[[Revised as of 7/14/2014]] New Author Note: Wow, okay, so Tiffany's coming back down again next week. And we realized that we really need to get this done. That way we don't have it hanging over our head as we work on other projects.

A few problems though A) neither of us were still that in to Soul Eater any more and B) this was written over a year ago and we have drastically different and better writing styles now. So, the first was an easy fix ... for me anyways. It's really easy for me to get back into past obsessions as long as I didn't drain them entirely. And the second ... Well the only fix for that was to revise the first to chapters before continuing. So that's what we're doing.

I personally feel a lot better about it now, and we hope to have the entire story done within the next two weeks.

-Alyssa

Original A/N: This is a collaboration fic with dreamsonlylastforanight 2254

Hey guys! I know I should be getting Interest finished before starting another bigger project like this, but my awesome cousin Tiffany is visiting. So we decided to do a collab fic. Right, so, this is the first chapter of our Kid/Tsubaki fic. We're really excited to write this one. We are major Kid fangirls, but we weren't sure who we wanted to pair him with. Somehow Tsubaki came up, so here we are.

Anyways, this is both of our first times writing for this particular fandom, so I hope we do okay.

Regardless, ENJOY!

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Soul Eater. If we did, the majority of the episodes would've been about Death the Kid.

A sound soul dwells within a sound mind ... and a sound body.

Kid and Tsubaki: Lost in a Labyrinth?

Chapter I: Getting Lost

"Hey! Hiya! How's it goin?" Lord Death greeted the five students with his usual vigor. Earlier that morning, Spirit had called Black*star, Tsubaki, the twins, and Death the Kid in to recruit them for a mission. Although Black*star and Patti seemed to be having trouble keeping their eyes open, Kid, Tsubaki, and Liz were able to focus. They would fill the other two in later when they were more awake. Well, it wasn't like Patti would listen either way.

"Lord Death," they each replied, giving a slight bow.

"Honorable Father, Spirit says you have a mission for us," Kid urged, eager to leave. If they left now, they might be able to finish the mission without spending the night in some hotel. Kid hated staying in hotels. It was rather difficult to get symmetrical adjoining rooms, preferably near room eighty-eight, so he avoided it if possible. Luckily, hotels were unnecessary most of the time unless they needed to deal with a particularly secretive witch.

"Getting right down to business, Kiddo?"

Kid nodded, clasping his hands behind his back. From the corner of his eye, he saw Patti 'Ooowing' at the clouds painted on the walls of the Death Room. He refrained from rolling his eyes or telling her to 'quit that'. No matter how hard he worked with her on focusing, it never really stuck. In the end, it wasn't so big a deal anyways. It was just Patti; they had all grown to love her quirks.

"Well," Lord Death continued, " There's a witch causing quite a stir down in Rio De Janeiro." Kid sighed. So much for not staying in a hotel. "This is a four star mission, so you'll need to be careful-"

"YAHOO! A four star mission's no problem for a big star like me," Black*star boasted, jabbing a thumb to his chest, "but why does Kid have to come along? He'll only get in my way." Kid rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to soothe an oncoming head ache. It was quickly becoming one of those days. Lord Death raised a hand.

"Reaper Chop!" The Shinigami brought his hand down on Black*star's head. Tsubaki looked mildly embarrassed and perhaps worried, but the rest of the bystanders remained indifferent. It would take more than that to hurt Black*star, and the overconfident teen needed the correction in Kid's opinion. Honestly, he liked Black*star in some capacity. They weren't very close, but they had been through a lot together. The other meister just got on his nerves at times. Usually, when their rivalry flared up.

"Please continue, Father," Kid said, attempting to steer them back on track.

"Thank you," His father replied. Turning to them, he handed Kid and Tsubaki Portuguese newspaper articles on the missing children. "She's called the Fairytale witch." He waited a moment for them to look over the article. "You five leave tonight. And, don't forget to pack warmly!" he sang.

"Will Soul and Maka be coming too?" Tsubaki inquired, voice timid and curious as she wrung her hands, twisting them into the skirt of her dress.

"No. Right now, they're busy with a mission of their own. I'm afraid it'll just be your two teams." Kid and Tsubaki nodded. Lord Death continued, "Right, well, off you go now. Bye bye! Siyonara!"

