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Standing along the edge of the pool with her toes just barely dipped into the cold water, Agatha stood with her arms crossed over each other, sporting her usual scowl. It was 6.10 in the morning, and that only seemed to worsen her mood.
The reason for her demeanor was sticking out like a sore thumb, as per usual.
Rio Vidal.
Oh . How Agatha Loathed the woman. With her too bright and in her humble opinion– Ugly swimming suits. The way she always managed to make everybody smile, And the way she would always be the one to manage to one up agatha in almost every race where they went up against each other. While Agatha could easily just ignore the woman and go about her day, she just absolutely couldn’t stand the fact that there was someone else at the club that was as good as she is.
If she could only get her hands on her she would push her from that starting block, before wrapping her in the lane line and shoving her–
"Harkness! If you don’t get your ass into the pool and start the warm-up, I assure you training won’t be fun.” Lilia; their coach, snapped her back to reality. How long had she been standing there for? Alice and Jen were already setting their stuff down, Leaving her Lane– Lane 4, open and waiting for her. With a dramatic sigh she made her way over to where she had dropped her equipment earlier, moving it towards her side of the pool before jumping in.
Today's Warm up consisted of a set that was going to send her straight to the pearly white gates. or… more likely the depths of hell. A 10 x 25 best stroke swim, building from 25 to 90% @:35 seconds. Which for Agatha meant freestyle. Followed by a 800 mix of swim and kick. AKA agatha was to go for an early grave.
The moment she was in the water though, all earlier anger and frustration seemed to dissipate into calm silence and a focussed mind.
The pool had always been like a home to her when her actual one wasn’t, growing up in a household where she never could never truly be at peace. The only good thing her mother seemed to have done for her was push her into competitive swimming from a young age, She supposed it was the only thing she might ever be grateful for.
And Rio? Rio was a threat to Agatha here, and Agatha was not about to let Rio best her at the only thing she could confidently call her livelihood. Well.. not without a fight at least, and well.. she loved a fight . Especially one that involved an annoyingly pretty woman.
Warm up passed in a blur and as soon as Agatha caught a glimpse of what Lilia had written down on the massive whiteboard, She figured that that early grave wasn’t a joke afterall.
No, no Agatha was sure today would be the last day she would spend in the pool.
Sadly, Agatha had survived morning practice. And it was now almost 5 in the afternoon, as it was the last day before comp, they trained twice… much to Agatha's dismay. What’s worse though? Rio trains with her this time. because she’s also competing tomorrow, and that thought alone had agatha thinking of ways to discreetly get out of there.
“Move your stuff.” Agatha deadpans at her, a scowl on her face as she slings her equipment bag over her shoulder, one hand moving to her hip. She was going to Ignore Rio entirely this session, as that was for the best. But Rio had decided to take her lane, and oh no no no.. that wasn’t going to fly today.
Rio doesn't even bother turning around fully, instead moving to take off her slippers merely glancing behind her to see Agatha standing there. Impatiently tapping her foot she glances around her and sees Jen and Alice already diving into the pool, Lilia wasn’t here yet, though Agatha wasn’t really waiting to get an earful from her. “Rio. You’re in my lane. Move." Now she does make an effort to turn around “...Your lane? I didn’t know we had assigned Lanes?” She shrugs, motioning to the empty Lane 3 next to her. “Well have fun on lane three today, Agatha .” The emphasis Rio put on her name just about made her blood boil. When Rio moved to turn back toward the pool, Agatha made the very professional decision to swing her equipment bag from her shoulder, into Rio’s side. A wince coming from the woman, she whipped around again. “What the fuck? What is your deal?” Agatha could hardly take her seriously with the matching suit and cap she was wearing; both a painfully bright blue and covered in rubber ducks. “You’re in my lane, Vidal. Move.” throwing her own bag of equipment down next to Rio’s.
“If the two of you don’t get into that pool within the next 15 seconds, start praying.”
