#algiebat

“Oh my love,” Algie pulled a handkerchief from his sleeve and offered it to Gwen, who blew her nose, “whatever is the matter?”

“I am afraid,” she wiped her cheek, “that the time has come for me to retire.”

Algie wrapped his arms around her and she sniffled into his shoulder. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“Miss me? Gwen, what on earth are you talking about?”

“When I retire, and you are still here.”

“My dear,” he gently nudged her under the chin. “I am most certainly going with you.”

“But you fought so hard for this position—“

Gwen laid the wedding dress out on the bed and rummaged in the wardrobe for her shoes.

“That’s a lovely frock,” Algie said.

“Algie, you’re not supposed to see me before the wedding!” Gwen chided with a smile.

“My dear, how could I resist when you look so charmingly?”

She rolled her eyes affectionately. “Dearest, I’m only wearing a slip.”

“I know.” He took her hand and brushed a kiss across the knuckles. “It’s true nonetheless. You look charmingly no matter what you are or aren’t” he winked, “wearing”.

“Algernon Rowan-Webb! You young devil, you.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. “But I must get ready, if we are to be married on time, and I’ve still to do my hair, and my dress, and you, you handsome man, are not helping matters. Go find Hecate, will you?”

They’re just this really adorable couple who are devoted to each other, but are also real people and sometimes have silly arguments and misunderstandings etc.

They’re so clearly each other’s one-and-only, but that gets expressed in a good way, not a worrying way. Yes, Gwen waits for him for 30 years, but she’s not wasting away, she’s not waiting her life away. She’s going on with her life, in the supreme and frankly astonishing confidence that he’s going to turn up again with a good explanation for what happened. And he does. He’s so devoted to her that even when he forgets who she is, he manages to hang on to the fact that she’s important to him. His love for her is a big part of what helps him stay him long enough to be found by Mildred and still have enough him left to remember that he was a human once.

This has echoes of a fairy tale, though the fairy tale characters Gwen and Algie echo tend to be much younger than Gwen and Algie are. Nor do we ever see Gwen and Algie as their younger selves. The story we are dealing with them is the story of them now. And that’s one of the things that makes the show compelling overall - that the adult characters get to have interesting, complex lives.

Once he’s human again, Algie and Gwen are just flat out adorable with each other. They’re so affectionate - Algie’s always talking about how great Gwen is, and Gwen’s over the moon for him. Algie’s prepared to give up teaching at Cackle’s if necessary, to be with Gwen, because Gwen is more important to him than the teaching, even though it was a big deal for him to be made a teacher there. Again, that level of devotion could, if not handled correctly, be a bit worrying. 

While I always want them to be happy, I appreciate that show shows that things are sometimes difficult for them. They have been apart for 30 years, and it’s not realistic that there wouldn’t be some adjusting and getting to know each other again. Plus they’ve still got nerves about each other, or at least Algie has - the poor man is so nervous when he finally proposes to her. Even though they’ve known each other years and years, and have obviously been together a long time. (We are shown at least twice that they share a bed and not a single person is phased by it, so first of all I assume they were sharing a bed before he turned into a frog, because that’s an awful quick step otherwise, and second of all, they’re definitely sleeping together too.)

Also, they’re just so radiantly happy when they finally marry. My heart <3 

I think the writers really missed a great opportunity to have a double proposal. Algie’s nervous proposal was very cute, so I’d keep that, but imagine instead for Gwen’s response she gets this pleased and then slightly distressed look on her face and says “Oh dear, but I was going to propose to you!” And then it turns out that she had a ring and everything but put it somewhere and it’s not there but Algie has his ring there so at least they’ve got one. And then of course they clarify that yes, they’re going to get married and they stand there looking all dewey-eyed and everyone cheers. (Except possibly Miss Tapioca, because she is very grumpy quite a lot).

[Yet another alternate to the proposal: Algie stumbles through some sort of proposal. Gwen looks at him, confusion evident. 

“But Algie, aren’t we already engaged?”

