Those of you who know me from Naruto know that AU alt ships are kind of my thang. So while I'm still SoMa all the way… I took a look at some KiMa stuff and I didn't see the scenario I was hoping to see (initially at least). Therefore (!) by the unwritten bylaws of all fanfic writers I must write the bunny I went to find.
Partially this is me trying to get a bead on Kid, because he's kind of a joke, and yet not, so personality seems to be what you make of it (he's hard to write). Partially this is me taking a quick interlude from the ½ finished next chapter of my SoMa piece.
Made Kid a Capricorn to Maka's Aquarius (needed some birthday logic in place).
Disclaimer: Soul Eater and its characters aren't mine, alas.
Maka could feel how high her blood pressure was because every thump of it was causing her head to throb in time, an offbeat counterpoint to the base of the music that was filling the downstairs area. Nothing could fully cover up the yowling on the other side of the door, though.
"Albarn. Maka Albarn." Slowly, Maka realized that someone had been saying her name for quite some time. Only one person would be so brave, or stupid, to approach her while she was quivering under the full force of her cold fury.
"Go away Kid."
"Ahem." He cleared his throat before he slid himself in between her and the laser focus her eyes had on the door. "I was under the impression you were about to," Kid paused a moment as if remembering someone's exact words. "Rip this door off of its fucking hinges. Or so Patti was informing me a moment ago."
It was the flint spark that ignited her, at last. "Patti needs to keep her opinions to herself!"
Whirling around, Maka stared down the stairs where a few curious heads were glancing up to the landing and seemingly dissolved into the general chaos of the party as soon as Maka's eyes sought them out.
It was that moment, blood practically boiling inside of her, when a high-pitched feminine giggle caressed her ear. Some strangled feral yell was trying to emerge from Maka's throat, but Kid was still between her and the holy vengeance she was going to rain down on Soul and Blair.
"This way Maka," Kid was speaking calmly, ignoring how she was on the verge of spontaneous combustion, and easily dodged as she took a swing at him in annoyance. The punch was so wide and so telegraphed that he actually caught her fist and proceeded to pull her by the wrist firmly down the hallway. Maka didn't physically struggle, but she was not one jot less angry.
This was the last big hurrah, nearly, before graduation and the diaspora of their friend group to various colleges. Kid's birthday was so close to New Year that it was always a doubled up party. In reality he had turned eighteen two days ago, but he accepted the attention with the usual politician's grace he had learned from his father. This was supposed to be Maka's chance to grow a pair and actually ask Soul if maybe perhaps they were more than just the best friends they had seemed for nearly a decade. But she couldn't have any conversation with him if his tongue was down Blair's throat in one of Kid's spare bedrooms!
She had seen red all the way down the hall, taking a sharp right turn into the wing that housed all of Kid's private rooms. Not many people her age had their own bathroom, game room, exercise room, and library but Kid was so old money he'd been the shocked one when they'd completed a project at her house for the first time in freshmen year English. Protected and soothed by the books she loved, Kid closed the door on the rest of the world as well as the pulsing dance beat that was more like elevator music in their new environment.
"Why interfere!? You know I wouldn't break down a door, not really, and even if I had you spend more money on hair treatments in a month than it would cost to fix!"
Kid tilted his head to the side, stopping his hand from flying up to smooth down his hair with the distinctive platinum stripes he bleached into it. Instead, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he gestured at the plush couch near the floor to ceiling picture window. Maka could push past him and enact her revenge fantasy down the hall, or she could sit down and chill out as he was indicating. Normally, not even Kid could call the shots on Maka when she was in a mood but there was a determination in his glance she wasn't used to and it was his birthday after all.
The couch was leather, supple and smooth, and the picture window overlooked the idyllic garden that was artistically maintained even in winter. Maka thought of her own small room in the cookie cutter suburban split level her papa had rented for them when they had moved here, promising her as soon as he had time to look for a better place with the big yard that she'd been dreaming of he'd snap it up. Until that point Maka had seen a different birthday in Germany, Japan, and about every city in the U.S. with a base on it.
