A guest once said that innocuous is my favorite word, so I made a self-pact to use it in this chapter more than five times. I don't know how, but I ended up failing said pact.

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Concretely Discreet

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A month…

A month has passed, and it felt like ten decades.

Zamasu spent an entire two months and three weeks on Earth. He had learned and experienced so much in so little time, especially within the last month. Along with (unadmittedly) finding out he was very fond of Ollie and Loki, and him unintentionally getting some criminal arrested with the constant joking of the crew and apparently the story circulating the Web like wildfire, he would be lying if this was an absolute contrast of his actual home; the Shinjin realm. The only difference is that the Kaioshin realm didn't harbor a bunch of humans, all of which annoy him. Especially the one who Gowasu has given him refuge to, Irene. It's as if her goal was to make him kill her.

He was even surprised that he hadn't laid a hand on her in all that time; he should have, so then she would stop talking to him, or stop talking altogether, in fact. Usually she would play around and tease him, but as time passed, he noticed she was actually getting a bit aggravated at his lack of consideration. Anytime they'd argue now, she would always find a way to cut it short or to leave before he would try anything with her. That was not the woman that he had first met, who would kept going until he left. Now, it was the other way around, although there were attempts made by her to detense the stress between the two. She would engage in small talk out of nowhere, trying to get a word or something akin to information on him, but he either dished her off, deeming her attempts boring before they even started, or he would tell her to straight up leave him alone. Whenever he did that, it was after they would argue, and he'd still hold a grudge on the incident and wouldn't want her to utter a word at him for a long time. And she would leave him alone, she'd take his order with a grain of salt and leave him to his own thoughts and beliefs, until one day she actually snapped…

A little.

This particular day wasn't that long ago; it was actually less than 24 hours ago, yesterday night. Zamasu was sitting in his room, reading a book like usual. He had a God's habit, doing the same thing over and over for a prolonged period of time and wondering why you weren't doing something else in the process. He heard two small knocks from his door until it finally opened to reveal Irene's fluffy head in a sleeveless black jumpsuit. She appeared to have been running or doing some sort of exercise, because there was a very light bead of sweat that marred her face. Although she smiled at him, Zamasu remained neutral.

"Hey…" she then leaned against the door opening. "Dinner's ready, if you'd like to come down."

At this point, Zamasu has been in a 'hermit phase', because he didn't go anywhere while Irene went out with her usual crew, or some other people she knew. He just stayed home and didn't speak much unless he was arguing with her. She knew that he didn't want anything to do with her and her pathetic, temporary and short life, yet she still continued to bother him with needless questions. So he felt that she didn't deserve an answer from him just to make his point clear.

But she didn't leave; even though he was silent, she stepped into the room and sat on the side of his bed. He gave her a side-eye glance from his book, and returned his gaze to the literature in his hands. "Can you tell me why you're giving me the cold shoulder, now?"

"I've given you the cold shoulder ever since I met you." His voice wasn't cool, it was cold and stoic.

She blinked. "Yeah but… why? I'm asking why don't you just… open up a little bit more? It'll make things easier for the both of us."

He inhaled deeply, turning the page of the book slowly. "Because there is no need to." She still sat there and she had her head cocked to the left, but didn't say anything. She didn't even move. "Leave."

A pause. Zamasu didn't even look at her. "No."

With that response, Zamasu lowered his book and looked at her. "What do you mean no?"

"I said what I said." She didn't sound like she was teasing him either. She was dead serious.

"Why is it your mission to irritate me?" He tapped against the book's hardcover. "Have you forgotten that I am a Kaioshin? I could end your existence in an instant."

This is where he saw a rare emotion from her; annoyance. Actual, concrete irritation coated her face like a deep mask and he frowned, almost offended at how she could possibly be annoyed when she started to irk him. Irene crossed her arms. "Okay, you can, you've said that for the absolute longest and at this point, I am getting really really fed up with this."

She was holding her tongue, Zamasu didn't move at all. "You don't think I've been fed up with you this entire time? Perhaps you finally see just how much of a pest you really are." His attention went right back to the book. "You're not accomplishing anything trying to redeem yourself with this futile attempt of trying to 'build bridges', in your words. I have no interest in wanting to know how irritated you are, nor do I care about you in general."

Zamasu kept his eyes on the book, but he stopped reading after five seconds of his speech. He can feel the heat radiating off of Irene's body and now, she was getting angry. He blinked and looked at her.

Before he could even open his mouth, Irene fired back. "Look… I don't know what your deal is- wait, I do know. You've spent damn near three months in my house. I've been nothing but nice; I didn't hurt you, I didn't fuck any of your shit up, and you know damn well that all those names I've called you shouldn't even be something to get all mad about. I didn't abuse you in any way, I make you food every single day, I give you access to read books off my fucking shelves, I let you go wherever the fuck you want, and this is how you repay me? By being an asocial prick?"

She put so emphasis on the last word, and Zamasu just sat there unaffected, unwavered, and completely nonchalant. "You think it's perfectly fine, what you're fucking doing. You didn't come here to shit on me and order me to do all kinds of shit for you- last time I checked, your mentor put you here to experience New horizons, but you're too fucking ignorant to take part in that, and instead make everything ten fucking times harder for me. You have no respect for any fucking body!"

Zamasu glanced down at the book, placed its respective bookmark in the page, and closed it gently. He placed it to his side, gently, and then he gently clasped his hands together. No need for wasting his physical energy, right now.

"I have respect for beings that are respectful, and you aren't. With the way you act and speak, you shouldn't even be highly regarded by anyone else." His statement wasn't so gentle.

"And that gives you the right to treat me like shit?" She was finally taking his behavior personally; it's funny because he'd do this to anyone who pissed him off, it just so happens that she was one of them. How sad.

Not really.

