Sherlock is usually very puncutal. He's only one minute late, but that's still not quite as punctual as usual. Bella peers out the window, not yet allowing herself outright concern.
Fair Juliet, meet floor.
"Oof."
"Mm, fun and educational," giggles Bella on the next occasion when her mouth is free. She squirms a little, not really trying to get up.
"I've a sudden impulse to turn this into a tickle fight," Sherlock observes, but in fact only kisses her again.
Juliet giggles. She opines neither way on the tickle fight.
Kisses are very interesting indeed. (And this time she doesn't even have a split lip getting in the way of enjoying them; that was closed overnight and no longer tender by the time she got finished at the morgue and went on to school.)
Also, kisses. Kisses are fun.
It really is late. Bella squirms, puts on one of those unsustainable bursts of strength, and flips him over. One more kiss, and she's up on her feet again, bouncing restlessly in spite of a yawn.
"Home we go," yawns Bella, donning cross and bag and offering her hand for holding.
He takes her hand and kisses it before he starts walking. Because he can.
They encounter a demon on their way home! It has been hiding in some shrubbery, although Sherlock might notice it anyway before it jumps out and jogs towards them. It seems extremely confused. It also seems hungry.
Indeed he does, and as the demon exits the shrubbery, Sherlock kisses her hand again and says, "Shall I take care of this one, love?"
"Let's see how I do," she says after a quick check for onlookers. "I recognize this one," she adds, stepping in front of them and leaping at the demon. "Long - unpronounceable -" The demon fights back, but she's faster - "name with - lotta H's in - and you have to -" She pulls off a sacrifice throw; the demon goes flying and she rolls up to her feet again - "twist anything you wanna -" She uses its attempt at an uppercut to vault to stand on its shoulders and grab hold of its head. "Remove," she says, twisting. "Also they eat human livers and they dissolve into soap bubbles when they die!" she adds, sounding like a tour guide on a tame safari ride while she hops off its shoulders and drops the removed head onto the rest of its collapsing (and indeed dissolving) body.
"The soap bubbles thing is convenient," she says. (She's taken to carrying a water bottle to practices and she didn't drink it all tonight; she pours a little on the dissoluble demon to help it along with running down a storm drain.) "These guys sometimes travel in packs but a pack would've joined us by now. Thank you, Mr. Giles's Stalling For Time Homework. Anyway. Onward."
"I could've been fighting with that thing for an hour before trying the twisting thing," agrees Bella, interlacing their fingers.
"Was that thing unusually incompetent or am I just awesome? Trying to determine a timeline for appearing at a demon nest and letting some of them live for worldwide symbolic power. I'd rather emerge from same with all my limbs. In fact, all my digits, too, I'm fond of those. I might want to drive to L.A. first if there's a good place to find demons there, so not everyone who wants to prove themselves by taking on the Slayer descends on my hometown."
"Buy mask with good visibility, drive to L.A., possibly this weekend, slay some, turn others into the demonic equivalent of the panicked media," says Bella, mostly to herself.
"As awesome as you in fact are, I still feel like I should accompany you in case of mischance," says Sherlock.
"It's a few hours each way and hotels aren't free; how much would you object to traveling in the back of my pickup under a tarp?"