The group of teens stepped out of the Death Room. Before they went to their own rooms, Death the Kid turned to them. "Be ready to leave in two hours and meet me at the gates of Death City." They nodded. Heading towards his room, Kid called, "Liz, Patti, come on. We need to pack, and I have a few arrangements to make."

Staring out the plane's windows and watching the clouds wander across the sky below them, Kid sighed. He would have preferred to have ridden Beelzebub to Rio. It would've been faster, but Tsubaki and Black*star would've had to walk. That wouldn't have been very fair to them Liz insisted. Then again, Black*star moved extraordinarily fast, so Kid failed to see why this was such a problem. If he felt like it, he could probably have convinced him that it was a challenge of some sort. One side of his mouth quirked up at the thought.

At least this long plane ride gave Kid a chance to come up with a plan. The witch was hiding somewhere in the city, and she had a nasty habit of eating children's souls, the reason for naming her the Fairytale witch. Although she kept her soul wave length hidden most of the time, she released it during her hunt. Kid would just have to keep his Soul Perception open and waiting. It wasn't ideal, but it was the only option for the moment.

Looking around the plane's cabin, Kid admitted to himself that he was quite pleased; it was perfectly symmetrical - not an easy feat. When booking the flight he had made sure of it. He had refused to spend an entire flight in asymmetrical garbage. Since they had a party of five, which had caused no small amount of frustration on Kid's part, he had found a plane with only five seats remaining. If every seat was filled, then the number of passengers would be symmetrical.

The only problem was that their seats were scattered throughout the cabin, aside for Liz and Patti's, since they took the only two connected seats. Honestly, that was okay with Kid. Liz was one of the only ones that could keep Patti's craziness to a minimum. Perhaps even more so than himself.

Unfortunately, Kid had been stuck with a three hundred pound white woman. Her greasy black hair fell down to her waists, stomach rolls flowing over the sides of her seat and on to Kid's arm, partially crushing him. She smelled like fish tacos. Kid grimaced. How long would it take him to gain that much weight? He thought it would probably take a while if he even could.

Leaning forward to see around the behemoth sitting next to him, Kid tried to find one of his teammates. He managed to locate a particularly uncomfortable Tsubaki. Her hands fiddling with her ponytail obsessively, she kept her eyes fixed on her lap as her the man sitting next to her attempted to chat her up. He frowned at that. She obviously wasn't interested, but the guy wasn't taking a hint. Where was Black*star? Shouldn't he have noticed her distress by now? Since both Kid and Tsubaki were uncomfortable though, that gave him an idea.

"Excuse me," Kid said as he stood and squeezed past the obese woman. After making his way to Tsubaki's row, he tapped the man on the shoulder. The guy turned, raising an eyebrow as if to ask, 'what do you want?' .

Kid decided he didn't like this guy now that he was up close. The man was wearing an overly tight muscle shirt and ripped jeans, and he'd styled his hair purposefully messy. That just wouldn't do. He wasn't symmetrical at all either. Upon closer inspection, Kid noted that one of his ears was slightly lower than the other. He was disgusting, vermin, nothing but a piece of trash, filth... He could go on, but he would only become angrier. And, Kid didn't think that his Father would approve of attacking some guy because he was asymmetrical.

"This is my friend, Tsubaki, "Kid began, remaining polite despite the way his eye was twitching. "You see, this whole trip was sort of a last-minute thing, so we couldn't get seats together. I was wondering - since you're here alone - if you would mind switching seats with me."

The man looked like he wanted to say no, but Kid fixed him with a stern glare. He backed down, his jaw set. "Yeah, of course, man." He hopped up and stepped around Kid. "Where're you sitting?"

Kid inwardly smiled and pointed out the whale sitting across the aisle. When he realized where his new seat was, the man paled but didn't bother verbally protesting. He looked like he was considering returning to his seat, but another glare from Kid, and he slunk over to the new seat. Considering Tsubaki made for much better company, Kid dropped into the now-vacant seat with what passed for a smile on his face.

Tsubaki turned to him, relief clear on her face. "Thank you," she breathed. "I'm sorry you had to intervene like that."

