Mira stirred groggily, rolling onto her side and nearly growling at the window for allowing blindingly bright light into her room, washing her and most of her bed in a shine of off yellow. She groaned and shifted in her blankets, tossing her covers around and away as she stretched her elegant body, her hair a mess and her pretty face plastered with a desire to return to dreamland.

The young woman sat up, scratching her head and placing her feet onto the floor of her bedroom's soft carpet, over the last few days the polished nails having been nicked and roughly rubbed off in some places, needing to be touched up or redone altogether. She was leaning over, her long flowing strands of brown hair cascading in front of and to each side of her head, the gorgeous glitter of her natural color vibrant and full of life. Mira tossed the loose groups of unkempt hair up and behind her skull as she looked to the ceiling, closing her eyes and sighing with a sound like abject reluctance for the new day, wishing she never had to work a day more in her life.

The grouchy demon girl really wasn't a morning person, she never had been, and especially recently she'd been forced to go into work earlier and earlier, despite having input her availability to indicate she couldn't come in before 10 AM. She hated dawn in particular; she really couldn't stand the brightness of the breaking sunrise, though whether it was curiously something to do with her dark second nature or just her own displeasure, she could not be sure. Nor did she care.

Mira finally pushed herself up, standing to her feet and unsteadily taking her first few steps of the day, making it to the door of her room and walking through it, the relative darkness of the windowless hallway greeting her in contrast to the vibrant gleam of her secluded personal space at the back of the apartment. She yawned with an adorable exhalation that came out like the soft mating call of an animal much smaller and much less dangerous than herself, swallowing uncomfortably afterward, her dry mouth needing a drink of water to really get her body functioning properly again due to being inactive for the hours of the short night.

The woman passed the open doorway to the bathroom, sunlight coming through the rectangular, non-translucent window placed near the ceiling above the shower, temporarily causing her to recoil from its enthusiastic welcome. Her eyelids closed, shielding her brown orbs from the obnoxious blast of early light as her left hand came up to block it as well.

She took another step, as always, completely heedless of what may reside on the floor beneath the merciless trod of her soles, but as she took her stride's next advance, something happened that stabbed a needle of agony into the soft walls of her twisted heart. She hadn't at any point checked to see what time it was, and all she knew was that it was morning, and as her careless step completed, she was struck with terror as she remembered someone else, who was afflicted with a total reduction in height, shared her living space.

The skin of Mira's foot had contacted the carpet, individual fibers of the tiny artificial forest pleasing her senses as they gave way, trying and failing to resist her comparatively incomprehensible weight, but with this careless step, a sound accompanied the footfall, and to Mira's horror, the tiniest hint of a meaningless crunch barely tickled her skin.

In an instant, in less time than it takes for her heart to beat one powerful thump, Mira was wide awake, coherent, aware, and now suddenly, gripped by the icy fingers of pure, overwhelming panic. Her breath lurched in her throat, her eyes, widening with a terror and fear that threatened to supersede her reason, rising to the tip of a pointed glacier comprised entirely of dread and trepidation.

Mira's mouth fell open as her lower lip began to quiver, tears welling up in her eyes as they refused at first to look down to where she'd placed her foot carelessly on the floor, her entire body now, completely frozen in shock and distressed denial. She trembled as her breath came out of her parted lips, she began slowly starting to shake all around, the fingers of both her hands extending fully then curling back into fists as if she was hesitant to move even them. Tears flowed down her cheeks as her lips finally forced together, both, however, curling backwards in crippling anxiety, her eyes red and jittery, hesitantly panning down to her floor and to where her step had fallen.

The panicking woman gritted her teeth and began to heave breaths to and fro, the anticipation of discovering the horrid results of her idiotic irresponsibility clawing tears and trenches across her mental composure.

She had killed Anthony. She had done it, it had taken a while but it had finally happened, every sweet and unforgettable memory and moment between the pair was all for nothing, and now he was gone forever, never to return. She had ended the life of the only person other than her mother she had ever cared about, and the worst thing about that fact was that it was entirely by accident, and it was her own disregard for his safety that had lead her prospect for love to this grizzly end. There was no way he could be alive, his body must be crushed utterly beneath the firmer top of her sole that connected to her toes, the tiny, unmistakable pop at the end of his minuscule form's resistance accompanying the untold pressure of her body's unforgiving, uncaring weight.

Mira wanted to close her eyes, she wanted to believe this was all a disgusting nightmare that she hadn't yet woken from, but it wasn't. Mira was awake, she knew that this wasn't all in her head. Though she felt nothing near any form of pleasure, she knew in her heart something was crushed beneath her body, and he was the only other thing in the house small enough. Forcing herself to behold the sight of her ultimate betrayal, she began slowly to roll her foot away, almost gently, as if not to disturb what may remain of the greatest thing ever to happen to her in her short, revolting life. She began to shake her head, a tear dropping loose from her face and landing somewhere on the ground, he was nothing but paste now, sweet, loving Anthony who had dared to rescue Mira from herself was now dead under her sole like an ant on the sidewalk.

