Rated T for language, minor violence, and "adult themes".

KidxSoul and SteinxSpirit. No recurring OC's.

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or any of the characters.

This first chapter is just setting up the story, there will be much more romance, trust me.

Third person POV, but changes main characters. Enjoy.

Chapter 1 - Self-Defense

~Kid~

Kid perused the wall covered in missions. He had completed several that were up and smiled inwardly. He was getting closer each day to collecting 198 kishin souls. The witches' souls would be far harder to win, but he knew that eventually Patti and Liz would become his own "death weapons".

His thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his back though. He turned around to find Maka and Soul. Maka was smiling with that ever present look of joy she had and Soul looked the same as always - bored.

"Hi, Kid," Maka greeted him. Soul nodded to him in greeting.

"Hello, Maka, Soul," he said coolly, "what's up?"

"It's Lord Death," Soul explained gruffly, "he requested to see us, and Black Star with Tsubaki. Says it's important."

"Those two are already headed over there though. We just came to get you," Maka said.

Kid wondered what kind of mission his father could want them to go on that he would require all three teams. He had handled three star meister missions all on his own. Apparently, Patti and Liz were not required to come. Patti was, how to put it nicely, incompetent at times and Liz could be slightly overbearing. They were back home, cooking or watching a movie since classes had ended for the day.

He settled walking next to Soul, who trundled along slowly behind Maka. She pestered him to speed up, but he told her that running around on another guy's orders "is not cool". She eventually sighed and moved to walk next to Soul.

Soul and Maka started arguing about who was cooking tonight, before Maka interrupted to ask Kid a quesiton. "Hey, do you think after this we could all have lunch at our place?"

"That sounds great, Maka. I'll make sure to get Patti and Liz," he was, in all honesty, quite enthused. The three teams would sometimes all have lunch together like this. He enjoyed their company more than he let on. Maka was the sort of person anybody could get along with. Although she could be high-strung at times, she was very kind and she cared deeply about her friends. Soul was Soul. He was unique. He had a very passive attitude and acted like everything was boring, but when it came down to it, Soul knew how to have a good time.

They chatted for a while about meal plans, as they walked. Kid was occupied wondering what his father could have planned for them. Why had he called all of them like this? Was it an emergency? Did this have to do with Asura? He was so preoccupied he didn't notice that he had accidentally inched further and further away from the archways, which somewhat represented weapons. He felt something brush up against his hand and he looked down, seeing that he had accidentally touched his hand against Soul's pale one. Kid drew his hand away quickly and moved as far away from Soul as he could without looking uncomfortable. "Sorry," he muttered, taking care that he did not touch Soul again.

"Stop trying to hold my hand," Soul said. Kid blushed furiously and watched the floor instead, averting his gaze. "Hey," Soul said, playfully punching Kid's upper arm, "I'm just kidding, you queer."

Kid laughed, although it was forced. He smiled at Soul to show him that he knew he was joking, particularly with the "queer" comment. He shouldn't have been so embarrassed; it's not like it mattered to either one of them.

"Soul!" Maka protested, "That's so rude," she looked as though she were about to do her infamous Maka Chop, but Kid stopped her.

"We're just joking, Maka," He smiled at her gently.

Although the walk after that seemed to last centuries, Maka and Soul continued their conversation. Kid wasn't really paying attention though, still feeling a bit bashful. It had been moronic of him to overreact. Guys touched each other all the time, and it didn't mean anything. Why should an accidental hand touch matter? 'Baka!' he scolded himself silently. Finally, they reached Death's room.

Kid's father stood in front of his mirror as always. He waved zealously at the three entering the room. Black Star and Tsubaki were already there whispering animatedly about something.

Once everyone had entered, they lined up in front of Lord Death, "Welcome!" said the Shinigami enthusiastically, waving his oversized hand. His voice was cheerful, as though he hadn't had a bad day in his life.

The five exchanged looks, hoping that he was going to say something more important than a hello, "Father, what is this all about?" Kid demanded. He was the only one there who felt had the right to talk to Lord Death like this.

Death softened and seemed to be frowning, "Well, it's like this..." he trailed off for a minute, contemplating how to be tactful about what he had to say, "Spirit has gone missing."

"What!?" Maka shouted. Kid nearly face-palmed. No tact at all, he sighed.

Although Maka acted as though she couldn't stand the sight of her father, and perhaps she couldn't most of the time, he was still her father, and she still loved him. This was awful news.

"Please, Maka. This could just be one of his escapades. It's just odd," He said slowly.

"Odd that he would leave his position. He may be promiscuous, but if there is one thing he is dedicated to, it's his job as a death scythe. Would he really just drop everything and leave without the slightest indication of where he was going?" Kid finished for his father, who studied him for a second. One day, Kid would be the perfect replacement for the Shinigami.

Maka was looking at the ground furtively. Soul appeared concerned, and was about to rest a hand on her shoulder, but her head snapped up, "Yes, he would," she said furiously, "he did it to mom. He doesn't take anyone into consideration. Besides, what was the point of bringing us all here if we have no idea where he went? We should at least wait for an indication before jumping up to 'save' him."

Sometimes, Maka could really scare the shit out of Kid. But, he supposed, she deserved to be angry with her father. What made this any different from all the times he cheated on her mother? Nothing really.

Lord Death was silent for a moment before nodding, "I see. Well, I have told the other professors and we are waiting for any clues before we go out searching blindly, as you mentioned, Maka. Thank you for coming here. When the time arises, be prepared to go on this mission though. It is important," the childish edge to his voice had been lost. He was serious about this. The five bowed their heads before turning around and walking through the doors.

There was a minute of silence before Soul dared console Maka, "Hey," he frowned, "are you alright?"