As if on cue, the two of them fell silent and slowly turned to see Lilia now standing a few meters away from them, an unimpressed look on her face as she was watching them bicker. Agatha points towards Rio “She’s in my–” Lilia holds up her hand “Do you really want to use the time I gave you like this? I suggest you two share a lane. Like the toddlers you are.” Still silent, the two of them scramble towards the pool. Quickly snapping their goggles in place before Agatha dives in, Rio following not long after.
She hadn’t even made the first 50 when she felt a hand grab at her ankle, before she could react she was being pulled backwards through the water.
While trying not to drown by the sudden force, she caught a glimpse of Rio passing her.
Oh. Oh. This bitch – It’s on.
Without thinking of catching her breath, Agatha resumes her swimming again though now significantly behind Rio in terms of length.
In speed though? She could easily outswim Rio. Rio might be a long distance type of girl, but Agatha could use her sprinting in her favor now. She speeds up her stroke, willing her arms to pull more, her legs to kick harder as she races forward to catch up to Rio. For a moment she thinks of pulling her ankle too, to give her a taste of her own stupid medicine.
No– no, Agatha is a professional of course, She’s not giving in to petty childishness. …Well not today at least. As soon as Rio turns into the next 50, Agatha is hot on her heels moving to swim beside her in the lane. They glance at each other underwater briefly, a smug smile on Rio's face before she turns her head back down.
For the next 100 they swim in almost perfect sync next to each other, and the moment they turn for the last 25 meters, Agatha speeds up once more. Pushing off the wall with more strength than before, effectively catching Rio off guard as she now passes her by a few short meters; Rio failing to catch up. She makes sure to kick a little harder then, hoping to kick Rio's face in the process though without any luck. Shame.
She finally reaches the wall, touching it with her palm before pushing herself up out of the water, her feet on the pool floor. Rio reaches the side a few seconds after her, coming up wildly out of breath as she rips the goggles from her head. Agatha tries to be as subtle as possible, steadying her own breathing as much as she can before pulling her own goggles off, a smug smile now on her face.
Agatha, very proud of herself, climbs out of the pool. Pushing herself up onto the edge where she sits down, making an effort to kick her leg into the water so that it splashes into Rio’s face. Hard. She expects Rio to do it back, though the only thing she notices is the smirk now making its way onto Rio's face and before Agatha could turn around…
She was dragged upwards by her ear.
"Ow. Ow ow… Lilia!-” She makes an effort to push herself up to make it easier and Less painful, Squirming around like a fish who just quite literally– got pulled out of the water. “Let.. go!” And to Agatha’s surprise; she did , Only to be hit on the back of her head barely a second later.
“Are you proud of yourself? How old are you again Agatha?” Lilia’s eyes narrowed, a scowl taking place. Agatha opened her mouth to speak but before she could, she heard a snort behind her. Lilia her gaze slid over to Rio carefully. “And you–” She points her finger, stepping closer toward the pool. “Don’t make me drag you out of that water too. The both of you can keep your childishness out of my pool. Clear?” Rio visibly gulps. A ‘Yes ma’am’ slipping past her lips. “Great to see you two pushing yourselves so hard in warmup. now get back in for the main set.” She steps away from Agatha, walking up to the white board where the set was written down in bold black letters.
In the lanes next to them, Jen and Alice were quietly laughing. Agatha shot them both a glare before getting back into the pool.
It was tradition that before a big competition, the coven went out for drinks at their favorite bar; Death's Lair. It wasn’t Agatha’s taste at all if she was honest, but Rio– No, The team , yes the team seemed to love it. So there she was on her friday night, seated at the bar with Jen and Alice sat in front of her. Rio had gone off to get everyone a drink, insisting on paying for the first round. As Agatha scanned the bar for any sign of her coming back, she found her standing in the middle of the room, four drinks evenly distributed in both of her hands, another girl standing infront of her talking to her. A sickening feeling appeared in her stomach.
Now Agatha really had no reason to feel this way, none at all.
Frankly she should be enjoying the moments where Rio wasn’t yapping her ear off. But then she noticed the way Rio was entertaining the woman, smiling and laughing, and it made something in her chest burn.
