After looking through the SGE archive, I have concluded that there are NOT ENOUGH fics of this ship, and so I have made one. A very sloppy one, too.
"Agatha, be a dear and fetch me a few books from that library, would you? I have my hands full with this…"
Really, she supposes, that line was the thing that set everything off.
On the first day, she went there as asked, list of books in hand. She usually paid little to no attention to the librarian until she wanted to check out the books, but this time, it felt like all eyes in the library were drawn to the girl behind the counter.
And, oh, damn, Agatha knew why.
The new librarian, instead of the old, wrinkly man who really kind of looked like a tortoise, was a young girl about Agatha's age who looked the very definition of a princess. Long, wavy blonde hair, emerald-green eyes, and the fairest skin that rivaled Snow White… if Agatha kept walking, she'd bump into a bookshelf and she probably wouldn't even notice. Her eyes were permanently fixated on the blonde behind the counter, who was currently humming a soft tune as she arranged some books.
She had a feeling she was about to collapse due to the girl's ethereal beauty. Agatha hastily made her way to the back of the library, not daring to spend another second in the librarian's brightening presence. Was that a rainbow behind her?
"Pretty, isn't she?" a voice said behind her. Agatha turned around, seeing the familiar curly blond hair of Tedros. "Her name's Sophie. Talked to her once or twice, I think."
Even her name struck a chord in Agatha's heart. 'Oh no, I'm getting poetic…'
She cleared her throat. "Uh… then… books!" she spluttered.
Tedros raised an eyebrow. Agatha fumbled for the list her mother gave her, thrusting it out to the blond's face. "B-Books! Know where I can get these?"
The librarian's assistant rolled his eyes good-naturedly and led her to another shelf. When it was time to check out, Agatha pretended to have a nosebleed coming on and shuffled somewhere else, leaving the confused Sophie to put the books to the side after she was done scanning them. When the blonde left for her break, Agatha sprang to the counter, grabbed the books, and scuttled outside as fast as her legs could take her.
Agatha promised herself she wouldn't go back to the library unless she absolutely needed to.
That promise was broken by the next day. In her defense, Agatha didn't really know where her feet were taking her to.
The library was brightened up by Sophie's presence as usual. Recognizing the raven-haired girl's face from yesterday ('The one with the nosebleed?'), Sophie gave her a welcoming smile.
Agatha felt her heart skip a few beats and she nodded quickly, head down to look at her black clumps as she scampered to the nearest dark corner she could find that wasn't brightened up by the rainbow behind the blonde.
Tedros spotted her and went over, raising a hand in acknowledgement to Sophie, and sat down beside Agatha. "Can't handle that much beauty, can you?"
Agatha looked up at him in distrust from the book she had her nose buried in. "No one can."
"Point."
They sat down in companionable silence, with both of them sneaking glances at the blonde behind the counter. The rainbow seemed to glow brighter, and Agatha felt the light seeping through her dark corner. She leapt to her feet and dove behind a bookshelf, Sophie's smile etched in her mind.
This was going to be troublesome.
The third time Agatha went into the library was when she found out she and Sophie studied in the same school. Really, the fact that the librarian still studied in school was a complete surprise in itself.
Agatha wasn't even paying attention during class, but when the door opened and someone walked in, she knew immediately for some reason that the girl was Sophie. Maybe by the way every pair of eyes in the room turned to stare at her.
She learned a lot of things – she was only thirteen, and she was working as a librarian as a part-time job to help her father. Her favorite color was also apparently primrose pink – that, Agatha could see, through the dress she wore nearly every day and yet never seemed to get dirty.
When Sophie had seen the familiar face, she had brightened (even more than usual, at least) and bounced over to Agatha, who was scribbling violently on her notebook to distract herself from the blonde's presence. Then when Sophie started talking to her in that crystalline, wind-chime voice of hers, Agatha almost choked on air and tore a hole into her notebook paper.
The conversation was mostly one-sided, for which Agatha was glad for. Sophie didn't seem to notice, and later on, she gave the raven-haired girl a list of tips on improving her skin. Agatha didn't dare touch it, in fear of having the blonde's sickly sweet lavender perfume all over her hands.
