I created quite a lot of OCs in this chapter. but they become very important to the storyline, trust me.(;

Long chapter, hope you guys like! oh and i dont know if i'll be updating tomorrow so hopefully this is enough to hold you guys over till friday!

review please, love you all sooooo much.


Finally the bell rang and my last class for the day ended. I grabbed my stuff and headed to the Death Room, running into Soul on the way there.

"Excited to be a tutor, Red?" he asked playfully. I shrugged. "Sure seems like it," he continued. "Slow down a little, I can barely keep up."

"Okay, maybe I'm a little excited," I admitted.

He snorted. "Why? They're just kids. They'll probably drool all over that pretty blue shirt of yours."

I stiffened, shrugging off his compliment. "They're not that young are they?"

"No, they're like ten."

I stopped in front of the door to the Death Room. "Well that's a relief," I said.

"If you say so," he replied, stepping past me and opening the door. As we walked through the arches into the room, Lord Death turned around.

"Ah, Miss Marshal, Mr. Evans, how nice to see you two. Haven't gotten into anymore trouble now, have you?"

"Of course we have, who do you think you're talking to?" Soul quipped, grinning toothily. Lord Death chuckled.

"Guess it was dumb of me to ask," he replied, rubbing the chin of his skull-mask thoughtfully with his large reaper hand. "Now what are you two here for again?"

"Tutoring," Soul grunted remorsefully.

"Ah, yes," Lord Death said, snapping his fingers. "Find room 23 on the first floor, there you will find the samurai teacher Mr. Mifune. He teaches the younger children. He already knows your coming so he kept a small group of less-advanced children after class let out just for you." He handed Soul a few sheets of paper that seemed to come out of thin air. "Give those to him, those are your teaching contracts. It proves legitimacy, that you have permission from Lord Death himself to teach his students." He waved his large white hand dismissively at us. "Run along now, you'll want to hurry. Don't want to keep the children waiting."

Soul turned and led the way out of the Death Room, mumbling curses to himself under his breath.

"Now, now, Soul," I said, pulling my contract out of his hands. "They're just kids. The worst they can do is drool on that classy black jacket of yours."

He stopped grumbling abruptly and looked at me, red eyes wide with shock. Then his face broke into a wide grin. "You're one of a kind, Marshal."

"Oh, please," I bantered, trying to keep the blush off my face. "Tell me something I don't know."

"Room 23," he said, stopping suddenly. To our right was the door marked 23. Soul wasted no time in opening it and stepping inside. Following close behind him, I took in our surroundings. It was a small classroom, only twenty or so desks, and they were the kind of desks that were set up separately in rows, instead of the college-style amphitheater desks we had in our classes. There was a man with long blonde hair sitting on the teacher's desk at the front of the room - yes, sitting on the desk, his legs crossed underneath him casually. The toothpick in his mouth tilted up as he smiled at the sight of us.

"You must be the tutors Shinigami-sama sent," the man said.

Soul and I nodded together. "And you must be Mr. Mifune," Soul replied.

"You're correct," the man said. We both handed him our contracts and he stared at them for a moment, then ripped them both in half and tossed them in the trash. Beside me, Soul went rigid, his fists clenched, and I could tell Mr. Mifune's display of cheeky carelessness had annoyed him. Mifune's gaze went to the center of the room where there was a group of about five or six students gathered, staring at us with wide, innocent eyes.

"Well, they're waiting for you," Mifune said expectantly. "What exactly are you planning on teaching them?"

"We, uh, haven't really planned anything -" I started, but was interrupted by Soul.

"Battle techniques," he said loudly. Mifune chuckled.

"I think you should wait on that," the samurai said bemusedly. "They don't start learning about battling for another year or so. Maybe for today you should just start with getting to know them."

Soul mumbled some nasty things under his breath, but I rolled my eyes, grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the children. "I'll be going now," Mifune said, standing up and heading towards the door.

Alarmed, I turned around to face him and asked, "Where are you going?"

He pulled the toothpick out of his mouth and tossed it in the trash on top of the shredded contracts. "I've got a witch to look after," he replied indifferently. "Lock the door behind you when you leave."

After he left, I turned around to see Soul surrounded by the children. One was clinging onto his arm, biting his sleeve. Drool was running out of his mouth onto the sleeve of Soul's jacket. Soul looked horrified, and proceeded to wave his arm about, trying to shake the child off. I burst out laughing.

"Don't just stand there laughing, get this thing off me Red," he yelped. Still laughing, I pried the child away from Soul.

"We don't bite people," I told the child sternly. His eyes widened.

"He's a person?" the child breathed, looking in awe at Soul. "I thought he was a cupcake!"

The other children burst into a fit of laughter. Soul's face reddened, in anger or humiliation, I couldn't tell. Stifling back my own laughter, I said, "Now why in the world would Soul be a cupcake?"

"He has white hair," the child said quietly, looking at his feet in shame. "It looked like frosting."

I facepalmed. The children laughed again, and Soul's hands went to his hair impulsively, the tips of it sticking out from between his fingers like alfalfa. I looked back to the child and said, "I think you should apologize to Soul for making him feel insecure."

"Hey!" Soul shouted, flustered. "I am not insecure!"

"Shut up you idiot and let the damn kid apologize!" I recovered from my burst of anger and rubbed my temples, trying to relieve the stress that the white-haired moron and these kids were putting on me. When I looked back to the children they were all staring at me with wide frightened eyes, leaning as far back as possible to stay away from the crazy ginger. Aggravated, I sweat-dropped and said, "Nevermind." I sat on top of a desk in front of the children and Soul.

"I'm Melody, and this is Soul," I told them.

Soul snickered. "Just call her Red," he told them. "That's her real name. Melody is just her cover-up name."

