Chapter 2

At last, tomorrow came. The creepy laughing sun shone with blistering heat as seven students and one undead mentor gathered at Death City's marina. "All right! Kids, assemble here!" Sid, the zombie teacher, hailed the 'chosen ones' to the dock, each carrying their own luggage. "Liz…I've told you, you can't bring make-up! And Patty! Put that thing back where it came from or so help me!" Death the kid was currently arguing with the two Thompson sisters. Liz's bag was overflowing with cosmetics, while Patty's rucksack was filled with stuffed animals which were mostly giraffes.

"But kiddd! What if I get dirty?!" the eldest of the two complained. The other one followed. "And I can't sleep without my giraffe, girrafy!" Patty said while clutching the abomination, as kid refers to it as, because of its uneven button eyes.

"Girrafy…well, she certainly took her time in deciding a name." Soul muttered sarcastically under his breath.

Kid sighed and massaged both of his temples with his forefingers. "Sheesh… You two have become so spoiled ever since we started living together! Maybe this trip would be good for you after all!" He kept trying to avert his eyes from the asymmetrical design of his weapon's toy.

Meanwhile, for a known reason, Black Star is very much hyped, more than usual, which was indicated by him wearing camouflage shorts and his cheeks were covered with war paint. He was a carrying a knapsack knitted in bamboo, and strangely enough, a plastic machine gun, and his body was also draped in plastic bullets. Tsubaki was standing beside him in her normal attire.

Soul and Maka blinked in confusion. "That's right, be awed by me. You have no chance of survival, you peasants." The blue-haired had his head down while speaking for the first time, and his tone was low and rough. "What's happened to him?" Maka pointed her thumb to the Demon Blade's partner.

"We've watched a war movie last night…and he got hooked." Tsubaki exhaled. She couldn't do anything when Black Star gets his groove on. "What kind of war movie?" Soul interrupted.

"Rambo II."

"That explains it." The Scythe meister said knowingly. She looked at Black Star, now crouched on the ground and a blade of grass was in his mouth. "Ne, Soul, do you think we'll last until two weeks time?"

"Of course we would! C'mon, Maka, you've beaten Asura, and you're worried about a two weeks survival challenge?" Her partner snorted. "I guess not…" She agreed. Though about the Asura part, seriously, was a punch all it took? And she still can't get over the memory where her idiotic father almost made her explode all of her insides when he caught her in a surprise hug and started blabbing about how proud he is on having a daughter who is both a meister and a weapon.

"…but I'm worried about our apartment." She said at last. "Why? What about it? We've got the keys, right?" he asked, raising one of his eyebrows an inch.

"Blair said she's going to visit tomorrow. And she has a spare key."

"Oh crap."

"Do you remember the last time there was no gas and she ignited the stove herself?!"

The duo gulped. Blair blew up the entire kitchen when she used her pumpkin magic to cook fish. It took up all their savings to pay that damn Blair to fix the damages, and she reasoned that it was their fault that there was no gas, so it forced her to use a spell. Honestly, what is up with that cat girl?

"Oi, oi! Quit loitering around! Align yourselves! I want a straight line! That's one of the things I always say when I was still alive!" Sid bellowed. Their ship would be coming in fifteen more minutes. "I hope you're all ready! Shinigami-sama prepared quite some challenges."

Maka was feeling rather excited. It was pretty refreshing, the thoughts of some world-domination maniac were starting to go to the back of her mind. Just some nice, fun challenges, like wall climbing, maybe, or pin the tail on the live donkey. Then she heard a familiar voice calling her.

"MAKA! Over here!" She turned around and saw Chrona, running towards them. "Chrona! How are you?" The two hugged tightly. "I'm so worried about you! Are you enjoying your time with Marie-sensei?"

"Mm, pretty much, yeah." Chrona smiled shyly. He/she (whatever, people.) had been pretty happy now, smiling more often than before. He/she was also getting along famously with Marie, and Maka had the urge to ask the female teacher if by any chance, she found out Chrona's real gender.

A puzzling look went up Chrona's face. "Umm…Maka, there's something I want to ask…about Marie-sensei and Stein-sensei…"

Maka's face lit up. "What?"

Chrona fidgeted a bit nervously. "Well, it's because…how do I say this…uhh…" Then suddenly, Ragnarok appeared on his/her back. "That woman keeps muttering that screwhead's name in her sleep!" he shouted. "Its keeping us awake at night!"

"Wait, you three sleep together?"

"No, no! We have different beds!"

