Early Mornings Adventures with Balloons

Darkness… All consuming, unforgiving… No… Not darkness… Just dark…

Cold… Seeping into bones… Sapping strength… Yet sweating...

Bound… Impossible to move yet **** to dance…

A giggle echoes from a throne. Macabre strings tethering me to the figure.

The laughter grows. A name thrown in randomly amidst the laughter.

“Tyler! Hehe, Tyyyyyyyler~! Hey! Tyler hey!” The voice coos. My binds prevent any coherent response beyond muffled mumbling.

“Alright. You’re forcing my hand here. Don’t blame me for this.”

Pain hits me like an oncoming train. A soft yet piercing sensation, spreading throughout my entire being, driving the cold away. My eyes shoot open as I inhale sharply.

…… Why is there a nose in my face? And why does my own nose hurt? Who is this? Where am I? What was I doing? Where is that treacherous pillow? Who am I?

The intruder nose retreats before the owner says, “Oh good! That worked! Morning sleepyhead!”

I stare back at Sam and her Cheshire cat like grin framed by her fire red hair all tousled and tangled from last night as she lays on top of me, both of us still naked but with the covers draped over us. The room is still mostly dark as the sun hasn’t fully risen yet. I hate waking up before the sun. But back to the matter at hand.

“… Did you just bite my nose?” I mumble through my sleepy haze, too tired and bewildered to add any dramatics.

“Well you weren’t giving me much of a choice.” She says, gesturing down with a couple bobs of her head. I follow her gaze and see my arms wrapping tightly around her, binding her in place.

“You got a real strong grip despite being asleep. You sure you don’t work out? You also slept through my alarm, and I do have to get going soon.”

The word alarm sent lightning up my spine, jump starting my groggy mind.

“What time is it?!” I ask, quickly waking up.

“5:45.” Sam answers.

“… You set your alarm for 5:45?! Are you a masochist??”

“Would that turn you on if I was?”

“What kind of sane human being willingly wakes up before… Wait what?”

Sam falls into a fit of giggles at my expense, my bewilderment soon follows suit, and I say, “You are incorrigible.”

“Guilty.” She says immediately, “But as much as I’m enjoying my predicament, I do have to get going. Need a shower and all that.”

“Right, sorry. I need to get going too. I agreed to open and close today, so I also need a shower.” I say as I release her. She squeezes me with a parting hug before slowly sitting up, her still naked tits exposed a mere foot away from me. Subtle stains of our sweat and spit casting beauty marks across her beautifully smooth yet toned skin. Our musk from last night’s adventures wafting over me, tempting a primal response that I manage to quell, but only just.

“Is that a lead in to suggesting showering together?” Sam asks… Leadingly…

“…… If I said yes, would you believe me?” I respond with peerless wit.

“Na, you’re too awkward to have planned that.”

“Curses. Foiled again… Was that a genuine offer though?”

“Not this time Snidely Whiplash. Like I said, I need to get going. No time for sexy, sudsy, soapy shower fun unfortunately.”

“How dare! We both know I’d be Bullwinkle with my height! But yeah, as disappointing as that is, it’s probably for the best. Next time though?” I say full of hope.

“Maybe. If you’re a good boy.” She teases as she fully gets up, her exposed lower region still coated in my dried man juice silences any response I may have had. Before exiting, she leans down, kissing me before whispering, “I had a really good time yesterday.”

“Me too.” I whisper back without thinking. She giggles and slowly saunters out, giving me a wonderful view of her plump posterior as she goes. Once she’s reaches the bathroom, I groan and stretch as I get up. Haphazardly putting my clothes back on and stumble my way back to my own apartment. All thoughts of the past 24 hours are simply stalled from my tired mind as it focusses on nothing but getting back home and showering. I fumble with my keys and open the door, flicking the light on once I’m through. I wipe the blurs out of my eyes and stumble into my room, swinging the door open to let the light pour in. A muffled hiss and a growl meet me. I stop in my tracks, trying to process the noise.

I scan the room, quickly going from tired to alert as best I can, until my gaze falls on the figure sleeping in my bed as it grabs a pillow and slams it against their face, shielding them from the light. Their purple skinned and cyan tattooed arm holding it in place.

