes some time and care. She hopes that Agatha likes it, because Agatha doesn’t seem like the type to cook for herself and if there’s one thing Rio likes to do, it’s take care of the people she’s interested in.
Rio knocks. Gentle, unassuming. Mostly because she snuck in to the building and she doesn’t want to be tossed out. Or arrested. Or something.
Agatha opens the door and Rio is momentarily struck dumb. She’s used to Agatha looking like organized chaos, with the put together outfits and the unruly hair. But seeing her in a soft knit sweater, with her hair up in a messy bun, with glasses on her nose… Rio feels too many things. Her mouth opens, then closes, then opens again. Her throat is suddenly dry.
She’s looking at Rio expectantly, her eyebrows knit together. When Rio doesn’t speak, because she can’t yet, she asks, “What are you doing here?”
Rio clears her throat. “I heard you weren’t feeling well.” She holds up the bag with the soup. “I brought you my favourite soup. Family recipe. Wanted to check in on you.”
Agatha still looks suspicious but for some reason, she steps aside and allows Rio inside. Once again, Rio is surprised by the state of Agatha’s apartment. Luxurious, yes. But there’s papers and books everywhere, things strewn all around. Rio’s not sure what she was expecting when she thinks of Agatha’s living space, but this isn’t it.
Rio hands over the bag. Agatha walks forward and Rio follows behind, a little hopelessly, as Agatha puts the bag onto the kitchen island. “Thanks,” Agatha says after a moment. She seems a little awkward, a little uncomfortable by having somebody in her space. Or maybe it’s just Rio.
“No problem.” Rio takes a bit of time to look at Agatha, to study her. She’s not sick. She’s not unwell. She seems healthy. Agatha definitely took the day away from people for something else, and Rio may be dumb and narcissistic enough to believe that it’s because of her. Because of their conversation on Friday at the event.
Rio inches closer. Agatha doesn’t strike like a feral cat, she doesn’t snap at her, so Rio counts it as a win. But Rio still approaches with caution, until they’re barely arms length away from each other. Agatha is looking at her, too. Her eyes scanning over Rio’s face, her body, almost as if she’s trying to understand Rio’s motive.
“Why are you really here?”
“Why did you really work from home today?” Rio shoots back. Which might have been stupid, in retrospect, because Agatha’s spine straightens and Rio can almost see the walls putting themselves back together and Agatha scurrying to hide back behind them. “I wanted to check on you,” Rio laments. “For real. I was worried.”
Agatha crosses her arms. “Why?”
“Because our last conversation was heavy and I wanted to make sure I didn’t…” Didn’t, what? Because Rio most definitely crossed a boundary. She had wanted to step on Agatha’s boundaries because Rio wants Agatha to be herself. But she doesn’t necessarily want to think about why that is. And she’s not sure she wants Agatha to know that, either. “I didn’t tell anybody. And I won’t tell anybody. You can trust me. I don’t want to hurt you and I definitely don’t want you to think I’m trying to set you up.”
Rio watches as Agatha takes in Rio’s words, the way she processes them. She licks her lips, rolls her shoulders back. “I just don’t see why you care so much. We work together. We barely know each other, really. We’re coworkers.”
And that’s the question, isn’t it? Why does Rio care so much? Rio can lie to herself and say that it’s because Rio believes that everyone should live freely the way they were born and the way that makes them the most happy, but she knows that’s not fully true.
She wants Agatha. She thinks she’d be a good Dominant to Agatha, for Agatha. She feels inexplicably drawn to her, the need to take care of her is so strong, so overpowering. It almost overshadows her attraction for her. Not quite, but it’s a near thing.
“I’m drawn to you,” Rio says instead. She can’t lay all of her thoughts out on the table right now, not before she can at least see if it’s reciprocated. Which, she believes it is. But she doesn’t want to scare Agatha away.
“You’re drawn to me,” Agatha repeats. “Why?”
Rio laughs. “I don’t know,” Rio replies, honestly. “I honestly don’t know. I couldn’t get a read on you when we met. And then the more I uncovered, the more I wanted to know. There’s still so much I want to know about you. You’re honestly an enigma to me. And I’ve always been drawn to mysteries.” Rio takes a chance, reaches out and grabs Agatha’s hand in hers. It’s warm.
Agatha doesn’t snatch her hand back but her posture is a little rigid. Rio continues, “I’d like to get to know you better. Beyond our jobs, beyond our categories and how we’re ID’d. I just… I want to know how Agatha Harkness ticks.”
Rio holds her breath, afraid that Agatha will withdraw, but she doesn’t. Miraculously. But Agatha also isn’t looking at Rio anymore. She’s looking at their hands, fixated on their skin touching. Rio isn’t sure if it’s affecting her or if she’s just trying to avoid looking at her.
“Are you sure you just don’t want a Harkness to submit to you?” Agatha asks. It’s sarcastic, Rio can tell. A deflection if she’s ever seen one, but there’s a genuine note in her question and that has Rio slightly horrified.
“No,” Rio promises. Well, yes, it would be nice, Rio thinks, but doesn’t say, because she does not mean it the way Agatha would likely think she does. “No, that’s not it at all. I’m drawn to you, not who you pretend to be, Agatha.”
Agatha finally meets her eyes. The blue is so pretty, so clear, and Rio is so lost in them that she doesn’t see Agatha move forward, move closer, until Agatha reaches up and pulls Rio toward her and into a kiss.
It only takes a couple of seconds for Rio’s brain to catch up and she wraps her arms around Agatha’s shoulders and kisses her back. Agatha’s lips are soft, but the kiss is anything but, with Agatha pushing her entire body into Rio’s and Rio trapping her against the kitchen island.
Agatha doesn’t seem to mind, letting out a little noise when Rio’s hands station themselves on Agatha’s hips and she squeezes. Rio finds that she needs to hear that noise again, needs to hear all of the noises she can get Agatha to make.
She feels frenzied, and Rio isn’t used to this. She’s used to being organized, put-together, never caught off guard but right now, kissing Agatha Harkness, she feels crazed. Manic, almost, as she scrapes her teeth against Agatha’s plump bottom lip and licks her way into Agatha’s mouth.
Agatha matches her fervor tenfold, her own hands making their way into Rio’s hair. Not pulling, not even scraping her nails against Rio’s scalp, just having them there. Almost to anchor them. Almost… softly. Like she isn’t even thinking about it. Like it’s second nature.
Something settles in Rio’s chest and it tugs a little lower, into her stomach, and that’s what makes her pull back before Agatha’s sexy little noises push her too far to be able to stop. She doesn’t want anything else to happen before Rio gets Agatha to open up a little bit more. Agatha’s expression is slightly dazed, and she tries to chase after Rio’s lips again. Rio obliges for a moment before she pulls back for real.
“Stop,” Rio whispers. “We have to stop.”
“You don’t want me?” Agatha asks, and she sounds small. Much smaller than Rio has ever heard her and she decides she never wants to hear her like this again.
Rio reaches out, brushes her thumb against the sharp curve of Agatha’s jaw, along her cheekbone. Agatha’s eyes flutter shut.
“I want you,” Rio promises. “So badly. But I can’t, in good conscience, have you until we sort some things out. I’m not that type of Dominant, and I don’t think you’d appreciate it in the long run.” That’s a sensible answer, Rio supposes. Agatha opens her mouth to say something else, possibly to refute her, and Rio can feel her start to physically pull away. But Rio doesn’t let her. “I don’t want to just fuck you, Agatha. I want to learn more about you. I wasn’t lying about that and I wasn’t saying it just for the opportunity to dominate you. I want to get to know you.”
Agatha bites the inside of her lip, her eyebrows creased. But she doesn’t pull away and Rio counts that as a win. “I’m not an easy person to get to know,” Agatha says after a moment. Her voice is steady but there’s still a bit of vulnerability in her expression. She’s obviously trying to hide it but Rio is seeing right through her.
“I wasn’t under the illusion that you were,” Rio says with a chuckle. She fights a grin when she notices the edges of Agatha’s mouth twitch. “Go out with me on Saturday.”
Agatha tilts her head. “Go… out with you. Like, on a date?”
Rio almost laughs. It’s a near thing, holding it in, but she figures Agatha wouldn’t take too kindly to being laughed at even if Rio isn’t doing it to mock her. “Yes, like on a date. That’s what people do when they want to get to know each other, they go out and they talk over dinner.”
“Okay,” Agatha says. Rio’s momentarily thrown off by how easy it was to get Agatha to agree to this. “But I’d prefer somewhere… private. Just us.”
Rio understands. “You can come over to my place,” Rio tells her. “I’ll cook for you.”
“Okay,” Agatha says again, a little uneasily this time. Like she’s nervous.
They stand in silence for a moment before Rio puts space between them. She sees Agatha pout a little, which makes Rio giddy in a way she hadn’t expected, but she doesn’t say anything about it.
“Eat the soup I brought you, even if you are feeling fine. I’ll report back to everyone and let them know you caught a little bug but you’ll be back in the office tomorrow.”
