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The school year ends. Bella's routine goes from wake - morgue - school - Giles - school - Giles - Sherlock - sleep to a version of same without the "school" parts, although she mostly keeps up with Giles via brainphone instead of in-person visits except when she needs to swap out stacks of books, and she hangs out studying and playing with fire in the house that is Jarvis a fair amount even during the day while Sherlock's sleeping. (Her schedule, unanchored by regular attendance at Sunnydale High and enticed by Sherlock's necessary nocturnality, shifts a few hours later, and Charlie has calmed down about the curfew issue; as long as she calls before eleven to report on her whereabouts and usually sleeps in her own bed, all is well.)
Long-term experimentation shows that, at least as long as she's not getting bloodily injured in regular fights with Los Angeles's demon population (and she can generally make it through unscathed, and now every supernatural creature in this hemisphere knows that the Slayer can set you on fire with her mind and some demons keel over with no visible injuries if she just looks at them), she can operate in fine and suitably Slayery condition while being nibbled on most days. It would probably not be a wise exercise for Sherlock to attempt to subsist solely on her, though, so the brick house does acquire a fridge and a microwave thanks to Sherlock's slightly stolen inheritance.
This afternoon, Bella is sitting in an armchair in the house that is Jarvis, reading about some neutral demon species and taking dutiful notes.
cross_and_bow
cross_and_bow
"I will certainly try to avoid marrying a Gvaribflerx." She makes a creditable attempt at pronunciation. "Met a Whistle, earlier," she says. "Found Milliways in my house, met the one with the Bell who hasn't been there herself yet. Sue, goes with Aegis. He wanted to walk around not-really-demon-hunting, we sparred in the back, he managed to give me a bloody nose so I figured I'd have a fine shot of returning him to his own Bell without him having been folded, spindled, or mutilated. Didn't find anything, though, and he woke up after a while."
cross_and_bow
"It didn't bleed all that much. By the time I got to Bar for tissues and peroxide it'd stopped. But yeah," she sighs tragically, "wasteful. Whatever, I've been completely fine on daily dessert duty for months now and I'm not even taking iron supplements, I don't think it'll make a difference. ...Possibly I should take iron supplements."
cross_and_bow
"You sure they won't make my flavor go off? You don't have dietary hangups, 'no added sugar' so to speak?"
cross_and_bow
She snorts. "I will buy some iron supplements next time I take a turn grocery shopping. Probably best not to send Charlie's mind to that place by putting it on his list."
eversomuchfun
"By all means, keep your father in ignorance. Otherwise he will probably shoot me again."
cross_and_bow
"I don't think he'd shoot you again, but he'd consider attempting to put you under arrest. He knows me well enough to know I wouldn't be buying iron supplements for nibbles I did not approve of, and he's not stupid, and he's - a dad. I think I'm under the age of consent for this state, and he doesn't know how far under same you are."
eversomuchfun
"And your father attempting to arrest me would not be a pleasant experience for anyone. I salute your wisdom."
cross_and_bow
"Probably for the best. He does not know where you live - although if he didn't just spontaneously try to arrest you, I suppose he could follow me here sometime - and I don't think you appear in the white pages."
eversomuchfun
"Anyway. If he shows signs of being inclined to arrest me for statutory nibbling, please inform him that I am not as old as I look."
cross_and_bow
"He might arrest me if I told him that. It has been repeatedly impressed on me that I get leeway for being trustworthy, not for being his kid."
cross_and_bow
She shrugs. "In this hypothetical scenario, he determines to his satisfaction that something's going on to warrant arrest, whether it's that specific or not. The thing that would make the arrested party not-you might make it me instead. Probably not gonna happen, though."
Minnie pops into visibility between the two of them, stunned. "Six?" she says. "Six?"
Minnie pops into visibility between the two of them, stunned. "Six?" she says. "Six?"
cross_and_bow
"What's a clone and how does that make you six and why didn't anyone tell me this before I ogled you in the shower?" exclaims Minnie.
"Minnie," sighs Bella. "How old are you?"
"Seventeen," says Minnie at once.
"Nope. You're a hundred."
"I'm obviously n-" Minnie is brought up short. "Ohhhhhh."
"Minnie," sighs Bella. "How old are you?"
"Seventeen," says Minnie at once.
"Nope. You're a hundred."
"I'm obviously n-" Minnie is brought up short. "Ohhhhhh."
eversomuchfun
"Likewise," says Sherlock, "I am obviously eighteen, but six is the number of years I have spent on this planet. It's just that the first two were spent growing at seven times the normal rate."
cross_and_bow
"Oh, fine," huffs Minnie. "You be eighteen, me and Bella be seventeen, and I will go right on ogling you. ...Unless you don't want me to. Then I'll stop."
cross_and_bow
Bella snickers. She's been getting in her fire-wand practices during the daytime, lately, so there is no need to waste valuable overlapping-awakeness-time on such things unless she happens to feel like that particular segue into - later activities. She puts her book aside and rolls up out of her chair. "Shall we?" she asks Sherlock.