"I would have beaten the hell out of you months ago." He leaned forward. "If I wanted to, I could have killed you. But I didn't, at the courtesy of my mentor, I wouldn't want to stain his name by wasting time ending your life. Consider yourself lucky, woman."

She literally froze, and sat there in shock. And then her rage came back, and she seethed. "You ungrateful piece of shit."

His ego was pretty big, but it wasn't big enough to leave a statement like that undefended. Grey eyes went wide, appalled at her choice of words. "You think you're far ahead and higher than everyone else just because you're a different species. You're a fucking God, you aren't supposed to act like you can't handle a little imperfection and a few fucking flaws. You should fucking know better than to be so damned arrogant, ignorant, and disdainful to the same race that you said acted just like that. You act just like the same species you parade your hate on… and you don't even notice it!"

And then she abruptly got up and left, all the while taking deep breaths as she stormed out of the room. He didn't go downstairs to eat, either. He really didn't need to. That's what happened yesterday. Not even 24 hours ago, at night. It was in the evening today, and Zamasu was sitting in his room with no book in his hand. He kept tapping his fingers against his nightstand for Kami knows how long, staring down at the ground. His fingers propped up his chin, and the look on his face was pensive… just because of yesterday. He was supposed to let it roll off his back, and not think about or dwell on it for more than ten seconds, but for the past fifteen hours, Irene's angry bout ran through his head whenever it possibly could. And he didn't even have much to think about, so it stayed with him almost constantly.

No, it did affect him. No, he wasn't offended by what she said either. He spent fifteen whole hours dismissing and revitalizing her monologue over and over and over again, and every time he did it, it rubbed him the wrong way even more.

Is this what insanity feels like? The weight of her words built up even more, it led to him standing up and walking around his room in thought. Why was it so bothersome? Maybe because he isn't ungrateful, and he isn't arrogant, and he definitely isn't ignorant. She had no idea who he was, and had idea who she'd potentially be messing if she continued to berate him any further. There is really no need for him to even be thinking about this, so he decided that he wasn't going to. He'll just do whatever he was doing prior to those thoughts, and completely forget everything that had transpired last night.

I not concerned with any of what she said at all.

And downstairs, at the heart of the living room, Irene wasn't either. She had just finished taking a shower and sat comfortably on her couch, chatting on the phone with a few other artists that she co-worked with. The black-haired woman assumed that everything that she had said went in one ear and out the other, not because he was daft, but because he just didn't care, and that's why she didn't pursue the topic any further.

The most frustrating feeling is that feeling you get when you're deeply upset at someone and they just don't give a damn. So the most you can do is vent and move on, or hold it in until you explode. Irene had done the latter.

To be truthful, this was one of those rare moments in her life where she felt like she was… less than? She didn't know how to describe it, but it was the same feeling she had when she was with her ex-boyfriend, the one before James. That guy would make her do everything for him, and slowly but surely, she became nothing more than a housewife- or maid, for a better term, because she cheated on after a while. That was at her ex's home; Zamasu was legit subjecting her to the same thing in her own house. He wouldn't ask for anything, yet he'd call her selfish for not making anything for him.

Yes, that actually happened. He was far too contradictory for the woman to understand.

And when she did decide to make something for him, he'd lose interest and wouldn't come down to eat, nor would he even look at her as he chewed and swallowed her damn cooking. She'd watch from afar, in the kitchen as this attitude kept going on, and at first she let it slide. But as time passed, she had realized that her patience was starting to backfire on her. Sure, he may be a God and all, but aren't supposed to be accepting and understanding as they do know so much, and not be the latter?

It didn't take a long time for her to realize just how little he knew, and his behavior, attitude and mindset all derived from him not knowing and him not knowing how much he didn't know, and not wanting to change that in the process. So who was the ignorant one now?

Will that ever go through his head? It didn't really matter, she was sure that nothing she said would be registered by him, he had such a giant ego that couldn't be deflated by what she said; he was probably sitting on his bed, that she bought and owned, reading a book and not giving two shits. And that was what she would do; completely dismiss the fact that her feelings were tossed out the window.

So now, her and a few colleagues were in the group call, pitching in ideas for their project. They had the basic sketch down; people were drawn in a continuous line, nobody separating the other and everybody was connected, meaning that everyone was the same. The artwork was going up with many other works that have now followed the accidental movement that she accidentally made, all having to do with peace and being considerate of other people. It was going to be pretty large, and would be placed in West City's most prominent art museum. Almost anything that was sent there was worth millions, even billions sometimes, and would seen globally; Irene's works have been there more than several times, and everything they managed to get there, the projects would be worth millions apiece.

It was funny that she started a trend, a creative, artistic trend for that matter. Never before did she expect it to branch off so far, and it wasn't even intentional, but she loved it nonetheless. The best thing about it was getting to see all the other artworks pertaining to the movement.

"Alright, we'll settle our concepts here, and call it a day. We've been talking an awful lot." It was true, they spent two hours on the phone shit-talking and discussing random ideas for their collective project.

"Are we gonna pick it right back up tomorrow?" One of the artists, Camelia, who was a bit amped to continue working with her fellow partners, but was also burnt out and tired. Irene felt the same way too.

"I dunno, I might be a little busy. Like, writing-wise." Ashley sighed. "Maybe sometime during this week, we can schedule a day via text."

"Definitely. That won't be a problem. Alright, I'll talk to you guys later." They all said their goodbyes and the call ended.

Irene laid to her side on the couch. She turned on the TV just to some music channel and was not surprised to see a large EDM gig playing snazzy music with a bunch of people jumping and dancing around, and the two producers that controlled the sound were none other than Adrian and Jay. Even though the event happened a little less than a month ago, it was still playing conservatively, unlike a lot of the songs that would be on constant replay in every music channel. They had returned after that particular concert, visited Irene and their families, and went back to touring. Even though they were now across the globe, the trio still kept in touch via phone.