“Thanks.”
Rio heads toward the door, propping it open with her foot. She turns to look at Agatha. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Agatha doesn’t respond in words, but she nods, and that feels like enough.
Chapter 3
Summary:
“You’re very annoying,” Agatha mutters. Rio can see the tension in her body, but she’s still able to meet Rio’s eyes and Rio thinks she might be a little in love.
But nevertheless, she’s smug when she replies, “and yet you agreed to go on a date with me.” She’s looming over the pristine glass at this point, almost casting a shadow over Agatha. “You kissed me. The least you can do is stop acting like you hate my guts.”
Agatha snorts. “Those two things are not mutually exclusive. I can easily hate your guts after I kissed you. A woman’s mind is full of wonder and whimsy.”
“You’re certainly a puzzle,” Rio says, annoyingly fond. “But your jagged edges aren’t intimidating, Agatha. I don’t scare that easily.”
Notes:
just because agatha said yes to a date does not mean she will make anything easy for rio. please pray for her.
and an aside: i had an outline for this fic. i did! i did. yeah. um. i've already deviated. so we shall see if the chapter count stays the same. and if you see the number change? no you didn't.
this has not been beta read. and hardly edited, if i'm being serious. i feel so bad so i just wanted to get this out. i'm still unsure about it... but alas.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
After a full night of overthinking, Rio does actually see Agatha the next day, which she’s honestly a bit shocked about. Not that she thinks Agatha is scared, but she knows Agatha’s type. She’s a perpetual runner, she’d rather stay away and hide than be in a situation that makes her uncomfortable.
“You’re here,” is what Rio says when she leans against Agatha’s office door.
Agatha doesn’t even look up at her, just types away at her laptop. “Where else would I be? One work from home day because I was feeling under the weather isn’t the end of the world.”
Honestly, Rio’s impressed at how well Agatha is able to sell a lie. If Rio didn’t know any better, she’d think nothing of it. She’d think that Agatha just came down with a one-day bug and she needed the day at home to recuperate. But Rio does know better. She knows that Agatha hid at home, away from Rio, because she was afraid. Although Agatha would likely never admit it, that’s what it was.
“Taking care of yourself isn’t the end of the world, you’re right,” Rio acknowledges. Agatha freezes and for a moment, her facade cracks. There’s a look on her face when she finally makes a move to look up at Rio, and it’s something Rio can’t quite decipher.
And then Agatha’s eyes narrow. “Is this your thing?”
“My thing?” Rio asks, incredulous, and she makes her way into the office and closes the door. While many people may not be at work yet, this conversation is still private and Rio doesn’t want to share this part of Agatha with anyone.
Agatha looks entirely too unimpressed. “This… ‘Soft Dom’ thing you have going on.” She makes air quotes around soft Dom, which would make Rio chuckle but she’s not going to give the brat the satisfaction. “You bring me soup once and you suddenly think that you’ve cracked my code?”
“This is quite a performance,” Rio says, inching closer to Agatha’s desk. “But your audience knows too much to buy it.”
“You’re very annoying,” Agatha mutters. Rio can see the frigidity of her body, but she’s still able to meet Rio’s eyes and Rio thinks she might be a little in love.
But nevertheless, she’s smug when she replies, “and yet you agreed to go on a date with me.” She’s looming over the pristine glass at this point, almost casting a shadow over Agatha. “You kissed me. The least you can do is stop acting like you hate my guts.”
Agatha snorts. “Those two things are not mutually exclusive. I can easily hate your guts after I kissed you. A woman’s mind is full of wonder and whimsy.”
“You’re certainly a puzzle,” Rio says, annoyingly fond. “But your jagged edges aren’t intimidating, Agatha. I don’t scare that easily.”
Which seems to be a little to real of Rio so early in the morning, so Agatha clears her throat and straightens up in her fancy leather chair, adjusting her blouse. “Yeah, well, you hardly know me.” This seems to be a favourite line of defence for Agatha, since it’s something she’d said before. Probably something she’ll continue to say.
“Well, I’m trying to,” Rio tells her, open and honest, because Rio is nothing if not a go-getter and what she wants is this Submissive. And this Submissive is a wriggly little kitten who will try to escape at every turn. “I want to get to know you. That’s why I want to see you on Friday.”
“I already agreed to your date, Rio,” Agatha mutters. “You don’t have to keep trying to butter me up.”
Rio almost laughs because Agatha is just ridiculous. If she wasn’t on the receiving end of this type of behaviour she’d almost be impressed by the ways Agatha tries to disengage. “I’m not trying to butter you up,” she promises. “I’m just saying what I mean. Clearly, beating around the bush would just enable you so I’m giving you no choice but to take everything I say at face value.”
Agatha rolls her eyes but Rio can see a certain tension in her body, whether it’s from the communication Rio is pushing onto her or whatever it is that Agatha might be feeling. And normally, Rio would push, but Agatha is already skittish and she doesn’t want her to change her mind on their date on Friday. So, she concedes. She gives Agatha a soft, small smile before backing up toward the door.
Before heading out, she turns to look over her shoulder. “Did you bring lunch?” Rio asks, voice light. Curious.
“No,” Agatha responds.
“I have extra. I’ll bring you a plate.” Agatha opens her mouth, ready to argue, because that’s what she does, but Rio stops her. “I always bring extra just in case. Don’t worry, you don’t have to socialize. I’ll bring it to you.”
Agatha’s lips flatten into a line, almost like she’s trying to suppress a smile. That in itself makes Rio’s stomach swoop.
“Fine. Now, can you leave me alone? You’re giving me a headache.”
Rio doesn’t let it get under her skin. She’s sure that she’s already pushed too many of Agatha’s buttons and the day has hardly started. “No problem. See you later, Agatha.”
Agatha enjoys the lasagna. She doesn’t smile at her or tell her thank you, but she enjoys it.
The next day, Rio brings her beef stir fry. The day after that, she brings her chopped pork loin on top of white rice and a side of green beans. The day after that, she brings her a homemade BLT with a side of sweet potato fries, which Rio spent her prior evening making.
She enjoys it all. And Rio thinks that she might enjoy cooking for two from now on.
In the days leading up to their date, Agatha did not make it easy on Rio. She isn’t a micromanager, because Agatha is far too impatient and gets distracted way too easily to do it, but she was definitely being a little more overbearing than she had been prior. Nitpicking at all of Rio’s reports, asking questions specifically meant to confuse Rio in front of others.
But the little brat routine doesn’t deter Rio. Not at all. In fact, it makes her all that more determined to learn more about this enigma of a woman.
“What you’re doing isn’t going to work, you know,” Rio says, on Friday night. Everyone else in the office has already dispersed and gone home, like they should. But as usual, Rio and Agatha are the last two here.
“And what am I doing, Miss Vidal?”
This almost makes Rio smile, admittedly. Agatha is so bothered but she’s trying so hard to come off as nonchalant and like this isn’t getting to her.
“You think that you being a nightmare will piss me off enough to cancel tomorrow.” Agatha rolls her eyes, leans back in her chair and gives Rio a look. “It’s not working” Agatha raises an eyebrow. “And it’s not going to work. But you’re welcome to keep trying. All it’s doing is pushing the other employees to ask and wonder why.”
This seems to get Agatha’s attention and she falters. Licks her lips, swallows. “What are they saying?”
“Most of them just think you’re PMSing. But you can’t keep acting out like this, Agatha. This is a fantastic place to work and people are happy, but you acting like a dictator isn’t doing you any favours. You don’t need to act like her, you know. You not being like her is actually an asset.”
Something flashes in Agatha’s eyes and Rio almost regrets her words. Almost.
“I’m not trying to be like her.” Her voice is a little rougher, has an edge to it that Rio hasn’t heard. She makes a mental note not to bring up Evanora until they’ve made some headway.
Rio raises her hands up, a little white flag, a surrender. “Okay,” she says. “My point is: relax. Remember our conversation? We need to assimilate. You making it difficult is doing nobody any favours. We’re your team and we’re meant to support you. We’re not your enemies.” Rio waits a beat to see if Agatha has something to say. She doesn’t speak, but she also doesn’t divert her eyes. “I’m not your enemy, either.”
Agatha almost seems at a loss for words. Her mouth opens, then closes, then opens again. Almost like she’s flustered, but not in the traditional sense.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night, Agatha. Six o’clock. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you are, too.”
Rio stands there for a moment, waiting, but Agatha doesn’t respond. Rio just sighs, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her pants and she heads toward the door. She heaves it open and just as she’s about to step through, she hears, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” from behind her.
She doesn’t turn around to look at Agatha, though, because she doesn’t want to ruin the moment.
Rio has never felt this much nervousness before a date before. She feels it in the pit of her stomach, her heart beating so wildly that she’s sure anyone within a 5 step radius of her could hear it.
She’s cleaned every inch of her house, watered her plants, made everything look presentable. She even stashed her spider, Victoria, away and out of view—at least until Rio is sure that Agatha isn’t a huge arachnophobe.
