Chapter 2

Summary:

Kid has something important to ask Maka!

Notes:

If you hate sappy stories with too much mushy stuff and not enough plot, run away now. Run far, far away. This is embarrassingly gooey, but writing it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Death Fest is Soul Eater canon, and takes place at Halloween (per SEN), but there isn't a canon Halloween Ball. I just figured, why wouldn't there big a big-ass celebration to end the festivities? I would have loved to include the Halloween ball and Dias de los Muertos, but just didn't have enough plot to justify it. If you think of one, I'm totally open to ideas!

Huge, huge hugs for reading, and I hope the sugary fluff doesn't give you a toothache.

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Exactly one hour later, they filed through the mirror portal Lord Death had obligingly opened in the woods beyond the cider mill. Kid could have done it himself, but he hated showing off his abilities to anyone outside his family. It made him feel like a freak, and he didn't want to be used as Grand Central Station by every acquaintance who wanted to go globe-trotting.

"The trees are so pretty!" Patty cried, spinning through the brightly colored leaves on the trail.

"Well, look at this." Kid said innocently, "Nice, hard dirt path. No mud. No mud at all."

"Shut up!" Liz thwacked him in the back of the head with her thumb and forefinger and then shivered. "Wow, it's cold!"

"Well, maybe you should have worn something that qualifies as pants." he glanced over his shoulder and gave her sweater-over-leggings combo a disapproving look, "You're here to play outside, not show off your butt."

"Bite me." Liz made a mental note to hit him with the first rotten apple she found in the orchard, "You're just cranky because you wanted to haul Maka into a hayloft somewhere and-"

"Look, there it is!" Maka tried to stave off a full-on brawl by pointing at the big red barn in the distance. Soul took his cue from her and did his part to keep the peace. Plus, running through the leaves looked like fun and it gave him a cool excuse to do it.

"Last one there is a lame-ass!"

He took off with Tsubaki and Liz hot on his heels, while Black Star and Patty ran ahead like their lives depended on it. Behind them, Maka took Kid's hand and pulled him along eagerly. He followed, but kept his face averted to hide his anger and embarrassment. He didn't know why he bothered; even though they were learning to control the emotional link between their fused souls, Maka knew everything he was feeling.

"It's okay," she whispered, leaning her cheek against his arm, "Things didn't work out the way we wanted them to, but this is still going to be fun!"

"I just wanted to spend some time with you that didn't involve work," he sighed, slipping his free hand into his pocket and closing his fingers around the little box, "Or a bunch of people thinking I only took you out because I had ulterior motives involving a pile of hay!"

"I think you're sweet, and I don't think you had an ulterior motive. She leaned up to kiss his cheek, and her fuzzy earmuff tickled his ear, "Ulterior motives when you offered to wash my back last night, maybe, but not today. Besides, an absolutely gorgeous guy once told me we have forever together, so I don't mind having everybody around today."

Kid finally looked at her and couldn't help but smile. Her yellow coat was snug in all the right places and her pink skirt was enticingly short. With lacy pink socks and the fuzzy earmuffs, she was the perfect combination of sweet and sexy. Mostly sexy.

"You're wearing the same colors you had on during our first scythe practice." he said, stopping in the middle of the path and wrapping his arms around her.

"You remember what I was wearing? That was-" she broke off, too touched to continue. Just stood there, loving him.

"Seven months ago." he finished, "I remember every moment with you, because I live for every single one."

Maka knew Kid never said romantic stuff just to gain points. He actually considered all of the lovely things he delighted in saying to her. And he meant them. She put her hands on his face and pulled him into a passionate kiss just as the wind kicked up. It swirled the leaves around them and Kid couldn't imagine a more perfect moment for what he wanted to say. And with all the unexpected company they had roaming around, he'd better say it fast.

"This, for instance." he said, shoving his hands in his pockets, "Is an excellent thing to remember. But you know what would make it even better?"

She giggled and looked at him with mischievous eyes, "Yes, but you're going to have to wait until we get home. I am so not doing you against a tree in broad daylight."

"That's not what I meant! I mean...that would make it even better...but, uh, you know what would really make this one of the best moments ever?"

Maka could feel his excitement, tinged with anxiety, and it was making her wildly curious.

"What?"

"If you would wear this." Kid put the velvet box into her hand.

Maka's breath caught in her throat and she looked at Kid in bewilderment. He gave her a nod of encouragement and she carefully opened the lid.

The signet ring was delicate; an elegant triple band twining around itself to support the little platinum skull motif. An official sign of office to the Lord of Death.

"It's beautiful." she whispered, trying not to cry, "But even Liz and Patty don't have one of these. Don't you want to give it to one of them? Is this okay with your dad?"

