"...I'm not sure if that makes any sense," says Bella.

"I don't think you're going to hurt me," he attempts to explain, "not on purpose anyway, but the way I feel when I think about sticking around is still the way I'd feel if I wasn't sure."

"Hmm." Bella leans back in her chair. "I'm pretty good at picking apart my own feelings but I don't know if I'd be any help with yours."

"...Dunno what I think of that," says Brilliance.

She shrugs. "It's nothing spooky, I just write about what I'm thinking in a notebook and then it's all laid out to look at, not so slippery. If you want to turn into something that can write and borrow a notebook you can do that, but I don't think it usually accomplishes anything for people who aren't me for some reason."

"Yeah, doesn't sound like my game," says Brilliance. "I don't know... if I did stick around, I mean for a while, if I wanted to be - partners, what would that be like?"

"I'd ask you lots of questions about magic," Bella says. "And do experiments to fill in what you didn't know. And try to figure out the most efficient way to be constructive with it. And probably eventually I'd look for other magic people and ask them questions, and I'd try to find a Device who'd partner up with Lexi so she could help more effectively, and maybe look for other magic people who'd be on board with the general program. Also I'd try to become immortal."

"That... doesn't sound so bad," says Brilliance cautiously.

"I'd hope not," says Bella.

He snorts.

"But then again I don't know what your other options look like. Maybe you don't want to be busy, or you'd get sick of doing science to magic after a few days, or you do like to be busy to the point where you'd be annoyed by downtime caused by me having to sleep and attend school and stuff."

"I don't really know how I feel about being busy," he says. "I think I'd be fine as long as I could take a break whenever I wanted."

"I'd take it amiss if I were all out of my own mana and a mile in the air and you took a break right then," Bella says.

"I'm not gonna drop you," he giggles. "I'd at least get you home first."

"So for reasonable values of 'whenever', yeah, of course."

"Okay," says Brilliance.

"Cool. I guess I don't have to fake sick tomorrow," says Bella. "Where do you want me to stash you overnight? It'd be weird if it was in our room."

"Would it?" he says. "I dunno."

"Well," she says, "you can see, right? We're going to change into our pajamas at some point."

"Oh," he says. "Okay, now that you mention that, it's kind of weird."

"Exactly. So I could put you on the bookshelf in the living room maybe, I don't think Charlie will notice you?"

"Okay, sure," he says.

Bella scoops him up, then pauses. "Would you rather fly there yourself? I don't know how you feel about being picked up in general."

"I feel okay about you picking me up," he says.

"Not Lexi?" hazards Bella, heading for the stairwell.