Dancing With Tears in my Eyes is performed by Ke$ha, and I do not own the song or her, for that matter.
Standard Disclaimers Apply
Do not copy or redistribute without author's consent
PLEASE READ: This takes place five years after Asura's death, just like all of my other Soul Eater fics! Liz and Kid are 18!
"Kid, no!" I cried as the knife made contact, sinking into his back with the most disgusting of squishing sounds. That knife had been meant to hit me, and it would have surely killed me if it hadn't been for Kid throwing his body on top of mine to protect me. I was his weapon, dammit! I should have been the one risking my life for the sake of his; not the other way around!
"L-Liz!" he ground out as the knife sunk deeper into him, "Get Patty and yourself out of here! I c-can hold him off on my own!" Of course he would say that. He was a Shinigami, after all; he could handle a great deal more of pain than we mere humans could. But still...
"You'll die if you try to take much more!" I shouted, grabbing hold of his face and wiping away the little bit of blood that had dribbled its way out of his mouth. 'Dammit! That knife freaking pierced an organ!' I cursed mentally, then screamed as the knife was once more plunged into his back.
Tears welled in my eyes as I heard him cry out in pain, and I clenched my fists defiantly as he tried to push me away. "Liz, you have to go!" His voice was now pleading as a whimper escaped his lips, and my throat hurt terribly with the need to sob. That was it. The time for diplomacy was over.
Once the Kishin we had been fighting drew back again, ready to stab the knife into Kid for the last time, I took action. Holding Kid around the middle, I managed to push us both away just in time as the knife bit into the cold ground underneath us. Then, with all of the strength I could muster, I sat up, Kid resting in my lap, and transformed my hand into the barrel of a gun. Sparing a glance down at my bleeding meister, I mentally cursed when I saw his eyes losing focus. My normally calm and collected blue eyes hardened as my gaze connected with the evil man...creature...standing before me. "You are a terrible person, and you must be dealt with," I growled, then thought a moment before adding, "And you're not symmetrical at all." And with that, I charged up enough of my soul's wavelength and shot it at the Kishin. Again and again the pink bullets soared through the air, tearing apart the man piece by piece before there was nothing left of him but his ugly, little Kishin's egg soul.
Patty, who had been ordered by both me and Kid to hide behind a tree for safety, slowly poked her head out and around the large object and stared wide-eyed at the mess I had made. Then, her stormy-blues found the Kishin's egg soul floating less than four feet away from me and she smiled and laughed. "Sis! You killed the bad guy! You killed the bad guy!" she chanted over and over again, but her words were nothing more than a jumbled mess to me as my blurry gaze fell on the injured man in my arms.
Here we go, welcome to my funeral
Without you I don't even have a pulse
All alone it's dark and cold
With every move I die
A strangled sob threatened to make itself known, but my throat was too closed up to allow any sound to pass. Kid looked so broken, so...dead. Tears spilled from my eyes, and I shook my head, hoping and praying to every god I knew that my thoughts weren't true. I felt a sudden pressure on my cheek, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Kid, a smile crossing his handsome, blood-streaked face. A cold hand was pressed to my face, and he was wiping away the tears that I had cried. That act alone made me cry harder.
My sister stood behind me, her eyes widening, finally realizing why I was so silent. Before I could stop her, she threw herself across Kid's lap, sobbing openly, begging him not to die. He opened his mouth to speak, but I shook my head, pressing my forehead to his and closing my eyes.
"Don't say another word. Don't waste any energy. We want you to stay here with us...with me..." I communicated through our souls' wavelengths. I felt him nod, but I showed no sign of moving away from him. I was going to stay with him until the paramedics arrived. The paramedics...
"Patty...Patty, listen to me," I started, leaving my meister for a moment to grab hold of my sister's face and lift it so our gazes connected. "I need you to be a strong, big girl for me, okay? I want you to run as fast as you can, can you do that for me? Run and find Naigus, and tell her that Kid is hurt. Bad." With that being said, I wiped the tears from her eyes and kissed her cheek. She nodded knowingly, standing and sprinting toward the DWMA. I watched after her, stroking Kid's hair softly and whispering to him to stay awake, stay with me.