Algie looks worried. “My dear, I have considered myself pledged to you these thirty years and more but we have not been formally engaged.”

“Are you quite sure? I could have sworn I asked you last week.”

“I am quite sure I would have remembered if you’d done so,” he replies laughing nervously. 

“Strange. Well, but of course I will marry you, dearest Algie.”]

Possibly somewhere in this story there is an interlude in which someone explains to Mildred that that awful ruffled concoction that Hecate has to wear as a bridesmaid is a traditional bridesmaid outfit that is a staple of a certain type of traditional wedding. Either that, or we’ll just give Hecate a better outfit in this version because I’m not sure exactly how you explain that one we got in the show.

Then, rather than have generic registry wizard marry them, one of Gwen’s friends agrees to perform the ceremony. There is a party afterwards, and said friend tells a few stories from their youth, and some of the students have made gifts for them. And Gwen and Algie make a speech about how happy they are that all the teachers and the girls are there to share this moment with them, because they’re their family, now that they haven’t got much of their biological family anymore. (Possibly Algie has an ancient uncle who crashes the party - I’m imagining basically someone along the lines of Mr. Dawes Sr from Mary Poppins).

There’s a tossing of the bouquet and either Dimity or Julie catches it. Possibly Dimity catches it, winks and then tosses it to Julie. There’s dancing and cake - a truly outrageously large and structurally-dodgy cake and someone tried to make a little music-box organ for the top of it (it was Mildred, with Enid and Maud’s help), but that was too complicated and it plays erratically and within three minutes has stopped playing altogether. 

”I told you marzipan was difficult to deal with” Maud sighs. 

“I didn’t think it was possible for it to melt,” Mildred protests. “You told me regular frosting would melt.”

“You did substitute out half the words in the spell,” Enid points out. 

“My dears, it was a lovely thought,” Miss Bat tells them. “And very creative too.”

And then Algie comes over to take Miss Bat away for another dance. Later, Maud and Enid both realize that Miss Drill and Mildred’s mum spent an awful lot of the evening together. Even later, they mention this to each other and decide it’s best not to tell Mildred. “Do you think we ought to tell her?” Maud worries.

“Look, we don’t know anything for sure, and if it was your mum do you think you’d want to know that she might be dating one of your teachers?”

“But what if Millie hears it from someone else?”

It was a difficult adjustment, getting used to the familiars again. Algie knew he was a person again, but sometimes he’d catch one of the familiars staring at him with an odd expression and he’d wonder if theyknew that.  

He’d finally confessed as much to Gwen, feeling rather ridiculous.

“My dear,” Gwen said fondly, “they know the difference, between you and a frog, I promise you.”

“But what if there’s some sort of residual…” he waved his hands. “You know I’m not quite the man I was before.”

“No,” she agreed. “But in all the ways the matter, in all the ways I love, you are the same as you’ve ever been. I loved you as you were then, and I love you as you are now.”

“Gwen,” he choked out, his throat tight. “Oh, how I have missed you.”

She kissed him then. “And I you. Every day, my dearest beloved.” She kissed him again. “And,” she continued briskly. “you have nothing to fear from the familiars, I promise you. They can tell you’re not a common wizard – although you were of course never common, my dear,” she grinned mischievously, “but they don’t think you’re a frog.”

“Not even the kittens?”

“Especially not the kittens, you daft man,” Gwen said fondly. “They’re very open-minded, you know.”

“Are they?”

“Yes. I’ll show you,” she added with sudden decision.

—

“Gwen, you know you need only ask and I will follow, but are you certain this is going to work?”

“Do you trust me, Algie?” Gwen asked, looking over the tops of her glasses at him.

“To beyond the end of magic, my dear.”

Gwen smiled at him, put her hand on his arm and pushed herself up on her toes to press a quick kiss to his mouth.

“Then trust me, dearest,” she said. “It will work.”

She slid her hand into his and laced their fingers together.

—

They slipped as quickly and as quietly as they could into the kitten room.