"Dad wants this too. Liz and Patty already have official status as my weapons. Besides, Liz wouldn't wear anything that doesn't have a gemstone in it, and Patty would lose it in about ten seconds. This was my mother's and you're the only other woman in the world whose finger I want to see it on."

Okay, that did it. He'd gone and made her cry, damn it. The tears made hot paths down her cold cheeks.

"Are you sure?" she sniffled, "With Death Fest, and the ball and the trip to Mexico coming up, a ton of people in important positions are going to see this. They're going to think-"

"They're going to think exactly what they should." he interrupted, "That you're not just a girlfriend who's tagging along on business. That they need to respect and listen to you as an official DWMA representative. As a capable person who knows what she's talking about."

He took the ring from its nest of white silk, slid the box back into his pocket.

"Will you wear it?"

She didn't trust herself to speak, just nodded.

"This wasn't just Maman's ring of Office," Kid gave the ring a little twist and it fell into three pieces; the center signet and two smooth bands. "It was also her gimmel ring. If you wear one of the plain bands along with the signet part, it means that that you're to be formally considered a part of my family."

"And that..." he paused and took a deep breath, "There's a chance you might agree to wear all three of them together someday...as a wedding band."

Her eyes went wide.

"So, uh, one band, or two?" Kid's heart felt like it was going to burst through his ribcage.

Maka found her voice again.

"Two," she said, holding out her right hand, without hesitation, "Definitely two."

The reunited rings fit perfectly on her middle finger; Kid never missed a detail.

"Love me?" he asked, sliding the third ring onto his little finger. He was happy as hell that the asymmetry didn't bother him anymore. Much.

"Forever."

He folded his fingers over hers and kissed them, just about bursting with love and pride. It echoed right back at him from the deepest part of her soul as her lips found his. He lifted her and spun her in a circle, another perfect moment to remember always.

A perfect moment that was promptly annihilated by Patty.

"Are you guys ever coming?" she called, waving impatiently from the end of the trail, "They're gonna be squishing the apples in a minute and you can make out any time!"

Maka looked up at Kid and wiped her eyes, "Well, we don't want to miss that!" she laughed.

"It is part of what we came here for." he agreed, "But later..."

"Later we're going to be doing a whole lot more than making out." she said lustily.

Grinning like an idiot, he waved back at Patty, and ran through the fragrant leaves with Maka's hand in his.

"There's a hayride and a petting zoo and a pumpkin patch and a maze made out of cornstalks!" Patty announced breathlessly when they reached her , "Thank you for bringing us here! I don't care what Liz says, you're not an overdressed dickhead. You're awesome!"

She gave Kid a rib-creaking hug and it occurred to him that she'd never experienced any of these things before. Pumpkin patches were probably pretty scarce in Brooklyn, and when you were living hand to mouth on the streets you saw alleys, not orchards. A hard knot of emotion lodged itself in the back the of his throat.

"You know what else they have?" he asked, hugging her back, "A cafe where they make little doughnuts covered in cinnamon sugar. They're still warm when you eat them and you can have hot cider and cocoa, too."

"I can have both?"

"Sure, why not! They have candy apples and homemade fudge, too. And we're going to pick a bunch of pumpkins to carve for the Halloween Ball." Kid promised. Maka felt another wave of pure happiness surge from him as Patty dashed off again, loudly relaying the doughnut information to Black Star, her partner in junk food consumption.

"Sometimes I forget that other people didn't have the same chances I did growing up." Kid told Maka, feeling a little ashamed of himself.

"I was just thinking the same thing." her hand slipped into his again, "We've been lucky. I wonder if we could start doing cultural trips at school? Lots of kids haven't really spent time anywhere but home or the DWMA and It'd be nice to really experience other places instead of just dashing in and out for reaps."

"Let's talk to Dad about it. You want to help me put some kind of schedule together? You're wonderful at that sort of thing."

"Sure. But nobody's coming to Mexico with us. Cultural awareness building can wait." Maka said firmly, "I'm not sharing you with anybody for those two days."

"Except a few hundred thousand people celebrating in the streets and the cemeteries." Kid reminded her.

"Except them." She agreed, smacking him on the butt, "Now let's go. I want to see the apple squishing."

"And I want to get Patty so sugared up she vibrates and then leave her alone with Liz for the rest of the night." Kid said cheerfully.

Imagine the ring like this, only with a skull motif in place of the diamond. A gimmel ring wasn't an engagement ring back in the 16th-18th centuries; it was a betrothal ring - a legal agreement often made for social/political reasons. In this chapter's context, Maka's bands could be thought of as the combination of badge of state with a promise ring.