I whacked Soul. "And call him Idiot. Soul is just his cover-up name."

"Hi Red, hi Idiot," the children chorused. I smirked, and Soul grumbled something inaudible.

"Now, tell us your names," I said to the children. The first one to speak up was a tall, blonde boy. The thing that struck me about him were his grey eyes, they were so shiny they almost looked silver.

"I'm James," he said. He was loud, and confident, and his face was turned up in a smirk similar to the one Soul usually wore.

"Nice to meet you, James," I said. "Weapon or meister?"

"Meister, of course," he replied matter-of-factly. "Someday I'm gonna create a death weapon."

"Whoa tiger, slow down a bit," I said playfully, "That's a long ways away."

"Oh yeah?" James challenged. "What about you, weapon or meister?"

"Weapon," I said, not quite sure where this was going.

James raised a blonde eyebrow at me. "And how old are you?"

"Fifteen..."

He laughed cruelly. "And you're not a death weapon yet? Pathetic."

I gritted my teeth as Soul burst out laughing. I turned around to give him a death glare, and he abruptly stopped, trying to mask it by coughing.

"I'm new to the academy," I told James stiffly. "This is only my second week."

"Ah." He nodded. "Good luck. You better hurry, or I might surpass you."

I cleared my throat and turned to the other students. "Who's next?"

A girl with curly, auburn hair spoke up. "I'm Ashen," she said. She had a dark complexion and long, dark lashes that framed her hazel eyes. "Weapon."

"Nice to meet you, Ashen," I said, smiling. "What kind of weapon are you?"

"Nun-chucks," she replied.

"Nice one, unique," I said. I turned to the other students. "Anyone else?"

The next student to speak up caught my attention. It was a short redheaded boy with dark blue eyes. "I'm Crimson," he said. "Weapon."

"Really?" I asked. "What kind of weapon?"

"Scythe." He smiled lopsidedly.

"Me too," I said, my smile matched his.

Soul spoke up from beside me. "Hey, me too," he interrupted. I paid no attention to him. He didn't know of the ginger bond that Crimson and I shared.

I turned to the next kid. "What about you?"

It was a small, timid-looking girl with bright pink hair - more like Kim's color than Crona's. She bit her lip and said, "Hana," so quiet I barely heard her. "Meister."

I tilted my head at her. "You wouldn't happen to have an older sister, would you?"

Hana nodded. "Kim. Do you know her?"

I smiled. "Yes, she's a friend of mine." Hana smiled shyly back. I turned to the last child, the boy who had bitten Soul earlier. "And you are?"

"AJ," he answered loftily.

James snorted. "No, he's Archie," he objected loudly. "Archibald Jamal. But he's too embarrassed by his name to call himself that."

I turned in James's direction. "Did I ask you?"

"Well, no, but -"

"Then shut the hell up."

James blinked once, his silver eyes wide with shock. Then, hesitantly, he withdrew, relaxing into his seat silently. Satisfied, I turned back to AJ.

"Weapon or meister?" I asked him.

"Weapon," he said. His hair was a strange bright green color and it stuck out at odd angles and hung in his face awkwardly. His eyes were so dark brown they were almost black. Then I realized that the lighting was just making them look lighter, and that they actually were black. He was as pale as a sheet of paper. His teeth were razor sharp, sort of like Soul's. Weird kid.

"What kind of weapon?" I asked, genuinely curious. This had to be good.

"Sword," he answered plainly. I tried to hide my disappointment.

"Oh. Just a sword?"

He nodded.

"My friend is the Enchanted Sword," I continued. "You don't have a fancy name or anything? You're just a plain old sword?"

He nodded again, slower this time, as if to get it to sink into my head. I sighed in compliance.

"Alright," I said. "Well it was nice to meet you all. Is there anything else you'd like to know about Soul and I before we dismiss you?"

Ashen raised her hand, and I called on her. "Do you guys like each other?" she asked. After a moment I realized she was asking both of us. It caught me by surprise and as much as I wanted to answer that question I had no clue how, and no sound would come out of my mouth at all. I snuck a sideways glance at Soul, who looked amused.

"I dunno, do we?" he exchanged playfully. His ruby red eyes glinted.

Ashen giggled. "You do!"

"And why do you say that?" he asked coolly.

"I can tell," she replied buoyantly. "You act like you do."

"Do we now?" Soul was obviously amused. "And how's that?"

"Well you flirt," she answered, puzzled because she thought it was obvious. "You say mean things that you don't really mean to try and cover up your feelings, because you're afraid the other one doesn't feel the same way."

My heart nearly stopped in my chest. How could this ten year old girl be better at figuring out my feelings than I was? I stole another glance at Soul. His mischievous attitude was now fading, he was becoming hard to read because whatever he was feeling now was covered up by his usually calm and collected demeanor. He said nothing.

"Class is over," I said after a long silence. "You're all free to leave. See you back here next Monday."

Hana surprised me by hugging me, throwing her arms around my middle. "Bye Red," she said quietly, then left.

AJ hugged me next. "See you next week, Gingy," he said, and followed Hana out. Then Crimson hugged me, then Ashen, and she winked at me before she left. Only James was left. He stared at me analytically, then picked up his books and awkwardly left without hugging me like the others had.

"Crazy group of kids," I said to myself, watching the last of them file out the door. Soul nodded silently in agreement.

"The green haired one, the sword," he said, deep in thought. "There's something about him."

"You mean AJ, the one who thought you were a cupcake?" I teased as we left the room. I locked the door behind me as Mifune had said to do.

"Yeah, him. I don't think he's just a regular sword. But I don't think even he knows that. He seemed much too oblivious."

"What makes you say that?" I asked, puzzled.

Soul shrugged. "Just a hunch."