It’s in the Rules
I got @cursivelettering for @wlwpjoexchange!! Happy Holidays and have some Witches! Pipazel celebrating winter!
Hazel shoved Piper off their bed when she ignored all of her cutesy winter wake up jokes, she’d been willing to let her sleep past the alarm but now her girlfriend was just being a pest. The fake snore she made from the ground only confirmed that. Hazel popped her head over to make sure Piper’s alright just in case.
She’d be worried if she wasn’t, Piper’s a witch and really should be able to pull out a cushioning charm with ease. She said as much to her when she rolled off the bed to join her on the floor.
“Shut up,” Piper mumbled into the floor. Hazel lifted one of the braids Piper wore to sleep and poked her cheek.
“Pipes, come on pleeeeaaasseee,” she pouted. “It’s the first snowfall and I want to start decorating the shop for the solstice.”
Piper turned her head towards her at the word solstice, “Oh, when’s that again.”
“December 21st, we have four days,” Hazel informed her as she rolled away and stood up from the floor. Piper sighed and followed after her.
Piper reached out and grabbed her hand, turning her around, “You find the hats I get the sweaters?”
Hazel smiled and nodded, “Thanks Pipes.” Piper pulled her closer and kissed her nose before twirling her off and away, the break apart and giggle as they run off to find snowflakes and charm icicles into lights.
.
Piper stared into the carefully kept attic and slowly walked to the very back where everything winter is kept, Hazel loved winter but she made new things for Fall every year and procrastinated for Winter so the amount of decorations is a tad disproportionate. Piper ended up tripping over a box of spirit vials and into Winter, their sweaters were lying on top of a birdcage. She pushed herself off the box and carefully made her way to the sweaters.
Two years ago, before they’d even started up the shop, Piper and Hazel had gone on a date and they’d been shopping in a Christmas Market. Piper had found the little shop full of cheesy pick up line shirts and ugly sweaters, the best part was that some of the sweaters didn’t even have Christmas things on them. They bought eight.
Piper pulled on the sweater with penguins wearing scarves, the scarves were little strips of yarn that Hazel liked to tug on and twirl around her finger. She picked up the rest of the sweaters and tripped her way out of the attic to bring Hazel hers.
.
Hazel walked down into the shop and opened up the back door. Every year she bought new Winter Witch hats for her and Piper to wear and this years had come in last night. She pulled on hers, it was covered in cobwebs trapping snowflakes and it had a beautiful silver buckle. She pulled the brim over her eyes and hugged herself tight. Winter was always better with Witch Hats.
A loud noise came from upstairs and Hazel frowned, she slowly made her way to the stairs as several more thumping noises were made. She managed to catch Piper trip down the last set of stairs, holding the sweaters above her head like a trophy. Hazel giggled and ducked under the stack of sweaters to kiss her nose.
Piper blushed and brought the sweaters down between them, she was already wearing the Penguin scarf one so Hazel picked out the one that had a picture of cats with laser eye vision. Hazel pulled off her Witch Hat and placed it on Piper’s head.
Piper fixed the hat so it hugged her head right and tugged Hazel up the stairs and into the kitchen and sat her down at the counted, “Winter Morning Pancakes?”
Hazel nodded eagerly as she tugged the sweater over her head, “With white chocolate chips?”
Piper tossed a white chocolate chip at her and Hazel caught it in her mouth. “Hey!” she said, sliding off of her chair. “White chocolate chips aren’t allowed to be used as ammo in the household its in the rules.”
Piper raised and eyebrow, “What rules?” Hazel made her way around the table and wrapped her arms around Piper’s neck.
“Hm,” She mused. “My rules.” Piper laughed and they rocked back and forth, still a little sleepy but feeling a lot more Wintery.
.
Piper was turning the sign around to read open when she noticed the lamps that hung next to the doors were still filled with black fire, Piper quickly placed her palm against the lamps and pushed in a bit of Winter Whimsy, the lamps filled with a warm orange fire. Last year they’d chosen blue but Piper was a bigger fan of orange flames and Hazel had forgotten to switch it out.
She turned back into the shop and went to work fixing up stray tinsel that the cats got into earlier. “Orange fire? Really?”
Piper lifted her head and her heart melted at the sight of Hazel in her Winter Witch hat and ugly sweater. One of the cats was weaving through her feet as she made her way over to Piper, her arms were crossed but she was biting down on her lip. Hazel did that whenever she didn’t want to smile at something one of the troublesome kitten’s did.