And, admittedly, Rio has changed her outfit several times. She doesn’t want to wear something too commanding and domineering, but she also doesn’t want to wear a pretty little dress because it feels like it doesn’t fit the aura of what she’s going for.
So she sticks with a pair of slacks and a blouse, something similar to what she’d wear at the office, except the blouse has a pretty pattern on it.
Before she can worry about it all over again and pick an outfit for the fourth time, she hears her doorbell. Rio looks down at her watch. It’s a couple minutes past six, but Rio hadn’t really expected punctuality from Agatha, if she’s being honest.
With the amount of work Rio put in to tonight, nothing could have prepared her for how Agatha looks standing at her front door.
The sun is setting behind her, almost giving her a halo. Her dark hair is wild and wavy around her face, where she’s wearing minimal makeup but she has a bolder red lip. Rio’s eyes are greedy, trying to drink in every single detail of her pretty purple dress with the flared skirt and the bodice that’s dipped almost criminally low. She looks like every wet dream Rio has had about her since they met.
“My eyes are up here,” Agatha says, donning a smirk. She knows exactly what she’s doing.
But nevertheless, Rio does make eye contact with her. Blue. So pretty and so blue. She smiles. “You look lovely, Agatha,” Rio says. “Come in, please.”
Agatha saunters in, heels clacking against the floor as she walks through the doorway. Rio watches Agatha take everything in, like she’d been wondering what the inside of Rio’s house looks like. The thought makes Rio want to smile.
“You have a lot of plants,” Agatha says after a moment.
“I have a green thumb,” Rio responds. “Follow me to the kitchen. I’ll get you a glass of wine. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
Agatha does follow her, trailing almost too close behind her as they walk through Rio’s house to the kitchen. Once again, Agatha takes everything in before settling on Rio.
“Are you getting me a glass of wine or are you just going to stare at me?”
Rio chuckles. “I wouldn’t mind spending my night doing that,” Rio says, but she goes behind her counter to grab her corkscrew. “I hope you like red.”
“As long as it’s not cheap.”
“Oh, I’d never give you cheap wine.” She uncorks the bottle and gives it a moment before pouring it into her pretty crystalized glass that she only brings out for special occasions. She pours herself a glass and walks toward Agatha until they’re just a step apart. “My lady.”
Agatha rolls her eyes but she takes the glass from Rio, their fingers brushing. Agatha seems to notice, because she jerks her hand back. Miraculously, nothing spills and nothing breaks.
Rio watches as Agatha takes a sip, and then another. She licks her top lip. “It’s good,” she admits, and Rio feels pride swell within her chest. “What are we having for dinner?”
“Gnocchi with caponata,” Rio tells her. Agatha’s eyes almost light up. “I was going to make lamb shoulder, but I wasn’t sure of what you’d think about that.”
“I like lamb,” Agatha tells her. “But I prefer gnocchi.”
Rio can’t hide her smile, because she likes that she was able to pick things that Agatha likes. She likes doing things for Agatha.
“Take a seat. I’m going to get the food out and then we can eat.”
Agatha listens to her, sitting at the table and watching Rio finish prepping their meal with rapt attention. Rio almost feels like she’s putting on a show and it almost feels like Agatha is getting something from watching her. And maybe she is.
It only takes about six minutes or so for Rio to have everything plated and then she’s sat across from Agatha at her table. Rio doesn’t take a bite until Agatha does, and until Rio is sure that Agatha is enjoying it. Which she is, if the way Agatha goes back for a second, third and fourth bite in quick succession is anything to go by.
“Where did you learn to cook like this?” Agatha asks around a bite of food. It’s almost charming how unladylike of an eater Agatha is.
“My abuela taught me,” Rio tells her. “She was a culinary goddess. She used to work in Europe before coming back to the States. Taught my mom and taught me.”
Agatha nods, doesn’t respond and doesn’t ask more on the matter, but Rio can tell she took the information in greedily. Perhaps Agatha is also greedy to learn more about Rio, but she is far less obvious about it. They eat mostly in silence, which is more than fine with Rio. She enjoys her own cooking, but more importantly, she likes watching Agatha enjoy it.
“Do you cook?” Rio asks as she grabs Agatha’s plate to clean it.
“Nope.” Agatha shrugs, stands up along with Rio but doesn’t give her a hand with cleaning. She just follows Rio into the kitchen, leans against the counter as Rio puts the dishes in the sink. “My mother tried to teach me but I wasn’t receptive. And I never wanted to learn myself.”
Rio snorts. “Takeout?”
“I know enough to keep me alive.” Rio stares at her expectantly. “Yes, I do a lot of takeout.”
Rio smiles, wiping her hand on a dishrag.
“Do you want another glass of wine?” Rio asks.
“Sure.”
Rio pours them both another glass and leads them into the den, where her cozy couch is. Where Victoria is usually stationed, but she’s hidden away. Agatha sits first, curling herself into the arm of the couch. Rio sits beside her, close enough to feel the heat off of her bare legs but not close enough to touch.
Agatha takes a sip of her wine before placing her glass on the coffee table. Rio does the same, and they sit in a silence that is filled with so much tension that the air is thick with it.
This would be a lot easier if Agatha was more inclined to share information about herself without Rio having to pull it from her. Just as she opens her mouth to ask another question, something mindless but Rio likes to know the small things, Agatha groans, “for fucks sake,” before she throws her leg over Rio’s lap to kiss her harshly.
Rio doesn’t know what to do except kiss back. She’s never been with a Submissive like Agatha, has never felt so far out of her depth—and, more importantly, she’s never felt like she’s losing control. Until now, until Agatha Harkness perches herself in her lap and kisses her senseless.
It takes all of her strength to pull back. Agatha chases her mouth, but Rio holds her firm by the shoulders. “Agatha,” she says, her voice breathless, too breathless for the tone she’s trying to convey. Which is authoritative. She clears her throat and tries again. “Agatha. I can’t sleep with you on the first date.”
Agatha rolls her eyes and pouts, the brat. “I know you’re a little older than me, but it’s not really common practice to wait after the first date anymore.”
“It’s not about that,” Rio says with a shake of her head. To clear it mostly, and to try to get the image of Agatha pouting out of her head. “I can’t just have sex with you when we haven’t even discussed your wants and needs as a Submissive.”
The look that Agatha gives her is like a swift kick to the chest, so full of judgment and disdain, and a little mocking. “Rio,” she says slowly, “this is just a date. One date. I just want you to fuck me.”
Rio’s mouth parts. She thought she’d been clear when she’d asked Agatha out that she had plans to woo her, to get to know her, to do this properly. It seems like something got lost in translation, or Agatha is just conveniently forgetting that Rio actually had serious intentions with this date.
Agatha is still on top of her, and Rio is having trouble keeping her thoughts together. But there’s a look on Agatha’s face, something that makes Rio think that she’s lying. Agatha feels something more than just attraction for her, and it looks like she’s trying very hard to make Rio think differently.
“Agatha.” Rio’s voice is soft. Agatha’s eyes flutter, just a brief thing, but it was enough for Rio. She cups Agatha’s cheeks between both of her hands. “I don’t do casual sex. I want more than sex with you. I want to take you out on a second date.” Agatha scoffs, makes this cute little harumph noise, and she tries to pull away. Rio doesn’t let her. “Agatha,” Rio says again. “I want you.”
The pout Agatha gives her is devastating and Rio leans in for another kiss. Agatha melts into it, and that’s interesting. Rio gets an idea, and it’s probably a bad idea, but Agatha seems to respond well to this type of physical affection. She thinks—
She pushes Agatha off of her, but before Agatha can make a disgruntled remark, Rio has her reclining on her back and Rio presses herself on top of her. She may not think fucking Agatha without a conversation is a good idea, and boy does she fucking want to, but she thinks there isn’t anything wrong with a little vanilla action. That’s not going against her sensibilities.
Agatha is panting against her mouth by time Rio pulls away to lift her dress up to her hips. Rio stifles a groan when she looks down to see Agatha wearing a pair of purple lace panties. Fuck. When Rio looks back up to Agatha’s face, she notices a small smirk. No, that won’t do. She leans in again, claims Agatha’s lips with her own, uses this as a distraction to get Agatha’s panties off without a fuss.
She kisses down Agatha’s jaw and neck, leaving a little love bite, before she gets herself in between Agatha’s spread thighs. Rio can see how wet she is, glistening against coarse curls, her labia parting eagerly and just begging for Rio’s touch. Rio presses her lips on Agatha’s pubic bone and when Agatha’s hips twitch upwards, Rio pulls back.
“I’m going to eat you out,” Rio tells her, “but only if you agree to go on a second date with me.”
Morally corrupt? Possibly. Rio can sense how desperate Agatha is to be touched, and to be touched by a Dominant, at that. But Rio refuses to let Agatha get away, she won’t let this impossible, entrancing woman continue to think that Rio only wants her for a quick fuck or, worse, thinking that Rio just wants her as a trophy.
