She rubs her thumb in circles on the back of his hand. "Why wouldn't it be fine if it weren't fine?"

"I dunno," he says, leaning on her. "It's not like I've never done it before - I mean, I've never done enchanting, but I've done stuff that hurt. With the Jokers. And it was nice. But it still seems different."

"Different how?"

Wryly, "Well, you're not a Joker?"

"Yeah, but, the problem here probably isn't that I fail to be six feet tall, right? What non-Joker features do I have that make it different?"

"You're not - one of me," he says. "I want to trust you because I like you and I love you and if I can't I'm kind of fucked anyways, and I think I can trust you because you've never done anything that really made me think I couldn't, but that's different from knowing I can trust you because I know exactly how you work because I work the same way."

"And I guess it doesn't help that I do work the same way as eleven other people, most of whom have their own Jokers and enchant through them."

"Yeah. Like, that's evidence, but my feelings don't have to care about the evidence."

Bella nods, and sighs.

Brilliance hugs her.

Hugs.

Snuggly hugs.

"You could show me what you're feeling about it," she reminds him after a silence. "Maybe then I could help."

"...Help like how?"

"I'm pretty good at picking apart what I'm feeling. And making it go away if I'm sure I don't want it."

"I don't think I work the way you work," says Brilliance.

"Yeah. There's that."

"And I don't think you can make what I'm feeling go away. And I don't think it would help if you tried."

"I didn't mean - directly or anything."

"Yeah. I know. Even just talking, though. I don't really want to try it."

"Okay."

Yes. Hug.

"You're sweet."