Several weeks has passed since Markus had met the kids and their babysitter at the time since last, they met. Markus had to admit, it was a bit fascinating to meet those kids in person when they ran into him at the park.

There weren't a lot of kids out in the Mojave Wasteland for rather obvious reasons, but meeting kids as young as they were was in fact an interesting encounter for him. They struck him as being rather intelligent or rather outspoken compared to the kids he met before, but considering the state of the post nuke world, education probably took a downturn.

Markus shrugged as he finished fixing up the basement AC Unit for this one apartment building complex he was working on in Chinatown. It was easy for him to get lost in his own mind when he doesn't have to devote every second to worrying about whether or not he will live to see the next fight.

Markus then had to hold back an itch in his nose as he felt the urge the sneeze and just barely managed to clamp it down. 'Alright that was annoyingly dusty.' Markus thought to himself as he got out of the basement and headed back to the top where he saw Hui-Fang was looking at it anxiously.

"How is it?" She asked fretfully worried if she was going to have to buy a new one, and AC Units were not cheap.

"It's fine, just a few parts and bolts that needed to be put back into place, it's actually a lot more complicated but I won't bore you with the details. Long story short, you're good." Markus assured with a thumbs up as Hui-Fang breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh. thank goodness. I do not know how long it would take me to order a new one and get it installed." She said in obvious relief at the money she managed to save.

Yeah, but heads up you might want to consider cleaning, or at least dusting up the basement next time." Markus said as he rubbed his eyes and nose as he took off his mask. "It's a bloody nightmare to see down there and anyone with asthma is going to have a hell of a time." He noted.

Hui-Fang nodded at that. "I will take that into advisement, and as for you, the payment as usual, discount on your rent as promised." She said to him as Markus nodded.

"Aye that reminds me, here's this month and next month's payment." He said as he pulled out an envelope with cash and dropped it into her hands as she nodded and started counting to make sure it was all there.

"And it's all there, thank you for your payment, you at least keep to make sure your payment is on time if possible." Hui-Fang nodded as Markus shrugged.

"You only knew me for like, less than three months, things can change, but I try not to break a good habit." He said as he checked the time. "Ah well got to go now, got to meet up with Wu-Fei for lunch." He said as he walked out of the building.

"You take care now Markus, don't need you to burn out." Hui-Fang said as she waved to him as he waved back.

Later

"Ah Wu-Fei, as expected, your staff knows how to treat me, if I eat like this, chances are, I'm going to end up a blob in the next three months." Markus joked as he slurped his noodles as he enjoyed the taste as Wu-Fei laughed at that.

"As if someone like you is going to get fat, you move far too much for any of that fat to stay on your body Markus." Wu-Fei said laughingly. "Knowing you, you're going to work out in your off time and start eating my spinach dish for a week if you see your waistline increase a bit."

Markus shrugged. "Well can't afford to be fat in my current profession, won't be able to reach certain places if I was, and I would have to waste more money getting clothes that fit me." He said as he started eating the chicken bits in his noodle bowl.

Wu-Fei nodded. "True, and you would a lot less handsome if you had put some weight." He pointed out to Markus.

"Not that it really matters to me to be frank but considering how most people are shallow as a kiddy pool, that's also a fair point as well." Markus nodded. "The world would be a far less shitty place if people were less shallow about their appearances but…" Markus said but trailed off and shrugged in a what can you do motion.

"And that's the point Markus, our world isn't a kind world, if the world was a kinder place, then do you think war would be common in our history?" Wu-Fei pointed out wisely. "A friend of Kai-Ming once mentioned a note about people. History is an endless waltz of war, peace, and revolution, and we humans dance forever to that waltz." Wu-Fei said.

Markus blinked at that, as he digested the words into his mind. "That's kind of a sad thing then." He replied. "If Humanity is stuck in such a loop, then by that logic, this world is a nightmare then." He pointed out, as Jousha's words started to come back strongly to him.

"We have made and kept covenants with our Lord, God, to honor his laws. In exchange, we are promised eternal salvation after this life."

Wu-Fei nodded. "That is why we look to belief in a greater power when we start to realize the darkness that covers this world." He said to Markus. "That is why many seek salvation in the afterlife, for surely the afterlife would be better for us than mortal world." He spoke.

"But you only have one life though." Markus pointed out. "People should do better if they weren't doing good to begin with, there's nothing else you can do if you're dead. Once you're dead, that's it." He said to Wu-Fei.

