North had known that her brother was fine. It took a lot more than that dainty little nudge to knock him unconscious. She knew that little tidbit from trial and error.
She also knew that the slight twitching of his hands was Morse Code. Buying him time to give his message, North stilled and her face fell to that of disbelief, adding a hint of grief in her mouth, which was cracked open, as a finishing touch.
"Bl... ack... Star...?" the meister had mumbled quietly. Those words showed that she had translated his message. It was a simple word. Distract.
So she went on her rampage, making her moves sloppy to give Mifune extra confidence in his abilities. That would make it so much more satisfying when her brother completely crushed him.
The extremity of the wound was of course an accident. It hurt like hell, but it did the trick. She distracted Mifune enough and even partially guilted him into conversation. That was a plus- totally worth a stab wound.
Belle did a good job of acting, too. To North, Belle resembled a porcelain doll. She was so small and delicate. She was quiet in her emotions, giving small smiles when she was happy rather than a hug. It was a huge improvement since they met, though. Honestly, Belle was the complete opposite of BlackStar.
The pain of her wound was, in summary, completely worth it. She had a conversation with a hot guy, regardless of the fact that it was him that gave her the stab wound- We all have our flaws, after all. She finally got Belle to practice her acting- they never got to practice since Belle had left elementary school the minute she was old enough to go to the DWMA- and she saw that overconfident asshole(/hot guy) get utterly pounded by her brother seconds before falling unconscious.
Speaking of unconsciousness...
North let out a barely audible groan as her grey eyes opened. Instantly, they snapped closed again. She recognized the overly bright lighting of the infirmary easily. She reopened her eyes, much more cautious, and allowed them to adjust.
"Awake?" she heard a quiet voice ask. She recognized the fuzzy blob next to her cot as Belle with that evidence- her question was short and sweet. Nothing unnecessary added. She had a somewhat blank expression, but there was a bit of darkness under her blue eyes, which had dulled in color from lack of sleep. Though she didn't have a worried expression, North knew from her appearance that her weapon had been keeping watch for quite a while without resting.
Not trusting her own voice, North simply nodded and gave a weak smile. Belle returned it with a twitch of her lips.
A familiar ashy-blonde nurse walked into view, holding a clipboard. Her hair was cropped, though the front was long enough to braid together and rest on her chest.
"Ah, North! You've finally woken up, have you? It's been a week." The nurse, Medusa, glanced at her clipboard. "You haven't been getting enough sleep, so your body took the opportunity to catch you up while you recovered."
North nodded in understanding and sat up, wincing in pain. Her side ached, but other than that was pretty good. Medusa was an amazing nurse, and she had enjoyed every time she was assigned to assist her.
"Careful," Belle chided quietly, a flicker of worry appearing in her eyes, which had brightened considerably since she first woke up. It seemed that the fatigue had all but melted away.
Medusa pursed her lips thoughtfully, then smiled. "Ah! Lord Death summoned you to the Death Room- he wanted you to come as soon as you woke up after I assured him that you could walk. Apparently BlackStar and Tsubaki on a special mission with Maka and her weapon."
"Got it, doc. Thanks for the..." she trailed off, unsure of what to refer to it as, so she just motioned to her almost non-existent wound. Without warning, Belle gripped her arm and practically threw her out of bed.
"WOAH! Dammit, Belle! Just cuz I think your strength is useful in battle does not mean you can use it on me without warning!" the meister shouted, steadying herself. Other than her most recent scar, which caused her side to feel a bit strange, she felt fine. North realized that she was still in her usual clothing, and smiled. The wound hadn't been near her low jeans or sports' bra (though it had left an unsatisfying, gaping hole through her sweater, which had been tied around her waist) so they hadn't changed her clothing this time.
"Sorry," came the soft reply, but this time North could see a small smirk on her face, a look too devious to seem like it belonged.
"Come on, Lord Death's waiting," she grumbled. Whining wouldn't get her anywhere.
"'Kay."
~-{POLARIS}-~
Oh, this was perfect.
North was basically rolling across the floor of the Death Room, laughter shaking her to the core. Belle stood nearby with Spirit and Lord Death, who were at least attempting to cover up their amusement at the predicament Lord Death had put Maka, Soul, BlackStar and Tsubaki into.
Not ten minutes before, the group of four had arrived at the graveyard which held Sid's grave. Since North and Belle were already filled in, they felt no grief for the loss. However, Maka's reaction to the consequences of failing was absolutely priceless. At least in North's somewhat sadistic opinion.
She stood up in time to see the battle finally begin, and was relatively surprised by BlackStar's protective instincts when he blocked the first attack, which was aimed for the ever oblivious Maka. Her grey eyes turned to peer at Belle, who watched the battle without much reaction, though her own eyes flashed every so often. To North, it was obvious that she predicted most of the moves several seconds before they happened.
She turned back to the battle only for a certain son of Lord Death to stroll into the Death Room, two teenage blondes at his heels.
"Hey Kid! What's up?" North exclaimed, immediately getting the short shinigami into a headlock with one arm and ruffling his perfect hair with her fist. Belle approached Liz and Patty and began to speak quietly with them.
"NorthStar, you're ruining my symmetry! Not to mention your bangs are not symmetrical at all! AGAIN!" Kid shrieked in response. He flailed for a few minutes before North finally let him go, and Belle began quietly picking at his hair to restore some amount of its perfection. The shinigami gave her a nod of appreciation.