The last time they spoke was around two weeks ago. She, Jay, Adrian and Lexi discussed different things, and Lexi brought up the stigma between the two males and Rebecca. Jay instantly responded with a simple 'It's confidential', and whenever he said that, you couldn't get him to open up about whatever that topic was. She knew her best friend was very reserved as a person, and she herself didn't even know why they continued to dismiss her in the first place. She got up just to get a snack bar- actually, two- and went back to her spot on the couch. As as she sat down, she heard a door open loudly from upstairs.

Irene blinked thrice, and looked back just in time to see Zamasu stroll down the stairs calmly. Her anger before was real, and she wasn't playing around when she said she felt disrespected. To see him walk down the stairs calmly actually hurt her a little bit, because there was literally nothing she could do to beat some sense into his head. Irene may be a little strong; of the entirety of her squad, she, Adrian, and Jay were considerably the strongest, but if Zamasu could throw someone across a city, then she'd be better off not fucking with him physically.

He didn't scan the living room, he just went directly to the kitchen. Zamasu took the tea kettle, filled it up with water, and placed it on the stove. He turned on the fire, and sat down on one of the stools in the kitchen, waiting patiently for his water to boil.

Irene didn't say anything, she really didn't need to either, she watched him embark on his journey to get tea, and then turned back to the TV while not really watching it. She just nonchalantly stared out into space. The kettle whistled and she heard Zamasu turn off the fire. She heard the sound of the water being poured into the cup, she heard his footsteps a minute after and turned around to see Zamasu holding his cup with both hands with looking down at it. He approached the countertop where if he looked up he would get a full view of the living room, and then he took a sip from the cup and placed it down. His fingers were still wrapped loosely against the heated cup, and his eyes were still calmly glued to the brown contents of the tea. Irene frowned, and then she decided to leave it at that, and turned around. Each time he sipped his tea, she noticed that the sound the cup made when being placed on the marble countertop progressively got louder, but she didn't pay it no mind because it was so subtle, so she assumed it was just the silence impacting the noise in both rooms.

Until she heard his fingernails drumming against the cup was when she did a sort of side-glance, because she was actually a little confused as to why he was making so much noise. Usually he'd just silently do whatever he wanted, and now he was just standing there staring down and drumming his fingers against the ceramic cup. All of the sudden, without warning, Zamasu turned and stormed towards her, leaving the cup in it's place with his fist balled up. He stopped his angry trek when he was a good five feet away from the woman lying down comfortably on her couch, and just stood there for like five seconds while his shaking fists clenched. Before she could inquire, he spoke first.

"I'm not ungrateful!"

He didn't just say that statement, he more like yelled it out in front of her which made her jump. Irene raised a brow. "...Huh?"

And then he turned and did this semi-pacing thing, while giving her an angry 'I have been thinking for too long' look on his face. "You have no idea what it's like… being a God placed with a bunch of humans. You think you know me enough to use your vertical insults on me?! You do not know who I am!"

It was at that moment Irene realized just how giant this man's ego was, and what's funny about really egotistical people is that it only takes a certain word to make them completely throw their argument off track. She didn't expect him to be upset about what she said because of how little he cared when she it, but he more than likely spent the entire night with it lingering inside of his mind, pressing it further and further until he would finally implode. That just goes to show how empty and needless his ego was, because he truly had nothing to back it up other than insulting humans for just being humans. But Irene wasn't going to say that, nor was she going to bruise that ego any further; the worse she could do was address that when his head is still in his ass. So all she did was nod.

"You have NO right to speak to me in the matter that you did yesterday!" He stopped to point at her. "You had the nerve to use such disgusting words not only in my presence, but directly at me! How dare you put such distaste to a Kaioshin's name!"

Irene just sat there quietly, looking at him while blinking.

He was almost seething just as hard as she was yesterday. "You're nothing more than a skin infection on behalf of the gods themselves. Knowing how powerful I am, I should've killed you before you even had the chance to leave my room."

Irene looked down at her snack bar, and sat up from her soft couch pillow. She clasped her hands together. "Why?"

Zamasu frowned angrily at her, answering the most obvious question with the most obvious answer. "Because you angered me. Had you not heard what I was saying, or are you daft?"

She tilted her head, calmly dismissing all the epidemy that ran through her mind. For now. "Why would you want to kill me after I said what I said?"

Zamasu stopped and blinked at her. "I have wanted to kill you ever since I met you, you idiot!"

"Well, I got that," at this point she really didn't care about his statement. She just wanted to get to the bottom of something that she just realized. "But why didn't you care right when I said it, and decided to come rant at me right now?"

Surprisingly enough, that was a question that Zamasu could not answer, because that was something that he was thinking too. It logically made no sense, especially given his laconic reaction to her last night. But Irene continued. "You know, you sound exactly like I did last night. I know you may not know it, and you probably couldn't give a shit either way, but I was actually upset at the way you've been acting. So for me to yell at you yesterday, only to see how little you considered my own anger; that actually really hurt. Did you know that?"

She was being extremely calm, and Zamasu just stood there, his tirade went quiet and he wasn't pacing anymore. Although when he looked into her eyes, he could see the amount of stress and frustration that came from him venting at her, which he didn't notice while he was yelling nor did he notice it while she was yelling at him last night.

But she still continued. "And now you're telling at me, and you expect me to be upset and feel guilty at the things you kept doing. I get it, you've said this a million times and then some, that you're a God and that is humans shouldn't disparage against you or whatever. That doesn't mean you can blame me for your intolerance, and that definitely doesn't mean that I'm going to submit to you knowing damn well that it was your fault." Her voice was slowly growing less quiet, and more confident. "Did you think about that at least? Since it looks like what I called you actually hurt your feelings."

