"Alright, just focus and come to daddy!" Lord Death stood on the inside of his mirror, arms spread-out to receive his son.
On the other side was little Death the Kid, who was four years old and wore a god damn suit. Funny story about that, the suit was actually made especially for Kid so he would stop ripping off his clothes. Lord Death had assumed Kid would grow to dislike the suit, but no, he loved it, in fact, Death was fairly sure that Kid had added suspenders to the outfit. His son sure was something. So now Lord Death watched as Kid stared him down from the outside of the mirror, a look of determination on his adorable little face.
Right now they were practicing Kid's magic, or more specifically his mirror magic. So far Kid had run face first into the mirror six times. Death hoped that Kid would be successful in his efforts, a victory in his training would help soften the bad news he had to give the boy.
Up until now, Kid spent the days with his nanny, Miss Samantha, and nights with him, but that was about to change. Kid was a big boy now, he was getting more and more powerful every day, more intelligent, and Lord Death was so busy, he just didn't have the time to keep going like this, so he had talked to Samantha. They both decided it would be best if Lord Death had a residence built and made her live-in nanny. Now he had to tell his precious little boy that he would get to spend even less time with his daddy.
"Just pretend the mirror isn't even there, kiddo, just walk right on through it." Death clapped his hands and Kid nodded before not walking, but sprinting towards the mirror… and then running right through, propelling himself into his father.
"I did it!" Kid squealed, hugging onto his father's not legs.
"You sure did, Kiddo!" Lord Death ruffled his son's raven colored locks, prompting the little reaper to groan and try and fix his hair, whining about him offsetting his symmetry. "I knew you could do it, and you know what, I think you deserve a reward."
"Really?" Kid smiled widely at his father, which made Lord Death smile behind his mask. It wasn't often that Kid got excited, at least not anymore. Lately Kid had become preoccupied with trying to be the best death god in training that he could be, and as such he hadn't been smiling nearly as much. In fact, Lord Death was fairly certain that Kid was going to want to start martial art and weapons training soon. He knew he should cherish it while it lasts, because the more Kid trained, the less human he became, the less he would smile.
"Just in case you succeeded, I had Miss Samantha make us a picnic!" Lord Death chirped, summoning the basket with his powers, a black, woven basket with small silver skull glued to the end of the handles. Needless to say, they were going to have the picnic regardless or not of Kid's success.
"Great, Miss Samantha makes the best sandwiches, the same amount of crust cut off each side, equal amounts of each sandwich component, light on condiments, they are truly perfect. And symmetrical to!" Kid's speech was sophisticated in tone but he was bouncing up and down on his tippy-toes. Death repressed a chuckle at the sight, his Kid sure was something else.
"We also got juice boxes and cheetos, the puffy kind, just like you like." Lord Death said lightly as he used his death god magic to set up the picnic perfectly as he yanked the blanket from the basket. The picnic settled perfectly on the ground and they took their seats on it.
"I don't like juice boxes, they're asymmetrical garbage." Kid scowled as they picked up their juice boxes, Lord Death only laughed.
"Of course it is when you hold it like that!" Lord Death plucked the box from the boy, turning it around so that the short side was facing him. Kid gasped, eyes twinkling with amazement.
"It is symmetrical from this angle! Oh, I'm sorry juice box, you're beautiful." Kid apologized to his juice box before taking a sip from it.
Lord Death could barely hold his amusement as he watched Kid eat his lunch. He was sitting up properly and holding his food delicately, like he was trying to be gentlemanly, but he was scarfing down the food like the hungry little boy he was. His tiny little cheeks were full of sandwich and his fingers coated in bright orange cheese dust. Death enjoyed seeing Kid looking like the small boy that he was, instead of the tiny gentleman he was always trying to be, even if he was still trying, if anything the fact that Kid was holding himself like he was eating finger food at fancy party made it more hilarious than anything else. His son sure was something else.
"So, did you have a nice day with Miss Samantha?" Lord Death asked as he sipped from his own juice box. Kid peeked up at him, sucking on his juice. Kid swallowed his juice along with the sandwich still in his mouth wide to answer him, but instead words, Kid surprised himself when a sizable belch came out instead of words. Kid slammed both hands over his mouth, mumbling a tiny 'excuse me' to himself. Lord Death couldn't help but laugh at how red his son's face was becoming. Kid looked up at his father with large, golden yellow eyes, which started to tear up as Kid threw himself to the ground. Not again.
"Garbage! I'm garbage! If I can't control this gross body how can I ever control life and death? I'm useless, dirty! Unworthy! I don't deserve to live!" Kid pounded on the floor and cried. Death sighed, shaking his head. He hated when his son got like this.
"Hey, it's okay." Lord Death scooped up his tiny son with one of his oversized hands and brought him close to his chest. Kid shook his tiny little head and Death found himself sighing again. He needed to do something to distract him, to make him feel better. So, what did Death do? He summoned up a little burp himself, bursting out of his nose hole with a burst of steam. "See? It's perfectly okay."
Lord Death had expected Kid smile, laugh, or something to that degree, but instead Kid looked up at him, looking absolutely scandalized. Kid was looking at him like he had just watched him kick newborn puppies or eat a baby.