As the curve of her foot came away, tears rolled freely as she felt her heart dropping lower and lower, down and away from what she had always wanted to be, back to where the monster inside her resided, promising her she was never going to be anything but. She had to see him though, she wanted the pain to overtake her, Mira even prayed that the agony of her failure and loss would punish her on its own and kill her for the unspeakable act of disloyalty she'd just committed.

She knew she deserved it. Anthony had trusted her, with more and more each day as time had gone on, and she'd destroyed that faith in one single step of her stupid, irresponsible, casual stride. Fire burned in her chest, not the warm care of affection nor the sweet whisper of love, but the savage inferno of hatred, the unstoppable blaze of complete disgust for herself, growing each second, boiling her blood.

At last, as her vision was unimpeded, and she stammered out a silent realization in disbelief, now finally overcome with far too much emotional tonnage. Her eyes widened and beheld her victim far below, crushed utterly to nothing like sand on a beach.

It was…. It was a potato chip… It wasn't Anthony crushed down beneath her gaze, the smashed bits of fried, flavored starch cracked into tiny specks of grouped remains, a small amount still stuck to Mira underfoot. She hadn't killed him, she breathed out frantically. He wasn't dead. The sudden mistaken murder had all, however, proven to be just a little too much for poor Mira to handle. Her usual strong, powerful mental fortress of thoughts and emotions began to crumble to ashes with each passing instant of psychological turmoil. She couldn't bear the thought of losing Anthony, and just now, she had thought that not only he'd be gone forever, leaving her alone again, but that she had been at fault for bringing that to reality.

She exhaled sharply, erratically, and fell back immediately against the wall of the hallway, sliding down it to the floor to sit on her butt with her legs bent out in front of her in a crumpled, distraught heap. She sat in the feeble position and began to sob, a combination of relief and total, complete, sorrow releasing with every breath of her lungs. Mira's head dipped and she let it fall into her knees, wrapping her arms around them and covering herself as if to fend off a childhood fear she'd never managed to defeat in all the years of the past.

Just as she did so, Anthony rounded the corner of the hallway entrance, normal sized and unharmed, and when he did, Mira's head raised with a gasp as her eyes shoot up to his, full of tears, and looking like they'd never known anything their entire life but grief. His look was clearly surprised and full of concern, his mouth slightly opened and no words coming out at first as his eyes widened with confusion, not entirely understanding the situation as it was so vaguely presented before him.

Without a moment passing further and without a single syllable exchanged between them, Mira rose up and dashed over the Anthony with every ounce of speed she possessed, barreling into his chest and nearly knocking him to the ground by the force of her body impacting his own. Her arms wrapped around him as her weight capitulated into his embrace, she pressed her head and face firmly into his torso and began to cry uncontrollably, sobbing with a muffled tone into the muscle of his left side's bare pectoral.

Mira couldn't hold herself up, and as her hands gripped tightly onto Anthony's back, he quickly held her in return, looking over her shoulder and seeing the poor crushed potato chip fragments on the carpet behind them and immediately understanding the source of his roommate's distress. The young man felt her body go limp, completely defeated by the trauma of the incident, and he carefully lowered her to the ground and shifted to support his back against the wall of the hallway, holding them both up as he sat them to the floor.

Anthony felt Mira's tears running off onto his skin as she let all of her destroyed emotions flow out of her eyes, he placed one of his hand on the back of her head and cradled her in his arms, slowly rocking her back and forth as a mother would a crying infant. He gathers the will at last to speak to her, his heart deeply shaken at the first sight of her this morning, laminating as if death had truly come for one of them, removing them from life forever.

"Shhh," he whispers softly to her, the sobbing she's begun not slowing or quieting, "Shhh, its ok, I gotcha, its ok…"

Mira glances up at Anthony between heaves of air, checking with his eyes to confirm what he's saying as he shifts them downward to look at her, but the instant she does so she hides her face back into his torso and groans beneath more crying. Looking up to the ceiling and closing his eyelids, overwhelmed himself by the drastic change in his lovely friend's demeanor, the man holding her pats her back lightly reassuring her that everything is as he says, and is going to be ok. Mira's male roommate lowers his chin and puts it onto the top of her head, squeezing her body tightly to his as he does so. He can't allow her to be like this, he can palpably feel her sorrow as if it's a physical object pressing down hard on both of them as the seconds tick slowly on. He continues supportively comforting her and reassuring her that the nightmare of accidentally crushing him beneath her foot isn't real, and that he's still very much alive.

He whispers to her again, despite his tendency to latch on to one phrase or set of words, he doesn't know exactly what else to say really, but to her, he correctly assumes it doesn't actually matter.

"Shhh, I gotcha… You're alright… Everything's ok. I promise."