In the library, Sophie greeted her with a chiming "Good afternoon!" and Agatha gave her a simple, nervous nod. Her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth, and once again, she found a dark corner (it took a much longer time though) and dug deep into a book about witches. She snuck peeks at the oblivious librarian every once in a while, and nearly tore another hole in the book when Tedros struck up a conversation with the blonde.
When she left, she made sure to at least manage a "See you" to Sophie, to which the blonde enthusiastically returned. Agatha couldn't get that smile out of her face until a few days later.
Through numerous listening in on gossip and rumors, Agatha found out that Sophie was in a relationship with the School Master's son. She admitted she was a tiny bit disappointed, but being friends with the blonde wasn't too bad. She would never say that she actually wanted to be something more with Sophie, and especially now, when she found out about her status.
Her visits to the library became increasingly more frequent, so much that Callis had started interrogating her if she was seeing anyone ("You know I wouldn't mind if you went with that Tedros boy, but it better not be because of that tortoise!" to which Agatha gave a long, long sigh). The raven-haired girl always found excuses to go there, whether it be a book about cats because Reaper was getting a lot fatter these days, or to research about schoolwork. Really, her mother didn't need to know about the blindingly-beautiful girl behind the counter who smiled at her every time she went in.
And yet, Agatha could still barely get a word in before Sophie would start rattling on about who-knows-what. For some reason, she never did say anything about the School Master's son, her supposed boyfriend. Agatha inquired about it to Tedros once, but the blond simply shook his head and told her not to mention his name to Sophie ever, if she wanted to keep her head on.
Too bad she didn't heed his advice.
"Oh, so you heard the rumors," Sophie muttered glumly. Her face had fallen and her grin had faded the very moment Agatha mentioned the School Master's son. The raven-haired girl was quickly beginning to regret ever having even talked to her. "You know, I used to, maybe. Like him, I mean. But he's just like every other boy." She turned away. "Rotten. A traitor. Tricked me, and all."
"S… Sorry," Agatha stammered. "For bringing that up."
"It's okay, Aggie." Sophie managed a weak smile. "I'm glad you're my friend! Girls are better than boys at being friends, anyway."
Agatha grumbled something about being friendzoned, which Sophie gratefully did not catch, and the conversation returned to the light, friendly mood it had been before Agatha ever said anything about her relationships.
"You mean she didn't blow up on you and scare you to death?" Tedros gawked. Agatha nodded mutely, confused as to why Sophie had done that to the blond. "That's insane! You should have seen her reaction to me when I asked her. Practically exploded! Maybe she likes you enough to tell you that without turning into an old hag like she did to me."
Maybe she likes you enough…
Agatha sputtered, "What do you mean by that?!"
"What else? She probably thinks of you as her bestest friend now or something. You know, people might like her, but she really doesn't have much friends… and that Beatrix girl hates her more than anyone, believe me."
Agatha then decided that she would be the best friend Sophie could ever ask for. Or, at least, she could try.
Sophie kissed her first, strange as that sounded.
The blonde swore it was an accident, then turned to glare directly at Tedros, who had also 'accidentally' bumped into her. The blond threw Agatha a knowing grin, bowed in apology, and disappeared somewhere into a corner of the library.
"Gosh, Aggie, I am so sorry! When I get my hands on that boy, I'm going to tear him apart, I swear!" Sophie stammered, a furious blush reaching to the tips of her ears. "Didn't mean it, really–"
She halted abruptly in her mountain of excuses. Agatha was silent, red dusting her cheeks as she raised a finger to her tingling lips. Big brown eyes stared curiously downwards, then slowly crept up to Sophie's own mouth. The blonde noticed her gaze and opened her mouth, possibly to say something about her thoughts –
But Agatha silenced her with another lip-lock. This time, it wasn't on accident.
There are two reasons this exists. The first one is stated above. The second one is because Book 2's ending murdered me.
Slacker, 8/16/14