"I have a feeling Black Star will cause me quite enough property damage as per usual. If you start in too, I'm not sure even my father could overlook it this year." The deadpan delivery of what Maka knew Kid meant to be a joke killed any humor it might have possessed.
"Ugh! Don't compare me to Black Star!" Maka crashed backwards onto the couch, propping her booted feet up on the windowsill in a wide and unladylike V considering how short her skirt was.
A sideways glance showed her the faint brush of pink high on Kid's pale cheeks at the smooth expanse of thigh she was exposing. Maka reeled in her purposefully gauche behavior at his discomfort and sat more properly, even if she'd never be able to match the steel rod that Kid called a spine. Her friend wasn't much of a talker when it came to personal matters, so Maka let the silence drift a moment before she launched in.
"As usual, Soul had to make an appearance at the Evans family party before he came here so we had agreed to meet up whenever it was convenient. Also as usual, Patti was trying to ply me with whatever horrible jungle juice she had concocted from your dad's liquor cabinet so it took a solid forty minutes before she happened to mention she had seen Blair pulling Soul upstairs." Maka had known after the fact that the attempt to get her drunk had been Patti's version of 'softening the blow' so she tried not to hold it against her.
"Tsubaki told me you looked like you were about to go kill someone." Kid supplied on his own end.
Maka snorted. "And then ran to find Black Star immediately after I'll bet. He'd started the party early and when I got here he was shirtless and hollering something about a Polar Bear Club."
Kid looked vaguely concerned. "That explains a few things. Well, they'd have to get the pool covering off first so I doubt that…" The look Maka gave him said volumes. "Really? No wonder Tsubaki has emergency services on speed dial."
They sat in bemused but calm silence as memories of Black Star's antics provided them private amusement. Already, Maka felt more like herself and less like a bull in a china shop. The rage left in her heart was tinged with a healthy heap of sadness and topped with a cherry of self-pity.
Kid, clad in a black suit for the party and looking down on a dark and dormant garden, seemed like a picture perfect representative of gothic romance. When was the last time they had spent time alone like this? They spent a lot of time together on student council, but discussing policies and hearing student grievances wasn't exactly personal the way this moment was.
"Are you wearing eyeliner?" Having stared at him too long, Maka felt like she needed to say something.
The pink was back on his cheeks, and Kid cleared his throat before completely avoiding the question. "Have you found enough serenity to refrain from property damage?"
"At this point I'm just trying to understand why he would do this to me. I thought we were… I don't know. Never mind me, get down to your party. I'll be fine." Maka didn't feel fine, but she had battled her unrequited feelings for so long it didn't seem to matter that she had to choke them down a few more months.
Kid gave her one of those tight smiles of his, humorless and polite, "As you like. But for what it's worth, I don't think Evans was aware that you were a possibility."
He started to stand, but Maka grasped his forearm with probably more strength than necessary because Kid couldn't hide his grimace. She eased up, but his words had sent her mind racing. "What do you mean by he wasn't aware…?"
"Are you fishing for compliments, or do you really not know?"
Maka blushed, mostly from her deep embarrassment at not being able to figure out what Kid was talking about. Her whole existence had been an exercise in perfection: perfect grades, student council, trophies and ribbons lining the walls at home for fencing and lacrosse, and still she made time for friends and summer jobs—the very idea that she didn't understand something fundamental about herself was soul shaking. Admitting it out loud was so hard, in fact, the words were choking her.
"You don't know." Kid said flatly, saving her the trouble, and settled down into his seat next to her once more, only closer. "Maka, did you ever consider the fact that the guys at school might be—how can I put this best—intimidated by you?"
"Hiro asks me out practically weekly, and has for years."
"Hiro is, and surely you realize this too, severely oblivious to reality."
Honestly, Maka had almost said yes to the blond ditz a few times when she was feeling particularly weak and hopeless about the whole dating thing. It was kind of alienating to be sleeping over at a friend's house, or chatting in the hallway between classes, and have nothing to contribute other than theory about the area of romantic relationships.
