He doesn't immediately acknowledge her presence. It's possible he didn't hear her; he definitely didn't see her, huddled up like that with his face pressed into his knees.

"...D'you want me to wake up Bella for you?" Lexi asks.

He sniffles, and shudders, and looks up at her, and nods.

Lexi goes back up the stairs.

+I got cut. With a knife. That part wasn't so bad,+ he says. +What happened afterward - that was bad.+

Bella sits next to him on the floor. +Would - this be a good time for me to try a healing spell -?+

+I have a repair function, the incantation's 'Restore', I'm just too fucked up to cast it right now,+ he says.

+Can I do it for you, will that work?+ she asks. +God, what happened, Brilliance?+

+I think it will,+ he says, hugging his knees. +You can try it.+

"Restore," Bella incants in a low voice, mindful in case the spell - function - whatever - requires any more attention than will and word.

"Oh my god," Bella breathes aloud.

+Brilliance - I don't understand - how - you can teleport, I would've warned you about sticking to decent neighborhoods or - or something if I didn't figure you'd just be able to teleport if anything happened -+ She threads her fingers through his hair. +How -+

+By the time I knew I didn't wanna be there I just - couldn't,+ he says helplessly. +Teleporting's not simple. I mean - it is most of the time, but not - not then.+

Bella pets his hair. +I'm so sorry.+

He cries into her lap.

Petting and petting and petting. +Is there anything I can do?+

+I don't know.+ He resettles a little, not clinging so much, now just resting his head in her lap and hugging himself. +You're already helping.+

She settles her hands in his hair and leans her head back onto the sofa behind her and closes her eyes. +If there is anything, will you tell me?+

+Don't be sorry. You don't have to be sorry. Can we fix it, though, this'd be kind of a mess to explain to Charlie?+

+Fuck, I don't know,+ he says. +You've been getting pretty good at matter manipulation - I bet you could do it with a long-form incantation.+

Bella hugs him back nice and snug. +I'm so sorry.+

He presses his face into her shoulder and sighs, +I love you.+

Bella leans her head back on the sofa again. And closes her eyes again. +I'll wake Lexi if I go back up. I'm gonna sleep here. Can you - wake me up at six? In three hours? Please?+

+Sure,+ he says, cuddling up.

+Thanks,+ slurs Bella, and she nestles her head into a sofa cushion and sighs and sleeps.

Bella shifts and yawns awake. +Morning, Brilliance.+ She lifts her head and winces and rubs the back of her neck.

+G'morning,+ he says, hugging her.

One-armed hug because she has an awful crick in her neck. +Hope I didn't pester you talking in my sleep.+

+Nah, it was cute.+

+Okay. How're you doing? Do you need anything? I don't know what to do for you.+

+I think... I don't wanna be cards again for a while,+ he says. +I'll go wander around your planet while you're in school.+

+Okay. Be careful? Please? I don't want anything else bad to happen to you.+

He sighs, and hugs her.

Hugs. +Please.+

+I'll try,+ he says.

+Ooh, pancakes.+

+Yeah. You want chocolate chips or apple or banana slices on yours?+

+Is this an inclusive or?+

+I can make you one with each. There's not really enough surface area on a pancake to effectively combine them.+

He grins. +Go for it! I love you.+

+You keep saying that,+ muses Bella, and she starts peeling an apple. This job goes much faster when she doesn't have to worry about slipping.

+It keeps being true,+ says Brilliance.

Bella thinly slices the apple, peels a banana, slices that too. +Does it bother you that I don't say it back?+

+Nope.+

+Okay, that's good then.+ Bella gets out a bag of miniature chocolate chips, and then measures wet ingredients into her pancake batter.

Lexi wanders down the stairs. "What was up last night?" she asks.

+You want to answer her or should I?+

+You can.+

+Okay, but do I tell her what actually happened or be vague about it?+ Bella eats an apple slice to cover for her lack of immediate reply.

+You can tell her what actually happened,+ he says, rubbing his face with both hands.

Bella picks up her pancake batter bowl and moves closer to Lexi and murmurs in her ear, very softly.

"Oh my God," says Lexi, less softly. "But why wouldn't -"

"Because teleporting's not simple," murmurs Bella.

He sighs.

Bella deems her batter stirred enough. She gets a pat of butter and plops it into the frying pan and turns on the stove.

"Are... you okay?" Lexi asks Brilliance haltingly.

"Probably not."

Lexi obviously didn't think that far ahead.

Bella dollops batter into three spots on the frying pan. "There's only so much that can be done," she murmurs.

He smiles wryly. "And there's pancakes! My life can't be all bad if there's pancakes in it."

"There will be pancakes very soon," agrees Bella. She spreads fruit slices on two of them and sprinkles chocolate chips on a third; apparently this batch is for Brilliance. She eyes the frying batter critically, then flips them, one-two-three.

Brilliance beams.

Bella gets out plates, and slices another pat of butter for the next batch of cakes, and peers under the edge of the banana pancake with a nudge of her spatula, and taps her foot, and then plates the pancakes, one, two, three. "Syrup in the fridge if you want it," she tells him, and she melts the new butter. "Lexi, apples, bananas, chocolate?"

"Apples," says Lexi, sitting down. "Thanks."

Lexi gets her stack of apple pancakes in due time, and by then Charlie has wandered in, pleasantly surprised. He gets the rest of the banana slices on his pancakes, and Bella makes herself two apple and one chocolate.

Nom nom nommmmmmm.