“It’s in the rules,” Piper told her with a shrug. Hazel nodded, and pulled out the Witch hat she’d ordered Piper.
“Is that so?” She asked, she was holding the giant beautiful thing in front of her now.
Piper nodded, “That’s so, hate to break it to you baby.”
Hazel smiled, “You know what else is in the rules?”
“What?” She asked.
Hazel stepped closer to her and placed the hat onto Piper’s head, “Winter Witch hats and candy cane earrings.”
Piper grinned, “Sounds like a pretty good rule to me.”
“I thought so too,” Hazel said, her lips quirking up into a smile. Then she tugged the brim of Piper’s hat down over her eyes and raced off giggling.
Piper pushed the hat back into place and watched her go, her heart went all soft and smushy at the sound of her laughter ringing through the shop.
.
Hazel yawned as she cuddled against Piper. Their hats were sitting on their stands by the bedside tables and Piper was reading her Winter Fairy tales, her voice ringing through the room filled with rich magic. Piper pressed a kiss to Hazel's head and put the book to the side. The first day of Last Minute Solstice Preparations had tired them both out but neither girl wanted to sleep just yet.
"Remember when we met?" Hazel asked her, her words quiet and sleepy.
"Yes," Piper said. "It was the Solstice."
"We were at a party, it was in the dorms in University," Hazel told her, Piper nodded they'd had a party for everything back in Uni.
"You were there with Leo and Jason, I'd gone with Frank and was trying to talk him into asking Leo out and Jason," Piper turned her head to Hazel, an eyebrow raised.
Hazel giggled, "I started talking to you because you were an incredibly pretty girl and my friend had just given me an excuse to try and make a move." Piper blushed and pushed her away, Hazel laughed.
"C'mon Pipes, remember what you were wearing?"
Piper stole Hazel's pillow and held it against her face. "Nope!" She said, her voice muffled. Hazel stole back her pillow and rolled her eyes.
"You were wearing the ugliest winter holiday sweater dress I'd ever seen, it had a wreath for a belt and it and you had a jingle bell headband," Piper peeked out from under the pillow to see the fond look Hazel wore.
Piper sighed and put the pillow to the side, "You were wearing a tinsel necklace, tinsel earrings, you had tinsel in you hair and tinsel around your ankles, I thought you were an angel."
Hazel bit her lip, "Kisses?" Piper leaned forward and bumped their noses, Hazel giggled and brushed their noses again.
"I love bunny kisses," she said sleepily.
Piper nodded and pulled her close, "I love you."
.
Piper pulled the covers off of Hazel and got out of bed, Hazel would follow when her hands and feet got cold. She walked downstairs and fed the stray cats that always seemed to be around and picked out the ugly sweater for the day.
She went with the tinsel collared sweater and grabbed the Star sweater with LED lights for Hazel. Hazel was waiting in Piper’s sweats and one of her beanies with a cup of Hot Chocolate, Piper traded the sweater for the cocoa and a kiss. Hazel tugged the sweater on and they stood there smiling at each other, Piper probably had a goofy grin on her face and she couldn’t care less.
Hazel reached out and wiped at Piper’s upper lip. “Hot Chocolate stache,” She murmured. Piper leaned forward to follow her hand when she noticed what was missing from the top of their heads, “The Winter hats!”
Piper turned around and tripped her way into their room. Hazel giggled and followed after her girlfriend. Piper turned to face her, her arms serving as hat stands. Hazel took hers and pressed a thank you kiss on Piper's cheek, "Time to open up baby."
Piper pulled on her own hat and linked their hands, "Happy second day of Last Minute Solstice, Haze."
"Happy second day of Last Minute Solstice," Hazel repeated with a giggle.
.
Hazel walked out of the backroom with their brooms and skates in her hands just as Piper finished ringing up their last customer for the day, “Skating?”
Piper grinned, “Skating.”
Hazel took care of locking up the cash and the precious gems and Piper ran upstairs to get their Winter Flying Cloaks. When she came back down Hazel spelled their hats on tight they danced out the door.
They tied the skates to their brooms and pulled their hair back and pushed off.
Flying is beautiful and free and magic in warm weather. In winter as soon as you get on a broom you start to feel a snowstorm in your bones, Hazel didn't mind but Piper kept close to Hazel's side and murmured a quick warming charm.
