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]

"Alice. Depriving her of one of her bodyguards would be very unfriendly, even if it started as an accident," says Stellar Bella seriously, planting one hand on each of his shoulders and making eye contact. "Do you want to go back to the wolf village and wait there and let me handle this? I can handle this for you."

[edgeofyourseat]

Is she going to handle it in a way that tells anybody that name because in that case fuck everything.

[self_composed]

Bella hesitates, weighing likelihoods.

Then she says. "Trust me."

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice shudders.

His mind spins through several attempts to teleport, none of them specific enough. Anywhere that isn't here, the Sun, the Moon, fucking Pluto, somewhere that's extremely on fire and doesn't have any people, the farthest deserted place on this planet...

The one that finally works is Bella's palace, not that Bella has a palace here, but there's a place where it would be, if she did.

He conjures air to burn in and starts making stars.

[self_composed]

Bella drops her hands from where Alice's shoulders have ceased to be. She keeps an eye on his brain.

She turns towards the hissing half-vampire and the Empress and the Emperor. And she says, "If the Emperor happened to hear his name, I'm certainly not going to stop him from sharing with Allirea."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I didn't," mutters Edward.

[self_composed]

"The first name on his licitly obtained birth certificate reads 'Frederick'," Bella lies. "If Allirea ever attempts to ever call him that, I imagine he'll be motivated to set her on fire, but that's a moot point, as I don't plan to bring him to this world again. Now I'm going to see what I can do to calm him down and then I'll come back, alone, and we can talk about my bag of futuristic technology and your wishes. Okay?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Okay," replies Golden Bella, as Allirea fades away again and Edward and all the spectators lose track of what they were talking about.

[self_composed]

"Back later," says Starry Bella, and she too teleports to the moon.

[I lied to them,] she tells him through the fire. [Act pissed off if anyone calls you Frederick.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[I love you,] he says, curling up in the middle of his cozy little inferno. And he does, and he is happy and relieved and amused and admiring, but those things have to fight for space in his head with fear and horror and anger and the pain he is using to distract himself. (It doesn't work as well as usual.)

[self_composed]

[Snuggles?] she offers, holding out her arms and sitting on the moondust.

[edgeofyourseat]

He puts out the fire and flings himself into her lap.

Air is also handy for crying.

[self_composed]

He gets the tightest of hugs.

[edgeofyourseat]

He loves her so very much.

[self_composed]

"We can get your name legally changed," she says, running her fingers repetitively through his hair. "To whatever you like. I declare it legally not what it was on Mars, anyway, but we can get it changed in America. First thing when we get home."

[edgeofyourseat]

He is too busy sniffling into her shoulder to say it out loud, but the first thing that comes to mind is Alice Whistle Swan.

[self_composed]

She kisses the crown of his head. "That's adorable. Alice Whistle Swan it is."

[edgeofyourseat]

Awwwww.

He snuggles a tiny bit closer and loves her some more. The emotional hurricane is definitely winding down.

[self_composed]

"A whistle swan sounds like it's a species of bird," Bella murmurs. "You could be the star of a series of children's books. Alice Whistle Swan Goes to the Library. Alice Whistle Swan Gets Caught in the Rain. Alice Whistle Swan Visits the Moon."

[edgeofyourseat]

He giggles softly.

[self_composed]

Bella kisses his hair again and hugs him and waits.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice curls up in her lap, which should be impossible considering how much taller he is, but he manages it anyway. As an afterthought, he conjures himself a snuggly blanket, because it is cold up here when you're not on fire.

He's okay now. More or less. No longer desperate to destroy things, anyway.

[self_composed]

"Thank you for not destroying anything in front of the other Bella in her not-technically-a-throne-room, by the way."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Seemed like a bad idea," he says, although that might be overstating the complexity of his train of thought at the time.

[self_composed]

She kisses his hair. "So," she says, "I did not think the Emperor had a chance to catch your original name. I can read your mind too and I didn't see it go by. But if he had, I couldn't have risked lying to them. And I wasn't sure what I would do if I bluffed him, told him he could go ahead and say, and got the actual name out of his mouth. I could've tried to avoid ever telling you about it - I don't plan to bring you back here - or I could've lied to you instead or I could've waited for you to calm down and explained what happened. Which of those would've been preferable, given that the risk was small but needed taking?"