Hestadil Shorts

An Unfortunate Crush

For what was probably the first time in her entire life, Hester was speechless.

And she knew why, too.

It was all that stupid albino's fault.

She'd seen her lips move, seen her say the words she'd been hoping for and dreading at the same time, and yet Hester still didn't fully believe it.

Before Anadil had come into Hester's life, everything had been perfect. Perfectly unemotional. Perfectly dull, too.

Stop it, Hester told herself. Why are you mentally defending her? You're mad at her, remember? 

And Hester was mad at her. Why had Anadil shown up and suddenly made Hester feel all... weird? All... tingly?

Yet Hester found herself unable to speak.

She looked into her friend's bright crimson eyes and was unable to look away.

"Ani, I-" Hester mentally cursed herself. Again with the nickname? Nevers weren't supposed to call each other nicknames, unless it was some form of an insult. But the thought of insulting Anadil scared Hester for some reason, since the last thing Hester wanted was for Anadil to be mad at her.

Why do I care so much about what Anadil thinks of me? Hester wondered, glaring at Ani. I'm not a real Never. That's not how real Nevers should act.

Hester tried again. "Anadil-" She stopped and moistened her lips, breaking eye contact. Why was she so scared?

Anadil took a step closer. "Hester," she said simply.

Hester opened her mouth - to say what, she wasn't sure - but Anadil stopped her with a kiss.

Hester's eyes popped open.

She found herself staring at Anadil's closed eyelids, and to Hester's shock... she was enjoying the kiss.

So Hester closed her eyes and gently leaned into Anadil. There was no use denying it.

--

Earlier...

"Hester, we need to talk."

For one blissful minute, Hester had been relaxing on her bed, daydreaming - something she rarely had any time to do, and something she was seldom caught doing - until now, apparently. She jolted out of bed, strands of red hair flopping in her face, which she hurriedly brushed away. "Who is it?" she snapped, blinking a couple of times.

Hester half-wished that Anadil would be the witch standing in front of her when she opened her eyes, although judging from the voice she'd heard, it was most likely-

"It's me. Dot," said the chubby witch, standing at the threshold of the room with an exasperated look. "We need to talk. There's something important you should know."

Hester rolled her eyes so hard they almost seemed to disappear from view. "Yeah, well, I'm kind of a busy person, seeing as I'm the number one Never and all-"

"You were half-asleep on your bed," pointed out Dot.

Hester scowled. "I'd be happy to put you to sleep too, you know-"

It was Dot's turn to roll her eyes. "Seriously. I have something really important to tell you. Why else do you think I'd be here right now, instead of with Kiko?"

That, Hester considered, was a good point. Recently, Dot had been spending an unreasonable amount of time with Kiko, using any possible excuse to hang out with her. If Dot had pulled herself away from her "friend" for this long, it really must've been something serious.