Chapter 3! :D I feel accomplished. Now that we've got the two introductory chapters, I'll probably jump around locations in this chapter. But I thought of a way to tie-in the Kid plotline with the others, so yay :) Credit to my friend ~Adlez~ for an idea for this chapter.

Define "Normal", Chapter 3

The Kitty, the Reaper, and the Wardrobe

There's a limited amount of things one can do when one's sealed in a walk-in closet with one's rival. With very little resources such as food, water, or Shonen manga, it's easy to grow bored and irritable. Music might be a desired form of entertainment in such a situation, but at the moment an iPod was nowhere to be found, and the music available was becoming very agitating.

"Crona," Groaned Soul, "Please stop humming. I must've asked you at least fifty times to STOP HUMMING."

"Sorry." Crona murmured. "I thought you liked music."

Soul rubbed his eyes. He truly believed he was going to impale the child if the young Gorgon became any more annoying. "That wasn't music. That was the sound of a harmonica drowning."

"Have you heard a harmonica drown? Was it sad? Did it die?" Crona asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

The scythe shook with the effort it required to hold down his temper. "No, Crona. And I don't want to if it sounds like that." He grumbled, then stood and began pacing out of irritation, which there wasn't much room to do.

Crona watched his friend's weapon partner. The air mattress had been returned to its original position, and the Demon Swordsman had seated himself on the far end so he could lean against the wall. He had thought about trying to strike up a conversation, but after seeing the glare in Soul's eyes, he didn't even attempt it. The pink-haired meister truly wanted to befriend the scythe, but he knew that the other end of the companionship most likely would not approve.

Crona then smiled in a friendly way, pulling out a small box from his shopping bag of personal belongings. "Hey Soul," He asked as the addressed party stopped his pacing and gazed over at the child. "Do you want to play Go Fish?" He asked nicely, holding out the box of playing cards.

Soul was silent as he picked up the cardboard package from the meister's hand. The text on the card container, in big pink letters, read Go Fish, My Little Pony Edition.

"Definitely not. Way too much pink." Soul muttered, handing the box back to Crona gingerly as if afraid the pink would rub off. "Where'd you even get that?"

"Patty." Crona explained. "She gave it to me as a housewarming gift when I moved here."

Soul rolled his eyes. Of course the younger Thompson would be the one to give their friend a pack of dollar store Go Fish cards for a housewarming present.

"Well, it's not my idea on fun." The scythe mumbled nonchalantly.

"Oh. Okay." Crona replied while putting the box back into its place in his plastic bag. "What's your idea of fun, then?"

Soul thought. "Fighting. Playing music. Sleeping." He replied after a minute.

Crona thought about that. "Well… You can sleep in here."

Soul tried to figure out how the lock worked or if he could open the door without a busted doorknob. "Or I could fight you."

Crona appeared alarmed. "Please don't! I don't want to fight!"

Soul chuckled a little. "I was kidding, man. Lighten up."

Crona found himself smiling a little once again. If his roommate was in the mood to joke, then he was assured that he must be growing more comfortable in their situation.

"Dang it." Soul muttered, standing upright. "I have no idea how this thing works. Maka would know, but if she were here we probably wouldn't be stuck in here in the first place." He sighed, leaning against the wall. It was then that he realized how much he wanted his meister back home. He needed her to help with Crona; he certainly couldn't handle the child on his own. But more importantly, he needed to be by her side, where he always was. It felt wrong to not be able to reach her and to not be her blade and savior if she was in harm's way. He would never be able to forgive himself if his love was hurt while he was shut away with only a mere door and lock separating him from her. The scythe clenched his fists, determination blazing in his red eyes like a flurry of dancing flames.

Crona had been reading the book on birds that Maka had lent him when he suddenly found himself pulled into the air and held straight out like a battering ram.

"FOR MAKA!" Soul cried, running forward and slamming the confused boy's face into the door.

"Ow…" Crona moaned. "Soul, what are you doing?"

"Busting us out." Soul replied matter-of-factly, repeating the process.

"Why OOF are you using my face?" Crona whimpered.

"Because you have a hard head." Soul answered.

"Yeah, because Ragnarok hits it so much…"

"Remember when you surprised Liz during her softball practice last summer?"

"It was an accident…"

"Whatever. Remember when she hit you with her bat and you barely even flinched?"

"I guess… But that was the OW side of my head. You're hitting the door with my face!"

Soul paused. "True. Turn your head down. I'll use the top." He said, and then slammed Crona into the door again as the latter looked down quickly.

"But I don't know how to deal with being a battering ram!" Cried Crona, but despite his pleas, Soul continued to replicate the procedure of ramming the child's head into the closet door for the next few minutes.

"Well that failed." The two sat once again on Crona's mattress a while later, the pink-haired boy rubbing his terribly sore head.

"Do you have any idea of anything to do in here?" The white-haired teen asked. "Other than Go Fish."

Crona shook his head. "No." He mumbled.

Soul sighed, flopping backwards onto the bed. "Great." He muttered then looked at the clothes hanging around him. Noticing that one of Maka's long black coats had fallen on the floor, he picked it up, fully prepared to hang it upon a hanger. Suddenly he chuckled. "Hey, do you know what'd be fun?"

Crona turned to him. "Does it involve my head getting hurt again?"

Soul shook his head, standing up. "Nope." The scythe proceeded to grab some of his meister's other clothes off their hanger. Crona looked confused when the scythe pulled his arm through the sleeve.