Mira swallowed hard and started to calm after a few minutes of tender cuddling, her love interest stroking her head softly, rubbing her back lightly with his fingers, and applying in every way a physically assuring touch that succeeded in soothing her trembling body. She sighed heavily, her breathing coming back down to normal, her heart rate to his relief returning to a more stable rhythm. The two sat together in silence for a minute or two, huddled for comfort, not exactly pressured to separate in any timely fashion.

Mira finally sighed heavily, the salted release of her eyes almost dry on her cheeks and Anthony's right chest muscle.

"I thought….I thought you were gone again…I thought I ruined everything…Again."

"No, no…" The man says quietly down to her, not looking at her face, as she hasn't glanced up yet either.

"It was just a chip Mira, its ok, everything's gonna be alright." He pauses for a half second, knowing where to respond next, "I trust you. You won't ruin anything. I know you're going to take care of me…And no matter what," he does now shift his head to look down at her, Mira's stare rising to instinctively find his. As the beautiful woman's face tilts up, Anthony puts each of his hands on one of her cheeks, taking his thumbs and carefully wiping her eyes of tears, "I'll always be here for you."

Mira closes her eyes reflexively with an accompanied sigh, the words caressing the shattered pieces of her soul, mending her composure as they resonate within her mind. Anthony truly cares about her, no matter what she's done in life or to the lives of others. Mira can't begin to understand how, but right now, just as the bright sunlight of the early morning had tried to warm her savage heart, she doesn't care, Mira just wants Anthony's warmth. She puts her head back against his torso, resting it over the beating of his heart, the pumping muscle healthy and strong, not a dream, and most definitely full of life. The sound of its low thumping relaxes Mira, the heart that beats for her is so close to where her lips are she wishes she could just kiss its surface with a silent thank you for allowing her to reside inside. Anthony puts his hands back to where they were previously, and continues to cradle his inhuman partner with support, he says to her, the mood now a little lighter, a small offering of humor to check to be sure she's back to her old self.

"You should probably call into work, we both woke up late, and I was on my way to knock on your door…"

Mira groans and sinks down again, this time supremely annoyed that she has to use her second to last sick day because of this nonsense, but understanding completely there's no way she'd be able to function correctly at the store should she try to go in.

The girl shakes her head and comes to realize now that the tumultuous event of the morning has concluded, that she's been incredibly uncharacteristic of her usual behavior and demeanor. She doesn't want Anthony to think less of her, and although it's very clear he doesn't at this point, she also wants to be sure the usually spunky human doesn't get funny ideas about who's still in charge…so she quickly reminds him, the only way she knows how.

"Anthony," she mutters up to him, her voice deceptively vulnerable.

"Yeah?"

"If you ever…" She pauses between sentences to maximize her intended points of intimidation, "tell anyone about this…Ever!" She stops, now looking up to him with her eyes keen like viper's fangs locking onto his, revealing her mouth's teeth pushed together with a snarled corner of her lips raised as she growls out, "I'll fucking tear your tiny limbs off with my fingers one at a time, and let you bleed out..."

Anthony stammers and pauses unintentionally, his thoughts grappling with Mira's sincere, nightmarishly violent threat, and hesitating to say anything next. Usually, things like this don't bother the half-human girl, but she does genuinely get angry at times when presented with displays of weakness, and this happens to be one of those instances.

Mira keeps his eyes stuck in her stare as she quickly reaches up, practically without a thought, and firmly grips Anthony's injured right shoulder, the tender muscle of his bruised blade softly resisting as her fingers squeeze down hard, intentionally trying to emphasize a point that assures him she wasn't bluffing by associating it with pain.

Anthony grunts sharply and groans out roughly with eyes wide but brows angled down, as Mira's fingertips press into the firm but sensitive skin of his discolored bruise. She notices, though not exactly intending to, that the both of them share another similarity in common, something she finds momentarily very interesting and in a way also extremely attractive; they both respond with anger when exposed to pain.

"Mother fuc-" Anthony starts to growl out through teeth that have been clamped together, he reacts as Mira has predicted, though not to how he had honestly anticipated he would behave given the situation. The young man reflexively raises his opposite arm and moves preparing to put up a struggle, but before he can, the young woman hops her lower body onto his pelvis and pins him against the wall behind him, turning his arm that's trying to resist away and gripping his neck with her free hand, squeezing it with peculiar, unnatural strength.

She says angrily down to him, unaffected by his attempts to try and fight her off.

"Say you won't tell a soul! SAY IT!"

Anthony tried to push her off with his lower body, but she was sitting her weight on his midriff, and there was no way he could articulate himself or maneuver in such a way that would shove her into imbalance. To make matters worse, she had her ankles locked together beneath his abdomen, making it virtually impossible for him to topple the woman from her superior physical position. Where this apparent skill at wrestling suddenly came from was a complete mystery to Anthony as he put up a futile resistance, and it momentarily made him wonder what she was truly capable of.

