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Bella looks up Tony Stark. (There's no reason not to.)
...Okay. He looks familiar. And his death those several months ago was really very suspicious, and she doesn't think anyone has been doing her morgue trick in New York City. And his more reclusive identical twin's body was never found at all. (If there was an identical twin, and not just Tony Stark theatrically pretending to be two people with mirrors or holograms or Photoshop and cooperative witnesses giving insistent interviews and then suddenly being dead and no longer able to pretend. There was, after all no sign of a twin before a sudden debut when he - they - was or were fifteen, and... "Sherlock Holmes", really? There's not even a hint of a twin in Tony's birth announcement, which she checks because that's the obvious thing to check.)
Come to think of it, Mr. Does Not Stick To Flypaper never introduced himself.
She supposes that his cute laser trick didn't work that well, if he got got. (But she saw it burn him. It's a clever weapon, should take almost no skill to wield a continuous beam - what kind of onslaught could have gotten around that?)
Nothing about her routine changes in response to this information.
Until several days later when she's crossing another neighborhood (seventeen to go) and - he just keeps popping up, doesn't he?
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cross_and_bow
cross_and_bow
"It would be a waste of time for me to leave a bag of blood outside for you at sunset and for you to run it back to your 'regrettable little hotel' to microwave it, regardless," says Bella. "I may as well take care of that." (She can always hold her nose. She owns clothespins.) "Acknowledging that microwaves may vary, how much do you need and how long do I nuke it?"
eversomuchfun
"A jar a night and two minutes seems to be about the right answer. I haven't been eating this way for very long."
cross_and_bow
"Sure. Do you need any now - or, no, you wouldn't, you said it was your fridge, not your microwave. Leave the backpack on the driveway and I'll come take it in."
cross_and_bow
She comes downstairs, fetches a grocery bag, goes outside, and opens the bag. (She doesn't trust him perfectly yet - but she thinks it would offend anyone's sense of anticlimax at this point to kill her with a trapped bag.) She unzips it, peers inside, verifies that it contains labeled jars of blood, and transfers the jars to the bag so he can keep his backpack. She runs them into the kitchen, reorganizes the vegetable crisper, and puts the bag in next to the leftover turkey. She puts a sticky note on it that says "ASSORTED ANIMAL BLOOD - SHERLOCK'S FRIDGE BROKE - YES DAD I AM BEING SAFE THANKS" and then grabs her messenger bag and heads out to start the evening.
eversomuchfun
As soon as she's outside again, Sherlock tips her a cheerful salute and engages lurk mode.
He's probably still there. (It varies how perceptible he is when he follows her, but he has never yet failed to appear on command.)
He's probably still there. (It varies how perceptible he is when he follows her, but he has never yet failed to appear on command.)
cross_and_bow
It kind of weirds her out, but as long as he also never fails to appear from the requisite distance, she can appreciate the sense of it.
She hasn't been handling neighborhoods in any systematic pattern. She wants to inconvenience vampires, not herd them into a specific more-comfortable patch of town. The next one on her list is within easy walking distance. Scratch stuff paint paint scratch. She's tempted to whistle. She doesn't.
She hasn't been handling neighborhoods in any systematic pattern. She wants to inconvenience vampires, not herd them into a specific more-comfortable patch of town. The next one on her list is within easy walking distance. Scratch stuff paint paint scratch. She's tempted to whistle. She doesn't.
cross_and_bow
A pair of demons - Sherlock may recognize them from the other night, but they're passing for human, and walk right over Bella's crosses - do whistle. And head in Bella's direction. She looks around, but when they go by a scratched fire hydrant, she doesn't pull out her crossbow.
eversomuchfun
Well.
Just yet, appearing would probably do her more harm than good. So he doesn't.
Just yet, appearing would probably do her more harm than good. So he doesn't.
cross_and_bow
"You probably wanna go home this time of night," Bella tells them.
(Yep. Completely devoid of supernatural senses.)
"I don't count, my dad's chief of police and I get left alone, but -"
The demon on the left can't pass for human anymore after he grins and bares sharp teeth.
Out comes the crossbow.
(Yep. Completely devoid of supernatural senses.)
"I don't count, my dad's chief of police and I get left alone, but -"
The demon on the left can't pass for human anymore after he grins and bares sharp teeth.
Out comes the crossbow.
eversomuchfun
Well.
His services are not technically required just yet. But he prepares to act the very instant that they are.
His services are not technically required just yet. But he prepares to act the very instant that they are.
cross_and_bow
They're fast. Bella's faster, but there are two of them, and if they have hearts they aren't conventionally located. They don't go down after her first hit, or her second - and now they know something's up with their intended prey, and they advance faster, increasingly pincushioned but barely slowed down.
"Sherlock?" she squeaks as she runs out of bolts in this quarrel and trots away, backwards, reaching into her bag for the next.
"Sherlock?" she squeaks as she runs out of bolts in this quarrel and trots away, backwards, reaching into her bag for the next.
eversomuchfun
The moment that she speaks coincides almost exactly with the moment that Sherlock abandons concealment and charges.
Four seconds later both demons are dead.
Four seconds later both demons are dead.
cross_and_bow
Bella's breathing hard more out of emotion than exhaustion. "N-nicely done," she says.
eversomuchfun
"You're welcome," he says lightly. "I remember these fellows from the incident the other day; I didn't want to connect us in their minds until I was sure I needed to kill them both."
cross_and_bow
"I don't think most kinds of demons eat people the way vampires do. What did they want with me?" Bella wonders, putting a new quarrel into her crossbow before she stashes it in her messenger bag again.
cross_and_bow
"The person they killed before was also a woman, wasn't she?" Bella asks, frowning. "Did she have any other notable features? How old was she?"
eversomuchfun
"Now that you mention it, she was almost exactly your height," he says. "Otherwise unalike—older, browner, not a student, not connected to the police in any obvious way. The height may or may not be a coincidence."
cross_and_bow
"Okay. I'll ask Charlie to keep an eye out and see if anyone turns up dead of barbecue-fork-unrelated causes, especially if they're similar to her in cause of death. If they're not just playing around there might be some connection and we can figure out what they're doing."
eversomuchfun
"Sounds reasonable."
Cause of death in that woman's case was mainly teeth, as he recalls from his brief glimpse.
Cause of death in that woman's case was mainly teeth, as he recalls from his brief glimpse.
cross_and_bow
"The barbecue fork thing was really ridiculous before I showed up. I can't even figure out why this town is inhabited," mutters Bella, looking at the demon bodies. "Hm. I don't have a procedure for dealing with these. The vampires take care of themselves."
eversomuchfun
"Never underestimate the human capacity for denial. Do you object to just leaving them here?"
cross_and_bow
"I suppose I can explain them to Dad and he can either make something up or nudge it towards being the thousandth annual unsolved murder of something not found in any biology textbook," she says. "Didn't they have friends, though? Are they more likely to do unpleasant things to one or the other of us if they find the bodies?"