The twins finish eating, and pack up, and go to school. Partway through the day, Bella notifies Brilliance by magephone that she won't be home till about five, as she is going home with Angela, +and I do want to be her friend and that implies a certain amount of hanging out.+ When Bella gets home, she fixes dinner, and then the family plus Brilliance eats, and then there is some time for magic practice before it is the girls' bedtime.

Magic practice, yay!

"You cast a barrier," he says. "Shouldn't need much of one if it's just for yourself. Barriers are what make things invisible; what's outside can't see what's inside. There's no incantation, but I bet you can do it anyway."

Lexi is crumpled in a shape humans do not healthily occupy, passed out, a heap of parka and tangled brown hair.

"I - fell? Why'd I fall?" Pause. "Thanks for fixing me."

"Dunno," he says. "I didn't see. Maybe you ran out of mana; you've been flying for a while."

"Is that a thing? Bella didn't tell me that was a thing." Lexi sits up, slowly, and shivers a little and gets to her feet.

"That's a thing," says Brilliance. "Wonder why she didn't."

"I guess she didn't - think I'd do a lot of magic?" Lexi tests her footing, and heads for the door. "I wasn't going to really - didn't plan this - thanks for fixing me -"

This time, he says, "You're welcome."

"Like, I know you don't like me that much, and you fixed me anyway."

He shrugs. "I don't not like you. And Bella would've been all kinds of fucked up."

"I'll tell her what happened. In the morning," yawns Lexi. And she pads to the stairs.

Brilliance goes back to his spot on the living room floor.

In the morning Bella charges down the stairs to hug him. Hard.

"Hi," he says, hugging back.

"Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you, I can't believe I didn't warn Lexi about mana, I didn't think she was going to decide to fly for hours in the middle of the night, thank you thank you thank you."

"God, I would've been destroyed - if she'd gotten herself killed - god. I'm happy that I'm not destroyed over her, is what I'm happy about."

"I'm happy you're not destroyed too," he murmurs.

Hugs hugs hugs hugs.

Lots of hugs!

"I love you," says Brilliance.

"Don't say that out loud in front of Charlie ever, he'll be badly confused." She ruffles Brilliance's hair and gets up to make eggs-and-cheese.

Bella fixes eggs. Charlie wakes up and starts puttering around. Lexi lurches out of bed just barely in time to bolt down some of the scramble and hop into the car, letting Bella drive since Bella got a full night's sleep. Off they go.

"...What the fuck," says Brilliance.

The elf version of Bella twitches in response to the sound of his voice, like she can't decide if she likes it or not, and she opens her eyes and looks around. Her gaze passes over him several times before it settles there. And then she stares at him, and the echoes of very, very slow thoughts pass over her face.

"Right back atcha," says Brilliance.

"...Last I checked, yeah," says Brilliance.

Elf-Bella closes her eyes and bows her head.

"No."

"Wanna talk about it?"

This appears to be too complex a question for Elf-Bella. She blinks at him.

"...Wanna hug?"

"I - don't know," says Elf-Bella. "What I want. Anymore."

"That sucks," says Brilliance.

Elf-Bella thinks about this, and then nods, once, slowly.

"I'm sorry," says Brilliance.

Elf-Bella nods that slow nod again.

"You're a human," she observes back, less accurately.

"Nope. I'm a magical device. I'm just human-shaped right now. I can be other shapes too."

"Oh." She closes her eyes, smiles a little ghost of a smile. "He's a demon. Also a dragon. You look like the demon part."

Brilliance grins. "Cool. What's the dragon part look like?"

"He's pretty," he says admiringly.

"Yes. So pretty," the elf sighs.

"What happened to you?"

"They - they can't help it," she murmurs. "They try, they try not to - they can't help it."

"Can't help what," says Brilliance.

"The Bond, that's how it works, they can't help it, I had to, I knew it would hurt me but we did what we had to do first, the world is safe," murmurs the elf.

"Now that sounds familiar," he sighs.

"And now we're still Bonded and it's till I die and they can't stop," the elf whispers, "except when they sleep, and the dragon can sleep a thousand years but the demon can't, and when he's awake and I'm awake and neither of us concentrates - then - he reads my mind - and I can't think anymore, it hurts to think."

"He's asleep, now," she murmurs. "He might be able to sleep for a sennight. Sometimes he can. It used to help. It doesn't help as much anymore."

"I'm sorry," he murmurs.

"He is too. He wished I let the king kill him, last year -"

"I can see why."

"The unicorn stopped him." She shakes her head. "And I love them, and - and I love them."

"Seems like it'd be easier on you if you didn't."

"If anyone has to look at me like that at least it's them," she murmurs.

"Yeah," he says, "but if you didn't love 'em couldn't you just have let him kill himself?"

"I. I don't - think - we could have Bonded if we weren't going to love each other." She picks her way through this sentence like molasses, looking at her dragon drawing.

"Too bad for all of you, I guess."

"Mine's Brilliance," says Brilliance. "And my you is Bella."

"I'm Isibel."

He nods.

Isibel traces the lines of her dragon drawing with one finger gently, idly.

Brilliance watches.

Isibel has done more thinking in the last ten minutes than she usually does in a week. She closes her eyes and hums vacantly.

He doesn't really want to stay here, but he doesn't really want to leave her alone, either. He's sure this place would be fascinating if he didn't have something more important on his mind.

"G'night," he sighs.

Isibel picks up his hand, and presses her cheek to it, and sighs, and then lets him go and pauses for a moment before remembering to pick up her book and pen. She goes to the door, and opens it, and goes out.