“Mrow?” inquired one of the kittens, cocking its head at the two of them.

“Come on, dear,” Gwen coaxed, and the kitten padded over and sniffed her hand. “Yes,” she laughed, “you are going to make someone a lovely familiar.” The kitten submitted to being petted.

A couple of other small, dark, fuzzy smudges wandered their way.

“Gwen…” Algernon shifted nervously. “They’re so young, what if they can’t tell properly what I am?”

The kitten in question bumped into Algie’s leg.

“Dearest, of course she can tell. She’s curious about you, that’s all. Why don’t you sit down?” Gwen summoned a few cushions for them next to the wall. “Well, are you going to help me or not? I’m too old to sit on the floor without assistance.”

Algie offered her his arm. “Shall we my dear?”

It was not entirely graceful, and Algie had to gently remove several kittens (and one of them twice) that had made a beeline for the soft cushions.

One of the kittens promptly climbed into Algie’s lap and batted at his beard.

“Hello there young miss,” Algie said softly, stroking the kitten’s head with one finger.

“Mrow?” inquired the kitten with a gleam in its eye, and he offered her his hand. The kitten nipped his finger lightly.

Algie started, inadvertently causing the kitten to tumble out of his lap and into another one that had come over.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “Do you think she’s alright?” he asked Gwen anxiously, scooping the kitten up.

“She’s fine. Are you alright?”

“I think so. It’s been a long time since I played with a kitten like this.”

“Here,” Gwen rummaged in the pocket of her robe and produced a ball of string. “Try this.”

Algie took it and rolled it in front of him. Three kittens launched themselves at it, shoving each other playfully.

Algie watched them, and then started laughing.

“What is it?”

“I don’t think,” he said, wiping his eyes, “I’ve ever been passed over for a bit of string before. Rather puts me in my place, don’t you think?”

Gwen started chuckling too. “Are you feeling better then, my dear?”

“Immeasurably so. Thank you, love.” He leaned over, gently removed an intrepid kitten who was attempting to scale the front of Gwen’s robes, and kissed Gwen softly.

A small, furry body pressed itself insistently into the space between them.

“Mrow!” it demanded.

list your five longest one-shot fics on AO3 (not chaptered works or series) with the word count, fandom, year, and comments/kudos/bookmarks. 

1. The Christmas Eve Murder, 7,907, Rosemary & Thyme - Rosemary/Laura, 2016, Comments-8, Kudos-30, Bookmarks-1

Laura and Rosemary get waylaid in a small village on their way to spend Christmas with a friend of Rosemary's. Naturally, both murder and romance ensue.

2. Knit Ourselves Together, 3,583, The Worst Witch (2017) -Gwen/Algie, Dimity/Marigold, and Ada/Hecate all in about equal measure, 2018, Comments-8, Kudos-19, Bookmarks-0

“Miss Mould,” Hecate drawled. “Cackle’s is an esteemed and venerated institute of education, not an art camp.” Fluffy, fluffy, winter fluff.

3. We Go Around and Around, 3,187, The Worst Witch (2017) - Ada/Hecate, 2018, Comments-12, Kudos-55, Bookmarks-0.

Ada and Hecate get trapped in a magical wardrobe.

4. Still Will I Hold You Dear, 3,133, The Worst Witch (2017)- Hecate/Pippa, Ada/Hecate but endgame Ada/Hecate, 2018, Comments-10, Kudos-56, Bookmarks-2

At first, Ada was delighted that Hecate and Pippa were rekindling their friendship. In which Ada slowly becomes more and more uneasy with Hecate and Pippa’s relationship, and it takes her a while to figure out why. Angst with a happy ending.

5. All This Time We’ve Spent, 2,482, The Worst Witch (2017)- Hecate/Pippa, 2019, Comments-6, Kudos-26, Bookmarks-0

In all the years that pass between the dissolution of Hecate and Pippa’s friendship and their eventual reconciliation, Pippa never entirely stops missing Hecate.

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