This is for Hecate-Hardbroom who finished some schoolwork in record time haha enjoy your reward, girl! It got a little angsty at the end and I don't know how/why — the story just did what it wanted ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
11/6/17: LOL guys I'm so sorry — I wrote this story at the end of September and then it completely slipped my mind! Well hey, Hecate-Hardbroom, this is for finishing your schoolwork 6 weeks ago AND being done with Uni until 2018! Wooooooooooooo! Also I'm uploading this without revising or looking it over one last time so…¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Moving toward their shared closet bursting with pink and black robes, Pippa Pentangle stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turned around to stare at her dark haired friend.
"I'm sorry — what did you just say?!" Pippa sputtered, for once feeling curiously out of her depth.
Hecate averted her eyes slightly, a slight flush of her cheek telling Pippa all she needed to know about her mental state.
Shuffling her feet in embarrassment, Hecate met Pippa's eyes slowly, staring intently.
"What's the big deal if I've never had a birthday cake before?" Hecate said defiantly. "It's not like it matters — birthday cakes are just for children, anyway!"
Pippa's eyes widened in disbelief as she considered what to say next that wouldn't be too sad; if there was one thing her friend hated most, it was feeling pitied.
"Seriously? But you were a child once, weren't you, Hiccup?
Hecate smirked slightly, turning to humor to defuse the increasingly awkward situation. "No, Pipsqueak, I actually was hatched from a dragon's egg, fully formed at the age of 17 — I'll have you know."
"Hecate Hardbroom, really?" Pippa said exasperatedly. "This isn't funny, this is…this is appalling! This is a national tragedy!"
Hecate rolled her eyes at her melodramatic friend and continued straightening up her side of the room, not that it needed it, of course. Since the very beginning of rooming together, Hecate Hardbroom and Pippa Pentangle had been a contradiction in terms. Where one was neat as a pin, the other preferred to use the term "creative chaos." Where one was clad in dark colors, making black a wardrobe staple from an early age; the other was a walking neon sign, expressing a love for bright colors, crazy patterns and most of all, the color pink. Hecate was dark haired, reserved and methodical, and Pippa was blonde, bubbly and spontaneous. Yet somehow, the pair clicked, and had been friends and roommates since the beginning of school, years earlier.
Pippa had gone curiously quiet and Hecate was immediately wary. A silent Pippa almost never was an omen of good things to come.
"When was your birthday?"
"Oh, I don't know, Pipsqueak—"
"You don't know when your own birthday is?!" Pippa was going to be even more outraged if this was true.
Hecate moved to placate the blonde witch. "Well of course I know when my birthday is, but it's just another day; nothing special. And besides, it was months ago," she said dismissively. "Better luck next year!"
"Nothing special?! But that's your day! The world became brighter on that day and forever, because you were finally in it!"
Hecate blushed slightly, never having heard talk like that before, and certainly not from someone she cared about so deeply.
"Thanks, Pip," she said quietly. Hecate didn't know what to do with the strange emotions that Pippa's birthday obsession had unleashed.
"So you really have never had a birthday cake or a party or…anything?" Pippa tried to wrap her mind around what she considered strange and abnormal behavior.
"It wasn't considered proper in my family," Hecate said, as she closed herself off even further. "Don't worry about it; it really doesn't matter in the slightest."
The blonde witch frowned and began rifling through her closet, searching for a distraction while she considered what to do next.
"Pippa?" Hecate said sternly. "Whatever you're planning, don't! Really, it's not a big deal. My birthdays never are, anyway."
"Okay, Hiccup," Pippa said sadly, the wheels turning in her mind all the while. "If you insist."
Pippa grabbed her fuzzy pink cardigan from the closet and left the room.
Hiccup stared at the now-closed door, her eyes narrowing. Pippa was up to something; she could feel it.
The next day was a revision day for the school, and classes were suspended for the students to prepare for exams. Thanks to Hecate's impeccable revision timetables for both girls, they were some of the only students in the school who possessed some semblance of calm about the end-of-year exams and as such, had the day to do as they pleased. Hecate was planning on curling up in her cozy bed with a new book about the use of Middle Eastern plants in potions, and she'd just settled herself in her mound of blankets when the door slammed open, revealing a bubblegum-pink-clad Pippa who looked frantically around the room.
Relaxing when she saw Hecate in the room, Pippa dramatically closed the door with a flick of her wrist. Flopping on her bed, she faced her dark haired friend with excitement. Hecate pursed her lips, slid a bookmark between the crisp pages and safely placed the book on her bedside table.
"What can I help you with, Pipsqueak?" Hecate said as she gracefully swung her long legs off the edge of the bed, eyes widening as she noticed Pippa's quick intake of breath.
