So Margot came home. She called me up and asked me to pick her up so I did. Now she was home.

Honestly, she couldn’t have picked a better time for it. She’d arrived ‘after’ I’d gotten over my bout of what I’d like to call immortal’s sickness. Meaning there was no risk of me embarrassing myself, scaring her, or otherwise putting her off.

She’d also arrived just after I’d recovered from my fight with the Three-Eyed Queen. Otherwise, I would have still been useless and looking fairly alien.

Most importantly, she’d arrived ‘before’ I got bored and decided to do something inadvisable or troublesome.

One could argue that if I knew that there was a likelihood of my doing something unwise and possibly world-threatening I should just ‘not’ do that. I would like to argue that after living for so long that ordinary numbers were no longer sufficient for the task of counting my actual age I was old enough to know what kind of character I was.

I knew my own nature.

Saying something is just part of one’s nature ‘might’ seem like a cop-out but it was, what it was, what it was. Decisions were born from character. Habits were the root of one’s character and habits were born from the repeated interaction of circumstance, personality, intellect, and judgment.

My key peculiarity meant my circumstances were always unpredictable. Dramatically so. My personality had always been kind of off and living forever hadn’t helped that. And my judgment was often YMMV. Sometimes I was smart about things. Often not so much…

Thus while I tried to avoid ever stepping into the realm of the despicable, the likelihood of me doing something questionable for various even more questionable reasons was never zero.

Which brings me to my current predicament. It was early morning, and I’d just woken up. I was lying in bed and not lying in bed alone. On the pillow next to mine was a head of orange-brown hair. On the bedstand on that side of the bed, lay a pair of glasses.

Margot was in bed with me and the night before we’d had sex.

The funny thing is that I’d intended to try very hard to ‘not’ do this. Out of fear of risking our professional relationship as a contractor and familiar, I’d tried to avoid doing anything that would create this circumstance.

However, during the week after I brought her home, Margot had been acting strangely. She was oddly quiet, even for her. Not even bothering to play through her backlog of video games. She’d just sort of kept to herself. Staying in her room.

Then one day she came out and in the quietest voice possible she asked if I wouldn’t mind sleeping with her.

First I asked, what she meant, hoping that she was perhaps running into some kind of nighttime issue and just needed me to observe her unconscious-state something along those lines. Then she clarified that she meant sleeping in the carnal sense. At which point, I turned her down. Doing so gently but firmly.

Then I proceeded to explain all the reasons why that would be a bad idea.

Explaining my peculiarity. Explaining how I was presently so connected with the concept of desire that being involved with me ‘in that way’ was a very big issue with very serious implications. Explaining how my current mental state, life outlook, and personal baggage made me a very poor choice in love interest.

She responded by telling me that she was well aware that there’d be risks. She was human for the most part and I was very much not so. I wasn’t even non-human. I wasn’t any kind of mortal. I wasn’t even a normal part of this reality. Naturally, there would be a risk of something unexpected happening if we got too involved.

Then she pointed out the fact that we were spiritually coupled was probably a lot of a bigger issue than the physical coupling she was proposing.

She also said that she didn’t want or need anything serious. Nor did she need it to be a long term arrangement. She wasn’t looking for love or any kind of relationship beyond the one we presently had. Even she was, she said, I wasn’t the only one with personal baggage in the world...though I tried to argue that the quantitative difference bore thinking on.

Margot pressed onwards, and told me she was just curious if I wanted to, or be amenable to the idea, because for some reason after thinking about it she’d found that she found her thoughts going in that direction.

I’m one-third sex demon. My luxuriae nature made up a big part of who I was. I always wanted to. It didn’t matter who the other person was or what they looked like. Even gender wasn’t a big issue for me.

At least one-third of my being was programmed to draw and feed upon the desires of absolutely everyone around me. The only exceptions to this were animals and children.

Besides children and animals, I was basically just vaguely attracted to everyone all the bloody time. If I had a preference, it seemed to be pretty things, but my definition of pretty seemed to vary based on whatever gender my body was...assuming I even had a gender at the time.

Meanwhile, Margot was Margot. Smart, talented, hard-working and earnest. Her mixture of explosive ambition, boundless potential, and adorkable, had appealed to me since day one.

I should have resolutely said ‘no’ when she asked if I was attracted to her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to know that this was one of those moments where lying would have been the better call.

Either that or the troublemaking parts of my personality were just too curious to see what would happen. The parts of me that craved physical and emotional closeness from the people around me were now to awake for me to suppress as I usually did.

So I answered honestly, I told Margot that, yes, I was a bit interested.

Now here we were.

*************************************************************************************************************

“Stop that.” said a voice. Interrupting my thoughts.

I looked over and saw a sleepy-eyed Margot staring at me. Her head half-sunken into a pillow.

“Hm?”

