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"No! It was before all that!" The witch protested feebly, though she was starting to feel a little stronger. Not enough to make any difference, but still better than being totally unconscious. Mostly it involved her free hand flapping in Mort's direction, but besides that she couldn't do much. She didn't even bother to kick her feet. Though, the fact that her pointy boots were still on meant she'd have to change her comforter, not because there was any dirt on the bed or anything. It was just the fact of the matter! "Does your contagion do the same thing? Make me all slowed down and sluggish and-and-Mrrrr?" She asked with a small smile, happy to finally get to replicate the little noise her dearest made so often.
Still, the witch frowned a little. She wanted to be friends with Alexander, especially considering he was Mort's best friend! It was like if Belladonna had a best friend that Mort would want to be good friends with too! It was just something boilfriends and ghoulfriends did and right now Belladonna was absolutely failing at being a good ghoulfriend. Which was most distressing! Maybe she could visit Alexander, bake him a brain flavored cake too? To make up for everything?

As for Binx, Belladonna watched him unlatch the window before he darted out into the night, though she smiled all the while. He could play big, bad mean ol' kitty, but she knew he loved her fiercely. And she loved him too. Maybe he'd be rude to everyone but her, but Belladonna had to think that since Binx hadn't even bothered to threaten Mort with anything, let alone actually try to scratch him, that Binx was starting to feel fondly toward the zombie too. This, naturally, made the witch all warm and fuzzy inside, as well as made her unexpectedly nervous for a reason she couldn't name.
"Oh, he absolutely ate them up." Belladonna began a little softly. Would Mort be upset that she had told Binx of absolutely everything that had happened? The witch and cat were unerringly bonded, Binx would have wanted to know even if the witch hadn't said a word. Instead, Belladonna gave a hollow laugh, her eyes stared unfocused on the ceiling above her.
"He was surprised I didn't hit you. Or that I backed down so quickly. He wants me to get mad at you. Really mad. But I do not think I can. I think you would have to do something irreparable for me to truly get angry at you."
What did that say about her? That she had become so weak with her love for Mort? Weak enough to forgive every wrong he did to her?

"Pish! Tosh! My arm will be healed by the end of the night. After we eat I'm trying a healing spell that should set me back to rights." The witch told him with an air of authority. With a sneaky smile she looked up at him, pink eyes sparkling with excitement. "I've almost met the requirements to move on to my third year. Just a few more classes and then my exam. Then I'll kick your butt all over that gym."

Scowly wouldn't have been the word Belladonna would have chosen to describe Alexander. Racially sensitive, vaguely vindictive or even hyper judgmental would have been her choices, but as it stood she did not offer them to her boilfriend. Instead she only frowned a bit, but nodded as there was little aside from actually having a conversation with him to convince Alexander of her character otherwise. The talk of contagion was enough to distract her from these thoughts at least and Belladonna tried to look interested. Not that she wasn't, of course. It was just... Something she didn't fully understand.
"So can you just create a contagion on a whim? Or is it something you mature into?" How long did that take? Already Mort was 18, how much longer would he have to wait? Would it affect Belladonna if he ever bit her again? How horrid that would be! Sure he ripped off her skin today, but maybe later on they could do this again and just leave it at something simpler?! Why was Belladonna freaking out about this now? Shouldn't she be glad?
No, it was Belladonna. Unexpected was what she strove for.

For a very long moment the witch only laid there, her eyebrows crumbled in some strange mixture of worry and thought. It couldn't be all that terrible if she just told him she was irrevocably weak when it came to him. That she just couldn't say no, or be really mad or let him feel guilty even if he should. This would definitely be fine. Absolutely.
"I know I can get mad at you I just... I cannot." Simply said, Belladonna only shrugged her shoulders, resigned to her fate. "I can get so angry at the thought of things you've done, or said but when I look at you..." Her eyes darted to his and she sighed, shrugging again. A small blush had bloomed on her cheeks and the witch crossed her uninjured arm under her chest once more.
Yet when he mentioned speech classes, Belladonna put a sincere effort into sitting up. It was a struggle, and eventually she only managed to get the free hand under her and barely lift her torso onto one elbow.
"Speech classes, why? No!" She protested, her face drawn up in sincere dismay. "Why would you ever change the way you talk? Its so you! Oh Mort, please... Don't? I absolutely love the way you talk. Even your 'mrrr' tic." Why was she blushing so much?! "I would be vastly upset if you ever lost that..."

