Mirror call
A/N Hi there! This is a first for me in quite some time. I'm usually at the SwanQueen pond writing story after story of those two hardheaded woman but I started to see far too many posts related to these other two andā¦ long story short I completely ate up the series in a few days and I've been thinking on writing a small shot slightly before the Softbroom episode xd Little bit of introduction before anything else; I tend to love these kind of "static scenes" in where the characters are able to talk and I always succumb to long sentences and far too many commas. I'm also an almost professional tease so apologies in advance if I ever write a smut for the pairing Xd
You can find my at my tumblr and twitter as ShadowDianne š And comments and screams are always appreciated!
See you soon!
"I wouldn't have thought that we would be seeing again so soon." The words were said in a much lighter tone than the sentence itself meant and, for a moment, the one making the calling halted in front of the mirror, perfect posture to the point of almost seeming brittle and long, twitching fingers prodding on long black fabric.
"Iā¦" Hecate closed her mouth for a moment, voice breaking for a second before the shadow of a nervous smile rippled her face. At the other side of the mirror, Pippa hummed and rose a brow, less surprised and more amused than a few moments before.
The blonde's witch own posture was as flawless as ever but the slight slouch and slowness on the way she, too, rotated her wrists in an almost but not quite perfect imitation of Hecate's were followed by the brunette's eyes who pressed the tip of her tongue against her front teeth. A tic she stopped mid-motion as she felt the blonde's eyes follow the movement.
Blush already dusting her cheeks, Hecate glanced down at the floor of her room, the cobweblike lines that run through the wooden surface glaring back at her until she snapped to look again at the other woman who was now sighing, eyes glowing with the same affection that had left her speechless less than a fortnight before.
"I didn't want to intrude." She finally blurted; her accent easing up just slightly after an entire day reinforcing it around the girls. Tongue slightly looser, she could feel the coiled nervousness that had been biting and pulling at her insides starting crawl up through her lungs, burning just below her tongue. "Maybe it would have been better toā¦"
"Not answer my mirrors as you have done in the past?" The question was gentle but it still made Hecate gap as Pippa let out a deeper sigh than before looking every bit of the gorgeous witch she was known to be for on the pink accents of her clothing and still far too repentant suddenly. "Hecateā¦"
"I've been busy." The answer was made with far too much emotion and Hecate could feel her fingers twitching with unspent magic. The energy felt too much like a vaporous fire, incensing all nerve endings as she glanced straightly towards the other woman, her mind's eye bringing her back too many nights back, a memory brought by words she had never thought she would hear again.
"That silver gown and a hatā¦"
"I know you have." Pippa's words did nothing to alleviate the tension but it brought the brunette back to the present in where there weren't any silver or gold dresses present. No ball to attend. "I just would have liked to be able to speak with you. Before being asked by the Council to go to Cackle's."
The implicit jab didn't go unnoticed and Hecate nodded at it almost imperfectively knowing well that Pippa would see the slight dip of her chin. A truce of sorts.
"It's true what I told you." Pippa said, raising her hands and fidgeting with them as she tended to do, as she had done, whenever she had tried to speak in public back when being teachers had been an idea but not a reality; ideas racing on her mind, too fleeting for her lips to catch them up. "About working as a team. I could see us both like that."
A part of Hecate flinched at the words; her loyalty lying always and foremost on the school she so much cared for. Another, however, the one that still remembered not only her own silver fabric but the golden one, the one that had made her gap and pretend while trying to convince herself her feelings were brought by nothing like the sheer torture it was to see the blonde witch on such fashion, imagined for a moment the almost reality of working side by side with Pippa. With the woman that now laughed softly -laughter escaping through slightly closed teeth- before glancing at some place at her right that wasn't shown on the mirror in front of the brunette.
"I know, I suppose the school wouldn't even last us an hour. Modern and Older ways of teachingā¦ you would hate the curriculum I use." The words were said in such self-deprecation that made Hecate take a step forward, less than an inch but one her whole body felt as a pull against the mirror's surface, her magic bubbling now, burbling just beneath her skin.
"I wouldn't hate itā¦ that much." The last bit was said alongside a smile, one she very rarely got to use. Pippa's laugh, however, was enough for her to slightly ease up on her posture. Just a bit, just enough for the blonde's own shoulders lose the tension that had been radiating off her ever since the beginning of the call.
"And here I thought you had lost your ability to make jokes."
There was affection on those words, longing perhaps and Hecate cleared her throat unable at the moment to truly know what to say to them, to the truth and question that were hidden among the vowels and consonants and the slightly far-away look Pippa's eyes had suddenly gotten.
"Iā¦ haven't."
It ricocheted against the surface of their mirrors in a far terser way than the brunette had expected it to be so but it was enough for Pippa to hum gently, smile still present on her face.
"I'm sorry for what happened with the Great Wizard and the Council." The blonde's words reached Hecate's side slower than before, almost as if their own combined magic halted them down. Something, the brunette realized, could have very been the case considering how heady the air on her room suddenly felt with her magic. Her power seeped through the humidity of the air, permeating her skin. "And for making it look as if I wanted to take over or fight against you for it. That was never my intention."
The words rung sincere and Hecate swallowed, remembering how no anger but a slight tang of betrayal and hurt had clouded her mind the moment she had understood why Pippa had visited Cackle's.
"Why was it always so important for you to be better than me, Pippa?"
