(the stranger in the diner)

It had been a month already, the rocky events of the past settled in to the gentle present. After all that unpleasant business, with the blood cult, with Justin and Heinrich, Crona knew that things were not okay exactly, she was still trying to grasp at the concept of being a young god, and that she was at the moment a second class citizen. But she was with Maka now and that was a sort of perfection in her life. Even if at the moment they weren't living together. She lived down town in a studio apartment, alone. She often stayed at Maka's but for now she slept on the couch.

Tonight the two enjoyed dinner together at a cheep Mediterranean joint down the street from Maka's apartment. Blair was often seen working her figure for free food from the owner, but she was nowhere to be seen that evening, it was just them and a few other people in the restaurant. Maka talked about some things going on at the DWMA. Even if Crona wasn't welcome there, she still liked hearing about her friends and the day to day goings on.

Maka was just as gorgeous as ever with a bright mind and a solid fist. The stress of work was killing her and she knew it but she would never quit doing it because she truly loved being a librarian. She still wasn't on great terms with soul but they had spoken recently, she made it quite clear however that they weren't getting back together but Soul doesn't always understand the word 'no'.

The fact that the girl across from her was a god didn't mean a whole lot to her, Crona wast the person she was in love with, she knew that she was powerful sure, but the whole god thing was just one of the many interesting things about her. Crona always thought of the blond haired meister as someone out of her league, the fact that she would even want to be around her was a miracle to her in itself.

In the back corner of the restaurant about ten feet away from their table sat a blond haired figure, waring a battered fedora pulled down over their face, and a brown trench coat buttoned all the way up so the large collar obscured their face. Crona noticed without much thought that the person sat still the entire time and ignored the man at the counter when he asked if they needed help. The stranger did not move, did not look up at them, just sat, face shadowed and pointed at the menu on the table and presumably that's where it's eye's settled as well.

They had finished their meal, they gave the cook their compliments and continued to talk for about five more minutes until Crona received a phone call. It was a simple phone she had only had for two weeks, it was a flip phone and didn't even have a full keyboard. She stared at it for a moment after taking it out of her pocket. There were only three people who ever called her and one of them was sitting right there. She opened it. It was Kid. She pressed the talk button. "Hi kid.." she answered softly, in attempt to not disturb the others who sat dining.

"what's wrong?" she asked lifting her expression with curiosity. "okay, okay ill be right there..." she closed her phone. "is everything okay?" Maka leaned forward with concern, the look on Crona's face unsettled her. "he's very upset about something." Crona said looking at the table. "i should go." Maka reached across the table and gave Crona's hand a soft squeeze, she smiled. Crona's face turned red, She knew what Maka' was trying to tell her but without words. Crona squeezed her hand in turn. She stood. "sorry..ill talk to you later...bye" Crona turned, her heart beating. "later Crona, Be safe." Maka casually waved while red faced Crona had already clumsily stormed out.

In the back of the room the stranger still sat, but really this was no stranger at all. Patty had been watching the two, mostly she was watching Crona but acknowledged that the two had been having a conversation, until she left. Patty had some interesting ideas lately, she was smart in her own little way but these were not her usual thoughts. She had been thinking about none other than the pink haired god child, she always thought that Crona would be an excellent boyfriend, and she would have thought that after making as many advances as she had that her feelings would be reciprocated, but Crona seemed entirely oblivious to her attempts to gain affection beyond standard friendship, And she knew why. She glared at Maka as the librarian stood and placed a three dollar tip under the salt shaker on the table and walked out, still unaware that patty was even there. "Maka, you are going to be a problem for me..." she said lowly. "hay order something or get out, your giving me the creeps." the cashier said in a heavy Greek accent. Patty stuck her tongue out at him and rolled out of the booth that she was sitting at and quickly dashed out of the building, hissing fiendishly as she went.

