She would say that, still he kept from rolling his eyes as he replied. “I’m glad you agree, almost had me worried for a moment.” At her questioning look his grin returned to a smirk as he shook his head briefly in exasperated amusement. “We’ve known each other for years Issie; I’d like to think I have some idea of what my girlfriend enjoys.”

---

]Worried that she wouldn't agree to some much missed bloodshed? That was funny seeing as he so often had to prevent her from sticking a blade into anyone that crossed her path. But all bets were off now. He'd just given her a big ol' green light and she certainly wasn't going to miss the opportunity to take full advantage of it.

And then he had to ruin it.

She had barely even gotten started imagining what kind of fights she might get into when he effectively hit the emergency brake on her train of thought, leaving her floundering. “I am not your-!” She couldn’t even say the word. And he sure as hell shouldn’t be saying it. “Stop calling me that or you're gonna be one of the poor bastards I splatter all over the arena.”

---

Ah, there was the look of blushing annoyance he was coming to enjoy, and despite her threats to the contrary, she was rather less likely to stab him and ruin one of his shirts now that he had a present to dangle in front of her. Which meant he could afford to tease her a little more.

“Ah-ah-ah” He placed a finger over her pouting red lips, cutting off her burgeoning threat of violence. “My parents were married, thank you.” He informed her in a chiding yet playful tone. “Besides, we hardly need an arena to settle our differences, a bed has worked wonders so far.”

And wasn’t that the truth?

Her head bobbed back to escape his touch, jaw dropping in indignance with a strangled sound as an argument tried to form before any words could catch up. The smug sonuva- “You know what I mean! No it hasn't! Shut up!” Huffing, she crossed her arms and took as much of a step back as the bedframe would allow in order to put herself a little further out of arm’s reach, struggling to collect her thoughts and get them back on track after such an abrupt change of subject.

---

Letting out a low laugh at the confounded expression on her face Simon lowered his hand as the shapely soubrette dodged her head back to give a flustered, halting retort. Despite his better judgement he found himself relaxing, leaning against the wall beside her nightstand as Isabel took a short step back to the bed she very much wanted to deny existed.

Tempting as it was to mention that particular irony, he wasn’t sure her blood pressure, or the bed itself would survive and so he refrained. “Now why would I want to do that?” He asked instead, content to enjoy the blushing schoolgirl routine even as his eyes darted down to keep track of her hands; being confident was not the same as certain after all and getting blood out of his clothes was dreadfully tedious.

When the buxom brunette merely folded her arms beneath her chest though he found his gaze trailing upwards to linger on the distracting pale valley visible under her poorly buttoned shirt. Catching himself only a moment later he shifted his eyes back to the gamine's face and shrugged at her unamused, if still crimson expression; the serious aspect of their conversation was over for now and he wasn’t going to apologize for finding her attractive. She was quite capable of covering herself if she didn’t want him to look.

That said, her pouting look was far more appealing than this one... “I suppose if girlfriend doesn’t work we could use paramour? Perhaps Lover?”

---

Well at least one of them was comfortable. Cocky bastard. 'Because I'll make you' was at the tip of her tongue as a quick retort but she bit it back, knowing that he'd only take it and run and make everything that much worse. But oh wouldn't she love to sew his mouth shut.

Realizing how his gaze was drifting, she quickly dropped her arms back down, hands balling into fists at her sides instead. Her rising temperature was making it all the more apparent what a mess she'd made of the buttons on her shirt in her agitation, but rather than draw even more attention she let them be. Better to just pretend it wasn't an issue.

“Nothing!” she snapped, growing more flustered by the second as he offered alternatives that were so much worse. “You call me nothing! We call this nothing! This is not a thing! We’re not starting this conversation again!”

“Nothing?” He pretended to ponder that for a moment, tapping a finger to his lips in false contemplation as he glanced at the ceiling. “No, that doesn’t sound right.” He took a lazy step forward as he met Isabel's eyes with an easy going grin. “There must be a better word for a beautiful woman who keeps choosing to sleep with me.”

---

As he stepped forward she leaned back as far as she could without the edge of the bed knocking her onto her butt. She always hated when he did this, hated how easily he threw her off balance and that he knew how easy it was and took full advantage.

