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]

[Yeah. I met someone from his. She is of the opinion that the asteroid is a good place for him, and honestly I don't think too many people who knew he existed would disagree. He really fucked around with that city, Alice, and they don't have the means to contain him without outside help.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[There a reason you didn't mention that?]

[self_composed]

[I would've if if you'd asked, but as long as you didn't, I thought it would be better to have the argument after the fact.]

[edgeofyourseat]

If he'd known that was going to be the answer, he would've asked.

[I don't like that,] he says. [The thing where you know I'm gonna get mad if you do something, so you don't tell me until you've already done it. I mean, if I did that you'd flip your shit, right?]

Granted, that's because the category of things Bella would get mad about Alice doing is full of things that would, intrinsically, make her flip her shit. But... that's the kind of stuff Bella gets mad about. The kind of stuff Alice gets mad about is a much smaller group, for one thing, and for another thing it's harder to define, full of really specific situations like stranding his alternate universe double on an asteroid without telling him first so he could say goodbye in case the other him got lonely and killed himself. For example.

[self_composed]

[I didn't want to be in a situation where I felt like I had to choose between making you upset and letting people die in close enough proximity that it'd feel like a choice to me. I didn't want you to warn him in such a way that he might've taken his extra minute and intercepted my helper, or fucked around with your head that little bit more that he didn't happen to do this time, or gotten out the door first and through the weirdness of Milliways time gotten his shrink to give him a radio through which he could talk Earth-based space programs into coming and picking him up, or just talk people into playing his kind of jokes on each other. I didn't want anything to go wrong, because if something went wrong, people might have died.]

[edgeofyourseat]

Didn't happen to. Didn't happen to. Didn't happen to.

Now he remembers what they were arguing about before.

[Okay, well, you chose, and I'm upset,] he says. And spends a couple of squares to clean the room up and get dressed, and teleports to the front door, and leaves through it.

[self_composed]

Yeah.

"It was nice meeting you," Bella tells Roberta, drinking her cider fast enough to burn and feeling the faint tingle as the damage heals.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Um... you too," she says.

[self_composed]

Bella goes back to her moon palace.

She looks for Alice, and checks the time.

It's almost Christmas.

She supposes that's as good an excuse as any to wait until he calms down before giving him his present.

[edgeofyourseat]

The moon was not remote enough. Alice is on Pluto.

There is no clear winner in the ongoing battle between the cold and his healing power, but he's pouring hexes while they fight it out.

[self_composed]

Bella decides to see if he put up a busy message before trying to apologize.

[edgeofyourseat]

Nope. He is unbusy.

[self_composed]

[I'm sorry,] she says.

(She's sorry the situation came up, she's sorry that what happened to make the Joker into what he became happened, she's sorry she didn't trust Alice to not throw a wrench in the plan if he had warning, she's - sorry.)

She sits in a corner of the office in her palace and hugs her knees.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice teleports to her. Nitrogen boils off him in the sudden heat; he triangles himself back to a completely unfrozen condition before he hugs her.

He's not sure he can say it's okay; he's not sure it is. But he loves her and he'd rather be hugging her than on Pluto.

[self_composed]

Bella snuggles up.

[It's almost Christmas,] she says. [Still almost Christmas, I should say. We weren't gone more than a few seconds here.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[Huh. I guess,] he says. Christmas isn't really a positive association; historically it's been a time when his parents give him a bunch of shit he doesn't want and then his dad gets mad at him for not wanting it.

[self_composed]

[Would you rather wait for your present until Boxing Day?] Bella asks, tucking her head against his neck so her face is turned in.

[edgeofyourseat]

[I dunno,] he says. [Was it gonna be for Christmas? It can be for Christmas. Or for now. I don't really care about the date, y'know?]

[self_composed]

[I was thinking Christmas. It will need to be an occasion when you don't have anything planned for a few days, possibly weeks.]

[edgeofyourseat]

[I don't really do plans,] he says, shrugging. [Whenever.]

[self_composed]

[It'll be Christmas somewhere on Earth in a couple days,] she says, kissing his neck.

[edgeofyourseat]

He smiles. [Okay.]

[self_composed]

[I'm glad that's okay. I'm pretty sure accelerating the spin of the Earth would be hazardous.]

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice giggles.

[I love you,] he says, kissing the top of her head. (Not fully on purpose, it's similar to the way the Joker kissed him when they were snuggling.)

[self_composed]

Little mannerisms like that are to be expected and do not bother her.

[I love you too.]