[stanley kowalski voice] BELLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[hydesout]

you know what, much like the AUs I'm just going to put down a catchall post for anything we want to do with them

Comments

[hydesout]

[It's good to be back in Bella's good graces. Even if that doesn't mean much for Jekyll, being too pathetic and shy to try anything. He's still glad for it. It keeps Hyde much happier, too, and that's invaluable.

But it's a bit awkward to sit across the table from her in the empty drinking hall, well after hours, dark but for a few dim lights that remain. After plenty of silence he looks up from his plate to make conversation.]

I hope you didn't run into any trouble tonight?

[alamob]

With the older ones, you mean? They've taken to life here, and business picks up with more pretty faces about. Worth their wages.

[She says it as if Bella ever seriously considered doing anything but sheltering the survivors, as if there was any recourse but to provide care and pay until they find better. The Empire's spare rooms are packed, but now she has seamstresses for costumes and even a few with a knack for entertainment. Not to mention servers, runners ... sneaks. Robert has been updated on their successes and trials, of course.

It was his help that made liberating them from the traffickers possible, and they've had months of cooperation in the aftermath to reconcile.]

[hydesout]

That's good to hear. Is there anything you need for making life easier - for yourself, or for them?

[Yes, business talk is a good distraction for how difficult it is to look her in the eye still. Not for guilt, it's all embarrassment.]

[alamob]

[Preoccupied with her glass of brandy, the intensity of her eyes rests on the liquid and the scarce light it reflects in glints and glimmers. He's free of them just this moment.]

Nothing we need on our end, but you've got the little ones to contend with. What about them?

[hydesout]

They're doing well, they've really taken quite the shine to the caretaker.

[Of course he doesn't have time (or skill really) to be looking after them himself all the time.]

Though I've had to put a heavy lock on the laboratory, for safety.

[alamob]

[What he's got is money, and money pays for nannies. Housing. Food. Bella can provide those last two, but nothing for the first. She could handle one or two children, not eight.

Not eight children who've already seen abuse and horror.

She downs the drink. Her food still steams, picked at.]

Don't tell me there's already been an accident.

[hydesout]

No, just a little broken glass and a cut as a consequence of it. Nothing too terrible. I'm sure it would be enough on its own to teach them it isn't a good place to play, but nevertheless it made me realise, it's really quite dangerous. I certainly wouldn't want anyone getting a hold of some concoction.

[Like the one for Hyde, or something else equally harebrained leftover from his grandfather.]

[alamob]

[He doesn't get beyond 'broken glass' before her stare jerks from the emptied medicinal and fixes onto Robert in absolute deadliness.]

They could get in there and play in that science mess before?

[hydesout]

No, no, certainly not! Well, I suppose technically they could, seeing as they did, but it wasn't just open to waltz right into!

[There are a lot of ways in which he's a dumbass, leaving the door to a laboratory wide open when small children are around is not one of them.]

I'm sure they just came across it and were curious.

[alamob]

[Bella subsides, accepting the explanation not for being impressed by it but for remembering what Monty Charming had to deal with in her early years. She forks up a bite of meat.]

Can't hardly blame you for their cleverness, s'pose. [The prongs point squarely at his nose.] I shouldn't even tell you what I put my pa through.

[hydesout]

It's a good thing, really.

[He initially smiles because of that, but then he starts thinking about what sort of things Bella could have possibly gotten into and can't help grinning like a fool.]

Well now you can't tell me that and not go into detail. What did you do, if the present is any indication, I'm sure you were a real handful.

[alamob]

[She splutters an indignant laugh in the middle of another forkful and nearabout snorts a potato; one finger waves.]

Me! When's the last time you checked a mirror!

[Giving him a pseudo-scornful onceover is a mistake. He's as striking and fit as the last time she looked. Bella doesn't look quite so exasperated as she ought.]

[hydesout]

I was a very good child!

