Fleur let slip a tepid yawn, the half drank espresso sitting on her desk still yet to have any effect on her immortal body. Be it caffeine, alcohol, or whatever else, she usually had to consume twice as much as the average pony to feel any benefit. It was either a blessing or a curse, depending which way one looked at it. Being able to drink a minotaur under the table was quite the perk, but the amount of coffee she had to drink just to get through the average morning was perhaps higher than she’d like to disclose.

Still, at least it was Friday. Like most mornings in Canterlot, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The nobles weren’t all that fond of rain, after all. The view from her office window focused on the ice-capped peaks of the Unicorn Range, and was just as breathtaking as the first time she had laid eyes on it.

Well, to call it a mere window was perhaps putting it lightly. It was more like a wall of glass, spanning all the way from floor to ceiling, and about a hundred hooves across. Thick curtains the colour of Princess Luna’s coat hung either side, but Fleur had never used them. The deep blue wilderness of the sky was much too beautiful to hide away, and with the room being situated on the one hundred and seventy-third floor, privacy wasn’t an issue, bar the odd pegasus or two.

The other three walls of the office were actually one—a vast plane of purple and gold that curved around to meet both of the window’s edges. Yes, the room was intended to resemble the shape of a horseshoe—Photo Finish had all but insisted at the most recent renovation.

Fleur let slip another yawn. It wasn’t like her to be this tired in the morning. It probably had something to do with the fact she had spent most of the previous night lying awake in bed, contemplating the best way to invite Luke to the Wonderbolts’ Derby she had agreed to host later that evening. As it was an out-of-hours event he had no knowledge of, he might’ve made other plans, something she was feeling perhaps more anxious about than she cared to admit. So what if he said no? He had no obligation to accompany her.

A soft mewling rang rather pathetically through her mind, and Fleur chuckled softly to herself. Her darker half really was quite smitten with the human.

After the working lunch she had shared with Luke, Fleur had tried in vain to allocate time out of her schedule for him. Not just so he could learn to fly Le Tesson, either. If she was honest with herself, she enjoyed spending time with him. The quiet in her mind every time he was around was becoming more of a perk than the main reason for pursuing his company. Of course, such times had been difficult to come by, mainly because of one persistent pony.

Knock knock.

Speak of the devil. Two knocks. That’s all the warning Fleur ever got these days before her office door was thrown wide.

“Good morning, fraulein,” Photo Finish barked, cantering into the office fresher than a pillow with a mint on it. Fleur was only a little bit jealous her manager could find it in herself to be quite so woke in the morning.

“Bonjour, mon amie,” Fleur replied, stifling yet another yawn. It was probably best to get the most pertinent order of business out of the way first. “What is on the agenda today?”

Photo didn’t miss a beat. “You have the second quarter board meeting to attend in ten minutes, Sapphire Shores’ consultancy appointment after zat-don’t give me zat look,” Photo interrupted herself, already hoofing through the overflowing ‘in’ tray on Fleur’s desk. “You know she vill take it as a personal insult if ve give her anypony but you.” Sapphire Shores was quite possibly the sassiest diva Fleur had ever met. Even the latest efforts from the top clothing designers from all over Equador often failed to satisfy her tastes. “Some of the new recruits have booked a three hour shoot with you zis afternoon, and you vill be expected to arrive at least an hour before the Vonderbolts Derby opens later zis evening for the audio check,” Photo continued, before suddenly remembering something. “Oh, and Prince Blueblood invited you to his suite at the castle for a private dinner after the derby.”

Fleur almost choked on her espresso. Non! Snarled the siren, and for once, Fleur had no trouble agreeing. She would rather dine with a rabid diamond dog than give Prince Blueblood the chance to brag to his ostentatious little ‘holier-than-thou’ friends that he had… she shivered. According to Blueblood, they had been out on three dates already. Celestia only knew what rubbish he would dream up if she was to take him up on his offer.

She still quite clearly remembered the time he developed the unfortunate habit of playing with the contents of his diaper. Granted, he was two years old at the time, but the sight alone was enough that she wasn’t going to be forgetting it any time soon.

Either way, never in the millions of years she could potentially live would she ever go on a date with him.

