and a wolf will move among the lambs

[impetuous_force]

It's that afternoon after school when Bella next visits the Witchnook. (She already made another nighttime visit to pick up her powder, and it's safely stashed under the false bottom in the box full of notebooks under her bed.) This time she just needs beetle wings and a reasonably clear chunk of quartz. Her books and the goldvine bramble she ordered aren't in yet.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"But you never saw a precaution you didn't like," teases Angie, "so I guess you aren't reckless, then."

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock laughs.

[impetuous_force]

Time passes. The recruitment drive occurs after John Escott has been enrolled for two and a half weeks; a witch in a USADI uniform peers at Bella and appears about to ask her something before Bella asks if she'd be so kind, as long as she's here, to have a look at her good-luck-charm (this is what the quartz was for) and see if it's any good. The witch examines the charm, determines it the likely source of any magic Bella's giving off that she's noticed, and hands it back saying that it's reasonably well done but she hopes Bella didn't pay more than thirty dollars for it. Bella has gone three days without casting any spells prior to the drive, and enchanted the charm just before that, for just such an eventuality.

Going without magic makes her irritable, especially by day three, and maintaining a poker face with the uniformed witch takes about all she has. She hustles to the Witchnook after school to get fixings for a pick-me-up; the USADI drive is over with and no more witches who might want to draft her are going to encounter her anytime soon.

[eversomuchfun]

"You look like hell," Sherlock comments. "What can I get you?"

[impetuous_force]

"Ugh, I don't even know, I was going to just fix the sink but Renée called a plumber before I expected her to get around to it," growls Bella, scratching irritably at her scalp. "I could make another charm but who'm I going to give it to, you?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Keep it. Who can't use a little more luck?"

[impetuous_force]

"They'd be redundant with each other, somebody'd notice if I had an extra -" She starts scanning the shelves, biting her lip. "Fucking plumber, I could've done it, fucking Charlie, Renée'd be fine with it but he's worried and him being fucking worried only gets me into worse trouble, good job, father of the year - are you guys still out of potion-quality sage?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Yes, we still are. I could give a charm to Angie and pretend I've had it all along," he suggests.

[impetuous_force]

"She'll insist you keep it. I don't want you to have one, I don't like you, worst fucking night of my life when I met you."

[eversomuchfun]

"Tape it to her locker signed from a secret admirer with forged handwriting," he suggests next. "Or is that too convoluted?"

[impetuous_force]

"Pretty fucking convoluted and her dad's a suspicious ass sometimes, might get it looked at, might trace it - why don't you have any fucking potion quality sage, I could just make a healing potion, I like those, they're useful, they're a good dose, is it that hard to keep the damn stuff in stock -" She stalks up and down the aisles, scowling.

[eversomuchfun]

"The shipment was delayed. You could scry to see why," he says whimsically.

[impetuous_force]

"You are so fucking smug," she snaps, but she grabs a bottle of scrying water from the endcap and stalks to the register.

[eversomuchfun]

"It is among my many personal flaws."

He operates the register.

[impetuous_force]

Bella doesn't even dignify that with a response; she puts the bottle in her backpack - no disguise necessary; it just looks like a bottle of water - and almost leaves before she notices the cop car parked at the coffee shop across the street.

"Oh, fucking hell," she snarls.

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock looks.

"Ah."

[impetuous_force]

She stays inside the shop. She paces. "Ugh. He's going to find out eventually anyway - I should've stalled you a little longer till my alarm went off, he would've found you and I'd give him and a team halfway decent odds."

[eversomuchfun]

"I wouldn't," says Sherlock. "I like how it turned out much better."

[impetuous_force]

"Of course you do, you have me exactly where you felt like putting me, you're invincible, you're up to whatever you're up to and it's all going according to plan, why would you give a shit about me," she says, and then suddenly she's not scowling, she's crying, sitting on the floor of the shop hugging her knees.

[eversomuchfun]

"...My impulse is to hug you but I don't actually expect it to help," he says. "D'you want a tissue?"

[impetuous_force]

"Why the hell," she sniffs, "would you have the impulse to hug me?" She doesn't comment on the tissue either way.

[eversomuchfun]

"Never fucking mind," he mutters.

[impetuous_force]

"Seriously, what the hell, you - what the hell, why. Would it be interesting to see what I'd do if Recurring Nightmare Star hugs me, is that it?"

[eversomuchfun]

"No."

[impetuous_force]

"Maybe I've done something to fucking offend you and you suspect I wouldn't like it and your vindictive streak is operative and you could've had plausible deniability about it so I wouldn't call the US fucking ADI on you, come on, tell me," she says, rubbing at one eye.