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For Amaterasu, the day had already been so frustrating. First, she’d missed the gathering of the gods. Then, she’d gotten served the wrong kind of water. She’d wanted lemon water, and what had her employees provided her? Watermelon, for some reason. At least Uzume was finally here to discuss the matters at hand.
They were seated in the corner office of her Seattle office, overlooking the lovely city. Amaterasu absolutely preferred Tokyo, but it was undeniable that Seattle had a charm to it. Officially, they were here to meet and talk about a few key business decisions that were coming up. More importantly, this was when they got to gossip about the other deities. Where Amaterasu hadn’t attended the brunch, Uzu had. And Amaterasu wanted to hear everything she’d missed out on!
Unfortunately, Uzume seemed liked her mind was in the clouds. That wasn’t uncommon for her, Amaterasu’s Uzu-chan often had moments where she spaced out, but this was a bit different. Amaterasu sat her water on a coaster on her wooden desk - she wasn’t going to have any rings - then finally broke the longstanding silence.
“Uzu-chan. Is there something on your mind…? You’re quiet today.”As per the usual whenever she had her mind on something, Uzume had barely registered what her mistress said to her. She heard her heavenly voice and that radiant tone in which she always spoke whenever she was concerned for Uzume, but she wasn’t entirely present. Truth of the matter was Uzume was incredibly bummed. A ridiculous way to describe such a mood, but it couldn’t be helped. She was bummed out because of what happened earlier in the day and how her high was grounded and she was incredibly low low low.
“Sorry?” Perking up mentally, she looked towards her boss, best friend, and her whole universe as eyes of concern matched the tone that she vaguely recalled calling out to her.
“I..no, it’s nothing really, Ama-sama.” That wasn’t exactly true and Uzume knew it. And if she knew it, then Amaterasu knew it too. Nothing that went through her mind, no matter how well-hidden, went past her mistress.
“Okay, so it’s not actually not nothing. I went to the Luncheon. Or I wanted to.” She pursed her lips, looking at Amaterasu.
That was somewhat disappointing.
“What stopped you?” Amaterasu paused, and ran her head through all the possible options for what could have both prevented Uzume from going to the luncheon (it was really a brunch, wasn’t it?)
and could have thrown her so far off her game.
“It wasn’t a boy, was it?” She made a face at the thought, but trusted that Uzume wouldn’t be
this shook up by a boy. Though her friend certainly had a flair for the dramatic, Amaterasu held onto the hope that she wouldn’t be so easily thrown off by love. It wasn’t like they were living in a romance manga.
“What? No! Why would you even think such a thing, Ama-sama!” Immediately, Uzume waved her hands emphatically and shook her head vigorously for extra emphasis.
“It’s nothing like that at all. I mean there is someone that I--but no, it’s not that!” Uzume tried desperately to simmer down the level of momentary embarrassment she suddenly came under fire by (mostly due to Amaterasu’s implication that she didn’t go to the luncheon because of a crush). Truth was, she
did have something of a crush but there was a completely valid reason.
Like telling a story through physical reenactment, Uzume moved in front of Amaterasu’s desk, making sure she had her mistress’ full attention.
“So there I was, just getting out of my car, looking so cute -- like really cute! I wished you could have seen me. I picked out the most adorable sunflower dress! It would have stunned so many people.” She let herself get lost in the giddiness she was displaying, disappointment plastered all over her face because she didn’t get to show it off like she wanted to.
“But yeah, okay so where was I?” She hummed for a few seconds and had an a-ha moment.
“Right! So I was making my way downtown so to speak and I was stopped by…”Uzume leaned closer, pausing for dramatic effects.
And then her head sank low.
Then it rose.
“COPS! That’s right. But not just regular old cops. It wasn’t mortal cops, but our kind of cops. Every mortal and some gods were escorted out. I think by that wolf boy person. Uh…Fenrir? I think that’s his name.” She scratched her head, making confused noises as she tried to remember if she had that right.
“Anyway, that’s why I couldn’t go. Something happened and it was canceled!” She dramatically sighed, now feeling just as bummed out as she was in the moment of realizing that it was canceled.
It was like a wave of relief washed over her when Uzume confirmed that it wasn’t a boy that was distracting her. The burst of embarrassment she seemed to feel at the idea didn’t exactly put Ama’s fears of Uzume running off with a boy to rest. Stumbling, stammering, and even waving her arms around… Amaterasu keyed in on how Uzume had said there was
someone she was interested in, but she intended to let her tell her story before she jumped on that point like a tiger pouncing on its prey.