"Is something the matter?" she inquired, and Pippa snapped to attention, a blush spreading down her neck.
"Nope!" Pippa said cheerily. "Everything is just fine. Can you close your eyes?"
Startled by the abrupt change in direction, Hecate's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Just do it, Hiccup, please?"
Sighing, the dark haired witch closed her eyes, only to snap them back open as she felt Pippa's slender fingers brush the pale column of her throat as she adjusted a strap.
"Pip?"
"Ta-daaaaaaa!" Pippa spun Hecate around to face the floor-length mirror on the back of their door, and Hecate frowned in confusion.
"What is that?" The headwear covered the entirety of her head, and seemed to reach two feet in the air, simultaneously forming a point and ballooning out in a circular fashion.
"That, my love," said Pippa gleefully, not even bothered by her slip; it was too great a day for anything to bother her. "is a birthday party hat!"
The garish, wide, pointed hat was covered in pink, glitter and…pink glittery puffballs? And that was only the front! Hecate continued her careful examination of the thing perched precariously on her head and tried to keep her irritation — and happiness, if she was being completely honest with herself — in check.
Shifting her body in the mirror to see the back of the hat, she frowned and her body went cold. "Pippa Pentangle — really?!" The hat was pink, of course, but spelled out in black sequins on the back of the hat was: "Happy birthday, Hiccup darling! Love forever, Pipsqueak!"
Pippa's bright smile seemed to dim. "You don't like it, do you?"
Hecate hastened to reassure her very best friend. "No, Pipsqueak, I do like it," she said convincingly. It just…is a lot to take in, is all."
Happiness restored, Pippa bounced on her toes in excitement. Clasping Hecate's hand in hers, she started for the door. "Come on — I have a surprise for you!"
Hecate stood stock still as she went to rip the hat off her head. "Pippa!" she said, slightly scandalized. "I can't wear this out in public," she hissed.
Pippa closed her eyes for a moment, and then remembered. "Oh no, it's fine, really!"
Hecate glanced dubiously at her, obviously needing an explanation.
"I found an invisibility spell in the library that's just used for things, and I modified it so only you and I could see the hat," Pippa said proudly.
It took all Hecate had not to laugh. "Is that why you needed a lock of my hair?"
"Yes! And if you'd have just given it to me, I wouldn't have had to steal your hairbrush!"
"That was you?! I looked for that for weeks!" Hecate glared at the thieving blonde.
"Oops," said Pippa, not sorry in the slightest.
"Anyway…" said Pippa, glancing at the clock and trying to chivvy Hecate out the door.
"Where are we going? Will you quit pushing me?!"
"Always with the twenty questions, you!" she punctuated the sentence with a prod to the taller girl's shoulder.
"We're going on an adventure!"
Heading to the kitchen, Pippa pulled Hecate into an alcove originally used for food prep, before the other side of the kitchen was enlarged centuries ago.
"Miss Foxglove gave us permission to be in here today, so don't worry about it!" Pippa said, as she saw the anxious look on Hecate's face — she was a stickler for rules. "I have a surprise for you!"
Seating Hecate on a stool at the end of a small wooden table, she rummaged in a nearby cupboard, hiding it from Hecate's sight.
"Oi, Hiccup!" Hecate's eyes snapped forward, feeling almost guilty at being caught. "I see you trying to look — shut your eyes! Don't you dare ruin the surprise!"
Hecate felt Pippa put something on the table in front of her, and was pleasantly surprised at how childishly excited she felt.
Drumming on the table in anticipation, Pippa inhaled sharply.
"You can open your eyes now!" Hecate opened her eyes and Pippa launched into a rousing, if slightly off-key, rendition of "Happy Birthday!"
Finishing the song, Pippa anxiously awaited Hecate's reaction to her first-ever birthday cake.
Hecate just stared at the confection in front of her. "It's so…" she paused, trying to speak delicately as to not hurt the blonde witch's feelings. "pink," she trailed off, silently appraising the cake. "Is that glitter?" she said incredulously.
"Yes it is!" Pippa said proudly. "I didn't have access to cake decorations like I would at home, so I figured out how to make edible glitter, and it's a total game changer — a whole new world! There are all sorts of great, applicable spells in the library, you know!"
Pippa moved to cut the cake and Hecate grabbed her wrist.
"What's wrong, Hiccup? Don't you want to try your cake?" Pippa said curiously.
"Oh. I mean," Hecate stammered. "Yes, I do. But…I don't want to ruin my first ever birthday cake. Can we…can we take a photo first?"
