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YEEEEESSSSsssss eeerrrrrrrr.....
The massive triumph Belladonna felt suddenly disappeared when the logistics set in. Sure, she'd get Mort to take off his shirt and that was all well and good... But, well... It certainly made things a big more different when one considered that Miss Belladonna Divine did not really subscribe to bras. They never had them like she wanted (or sometimes in her size) and never did anything quite as well as a corset. And so while it was all well and good to wear a corset to keep things in, it certainly didn't really help matters when the whole 'take off your shirt' meant taking off the same thing that acted as your bra.
Jackdamn it! This is the last time I wear a corset by itself! Its all undercorsets for me from now on! Belladonna lectured herself as her face burned a brilliant red.
"Eeerrr, Binx isn't here... So, sure. I suppose so..." The witch acquiesced, all the while her mind screamed about what exactly she was doing.

Belladonna took a deep breath and reached for the front laces on her corset.
Bad idea, bad idea, bad ideaaaaaa her mind chanted, over and over... But for whatever reason, another part urged her on. Stupid hormones.
"I'm, um... Going to need you to unlace the back." The front laces were mostly decoration, but were still tightened daily. So with her face nearly on fire, Belladonna whirled around so that her back faced Mort, her red tresses pulled over one shoulder.
"Also, um... This might kind of be the only top I'm wearing so... You know. Don't get... Too handsy."
Might as well lay it out straight for the poor boil. He'd probably short circuit anyways.
But she needed to be brave, no matter what! Sure it was fun to play and be a tease, but actually going all out was a whole other matter entirely. But jackdamn it if Belladonna wasn't at least willing to give it a go.
At least both of her hands would be firmly pressed to what she didn't want to be shown quite yet...

A few seconds too long ticked by for things to have been right. With the front laces undone, Belladonna had to keep both hands pressed to the corset to keep it on. If he'd finish unlacing that back laces just meant that she'd be able to pull the whole thing off. As it were, she was half-undressed anyways, so why was he hesitating?
"Is everything alright? Its easy, just pull at the top and work your way down--Oh." She began, but dropped off when realized he not only wasn't going to unlace her the rest of the way, he was already talking off his own clothing. "Wait, no! Its alright! I'm sorry I didn't mean to--" The witch whipped around as best she could (which wasn't very well, as one hand to be placed on the bed so she could twirl and the other pressed the corset up so she wouldn't be exposed), but still didn't make it in time. At least not in time to do anything but widen her eyes at his sudden semi-nakedness.

It wasn't as though the witch had never seen decay on a zombie before. Goodness knows she'd seen enough on the skeevee to know what it looked like, but seeing it in person... Well, it was a bit different.
It wasn't bad. It was just... Interesting.
Belladonna let out a tiny 'oh' as she scooted forward to inspect his torso further. There was so much to take it, not merely only skin like her own.
The stitching around his neck was something the witch knew of, but the ones around his elbows she had never seen since he was covered up more often than not, so now Belladonna's hand idly trailed across the stitching, her eyes wide as she took in the sight of her shirtless boilfriend.
Though she wanted to let her mind wander, the witch had to stay diligent lest she wanted to flash her boilfriend... Well, actually... Maybe she did a little bit.
In any event, one hand stayed pressed to the corset while the other traced down the middle of his chest and paused, just above the decay on his ribs.
"I've never seen a zombie shirtless in real life, you know." She told him in a quiet voice, her cheeks pink and her eyes a little devilish. "And your decay is rather pretty, you know." There was something rather lovely about the way flesh rotted away, all varying shades and jagged edges.

Before she could stop herself, the witch's hand trailed further down and gave one tiny touch to the very top of his hip.
"Are you sure you don't want my shirt off too?" Once again Belladonna batted her eyelashes, only a little slower this time. As if she could persuade him further, she leaned in a bit, one hand pressed to his exposed chest as a small shiver ran up her spine from his chill.
It was really, really fantastic that Binx wasn't here. Otherwise poor Mort would have become a zombie scratching post.