“…… I really shouldn’t be surprised by this but, what the hell are you doing here Maddy?” I ask, too tired to be mad at the breach of my living quarters. I get more muffled growls in response.

“Fine. Whatever. I’m getting a shower.”

I grab a change of clothes and proceed to do just that. The warm water soothing my soul and sore muscles from unfamiliar sleeping arrangements once I step into its embrace, helping my mind be brought to mostly awake. Causing it to wander as most minds do while showering.

It’s pointless to ask Maddy herself why she decided to sleep in my bed, she’ll just deflect the question and berate me for it. Knowing her, there probably is no answer anyway other than she just decided to on a whim. Do Succubae even need to sleep? Or is it just something they can do if they want? She’s been turning up around me a lot lately. Isn’t she like, the lead on the development team for the app or something? What all goes into that anyway? Doesn’t she have other duties? I don’t know. Maybe she found something out about that strange girl at the fair and was just waiting for me to get back?… Yeah no, she wouldn’t be that patient. She’s like a little yappy type dog. So much bark but so easily distracted.

Enough about Maddy though, it’s time to process everything that happened last night, and I guess this morning with Sam. Does this make us a couple? I sure hope she doesn’t consider it a one-night stand. All her flirting earlier certainly suggests the former. I don’t know. I’m just going to hope for the best and continue to worry incessantly about it, as anxiety requires. Last night was… Wow… I’ve never done something like that before. Not the boinking part, I have done that, albeit not very often. But the time frame of it all is new to me. Every step has always been a long, drawn-out thing with each one always being a big deal. That was my first successful capturing of first, second, and third base all in the course of a day. I’m somewhere between a little and a lot overwhelmed by it all. No small part of that coming from wondering how much is the apps influence verses what I accomplished on my own.

I keep coming back to this thought train, I know, but I’ve yet to get any solid, credible answers. Jane didn’t explain much, and I got the impression her job was to tempt me with power and tell me what she thought I wanted to hear. Plus, she was apparently not very high up the demonic corporate ladder. Which as a side note, is probably fairer than the capitalistic corporate ladder. Now that you mention it, how successful would an undercover demon be in a human corporation verses an undercover human in a demon corporation? Do demons even have corporations?

Wait… What was I thinking about? God dangit brain and your insistence on side tracking. You’re almost as bad as Maddy… Speaking of, what little the purple ball of cliché anime tropes has told me is hopelessly vague at best and purposefully misleading at worst. I can’t really trust anything she says just on the fact that she doesn’t give any real answers. Unlike Sam who just drops bombshells on me like Melina’s apparent crush.

Speaking of, what do I do about that? Assuming Sam is right about her feelings, I don’t want things to get awkward between us. Do I just pretend Sam never said anything and continue on as I was? That feels cowardly. But what’s the other option? Stomp it out as soon as possible and tell her I’m with someone else? That just feels mean. But isn’t giving the illusion of hope even worse in the long run? Should I try for both? That sure sounds like the obvious male fantasy harem choice, but what are the chances that both of them are cool with that? Hell, is that even something I want? I’ve never really considered it before. I’d be shocked if the app didn’t have some avenue to make that a reality with a healthy helping of mental manipulation. But again, do I want that?… I’m already guilty of using the app to manipulate others for my benefit, do I take that next step?... Getting away with it doesn’t make it right, but it also hasn’t hurt anyone. Not directly at least. Right? It even helped prevent hurt with the vulgar girl… Sort of… I don’t know. There are too many unknowns right now. I’ll just take things as they come and be as honest as I can, should it come up.

Well… As honest as I can be without bringing up anything related to a certain app…

Alright, shower of introspection is over. Time to get down to business. To defeat… Some Huns… You know, references work a lot better when they aren’t restricted to inside your own mind… With that sobering thought, I finish my morning clean up ritual, get dressed, and go back to my room to confront a certain sleepy succubus. She’s still clutching desperately to the pillow over her face to shield from the light. Can she even breathe like that? Does she need to? My money’s on no. Regardless, I turn on more lights and yank her face pillow away. Eliciting another bout of hissing from the grumpy girl as she grasps wildly for the stolen light blocker until she gives up and pulls the blanket over her head.