The others, were staring at them, eyes wide open. "I knew it…Marie and Stein-sensei are…" Liz trailed off. "They are so busted!" Patty giggled. Maka's mouth was hanging open at the same time. "They are dating! The rumors are true!" she clapped her hands in delight and in mystification of what kind of a wacky couple those two would make.

"And I thought that Stein-sensei was just a plain nutcase. Who knew he could hit it well with the ladies?" Soul huffed beside Maka. Though in his head, he was envious as hell.

"Hmph. How did he get a girl so fast? Me and Maka had been together for almost two years, while those had just gotten to know each other for like, a month!"

His heart throbbed faster at the thought of him and Maka being together for almost two years. What's so wrong about that? They'd been to each other's room for study sessions, eaten together, got sick alternately, and it's still not enough for him. He wanted to…

Soul shook his head fiercely.

"Must…not think…about indecent…thoughts…"

"Soul, you're acting weird again." Maka's voice rang inside his thick skull.

"Huh-wha? No, I'm fine."

"Oi, you patsies! The ship's here! Chrona, Maka's not going to be away for a month, you know. She's going to be back after two weeks! So please let her go." Sid beckoned to the nearing ship. God, it huge!

"As expected from father. Only the finest will do." Kid looked approvingly at the huge ship. "Wow! Are we riding that?" Liz said in amazement.

Soul, in the meantime, was busy prying Maka and Chrona apart as the latter kept crying at Maka's skirt.

"Maka, d-don't leave me!"

"I'll miss you too, Chrona!" She said finally as Soul was literally dragging her aboard the ship.

Sid crossed his arms. "You'd better enjoy this kids, this'll be your last luxury."

The eldest of the Thompson sisters looked at their zombie teacher. "What? What do you mean, last luxury? We'll have plenty more of this on the island, right?"

"What are you blabbing about, missy? You're not going on a vacation!"

"What?!" Liz hollered again. Kid groaned. "Have you been listening to what father said?"

"Uhh…I can explain that, my nails were a bit dirty that time…"

Sid eyed the bagful of cosmetics which were lying beside Liz's leg, grasped it, and threw it out to the sea. "HEY! Why the hell did you do that?!"

Then a list was shoved in front of her face. "What's this?" Patty took a peek behind her sister's back.

"A list of what you shouldn't bring. Read it and weep."

"Let's see…make-up…darn it, books…" Liz read.

"What?! I can't bring books?!" Maka screamed from behind, she was lugging her bag, and when she heard what Liz said, dropped it on Soul's foot. "OW!!" The scythe kept running around the deck in circles, grasping his foot, while muttering curses under his breath. "What's inside that thing anyway?!" He pointed to the brown leather bag.

"Stuff…dictionaries, hard-bound novels…stuff." Maka shrugged, apparently amused by her weapon's comical display.

Patty giggled at this but turned pale when she returned her gaze on that innocent piece of paper. "No…TOYS?!"

Sid could feel a headache coming. "That's right. So, Patty, I'm afraid to say, that you have to hand in your-"

It appears that Patty was having psychotic issues at the moment.

"By the way, anybody seen Black Star and Tsubaki?" Sid looked around. There were only six of them.

Death the kid coughed. "Oh, I heard them talking something about going to the kitchen and make out-"

"WHAT?! Black Star and Tsubaki are going to make out?!!" Soul, Maka, and Liz hollered in chorus and sped towards the said place.

"…they didn't let me finish." Kid 's eyes twitched. He still wasn't used to interruption.

"What were you going to say?" Their teacher asked.

"I was going to say that they were talking about going to the kitchen to make out some sandwiches. It was really Tsubaki's idea. Black Star just came with her to eat something." Kid explained.

Sid gulped. "Hoo-boy. Things are gonna get noisy around here in 3…2…1…"

"AH-HA! Caught on the act, you two!!" The trio busted through the door of the kitchen, breaking off the hinges.

"Oh, hey guys. Are you here to see the great Black Star digest this ham sandwich?" The blue-haired ninja was sitting on a stool, while Tsubaki was busy preparing something on the table. "Everyone, come eat, I made plenty of sandwiches."

"…What?" Maka blinked.

"But Kid said…" Soul sweatdropped.

"Oh, man, we got punk'd." Liz was thinking daggers towards her meister. She wanted to see some action.

"What are you talking about?" Black Star muffled on his mouth.

"Oh…nothing!" The scythe meister gulped.

As Sid and Kid entered the kitchen, the three looked at Shinigami's son menacingly. "You didn't let me finish. You're the one at fault." He said nonchalantly.

After all misinterpreted hullabaloo, the others were now asleep in their rooms, except Soul, who was toying with his ice tea on the ship's deck and looking at the bloody moon, the earphones of his MP3 player stuck to his ears. He was listening on the radio for some rock music because for some reason, he just can't fall asleep that night. He's just in the middle of the chorus of a song full of swearing and meaningless words until-

"Soul! Why are you doing here?"