Mira was indeed a little angry at Anthony's earlier show of weakness, but as she watched her pet roommate struggle against her, even at his normal size, she felt a wash of pleasure tease her senses. Anthony was full of fire, feisty, and defiant at times, and in those specific ways, she found him tantalizingly irresistible.

"Alright," he labored to blurt out, his throat being constricted by her dark, decorated digits, "Alright! I won't tell anyone, Jesus!"

Mira held his neck in place for a bit longer and waited to see if he was going to continue further, his eyes looking rebellious, but his body betraying its true defeat. She shoved his neck backward and released him just after, pushing home her current emotions that conveyed she was not at all joking.

The pair looks at each other for what seems like minutes, but in reality, it is nothing more than a few seconds, the tension of what Mira had done before, and after being comforted, still fresh in their minds. Anthony reflected, that ever since meeting his gorgeous roommate, he could tell that she was of an unmistakably dominant personality, something that he too was occasionally guilty of, but definitely not to the degree Mira was. He was split, for the most part, at about ninety percent submissive, and then ten percent more preferable towards being in control, but when he was in the mood for it or forced to be, he could become very aggressive. His inhuman friend, however, was just about the polar opposite, and while he couldn't tell at all if she even had a portion of her entire being that desired to be oppressed, he could feel a strange, almost primal urge to find out, and then exploit it.

As the thoughts bubble around, Anthony notices Mira's demeanor alter slowly, from angry and somewhat hostile, to almost even more worryingly, playfully seductive.

He raises an eyebrow as Mira tilts her head back and places her palms open and flat onto his bare chest, her fingertips caressing him lightly, as she starts to wobble her pleasantly wide hips in a deliberately slow, gradual circle, her generously proportioned back end rubbing against his pelvis as well as something else, something incredibly vital. As she loves to do, she winks down at him, curling and chewing on her lower lip apparently sensing the beginning of his arousal, her sudden change of mood surprising him as well as taking him completely off guard.

Anthony stammers out as his face cascades a deep red, quickly and embarrassingly shifting himself around and trying to toss Mira off, her smile growing with his obvious discomfort.

"H-hey! Get the hell off of me, Lamia!"

She giggles down to him and leans her face over to his, trying and succeeding to tickle his skin with her excited fingers as they dance along his exposed pectorals.

"Aww, but why? What's the matter Anty? Afraid a little demon like me might corrupt a boring little angel like you...Afraid you might even like it?"

Anthony barks out, the reason behind why he's suddenly nervous in fact couldn't be farther from the truth,

"You were the one who wanted to draw the line at roommates!" he practically shouts up to her, face still bright red and warm.

"What? We aren't even doing anything!..." She takes a momentary pause and bounces her backside up and down on his hips, the soft makings of her posterior undulating with the shake of gravity, reminiscent of a common position of intimacy, "Yet…"

As Mira starts to chuckle in response to Anthony's suddenly wide eyes, he's shocked into action at last with her final statement that is dangerously close to escalating things further. Pushing her hard by the shoulders he shoves her off his body, tumbling her softly to the floor, though this time she allows his strength to move her away, separating the two before things can get more serious. The attractive woman tumbles onto her back next to him as she's laughing fully now, no longer trying to contain herself, the top of her head close to his hip, upside down to his point of view. Anthony has continuously proved himself to be not just worth of her affection, but deserving of it, and just now having done a good job at comforting her in the most troubling time she could remember since her mother passed away, she feels he's earned a lot more attention than usual. As her smile fades and she contains her excited humor, she looks up and over to him batting her eyelashes, placing her legs together at the knees slightly angle up off the ground, ankles separated and facing opposite one another, like a poster girl for a lewd photoshoot, alluring and sensual. Mira places her arms over her head and into Anthony's lap, the tank top of her torso lifting from her waist and revealing the smooth, pristine curves of her toned abdomen, the skin healthy and glowing.

Anthony's breath catches near the top of his throat as he fights to force down his rising attraction, he can't tear his eyes away from Mira's divine appearance, her body is elegant beyond his wildest dreams, from the color of her hair, to the soles of the feet that have already felt the near irresistible warmth of his death. The female demonette starts to rock her hips again, back and forth this time as they lay casually on the carpet of the floor, tempting their lone male audience's urges for satisfaction, teasing his sense of reason and testing the young man's mental capacity for physical restraint.

Mira's reaches up slowly with one of her hands as the back of its black nailed index finger comes up to gently stroke his left cheek, whispering out to him as she does so, her voice, thin but passionate, like smooth honey diluted with blood,

"What's the matter, my little lover boy? Am I not good enough for you?" she said asking a question she knew was complete and utter nonsense, Anthony taking the obvious bait, replying predictably of course.

