Work Text:
Ada tried to drag her gaze from the hands of her alarm clock. In precisely eight minutes' time it would be her birthday, and she had never felt less ready for it.
She'd had her fair share of birthdays without her twin, years when Agatha wasn't speaking to her or simply found somewhere more exciting to be. But with her heart still raw from Agatha's latest betrayal, Ada couldn't help contrasting tomorrow with this time last year. They had thrown a huge party, the house ringing with music and laughter late into the night. Agatha had been on sparkling form, commanding all the attention in the room. Looking back, Ada wondered whether that had been the day Penelope's feelings began to transfer from one sister to the other.
Her birthday wasn't going entirely unremarked this year. She had a weekend celebration planned with Mona, Mavis and little Maud, but for the first time in a while, she hadn't bothered to book the actual day off work, or arrange to see anyone during the evening. She would settle for a quiet date with her Jane Austen box set and some ice cream instead.
Her plans had met a hiccup earlier when she arrived home with three tubs of Haagen-Dazs to find that her freezer had stopped working.
Hecate had seemed a little startled to find Ada knocking on her door with an armful of ice cream, but made room in her freezer without comment, and told her she should come and collect it whenever she needed.
Ada's stomach was trying to insist that she needed it right now.
"Don't be ridiculous," she muttered. "You can't go prowling around Hecate's kitchen in the dead of night."
She slipped out of bed and wandered into her living room, searching for a distraction. Her favourite ornaments and paintings were dotted about, still looking strange in their unfamiliar surroundings.
Ada had done her best with the flat, called in favours from friends and had the whole place redecorated to her own taste in no time at all. It looked twice as large with lighter walls, bright and cheerful. Homelike. Ada had been trying, really trying, to think of it as home.
Perhaps moving had been a mistake. Perhaps, if she'd only persevered, she could have been happy again in her beloved old house, made new memories to blot out the ones that hurt.
It was too late to change her mind now. The old house had been rented out to Dimity and Julie, and their adorable little girl. Ada couldn't throw them out on a whim.
She kept telling herself that she still had a good life. She loved her job, liked her colleagues, saw her friends often. What she missed was having someone to come home to, someone who might take an interest in all the little happenings of her day.
Ada was lonely. If she were ruthlessly honest with herself, the loneliness had been present before her life got turned upside down. Recent events had merely thrown it into sharper relief.
She had hoped after first meeting Hecate that they might become friends. Hecate had shown herself to have a good heart under her rather forbidding exterior, and there was something indefinable about her that always held Ada's attention. After two months of living together, Ada didn't feel much progress had been made. The realities of sharing a roof with a stranger had made them both shy, cautious of crossing boundaries. Hecate was so self-contained, at times reserved to the point of remoteness. She would stop to exchange a few words when they met, and ask how Ada was with a gravity that suggested she really wanted to know. But since that first day, Hecate had volunteered nothing meaningful about her own life. Chatting didn't come naturally to her, that much was clear.
Give the woman a pen, though, and she could set the world on fire.
Ada hadn't realised at first what Hecate did for a living. When she finally grasped that her quiet landlady was the author people had been raving about last year, she'd gone straight out to buy a copy of Hecate's first book, and sat up half the night with it. She felt almost guilty bringing it into the house, as though she were somehow spying on her landlady. Ada reminded herself that Hecate had made no secret of her name. She had simply omitted to mention being the author of an unexpected cult novel.
It wasn't Ada's usual reading fare; darker, and with more of an edge to the ending than she preferred. It held her spellbound nevertheless. She was left dazed, and more than a little intrigued. Hecate's still waters ran very deep indeed.
...It was no good. The strawberry cheesecake ice cream was calling to her from downstairs. It was her birthday treat. By the time she reached the kitchen, her birthday would be here. And Hecate had said she could access the freezer any time she needed.
Shrugging on her dressing gown, Ada crept downstairs, careful to avoid the creaky floorboards. She failed to notice the line of light under Hecate's kitchen door. She pushed it open and gasped, trying not to gape at the arresting sight before her.
Hecate was seated at the kitchen table, wearing a magnificent black satin dressing gown embroidered with silver dragons. She had taken her hair out of its usual tidy knot. It fell down almost to her elbows in smooth dark waves, with little silver streaks at the temples, making her look softer and somehow more vulnerable than usual.
For a moment all they could do was stare, each trying to regain their equilibrium.
Ada collected herself first. "I'm so sorry to intrude, I thought you were asleep. I just came to fetch some ice cream."
Hecate raised her eyebrows. "In the middle of the night?"
"I do enjoy the occasional midnight feast." Ada's smile faltered. "Of course, it doesn't usually involve breaking into someone else's kitchen. I really am sorry to disturb you."
"That's alright." Hecate frowned at her pile of closely written notes. "I wasn't doing anything remotely productive." She jerked her head towards the opposite chair. "Would you like to sit down, now you're here?"
Ada wasn't sure that she wanted to, really. It hadn't been the most gracious of invitations. But hadn't she just been wishing for human company, and to know Hecate better? She took a seat.
"Work problems?" Ada asked, indicating the papers.
Hecate sighed. "Quite significant ones."
"In that case, I think you'd better share my ice cream."
"Oh! I couldn't... that is, I don't really eat ice cream."
"You don't like it?"