She turned to him and smiled brightly, "I'm fine, Soul. Don't worry. Dad's probably just gone off with some woman to a nice city. You know how it is," the four didn't completely buy it, but before Kid had the opportunity to comfort her, or support her, she changed the subject, "So, who's hungry?"

The five chatted contentedly and reached the school hallways. Kid was saying something about their assignment that was due tomorrow, when he was pushed backwards suddenly. He flinched, and when he opened his eyes, he was being attacked in a hug from Patti.

"Hi, Kid! Liz and I were getting worried so we came all the way here," she told him happily. He saw Liz standing behind her, looking somewhat annoyed.

"Hi, Patti. Hi, Liz," said Maka. The two waved at the rest of the group.

Kid pushed Patti off of him, "Shove off, Patti," she did so with the same glee she always possessed, about to respond, but a cold voice interrupted her.

"What a fag," they all heard it. There was a distinct silence. Slowly, their heads all turned to the right side of the hallway. A boy was standing there, leaning against the wall. He had thick brown hair that fell partly in front of his eyes, and looked slightly annoyed. He wore a black jacket over his ugly sea green shirt and had amber eyes.

"What did you say?" Kid asked through his teeth. There was a frightening edge to his voice and he his yellow eyes glowed menacingly. He stepped towards the boy, staring at him head-on. The boy did not flinch, and looked straight back into his black pupils without any fear whatsoever.

"Are you deaf? I called you a fag," he repeated nonchalantly. Kid looked as though he were about to retort, but was stopped.

"You don't say shit like that unless you want to get beat up," it was Soul. His red eyes bore into the boy.

"Sure, get one of your friends to fight me, queer," he provoked.

"I'm not gay," Kid replied evenly. In truth, he was not as calm as he appeared, if you could describe him as calm. Honestly, he was scared. He was furious that someone had the audacity to call him that after everything he had gone through at this school. He thought he might have earned some respect. Then, he was hurt at the idea that people though he was gay. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but he wasn't. He was sick of being called it, though. Lastly, he was sad. He didn't know exactly why, but he could feel it inside him.

"Hm," said the boy, not giving him a good answer, "You walk around school dressed like a girl. You have two hot chicks wrapped around your pinkies, but you never show a damn interest. Then, you have never even looked at a girl; you're always checking out some guy."

Kid didn't know why this boy knew so much about him, or why he had drawn his sexuality into question. He may have called him a slur, but then he was actually giving evidence to back it up. Who was this guy? There was only one thing to do.

"Liz, Patti," Kid ordered.

"Right," Patti and Liz said on cue. They transformed and dropped perfectly symmetrically in his hands.

The boy, without losing his cool, pulled out a sword from its sheath that none of them had noticed. He pulled the sword apart, revealing that it was not only one, but two blades - a dual sword.

"Kid, we need a teacher prese-" Maka shouted.

"I don't care!" Kid yelled back. Soul had never seen him this angry before. Kid crossed his arms, one over the other, pointing his pistols at the boy. He took the first shot.

The boy deflected it with the flat side of his blade. They repeated this, as the amber-eyed boy moved in quickly, getting close. He couldn't attack from afar, Kid noted. No matter how angry he was, he managed to keep his head even in battle.

But he realized that his four friends were right on the path of danger, not to mention that some classes were still in session, and the bullets might pierce the wall. He took off, down the corridor, out of the front of the castle-like school.

"Running away already?" He heard the boy shout from behind. He reached the cobbled courtyard and stood to one end. The boy moved quickly and was upon him as soon as he had reached his destination. Kid shot at him, but he jumped up and moved around, quite agile. The boy needed to be in close distance, so Kid knew exactly what to do. Kid shot and waited as his opponent backed off to get out of range, before shouting, "Let's go, Soul Resonance!" an impressive blue bubble formed around Kid, that only Maka could see. The boy was still recovering from Kid's last attacks, not able to charge in yet. His ankle had been hurt while avoiding the bullets.

Two metal canons formed around Kid's arms, growing several times the size the guns had been. Spikes grew up from Kid's 'girlish' clothes, "Execution Mode ready," said Kid calmly. He was most at ease when he fought, it made sense to him.

"Resonance stable. Noise at 0.4 percent," Liz answered, "preparing to fire. Feedback in

four seconds. Three."

"Two," Patti continued.

"One."

"Firing now!" Patti shouted.

Death the Kid held out his cannons and the boy jumped forward, not realizing exactly what was happening. His skills were nothing compared to this grim reaper's. As he moved in for the close up attack, swinging a sword at Kid's temple, the cannon fired directly into his torso. The explosion was magnificent, the compressed wavelength of Kid's soul firing out at him.

The boy was shot backwards, in a cloud of smoke and both the defeat and the winner was obvious. Kid stood slowly, Patti and Liz transforming back into pistols. In the haze, he walked away from the school, down the steps, and back to his mansion.

As he swung open the doors to his room, Liz and Patti transformed back into human forms, "Kid," Liz said. He knew that she would want to talk about it, would want to comfort him, or maybe she didn't know how much it had gotten to him.

"It's fine, Liz. I'll be out later," he shut the door quickly and flopped down on his bed, not even checking for symmetry.

'Shit,' he thought. It wasn't the first time his sexuality had been brought into question, which was frustrating. Why did people think he was gay? He frowned for a second, wondering... What if he was gay? No, that wasn't right. Of course he wasn't. It's not like he thought of any guys like that. Or girls.

Then he remembered how he had brushed his hand against Soul's in the hall. 'Don't be stupid,' he told himself. It had meant nothing. He blushed for a second, then forgot about it once again.

He fell asleep for what felt like a few hours, and was awoken by a knock on the door, "Kid, wake up. Soul's here to see you!"