“Up and attem Maddy! I gotta go to work and I ain’t letting you crash here without permission.” I say, my annoyance at her repeated infiltrations cancelling out my guilt at waking her up. Her only response is to mumble something incoherent. Probably an insult of some kind. I push forward unphased however by… Pulling the covers off her. She starts hissing again, but quickly devolves into some nightmarish moans of agony as her limbs flail around in an overly dramatic show of her displeasure. Like she’s a vampire burning alive from the sunlight. I wait for her to finish with the antics, which surprisingly doesn’t take too long. She really must be tired. I poke her a couple times and say,

“Come on, up ya get. I’m not leaving you unsupervised in my apartment.” To which she responds by slowly opening up her void black eyes into a droopy stare and lock them onto me. Her body raises up into a sitting position with the speed of a rusted graveyard gate pushed by the souls of the damned, complete with similar sound effects. She stares infernal daggers at me through her tangled mess of bed head for a few moments. She’s so mad, I swear it’s true, even the over-the-top anime vein bulge manifests itself on her forehead. Then her eyes go wide, her cheeks puff out, and she lets loose with a noise so deep and guttural an apex predator would falter and question its life choices. The noise gives way to an earth-trembling rumble that shakes my whole apartment. I quickly grab my nightstand alarm clock and lamp before they fall over, I hear a few soft thuds as some nick knacks on my computer desk and dresser hit the carpeted floor. I start to panic about the integrity of my walls, but thankfully the rumbling slowly peters out before they fail. Ending with a single squeaky hiccup from the little purple bomb of a demon.

“… Was that a burp?” I ask, still bracing my nightstand. Maddy’s eyes go back to being droopy as she turns to me and slowly nods with the grin of the overly self-satisfied.

“I’m pretty sure you set off the Richter scale with that belch. What the hell?!”

“You only have yourself to blame.” She responds in a semi sleepy slur.

“…… How do ya figure?” I ask, confusion apparent in my voice. I’m mostly expecting some nonsense logic that obviously deflects, but I couldn’t help the question from forming.

“I wasn’t the one that decided to fuck that hot redhead to unconsciousness on camera.” Maddy responds while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

“………… On… Camera?...” I say, realization starting to hit. I slowly glance to my computer. The spy cam website. Sams “Livestream” hidden potential. The camera pointed at her bed. Panic and shame rise as blood drains from my face. I weakly squeak out the question, “How many?” before collapsing to the floor.

“I dunno. Somewhere in the thousands? Yaaaaawn, I was too busy having my cake and eating it too.” Maddy responds, “Wait, did you seriously forget about it?”

My only response is to cover my face in my hands and let out a groan of pain. Maddy stares at me for a minute, then starts chuckling. The chuckling gets louder, and louder, and louder until she’s full-on witch cackling at my embarrassment. This continues for several minutes.

“And here I was, hehehee, bequeathing you with the benefit of the doubt and hypothesizing you actually grew a metaphorical pair of manhood tokens to do what you should have done days ago. But tis not the case! Hahaha~ You simply continue to stumble forward with a self-equipped blindfold around your decision maker and hoping for a positive resolution! Aaaahhh, this almost compensates for the rude and unwelcome awakening you **** upon me.” Maddy says once her laughter subsides.

“You decided to sleep in my bed without permission, that’s on you.” I say while pointing at her, my annoyance overcoming the embarrassment for the retort.

“No one cares about your petty concerns of boundaries. Not even you, it would appear, Mr. Pornstar.” Maddy shoots back, eliciting another pained groan from me. “By the by, why did you wake me up at such an uncouth hour? If this is your idea of **** against an unfounded slight, I must say your imagination leaves much to be desired.”

This jolts my shame into temporary submission. I look at my watch, I have time, but I need to hustle. I shoot back up to my feet and say, “I gotta go into work and I want you out of my apartment. I will drag you out if I need to.”