"OK! Yup! Nope, nope!" he babbled out raising his voice, rolling out and away from her, at first wanting to stand but unable to due to the fixation her unnerving stare always held over him, the brown gleam of her eyes never letting him go. "That's enough, Mira! You're amazing, really," he responded out nervously, "but we can't! We're not eve-"

She cut him off, still whispering, and rising to her hands and knees, slowly trotting over to where his body was set against the back of the couch, his torso resting against the fabric of the long seat.

"We're not even, what? Together? …That's what you think…" The seductive voice of the female came as she took small, exaggerated advances on her palms and knees, the form of her back end covered but also clearly outlined in her relaxing pants, wagging side to side as she grew ever closer.

Anthony's voice was trapped in either his thoughts or his lungs as he recoiled slightly, lower jaw down, Mira making her way to his legs and continuing further, her face arriving before his own, her eyes staring sharply into his soul and reading him just as easily as she would text on the parchment of a book. She was smiling and while her male roommate was clearly nervous, she could see that he was trying to resist enjoying himself, and he was breathing harder like she was.

Mira leaned her head to Anthony's right ear and lowered her voice as if trying to hide her words from the rest of the world, the syllables coming out like the promise of an inescapable lion to a scared mouse caught in its massive paw.

"You're mine, insect…You...Belong...To me... I own you."

The sounds of each word brushed Anthony's skin as they left Mira's sensual lips, the statements and their finality nearly coated in the dark inevitability of a planet witnessing itself being devoured by a black hole. Mira brought her eyes back to her pet's as she stared silently into them, as if somehow she could read what was behind them within his mind. Strangely, almost insanely even, Anthony found that when she said these things to him…He couldn't help but feel…

Crunch.

The pair both blinked in unison, the audible crack and crinkle of what sounded like a small leaf breaking just off towards the doorway of the apartment, bringing them back to reality with the noise. The couple stops immediately and looks over together to the wall of the living room, both their heads turning and taken entirely surprised by what they find. Only about five feet away, resting against the white paint of the apartment's walls, was the towering monster of a familiar man dressed in colorless black and eyes the shade of a new sun.

Crunch.

The demon covered in tribal tattoos, with its mouth unnaturally long and curved upwards in a disturbing smile, placed a single, individual potato chip onto is tongue that rolled out like the forked muscle of a large monitor lizard. The salted, fried snacks were of the same variety as the one Mira had stepped on earlier, mistaking the death of the round chip fragment for the demise of her life's most special member. They were, without a doubt, a brand and flavor she had never purchased in her entire life.

The tall being simply gazed over at the two young adults who were interlocked in a curiously exciting position, and as it did so, it met each of their own, surprised and confused stares in turn, making exaggerated motions of its jaw as it chewed its snacks.

"What?" it breathed out, with a tone drenched in sarcastic humor, but taking on a voice like two tectonic plates grinding together as it placed a final chip onto its tongue.

Crunch.

+ + + + +

The weights clanked again for a second time, the round metal 45lb plates impacting together with a satisfying retort as Anthony raised the standard Olympic bar up with his arms extended, his form perfect, and his muscles burning with blood. Kyle hung overhead, watching quietly and keeping a close eye on his best friend's energy and stamina as he neared his fourth repetition, typically the limit of his output given his current threshold for weight. Anthony dipped the bar down and grunted lowly as he forced himself to slowly inch the bar upwards a fifth time, going beyond his usual efforts. Kyle began to reach down to help his buddy raise the weight back up and set in down onto its retaining handles, but stopped as soon as he saw Anthony manage to heft the weight above the required level for a final rep.

As the brown haired man held up the bar, Kyle at last grabbed onto the gnarling of the metal pole's frame and pulled it over to the curved resting arms. Placing it down with a clank of steel on steel, Anthony panted and quickly rose to sit up, his body red and covered in a sheen of sweat, finishing his sets of bench press.

"Had me worried for a second there thugger, you should really tell me before you plan on doing stuff like that," Kyle laughed out with a smile, trying again as he did a few minutes ago to coax his friend into conversation.

"In fact, that could apply to just about everything you've done since Friday buddy boy."

Anthony looked over to Kyle as he rested his arms on the bench's now idle weight bar, hunched over and looking at him with a smile and narrowed eyes as his own body's triceps and chest screamed red hot.

"So when are you gonna tell me how it went man?! Seriously, what's with the stone cold shoulder?"

Kyle wasn't upset at not yet knowing how things between Anthony and Mira had gone over the weekend, he was quite the opposite in fact, eager and excited, albeit in his own ridiculous way. Unfortunately, the afflicted human just didn't have his story straight as of yet, and as it had been obvious before as always, Kyle had a talent for seeing through Anthony's attempts at dishonesty should he try and lie.

The taller man at last sighed and began to speak after wiping his brow of salted liquid. He scratched at his left ear as he started to reluctantly recount the entirety of the events transpired thus far, though as vaguely as possible, intentionally trying to leave out some fairly intense details.