"I'm nice to people, I'm friendly. I have as many guy friends as girl friends. Why would anyone be intimidated by me? I'm just a normal person."
As if settling in for a long onerous conversation, Kid sighed and shrugged out of his jacket. Straightening his tie carefully, he picked up one of Maka's hands and flipped it over. While he was tracing a callous on her knuckles, she felt like the air in the room had suddenly thinned.
"Not a lot of ladies practice boxing as part of their exercise routine, for one thing." He dropped her hand, but she realized she didn't want to meet those calm amber eyes of his while her insides were still twisting. "Let alone most class valedictorians."
Maka couldn't help but interject. "It still might be Ox. They haven't computed the weighted values for all our extra curricular stuff. Besides, that could have been you if you had shown any interest. Your standardized test scores are off the charts."
Kid ignored that comment, having never been able to articulate why grades meant so little to him. "There was also the extremely public incident Sophomore year, Valentine's Day, where you flipped your desk because your father had sent a whole bushel of flowers to homeroom. I think you made your feelings about your father, cheaters, and men in general very clear to everyone at top volume. Stuff like that gets around."
It had been a momentary lapse, a display of temper she wasn't proud of now, but it had come on the heels of finding a pair of lacy underwear in the middle of her papa's laundry. He always left stuff in the dryer, but it had opened up all the old wounds effortlessly and Maka hadn't been able to calm down for days following the incident. It hadn't helped that her mama's postcards had been tapering off around that time. Kid knew well the disappointment of absent military parents, and she appreciated it was one thing they had never needed to explain to one another.
"Trust me Maka, it isn't that guys didn't notice you, they just didn't think they had a chance."
Her loneliness was a misery of her own construction. It made sense now that Kid pointed it out. How many times had she complained to Soul about her papa and men in general? How many times had she forced him to spar with her, effectively making him her punching bag? How many times had she traded off going to his piano recitals if he came to her lacrosse matches? Maka hadn't made room for any other man in her life, and the one she had allowed in she had forged a nearly familial bond with…
"I guess the person I should be beating up right now is myself, huh?" Maka felt the burn in the back of her eyes but wasn't about to let anything fall. She had dug her own grave and now she was going to lie in it and stop blaming other people. It wasn't about Soul, or Blair, it was about Maka shutting people out without knowing it. Better to know now than never, Kid was doing her a service tonight by ripping off the bandage.
Kid drew her shoulders over in a stiff sideways hug. He wasn't a demonstrative kind of person, as the only people Maka had seen him touch casually were the Thompson sisters. Those three had a much-rumored arrangement that was less scandalous than business-like based on what Patti had divulged over the years, (with absolutely no prompting and mostly because Maka was 'such a good listener'). Kid's sterile life in this empty old mansion wasn't anything Maka had envied the more she learned about it.
"Maybe when we go back down you could point me in the direction of some of these guys that noticed me…" It was a half-joke, no funnier than any of Kid's attempts at humor, but the way his arm firmed up around her then suddenly released tickled her intuition. "Then again, anyone who would give up before even trying—"
It wouldn't have been half so intimate when Kid put a cold and very nearly clammy hand on her thigh if Maka owned a skirt that would pass dress code without a close inspection. It wasn't merely a smattering of color high on his cheekbones now, it was a full on flush that she could only compare to the one time he had come to school with a fever. It had taken a group effort to convince him to go home.
"And some guys thought you were too hell bent on Soul to give anyone else a glance." Was what he offered almost breathlessly after a tense moment where he was no doubt wondering if he was about to get knocked the hell out.
Like many things involving Kid, it had the subtlety of a tsunami but the longer she pondered it the more signs she saw: Kid was the one who had convinced her to run for student council with him, Kid was the one who offered to provide excuses for Soul to get out of various family commitments to spend time with her, Kid was the one who spoke well of her to the Thompsons and enfolded into her now more social lifestyle. Ever since they had met he'd been greasing the wheels of her life behind the scenes, observing his machinations without touting them. Separate moments coalesced and stunned her with their overall impact. Would she have even been considering enlisting if he hadn't talked to her about his own (compulsory) future military career?
