i believe i can fly

[self_composed]

Alice eventually goes home for the evening.

Bella goes up and sits in her room.

She has five hexes.

Five.

That's rather a lot of hexes.

She gets out her notebook, with the lists, and she makes some wishes.

And then she goes to bed, grinning.

In the morning it will be time to make plans.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

It takes him a second or two to connect the weather reference, and then he giggles fondly.

"Sure, why the fuck not?"

[self_composed]

"Righto." Bella turns invisible. "Don't want the neighbors to wonder how I'm, you know, walking. Also, this way I can fly there." Alice can hear her go down the stairs.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Cool," he says cheerfully, meaning both okay and awesome. He trots down the stairs after her.

[self_composed]

Partway down the stairs, Bella remembers flying. She's not used to having it yet. Off the stairs and into the air she goes. She puts on her coat; it disappears from sight as soon as she picks it up.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Kinda weird," Alice comments, and then observes that he should probably get in the habit of not talking out loud to the invisible woman before they exit the house.

[self_composed]

"Yes, probably," Bella agrees. "You wanna get the door?"

[edgeofyourseat]

Sure he does!

Doing small favours for Bella makes him vaguely pleased.

[self_composed]

Aww.

Bella flies out the door and up, up, up into the air. She can "hear" Alice from any distance; if she needs to talk to him to direct him towards the rock, she can always dip low.

Wheeeeeeee!

[edgeofyourseat]

There is no actual way for him to tell, but he just assumes she is having fun up there.

That makes him vaguely pleased, too.

(He wonders idly about hexing himself invisibility powers that make them both able to see each other when they are respectively invisible, and thinks happily of going flying with her, and entertains a brief and completely unrepentant daydream about invisible midair sex.)

[self_composed]

Bella sighs, quits reading during the sex part, and swoops low so she can hear him if he talks. She's not offended - that would be silly - but that is not what she cares to daydream about at this time.

"Bear left a bit," she says.

[edgeofyourseat]

When he feels the sense of being read depart, he cracks up; when she directs him leftward, he obeys.

[self_composed]

Bella offers no apology and does not caveat the obvious explanation. She just flies along, weaving between trees. She's a lot more graceful in the air, controlled by purely mental action, than she is when she has to act via her body.

[edgeofyourseat]

He thinks of that after a bit—wondering whether the lack of tree-crashing noises is for that reason or because she's flying high enough to avoid hitting things.

[self_composed]

But Bella's still not reading him, so she doesn't know.

"Up ahead," she says after a couple minutes. "It's an easy trip. Do you want me to wish it for you?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah, you're the one who's good at details," he says. "How come you haven't hit any trees?"

[self_composed]

"Flying's mental. I'm not clumsy in the brain," Bella says cheerfully. She lands right on top of the rock, looks around, and turns visible again. "All right, here goes."

Aaand - yes, a hex can apparently do the lair and the appliances and the stairs and the rock passage and the restricted access all in one go.

"Hexes are awesome," Bella enthuses. She flies off the rock and walks through its side.

[edgeofyourseat]

"I love you," says Alice, which seems inadequate next to just feeling it and having her notice. He follows her into the rock.

"Ooh, lairy," he says approvingly.

[self_composed]

Bella flies in a spiral rather than chance the stairs. The air glows, the layout's just like the one she drew, it has high vaulted ceilings and big open doors with rounded corners into the sewing room and the kitchen and more customary ones - albeit made out of rock, like everything else - for the bedroom and the bathroom. The appliances are sleekly white and silver, and they look like extremely iconic versions of their types, without brands or electrical cords or even a humming noise from the fridge. All the colors are as she wrote, and she sinks an inch into the rich red carpet when she lands at the foot of the stairs in the central room. Bella lifts back into the air just so she can twirl without falling over. "Here ya go," she says.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice trots down the stairs in a more ordinary way, but when Bella twirls, he beams at her and hovers experimentally.

"I love yoooou," he announces, and hugs her.

[self_composed]

Bella hugs him back quite willingly. "So, you're still missing key furniture - bed, sewing table, any shelving, places to sit, kitchen table, etcetera." She still doesn't have a new phone, so she has to guess at the time, but: "I think we probably have time to run around and put all that stuff in before it's time to start dinner."

And before the unspoken subsequent event, once Charlie gets home.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Awesome," he says brightly, letting go and spinning around to survey the space. "Read me?"

[self_composed]

Bella does so, amusedly puzzled.

[edgeofyourseat]

Well, first of all, there is how much he loves her, which is: lots.

Second of all, it is easier to get a second opinion on furniture placement when he can just—see things where he thinks they should go, instead of having to point and chatter. Like, say, a kitchen table. Over there! Supplied with chairs!

[self_composed]

Bella shrugs; she's got lots of squares and he'll thrust more upon her at the next opportunity. She follows him around and conjures up furniture out of his thoughts, edited where necessary to have useful properties like "enough legs to not fall over" and "does not clash horribly with wall".

[edgeofyourseat]

He ends up with a bed of maximum comfiness, more storage space in the sewing room than absolutely anywhere else, and a single big squashy armchair in one corner of the main room with a little table next to it.

"Yeah, that'll do it. Thanks," he says, dropping the 'hon' that wants to attach to the end.