good morning

[self_composed]

The next morning, Charlie leaves late for work so he and Bella can have breakfast together, but then he does go.

Bella sees him off.

And heads for the lair, humming, all nerves.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

The word is 'cuddles'.

"When."

[self_composed]

Bella's pentagon does go; Bella's magic knowledge does appear.

"Huh." She picks up the read again to check her answer. "Yep. I am at least somewhat immune to magical spying and tampering. And not everyone is. And I am immune enough to make the wish for it redundant. But I know you're not." She wishes Alice general protection-from-mental-poking, from everyone but himself and her.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Huh," says Alice. "Weird. Suits you, though."

[self_composed]

"Well, sure, but why would I just have a random magic power? Did Elias wish for it for his descendants or something?" Bella wonders aloud. "Do a lot of people have random innate powers?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Not a clue," says Alice, serenely. "It'd be pretty hard to check, I guess, if they're all weird little subtle things like that."

[self_composed]

"Huh. Well, yours worked." She wishes for the immunities for magical tampering. They go just fine. "Poof," she announces.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice giggles. "Poof!"

[self_composed]

"You sometimes come up with stuff I don't. Anything we wouldn't like that would fall outside of the categories of physical attack, the mental stuff, and miscellaneous magical stuff against us or our coin stashes?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Wait, did you just wish me immune to, like, getting beat up?"

[self_composed]

"With the use of magic. If someone punches you in the face, that still happens. They just can't wish for you to suddenly not have an arm anymore or whatever."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Oh. Okay. Good. In that case, nah."

[self_composed]

"Mkay. We'll call this good unless we come up with something else then." Snuggle snuggle.

[edgeofyourseat]

Snuggle!

Of course, now he is wondering what would happen if, say, Bella wished one of his arms off. She could always wish it back on afterward if it didn't regrow on its own, right?

[self_composed]

"Well, yes, presumably it would grow back via regen if I left a wound, and could be wished back if I didn't. Do you really want to do that right now?" Bella asks archly. "What a busy morning."

[edgeofyourseat]

He's never regrown an arm before! It would be new and exciting.

"If you're up for it," he says cheerfully.

[self_composed]

She shrugs. She wishes away the one on the far side of her, and does leave a wound, because otherwise his regen probably won't take care of it and it would be weirdly anticlimactic that way. Triangles can handle bloodstains.

[edgeofyourseat]

It hurts. It hurts in a new way, and also bleeds quite a lot in the first few seconds, which is an interesting component of the whole experience.

[I love you,] he says via brainphone, because out loud he is too busy moaning.

[self_composed]

She kisses his temple by way of reply. She doesn't watch, but she's still reading him.

[edgeofyourseat]

Watching a new arm sprout from his shoulder is also kind of fascinatingly gross.

When it's all done growing and back in apparent working order, the first thing he does with it is hug Bella.

[self_composed]

Before it comes into contact with her, she does triangle away all the blood. There's a lot. But then she is quite happy to hug him back.

[edgeofyourseat]

Wow, he is really keyed up right now.

He decides that what he is going to do about it is: snuggle Bella some more. Mmmm, cuddly.

[self_composed]

Bella does not object to this in the least. She blocked off the entire morning; there's at least an hour left.

[edgeofyourseat]

Snuggle snuggle!

Bella is so great. She hurts him so nicely. He loves her for that, among many other things.

[self_composed]

"I'm trying to think if I have any characteristics you don't love me for," Bella mumbles.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Can't think of one," says Alice, affectionately.

"Wanna make out?"