Perfect Symmetry

Thanks for all the reviews, guys! c: It's so nice to get feedback from the readers!

...But srs, this fic is bad for my health. I've contracted a lovely dose of heartburn from Mountain Dew and Pocky overload, and well as having lost 3 pounds since I started this fic, due to choosing writing in favor of lunches. (And yes, for me, losing weight is a bad thing. I'm threatening to go under 100 pounds again soon, and I'm pushing 18.)

Oh, and if you guys are looking for more good KiMa, try Symmetrical Beauty by kyonkichi's kitten, and Wonderfully Asymmetrical by Ryder16. (I think those are pretty popular right now anyway, but still, they're definitely worth an honorable mention!) I really enjoyed both of those fanfics, and they're especially good if you're looking for more fluff and something a little less...serious (Is that good word?) than my fic. CUZ SHITS GONNA GET DARK. ...Eventually.

Just a warning, this chapter is allovertheplace, since the stuff I want to cover isn't long enough by itself to have its own chapter.


The mission to Siberia had been a complete success, the Kishin egg was successfully recovered, and now we were heading home. It had been two days since we left the academy to go on this mission, and I wanted nothing more than to be home.

"Man, talk about sucky. It was so cold!" Soul pouted, sitting between the window and me on the plane. He had bitched about having a window seat for so long I finally gave in.

"Tell me about it! I thought my balls were going to freeze off!" Black*Star laughed loudly in the row ahead of us, turning around to make sure we heard him, like we wouldn't either way. It was drawing the attention of the other passengers, who have gave him a mixture of confused and irritated looks. It was embarrassing.

"BLACK*STAR!" I snarled at him, not in the mood for any of his crap right now. "Turn your ass around, shut up and sit down!"

"Jeez, Maka, calm your tits." Soul rolled his eyes at me, and paused a moment. "...Wait..." He and Black*Star glanced at each other, and broke out into loud whoops of laughter.

That did it. They could embarrass me in public, be vulgar and obnoxious on an airplane, but making fun of my chest size was not okay. It wasn't like I could help it! I pulled out my dictionary, (The one that translated Russian to English) holding it threateningly above my head. "There's nowhere to run on an airplane, Soul. I want you to shut up, and Black*Star to sit down until we land. How many concussions do you have left until you suffer from permanent brain damage?"

"Tch, not many." He shut up and stared out the window, his friend turned around and didn't say another word.

Finally, some peace and quiet. I think threatening other passengers in the air was illegal, but the stewardess just walked past like nothing had happened. I had a feeling she was as grateful for the silence as I was.

I wondered what Kid was doing. He was probably hunched over a book in the library, or fixing something that was asymmetrical. At the very least, I was sure he was having a better time than me.

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"This is hopeless!" Liz whined loudly, standing in front tunnel of ice that led out of the castle. As Artemis was escorting me out of the castle, I found Liz and Patti had in fact, never gone back up the tunnel of ice that led to the world above. "It's just too damn slippery! I can't get up five feet without falling back down!" Liz was frustrated beyond reason about it, but Patti was enjoying herself, climbing up as high as possible, and laughing loudly as she slid back down.

"Look, Sis! It's like a slide!"

Artemis had shrugged, looking sheepishly at us. "I've been asleep for two months, how was I supposed to maintain it?" So now we were stuck. It was too small of an area to use the Beelzebub to get up, and with the barrier around my soul, I wasn't even sure if I could still use it. I was really hoping I could, since I loved that skateboard.

Finally, Artemis sighed. "Well, let's try this." She started to make a few hand movements, murmuring a spell to herself, the series ending with that looked like the shadow puppet of a dog. There was a large cloud of smoke and snow, and Artemis had taken the form of a Polar Bear.

"Artemis, why don't you just use magic to make this into a staircase, or something?" Liz put her hands on her hips, eying the witch.

"My magic doesn't fully awaken until spring. So after after pulling off that spell with Kid, my options are pretty limited." She yawned loudly to exaggerate her point, letting out a bearish, "Urrr-aahhh!" She lifted paw, flexing her digits and observing the black claws that barely poked out of her fur. "If the sisters could change to weapon form, I might be able to give you a ride up."

It sounded like as good of an idea as any, and I held out my hands to the sisters. "Liz, Patti."