Photo Finish cracked a rare smile. “I thought you might not be a fan of the idea. I took the liberty of declining on your behalf.”

“Merci, mon amie,” Fleur sighed, taking another sip of her coffee.

She had a feeling this day was going to be a long one, and it didn’t take long for her to realise that laying eyes on a certain someone could perhaps make it a little more bearable.

Almost inaudibly, the ancient water demon prowling around her mind crooned in agreement.

The summer heat had stubbornly refused to relent over the next few weeks, Luke having to take shelter in the vast shadow of the helium chamber as it slowly but surely crept across the scorched deck each day.

Due to Fleur’s schedule becoming busier than a Chinese fish market ever since their lunch at the Tasty Treat, there hadn’t been much for him to do other than listen to Vert waffle on about wind patterns, the many ways to tie a docking rope, and the easiest way to navigate by night. Apparently Luna always put certain stars in the exact same place, so that ponies could find their way in the darkness.

“Fleur said she might have a spare hour before lunch today, so we best use it wisely,” Vert said, bundling the spare ‘demonstration’ rope back into a wooden barrel near the stern of the ship.

“Photo already cancelled that. Some big board meeting, or something,” Luke muttered gloomily. Not only was he not going to be doing any flying today, he wouldn’t have a chance to steal glances at his smoking-hot boss. The fact she was a unicorn was of little concern, at this point.

Vert squinted through the sunlight, his whole face practically scrunching. “Did she? Never tells me nothin’, that mare. Well, we might as well scrub the deck, instead.”

“We did that yesterday!” Luke protested. He’d spent more time on his hands and knees than a hooker with pink-eye as of late.

Thankfully, a pink pegasus pony Luke didn’t recognise alighted on deck before Vert could complain that his reflection in the wood wasn’t quite sharp enough. “Ahem… umm, Loook? Um… Miss Fleur would like to see you in her office,” the mare squeaked, gazing up at him as though he were the living embodiment of the Warsaw radio mast.

“Thank you,” Luke said, with perhaps more than a little smugness. “I’ll head there right away.” He made sure to crack an equally smug grin at the Captain as he marched off the ship and down onto the dock. Even the butterflies that had flared to life in his stomach upon hearing Fleur’s name failed to ruin the moment.

Strolling into the sky lobby and past the express elevator, Luke hit the call button for one of the four main communal elevators. He’d never been to Fleur’s office, but he knew it was on floor one-seven-three, only two down from the dock. Not a minute later, he was stood outside of a deep purple door bearing gold lettering: Fleur de Lis, CEO, J’adore Inc.

Steeling himself, he knocked thrice, or, he would have… The door swung open rather ominously after the second knock, revealing… Oh dear.

Fleur was stood in the middle of the room. Her eyes, bereft of irises or pupils, shone like two piercing blue beacons along with the sapphire in her collar. Her mouth was slightly open, and Luke had no trouble at all spotting the two sharp fangs descending from behind her upper lip.

A closer look at her sapphire revealed the blurry image of a trident shining within it, something Luke had never noticed before. She took a step toward him, and an icy blade swept down the full length of his spine, yet he couldn’t move. She wont hurt me, she wont hurt me, she said it herself, he chanted, over and over inside his head, but the words weren’t really doing all that much to convince him.

Another step, and Luke’s heart was hammering against his ribcage like the abused bass drum of a thrash-metal band. Another step. And another. Those eyes… he couldn’t tear his gaze away from them. A potent concoction of beauty lurked in their depths… Beauty, and death.

Then, she stopped.

At some point, Luke forgot to breathe, judging by the fact he let out a breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding. Fleur blinked, and as often was the case with her little ‘episodes’, all traces of the water demon harbouring within her suddenly disappeared in less than a split second.

“Forgive me, I… I just needed to see you,” she whispered, her face emotionless in the wake of the siren’s possession.

“Holy crap, Fleur,” Luke croaked, the use of his voice finally coming back to him. “You’ll end up being the death of me, one day,” he chuckled, but the words came out with a lot less humour behind them than he’d intended.