The accusation came back to her just as she let go of the fabric of her dress, magic glowing where her arms moved, a shimmer that the blonde followed with her eyes, silent and contrite on the way she bit down on her bottom lip. A movement, Hecate realized, she was looking at far too intently.
"Focus"
"I'mā¦ sorry for having said to you all those things." It was almost comical the way the words got stuck on the back of her throat but Pippa, instead of asking for clarification or mocking her for it, merely smiled reassuringly signaling she had understood where Hecate's mind had brought her to. Taking a step herself closer to the mirror, the sparks that brought on the blonde's step were enough to tell Hecate she wasn't the only one with far too much magic prickling the insides of her eyelids every time she tried to breathe. "I know you weren't, aren't, like that."
Raising a shoulder and humming, the Pentangle's headmistress chuckled softly before raising her left hand. She didn't quite move it but left it like that, fingertips seeming to almost map the surface of the mirror before the blonde lowered her hand once again, tucking her hand away behind her.
"I know that I could be ratherā¦ pushy but, Hecate, what I said to you was true; I wanted to be like you; for you to see me as a friend, as someone you could confide in."
"And then I threw away that opportunity."
The bitterness on Hecate's words startled both women; the blonde having not expected for the other woman to answer her like that and Hecate realizing with a startle that she had finally put words to why she had refused, time and again, to answer the mirrors Pippa had started to give to her ever since the Spelling Bee. Shame, anger -at herself, at the situation, at everything she hadn't done differently- loss.
"You know; I've tried to find a picture with the gold dress but it seems like I don't have one."
The gentle admission, said with a blush Hecate couldn't but stop and admit to herself the color suited the fair witch, woke the brunette from her reverie.
"It suited you." She finally admitted, remembering all too well the nerves she had felt the moment before materializing; a trying of being someone she quite didn't felt like. The memory brought her again to the way she gaped at Pippa; smiling and radiant and glowing on that golden fabric, stylish and not looking like someone who was dressed in a costume but in someone she had later on grow into. "You looked... -gorgeous? - nice."
Pippa smiled gently at the brunette before tapping on her own chin with one finger, a thought on the back of her gaze.
"I still can remember you in your own dress, Hiccup, I'm more than sure that you looked far more dashing than I did."
The blush was unavoidable now and Hecate could feel it grow just below the neckline of her dress, climbing through her neck and wreathing on her cheeks. Through her flustered state she heard Pippa's laugh, one it hadn't truly changed from their time at school when those comments had rendered her speechless, not truly knowing what to say to the blonde beauty.
"Don't start." She pleaded, only for Pippa to giggle softly before making a motion Hecate, having seen too many pupils on her years could easily recognize; a zipping motion over her mouth.
"I'll try to."
It was strange, Hecate thought, how for the magic she still could feel filling her lungs and stomach how calm she suddenly felt.
"I'm sorry for teleporting you without asking you first." She added meekly, the word "sorry" coming slightly more naturedly at her now. "I knew well that you hated that butā¦"
"You wanted to show me where your loyalty laid." Pippa finished and, not for the first time since the blonde had re-appeared on her life Hecate wished to be able, to have, enough strength of mind to reach forward and just grasp the other woman's hands. Clearing her throat, she shrugged and kept on talking, the blush turning blazing as she did so.
"I liked being able to see you however. Perhaps in better circumstancesā¦"
"How about a date then? Soon."
The question was said too quickly, even for Pippa and, for a moment, both women were left speechless as they both tried to feign normalcy.
Looking at the blonde through narrowed eyes, trying her very best not to get trapped in the blonde's lashes or the way the blush kept on making Hecate's magic jump and drum against her ribcage in a way she hadn't thought possible, the dark-haired woman mouthed the word "date" letting the sound go in a small gasp. Pippa, ironing to back of her dress in one motion nodded, unable to speak until she pushed the words forward through her lips.
"So we can talk. About Cackle's or Pentangle's orā¦ anything else."
"We can talk about us."
Neither of them said it outload but it was obvious on the way they shared secretive nods that left Hecate feeling giddy and not like the adult woman she was supposed to be.
"It's settled then." She said, bravery surging forward before her usual worries stopped the thought. If Pippa was surprised she said it so she didn't show it, merely nodding as she bid her farewells telling Hecate she would mirror her the following morning with a proper date.
(If she twirled a little bit a second too soon before the mirror call dropped that was something Hecate would pretend to not have seen. Mainly because, she too, felt like twirling on the spot, the vague nausea of nervousness beginning to grow on the back of her mind then but still not strong enough to squash the happiness out of her. Not yet.
The moment she finally decided to go to bed, however, she found a small old picture on her pillow, the edges worn and almost torn, attached to it pink and gold dust created a simple message that settled on her skin before disappearing on thin air, Pippa's faint soft magic scent reaching her nose.
"Seems like I had a picture after all."
They were them, younger. A silver gown, a golden one and awkward stances just as the picture had been taken. Stances, however, that didn't spoke as louder as the way Hecate's cheeks were flushed, right hand close enough to Pippa's for them to have just touched. She didn't remember the moment nor how the picture had been taken but it was enough of a candid shot to have been done by someone in the middle of a conversation now forever lost. Probably an argument. They had had dozens of those.
She fell asleep with an unnatural smile and, unknowingly for her, Pippa did too, several castles away.)