A/N: After a long day of reading smutty stories and crying over Kuzu no Honkai, I've decided to write a one-shot on Kieran's sad, pathetic love life.

You're welcome.

Contains subtle sexual themes.

Four years. It has been four years since Kieran had found her in Spirits Forest. Four years since he had first burnt the guards chasing her to a crisp, and offered her his hand.

A runaway. An experiment from the underground labs of Levanthia. She was an artificial raiju-human mix, specially modified in not a human womb, but a test tube. The Levanthians wanted to expand their technology. They were also getting curious about all things supernatural.

Those secret Levanthian facilities were often very heavily guarded, but the fact that she had escaped, with or without inside help, was impressive.

Aileen was his apprentice for four years. It was long enough, too long, in fact. She was part raiju, not a simple human like the last. Surely she would be strong enough. He made sure this time to be cautious, to be patient, to be so sure.

Kieran couldn't think of a completely wasted four years.

Curse that demon. Why couldn't it die so easily? Why did it make it so hard for him, and the unfortunate souls whom he'd stolen? Perhaps that's why it's a demon in the first place. A formless, shapeless, yet completely aware being. A malevolent one.

Kieran looked to his feet. He was sitting on the edge of a bed, with shafts of moonlight beaming down onto his shoulders. The modest inn room was an empty, lightly furnished space.

If you didn't count him and the demon.

Aileen was probably held up by the traffic in Lucid. He wasn't sure, but that was the only reasonable explanation of why she was so late after running a simple errand.

It wasn't like Kieran complained. More time equals more possible preparations. It was the perfect opportunity to check and recheck everything again. This night may be the one to seal his fate once and for all, so why was heart racing? Why was he simply staring at the wall?

Kieran let out a small chuckle to himself. Of course. He was way more a nervous wreck than Aileen would be.

Not nervous because of a future family. Not nervous because of intimacy. In fact, he couldn't quite put a finger on it.

He shook his head, drawing in a slow breath. "Too useless to figure out something not worth it. Come on, it isn't like you haven't done this before. You know what you're doing." Kieran wished his words of assurance was helpful in the slightest, but it was worth a shot. He needed to calm down. If not, then the spell would...

Kieran was suddenly overcome with an electrified sensation. It was hot, too hot, enough to make him want to stick his head out of the window to feel the breeze. He took all of that back. The spell was definitely working. He wondered if he was cheating by faking his own arousal, but Aileen wouldn't know. She didn't know half of it. After all, he made it so that she was hopelessly crushing on him.

"Damn." Kieran flung off his cloak, unable to take the overwhelming heat. "If Margaret found out I've been messing with sex spells, she would no doubt yell at me."

Princess Margaret was not fond of physical intimacy, at all. He never knew why she was offended by it, but it wasn't his place to judge. After all, he understood her too well.

The burning sensation only tripled with any minute. It was growing uncomfortable, and strangely amusing. Perhaps he should research how this spell worked.

The demon seemed to laugh at him, and Kieran laughed at it. They were both mocking one another, blaming the other for their own sins and worthlessness.

"Ah, Aileen, help me show this son of a bitch what I'm capable of."