[Besides the occasional temper flareup that's now explained by Hyde... But since Hyde didn't properly exist then, there was no one to misbehave, only the little boy who tried very hard to be good that Hyde told her about before!]

[alamob]

[Her arched brows show how much she believes that. He can't be telling the truth, not entirely. No child is 'very good' all the time.]

Leaving something out, eh? Would you come clean if I do the same?

[hydesout]

[Why doesn't she believe him, it's true, he was very good!!]

...Alright. Who goes first?

[alamob]

[But he agreed to an exchange anyway, so he's got something to share with the class.]

Me.

[Rule of thumb: Bella sets the game when you let her. A smile pulls at the corners of her mouth even before the good parts of telling. It's warm, and one of those rare times she shares that warmth with him.]

Pa-- his name was Monty-- he wasn't badly off. Kept his own cab and horses. Could take or leave the gelding, but the mare, I loved her. Loved her so well that I'd take ink to her white spots. Thought I was the next da Vinci! Except I did it before he tried selling. Something'd come up what cost him dear.

[hydesout]

Oh, is that all? I was expecting much worse.

[Sounds like something that would be mild for someone like Bella. Or maybe it's that she's gotten to be even more of a rascal as time's gone on. That would make sense, actually. Her being a relatively good kid (okay relative to the story...) and growing into a spitfire...]

[alamob]

Tell you mine if you tell me yours.

[He's not wrong. It is a milder story than the mischief a young girl could cause with free rein inside a drinking hall. Her smirk confirms that for Robert.]

[hydesout]

[And here she said she'd go first!!]

Well... [He dips his head, pressing his lips together. It's more than embarrassing, it's really terrible.] I broke another boy's nose, punched him right in his face because I thought he'd cheated at a game.

...As it turns out, he hadn't.

[alamob]

Oh, is that all?

[She echoes him deliberately, poking fun at his residual shame all these years later. Past is past. He'll get over the tragedy of punching an innocent during his boyhood.]

Chin up. Who's to say he hadn't earned it otherwise?

[hydesout]

I don't think there's any reason he should have earned such a thing - besides if he somehow had, it was for the wrong reason!

[It's a big deal to him okay? He was a tiny adult as a child, upright and hardworking, polite, listened to his parents and teachers.]

I had outbursts now and then. That's the worst instance I can recall, but there's also a period I don't remember, it might have been worse then?

[This is what he's reduced to, trying to find something bad he did.]

[alamob]

[Bella isn't half as worried for his childhood mental state as he apparently is. Unpack that shit, brah. Let it go.

Her head shakes at the dilemma he's made for himself, and she abandons the half-finished plate to take up both their glasses for a refill. He needs it.]

I wonder who you killed with your wee boy hands? I'm fetching us more brandy. How much?

[hydesout]

[As much as he seriously doubts he even could have killed anyone, it does bring up a point. What was it like before he was medicated to keep Hyde at bay? How would a child act in that situation? Luckily he's pulled away from his thoughts by the question.]

Oh, ah, alright, I'll take a glass. [What does that mean, like a shot size, as much as was poured before, a full glass, what.]

Really, I told you, I was very good.

[alamob]

[He's getting two fingers' worth, like her. This is good stuff and he had better appreciate the label.]

Yeah, you said.

[Even with her customary sardonic edge, the banter hasn't become malicious or mean-spirited. Robert Jekyll leaves himself wide open to be poked and prodded, that's all. It's a fun game.

Bella's saunter to their table is astonishingly feline. Even the way she pours his share has a coyness to it.]

I thought pa's friends were dull and dry for never including me in their business chats, so I planted manure in their coat pockets. Only thing I regret is blaming it on a cabbie. Lost him a job, although pa knew.

[hydesout]

Thanks. [He does appreciate it, even taking the time to twirl it about before sipping at it.]

You did what?

[His laugh rings through the empty hall as he pictures the men's faces on discovering her prank. Clearly she comes by her name honestly, because as disgusting as it is, that she'd do something like that is incredibly charming.]

How old were you?