That was how Death the Kid joined the crowd watching Maka and BlackStar attempt to capture (or re-kill...?) Sid with the help of their weapons. It was hilarious to watch them attempt to take down the 3 star meister, and North could tell he was going easy on them. When Sid wanted to, he could be worse than that samu- No. Bad North.
Turning away from the mirror that the others stared intently at, North began to walk out of the Death Room, only to feel a firm yet gentle grip on her wrist. She looked back to meet Belle's questioning eyes.
"I'm just going to take a walk. I'll be back in a bit," she assured her weapon, and the blonde nodded and let go of her wrist. North continued walking, her navy blue ponytail swaying behind her.
North walked through the empty halls of the academy, deep in thought. She looked back on the fight between her, BlackStar and Mifune the samurai. She buried her face in her hands to hide her blush. "UGH! I am not some blushing schoolgirl!" she groaned.
"You don't seem like the type to talk to yourself. Guess my observation skills need to be worked on after all."
North whipped her head around to meet a certain samurai's blue eyes. She had unconsciously found her way to the training forests behind the DWMA. Looking around, she figured that she was quite a long way from the Death Room she had started at.
Mifune stood in front of her, his arms crossed with an indifferent expression. He opened his mouth to speak, but North held up her hand. "Two questions. How and why?"
He looked at her like it was obvious, then faltered. "I'm not actually sure how no one has sensed our souls, yet... but I wanted to check on how you were doing. It's been a week, after all, but no one will shut up about the assistant teacher from the DWMA who isn't waking up."
"EH? A week?!" she exclaimed, vaguely remembering Ms. Medusa mentioning it before. She hadn't really been listening. North paused and blushed as she processed the other half of the sentence. They had come to check up on her.
Wait. They?
"Mifuunneee!"
A blur of color appeared through the bushes and latched onto Mifune's back. Once it was still, North identified it as a little girl with a tall frog-like hat. She felt her jaw slack. "THAT'S Angela?"
Said witch stuck her tongue out at the sound of her name and Mifune nodded quietly. North now understood why Tsubaki still wasn't a Death Scythe.
"Fu-Fu, I wanna playyy!" Angela exclaimed. Mifune patted her head good-naturedly and turned back to North.
"You should get back to the academy. They might come looking for you and that could never end well."
North nodded her head and brushed her blue bangs out of her eyes. She turned and began to walk away, but paused as if to ask one last question.
Mifune gave a small smile. "I'll stick around."
The girl smiled back. "Cya around, then..." the smile became a smirk. "Fu-Fu."
North was about 80% sure that Mifune growled as she walked away.
~-{POLARIS}-~
"HYYAA!"
The double sided battleaxe that was Belle in weapon form sliced through the neck of their latest target, guided by North's grip on her metal pole. North smirked as the Kishin Egg's body practically evaporated and left only a glowing soul behind, tainted red. Belle wasted no time plucking it from the air and swallowing it whole.
The meister brushed the sweat from her forehead and took a deep breath. Her hand ghosted across the scar on her side. Lord Death, Spirit and Medusa all wanted her to stay and recover. The 'mission' involving Sid and Stein would have been enough entertainment, but North wasn't the type to make excuses to stay out of work. As soon as she had gotten back from the forest and her meeting with Mifune, she went straight to the teacher's section of the job board and chose a relatively simple job in Arizona. All she had to do was catch a cheap plane to cross the border with Belle- who was used to North's low travelling standards and thus was not bothered- and do some research at a library. The target was good at covering his tracks... too good. It didn't take long to find his accomplice (his wife. No surprise there.) and discover who the next target would be.
"Tch. Starting over is irritating," Belle commented quietly, having just swallowed the soul. North nodded grumpily in response. Lord Death hadn't taken well to the fact that North had put herself in harm's way so BlackStar could land some good hits. He confiscated their souls as a standard punishment to try and convince them not to do a similar plan in the future. Yeah, right.
The meister sighed and clasped her hands behind her head. A wide smile similar to BlackStar's cocky grin stretched across her face. "Well, our plane doesn't get here for..." she pulled her phone from her pocket and turned it on to check the time. "...5 hours, so we totally have time to kill. I hear this town has an epic mall, sooo..." North trailed off, smiling expectantly at Belle. The battleaxe stared with a monotone expression for several seconds, then hung her head and nodded.
"Fine."
"YAY!"
Belle rolled her crystal blue eyes as North hugged her. Any normal 13-year-old would have fallen to the ground from the weight, even if North was pretty light concerning that she ate healthily as a meister, but Belle was no ordinary girl. Her stance was always ready for any attack, her weight always balanced, and so the tackle was like a fly buzzing on her shoulder.
"Will the mall be open?"
North stiffened at her weapon's question. The logic was sound- it was around 2 in the morning and not much was open, but she had total faith in the shopping industry. "Pfft, it'll be fine. Better than sleeping for five hours, right?" The meister replied and began to walk down the street as if she hadn't just killed an infamous murderer. Belle let out one last sigh, but returned to North's side like always.
Chapter two is out! I had fun with this chapter. It's much shorter than the previous one, but I didn't realize that until I uploaded it onto , so that was a big surprise that I'm really sorry about. I'll make the next chapter extra long in the spirit of Christmas!
Anyway, I'm missing out on the love, guys! Where are my reviews? I'm hurt. Special thanks to Ynot7 for my very first (and only) review! It means a lot to me.
First one to correctly guess Belle's love interest gets virtual cookies and a shoutout! Oh, and possibly a cameo if they have a Soul Eater OC.
