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As Belladonna sat there in the collective silence of the moment, her hands against Mort's chin, she began to recall exactly what had brought them to this moment. A total of fourteen days had passed since their separation, countless tears had been shed by the young witch and she'd suffered as close to an honest heartbreak as she was willing to tread. And all of that had swiftly ended with here. With now. With Mort holding her close, with her in his lap and his face in her hands and she was being petty. Upset over her hair, upset over the fact he barely recalled the color a silly dress from months ago. Yes, these were all things that mattered, because it was about them. But death is far worse than just loss. For those fourteen days she was merely alone, Mort had not existed.
The thought crashed into Belladonna hard enough that a few tears spilled over. It shook her up, made her hands splay out to almost clutch at his face just for the sensation of his skin. He'd been gone and now he was back. If she continued on like she was, she was going to ruin this. The Haunted House had torn them apart, hastily pieced them back together and then demolished them at the end. Their goodbyes had been haphazard, hasty and not what they wanted. This was their second chance at all that. This was the opportunity to make things right, to reset everything back to normal.
Belladonna was not going to let this chance slip through her fingers.

"Maybe you're trying too hard to make sense of this. Maybe you just need to give it time, let things work its course." Her thumb brushed against his face once more, a gesture that hoped to quell the unfortunate fact that he'd taken his gaze away, kept his eyes and precious color averted. "And you say the right thing plenty. It isn't as though you are the only one, you know. I've said something horrendous plenty of times." A small offering though it was, it was still an offer that he was not alone in this. That neither of them were really alone in this. A commitment had been made, a union if only in words and actions. A red ribbon that now bound them together, tied first to one and now the other. A simple connection, one others could see if they chose to look hard enough, but still a deep secret for the lovers alone.
Even the little click of time between her statement and his next did not diminish the smile the witch had begun, for she knew its power. It was their light right now, it had to shine. Maybe that was why she did smile so much, because it fixed so many things for others with such a simple gesture. Regardless it grew as Mort spoke of luck and gratitude, of their shared metaphor. The idea of it suddenly struck the witch and before she was swept under she managed a small, "You do know that light always needs fuel, something to make it burn bright."
And then she handed herself over to him, to the kiss that asked and she gave, unafraid to show just how needy she was for him too. Her hands moved from his jaw to curl through his hair, to clutch him closer and give of herself what he needed. To provide light for him as he gave her a reason to shine.

There should have been more words, something else to help ease his sorrow. The witch should have made a greater effort to fix this wrong that had been created. But with such a glorious demand made, she could only readily comply. It did not matter one bit that his hold on her nearly hurt, for it meant he cared and wanted her close. Breath seemed something suddenly difficult to find, even when she pulled back to gasp it still only half filled her lungs for she didn't give herself the proper amount of time before she was back pressed against him, begging for more. Surely it seemed a bit desperate, but after two weeks the witch certainly wasn't going to bother with that, not after two weeks alone, not after declarations of love. Not when he made it seem so sweet and not one bit wrong.
A noise from the back of her throat startled Belladonna, a note of longing she had not known resided within her. That felt a bit wayward, but it was smothered with another kiss so it didn't much matter. So lost in him she didn't at all bother to cover the other little voiceless sounds that got out. And after what felt like forever and a second wrapped up in a heady emotion he let her go, let her remain gasping against him, still curled tight in his hair and his hands pressed against her.

"Um..." Belladonna tried in a breathless voice, tried to blink away the sudden fuzziness in her mind, found it couldn't really be done with his chill still so close. "Ah, I think I have... I'm not sure, I'll have to look." Careful not to incite either of them, she pressed a quick kiss to him and slid back, off the bed and back onto her feet. Oddly she felt a little wobbly after only a kiss, but managed to straighten her gait quick enough that it wouldn't show through.
Hidden under her desk was a small black mini-fridge that she sat down in front of before she popped it open, head tilted to one side as she peered inside. Honestly it was pretty bare since there was really no need to feed herself when the campus offered a host of places to find food. Mostly what resided inside were tins of cat or minipet food, a few bars of chocolate and tucked away in the back, for instances just like these, a large handful of Buttered Fingers.
"Not much I'm afraid. I would suggest we go out or have something delivered but it is rather late... And Halloween." Even if it was past midnight, the festivities would continue on. Though that portal had looked rather terrifying, it surely wouldn't dampen the impromptu parties others might thrown in their own homes. Still, Belladonna swept up the bars into her arms, hopped up and over to the bed and deposited them before Mort.

