The newly named Lady Chainy shimmied around her spot for a couple of seconds, and Stephen wondered if that was her way of asseverating her displeasure. Allegedly, the thought of a pouting chain made his lips twitch up, but he had to hold back. Their feud had come to a temporary deadlock, so he raised his hands up in the universal sign of honesty, "Okay okay, my apologies..." there was still a tinge of amusement in his tone, "... I won't harm you, I promise." at least not like he had done to the Orcs, honestly, that was brutal even for his standards.

He huffed out the last vestiges of merriment and adopted a businesslike expression. Lady Chainy plodded out of its hiding and stood upright, seemingly chewing over his words. It was fascinating, in a certain way... that something otherwise deemed expendable and lifeless in his world, a tool, here was a being capable of thoughts and decisions. Or that was what it looked like. He tried to convey his sincerity through his eyes; there was a link between them, and he wanted to further explore that.

Just as it started crawling forward, a series of knocks on his door poured cold water on their evolving interactions. Lady Chainy bounced up in fright at the noise before diving downward, right where a crimson pattern of hieroglyphs coiled to life, swallowing its caller back to whatever fictional world it had spawned from. Stephen stood there, alone.

"Stephen?" Jadesin's voice wafted from the other side, "Is it a bad time?"

He couldn't fault her for awful timing, "No... not at all, Jadesin. You may come in." he mentally resolved to call upon that chain again, and resume their unfinished communication.

The door creaked open as Jadesin slithered in, "Hey." she smiled with a wave of her hand.

"Howdy!" he returned.

She giggled in her hand, "Sorry for the intrusion. I just wanted to thank you." she proceeded to sit down next to him.

"It's okay, we had a deal after all." he shrugged, "And it was not much of hard work anyway, I expected them to be stronger."

"Uh-huh... tooootally not strong." she bit back a chortle as she stared at him from the corner of her eyes, "Have you never thought that maybe, just maybe, it's you who's way strong for your Rank?"

"Of course I did, you silly snake. I was just fishing for compliments." he stuck his tongue out at her, and she returned the gesture with a playful smile.

It was this kind of childish banter between them that lit something inside her, like it always did when they jested around, or just generally shared a good laugh, "You're so immature." she wrinkled her nose before shoulder-bumping him. He accepted the challenge and shoved back, almost prompting her to tumble out of the bed. Now he sported that shit-eating grin she's been starting to love and yearn for.

Jadesin eventually smirked and stood back up, "Ohh you shouldn't have!"

"Oh gosh... oh no... please... I'm so scared..." Stephen cowered in faux fear.

She snorted at his theatricals and snagged the pillow behind them, "Time to enact revenge!" with that last determined holler, she started wallopping the fluffy weapon in her clutches onto him.

Of course, Stephen just took in stride and let himself be punished, chuckling alongside her.

The barrage of soft battering petered off when a panting Jadesin let her arms sling by her sides, "Uhh... you give up?" she pressed on, her face flushed.

He answered with a huff and a roll of his eyes, "Awh c'mon... why did you stop? Here, I'll show you how it's done."

"N-No... there's no nee-- Ahh!"

Stephen snatched the pillow from her hands and started clobbering the soft cushion against her back. Jadesin leaked a cute yelp of surprise as she curled herself into a ball, her hands forming a cocoon around her head, "Woman of little faith. That's what happens when you try to challenge my throne."

"It's you who challenged me!" she shot back.

"No, you!"

"No!"

He abruptly halted his bashing, "Prove it." and narrowed his eyes, "Or you'll face dire consequences."

"W-What..." her expression blanked out, "I... I have a reputation to hold, you can't just humiliate me like this!" yet the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curve up, her eyes wholly betraying the mirth she was feeling.

"There's no one here, and it was you who slapped me with the glove first." he cackled evilly, "Now..." the shadow of his fingers loomed over her willowy and retreating figure, before he assailed her tummy in a storm of tickles.

"Pwahahaha-- Nooahahahaha! Ste-Stephen!" Jadesin's giggles started ringing out through the room as she tried wrestling her way out of his attacks. Ultimately, her tail looped around Stephen as she grappled his hands to a stop. The sudden freeze in their movements caused gravity to chime in and, considering the weird angle they entwined themselves into, they rolled to the side and slid down into a prone position. This time with her on top of him, her serpentine lower half still wrapped around his waist.

Her eyes splayed wide open when they made direct contact with Stephen's ones, her reflection wavering inside the mirror-illusion of his crimson orbs. Their faces were a shy breath's away from each other, shy just like the leap her heart did, afraid of thumping too loud and disrupt the moment. Her breathing pattern changed after she gulped down the lump of nervousness and excitement down her throat. And now they were bathing each other in their breaths.