Now she felt like a total, 110% loser scum-bag.
With a quickness she hadn't anticipated, Belladonna let go of her corset and pulled Mort's shirt up off his knees and over his head before she whirled around on the bed. It was such a quick action that she mostly just piled the shirt on his head rather than got it very far onto his body, but it was the action that mattered. Hopefully.
"I'm sorry." She managed in a soft voice, her head down as she busied herself with lacing her corset back up. I'm sorry I'm a stupid hormonal teenager and I wanted to see you without your shirt off. I'm sorry I wanted to take mine off too. "...Sorry..." Was all she managed, though her mind was full of other thoughts.
It took a few fumbling fingers before she could manage to get her laces back to acting right and a few minutes before she was fully laced-up again.
Plenty of time for awkward silences.
So Belladonna filled it.

"Who would complain? Its not bad. Perfectly natural." She told him, though she kept her voice soft. All she wanted was some cuddles! Maybe a bit of making out to keep things interesting. Why did she always have to muck this up?
Though she had finished her lacing, Belladonna had also brought her own knees up to her chest and hugged them, trying to give the zombie boy the space he wanted.
It wasn't fair! Why couldn't they just be normal? Why couldn't they just plod along at a steady, fun pace and not be so painfully awkward around each other? Belladonna didn't even get to play off the fact that he got to second base without even a full rounding of first. Ugggghhhhh....
It was so incredibly hard not to just fall over onto her bed and scream, that Belladonna managed half of it.

With a dramatic motion, she let herself fall forward into her bed so that her she essentially face-planted into the blankets.
"I am so, so, soooo sorry Mort. I am the worst ghoulfriend ever." She wanted to say it would be alright if he chose to leave, but she was still raw from earlier that she just didn't have the courage. Instead she left her face pressed into the bed, to not only give the boil some space but also to save herself a little grace.
Not that there was much left anyways.

"Demons can suck it." Was all the witch replied to that, her words muffled due to the fact that her face was still planted into the blankets. "They're too stuffy. Always acting so hoity toity... They always make the first fuss, anyways." Maybe she had the privilege of being a Reaper in saying that, as Demons generally liked her kind, but didn't enjoy Undead. Unfortunate, really, as they could vastly help the other. And this was not the time to consider race relations, in any event.
With a huff Belladonna turned her head slightly so that she could look up at Mort, though she remained lying down.
"Pish! Tosh. I cry over everything. You're lucky you weren't around during The Hoodie Phase. I cried over the simplest matter."
The Hoodie Phase, was of course, the time after Belladonna's first field trip wherein she refused to leave her room, and the most she could be bothered to be dressed was in a hoodie and skirt, with the additional stockings if she were feeling particularly well that day. It was dark times, indeed.

As for not being prepared, Belladonna didn't blame the poor boy. They'd hardly made it to first base and she was already aiming for more. Brazen hussy.
Yet his next question actually elicited the witch to sit up with a start.
"What? No! Mort, I don't care if you've got intestines or not. I don't care if you're missing your entire lower limbs, you're still you. And its not gross." She fully sat up now and moved closer to him so that she press her hands to his knees. "C'mon, I'm not a demon. I do not judge and your decay doesn't bother me one bit. As for sexy..." Here she shrugged her shoulders and looked away as her cheeks grew slightly pink. "Well, you don't have to worry about that. You're very... Attractive." The last word was said as an embarrassed confession, as though maybe he would chastise her for saying it, for not believing her.

After what felt altogether too long, Mort finally raised his head and gave the witch a small smile.
Oh thank Hecate...
Seriously Belladonna, stop trying to seduce your boilfriend and just enjoy this relationship. Gosh!
"Well I'd rather it be much easier to say 'yes' to when you're ready." Belladonna replied, not even pausing to think about how that sort of sounded stupid. As for the lockers, she was rather interested in them. "Ooohhh~ Yes, I would like to go visit the lockers, but um..." Her cheeks reblushed, but it wasn't enough to cause any sort of alarm, not like it certainly had blazed on her face previously. "Do you mind if we, um... Cuddled for a bit first? Just for a few minutes!" It had been a week or so since they seen each other and what with all the emotions they'd both experienced, a bit of fluffy cuddling couldn't hurt!

Yet the mention of eyescream certainly did perk the witch up nicely to the point that she nodded excitedly.
"But if we're celebrating you becoming a third year, then it should be my treat! And might I just add, I am extremely jealous of you. Being all smart and getting ahead." Belladonna tacked on a wink to her sentence, but it was true, however easily she might play it off. Really and truly, she wanted to be a third year too. Though she was working hard toward that goal, going to classes and attending any field trips she could manage, it was still a long ways off.
And wherever was she going to get her exam from? Hadn't Mort taken his during the Clans Trials! Luckyyyy~
If she had been more inclined to dramatics in that moment, Belladonna might have found it very well suited to pout.
Thankfully, she didn't and instead only gave Mort her biggest, puppy-dog eyes in hopes that he would cuddle her for a bit. Just a bit!

