A/N: First and foremost, I want to give my undying gratitude to every reader. Thank you so much.

Now that it's finished, I've re-edited the entire story. Added and subtracted some things, but no major plot points have been altered. Almost all of the changes were made for for better flow, so if you've already read it there's no need to do it again unless you really, really want to;)

Although I eventually started caring about the plot, this started out as a goofy experiment with tropes. I tried to squeeze in as many SE and KiMa tropes as I could. There's some AU because I kept the Black Blood and Lord Death is still alive. Other than that, this follows manga canon and takes place about 6 months after the defeat of Asura.

In the original version of this story, I listed the tropes at the beginning of each chapter. That got old real fast for readers who don't like to wade through piles of author's notes at the beginning of every chapter, so I've included at the end for anybody who wants to see them.

Hope you have as much fun with this as I did, and thanks for reading!

The End of the Day

The final bell rang and two minutes later the front doors of the DWMA slammed open. A blue-haired ninja exploded out of the building and backflipped across the courtyard.

"Yahoo! The great Black Star is free. Now the entire town can bask in my awesomeness!"

"I'm sure they can't wait." Liz said, rolling her eyes as the rest of Spartoi filed out of the building. Patty giggled and clapped for Black Star, who did a final flip and landed upside down in a handstand.

"Way to go, Patty! You recognize a star when you see one!" he yelled, thrilled that someone other than Tsubaki appreciated his performance.

"Or she recognizes circus performers. Because that's what you look like. That or a little kid on a sugar high. So uncool." Soul sighed at his best friend.

"Sugar! Yeah! The great Black Star needs sugar! Have to keep my energy up. Let's get ice cream." Black Star was walking on his hands now, his spiky hair brushing the ground.

"I'm not sure that's the best idea..." Tsubaki said apprehensively, twisting the hem of her scarf as she imagined her partner with any more energy to expend.

"I'm game. As long as you don't walk all the way to Dӧd's on your hands like an ass." Harvar told him.

"Dude, I don't think anybody would even notice he was upside down. It can be really hard to tell his ass from his face, sometimes." Kilik joked.

"Arne's so easy-going he wouldn't care if Black Star did go in there on his hands." Kim said of the gentle Swedish man who owned Dӧd's Dairy, the ice cream parlor frequented by the students of the DWMA. Ox put his arm around his girlfriend's waist and told her she was sweeter than the caramel sundae he was going to buy her. Kilik and Jackie clutched their stomachs and made gagging noises.

"He has to be easy-going or he'd go nuts from dealing with all the crazy shit that goes on in there after school." Liz said, "But ice cream does sound good; it's hot as hell out here." She examined a lock of her hair, frowning as if she could actually see moisture leeching out of it into the dry air.

"Nevada's hot. You should be used to it by now." Kid told her, "And you're carrying your backpack over one shoulder. It's bad for your spine as well as your symmetry."

"Shut up." Liz glared at him but hitched her backpack up over both shoulders. Kid immediately started rooting around in it and nearly knocked her over.

"Watch it! What are you looking for? You could at least ask before you go rummaging through my stuff." she complained.

"I'm looking for my phone."

Liz huffed impatiently. "It's in the front. In the middle pocket where is always is when you ask me to carry it."

"Ugh. There's lip gloss on it." Kid whipped out a handkerchief and scrubbed at the sticky residue.

"Well carry your own crap if you're so worried about it." Liz didn't really mind holding his things, but she never missed an opportunity to rag on him about it. It was one of the few perks of being the big sister and she found it wholly enjoyable.

"Are we going for ice cream too?" Patty demanded in a voice that promised violence if there were treats to be had and she didn't get one.

"You guys go ahead. I have to give Dad a call back; he left a message for me." Kid answered. Patty made a sad face at him.

"Awww. Can't you even make time for ice cream? Poor Kiddo." she squeezed Kid's arm and patted his back in sympathy, "Want me to bring some back for you?"

Kid shuddered at the thought of her dripping a melting ice cream cone through the house in search of him.

"Tell you what, Patty," he suggested, hugging her shoulders, "Get an extra scoop and eat it for me, okay?"

"Okey Dokey!" Patty sang, immediately cured of her sympathetic angst. She let go of Kid, took a flying leap and landed on Soul's back. "Piggyback ride!" she demanded. Soul nearly dropped her on the hot brick pavers and flailed around trying to regain his balance. He was about to shrug her off when Liz turned a hundred-watt smile on him.

"That's so nice of you, Soul." she said. He suddenly felt incredibly invested in giving Patty a piggyback ride and hitched her up securely.

"You can have the next one." He replied with a lazy grin while Patty hugged his neck and laughed. She waved at Kid, who was walking away with his iPhone pressed to his ear, already in deep conversation with his father. Liz watched him with a pleased expression.

"He's doing really well with the single phone. Even if I do have to carry it most of the time." she told Soul. Patty had thought it unfair that Kid had two iPhones while she only had one. A huge argument had ensued and Lord Death had taken away everyone's phone until Kid's split lip healed, Patty's bruises faded and Liz had agreed to stop knocking their heads together quite so hard. Then, in a rare burst of parental clarity, he'd instituted the One Per Person Technology Rule.

"Has anybody seen Maka?" Tsubaki asked, shielding her eyes from the sun as she looked back toward the school, "I don't want to leave her behind."

"She's doing some kind of extra lessons with Miss Marie. Because you can never spend too much time at school if you're Maka." Soul replied, adjusting Patty's weight. "You gotta get down, my back is breaking. And I look like an idiot."

"That's because you are an idiot." Black Star, upright again, noogied Soul's head with his knuckles. Soul slapped him off, elbowing Ox in the process, and a good-natured scuffle broke out among the boys. Patty jumped into the fray with joyous abandon and a passerby muttered that if this was the DWMA's Elite Squad the world was bloody well doomed. Someone else told Liz she should "do something" with "those hoodlums".

Sometimes life made Liz feel very put upon. And kind of old. "And we're taking them to get sugared up why?" she asked Tsubaki.