Agatha splutters, her eyebrows furrowing. “This is extortion.” Probably that, too. Rio runs her hands up and down Agatha’s calves. When Rio doesn’t back down, Agatha mutters, “what do you even get out of this? There are loads of out Submissives who would be happy to have you.” Who aren’t hiding, she doesn’t say, but clearly means.
“I don’t want them. I want you. And I am willing to compromise my rules if you are willing to adhere to some of mine.”
“You’ll give me an orgasm but only if I agree to a second date.” Rio nods. Agatha stares at her for a moment, and then another, and then she sighs. She rubs her hands down her face. “You better make this worth it, Vidal.”
Rio’s answering smile is all teeth. “I’ve never heard any complaints before.”
They stare at each other again and when Rio doesn’t budge, Agatha finally says, “fuck, fine. I agree to your stupid fucking extortionist terms. Now put your mouth on me.” Rio can do that. She presses her lips to Agatha’s thighs, peppering kisses on the skin there, leaving little love bites, and she can hear Agatha groan in frustration. “For fucks sake, eat me out!”
Rio chuckles. She’s not going to tease her, not for real. She wants Agatha to see this as a reward, she wants Agatha to look forward to this, and she thinks that maybe, Agatha might light the teasing and possibly the denial, but that’s not what Rio is comfortable exploring right now.
She swipes her tongue up Agatha’s cunt from opening to clit, delighting in the full-body shudder she gets in response, feeling something fuzzy in her chest when Agatha lets out a deep groan and presses her fingertips against Rio’s skull.
When Rio presses her tongue inside of Agatha, she realizes she might have made a mistake—she’s never going to be able to go without this. Agatha’s taste, tangy and a little bit salty, is something she can feel herself already becoming addicted to. The sounds Agatha makes, deep moans and whiny little gasps, will be playing in her mind unbidden for the rest of her life.
Rio’s fingers are itching to get inside, but Rio can’t do that. She can’t fuck her, because she won’t want to stop, and Agatha would be getting what she wants without putting in the work to get it. No, Rio keeps pressing her tongue into her instead, feeling the fluttering of Agatha’s hole around her, before she flits up to Agatha’s clit and sucks hard.
It doesn’t take long after that to have Agatha shaking and gasping and moaning Rio’s name, like a prayer, her fingers tightening harshly in Rio’s hair and her hips stuttering trying to press herself closer. Rio licks her through her orgasm, loving the feeling of Agatha’s shuddering thighs on either side of her.
Rio licks Agatha through it, insistent swipes against her clit as she comes down from her orgasm. She looks beautiful, but there’s a look on her face that tells Rio that she’s not sated. Not even a little bit. That’s good, Rio thinks. That means she’ll want more. She wipes her mouth off with the back of her hand, gearing to pull herself up and away from Agatha, but Agatha grabs her by the shirt collar and brings their lips back together.
Agatha makes a delighted moan into Rio’s mouth when Agatha tastes herself on Rio’s tongue. The sound shoots a bolt of arousal through Rio’s body and she has to will herself to pull back, not to continue, because she doesn’t think she has the restraint not to pin Agatha to the couch and see what other kinds of noises she can pull out of her.
Blue eyes finally open, slowly, before they narrow and she pouts. Rio stifles a chuckle, grateful to be back in neutral, regular territory. (Even though the pouting is a serious knock to Rio’s self control. She needs to have Agatha under her so bad it’s almost making her delirious.)
“That’s all I get?” Agatha says, still pouting.
“For now,” Rio promises. She can tell, already, that she’ll have her work cut out for her in pleasing Agatha. She knows the type—insatiable, greedy, pleasure hungry. But she has a feeling it goes deep and that Agatha will be hard to satisfy. Luckily for her, Rio loves a challenge.
“This is wildly unfair, you know,” Agatha grumbles. She shifts herself until she’s sitting upright, fixing her dress until it’s covering her up. The pink on her cheeks, the muss in her hair, those give her away, though.
Rio chuckles. “They are the terms you agreed to.” Agatha merely rolls her eyes, rolling her shoulders back. Rio finds it fascinating to watch the carefully constructed mask fall back into place. She can see the very moment the gently bratty persona shifts into the other Agatha. The one she presents to people, her employees. Rio hopes to break that mask like fine China on hardwood.
“Same time next week?” Agatha says, tone sarcastic, but Rio senses something else in her tone. Something else in her face, something that settles deep in Rio’s chest and begins to tug down. She grasps onto it with both hands, not letting herself rise to the bait. When she doesn’t respond, Agatha continues, “I don’t know what you’re hoping to get from this.”
You, Rio thinks. Doesn’t say. Instead, she settles on, “I think we’ll be good together. I just want to see where things go and show you that being a Submissive isn’t something you need to hide. Especially not with me.”
“You think so highly of yourself.” Agatha scoffs. She flicks her hair over her shoulder and stands up, smoothing the wrinkles out of her dress.
“Hey,” Rio says, voice soft. She reaches out, tugs Agatha back down, brushes Agatha’s hair out of her eyes. She tries to ignore the tug in her chest when Agatha’s eyes flutter at the touch. “I’m not in the habit of forcing Submissives to humour me. If you’re truly not interested, we don’t have to do this again.”
Agatha’s eyes are wide and so, so blue. And then she blinks, and the look of softness is replaced by her haughty brattiness. “I didn’t say that. You proved to be… decent… at giving head,” Agatha mutters. “And I already made a deal with you—one orgasm, and I go out with you again. So.”
Rio sees it for what it is. A performance. She feels out of control, Rio’s making her feel out of control, so she’s trying to pretend like she’s not impacted. But Rio can tell. Rio can see it, can sense it. Can still taste the feeling of her on her lips.
“Okay, Agatha.”
They continue to go on dates. Rio continues to woo Agatha, Agatha continues to fight and claw herself to the surface to no avail, and Rio continues eating her out to orgasm in return.
She learns quite a bit about Agatha after a few dates, honestly. She learns that Agatha never wanted to be a CEO and that she, honestly, would have preferred a life of petty crime to the corporate world. But her mother had left her an inheritance if she took over the company, so she felt so inclined. She didn’t respond when Rio told her she was doing a good job with the company despite it all, but the faint blush on Agatha’s cheeks told Rio that she was pleased with the praise.
She learns that Agatha’s favourite colour is purple (not a shock), that her favourite book is Frankenstein (a little more shocking), and that she loves trashy rom-coms (Rio couldn’t hide her shock).
Rio tries to prod a bit deeper. Tries to understand Agatha beneath the surface, but in typical Agatha Harkness fashion, it’s not easy. There are so many questions Rio has about Agatha and her upbringing and why she views being a Submissive as a weakness, and what might have led her to getting a fake status ID card. But Agatha doesn’t share that information. She clams up, shuts off in a way that makes Rio’s heart ache because behind the nonchalance, Rio sees so much pain.
She does research. She knows that Submissives are very rare in Agatha’s position, she understands her reluctance to tell people, to be viewed as less capable by an ignorant society. She can understand that much, but there’s something deeper. There’s something so personal in the way she hides herself that Rio is almost sure it’s trauma related.
Rio wants to learn. She wants to see all the ugly parts, wants to have Agatha feel like she trusts her enough to want to open up to her. She doesn’t want to pry the information from her, she doesn’t want to go behind her back and steal tidbits from the people around her. She wants Agatha to tell her every detail, because Rio is so enamoured and so blindingly interested.
She wants Agatha. And she thinks, by the way Agatha is humouring her, continuing to meet up with her, continuing to soften around her, that Agatha wants her, too.
Chapter 4
Summary:
“Agatha,” Rio says, voice low and gravelly. She can’t even try to reign in her libido right now, not when Agatha’s hips restlessly shift in their search for friction. Not when the pretty jeweled plug is Rio’s favourite colour. “What is that?”
“A butt plug,” she says, nonchalant, as if she hasn’t just turned Rio’s entire world on its axis.
Notes:
heyyyyy. it's been a while huh. SORRY. :D i'm sorry. but it's miss hahn's birthday so i Had to write agatha having a nice lil orgasm.
as usual, this was written by me and only me. i don't even have a beta. all mistakes are my own.
please take note that there are some topics discussed in this chapter that might be distressing. child abuse, specifically. please take care of yourself and turn away if that might be too much for you!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
One thing Rio has learned after being in a relationship with Agatha Harkness is that the Agatha who exists in front of people who aren’t Rio is vastly different than the Agatha who exists in front of just Rio.
In front of others, Agatha is abrasive. Mean. Cold. Impersonal. Rio can tell that Jen and Lilia, specifically, don’t buy it. Stephen is wildly unimpressed by Agatha’s antics, as well, but it’s obvious that he doesn’t pay it any mind or think any less of Agatha for it. The other employees are terrified of her. Agatha is not a micromanager by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, she’s actually a pretty kind boss. But that doesn’t mean they don’t operate through the rumour mill. They work hard for her as to not face her wrath. It’s a pretty good strategy, if that was Agatha’s plan.
