So, just for clarification, it's a year past the last chapter. (I know it's been forever since we had a liz/kid chapter. chp3 matter o' fact)
*.*.*
"You did this, so fix it. Fix it, or we'll find another Meister."
Those were the words she gave him three years ago.
Three years, he thought, and not a single slip up. Not until now.
*.*.*.*.*
Because Kid knew Liz was right the young Death God immediately cut himself off from any missions that weren't either routine or absolutely essential. He trained long, harsh hours with Maka, sometimes with Patty, until he'd more or less killed his previous existence.
Now a days he could efficiently fight against anything symmetrical, even if both enemy and location were perfectly geometrical, could still use the frustration of asymmetry as a potent weapon, and rarely spent his entire day worrying about picture arrangements and carpet lengths.
Which, really, was extremely freeing.
After a solid year without incident Kid very slowly began to trust himself, started accepting missions that risked the flaring of his "Symmetry Habit," as Maka put it, and ease back into the unrestricted duties of a true Shinigami.
Last night, he and company went after a long time rumored Kishin fanatic, a pair of twins who boasted their dark abilities and unsavory knowledge to the seediest crowds and thus warranted Shibusen's attention.
The risk was high, but the information the Society might grasp with their capture was too great to pass up, so Kid put himself to the highest test to date.
Sadly, all it proved was that some habits die hard. Very hard.
As he lay there on the hospital gurney now Kid tried to pinpoint exactly where he went wrong, whether it was the combination of pyramid setting and well choreographed enemies—an old weakness on both ends—or the provocation of their words that sent him over the edge.
A groan escaped through bared teeth as Nygus stitched what she could of the four-inch gouge in his chest and the pain in his battered temple throbbed in response.
He might have to think about this tomorrow…
Leaning into his pillow, eyes on the ceiling in unmistakable defeat Kid wondered how Liz was doing in the next room over. Not that it mattered anymore…The Shinigami's pale lids closed heavily. It wouldn't matter if he tried to put it right, that he'd protected them with his own body—in the end. He'd screwed up, and she would take Patty and leave…
He wasn't ready for that!
How could he live without them after all this time?
Out of pure defiance he hadn't even begun to look for two replacement Weapons…
So absorbed in his problems, Kid didn't notice when Nygus finished and excused herself. The fact that the lights went out didn't register. Even the pull of the sheets as someone sat down next to him he barely noticed 'til their hand cupped his face.
And his heart nearly ran away screaming.
In the moonlight he saw the face of his partner as dreamily as though she were a figment of his imagination, but the hand on his cheek felt so warm and real he knew the conflict between senses and mind was one-sided.
Her breath hitched, blue eyes traveled to the bandages on his chest, and when Kid felt the tremors in Liz's hand he imagined she must be holding back something terrible and loud, and prepared for the worst.
The hand at his cheek slipped down, ghosting over his neck and collarbone to rest on the bloodied spot in the fresh gauze.
Too confused by her actions, Kid didn't trust himself to speak or stop her.
Here was this woman, who by all rights, should have left him behind in the dust by now to choose some sane, safe, predictable Technician, with her eyes all aglow with tears.
Why?
He could only hope it meant somehow he was still important to her.
"Forgive me…"
The words were off his tongue before he could stop and consider the pros and cons.
Her eyes snapped to his and for a moment Kid was sure Liz would eat him alive.
Instead, unpredictably, the woman melted.
Like the snap of a rubber band Liz flung herself at the very stunned boy wonder.
"You're such a dolt!"
Baffled beyond all recovery, Kid could only lift a weak and pale hand to her head and stare. "I…"
Hot tears on his chilled skin was such a new feeling, so strange and vibrant. Everything about her was so full of living, even when she pretended not to care about anything but her manicure she was so much more alive than he could fathom.
Kid wanted to move, to pet or stroke or whatever she needed, whatever would make her stop crying. More than that, he wanted answers. And as much as it would pain him to ask, he wanted clarity.
"Liz…I messed up. Do you remember what that implies?"
The blond demon gun heaved one ragged breath before collecting herself to look into the golden eyes she'd avoided three years before. "About that…I can't apologize for what I asked of you…"
Dread sunk into Death's stomach deeper than the offending wound.
"…because what I said I said for my sister's sake."
Her expression changed just a little, her hand lifted ghostily to touch him again.
"But I also said it for your sake…"
A well-kept finger traced down Kid's facial structures, now lengthened and defined with time into the face of a man.