When he heard his name, he automatically shrieked silently. He turned around and saw his meister, wearing blue-green pajamas, rubbing her eyes like a kid.

"M-Maka?! What are you doing here?" He dropped his ice tea on the ground, making the contents spill on the mini-pool.

"You just repeated my question." She said, raising an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms.

"Oh. Er…right. I was just…you know, hanging out. You?" He was getting tongue-tied again.

Maka looked at him quizzically. "I can't sleep. I kept dreaming about mutated lobsters eating our ship." She said with a little bit of embarrassment.

He laughed. She hit him.

"OW! Haha! Seriously, Maka. Mutated lobsters?"

"I knew it was wrong to come here." She turned on her back, obviously annoyed and began to walk towards the stairs. "N-no, wait! I'm sorry, that was wrong. You can still stay here…" Soul grabbed her arm, blushing profusely.

His meister gave him a lopsided smile and went to the front of the ship. The two gazed silently at the dark sky, feeling the calm sea breeze slap their faces.

Then, suspiciously, the song Soul was listening to changed. Weird. He knew he was listening to some rapping guy screaming on and on about how he hate his life. Now the music became different. As if, someone had switched stations. It was now…

There you see her

Sitting there across the way

She hadn't got a lot to say, but there's something about her

And you don't know why, but you're dying to try,

You wanna kiss the girl

His eyes twitched and his face turned into a deep shade of pink. He kept fiddling with the controls but all it played was that blasted song.

"What's the matter, Soul?"

Soul couldn't look at his meister straight in the eye. Not with his heart about to leap off from his chest. "Uh…nothing! This damn thing must be broken!" He even threw it to the ground and kept stepping on it but it still keeps playing on his earphone. "What is the matter with this faulty contraption?!"

"Okaaay…please continue to what you're doing, namely, talking to your MP3. I'm going back now." Maka rolled her eyes and walked away. It seems that Soul only widens his vocabulary when insulting someone or something. "W-what? No!" he preceded to run after her but stopped. What's he gonna tell her?

Soul ran a palm over his face and groaned. "This feeling's even harder to handle than the kishin…" he said, then grudgingly walked back to his room.

"I should've let that distorted monster eat me when I had the chance…" Soul grumbled.

The next morning, Death the Kid was awoken by a loud bang.

"Whoa? W-what? Are we being invaded?" he said idiotically.

Then Maka stuck her head in Kid's room. "Kid…hurry up. Sid-sensei's never gonna stop that noise until we assemble at the deck." She alarmed him because her room is closest to his.

"Coming…coming…ugh…" he lazily rubbed the sleep off his eyes as he staggered towards the floor and fell. "Oh, for pete's sake." Maka rolled her eyes and helped Kid get up, wrapping her arm around his shoulders.

"You're not a morning person, aren't you?" she smiled crookedly.

"Zzz…not really…wait…the tissues…I have to fold the tissues…"

"We're not in your mansion here, Kid, so no tissues."

"But the painting…the symmetry…"

"Maka…CHOP!"

Kid immediately fell unconscious.

When the two reached the deck, the others were already there. Black Star was attired in a floral print Hawaiian khaki shorts, and was balancing himself on the ship's edge. "What took you so long, my subject?"

"Woah. What happened to Rambo?" Maka looked at Tsubaki who just smiled at her. "Black Star easily forgets things." Was all she reasoned.

"Hehe! Kid's still asleep!" Patty was no longer having psychotic issues over the stuffed toys, and Liz was also refreshed. "Glad to see you shut him up, Maka."

"I don't know how you cope with this guy!" The scythe meister laughed.

As for Soul, well, his jaw almost dropped to the ground and he was spitting flames as he saw Maka's arm draped around Kid's shoulders and vice-versa. "What…the…hell…?" he growled menacingly.

"All right! There's the island!" Sid pointed his discolored finger towards an island surrounded by mist.

Liz shuddered. "Uh…looks…eerie."

"Aw man, I was planning to soak on the sun!"

"Don't worry! With Black Star by your side, I will supply you all the sun you want!"

Soul took deep breaths. "Okay, relax. It's just a coincidence that Maka is with Kid. It's just the first day. I've decided. I'll tell her my feelings this time. Besides, what's the worse that could happen? Nothing, right?"

Nothing. Yeah, right.

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All right! Second chapter done! Thank you for all those who reviewed and for all those who are reading! I think it's gonna take some time for the third chapter. Hope you continue reading! Please review!