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Tetia watches Agott sputter out a non-confession to Coco with a wince. It’s painful, it’s charming, it’s not what they rehearsed.
“You’re. Well. You are. And you do…well?” Agott hands curl up into fists. She’s freezing up, Tetia can tell and she’s pretty sure Coco is coming to a similar realization.
“Agott—” Coco reaches out to her friend to comfort her but Agott reels back, cheeks flushed bright red.
Agott shakes her head, mouth thinning into a straight line and not offering any other explanation to a very confused Coco.
The urge to smack her forehead against the window sill she’s peeking over is only stopped because Tetia is sure the sound will carry. Then Agott will absolutely never forgive her for spying—or more importantly for bearing witness to this atrocity.
Tetia doesn’t get it. Agott speaks whatever is on her mind constantly—to a degree that it turns blunt. So Tetia was surprised enough that she’d asked for her help in the first place and now, even after Agott’s hours of pacing and insistence that they go over it “just once more,” she’s clamming up.
Another reason Tetia doesn’t understand what’s going on is the fact that Coco is clearly very fond of Agott. She’s debated whether or not it’s romantic, but Tetia thinks it shouldn’t matter since obviously Coco won’t act weird about it—that’s just who she is.
“What are you doing?” A voice whispers behind her.
Tetia slaps her hands over her mouth to smother her squeak. She glances at the still unresponsive Agott and extremely concerned Coco outside the window to make sure they hadn’t heard. Both fortunately and unfortunately, they’re exactly as they were before their new arrival.
Tugging on the nearest wrist, Tetia pulls her new accomplice to kneel out of sight. “Riche, shh! I was trying to make sure that everything went okay with Agott and Coco but…”
Riche raises an eyebrow, saying placidly, “So you were spying.”
“I–! Only kind of!” Tetia doesn’t know why she’s getting defensive. She’s definitely spying. “Agott asked me for help so that’s what I’m doing!”
“What did she need help with?” Riche asks, leaning up on her knees to peer over the ledge and at the scene unfolding outside. It’s times like this that Tetia remembers how much smaller Riche is than her; easy to pick up, hold. Her cheeks are also very squishable—Tetia wants to poke them.
“She wants to tell Coco she likes her but doesn’t know how. Of course, she came to the resident love expert for assistance!” Tetia explains, proud and giddy at someone asking her to rehearse confessions with. Quickly she adds, “don’t tell her I told you.”
Riche nods. “I won’t. If you give Riche half of your dessert tonight.”
“You’re being mean,” Tetia pouts with a whine.
Her response is a small snort and the ghost of a smile. Tetia stares a second longer than is appropriate, then pivots her attention away, if for nothing else then to make the butterflies in her stomach go away. Riche is too cute sometimes—it’s too much for Tetia’s poor heart to handle, honestly.
Agott, at long last, thaws and pushes on with her confession. “I…I like you? I mean. I like you. No uncertainty. I was hoping maybe…that you liked me too?”
Tetia sucks in a breath, almost in time with Coco who does the same. Coco’s shaking fingers creep towards Agott and gently wrap around her hand.
“Oh my gosh, she did it,” Tetia whispers.
“Oh,” Riche says, just as quietly. She whips away, gaze trained to the stone floor and a wrinkle fixes itself on her exposed forehead. “Tetia and Riche…we shouldn’t watch anymore.”
“Probably not.” Tetia ducks down along with Riche, a grin spread wide across her face. “Aren’t you excited for them though?”
Riche doesn’t answer her like she expects her to. Blue eyes fixate on the floor space between the two of them and Tetia follows her line of sight. To Tetia’s abject horror, she has failed to release Riche after tugging her down and is squeezing her limp hand.
Recoiling, Tetia squeaks out an apology that she doesn’t quite mean. She barrels right through it, not giving Riche a chance to interject (not that she would anyways). “So! What were you doing before I forced you to join me?”
Riche lights up slightly, turning so she’s fully facing Tetia. “Looking for you.”
Tetia’s heart rate thumps to a faster rhythm. “A-ah! Why’s that?”
After some clock ticks filled with Riche rustling through her pouch attached to her belt, she proudly produces two of her crystal ribbons in an open palm. Except these are…tinted? They shimmer in the light and shift colors at different angles—sometimes they’re light blue, others they’re a soft pink.
“Wow,” Tetia praises, tentatively hovering over them. “These are beautiful, Riche! How did you…?”
“It’s Riche’s magic but it has Tetia flare,” she says as if that explains everything.
Tetia almost chokes on nothing but covers it up with a nervous giggle. “Yeah! It’s really amazing, isn’t it?”
Riche nods as she pushes the ribbons towards Tetia’s hands, urging her to take them. As Tetia gingerly cradles the carefully crafted magic, Riche tells her, “There’s one for each pigtail.”
This time, Tetia does actually choke. “W-wait, you’re giving these to me?! For my hair?”
“If…” Riche shifts around, cheekbones tinting. “Only if you want.”
“Yes!” Tetia says, too loud and too sudden. She sits back on her heels and blindly begins to weave the ribbons around her twin tails. Really, Tetia could tie her hair up in its signature style in her sleep but her nerves slow time down to a crawl. The ribbons nestle in her hair like they were made for it. And, Tetia surmises, they were.
Her smile is so wide she thinks she might strain something. She sways so she can watch the colors shift around and ends in a cute pose. “Is the creator satisfied with their work?”
Riche’s eyes widen and she blinks a bit, the pink on her cheeks deepening to red. “Very.”
Tetia almost says a million things at once, but every single one of them is drowned out by her internal screaming. The realization that Tetia wants to scoop up Riche and squish her face and kiss the spot on her forehead that wrinkles seizes her at full force; she’s powerless to fight it or do anything more than breathe a hoarse, “Thank you!”
“Riche has a rock for you too,” Riche says, breaking the spell. “Here.”
She plops a smooth pebble in Tetia’s lap then scrambles to her feet, tripping over her skirt and landing on her backside before taking off once again. Riche is already out the door, light hair flowing behind her as she runs.
Tetia…isn’t sure what just happened. Standing on wobbly legs, Tetia watches the doorway in case Riche decides to return as suddenly as she’d left. When it’s very certain that she isn’t, Tetia buries her face in her palms and shrieks with joy. She cups her own face once she’s done, grinning into the empty space that Riche once occupied.
As if struck, Tetia straightens, and struts through the atelier with bounding strides. She searches and searches until she finally locates the person she’s seeking. The door to Agott’s room bursts open with the force of Tetia’s push.
Agott leaps with a cry of, “What the—!” and Coco yelps, knees bumping the desk they’re both studying at. Tetia almost rolls her eyes because of course Agott and Coco would get right back to their studies after a confession of feelings.
“Tetia?” Agott asks, exasperated with a tinge of worry. “What—?”
Tetia points a finger directly to Agott. Taking a deep breath in, she boldly declares, “Agott, I need you to return the favor.”