plotting to unnerve her

[self_composed]

Bella finds Milliways in the moon palace instead of one of her balconies.

"Huh," she says aloud.

Then, to Alice, Libby, Elena, and Mary, and Lazarus except he autoreplies with a busy message, [Hey folks, Moonstone Palace grew a bar that I don't remember putting in, come check it out.]

Comments

[manofmyword]

"Does your fancy mind-reading tell you why?"

[self_composed]

"When I tell it to. Why do you ask?"

[manofmyword]

"'Cause I wanna know," he says, "duh."

[self_composed]

"You looking for storytime or something more list-shaped?"

[manofmyword]

"Storytime," he says immediately, perking up in his chair. "I like storytime."

[self_composed]

"After we'd known each other for a few days and had a handful of casual conversations and I'd broken up a fight between him and a random classmate in the cafeteria, he invited me over to his house. Before I said yes, I told him I was going to conduct an experiment. I put my dad the police chief's number into my phone, hovered my finger over the call button, and called him a freak. And he asked me to marry him." She pauses. "I said no."

[manofmyword]

He tilts his head and, very slowly, smiles.

"Well. Now I think I'm kinda in love with you."

[self_composed]

Bella snorts.

[manofmyword]

"My story isn't nearly that sweet."

[self_composed]

"Storytime," Bella prompts softly.

[manofmyword]

"To start with, I kinda had a thing for her before we met." He smiles reminiscently. "Girl dresses up as a giant bat and starts beating up criminals, what am I supposed to do? Not fall for her? I was fucking smitten. So, y'know, some other guy might write a love letter in that situation. Me, I rob a bank."

He cocks his head and grins.

"Actually, I robbed five, but who's counting? Anyway. It's the last one that counted. I walked out with a chunk of change belonging to several mob bosses, they got all riled up, I taunted 'em a little, and thennnn they hired me to kill 'er."

[self_composed]

"She dresses up as a bat?" Bella says quizzically. "And mob bosses hired you to kill her? Okay... what're you planning to do with a job like that?"

[manofmyword]

"She makes a terrifying bat," he assures her. "If you're thinkin' cheap Halloween costume, stop. And this was ages ago, we'll get there, don't worry."

He rubs his hands together and continues.

"So I was never gonna kill her, obviously, I like her too much. I got myself caught instead." He smiles wistfully. "You ever been in a police interrogation room? You should take your boyfriend to one sometime, they're fun. She cracked a safety glass window with my face."

[self_composed]

"Terrifying expensive non-festive bat," amends Bella. "Got it. Go on."

[manofmyword]

"And then, y'know, I bombed the place and took a hike, and it was all very exciting for a while, and at the end..." he looks distracted for a moment, smirks secretively, then shakes his head and continues, "We fought it out in a half-built skyscraper and she threw me outta the top floor. And like I said, caught me halfway down." He shrugs. "Now I'm locked up, and she's out there somewhere hating my guts, and someday I'll get out and we'll do it all over again."

[self_composed]

"And as long as you have access to some door you can sometimes pop into Milliways for a bit," Bella says. "Interesting. Is it satisfactory for her to hate your guts? Wouldn't you rather she liked you?"

[manofmyword]

"She's never gonna like me," he says. "She couldn't. I mean, even if I hadn't killed a girl I'm pretty sure she was fucking, she is ve-e-ery much about law and order and I... am very much not."

[self_composed]

"Well, yes, killing someone she liked is not conducive to such a plan," Bella says. "Although I feel compelled to point out that a fondness for law and order isn't incompatible with whimsy. Even a very, very terrifying-expensive-nonfestive bat costume requires some whimsy somewhere."

[manofmyword]

"Whimsy," he says. "Sure."

[self_composed]

"Yeah, I'm getting the impression that Alice-types who do not encounter Bella-types quick enough go from whimsical to something a little less socially acceptable."

[manofmyword]

"Smart cookie."

[self_composed]

"Yeah. I only had to cheat with a little magic to get into Stanford."

[manofmyword]

"Tell me, smart cookie," he says, "say I kidnapped a lady you had the hots for, and you had me locked in a room and could do annnnything you wanted to make me talk. Well, anything you'd do with half a dozen cops watching you through one-way glass. How would you play it? No cheating."

[self_composed]

"No cheating?" Bella says. "I've gotten very accustomed to cheating." She thinks. "Are the cops a threat to me, or just potentially embarrassing? My first idea isn't a problem either way, I'm just sussing out option-space."

[manofmyword]

"Batsy shoved a chair under the door before she started throwing me around. So no, not a threat."