“I'm not-! Choosing to-?! No. Nope. I don't wanna play this game.” ]Shaking her head and working her jaw again she made a move to sidle away from him and make a break for the door. That was it, she was done with that nonsense. She'd already spent way too much time entertaining the conversation so far. “I need to be drinking more right now. Or never again. I'll decide after I start with being more drunk.”

---

Really? After everything they’d talked about she wanted to- no, no that wasn’t going to happen, if for no other reason than her liver needed to recover. Taking another step while the girl was shaking her head he lifted her chin with one hand and pressed his lips to her before she could finish talking.

Several moments later when she failed to push him away he drew back. “Still feeling thirsty?” He asked with a grin.

---

His hand hit her chin and she was just barely aware of throwing her arm around his neck to keep herself from falling backward as what little space remaining between them was abruptly closed. Her brain went all staticy and the next thing she knew she was catching her breath as he pulled away. It took another moment to process what he said.

“Enough to try drowning!” she shot back, just a tad more breathlessly than she liked. Quickly she dropped her arm and made another attempt to slide away. “You always do that! Stop doing that or I'll drown you too!”

---

Mirroring Isabel by shaking his head Simon’s grin turned wry. Had she honestly not learned or did she just not care? More likely it was the latter, but it wouldn’t hurt to remind her. “That’s not much of a threat Issie; we both know where this goes if you start drinking…” He reached out and gently tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, making her pause and letting his hand slowly trail down her cheek to cup her chin once again. “Are you sure you don’t want a kiss?”

With a slightly startled grunt of irritation, her hand shot up and wrapped around his wrist, trying to keep him from dragging her face around again. “I don't want anything from you! And my drinking is just fine! I'm gonna go do it far away from you so you can't get me in trouble.” A foolproof plan, truly. No Zephyr, no problems.

---

Irony, thy name was Isabel. “Trouble?” He asked with a low chuckle, “Isn't that what you live for Issie?” Idly he wondered if she noticed she’d stopped moving the moment they’d touched, or that he wasn’t attempting to take his hand back. Probably not, because by that point she’d also realize he had the perfect set up for a handing holding quip, which only got better the longer she held on.

Honestly he shouldn’t be goading her, and wouldn’t if he’d failed to find a semi-productive outlet for her bloodlust, but he had so... teasing it was.

“What? Afraid you'll have too much fun?”

---

“Not that kind of trouble! You know what I mean!” Jerking her chin out of his grip after maybe a moment too long she pushed his hand into his chest with a glare. “Always blowing in here like a damn tornado, messing everything up, messing me up, turning everything upside down! Trouble! The wrong kind of trouble!” It was exhausting having to deal with him and his nonsense.

---

Letting his hand fall as Isabel turned to face him Simon regarded her skeptically for a second, was she really that nia- no, of course she was; the girl had a blindspot the size of China where intimacy was concerned. Given she was in one of her contrarian moods How best to do this ah yes that would do.

“I see,” He answered with a slow nod of his head. “I was gone for a year and ruined all your fun because you behaved yourself worrying over what I'd think.”

---

“Yes! You ruin everything!” He was still teasing and she was starting to get angry again. Pressing a hand against his chest she braced and moved backward, awkwardly climbing into a kneeling position on the mattress to get even a little more space between them. "I wasn’t worried about anything. I don't care what you think. I didn't think about you at all, even."

‘Says the woman who hunted me down less than an hour after I got back. He very carefully did not say. It was tempting, oh so tempting to point out the dissonance between her words and actions as she got to her knees on the bed they’d shared last night. Instead he took a deep breath and folded his arms while still putting on an air of sage understanding as he continued. “Then, after a year, I come back and you can't think about anything else.”

---

“No!” He was doing this on purpose, deliberately playing dumb and twisting her words to frustrate her or try to make her slip somewhere. But there was nothing to let slip, it was as it had always been and that was the end of it. All that prodding wasn’t going to get him anywhere but maimed. “I wasn’t thinking about you until you showed up at my door! I can’t do anything with you around cuz you’re always hovering and making sure that I get no peace!”

