When Yeosang dragged himself out of bed in the morning, he had forgotten that he had a visitor over. After tugging on his door futilely with ruffled hair, too sleep-ridden to understand his door was locked, he finally made his way outside, only for his heart to stop in his chest.

It took him a long moment to realise the person sprawled out on the ground was the god he invited into his home. In a very ungodly fashion, he was tangled with his blanket, limbs sticking out everywhere. He slept naked despite the underwear and shirt Yeosang sacrificed for him, and heat rose to Yeosang's cheeks when a long sliver of tan skin exposed his chest and hip.

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Anubis must have tumbled off his mattress during the night, or maybe he didn't like how it felt under his body. Draped out on the floor, he slept like the dead.

Yeosang snickered to himself at the joke and tiptoed into the bathroom to freshen up. He usually got up an hour before he had to be at work to eat breakfast and catch his bus. Sometimes, he picked up sweets on his way there since Seonghwa's eyes sparkled whenever he was gifted some, but today, he had enough on his mind already.

He left Anubis where he was while he dashed around his kitchen, brewing coffee and slathering a thick layer of chocolate spread on his rolls. While he ate, he stared at the unmoving god, not stirring even when Yeosang accidentally knocked his knife into his glass.

An oddity he was. Yeosang studied Egyptian myths for so long, but he never imagined anything like this. In a way, Anubis was human in the strangest sense, and yet his personality was clearly nothing like it.

Yeosang didn't like the idea of leaving him alone in his home, but he had no other choice.

So he left out some bread and a pack of vegan sausages for Jongho, added some vegetables he didn't have to peel, just praying he wouldn't think their bitter taste was poison. Yeosang had so many things he wanted to instruct him with, but time was running out and he still had to get dressed and catch his bus.

However, there was no way to leave Anubis a message but on an old-fashioned piece of paper. That was, without waking him.

So Yeosang dug out one of his many notebooks he bought because he found the cover pretty and never ended up using even once because it was a shame to ruin them with his handwriting. He gingerly removed a page and spread it out on his small desk.

Jongho, he wrote, addressing Anubis' new identity so he could get used to it right away.

I am off to work and I will be back in the evening (that's when the sun is setting). I left some food out for you and you can eat anything else on the shelves if you're hungry.

Yeosang winced at that. He had no proper meal ready for Jongho, no leftovers he could heat up. But would he understand if Yeosang ordered him a pizza in the afternoon?

Maybe he should go home early today.

Please stay inside the house and don't break anything. You can explore so long as you are careful. I will bring a proper meal on my way back.

Yeosang (not your slave)

For a moment longer, he considered the message, wanted to write about showering and about the heater and all those things, but he left it with an added "Don't start a fire, please."

He was in a pickle anyway, no way to figure this out at once.

So Yeosang left his message there and ran for his clothes to get ready. He caught his bus on time and with his hair wild from the autumn wind, but he was glad to escape the issue waiting for him at home.

At work, he was somewhat distracted by his tasks and equally overthinking what Anubis might be doing in his flat right now. Should Yeosang at least have shown him the TV? Maybe he was smart enough to find something he could read.

Double-timing the tasks at work and trying to figure out his stress about Anubis quickly drained him. He just hung on his desk, miserable, while no visitor was wandering about.

Seonghwa checked in on him before he left.

"Drooping again, I see. Look, your flowers are all sad with you," he expressed his worry as he placed a watering can in front of Yeosang. With a sigh, he mediated over nourishing his leafy green friends. They hung their heads as well, but he was glad to see them liven up with his efforts.

"Thanks, Hwa," Yeosang smiled at him when Seonghwa leaned against his counter, pondering Yeosang with sad eyes.

"You look as if you need some time off. Should we make plans for the weekend? Maybe watch a movie or drive to the ocean," he suggested, and Yeosang's breath stuttered in his chest.

Gods, how he wanted to say yes.

He wanted to see Seonghwa before the horizon, the wind in his hair and the sinking sun glowing on his skin. Wanted to eat ice cream together and laugh. Wanted to discuss a movie together.

Curse Anubis and his godly pantheon who only created mayhem instead of helping anyone.

"I'm sorry, I can't," Yeosang sighed. He couldn't just hand Jongho to Mingi and ask him to babysit him for a day. Maybe if the world could be saved, he would catch up with Seonghwa.

But Seonghwa shook his head.

"All fine. Next time then." He left, but Yeosang's heart continued hammering in his chest, weak for him.

On his way back home, Yeosang allowed himself the joy of yelling in his chat to Wooyoung that Seonghwa offered him a date, even if he did it as a caring friend. He also ordered some pizza while he smiled at Wooyoung's exaggerated reaction, planning out Yeosang's whole life, including three adopted children with Seonghwa.

He also called Mingi at the station. Made up some story about taking Jongho in under some university project. Mingi expressed his concern since he was a runaway, but he agreed Jongho was in the best hands with Yeosang's department. Still, he told Yeosang to call if Jongho ever made trouble. Yeosang gladly kept it on his mind.

It was the first day, so Yeosang didn't know what to expect when he came home.