The logical side of Zamasu could vouch for her explanation, but he hates humans and he hates her, and he was thinking emotionally right now. "You didn't hurt my feelings." He legitimately scoffed. "Why would I be hurt over the trashy insults you showered on me?"

She answered his questions his question with a question. "Then why are you here, ranting at me and trying to defend you not being ungrateful?"

... She's got a poi- She has NO point! "I'm setting things straight; you do not speak to me in the manner that you did yesterday."

"I will if you actually listen and understand the things that I say." And then Zamasu gave her this really disgusted look, like the kind of humiliative look really shitty people give to others, only three times more vehement. Irene was almost taken aback, definitely offended, but she wouldn't give the benefit of the doubt of showing such a thing to him. "It's true."

He looked down at the ground and turned swiftly, returning to his spot where his cup sat. He raised it to his green lips and took a sip, suddenly realizing how overly sweet the tea was. It was still good to taste, but it was the kind of sweetness where you couldn't finish an entire cup because the taste simply didn't feel right. Tea is not supposed to be this sweet, for crying out loud. Now he can't even enjoy a nice cup of tea because of how worked up he was, sure he could put more water into it but that wouldn't feel right.

Listen, you try serving and sipping tea for thousands of years, You'll find that the stuff starts to grow with you in a weird way.

Irene didn't say anything, she just sat quietly watching Zamasu as he silently griped about the taste of his tea. He then looked up and caught sight of her watching him, and instantly his 'stank face' returned. "What are you looking at?"

Irene laughed. "Why are you upset at your tea for?"

"I'm not upset at my tea. I'm upset at you."

"Oh, so I did make you feel some type of way?"

Zamasu's face never been in so much denial, and his frown never looked so comical. "No, you haven't!"

"I haven't?"

"No!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Are you SURE?"

"YES!"

"OKAY THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT... OF STOMPING DOWN THE STAIRS, MAKING YOURSELF TEA, AND THEN RANTING AT ME OVER SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?" She wasn't speaking because she was angry, she was actually starting to get amused. She even leaned forward and gestured at the stairs then the kitchen as she spoke.

He was leaning against the countertop. "You annoy me! That's why!"

"Shouldn't you be ignoring me, like you always do?" That sounded sarcastic, but it was also lowkey bitter. If someone were watching the two, they'd look like a couple suffering the after effects of the silent treatment.

"I always do! Are you stupid?" He kept leaning further into the countertop.

She pointed up and down at his position. "If you don't be careful you're gonna topple over and fall, Zamasu."

"You think I'm that clumsy? I'm not the one who spilled tea on my gi!" He didn't retaliate either, instead resting his arms against the countertop.

"Oh geez, you're being ridiculous. I apologized to you, it was a one time thing." Irene raised a finger.

"Excuse you?" Like any genius out there trying to debate with someone, Zamasu was now holding himself up with his arms on the countertop, still leaning forward a little too much. "How am I being ridiculous?! Just because I take good care of my attire doesn't make me ridiculous."

"You getting animated over a little teeny bit of tea on your shirt is."

He pointed at her. "It's not a shirt!"

"Okay fine, your gi. Now can you stop leaning on my countertop?" She dismissed his corrective-ness with a simple wave of her hand, but he didn't listen to her.

"I'm not doing any harm anywhere, so I can lean on this no matter h-" He had spoke too soon, because he lost his grip, and his feet hadn't been on the ground ever since they started bantering again. He made a really manly high pitched sound, and in a matter of two seconds, Zamasu's chest was against the countertop, and he slid downward rapidly until he came face-first with the ground, his legs hanging above him. Irene held her hand over her mouth, but her laugh came out as a loud raspberry, and then full blown laughter. She found it hard to regain her breath, just seeing the green Kaioshin face-plant the ground, upside down made her tear up.

"Are you- Are you okay?" She stood up and walked over to where Zamasu was quietly lying down… or head-standing or something? She couldn't tell, but it was still hilarious. Zamasu's face was against her carpet, so all he could manage was an audibly annoyed mumble. She knelt down to his side, still cracking up, and tried to help him by moving his legs sideways, just so that he could sit up. Almost instantly, he raised his arm and tried to shoo her hands away.

"Don't… don't touch me!" His first word came out as a mumble, so he had to whip his head upwards just to speak and that made Irene laugh even harder.

"You...you should see the way your head just went up, like a damn mole, bruh!" She even snorted, and the irritated Zamasu scrambled to sit back up. She looked over and was still trying to help him, even though he didn't need much help and kept telling her to not touch him. Irene couldn't see his face when he was finally upright, partly because his head was facing downwards for some reason and-

"Hold on, is that a smile I see?" She tilted her forward just to see his face, and he looked the other way, suddenly defensive over her seeing his face.

"No I'm not!" That wasn't a well correlated response, but he didn't care. He was just more shocked at the fact that he actually fell like an stood up seriously with his arms crossed. Irene had to admit, even though they just bickered again, she kind of missed how silly their arguments used to be and how she would laugh at them at the end of the day. But this, this right here, was way too funny. It will be something that Irene will bring up randomly just to see his angry look, especially because she had caught a glimpse of him sort of maybe smirking over it afterwards.

"I told you not to lean too much. That's why you should listen to me more often." She stood up and smiled at him, and Zamasu looked at her and then looked away.

"Shut up!" He went back upstairs all annoyed and stuff, but Irene found it to be lighthearted this time. She knew he wasn't really mad at her anymore, and even though her initial problem may not have been solved immediately, she'll find that it'll gradually be solved. Irene didn't forget her main motto for the entire year Zamasu will be here, and that's exactly what she had forgotten to do over the past month:

Just give it time...

Like an idiot, Zamasu thought, he fell off of a countertop. What type of God falls off of raised flat surfaces so easily?

He does.