"Right!" They changed to weapon form, but as I held onto the handles, I realized that handing on to them and the bear at the same time would be extremely difficult.

"This might be a bit weird." I sighed, and put the guns in my back pockets.

"Yup, this is weird." Liz confirmed.

Patti laughed loudly, clapping her hands, "Kid's butt is comfy!"

I opened my mouth to reply to that, thinking of how to start the rant that was beginning to form, but I was cut short by Artemis.

"Oh, hurry up, the sooner you leave the sooner I can get back to my beauty sleep." She growled, throwing her head and rubbing her eye with a huge paw.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting, then. You need all the beauty sleep you can get." I smirked, swinging a leg over her back and wrapping my arms around her neck.

Artemis laughed once, dryly, "You little bastard. I could kill you by sitting on you, if I wanted to!" She shook her back, forcing me to cling to her a bit more to keep my balance.

"Well, maybe you should skip the beauty sleep and start working out more, then." Liz snickered, unable to pass up such a perfect opportunity.

"Buuuurn!" Patti laughed, giving her sister a high-five.

Artemis yelped in surprise, quickly turning it into a growl, planting her furry behind firmly on the ice. "I'm not going anywhere until you apologize!"

"Are you serious?" I stared flatly at her, sighing heavily. "Liz! Patti! Say you're sorry!"

Artemis let out a loud huff, wiggling her ears and turning to look at me expectantly.

Liz groaned, "Artemis, I'm sorry. Making fun of a lady's weight is rude and improper."

With a huff, Patti nodded in agreement. "Now can you get us out of here!"

Letting out a loud snort, the bear-witch looked forward, mumbling to herself about them 'not meaning it', 'being rude,' and things like that. But, she still began to walk up the icy slope, digging her claws into any grooves she could find. She was huffing and puffing by the time the surface was within reach. With a final roar, she slumped over the lip of the cave, lying in the snow. She chuckled, quite pleased with herself. "Not bad for having just woken up!"

I slid off of her back, brushing away the white fur that clung to my black coat. This is why I'll never own a pet...I looked around, surrounded by an endless expanse of white. Freya was asleep, still in her animal form, curled up in a drift. I stepped through the snow, being careful to not to sink in. "Freya."

No response, so I tried again, louder. "Freya!" She still slept soundly in the snow. I growled in annoyance, kicking snow in her face. She snorted a bit, but that was all. She was bound to be tired, but this was ridiculous.

I took Liz out of my back pocket, pointing the gun at her furry rump. "Liz, sting shot."

"Is that good idea?"

"No. But do it anyway." I pulled the trigger once, sending a small pink orb into the hide of the caribou. She squealed awake, springing up from the snow, and tried to run to nowhere in particular, yelling for me to' have mercy' and that she 'didn't mean it'. Her foot caught in a drift, and she was sent face-first into the snow. Idiot. "Freya, calm down. You're free." Liz and Patti returned to human form, watching her trip.

The reindeer poked her head up from the snow, a pile of it collected between her antlers. "I'm...free? Really?" She reared up on her hind legs, mooing with excitement, starting to bounce in the snow. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I turned from the deer, focusing on Artemis, who had finally caught her breath and was beginning to stand up. "Artemis."

"Yeah?" The bear looked at me, blinking. "Need something else?"

"Thank you."

"Tch, don't mention it, Kiddo. It was the least I could do. Maybe I couldn't help your mother, but I could help you. Besides, me and your dad go waaay back! Tell him he still owes me-e!" She laughed, and let herself begin to slide down into the cave. "Wheee!"

"Artemis! Wait!" But it was too late. She had disappeared, back into her castle. Fuck. As much as I wanted to ask her about how she knew my father, going down there and getting back up would be a fiasco, and I doubted Artemis would help me this time. Of course, I could just ask my father, but telling him about coming here, working with a witch, (even if she was a lot less dangerous than expected) and sneaking around behind his back wasn't a very good idea. No, asking him was definitely out of the question, along with reminding him of the fact that he still owed Artemis. For what, exactly?

"With the way that witch acts, you'd think she was ten years old, not ten centuries." Freya had gotten over her excitement, eying the entrance of the cave wearily, like Artemis would come back out at any second. "So, you got what you wanted?"

