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It wasn’t as though that hug at the spelling bee was their first, it was just a very long time since the last one they shared and Hecate had not really been given cuddles since. It was partly her choice so she wouldn’t get too close to anyone again like she did Pippa and have to make them go away for their own good luck, and partly because as ‘Hecate’ became more and more the way she did not all that many actually wanted to hug her. However, after meeting up again a couple of times since their reunion Pippa had wanted to at least hug her hello and goodbye. It was quite a natural thing to do, Hecate understood, and Pippa had always been a very tactile and affectionate witch. You could tell even now in the way her students reacted around her that Pippa just sent out waves of love and kindness. Hecate had tried, but she had ended up just standing there stiff as a poker while Pippa was as gentle and as quick as she could. It wasn’t Pippa over stepping boundaries by trying to be affectionate, Hecate knew it was her and kept trying each time because she actually did want to hug Pippa, so very much. It was just... fear. Fear over Indigo, fear over rejection, fear over what might be thought of her. So it never really happened.
Pippa knew that something was wrong and for a long time she thought it was her fault. Still, there was the fear that she’d done something terribly wrong back then and had hurt Hecate somehow all those years ago because they didn’t talk about it. Not more than in passing at least, and not any specifics. Pippa had hoped that Hecate might have explained to her but it never really happened.
When it finally did happen it was quite the surprise. It took three years and statue-girl Pippa didn’t even know existed to become real again, a lifting of a confinement associated with a crime Pippa had no clue about, and Hecate breaking down to her in the quietest of ways the next Thursday Pippa came to Cackle’s.
Pippa didn’t go home to Pentangle’s that night, she stayed at Cackle’s and slept on Hecate’s sofa wrapped up in a blanket and in the arms of a Hecate needing all the hugs she could give her.