BURN

The Ball

"Aggie, I'm cold."

Agatha opens her eyes to blackness, but she knows the voice.

Sighing, she sits up and lights up her hand-- and lo and behold, she finds Sophie standing over her bed, shivering in her silk nightgown and hair curlers.

"Wearing that stupid thing in winter will do that to you." she says.

Sophie pouts.

"It's fas--"

"It's fashion. I know." Agatha throws the duvet back bad-temperedly. "Get in, bother."

Beaming, Sophie scrabbles in beside her.

"This is nice."

"I'm not your personal furnace." says Agatha, shaking her hand out and plunging them back into darkness.

"I never said you were, darling."

"Your opening line was I'm cold."

Sophie pretends not to hear her.

"So," she says, pointedly.

"So what?" Agatha isn't really listening, battling with the will of the fireplace, trying to relight it without touching it. Or leaving her bed. With enough aggressive hand-waving, she just about succeeds in producing enough light to see Sophie's smirk.

"Monday's revelation solves a few problems, doesn't it?" she says innocently.

Agatha is honestly surprised she's gotten this far without Sophie confronting her about it, but Vanessa has been lurking for most of this week, so they've not really had the chance to talk privately. Agatha suspects this is why she's actually come here, not because she was cold.

"The 'what if I accidentally assassinate Tedros' problem?" snorts Agatha. "Suppose it does. But who told you--"

"Oh Aggie, I put two and two together the second I saw neither of you were wearing gloves. Don't think Mother noticed, thank god, but I assumed, since neither of you looked pained..." she leans forwards conspiratorially. "So... you can't hurt one another?"

"Seems that way." mutters Agatha, rolling onto her side to look Sophie in the face. She's impressed that Sophie seems to be already willing to keep it from Vanessa. "I mean, if he were to impale me with an icicle, that'd probably be goodbye Agatha, but in terms of body temperature... no. It's more like what I assume ordinary cold is like. Like cold water, but it doesn't hurt like water does."

"Hmm." Sophie considers this. "Well, that makes the wedding easier."

"What? How?"

"Well, you can kiss him, now!"

Agatha's eye twitches. That hadn't even remotely entered her worries, but apparently Sophie had taken it very seriously.

"...right." she says. "Yeah. That."

She tries not to look as panicked as she feels. She's not thought about that at all, not since the revelation that he was young and hot and probably acceptable to kiss--

"Heard Callis caught you in a compromising position." says Sophie sweetly.

Agatha snatches the pillow from beneath Sophie's head and clobbers her with it.

"I was choking on ash, you meddling--"

Sophie kicks her and swipes it back.

"Ow! Well, why did he have to grab you around the waist for that?"

"Because, darling, it appears he's cold enough to stop it."