Fleur’s ears dropped a shade, her eyes seeming to swell. “What do you mean, mon cher?”

Luke faltered, unsure how she might take it if he dared voice his fears of her deadly little secret he’d been hiding from her the past few weeks. “It’s kinda hard to explain.”

“‘Ave a seat, and tell me, zen,” Fleur said, giving a small nod to a modernesque swivel chair sitting in front of her long marble desk.

Luke did as she asked, perching conservatively on the edge as he watched her canter around the desk and claim her own seat on the other side. She motioned with a forehoof for him to continue.

Luke let out a sigh, doing his best to ignore the sense of foreboding clouding his thoughts. “It’s like… there’s been this little voice inside my head these past few weeks telling me that I should be very worried there’s a siren interested in me. I mean, she scares the crap out of me every time I see her. What if she wants to eat me, or something?”

Fleur gave him a look that suggested he had temporarily grown a second head. “Eat you?” she repeated, incredulous. “Luc, did you per’aps ‘it your ‘ead on the way to my office? Because zat is quite possibly the dumbest thing I ‘ave ever ‘eard in my entire life.”

“W-Well… Uh,” Luke stuttered, feeling immensely stupid all of a sudden. If Fleur wanted to fucking eat him, she probably would have done it weeks ago. “The thing is, sirens are known to humans as merciless killers back on Earth,” he added, conveniently leaving out the ‘Greek mythology,’ and ‘portrayed in works of fiction’ parts. Somehow, he didn’t think they’d help his argument.

“And why should zat be the case here? Do you ‘onestly think Celestia of all ponies would send you to me if she thought I was just going to gobble you up?” she snapped, her logic slamming into his apprehension not unlike a bowling ball would through a mirror.

He was beginning to wholly regret opening his stupid mouth, and it wasn’t like he could blame her anger on the siren either. No, all of Fleur’s ire was her own. That much was certain. “Well, I…” he muttered, but he didn’t really have an end to the pathetic sentence. Fleur wasted no time in jumping on the offensive.

“Do you even know ‘ow much zat pony cares for you? She cancelled a state visit to Yakyakistan to go and collect you from the Crystal Mountains, something zat zey are still in an uproar about even today!” Fleur cried, her violet gaze almost deadly. “The yaks are notorious for being offended at the tiniest things when it comes to international politics, yet Celestia still dropped zem in favour of you. She ‘adn’t even met you at the time, but she gave you the benefit of the doubt.”

Luke swallowed, guilt already clawing at his insides. He hadn’t really expected her to yell at him, and thus, was wholly unprepared for it. His stupid mouth had got him into this mess, so he quietly elected to keep it closed and just let her get on with it.

Fleur didn’t really show any sign of slowing down, unfortunately. “She all but begged me—the ruler of Equestria and deity of the sun—begged me to take you on,” she cried, slamming a hoof down to the marble desk. A small crack split the surface. “You know what I did? I turned her down, until she called in zat blasted favour.”

Luke blinked, doing his best to ignore the emotional kick in the gut that accompanied her words. Truth be told, he just wanted to go back to his shitty apartment and forget this day had ever happened.

Fleur got to her hooves and slowly walked around her desk, getting an closer and closer to him with each step, her gaze piercing. Only when she was inches away did she stop. “Is that what is worrying you, mon cher? The fact I killed a warlock seventy years ago?”

She waited. Five seconds passed Ten. Luke cleared his throat. “Yes,” he admitted. She would probably see right through a lie, anyway.

Fleur tilted her head, and Luke could almost hear the cogs turning inside. Even angry, she was still devastatingly pretty. “Luc… you are so naive. I am a siren. I ‘ave killed thousands in my lifetime, not just one grabby warlock.” He blinked, his eyes finding hers. She was telling the truth, there was no doubt about it. “Of course, the vast majority of zat number was tallied during the many wars I ‘ave fought in. I do not kill indiscriminately.”

“Just… forget I said anything,” he murmured, wanting nothing more than to get out of her office as fast as possible. Hell, he’d take scrubbing the ship’s deck with nothing but a toothbrush and an old bar of soap over this shit.