"What other questions do you have, love?" She asked with a smile as she crawled back onto the bed, though this time she gave him the distance in which to eat and leaned back against her pillows.

Completely oblivious to the option presented to her, Belladonna was so enthralled with her own desire that she missed precisely what it was Mort was getting at. Which was rather unfortunate as had she known, there would have been not only most likely some ripped clothing, but also a dramatic announcement of 'Take me, I'm yours'. Perhaps it was better that Belladonna missed that, after all...
With such thoughts unknown to the witch, she only relaxed back against her pillows and stuck her feet under Mort. It wasn't to keep warm, quite the opposite really, but she was a cuddler after all and they had a lot of cuddles to catch up on. For now just a touch would do, however silly it might be.
While she waited, Belladonna idly pulled a handful of hair over her shoulder to investigate its sudden growth. It really had gotten longer, easily the longest of her sisters' and far longer than her mother's. Momentarily she contemplated chopping it off like Hemlock had, but just the thought made her fingers involuntarily clamp down around the red strands. Nope.
But it was Mort's explanation and questions that made her cease these thoughts, made her drop her hair so that it lay peacefully over one shoulder and raise her eyes up to him. This was not what they needed to talk about. This was such a down topic from where they had just been that Belladonna almost ignored it to kiss him again. But his frown was an indicator of his seriousness and she did rather love how serious he was.

"Ofelia took Alexander's eye?!" Belladonna gasped, a hand pressed to her chest in dismay. That was not proper at all! How could one Hunter be so very brutal? But, that wasn't fair at all. Halloweeners could be just as brutal, as evidenced by Red and her destruction of Caelius. At least, Belladonna hoped he had not survived that exchange.
When the witch looked up at Mort he looked much darker than before, an expression that did not suit this mood. A small sigh escaped her as she abandoned the pillows and scooted back toward him so that they once more faced each other, knees touching. Her hands rested against one of his knees, gave it a squeeze at she gazed up at him.
The questions he asked were skewed. Even if he had expressed doubt over the alliance they all had formed in the Haunted House, it had eventually turned to acceptance, hadn't it? Or had the fog infected Belladonna too? No, it just couldn't have. Clover had been kind to her before any of them had been infected by Insanity, he had been worried for her. And Ofelia, despite her extreme reactions, had been very kind, had promised not to hurt them so long as they extended the same courtesy to her. Even when Mort had become a Hunters' weapon and Belladonna had been the one to finish him off, if had been Ofelia who had grabbed the witch. It had been Ofelia who had attempted to soothe her, had tried to hold her back from seeing exactly what it was she'd done, and it was Ofelia who bore the witch's strange wrath when Mort had returned and she wanted to go back to him. Surely the girl's little scratch marks had healed, but still, Belladonna had left them on her.
"It might have been a bit of chaos, yes. But, should they ever cross our paths again... I doubt they will be so willing to attack Halloweeners as they once were." The witch finally offered with a hopeful smile. It was the best compromise she could strike between admitting he had gone back on his heavily held values and the fact that they had actually all helped each other. That, there was in fact, such a thing as a nice Hunter.
"What other questions do you have?" Anything to hurry along past this unfortunate topic.

The growl and then angry rip of candy bar did not do anything to settle the witch's worries over his questions, which really did nearly prompt her to reach forward and just make this all go away. But that most likely wouldn't help, at least not really. Mort might not necessarily respond all that well to the witch's sudden advances, not when he was so angry. But at the same time, that could be fun...
Still, the witch quickly petted his knee and tried to look apologetic for what had happened. So it wasn't really her fault, at least not entirely. Actually, the witch paused and let her hands lie still as she realized, no, it was actually her fault they'd befriended the Hunters at all. Had it not been for her, they would have most likely parted ways and never met again.
Yet it couldn't have been that bad. Perhaps he was only looking at this the wrong way. Maybe this was the path the witch had always tried to find, the one that could change the tides of this odd battle.