Markus honestly never really put much stock into spirituality or religion until he met Jousha and Daniel at Zion. But the one thing that always gets to him was the idea that the afterlife was better for good souls than the world was. Markus didn't have much to remember, or knew if he was a scumbag before that fateful delivery, but in his opinion, once you were dead, that was it.

Wu-Fei shrugged. "I am not a Theologian Markus, just a simple cook, if you want to discuss theology then talk to a priest." He said as Markus nodded at that.

"Sorry to bother you, just can't help but get curious, you know?" He said as Wu-Fei nodded at that.

"Can't blame you, curiosity is an aspect of youth and one that far too many people forget in my opinion." He said to him as Markus finished his lunch.

"Well, I suppose we will have to continue our talk another day then." Markus said as he dropped the bill on the table and got up and started walking off. "Now if you don't mind me, I got some grocery shopping to do." Markus waved away.

"You take care now." Wu-Fei waved him back goodbye.

"Okay so protein in the form of eggs collected, check, what else do I need again?" Markus grumbled to himself as he was looking at his grocery list for what he needed to stay as fed as well as he could.

So far, he had a bag of brown rice and white rice, carrots, celery, broccoli, olive oil, some chicken, salmon, mackerel, tuna, red peppers, bell peppers, tomatoes, Brussel sprouts, pepper, salt, peas, and a few other ingredients in his shopping cart so far.

Markus when he got here, was surprised to see how much better food was, but he supposed that without a war, food would be fresher and easier to obtain. Though of course, Markus did make sure to cut costs as much as he can from going to discounts, market deals, coupons, and cut prices on older food.

He may have something of a stable income, but Markus had to be careful with what he has still. Especially since it would be far too easy for all that money to simply just vanish if he didn't manage it properly.

Markus was disappointed that bottle caps weren't accepted currency here, but he adapted as best as he could. Though technically speaking, he still had his gold bars, and those spare Legion Coins that he had in his pockets at the time. But problem with that is that money like that doesn't show up out of thin air.

Legion Coins would attract far too much attention to himself, especially with how much they would stand out, and people would wonder what kind of moron uses gold the way that the Legion did. And that wasn't even including the fact that that he would have to find a willing buyer for them.

And judging from what Wu-Fei told him, the kind of buyers for that kind of stuff would be in the criminal underworld. And as of right now, Markus has absolutely no intention of getting mixed up with that mess at all. Especially since getting involved with criminal activity would cause him no end of trouble if he does.

That also wasn't including the fact that the Wasteland had greatly turned him off from that kind activity. Considering what he had to deal with at Gomorrah and Ultra Lux…Markus had to hold back a shiver. Because God fucking damn, that shit was messed up and then some, and this was coming from a guy that hunted a serial rapist raider that burned people alive for shits and giggles.

'Fucking Cannibals.' Markus cursed in his thoughts remembering the shit that went down in the Ultra Lux, he swore to never touch another food or drink item ever again at that place. Even now, he felt the strong temptation to burn the entire fucking place down to the fucking ground, but that would be too extreme; not to mention the fucker behind it all, is dead.

On another note, Markus stopped eating anything that had beef or pork in the wasteland for quite some time. It was only when he got here, that he felt comfortable to be eating anything with meat, but personally, Markus prefer the meat known as chicken.

What a fun word to say, chicken, he never seen those in the wasteland, the fact that they can taste so good and lay eggs would be a godsend for any farmer, hell, he could totally see that being a thing that Brahim Barons would consider them a worthwhile investment as livestock.

It also did not taste like beef or chicken either, and that actually made him relieved on a more personal scale.

Don't get him wrong, he can eat pork and beef, if need be, but he rather not if he can, the Ultra-Lux quickly put those two at the bottom of his favorite type of food to eat. And now that he thought about it, he should consider trying out that new meat he had never heard of called lamb.

He wondered what lamb tasted like, but apparently if done in a certain way, it will taste pretty damn good from what he heard.

Markus shrugged it off though, lamb meat wasn't good for his budget planning and he rather eat seafood and chicken, maybe some other time can he grab some lamb meat to eat or whatever.

As Markus pushed his shopping cart he blinked as he saw something on sale and went over it to take a look see and blinked at the sight of discount steak of some brand, he couldn't identify off the top of his head.

It looked and sounded good, but he was almost hitting the budget limit for his groceries and shrugged and turned his shopping cart around to head off to the cash register, only for said cart to hit another cart by accident.

