I just want to thank you all for over 200 views! Please R&R. And I'm also considering making a(slightly darker) sequel, Christmas in Death City, and I'd love to hear your opinion. Either way, read and enjoy!
BEEP!BEEP! The oven was going off which meant Death the Kid's beautiful turkey was done. After eight beeps he opened the oven door.
"Ah." He sighed to himself. "Perfectly symmetrical." Kid had spent eight hours preparing thanksgiving dinner. And everything was perfectly symmetrical.
"Hi yah, Kid!" Lord Death said, appearing out of nowhere. Kid jumped in surprise and almost dropped his perfect turkey. "Father! Be careful, this is the most beautifully symmetrical turkey ever made."
Lord Death paused for a moment. Even though he was used to Kid's…unique personality, he was still a bit confused.
"Okidokie kiddo." He simply replied in his ridiculous high voice that seemed inappropriate for the grim reaper. "I wanted to talk to you before the guests come over." Maka, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki were all coming over. And Liz and Patti of course. "I invi-"
But before Death could finish, someone was ringing the doorbell. "Don't inconvenience yourself, father, I'll get it." Kid said, and rushed out the door. Lord Death watched his son's half-striped hair leave the room. "This may get complicated." He muttered to himself.
"Maka, Soul, welcome, welcome. I've arranged two seats for you, right across from each other. Don't worry all the seating is perfectly even. Did you know there are eight of us?" He said happily. "Perfect."
"Thanks Kid." Maka said. "I was going to make some delicious fish pastries, but someone forgot to keep an eye on Blair and she ate all the fish." She shot Soul an evil glare. "So I just brought this box of crackers instead."
"That's perfectly fine." And soon everyone had arrived except for Black Star and Tsubaki.
"I wonder what's taking them so long." Liz asked.
"They're 20 minutes late." Kid acknowledged. Maka made a face. "Knowing Black Star he probably wants to be fashionably late and make a big entrance."
And no sooner had she said that, then a giant crash came from the ballroom. They all rushed there, and as expected Black Star stood in a heap of rubble with his hands on his hips smiling cockily. "The show can start now that I'm here."
"YOU IDIOT!" Kid shouted. "Did you have to come through the ceiling?"
"Classic Black Star." Maka muttered. Tsubaki gracefully jumped through the hole Black Star made in the ceiling. "Sorry about that."
After a few minutes of quietly counting to ten, Kid calmed himself down. Soon enough everyone was together sitting at the long dining room table (perfectly symmetrical), that was lavishly decorated with all types of foods. Lord Death sat at the head of the table (as is expected) and Kid sat across from him, with Liz and Patti at either side of him.
"Dad, are you going to say a speech?" Kid inquired.
"Um, well, actually I think this is a good time to mention that I-" But Lord Death was interrupted by a doorbell.
"That's strange." Kid said.
"Who else did you invite?" Maka asked.
"No one." Kid said, puzzled.
"Hey Maka, maybe your creeper father followed you here to have thanksgiving with you." Soul joked.
"MAKA CHOP!" Maka said, while banging Soul on the head with the expensive glass plate. Kid's heart skipped a beat.
"Ow, Maka, I was just joking."
"Well, it's not my dad, cause he's on 'official' business. But he made me promise to have a second thanksgiving with him when he comes back." Maka explained.
"Well, let's go see who it is." Kid said. No one noticed Lord Death's silence.
A second later Lord Death could hear yelling from the entrance. "KISHIN!" "MAKA CHOP!" "There's no way you're stealing my spotlight." "Soul resonance. GO!"
When Lord Death arrived, everyone had already encircled Asura, and Maka was lunging in for the attack. Death quickly stepped in front of her. She slipped on a conveniently located banana peel and her attack was failed.
"Father, what are you doing?" Kid shouted.
"Now, now. Asura isn't here to cause trouble. I invited him to have thanksgiving with us."
"Whaa?" Everyone exclaimed in unison.
"Afterall, Asura is technically my son. No matter how evil or insane a relative is, they are still allowed to have thanksgiving dinner with us." Everyone glared at Asura. His lips simply parted into a sly smile, revealing all his teeth.
"Thank you, father. I am so looking forward to this." No one replied, just kept glaring at him.
"Alrightly then, let's head back inside folks!" Lord Death said, breaking the venomous silence.
But when they arrived at the dinner table, Kid realized something. "NO! Now there are NINE people! The symmetry is all off! You asymmetrical BASTARD!"
"Kid calm down, it's alright." Liz said soothingly as she and Patti held him back from attacking Asura.
"I have an idea." Asura said. "How about Kid sits up here across from me." Kid's eyes shot steely lasers at him.
"That's a great idea. We'll have the whole family up here." Lord Death said. And that was that. All the symmetry was off, and Kid was sitting across from the kishin who had tried to kill him, twice. He sighed. At least he still had his symmetrical turkey.
"Alrightly. Now that we're all here." Lord Death began. Asura smiled creepily at Kid from across the table. "I know we've had some differences in the past, but as far as I'm concerned, none of that matters today. We are all just one big happy family. And for this I am thankful. I am also thankful for not having any of my academy students die during that battle with the kishin." Death nodded at Asura.