Yet thankfully she was saved from saying anything by his next question.
"Eeerrr..." Belladonna drawled quietly, her hand reached back to delicately touch the back of her neck. Besides sit around in her room, be visited by their friends and do a lot of crying, she really hadn't gotten much done. Even during the second week she'd only skipped most of her classes, visited Red and not gotten any answers from that endeavor. The only really interesting thing she'd done was...
"I WENT TRICK OR TREATING AND I GOT ALMOST 100 FEAR WHICH ISN'T REALLY THAT MUCH BUT ITS PRETTY GOOD ALL THINGS CONSIDERED!!!" Belladonna nearly shouted as she leaned forward suddenly, fists clenched happily and a giant smile on her face. "It was earlier tonight! The Trick or Treaters needed some help so they opened it to students and I didn't impress Nox or anything but still. I went Trick or Treating."
Really, Belladonna was nearly beside herself with glee and the fact that she was certainly about to receive due praise from Mort. He knew she considered being a Trick or Treater, so even if this wasn't all that great toward actually advancing her career, it was still a step. Because of this she couldn't help but beam at him, her eyes all sparkly.

Though she felt dreadful for startling him, Belladonna could not help but laugh at Mort's response. With his head in such a position she rose both hands and ruffled his hair, giggling all the while. It was nice to have regained the light atmosphere, to bring back the carefree attitude where they could be silly and irreverent with the other. At his words she rolled her eyes and ruffled his hair once more before she flapped a hand through the air.
"It was only earlier tonight, so you did not miss much! But it was very exciting." With all his questions she lit up, eyes aglow to tell the story of her accomplishment. "The Humans were all children, such silly little creatures. Their houses were like ours, but so very boring. Hardly any color except in the children's rooms, and even then they weren't very good. Horrid decorations! One little boil had a cowboil themed room and there was a Little Princess I made scream and turn on her lights."
Here Belladonna interjected her story with a low cackle, similar to the one she'd used on the princess.
"And let me see... Mostly I just made scary noises. Knocked a book off some shelves, scratched at the bottom of a bed. Not recommended, it hurt my nails. I used my cards to create some shadows! That worked pretty well... And they gave us FEAR readers. Little clip on gadget things."
With such fun to be had, Belladonna suddenly felt a little regretful that Mort had not been able to join her. Surely he would have done an excellent job of scaring those children. It honestly wasn't fair that he had been taken away both from her and Halloween.

Yet before much else could be said, a noise sounded at the door. It was a bit like a clunk, only there wasn't anything hard in which to clunk against the wood. With a small frown, Belladonna hopped from the bed and across the room, where she wrenched open the door just in time to see Mr. Constantine dissolve in the doorway. A large pile of clothing had been clutched in his grasp, but as he tilted his head up to the witch, they fell through his now insubstantial arms.
"Thank you darling, you did marvelous." Belladonna told him as she bent down and scooped him up. He burst into a pink light that dissolved into her chest and left her arms free to scoop up Mort's clothing.
"Would you like to go shower now?" She offered as she shut the door with her foot and padded over to the bed, arms full of a large variety of his clothes. They smelled like him, which was mostly the reason Belladonna had not set them down yet.

Mort's exclamation only made the witch laughed a little more, for it was very rare for him to be so loud or quick in his speech with her. It was exciting, exhilarating and very interesting. This entire night he'd been fairly quick, both in action and thought, which cheered the witch and really made her consider if maybe his worries were just that. Maybe they were unfounded, maybe he really hadn't come away with any Insanity, perhaps it was just a left over thing that could be washed away. This could be fixed, it was a temporary thing, she was positive. Together they could mend this.
When he presented her to the imaginary audience Belladonna could not help but make a dramatic bow, but it was colored with a bashful tint, for she was his. It might have only been pretend, but it was still what he'd said. She was his.
"I think I did most excellently!" She added with an excited shrug before she clapped her hands at him.
"Thor would have been fantastic! And your glowing eyes would be wonderful as well! You can work on your cackle to perfect it too. You shall definitely come with us next year!"
But the witch left it at that, for there was no way she mentioning to him the fact that the only reason she'd had the chance to Trick or Treat was because most of the regulars had helped during the battle alongside Red and were in recovery. That would not suit this light mood and Belladonna was not going to jeopardize his happiness any more this evening.