This declaration only made the pompous demon smirk. “Bold statement from a-WAAAH!” She starts to gloat before I grab her by the hand and yank with the strength of a man whose patience has reached its end. Surprised by this, Maddy reacts rather… Ungracefully. Her other three limbs spasm wildly as she falls face first onto the floor, my blanket wrapped around her foot until my bedroom doorway catches it. Garbled noises of protest and insult flow from her until he finally manages to compose herself after we exit my apartment by floating up a few feet above the ground, her little bat wings flapping. Now, instead of dragging a petulant child along, I have a mouthy balloon trailing behind me as I continue on my way to work.

“Unhand me this instant you ungrateful cur!” She spits while trying to release herself from my grip. She is decidedly weaker than me though, so her attempts are less than successful.

“Not until you finally answer some of my questions. I’m tired of being toyed with while left in the dark.” I say, my patience finally snapping. Luckily, with how early it is, my angry muttering to what witnesses would probably describe as myself, if Maddy’s last public outing says anything, is seen by no one as the streets are currently barren of foot traffic.

Maddy narrows her eyes at me. Picking up on my less than placating mood, she blows a few unruly locks of hair from her face and answers, “Fine. State your inquiries. But know I will remember this.”

Ignoring her final snide comment, I start jogging to work as I dive right in, “Did you find anything out about that weird girl from the fair?”

“Other than her wonderful sense of fashion and her exceptional fiddle skills, yes and no. Her name is Sydney. Other than that, she is a mystery.” She answers.

“That’s it?”

“That girl has the most peculiar sense of observation imaginable. She never indicated that she noticed my presence or pokings, but I was instilled with a sense of being seen by her all the same. It kept me from getting close enough to find out anything pertinent or important. Her apparent immunity to the unaware feature indicates probable immunity or resistance to other app functions. I would recommend against attempting to pull her into your harem, she may be able to unravel my precious program entirely.” Maddy states, still being pulled along by me while she trails behind in the air.

“I’m not building a harem-“

“You already have.”

I glare back at her for a few moments, almost running into someone as I do. I give them an apologetic wince and wave as I continue on. “Ignoring that. I agree we should just avoid her. I don’t know what her deal is, and I don’t care to find out. Next question. How does the Hidden Potential feature work, exactly?”

“It is what you make it to be.”

“I’m not letting you go until you give me something less cryptic and more detailed.”

Maddy “hmphs!” in irritation and says, “You are far less entertaining than usual. I disapprove. Are you still upset at your forgetfulness?”

“If it’ll make you answer the question, yes. I am. Now please answer.” I say, gritting my teeth only slightly.

She “hmphs!” again, “Fine! If it’ll soothe that fragile composure of yours. It really is the most sophisticated cog in the great machine that is my masterpiece after all, so I suppose I may deign to enlighten you to its majesty.” I roll my eyes before she continues, “The Hidden Potential feature probes not only the girls’ inherent inclinations, much like how Custom Girls creates all the normal available options, but it also searches within the wielder. You, in this case.”

“It does what to me?” I ask. Looking both ways before I cross a street like a good boy scout.

“To put it in words your feeble intellect may understand, it reenacts the “search your feelings” scene from Star Wars. It makes your desires manifest and translates them into a median it can work with. Your breast milk kink for Melina, and your love of voyeur for Sam. But it only works if you think it is appropriate for the individual Custom Girl. I’m willing to bet your overcompensating boss would never have gotten Melina’s Hidden Potential. Your view of those two differs greatly, it would not be applicable.” Maddy explains. Shifting to laying flat on her back as she floats behind me, her hand still firmly held in my own.

“So, what is Ms. Cooper’s Hidden Potential?” I ask before I can think not to.

“Ha! Even I don’t know that. Were you not listening? You ultimately decide.” She chides.

“… Ok fair. That’s pretty impressive, actually.”

“Of course it is! I created it after all. But please, continue the praise. Tis a welcome change of pace to your recent dowerness.”

“Moving on. How directly does Custom Girls mess with their minds?” I say, attempting to halt her haughtiness before it gets going.

“My my, that is a vague question. You will have to be less cryptic and more detailed my dear defiler~” She responds in a mock cooing voice at using my words against me. Which, admittedly, I deserve.