Another dunce-strike goes to the fact that he didn't get another book while he was downstairs; he was so enraged that he completely forgotten to grab one, and now he'd rather stay upstairs and not have to face Irene again after what happened. At least until the night is over, maybe until tomorrow is over, or the end of the week. Or month.

He knows that she'll never live that up.

He decided to spent the next several hours doing… something? Zamasu had no form of entertainment in his own room other than reading books, he'll have to improvise the rest of his time until Irene sleeps, just so that he can get a book.

Why was he so adamant on waiting until she slept? It's not like he was some tiny little defenseless human surrounded by perpetrators, he had no reason to sit here and bore himself for the sake of Irene's presence, or lack thereof. Him falling on his face would do nothing that would hurt him. Now that he thought about it, the entire ordeal was indeed silly, and even though he would never admit it, he was close to chuckling when he got up. The only reason he suppressed it was because it was unfamiliar.

It was very uncommon for him to react that way whenever he did something wrong or whenever he failed at something. If he were to do that in the presence of another Kaioshin, he would have reprimanded himself mentally for being so stupid, and said Kai would give him a confused look. Due to the amount of weight his species puts on regality, nothing says the opposite of that like arguing with a mortal woman, and then falling forwards because of it. Her reaction contrasted greatly with the renowned Kaioshin, she laughed off of him falling and it wasn't in a way to demean him at all. She simply found it funny, and wasn't caring about how ridiculous he looked. And because of that, he almost lost his formality by chuckling and laughing it off. He knew deep down that such a thing wasn't necessarily bad, but Zamasu was terribly self-critical, even though he was very self-absorbed. Also, he was kind of brought up that way, living under very high expectations kind of restricts you from accepting silly failures in your life.

Especially if you've been living that way for thousands of years. It actually didn't seem like a lot of time; compared to the usual Kaioshin life expectancy, he was really young. If one were to condense his vast lifetime into human years, he'd be just about a few years older than Irene and her friends.

A very tiny part of him, like a subconscious part of him, was actually okay with the fit that he and Irene had, and it had everything to do with how unserious the ordeal was, and how Irene had the ability to switch off her direct anger just because she figured that being angry with him forever would not fix anything. That same part of him did not criticize him for actually being amused at himself falling, but Zamasu didn't pay any mind to that at all. Instead, he just overthought the entire thing.

Like he almost always does.

'='='='='='='='='='='='='='='='

The morning has finally come, and the Kaioshin was still sitting on his bed. He didn't hear the sound of footsteps in the second floor of the room at all, so he assumed that Irene was downstairs all night. That be weird, don't humans need to sleep every single day? Why was he even questioning and considering her whereabouts? It's not like he was concerned about her, she could jump off a cliff for all he cared. He might even push her off of one, too.

Zamasu didn't actually leave his room to go and find a book, apparently time decided to speed itself up and before he knew it, the sun was up. On the bright side, he did find something to do in all night, aka tossing a little silver-colored ball that he found in his closet up in the air. Even though the sun was up, he still didn't hear Irene's voice nor did he hear her walking through the hallways, and despite his rather impeccable hearing capabilities, he didn't even hear her downstairs. Is she outside or something? No, because if she was, he would have saw her walking in her backyard, since his window gave him a full view of her backyard including her garden. She may have went out somewhere, but why would someone go out during such ungodly hours of the night? That would be kind of weird.

Curiosity got the best of him, and he decided to leave the comfort of his room and go downstairs. Well, it wasn't only curiosity, he kind of wanted some tea too. He slowly went down the stairs, scanning the living room when it came to view. He was surprised to find everything still and in place, it was as if no one but him lived here. Making his way to the kitchen just to heat up the kettle, Zamasu pulled out another tea cup, and ran through the assorted tea bags to find some green tea. He sat down on a stool, and waited for a good five minutes until the water started boiling. Even after the water boiled, and after he poured into the cup, he still did not hear any signs of Irene's presence. Placing the cup on the table in front of his seat, he soaked the tea bag into the hot water, swirling it around with a silver elegant spoon-

What the heck, the tea turned green! Zamasu watched as the water did not take the usual brown color that it would have; usually green tea would still be a brown color, but this one had a verdant green hue to it. Intriguing. He walked over to the living room and opened the front door, poking his head outside. He saw her car, which means that either she probably didn't go anywhere and was in the house hiding or something, or she went out for a walk… but that last possibility was out of whack. Humans can't spend more than six hours walking by themselves.

He looked at the one door that he had never laid his hands on, the one leading to her secret lair. Maybe she was in there, despite the fact that I did not hear any door opening all night. The door had a weird knob; it wasn't even a knob, it had a latch-like appearance and was meant to be pulled to the side, but Zamasu did not know that. So he held the golden latch, and was pulling the door but it wouldn't budge. He tried to push it, and it still wouldn't budge. Was the door locked?

Like any genius, he did shake the thing, and that was when he realized it was a sliding door. It opened to reveal a well-lit staircase that went downwards, and was greeted by the cool breeze of whatever room it led to. This was the entrance to the enshrouded floor that he would see if he'd taken a look at the exterior of her home. As he made his way down the stairs, Zamasu started to get a faint, odd scent that he could not pinpoint, which only got stronger with every single step. Is there something that Irene is doing that he doesn't know about?

When he finally got down to the actual room, he was taken aback. It looked far bigger than it looked exteriorly, and all that he saw were random paintings, either on a canvas sitting/ hanging by or on the wall or on one of the shelves. There was a rack of canvases that were in the process of drying, and a large stash of paint and a variety of art supplies sat near and in the main cabinet of the room. So that's where the smell was coming from, Zamasu fully stepped into the premise, shocked at the amount of work that was sitting beneath his feet all this time. Right in front of him was a giant painting of a meadow with a bunch of dandelion leaves flowing in the breeze while the sun gleamed happily on the grassy terrain.