"Ah, sorry about that, I didn't mean to…" Markus apologized to the other shopper as he turned to face the shopper only to stop as his eyes started twitching as he saw who he bumped into.

"Ah hello Markus~" Ai greeted cheerfully as she waved at him, "I didn't expect to see you here, it seems that fate has a sense of humor if I do say so myself." She said with a smile.

"…For fuck's sake, not this shit again." Markus cursed in English as Ai looked confused and he swapped back to Japanese again. "What do you want this time?" He sighed at her, as Ai pouted at him.

"That was rude Markus~!" Ai said with a pouty smile. "I'm just here buying groceries for myself like any other regular person, idols are people too you know?" She retorted at Markus.

"Well then if that's the case, I'm heading off now." Markus said, as he decided to pass by Ai and not talk to her any longer than he has to. He swore, there was something about that girl, and it wasn't how ditzy she was acting, something about her felt fake like the other times.

"Hey wait!" Ai called out to him and rush to try and continued to talk to Markus. "There's something that I wanted to ask you." She said sounding more serious and less fake that it caused Markus to pause and made him curious.

"What is it?" He questioned as he turned to her and much to his own surprise, Ai looked kind of nervous, like actually legitimately nervous, she wasn't playing around here.

"…I…I…I want to know." She spoke more softly and less surgery now. "How did you come to learn about love?" Shed asked earnestly enough that Markus blinked at what he heard her ask.

"…Come again?" Markus questioned Ai.

"I asked you how did you come to learn about love?" Ai repeated her question to Markus as they paused in the middle of an aisle. "What you said to me left me…with a lot of questions of what I believed and knew." She said as she nervously played with her hair. "It left me curious about love." She said to Markus.

"And you wanted to know how I came to learn about love then?" Markus hummed as Ai nodded, that was a rather fascinating question to ask him about. She could have asked him anything and yet it was about the topic of love that had her main attention.

Now this was actually interesting to Markus, something about love is important to Ai for a reason and if nothing Markus does love a good mystery to solve. So, for the first time since they met, which is only like about three times so far, he decided to actually spend sometime with her.

"Well then let me ask you a question before I answer your question then." Markus said as he took careful care to not say Ai's name as she nodded at him. "What is it you feel when you think about love?" He asked as Ai blinked at that in confusion.

"What?" She asked blinkingly into his eyes as Markus hummed.

"Let me rephrase that question then, what is love to you?" He asked as Ai froze at that. "What is your meaning of what love is?" Markus questioned more thoroughly.

"…L…l…love is…affection?" Ai said shyly in a way that Markus found kind of endearing, though he would never admit that. "Love is something that makes you feel something different?" She offered up.

"…" Markus had no idea what to say to that, he knew that her perspective on love was either twisted or lacking, but good lord, he didn't expect it to be that bad. "Okay then, so we're doing like this huh?" He muttered to himself as he rubbed his forehead.

Ai seemingly flinched at his words. "Is my answer wrong?" She asked, sounding actually kind of sad.

"The answer to that is complicated, yes and no." Markus replied in an instant as Ai suddenly looked confused at what she heard.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked.

"To start things off, love does include affection, and it does make you feel differently." Markus said calmly as Ai let out a sigh of relief. "But that's only a part of love, love is something far more than affection and difference in the way your feelings work."

"There's more to love?" Ai asked, unable to stop herself.

"Love is a very complicated matter Ai, and that's why love is hard to truly explain, hence why I ask you what does love mean to you." Markus said bluntly.

"Th-then what is love to you then Markus?" Ai questioned as she never considered how deep the matter of love actually went into.

"Love to me huh?" Markus hummed before he answered back. "It's a complicated matter." He admitted. "But love to me, includes these basic yet fundamental concepts, mutual care, respect, understanding, and acceptance." Markus said firmly and clearly to Ai.

"They're fundamental concepts about love to you?" Ai questioned in curiosity as Markus nodded at that.

"Without care, there is no respect, without respect, they're cannot be understanding, and without understanding, there can be no acceptance." Markus said to Ai. "That old saying about warts and all isn't just a storybook expression, it's a metaphor to accept the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of an entire person and still be able to take in everything about themselves without issue."

"So, what you're saying the most fundamental aspect about love is the ability to accept one another's flaws completely?" Ai questioned.