"It wasn't a problem," Kid intoned. "He was making you as uncomfortable as the woman next to me was making me." He chuckled under his breath glancing over to where 'ripped jeans' was squashing himself as far as he could against the window. "I thought they might get along better."

Tsubaki laughed as well, her smile light and sweet. "I tried to get Black*star to come over earlier, but I think he's a little... preoccupied..." She trailed off with a blush.

Kid looked around for Black*star and found him ogling an overly busty, blonde flight stewardess. When he turned back to Tsubaki, her eyes were watering though she managed to keep her features impassive. Uh oh. Kid wasn't the best with social situations. In fact, Liz and Patti had once lectured him on proper social etiquette. However, he knew he needed to do something. She was his friend after all, and everyone knew how much she cared for Black*star. Kid knew firsthand how deep the relationship between meister and weapon ran though he had a hard time seeing how someone could be interested like that in Black*star. Black*star was... Well, Black*star. It wasn't Kid's place to judge though, and he imagined that Tsubaki saw more to the blue-haired boy than most.

"Hey," he began, voice stilted, "don't worry about it so much. Black*star is just being his usual... immature self." There. It wasn't as eloquent as he would've liked, but it would serve its purpose.

"I- I know. It's just.. It feels like... " She stammered and turned red, frustrated with her inability to speak. Finally, she huffed a sigh, deflating a little. "I'm sorry. It doesn't matter anyways," she got out. "He doesn't and won't ever think of me .. like that."

Awkwardly, Kid placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. "He'll come around. If he doesn't, he's a fool." To himself, he added, 'Then again, Black*star's pretty good at playing the fool.'

Apparently, he had said the right thing because she offered a wan-smile and nodded, and Kid found himself smiling back. It was then he realized his hand was still on her shoulder, rubbing comforting circles. Flinching inwardly, he pulled it away and dropped it in his lap. For the next few minutes, he stared at his hand as if it had acted without his permission. Really, that's what it had done. Kid hadn't even realized what he was doing, and he didn't like that. He rotated his hand, watching his ring catch the dim plane lights.

How strange.

The rest of the flight had been uneventful aside from an argument that broke out between Black*star and an old cat lady, who had insisted on keeping her cat with her even on the plane. The poor creature had been terrified, and during a particularly rough patch of turbulence, it had scratched Black*star. So, of course, he had retaliated. From there, it escalated until Tsubaki finally went over to calm Black*star down, apologizing to the cat owner profusely.

When the plane began its descent into the heart of Rio de Janeiro, Kid couldn't squash the small flicker of excitement that flared up in him. Although he had been to many countries over the years, Brazil was not among them, and he always enjoyed visiting new places with a few exceptions. From his seat, Kid saw the buildings lining the gorgeous sandy beach and overlooked the bright ocean, the Christ the Redeemer statue watching over the area, arms open wide. Simply put, it was beautiful.

As the plane touched down, Kid unleashed his Soul Perception. At that moment, he didn't detect any witch souls, but then, he hadn't expected to. Not until she was ready to strike, and who knew when that would be? However, whenever she did, he would be waiting. Hopefully, they could reach her before she claimed her victim. The murder of children sickened Kid, nearly as much as asymmetry. There were a few lines no one should cross; that was one of them.

After retrieving their luggage - mainly Liz's luggage - the group of Meisters and Weapons exited the airport.

"Well ,what do we do now?" Liz asked, keeping her grip on Patti's wrist as she was currently determined to get back to the airport's duty free shop because she had seen a giraffe stuffed animal.

"We wait for the witch to make her move. Until then, we can't do much," Kid explained coolly as he smoothed out a wrinkle in his pants.

"Oow! Can we go shopping then? I heard Brazil has some awesome stores," Liz chirped.

Tsubaki spoke up. "If there's nothing else we can do, I wouldn't mind going." She paused for a moment, glancing around the group. "That is , if everyone else wants to go," the girl amended.

Kid shrugged. He didn't care either way. If he didn't take her now, he knew Liz would make him stay longer. She was rather forceful when it came to shopping, and honestly, it would be better for them to explore the city. That way, they would know the terrain a little more when the witch showed herself. "If that's what you want," he told. "However, whatever we do, we need to stay together in case this witch reveals herself."