And then there’s Billy, who might be the only person to see a softness from Agatha and in a completely different way than Lilia and Rio. She can be hard on him, snapping at him sometimes when he gets too overeager, but the kid bounces back and doesn’t even cower, entering the lion’s den again and again.
But with Rio—in private, specifically, because in front of others Agatha treats Rio how she’d treat anyone else, if you’re not looking hard enough—she’s softer. She’s still bratty, she’s still a caged animal waiting to strike at any hand that comes at her too fast, but she’s more open. Rio isn’t sure if it’s the time that wore Agatha down or the orgasms, honestly, but Rio isn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Rio has come to learn even more about her. Not things that Agatha says, specifically. But things that Agatha is letting Rio see. Either by choice or because they’re in close proximity most weekends and Rio just so happens to see Agatha in these deliriously vulnerable moments.
Agatha is a cuddler, especially in sleep. No matter how grumpy Agatha acts when Rio wants to spoon Agatha to sleep, it’s always Agatha who winds up wrapped around Rio throughout the night. Rio always finds herself pinned under Agatha’s sleeping body in the morning, Agatha’s head on her chest or on her stomach, Agatha’s hands gripping onto Rio’s sleep-shirt or bare skin.
And as cute as Agatha is when she’s asleep, she’s a complete menace when she’s awake.
It’s Friday, instead of Saturday, because the weather is beautiful and the mood in the office was light, and Agatha decided to come home with Rio directly after work. Rio knew something was up when Agatha got into the passenger seat of her car, kissed her so sweetly on the cheek. At the time, of course, Rio just felt her cheeks heat up and her heart pound in her chest.
But now that she has Agatha on her back in Rio’s bed, with her legs open as Rio kisses down Agatha’s body with narrow-minded precision, wanting to get to her target, her treat, she realizes that Agatha is a complete and total nutjob.
As soon as Rio peels Agatha’s panties off, soaked through and sticky, she sees it. A pretty jeweled green plug, buried in her ass.
“Agatha,” Rio says, voice low and gravelly. She can’t even try to reign in her libido right now, not when Agatha’s hips restlessly shift in their search for friction. Not when the pretty jeweled plug is Rio’s favourite colour. “What is that?”
“A butt plug,” she says, nonchalant, as if she hasn’t just turned Rio’s entire world on its axis.
Rio bites down on Agatha’s thigh in retaliation for the sass and Agatha lets out a groan. “I see that,” she grounds out. “Why are you wearing it?” Wrong question. “When did you put it in?”
“At lunch.” She says it like they’re talking about the weather or what to order for dinner, light, unassuming.
“At lunch,” Rio repeats. “You brought a plug with you to work… and lube, I presume?” A nod. “And you put it in… on your lunch break?” Another nod. “You’ve been wearing this for six hours?”
Agatha gives a half-hearted shrug, but with all of her nonchalance, Rio can tell she’s affected. She can smell how wet she is, the sweet musk that Rio has come to crave whenever they meet up for their private little dates. She can see how dilated Agatha’s pretty blue eyes are, blown wide and so dark that it looks like a storm brewing.
“You won’t fuck me, so I thought I’d have some fun on my own,” Agatha tells her, like it’s obvious. And, really, Rio’s not surprised. She should’ve expected something like this to happen.
Rio’s going to die. She might actually die, because Agatha is going to kill her, because Agatha is so fucking hot and bratty and the perfect Submissive for Rio and she’ll die without ever feeling how Agatha feels around her fingers.
“Get on your hands and knees,” Rio orders, her voice scratchy. “Dress up around your waist.” She hasn’t once taken Agatha’s clothes fully off. She doesn’t think her willpower is strong enough to withstand seeing her tits, or stomach, or her entire body bare .
Agatha raises an eyebrow but after a moment, she does as she’s told. She flips the dress up over her hips, her panties slung low enough that Rio also sees—
Fuck.
“Is that a tattoo?”
“Yeah.” Agatha looks over her shoulder and Rio can’t help but think she looks utterly sinful. “Got it during my rebel phase as a teenager to get back at my mother.”
Rio runs her fingers over it. It’s a dulled green vine with purple azaleas in bloom, more vibrant than the green they’re attached to. It’s beautiful. Delicate. Rio can perfectly picture a young teenage Agatha in a chair in a dingy tattoo studio, flipping through their book of art until she stumbles upon the flowers. It makes her smile.
“If you’re done touching my tattoo, I’d like to come now,” Agatha says after a moment, arching her back up more and shaking her ass enticingly.
Fucking brat.
“Why did you put the plug in, Agatha? We didn’t discuss that.”
Agatha snorts. “Discuss what? It’s borderline masturbatory. I like something in my ass, you haven’t even fucked me properly yet so I did the next best thing which was doing something myself.”
“And you decided to leave it in for me to find?”
Agatha looks back over her shoulder again. “I thought you might like it.” The smirk is back, it’s deadly, and Rio feels a stir in her tummy. She feels hot all over, and the fact that she can smell Agatha’s arousal at this point is not helping matters.
“Hm.” Rio is so turned on it’s almost painful. She wants to stuff her hands down her pants and rut against her own fingers until she comes. No. She wants to have Agatha’s delectable pussy in her mouth and touch herself at the same time. No—
She grips the plug by the base and gently tugs on it. Agatha makes a broken moaning sound, a sound Rio hasn’t pulled out of her yet, and it makes Rio’s head go fuzzy. That noise is deliriously sexy. Rio does it again, and Agatha makes the same noise. What a little slut, Rio thinks fondly, as she allows her nails to gently scrape over the skin of her ass, making Agatha shudder. She pulls at the plug again and this time she watches as the stretches and gapes as Rio tugs it all the way out. The hole is pretty, pink and puffy, twitching a little at the sudden emptiness.
Fuck.
Rio tosses the plug aside, letting it fall to the floor with a thump. Her eyes don’t leave Agatha’s gaping hole, watching as it quivers and almost begs for Rio’s touch.
“Are you going to fuck me now?”
Rio isn’t. She refuses to let Agatha get what she wants because if she gives in, then Agatha will think that Rio isn’t serious about her. About them. And she is, she wants Agatha so bad she can hardly see straight but she wants her for more than a fuck. She wants her for real.
But that doesn’t mean she can’t have a little bit of fun.
“No,” Rio says. The pad of her thumb presses against her fluttering opening. She doesn’t press her thumb in, though, much to Agatha’s clear chagrin. “Come now, baby.” Her voice is gentle, soothing. “I won’t fuck you until you agree to be mine, but you can fuck yourself.”
Agatha looks over her shoulder, eyebrows scrunched together. She has a pretty red flush all over her face and down her neck. Rio feels pride swell within her because she was able to do that. Her. “What do you mean?”
Rio leans in, kisses the swell of Agatha’s ass. “I mean—” Her tongue flicks out, teases against Agatha’s ass hole for a moment. It’s enough to make Agatha’s head drop down and she lets out a gasp. “I’m going to eat your ass and you’re going to put your pretty fingers inside your cunt until you come.”
Agatha groans and nods, her hand immediately finding its way under herself to press against her own clit. Rio watches, enraptured, as Agatha gathers wetness on her fingers, shifts her hips into her own hand, before singing two fingers into herself. Fuck, her pussy is gripping them so tight. Rio feels her self control fight her, just briefly, but she needs to hold strong. She’s so close to having her where she wants her. Where she wants them.
“Good girl,” Rio murmurs. She smiles, just a little, when Agatha makes a little whimper at the praise, and she tries to press her own fingers deeper.
Rio leans forward and presses her tongue against her hole before dipping inside. It’s tight and warm, with some residual lube making it wet. No matter, she plans on making a mess of it and making it sloppy and open and begging to be fucked.
She presses her tongue all the way inside and the effect is instantaneous—Agatha moans, loud, wanton, and she shifts her entire body back. She’s greedy for it, her hips twitching, her fingers moving inside herself rhythmlessly. She seems to be driven completely by pleasure, and that shouldn’t be as fucking hot as it is but Rio burns all the same.
Soon enough, Rio is able to hear the telltale signs of Agatha’s fingers fucking herself. The wet squelch is borderline pornographic, and Rio watches as she fits a third finger into herself and the moan she lets out when she stretches open on her fingers is going to be enough to fuel Rio’s fantasies for the next half year. She’s so lucky that she’s the one that gets to experience it, and then it hits her that she’s experiencing only bits and pieces. Agatha is reacting like this to her own fingers, Rio can’t even fathom how responsive she’d be when they’re Rio’s.
That thought alone has Rio working double time to get Agatha to orgasm. She uses her hands to open Agatha’s cheeks, messily licking at Agatha’s hole until she’s grinding back against Rio’s face and fucking her hand into her so hard Rio’s slightly afraid she’ll break her own wrist.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Agatha whines out. “Fuck, I’m so close. I’m so fucking close, Rio.”