Here I go, this is my confessional
A lost cause, nobody can save my soul
I am so delusional
With every move I die
I swear, it was the longest three hours of my life. It only took a half hour for Naigus and the others to find us, and by that time, Kid had lost a significant amount of blood. At first, everyone thought it was me who was bleeding, seeing as the thick, red liquid was coating my body at that point. Once it was cleared up that it was Kid who was hurt badly, a helicopter dropped down—from the heavens, it seemed—and carried Kid to the school's infirmary. I stayed with him the entire time, holding his larger hand between two of my delicate ones. I had half a mind to shoot one of the nurses while we fought openly in the hallways; they told me I had to leave him alone and get my wounds taken care of.
"No! I don't care about my wounds! I want to stay with Kid! I want to stay with him, please!" I cried out, struggling against Stein, who had wrapped his arms around my small form and pulled me away from my meister. "Stein! Let me go! Kid! No!" My cries turned into screams of hysteria as the stitched-up professor practically dragged me into one of the rooms saved for injured students and threw me onto the bed.
"Liz! Calm down! Naigus! I need your help!" the professor shouted, holding down my flailing limbs with his soul-stitch as I tried to escape. The combat knife appeared a moment later with a syringe in hand.
"I'll take it from here, Stein," she stated, patting him on the shoulder. He nodded and made to leave, but not before shooting a concerned look in my direction. When he was gone, Naigus turned back to me. "Time to take a nap, Liz."
My eyes widened, and I shook my head frantically. "No! I have to see Kid! It's all my fault! It's all my fault!" The nurse moved closer to me, syringe poised to enter my body through my neck. "Naigus, no! I have to see Kid! NO!" And then, blackness surrounded me as the needle was injected into my neck.
I have destroyed our love, it's gone
Payback is sick, it's all my fault
I awoke with a pounding headache, and my body stung in protest when I attempted to move to sit up. Worry crawled into my heart, because for a second, I had no idea where I was or how I ended up there. My eyes darted frantically around the dark room, taking in the familiar bland decor and white sheets strewn to the side by my frequently moving body. 'I'm in the infirmary...but, why?' I thought confusedly, my heart pounding in my chest. Where was Patty? And Kid? Kid...
"Oh, shit! Kid!" The night's events came rushing back into my head all at once, not helping my headache in the slightest. We had been fighting a man turned evil by the Kishin's madness, I tripped and stopped paying attention for a mere second, and then... "Kid jumped on top of me to protect me..." A whole new slew of tears made their way through my tear ducts, and I jumped to my feet, ignoring the pain in my ribs and legs.
Tearing the IV out of my arms and whimpering when the rest of the pain came surging back into my body, I wobbled slightly before pushing off of my heels and running straight for the door. Ripping it open with enough force to break the hinges, I whipped my head back and forth, making sure neither Naigus nor Stein were in the hallway ready to stick me with another needle. Sighing with relief when realizing the coast was clear, I sprinted for the room that was directly across from mine. Slowly pulling it open, I peeked inside. Patty was sprawled out on the bed, her pillow snuggled between her arms. A small smile found its way onto my lips at how serenely she was sleeping, but then it turned into a frown when I assumed that they probably had to tranquilize her as well to get her to calm down.
I sighed, shaking my head and closing the door quietly so as not to wake her. Snapping back to my mission at hand, I ran for the room next to Patty's. I held my breath in anticipation before opening the door. What I saw made my heart snap in two.
I'm dancing with tears in my eyes
Just fighting to get through the night
I'm losing it
With every move I die
I'm fading, I'm broken inside
I've wasted the love of my life
I'm losing it
With every move I die
There Kid lay, his beautiful golden eyes being held captive by closed lids. He was hooked up to at least five different machines, and his normally pale skin looked almost as white as the sheets in which he was wrapped. His shoulder-length hair was disheveled, obscuring the view of the three silver stripes that stopped at the center of his head. His tall, lithe body was positioned almost as if he was already dead. Tears slipped unbidden from between my long lashes as I ran to the side of his bed. I fell to my knees, my hands searching out for his. "K-Kid..." I couldn't even get his name out without it sounding hoarse and gruff. I bowed my head, resting my face against his side as I offered a silent prayer to the gods for my meister, my love, to be all right.
