A/N: Please be aware that this chapter mentions the use of psychotropic/anesthetic medication in a way that would be fatal to humans. I'm not supporting the abuse of medication. It's been included only because canon states that dyes, toxins, etc. don't stay in Kid's system for long, so I think it would take a lot of it to have any effect on him. Also, as we know, Stein is into reckless experimentation.
This is the end of the current arc, and I hope to have some lighter fun with the next couple of chapters. If anyone has a scenario they'd find interesting, let me know! Thank you to my pal Wordfiend, who requested that I list all my stories in chronological order on my profile page. It's actually helping me keep my timeline straight :) A special hug goes out to SempiternalDreamer for our fun, much-enjoyed PM discussions!
Responses are at the end of the chapter.
Lord Death watched his son's body shake and twitch beneath the quilt, wanting desperately to give him a reassuring pat. He refrained though, fearing that touching Kid might make things worse. He could hear the housekeeper directing the gory cleanup efforts in the bathroom and wondered if they should call in one of those crime scene cleaning companies. Mrs. Hurst could work wonders, but it looked like the set of a Saw movie in there.
The bedroom door opened slowly and Patty stuck her head in, big blue eyes still red from crying.
"Is he better?" she asked.
"Not much."
"Oh."
Liz told her to come in and Patty tiptoed over hesitantly, still kind of afraid. She knew Lord Death wasn't mad at her, but she bet Kid would be when he woke up. Not that Patty would blame him; she'd done something pretty bad. Really bad, because Liz was actually giving Kid her fierce, worried look; the one she made when she thought something might happen to Patty.
There was a big rectangular bandage in the middle of Kid's forehead, covering the place where she'd done the most damage. Lord Death told her the crack beneath it was already healed, but that Kid liked band-aids and he'd appreciate it when he came to. Patty totally understood that. Having someone put a bandage on you meant they noticed you'd gotten hurt; that you deserved a little attention and sympathy. Band-aids were love. Liz drew tiny smiley faces on them and sealed them with a kiss. Patty wondered if Kid would like a smiley face. Probably not, because she couldn't draw a really perfect circle.
Lord Death wished there was a bandage he could put on his son's soul. He'd cleaned Kid up and got him into some pajamas, but the child was trapped in a vortex of terror and nothing seemed able to penetrate it. He feared for the eventual effect on Kid; wondered if his fits would eventually drive him into madness like the brother he knew nothing about. As usual, he didn't have the time to worry about it, either. Thailand was on the brink of civil war and he needed to neutralize the pre-Kishin provoking it as soon as possible. The dead and injured were already drawing other Evil Humans into the vicinity. Marie might have helped pull Kid out of his tailspin, but he couldn't ask her to leave the battlefield in Asia to attend to his personal matters. He rubbed his forehead and heaved a miserable, frustrated sigh.
That worried Patty.
"It's going to be okay, right?" she asked. Her puffy eyes welled up again and her lower lip started to quiver. Liz turned toward her, but for the first time Patty wasn't looking to her sister for comfort. Instead she climbed onto Lord Death's knee and buried her face against his stained, damp jacket. It was just what Death needed.
"Don't worry, honey. He'll come out of it in a while." he said, patting her golden hair. He couldn't console his own child, but he could soothe this one and he hugged her like he wished he could hug Kid. It was the second time he'd dealt with a crying girl, and he thought he was getting much better at it. Patty was rubbing her runny nose on him, but imagining the look on his valet's face when the fussbudget saw the condition of Death's suit was terribly amusing. The suspicious, slightly jealous look Liz was giving him was not amusing and he reached over and squeezed her hand to reassure her. She relaxed and left her fingers entwined with his. A moment later he felt her cheek rest hesitantly against his arm.
Death's secretary was taken aback by the sight when she came in. She was new, and while her boss was an unfailingly polite gentleman, he had never shared the details of his personal life with her. He was mercurial, constantly shifting between burning intensity and profound preoccupation. His moods, from gloomy to ridiculously giddy, changed just as often. His puppet in the Death Room was downright crazy. She had never seen this tender, sweet side of him and was hesitant to interrupt.
He knew she was there, of course, and looked up questioningly at her.
"I have an urgent message from Mr. Albarn, sir. The situation is getting worse. You'd better come back to the office." she gave Kid a glance and shook her head pityingly.
Death was torn, but Liz bumped his shoulder with hers.
"Go. We'll stay here." she said simply, and her words were not an offer, but a promise.
He nodded, and gave her a grateful kiss on the forehead. He gave Patty a last squeeze and hurried out of the room, his focus utterly changed before he even reached the door.
"Well this is a hell of a way to spend a Saturday," Liz grouched. On normal weekends she went back to her room after breakfast, leaving Patty to annoy the hell out of Kid until lunchtime.