Agatha isn’t usually this vocal. She’s responsive, yes, always wanting the maximum amount of pleasure from these brief rendezvous, but she’s very rarely this loud. Rio finds that she loves it, that she wants more of it, that she can’t wait until she can have Agatha fully.
“My dirty girl is so close so fast just because my tongue is in her ass?” Rio purrs against wet skin. “Your own fingers are inside of you. You’re not even being truly fucked and your body is acting like it’s in heat.” Agatha whimpers.
“Please,” Agatha breathes out. “Please, Rio, please.”
And that’s new. That’s very new, and it has the desired impact. Rio feels her breath get stolen from her lungs, watches as Agatha’s entire body shakes because of her impending orgasm. She hadn’t asked Agatha to wait, and she definitely hadn’t asked her to ask first, but Rio isn’t mad at this turn of events.
“Come for me, beautiful,” Rio says. Her tongue corkscrews itself back into Agatha’s ass.
Agatha’s entire body bows and breaks on Rio’s command. Agatha’s hole shudders and tightens around Rio’s tongue when her orgasm slams itself into her. She feels Agatha’s come drip down onto her, messing up Agatha’s thighs and Rio’s couch. Fuck, she squirted. From her own damn fingers, at a less than optimal angle. Everything about his encounter just has Rio imagining how everything will be when Rio gets to get her hands on her, inside of her, when she gets to fuck her the way she deserves.
Rio grabs the wet wipes she typically keeps nearby when Agatha is over and she gently cleans her up. She’s still shaking and her skin is warm to the touch. And, for once, she’s not snarky during the aftercare. Typically, when Rio cleans her up, she’ll make little sarcastic comments that have Rio shaking her head and trying her best not to smile, but this time she’s quiet.
Once Rio cleans Agatha up and gets her clothing back where it’s supposed to be, she brings her closer. Agatha lets her. In fact, she curls into her.
“You okay?” Rio whispers.
“Yeah,” Agatha responds. She doesn’t hesitate, and Rio believes her. “Took a lot out of me. I had that plug in for hours and I felt like I was going to explode.” Rio understands now. Her body is overstimulated. Rio makes a noise but doesn’t respond to that, just allows them to lay in silence. And it is mostly silent for a few minutes until Agatha decides to speak again. “You took good care of me,” Agatha says, quietly.
Rio’s heart fucking swells. “That’s all I want to do.” Rio scrapes her nails against Agatha’s scalp and delights when she basically starts purring, nuzzling her face into Rio’s chest. “All I want to do is take care of you, Agatha. Not just sexually, but in general. I’m on your side. I want you.”
Agatha doesn’t respond for a while and Rio starts to think she won’t. Rio starts to worry that she overstepped, that she said too much too fast. But then Agatha says, “I’m beginning to believe that.”
Rio thinks she might melt. Nothing can stop the wide smile from breaking out onto her face. She presses a kiss to Agatha’s head to hide it, just in case, because she doesn’t want to come across as smug. Even if she is, just a little bit.
Their routine deviates a little. Of course, on Friday, Rio still drives Agatha to her place after work. Agatha gets into her car, a small smile on her face that she pretends isn’t there, and leans over the console to give Rio a kiss on the cheek. Every time, Rio tries to bite back the dopey grin that threatens to split her face in half. Agatha spends the night, instead of going home. She shyly asks if Rio would mind, and Rio almost trips over her own tongue to try to tell Agatha that she’s always welcome.
And after Rio gets the chance to wake up with Agatha in her arms, resting contentedly and sleeping soundly like she feels safe with Rio, she doesn’t think she could give it up for anything. It becomes a whole new addiction, waking up with Agatha. Kissing Agatha awake. Making her breakfast, watching her sit all soft and rumpled at her kitchen table.
Something is different today, though. Rio can feel it. They’ve just eaten, another meal that Rio’s abuela taught her and she told Agatha some more stories of her upbringing. Agatha, of course, doesn’t share much of her own which is… fine. For now, it’s fine. Rio isn’t going to push, not yet. She’s more than happy to take what information Agatha wants to give her on her own time.
But when they’re on the couch, Rio kissing Agatha senseless, her tongue slipping into her mouth, her hands moving to pop open the button of Agatha’s slacks. Until Agatha grabs Rio by the wrist and stops her in her tracks.
“What’s wrong?” Rio asks. “Did I hurt you?”
“No,” Agatha mumbles. “Nothing like that.” She sits up, but she doesn’t pull away. Not completely. She allows herself to stay situated under Rio, but lets her wrist go and rebuttons her pants. “I’m just… bleeding. And I’m not really in the mood. I feel gross and a little bit sick.” She looks away, trying to look anywhere but at Rio. “I’m sorry.”
Rio leans down to kiss Agatha on the side of the head. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t even have to give me a reason. You don’t want to, then you don’t want to. That’s it.”
Agatha looks back at Rio again, her eyes wide and impossibly blue. “You’re not mad?”
“No, baby,” Rio promises, “I’m not mad. And I’ll never be mad if you don’t want to have sex. If you don’t want to be touched, that’s your choice. I’m only going to ever do what you want me to do.”
Agatha’s eyebrows knit together, a look of utter and complete confusion crossing her features. “Even if you were to… even if I was to sign over to you, you wouldn’t…”
Rio sits up and forces Agatha to sit up, too. She’s comfortable, she’s more than happy talking to Agatha when they’re laying down, but she feels like this conversation is too important to do while cuddling. She takes Agatha’s hand in both of hers. “Agatha,” she says gently. “I’m not sure what kind of Dominants you’ve been around, or what stories you’ve heard… but you signing a contract and agreeing to be my Submissive doesn’t mean I get to do whatever I want to you. And I wouldn’t want to do that, regardless.” Agatha looks down at their hands, not meeting Rio’s eyes. “Did somebody in the past make you feel like—”
“No,” Agatha says. “No, I’ve never really been with a Dominant like this before. It’s just stories I’ve heard from other Submissives in my circle. It’s what my mother would tell me when I got ID’d. I figured she was probably lying, but I’ve seen firsthand that Submissives have less rights so… maybe it’s not that far of a stretch.”
“I’m sure it does happen,” Rio says, because it probably does. “I don’t know any Dominant that thinks this way… it’s more than likely men who treat their female Submissives like that. Because men have been treating women like that throughout history, regardless.” She puts two fingers under Agatha’s chin and she tilts her face up until their eyes meet. “But, Agatha. I need you to understand. I’m never going to do anything you’re not comfortable with. That’s why I refuse to do anything with you until you agree to be mine, because I want to go over everything in detail. I want to know what you like, what you don’t like, what you want to experiment with. I want to work on all of that with you.”
Agatha fidgets and Rio can tell she wants to look away. “Even if I’m being difficult?”
“What do you mean, baby?”
“Punishments. If I’m being bad, or I’m being difficult, and you punish me. It’s probably going to be something I really don’t like, right? Because that’s what a punishment is. And I know me, and you know me, and you know I’m not going to be easy to handle and I’m probably going to get on your nerves a lot and—”
“Agatha,” Rio says, gently. “I won’t do anything you don’t like. Punishments are something that traditionally happens when a Submissive is claimed. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be physical, and that definitely doesn’t mean I’d ever do something to you as a punishment that we haven’t discussed first ahead of time. Even real punishments, I’d never ever do something to you that would actually hurt you. Physically or otherwise.”
Agatha huffs. “Then what’s the point of a punishment? Every punishment I’ve ever gotten has left me with a scar and I’m not planning on changing my entire personality before you and I get more serious.”
“What do you mean every punishment you’ve ever gotten left you with a scar?” Rio asks, slowly. She’s not really sure she wants to hear the answer.
“Well, my mom was a Dominant. She’d punish me in more extreme ways when I was too rowdy as a child.” Her eyes shine, as if she’s remembering a specific instance. “I think she knew before I was officially put into a category that I was going to be a Submissive and she was conditioning me against bad behaviour but it didn’t really work out.” She chuckles meekly. “Some of the stuff she’d do to me… I can’t imagine wanting to be with somebody who’d take pleasure in that.”
Rio’s heart cracks, just a little bit. Both at the way Agatha talks about it, like it’s not Evanora’s fault but hers instead, and because Agatha thinks that harsh punishments are something that a Dominant is meant to take pleasure in. “Agatha,” Rio says slowly. “I want you to listen to me, very closely, okay?” Agatha swallows, and her eyes narrow, but she nods anyway. “Harsh punishments aren’t the norm. That’s just abuse. No Dominant pleasure trainers ever teach harsh punishments in the curriculum.”
“I know that,” Agatha snaps. She tries to tug her hand away. Rio doesn’t let her. With a huff, Agatha settles but she doesn’t meet her eyes. “I know what they train you. I did the training for appearances. I know . But I also know that there are Dominants who don’t necessarily listen to what they were taught to do. I’m sure it’s common for deviations.”