"Acceptance basically, but yeah, I do believe that is the most important aspect about love, the ability to accept another person completely, flaws and all is not as easy as much people make it out to be. That is why when you can accept another person completely, then that becomes a note that there is love." Markus said to Ai.

"…Is that so?" Ai said to herself thoughtfully as Markus wondered what was going on in her mind at the moment. "So, to someone like you, love to you is all about acceptance then."

"As I said before, love is not as easy as I said it would be. It means being there for a person in their best moments, their worst moments, and even their traumatic moments. If you cannot accept someone for their flaws then that was never love to begin with." Markus said.

And boy was he reminded of Joshua's tale of how despite being a monster who fought as the Malpais Legate, was still accepted back home as one of the new Cannanites, despite his crimes. Joshua Graham would always be one of the most influential figures in his life. Him and Ulysses, for their own reasons.

"It took me three months to reach New Canaan. It was as though the prodigal son had returned. They welcomed me like I had never left, never done anything to shame them. The fire that had kept me alive was love. Their love. God's love. I will never be able to repay the debt I owe to them, but I must try."

Markus was now curious though now that he thought about it, did Ai actually never understood or experienced any kind of love actually?

If she didn't, it would certainly explain her obsession with learning about love for sure, but she seemed to be lost in her own head at the moment when she heard Markus's words.

"You alright there?" Markus called out as Ai jumped at his words.

"Ah sorry I'm fine, just got a bit airheaded you know~" She quickly said with a giggle as she stuck out her tongue teasingly.

And now, Markus was back to being annoyed with her as he sighed at her actions.

"I gave you my answers and I would like to get back home at some point so bye." Markus said as he walked off with his groceries, leaving Ai to squawk at his sudden actions.

He honestly didn't know why Ai had to do that, everything about her in that moment felt so damn fake that it was like talking to fucking plastic of all things.

Hell, even Victor and the weirdo collection of personalities, that was, the Sink felt more less fake than Ai.

"Really now." Ai huffed as Markus just walked off, after she just spoke. "Why is he so rude to me?" She nearly whined in public but barely held herself back from throwing a tantrum.

Still, it would be weird if she just stood there and did nothing, so she went back and finished her shopping, she didn't expect to see Markus here, but she doubted she was going to find him again. Especially considering the fact that he can't seem to stand her for some reason unknown to her.

'But on the other hand, I got to learn a lot more about love from Markus's view~!" Ai thought herself cheerfully in her eyes, she didn't expect him to be so open about sharing his views considering his annoyance with her. But that wasn't enough to stop him from giving him his blunt honest answers.

Ah that was actually exhilarating, Markus was nothing but honest with his answers, and through his words spoke nothing but open honesty for what he thinks and how he feels, without regard for what others thought of him.

Markus, unlike Ai, didn't wear a mask of any kind, and the secrets he hold does not pertain to how he conducts himself as a person. He was truly that blunt, truly that open, and truly that uncaring of all matters that either annoyed or angered him.

'Ah Markus, I do wonder what you would think about the idea of turning lies into truth?' Ai questioned herself as she got her groceries at the register scanned before walking off with them after she paid.

Would he approve of such an idea?

Would he be disgusted by such a concept?

Would he be proud of her if she did so?

Ai did not know, and she was very curious as to how someone like Markus would see her turning lies into truth.

Still though, there was one thing that was truly on her mind, since her talk with Markus.

"Acceptance huh? That's the root cause for what love is to you, Markus?" Ai hummed to herself as she walked outside of the store.

It was so simplistic, yet it was a very Markus like answer, coming from him. And in that regard, Ai did have to give Markus a point. If there was no acceptance, then maybe that love was fated to die out and falter into ashes.

…Much like how her mother did with her, after she abandoned her after getting arrested and never coming back for her, despite her promise.

Ai quickly shook her head of that thought, thoughts about her mother always turned her smile upside down, and she couldn't help but think about the reason why she started on the path to becoming an Idol anyways.

But even the reason for becoming an Idol was starting to lose its appeal to her, especially since she was close to what many dub to be entering her "twilight years." Where she would either have to make it big and shine as brightly as possible or become another forgotten washed up former Idol with no future prospects.

That was the reason why Ichigo Production dreams of reaching the Tokyo Dome, that was what all of them sung as hard as they could for, that was why they did their hardest after all.

And then Markus came in to her life and shattered her belief of what was love is, and told her straight to her face that what she was seeking from her fans wasn't love but their obsession with her.

