Demiurge woke up slowly, groggy and confused. He'd been watching Lady Zara, and then…

And then he'd pretended to be asleep.

And she'd put him in her bed.

And—

He kept his eyes shut, controlled his breathing so that he'd appear to be still sleeping, alarmed and concerned.

What if you yelled at him? What if a maid saw him in here? His image couldn't maintain that! He was supposed to be cool, calm, collected, not sleeping in the bed of a Supreme Being just because he'd gotten tired! What if—

A warmth tucked in his arms stirred, immediately pulling him from his thoughts. There was no way…

And yet, when he opened his eyes, he was proven wrong yet again.

It was you.

You, with your mess of hair, ears tickling his nose, tails wrapped loosely around his own. Your head was on his shoulder, the tip of your nose just barely touching his neck.

When did that happen?

Still, he wasn't going to move. Mustn't move, rather. You'd fallen asleep in his arms; it'd be a sin to wake you before you were ready.

He stayed awake watching you, seeing how relaxed and content you were. It made him feel… He wasn't sure, but it made him feel something. Pride, perhaps, that out of all the creations of Nazarick you'd chosen him to hold while you slept. He wouldn't trade it for the world.

After what felt like a blissful eternity, you began to twitch. He watched with rapt attention as your blissful sleep became anything but. His concern grew with your every twitch, every whimper. He had to wake you up, but wasn't sure how.

"…no, please…" He froze. You… Were you awake, perhaps?

No, that wasn't right. You were… talking in your sleep. Time for drastic measures—

"No, don't…" You whimpered, paws curling tight into Demiurge's shirt. "… on't hurt 'em…"

He gently shook your shoulder with his free hand. Maybe that would wake you up?

"on't…. no, on't… stop…" Your claws pierced little holes in his shirt.

His heart ached. He couldn't protect your from this.

"Zara, Lady Zara, wake up!" He whispered, shaking you a bit harder. Whatever your dream was, it wasn't pleasant.

"Lady Zara—"

You shot up like a rocket, pulling Demiurge with you through sheer force. Your body trembled, your eyes open as you stared straight ahead like a deer in the headlights.

"… Lady Zara?" His voice startled you, by the twitch that ran from your head and went down your spine.

"… Demiurge?" He vowed to never be the reason for your tone of voice, to protect you from whatever had caused it. You sounded so broken, so fragile, so… So hurt and damaged, that it made him wonder what on earth had hurt you so badly.

As you threw your arms around him, tears he hadn't realized were there soaking his shirt, he vowed to protect you from this. No matter what it took, he'd do it.

You deserved the best, after all.

"Morning, Momonga." You cheerfully spoke, perching on the corner of his desk. Albedo was out doing… Something, so it was just you and Momonga.

"It's technically the afternoon, Zara." You rolled your eyes, blowing a raspberry at him.

"What'd you want to talk about yesterday?"

"A couple of things. Nothing major, but still."

"Well… Go for it."

"I want to see what the world outside of Nazarick is. How it's different, what has changed, so on and so forth. I was… Well, I was hoping you would stay here while I do it."

Hell no. You would go batshit if you were stuck in here.

"You and I both know I'll go stir-crazy if we do that."

"I know..." Ass.

At least he'd asked you about it first.

"What if… What if, we do something like that, but one of us isn't required to be stuck in Nazarick. No, shush, let me finish. Like, if we had an off-site or two, we could still go there? It'd take us longer to go nuts, at the very least."

"You're still going to go nuts."

"Yeah, but this way it'll take longer, and we can deal with it then. That, and I figure if I want to go for a walk or something outside of Nazarick then one of the Floor Guardians would accompany me. So I should be fine. Sound good?"

"… For now, yes." Awesome. You could now go frolic in the woods with Aura or something, maybe you'd find some elves for the twins to play with.

"Zara… I have to ask, are you doing okay?"

"I mean… I think so. Why?" Where this came from, you had no idea.

"Well…" He paused, then continued. It was almost as if he wanted to ask about something else. "You passed out. I just wanted to make sure there weren't any lingering effects from that, y'know?"

"D'aawww, you're such a softie. But yeah, I'll be fine. Besides, if I ever get that tired again, I figure I can put on one of those rings that just make it so you don't need to eat and sleep and whatnot." Which, admittedly, wouldn't work. You liked food too much for that.

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Mhmm! But I'm also right and you know it~" You stick your tongue out, thoroughly amused. "What else did you wanna talk about? Or was that it?"

"I think that's it… Oh! I wanted to ask if you'd be okay if I had everyone call me Ainz."

"Ainz as in Ainz Ool Gown? As in, the guild's name?"

"That's the one."

"Why?"

"If I spread the name of Ainz Ool Gown, then maybe… Maybe, if anyone else from the guild signed on when the clock shifted over and they ended up somewhere else, they'll find their way back here. Back to us." You found yourself nodding, seeing his point of view.

Then.

"Momonga, what if… What if he shows up? He was batshit enough to try to get in here by himself in YGGDRASIL, what if he does it again?" A chill ran down your spine, fear stabbing into your heart like an ice pick.