Of course she wanted that, silly Mort. Why else do you think she had a few shelves packed of those particularly trashy romance novels that only people deprived of certain actions read? For that very reason. But not now, of course.
"YAY!!"
The moment Mort reached out for her, Belladonna was already scrambling onto his lap. As for his whine, she only buried her face into his chest and chirped, "We can cuddle for as long as you like!!"
Really, this was all she had wanted. The whole 'Let's take off our shirts!' had quickly warped into a challenge she needed to uphold, but besides making Mort feel awkward, it had proved pretty alright! The witch did get to see her boilfriend shirtless, and that was worth a little awkwardness all on its own.

On that matter of who was treating who, Belladonna pulled her head back to argue, but didn't get much of an argument out. She did manage one small note of objection before it was silenced with a well placed kiss.
Oh, well. With such persuasion, she figured she could at least oblige him and kiss back. Just a small one, so it wouldn't feel like a push or anything... Which was much harder than Belladonna realized, much to her chagrin.

Yet his joke was delivered to her surprise and she let out a rather loud laugh.
"Oh no! Not paperwork! I don't know if I can handle paperwork! Do they teach a class on how to do that?!" Belladonna asked all too dramatically, the back of her hand pressed to her forehead in a faux-faint.
As for the mention of the Hunter, well.. She was glad they were able to make light of them. Happy in that moment, Belladonna placed her face to the crook of his neck and giggled, just once, to show just how happy she was.
It had been too long and somewhere deep down the witch feared it wouldn't last long enough. But all the fighting in the world was certainly worth this moment of bliss.

His dramatic voice furthered the witch's giggles until she was a silly mess of laughter.
"However did you manage to stitch yourself up without me?! She cried out in faux-horror, both hands clutched onto the fabric of his shirt. For a few moments more she'd enjoyed just being happy, and not worry about Hunters or the Four Clans and their convoluted missions. But it was easy to shine now, to laugh so carefree and easily. Times like these had to be remembered, turn into crystalline moments that could be recalled when things got worse.
So in light of that, Belladonna took one deep breath to memorize his scent, snuggled closer to remember his touch and pressed her head to his chest, so she could never forget his heart. Even if it didn't beat, she liked to think it was slowing starting to belong solely to her.

"You have mentioned it once or twice, but I can always stand to hear it again." Belladonna replied with another bat of her eyelashes, but this one was intentionally and quite literally innocent. A pointer finger touched his chest and she gave him a small, slightly sheepish smile. "I missed you too."
As for the second question, Belladonna took a deep breath and sat up a bit straighter.
"Indeed I did! They took the news... Tolerably well." She said it in a rather guarded manner, as though she would say the wrong thing and make it seem all the worse. Which, as her voice was guarded, it made 'tolerably well' seem much closer to 'absolutely dreadful, but I'm being nice'. With a quick wave of her hands, Belladonna jumped in surprise at her failure of properly explaining herself.
"The Divines had close ties to various families and people and they're always looking to expand, whether through business or social means. And because they're so business minded, they associate with Demons more often than not, because let's be honest... Demons are fabulous at business. So they always expect us girls to do the same, to think of the business and date some wealthy demon or another who will donate gobs of seeds to the family..." Here the witch inserted a nonchalant wave of her hand to indicate her parent's lofty ideals, as well as a face the spoke volumes about how she felt about that plan.
"And its not that they don't like zombies, they just don't necessarily see them as positive business ventures. Which is silly, when you think about it because who wants to date for business? Date for fun and pleasure and because you are excessively fond of the person." A quick, well placed kiss softened the inevitable blow that her parents didn't fully approve of him.
"But its no matter. I couldn't care one bit about their opinion. I only care about you." A pause as Belladonna considered something. "And really, Binx approves of you and that's worth far more than my parents' approval!"
The relationship between a witch and her familiar was strong, something unbreakable. The fact that said familiar had approved of his witch's partner was quite a large step for them, especially since he'd never really approved anyone before this.