“‘Ow can I forget?” Fleur suddenly snapped, and Luke nearly fell off the edge of his seat. “In all of my years on Equador, I ‘ave never witnessed my darker ‘alf weep over anything—the conquering of peaceful nations by the ancient dragon order, the despicable apartheid rule of the old kingdom, young fillies and colts lying dead in the streets of Babylon during the great plague—anything,” she added, her voice lowering. “Yet ‘ere she is, crying silently in my ‘ead over a man that thinks she wants to kill ‘im.”

A long silence followed her words, a silence that morphed into a deafening crescendo, but it still wasn’t enough to drown out Luke’s thoughts. His mind should have been awash with sympathy for the horrors she had witnessed throughout her lifetime, but all he could think about was the fact she had turned Celestia down, had only accepted when Celestia had reminded her of the cover up. “Do you…” he began, but paused, wondering if it was worth adding fuel to the fire. Fuck it. He had to know. “Do you wish Celestia hadn’t called in that favour?” he quietly asked, cursing his selfishness.

Fleur paused, but only for a second. “At first, yes. From a business standpoint, ‘iring you was a terrible idea,” she said, deftly sitting on her haunches, her eyes wandering to the view of the mountains through the window. “Four different advisers told me to ignore Celestia’s request, an of course, zey were right. You remember the article? J’adore stock took a small ‘it the day after it was published.”

“Oh…” Luke muttered. What the hell was he even supposed to say to that? “Well… If the company is losing money, maybe it’d be best if I left?” he added, perhaps feeling a bit more sorry for himself than he had any right to. Even as the suggestion left his mouth, he felt stupid for saying it. J’adore wasn’t losing money. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.

Fleur lowered her brow, and it was clear she wasn’t going to dignify such petty nonsense with a response. “I gladly ‘old up my ‘oof and confess that I am a killer, but it ‘urts me greatly zat you think I would ever ‘arm you,” she shot at him, but her voice had definitely lost some of its edge. “I… I care about you more than you realise, Luc,” she whispered. The sapphire in her collar pulsed with each passing heartbeat, and Luke was once again met with a strong urge to touch it, but he refrained, for the moment.

His elbows found his knees, and he held his face in his palms. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry I doubted you, Fleur,” he began, lifting his head to gaze at her. She had every right to be angry, especially after everything she had done for him. But, there was still one pressing issue he couldn’t quite make heads or tails of. “But, I have to know… Why do you care about me so much?”

Luke was the first to admit he wasn’t special. He had no experience of flying an airship, so it sure as hell wasn’t talent at his job that was causing her to keep him around. The only other explanation he might’ve had thus far was the fact he was human, but seeing as that wasn’t exactly seen as a positive by the business world of Canterlot, he was coming up empty.

Fleur gazed up at him, those pale violet eyes large and inviting once again. In fact, all of her ire seemed to have faded away as though it had never been, and she was looking a little lost. “I… I do not know, Luc,” she whispered, a few stray locks of her mane partly obscuring her gaze.

Luke knew she was lying. She had to be. Celestia’s favour was to give him a job, but it didn’t extend to keeping a job. Any other employer would’ve got rid of him by now to save themselves the hassle, equal opportunities be damned.

“I care about you, too,” he said, giving her a warm smile. Maybe she would tell him, one day, maybe not. Either way, it was of little concern to him at the moment.

Fleur studied him for a long time, and Luke could only speculate what she was thinking. After a few moments, she spoke. “Luc… Zis is per’aps a little unprofessional of me, and it is a little short notice, but… would you mind accompanying me to the Wonderbolts Derby at the amphitheater tonight? I am ‘osting the race, but I would very much like it if you were there with me.”

“You want me to go and see the Wonderbolts with you?” Luke repeated, incase he had somehow misheard. “Hell yeah!”

Shit, he probably owed her a night in an opera house full of snobby nobles that hated his guts for all the pain he’d caused her. Getting to see a Wonderbolts Derby was more than he deserved.