“Right right, point taken. I know the app can alter perceptions to an **** degree. But how deeply can it affect the core of who a person is? Like, is it capable of changing that angry girl to be legitimately caring with a simple purchase in the Mind category?” I ask.

“Good heavens, no! That would defeat the entire point! Simply pushing a button to change who someone is would make every bit of food my kind can gather from them null and void. Consent is key, as they say. And every prize worth fighting for must be earned. Heavy manipulation and **** obliviousness are certainly on the table, but my creation can’t do anything the wielder and the victims are not at some level agreeable with.”

“I… What?! That doesn’t make any sense! You can’t have consent and manipulation together at the same time!”

“Oh you poor, naïve, idiotic fool. Of course you would think so, you are only human. But parsing down the full explanation into terms you might understand would result in an hours long lecture on demon lore, human psychology, philosophy, and succubae physiology, leaving you confused at best or brain dead at worst.”

I rub the bridge of my nose trying to hold back a groan and a headache. “Ok fine, so your app can’t change who a person is on a fundamental level. But it can certainly influence them. How badly have I influenced all of my Custom Girls?”

“Are you still waging war with your own moral compass over this? Hardly at all! Get over yourself already! No one is entertained by you being an over emotional sop! As I have said, my creation cannot offer any purchases that the wielder and victim do not agree to on some level. Whether both parties admit it or not is a different story.” Maddy states in a huff.

“So you’re telling me that the angry girl is actually okay with being a walking onahole?”

Maddy grins wickedly, “That girl has some real freaky desires.”

“Yeah I ain’t touching that. What about that blessing thing Jane gave me? What all does it do? I wasn’t the most coherent when she explained it to me.” I ask, switching gears as I weave between a few more bystanders. To my surprise, Maddy winces as if I had physically struck her.

“Truth be told, I was hoping you would not ask that.” She says forlornly.

“What? Why?”

“… Because it forces me to admit an oversight on my part.”

“… Explain.”

Heaving a long, dramatic sigh, Maddy explains, “Jane was not ordered to grant you that blessing. Her doing so was an act of her own volition. As young as she is, she has not finished the proper training to grant them in the first place. Her doing so is considered taboo and a breach of protocol. So, I considered the possibility a non-issue. But she acted outside my predictions and blessed you regardless of the risks to your person.”

“Risks? What risks? You saying I could have died?!”

“Very much so, yes. A succubus blessing is no small thing. You are fortunate to have withstood such an amateur granting without falling prey to it. Rest assured; she has been sufficiently reprimanded.”

“…… Noted…” I say, shock of an apparent brush with **** being revealed. I try to gather my wits and continue, “A-anyways, back to the original question, what does it do exactly? I think Jane said something about more stamina? I know I’ve been able to run much farther without tiring than before, among other things.”

“A succubus blessing grants you some similar abilities of a succubus. A boost to your stamina is the most obvious and easiest to explain. You could go all night long if you so desired. But beyond that, it also gifts you with more control over yourself. You must have noticed during your sexcapades with the exhibitionist.”

I take a moment to recall what she’s referring to. “… Yeah… I felt as if I could choose to keep going for as long as I wanted or finish at any point. I didn’t really explore it in the moment.”

“Nor should you have, focus during sex should be invested entirely in the sex. To do otherwise would be the epitome of rudeness.” Maddy states after crossing her single free arm under her breasts, nodding to herself as if she just dumped the most profound wisdom.

“Is there anything else it does?”

“Aside from other minor physical boons to ensure you are capable of committing any depraved desires you have, none to mention.”

“Right… My next question-“ I begin before getting cut off.

“Wrong! No next questions! I have decided I am done with this ridiculous situation! I have important business to attend to! So now I take my leave! FAREWELL!!” Maddy declares as she strikes a pose, an admittedly silly, incomplete one as I am still keeping hold of her hand. Undeterred as ever though, she throws another smoke bomb at the ground. Surrounding us in thick green fog.