The Death family had a tradition of going around the table and everyone saying one thing they were thankful for. Since Kid was directly to the left of his father, he began.
"I am thankful for my two (semi-symmetrical) meisters. I couldn't ask for a better pair."
"Wow, kid that's so sweet." Said Liz swooning. "I am thankful for not having to ever go into a haunted house ever again." Patti was next.
"I am thankful for Silly String, and magic markers, and ice-cream cake, and those creepy clowns that we totally killed. And-"
"Alright Patti, only one thing." Liz said, cutting her younger sibling off.
"I am thankful for all our great friends." Tsubaki said.
"I'm thankful for my legendary skills that are going to let me surpass God." Said Black Star.
"I'm thankful for awesome motorcycles." Soul said. Maka rolled her eyes.
"I am thankful that we successfully defeated the kishin-"She stole a glance at Asura. "And that we can all look to the future now."
And the kishin was next. Everyone prepared themselves. "I am thankful for this second chance to prove myself." Okayy… I don't think anyone really saw that coming.
"Wonderful. Now let's carve the turkey." Kid let out a gasp of excitement. This is what he'd been training for his whole life. He reached for the carving tool, but was intercepted by his father. "I think we should let our guest, Asura, have the honors."
"WhaaHH?" Kid said, and fell backwards into his chair, which fell to the floor. His nose began to bleed violently and he laid unconscious on the floor.
"Now you've done it." Liz sighed.
"Yay! This is so much fun!" Patti said. Finally after ten minutes, Kid retained his composure. He still felt lightheaded and Asura was just continuing to give him uncomforting smiles. He bit his lip as Asura brought the carver to the turkey. It seemed to take a millennia for him to finally cut it. Almost as if he was doing it on purpose to torture Kid.
"NOO!AHaahh." Kid shouted, collapsing to the floor unconscious once more. "Off by two millimeters…No…garbage, piece of…" He muttered in his delirium.
"hmm." Asura said softly. His voice vibrated deeply. "It seems I've cut it asymmetrically. How foolish of me." He dropped a touch of amusement into his sentence.
"Are you ok Kid?" Lord Death asked, oblivious of Asura's comment.
"He'll be fine." Liz muttered. Suddenly Black Star jumped up onto the table, crashing bowls of food onto the floor. Luckily for him, Kid was still passed out.
"Alright everybody. My turn. I'm still the only star here! That's right. It's me, Black Star and I'm about to put on one of my greatest shows ever!"
"Your foot is in my carrots." Asura said cooly.
"Yeah. So what?" Black Star said back. Asura's wrappings slowly emerged from his suit. They coiled behind him like snakes ready to pounce. Suddenly they were interrupted by another doorbell. Seeing as Kid was unconscious, and Black Star and Asura were about to battle it out, Maka took this opportunity to escape before the fighting started.
"I'll get it." She opened the door.
"Professer Stein?" She asked, confused. Her father was also there with Stein.
"MAKA! I didn't know you'd be here. This is wonderful! I-" Spirit said, but Maka cut him off.
"Professer Stein? What are you doing here?" She said, stilling ignoring Spirit. Stein took a long drag on his cigarette.
"Well, it seems Asura has somehow escaped, and crazy enough, we tracked him here." Maka made a face. Oh. She thought.
"Yeah. He's here. But he's hasn't done anything dangerous, yet. He's eating thanksgiving dinner with us." Stein raised an eyebrow inquisitively. Spirit started to have spasms in the background about how dangerous it was to have a meal with a kishin and how he could never let his daughter get hurt, blahblahblah.
"Well, if everything's undercontrol I guess-"
"Hold up a second." Spirit said. Oh no, Thought Maka. "We need to stay and make sure the kishin isn't up to any trouble." Stein shrugged his shoulders.
"Alright. I'm not arguing with that if I get free food." Stein agreed.
"What? Stein, you're just letting him get away with this?" Maka shouted. Stein shrugged his shoulders again.
"He has a point. We should really keep an eye on the kishin and get some mashed potatoes while we're at it. I hear Tsubaki makes five-star mashed potatoes."
Before Maka could stop either one of them, they stormed past her and joined the party. Although at this point it was more like an all-out war. Maka sulked in after them.
Finally after much destruction and a few almost decapitations, Lord Death calmed everyone down, made two new places at the dining room table, and Kid woke up.
Death was in the middle of his second attempt at a speech when they heard another doorbell. "Not again." Soul moaned, and slammed his head on the table. "So not cool." He muttered.
So everyone got up again and went to open the door, prepared for anything. But it was only Crona. "Crona!" Maka said, embracing him. "So glad you could come. I thought you were spending time with your mom." Suddenly Ragnarok appeared from Crona's side. "You could say there was a change of plans. Anyway, is that ugly little girl Tsubaki here? Cause I need to eat some of her food. She may be ugly, but she makes delicious sandwiches." Crona gave an apologizing glance.