"I wish she'd hurry up. I'm sick of doing all this waiting." Black*star folded his arms over his chest, pouting his lip out. The others remained silent for a beat.

"Black*star, we've only been here a few minutes," Tsubaki finally reminded him.

"That's a few minutes too long, if you ask me," he retorted. "I don't have time to sit around and wait. Since I'm going to surpass God, I need to train more, which I can't do if I'm waiting for some stupid witch." Tsubaki shook her head sadly but didn't say anything, another blush creeping across her cheeks. Or perhaps it was the beginnings of a sunburn, Kid mused. She had such smooth pale skin.

When that thought registered, a blush of his own crossed his face, and he pushed the thought away. The heat of the city must've been getting to him. Or it was jet lag. Or any number of reasons really. Or at least that's what he told himself.

The group remained silence for a moment before Liz broke it. "Well, I'm going shopping." She linked arms with Tsubaki. "Come on. Let's go." Then she strutted away, dragging Tsubaki and Patti with her. Kid laughed lightly under his breath, letting go of any residual awkwardness from earlier, and followed them.

The students had spent most of the day shopping while keeping an eye out for the witch - though it was debatable on what witches generally looked like. Liz had bought herself and Tsubaki new clothes - using Kid's credit card despite Tsubaki's protests - and somehow Patti got a hold of that giraffe stuffed animal. Afterwards, they had eaten and managed to find a reasonably priced hotel, so Kid had booked them adjoining rooms on the eighth floor, which was as good as he could get to his despair. At least, they would be able to go at a moment's notice.

Each team went to their own room, Tsubaki and Black*star in one room, Kid and the twins in the other, and reluctantly headed to bed. They needed to be at the top of their game to fight this witch, regardless of Black*star's insistence that he was always at the top of his game. Luckily, since he was a Shinigami, Kid didn't need much rest to function, so he opted to stay up in case the witch struck at night.

And she did strike.

Though Kid didn't feel the witch's soul until nearly three in the morning. When he felt her soul flicker into his perception, he hopped from his bed, placing his book on the nightstand and smoothing out any wrinkles he'd caused in the comforter. Even though he knew it wouldn't actually be enough to wake them, he flicked on the lights and yelled for Liz and Patti to get up.

After crossing to the other room, he awakened Tsubaki first because he wasn't sure how difficult Black*star would be to wake up, and if anyone would know how to get him up, it would be her. Yawning with a stretch, she blinked sleepily at him.

"The witch revealed herself," he explained.

"Got it."

Now that he was sure the dark-haired girl was awake, he returned to his room and shook Liz and Patti until they woke up, which took longer than should've been necessary. Those two slept like the dead ... No pun intended.

Eventually, both teams were up and on the move. Liz, Patti, and Tsubaki in weapon form, Black*star followed behind Kid as he sprinted through the streets. As Kid followed the soul wavelength, he noted that it felt weak. It almost angered him that he'd came all the way out there to fight such a poor opponent. However, his honorable father had told him it was a four star mission. Surely such a weak foe wasn't worthy of four stars. An uneasy feeling settled into his gut.

"Kid," Black*star shouted as they ran, pausing to jump over a spilled crate of bananas, "just tell me where this wench is, so we can go home." Kid noticed Tsubaki in the corner of his eye; she looked worried that Black*star was trying to get himself into trouble again. Which he was.

"The witch's soul is exactly eight hundred feet in front of us," Kid obliged, and Black*star smirked.

"Black*star," Tsubaki reasoned, "we should wait for Kid."

"No way, Kid will just get in my way. Besides, he's only here because he's Lord Death's son," Black*star explained.

"Black*star!" Tsubaki shouted, sounding horrified. "I'm so sorry, Kid. He doesn't mean that."

Ignoring her, Black*star said to Kid, " Why don't you just sit this one out, okay? Just let a big star like me handle this."

"Black*star," Kid said, voice even as he ignored the insults, "we are a team whether you like it or not. Honorable Father put both of us on this mission for a reason, so we need to work together. This witch's soul is giving me a bad feeling. I don't like this."

"Whatever. Don't think I'll wait up for you though," Black*star warned.

Kid smirked, pulling out Beelzebub. "Don't worry about that. I can keep up."

"Here we go then. YAHOO!" He sped off, and Kid hopped on his skateboard to follow, the wind whipping through his hair.