"And I never got my pancakes" Patty looked mutinous for a moment, then added, "But I guess that's my own fault."
Kid thrashed a little and begged not to be hurt. Liz told him to be quiet, and he opened his eyes. They were unfocused, dulled with anguish and drugs. He had enough phenobarbitol in him to kill fifteen people his size, and a weird-looking gray haired man came in at random intervals to inject more. Liz didn't trust the guy; he was way too gleeful about his work and wildly liberal with his dosages.
"Don't hurt me!" Kid repeated, batting weakly at her and missing by a foot. He was shivering, terrorized by something that only he could see. Liz grabbed his wobbling hand.
"Listen to me. You're fine, nothing's after you." she told him firmly.
Kid was starting to think again, to remember, and he was horrified. His tongue felt thick and unmanageable, but panic forced it into working.
"You'll.. leave now...that you've seen...right? I'm so awful. I shouldn't be like this...nothing but...garbage."
Patty jumped on the bed and threw her arms around him, "You're not garbage, and I'm sorry I hit you! I didn't know it would make you get weirder!"
The housekeeper came out of the bathroom when she heard Kid's voice.
"I'll get Doctor Stein," she said, "Can you hold down the fort until he gets here?"
Doctor Stein must be the freak with the drugs. Liz and Patty nodded in unison.
"We'll watch him good!" Patty called as Mrs. Hurst left the room. She hugged Kid tight, like she might be able to squeeze the madness out of him and tried to cajole him into good humor by describing the Band-Aid on his forehead.
Kid's could talk again, although his brain was several steps behind.
"We're not symmetrical! There's only one of you, Patty. Someone bring me another Patty!"
"You are stoned out of your mind," Liz informed him, but he was obviously getting more lucid by the second and his thrashing was getting worse. If he went into some kind of full-body symmetry fit, her sister might get injured.
"Ah, what the hell," she muttered, rolling her eyes, "Scoot over, Patty."
She climbed up beside the distraught Reaper, taking one of his shaking hands while Patty held the other. That seemed to stall the symmetry rant, but did nothing to stem the tide of self-disgust. Now that she knew the cause, Liz wasn't irritated by it as much as usual. She patted his soft hair rhythmically. That always made Patty feel better, and she hoped it would calm him down until the creepy doctor dude paid them another visit. Some of the tension left Kid's thin shoulders.
"I don't want you to go," he mumbled, "You probably want to though, because I'm trash. I should just be killed - I'm disgusting."
"The idea that a little boy, someone the same age as Patty, thought he deserved to die infuriated Liz as much as it repulsed her.
"We're not leaving you," she said ferociously, "Nobody's going to hurt you and I will fucking destroy anybody who tries, okay?"
And as she said it, Liz realized that she meant it. Shit, she was actually starting to worry about the little freak.
Kid's vision was blurring, but he forced himself to look up at his weapon.
"Promise?"
"I just did, didn't I? And I promised your dad, too. Now shut the hell up and chill out."
She sighed as they settled themselves against each other. Like it or not, she had just shouldered a whole new responsibility. Another difficult person to cajole and manage and be anxious about. She didn't love Kid, or even like him all that much, but he needed her. So she'd stay in her new life for more than just money, and watch over him like she'd promised. Maybe someday she'd even learn to care.
Responses!
Guest: I love Lord Death and Kid together too - they have a complicated relationship that's a lot of fun to dig into. I never thought the manga explored Death's feelings, so I'm having lots of fun with it. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!
Guest: Seriously, nobody could possible ask for better praise than yours! I'm really grateful that you like it, and hope you enjoy this chapter.
REDEADED: You are *always* a help, and inspiration and a crap-ton of fun, my friend. Can't wait to see something new from you :)
Berryblair: Thank you so much! I adore writing cutesy moments.
Lexx: I'm glad you like the drama along with the lighter stuff. Thank you so much for the nice compliment!
SempiternalDreamer: I LOVE writing Liz and Lord Death together, so I'm glad I'm getting it right. Kid acts so grown up all the time that If I can make you laugh, that's the best compliment there is! I'm starting Liz on the road to accepting Kid in this chapter. It wasn't until the Salvage arc in the manga that she could even admit to herself that she cared about him, so I want to build up her emotions gradually and without her awareness. Thanks for always reading and giving me great opinions and insights!
Zoeyangel: I hope this chapter destroys your feels in a good way. Thanks for always reading and reviewing - it means a lot to me!
Crimson Lia: Thanks for reading and for the wonderful support. I'm so glad you thought the last chapter was worth waiting for, and that my little headcanon universe is an okay one. It got so embedded in my brain while writing Life Lessons that everything else I've produced ends up fitting into it.