“Not like that,” Rio tells her. “Physical punishments are commonplace typically in play. Not in actual punishments. Hell, most Dominants I know don’t even punish their Submissives anymore. They don’t want to be feared.” She brings Agatha’s hand up to her lips, kisses the back of it gently. “I don’t want you to ever fear me. I have absolutely no problem withy you being ‘difficult’, Agatha. It’s part of why I’m attracted to you. If we discuss punishments, it will be circulating around what you are comfortable with.”
Agatha shakes her head. That’s fine, Rio doesn’t expect Agatha’s opinions on Dominants and how they treat Submissives day-to-day to change overnight. Rio can only hope that, with her actions, she’s able to show Agatha that she’s safe with her.
“My mother broke my arm once,” Agatha mumbles. Rio’s eyes widen. “When I was sixteen. It was about then that she began to realize that her only child wasn’t going to be a Dominant. I’m not quite sure what gave it away to her, or if she was just so well-versed in understanding people and the categorical system that she had a hunch, but she knew. And she resented me for it.” She clears her throat. “She was never a good mother, even before that. She’d use me for appearances, of course, but other than that I was essentially… forgotten. I was a decoration. Once I got into my later teenage years, when she began to realize I’d likely be ID’d as a Submissive, she tried to train certain behaviours out of me. I don’t think she meant to break my arm but she definitely meant to leave a mark.”
Rio feels anger boiling beneath her skins surface. If that woman wasn’t already dead, Rio is pretty sure she’d kill her. Hell, she wants to bring her back to life just to kill her again and make it as painful as she can. Her jaw rocks, her teeth clenching, but she tries to school her features. This is a precarious conversation, Agatha is finally telling her things, she doesn’t want to frighten her with her anger. “I’m so sorry,” Rio says quietly. “But Agatha. What she did to you, how she treated you, wasn’t your fault . It was her fault. Anything she ever did to you was because of her, not because of you.” She needs Agatha to understand this, and she knows that won’t be an easy feat because anybody can tell that Evanora left a human-sized mark on her.
Agatha hastily swipes away the tears on her cheeks and gets up from the couch. She puts space between her and Rio, disentangling herself. “I just… I need a moment.”
“Take your time,” Rio says gently. “Do you want something to eat when you’re ready?”
Agatha finally looks at her again. Her eyes are swimming with unshed tears, her chin trembling. Rio pretends not to notice because she knows Agatha is trying very hard to hide her physical reactions to this conversation. “Ice cream,” she says. “If you have it.”
“Of course, sweetness.”
Agatha nods and hastily retreats into Rio’s bathroom. Rio gets two bowls and puts large scoops of ice cream into each, putting them in the fridge until Agatha is ready so they don’t melt.
She’s in there for twenty seven minutes, not that Rio’s counting. She keeps herself busy, not listening at the door, not trying to see if Agatha’s okay. When Agatha is ready, she’ll come out. If Agatha wants to talk more about it, they can. She doesn’t want to push her too hard, especially since she’d already told Rio so much about herself in their conversation.
When Agatha comes out, you can’t even tell she’d been crying. It’s almost like magic.
“Ready for that ice cream?” Rio asks.
Agatha gives her a small smile that Rio can only call hopeful. “Yes.” She sits down on the couch. “Can you… I mean. Can we—”
“Do you want me to hold you?”
Agatha nods. “Please.”
“Anything you want,” Rio promises.
And she means that.
Agatha spends the night that night and clings onto Rio in her sleep so tightly that Rio has trouble falling asleep. But she’ll gladly take sleepless nights if it means Agatha gets a restful one.
Monday comes around too quick. Agatha’s contact since she leaves on Saturday has been minimal so the weekend is full of Rio doing menial tasks trying to keep herself busy. Or stop herself from being too clingy with Agatha.
“So, Agatha,” Jen drawls when she comes into the boardroom. Oh no. That’s never good. They’re cruel to each other on good days, they seem to strive for that dynamic. They’re comfortable there. This doesn’t sound good, and it’s definitely not going to end well. She sits down and takes a sip of her coffee. “I didn’t take you for being interested in the taboo.”
Agatha’s eyebrows knit together. She looks at Jen with a harsh stare, her eyes flicking to Rio briefly, and Rio gives her a look that says I have no idea.
“What are you talking about, Jenny?”
“Oh, you know,” Jen says, smirk on her face. “I didn’t take you for somebody who would take their Dominant COO as a lover.”
It feels like the air gets sucked out of the room. If looks could kill, she’s pretty sure Jennifer would be dead ten times over with the venomous anger radiating off of Agatha in waves. But in classic Agatha fashion, she brushes it off nonchalantly.
“That’s absurd,” Agatha says with a chuckle, but it’s strained. She rolls her shoulders back as if she’s gearing up for a fight. Rio wants to step in, wants to defend Agatha, wants to berate Jennifer, but she knows it’ll look worse on her if she does that. She knows it would piss Agatha off more.
“I saw you,” Jennifer says, voice dripping with faux sweetness. “On Friday. I saw you get into Rio’s car, I saw you lean over and kiss her on the cheek. Very sweet.”
Before Agatha can make a scathing retort, the door opens and Alice and Lilia stroll in. They can sense the tension almost immediately. “What’s going on?” Alice asks, voice quiet and slow, like she might frighten a cornered animal.
“We’re just talking about how Agatha and Rio are screwing,” Jen says, far too gleefully. Her smile is wide and bright.
Alice scratches the back of her neck, and Lilia just watches Rio. “Oh, are we finally talking about that?” Alice asks after a moment. She sounds unsure, but her voice is still gentle, and her eyes don’t leave Agatha.
“Oh, yeah. About time, too,” Jennifer says, her voice smug.
“Jennifer, stop it,” Lilia says at the same time Rio snaps, “shut up, Jennifer.”
“I don’t know what’s more pathetic,” Jennifer continues, not heeding any of the warnings. Not even bothering to care that Agatha actually looks upset. “Hiding the fact that you’re a Submissive or taking a lover from within the company.” She tsks.
Rio watches as Agatha’s jaw tightens, gritting her teeth. Her eyes are shining with unshed tears, which is telling Rio that she’s definitely more than just angry. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She gets up from her chair, kicking it back hard enough that it wheels itself into the wall of the boardroom.
When she leaves, the silence is deafening, Rio’s own heartbeat pounding hard in her ears.
“Sorry,” Alice mutters. “We could have handled that better.” She’s looking right at Jennifer.
Jen looks giddy. “I’m not sorry,” she says in a way that says she’s not sorry at all. She doesn’t even flinch when Alice elbows her.
Rio glares at Jennifer. “I know you two have a complicated relationship, but I didn’t take you for cruel, Jennifer,” Rio spits at her. It’s only after Rio says this that Jen’s face falls, just a little, her shine dimming. “Outing her like that isn’t okay and you can say what you want about her, but she would never do that to you or to anybody.”
“I didn’t out her,” Jen argues. “We all knew already.”
Rio moves closer, a little menacingly. By the way that Jennifer jerks herself back, it’s safe to assume that she’s intimidated. “It doesn’t matter if you think you all knew. Unless she actually made the decision to tell you herself, you didn’t actually know. Unless she told you, all of you, you outed her. And for what? Pettiness?”
“She’s lying to everybody,” Jennifer says.
Tries to say, more accurately, since Rio slams her hand on the desk so hard that she thinks her bones are shaking. “And she probably has good reasons to lie, Jennifer!” Rio’s voice is louder now. She tries to keep it down, so that she doesn’t draw attention, but she’s livid. “You had absolutely no right to say any of that to her and you definitely had no right to do it in front of other people.”
For once, Jennifer sits back and actually looks apologetic. She draws herself inward, crosses her arms over her chest. “It was just us,” she mutters. “I didn’t realize it was such a big deal.”
“Oh, Jennifer, fuck off with that. You’re not stupid,” Rio says, her voice flat. “You should know if somebody is lying about who they are, there must be a reason. You just wanted to have a leg up on her.” When Jennifer opens her mouth to speak again, Rio stops her. “I’d honestly fire you right now if I didn’t think you’d go and blab to anybody that would listen.”
“I wouldn’t tell anyone out there,” Jen says. Rio scoffs. “I wouldn’t. I was just trying to poke at her. It was just us in here. I didn’t think it would blow up.”
“You’re a fucking asshole,” Rio says, deadpan, voice devoid of any emotion. She doesn’t want to show her anger, even though it’s running through her white hot. She doesn’t want to thrash out, she doesn’t want to do anything that will blow back on Agatha.
“What you did was really cruel, Jen,” Alice says. Her voice is still quiet, reserved. Resigned. She’s looking at Jennifer in a new way, in a way that tells Rio that she thinks Alice is seeing her in a new light and that it’s definitely not a good one.
Rio tunes them out as they whisper back and forth, Jennifer trying to make herself look better but Alice having none of it. Rio doesn’t think she’s ever seen Alice look truly perturbed before and right now she looks, dare she say, angry .
Lilia is watching all of this unfold. She’s always watching, but Rio can tell she’s not happy with this turn of events either. All Lilia has done since Rio has met her is try to make sure Agatha, Jennifer and Alice were safe and happy. Rio, too, if she wanted to feel included in that. She’s sure Jennifer will get a stern talking to from Lilia eventually.