Fleur’s face lit up like a candle, something that never failed to make Luke smile when he witnessed it. “Merci, mon cher,” she practically squeed, getting to her hooves and catching him off guard with a surprise nuzzle. The heavenly strawberries and cream scent hit him again, and his hands flew to the back of her neck of their own accord, it seemed, his fingers slipping into her mane. Before he could even remind himself that he was probably crossing some pretty major boundaries, Fleur took it one step further, throwing her forelegs over his shoulders.

Luke snorted out a chuckle at her enthusiasm, the mare practically pressing him back into the chair. Unfortunately, the base, whilst stylish, was perhaps designed with a more ‘form over function’ approach. It promptly toppled over, and both Luke and Fleur were sent rolling over the carpet.

“Woah, haha,” Luke gasped, coming to a stop on his back. A soft warm lump lay on his chest, her long pink curls splayed out everywhere and her legs wrapped around him.

“Pardon, mon amour. I did not think zat one through,” she laughed, and Luke felt the sweet vibrations through his chest. That wasn’t the only thing, though—the ice-cold sapphire in her collar made short work of his shirt. The frigid coolness could be felt seeping into the skin beneath, but it was a lot less unpleasant than he thought it would have been. Likewise, the spikes in her collar appeared sharp when he looked at them, but they were also digging into his shirt without too much discomfort.

Luke sighed. As if he needed more proof that the siren had no interest in hurting him. Fleur still hadn’t bothered getting to her hooves, despite the chair falling a good thirty seconds ago, so he wrapped her in his arms, cradling the mare to his chest with little thought.

Fleur answered his move by adjusting her hind legs, shifting one of them over to partially straddle his waist. A glance down at her face revealed her ears were lying flat, and she was looking at him with devious, blue-tinted eyes and a peculiar little smile… She also had fangs again.

A wave of shock rolled over Luke, but it was decidedly more muted than the last time the water demon had made an appearance. He couldn’t even tell if she had fully taken control. It was more a case of both Fleur and her deadly little friend snuggling into his chest. All things considered, it was kinda nice.

Not that he was given much time to savour the moment.

BANG.

CRACK.

Fleur’s office door flew open with all the apparent force of a small bomb, just as a flash of pink light damn near blinded Luke. “Shit!” he hissed, rubbing his eyes. His chest was now noticably siren-free.

A light-gold coated earth mare with a cobalt blue mane and tail had just waltzed into the room like she owned the place. The short, flashy white and gold dress she was wearing probably would have looked a little slutty on another pony, but this mare managed to make it look the epitome of sheer class. Luke found himself peering up at her as he clumsily struggled to get to his feet. She was almost as tall as Fleur.

“Well, hello, honey! I do hope Rarity sent over her latest line. I’ve been diggin’ that pony’s style lately-” the newcomer began, but then she spotted Luke tripping over his own feet next to the toppled over chair. “Oh, am I interrupting something?” the mare asked, her light-amber eyes seemingly swelling to the size of grapefruits and her smile suggesting she had just discovered a rather juicy little secret to gossip about later.

“Oh, not at all, mon cherie, I was just ‘aving an ‘end of probationary period’ meeting with my newest pilot when his chair broke. It must only be designed for ponies,” Fleur wildly bullshitted. For a story she had just come up with on the fly, it was pretty damn convincing. “I must make a note to get the building fitted with human compatible chairs,” she added as an afterthought.

The extravagant mare observed Fleur for a good few seconds, and Luke got the feeling she wasn’t entirely convinced. “Ah, but of course. I read about your recruiting exploits a few weeks back.” She eyed Luke sympathetically. “The press don’t very much care for you, do they?”

Luke slowly shook his head, still trying to figure out if she was going to start telling anypony that would listen that Fleur had been dry-humping an alien in her office, or something.

“Take their opinions with a pinch of salt, honey. They write that old rag to sell, and it really shows,” Sapphire said, turning to Fleur. “Now, have my dresses arrived?”

“I believe Rarity sent zem over yesterday afternoon,” Fleur replied, conjuring a gem-encrusted chaise lounge out of thin air and motioning to it with a forehoof. The earth mare hopped onto it in an instant. “Luc, I will see you tonight, yes?”

Luke smiled, his mind already wandering to the memory of how good it had felt with Fleur snuggled against his chest. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

I regret nothing.

As always, let me know if I derped editing this.