"Hey, Pipes?" Hazel called loudly over the wind. Piper nodded.
"Yeah?"
"Sing a song?" Piper laughed, her laugh and her voice wasn't blown away by the wind and Hazel grinned, that meant she was going to sing.
Piper opened her mouth and the words that came out sent Hazel into giggles that the wind stole and gave away to anyone else in the sky that day.
“Hey now, you’re an allstar…”
.
Hazel swatted at Piper, “No more kisses till I get my skates on.” Piper pouted.
“It’s in the rules, Pipes,” Piper sighed dramatically as she stepped onto the ice and started doing laps while she waited, Hazel watched her for a moment before she remembered that she was supposed to be lacing up her skates. She stood up and when she looked to see where Piper was she almost fell over as her girlfriend had somehow managed to end up right in front of her.
Piper grabbed her hands and pulled her onto the ice, “Cold, baby?” Hazel hmmd and linked their arms.
“Not yet.” They did laps and Piper twirled her and she fell on her bum and she dragged Piper down with her. The two girls sat on the cold ice with their heads leaning against each other for support and their hats in their laps watching the sky get darker.
“Baby?”
“Yeah, Pipes?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Pipes.”
.
Hazel put away the brooms and Piper unspelled their cloaks and hats and they tiptoed into bed, doing their best not to wake the stray cats downstairs. They slid into bed and held each other. Cars and brooms and early Solstice fireworks were heard but the two girls clung tight to each other and focused only on the sound of each others breath.
As Hazel slipped away into dreams, she swore she started to hear Piper's heartbeat. Piper pressed a kiss to Hazel as she fell asleep and dropped her head down next to her and drifted off to Hazel's quiet snoring.
.
The third day of Last Minute Solstice included gingerbread houses, donuts for breakfast and dealing with the last minute shoppers. Hazel was slightly less excited but Piper managed to pull her out of bed because there was no way she was going to be manning the cash again. They stumbled down the stairs, their hats hastily spelled on and the matching they'd thrown on the gingerbread ugly sweaters.
Hazel burned the toast and Piper thanked her with a kiss and they opened the shop. Piper disappeared at some point and Hazel tried not to think about throwing candy canes at her. The cats took over for most of the day, tripping up the annoying customers and directing the nice ones to the counted.
Hazel had made Piper charm her smile permanent for a few hours and it was so nice to not have to try later, she was about to reach over and jam her wand down someones throat when the love of her life walked through the door with donuts.
Piper made her way through the cats and the tripping last minute shoppers and went down on her knee in front of Hazel, "Baby, will you do me the honour of eating a Third Day of Last Minute Solstice?”
Hazel’s fake smile melted into a fond one, “Of course, Pipes.” She pulled her girlfriend up to her feet and picked out a donut and gave her half, “But only if you share it with me. Its in the rules, you know.”
Piper wrapped her arms around Hazel and spun her around, “Haze, Haze your the best” Hazel laughed and squeezed her silly girlfriend back even though they really should be working.
.
Piper turned the sign over to read closed and collapsed on the floor with a sigh, “Hey babe?”
“Yeah?” Hazel called down from upstairs.
“Gingerbread house time?”
There was a pause and a crashing noise and then, "Got it out, c'mon up!"
Piper grinned and pushed herself up, she gave one of the strays a treat and took the stairs two at a time. Hazel was waiting for her, she had the box on the table waiting to be opened. The girls put their Winter hats to the side and changed their ugly sweater for pajama tops, there was no way they were ruining the treasures.
"You ready," Hazel asked, her hand was ready with a knife at the tape. Piper nodded, doing her best to maintain a serious expression.
"Go ahead." Hazel slowly, carefully cut the tape. Then she got impatient and put the knife to the side and ripped the cardboard apart, Piper caught a packet of candy in the air and walked closer to the table. The gingerbread was all still intact and while some of the candy packets had exploded they rarely used them, the girls liked to shop for gingerbread house candy in October.
Piper transfigured a spoon into a broom because she was too lazy to run down and grab the actual brooms, Hazel just got on her knees and started gathering candies. A few minutes in they realized they could summon all the candy into a trash bag.
Hazel started giggling and Piper elbowed her, “Pipes, Pipes, you thought to turn a spoon into a broom but not just conjure the candy.” Piper threw a candy at her and Hazel pushed her onto the kitchen couch and kissed her embarrassed frown into a smile.
