"I - I broke Sherlock's Patronus. I was explaining it to him and - he can't even get an owl now, let alone a person."

"...that's not good," says Feral. "Wow. How'd that work?"

"I don't know!"

He hugs her.

"But I guess I'd better not try to explain to anyone else, huh?" mumbles Bella into his shoulder, hugging him. "You were lucky, Sherlock wasn't - I don't know what the odds anybody else will be are. I don't want to break Tony's or anybody else's. Regular Patronuses are better than nothing."

"Yeah. Maybe he'll get it back sometime but I don't know, he probably just tried and tried all night after I fell asleep without a break, if it was going to come back he might've managed it then."

"Maybe I should try helping him," says Feral. "I mean - it's hard to imagine how much worse it could get from here."

"Maybe," says Bella uncertainly.

"Like, if you can think of a way I could actually fuck him up any worse, I won't," says Feral. "But the damage is done now, and if we can fix it we might as well try, right?"

"I mean - ask him if he thinks more trying could get the owl back, I guess," says Bella. "I don't think there are other spells that work on the same principle, or anything."

"Yeah. Or something. I dunno. I'll talk to him sometime."

Bella nods. "It was such a cute owl. It sat on my finger."

Feral smiles sadly. "Yeah."

"I didn't know it was even possible to break somebody's Patronus," she says in a small voice.

He hugs her again.

Hugs.

Yes. Those. Hugs are good.