"You going to conjure me the Princess's golden bubbly as needed or should I fill up from the slaughterhouse before we go?"
"Dramatically tastier, yeah, thanks babe. Better than human average, not better than singer," says Nathan.
And then grins.
"Wonder if I could magic me better than that. Would that be fun, sweetie?"
"Babe," says Nathan, "I found a singer two times in my life, and if you get even that tasty, let alone better, you will never be able to pry my teeth out of you even by asking nicely, even if I keep my air filter, without magic. That kind of thing competes on a level with mate bonds. The Empress is alive because the the Emperor was already thoroughly into self-denial when he ran into her and anyone else would've eaten his mate."
"So I won't be that tasty all the time," he says. "Still, would it be fun?"
"Well, it'd be delicious and bitey," says Nathan.
And he squares himself some clothes, and kisses Nathan, and finally gets out of bed.
Nathan puts on his jeans from yesterday's brief meeting with the Empress (basically intact) and a new polo shirt (the flannel is hopeless) and cheerfully follows his mate's lead.
"If we're going to leave Safesun and walk to Jacksonville or wherever," says Nathan as they approach its edges, "I need daywalking clothes at a minimum - big stupid hat, sleeves past my fingertips - magic disguise barring that. This little problem being why Safesun is called that."
"I can magic you unsparkly," shrugs the Joker. "And make it so you can turn it on and off at will. Would that be nice?"
"That would be very nice," agrees Nathan.
"You're pretty this way, too," he muses.
"Vampire thing. We get renovated a little when we turn. Her Majesty's prettier than that alt of hers," Nathan points out. "I don't remember much about being a human but I remember being surprised when I saw my reflection for the first time after I changed. Said, 'Wait, I've always been the ugliest cuss this side of the Abyss.'"
"There's pretty and there's pretty," he says. "This face doesn't get many takers, lemme tell ya."
"How'd it come to be cut up like that, anyway? I mean, I don't mind, but I'm magically besotted, I wouldn't be a bit less inclined to jump you if you didn't have a face."
"Did it myself," he explains. "There was a whole getup. That suit you tore off me yesterday was part of the same deal. The Joker."
"Bit far to go for a persona," observes Nathan.
"I suppose you must like them or you'd've wished them away by now."
"I do," he says happily. "I love all my scars. Some of 'em would really make you sad, though, if I told you how I got 'em."
"My scars all have the same story. 'Fought with a vampire, he got his teeth into me'. Occasionally a 'she'. I wasn't so good with my timer in the early days, and now I don't get into fights. D'you want me to know your stories?"