"Yes, I did, and more." I held out my hand, calling to Beelzebub. Much to my relief, it appeared, and seemed functional. I wanted nothing more than to be home, and lay in bed for the rest of my life. I sighed, stepping onto the hovering skateboard. I looked to Liz and Patti, but they seemed to have a different idea than me. Instead, Freya was leaning forward on her front legs, allowing the sisters to climb on her back. Whatever, if Freya could handle it, it worked for me.

She grunted from the effort, but managed to stand up on all fours, nodding to me. "We better get you back home, huh?"

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Finally, after a flight that was over twelve hours of torture, we were back in Death City. Soul could be such an asshole sometimes! And when Black*Star was around, it only got worse. Despite my threats, they poked fun at me and drove me up the fuckin' wall the entire flight home after one of the stewardesses told me wasn't allowed to hit them with a book on the flight. Almost as soon as we stepped out of the airport I bashed their skulls in, but I was still pissed off. I wanted to see Kid right now, so without stopping home, I marched up to his mansion, knocking on the door. No answer. I tried again, with the same result. I figured he wasn't home, but found the door unlocked.

I think that was considered trespassing, but I didn't care, and I didn't think my boyfriend would either. The house was eerily empty. Something I would never understand was how Kid could have so much space in his home. I was willing to bet he only used a small fraction of it, but the mansion was an expansive maze of hallways and doors, perfectly symmetrical on both sides. That really only added to my confusion, but eventually I stumbled across what looked to be Kid's room. I stepped in, turning the light on. Yup, definitely his. The room had perfect symmetry, down to the decorations on the wall to the way the large bed in the middle of his room was made immaculately. I walked to the back of the room, sighing heavily and falling onto the bed. I had assumed it was newly washed and clean, but I was wrong. The pillow I chose to cuddle with still smelled like him. I held it for a while, taking in the scent. It smelled mostly like the cologne he wore, but there was a hint of soap. He must really clean a lot. I sighed, and pulled myself away. Kid liked to read almost as much as I did, so he had to have some book around somewhere. Being in Kid's house didn't save me from boredom, after all.

I found myself wandering around the house, completely lost again. I was about to give up, until pushing open a set of large double doors. The creaked open, revealing not just a small room of books, but an entire library. Kid really had this in his house? I carefully walked inside, stepping around neat, symmetrical stacks. Was it organized in any way? Knowing Kid, it probably was. Half of the books I looked at weren't even in English, but in a huge array of languages with crisp symbols and unfamiliar words. I lost track of time, and by the time I exited the library with three books under my arm, it was dark outside. It didn't bother me much, and I began the hunt for Kid's room again.

Every step I took echoed softly through the halls, exaggerating the emptiness of the place. I must have been learning, though, since this time around I found his room in under ten minutes. How was it he could find things in this maze of a house, not remember the way back to it from my apartment?

I set my books on the bed, and realized I had no sleepwear to change into. Oh, well. I settled with sleeping in my tank top and pants. Folding the rest neatly and setting it on the floor next to the bed, I crawled under the covers. I wondered what Kid would think if he knew I was doing this, but I had a hunch he wouldn't mind too terribly.

I reached up, pulling the binds out of my hair, letting my usual pig tails fall. I tousled it into slight curls that fell around my face. It didn't look the best, but it was comfortable than having it tied up. I picked up the first book, gently opening the cover to the first page. It smelled old, but looked like new. I started reading, and was completely lost in the story, setting, and the characters.

Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarreling and and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently. And after King Lune's death they made a good King and Queen of Archenland, and Ram the Great, the most famous of all kings of Archenland, was their son. Bree and Hwin lived happily to a great age in Narnia and both got married but not to one another. And there weren't many months in which one or both of them didn't come trotting over the pass to visit their friends at Anvard.

I shut the book, and yawned. It had taken me a lot longer than I had thought to read, and when I pulled out my cell phone to check the time, I discovered it was nearly four in the morning. I yawned again, setting the books on the floor; on top of my clothes. I was so tired my eyes hurt, although I hadn't noticed until now. I sunk into the mattress, clinging to the pillow that smelled of Kid. I wondered where he was; he had never told me he was going anywhere. I just hoped he came back soon, I really needed to vent and get some crap off my chest.

Now that I was thinking about it, I never realized how much I leaned on him. If something was bothering me, I told him about it. If I had a problem, I asked him for help. If I needed advice, he was always giving it to me. How did he handle the weight of all my burdens? If I tried to talk to Soul, he'd look like he was listening, but I knew that unless it involved him, he didn't really care. But Kid, Kid hung on my every word, engaged in the conversation, instead of responding to me with more then just an, "Uh huh." or half-hearted slight nod of the head like Soul.