He slowly approached every piece of work like it was some sort of psionic ball or something. The amount of intricacies and detailing that went into these paintings, and the atmosphere they each had was phenomenal. Some were abstract, and some looked like real-life photos, some looked like they were in between, but the Kaioshin would be lying if he said these works weren't beautiful. There all had something in common; all represent positivity and light-heartedness; it was funny because being light-hearted and playful was exactly what Irene was like, much to his dismay. But the same light-hearted vibe he got looked amazing on a canvas, he wouldn't dare to touch any one of them because of how seren they looked.

"You know, I actually didn't think you'd be interested in figuring out what was in this room."

He really jumped when he heard Irene's voice. She came out of another room that he did not notice wiping her hands with a white towel. Her curly hair was in a high messy bun, and she had paint on her forehead and cheeks. "So what brings you here?"

Zamasu glanced at one of the paintings, and then at Irene. He could have just said he didn't know where she was, and curiosity got the better of him, but Zamasu knew she'd more than likely mock him for being so concerned. "I was drinking tea upstairs," he pointed to the ceiling of the room, "and then I heard a noise that came from down here and wanted to know what it was."

Irene made a cute pouty face. "Awwww, I would believe that if it weren't for the fact that I didn't make any noise down here. Well, not ones that you could hear from upstairs, and I didn't think you'd be so concerned with me at all."

There was no way to rectify that answer now. So he went straight to what he did best; negating any statement she made on his person. "Us Kaioshin have excellent hearing. It shouldn't be surprising to know, if you've taken a good look at my ears."

"Either you're hearing stuff," that made his eye twitch, even though he was lying, "Or you're listening to my heartbeat right now with that kind of hearing, because I did not make any noise here for a long time, soooo…" Irene then shrugged. "Did you think I had gone somewhere?"

"No." He answered flatly, because yes he did think she went out, and yes he was wondering where she was with no concern, we have went through this already.

Maybe that was the wrong response, because Irene gave him a smirk that just about spelled trouble. "So you were just worried about me? How sweet. I'm not gone or anything, I'm just down here organizing things."

Zamasu decided not to counteract her statement, and instead made a Hmmph sound, turning away just to go back upstairs. His eyes wandered around the room as he walked out, and for some reason he caught sight of the large cans of paint out of the many others. The colors to him all had weird descriptive names of their hue, like Cadmium yellow, Titanium white and Prussian blue, and surprisingly the cans still looked aesthetically pleasing despite not being organized like the ROYGBIV spectrum. One of the cans had paint that was a light green color; it wasn't pale, but it wasn't a forest green color either. The can was labeled 'Lettuce Green'.

Zamasu's eye twitched as he exited Irene's art room.

(::)(::)(::)(::)

Realizing that she would have to park her car a bit far away from her destination, Rebecca turned her steering wheel, now driving to the near-end of the parking lot. The red haired woman wasn't alone in the car, she had Ollie sitting on the back seat, quietly preoccupied with the toy she took for him during their trip, and Loki sitting next to him staring outside the window. The pug had a white harness around his body attached to the side of the front passenger's seat, and she had a reason to do this whenever she drove to Pet's Foodtown. Pet's Foodtown is basically the supermarket for pets, it had a wide selection of food for many animals, and whenever she took Ollie out with her to this place he'd go crazy. Since he was too busy pawing at a small furry dog bone Rebecca didn't have to calm him down from jumping and happily barking coming from him, yet. So now she can definitely park in peace.

She stopped her car in the space that she finally found to park, undoing her seatbelt and turning to her babies in the back. "Ollie, Loki, we're at Foodtown."

At the mention of 'Foodtown', Ollie looked up from his bone and stood up to look out the window, and did exactly what he's known for doing; jumping and barking happily. He started trying to reach for the door, but his leach would not allow him to, so he was standing on his hind legs with his front legs outstretched. Then realizing he couldn't get out through the back passengers seat, he went straight to the front, onto Rebecca's lap, and eagerly headbutted Rebecca's arm, all the while barking loudly. Loki just sat in the back watching Ollie quietly, as if he was saying 'Brother, please calm down'.

Rebecca undid Ollie's leash on the front seat, and attached Loki's collar to his leash. She got out the car and was instantly dragged by both ollie and Loki towards the store. Immediately met with the light, happy colors of the supermarket once she entered, she made a right turn, criss-crossed through the medicinal, the toy, and the equipment section and the ended up in the snack section. Loki and Ollie both were practically dragging their owner around the snack section. They both stopped and stood on their hind legs at a pack of rainbow dog treats.

"Is that what you two want?" Rebecca picked up the bag and inspected it closely. "This is cinnamon flavored? Maybe I should go for gingersnap, don't they have that here?" She held both leashes around her wrist while sifting through the assortment of dog treats. There were various flavors of apple, pumpkin, berry, cranberry, a truffle mac and cheese. She held out each individual flavor for both her dogs to see, because the only flavors they were exposed to were gingersnaps, pumpkins and mac and cheese. It wouldn't hurt to try something new, wouldn't it? Putting the pumpkin flavored dog treats into the bag, she went along the aisle expecting to buy a couple snacks for Loki and Ollie.

Ten minutes later, she left the aisle with about twelve bags of different kinds of snacks, all for just two of her dogs. On the bright side, this will definitely last her for a long time.

Many people were glancing and looking at her in the store, and many people greeted her as she traveled throughout the aisles. Some of these people were either friends or family members of those affected in the accident that occurred last month who gave her a special thanks for tending to said patients, which she regarded kindly. She still remembered how horridly tired she realized she was after her day at the hospital, even surprised as to how she could've drove that night. It wasn't uncommon for people to recognize her outside of the hospital, but such a thing wouldn't reach the magnitude that it would had she held the same status as either Jay, Adrian, James, or Irene.

