Chapter 6

"I could not help but notice," Zamasu broke the uneasy silence, "you did not inform Gowasu about our unfortunate circumstances we found ourselves in yesterday." A small smile had appeared on his face as he spoke.

"Circumstances you solicited." Judith snapped back at him before she could stop herself. Zamasu merely continued to smile.

"Nevertheless." He said. "Could it be that you were hoping to use said information against me?" he asked in his trademark bored tone, his silver eyes watching her intently.

Her nerves grew slightly less tense. She folded her arms across her chest and mimicked his expression and bored tone as she spoke. "Why do you ask? Are you concerned that it might cause you an inconvenience?"

Zamasu merely chuckled and replied: "Your mere existence is an inconvenience, human." He had closed his eyes. He could not bare to look at her as the insult rolled off his tongue. "Besides," he added, still not looking at her, "I am still finding our little game mildly amusing." His eyes snapped open. "But do not expect my amusement to last forever."

Zamasu felt the shift in her demeanour, he had definitely struck a nerve. The smile she had, had vanished and he could see she was clenching her jaw.

'That is it!' she thought. It was about time that she knocked this pompous ass of his high horse.

"You know," she started, making every effort to keep her voice under control, "I have had about as much of your self-righteous bullshit as I can stand."

Zamasu's eyes widened in surprise at her frank statement, he was not expecting this…

"I know you cannot stand me," she was struggling to keep her voice from rising, "but guess what? The feeling is mutual, so get over yourself!" She was, off course, lying through her teeth, she was absolutely smitten with him, but he did not need to know that. She saw his annoyance at her last remark.

"What?" she asked amused. "Did you think I would fall down at your feet and worship you just because you claim to be a god? If so, you are in for a surprise buddy."

'Buddy!? Had she lost her mind!? Zamasu thought angrily. She was pushing all the wrong buttons.

"Watch your tone with me human." He warned her in a dark voice.

"And that's another thing." She continued, oblivious to his growing anger. "My name is Judith. Judith. Say it with me!" she invited. He was having trouble not to launch at her in anger. "I know! I get it, I am human. I know I am mortal, so you do not need to remind me! I am not an idiot!" She had completely lost it. It was high time this jerk got a piece of her mind.

"You are acting like an idiot to speak to me in such a-"

"I am not finished!" she yelled at him. If she weren't so far gone, she would have noticed the dangerous look that had appeared on Zamasu's face.

"I don't know what your problem is, but I couldn't care less about your sentiments about immortality, inferior species, unworthy gods or whatever else you occupy yourself with." She was ranting at this point. "So, from now on I expect you to treat me with some degree of decency, that is, if your overblown ego will allow it. And if you do manage by some miracle to show me some respect, I will be sure to stay out of your way. Make my life miserable, and I will repay it in kind. You had better get used to me because I am not going anywhere soon." She finished.

'Did she just threaten me?!' Zamasu thought, clenching his fists at his sides.

'Damn, that felt good!' Judith though. She would have done a fist pump, had she not finally noticed Zamasu. All the colour drained from her face.

'Maybe I got a little carried away…" Judith thought nervously as she watched him.

He was shaking with rage and she could feel the air grow heavy as his energy rose. He looked at her with murderous intent.

Judith found she was cemented in place, she could not move. 'Is he doing this?' she thought frantically as she tried her best to at least try and escape.

"You…" he growled at her and she shrunk way from the malice in his voice. "You insulant little-"

His speed was incredible. Before Judith could register it, he had sprung from his position behind the table and had crossed the distance between them. She felt an immense pressure against her chest before she flew through the air, her back hitting the temple wall so hard, it left a crack. The wind was knocked from her lungs and she began to fall forwards but was caught by Zamasu.

He had seized her by the neck. He forcefully pinned her to wall and lifted her, his hand clenched tightly around her throat. Her toes were barely touching the ground. She grabbed his wrist with both hands. He was beside himself with rage.

"I could kill you in an instant." He hissed at her. She was struggling to remain conscience. He kept her lifted just high enough off the ground to limit her oxygen, but not high enough to actually choke her.

