Tony is working at the forge.

...Bella decides she doesn't need Tony's attention immediately. She can just watch for a few minutes, right? Just a few.

Bella can watch as looooong as she wants.

"Hey," Bella says eventually, at what looks like a reasonable interruption point.

"Hey," Tony says cheerfully. "What's up?"

"If you have time, I'd like it if you'd work with me on a new lens for my spectacles. I've been fighting with a dwarf spell intermittently for weeks, but I'd like to have it ready in time to go along with the delegation who's going to check out that wizard colony and get a better look at what's going on there, and I think your help would speed things up."

"Ooh. Sure!" says Tony.

"Do you want to work on it here or someplace else? I don't know if the forge is particularly attuned to your dwarf magic or anything."

"Well, let's see what you've got so far. Might as well be here."

"All right." Bella pulls out her notes on the spell - she's got a primary source on the original spell she's adapting, lots of material on putting seeing-spells into lenses in general, and then a lot of incoherent ranting at her notebook about the stupid uncooperative dwarf magic. "I recently had the idea of trying to enchant the frame of the lens - the iron bit that wraps around the glass - instead of the glass itself, but I don't even know where to start," she says, pulling a blank lens from one sleeve and putting it on top of the notes.

"I'm good with iron," Tony asserts.

Bella nods. "The trouble is, iron's not see-through. So the spell would have to be on the frame, but go through the space that the lens occupies. I could pop out the glass part, maybe, if that would help."

"Or you'd have to make the glass and the iron talk to each other," she muses.

"Ooh. There's that," says Bella, grinning suddenly. "That could - ooh."

Tony beams.

"Okay, what kind of outputs can you give this little twist of iron here?" Bella asks, picking up the lens and its frame that will hook onto the spectacle-arms when it's done. "I think I can get the glass to listen to most anything, I'm good with glass."

Tony checks Bella's primary source again, and then she picks up the frame and holds it in her hands, humming thoughtfully.

Bella produces her spectacles. "Feel free to have a look at any of these lenses," she says. "Or ask me about them. This one," she taps the wizard lens, "is new, I stole some divinations out of the staff I got."

That doesn't get quite the desired result, and neither do the next fifteen variations, but by the end of a highly fun afternoon spent messing around with the lens, Bella clips it onto her spectacles, gets all the other lenses out of the way, and declares it, "Satisfactory!"

Tony beams and kisses her.

Eee, kisses! Bella is pleased.

Kisses kisses kisses!

"Have fun," says Tony, snuggling her.

"I think I will. Do you know who all's likely to be in such a delegation besides me, or do you not pay attention to that kinda thing?"

"I do not pay attention to that kinda thing!"

Bella laughs and kisses her again. "You're adorable."

"Awww." Snugglesnuggle. "So're you."

Further snuggles ensue, then Bella asks, "What were you making when I interrupted?"

"Enchanted daggers," she says. "Just for fun."

"What are they enchanted to do?"

"This one glows in the dark. That one finds water."

"I can see why a glowing dagger would be a useful combination. I'm not sure how a dowsing one makes sense."

"I was just messing around."

"What usually becomes of the stuff you make, when it's not for Sherlock?"

"Oh, I guess most of it ends up in the castle armory."

"All appropriately labeled, I hope. I can think of situations where it would be bad to be surprised by a glowing-in-the-dark dagger feature."

She laughs. "Yeah, of course. And we keep the enchanted weapons separate from the ordinary ones, anything else is just asking for trouble."

"Of course," Bella agrees. "Oh, darn it, I forgot to ask your mother about whether I could have a look at the sword. I suppose once I'm done with my moccasins and I'm ready to leave whenever the delegation does it will be a better time to inquire."

"Yeah, probably," Tony agrees.

"I wonder if the fake leather's here yet. He did say it wouldn't be long." Nuzzle. "I'll go check."

The leather has indeed arrived!

The kitchen contains Sherlock.

"I can join the family for dinner, right?" Bella asks. "And how's the kitchen behaving for you?"

"The kitchen is lovely. I adore the kitchen. Yes, you may join us for dinner."

"When is that?" Bella asks.

"Shortly."

Bella leans on the door of the kitchen and watches it behave itself for Sherlock. "It smells good," she observes.

"That it does."

"Do you usually do all the cooking, or just sometimes?" Pause. "Am I distracting you?"

"I frequently cook, and you are a pleasant and acceptable distraction."

"I'm going to be going along on a delegation to have a second look at that wizard colony," Bella says. "As a sort of prelude to politics lessons."

"Interesting notion. I hope it's safe."

"I do too. Anyway, now I have two new lenses on my spectacles to have a better look at the magic around the place. Tony helped with one, saved me at least a week of wrestling with dwarf magic."

"Ah, excellent. Do let me know if you find out anything interesting."

"About the wizards? I will."

Sherlock takes the time out of cooking to give her betrothed a kiss on the cheek.

Bella grins and returns the favor in a quick peck, but doesn't attempt to further distract her intended with physical affection. This time.

She smiles radiantly and gets back to work.

Bella supervises hungrily. When dinner's ready, she follows Sherlock to the dining room.

"To what end?" inquires the queen.

"With the spectacles I can see a lot of details about magic things," Bella explains. "I just want to look at it and take notes, I know perfectly well I can't touch it now."

"I see," says the queen. "I'll think about it."

"Thank you," says Bella.

She smiles.

"Actually, the original reason I left home was to have a look at the Skyvault. There was no question of anybody marrying me till a bit later," Bella says conversationally with a smile at Tony.

"Aha," says the queen. "My daughters do move fast, don't they?"

"The idea came together pretty quickly," agrees Bella.

"Things tend to, around the girls."

Bella smiles and resumes eating dinner.