"Loki…" she looked at him when she noticed how the malamute stopped and sat, quietly looking off into the distance. It looked like he was just staring out the windows of Foodtown, and Ollie kept pulling in the opposite direction. "Loki, come here boy." she nudged his collar gently, and he still didn't budge. His tongue wasn't even out either. Ollie had to come over to put his paw on Loki's neck and attempt to crawl up his bag in order to make Loki look away and back at the both of them. After a short pause, he continued on with Rebecca towards the supply aisle. That was weird…

Her shopping trip didn't end as fast as she planned for it to, but that's what happened when you have two dogs, one being overactive while the other is no less than a quiet soul. She bought just about what she needed; new shampoos, conditioners, food, Ollie's new harness, and some toys, including a new frisbee that both dogs were jumping happily over. It wasn't like any of her purchases made a dent into her wallet anyway. With one arm holding both leashes, she wheeled the shopping cart out of the supermarket, Ollie did not try to pull himself back into the store this time.

When she reached her car, she noticed that the other cars around hers have left before she exited the building. That wasn't the main observation, what really caught her eye was the scratch against the side of her door. It wasn't an ordinary car-door scratch, nor was it a scratch from a key, but it looked like it came from a serrated steel knife, it went across her car door to the driver's seat. How the hell did this happen? Who would possibly run up to her car with a knife just to vandalize her car? Irritated, she shook her head and pressed a button to open the passenger's seat door for her dogs. Undoing the chains, she ordered both of them to sit in the car while she quickly inspected the vehicle for any more damage, which there was none more. She sat down and revved up the engines, her mood dampened by the damage on her car, now she needed to make a stop to the repair center.

The roads were relatively clear, so it wasn't hard to see and pinpoint everything while she drove. Rebecca's eyes flickered back to the pair of dogs, raising her brow when she saw Loki sitting up straight, looking out the window like he was trying to find something. Ollie was also trying to figure out what Loki was looking for, if he was looking to for anything. "Loki, Ollie." she released the wheel when she reach a stop light. "You two okay back there?"

Loki's eyes went to the front of her car out of the window, and Rebecca turned just in time to catch a black van escape the corner of her eye and realized the possible reason for his weird behavior. While Loki was under the roof of his abusive owner, the man would go out and do whatever he wanted, driving his black van. She didn't remember the exact model of the car, but it looked strikingly similar. Maybe it had passed by while she was in Foodtown, is that what he was looking at? The light turned green, and she had to make a left, which means the van would pass her while she drove on the adjacent road. As soon as she approached and passed the black van, Loki started howling and pushing back against his seat.

Rebecca jumped, and Ollie even flinched a little at the sudden cry of the malamute next to him. "Loki, it's okay. It's okay, buddy." She couldn't even console him fully because her attention had to be on the road in front of her. Ollie started getting visibly worried, and he went to his owner's lap while looking at the howling dog in the backseat. Just the mere sight of anything that reminded Loki of his past-owner would set off his anxiety. She could have kept driving and repeating to him that it was okay, but she couldn't bear hearing either one of her babies cry. And now, Loki's anxious howling was making Ollie whimper.

She pulled over into a gas station and undid her seatbelt. Ollie was in her lap, looking at her as if hoping she could solve this problem. She reached over to stroke Loki comfortingly, and he instantly shot forward right next to her in the front seat, sticking really close to her arm while whining. "Loki, it's fine. The van is gone, it's not what it looked like, okay?" She stroked both heads of the distressed dogs. "Ollie, it's okay. I know you're upset because Loki's upset. It's gone."

Actually, it wasn't. Loki moved closer to his owner and kept tapping her chest as he stared out the side view window of her car. Rebecca looked to where he was only to find the same black van pulling over to one of the gas pumps. Once the van came to a complete stop and its door opened, Loki when to the opposite door and started clawing it.

"Loki…" Ollie looked between the two, and went to his fellow canine to try and console him. Rebecca peeled out of the gas station as fast as she could, not even caring to look at whoever came out of the vehicle. Loki started looking around trying to see if the had 'escaped', and when he realized they did, he finally calmed down. She was debating on whether or not she just return home and get her car fixed later, or if she should go and get it over with, but her biggest concern was Loki's wellbeing. Luckily, his anxiety leveled off pretty quickly compared to how he was a year ago, and Ollie was definitely a great comforter for him when she could not completely console him.

On another note, why was she seeing more black vans lately? Over the course of the last month ever since Samos got arrested, there has not been a day where she'd drive through West City and not see at least one black van on the street. It wasn't as though they had launched a new model, because the vans actually looked really new and expensive. Also, every single van she's seen was sleek clean, not a single lick of dirt or debris was on the exterior, that was what indicated that there was more than one van cruising around the city. They more than likely linked to Samos, Rebecca didn't think the man had that many connections (but she guessed that's what you get for becoming a convict). Looks like Loki is more than likely staying home for the time being, he's a Malamute even, warm weather doesn't really suit him that well. She looked at the two dogs in the front seat, Ollie had the toy he was playing either and he was nudging the squeezy-toy towards Loki for him to play. Gosh, they were so adorable.

She driven past K. Greinhardt and did a double take at the hospital sign that sat outside of the hospital's gate. There was...graffiti? She couldn't even consider it as artistic graffiti, it literally looked like someone just wrote something over the sign with red spray paint. Curious as to what it said, and very pissed off that someone could even do such a thing, she made a U-turn in a spot that was ahead of the hospital. Once she was finally in eyesight of the words, she slowed down and read the red-tinted words and froze in her car seat;

We're coming to spill Red Hair

Is it stupid that such a corny statement actually make Rebecca really paranoid? Because she wanted to believe it was stupid to get worried, but with what the spray paint entailed, and the fact that she was the only person in that hospital with red hair, she couldn't help but actively get worried, and definitely pushed a little harder on the acceleration of the hovering vehicle she was in. She definitely need to get home, she needed to head home and not be outside until the next day, because all of these weird happenings were getting to her pretty easily. It should, too. She was rather rich, and a well-known doctor for that matter, but there never been a time where she thought that someone would try to come at her in any way. Well, it wasn't like it was a threat…

The sign literally said they were coming for red hair, Rebecca. Use your brain. Who are they anyway?