Agatha Hated Her.
Hate? Sure, that’s what she had called it. A one sided thing really. But this felt different than hate, it felt more raw, and Agatha was going to work real hard to push that away. Or she thought she was as she pushed herself up from the chair, telling Jen and Alice that she was too tired and that she was going to go back home to rest up enough for the competition tomorrow. Their protests had fallen on deaf ears, her heart pounding in her chest, running completely on that disgusting feeling inside of her as she made her way to her car.
She was not going to let Rio Vidal, of all people, ruin her swimming career. Not in this way, atleast.
She had meant to pull out of the parking lot earlier, but as 20 minutes had now passed, spent in complete silence She finally turned the key, causing the car to come to life.
Ding
Agatha looked at the screen on her dashboard, a message popping up directly transferred from her phone.
Lane thief
Old age getting to you already, Agatha?
She glared at the message, the bright light stinging in the dark of her car. She wasn’t going to respond, she hated that Rio even had her number in the first place.
Maybe.
She did, yes of course she did. There was no reason for her to have Agatha’s number.
A second notification sounded.
Lane thief
Jen and Alice said you left in a bad mood– I’ll see you tomorrow.
Well now she was pissed off. Why would she care?
Agatha reached over to turn the radio up, the music so loud she swore she felt it vibrate through her bones, Scoffing before pulling out of the parking lot.
It was currently 3.59 AM, she was standing outside the training centre, waiting for the others and Lilia, who as always would drive them to the competition. They were a small team, sure. But they were the best in New Jersey.
“You’re on time? Who are you and what happened to Agatha Harkness?”
Agatha her hands clenched around the straps of her bag instinctively at the sound of Rio’s voice. Of Course she was the first one to arrive besides Agatha herself. She hummed instead, not caring to give her a real answer.
“I missed you at the bar last night, I texted you but it seems grandma was in bed already. Had to drink your rum or it’d have gone to waste.” There was silence for a moment “Tastes like cigarette ashes by the way, how do you drink that? It's nasty.” Agatha let out an annoyed groan. “I am only 22 you know–” She turned to Rio, who had an amused smile on her face. “That does not help your case, Grandma .” “Please for the love of god, stop talking before I throttle you with these straps.” She moves the straps of her bag around, implying that she’s armed. Though it's dark outside still, and Rio probably will not care to see any of that.
Instead Rio lets out a gasp “The strap? Agatha. I never took you for an exhibitionist.”
Oh.
Oh this is going to be the last day on god's green earth for Rio.
She whips her head around to Rio, ready to actually choke her to a slow painful– “Harkness! Vidal! You guys are early!” Instead Agatha groans again, catching Rio grinning at her before she walks up to the others to greet them, leaving Agatha to simmer in her own annoyance.
Within the next hour Agatha sat squashed between Alice and Rio in the backseat, Jen– that bitch , getting the passenger seat. This car was way too small to be serving as transportation to a competition, but Lilia didn’t care. This car was her baby, and there was no way she was going to a comp without it.
It had been exactly 84 minutes of the car ride from hell, and Alice and Rio were having a conversation about what Gatorade flavor was the best one for the past…80 of that. On top of that, Lilia prohibited headphones in the car, something about Radiation that Agatha didn’t care about.
Suddenly Rio leaned over her, placing one hand on Agatha's shoulder and the other on her thigh. Agatha froze in place at the touch, the feeling of her warm hands going right through the fabric of her clothes. She wanted to swat her hands away, to tell her off, But she couldn’t get herself to do so. Instead she caught herself basking in it.
Agatha hoped Lilia would crash the car.
The call room was quiet even with the dozen athletes in there, waiting to be called to the race. Agatha wasn’t supposed to be in here at this time, her heat was not until the afternoon. She had told Lilia that she wanted to observe , and had convinced herself of it too. It wasn’t necessarily false… She just needed to see her swim. Rio was on the far end of the room, doing some over-the-top stretching to warm up.
