"Mm-hm. How surprising do you want it? If you decide you don't like it you can still undo the effects, as long as you determine that you want to do that smart quick, but I could also tell you what it is and let you self-administer."

"Mm... surprise me," he decides.

Bella stabs him in the side of the neck and pushes the plunger. And makes a small wish for an exception to his regen, just in case it would dislike the results.

Bella is quite happy to hug him back. "You want me to tell you or you wanna see if you can guess?"

"I have no idea. Tell me," he says.

"Vampire venom," Bella says, singsong.

"...I love you so much," he says, hugging her again. "Fuck, how long's it gonna do this for?"

"Oh, it'll take a couple hours to spread everywhere, and then you have just shy of three days before it stops your heart, which I'm told is the worst part," Bella grins. "I did warn you that it'd need to be a time when you had no plans for a while."

"Three days. I want to make out with you right now," he declares.

[Okay!] she says, by brainphone, because she's kissing him. [Oh, one thing. The Imperial Soothsayer would've warned me if this wasn't going to work, but you should be informed - I'm going to install a human-specific air filter on your person so you aren't uncontrollably desirous of eating most people you meet.] She tries it. [...Or maybe I'm not. That's annoying, that's one of the things I asked Alice to check, why wouldn't she have said anything...?]

[It's my power, right? Maybe it's being a capricious asshole and it wasn't going to kick up a fuss but it is anyway...? Or... man, I don't know, can't think, too horny.]

[Lazarus said your power wouldn't do anything you wouldn't want it to. Assuming it's that - do you object to not wanting to eat people?]

[Adjustable filter, if you meet someone who wants to be considered edible you can take it down for them alone?] Bella suggests. [But I cannot approve actual human-blood-drinking, that permanently dings vampire self-control. So it'd have to be Bridget, or somebody magicked to work like her if she finds the idea creepy.]

[Sure, fine,] he agrees. [Dammit, it'd probably fuck up the vampire thing if I set myself on fire right now, wouldn't it.]

[Well, I don't actually know, so you probably shouldn't try it,] Bella says.

[Okay, I won't. But I really want to,] he says, only partly complaining.

Some time later, when the venom's everywhere and Alice's vascular system (among other things) is being replaced with something venom-based, they are snuggling snugly.

[And I can stop worrying about that changing,] Bella sighs happily. [That being the other thing I had the Seer check.]

[...What, really? You're making me a vampire because you want me to be in magic vampire love with you forever?]

[No, I'm making you a vampire 'cause I thought you'd like it. But I wouldn't have if you weren't going to wind up stuck on me, since falling in magical love with people is an occupational hazard of vampirism and can't be ruled out for arbitrary possible people until the person in question has already been identified.]

Bella decides to fall asleep for a bit.

[I can be there,] he says.

"Mmmmmnf," says Alice, grinning slowly. "I feel like I'm gettin' run over by a train. A train that's on fire. Love you, love you, love you."

"Love you," Bella replies, kissing his forehead.

He smiles and tips his face up toward her.

Bella magics herself immune to venom and related substances and vampire bites, and kisses him on the mouth. He is not as warm and soft as he once was, but they can freely vary that whenever they like with magic, and he's not exactly unpleasant to kiss even like so.

Mmmmm snuggly kisses. [Love you.]

[So where, exactly, should I be, besides on the moon?] inquires Lazarus.

[The habitable part of the moon,] Bella specifies. [Third floor, coming from the stairwell second door on the left.]

[Got it.]

"Here comes company," Bella says, tracing a line with her finger from Alice's cheek down to his flailing heart.

"Goodie," says Alice.

Bella sits back on her heels and waits.

"He's been pouring stars for the last three days, it makes him all affectionate," Bella says, smirking.

"I... I can see that," says Lazarus. "I really can; your coins are visible from the ground floor."

"Are they pretty?" Bella asks innocently.

"They're stars," he says, shrugging, and sidles into the room as though he expects to be attacked by the cuddle monster at any moment.

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

"Yes, but will he hug me?"

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

Silence.

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

"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?"

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

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

"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.

"Mm," says Alice, and hugs her.

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

Lazarus makes a surprised sound.

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

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

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

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

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

"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?"

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

"I have no idea. But it's very cute," he says. "It looked, right when you opened your eyes," he says to Alice, "like your power was suspicious, and the mate bond just... was itself at it, and then your power decided it was okay and snuggled up."

"Aww!"

"That's precious," giggles Bella. "We'll take you to the Golden Empire next time we get an in there and you can see if anybody else's mate bond snuggles with their witchcraft."

"I don't think it will, actually," he says. "Most people's powers aren't about the same things as Alice's. But I definitely want to see."

"I bet you'd love having a brain like this," Alice says to Bella. "It's not just faster, it's bigger."

"Yeah, I'm serial, not parallel," Bella muses. "Next time I want an upgrade I'll go... horizontal, so to speak."

"I'm gonna go hug Lazarus now," Alice announces, and disentangles himself very carefully from Bella.

Bella giggles. "So cute."

"Yes he is," says Lazarus, hugging back.

"It's weird hugging somebody I can't smell properly," says Alice. "Do you squish?" He squeezes a little bit tighter. "Nope, you don't. You are unsquishable."

"You aren't any less able to smell humans than you were before," Bella says. "Although I suppose it's comparing against everything else."

"My nose thinks he's not really here," he says, and lets go, and turns to investigate the bubbly stuff.

Lazarus blinks after him.

"When I said we'd arranged for him not to eat people," Bella says, "I meant that he's got a human-specific air filter so he doesn't instinctively lunge for the carotid just from being in the room with us. But since you've got your defense on, if the idea of Alice ineffectually gnawing on you happens to amuse, say the word and he can turn it down."

...He looks like he may be considering it.

Alice interrupts himself mid-drink to singsong, "You waaaaaant me nibbling on you, don't lie."

"Shush," says Lazarus.

"Poking the repressed ingot isn't very nice, Alice," Bella says serenely. "How's the bubbly? There might be other kinds, this is just what Elspeth brings home from Milliways."

"It's tasty, I like it," he says. "Can I make you unsquishable for a bit so I can hug you?"

"Sure," says Bella.

He spends a hex to make Bella impervious to squishing in a way that is fully at her discretion to control, and then scoops her up and twirls her around and hugs her as hard as he possibly can.

"Eee!" laughs Bella, extricating one arm from the squeeze to put over his shoulder and have some measure of control of how she's held up.

"What, in front of Lazarus? I'm already reading you, and opening up the details sometimes has side effects," laughs Bella.

He flutters a hand at Lazarus. "Shoo unless you want a threesome."

Blushing even more than he already was, Lazarus shoos.

"You didn't wanna wait and see if he was gonna take you up on ineffectual gnawing?" Bella asks, but then she prods at the emotion-blob and takes a moment to breathe oddly and ramp up her speed to process inhuman levels of muchness. "Oh dosage control issues hello," she says weakly.

"Dosage control?"

"Yes, dosage control, I am figuring out a parallel-ness upgrade for my brain now," Bella says, closing the emotion-blob with a great effort of will.

"Bella, are you getting high on how much I love you?"

"I might be getting braindead on how much you love me. Elspeth can do that, if she blasts people with too much vampire-mind," Bella says. "I already got kinda high on it, and if it gets anywhere near dangerous I'd start to worry about my ingot power deciding the mindreading's dangerous like my alt's witchcraft decided Elspeth was dangerous."

"That would be bad. I'd hate to have you not read me anymore," he says, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and kissing her forehead. "Will the brain upgrade help?"

"Better?" he asks.

Also a good thing that Bella is unsquishable.