She shouldn't worry. If she worries, then Loki would worry, and then Ollie would worry, and the whole car ride would be no less than a quiet anxiety fiesta. It took her a short amount of time to get home, quickly undoing both leashed of her dogs and getting out of the car and damn near jamming her keys into the door's lock and opening the door, scanning her house to see if anything had been misplaced, stolen or damaged. She made a quick lap throughout her house, in every room possible, and found that nothing wasn't in abnormal shape. She let out a giant sigh of relief, but why though? It's not like… they knew where she lived or anything. It's not like she was ever confronted by anybody, it's really not like that at all.

She plopped down against her couch and pinch the bridge of her nose. The red haired woman was definitely being paranoid. Besides, if they tried anything with her, she had more than enough backup. She had Irene, Adrian, Jay…

Of the three people she thought about, only her best friend would help her, because Irene knew how to fight, but not as well as either Adrian or Jay. The both of them nearly had superpowers, not to mention Jay had been taught martial arts since he was a child, but the two males didn't like her. What if these people were big, stocky and super muscular? Then she'd really be fucked, and all of her friends didn't even live across the street from her, so if worse come to worse, she'll have to deal with them on her own if they kick down her door and-

That's enough now. Stop it, stop getting paranoid. She mentally disciplined herself to keep her thoughts at bay, taking a nice deep breath. Then her phone rung, and she nearly jumped out of her skin staring at the white flat device against her coffee table. The screen wasn't facing her, so she had to manually grab the phone and turn it over to see who was calling. This was probably the longest and most anxious ten seconds of her life, she reached slowly for her phone until she grabbed it, and then turned it over quickly. Instantly, her heart rate calmed when she saw Irene as the Caller ID. "Heyyyy girl, how ya doin'?"

A chuckle. "I'm fine, Becky- umm… have you been running?"

"No…" Irene was asking that because Rebecca was close to panting at this point. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you're short of breath?" That made sense, but Rebecca didn't want to figment worry in her friend's mind, so she wouldn't explain it.

"I was doing housework, I mean I didn't really think I was breathing that hard but uhh… yeah." She shrugged.

"Um, okay. So, look." Irene shifted in her seat in the dining room. "I'm going to travel for an entire month, starting around next week for art exhibitions."

"Okay." Rebecca was kind of dejected, because not only was she not going to see her friend physically for a long time, but that meant that she had no kind of defense on her side in case if- THAT'S ENOUGH! "For an entire month?"

"Yeah, and umm… I don't think Zamasu can stay here all alone, I mean I've seen how you two talk to one another, and apparently he's been to your place before."

"Right." Rebecca nodded. "So you're asking me if he can stay with me for the time being while you're gone."

"...Kind of." Irene sounded really reluctant to say a flat-out 'yes' because she thought it would be kind of a reach to just put Zamasu in another place. But Rebecca apparently was okay with the idea.

"No, no, that's perfectly fine! He can stay with me, he definitely can, I have no problem with it." … A little too okay with the idea.

"Alright, alright, I just wanted to make sure- i mean you're not doing any trips next month, are you?"

"Nope. We haven't scheduled one, and if we did, we'd have notice of it almost three weeks prior to said trip, so… seriously, I'm okay with it. Ollie definitely is, I'll surprised him with his arrival." She giggled at the thought of Ollie nearly tackling Zamasu once he sees him again. That'll be cute, she found the both of them to be cute.

"Okay, I got you. Thank you so much, I'll let him know too, I'm sure he's gonna celebrate over it, that green motherfucker."

Rebecca heard a male voice on the other end of the call, and it was not the green motherfucker Irene was talking about. "Babe, that's kind of mean."

"Shhh, James." Irene held her finger to her lips. "He doesn't know, he's sitting in the living room minding his own business."

Rebecca heard another faint but male voice, this time it was Zamasu saying 'What?', followed by James' 'Nothing', and she was pretty sure Zamasu gave him a scornful look because the two males went silent after that.

Irene spoke up. "Lemme go before these two kill each other in a staring contest, alright. I'll talk to you later!"

"Bye bye!" She hung up, still not being able to contain the stupid smile on her face. Now her entire mood took a full 180, instead of being anxious and worried, she was now giddy and anticipating Ollie's new friend to stay for a month. This will be great.

Unknowing to Rebecca, nor to her two dogs who were now running around her living room, another black van drove past the large mansion, the window rolled down and one of the people in the back snapped a picture of the house. The man turned to the others' in the car.

"Are you sure this is where she lives?"

He then received a dunce to his head. "You idiot, that was her car! The exact same license plate. I know what I'm doing."

The driver of the car glanced back at his cohorts. "We keep at it for a couple of months. After we got what we need, then we could strike."

Both men in the back nodded in agreement. By the way they both obliged easily, it was obvious the driver was the leader of the group, but he was definitely not the leader of the entire pack…

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Can we all just agree that clumsy Zamasu is the best Zamasu? No? Okaaaay x3. He's gonna be relocating in the next few chapters, get ready for some dog-to-God broship, guys xD.

I'm supposed to be asleep right now, but I was itching to get this chapter done and it's finally finished! I need to go before I end up with lead eyes tomorrow morning...

I dunno if I can post links to videos, but here is where I got the inspiration for Ollie being super hype. watch?v=NZLx8FB_lyw