Suddenly, I felt a large, foam-like hand softly arrest my shoulder, and my head popped up so fast, I was afraid it would snap off of my neck. Turning around, my eyes took in the sight of Death himself, his blank expression looking slightly sullen. "H-he'll be f-fine, right, Sir?" I managed to ask, my fingers intertwining with Kid's involuntarily.
Death stared at me for a long time, not saying anything. Then, he raised a large hand into the air, and before I could even think to blink, the appendage came down lightly on my head in a soft, Shinigami-chop. "Stop worrying, you silly baka. My son, Death the Kid, is a god, after all. He'll be all right in a couple of days," he teased light-heartedly, ruffling my hair. For all of his efforts to cheer me up, it wasn't working. With a final sob, I collapsed into him, my arms wrapping around his middle as I cried openly into him.
"It's all my fault, Sir! If I had been paying a little closer attention, he wouldn't have...he wouldn't be..." I couldn't finish, so instead, I opted for shaking my head frantically and holding Death tighter.
What I wasn't expecting was for him to bend down to look me in the eye. All traces of joking were gone when I took in his stern countenance, and if it weren't for the fact that I was almost at my breaking point, I would've thought I was in trouble or something. "Listen here, young lady," he began, his voice hard and terse, "I don't ever want you blaming yourself for anything that happens to Kid, or anyone else, for that matter. There will always be 'what if' instances in battle; it can't be helped. What you need to do is stop blaming yourself for what happened, and do your best to make sure that it doesn't happen again." With that, he patted my cheek, wiping away my tears, before straightening up and stalking out of the room, leaving me alone with my meister and my thoughts.
When did I become such a hypocrite?
Double life, lies that you caught me in
Trust me I'm paying for it
With every move I die
It had been a good three days since we had been checked into the infirmary, and although Patty and I were feeling a million times better, Kid was still pretty badly injured. The three puncture wounds on his back were almost healed, but he claimed that they still hurt a bit. He was defiant when Naigus and Death told him he should stay in the infirmary a little longer, and by the fourth day, he had succeeded in getting them to agree to let him go home. I still felt terrible for what had happened, and I couldn't shake the fact that if I hadn't been so careless, Kid wouldn't have been bedridden for so long from my thoughts.
As we were settling in back home, I made periodic checkups on Kid to make sure he was okay. Every time I entered the room, asking if he needed anything; he'd simply smile, roll his eyes, and tell me that I worked too hard. That comment usually earned him a slight chuckle from me, but other than that, I remained slightly distant over the days it took him to get better. I was lost in my thoughts, I wasn't getting any sleep, I wasn't eating, and Patty was starting to get concerned; I could tell.
One day, she timidly confronted me about it. "Lizzy..." she began, squirming in place as she put down her crayons. I looked up over the top of the magazine I wasn't really even reading and nailed her with a questioning look. She squirmed more. "I just...um, I've been noticing that you've been acting different...kinda zombie-ish..."
My gaze turned softer. She was upset about it, and it was my job to comfort her and squelch her curiosity.
Standing up and walking over to where she was sitting, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and hugged her close to me. "I'm fine, Patty...don't worry about me, okay? Can you do that for me?" I heard her grumble something, and before I could react, she tore out of my embrace, jumping up and glowering down at me.
"Stop treating me like I'm some stupid, naive little kid who doesn't know anything! I know what's going on, and trust me, I'm just as upset as you are! So stop keeping me in the dark and let me in!" she shouted, fisting her hands on her hips and glaring daggers at me. I was shocked into silence at her sudden outburst, and was about to question her about it, but she wouldn't let me talk. "No, Liz, stop worrying about everyone else for a change and start worrying about yourself! Please! For me?"
