Mike discovered that when Myra said “more peaceful setting”, she meant his home. The entire way there, he expected her to be as smug as she was when she first approached him - but she was more reserved instead. They approached the building he lived in, with the midafternoon sun shining on the front of it.

“By the way, are your parents home?” Myra asked. “Probably should have asked that sooner,”

Mike shook his head.

“No, my dad isn’t. He won’t be home until about six,”

Myra looked up at the building. The late summer breeze helped both deal with the otherwise hot weather.

“Well, let’s head in. It’s hot,” she said.

 

Entering the 2nd-floor apartment, Mike took his school backpack and put it down on the living room table. Myra followed behind him, looking around the apartment. Its strongest feature was its unremarkable normalcy. A TV stood in the living room, and nothing was particularly messy or out-of-place.

“Don’t you have to go ho-- no, sorry, bad question. Why’d you follow me to my place, uh, Myra?” Mike asked.

“Well, it’s closer than my place, and we won’t be bothered by some jackass who thinks he’s hot stuff,” she answered.

Myra took a seat at the table in the living room. She stretched her arms up, and added:

“Besides, you have A/C.”

Mike paused and gave her a confused look.

“...what have I gotten into. You were going to explain yourself?” he said.

“Yeah, ‘suppose I was.” Myra said.

She put her elbow on the table, and leaned her head on her hand. She gave a look at Mike.

“So, as I mentioned previously, I’m a succubus. Well, that’s what you humans like to call my kind.” she began.

“Is that not correct?” Mike said.

He took a seat across the table, while Myra continued:

“Eh, it’s close enough. Anyway, where the stories go wrong is that whole ‘sex-fiend’ stuff. That’s not where we get our magic power. No, it’s emotional energy instead.”

Mike more or less just gave Myra a blank stare - the “I have no idea what you’re saying means anymore” look.

“To… put it simply, to recharge our magic, we need people - humans, to be more precise - around. When they feel emotions, they output an energy that we use to recharge.” Myra explained.

Mike shook his head. “So, in other words, when other people feel emotions, you gain magic power?”

“Yes, that’s exactly correct.”

“So, you’re here to make me feel…”

“Happy, preferably.”

“...so you can gain magic power?”

“Yep.”

Mike looked at Myra. She looked back at him with a confident smile. He didn’t even really try to process anything beyond a bare-minimum level of thought - things had gotten too weird too quickly for him to be capable.

“And you think I’m just going to run with this?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, I do,” Myra answered.

Mike sighed. “How am I going to explain this to dad…”

“I was going to head home before he gets home, though. Don’t worry about that today,” Myra added.

After a short pause, Myra suddenly realized an additional thing to say:

“Oh, wait, so you’re okay with it! Haha, yes!”

“What?”

“You said that you didn’t know how you’d explain this to your dad, but if you weren’t okay with me, you wouldn’t have to think about that. Since you are thinking about that, you’ve already accepted me. See?”

“I-- oh, fine,” Mike said.

Myra leaned forward and ruffled Mike’s hair. She gave out a light giggle and said:

“Sorry, I can be quite loud. But you are okay with me being around, you know, as a girlfriend, right?” she asked.

“I- uh… yeah, I guess. I can’t say I’m that great, though…”

Mike looked downward, disappointed. Myra reached out and used her hand to lift his head up. She moved right into his face and said:

“If you weren’t great in my eyes, do you think I’d be here?”

She looked at him. After a moment, she leaned back to sit back in her chair.

“Or did you think I’d just be here for a ‘meal’?” she asked.

“I… don’t know,” Mike said.

Myra turned in her seat, facing her body sideways. She kept her eyes on Mike while doing this.

“Well, let me ask this. Do you think you’re a good person?”

Mike thought about the question for a moment.

“...no. I’m quiet. I don’t like putting myself out there. I’m just a ter--”

He stopped when he saw Myra giving him a look of disapproval. She stood up and started walking around the table to where he was sitting.

“Yes, you’re absolutely correct, you’re a quiet one who’d rather not get involved in things.” she said.

She got to where he was sitting, and gave him a hug.

“I don’t know about other people, but that’s not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned,”

She let go and walked back to the chair she was sitting in. Sitting back down, she told Mike:

“You should have more confidence in who you are. You don’t need to be someone you’re not. If someone thinks you’re bad, or “a wimp”, or whatever, they can pound sand.”

Mike looked at Myra. Still thoroughly out of his element, he seemed to get enough that, for some reason, she wanted to be with him. If it was just for her magic-whatever purposes or beyond, he didn’t know. But she’d proven enough to be trustworthy.

“Okay, I get it,” he said.

“Thanks. I’ll be honest,” Myra began.

She looked out the window. Due to being on the north-facing side of the building, the sun didn’t shine through the windows, giving the apartment a very soft-lit appearance.

“There was another reason why I came to this school, but it can wait. You can take priority for now,”

Myra turned back to face Mike, who was trying to process what else she could possibly be here for.

“I can head back to my home, or we can play a game, or something.” she said.

“Uh…”

“Do you want me to come by tomorrow? I admit, that was a lot all at once,”

“...yeah,”

 

Later that day, when Mike’s father came home.

“Hey, Mike,” his father said.

“Hi, Dad,”

Mike was playing a video game on the TV.

“How was school?”

“It was alright,”

“Homework under control?”

“Yep,”

His dad looked into the refrigerator.

“Do you want anything in particular for dinner?” he asked.

“Can we have mac and cheese?” Mike said.

“Yeah, we do… that sounds like a plan,”

His dad started getting dishes and bowls and whatnot to make dinner. Somewhat unexpectedly, Mike asked an additional question:

“Hey, can I have a friend come over tomorrow?”

“Uh, sure. If they want dinner before six-thirty, you’d have to make them something, or order out.”

That’s interesting, his father thought.