+We'll be going any minute, I've been dithering staring at this hair elastic trying to figure out how to get the glass droplet onto it, I probably don't even have time left for an actual breakfast and will just grab cold poptarts on the way out.+

He laughs. +Lemme at the hair elastic.+

Bella trots downstairs, puts the hair elastic on the kitchen table, checks the time, and puts her poptarts in the toaster.

Brilliance picks up the hair elastic; his spell diagram unfolds beneath him. The hair elastic comes apart at the join. He holds it out to Bella. "Put the bead on it, I'll join it back up."

"Cool. Is this repeatable without a new spell if I accumulate more?" she asks, stringing on the bead.

"Nope," he laughs, reuniting the ends for her and letting go of the elastic. His spell diagram goes away. "But the matter manipulation was pretty tiny, I didn't even need to incant for it."

"Cool." She tests the stretch; it will go on her wrist and hold up a ponytail. "Thanks!" And she spins on the ball of one foot towards the toaster when it pops, and plates her poptarts and breaks one in half and hands him a piece.

+Thought you might.+

"Come on, Bella," calls Lexi from where she's putting on her shoes, "we'll be late!"

Bella holds her poptarts in her mouth, ties her shoes, and follows her sister out the door. +C'mon!+

+But food!+ he laughs.

+Well, all right, finish your half a tart and when you're done warn us before teleporting into the car,+ laughs Bella.

+Will do!+

Off drive the Swan twins.

A few minutes later, he says to both of them, +Okay, I'm good to go.+

+Okay, c'mere.+

He teleports into Bella's lap.

Brilliance remains comfortably in her pocket the whole time.

School ends; Lexi goes home with Jessica today and Bella drives home alone. "Leaning towards yes, but on the condition that you don't inform - by any channel of information, no insinuations or meaningful looks or significant pauses - Lexi or Charlie. It'd be their business if I acquired a boyfriend, but if I'm just having sex one time because it sounds like it might be pleasant that's another matter."

"...Okay," he says. "I'll try not to. I don't actually know how good a liar I am. That good enough?"

"Well, you don't really have a lot of conversations with them anyway, so the standard for how good a liar you have to be isn't high, and anyway I don't mean lying. Like, literally no one in the world has had sex with me, and also literally no one in the world goes around stating, 'I have not had sex with Bella Swan! No sir!', so, you know, that is not exactly the form that discretion takes here."

"I mean I don't know how good I am at pretending something isn't true when I know it is," he says. "I haven't really had to do much of it before. I don't know how I might accidentally let somebody know, but if I don't know how then it's harder not to do it, see what I mean?"

"Well, default to magephone when we're not alone? You do that anyway, it won't look weird."