“You should go find her,” Lilia tells her gently. “She’s probably going to run.”
Rio’s blood goes ice cold. “Run?”
“She feels cornered and when she feels like this, she isolates. Don’t let her. What Jennifer did was inexcusable but you need to make sure she knows you’re there for her.”
“What if she wants space?”
“She needs to tell you that herself,” Lilia says. “Don’t let her run away, because she might find a stronger resolve and then she’ll never get to be happy.” A pause. “You’ll never get to be happy with her.”
Rio just nods and she zips out of the boardroom to try to find Agatha. She looks at her watch. It’s just past noon at this point. She makes her way to her office, it’s empty.
“Hey, Billy,” Rio calls out. “Do you know where Agatha went?”
“No,” the boy says. “Is she alright? She went into her office, grabbed her stuff and bolted out of here. She usually doesn’t say goodbye or anything but she’ll typically let me know when she’ll be back or to hold her calls.”
Rio smiles tightly. “Thanks, kid. Just keep manning the desk.” Billy salutes. “Fuck,” Rio says under her breath as she goes into her own office. Okay. She grabs her own bag, looking at her phone. Nothing from Agatha. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Okay, Rio thinks. Her apartment. She’ll go to Agatha’s apartment and see if she’s there. The drive takes about twenty three minutes, since it’s midday and there’s not typically a lot of traffic on a Monday morning. She knocks on the door.
“Agatha?” she calls. “Agatha, it’s Rio. Please let me in.”
Silence.
Rio goes to Agatha’s contact and hits the call button. It rings three times, and then goes to voicemail. Rio tries again, same thing. The third time she tries, it goes straight to voicemail.
“Fuck.”
She goes down to the lobby of Agatha’s building, sees the security guard. She plasters on her best smile. “Hi, there,” she squints to see his name tag, “Clint.”
“Hi there, ma’am,” the man says, gruffly. “How can I help you?”
“Would you be able to tell me if Miss Harkness came by here in the past hour?”
The man frowns. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m not allowed to divulge that information.”
Figures. Of course. She takes a deep breath. “Look, Clint,” she says, her voice quiet. Almost a whisper. “I know your job is important. For somebody like Miss Harkness especially. But in our line of work, we need to know where she is at all times, if you get my drift.”
Clint narrows his eyes. “You’re part of her security team?”
Agatha doesn’t have a security team. But— “Yes, I’m part of her security detail. Supposed to blend, you know, so that no one suspects. We’ve been dealing with a lot regarding overzealous parasocial behaviour, you know… so we’re meant to keep an eye on her. We just want to make sure we mark where she’s been today.”
Clint nods. “She didn’t come through here since this morning, ma’am.”
“Thank you so much for your assistance, Clint. Keep up the good work.” She winks for good measure and runs out the front doors. “Fuck, fuck, fuck ,” she says to herself again when she gets into her car. “If I was Agatha Harkness… where would I go if it’s not home.”
She opens her text thread with Lilia.
RIO [12:54 P.M.]
She’s not at her apartment.
The speech bubbles appear and then disappear, and then they appear again. A couple of moments later—
LILIA [12:56 P.M.]
I got word that she’s booked a flight to Mykonos. She’s just texted Billy that she won’t be in for the rest of the week.
“Fucking Mykonos,” Rio says. “Fuck! Agatha. Fuck.” She rubs her temples and takes a deep breath.
LILIA [12:57 P.M.]
It’s not until 4. You can probably still catch her. JFK.
“Thank you, Lilia,” Rio says out loud. She doesn’t even think twice when she pulls her car out and heads toward the airport.
She needs to catch Agatha before she gets on that plane. If she gets on that plane, Rio might never see her again. And if she does see her again, she might never get the chance to be with her how she wants. She needs to stop this entire plan in its tracks before Agatha is airborne.
Fate must be on Rio’s side because traffic is minimal and she gets there in almost no time. But now the trouble is getting past the gate to find her before she boards. She checks her watch. It’s 1:30. She still has time.
Rio scans all the boards until she finds the 4 P.M. flight to Mykonos. She notes the gate number and the airline, and heads toward the service desk. Lines are minimal, but the luck runs out when it comes to her having to buy a ticket in order to pass the gate. “Agatha owes me big time for this,” she grumbles to herself as she swipes her card for the cheapest airplane ticket she could buy. It’s still $800.
All that’s going through Rio’s mind is find Agatha, find Agatha, find Agatha. She can’t even be mad at the race she’s currently partaking in because she understands why Agatha would run. She understands that Agatha is scared and that she needs to put space between herself and the situation, and she knows that Agatha is notoriously bad at facing the hard problems in her life head on. She is a habitual runner and it’s a good thing Rio doesn’t mind chasing.
When she gets to the gate, she looks for her. For her stupidly long brown hair, for her nice jacket, for her posh clothing. For those high cheekbones. She peeks into the first class lounge, sees her sitting there. Her phone is beside her, screen dark. She has a book in her hands.
“Agatha,” Rio calls out. Nothing. Agatha doesn’t look up. Rio tries again. “Agatha.” This time, she manages to get Agatha’s attention and she looks up at the sound of her name. First, she looks confused. And then her sights set on Rio and her expression hardens, something dark shadowing her features.
She gets up and stomps toward her. “What are you doing here?” Agatha hisses.
“You can’t go to Mykonos, Agatha.”
“I bought my ticket. My flight leaves in two hours. I think I can.”
“You can’t just run away.”
Just as Agatha is about to open her mouth to retort, they’re interrupted. “Ladies, if you are not meant to be here, please take this elsewhere,” an attendant says.
Agatha stares at the attendant for a moment and Rio is afraid that she’s about to take her bad mood out on him, but she just scoffs and walks out. Rio follows behind her, hopelessly, because what else can she do?
She grabs Agatha’s hand and pulls her back toward her. “Agatha.”
“What, Rio?” Agatha whispers, voice harsh. “Why did you come here? Let me go.”
“No,” Rio says. “I’m not letting you go. Figuratively, physically, or whatever. You’re not going to Mykonos.” Rio has to keep talking, has to make Agatha realize that running away is a mistake. “Jen is an asshole. What she did was an asshole move and she’s most definitely paying for it because Alice is mad at her. Lilia is mad at her. I’m mad at her. She had no right to do what she did to you. I made sure she knows that.”
Agatha turns quickly, and her eyes flash. “What did you say to her?”
“I said that she’s cruel. That outing you to anybody because of a petty vendetta is a selfish, cruel thing to do. And it was, Agatha. Regardless of the fact that they had their suspicions about your category, telling people about it before you were ready to is wrong. I made sure she knows that. Alice is probably still making sure she knows that. She’s not going to get away with what she did.”
Agatha swipes at her face, her sniffle almost too quiet, but Rio hears it. “You’re not mad that she knows?”
“Why would I be mad that she knows, baby?” Rio whispers.
“Because I’m difficult, and closeted, and you deserve somebody who’s not. This entire situation just proves that I’m far more trouble than I’m worth and that you can do better.” Her eyes are large, and pleading, and there are people around them that are pretending not to watch this whole thing unfold. “Please, just let me go so you can move on with your life.”
“No,” Rio urges. “I don’t want to. I’m with you, Agatha. Flaws and all, closet and all. Until you’re ready to overcome what you’ve been taught, I’m going to be here with you.” Agatha opens her mouth again, but Rio stops her. “I know you wouldn’t be fighting it this hard if you weren’t in the public eye. I understand that aspect, okay? I would want to keep us private, too. But I also know what you were taught growing up. What you shared with me the other night, what I’ve gathered on my own. I’m not going to just leave you stranded and hanging because it gets a little hard.” Rio cups Agatha’s face in her hands. “And I’m hoping you won’t leave me here, alone, because I’m with you all the way.”
Agatha nuzzles into the contact, even though Rio can tell she doesn’t want to. She can almost see Agatha fighting herself and what she wants, her brain and her heart figuratively warring it out inside of her. It looks exhausting.
“Please,” Rio murmurs. “Come back with me. We’ll take the next couple of days off and then we’ll discuss how to deal with Jennifer.” She leans in. “And how to deal with us.”
“You mean that?”
“I mean that,” Rio confirms.
Agatha seems to take notice that they’re in an incredibly public place, in front of many people. Many people who likely recognize her. She straightens her spine and she puts a little bit of distance between them. “Okay,” she agrees, clearing her throat. “We can go back to mine. To talk.”
“At your pace,” Rio says.
The look Agatha gives her tells Rio that she actually believes her. Progress.
Notes:
i know this is kind of a long chapter. 7.2k words. i wanted to resolve this running issue in the same chapter it's introduced. and i'm def not saying it's going to be smooth sailing from here on out but... we're 20k words in now. this is not a slowburn. if you know what i mean.
if you want to talk about agatha/agathario with me, you can find me on twitter or tumblr. :)
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