Want.

What a broad verb it was. Very generalizing, very direct, oftentimes even… a little dishonest. See, when I was younger, I used that word for a lot of things. On some days, I'd even get -

"Don't stop to contemplate on it!" Irene rudely interjected, snapping her fingers right between my eyes. "It's a yes or no question, and you got a 50/50 chance of answering it poorly. It's a very easy 50/50 as well, so not even you can screw this up, I'm sure."

"Irene," I began, forming a very painful grimace. "Listen… you're beautiful, okay? I can't even deny that fact if I try, I'm like instinctively obligated to drool all over you."

She raised her head, leering a pair of narrow eyes at me suspiciously. "Go on…"

"And any guy would be lucky to have you. Heck, I'd be lucky to have you."

"Mmm-hmm."

"But..."

"But?"

"That's not a question I'm willing to answer just yet, because you're not you right now, and I - "

"LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU! YOU DIDN'T SAY YES. I CAN'T HEAR YOU."

She was rocking her head, hands to her ears, wailing away like a candy-less kid walking out a candystore.

Okay, now I was losing my patience.

"Irene, the city's in danger!"

"My evening's in danger!" She sniped back, fuming, hands on her hips. "What's this now, hm? Is this what you've been thinking about? I'm right here! Me! Why aren't you thinking about me?!"

"I was!" I said. "I am. That's why I'm here! I need your help."

"Help?"

Irene got up to her feet again, arms folded, tapping a brazenly vexed foot against the floorboards, unnervingly quiet for some unknown reason I couldn't quite fathom what.

"Yes, your help! There's Blight, Irene. The city's covered, Ash and Ria are stuck in some hocus-pocus coma and I need you to - "

"Hush!"

She hushed me and fell silent again. I think she was thinking.

Her eyes on mine, blinking, swiftly from a grumpy glare to a normal stare - I did not like the way her annoyance just suddenly vanish in an instant there, and she… oh, and I especially did not like the way she was smirking at me again.

"Ahh..." The first sound I heard from her in a while and already I was wishing she hadn't opened her mouth. "So you need MY help."

"Mmm… yeah, I do."

"Ahh…" She said again, enunciating deeply, enunciating profoundly. "You. Need. My. Help."

Bad vibes, so many bad vibes.

"Irene," I pursed my lips, "real quick, you're going to try to twist my words right around on me, aren't you?"

The once sulking, scowling, succubus now returned a mischievous twinkle in her eyes afresh, baring a devilish smirk that seems to grow only wider. Reinvigorated by God knows what, Irene slowly began to approach me again.

"Yeah, you're twisting, alright," I muttered, stepping back once, suddenly finding it difficult to swallow.

"Twist?" Her voice, a sultry melody salaciously weaving through the already suffocating atmosphere.

Temptations, very tempting temptation, popped into mind, watching her steadily slither towards me. It was hypnotic, mesmerizing, each step, each sway, who knew a simple walk-cycle could be so… so… obscene?

Resist. Resist. Deep breath. Deep -

Couldn't breathe.

Irene slowly reached, an oppressive stare affixed, both her arms hovering slightly past my shoulders, forming a small ring comprising of only I and her - leaving only a meager gap of space in-between her eyes and mine.

"Whatever is there to twist?" She said, her voice, her lips, smooth as silk. "You said it yourself already. The words came right out of your mouth. You need me."

I searched her expression, delve into the luster in her eyes, and found it brimming with nothing but desire. The warmth of her body pressing lightly against my own.

"Why don't you take me seriously for once," I tried to say, but I don't think it came out the way I wanted nor intended. Submissive instead of unyielding.

Probably mishandled a few syllables too, stuttered a word here or there, nevertheless, she could sense my intentions loud and clear… her beguiling words, the shape of her voice, still very much so tender.

"But I am. Trust me, I am. You gave me an idea. We'll take a page right out of your book, hm? You like to bargain, don't you?"

I went back to being putty in her hands once again.

"Bargain?"

She leaned even further in, her lips brushing into mine, "Mmm-hmm, we'll compromise, you do what I want and I'll do what you want. What's the phrase - you scratch my back, I'll caress yours."

Tried to pinch my thighs, bite my tongue, anything to keep myself front being smothered in her scent, because the moment I put my itchy arms around her again, I knew it'd be game over for me.

I kept them down, kept them quivering in place at either side of me, and mustered back a stern stare to her enthralling gaze.

"You want to start brokering deals here when there are actual lives at stake? "

Again, tried my best to be firm, urgent, but all I could get out of her was another amused chuckle.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned here, yours isn't… and right now, right here, you're all I care about."

