Almaz was twitching. Nervous. Distracting. He tapped his fingers on the desk, on his knee, then the desk again. He crossed his legs, stretched out, then uncrossed his legs to lean forward with his elbows on his thighs. He let out a constant stream of sighs as his eyes never left the clock.

The second they did, Mao knew what was coming. Almaz's eyes turned to him, he opened his mouth, but before he could let out a single consonant, Mao glared at him, all but throwing his Slaystation Portable to the floor. "What is the problem, Almaz?" He asked, in the highly controlled tones of someone trying their hardest not to snap. He had died near six times because of the sheer intensity of Almaz's anxiety and restlessness.

Almaz seemed to sense this animosity and swallowed before peering at the demon timidly, "M-Mao-sensei. Do I really have to be late for every meeting?" He glanced at the time again, "It's already been fifteen minutes..."

Mao could feel a sudden inclination to smack Almaz rise up as he once again cursed his father and himself for winding up in this situation. He settled the urge with a gentle rap of his SSP against the top of Almaz's head as he berated his seemingly hopeless pupil. "You fool! If you were to go to the meeting at now of all times, you would be the laughing stock of the entire Netherworld-- nay, the entire universe!" Mao managed to calm himself with a sigh, feeling that giving Almaz a break would be giving himself a break, too. "It would indeed be best if you called a meeting and then didn't show up at all," he lamented, "but your human values are as resilient as ever. It's honestly quite bothersome. If only there was way to just, wipe all that stuff from you and re-educate you as a demon without all this trouble..." Mao heaved another sigh.

Almaz looked rather fearful at the possibility, worried that if anyone could find a way, it just might be Mao. "S-so, that means that we won't be leaving anytime soon, I suppose..?" he extended carefully, trying not to incur Mao's wrath and only half succeeding.

"We'll be leaving in an hour!" Mao decreed, and that was acceptable for Almaz, although now he felt as though time would slow even more. "15 minutes after the designated time!" Mao scoffed at the mere notion. "Had she been invited, the only one who would be there by now would be that delinquent Raspberyl."

At the mention of her name, Almaz brightened. "Ah, that reminds me. How is she doing? Have you seen her around?" Almaz seemed far more excited than Mao should allow him, but luckily sensei was feeling very tired and very tried, and simply waved noncommittally, answering his question instead of scolding him.

"A few times," he replied, turning back to his game, perhaps having a chance of finally beating this boss now that Almaz was focused on other things. However, the slight answer was not good enough for Almaz. His eyes lit up in an extremely embarrassing way, creating an expression that would be downright humiliating for any Overlord to be seen with.

"Ah, really?" he said, "What has she been up to?" Almaz joy at Beryl's mere presence honestly agitated Mao in the secret parts of himself that he thought had been stuffed into the Heart Bank for this very reason. It made him pause as he chided himself. Why should he care about Almaz being glad? It's only been Almaz and himself around the castle, and some prinnies. No one has tried to assassinate him yet, and other than the occasional visit from one of the Diez Gentlemen, it had been somewhat lonely. Almaz had every right to be stoked about the possibility of meeting an old friend, Overlord or not.

It was this long thought process that led to his hero's death for the sixth time in the past 30 minutes. When he realized just how much this feeling was bothering him, Mao felt himself snap a little. "She wants to kill you, Almaz, if you remember correctly?" he was speaking in dark, harsh tones that made Almaz's face fall instantaneously.

"Ah... haha, I suppose you're right," Almaz said after a moment, his voice hushed and his face with a sad smile. "The princess, too..." He took in a low shuddering breath and closed his eyes, smiling with a bit more force, "And she said she'd stay with me forever..." He laughed a little.

"Until you became a hero, which you did. She didn't break her promise," Mao said. It was the truth, but Almaz could only feel the lump in his throat grow. "You threw the title away for your new one and now you're on completely opposite ends of the food chain," Mao chuckled deeply, feeling a bit of dark triumph at the irony of the situation. "It's natural for her to want to destroy you, you know," he told him, his voice completely matter-of-fact.

Almaz swallowed and the fake smile faltered briefly, "What about you, Mao?"

"What?" Mao said, but didn't spare him a glance, reloading his game from the last save. "I'm here until you can stand on your own two feet. You already broke your promise, so you should be thrilled that I'm even sticking around that long."

"But I--" Almaz started, and Mao tried not to notice how pathetic he sounded.

"You were supposed to be my servant forever. Now that you're the Overlord, you can't possibly be my servant," although Mao said this, a part of him was actually glad that it turned out this way. Had Almaz not been appointed Overlord, Mao was sure that he would have returned to the human world, and after the weeks, now months, that they had been together, such an outcome seemed wretched.

"Mao... I, I..." Almaz choked out, and when Mao raised his head to peer at him over the top of his SSP, he could not see Almaz's eyes as he hunched over on his chair. He could see the wavering line of his mouth, the tension in his throat, but his hair obscured his eyes completely. "It isn't fair," he laughed, but it wasn't full of anything other than sorrow, and it suddenly struck Mao that he was being very cruel.

Mao set down the handheld and, in an action that surprised even him, reached out and grabbed Almaz's shoulder. "Are you crying again? Idiot," he muttered, but before the words were even out entirely, Almaz had closed in on him. Mao felt very awkward with Almaz's arms around his neck, and his face and unsteady breaths against his neck, something very wet and salty dampening his overcoat.

"I didn't want to be an Overlord at all!" he sobbed into Mao, making the demon feel very, very bad for one of the very few times in his life. "I just wanted to be, normal. With everyone. To have friends, you know. I never-- wanted..." he choked up.

Mao didn't say a word, he only moved one arm to Almaz's back until he stopped shaking and hiccuping against him. "I thought I told you not to show tears?" he scolded gently.

"Hey, you can't see them, can you?" Almaz retorted, laughing softly, a real laugh that made Mao's chest swell with something close to relief. After a long moment, Almaz still hadn't pulled away. "Will you stay with me, Mao-sensei? Until... a long time from now?" he asked. He did not want to say forever, nor did he want to think until either of them died.

Mao snorted at him, "Even if I promised, I'm a demon. We don't think twice about breaking our promises."

"I trust you," Almaz said, foolishly.

He scoffed this time, "All demons, especially Overlords, must never trust anyone." His voice was stern, but Almaz only smiled.

His tears had been dry for awhile now, but he couldn't bear to let go of Mao just yet, and Mao made no moves to disengage either. "I'm sorry, Mao-sensei. I guess I'm just not a very good demon, let alone an Overlord."

"It's okay," Mao said, "It just means that I'll have to be at your side for a long, long time."

Out of the corner of his eye he spied the red 'Game Over' screen on his Slaystation Portable, but in his current state found that he couldn't care less.