Kid furrowed his brow; he found it more than a little suspicious that she the witch hadn't moved since he'd first felt her. It wasn't as if she hadn't had time. Maybe it was a trap. But, how would she have known they were coming? Had she sensed them? Kid didn't think so. Their souls would've blended in with the thousands of tourists that visited the city yearly. Then again, she would've revealed her soul when she'd cornered a victim, so maybe she was just... preoccupied. Kid hoped not. He wanted to get there before she killed anyone else.

After checking to make sure he and Black*star were still together, Kid glanced up to see where this witch was hiding out and was surprised to see that they were at the Christ the Redeemer statue. The witch took her victims here? Or perhaps that was just where she had found her latest victim.

All of a sudden, Black*star's soul wavelength dropped significantly, giving him the appearance of someone with a weak soul.

"I see," Kid said, voice grim.

"What is it?" Liz asked.

"I just realized that the witch found a way to make the souls within this area appear weaker than normal, so we can't know for sure how strong she really is."

"Well that can't be good. Do you have an estimation at least?"

Kid frowned. "Even within this barrier, I felt her soul from our hotel. I thought it was odd that she had such a weak soul - at least for a witch, but ... She has to be powerful. We need to be careful."

"Understood."

"Got it!" Patti chirped.

Kid didn't say anything else since they reached their location. Hopping of his skateboard, he sprinted over to Black*star, who was about to go up the stairs leading to the statue. He placed a hand on Black*star's chest to keep him from moving. "Black*star, wait!"

"Huh? What is it, Kid? Come on, I'm ready to go kick this witch's ass," he said, crossing his arms in protest of being held up longer than necessary.

"She has her soul wavelength disguised, so I'm not sure what to expect. However, it's safe to assume she's very powerful. In other words, be careful ... though I'm not really sure why I bothered to tell you this," Kid deadpanned.

True to Kid's expectation, Black*star elbowed him out of the way, taking off towards their enemy again. "Thank you, Kid," Tsubaki called gratefully. Kid nodded at her and followed after her meister, heading towards the place where the witch's soul emanated from.

When they reached the base of the statue, Kid was confused that he didn't see the witch. He still felt her, but she was nowhere to be seen. They were alone with the statue aside from a drunk who had passed out on the ground to the left of the statue.

"Hey, Kid! I think your powers are broken. There's no one here!" Black*star complained, pouting again.

Kid shook his head, confused. "I can sense her soul straight ahead, like she is the statue."

"Let's find out then!" Black*star bellowed. "YAHOO~!" With that he took off at a dead run for the statue, pulling Tsubaki out in her chain-sickle form, ready to attack. Kid started to call out for him to stop when he suddenly vanished through the wall of the statue.

"What?" Then it clicked. "It's an illusion," Kid said under his breath. With the realization, he didn't waste any more time and ran straight through the imaginary wall.

When they found the witch, she had long stringy black hair with two short horns peeking out and wore an asymmetrical black sack for a dress, complete with a rope belt. Around her neck, a cowbell hung, and her septum was pierced. Overall, she gave off the appearance of a cow, and at the moment, she was crouch over the corpse of a child, or what was left of one.

Horror curled low in Kid's stomach at the sight. The poor child couldn't have been older than eight if the size was anything to go by. They were too late. Kid swallowed thickly . "You disgust me," he spat, and not only because she was asymmetrical.

"This witch needs to die," Black*star growled out. For once, Kid agreed with him. If the situation hadn't been so morbid, Kid might've considered marking his calendar.

"Liz, Patti, are you ready?" Kid asked, though he knew he didn't need to.

"Ready!" Patti chirped, oblivious.

"Ready when you are , Kid," Liz affirmed.

Black*star turned to Kid, scowling. "Enough wasting time."

Kid nodded.

The witch leered at them, showing them her slimy snaggle-toothed grin, bits of green cud stuck to her teeth. Time froze for a second as both parties sized each other up. "YAHOO!" Black*star broke the moment, and everyone flew into action. Black*star rushed at her with Tsubaki in her katana form. Screaming, he swung at her, but the witch leaned back at the last second, avoiding the attack.

