She felt her arms reach up like she had no control of them. She was nothing more than his puppet now. Her head rolled to the side as she began to dance slowly.

Dance, kitty, dance.

Good Kity.

The next day at school, Kid was greeted by his friends giving him a congratulatory tackle. They were on all sides of him, trapping him in some sort of group hug. This did agitate Kid, but it seemed that that was their intent.

"Congrats on finally asking Ame out!" Blackstar yelled. "I knew you were never such as big a man as me; I would have asked someone like Ame out the first time I saw her!"

"Get off," Kid complained, but made no move to stop them.

"Aw, come on, Kid, be cool," Soul said. "I didn't officially asked Maka out until I got your text, so technically you beat me too."

"So where are you two going on your first date?" Tsubaki asked.

"Our first… crap," Kid sighed. "I didn't think about any of that."

He squirmed out from underneath them and put his left hand over his face in exasperation. While he was thinking, the others noticed something on his hand that made them gasp. It was a little band of silver metal curled around his third finger.

"You got her a ring?!" Soul demanded.

"Dude, who even does that anymore?" Liz asked.

"It is kind of old-fashioned to have a couples ring," Maka agreed.

"I did it for her and no one else," Kid explained calmly, turning away from them. "Come on. We don't want to be late again."

"Oh, man," Liz groaned. "School is just the worst sometimes. When do we get out for summer?"

"Just a little longer," Kid replied as if had told her a thousand times already. "Be thankful this is America."

Their first class of the day was something that Lord Death had added soon after the Demon Lord posed a real threat to the world. It was composed of teachings from an old book that held a record of godly history. The class was taught by Sayo Harumi, a woman who had been consumed by Ninetails. Ame had revived her and she returned to the academy to teach. Although she usually taught the class on her own, Ame was with her today, holding a couple of books and wearing a pair of glasses.

"I wonder what she's doing here," Kid thought idly to himself as he began taking notes.

"Okay, forget these stupid things," Ame muttered, taking off the glasses with her left hand. Kid immediately caught what she was doing, and looked down. She was deliberately showing off the ring.

"Who got her the ring?" a student sitting in front of Kid asked. He turned around. "Hey, Kid, I think Ame's dating someone."

"Will you shut up?!" Kid demanded.

Lover's First Date; One-Sided Refrain?

When Ame got home, she did what she normally did around the house. Be lazy. Okay, she wasn't that lazy. She did go out on a hunt with her wolf brothers and used the meat they'd caught to make a meal for everyone. Ever since Nagi and Rin moved in to Gallows manner, the six of them were able to rotate chores and meals fairly well; everyone could kind of do whatever they wanted as long as they pitched in every once in a while. But Ame thought about it; it seemed that now that she was Kid's girlfriend, she felt obliged to clean and cook for him. It was all just little nothings she mused about until she finally heard Kid return.

"Ame, we're home!" he called. Without receiving a reply, he leisurely hung his jacket up in the coat closet and wandered into the kitchen. He saw Ame sitting on the counter, gripping the edge of the granite as if she would fall if she didn't. Kid grinned. This was a game they started playing a few weeks ago. It was training, in a way, for Ame. Whenever Kid got home, Ame would stop whatever she was doing immediately and wait for him. When he did, she had to stay until he said so.

"Wait," he said. Ame pouted at him. He was really starting to take advantage of this. He laughed. "I'm only kidding. Come here."

Ame leapt off the counter and hugged him tightly. Kid wasn't sure why she was so clingy with him; she saw him every day. She even got to come to school with him today.

"How was the rest of your day?" she asked after she released him and went back to cooking.

"Fine," he replied. "What about you, Ame?"

"It was fine," Ame smiled at him. She moved over to the refrigerator and looked inside dismally. "I think I'm going to go shopping tomorrow. We're out of milk…. And I think I'm going to get some watermelon. It sure is getting hot out again."

Kid wasn't really listening, he just walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her in a half-hearted hug. She glared at him; girls have a way of knowing when boys aren't listening.

"How would you feel about going out on Friday, just the two of us?" he asked casually. "I'll take you to your favorite restaurant and I'll even buy you something nice if you want it."

"Where's this coming from?" she asked.

"I just want to spend some time with you. Alone."

"We're alone right now."

This girl didn't get the thing about dates. Kid would have struggled to find an excuse, had it not been for the loud crashing upstairs and the sound of Liz yelling at Rin.

"Get out of here, dog!" she yelled. "You're such a pervert!"

"Alone? Not hardly," Kid sighed, pulling away and heading upstairs to deal with whatever battle was being fought upstairs.