"What are you doing, Soul?" The young Gorgon asked.

Soul grinned, messily putting on one of Maka's ties. "Seeing if Maka's stuff'll fit me." He replied, throwing one of the blonde's white blouses at the pink-haired boy. "Try that on. You're skinny like her."

Crona looked at the shirt, a little confused. But he did what Soul asked; wondering slightly at what "fun" could come out of this.

Patty was seated upon Death the Kid's bed, and was quickly surrounded by all eight of her meisters.

"We have a lot of questions, Patty." One of the Reapers began.

"And you had better answer them." Another added.

Patty smiled sweetly. "Oki doki Loki!" She saluted.

"First question." Began a Kid. "What on Earth happened to me?"

"Oh. That's easy!" Patty grinned. "You were upset because you didn't get a lot of sleep, so I decided to try and cheer you up. So I cloned you." The young gun beamed. "You always said that there should be more people like you."

The Kids rolled their eyes. "Yes, yes, fine. But how did you manage to create such a machine?" An additional Shinigami asked.

Patty laughed. "I have no idea!"

The Kids then facepalmed. "All right. But how do we know which is a clone and which is the real me?" Yet another spoke up, to which the blonde shrugged.

"I have no idea. In TV or comics, there's always some way." She noted. "But you all look exactly alike."

The Kids froze at her most recent comment. "We all look…" They gazed at each other in wonder, "Exactly alike?"

"Yep." Patty replied absentmindedly, looking as deep in thought as was possible for the younger Thompson. The Kids stared at each other for a minute longer.

"We all look exactly alike!" They exclaimed. Each was seeing the situation in a different light; what was formerly a horrible ordeal was now a glorious opportunity for absolute beauty.

"WE'RE ALL SYMMETRICAL!" The eight rejoiced right before Liz burst in the door.

"Kid, are you okay? I heard an explosion, and I figured it was Patty's box…" The elder Thompson froze. "There's… Eight Kids…"

"Isn't it a wonderfully symmetrical number?" The multiple Reapers sighed in ecstasy.

Liz's eye twitched for a second before an earsplitting scream burst from her lungs. "WE'VE BEEN INVADED BY ZYGONS! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" She cried, and then the teenage gun continued to scream as she ran back to her room.

Patty laughed and continued to go console her sister of the fact that they were not being invaded by shape-shifting aliens. Meanwhile, the Kids began to try and discover eight symmetrical outfits. As his black and white suit was the only attire they had precisely that amount of, they each dressed in one accordingly.

"Liz!" One called out the door. "We're going to need you to make more breakfast!"

"So let me get this straight," The security guard sighed, then pointed at Blair. "You're a cat."

"Yep." Blair smiled in her human form.

"And you're from the DWMA." He pointed at Maka.

"Yes." Maka grumbled.

"And you brought your cat to the mall?"

"Wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done." Muttered Maka.

"Definitely not." The guard sighed. "Want me to go over the list of charges again?"

"Why not? It's not like my pride can become even more dead." The blonde meister replied. The girl and her cat both sat behind the bars of a temporary cell within the mall's basement security office.

"Well, for starters, your cat,"

"My name's Blair."

"Blair, overturned every cage in the pet shop."

"The poor critters deserved to be free!" Blair mewed sweetly.

"Uh-huh." The guard rolled his eyes. "Right. We still haven't been able to find that snake that crawled into the air vent."

"That won't end well." Maka flinched.

"And apparently, after Blair became intoxicated on the store's catnip stock, she proceeded to run around the mall…" The guard cringed. "Nude."

Blair laughed. "It was fun!"

The guard sighed once again. "I'm just glad you're wearing clothes now. However, I'm afraid I'll need to call your parents, young meister."

Maka resisted the urge to slam her face into the wall. If her father came, he'd most likely freak out so badly at the fact that his daughter was behind bars that he'd get himself arrested.

"The only parent that Maka knows the number of is her Daddy, Death Scythe!" Blair purred, but the security guard started to look concerned.

"Her father's a D-death Scythe?" He stuttered. It began to occur to him that a Death Scythe, enraged about his daughter's confinement, could easily tear him to shreds.

"Uh… Maybe we can put off that call for a minute…" The guard smiled awkwardly, stepping out of the office and leaving Maka and Blair alone. He sighed, knowing it was his duty to call the parent, but he was, however irrationally, scared of a Death Scythe's reaction to the situation.

Suddenly the air vent above him gave way and came crashing down onto his head, rendering the poor guard unconscious as the escaped snake fell down after the vent. Its black head turned to look over the guard, flicking its tongue in curiosity. The creature seemed to grin as it slithered off the man and down the hallway.

After going through a maze of doors, hallways and air ducts, the reptile finally arrived outside. It picked its head up, flicking its tongue out to taste the air and get a sense of direction. Its body moved gracefully as it kept to shadows and alleyways, trying to avoid detection as it neared its goal. The black-scaled snake froze when its tongue picked up the scent it was after. The scales around its mouth pulled back in what seemed to be a dark grin, and its golden slit eyes sparked with malice and a desire for revenge as it crawled into yet another air vent. Its black scales with the yellow arrow pattern disappeared into the grating before anyone could notice that a snake was making its way to the address of a certain blonde meister.

The stage is set! :D I put a Kingdom Hearts reference in this chapter, if anyone happened to notice ;) Points if you did.