For about the three seconds it takes for me to jog out of the blast radius. I look back and see Maddy desperately trying to pull herself out of my grip by pushing against me with her legs. She’s really… Not that strong… I keep watching her try in vain to break free for another minute, her grunts and exertions are a strange combination of pathetic, adorable, hilarious, and endearing. She even tries to fly straight up, I assume to **** me to let go before we get too high, but she can’t even manage that. I just keep jogging and patiently wait until she begins huffing and wheezing from the effort and glares more daggers at me.

“…… So my next ques-“ I begin to say once more before inevitably being interrupted again.

“UNHAND ME THIS INSTANT YOU UNSOPHISTICATED BRUTE!” Maddy screams.

“… Question. What-“ I start.

“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” Maddy finishes before sinking her fangs into my arm. I recoil in surprise, still managing to maintain my grip, before I notice the lack of pain. That may have been an over exaggeration of what she’s accomplishing. She seams to be… gnawing on my arm? Nibbling maybe? She’s even making the “Om nom nom” noises as her mighty attack does very little but spread some slobber.

“And you call me unsophisticated.” I say completely monotone.

“HELP!! POLICE!! I’M BEING REPRESSED!! CODE RED!! CALL THE NATIONAL GUARD!! SAVE THIS POOR AND BEAUTIFUL DAMSEL FROM THE UNJUST AND EVIL MACHINATIONS OF THIS HEINESS, UNSCRUPULOUS CONNIVER OF DASTERDLY DEADS!! HE SURELY INTENDS TO ROB ME OF MY WOMANLY PURITY!! HE KICKS HOMELESS KITTENS!! SICK HIM WITH BASSET HOUNDS!! SAVE MEEEEEEE!!!!” Maddy screeches as loud as she can.

I look around to the other… One… Two… Two people in the immediate area and notice they are completely ignoring Maddy’s wails as if she weren’t there.

“You do realize you’re doing that thing where other people can’t notice you, right?” I ask. Maddy ceases her shouting and seems to come to a realization. One that causes her to droop in the saddest display she can manage and look up to me with the face of a petulant child that just finished a tantrum.

“You done? So my next question.” I start once again, pausing to look at her as I expect another interruption. She angrily “hmphs!” at me but otherwise stays silent.

“What’s with the smoke bombs? I don’t know exactly what Jane was doing, but it was something that could make her appear and disappear seemingly at will. Can’t you do the same?” I ask, trying not to make the question sound demeaning but not certain if I succeed. Maddy stares at me in defiance for a while. I don’t hold her gaze as I still need to look where I’m going. And I’m not trying to intimidate her into compliance here. Just show that I won’t be pushed around anymore. A couple minutes of silence pass before she finally lets out a heavy sigh and says,

“If I answer, will you finally let me go?”

“Yes.” I respond simply. She dejectedly sighs again, as if giving voice to this answer physically pains her. But she still gathers herself up enough to softly squeak out,

“All succubae can teleport up to a certain distance. Myself included... But I am… Deficient… in that aspect…”

I look back to her, confusion evident on my face. Her eyes hidden from view as she looks away from me, her entire being radiates shame and dejectedness at the admission. “Deficient? How so? If, uhhh… You don’t mind me asking…” Great. Now I feel like I really did just kick a homeless kitten.

“Do I mind you asking? You are all but interrogating me, forcing answers out by way of brute **** but now suddenly you care about if I mind the questions!” She says, her voice raising in volume with each word.

“I’m sorry! You don’t have to-“ I try.

“I AM CURSED WITH A WEAK STOMACH!! HAPPY NOW!?!” Maddy cries.

…… wat.

I stop in my tracks and turn to her.

“wat.”

“I have a temporal positioning adjustment tolerance deficiency, alright? Put in terms you might understand, teleporting makes me queasy to the point of rendering me useless for a short time. Proceed with the belittlement and provocation at my inferiority. Go on. Get it out of your system.” She says, most of the venom is gone, replaced by a slight quiver.

I just stare at her. She’s still floating above the ground, but only barely. Her whole body is drooping and turned away from me, shoulders slumped, head downcast, free arm and legs dangling limply. Like a puppet with only a single string keeping it propped up. Her words and body language all screaming the tale of a soldier who has fought this battle countless times and lost every single one of them. Silence surrounds us and stretches out as I stare at her depressing visage and say nothing. I… I don’t know what Maddy needs right now. I know what I would need were I in her state but…

No…

No buts.