Amaterasu had no doubt that Uzume had in fact been super cute. She considered making a distasteful comment about Uzume wearing the sunflower dress if she went on a date with her special someone, but she chose to let it go. Distracting Uzume from her story would probably lead to her forgetting it entirely when she was in this kind of state.
Once she finally finished, Amaterasu lifted her glass of water and took a sip as she thought about what she’d just heard. Divine ‘cops,’ deities being escorted out. Fenrir? No, that likely wasn’t right, it must have been Hati; but it was tough to be sure with Uzume when it came to names, but Amaterasu knew Fenrir was a troublemaker, and the one of the wolves who was useful was Hati… or maybe she was misremembering? She’d have to call Odin and ask him which was which.
“That’s… troubling, to say the least. I’ll have to make some calls and see if I can get the details if you don’t have them. Wait, if it was canceled, have you gotten your divine fruit? I don’t want you growing old on me.” Of course, Amaterasu had yet to eat hers either, but Amaterasu felt she was a lot less likely to forget it than the airheaded Uzume was.
“Fruit?” Uzume blinked cluelessly at Amaterasu. And she continued to do so for several moments, which caused all movements with her arms and legs, the usually vibrant expressions she had on her face were frozen in the sands of time. What Ama asked her hadn’t clicked until it did and she started to panic.
“Oh my us! I didn’t!” As she started to pace back and forth frantically, she muttered inaudible words, thoughts racing through her mind over and over again.
“It’s going to be okay, right? Right? I mean one year won’t make that much of a difference, right?” She asked Amaterasu while still pacing in the way she was.
“Uzu-chan,” Amaterasu said with a smile and a gentle chuckle as she shook her head. Amaterasu was amused by her reaction. Uzume seemed to be having a panic attack over something that she could handle with a simple text message.
“I’ll just arrange to get the fruits from Persephone directly, there’s really nothing to be worried about, alright? Calm.” She spoke in a gentle voice, one she often used with Uzume to try and show her that everything was okay.
“No reason to stress over something like that. And one year wouldn’t dim your shine a bit.”Oh…Like a flick of a switch, the panic that was previously on her face and in her movements had been turned off, replaced by a smile and Uzume’s normal mannerisms. She had hyperfixated on the fact that she never got the fruit and that she would have really aged a year that she never considered that they could be just delivered to her. In the height of her momentary panic, she forgot that was a thing. Now that she was thinking about it, they did send the fruits to gods (she assumed they did).
“You’re the best, Ama-sama!” Uzume exclaimed, smiling cheerfully as her overall disposition matched it.
“All calm now!”“Thank you, I know.” She smiled again and nodded her head. Sometimes, Uzume would fly off the handle, and Amaterasu just had to make sure she pumped the brakes a bit.
“Such a shame that you didn’t make it into the luncheon, I thought you’d have all kinds of gossip to spill. I like hearing about what the other gods are up to, but being involved with them…? Eh, I think you’re the one that’s better at that, Uzu-chan. Have you checked your social media? Maybe there’s a get together where you can be a fly on the wall for me. That way I can still hear about their drama.” As catty as it was, the drama of the other pantheons fueled Amaterasu. She had her own inter-pantheon problems with Tsukiyomi, but for the most part the Japanese pantheon was pretty relaxed. She was lucky, in that regard.
Uzume didn’t think of that. Truth be told, she was more orless lost in her own head and down mood that she didn’t even think about checking on social media. But at the suggestion, the goddess of the dawn had an outward
“ah!” exclamation as she whipped out her bedazzled iPhone. The case she had it in was gold and pink, with the case itself being pink and gold stones that looked fake, but it wasn’t. A present from someone special to her. Not
that someone but another someone. Anyway, it was nice and she went surfing.
“Oh!” Uzume’s mouth opened as she went down her twitter feed.
“You were right again, Ama-sama! There is a get together. At Zeno Megalos’ place--” She had to remember that she wasn’t among mortals.
“I mean Hercules. You know, that total of a hunk beefcake!” Her heart may have possibly belonged to another, but Uzume wasn’t blind. Hercules was absolutely a drop-dead hunk. Greeks certainly had all the looks and Uzume definitely did that respectfully.
“Seems they are having a party today.” A myriad of thoughts went through her mind like it was a speedway and a bunch of really fast cars were zooming in the usually spacious head of hers. She glanced back to her mistress. Part of her probably already knew the answer but it didn’t hurt to ask.
“Could be a lot of fun! We could doll up and hit it up. Maybe?”Amaterasu smiled, but ultimately shook her head no.
