Fairies of The Black Circle

7

Flora scrunched her nose up at the foul stench of hot coffee as she poured boiling water into the mug she was making for her friend.

"Drink this. It will help with the hangover." 

She pushed the mug into Stella's hands, who looked down questioningly at the suspicious, dark liquid with such an air of entitlement that Flora couldn't help but smirk at her. 

"You did this to yourself, Stel."

"Ugh. I'm never drinking again." She whined, reluctantly taking a sip, screwing up her face in anticipation. Hm, surprisingly not bad. And she took another shallow sip as if to properly convince herself.

"What even happened to you? We were just about to go look for you when Bloom found you out cold on the sofa."

A few blurry memories swam lazily around Stella's mind. 

The picnic with Brandon. The sunset. A sweet little blackbird. Swinging gaily round the lampposts. 

But not much else came to mind after that point. 

"I think I just got lost trying to get back." She shrugged, despite the nagging feeling that there was more to her story than just that.

"Jeez, Stel. It's a miracle you managed to find your way here at all." Flora shook her head disapprovingly, getting up and heading to the stack of dirty plates tossed carelessly into the sink. 

"I don't want you out late again. And definitely not when you've been drinking." She tutted to herself as she began frenziedly stacking the pile of plates into the dishwasher, mumbling to herself. 

"You could have gotten seriously hurt. What if you had tripped on your shoelaces? Huh? What then?"

"Um... okay mother." Stella scoffed, unable to hold back her laughter as her friend frantically scrubbed every molecule of food off the plates before loading them. 

Flora snapped bolt upright, one eyebrow lifted impossibly high.

"And watch your tone, young lady."

Stella fell silent, her mouth forming a straight line. 

The intensity of Flora's stare didn't diminish even slightly. Silent seconds passed between them, neither backing down. 

Slowly, Flora began to bite down on her lip to supress the smile forming there and seeing it finally cracked Stella's resolve. 

The breath she had been holding in shot out through her pursed lips as she peeled over, accidentally hitting her head on the counter. Flora snorted loudly at the sight, both hands flying to her mouth, her eyes going wide at the sound she'd just made. 

Stella looked up at her dumbfounded expression and blurted out a hysterical cackle, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she rubbed her head. Flora creased, her whole body suddenly shaking with silent laughter at their stupidity as she slid down to the floor.

"Are- are you okay?" Flora barely choked the words out between heaving breaths, tilting her head against the cupboard.

"It's not that funny!" Stella desperately tried to compose herself, drawing a line down in front of her face with her hand. 

She had almost returned her breathing to a normal rhythm when she accidentally looked up and saw Flora, her cheeks inflated with the breath she was holding in as she attempted to restrain another snort, and immediately broke down again.

Tensions had been so high recently; what with Stella's disappearance, Riven and Musa's fight, oh and yeah, the end of the world- it all came crashing down around them as they clutched their aching stomachs, descending into new fits of laughter each time they accidentally made eye contact with each other.