Teaming Up

Everybody went to classes the next day morning, hoping inwardly that whatever made Stein's decision about them doing nothing on their last class would change this time. Sadly, they were very disappointed. The only thing that changed from yesterday was the fact that Professor Stein was on time. He was in the very same spot he was in his chair and was watching all of his class. It seemed to be yet another wasted day for the Crescent Moon class.

But that couldn't be it, right?

"Oi, Professor, ain't gonna tell us why we're doing this or what?" asked Soul in a fresh way, attempting to get an explanation about the situation at least. The Scythe Weapon boy was sure there was a reason behind all that staring nonsense. And when the scientist didn't budge the albino tried once again. "So? Having nothing to say at all?"

"I told you to close the room after you left," he said eyeing Harvar and Jacqueline. The Demon Lamp girl cringed at his emotionless gaze while the boy mumbled something like an apology. On the other hand, Soul felt more than annoyed seeing that he had been ignored so bluntly, shattering his hopes of getting Stein speaking.

Almost all the other students ignored the "cool" tantrum Soul (along his usual gang of easy-excitable slackers) threw after.

While Kirikou was occupied in his petty revolt, Fire and Thunder sneaked out of their seats and went over Ox and Harvar to pass their time. Yesterday they had been entertained by Tsubaki-nee, but today the girl was more occupied trying to stop Black Star for another attack from the teacher, so she was not available at the moment. Unfortunately for the siblings, the two nerdy boys were so struck reading a pair of thick books to notice their futile attempts to get their attention.

Just as Fire was about to set Ox's book on fire with his fire-breath out of frustration, Thunder tapped her brother's shoulder and signaled him the direction in which their other female partners stood. The little boy lost interest on their male companions, stuck his tongue out at them, and went over their two remaining teammates; all the while he left a face palming Thunder behind.

Kim and Jacqueline, on their part, were just as busy as the other two. This time it was with a Jackie taking notes from a pair books around her and a Kim playing a game of Klondike Solitaire on her own.

Fire climbed up on the desk between the girls. Neither acknowledged his presence. At this, Fire started jumping on place, trying his hardest to earn a reaction from the pair, but his attempts were met with nothing more than a pen scribing some more notes and a card being laid on a pile of other cards.

Thunder watched her brother from the floor with a disapproving look as he went as far as try to take one of Jackie's notes from her grasp. Note the keyword try, because he got stopped by the older girl's iron-like grasp on his tiny hand just before he got near her papers.

She released the boy, throwing the little feet away in an automatic motion shortly after and continued scribbling notes and murmuring to herself, never sharing a glance nor giving any trace of having been consciously aware of Fire's presence at all.

A little unnerved, Fire turned at the pink-haired girl. But before he could even move an inch, the meister looked away from her game and locked sight with the boy. There was silence between the two until Kim spoke in a calm yet firm manner. "Don't."

Such a simple word was enough warning to make the little boy gulp loudly, jump from the desk and hide behind her sister. Thunder then bowed deeply in an attempt to excuse her brother's actions and carried him away. Kim kept watching the two little Pots as they made their ways towards their original seats with a slightly amused smirk.

"Okay, that was badass, you know?" she said as she went back to her game. A Queen of Hearts on hand. "You sure you don't wanna play? I feel in the mood for a good Mau Mau round."

"… Namusan…"

Kim rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right…"

Two hours had passed since the two little Demon Weapons returned to their seats after going with their teammates and Thunder felt like dying. Kirikou, Bla-star, the spooky cool boy and that crazy blonde girl had finally dropped their tantrum, but instead opted to go and hack around in one corner of the classroom. And the fact that Tsubaki-nee was now talking with iron-table girl left the two young siblings without any means of amusement.

It felt like they had been doing nothing forever instead of hours, much to the twins' displeasure. The feeling was akin to when Kirikou punishes them after they behave badly. Speaking of Kirikou, the little girl scoffed at the sight of their lazy meister still goofing around and turned her sight to her surroundings, trying to find something interesting to distract herself with.

No such luck.

There were people sleeping, others playing videogames, reading or anything else to prevent boringness. Even Ox and Harvar were currently playing with a game of domino that appeared from who-knows-where; Kim was now reading a magazine while Jackie continued with her notes.

Thunder was about to resign to her fate and bump her head against the desk when an idea stuck her. She grinned and started to violently shake her drooling brother, effectively waking him up.

Before the boy could pout at this rude awakening, the gleam on the eyes of his sister stopped him. She signaled the whole classroom to what little Fire nodded a little curious, and then she made a boring-like face. The boy nodded again not very sure what Thunder was implying.

It wasn't until his sister started pointing at Kirikou, bald weirdo, pineapple-face, funny girl and crazy bubblegum girl, put her palms together and pointed at one of the discarded board games next to bald weirdo that Fire began to understand. He smirked at her idea, agreeing at the same thought that popped in Thunder's mind. It was scheming time.

The Next Day

The Demon Pots ran past a sulking Kirikou, entering the classroom with a speed that could make Black Star proud. Their meister just raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing. Since they returned from school yesterday, the two kids had been unusually quiet as if something was bothering their little minds.

At first, the African-American boy suspected they got angry at him from leaving the two bored kids alone in class or something because they weren't so eager on going to their usual visit to the candy store at the end of school as usual. But, after recent events, it was as clear as water that a mere child tantrum didn't seem to be the real reason behind their weird behavior at all.