A lie that she built so she could love them as they loved her, a relationship of empty lies at its core.

And now she was enlightened to another possibility, a possibility that she never considered before that left her truly excited.

Meeting Markus like this wasn't enough for her, she had to speak more with him, she had to know him better, to get into his head to see how he thinks.

She needed to find Markus, she didn't want to meet Markus again by coincidence, she had met him three times by some coincidence or a practical joke of fate.

She had to know where he lived or lived close by, and so Ai stopped as she thought to think about where would someone like Markus would live, being a foreigner meant that he would stand out a lot, so none of the typical neighborhoods or apartments.

He can't live like she would live, because her type of living condition meant that there wasn't a lot of need for someone like Markus to help take care of smaller everyday problems.

He was also pretty clean from what she noticed on all of their occasions, so he had to live near by somewhere where there's consistent water supply and hygiene tools for him to use. So that ruled out slums or being homeless for sure.

And considering that he worked as a bit of a Handyman meant that he would obviously not need be anywhere rich like upper class as those kinds of people don't normally live close to where the rich would be.

So that left a few possibilities left for Ai to consider so she wondered where could Markus possibly stay at?

Ai hummed to herself in thought as she wondered where he would be at and then she blinked as she saw a sight ahead of her and recognized the back of one Markus!

Giggling to herself at this bit of good luck, Ai quickly followed after Markus and made sure to keep a good distance away from him as she stayed hidden behind other pedestrians. Thankfully it was rather cool in Tokyo right about now, so she could afford to walk with her groceries in hand.

And she followed him until she found herself blinking at where Markus went to of all places, once he seemingly stopped to turn into his neighborhood.

She did not expect Markus to be living in Tokyo's Chinatown and slowly walking a bit outside and staying out of sight, she saw Markus being greeted happily by various Chinese locals as Markus spoke back to them in Chinese.

And soon he turned to talk to some kids and Ai found herself short of breath when he did so.

Because right now, and right there, she saw something that Markus never did with her or at all since she had met him.

Markus was smiling.

He was honest to God smiling in there.

And that smile looked so beautiful that Ai burned that image into her memory to never lose it.

To think someone as brusque and blunt like Markus could smile ever so beautifully like that, it was an awe-inspiring sight worthy of remembrance.

"The smile behind the tough man." Ai giggled as she narrated the sight before her before she turned around and left to go back home.

"Markus, once again you given me something wonderful to see, I hope that I will continue to see many more fascinating sights with you." Ai declared as she looked forward to seeing Markus as soon as possible.

On the next day after Markus finished his grocery shopping, Markus couldn't help but feel an odd omen, he didn't know why, or what was going on, but all he knew was that something ominous as hell was making itself known to him.

And the one thing that Markus hated was being unprepared to deal with whatever insanity that was about to body slam him into next week.

The last time that happened was the Sierra Madre Incident and Markus swore to be as ready as he could be for whatever shit he had to deal with, which proved very useful when he got stuck dealing with the madness of the Big Empty's tech abominations.

But despite that weird feeling he got, Markus still went about his day as usual and did his usual work. No one can take time off just because they had a bad feeling about something.

Markus is pretty damn sure in this day and age, that people wouldn't appreciate him canceling on him, just because he had a bad feeling about something. A superstitious worker was a potential problem worker to deal with.

But the gut feeling he had did make him uneasy, which he did do his best to hide as he went about his day, though a number of his clients did notice it and asked if he was not feeling too well, which Markus politely pushed off and explained away with ease.

And then came lunchtime where Markus got himself a plate of shrimp dumplings and was enjoying his mean when all of a sudden, his gut was screaming at him and he turned his attention to the doors…and saw the reason for the bad feeling.

"Hello there!" Ai said cheerfully behind her disguise as with her was the old man from the first time he met Ai, Miyako, with Aqua and Ruby, two of Ai's kids with them. "We're here for lunch, do we sit anywhere we want or do we wait until it happens?" She asked cheerfully.

"We will tell you where to sit actually." Wu-Fei explained, before he had a waiter come up, who nodded to them. "He will guide you, to your table." Wu-Fei, explaining, pointing to the table…right next to his.

"Thank you." Miyako said as Wu-Fei nodded to her, as the group came to sit down at their table and soon Ai turned to and smiled.

"Fancy meeting you here Markus." Ai said with a smile as Markus just groaned at what he was dealing with.

"Not you again."