“Thank you, Uzu-chan, but I have a long night ahead of me.” That much was true. Though her planned evening may have been centered around wine and mortal soap operas, it nonetheless was a long one. Aside from that, she had a text message on her phone that she hadn’t opened yet. Frankly, she was
dreading opening it — she knew any message from Tsukiyomi was probably going to be trouble. Knowing how much of a socialite Uzume was compared to her though, Amaterasu did feel bad about making her got a party alone.
“Why don’t you reach out to another god and see if they’d like to go with you? You have my permission to take whoever you want.” It would probably be one of the Aztec goddesses if Amaterasu had to guess, so far as she knew, Uzume spent a lot of time with them.
A wave of such immense disappointment passed through Uzume, the likes that rivaled her feeling when she couldn’t get into the luncheon on account of the cops. She knew these sort of parties weren’t typically her scene, but she was hoping Ama-Sama would want to come along anyway. Get a taste of life for herself, but also get to know the drama first-hand.
“Oh..okay..” Uzume sunk her head down for a few moments, her overdramatic personality taking shape once again.
At least, that was until Amaterasu mentioned what quite possibly was the literal sun shining some light on an otherwise overcast situation.
“You mean it!?” Her eyes shined bright like some kind of diamond in each eye and there was an instinctual response from Uzu as she leaned over the desk to bring Amaterasu into a tight hug. It was awkward and didn’t go as successfully as she saw it going in her head. She only managed to get part of the sun goddess’ neck into her grasp. But it was the thought that counted.
“Thank you thank you thank you! You’re the best, Ama-sama!”The sun goddess did not like being touched, but she thankfully made an exception for Uzume. Of course, Amaterasu hadn’t always enjoyed Uzume’s spontaneity, but over time she’d softened up to the often tackle style hugs or ‘glomps’ as Uzume sometimes called them. Unfortunately, it didn’t work quite as well when she was leaning over a desk to try and hug her. As she pulled away, Amaterasu nodded.
“I just ask that you behave.” She knew that was a tall order likely to be ignored, but she hoped that Uzume would keep it in mind when she thought about making a bad decision. Not that Amaterasu was going to delude herself into thinking that would stop her.
She leaned back in her chair and smiled warmly,
“but have a great time. You deserve a break after your long day.” While she was dismissing Uzume to do whatever she wanted, there was still a lot of night left for Amaterasu. She could dread it, and run from it all day — but in the end, Tsukiyomi would find her way to the building and into her office. One way or another.
“I’m going to go back to my apartment and relax, if you need anything, I’m only a phone call away. Okay?”Uzume never understood why Ama-sama always had to ask her to behave every time she went to some function. Whether it was a party hosted by some friends -- divine or otherwise -- of hers, getting together with Xochi and some of the others from Illicit, or, really just having fun, she
always behaved. She was on her best behavior. But of course, what she considered her best behavior was what Amaterasu called ‘being a deviant’.
But she appreciated her mistress’ concern. She knew she cared and that these pleas she made with Uzu always came from a place of concern. That, at the least, she could keep in mind.
“I promise Ama-sama! Have a good day and night!” Blowing an enthusiastic kiss at her, Uzume left Amaterasu’s office.
She felt happier for some reason. Relieved? No, maybe it was more like she felt re-energized? Yeah that was it. It was a weight off her shoulder. What she needed right now was to blow off some steam. She needed to have herself a good time. Surround herself with people that would make her feel
happy. She needed to drink, to dance, and maybe do some things that her mistress wouldn’t necessarily approve of.
“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her~” Uzume giggled, getting into the elevator.
She hummed cheerfully as she watched the floor number get closer and closer to the ground floor. As she kept her eyes locked on it and the music from the elevator just became white noise at this point, an antsy Uzume was getting more uncontrollably excited the longer she had to wait for her exit. It didn’t help that occasionally people who also worked in the building got on, thus prolonging her exit.
At some point, there were about five other people in the elevator with her and Uzu struck up conversations with them. They didn’t seem particularly interested in the random nonsense she said, so after a few rounds of exchanges, she went quiet.
Thankfully, her exit came, and rushing out like the sometimes impatient ditz she was, Uzu got into her car, drove off and texted a certain someone.
“Siri! Text Farmer’s Market Hunk!”Texting Farmer’s Market Hunk!
“Heyyyyy! It’s Uzu! There’s a party tonight. At Acropolis. You know Hercules and Apollo’s party pad? I was thinking -- we should totally go! You know, with each other!”message sent
“I mean as a date! You know, like officially or you know whatever. Doesn’t need to be! It’ll be funnnnnnnn!”message sent
What did she just do? Did she really just do that? She asked him out? This was a mistake. A terrible, terrible mistake…