It wasn't helping that lately patty had begun to feel strange. she had found it hard to sleep, she had migraines at least twice a week now and sometimes more. It was making her irritable and unpleasant to be around, even though she tried to hide it everyone began to notice that she wasn't herself lately. She was certain that she was just getting herself worked up, once she got Crona all to her self she was sure that it would set her right as rain again and everyone would be happy, accept Maka, she didn't give a shit about Maka. She was hoping that she would cry when Crona dumped her, the thought pleased her...

(dealing with Death)

that whole day Kid didn't cry, he didn't weep or morn. Instead he had removed himself from his normal place at the DWMA and spent the remainder on the roof. Pacing and looking out over the city. Kid never had problems like this, the only person in his life that he ever lost was his mother but she died when he was to young to remember what she looked like outside of photographs. She was a mortal woman, and mortal's do not often fare well after giving birth to a god child, their body's are not strong enough to handle the residual energy left behind. It came like a form of cancer and within a month after Kid was born she passed away. And now his father. He hoped, even if kid wasn't entirely religious, that his mother and father would be together soon, given there is a life after death anyway, after all, being a Death God doesn't mean he or his father actually have any knowledge of what happens after a person dies, not many people have that information and those who do will not likely tell you in any way that you can comprehend, others claim to know the truth but only tell lies.

Crona opened the maintenance door that lead to the roof, she looked around and saw him sitting on the air conditioning unit, gray oxidized paint from the unit was rubbing off on the bottom of his pants, something that normally he would have avoided like the plague but the look on his face was unlike any she had seen from the young man, an actual profound sadness she recognized but previously not seen of him, it was different than the way he would pout or cry about symmetry, when he would throw tantrums over bricks on the crosswalk not being perfectly in line or when he wasn't able to fix his hair the way he liked it in the morning. She came over to him and silently sat by his side and she looked at him with a wide expression waiting fro him to speak.

"dad- my... my father is dieing." he sighed. Crona's bottom lip fell open. "oh..kid. That's awful.." kid closed his eye's "i should have seen it coming..i should have been ready for this." Crona usually had a rule about touching, she didn't like making contact with people unless they were special to her, but she put her hand on his shoulder, he was one of those special people after all. She wasn't really good at this sort of thing and didn't know what to say, consoling someone over the death of a loved one was an experience she hadn't had yet. "how is a person supposed to be ready for..for that? How could you just be okay with it?" kid shook his head. "i don't know..i wish I could have had more time to think on this..to cushion the blow just a little bit..he gave me the news this morning, he's excepted whats happening, he's had a couple million years to think about it...iv only had seven hours.. and now..and now, he only has a week, maybe less and no more than that." "was he going to tell anyone?" she asked, kid nodded. "tomorrow. He will address the people of death city from the grand staircase of the DWMA, it will be televised and it'll be on the radio. Everyone in death city will know and then the whole world...and he will announce me as the new lord death..." he looked over at Crona "and I'm not sure what scares me more, life without my father, or the fact that I will be living life in his place as the prime reaper. It terrifys me.." "if theirs anything you need me to do..." she was unsure how to end the sentence, unsure what even she could do for him. "that's all right, its all up to me at this point. we cant stop whats happening and he seems okay with that." he paused, then looked over at her. "you know, as strange as it is to say..i think its what he wants, To die." Crona let that sink in for a while. "ill be there tomorrow during his speech, even if he doesn't want me there, ill come to support you." he considered her for a moment and then nodded. "thank you, your a good friend, you know that." he stood up and so did she. "i should go home." he said "its going to be a long day for me tomorrow."

They walked together through the halls of the DWMA and came to the grand staircase where the next day lord death was set for his speech. They stood there for a moment quietly taking in the view of the vast empty space they knew would be flooded with people come that afternoon. The spot where ten year ago Crona said goodbye to Maka and was taken away. Crona couldn't help but notice that coincidence, but lord death would not return after his farewell, and maybe she felt sad for him, she wasn't sure, she was sure that kid was sad, and that certainly did upset her, without a doubt.