---

Really? That was how she remembered last night starting? He was sorely tempted to correct her, but that would only change the topic and lose the momentum he'd built, so he simply sighed and let her continue.

He probably shouldn't be looking down on her like this, but honestly it was her own fault for kneeling on the bed. Still he resisted the urge to look down her neckline in favour of watching the metaphorical steam pour out of her ears. This was almost too easy, almost..

"Almost as though I'm so distracting you can't figure out why you love me."

---

“Yes- Wait- No I-!” No, no, no. There was no way that's what was happening. Love was not in her repertoire and this was definitely not it. She dropped down from a tall kneel onto her rear, face scrunched up in a mix of confusion and denial. "No, no," she tried again, shaking her head and trying to keep her train of thought from diving off the deep end into some kind of spiral, "that's not it. That's not what this is. This is... nothing. I don't-"

---

It was like watching a puppet having its strings cut, one moment she was indignantly upright on her knees, the next her shoulders had slumped and she’d fallen on her rear with the expression of a child who’d been told Santa wasn’t real and they shouldn’t get their hopes up about the easter bunny or tooth fairy either.

In all honesty if he hadn’t known the girl so well he’d have felt rather insulted, and even if he didn’t, last night alone would have shown her reaction was more about the idea of loving someone instead of something to do with him.

Put simply she was being melodramatic, as if her whole world was ending because she had emotions. If he left her alone like this she’d likely have a panic attack of some sort and try to burn down the building.

Thankfully he knew just how to distract her.

So preoccupied with her thoughts she never noticed when he stepped in front of her, nor when he carefully lifted her chin again. In fact her fervent muttering didn’t stop until he finally leant down for another kiss, placed one arm around her shoulders and slowly let her fall fully onto the bed.

They stayed like that for perhaps a few seconds, maybe a minute, but when he finally felt she’d calmed down Simon broke the kiss and pulled back. “Love you too Issie.”

Her rapidly spiraling thought process wasn't given much time to really get any traction before it faded out into staticky nothingness. That old trick once again, and once again it managed to work, leaving her red-faced and a little breathless.

She floundered a moment when he spoke, trying to mentally catch up and take stock of what had just happened. Her hands rested against his chest, muscles just slightly taught and ever ready to give him a good shove should she deem it necessary, which she almost always did.

“I didn't say-!” she began falteringly, finally starting to get her wits back, “I do not-! I don't... love anyone or anything! Big blowhards like you that bully me and try to make me feel things are no exception!”

---

She was struggling to even say the word? That was honestly rather sad, clearly she needed more exposure to affection until she could get used to the idea. Physical contact seemed to be working well enough so far, and the fact that she seemed happy to keep her hands on him without pushing away showed she was gradually getting comfortable despite what she said otherwise. He just had to avoid moving too fast and spooking her; a kiss was fine, anything more and she’d likely panic without some liquid courage in her.

All that being said, he couldn’t let her get the last word in, leaning down once more he gave her a quick peck on the cheek this time and smirked at the blush which spread over her face. “Well, it's a good thing I did more than just try isn't it?“

Then he drew back again and rolled onto the bed beside her, one arm resting under his head with the other still wrapped around the soubrette's shoulders. “This doesn't really change anything Issie,” He stated matter of factly while watching her out of the corner of his eye. “You're still deadly and distractingly beautiful. We've already done most of what a relationship entails, this is just... making it official, for us if no one else.”

---

“More than- Make it-!?” Not a relationship. Absolutely not. That was not happening, no matter how much he insisted otherwise or how much 'more' they may or may not be doing. And she certainly didn't feel any kind of way about him. That was just absurd no matter how she looked at it. A mental rabbit hole she had no interest in falling down.

“No! I don't feel anything but angry and murderous about anything ever! Even you! Especially you!” She protested and wriggled uncomfortably as he settled beside her, but she made no move to get back up. This was exhausting and frustrating and she wasn’t getting anywhere but further entangled in the whole mess. Heaving a heavy sigh that devolved into a groan she buried her face against his shoulder and continued a muffled, one-sided argument with herself against the situation as a whole.