In fact, that very morning at breakfast, when he was about to question the weapon siblings, the two were back at their normal happy-go-lucky mood, handed him his backpack and even hurried him to go to school. It's no strange to say that that really puzzled Kirikou.

"Whatever they're planning on doing, I hope they just stay out of trouble," he said as he took a deep breath full of resignation at the fact that today was likely going to be another boring day while opening the door towards the classroom.

Meanwhile, the two little Demon Pots cautiously made their way inside the place, setting their plan on action. Thunder started looking around and managed to spot pineapple-head and bald weirdo just at the same time as Fire spotted the other two. It was good Kirikou arrived after them.

The two nodded to each other and silently went behind their unsuspecting targets. Kirikou watched them from afar with a quizzical face, but was taken from his mind when Black Star came up to him. He threw his backpack away and went with his blue-haired crazy friend.

Going back with the twins, they waited till the older kids got distracted and snatched something from their desk in a clean motion while they retreated as silently as they came. The two regrouped with the objects on their tiny hands and went to dispose of the evidence of their crime in Kirikou's discarded bag, all the while they took a somewhat flat and rectangular object within.

They went to sit somewhere at the class with a good view around and patiently waited for the second part of their plan to get into motion, completely unaware at the unwavering gaze of Professor Stein at them.

… (5 minutes later) …

"Give it back you pin head!"

"Excuse me? Pardon, my fair lady, but I don't know what you're talking about,"

"What I'm talking about? Don't make me laugh! You're the only creep who would have the guts to steal from me!"

"H-huh? Steal?"

Indeed, Fire and Thunder were eagerly watching the dispute of the rest of the team from their seats. The argument seemed to increase in volume that even made Stein look directly at the five. Kirikou, who had been acting as the mediator of this dispute when it started to begin, finally decided to intervene.

"All right, chill," said Kirikou stepping forward in the semi-circle the five of them created. "Let's just, ya know, get our heads cool and all."

"How do you want me to keep my cool when this boy here stole my cards!" replied an angry Kim, who was being securely restrained by her friend in an attempt to avoid the pink-haired assassinate Ox. Nobody messed with Kim's old deck of cards.

"Kim, stop it please..." pleaded Jackie.

"But I didn't! I swear! I even lost something too!" was Ox's response as he waved his hands over his chest defensively.

"Liar!"

Harvar put a hand in front of his friend as he calmly replied "It is true that Ox lost his portable chess game, but more importantly, do you have any proofs or something that it was indeed my meister who took your things?"

Kirikou groaned in exasperation. Their quarrel was driving him crazy! Just as he was about to step in front of the four yet again, he felt a small tug at his pants. He looked down at Fire who was signaling a thing in Thunder's hands. He accepted the object the tiny Demon Weapons handed him and turned at the others. "Okay, okay. Instead of arguing, what if we just go and play this nice game o pass the time, huh?"

Ox stepped forward too. "But, our things—"

"Maybe you let them at home. I don't recall seeing neither of you with a game of chess, a set of cards nor some petty books when I first entered the room." swiftly said Kirikou.

The others didn't seem convinced, though. "I clearly remember taking my copy of 'Unaussprechlichen Kulten' at school with me today! It's not possible I could have imagined all that extra weight," replied Jacqueline, the others nodded at her. They were very sure they had brought those things with them.

"Look, we can always ask Professor Stein to give us a hand if that makes you feel more comfortable," That was effectively enough to cause the others around to look more appealed at his idea.

"Okay then, what's the drill with this… game of yours?" said finally Harvar, making his way towards a lone space in the class to start playing. Stein didn't miss the two little twins flash a smile in a conspiratorially way at each other.

Kirikou's Apartment

The two kids came back very happy after school. They high-fived at the great success of their little plan and went directly towards the kitchen eager to take a bite out of glee.

Kirikou came after the Pots with his bag in hand and closed the door. He chuckled as he followed his over-energetic companions. "Not bad, guys. That really came out nicely." He said frowning a little at his backpack. Its weight felt somewhat different, but he shrugged it off as nothing.

The two kids smirked proudly at him. Kirikou laughed at their cockiness, took three packages of instant noodle soup from a near drawer and left a bowl of water boil in the microwave.

"All right, we're having some good noodles for dinner today. Lemme just throw this thing out of the way," he signaled his backpack "and then we can eat, okay?"

Fire and Thunder nodded as their meister went to his room. It had been a very nice day indeed. They played for most of the class before the alarm rang and enjoying every minute of it. Of course there had been some moments of friction between some of the players, but it was mostly uneventful.

Little Fire put his hands under his neck and his legs over the table very content with himself, but his sister couldn't help but think that they had forgotten to do something really important… then it hit her very late.

"FIRE, THUNDER!" echoed the voice of Kirikou, making Thunder flinch and Fire loose his balance and fell to the floor.

Seconds later, an angry Kirikou entered the kitchen with a chess table on hand and a dog-eared deck of cards in the other.

The twins looked at each other. The two shared the same sheepishly face; only one thought was in their little minds at the moment. Yep, it was time to run!

Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, their characters or locations; they're the properties of Atsushi Ohkubo. I just took them without permission for entertaining purposes.

Hi!

Whew, Fire and Thunder are surely very tricky to write, huh? Had to take my time developing their personal characteristic in a way that was either comfortable and canon-enough for me to work. Only thing I disliked was the lack of dialogue in this chapter. Anyway, till next update!

I took more time than what I first said. I'm sorry! I suppose the small extra length of this chapter will make it up for the wait. :(

Bis bald, alle!