“Hey show off.” Agatha walked up to her, her arms folded on her chest. Rio looked up, taking out her earbuds with a smile on her face before it turned a little confused. "You are early, Came to soak in my aura?” Agatha rolled her eyes. “Your aura smells like sweat and red gatorade, no thankyou.” She sat down next to Rio on one of the folding chairs. Her eyes scanned the room, they fall onto one particular girl;
Wanda Maximoff.
She should've known she was going to be competing today.
That bitch. The only one out there that might be able to match Rio in the 1500 free today, though she never plays fair. With her horribly sweet attitude, her ugly red hair and her– A hand waving in front of her face calls her back to earth, she turns to see Rio look at her. “Earth to Agatha?” Agatha swats her hand away and stands up, sending another glare to Wanda before turning to Rio. “Don’t let her beat you.” Rio looks confused, then looks past her. “who? Maximoff? Wasn’t planning on it.” She shrugs, leaning back in her chair. She hated how casual she always was about these things, loathed her even. If it was Agatha in her place she’d have been running on pure hot hatred until the end of her race.
But maybe that was Agatha’s problem anyway.
Rio met her stare now, and Agatha couldn't help but soften slightly. “Just… be careful. And goodluck on your race, you've trained way too hard to let her take it from you.” A small smile crept onto Rio’s face, the silence stretching between them. Agatha tried her best to ignore the tightening in her chest with the smile on Rio's face, but it was getting significantly harder by the second. “What have I ever done to deserve Agatha Harkness's kindness? Is the world ending?”
Well, there goes being nice. bitch.
She let her arms fall to her sides, her eyes narrowing.
“Nevermind, drown. Bye rio.” She walks towards the exit, restraining herself from bumping into Wanda on her way out.
-
With all the swimmers now on the starting blocks, the air was tense in the aquatic centre. Rio in lane 4 with Wanda right beside her on lane 5.
Before Rio had gotten onto her place at the poolside, she had glanced over to where Agatha stood with the rest of the team, she was nervous.
Maybe even more so because Agatha had come to see her before the race. She had said it was because she wanted to observe her, make her nervous. But Rio had known better. She might be a lot of things but she wasn’t a fool.
Through the buzzing in her ears she faintly heard the official call to ‘take their marks’, getting herself into starting position before hearing the familiar ring of the bell.
Within seconds she felt herself glide through the water, good start.
This 1500 was going to go effortless.
-
Agatha was nervous.
More nervous than she had ever been before at a competition, and it wasn’t even for her own heat.
She knew how much this had meant to Rio, having seen her train for it practically all season.
She had to win. Nobody deserves it more than her.
She watched as the swimmers turned into the 1300 now, it had been 12 minutes, they were fast . Though the only one consistently gaining up on Rio had been Wanda. Agatha had wanted to strangle her more than she had wanted to strangle Rio, and that says something.
She had to physically stop herself from pacing, her nails digging into her palms.
“Oh you are down bad. Alice was right.”
Agatha barely registers the moment Jen stands next to her, her eyes never leaving the pool.
She doesn’t even bother giving her a response. “Jesus Agatha, when did the closet break open?” Jen follows her line of sight to Rio, still in first place almost head to head with Wanda. “She’s got this, Harkness. Have some faith in her.” Agatha scoffs at the words “Oh I’ve got faith in her alright.” Her eyes narrow onto lane five. “It's that Maximoff girl I don’t trust.”
As the swimmers reach the last 50 meters of the race, she winces at a particularly hard looking kick against the wall from Rio. Her foot reaching too far above the water, with a nasty looking twist in her ankle. She steps closer to the bar separating the coaches and other swimmers from the pool, her eyes never leaving lane four.
Agatha knows something is wrong when Rio comes up from her normally perfect 15 meter underwater phase, 12 meters early. She suddenly feels sick, like a stone lodging itself in her throat. It seems like the rest of the stadium hadn’t caught on to what was happening, but from the corner of her eye she had seen lilia step closer too, her eyes narrowed while watching the pool.
Before suddenly, Lane four was empty.
