Hey hey, chapter four! I love this story already, it's so fun to write. Thanks to all of you who're reading!

Disclaimer stuff, Soul Eater does not belong to me, but Reika and Zephyr do.

So now we were here, with me on my toes outside of this "Crona's" door. Now, I had good reasons for being here. Well… Good reasons to me, anyway. For one, he was the meister of the Demon Sword Ragnarok, which made him a big deal. Second, he had Maka freaked and discouraged about fighting for a bit. Something about blood and Soul and something… Anyway, my third reason was that he'd given himself up. Now, these made me curious enough to want to meet him. Though, it might kill me in the end…

Anyway, no one answered the door, which made me knock. "Hello? Anyone in there?" More silence. I could hear the swish of Zephyr shaking his head through the silence. "Maybe you have the wrong room Reika…"

I wasn't ready to give up, but I did lower myself to the doorknob. It was locked, obviously, but not for long. I pulled a pick from my pocket, toyed with the lock for a minute, and with a click, the door unlocked. Pulling the thing open, I entered the room. In my immediate sight were a bed and a barred window. No person though. This place was more of a dungeon than a room, minus having chains and torture devices.

I was about to leave, when my eye caught something in the corner, behind the door. I almost jumped at what I saw. Crowded there was a kid with pink hair. The kid was staring directly at me like I was the plague; I thought he was going to die sitting there. The pillow he had was in his vice grip. He was shaking. Quite noticeably.

We stared at each other silently, wondering if the other was going to make the first move. Well, I was wondering that, and if this was the kid I was looking for. He could not be Crona… Could he?

"Uh… Are… Are you Crona," I finally asked, straightening my posture. He looked away, towards the ground, almost contemplating whether to answer me or not. I didn't plan to leave though. Mean as that was, I wanted an answer.

And an answer I was going to get, for mere seconds later, some black, monster-like thing grew from his back. I jumped away with a squeak, and an instant later, Zephyr was in front of me in a protective stance. When he saw I was alright, he relaxed a bit. I hopped onto Zephyr's back, peering over his shoulder at the monster-thing again.

"Hey, Crona, you know these weirdoes?" It had a somewhat high voice. I couldn't help but smile at it, which made it annoyed. I guess. "Hey, what are you staring at wench?"

I fell back to the ground on my feet, walking towards the boy and the monster protruding from his back. To make him feel comfortable, I crouched to his level. "So, you are Crona…" He was trembling like crazy. Was he afraid of me? Of all people, me?

"Hey, relax buddy," I tried in a calmer, quieter tone, smiling sweetly. "I'm not here to hurt you… Neither is he." A quick gesture to Zephyr, who rolled his eyes at me. Crona watched my carefully. He probably didn't trust my movements. I brushed a few strands of hair from his face. "You alright, you seem upset…"

Still nothing from Crona. I looked over to Zephyr, shrugging. "I don't get it Zeph… I was sure he was the one that had Maka riled up…"

That seemed to do something, because when I looked at Crona again, he was looking directly at me, not just an under view. Did something about that sentence make him reconsider? I guess it did, because it finally got him talking. "Y-you know Maka?"

His speech reminded me of myself some time ago… I nodded to him. "Yeah, I know Maka. We're pretty good friends." He smiled, the weakest smile I'd ever seen, at that. Guess that changed his mind about me. "I'm sorry… I just don't know how to handle people coming to attack me…"

I shook my head at that, offered him my hand as a sign of peace. "I'm not here to hurt you. Promise." My eyes sparkled, not dangerously, but excitedly. "I'm more interested in figuring out why you're here." Ragnarok grumbled about me being a hindrance and annoyance, and prodded at Crona's head with his fists, but that was about it.

"Crona's only here because he let a brat with pigtails convince him to stop fighting." Ragnarok really disliked Crona it seemed. I shook my head lightly. He meant Maka. "I-It doesn't matter. I-I'm not that i-important," Crona managed through Ragnarok pulling at his mouth. As much as I wanted to giggle, I shook my head. "Crona, Maka was the reason you surrendered. If you came here because Maka somehow influenced that, then you are important."

Odd thing to say, considering I just met the kid, but it was something to give him a confidence boost. He began whining for Ragnarok to stop. Another shake of my head. "Leave him alone, you're his weapon partner…" Throughout the whole thing, my voice was soft, nothing out of the ordinary. The monster thing only snickered at me, waving a fist at me. "Listen girly, Crona is nothing special, and if you keep sticking around like this, you're gonna be the same!"

Instead of answering immediately, I stood up, brushing the bangs from my eye so both of the silver orbs were visible. I stepped forward, my eyes focused on the demon figure. Crona shrank where he sat. I couldn't really imagine myself being intimidating to anyone; I was short, my voice was just louder than a whisper, and half the time I looked lost, not mad.

Silent minutes passed before I nodded to myself. Zephyr stared at the back of me, keeping his eyes on the situation the entire time, in case something went wrong. Crona seemed confused, but stayed quiet. Before Ragnarok said anything, I smiled, patting the top of Ragnarok's head by standing on my toes. "You know," I chirped, mostly to myself. "You aren't that scary. In fact, you're kind of adorable."

Bad choice of words on my part. Shaking his fists violently, Ragnarok whined, "I am not adorable you brat! How dare you!" And with that, the most embarrassing experience in my life happened. Since I was on my toes and I was a bit on the slim side, it wasn't hard for Ragnarok to yank down my shorts. My eyes went wide, as did Crona's, and in that moment, I shrieked louder than I ever had in my life.

Immediately Zephyr was in front of me, punching at Ragnarok and shaking Crona violently. With the darkest blush on my face, I pulled my shorts back up, amidst the whining apologies from Crona and the angry threats from Zephyr. "T-that's enough Zephyr," I managed, my blush not leaving. He backed away a step, eyes stabbing at the two of them. I glanced around at Crona, who was shaking fearfully. Poor kid, it wasn't his fault.

"S-sorry about that Crona… Zeph is just p-protective." I laughed nervously. Boy did things feel awkward now… I let my hair fall in my face, stepping towards the door. "G-guess we'll be on our way then… It was nice meeting you Crona!"

Before I got out the door, I heard Crona's voice say, "Wait…" I turned, a nervous look spread on my face. Zephyr was already out the door, his hand on my arm. Whether he had to yank me away from here or wait, it was his decision now.

"I-I never got your name," Crona slowly said, his gaze once again retreating to the floor. A weak grin greeted my face. "Right… I'm Reika, and my partner is Zephyr." As if on cue, Zephyr yanked at my arm. He wanted to go. Now.

"Okay, I'm coming! Bye Crona, I hope we can become good friends!" And with that, Zephyr dragged with from the room, leaving Crona with a confused look on his gloomy face.

As Zephyr and I walked back home (we'd missed school, there was no point going in late since Stein made the tardy stand outside the class), he looked down at me a few times, stared for a long enough time, then averted his gaze. Something was on his mind.

"Something wrong, Zephyr," I asked, looking at him from the corners of my eyes. Our eyes locked for a second before he looked away.

"… I just wish that monster hadn't done that to you…" Of course. The paranoid big brother figure that was my partner. I sighed. "You and me both… That was not fun…" My hands retreated to my pockets. We walked in almost silence after that, aside from the daily hustle and bustle that went on while school was in session. Every so often I would feel his gaze on me, but it would disappear seconds after I felt it. My house came into sight.

Before we entered the place, I swore I heard Zephyr mutter, "… I'm sorry Reika."

Done this chapter! I just wanted to find a way to make this a bit comedic. See you all next chapter, bye!