My shock subsided, and I let out a shaky, shuddering sigh. "You really wanna know what's bugging me?" She nodded enthusiastically, sitting down cross-legged across from me. Sighing once more, I brought my hands up to my eyes to rub the sleep away. "When you went to hide like we told you to, things happened...including the fact that I left myself defenseless at the mercy of the Kishin and he almost killed me. If it hadn't been for Kid, I would be dead right now..." Patty made an all-knowing sound and nodded, patting me on the back. "So...it's all my fault that he's hurt now..."
On the floor I'm just a zombie
Who I am is not who I wanna be
I'm such a tragedy
With every move I die
"It's okay, Lizzy..." she finally said after a long pause, and she hugged me tightly. "It's not your fault; it could've happened to anyone. You gotta stop beating yourself up over it."
"But I can't!" I shouted, and this time it was me who tore out of her embrace. "I don't even think he knows how upset I am about this! He's taking it so light-heartedly, and it's driving me nuts! He almost died, Patty! All because of me!"
She was silent for a moment, seemingly a tad scared of my sudden tirade. Then, she offered a soft, "Then why don't you go tell him how you feel?" before curling her legs to her stomach and resting her chin on her knees.
I hadn't heard her, though, and began crying softly. This whole situation was tearing me up inside, and I just needed some time to myself. "I'm going out for a walk in the garden. Don't follow me," I muttered before walking away. My baby sister simply stared after me, shaking her head and sighing.
"Jesus, I gotta do everything around here, don't I!"
Kid's POV
I was intently reading an Edgar Allen Poe poem book while relaxing and recovering from my injuries when I heard stomping coming from the hallway. Patty...
"Oh, great..." I groaned, massaging the bridge of my nose with my index finger and thumb, "...she's upset..."
Before I could even think to hide, my door came bursting open, a very angry-looking blond standing in the entryway. "You gotta talk to Liz, Kid!" she shouted, running into my room and jumping onto my bed. She sat cross-legged between my legs, looking up at me with pleading, blue eyes. "She's going crazy, blaming herself for what happened to you!" The grumpy little pistol crossed her arms over her chest and grumbled, "I tried talking some sense into her, but she won't listen. She says that it's her fault that you're hurt!"
I blinked a few times, taking in what she said. Liz was...blaming herself? For what? It wasn't like she was the one who stabbed me in the back several times. She hadn't done anything wrong. So why...?
"She thinks that, if she hadn't been there to allegedly 'screw things up', you wouldn't have gotten hurt," Patty said matter-of-factly, seemingly reading my mind. I blinked a few more times, my thoughts on hyper drive. She was probably thinking that, as my weapon, she was supposed to be the one to get hurt for the sake of my benefit. Stupid woman...
I hadn't realized what I was doing until I was standing, the IV's ripped from my arms and the machines unhooked so I could move. "Patty, where is Liz right now?" I asked as I yanked on a pair of black slacks, curling back the cuffs of my white, button-up shirt. When she told me where I could find Liz, I thanked her and ran for it, bolting through the corridors of my house and out into the garden. Ignoring the obvious pain that shot through my body like a lightning bolt, I took to the sky on Beelzebub, searching for the one who currently held my heart in the palm of her hand.
I have destroyed our love, it's gone
Payback is sick, it's all my fault
I found her where I normally do when she's upset: reclining on the love seat that laid on the very outskirts of my property. I could tell by the way her arms were crossed over her chest and by the pout that marred her beautiful facial features that she was unhappy about something. Dropping down from the sky and skateboarding toward her, my chest ached when I heard her crying. I hated it when she cried. "Liz..." I began softly, wanting to make my presence known so as not to startle her. Her crying ceased for a moment, and she whipped her head around to look at me. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her face was streaked with tears.
"Kid? What are you doing?" Her gaze turned hard. "You should be in bed resting! Not out here where you could catch a cold!" I smiled; there was the mothering Liz I both knew and loved. "Why are you smiling? It's not funny!" She ran to me, dropping down to her knees at the same time I did. She caught me in her arms, holding my head to her chest and combing her fingers through my hair. "You're such an idiot sometimes. Why must you be so reckless?"