"… Shit, Zara, I didn't think of that." Momonga flashed green—you'd ask later.

"I—It's okay, Momonga. Just… Be careful, okay?" The fear would eat you alive, sure. It always did whenever he resurfaced. But who were you to stop any of your old guild-mates from finding you here?

"I will be, Zara. I promise."

You doubted he'd be careful enough.

"Is this all you wanted to talk about, Momonga?" You needed to think. Hell, what you really needed was a drink, but it wasn't late enough for that. Plus, you were pretty sure you could still get drunk.

"… Yes, that's it for now. Though…. I was hoping you'd want to look outside of Nazarick with me tonight? Sneak out and see what the world looks like?"

God, you wanted to say yes. You really, truly did.

But you also wanted time to go cry.

Crying was winning.

"How about we rain-check that for tomorrow? You can go look right now, though, don't let me stop you—I have to hunt down my flight charm from my inventory."

"If… If that's what you want, Zara."

"It is. I'll beat you in a flying race tomorrow, how's that sound?" God, you hoped your smile didn't look as fake as it felt.

And, if Momomga could smile, you were sure he would be.

"Yeah… Sounds fun. But, you're going to lose."

"Mhmm, sure you will. Now, if you'll excuse me, Albedo asked for my help with… Well, I'm not sure. Something about paper and math, I was in a bit of a rush to get here." Freedom!

"Have fun with doing math, then."

You ran your hands over your face, breathing deep. Don't cry. Not here, not now.

You had shit to do.

And by shit, you meant…

You knocked gently on the door in front of you. If you were lucky, you could say you tried and then run away-

"Lady Zara! Thank you so much for coming!" Albedo ushered you into her office, a sweet smile on her face.

Her office was attached to her rooms by a side door, but the room itself was cozy. It was fitted with a desk, two bookshelves filled with books, several filing cabinets, and a small baby-blue sofa set complete with a coffee table and matching rug.

"It's no problem, Albedo. What can I help you with?" You found yourself relaxing, but only slightly. Your conversation with Momonga ran through your head on a loop, over and over and over again.

God, you hoped Albedo could take your mind off of it.

"Well, Demiurge and I were hoping you could double-check our math for Nazarick's average consumptions of goods and make sure they're accurate. We were also hoping that you might shed some light on how to fix some of these issues, as we also calculated how long it would take to run out based on average consumption."

God bless you, Albedo.

"Well… I haven't used math like that in years, but I'll see what I can do." It should all just be algebra and statistics; not the hardest math. Not for the first time in your life, you thanked the fact that you were a huge nerd that got an engineering degree, and cracked your knuckles in preparation. "Now, where's the math?"

Momonga watched as you slipped out of the office, a sigh leaving him as he did so. If he had a face, he wouldn't have noticed the frown on it.

This was…

Concerning.

Before the meeting, Demiurge had requested a quick chat. Which was odd in of itself, but the chat itself was more worrisome.

"I know this may not be my place, my Lord, but it seems that Lady Zara is… Troubled. Due to what, I do not know. However, I figured it best to inform you, as she would not tell me what troubled her."

"Oh? What led you to believe this?"

"She… had a nightmare, my lord. About what, I don't know. She wouldn't tell me."

"… I see."

And yet, she seemed completely normal.

Hell, even her panic over him was normal.

But, what did that mean for her? He knew she didn't spring back that quickly, so…

Why didn't she tell him?

"You're thinking too hard on this…" He muttered, running a skeletal hand through his nonexistent hair.

"You guys didn't account for a daily fluctuation, right?"

You were calm. This… This was okay. You'd be fine.

"Yes, my Lady, we did not."

"Alright. So, if we assume that for paper consumption, an average fluctuation of plus or minus about 50 papers per day…"

He knew Demiurge, and likely the other floor guardians, didn't know about him. He wasn't something you liked to talk about in YGGDRASIL; hell, you'd only brought him up to let the guild know that he might try to pay a visit.

The fact that you may be right about him being in this world… It made him uneasy.

Really, really uneasy.

But you'd said he could go by Ainz, so you didn't mind… Right?

Even with his own blindness, he knew that that wasn't the case. But he didn't have any other ideas, either.

"So, that's the day range you guys should be giving to Momonga. He works better with ranges like this, since then he knows the earliest he has to start caring about all of these issues. Knowing him, he'll start planning beforehand, but he's got plenty of time before he has to care about basic papers."

"Wonderful, Lady Zara! I would expect nothing less from a Supreme Being."

"Thanks, Albedo. Though, Momonga is worse at math than I am, so if you decide to do some really complicated stuff you'd be better off with me giving it a once-over."

"I see… Perhaps my Lady could show me some of that more complex math? After all, we can take a break now~"

Albedo was in your face, wings fluttering.

You were.

You were not okay.

Not anymore.

With a heavy heart, he teleported into his rooms. He had experiments to run and the outside of Nazarick to explore.