Ame closed the fridge and went back to cutting vegetables at the counter. She tried to refocus on what she was doing, but she just had this odd, uncomfortable feeling… like someone was staring at her. Once or twice, Ame peeked behind her to make sure no one was standing there. She'd been startled a couple times by Kid, who seemed to move about like a ghost sometimes. Ame glanced out the darkening window, then shifted her gaze to the mirror. Nobody. Nothing. Maybe she was just working too hard.

Soul Eater

Friday evening, Kid dressed in his best suit and waited patiently for Ame. He decided to sit down in the living room and watch some Walking Dead with Rin while he waited. He heard that girls usually take around an hour to get ready. After about one episode of pointless gore and stupid people dying, he heard someone walking down the stairs. He and Rin looked up.

Ame was standing at the foot of the staircase with her hands folded neatly in front of her. She was wearing a white dress; either she was aiming to be cute and simple or this was really all she had. You choose. The only thing that really stood out about her date night look was that she tied her hair up in two symmetrical pigtails. Rin got up and ran to give his sister a hug.

"You look great, sis!" he said. He pulled away. "Now, if Kid gets out of line, go for the throat and don't let go until the body stops shaking."

"I think we're fine," Kid smiled, sweat-dropping.

"Thanks for the tip!" Ame cheered. Kid deadpanned.

The restaurant they went to was a small Japanese grill and steakhouse in downtown Death City. Once they were seated, Ame decided to strike up a conversation.

"So, what do people do on dates?"

"You really are clueless," Kid chuckled. "Eat. Drink. Talk."

"Talk about what?" Ame had a feeling this was important.

"You know, you… me… us."

Ame started laughing. "You know that's not us! Come on, what should we do?"

"Uhm…" Kid glanced at her rather uncomfortably. He hadn't been on a date since… before he even went to the academy. "Want to… see what's downtown?"

After eating, Ame and Kid walked around downtown and checked out anything that looked interesting.

"Hey, Kid, let's check out this store!" Ame suggested excitedly, pulling him towards a shop full of stuffed animals. Kid complied; he was with a girlfriend, no one would judge him. Ame zipped around the tables and kiosks overflowing with plushy stuffed toys. Kid watched her, laughing slightly.

"You know, I remember when I first got you that panda bear at the carnival, and you said cute things didn't suit you," he said, picking up one of the stuffed cats that was looking at him funny. "What did you decide to call that thing?"

"Juralumin!" Ame chimed.

"What kind of name is that?" Kid asked, turning to look at Ame. He stiffened. Ame was clutching a giant panda bear that was almost twice her size.

"Big Juralumin!" she chirped.

"I… can see that," Kid said, sweatdropping.

Ame didn't find anything that tickled her fancy in that store. Or she just didn't tell Kid. Afterwards, she dragged Kid around doing whatever looked fun, be it standing in the middle of a busy street and shouting "I am the star" or simply watching one of those black and white cat clocks in the window of a shop until it blinked (which it never did). In truth, Kid hadn't ever been on an outing quite like this. The last time he'd been on a date, it was, well, serious. He went out for dinner with the girl in his finest clothes, and then they went to her apartment. Alone.

Anyway, Ame's energy meter started going down a little after nine o'clock. She was calm again and actually started stumbling behind Kid a little bit.

"Want to go home yet?" he asked. Ame shook her head and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes stubbornly. "Come on, Ame. We can do this again some other time."

"Okay," Ame nodded. She leaned tiredly on Kid's arm as they headed home. "Kid?"

"Yes?"

"You know I had a really good time, right?"

"Yes. You seem to always enjoy yourself."

"Yeah. Just like I'm going to enjoy it when you tell me all about your last girlfriend…."

"!"

Haha, a bit cliffy, but he and Ame actually get home without any more drama. Since the last chapter was such a doozy, I decided to put some more important stuff in the next couple of chapters. It's easier to remember when it's not all being shoved down your throat, right? Anyway… on with the

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Okay, as you can see, there was a little italic thing at the beginning of the chapter. I am going to put a 'dream sequence' at the beginning of each arc, provided by a currently unknown source, as a bit of a prologue to the madness. It's similar to the dream sequence of horror and gore at the beginning of every fourth episode of Higurashi, in comparison.

Another thing I'd like to bring up is that this fic is rated T for a reason this time. Unlike the last one, which had mild cursing and some violence, as Kid and the others get older, they're exposed to more… stuff, if ya know what I mean. I'm not going to put any lemons in, calm down! There's just some innuendos and some hints and deeper psychological scars, but I don't think it will be much worse than the original Okami videogame.

And, finally, I hope you all enjoy this fic as much as I do. You do not know how much all your reviews and support mean to me; thank you so much. Now if you will, follow, favorite, and set it to default because I'm about to get to work :)