Disclaimer: I do not own The School for Good and Evil

The Dating Thing

It had been such a lovely dream too. She'd been at home - the dusky, dirty place she and Callis had been living in all Agatha's life- sicking Reaper on the crows that decided to perch themselves on the gray tombstones surrounding the house. Her cackles had echoed over the cemetery, ringing extra loud when Reaper missed a bird and landed in wet soil face first. Her mother was in the kitchen making something for dinner, and there were thick clouds in the sky that were rimmed with light. Sunbursts perforated cloud at uneven intervals, and from Agatha's perch on the rickety window sill, all of Gavaldon was bathed in it's haphazard light. So quaint. So peaceful.

So not Tedros shaking her awake.

Agatha turned in her bed and hid in her pillows.

"Agatha," Tedros tried again, his voice a low hiss by her ear.

"Not now. I'm sleeping. Can't you see?"

"But Agatha, I need to talk to you."

"It's too early to talk. Come see me at lunch time." She tried to cocoon herself in her blankets more.

"Agatha, it almost is lunch time."

"Doesn't feel like it."

"Agatha, come on. Don't think I don't notice you avoiding me." That got her attention. She glared at him with all her sleepy might from her small cave of blankets and watched as her boyish king snickered. "That's my girl. Now come on, Agatha, we need to talk."

"About what?"

"About us."

"What about us needs to be talked about before I'm out of bed?" she snapped, watching him with dark eyes as he coughed into his fist awkwardly.

"Do you not think we have something to discuss?"

"Do you think we have a problem?"

"I-" he swallowed hard. "Um, yeah, I think we do."

"So do I," she said seriously, before yanking her spare pillow and throwing it at Tedros' head, "and it's you waking me up before I'm ready."

"You're relentless!"

"And you're annoying. Get out."

"Can't," he said and she fixed him with a tired glare.

"Why not?"

"I told the guards outside not to let me out until I'd finished talking to you." She groaned and tried to throw the the covers back over her head. "Wait! We're not done!"

Agatha didn't deign to answer. She squirmed in place, fighting off Tedros' hands for the blankets; it was a fight that led to him being, quite accidentally he'd would assure her later, half-way on top of her as he tried to wrestle the sheets from his princess' hands. When they paused for breath, Agatha could see his hair falling around this face like a halo while hers no doubt looked like curved spider legs, coiling across her pillowcase like lines of spilled ink.

"Why do you have to do that?" he gasped over her. Agatha watched as her boy king turned red before her eyes and she couldn't quite imagine why.

"Do what?" She blinked up at him, a few seconds short of reprimanding him before he rolled off of her. The weight where he'd straddled her disappeared and Tedros' hands relinquished her blankets to cover his flushing cheeks.

"Nevermind."

"What's your point? You woke me up early. You're risking my morning wrath. Why?"

"Like I said, it's something about us."

"And?"

"And we're dating kind of, right?"

"That's…" Agatha found herself flushing a little too. "Um, yes, I guess. Sort of."

"See, it's that 'sort of' that I'm worry about."

"But why?"

"Because I feel like we're together. In my heart." He pressed a hand to his chest for emphasis. "You're my true love and I don't need the Storian to tell me that."

Agatha sighed. "There's always a but."

He smiled awkwardly. "But it doesn't always feel like we're together. Dating. Courting."

"To be fair, I think you're exempt from having to court me considering that we're already together."

"The thing is, I sort of want to court you."

Agatha look at Tedros curiously. "You want to date me after I've been deemed your princess for more than a month? After we've already established in my story and to your kingdom that we are in fact a couple? I don't think you need to court me if you already have my heart"

"Better late than never?" He tried to flash her a charming smile but she lost sight of it as a yawn passed her face. "Look, I just think that dating and going on dates might bring us a little closer you know?"

"Not really?"

"Like, it's one thing to say that we're together, but I never really established anything with you. We've had all these moments in your fairy tale and fights and the moment it ended and I was crowned king we've both been busy with Camelot work." He took a deep breath. "I never got to take you on late night walks or sneak down to the courtyard with you. I feel like I've never got to spend time getting to know you better than anyone else and I wanted to do this with you."

Agatha was quiet for a moment. That was certainly a declaration of a kind and she didn't altogether know how to approach it. It was nice that her prince wanted to spend time with her. Hell, she wanted to spend as much time with him as she could as well. But they had duties to his kingdom. He was a king. Surely that took precedent. "And it'll bring us closer?"

"Why would you think it wouldn't?"

Agatha's fingers tightened under the covers. "I mean, it's not like I've dated anyone before."

"Right, but neither have I. At least not very much." Agatha's dark eyes fixed him with a prompting look. "I mean, I haven't been on that many dates. And none of them would be as important as one with you anyway. We won't go too fast or anything like that. I won't cross any lines you wouldn't want me to," he vowed.

"Oh."

"So do you think we could do that? I mean, do you want to?"

"I.." Did she? Knowing that she was a priority for him, that he wanted to do more for and with her...it made warmth bloom in her chest. "Okay."

"Okay?" He perked up, grinning widely as she nodded her acceptance. His blue eyes shone with anticipation.

"Yeah."

He lunged forward and hugged her tightly. The force of him landed her on her back with Tedros' face burying itself in her shoulder. She rolled her eyes but couldn't help but laugh. They were both still kids, after all. They could still do youthful things like go on dates. Why not? Perhaps this is just what they needed. The only hiccup would be... "How exactly does this dating thing work?"

"Well, the way it works is that you have to tell each other the deep stuff," said Tedros. He rolled off of her, laying with her in her bed that was far too large for one person and taking her hand. She was silently glad that Reaper had scampered off earlier that morning. Tedros would have crushed her poor cat and then she'd be mourning the loss of her king whom would no doubt have been scratched to death.

"Deep stuff?"

"Yeah."

"Like what?"

"Like, I don't know." He mused cutely for a bit before coming up with something. He propped his head of on his hand and looked down at her. "Like, what's your favourite colour?"

Agatha smirked. "Well, now you've stepped over the line."