we will seek my buried inheritance

[self_composed]

Bella fixes French toast for breakfast to salvage stale bread, and, having seen Charlie off to work, hops in her own car and makes for Alice's house. She arrives at nine-thirty, and goes up to the doorbell and rings it.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

"Maybe it's a power thing?" he says. "Not sure. I don't think that's completely it, but it might be part of it."

[self_composed]

"Would it still count if the mindreading thing was pauseable at will on your end, instead of mine - if we turned you into a projective telepath instead of turning me into a mindreader?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Kind of," he says. "But less. Like, this counts a little bit, not enough to turn me on, just enough to be... nice."

[self_composed]

"What, just me interrogating you?" Bella blinks.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yep."

[self_composed]

"Ah-huh. Would anybody have the same effect or am I a special snowflake here?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"I wouldn't do this for anybody," he says.

[self_composed]

"Is that part of it or does it just enable whatever 'it' is?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Well, I'm sure as hell not turned on by psychologists."

[self_composed]

"I'm sure the psychologists appreciate that. Hmm."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I mean, you know, of course the fact that I'm madly in love with you makes you generally sexier than other people. That's not a surprise. But I dunno. Other people reading my mind is... hot, not necessarily good."

[self_composed]

"Well, there is another thing on this list that has been designated hot but not necessarily good."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah."

[self_composed]

"Other people have called you a freak. Did that count?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Nope. I think with you it's 'cause I could see you were doing it on purpose."

[self_composed]

"Really? No one else has done it on purpose?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Not like that they haven't, or I'd be in love with them too."

[self_composed]

Bella laughs. "Okay, but what's 'like that'?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Like you knew I wouldn't like it and you wanted to see what I'd do."

[self_composed]

"Hm." Walk, think, walk, think. "Transgressions. Not, like against the law, though."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Transgressions," he says. "That's a good word. I like that word." He writes it down.

[self_composed]

Bella hums to herself. She figured out a thing!

She checks the time.

"Should be almost there. You look for - whatever, and I'll keep an eye out for neon."

[edgeofyourseat]

"You got it," he says cheerfully.

[self_composed]

Walk, walk, walk. Bella checks the time. "If I'm right about how fast we're going this should be about it." She looks around. "I'm seriously disappointed in the lack of neon signs. Come on, Elias."

[edgeofyourseat]

"What do you wanna bet you'll end up falling down a hole?"