"I do. But when we were growing up my parents would only let Indigo and I eat it on our birthdays. I suppose I still think of it as something reserved for special occasions."
The clock chimed midnight. Ada grinned. "It's my birthday. Honestly," she added at Hecate's sceptical look. "I'm not just saying it."
"Really? The day just gone, or just starting?"
"Just starting."
"Then allow me to be the first to wish you many happy returns." Hecate gave a nod so formal it was almost a bow.
Ada smiled, and tried to quiet the strange little flutter in her stomach. She pushed the ice cream toward Hecate. "Help yourself."
Hecate peered at the label and pulled a face.
"Not your favourite?" Ada asked. "Pick one of the others. Oh, the Belgian chocolate, good call!"
Hecate raised a spoonful to her lips and closed her eyes, her face suffusing with pleasure at the taste. A tiny sigh escaped her.
Ada caught herself staring again. She cast around for something to say.
"I'm sorry you're struggling with work." She wondered whether the late hour and unusual circumstances might help her to win Hecate's trust. "Would it help to talk about it?"
Hecate visibly recoiled. One hand shot out and pulled the papers to her chest. "I don't let anyone see my work before it's ready."
"Of course," said Ada hurriedly, distressed that Hecate might think she was simply being nosy. "You don't have to show me anything at all. I only meant that if you thought it all through aloud you might find a way out. Or I… I won't pretend to know anything about writing. But sometimes it can help to see things from a different perspective. I know I always like to run my designs by somebody else when they won't come right."
Hecate remained silent, staring off into the middle distance.
Ada tried to approach the problem with a more general enquiry. "Is this a sequel to your first book?"
"No. The sequel comes out in six weeks. This is something new."
"Something new is always exciting. I'm glad you've written a sequel as well though. I wasn't quite ready to leave that story behind."
Hecate's head snapped up. "You've read the first one?"
"I have."
"And did you, er…?"
"It was the best thing I've read in years. You're really very talented."
Hecate flushed, and busied herself with drawing patterns in the ice cream with the tip of her spoon.
"I didn't- I wasn't sure it would be your sort of thing."
"Neither was I, to begin with, but I was hooked by the end of the first page."
Hecate allowed herself a tiny smile, but she still wouldn't meet Ada's eye. She took another spoonful of ice cream.
"My current project is less satisfactory. I seem to have written myself into a corner."
Ada held her breath, willing her to keep talking. Hecate abruptly pushed back her chair and started walking away. Ada was crushed with disappointment until Hecate turned and strode back to the table, her face growing animated.
"There are two events that are important to the plot and I can't imagine leaving either of them out. But I realised this evening that they contradict each other to a certain extent, and I just can't see how to fix it…" She did another circuit of the room, pausing this time to take the chocolate ice cream with her, gesticulating with the spoon while she talked.
Ada relaxed, and settled in to listen.
~*~
"... So you see, either way I lose something. I just can't reconcile the two." Hecate discarded her empty ice cream tub and sat down with a bump, running her fingers through her hair. She had beautiful hands, Ada noted absently.
"It's certainly a dilemma. I don't think there's going to be an easy answer. It might be wiser to try to sleep on it, and come back tomorrow with fresh eyes?"
"I can't," Hecate said desperately. "I can't sleep. My thoughts won't keep still." She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.
There was a long silence.
"I wonder," Ada began, and hesitated.
"Yes?"
"I'm probably being stupid, but does everything have to happen in exactly that order? Could the discovery come in a little later? After they've arrived, perhaps?"
Hecate froze.
"... I know it would change things," Ada added uncertainly, "I only thought it might leave room for-"
Hecate snatched up her pen and began scribbling furiously.
After some time had passed and Hecate showed no sign of stopping, Ada thought it best to quietly withdraw. She threw out the empty containers and put their spoons in the sink before hesitating in the doorway.
Only then did Hecate become aware of her presence again. She looked up, blinking a little.
"I'm being rude. I'm sorry."
"Not at all! I don't mind in the least. But I thought I should leave you to get on with it."
Hecate nodded, wrote a few more words. As Ada turned to leave she put her pen down again. "Ada?"
"Yes?"
Hecate gave her a brilliant smile. "Thank you."
Ada's own smile stayed on her face all the way back to bed.
~*~
Ada left the office an hour early, unable to concentrate on paperwork, and thinking longingly of that last tub of ice cream. Opening the front door, she surprised Hecate halfway up the stairs, arms full of parcels and brightly coloured envelopes.
"These all came in the post for you this afternoon. I was going to leave them outside your door."
"That's very kind of you.'' Ada followed her upstairs.
Hecate cleared her throat nervously. "There's something else," she said, depositing the parcels on the shelf outside Ada's flat. She held out a thick volume with a plain dark cover. "I- I thought you might enjoy seeing my second book before it's on sale. It's only a proof copy, not as aesthetically pleasing as the final version. The story is the same though. It's yours if you want it."
Ada's chest flooded with warmth. "Oh yes, please! That's my birthday evening sorted."
Hecate shuffled her feet. "You don't have to read it right away."
Ada smiled, running a finger over the title lettering. "I can't think of a better way to spend my time."
Hecate ducked her head and went downstairs without another word. At the bottom she turned and glanced back up with a shy smile. "Happy birthday, Ada."