Now that she was sitting up, Mort was at the perfect angle to view the look of shock that crossed her face. At first the witch sputtered at his teasing about their fight. After a moment of undignified speech she was able to cure her tongue of that as her feisty nature took over.
"W-what?! I had you on the ropes! One or two more hits and you'd been done! My cards are brilliant! Just you wait! Once I'm a third year I'll give you a real reading!" That was meant to be a threat, as in she'd demolish him in a friendly fight, but it just kind of fell flat. In regard, the witch gave him a fierce look, much like a kitten about to attack a ball of yarn. Not very scary...

"Lies and slander!" Belladonna screeched as she tried to stick a finger against his chest but only succeeded in making her fall back against her pillows with a small screech of dismay. "You may not have attacked but you didn't stop me! Even if you had kept on attacking, I would have gotten you!" She cried out, one hand flailing wildly, but she smiled the entire time. It was knowing smile, that meant she was really going to let him have it next time, but for now a bit of light-hearted teasing wasn't going to hurt either of them.
The witch was about to poke the zombie in the chest, to tease him a bit more but a knock at her door distracted her. Oh! Fooooooood!
She didn't want to, not one bit, but Belladonna sat all the way up. Then the room began to spin.
"Oh jack..." With a flop she was back on her pillows, eyes squeezed shut to keep the ceiling from spinning above her too. With a wave of her hand she pointed toward her desk, where a little ceramic skull sat. "There should be enough seeds in that to cover the food, would you mind an awful lot if you handled the transaction?" The witch offered him a bright, hopefully convincing smile.

"And don't think that just because food is here you're going to get out of talking about your speech." She warned him with a finger pointed in his direction. Yet she bestowed upon him a smile that at least let him know it wasn't going to be an angry talk or anything.
In any event, the person at the door was a rather small, greasy looking little wart-covered monster stood in the hallway. He had to crane his neck up to look at Mort and most likely would have had to crane to see Belladonna. With a frown he held out the bag of food to Mort, while he also held out another hand, palm up, waiting for his payment. Luckily there was a little receipt clipped to the front of the bag that let the zomboil know the total!
"Thank you for the food!" Belladonna called from her bed, though she could only sit up a little and wave her hand. The monster peered around Mort to the witch, gave her a wink, then straightened back out. He gave Mort a very dirty look, as though he suspected something. Shaaaaame.

It was rather difficult not to sputter some more at Mort's teasing, especially when Belladonna couldn't decipher if he was being honest or not. A sudden worry clenched around her heart, made her second guess her trusting nature. Yet the promise of food (as well as the idea that he was kind enough to most likely be joking, probably) made her smooth this fear out until she forgot it in the smell of yummy, yummy veggie burger.
Yet before she could even begin to eat she had to sit up and that was a daunting task all on its own. As the witch struggled with to force her pillows into some semblance of a pile to keep her sitting straight, pink eyes narrowed at the boil. Oh. Oh he wanted fancy talk? She's give him fancy talk.
"I find I am most favorable toward a man with provincial skills when it comes to monetary values." Did that even make sense? No, but that wasn't the point! "Though, I am most thoroughly pleased with your attempts at decorum and civility."
This was kind of boring. It was vastly difficult to hold an entire conversation by one's self in the highest regard.

So, Belladonna held off on that for a moment and instead set about devouring her poor burger. But it was just so yummy and she just so hungry! A little surprised at how quickly she had eaten, the witch was more glad to be feeling much, much better now that food was in her stomach. Sure, her arm still hurt like it was on fire and maybe her little gaping bite was staring to get red around the edges... Belladonna blinked and looked back down at her arm. Oh dear, that wasn't good at all! That meant it was getting infected.
A small note of worry escaped the witch, but she had eaten and was feeling well enough to attempt a spell. So with a deep breath she hovered her good hand a foot above her wound.
Tiny tendrils of pink light fell down from the witch's palm and covered the wound, quietly and harmlessly stitching it back together. Once the skin had re-knitted over itself without a single trace something had ever been the matter, the witch placed her still glowing hand to her neck, where the pink did the same thing. For extra measure, and because she was sure more than was a safe amount of blood had been lost, Belladonna pressed the hand over her heart, took a deep breath and let the pink fade.
"Aaahhh, I feel absolutely back to rights now!" The witch chirped as she turned to Mort with a happy sigh. Never before had a healing spell gone so marvelously, especially not on such a stark and heavy wound! It was enough to not only have Belladonna feeling like her normal self, but also enough to push her past that into feeling quite good and a little bit feisty. She had all this extra energy suddenly, all this positivity! She could conquer anything! Most likely...