“Stop it. Stop worrying. I can literally feel you being anxious through our connection. I can feel all the gears and cogs in your half-robot brain whirring away at ten times the usual speed.” said Margot.

“Nh...I can’t really help how I’m feeling right now, M.” I said. Frowning. Feeling that agitation everyone has felt one time or the other when someone else tried to tell them not to get upset about something.

“Sure you can… You'd be surprised how flexible the mind can be under the right circumstances. All you need is a change of perspective.” said Margot. Turning over in bed. The sheet dipping low revealing surprisingly full, surprisingly luxurious breasts. Topped with large, pink-brown, nipples.

“And how exactly do I do that?” I said.

“Mhm...I don’t know how aeons think, so I couldn’t really say.” said Margot. Blushing as she noticed me staring. Pulling the blankets up to cover her chest.

“Then pretend I’m a regular person. A human. Or at least one of the more mundane non-humans.” I said.

“Hm, alright...Then I’d say I understand why you’re worried. This is a big risk. I knew it when I asked. B-, But this doesn’t have to be a big deal if we don’t want it to be. We’re already business partners, and roommates, and I’d at least like to think we’re friends...Are we friends?”

“Of course, we’re friends. Do you think I’d be agonizing over this if you were a stranger? Or just an acquaintance?” I answer. Surprising myself as I found myself feeling slightly annoyed again.

“O-, Oh, well...That’s good. Where was I? Oh, right, well, then we can just stay that way. We can stay business partners, and roommates, and friends, and none of that would have to change. It’s just now we occasionally have sex. Or if you don’t want that, all this could be a onetime thing. We can just forget about it and let it...er, lie. It was just an experience.”

I couldn’t help sighing. Wondering if she was being naive, or if I was being narrow-minded.

“Nh...I wonder if things will really work out that easily?” I said. Sighing. Staring up at the ceiling. My mind going over the myriad romantic fiascos I’d been through and once again wondering what I’d been thinking when I agreed to sleep with Margot.

“It can...Can’t it? There are people who do this all the time and their worlds don’t fall apart. Why not us?”

“...I guess. But then are others whose lives are just constantly on fire because they can’t keep it in their pants.” I said. Shrugging.

“I-, I guess but… everything I said before is still true now. I’m not looking for some great confession of love. I don’t expect you to date me or give me a ring in the future. I have no grander ambitions concerning you and me beyond what happened just now. Honestly, I suspect that right now, neither of us is in a place where we could be in an involved long-term relationship, so I’m not trying to ask you for that. I just always found myself really, really, attracted to you and wanted to...maybe see if you felt the same way, or would at least be interested enough to...have a good shag.”

My stomach felt queasy. Even the Three-Eyed Queen’s punches hadn’t made me feel this uncomfortable.

“That sounds a lot like a confession, M.” I said.

“Mhm...Yeah, I guess. It kind of does but it wasn’t supposed to be. I mean, you were always so kind, and sweet,...and even if you’d annoyingly jump ahead with things, I always knew that you had my back. You’re the first person I’ve had in my life I could say that about. Plus, sometimes I’d go to sleep, and I’d remember what you look like beneath that body of yours...I’d remember how glorious it was, how beautiful, how frightening… Whenever I woke up my sheets would always be...”

“Oi...” I said. Blushing. Cutting her off.

“S-, sorry. I’m just saying that I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help feeling the way I felt, and I realized that some things you don’t need to talk about but some things you do. Which is why I said what I said, and why we’re here...and I mean, you said yes so it’s not like you hate me, right?... Right?”

“I don’t hate you… I just have a feeling that it’s going to complicate things. A lot! And don’t laugh but what do we do if ‘I’ do start having feelings for you. I mean it’s one thing if we keep this a one-time thing, then I can distance it mentally and it’ll just be whatever. However, if we make it a thing, despite immortal lust-demon schtick, I’ve always been the kind of guy who falls easily and mistakes the physical for the emotional… It’s honestly, been kind of a problem. That’s why I generally try to keep things to casual flings, one night stands, and the occasional brothel visit.”

“Brothel visits?” said Margot.

“It depends on the world and how exploitive their sex industry ends up being... but that’s neither here nor there. I’m asking what happens if I start to fall in love with you? What happens then, does everything we built, and are going to build, together just fall apart at that point or what do we do there?”

“I...I don’t know. I’m just a human. Why would you fall in love with me?”

“I don’t know? Maybe because you’re amazing and as I watch you and fight alongside you, and live alongside you, I can see you blossoming into something that could shake this very universe to its core. Plus, maybe don’t look down on humans? Don’t you remember? Yours truly used to be human too. Humans can be scary. There’s a reason this whole world used to hide half of how it worked behind a curtain.”

“R-, really? Right ...I think...I think I remember you saying something about that. Um, did you really mean the rest of that?”

“About humans being scary?” I said. Blinking innocently.

