miracle crystal dancing jewel, spin!

[incanted]

Bella goes to bed, happily exhausted. She can make stuff! Not a lot of stuff, not yet, but still. She will be able to solve Brilliance's food problem and if she can figure out how to scale up she will be able to solve the world's food problem.

The next day is, alas, also a school day. She bids Brilliance good morning while she brushes out her hair. +Hey you.+

Comments

[incanted]

+Good?+ she asks, glad she doesn't have to decide between asking that and kissing him.

[cardistry]

+So good. Way better than ice cream. I love you so much.+

[incanted]

+You're adorable.+

[cardistry]

+I am!+ he agrees cheerfully.

It's cuddle time, right? Brilliance strongly believes that it is cuddle time.

[incanted]

Bella agrees! Cuddle time. Yes.

[cardistry]

Cuddle tiiiiiiime. It's so cuddly!

[incanted]

That is why it's called that.

+That,+ says Bella, +was pretty swell.+

[cardistry]

+It was awesome! We're awesome. I love you.+

[incanted]

Bella kisses his temple.

[cardistry]

He makes a happy humming noise and snuggles up.

[incanted]

Eventually, Bella says, "We should probably put on our clothes and do some magic."

[cardistry]

"Okay," says Brilliance. He gathers up his clothes, shifts to deck form clothes and all, then shifts back into human form looking as reasonably tidy and not-like-he-just-had-great-sex as he usually does.

[incanted]

Bella laughs and takes a little longer to get into hers - although after she's got her bra on she says, "I don't suppose I can pull the same trick via some clever application of the Barrier Jacket?"

[cardistry]

"You know, I don't actually know," he says. "I feel like it would only work that way if it was the Barrier Jacket outfit that you took off and threw all over the ground." He grins. "Maybe you should do that next time."

[incanted]

This is the first implication that there might be more than one time. "Maybe. You're seeing this happening regularly?" Bella asks, shaking sand out of her T-shirt.

[cardistry]

"Well, yeah," he says. "I mean, if you want. I definitely plan on having sex again, but it doesn't have to be with you."

[incanted]

"Hmmm." Bella pulls her shirt over her head. Her jeans wound up on the corner of the picnic blanket and didn't wind up sandy, so that's more straightforward. "- I dunno. One time to see what it's like for fun, I can do that, I just did, I feel like if it's gonna be a recurring deal I'd want, like, labels, context, that sort of thing."

[cardistry]

"...Labels and context like what?" he wonders, flopping down on the blanket just because.

[incanted]

"Like, a boyfriend," says Bella.

[cardistry]

"Okay. What's a boyfriend?"

[incanted]

"Uh, are you starting from zero on knowing what it is or just soliciting clarification?"

[cardistry]

"I'm not starting from zero," he says, "but I've only ever heard of it in the context of humans and humans and I have no idea how I fit in, and I don't know what it means to you specifically either."

[incanted]

"Well, I mean, you're a person, in the relevant ways you work pretty much like a human," says Bella. "And I've never had one before so any definition I concoct is not stress-tested."

[cardistry]

"...I think maybe you need to pretend I'm starting from zero," he says, "because I still have no idea what being your boyfriend would mean, like, practically."

[incanted]

"...Okay, explaining humans to an alien mode engaged. So humans have all this emotional and cultural stuff that sits on top of sex and is also an end in itself. All the component bits are technically optional - including the sex, for some people - but common components several of which would generally be involved include, like, exchanging presents, and celebrating Valentine's Day because that's a couple thing, and exclusivity with the sex and/or the romance, and, like, emotional intimacy, and a sort of general courtship trajectory, and the relationship having a sort of public-facing aspect where the involved parties' loved ones know, and general life-event-support stuff, and defaulting to each other for situations where having a date is called for, and mutual prioritization in each other's lives, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff. And because all these things are optional, and because all these things can happen without people being technically officially together, there's a fuzzy zone that gets a line drawn through it and that line is called 'deciding to label this thing these people are doing "dating"'. Does that make sense?"