"I thought it went really well actually…All things considered… We went back to her place after the game, and we hung out for a while, worked on some psychology," and that surely wasn't a lie, they had indeed crossed a psychological border he felt even his college professor couldn't begin to understand, and boy had it been something.

"We had dinner one night, and had a good time hanging out last night, what else do you want to know?"

Kyle offered both his open hands, pointed in Anthony's direction with a raised eyebrow, as if preparing to beg for a detail his best friend had left out.

"Ok, so what's up, did you guys…I mean….You know?" Kyle began, partially nervously and putting the rest of his sentence down delicately.

"What?" Anthony replied innocently, reflecting on about 500 inappropriate things Kyle could be alluding to that happened between the pair.

"You guys make babies?" Kyle said without ceremony, tired of beating around the bush, but still refusing to let his humor fizzle out.

"What? No! No, we just hung out man," Kyle's adoptive brother stammered out while shaking his head and waving around a dismissive hand. He was a little embarrassed at the question, and though he tried to act like he didn't know why, it was obvious to him that it was because he was fiercely attracted to his new roommate, and that was an event he admitted he wanted to transpire...at some point.

"Nah, she's not like that dude, we only met like a month ago, and we're still getting to know each other."

Ignoring most of Anthony's reply, Kyle chimed in with something that actually made a whole lot of sense, even though it wasn't an entirely random shot in the dark by his experienced friend.

"Well, you better be careful with her man, she's definitely gonna be a rough one, my dude. That much is clear."

"A Rough one?" thought the young man in his head curiously. What did Kyle mean by that? Physically intimate? Emotionally? Or what? Anthony cast his gaze around as if to be sure no one was in earshot, despite the college gym bustling with activity inside and out. He leaned over slightly towards the blonde young man standing off to his side at the head of the bench, and then lowered his voice as if to ask an uncomfortable question.

"You think she's really like that, what do you mean?" Asked the sitting man, though he was entirely aware of one possible answer, grimly so in fact, he instead decided to test and see if Kyle could actually offer some helpful advice on how to manage or incorporate into a relationship, a girl that had some more aggressive tastes like Mira. The pair were of essentially equal age, but unlike Anthony, Kyle was far less shy about putting himself out into the dating world, and had been marginally successful the last few years romantically because of that. It was interesting, however, that most of the time the green-eyed jokester had commented that friends of his own that were women, always found Anthony to be the better looking and more interesting of the two. Despite this, however, blondie was much more versed in the strange ways and tactics of romanticism, which now were finally proving to be somewhat useful.

"Definitely," Kyle replied flatly, "With her man, you're gonna need to challenge her at some point, you can't let her walk all over you all the time."

Anthony practically cursed out loud without intending to at the point Kyle was making, why did everything that came out of everyone's mouth have to be a screwed up inside joke about Anthony's ordeal, even when someone who wasn't privy to the joke spoke?

"You want to prove to her that you're worth her time, but you can't topple her over off her throne my dude. I mean, you could try that, though I wouldn't recommend it simply because she may not react well to that, that and I'm like %99.99 sure you couldn't do it anyways. Mira seems pretty hardcore."

Some of this discussion was actually adding up to a situation Anthony could comprehend, things, specifically Kyle's choices in terminology, weren't entirely the same, but the circumstances themselves seemed to line up. This was all very interesting, and while Anthony listened he couldn't help but notice Kyle had already made an initial assessment of his new love interest, something that didn't worry him necessarily, but instead something he sought to take advantage of given his less experienced history.

"Wait. Why does she seem hardcore to you? How do you know that?" He wanted to know because his friend was right for the most part, and that meant he might be able to make accurate judgments about other helpful things involving Mira or the situation altogether.

Kyle made a face that seemed to undercut the question, lowering his eyelids and sagging his shoulders, as if the answer was completely obvious.

"Because dude, she's sweet and innocent, she obviously has a darker side. She's probably into like, BDSM or something else weird. She'll want to tie you down and put an apple in your mouth the second she gets you alone, mark my words, man."

Anthony just stared over at Kyle for a few seconds in contemplation; it was genuinely frightening how accurate of an impression his best friend had come up within such a short time, and though it was proving useful, he wondered how Kyle had gotten so good at understanding or reading things like this. The sitting man almost wanted to just nod and confess that he was entirely, exactly, correct because of how impressive his assessment truly was. Mira had one hell of a dark side. And Kyle was totally right, he had barely lasted a few minutes as a tiny on her kitchen floor before she had proceeded to try and satisfy herself with him, though not precisely the way Kyle had imagined.

Seeing that maybe he was getting somewhere with Anthony, or perhaps just encouraged by his nonexistent counterpoints, Kyle continued further, trying his best to have any form of input on the matter.

"You're gonna need a safe words dude, seriously, start thinking of a few right now and bring that shit up as soon as you see I'm right. You'll thank me. You have any idea how much I wish someone had had this talk with me when I tried dating a crazy chick? Would have saved me a lot of trouble in the long run, bro."

