on the first day of christmas, my true love gave to me

[self_composed]

[It is now Christmas in the latest time zone on Earth,] Bella announces, when this becomes the case. [C'mere.]

She has conjured a syringe of venom. There are no known effects relating to any particular person doing the turning, but she's gone ahead and duplicated her alt's venom - what would be hers, if she turned - regardless.

She hides it behind her back and smiles.

Comments

[self_composed]

"He won't eat you. We have arranged for him not to eat people," Bella says.

[nonbird]

"Yes, but will he hug me?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"D'ya want me to?" he inquires.

[nonbird]

Silence.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Oh, you doooooooo," he giggles, trailing off into a breathless hum.

[self_composed]

"Vampires are reportedly quite prone to not knowing their own strength when handling humans even after being accustomed to it. Lazarus, does your defensive magic handle that, or is it like mine and Alice's and won't block ordinary physical damage?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"I don't wanna squish you," Alice contributes.

[nonbird]

"My defensive magic is proof against squishing," he says.

[self_composed]

"Well then. I produce no further objections to any consensual hugging that may or may not occur once Alice is capable of standing up," Bella says.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Mm," says Alice, and hugs her.

[self_composed]

Bella conjures up a few glass bottles of the bubbly golden stuff that Elspeth likes so much. Ah, magic. So useful.

[edgeofyourseat]

He tucks his face into the angle between her neck and shoulder, closes his eyes, and relaxes.

Star, star, star, star star star starstarstar—

[nonbird]

Lazarus makes a surprised sound.

[self_composed]

Bella throws a questioning glance at Lazarus while she wraps her arms around her boyfriend.

[nonbird]

"That wasn't a star," he says, staring at Alice's coin necklace, forgetting to blush in his fascination.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice opens his eyes.

Everything is so much more. Brighter, sharper, louder, with a depth and clarity that human senses could never achieve.

And out of all of them, the thing that's most is how much he loves Bella. It's the same as it was, but different. Bigger. Clearer. Deeper. Louder. Sharper. Brighter.

Grinning, he kisses her forehead. He's still hugging her, and the pressure of his arms is as delicate as you could want, but the kiss hits hard enough to bruise.

[nonbird]

...

Lazarus awwwwwwwwws.

[self_composed]

Bella permits a moment of snuggly distraction, though she winces at the excess kiss for the split second it takes before tingly painkilling regen fixes it.

Then: "Not a star?" She peers at Alice's chain of coins.

[nonbird]

"Not a star," Lazarus repeats. "Bigger than a star. I didn't know they came bigger than stars."

[edgeofyourseat]

The very last coin on the end of the long, long string of stars is eight-pointed, and unlike every other coin, it doesn't lie in a flat plane: its eight points are arranged so that you could draw a perfect cube between them, each four in a square. The hole through its centre has six openings.

"Whoa," says Alice.

[self_composed]

"Whoa is right," Bella says, pinching it between her fingers to hold it up and get a closer look at it. "Damn. This thing looks evil."

Alice can't see magic, or her coins; she spends the hex and the star to declaw the evil-looking thing right then without changing her expression at all. Used undeclawed, it would probably incinerate an entire planet, maybe send the Sun supernova. "I should probably hold onto this," she says anyway.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Take it," he says, kissing her forehead again. This time he gets it right. "Love you."

[self_composed]

She takes it, and most of the stars and hexes he's carrying too, and kisses his forehead too. "Love you."

[nonbird]

"Speaking of which," says Lazarus, "I think I would describe Alice's power and his vampire mate bond as... snuggling. Do they usually do that?"

[self_composed]

"Do mate bonds and powers usually snuggle?" Bella asks. "How would I know?"