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

[self_composed]

"But you don't know that," Bella says.

[manofmyword]

"I don't know that," he agrees. "But if it takes long enough to show up, I might not care. And I really don't wanna die all alone on an asteroid in the middle'a nowhere, either way."

[self_composed]

"Once you were safely stranded on the asteroid," Bella says, "perhaps I could wait a couple days and see what you say about the presence or absence of Milliways when you wake up. I don't anticipate being in a hurry on that time scale."

[manofmyword]

He smiles.

"Be sweet of you."

[self_composed]

"I actually don't know if I have the stomach to kill someone when there's another option," she says conversationally. "I'm quite sure I could do it if there wasn't, by the way, so cornering me won't yield any interesting facts... But I could check. And even if I didn't I could arrange for you not to be alone."

[manofmyword]

"I'd like that," he murmurs.

[self_composed]

Bella nods.

[manofmyword]

With the same bizarrely innocent curiosity from before: "Would you care?"

[self_composed]

"Some."

[manofmyword]

"Aww."

[self_composed]

"You could've been like my Alice," she says softly.

[manofmyword]

"What's the difference, to you?"

[self_composed]

"Alice has never killed anyone," she says, "for one thing. And he's about whimsy - not mayhem - and he's mine."

[manofmyword]

"The hell he is," the Joker says amicably.

[self_composed]

"He's not my slave or my appendage or my trained ferret, but he's mine."

[manofmyword]

"How d'you figure?"

[self_composed]

"In what sense of the word do you object? You weren't complaining when I called him my boyfriend."

[manofmyword]

"Maybe I'm wrong about how you meant it."

He doesn't think so, though.

[self_composed]

"He loves me," Bella says. "I can make him feel better when he's upset. I go around referring to him as my pet masochist. And he's mine."

[manofmyword]

"I know he loves you. When'd you make him feel better?"

[self_composed]

"Most recently? My alternate's bodyguard wanted his 'real' name," Bella says. "I warned him before we even walked in that I didn't want any interdimensional incidents - so he ran to the moon instead. I made up a name for them and went up after him."

[manofmyword]

"You are a sweetheart," says the Joker.

[self_composed]

"I care about him. He was hurting."

[manofmyword]

"I knoow. It's sweet," he says.

[self_composed]

"He's sweet too. He fixed me up when I got hit by a car, before I had quite as much magic to throw around."