The idea of a safe word…Anthony had truly never thought of that. It was a strangely exciting and somewhat even fun idea, he could feel in the last few days tastes for certain types of kinks and pleasures that he knew he hadn't been susceptible to before, and now that he'd met someone who was, shall we say, very experienced in his new specific form of fetish, the prospects were oddly thrilling. He was, of course, worried that Mira wasn't ready for some kind of play that was so extreme, and he decided inwardly that he'd bring the idea up to her at a later time after they'd grown closer, and more comfortable with her dangerous urges. Though this prospect for violence at the cost of appeasement worried Anthony, he wanted regardless to be conscious of her needs, everyone had them, even himself, but he cared particularly for Mira and endeavored to be sure she was satisfied and happy whenever he could.

"I'll keep that in mind, man." Anthony said nodding and conveying thanks, it was a useful bit of information after all, and it could possibly lead to something that could actually help the new, not so official couple.

"By the way, are you coming today? To my cousin's birthday party?" The young man shifts the conversation, not out of discomfort, just trying to progress it forward into something more normal.

"Yeah, and I'm bringing Allison too. Are you bringing Mira?"

"Allison?" Anthony blinked and raised an eyebrow. The mention of the pair's mutual high school acquaintance seemed to suddenly make Kyle both excited, and somehow simultaneously anxious. Anthony hadn't been as close to her as his best friend had been, truthfully he knew precious little about her aside from her looks and the small glimpses he'd of her personality throughout their previous years sharing a couple of classes.

"So are you two hooking up or is this just as casual thing?"

"No, we're still just friends and I think it's gonna stay that way at least for now. But she's a good friend, and she was free, so when I mentioned it to her she asked if she could tag along."

Anthony nodded and began to rise, as he did so his phone buzzed in his pocket again, and he tried not to frantically extract it from his shorts, despite the excitement he felt each time it did so. He pulled it out consciously trying to seem casual and nonchalant, unlocking it and reading Mira's message as Kyle continued on. Mira was finishing up at work, having earlier decided it was better to be a little late than use up one of her last sick days in what was obviously a bid to skip going in. They were talking casually, she was bemoaning her current task of doing returns, and he was teasing her with the idea of sending her a selfie of his current appearance, something she wasn't reacting rising to take the bait of just yet.

"Have you taken her out yet?" Kyle asked, removing the metal clips from the side of the bench bar.

"No, but I'm working on that. I figured the party might be a decent segway into something like that because she had the idea of coming today too."

Kyle thumps him with an open hand on the shoulder, trying to reassure him that everything Anthony is going through is pretty normal, at least given typical, human standards and understanding.

"She's totally into you man, don't sweat it, it's gonna be no problem."

As Kyle went about unloading the bar to set himself up for his proper weight set, Anthony stood and began to reflect on what they'd talked about, his mind drifted away as he wiped his upper lip with the back of his hand. Everything Kyle had said was correct, Mira was, frighteningly intoxicated with the brown-haired man, and he in turn with her. Knowing for sure that their mutual attraction was in good health, he really wanted to focus on the idea of not just trying to help curb her unorthodox desires, but appease them in kind. There had to be a way to do that without dying or ending up horribly maimed, and as Anthony stood in silence watching his best friend, who had for once given him some sound advice, he began to plan ways to take care of Mira, and simultaneous satisfy both their particular tastes.

+ + + +

Anthony poked letters on his phone while he sat patiently on Mira's couch, the familiar plushness of the cushions keeping him relaxed and comfortable as down the hall the door to the bathroom was shut, music coming from behind the thin particleboard of the closed entrance. The young man had flipped through social media, essentially already completing his casual stalking of Mira's, short, rather vague and unpopulated profile, and now read of politics, world events, and other random tidbits of interesting news that peaked his curiosity.

It was just about 2:30 PM, and the short drive to the park would only take about twenty minutes, so Anthony was content with being mostly on schedule for getting to the smaller family gathering for his young cousin's birthday. He was, truth be told, a little nervous about taking Mira, especially given her rather enthusiastic desire to make an appearance. He knew she was probably just excited to take one more, albeit completely unrequested, step towards being his official significant other, but there was something inherently nerve-racking about taking a half-demon woman, who had killed even himself already, to a gathering of some of the closest people in his life. She was trustworthy, and he was confident she wouldn't do anything to hurt anybody, but he could already hear the inside jokes she'd make, see the uncomfortable look Kyle would probably give her, and feel the embarrassment of explaining to his parents why they hadn't gotten wind of his new prospective love interest.

Anthony was, however, no matter how nervous his bones were, admittedly excited. This was almost like a date between the two, and ever since Mira had alluded to his death being somehow a type of romantic private time, he had truly hungered for a genuine evening with her in the typical, nonviolent form of the scenario.

