"Kid! Slow down, you're going to run us into something!" Maka called, loud enough for him to hear, but no louder than the sound he made crashing recklessly through the woods. She buried her face into the reapers soiled shirt, partially out of fear and partially to shield her face from the cool blast of air coming towards her. How he was able to run so quickly with a 100 pound girl and her 20+ pound backpack as well as his own backpack was beyond Maka.
"I can see just fine in the dark you know." He grumbled through his heavy breathing, obviously not wanting to keep up conversation while in mid-stride. After a good 15 minutes of running at full speed, Kid finally slowed to a jog.
"What was back there?" The blonde piped up as the young shinigami swiveled his head in all directions. He sighed and stopped walking, setting the confused girl down against a hollowed out log.
"Where are you injured?" Kid muttered coolly, his voice monotone.
Maka rolled her eyes. "My ankle's a little sore. What was back there?" She pressed.
"I'd say more than a little sore." Kid repled, gently rolling up the meister's jeans into a cuff causing her to scrunched up her face in pain. She knew he was right; there was defiantly something wrong with her ankle, but she didn't want help from him, she could take care of herself. The reaper let his gaze flicker up to Maka's unamused and even slightly irritated face; he ignored her treacherous looks and continued examining her ankle, taking off her shoe for a better inspection. "I'd even go as far as saying possibly broken, if not heavily sprained."
Maka's heart sunk at the news, but refused to believe it. She would just rest it tonight and be perfectly fine by tomorrow, right? A broken ankle in this kind of world could almost mean certain death. Sure she was able to kill two Rotters in this condition, but she was lucky it had only been two that were dormant; how much longer would her luck really continue? She sighed and looked over at Kid, who looked honestly concerned as he examined her ankle. This was the same boy who she had bickered with just hours before, the same boy who openly accused her of putting them in this tight situation when all she wanted to do was to help his father and protect their city. The boy who called her a control freak. She balled her hand into a fist, and then remembered her side of the dispute. When she spat the words 'OCD freak', he was the one who flinched. This was also the same person who has kept them all calm, the same person who has guided them with nothing but pure intentions, the same boy who put his safety on the line to pick her up and carry her to their current position. The one now pulling the first aid kit out of his supplies to selflessly tend to her injured ankle.
"Take this, it will help with the pain." Maka flinched inwardly, guilty showering over her like an unforgiving storm at his kindness. She took the bottle of pills gingerly from the reapers hands.
"Thanks, Kid."
After wrapping Maka's injured ankle in an ace bandage and briefly scouting out the surroundings, Kid dubbed the spot safe for the night. He set up a fire hoping the smell would detour any nearby Rotters as well as to keep the two of them at least semi warm. The reaper was carful not to let his mind slip into any false security around the fire, as he constantly kept his ears open to any and all sound. What he had seen when he first found Maka still gave him chills.
He had turned is head just in time to see three or four Rotters duck behind a tree as he turned around; they had been stalking him. This could only really mean one thing; they had the potential to harbor intelligent thoughts. Sure, it could have been simple instinct that told them to hide from their prey, but Kid didn't want to dismiss the thought that easily. One thing was certain, he defiantly didn't want to worry Maka with that bit of information. Even if he had simply told her that there were Rotters that had hid themselves, he knew she was smart enough to deduce the same thing he had. If they could learn how to hunt and stalk their prey, it was only a matter of time before they learned how to improve their strategies as well.
The two meisters had sat in silence for awhile now, not that it really bothered Kid, but he just knew it was going to be extremely uncomfortable and awkward for the two of them until the others came back. Then things would be back to normal. That's about the time the young reaper let disturbing images into his head. Liz and Patti, his trusted side kicks, laying lifeless and shredded on the ground, or worse, walking around in a dead like stupor searching for their next prey. He shook his head at the thought. No, they were fine. Just fine; they are the Thompson sisters, after all, once the roughest and most feared criminals in New York. What were a few walking carcasses to them, right? A small scuttling noise brought Kid back from his thoughts. He used his dulled Soul Perception and sighed as he discovered it was simply some sort of small animal. Trying to keep his mind off of such morbid thoughts, he looked over to his companion who sat across from him. The blonde meister had her arms wrapped around her legs that had been drawn up to her chest. Her head lay resting atop her knees, emerald green eyes peering forlornly into the pits of the fire that illuminated her features. Kid could almost see the sleep depravity weighing on her eyes, hell, he could sure feel it on his, but he knew she wouldn't sleep. Her soul was far too uneasy; she didn't feel safe.
"Hey, Kid?" Her voice startled him, even though it was barely above a whisper.
"Yeah?" He muttered, somewhat thankful for something to keep his mind from such gruesome thoughts.
"You think were going to die here?" Her voice sounded so distant, so empty. Kid was taken aback, he had never heard something so depressing from the otherwise optimistic meister. Thoughts of her soul being corrupt crossed Kid's mind once or twice, but he didn't seem to care. Part of his mind tried to tell him it was wrong that he didn't care; but he didn't listen. He knew the madness was straining on his soul as well, causing such a feeling of depression; but he in a way enjoyed it.
"I don't know." He replied simply, not even bothering to look at the girl. Maybe feeling nothing but depression was a good thing; sure it had to be better than feeling false hope. It might do some good to let the madness take over, you probably had to be mad to live in such a world. All those with hope would die, and those who hated life would live, just for the cruel irony of it.
He looked over at Maka and something inside him clicked, causing him to push all the depressing thoughts away. His eyes widened slowly the longer he stared at the girl that was highlighted by the small campfire. Before he knew it, he was slowly making his way around the fire towards her. How could he have not notice it before? It was so obvious. Maka looked at the reaper who's face was now mere inches from her own, confusion filling her gaze. This had to be done. Kid thought to himself as he paused for a moment, trying to think of the right way to go about it. Should he ask first? No, he was already to close to her now... Oh, hell, he would just have to do it. Maka, now extremely confused at the reapers sudden actions simply sat there, staring at the pair of golden eyes that were gazing back at her. In a sudden movement, Kid reached his hands up to brushed a few strands of hair out of her face and placed them around her ear. Then did the same to the other side. He moved away slightly from her face and nodded, then made his way back to the other side of the fire.
"Your hair was asymmetrical." He muttered, sitting down and laughed inwardly at himself. Maybe he should get rid of this madness.
Oh my gosh! If you guys only knew how fun that ending was to write!
Oh? Not the cute, fluffy KiMa moment you expected? I haven't really portrayed much of Kid's OCD in this fic at all, so it had to be done. Haha, sorry, it just unrealistic for them to be lovey dovey right now, they're still sorta 'mad' at each other. Ish. But trust me. In later chapters, there will be fluff. Promise! Until then, comfort fluff! Whoohoo!
Replies~!
DeathTheKidsDinosaurRawr- Don't die! This chapter isn't as scary! Or I don't think it is…
Mikaela- Great! I'm always glad to hear people are enjoying my writing!
Guest- well… Sorry! No fluff anytime soon. Maybe comfort stuff, but in this particular fic, there relationship speed will be approximately equivalent to that of a grandma turtle… but it will eventually get there. Promise!
Checkered Brooke- Thanks! And yeah, I will occasionally throw some comfort fluff out there; but to me personally, I don't see Kid or Maka as the type of people who would be friends then all the sudden hook up within a day. I think with their personalities it would defiantly happen, just it would take a sort of build up over time.