Finding all lights in his home on and glaring down at him wasn't too bad, even when he would mourn his electricity bill later. Yeosang shut off the one in the corridor while he kicked off his shoes.

"Jongho? Anubis?" He called out hesitantly, and something rustled in the bathroom before the man came skidding across the wooden floor. His dark hair was messy to match his crazed eyes, wide and far too playful to trust the lights were the worst he did. He wore his jumpsuit from the police station, feet bare and the top undone to knot the sleeves around his waist. The grey fabric was dark, soaked with what Yeosang could only hope to be water.

"I figured out how your contained fire works!" He yowled in triumph before he smacked the nearest light switch, making Yeosang flinch. "How magical! Isis can also summon light at the touch of her hand."

One of these days, Jongho had to tell Yeosang everything about his home and the deities he was familiar with. While Yeosang took notes.

"Good job, yeah. Though you don't have to smack them. A light flick is more than enough." Yeosang released them from the darkness to study his questionable roommate. His eyes trailed over to the direction he had come from.

His suspicions came true when he padded over to the bathroom and found his own reflection staring back at him from the floor. The bathtub and the sink were full of water, the tiles and toilet were dripping wet, and every towel and the toilet paper was soaked.

Yeosang slapped his hand against his forehead. In the mirror dotted with water drops, his own stressed self asked back at him what he brought upon himself.

"Why is the bath flooded?"

Excited, Jongho splashed past him, having too much fun getting the water all over the corridor. It would be a pain to clean, but Yeosang was lucky not to have left anything of grand importance nearby. Only his alarm clock on the windowsill looked a bit pitiful, but it was still working.

His plants, on the other hand? Striving along with the playful god. Traitors.

"Look! So much water, at the touch of a hand. I remember the period when this pharaoh still lived. Water was a sacred good." To demonstrate, Jongho flicked at the tap, but Yeosang hastily shoved him aside to minimise the chaos.

He would throw Anubis into a goddamn pool at the earliest convenience.

"It still is sacred, so be careful!" He complained, grimacing at his soaked socks and pant legs. How would he even clean up all of this?

Reminding himself to be patient, he got his mop and pressed it into Jongho's hands.

"Good, you know how water and light work. Don't be wasteful with either of those. Use as much light as you need to see and as much water as you need to drink and wash up, please. Now clean the ground. I'll use the rest to water my plants."

"I can see in the dark," Anubis replied without missing a beat, but he did as told, awed by Yeosang's mop system, which could be squeezed out into its bucket.

"Nature strives in your home," he noted, and at least he hadn't messed with Yeosang's plants. They still adoringly framed his balcony door and window, crawling over his shelves and bathroom.

He explained to Jongho that growing plants was his hobby and to be nice to them when the doorbell ripped them from their conversation. Jongho near jumped out of his skin, brandishing the mop as a weapon as he looked around for the startling noise, not finding its source.

Better not to explain he should check the door if he heard it.

Still soaked, Yeosang padded to the door, hoping his visitor wouldn't notice his wet feet.

San stood there in his usual uniform, all with the red shirt that spanned around his shoulders and the matching cap. His dimples dug into his cheeks when he made eye contact.

"Hey there," he greeted and Yeosang could kiss him, he was so glad for a regular person.

"Hi, San. Give me a second to get my wallet," he said and Jongho came wandering behind him, curious about the person at the door. At his vision - half naked, looking like a madman, soaked - San's eyes widened.

"Oh? Who's that?"

Yeosang looked up from his bag where he had been digging for his money.

"A friend. He is staying over for a while. No worries if you see him around."

Jongho just listened to their conversation, mindful not to make an odd impression and trying to understand their language. He stuck by Yeosang's side when San beamed at him and handed Yeosang their food.

"Gotcha. Here are your pizzas. Enjoy them."

"Thanks, San," Yeosang smiled back, soft at his sight. The courier scurried off and Yeosang closed the door to carry their food into the kitchen. He beckoned Jongho to eat while he got them something to drink.

"Who was that?" Jongho asked as he picked up some pizza and tried it. He seemed to like the taste, and he had also eaten the bread and some apples. Good news. Maybe Yeosang could get him some food he knew from home if he was feeling generous.

"He works at an inn and brought us food in exchange for money," Yeosang explained the system as well as possible. Did a god pay for meals? Probably not. Anubis could live off his sacrifices or the fumes of the dead, probably.

"That man looked at you in a certain way," Jongho pointed out, and Yeosang focused on getting himself some of his potato and mushroom pizza.

"How so?"

"Just had a feeling... Seems he shares my opinion about your pretty face." Jongho focused on his food, but Yeosang was left speechless yet again.

Did he have some godly sense for these things?

San and Yeosang had hooked up a bunch of times. First, when San blurted out how pretty he found Yeosang during one of his pizza deliveries. They went to the cinema afterwards and both gifted each other their v-cards. It was sweet, it was mutual, but they didn't seek anything more.

A few other times, things just happened. A heated look, a lonely evening. They were never more, not even friends with benefits, but they were certainly something. Enough for Wooyoung to tease Yeosang about his 'hot delivery guy'.

Weirded out by Anubis' perception, Yeosang continued his speech about water.

What would Anubis say if he ever ran into Seonghwa?