'My god.' Judith thought. 'He is even more irresistibly attractive when his angry.' She scolded herself at her inappropriate thought. Why would she think something like that in a moment like this!

'Blame it on the lack of oxygen dear.' Little Miss Judy offered.

Judith knew she should be terrified, scared out of wits, see her life flash before her eyes, but his display of power and dominance had the exact opposite effect. She felt alive, excited, and even though she hated herself for it, aroused.

Zamasu had lost all sense of self control, his rage burned red hot. When he finally regained some of his senses, he found that he had Judith pinned to a wall, his hand was on her throat and he had just finished saying something about killing her.

He would have let her go immediately, but he noticed something peculiar about the whole situation: she was not struggling. Sure, she was holding onto his wrist and hand, but not in an attempt to break free, if anything, she seemed to not want him to let go.

He felt for her energy, which was so familiar to him, expecting to find fear, instead, he found something altogether different.

A strange warmth had shot up from his core. He slowly brought Judith down so that her feet were one again firmly planted on the ground, but he did not let go of her throat.

Judith was grateful Zamasu decided not to let go of her, she was sure she would collapse in a pitiful heap due to fact her legs had turned to jelly.

'Just continue to blame it on the lack of oxygen.' Little Miss Judy repeated.

Judith watched his face intently; she could see he was struggling to come to a decision.

'Could it be?' she allowed herself to think. She was unaware that Zamasu was watching her the same way, seeing the desire in her eyes.

He started to lean into her. 'Judith…' he thought. She saw the same desire burn in his eyes. Neither noticed that their breathing had grown slightly heavy. Then….. He stopped dead. He looked deep in her eyes. There was a pained expression on his face.

'Judith. What I wouldn't give to take you here and now.' he thought. 'But don't you understand, my duty compels me not to.' He swallowed hard.

Judith saw the pleading look in his eyes, as if he were begging her to understand…something.

Judith had started to reach out to him when he suddenly took more than a few steps back and away from her… out of her reach. For a few moments they just stared at each other in stunned silence. Zamasu slowly retuned his hands to behind his back in usual manner.

"Forgive me…" he started to say in a strained voice but did not speak further. Judith just stared at him. He could not think of something to say or what excuse to offer. Should he apologise, say he is sorry? Tell her he did not know what he was doing? Assured her that he would never hurt her? How could he say any of these things, when he knew all of them were lies.

Was he truly sorry that he slammed her into the wall and made her feel such inappropriate sensations? Did he truly not know what he was doing when he leaned into her, begging her to understand why he could not go further. Would he truly never hurt her when they both experienced such intense feelings?

How could he say anything when they were both painfully aware of the unspoken truth?

"Well." Judith broke the silence. "I hope you feel better now that you got that out of your system." She winced as she moved away from the wall and felt a dull pain emanating from her back, where she would undoubtedly have a bruise by tomorrow. "But let's be honest," she continued "You wanted to throw me against a wall since the moment I set foot on this planet." She chuckled, wincing again at the pain.

Judith knew all to well why he did not speak, she could not think of anything either, so she resorted to her 'go-to' solution whenever she found herself stuck in an awkward situation: comic relieve. She risked a glance in his direction and was relieved to see that it worked.

'Old and faithful.' She thought satisfied.

Much to her distress, he had caught her glance. 'Oh crap!' she cursed as the literally felt the heat in her face rise, putting the colour red to shame. She was blushing furiously at the wild thoughts that was still swirling around in the back of her mind. She immediately turned away from him and pretended to look at a particularly interesting brick.

She heard Zamasu chuckle behind her and the fact that she knew, he knew, made even her ears turn red.

"Judith." He had said her name. She immediately noticed that his tone was different, less scornful, but then again, if there was not at least a hint of arrogance in his voice, then Zamasu would not be Zamasu.

"Follow me." Was all he said before he walked past her in the direction of the temple doors.

"Uhm… where are we going?" she asked. She would much rather spend the rest of the day held up in the library, surrounded by books. She wanted, no, she needed time to think.

"Somewhere far more interesting than that brick." He replied.