“No. About...about the other stuff.” said Margot. Blushing furiously. Sitting up right and letting the early morning sunlight wash over her lovely, curvaceous, form.

“Do I like the kind of guy who blows wind up people’s asses as pillow talk?” I said. One brow raised.

“Mh… Then isn’t it fine?” said Margot.

“What?” I said.

“Isn’t it fine if you fall in love… In that case, don’t I just have to fall in love too?” said Margot.

“That’s…. I don’t think that’s how it works. I mean maybe you'll decide you don’t like me after all. Maybe I’ll do something to turn you off, or scare you away, or maybe you just fall in love with someone else…” I said.

“Or maybe I end up falling in love with you like I said I would? Or maybe neither of us fall in love and we keep things professional with the sex as a pleasant side-benefit...because in case you didn’t know you’re...just as good at ‘that’ as you are at everything else. Or maybe we all turn into cheese and marry the horde of hangry mice that comes to eat us. Should we really put our lives on hold because of maybes?” said Margot. Her green eyes oddly dreamy as she leaned in close and made me match her gaze. Her cool fingertips pressing against my warming cheeks.

“......”

“Plus, at the very least, I know myself well enough to know that if...if, ‘this’ doesn’t work I won’t throw-away everything else because of that. You mean too much to me.” said Margot. Her gaze heated and determined.

I considered her words and realized that, damn, she had me. I couldn’t help wondering if she’d planned for all this to happen from the moment she called me to pick her up from the airport. Or if she’d had it in mind even beforehand.

She’d had me checkmated from the very beginning. I was self-aware enough to know that I’d always expected a line or two to blur in our relationship at some point. We already very close and my nature being what it was, ‘something’ was bound to happen. That was how things usually went for the old treasure-king.

I considered the fact that at her age, I’d have been a complete mess. Back then I never knew what I wanted, or what I was willing to do to get those things.

I couldn’t help feeling impressed that she’d managed to pull one over on me. Pulling me in and stealing the rug out from under me before I could lose my senses and trying going the dark seducer route.

With her being much more mature and sure of what she wanted in life, than I’d been in my twenties, and me being a barely mature forever-year-old, it stood to reason that there should be a way for us to be together without our lives imploding.

I also found myself growing curious. Intrigued. The same fascination that made me stay when she summoned me, also made me want to see what it would be like to be with her as a lover as well.

“Okay…” I said.

“Okay, what?” said Margot.

“Okay, I’ll stop panicking.” I said.

“Oh? Really?! That easily?” said Margot.

“...Yes. If you really think we can do this without it becoming too messy, if you really won’t let this blow up everything else we have going on. I’d love to just...see where this goes.” I said.

Instead of saying anything in response, Margot leaned over and gave me a kiss. I felt my eyes widen and my heart race in a way it hadn’t raced in eons. I had my version of an adrenaline rush. It was an explosion of positive energy that I couldn’t get from even the best of fights.

I thought things over and kissed her back. Grabbing her hand. Enjoying the bioelectric feedback that pulsed from the contact. Indulging in the hormones that flooded my system.

“Just so you know… I’m terrible at monogamy and relationships in general. I’ll never cheat on you, but I’ve lived all this time and never successfully gotten married, so you’ve chosen quite the hill to climb, Miss Wallace.” I said. Giving the woman a serious warning because my luck in romance was in the negatives. Things always ended up far more complicated than should logically be possible.

Plus, for luxuriae of my level monogamy simply wasn’t a possibility. Too many ‘meals’ in a row would result in me directly subsuming, or being subsumed by, my partners. I needed to vary what I ate otherwise the initially beneficial effects of getting involved with me would turn into something darker. Much darker.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. Finally standing from the bed. Letting the blankets drop as she picked her boxers and t-shirt off of the floor.

“Hmph...One) What does that have to do with me? I don’t think we’re officially at the stage of dating yet...I thought we agreed we were still just figuring things out. Two) I’m a mage from an old mage family, I’m familiar with ‘unusual’ household structures.” said Margot.

“Just saying...Just saying. A wise buyer is wary, and an upright salesman discloses the faults in his wares.” I said. Chuckling. Feeling the call of sleep fall over me because the mental strain of the morning’s conversation had been worse than the physical strain of fighting a hundred Three-Eyed Queens.

******************************************************************************

Elsewhere, in a faraway place, great powers were colliding. Roiling and churning as they coalesced together forming a temporary firmament. A hidden plane was emerging from the chaos. A hidden treasure was rising from the shattered remains of the countless broken worlds that floated within the strange tides that surrounded this universe’s version of earth.

As all this took place, countless gods, fairies, devils, angels, and transcendental beings all watched with the eagerness of starving hounds. All of these beings, looking forward to the grand banquet that awaited them. A banquet that only a few would be allowed to enjoy. A banquet reserved for the sharpest minds, firmest wills, and strongest fists amongst their number.