I smiled into the pillow; I missed him now more than ever.

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By the time Liz, Patti and myself were back in Death City, it was so late it was early, and I was feeling the effects of serious jet-lag. I was so grateful to put my hands on the handle of the magnificent doors of my home, swinging them open and stepping inside. I sighed in relief, and immediately headed upstairs to my bedroom. Being as tired as I was, the flight of stairs I had to climb was a battle in itself. The mansion seemed never-ending as I counted the doors until my room. "Six...Seven...Ah! Eight." I turned the knob, letting a thin stream of light into the room. I marched straight to my closet, threw off every bit of unnecessary clothing, which was everything but my boxers, and turned to face my bed. Until that moment, I hadn't even realized that it was..occupied?

All I could see was a mess of dirty blonde hair, and a neat stack of clothes and books on the floor. "Maka?" My cheeks got hot, and I quickly scampered back to the closet, throwing on a crisp, clean white button-up shirt and the single pair of non-formal slacks I owned.

I was about to flee the room and crash on the couch, but a though hit me. When was the next time Maka would willingly sleep in my bed? I had two options:

One: Go and safely sleep on the couch.

Two: Carefully crawl into my bed, and hope that I didn't get my skull smashed in by a book when she woke up.

I decided to take my chances with the latter. The bed was plenty big enough for two to fit comfortably, anyway. I walked around to the other side, taking a moment to simply watch Maka sleep. She looked so serene, laying on her side, legs tucked close to her body. She was cuddling a pillow, the one I usually used. Her breathing was slow and soft, barely making a sound at all.

Really, I was incredibly nervous about this whole ordeal. What if she woke up and accused me of being a pervert? I couldn't exactly say I 'hadn't noticed'. But, it went off without a hitch, Maka remaining completely tranquil even as I wiggled my way into the bed. I lay on my back, arms behind my head, staring at the ceiling for while. Why had she decided to come to my house? I imagined a fight with Soul again; that was the usual reason. But to sleep in my bed? I had no idea. It suddenly hit me that now I could lay here, in such close proximity to her, with no ill effects at all. It was wonderfully exciting!

Maka sighed, rolling over in her sleep. One of her arms fell across my waist, her slender fingers tightening around my shirt. As if drawn to my warmth, she snuggled closer, abandoning the pillow and resting her head nook of my shoulder. My cheeks got hot again, but I smiled anyway. I put one of my arms around her. Perfectly comfortable, I closed my eyes and let myself get some much needed sleep.

Unfortunately, I found myself standing int he negative field, staring an extremely unhappy dragon in the eye.

"You idiot!" He was panting heavily, his voice raised so loudly it shook the ground. "You're such a fool that you'd trap me here for some stupid girl?"

"Yes, basically." I smirked. Seeing the beast so pissed made me happier, somehow. I noticed a soft glow out of the corner of my eye, floating not far from where me and the dragon stood. He snarled, baring his teeth at Maka. "What's the matter? Don't you want to file your claws like you usually do?" He snarled, but didn't make a move.

"You little brat. you think this solves everything, don't you?" He sneered at me, lips curled up and claws digging into the grass. "Well, we'll see what your pretty little girlfriend thinks of what you did. you think she'll accept it and skip off into the sunset? No, she'd never let you restrict your power for her. You know that as well as I do." The dragon stared me down, glancing at the floating soul occasionally.

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her." Maybe not telling her was a bad idea on my part, but until I could find a way to make her accept it...

Snorting loudly, the dragon called my attention back to him. "Listen, Kid. The truth has a nasty way of coming out; When, not if, it does, it won't be pretty. You might even lose her. I've spent enough time with her soul to know she doesn't like being lied to, especially by the person she trusts more than anyone. So don't come crying to me when your little plan backfires."


Summing that last bit up: Maka's gonna be hella pissed when she finds out what Kid did.

The little book snippet is the last sentences of the "A Horse and His Boy"; a part of the Chronicles of Narnia. Props to C.S. Lewis for it.

I pulled a random book from my case, and that was the book. Since that one was my favorite story, I used it. I guess Kid likes Narnia too, now. Lol.