His hand had warmed against her skin a little, but remained absolutely still. She looked down at his familiar rings, another piece of his goth image he'd have to abandon soon enough, and felt deeply conflicted.
"They would have been right," Kid's hand slid off her thigh slowly, sending chills up her spine but she stopped it by covering it with one of her own. His expression was the kind of bracing hopelessness that made her heart ache. "But perspectives can change, Kid."
"No, the timing is suspect. I wouldn't want you to think I was taking advantage in a time of stress." That self-deprecating streak was starting to rear its head. His absurd need for fairness, for doing things the right way in the right order were going to be a weakness as he moved through the ranks. Family connections would get him a lot of the way, but Maka could see what he needed was someone to get his back. What if she was that partner? That thought was too packed with implications to address now, so she stored it away for another night.
"Trust me, if I don't like something someone does I let them know. Sometimes concussively and repeatedly." Maka scooted closer to him, and reached up to grab his tie and let it run through her hands slowly. It felt expensive. "But you need to know, I'm not like the Thompsons. I'm not… a casual sort of girl." This close up she could see he had definitely put on eyeliner, but not a lot of it, simply enough to emphasize his pale eyes.
Kid looked intrigued, as if he hadn't expected things to go his way in this situation and he was feeling around for a response. "I didn't think you were, but is there time for anything else?" Do we have a chance? It was a legitimate question with six months left of senior year.
"Other than my objections to that sort of thing… It wouldn't matter who your family is if my papa thought a guy was compromising my apparent 'virtue'. A concept I find deeply ironic considering how he treats women in general." Maka wondered when they went from consoling her over Soul to apparently negotiating their possible relationship like a trade agreement between world powers. "But we could give this a trial period until my birthday next month."
"Next year." Kid corrected her after turning his head to glance at the clock in the corner. It was an hour until midnight, so she had to concede this one to him with a lopsided grin and a nod.
As he turned his head back around to face her Maka pushed forward to catch his lips. Kid, formerly still and controlled, immediately brought two hands up to cradle the back of her head and keep her in place as his tongue edged out and encouraged her to open up to him. Unwilling to relinquish control, even if she had very little experience compared to him, Maka pushed forward until Kid was laid out in an awkward sideways position on the couch. If someone had burst in on them at that moment it would look quite a bit like Maka was taking advantage of the general's son.
This all felt good, with her body pressed tightly against him, almost too good. She hated to admit it, but Kid might be right that her emotions were scrambled from too much to process tonight. Hormones shouldn't win the day over reason, even if it seemed to be the right thing to do in the moment. And every part of him felt right from his lean muscles to his cool lips.
Pulling away far enough that their breath didn't intermingle as she spoke, Maka offered up her explanation. "I could have worried about it until midnight and made a fuss, but this seemed more direct." Their chemistry was honestly surprising to her.
Smoldering eyes ate her up despite his prone position. "I'd never accuse you of timidity." There was that hand of his again, sliding up her thigh to the hem of her skirt and no farther as if testing the waters.
"We'd better head back down before people start to talk." At Maka's words Kid arched an eyebrow. "Not that they'd be incorrect, I'm pointing out it would be inconvenient for them to assume things before even we figure this out."
"And what do you think it is?" Kid sounded honestly interested, and if it weren't for that hand of his on her leg driving her crazy she might have had two brain cells to rub together to come up with an answer.
"Complicated!" She said with a sigh, and pulled her body off his so she could straighten out her clothes and refasten her hair. Using her reflection in the window wasn't ideal. At some point she felt a tap at her shoulder and silently she allowed Kid to adjust her hair in her usual symmetrical pigtails. He had insisted on adjusting her hair before, citing his vexing fixation on incorrect details, but he took his time now as he removed the hair band and ran his fingers lightly against her scalp first. After he finished with her pigtails he slowly bent forward and captured her lips long enough that she knew he was still thinking of what they had started on the couch.
They didn't say anything more, but as Maka left the library smiling she had the distinct impression that the next year was going to be really interesting.