Chapter 1: Unexpected Rivals

~Narrator POV~

Ah, the DWMA. The school's perfectly symmetrical silhouette stood outlined boldly against the bright blue sky. The laughing sun hung overhead as students were milling about on their way to class. Smiling faces filled the hallways and classrooms as meisters and weapons greeted their friends. It seemed to be a perfectly peaceful day. That is until….

"YAAAAHOOOO! BOW DOWN MORTALS, YOUR GOD IS HERE! NO PUNY CLASSROOM CAN KEEP ME FROM GRACING YOU ADORING SUBJECTS WITH MY HUGE PRESENCE!"

The obnoxious voice broke through the relaxed atmosphere of the campus as every student sweat dropped, turning to look at the figure standing on one of the building's red spikes. Normally everyone tried to ignore BlackStar, but the last time he stood on that spike he broke it and ruined the school's symmetry, causing an epic fight to ensue between BlackStar and Lord Death's OCD son, Death the Kid. And nobody wanted to miss that if it happened again.

Sure enough, Kid's voice echoed up from the ground below the spike.

"BlackStar! Get down here this instant! I will not have you screwing up my father's perfectly symmetrical school with your antics!" he shouted as his weapons, Liz and Patty, giggled at how hot and bothered Kid got over his little fixation.

BlackStar opened his mouth to shout at Kid about disrespecting his god when Tsubaki, BlackStar's faithful and ever-patient weapon, gently called to him from her place on the roof.

"Please, BlackStar, it's such a beautiful day. Let's not fight. Everyone knows you're a big star! How about we go get some ice cream to celebrate your godliness?" she called, smiling.

"THERE NOW, DO YOU ALL SEE? TSUBAKI KNOWS HOW TO RECOGNIZE A TRUE GOD WHEN SHE SEES ONE! YOU ALL SHOULD LEARN FROM HER AND MAYBE I WOULD REWARD YOU WITH AN AUTOGRAPH!" BlackStar yelled as he leaped down to the ground near Kid, followed by Tsubaki.

"Dude, it is so uncool to be so obnoxious when everyone else is enjoying their afternoon," a voice said from behind the group.

They all turned to see Soul strolling towards them, a lazy grin on his face and his hands behind his head; the picture of cool. Right behind him was his meister, Maka, her nose in a book as usual. For a moment, Kid stopped to wonder how she managed to walk and read at the same time without tripping or running into things. The only time he ever saw her graceful is when she fights, but other than that she's fairly clumsy.

In the most adorable way, Kid thought to himself, then quickly looked away from the girl when he felt himself blush. Liz, who knew that her meister had a little crush on Maka, chuckled. A few weeks ago she had found a diary he kept and read it out of boredom. At first it was all rantings about symmetry and perfection, but then she read, "Maka sat right in front of me in class today. Her pigtails were so perfectly symmetrical that I couldn't stop staring at them. Or her. She's so beautiful. Her nose is not bent in any way, her eyes are just the right size for her face and are an equal distance apart, and her lips broke into a perfectly symmetrical grin whenever she completed a problem in class or answered a question for Professor Stein. I could just stare at her all day…" Ever since then, Liz had been giggling behind her meister's back and wondering when he would make a move, if ever.

Soul saw Kid blush when he looked at Maka and, for a split second, let his cool guy façade break as he frowned. What the hell is Kid thinking about if he can't look at her without blushing? Just to mess with the young reaper, he reached up and playfully tugged on one of Maka's pigtails, making it a little lower than the other one and throwing off her symmetry. Kid twitched and grimaced and Soul found himself smiling once again.

"Ow, Soul, what did you do that for?" Maka snapped at Soul, re-adjusting her pigtails.

Soul shrugged and tilted his head back, closing his eyes.

"I felt like it. You look like a ten year old with those pigtails, you're just asking for someone to yank on them to pick on you."

Glowering at her partner, Maka closed her book and raised it above her head, gathering her strength.

"Maka…" she growled as Soul's eyes shot open and he snapped his head around to look at her pleadingly.

"No, Maka, don't…." he began, but he was too late.

"CHOP!" the blonde meister yelled as she brought the book down onto Soul's head, causing him to hit the ground rather hard as he rubbed at the dent in his head.

"Wow, Maka, if you can hit like that, why do you even need a weapon?" Liz asked, amused.

The group chuckled, but none more than Kid. Soul growled at him as he sat up but then shot a glare at Maka, not daring to say anything else.

"HEY!" BlackStar shouted, waving his hands to get more attention. "I WAS TOLD THAT I WOULD GET ICE CREAM AS A CELEBRATION OF MY GODLINESS, AND I WANT THAT TRIBUTE NOW!"

Everyone rolled their eyes, but the friends all headed towards the nearest ice cream parlor, chatting happily about classes, fights, and other such things. Only two people were not paying attention to the rest of the group. Kid and Soul watched as Maka chatted with Tsubaki about a book that they just finished reading, her hands clasped behind her back and her pigtails swinging as she walked. They had both noticed how her figure had started filling out when she turned fifteen. Well, she was seventeen now, and she had done a lot more filling out. A lot more. Kid glanced over at Soul and saw the scythe's red eyes fixed on Maka's face as she laughed at something that Tsubaki had said. Kid felt something heavy settle in the pit of his stomach as he saw how much affection Soul's eye held when he looked at his meister. Kid was worried that he might have some competition for Maka's affections.

Soul felt Kid watching him and glanced over at the boy, frowning again. He knew Kid thought that Maka was pretty because of her symmetry, but he wondered how far down those feelings actually went. He growled internally at the thought of Maka with Kid…or really with anyone other than himself. He glanced over at Kid once more and saw Kid watching Maka's oh so symmetrical hips sway as she walked. He felt his fists ball up for a moment before he trotted up ahead to walk alongside Maka. He casually dropped his arm around her shoulders and said, loud enough for the others, mainly Kid, to hear, "Hey, Maka, what are you gonna want for dinner tonight? It's my turn to cook and I want to make sure to cook something good since you've been studying so hard for the exams."

"Wow, thanks, Soul! That's very sweet of you! I'm not sure what groceries we have at home so we might have to go shopping," Maka said, smiling up at her partner.

When she turned back to Tsubaki to continue her conversation, Soul glanced over his shoulder, smirking as he saw how Kid was fuming. Liz went over to pat her meister on the back as Patty ran up to BlackStar blabbering about their favorite kinds of ice cream.