She may be an annoying demon hell bent on manipulating me and other women into acting out ridiculous sexual fantasies that constantly breaks into my apartment and steals my food.

But right now, she’s in pain. That’s all that matters.

And I promised myself never again and God dammit, I’m going to keep it!

So, without even really considering the consequences, I give her exactly what I would want were I her.

A hug.

She lets out some surprised noises that are some combination of a cough, yelp, scream, roar, string of curses, and general gibberish as her limbs instinctually flail about. They impact into me a few times but I take them without complaint. They don’t really hurt anyway with how weak she is. I think I hear her say, “You were supposed to let me go not glomp me more!”, but all the random noises she’s making are too garbled together to be sure. Another few moments of her struggling pass until she finally calms enough for me to speak.

“I can’t eat fast food.”

The remainder of Maddy’s noises cease as she processes my statement.

“Quoi?” She finally asks.

“The most common and readily available food choice, and my stomach revolts should I even attempt to partake.” I explain.

“What does that have to do with anything?” She questions further.

“Also coffee. Can’t stand the stuff. Even its aroma causes me to gag. Tried it once. Thought I was going to die.” I continue unabated.

“Are you even coherent right now?” She responds with building concern.

“I had a knee issue when I was little. Took two years to figure out the problem needed surgery to fix. Spent that whole time watching all the other kids run around and have fun without being able to join them.”

“Stop babbling nonsense and release me!”

“You are not deficient or inferior.” I say calmly.

“I-… Whaaa?” She says, her voice spiking.

“Everyone has their own shortcomings. Doesn’t make you any better or worse than anyone else. So what if you can’t teleport? Neither can I. You can still fly, which I’m really jealous of if I’m honest. You even created a solution to help compensate for the issue. That’s called being innovative! You’re intelligent, cute, witty, a funny kind of eccentric, and an absolute wizard at programming. You got an overwhelmingly convoluted and complicated creation of code to work on a simple smart phone, for me. Me! The defiler of all things technological. Your weaknesses don’t define you. Anyone that thinks otherwise is blind and straight up lying.” I say with as much conviction as I can muster.

Another stretch of silence embraces us along with my hug. Maddy stopped trying to pull away before my speech. Only after she’s had a chance to process my words does she slowly move to reciprocate. Her arms gently reaching around me as her face rests on my shoulder with her little curled horn nestling into the crook of my neck oddly well. Neither of us say anything, her breathing hitches and spikes as she sobs ever so softly. I move my hands across her back in slow, massaging motions, hoping to comfort her as much as I can.

Another early bird jogger passes by giving us a weird look, but I ignore him. A wise old man once said that the one in need of the hug determines its duration. So I’m staying right here for as long as necessary. Which turns out to be not that long as her grip around me loosens about a minute later. I release the embrace and look at her. She wipes a leftover tear from her normally black as night eye, but traces of red can be seen from the recent emotions.

“Words fail to describe how much of a jerk you are.” She says in uncharacteristically simple words.

“What’d I do this time?” I ask playfully, attempting to lighten the mood.

“Here you are, embracing a, by your own admission, cute and very much naked girl and you don’t even have the decency to sport a stiffy.” She says, smiling as she wipes another tear.

I stare at her for a moment before saying, “… I’m going to be honest. I’ve never seen you wearing clothes, so I kind of forget that you’re naked.”

This causes her to giggle and say, “Hopeless. Unbelievably hopeless.”

“So I’ve been told.”

A calm silence surrounds us once more. Not quite awkward, but not fully comfortable as we both don’t really know what to do next. That is until Maddy looks as if she’s realized something, looks down at herself, then up to me, and repeats a couple times before staring wide eyed at me. Another beat of silence stretches before she says,

“FAREWELL!!” and throws another smoke bomb. This one takes me off guard and I cough as I stumble out of the spreading cloud.

“Really?!” I shout, more amusement than any real vitriol, “That was still necessary?! God dangit Maddy.”