Mictain grinned. "I do not want to infuriate you," he replied, "although I think it'd be more of a challenge not to make you angry than to do so. It appears you haven't been very kind to anybody lately. And I've no intention of chastising you, either, but it appears that anything I say will end up making you even angrier, so it's about the same what I do here."

He licked his lips briefly before continuing to talk. "Perhaps you don't have anything to say to me," he said then, "but I enjoy your company too much to leave. You're too pretty; I would miss seeing you the moment I left. You're like a rose -- red, lovely, and full of thorns." He smirked. "I'm not about to leave unless I have a reason to."