Ah, ah, aaaahhh! Belladonna had caught that little 'mrrr', and she wasn't going to let it go. In fact, she was going to talk even faster just to see if she could get him to slip up. Fancy talk was all well and good for a game, but she was suddenly set on proving to Mort that he didn't want to talk like this forever. It was vastly boring, uncommonly difficult and altogether too tedious. Oh bother, Belladonna was even beginning to think in her fancy, faux-British speak. Not that she knew what British was. It was just how she spoke!
Whatever.
"Oh, is that correct? I am sincerely interested in what other topics you are not only acquainted with, but have mastered. So long as it suits your caprice, naturally."
They weren't even having a conversation by this point, so Belladonna only rolled her eyes at him and gave him a wry smile at his stilted, strangely pronounced conversation.

Feeling altogether much too better for her own good, Belladonna couldn't help but lean forward toward the boil a bit.
"Well, I am glad not to have been shocked... But would the lady receive any favor that she asked?" The witch batted her eyelids then, as though that actually worked. It didn't, and the witch recognized that, but it certainly gave a certain quality to her actions. The quality of being totally obvious as to her intentions.
As for his questions regarding her meal, Belladonna ignored it and only continued to lean forward. She'd eaten the whole thing in record time, he could figure that one out for himself.

The lady did not appreciate the look she was given, especially from her boilfriend, but Belladonna was still not going to give up either. That would have been easy. And besides, what was the fun in getting bitten, healing yourself and being horrifically chaste after that? She had just proven to him that not only could should handle his bites (more or less), that she could then heal herself to more than perfect condition and therefore continue on. Not that Belladonna was necessarily opting they go straight back to biting. Mostly she just wanted a little bit of love, in any form she could get.
"The lady is more than well aware of your many qualities, both strong or weak. Speech is not one you are weak in and the lady is duly impressed with your abilities." More eyelash batting, a bit more coy leaning forward, one hand idly toying with the front of his shirt. Maybe feisty wasn't necessarily the word Belladonna had been looking for...

"A lady would never ask a favor she felt outside the capacity in which to be fulfilled. Especially when the gentleman had yet to finish his supper." Belladonna pressed a light kiss to Mort before she dramatically flopped back onto her pillows. If he was going to play hard to get, she was going to play a bit of come and get me. After he'd finish eating, naturally. She'd already devoured her food, so it was only fair to let him finish his too.
Still, it didn't stop the witch from looking up at him all cute face and sweet posing. Against the pillows. Huh... Belladonna wasn't really going for subtle now that she was fully healed...

The frown did quite a lot to dampen the witch's mood, so much so that she dropped her pose and eventually just ended up lying there listlessly, uncertain of what else to do. So thusly dampened by his frown, Belladonna didn't even bother to look at him anymore, only idly inspected her arm and silently cheered herself with a job well done. Not even a scar remained! It was like the whole thing had never happened, which actually was majority of the reason she was being so coy and flirtatious. Well, that and it was Mort after all. At his question the witch looked back up at him with a soft 'Hmm?' before she nodded vigorously.
"Never felt better! I feel as though I could climb a mountain!" She chirped at him, all sweet smiles and innocent looks. Maybe that healing spell had done more than just heal her, it had made her downright energetic.

"Other things?! What other things are you accusing me of?" Belladonna asked in her most scandalized manner, a hand flying to her chest as she pushed herself to a sitting position. Though she tried to play at being offended, a little smile still shone through.
Why was he being so serious?
Because he wants you to be.
Oh... Oh, that's right. Huh... Belladonna's scandalized face smoothed out a little and she dropped her hand, uncertain for a moment. Might as well take his words to heart now, go ahead and give him what he wanted.
"I... I wasn't trying to push, I'm sorry. I just felt better and was...Sorry." She offered as quietly and seriously as she could. It didn't suit her, nor did it feel right to apologize for just wanting a bit of his attention, especially after such drama, but Belladonna only kept her gaze as steady as she could. She could be serious! It just... Felt weird. As a show of good favor, that she wouldn't do anything else, she laid back down. Though she no longer felt the need to rest, he seemed content where he was and the witch didn't want to upset him anymore.