After a while of kissing and cuddling and candy cane fights they finished the gingerbread house. Piper carefully iced witch hats onto the gingerbread witches and Hazel made sure the house had icicles and lamps.
Piper finished up with the buckles on the hats and turned to her girlfriend, Hazel was adding orange flames to the lamps. Piper lifted up the icing bag, "Hey, baby?"
"Yeah?" Hazel asked, she was carefully placing the fire into the gingerbread.
"Icing fight?" Hazel looked up to see Piper holding a bag of pink icing.
"Pipes..." Piper grinned and squeezed down on the piping bag, icing went everywhere, Hazel got a new mustache.
Hazel's hand slowly lifted up to her pink mustache, "Piper."
Piper shrugged, "Icing fights are a mandatory when making gingerbread houses, Haze. It's in the rules." Hazel grabbed two bags of icing.
"Well, if that's so..."
.
The two girls collapsed onto the bed. "Hey Pipes?"
"Yeah baby?" Piper replied, her eyes drooping.
"I totally won that."
Piper pushed herself up onto her elbows and raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
Hazel nodded, she was lying on the bed with her eyes closed, "Really."
"Hm," Piper mused. "Well, I think I'm going to win the tickle war."
Hazel's eyes flew open, "Piper McLe-" Piper pounced and the two girls dissolved into laughter.
.
On the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year, Piper and Hazel woke up together. The magic was thick in the air, it didn't help that right below the floor was a shop full of magic absorbing the crackling feeling the Solstice brought.
Hazel tossed Piper her Winter Witch hat, it would be heavier today but today was the most important day to wear it. Piper threw the Magic ugly sweater back, it had reindeer and cauldrons and wands in that pixel font and they always wore them on the Solstice.
After they got dressed they let the cats upstairs and locked up the shop behind them. The cats would sleep all day and night.
Piper pulled Hazel along and bought them pastries for breakfast, Hazel was always sleepy to start and Piper would get sleepy near the end. They walked through the streets, Piper could see other witches walking in streams. They were all heading for the fields, they'd release the pent up magic there and dance their ways home.
Hazel didn't notice much besides how warm and nice it is to be wrapped up in your girlfriend's arms. Piper made sure she was comfy and pressed a kiss to her hand, the only part of her that wasn't covered in something warm and knitted. Hazel murmured something Piper couldn't quite make out in response and burrowed further into Piper's arms. She didn't mind.
As the day continued Hazel slowly woke up and they moved apart a bit, but the girls refused to let go of each others hands. They sung songs and watched magic fly out of witches fingertips in fireworks and ice and wind.
The Solstice was a day for magic and celebration. They drank hot chocolate one of the regulars at their shop offered them and caught up with friends from University that they always saw at the Solstice's.
Soon enough, it was night. Piper and Hazel headed to the middle of the fields and shared one more kiss before stepping apart, their hands fell to their sides and the earth shook beneath Hazel's feet and everything untied or loose flew about Piper. The world sang and witches cackled around them and then everything fell calm and the girls collapsed into each other.
Piper helped push Hazel back to her feet with a grin, "How you doing, baby?"
Hazel grinned, "Dance with me?" Piper smiled and twirled her around. They danced and twirled and sang, Piper lifted Hazel up into the air and Hazel dipped Piper into a kiss and they ended up back outside of the shops door past midnight.
Piper was falling asleep on her feet even thought Hazel had never looked more awake, she was beautiful like that, Piper thought. Hazel was always beautiful though, Piper could never get enough of her. She found herself sinking to her knees and pulling out the metal band she'd been keeping in her cloak pocket for months.
"Haze?" She asked.
Hazel's eyes were watering up and she swatted at Piper's shoulder, "Pipes, you beautiful girl, I can't think of anything to say but yes." She helped her to her feet and Piper stared into her girl-fiancee's eyes and felt her heart melt.
And then Hazel pulled out a ring, "But you have to wear yours too baby. It's in the rules." Piper started laughing, laughing and crying and she slid her finger into the ring and lifted the brim of Hazel's Winter Witch hat to kiss her proper.
When they broke apart Hazel asked, "What was that for?"
Piper shrugged, a smile lighting up her face. "You have to kiss your fiancee on the Winter Solstice, it's in the rules."
Hazel laughed and pulled her close for another kiss, "Sounds like a good rule to me."