The young man was wearing a white button-down shirt with a black contrasting tribal chest design and blue jeans, trying to appear more casual but slightly cleaned up for the purpose of seeing family, which while it happened not unregularly, he always wanted to be conscious of looking a little better than his usual for.

The bathroom door clicked open as the music in the small washroom ceased, the light came off as Anthony's roommate came walking down the hall, carrying a small make-up mirror opened and reflecting her elegant appearance as she fiddled with one of her bangs that was tactfully left to hang down near the corner of left eye. She arrived at the entrance to the hallway and spoke over to Anthony as she held her small white purse, dangling it by her left hand that was turned upwards, the back of her right hand against her hip and her posture conveying a small pose like a practicing model.

"So, how does this look?" She said casually, she herself anxious about his honest opinion, but still very confident she would find him stunning. And he did.

Anthony glanced up and off to his left as his eyes flicked around to the sound of her voice, and when he did so, he felt as if his heart was going to shatter his ribcage. The air caught in his throat as his mouth almost dropped in complete amazement, the young human's eyes unable to restrain their urge to widen and take in every inch of Mira's almost total transformation.

The monster of a girl was beautiful, in every facet of the word, like a brilliant deity who journeyed down from the sky to spend the day on earth playing in the realm of mortals. She wore a simple, knee-length sundress, the purest, milkiest shade of white, as if it were made from the very fibers of ancient Egyptian cotton that wars had been fought over in times before the deaths of gods and goddesses. She was smiling over to him nervously, a tiny tinge of red on her cheeks that was not make-up gracing her skin as she awaited his response. Her lip curled in anticipation, though the look on Anthony's face was easily more than she needed to see he was impressed, she still desperately wanted to be to his liking. The love-struck young man gawked with a crimson flush of his face, he beheld something in this living room of a typical college student's apartment that he'd never seen before anywhere else in his life, not in art, not in the whimsical lyrics of love songs, nor in the passion of eloquent poems. He saw, Mira in a sundress, something far more striking than any of those typical forms of emotional expression, she simply transcended all descriptions of beauty with everything that she was.

"What?" She said out to him trying not to reveal her teeth in a grin, seemingly attempting to retain a measure of modesty.

"I-I…" Anthony tried to begin, "Y-you…" He swallowed hard and started to shake his head, in complete disbelief as he let his eyes bask in her divinity.

"I'm what?" She whispered over to him, trying to help his speech along a track that she knew he was struggling to take; her eyes shining brightly as she brought her purse to the front of her torso and let it hang from both hands, placing both arms on either side of her bust that was covered conservatively by the dress.

"You're…Um…" he stammered and licked his lips, with visible effort forcing his mind to command his vocal cords.

"It's ok…I won't bite…" she said in a low voice that held her typical manner of humor, something that at this present time calmed Anthony, allowing him to finally spit out what he was wanting desperately to say to her.

"You're beautiful, Mira. Just… beautiful." Anthony muttered out in a whisper back to the nervously awaiting woman, whose mouth at last revealed a pearly white grin as she glanced bashfully down with a small giggle, simultaneous stroking some of her hair behind her ear with one hand.

The young woman in white glanced back up containing her elation at his overwhelming infatuation, taking slow steps over to him in her light brown sandals until she made it to beside the couch. She reached over with her right hand, and carefully moved it closer to his cheek, intending to gauge his reaction to such an intimate moment as it built up between the two beating hearts.

Mira's hand delicately, as if he were made of sand she didn't want to disturb, stroked his skin as his eyes stayed locked inside her stare. The girl felt, as her fingertips held his cheek without moving, the warmth of his soul, and the sweetness of his innocent heart. The just looked at one another, the emotions of rising passion sharing their thoughts without being verbalized, the pulses of each other's bodies beginning to sync up without instruction. Mira and Anthony, though they did not know it, both equally wanted this moment to continue for longer than could conceivably be recorded.

However, they were now running late for a party in the park, and they hadn't gotten dressed up for nothing.

"Come on," Mira said with a smile down to Anthony, lightly tapping his face with her hand to snap him out of his stupor at her behest, "we're gonna be late, and I want to make a good first impression."

The sitting young man nodded and shook his head, broken from the trance that Mira unintentionally had him under as they each enjoyed the more formal attire of their opposite partner.

"Yeah. Yeah, definitely. We can still make it on time, and I'm sure they won't mind if we're a tiny bit late, anyways."

He stood and patted around his pockets apparently not finding something important, then checking around the couch he blurted out as if worried about Mira's response, the woman not slowing as she walked over and opened the front door.

"Hey, uh, I can't find my keys…"

As soon as the words left Anthony's lips he turned and looked up, seeing Mira beginning to walk through the entrance to the apartment. Not turning to regard him she held up her left hand playfully, and in between her fingers was the key to his precious Charger, the colorless rectangular alarm remote attached by a metal loop, the same red sport model badge that decorated the black side panel of the car stamped into it proudly.