She had a way with words, alright. Don't think there was anything I could possibly say at the moment to convince her otherwise. Besides, I could only endure her for so long - this was a battle I was never going to win.

Best I could do for myself right then was as exactly as she suggested.

Compromise.

"Fine," I said, relenting. "What do you want?"

"Come on, come on, you and I are both fully aware of what I want here, and I'm just a single piece of fabric away from getting it."

It took me a moment for the jammed up gears in my head to grind that innuendo down to its bare surface - and my, oh my, was that surface audacious alright.

"You mean to say you're not wearing any under- "

"Oh!" She interjected, drawing her head back so coy. " Well, well, wouldn't you like to find out? Lucky for you, I'm all for kissing and telling too."

"Even still, Irene, this isn't really the best time for - "

"Shh, shh…" Her finger to my lips. "Forget everything, set everything aside, just for now, answer me this first - If I say I want you to take me now, that I want you to hold me, kiss me, embrace me, ravage me, love me… love me with everything you have. if I said all those things, what would say to me back?"

I realized there wasn't any squirming out of this one, Irene's has gotten me bound in a headlock here - literally. No dodging, no excusing, no places to hide away from the stare that seems to pierce through me.

Her scent still lingered, its influence still very much trying to sway my mind to its tune, but it wasn't the perpetrator that spurred me to give my answer.

I was the one that gave my answer.

"No, I'll tell you no," I said to her, my hands steady, gripping hers, lowering them back to her side. "At least, not to the you right now."

I looked back at her, expecting to see disappointment, disheartenment, bitterness, and anger brimming her pupils full.

But as it turns out, apparently a little tinge of melodrama was not of the slightest interest to the Succubus with her lips in a full pout. She stepped back, gave a little sigh, and shook her head.

"Well, well, aren't you just a cruel tease, then? Kiss me once, held me once, only to then leave me hanging." Before I could comprehend her reaction, she was already smiling again. "You just rejected a Succubus. If I didn't know any better, I'd assume you're more on the Incubus side of things."

"I, uh… um…" I tried to brute force my way out of confusion with rapid blinks. Didn't work out too well. "Thanks?"

"That's the deal by the way," She explained. "I want you to do all those things to me, and more. But I realized you're more of the slow-burner type, aren't you? You're more love than lust. No wonder you're so resilient to my, uhh… advances."

Again, all I could do was blink my way slowly to comprehension.

"But I'll tell you what!" She said, poking a haughty finger at my chest. "Two can play at that game too, and I'll be in it to win it. So if I can't have you now, then I'll just have you later. Doesn't matter to me how later it'll be, because at the end of this fairy tale, I know that you'll be mine… and I'll be yours."

So she wasn't going to give up on me just yet, huh? I'd say I'm flattered, but I rather not have her getting any ideas. Don't want to get jumped again.

"So, if you still 'need me', then I'm right here for you," She titled her head, the look in her eyes so soft with endearment. "All I ask is that next time - when there is a later time, a better time - you better give me exactly what I want. Do we have a deal?"

Irene sprung her hand out towards me, her expression urging me to do much of the same, but instead of having us shake hands all said and done, she instead dug her fingers into her palm and raised out a little pinky.

I stopped halfway and glanced back up at her. "That's a pinky promise."

"Yes, it is," she said matter-of-factly. "Deal?"

"That's not a - "

"Deal?"

I paused once, blinked twice, and after a brief moment of hesitation, relented to her again for the third time. Our pinkies interlocked and then shortly after uncoupled, and Irene couldn't look happier if she tried. Elated to the point of humming out loud in a euphoric daze.

As for me… I have no idea what I just signed myself up for, I just dearly hope she comes to her senses soon enough.

"Say my name please?"

I rose my eyebrows, briefly in silence, wondering if my ears have heard her right.

"What?" I asked.

"No, you heard me," She said, a playful stare in a half-glance. "Come on, just say it."

Okay… then?

"Uh, Irene?"

"Nuh-uh~ that ain't it~," She said in a sing-song inflection, swaying her entire self from left to right. "Going once, going twice, and… !"

"Ru - Ruria?"

Irene stopped at once, her smile so dazzlingly bright.

"Again."

"Ruria."

"One more time."

"Ruria."

That smile crept closer, Irene crept closer. All of her emotions, all her sentiments, her feelings, I felt them all in the warmth of her hand, fondly caressing the left side of my face.

"I'm going to love you so good."