Carefully aiming to keep from hitting Black*star or Tsubaki, Kid unloaded on the witch. When a bullet caught her in the calve, she shrieked. Black*star charged again, this time managing to get in a few good hits, but just before he struck a finishing blow, she turned and... spit a gob of green gunk at him. Something must've been wrong with it because Black*star stumbled back when it hit him, clawing at his face.

"Black*star!" Tsubaki yelled. "What's wrong?"

When he finally scratched the gunk off his face, he answered, "Watch out for her spit. I think there's acid in it." Then to the witch, he laughed derisively and said, "Was that supposed to stop me?"

She looked mildly surprised but still managed to dodge all the bullets Kid shot at her. Surprising both meisters, she dove behind a crate, and both teens moved to find her, only to have her jump out and spit in both their faces.

"Dammit!" Kid roared. He couldn't see anything, and it burned like hell.

Frantically, Kid wiped at the acid burning his face when he heard her begin chanting. "Cow, sou, sham wow, POW!" she bellowed. That was when a numbing sensation crawled up his legs. Panic welled up in him when he found he couldn't move wherever the feeling spread too though he kept his face calm, trying to find a way out of the situation. A glance around the room showed that the others were having similar problems. All the weapons had reverted to their human forms as well and were visually struggling to move. Throughout their struggle, the Fairytale witch was cackling madly.

When the sensation reached his head, Kid blacked out.

When Kid came to, his head was throbbing. Despite the pain, he shot up to a sitting position as his memories returned to him. They'd been fighting a witch, and then... She'd done something.. Was he dead? He didn't think so. Although he'd never died before, he was pretty sure it didn't feel like that. He was pretty sure you couldn't feel pain after you died. At least, he was still alive then.

After Kid managed to focus his vision, he realized he was sitting in the middle of a stone hallway. Ivy crept across the blue-grey stones, and vivid blue sky shown above. Where was he? Where were Liz and Patti! They weren't with him. Where were they? Had the witch killed them? If she had, she would pay. There were reasons no one should mess with a Shinigami, and he would show her every reason he could think of.

Panicking, Kid scanned the area around him. Although he couldn't find Liz or Patti, he did see Tsubaki lying on her side, still unconscious. If they were both alive, Kid assumed that the others were as well. Even if it was completely certain, he had to believe that at the moment. If Liz and Patti and even Black*star were.. No, he wouldn't even think it. They were alive.

The witch had been smart. Wherever she had transported them, she had separated meisters from their weapons, leaving them mostly defenseless. As far as Kid could tell, she'd trapped them in a maze of sorts. Perhaps, if they found their way through, they could find a way out.

Kid crawled over to Tsubaki, hesitating before he shook her shoulder. Lethargically, her eyes fluttered open. "Black*star?" she murmured, a confused frown worming its way onto her face.

"Sorry to disappoint." Kid smirked.

Apparently, she remembered what happened because she bolted up, head-butting kid. "Black*star!" she repeated. "Ow, I'm so sorry, Kid." She rubbed the sore spot on her head.

Kid waved her off dismissively. "It's fine." She nodded and glanced around, eyes wide and fearful.

"What happened?"

"That witch transported us somewhere and separated us from our partners."

"What are we going to do?" she worried. Kid stood, offering her a hand and pulling her to her feet. "Thanks."

"We are going to find our way out of this place. I don't know what this witch's game is, but I think she wants us to find our way out of this place."

"But, what is this place?" She asked, glancing around their surroundings and placing a hand on one of the walls to feel the stone and ivy.

Kid thought for a moment. "I'm not exactly sure, but it seems like a labyrinth to me. Or a rather long stone hallway. I guess I should say I hope it's a labyrinth." Kid placed a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "A labyrinth can be solved, and I'll bet that's our ticket out of here."

"So you're saying, we're stranded in a maze, created by a witch and filled with who knows what, and we don't have our partners so we can't fight?"

Kid smirked. "Yeah, I think that about sums it up."

Original Ending A/N: So there you have it. What do you guys think? Does it have potential? Does it suck? If so, what can we do to improve it? Are the characters in character?

Please let us know in reviews! I love reviews. They make my day.

Thanks for reading :)

See you soon!

P.S.: Thanks to Tif. YOU ROCK. I LOVE YOU!

ONWARD!

-Alyssa