Stephen opened his mouth to say something... anything -- but all the noises had quietened down, as if God himself had used his remote controller of creation to mute the world. The way her ebony-black hair deluged on his face, or the fruity scent of her lips prickling his nose, lingering at the tip, to remind him she had yet to move away. It was all a blend of sensations that had his heart pumping out fire, and everything else became irrelevant in his dizzy world. Natasha's face now just a background blur.

Jadesin's grip on him tightened. It was a subconscious hint, just like the way she wetted her lips in preparation. She leaned in, halfway there, waiting for him to reciprocate... or waiting for herself to wake up, in her bed, alone.

There was something about the tension in the air, the wait before the act. Stephen couldn't help but fall in love with the feeling, the adrenaline, and everything in between. It was so surreal and... phantasmagoric. Who would have thought almost three weeks ago that he would have traveled to another world... or that he'd be soon making out with a half-snake half-woman? He snorted a chuckle as he closed the gap, their lips finally connecting.

A shiver sparked down their spines. The pressure between them was like the charged sky outside, breeding bolts of lightning. Jadesin melted as their lips mashed and danced to the beat of their hearts. This was not like anything she had ever read in her sappy romance journals. This was much more powerful. Alive.

Their kissing was sloppy at first, but once their hesitancy and their first-time jitters were swept away by their salacity, their movements grew needier. She yanked him by the collar, hooking her arms around his neck as she pushed herself more into the kiss. Stephen grabbed her face with his hands, his fingers brushing the underside of her ears, right behind her earlobe, eliciting a delightful moan out of her.

And then he parted her lips, knocking at her teeth with his tongue. He wanted to take it a step further, and she was clearly giddy at the idea. Her own tongue shot out of the boundaries of her oral cavity, just like a curious octopus poking a tendril out of its cave. They entwined and waltzed in a flaming tango of passion and lust. Her nails sank into his flesh as she grunted in arousal, all of her mouth nerves teased by his appendage.

Stephen licked and sucked, tasting the floar and exotic taste of berries and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on it. She was delicious, and it was a wonder how neither of them was hurt by how much their teeth clacked during their make-out session.

Their hands toured each other's bodies, exploring each other's anatomy differences... until their lungs expressed their unsatisfaction and hereafter the urgent need for oxygen stopped them, leaving a slobbering mess of saliva behind.

"Stephen..." she whispered, breathing heavily, "Stephen... Stephen Stephen Stephen Stephen. My Stephen..." and then she loosened out a full-blown laugh into his chest, "My Stephen. Mine... mine... you're mine right?"

"And then she went nuts." Stephen chuckled to himself.

She swatted him in the arm good-naturedly, still basking in... everything, "I can't believe we did that." her fingers traced over her lips fondly as she snuggled herself deeper into his bosom. Her heart had yet to cease its race, and her frame couldn't stop trembling. The sudden explosion of emotions in her mind fogged up everything, clouding her surroundings in a haze of beautiful colors. There was just him and her. Just him... and her. Alone. Forever.

That sounded so lovely and romantic in her head.

"Yeah... that was wow."

"We've only known each other for a couple of days, yet... yet... you stirred emotions in me that-- that..."

Stephen wrapped his arms around her, "My sentiments exactly..."

"You're not disgusted by me because I'm different, right? Right? I don't have legs-- and--and... this... this ugly tail here--"

"It's okay! I don't care..."

"But... but..."

"Jadesin!"

She looked up, sniffing a bit.

His finger brushed off a stray string of leftover saliva at the side of her mouth and... lapped his tongue over it, "There's nothing of you that repulses me..." he then gently grabbed her hand, and sensually led it southward, where a painful bulge in his pants took the spotlight, "... or I wouldn't have been so turned on. And I'm quite the explorer myself, while you are uncharted territory. Just let me take the risk." the unwanted image of a smiling Natasha popped up in his head, but the woman in front of him had literally and magically thawed his heart. So skillful was she in enrapturing him. Like a ballerina on a stage, merrily skipping and bouncing away under floodlights, dancing only for him.

He could see it in her eyes, he was the only one she would ever dance for.

"Stephen..." Jadesin stared at him in a daze, as if she had finally found the exit of the maze of negativity she had willingly plunged herself into, "Oh Stephen..." and then she forcefully clutched his shoulders and released an animalistic and wanton growl, "Time to enact revenge!"

"What? Again?"

"Yes!"

She giggled as she grabbed the pillow, but instead of using it to trounce him up... she hurled it away, "Nah... forget it. You deserve a reward." she shoved her head closer and planted a long chain of kisses all over his face, both of them laughing as he tried to catch her elusive lips, only to get a peck somewhere on his face.