peryton

[shesepankh]

Summer vacation elapses, and sees their storefront doing one heck of a business in the Avalon with the help of their griffin employee. There is a suggestion box for new spells they should invent, some of which have to be long-term projects but others of which are converted into new product fairly promptly.

School starts up again. Darren and Bella are both skipping straight into twelfth grade. (Bella looked into just starting college early, but while she does technically have the sort of resume that can lead to that kind of thing, she can't exactly write an essay about how she saved the life of another person and this caused her to have Moral Character, let alone about how she started a small business - so skipping one grade it is.)

They apply to colleges. They both get into University of Washington and get sufficient scholarships to accommodate both going there.

Summer ensues again.

One afternoon, Bella is over at Darren's, and has fallen asleep - in purring fullform - across his lap on the couch.

Comments

[shesepankh]

Bella will happily magic geek with him all day long.

College approaches. There's a big shopping trip for all the essentials. They rent the furnished apartment above their store from the same Avalon landlord, and move in, a few weeks before school starts. It has one bed in it. They wind up falling asleep on each other all the time already, quite innocently; Charlie doesn't fuss. There are housewarming presents.

Bella's birthday is a short while before the start of classes.

[castmyown]

Vernon doesn't fuss, either, but he does drop off various housewarming presents. A few of which he hides. The most notable of these is found at around eleven o'clock at night, when Darren drops a sheet of scratch paper for magic and goes to retrieve it. He sees something red under the bed, and peers at it.

"Bella," he says, confused, "Why is there a huge bowl with a bright red bow on it under our bed?" Pause. "Why is it filled with condoms?"

[shesepankh]

"What - what? I didn't put that there. And I can't really see Charlie doing it, it must have been your dad."

[castmyown]

Darren retrieves it, turning red to match the bow and looking - generally embarrassed. "I don't even - he left a note."

'Congrats on the apartment,' it reads. 'Now if you make me a grandfather before I'm fifty we will be having words. Here you go.'

"Dad did it," snorts Darren. "Wow. Wow."

[shesepankh]

"I mean, I guess it saves us a drugstore trip?"

[castmyown]

"I - um. Probably like twelve drugstore trips, this is an absurd number of - of these, how many did he buy?" Pause. "How long has he prepared for this?!"

[shesepankh]

"I assume he knows when my birthday is, so - hard to say."

[castmyown]

"Why would your birthday have anything to do with...? Oh."

And then Darren coughs.

[shesepankh]

"So you haven't been counting the days, huh?"

[castmyown]

He opens his mouth, and then he second guesses that sentence and closes it.

"I didn't realize it would be something you wanted to do?" he tries, again.

[shesepankh]

"...Have I somehow left you with a misunderstanding about my sexual orientation?"

[castmyown]

"N-No, no I'm - I um - oh, hell, there is no way I'm not going to be in trouble for this, um. It genuinely did not occur to me that we could have sex?"

[shesepankh]

"I don't understand."

[castmyown]

"I'm not - now that I have been reminded that it's a thing we can do I'm all for it, but I was literally not thinking, 'Okay I'm going to wait until she's eighteen to - to have... sex.'"

[shesepankh]

"Whether the date entered your mind isn't my confusion, just - I have spent extended periods of time sprawled over you nibbling on your neck. And you did not mentally take that any further? Ever?"

[castmyown]

"I have trouble thinking conscious thoughts at all when you're sprawled on me nibbling my neck," says Darren defensively.

[shesepankh]

"...good answer."

[castmyown]

"Thanks."

[shesepankh]

"I am not completely unconfused, though. You're not just claiming to be all for it because you think I'll be upset or something? Do you want a bit to think about it since you did not get any... thinking about it... done in advance?

[castmyown]

".... Nnnnnoooo I'm pretty sure I want to," coughs Darren. "I just needed to be hit across the head with -" He peers at the bowl of condoms. "- that plastic monstrosity."

[shesepankh]

"Do you have any idea why the plastic monstrosity was necessary? ... I was also planning to use, like, language, at some point, probably today, because, eighteen now."

[castmyown]

"Because I'm an idiot sometimes?"

[shesepankh]

Bella flops on him. "I was hoping for more information than that."

[castmyown]

"You um. Never mentioned, and I never asked?"

He is totally, totally fine with being flopped on.

[shesepankh]

"...I'm not going to have any, like, clinical surprises, am I? The source of my information is health class and this one thoroughly embarrassing book, mostly, plus pop culture, and none of these things have suggested that it is typical for teenage boys to have this experience."