"Daddy, that's disgusting!" Kid wrinkled his nose up before hiding his face in his father's cloak.
"What, you did it first, and bigger as well. How am I the disgusting one?" Lord Death was very amused.
"When I did it was an accident! You did that on purpose! Disgusting." Kid glared up at his father.
"If you say so." Death chuckled, sitting his little boy back on his spot on the blanket. "So, your day?"
"Miss Samantha and I made cookies today. We even used an ice cream scooper to make sure that all the cookies were the same size. It was fun." Kid smiled, before looking very focused, he held out his hands out and focused. Blackish purple sparks of magic appeared and he grunted a little before a tubware container appeared and fell into his hands. "Want to try one?"
Lord Death couldn't help but to smile at his son. His summoning ability was getting stronger; he was growing up so fast.
"Of course." Lord Death took a cookie and continued to eat as Kid continued to talk about his day. Soon enough, both of the death gods had finished their meals, and as such, Lord Death took action.
"So… You like Miss Samantha a lot, don't you?" Death tilted his head at his son.
"Yes, she's a very nice lady." Kid smiled, tilting his head back at him. "Why?"
"Well… um, look, Kid." Lord Death sighed, taking off his mask. Kid gave a small little gasp at the sight of his father's face. He'd always wondered about it, or whether or not his father had one at all. He had asked once, and Death had responded with a 'of course! Why would have I have a mask without a face?' but had refused to show it to him. Lord Death's face was hard to describe, he definitely had one, but it was… translucent, like if you touched it your hand would go through it, but it definitely looked like a face. In fact, it looked like Kid's face, but older. There was slight glow behind his face, which highlighted his yellow irises.
"What's wrong, Daddy?" Kid scooted closer to his father. This must be important.
"Kiddo, you're going to be staying with Miss Samantha a lot more really soon. I'm having a house built and you two are going to move in to it." Lord Death said, looking his son deeply in the eyes. "You won't be spending the night with me anymore."
Death watched as Kid's face went from confusion, to understanding, to tears within thirty seconds. Furrowed brows turned into tearful eyes and Lord Death instinctively reached out and held his son close. He shushed him softly, rubbing soft circles in the back of his little one's head with an oversized thumb.
"Wh- why?" Kid sniffled into his father chest. "Did I do something bad? I'll promise I'll be good! Please don't get rid of me!"
"Hey, hey, it's not like that at all." Death lifted Kid's little chin up to look him in the yes. "I love you every much, and I'm very proud of you and your progress so far. That's why I'm going this. You are getting so big, and Daddy is so busy that he can't keep watching you at night like this. I'm so sorry, Kiddo, but it's necessary. This means you're a real big boy now, which means you can really start to train now."
"I… I can, really?" The young reaper's eyes shined as his tears started to dry slightly. That was quick. His son was so quick believe him, also very melodramatic. "Even weapon training?"
"Yes, even weapon training." Lord Death sounded amused now, glad that Kid had been quick to recover. Sometimes Kid just wouldn't listen to him and throw the worse fits.
"With a chain scythe?" Kid's eyes sparkled at the idea of a weapon he could hold in both hands. Lord Death's amusement grew.
"Yes, with a chain scythe, and many other weapons, and more good news, I will still be around to teach you stuff. I'm going to help you with weapons training and I'm going to be personally teaching you death god martial arts, so you see me for that, and you can visit whenever you want. You can still summon… what did you call it?" Death pointed at his son's hand.
"Beelzebub!" Kid chirped, summoning the bike from his hand. The bike had training wheels, but Lord Death knew for a fact that they turned into tiny rockets. Lord Death also had a sinking feeling that Beelzebub would be turned into something a little less childish as Kid got older.
"Yeah, you can come and see me on Beelzebub, just remember to tell Miss Samantha." Lord Death gave Kid's head a pat and Kid smiled and nodded. "Now, would you like to know more about the house?"
Kid agreed eagerly and then Lord Death summoned the plans up. He and Kid poured over the plans, explaining in detail how he was making it symmetrical and what he was going to fill all the rooms with, including a training room and various other hobby rooms for any possible thing Kid could very want to do. Kid decided maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
Author's Note:
Hey there, dudes! Back with another chapter... yup. This was a thing. Ended up a lot more comical then orginally planned, I felt like writing happier stuff after last chapter. Opps.
Also, shout out reviewer QuantamTheory, you da best. I really like how you mention things about dialogue and the like, it's nice to hear about details like that often. You cool.
More also, someone pointed out that I misgendered Gopher as female when he's a dude. And I'd like to say... I know, I actually realized that a few hours after I posted the last chapter when i was reading the manga so more. Opps. You can't really blame me, can you? Girly hair, girly face, obsession with a dude, and his wings when he flies are so pretty looking. And I wasn't really paying attention to his gender so much as his actions, really. I wasn't going to fix it, because I figured no one noticed, but someone did, so I fixed it. Yeah.
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it was so much fun to write. Do you have a favorite line in this chapter? Or in this story so far? I always ask this on stories, I never really get an answer, I got one once though, I keep on asking.
Review, darling duckies!