"Don't worry. There's plenty of food to go around." Said Asura. A dawning look of fear appeared on Crona's face. "I-uh, kishin, there's a kishin right behind you guys." Everyone made a face.
"Yeah we know." Kid answered simply.
They all scrambled back into the dining room, but all stopped in shock.
"Hello, Stein." Said Medusa flirtatiously. She was laying on the table. "I thought I'd pay you a visit. Oh, hello Crona. So lovely to see you again." She said sadistically. Kid just walked into the kitchen and got two more plates for Crona and Medusa, not even caring anymore that his perfect dream of symmetry had been burned, torn into shreds, and smashed to dust which was then blown into the wind never to be seen again.
He turned to return to the dining room, but suddenly stopped. He let out a gasp.
"Hello, brother." Asura said, his lips parting and curling at the edges so much he almost looked like the Grinch. Kid involuntarily grasped the plates harder.
"What do you want?" He asked, trying to sound confident.
"Want? I just want to talk. Get to know my baby brother." The way he said baby annoyed Kid.
"So you try to kill me, but now you want to get to know me better?" Kid said sarcastically.
"Precisely. My last defeat really opened my eyes, put things in perspective." Kid wasn't sure where Asura was going with this, so he remained silent. Asura continued. "At first, I couldn't understand it. How had I been defeated by a few weakling insect children like yourself, no offense-"
"None taken." Kid said, filling it with venom.
"Was I really that weak? After swallowing all those human souls, and a witch's soul? And then it hit me. Maybe I wasn't the weak one, maybe you were just stronger."
Kid had a pit in his stomach. He wished Patti and Liz and all his friends were here to help him, should it come to a fight. What could he do alone against a kishin?
"And then I came to the conclusion, you are all stronger because you are working as one, a team. Alone you are each powerful, but together…You resonate off each other and draw power from each other. So, if I wanted to make myself more powerful, I'd need my own team, right? But where could I get one of those? And one that could defeat all of you. And then, my most brilliant conclusion yet. If you can't beat them, join them. Or in my case, make them join you." He stopped as if waiting for a reply.
Kid was utterly confused. Was he hearing Asura correctly? Maybe he had hit his head a bit too hard when he collapsed.
"So?" Asura asked again.
"Are you asking me to join you?"
"Not just you, you and all your friends. Think of it. I know as well as they do that each one of them has madness just waiting to escape inside of them. Even you. Think of how symmetrical you could make the world if we joined forces. No one could stop us, not even the academy, not even dad. So what do you say?" For a moment Kid said nothing.
"I'll never join you, and neither will my friends! We'd rather die than ever help you." Kid said icily. Asura simply laughed evilly.
"You misunderstand me. I wasn't asking." Kid hadn't noticed Asura's tentacle ribbons encircling him, but now it was too late. He dropped the plates, and they went smashing to the floor. The ribbons wrapped around him in an instant and began to squeeze. He wished Liz and Patti were here. He felt his world slowly fading away into blackness.
"Kid, are you alright?" Kid thought he heard Liz in the background, but it was very fuzzy. His senses slowly came back to him. He was lying on the kitchen floor surrounded by broken pieces of glass. Had it all been a dream. No. The pain in his side told him the truth.
But why had the kishin let him go? Kid's head was still spinning. He was vaguely aware of Liz and Patti walking in. "Hey kid what's taking so long? Oh my- are you okay?" Liz helped him up.
"Yay! Broken glass! Can I smash some plates?" Patti asked.
"No." Liz said harshly. They made Kid feel a little better. Together they all returned to the dining room, forgetting about the plates.
"Kid! What took so long?" Lord Death asked when they returned.
"I just- ah, broke some plates." Everyone looked shocked.
"You broke a plate?" Maka asked.
"Dude, maybe you should sit down a bit. You might have hit your head a bit too hard when you fell." Soul joked.
"Yes I know. But I'm fine." Kid said, trying to sound fine, but he sounded shaky even to him. Luckily Lord Death took the moment of calm as an opportunity to finish his speech.
"So, as I was saying. I am so happy we could all be here together for thanksgiving, even though half of us weren't even invited. But seriously. We've all had a very tough year. We fought a kishin and defeated him. Some of us even died once or twice." He nodded towards Medusa. "But no matter what, at the end of the day we'll always have each other. That's what friend are for."
Everyone clapped enthusiastically because they were happy Lord Death had finally given his speech uninterrupted. Spirit was happily telling the table about Maka's potty training years as she pleaded with him to stop. Medusa was feeding Stein an apple, very seductively while Stein tried to dissect what was left of the turkey. Black Star was busy doing pushups to burn off all the food while Tsubaki was looking on encouragingly. Overall everyone was having a great time.
Even Kid started to feel better and forgot the whole incident with his brother, until he noticed Asura was missing from his place across the table. Kid leaned into his father and quietly asked, "Where did Asura go?"
"Oh, after you went to get the plates, he had to leave suddenly." Lord Death said casually. "Oh, but he told me to tell you that he simply cannot wait until Christmas." He said with a smile.