"I had to see you..." I mumbled, nuzzling her with my nose. She gasped, grabbing hold of my face and lifting so she could look me in the eyes. "You're blaming yourself for my own carelessness and you call me the idiot?" I joked, hoping to get her to smile. She didn't. Sighing and shaking my head, I stood up and moved away from her. Looking down at her, sitting there on the ground with a rather hurt expression on her face, I automatically felt bad for leaving her. Instead of kneeling back down, thought, I simply slid my arms underneath her and lifted her up. A surprised gasp escaped her lips as she wrapped her arms around my neck and argued with me to put her down. I ignored her in favor of sitting down on the love seat with her in my lap. "Keep struggling and you'll make it worse," I teased, but there was a hint of seriousness in my words as I felt the stitches tug at the sudden movement.
She stopped moving, sitting ramrod straight and still, and I sighed in disapproval. I would have to do something about the way she was treating me like some fragile China doll later. Right now, I needed her full attention. "Listen, Liz..." I began, brushing her bangs from her face and wiping the tears from her lashes. "Patty told me how you were feeling...you need to understand something, and I'm going to get it across to you no matter what it takes." And, before I could lose my resolve, I leaned in, pressing my lips to hers softly.
I'm dancing with tears in my eyes
Just fighting to get through the night
I'm losing it
With every move I die
I'm fading, I'm broken inside
I've wasted the love of my life
I'm losing it
With every move I die
Liz's POV
Was he...kissing me? What the hell? I wasn't expecting that in the slightest. But, hey, I wasn't going to waste a good opportunity.
All shock dissipating, I melted into the kiss, snaking my arms around his neck and playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. He reciprocated by sliding his arms around my waist, pulling me into his wiry chest. 'He's gotten taller,' I mused randomly, 'but he's still a tad thin for his height.'
His lips were soft, gentle, and when I felt him bite down lightly on my bottom lip, I didn't hesitate to open up my mouth to him. Despite the way the kiss felt, though, I couldn't shake the regretful feeling welling up inside me. "K-Kid!" I gasped against his lips, trying to push him off, but he ignored me in favor of tugging at my hair, yanking my head backwards and allowing him more access to the expanse of my neck. Tears sprung to my eyes; I wasn't sure if they were tears of joy or grief. I felt his teeth knick my collarbone, and finally, I decided that enough was enough. "Kid, stop! P-please!" My voice shook as I said this, and he froze beneath me. The sudden lack of movement allowed me to jump from his warm embrace, and before he could grab for me again, I turned my back on him and walked a few feet away, facing the rising moon and sighing, willing myself not to cry.
"Liz...?" he asked from behind me, and the dam broke as salty water spilled from my stormy eyes. He sounded so heartbroken. I hated hearing the great Death the Kid sound so helpless and lost, but I just couldn't indulge in the sensations that he invoked. I didn't deserve to feel that good, especially not after almost getting him killed.
Shaking my head, I pulled my hair off of the back of my neck and combed it over my shoulder, a nervous habit I had all of the sudden developed recently. "I can't, Kid...I can't do this..." I could feel his confused aura from where I stood, and I suddenly realized that he had misinterpreted what I had said. "Oh, God, no! That's not what I meant at all, Kid!" Grumbling underneath my breath at how irritating this entire situation was, I thrust my hand through my bangs and sighed. "I mean that...you're hurt, and...I..."
His reassuring smile made me melt, distracting me from finishing my sentence. "Quite the opposite of hurt, actually. It's a tad uncomfortable, but I can assure you, I'm fine." When I slowly turned to him, my eyes reflecting my doubt, he sighed and shook his head. "You really are getting worked up over nothing." Standing, he walked over to me, but I didn't allow him to touch my face and wipe away my tears like I knew he wanted to. Instead, I subtly backed away from him. His face was set in determination as he stepped closer to me, and I kept reciprocating by moving away until my back was pressed against the wall-like fence that surrounded the outskirts of the garden. Kid's face was inches from mine as his normally hard, golden eyes softened. Emotions whirled through the cognac depths, and I nearly lost my will to stand as he moved in for another kiss. "It wasn't your fault," he whispered against my lips, making it hard for me to resist as his warm breath flooded into my mouth. "I wanted to protect you at all costs."