Mildly put off by the fact she did not receive a kiss, the witch tried to follow him for a moment but he was too fast for her and pulled back. Though she tried to reach after him, her hands were full of his clothing so she couldn't fully pull him back. With a small pout she headed to her closet before she paused and tilted her head at him.
"The tub isn't too big, but if you'd like a bath feel free to have one. And stay as long as you'd like. But if you're in there for more than an hour, I'm going to join you." Belladonna announced with a wink before she did her best sashay to her closet. With him gone she pulled a door open with her toe and managed to get open one of the bottom drawers of the dresser within. Now alone she sat on the floor and carefully folded all of his clothes into the drawer, organized by type so that they each occupied a small portion and were easily seen.
Unsure of what else to do, Belladonna fell into old habits and tip toed over to her window, crawled up into the seat and curled in on herself. Massively happy to have him back, she could not stop the stupid grin she gave to the moon that crept down toward the tree tops. It had yet to set, which gave her hope that perhaps they could keep this happiness forever.

Like it had been for earlier in the evening, time seemed to turn into a foreign creature as Belladonna sat on the windowsill. She could not say how long had passed before she crawled back off to pad across her room to undress. There was no telling how long she'd stood staring into her closet before she filched one of Mort's shirts to wear along with a pair of short bloomers. It felt an age as she tip toed back to the window and crawled up onto the seat, pressed her bare feet to the opposite site and watched the stars and moon. Somewhere around the hour mark she began to grow leaden as her head was placed against the glass, her arms curled in her lap. Sometime after that she'd nodded off, mouth slightly parted but unusually quiet and still.
With the moon happily hidden by the trees, only a faint, dappled light remained and splayed over pale skin. The feel of it, however small, made Belladonna feel safe, grateful for what had been returned to her. Even as she dozed, a deep sensation of peace curled over her, acted as a temporary blanket. The thing she did could hardly be called sleep, but it was a loss of consciousness that left her unaware, left her open. She did not hear the water turn off, or the approaching form. Thor's clinks and whirrs were missed and even the first little shift from window to air did not wake her.
What finally made her bat her eyelashes awake was the sensation of fresh chill against her skin.

A contented noise was her indication of wakefulness as she turned her head to Mort, curled closer to him. It was a short trip from window to bed before he laid her down. Still encumbered by sleep the witch clumsily threw back her blankets and shimmied underneath. A clunk pervaded the zombie's entrance into her bed, but Belladonna only waited until he was mostly under the blankets before she curled herself around him.
"M'not sleepy." She mumbled to him as she rose up to place a kiss on his cheek. Since she was actually a little sleepy she missed entirely and caught his neck instead, but found this an appropriate place to leave her mouth.
"Hair's still wet." Belladonna observed in a voice lower in pitch than her normal voice. A hand had been brought up to tousle the locks, found them still slightly damp and left her fingers to curl in them regardless.

The low rumble of his voice tickled against the witch's face enough to make her giggle despite the fact she'd closed her eyes to rest against him. An arm wiggled beneath her and Belladonna was quick to oblige, lifting her body so that he could slide closer. With that done she pressed another kiss to his neck before she flopped backwards and tried to give him her best innocent expression. To help seal the deal she balled her fists up on either side of her cheeks, elbows pulled in so that even despite the full covering of his tshirt, her assets were displayed.
"But your shirts are just sooooo comfortable~" The witch drawled in what she hoped was a seductive voice, but since she was tired and vaguely slurring her words, it wasn't all that attractive.

Speaking of attractiveness and how a freshly showered Mort totally turned her on despite being tired, Belladonna heaved a sigh and dropped her arms, though she did lift one to press against his cheek.
"You must be tired." She offered in a soft voice that she made sweet again, all pretense of seduction dropped. As much as the witch wanted to push for it, she feared both of their current states were simply too tired to do much else. But that certainly didn't stop her from one last kiss.
"I have missed you." Belladonna whispered as she rose up to press a kiss to him, a suddenly quiet atmosphere falling upon the room. Even if they were both tired, they might talk still. Might cuddle in the dark and whisper, but Mort did look awfully exhausted...