The blonde witch smiled. "That's a brilliant idea, Hiccup. Picture and then we dive into the cake — works for me!"
After the photo was taken and copies were magicked into both the girls' pockets, Pippa continued on her quest to cut the cake. She wasn't sure if it was edible, and she wanted to take a bite before her friend to see if she should warn Hecate off the baked good or not.
Taste test complete, she looked over to see Hecate smirk at her.
"What? Do I have cake on my nose?"
The dark haired witch smiled in amusement. "No, I'm just really enjoying the way you're obsessed with any and all baked goods, Pipsqueak. You have an addiction," Hecate said with a laugh. "Is it fit for my consumption now?"
"How dare you question my baking abilities! I'll have you know I'm an excellent baker," Pippa said, playfully offended and at the same time, nervous that Hecate seemed to be able to see right through her.
Hecate rolled her eyes. "Really? Then why were you so eager to try my cake? Perhaps you're remembering the time when — mppphggghhhhh."
Trying to silence her friend, Pippa hurriedly shoved a bite of cake into Hecate's open mouth.
"NO! We are not talking about that, again. It was ONE time, so shut up, let it go and eat your birthday cake, dammit!" Pippa said as she watched Hecate chew and swallow her cake, made with love. "What do you think?" she asked anxiously.
Hecate considered the cake for a second and then unable to resist her friend's charms, broke out in a brilliant smile.
"This cake is really good actually! I love you!" Both girls looked shocked at what had come out of Hecate's mouth, and the dark haired witch tried to backtrack.
"I mean," she stammered, for once at a loss for words, her careful control slipping. "I meant I love the cake! It's just delicious and thank you so much for going to all that trouble to make it for me! It even tastes pink, which is just…" Hecate trailed off, not wanting to put her foot in her mouth any longer, as it were.
Pippa just stared at her friend. Did she just…? Pippa didn't dare hope, and decided to take all of her cues from Hecate as to how to proceed in this maybe-relationship. She didn't want to scare her friend off with the intensity of her feelings, not knowing that Hecate was feeling the exact same way and unable to wrap her mind around it.
Drawing her shoulders back, Hecate had (mistakenly) decided to ignore her not-so-little slip, not wanting to deal with her feelings, and started rambling on about their broomstick waterskiing competition the following day.
"How the powers-that-be at this school decided to hold the competition the day before exams is beyond me. It's absolutely ridiculous."
In between Hecate's rant about the decline of the witch educational system, Pippa had cleverly divided the rest of the cake in two and shrunk the halves down to make them easier to carry. After Hecate had finished bemoaning the state of The Craft, she stopped to take a breath — and promptly freaked out.
Making an excuse to leave the kitchen, and remembering to take half of her very first birthday cake with her, Hecate fled back to her room and began packing up all of her things. She couldn't bear to be rejected by Pippa, who was really her only friend. And besides, Pippa would be better off without her, anyway. She would be free to make new friends and have new, different experiences without the tall, gangly, black-clad witch always dragging her down. Hecate firmly ignored the cries of protest in the back of her brain and quickly finished packing.
Her half of the room was bare, stark and empty; and she supposed the only thing left to do was to write her blonde friend a note, at least trying to explain herself. Her departure would be better for everyone, although Hecate hated how had she had to try to convince herself of that fact.
25 years later:
The night before the Spelling Bee at Cackle's Academy, Hecate Hardbroom locked and silenced her room, crossed to her battered, overstuffed bookshelf and searched the shelves for a particular book. Locating it, she pulled it off the shelf and turned it over in her hands, remembering the last time she had read this book, years ago.
Flipping through pages and pages detailing the history and usage of various plants in the Middle East and their use in potions, she abruptly drew in a sharp breath. Nestled in the yellowing pages was a worn, decades-old photo. The photo showed two girls, one in pink and one in black, with their arms wrapped around each other, smiling into the camera with a pink, glittery cake visible in the bottom of the frame.
Ever since that day, she had deeply missed her friendship with the bubbly blonde, and had wondered about what would have happened had things been different. What if she would have actually been able to verbalize her feelings for Pippa? What if, by some miracle, Pippa had felt the same about her? As it was, it took Hecate years to fully come to terms with the depths of her feelings for her former friend and roommate; now that she'd finally had time to sit with her feelings for months, she couldn't help but be curious about Pippa and her life now.
Hecate slid a nearby photo out of its frame, swapped it with the photo of her happy teenage self and set it back on her nightstand.
Tossing back her comforter, Hecate wearily crawled into bed, anxiously anticipating seeing her former friend the next day, if only so she could apologize and tell her she was so proud of her for opening her own school.
Maybe, just maybe, things would be different this time around.