Rio felt her arms turning sore. For a professional distance swimmer, this race was certainly taking a toll on her. Everytime she had turned up her head to breathe, she could see Maximoff gaining on her. And if there was one thing she wasn’t going to let happen today; it was losing first place. especially not to someone Agatha seemed to hate. Something she had trained so hard for all season. So when Rio reached the end of the pool to turn into the last 50 meters of the race, she decided she was going to need the extra push to make sure first place was hers.
Though instead of the speedboost she was anticipating, all she felt was a crack that within seconds turned into white-hot burning pain in her ankle. The sudden shot of pain had caused her to resurface barely 3 meters into the phase that would usually last her the maximum of 15. She could see Maximoff now passing her, and that's all she needed to push through the pain in her ankle.
She resumed the movement in her arms, then a kick with her right leg and then her left… Oh. she suddenly felt sick to her stomach, and why did her vision blur? Rio tried reaching for the lane line, but everything felt so far away suddenly.
Agatha had never run so fast in her life.
The moment Rio didn’t resurface, the aquatics centre had become chaotic all around. Officials running left and right, and lifeguards had taken water the second it got signed that they were needed.
She had pushed through a bunch of the officials that tried holding her back, her breathing turning labored as she saw them pull Rio onto the surface. Lilia was hot on her heels, at first it was just to hold Agatha back but soon enough she was also pushing through the people like crazy.
They had gently rolled her onto her side into a secure position, now Agatha could see the way her ankle was turned unnaturally.
“Rio! Is she okay? Is she–” She turned her head frantically to one of the medical staff, They had ignored her, obviously. Lilia pulled her back once again, the small group of people around Rio now blocking her view. She frantically turned her head toward Lilia, who gave her a knowing look.
“She’ll be fine. Now stop running around like a rabid dog and let the people do their work.” She let go of her, pushing through the people “I am the coach, Move .” well. More like shoving through them, leaving Agatha to stand there anxiously.
Rio began coughing up the water moments later.
Agatha had immediately moved over toward her, Plopping down onto the cold tiled floor. The chaos and uncertainty she felt moments earlier now simmering down significantly. “Rio? Oh god, Rio are you okay?” The medical team moved to sit her up, one of them supporting her ankle while the others supported the rest of her body. Rio her eyes glanced over towards Agatha, the panicic slowly disappearing from them. She saw Lilia talking to some of the assistance team, looking over at the two of them every so often.
“When I told you to go drown I didn’t mean literally! You scared the shit out of me Rio.” the words had come out way harsher than she intended them to, though there was a tremble in her voice when she spoke.
It took a moment for her to speak, her mouth opening and closing.
“Did I win?”
Agatha scoffed at her. “What do you think, you imbecile! You blacked out after smashing your ankle into the wall, You lost.”
Rio only hummed, looking away from Agatha, her brows furrowing as if she was thinking about something. “Did I really lose though, when I managed to have Agatha Harkness fawning over me like a–” A wince. “...–worried wife?”
Agatha looked at her in disbelief for a moment, heat creeping up onto her cheeks before looking away, huffing. “It’s not funny Rio, this is serious! What if you–” Her words faltered for a moment, looking at her. “What if you had drowned, and… Your ankle.” She motioned toward the now bruising foot.
Before Rio could respond to reassure Agatha that she was in fact fine, they were informed she’d be moved to the hospital for a checkup and to fix up her ankle. Instead she offered Agatha a small smile, reaching for her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.
And oh, that had done it for agatha.
As she watched Rio get lifted onto a stretcher, and wheeled out of the pool, It hit Agatha suddenly.
Rio could’ve died.
And she hadn’t known she cared until that moment .
Not when they first met. Not during the months of spiteful jabs and sarcastic insults, not during that one night on the bus where their shoulders touched for just a bit too long. Not even during training when she’d push Rio harder than anyone else—not because she hated her, but because she believed in her more than anyone else. Even Though she would've never admitted that.
She wasn’t nearly ready to do so.
but Maybe it was time to admit it to herself and to Rio,
Agatha loved her.
And Rio was going to have hell to pay after for making Agatha so worried.