in which bella dearly wishes to be less interesting

[subtly_artistic]

Bella successfully manages to stay in all weekend except for when she joins packs of students headed for the dining hall. If the elves are still stalking her, she doesn't notice them. On Monday, the subtle artist elf is present in their shared course, and looks at her, but doesn't bother her - Bella leaves with another classmate anyway.

Traveling in packs is quite effective, she decides.

Except she doesn't do it in her own dorm.

It's pouring rain outside Tuesday afternoon and Bella doesn't want to go to the dining hall. She has some stuff in her room - not serious groceries, but enough that she can heat up some broth and noodles, liven it up with a handful of miscellaneous dried herbs, and call it soup. She is hanging out in the kitchen doing this when Brad from down the hall, the same fellow who attempted to interrupt Celo at his baking, chooses to bother her.

"Hey, Isabella."

"It's Bella."

"But your full name's so pretty," says Brad. "You should go by that instead. So Isabella, let's go out tomorrow, I'll show you a good time in town, we'll have some fun."

"No," says Bella, "thank you, and it's still Bella."

"Isabella's prettier. Like you, you're pretty. It's not like I asked you to make like a nymph or something, I just want to take you out," says Brad. "Is it the money, I bet it's that, I can cover it, we can go someplace nice and you can get whatever you want."

"It's still no. It's still Bella."

"Don't be such a bitch, you never have plans," snaps Brad, "what are you going to do, eat at the dining hall and re-read your textbooks, you can come out with me."

Comments

[pythbox]

Celo doesn't answer for a moment. He still seems strangely relaxed for someone getting yanked around by his hair, but the way he's staring into the distance is at odds with that calmness.

[alicornucopia]

Brad successfully hauls Celo off his chair. It's largely up to Celo whether he ends this maneuver standing or sprawled on the floor.

[pythbox]

Standing. Definitely tense now. Also definitely not looking at either Brad or Bella.

If any subtle artists were to peek into his mind right now, they would find he was concentrating very, very hard on not killing Brad. It's taking a lot of effort.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella doesn't look into people's minds without permission.

"Brad, let him go, it's a public kitchen," says Bella. "He can be in it."

[alicornucopia]

"Not a public conversation," says Brad, "and he was interrupting."

[pythbox]

Celo doesn't respond. He seems - frozen. Frozen is a good word.

[subtly_artistic]

"Let him go," says Bella darkly.

[alicornucopia]

"Or what? He's a walking fuckhole, you think Law's gonna come after me for hauling him around a little? Anything anybody gets off on applies to nymphs, anyway, he probably likes it."

Brad pulls on Celo's hair a little harder.

[pythbox]

Well, he's breathing a little hard. Interpretations may vary.

[subtly_artistic]

"Well, if that's what you're up to I can go eat in my room."

[alicornucopia]

"What, no," says Brad, "I just want him out of here, I want to talk to you, I want to take you out, come on."

[subtly_artistic]

"I don't," says Bella clearly, "want to go out with you, so if that's your purpose here perhaps you should go and he should stay."

[alicornucopia]

Brad processes this, then wrenches Celo's head backwards suddenly; Celo's likely to wind up in a heap on the floor. "You're throwing me over for the freaky nymph? Are you fucking kidding me? He's not an excuse either, nymphs are sluts and think everybody else is too, you don't owe him any fucking thing."

[pythbox]

Celo does wind up in a heap on the floor. Also, he is now crying.

[subtly_artistic]

"Go away, Brad," says Bella, "or I will knock you unconscious and drag you out."

[alicornucopia]

"Bitch," mutters Brad, and he kicks Celo once, not particularly hard, and shuffles out.

[pythbox]

Celo curls up on the floor and sobs.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella gets up and drops to her knees next to him. [Name.] "Are you okay? What's the matter?"

[pythbox]

He doesn't answer out loud, but he does move a tiny bit closer so his forehead is resting against her knee.

[subtly_artistic]

"Can I look? Is that okay?"

[pythbox]

Hesitantly, still crying, he nods.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella looks.

[pythbox]

Someone else once thought of him as a walking fuckhole. Someone else once told him he must like things that he didn't want. Someone else once handled him the way Brad just did, with that same combination of violence and casual objectification.

Someone else once called him a freak.

He killed that person. It was messy and bloody and nasty and violent. He keeps remembering it in detail, over and over again, along with everything that led up to it—the years of torture and starvation, locked up underground where the only light that reached him came when his owner wanted to play.

[subtly_artistic]

Fuck. Bella hasn't actually taken any courses on mental healing yet. She doesn't know what to do with this, doesn't know what to say or what to probe at with what power.

She gathers him up into a hug. [Name, name]. She doesn't know what else to tell him, but she knows his name.

[pythbox]

Celo cries helplessly in her lap.

It helps when she tells him his name, anyway. It reminds him that he's not there anymore. He's here, at school, with Bella, crying in her arms on the kitchen floor. Here is much better.