I whimpered as his teeth gently nibbled at my bottom lip. Where the heck did he learn to kiss like that? "B-but..."
"No 'buts'... Liz, do you realize that if that knife had made contact with you, you wouldn't be alive right now?" Another shudder ran its course through my body as his tongue traced the edges of my teeth. "And, you certainly must have figured it out by now, that I wouldn't be able to live properly without you around?"
"B-because...y-you wouldn't be s-s-symmetrical with...oh! only Patty..." He was deterring my train of thought so easily by flicking his slippery appendage across my collarbone and up to my ear.
A small chuckle escaped him as he lightly bit down on my earlobe. "Well, yes, but..." His breath fanned across my neck and jaw as he exhaled deeply. "...I wouldn't be able to live without you...because I love you..." Throughout his entire statement, my hands had been clenched into tight fists at my sides, but when he uttered those three beautiful words, my grip faltered.
"W-what did you just say?"
This is it
Now you're really gone this time
Never once thought
I'd be in pieces left behind
Sighing, seemingly to collect the bravery needed to execute speech once more, he whispered, "I love you," again before claiming my mouth in a searing kiss that had my toes curling and my palms sweating. While we were wrapped up in each other, I felt his warm hands enclose mine. "Touch me..." he murmured, moving said appendages to wrap around his back. "...feel the stitches? They're proof that I'm alright." My body relaxed fully when I felt the stitches holding his wounds together. No blood, no bone; he was healing, and that brought on a sense of weary relief.
"So you're...you're okay? You're not hurt?" In answer to my unnecessary question, he swooped in for another kiss; this time it was delicate and thoughtful, his tongue stroking mine gently.
"I've never been better," came his reply a little while later when we parted, and he pulled me into his embrace before I could ask any other questions. "You know...I'm kind of glad that this all happened." My gaze snapped up to connect with his in confusion, and he laughed and kissed my cheek before continuing. "If I hadn't gotten hurt, I wouldn't have been able to find the courage to tell you that—"
"I love you," I said quickly, interrupting him from what he was going to say. He stared at me for a moment, processing what I had just said, and then a smile crossed his otherwise stoic face.
"Oh, really..." A mischievous twinkle sparked into his eyes. "How much?"
Laughing for what felt like the first time in weeks, I flicked his nose before pulling out of his embrace and taking his hand. "You've been spending too much time with Soul..." He pouted cutely, and my resolve slipped a notch. "Maybe when you're one hundred percent healed, I'll show you how much of a fiery pistol I can be in bed...pun only partially intended."
Again, he pouted, and it was followed by a groan when I purposely fixed my top to show more cleavage than necessary. "I take it you've stopped blaming yourself for my injuries?" I nodded and laughed, leaving a lingering kiss to his lips before pulling away and practically dragging him back to the house. "Oh, come on! This isn't fair! You wanna blame yourself for anything, blame yourself for the hard evidence of your teasing!" He pointed to his crotch, and a couple of his maids frowned disdainfully.
Shaking my head, I led him to his room and pushed him inside. "I think I'm finished with blaming myself...after all, you are a Shinigami. Fix it yourself!" With that, I shut the door, muffling his retort and sighing. Finally, I was done dancing around with tears in my eyes.
I'm dancing with tears in my eyes
Just fighting to get through the night
I'm losing it
With every move I die
I'm fading; I'm broken inside
I've wasted the love of my life
I'm losing it
With every move I die
A/N: Hehe...no sex for Kid! Oh well...sucks for him :) Any questions, comments, or concerns are welcome, and the easiest way to ensure new stories is to comment! Kisses to all of my readers!