less so a lilith oneshot and more like a birthday present for my bestie BranchieandPops ;)
everyone say happy birthday or moriarty will come into your house and kidnap you
{written by ana}

"When you're done with that, Jolly, you might feel like joining me for cake."

As she uttered the last word of her sentence, which was draped with sarcasm, the other troll's eyes glimmered with excitement and instantly slammed the laptop's screen shut, quite loudly. Her ears perked up and a smile glowed on her lips. "Cake?"

"Yes, cake." She rolled her eyes back happily, smiling fondly at her friend. "I told you we were going to celebrate today, no matter what."

Jolly frowned a little bit as she walked over and joined Ana at the kitchen table. "It's not even my birthday yet, why are you so adamant on celebrating today?"

The kitchen was illuminated by candles at every corner, softly lightening up the room. They danced in the breeze and gave off a totally different feeling than a kitchen with normal lights. Ana always said that she preferred candles rather than electric light switches. Jolly always just told her it was a fire hazard and it was only a matter of time before her entire flat would burn down.

Ana's eyes beamed along with her smile, and she slowly skipped towards the fridge on the other side of the room. "Because," she said gleefully, failing to hide the excitement in her voice. "You've got plans tomorrow with a special someone. Today's like... your second birthday. Which is weirdly said because your second birthday should be celebrated after the first one, since-"

"I get it, Ana," Jolly snickered. She sat gingerly down on the kitchen stool at the island and watched Ana struggle to pull out assorted items from her fridge, clearly searching for something. "But I don't need a second birthday. And it's not like I won't have time to hangout with you tomorrow."

Ana's face was hidden behind the fridge door, but there was clearly something else written on it by the sound of her voice. "Yes, but I thought it would be nice if we just had a fun little birthday party with just you and me."

"Which is exactly what I love-!"

The pale skinned troll pulled out an old takeout container from the fridge and placed it on the counter beside her. "So you don't want cake?"

"You know the answer to that, Ana."

And the fridge closed, and Ana emerged with two freakishly large cupcakes in her hands. They both were decorated identical, with lucious pale pink icing and sparkling with sprinkles and decor. They complimented the smile appearing on Jolly's face. "Oh my God."

"Yep," Ana giggled as she placed one before Jolly, and then another before herself. She then sat down opposite of a Jolly, that smile never ending. "Your favourite. Before Briffle gets back from his tour tomorrow I wanted to do this with you and I. Just you and me."

"The same way it has been for the past year and a half," Jolly nodded fondly. It was true, Briffle had been away for the past week touring the kingdom with that amazing voice of his. Jolly would have done anything to join him, but she had work to do in Trolldon. So Ana was her only company for the time being. Not that she was complaining.

"It feels like so much longer than that," Ana remarked, eyeing the dessert before her. "I literally know everything about you."

"Do you know my last name yet?"

"It's ALWAYS on the tip of my tongue-!" Ana squeaked out, making a strange face as she tried to recall the name. "Oh, that's not fair, Jolly! I'm bad enough at first names."

"When you first heard about Lilith Holmes, you called her Hilith Lomes."

"Yeah, don't know why."

Jolly laughed as Ana reached across the island, the candlelight glowing on her face, for what appeared to be small cake candles. "I can't believe you're another year old."

"Thanks, Ana."

"I'm not saying you're old!" Ana exclaimed with a giddy grin. "It's just crazy to think about. See, this is why I love birthdays. You just get to reflect on everything about the special person. It's your day. I feel like I should have some giant essay written about you and everything great that comes with you."

Jolly felt her face flush with modesty. "I don't need an essay, Ana."

"Well I'm going to give you one!" Ana declared with sudden determination. "...eventually!"

Jolly rolled her eyes back, watching as Ana began to take out the candles and place one on top of Jolly's cupcake. She was beaming, watching her friend and feeling like the luckiest person in the world. "Oh my god, do you remember..."

And then she launched into a conversation about turtles, reminiscing on some old story the two of them always would joke about. Ana listened, intently, waiting for her to finish so she could light the candle. She felt somewhat bad for her friend, who had to wait until tomorrow, her real birthday, to see Briffle again. She knew how much she loved Briffle, and even through her smile she could feel her pain. She should be spending tonight with him.

"Anyways, shall you make a wish?" When Jolly looked down she realized Ana had already lit the candle, which gleamed in the darkness and spilled colours onto their faces.

Jolly frowned and thought hard for a moment, Ana's eager eyes staring at her. After a moment of thinking, she finally nodded, slowly, and took a deep breath. And then she blew the candle out, watching the smoke dance in the air. Ana started clapping immediately like she was at a concert and the first song just began.

"What did you wish for?"

"I can't tell you that!"

"Ah, right. Birthday tradition."

"We mustn't break the holy tradition."

"We mustn't."

And they smiled at one another, and grabbed their forks.

And then the doorbell rang and Jolly nearly fell out of her chair.

"Who the hell would be here at this hour?" Jolly asked, perplexed, spinning around in her chair to face the door. Ana shrugged, clueless, and lazily got up to go answer it. Jolly felt her insides turn. Whoever it was, they just interrupted cake time.

"Heeeeeeeelloooo good troll but I'm going to have to ask you to-" Ana drawled out before she swung the door open and came face to face with the man on the other side. "-you to leave."

"BRIFFLE?!" Jolly craned her neck around to see the man perfectly clear, and sure enough, it was Briffle, wearing a giant smile and his touring clothes. She practically dove out of her seat to race past Ana, nearly knocking her down, to leap into his arms. "What are you doing here?!"

"Don't mind me," Ana grumbled as she steadied her balance.

He laughed, setting down his guitar case which was strapped over her shoulder and wrapped his loving arms around her back. "It's the day before your birthday, you idiot. Why wouldn't I be here?"

Jolly shook her head while still embracing him. "No, you're supposed to be in town tomorrow! Did you lie to me? Was this all a prank?"

"Well, no," he shrugged. "But I got on my train earlier to come and see you, postponing some autograph signing I have to do." He made a face at it and Jolly giggled. "I had a feeling you'd be here."

"My flat is just that popular," Ana joked with a tiny shrug as she leaned against the sofa to watch them, happily. "All the music stars of Trolldon come to crash at my place at some point or another."

Briffle glanced up at the green-haired troll and grinned. "I see you've got some cake, Ana?"

And she grinned back. "Good news is that I have extra. Bad news is that you missed the candles and sacred wishing."

Jolly laughed, turning around to face her best friend, Briffle's arms still wrapped around her from behind. "Then we better get to it."

As Briffle walked into the sitting room to set his bags down, Jolly scrambled up to Ana and whispered something quiet but meaningful in her ear. "My wish came true."