The smallest of pauses drifted between Shinigami and woman, and Liz had no idea the tiny sparks her touch gave or the lingering need stirred beneath them.
"…I understand." He tried not to stutter. "But you realize that this was…necessary. Given the circumstances."
Kid caught the traveling hand, gave it a sharp squeeze and tried to pour that thought into his partner through large, liquid gold eyes.
How could he be so regal and childlike at the same time? Liz wondered with distinct longing and distain.
Rather than continue to be the deer in his headlights she focused on his injuries, remembered how he'd leapt in front of her as just she'd done years ago, taken a blow that would have killed a human like her.
That's right…Kid wasn't human. He could handle a barrage of assault and walk away with hardly a grimace later.
Absently her free hand—as her other had not yet escaped his—traveled to where his heart should be. Was it in there, beating?
"What are you doing?"
"Your heart. I was wondering if you had one."
Kid laughed and immediately regretted it.
"Sorry!" The fluster caught in her face as Liz panicked and shot out for the call button.
Another hand fell pray to Kid's accuracy and control.
He trapped them, placed her palms tightly against his chest as it racked with difficult breath.
"Here." He pulled her just so, a minimal invitation to smother him as she had moments before.
Caution read on her face like an open book but still he insisted, so Liz curiously obliged.
Even after filling out in the height and shoulder department Kid was still considerably thin, and fitting into his side without spilling over the bed took little effort.
Gingerly she set her head at his shoulder, and through the bone and muscle of his chest she heard the unmistakable sound of blood pumping with the constant rhythm of any normal human heart.
From there everything became very quite. All she heard was the drumming of life in his veins, her own breathing, and the light whoosh of air from the pair of lips just a fraction's distance off the top of her head.
It being a hot night in Nevada, Liz didn't mind the lack of bed sheets. It would make it that much easier, in fact, to get way later when he'd gone to sleep.
For while her brain was still trying to pick apart exactly what they were doing here she decided to look at it in the mean time as one of those 'stay with me' fits of clinginess that Patty was so prone to.
It was the feel of his fingers tracing the bandages on her back that stopped that thought in its tracks.
The light touch, the quickening of heart beats, it all screamed one thing.
One thing she had to ignore.
And while Liz's brain fought off thought Kid's was swimming in it.
How could make her stay?
Kid thought briefly of Maka and Soul, how they were promised to one another, vowed never to part till death.
"In sickness and health…" He mumbled—incoherently—to Liz, who only heard mumbled jargon.
A fairly simple solution really, except he was sure that those two were the love of each others lives, and you didn't just go around asking anybody to marry you. It took time, and, well…love.
But he did love her. That's what this was all about in the first place.
He'd come to love and cherish the two orphans he'd adopted, who in turn adopted him, and could hardly fathom life without either of the girls.
It would probably be more peaceful, true, but there was no fun in "peaceful."
And as Kid traced the edges of Liz's wrappings through the light shirt she wore he mused on how much sadder his life would be with no one around reassuring him that he wasn't a failure for leaving his picture frames 1/239th of an inch crooked.
He could see the scrutiny in her eyes as his partner tried to decide if he was delirious or just tired and it made him smile. The kind of half lazy grin that absolutely ruined Liz's self control.
She wanted to draw that smirk as his hands did her bandaging. Slither her fingers over his skin to drive him mad so that he'd want only her, look only at her.
If he hadn't grown into his good looks so devastatingly this wouldn't be happening. If he'd just stayed the cute little neurotic freak from six years ago, the one who—in his cutest moments of self pity and doubt or childishness—made her want to smother him in love and hugs and read him stories like Patty, she wouldn't be the victim of all these wants!
She'd just have to push it aside, as she'd always done. Build up yet another layer of immunity for "those sorts of things."
The thought of mounting that task brought on a new wave of exhaustion.
Liz's eyes drooped; something about the feel of his skin under hers was so lulling that she forgot about sneaking away and picking apart situations.
And as she drifted into sleep Kid was more than willing to let her do just that, to watch her blue eyes set under heavy lids, finally feeling the pull of his own.
The hand at her back became like a gentle vice, keeping her by his side for the rest of the night.
*.*.*.*
Seeing as how he owned the hospital, getting the twenty one year old Shinigami released to bed rest the next day wasn't much hassle.
Liz, of course, protested with her greatest pouting face to date but the young man wouldn't be swayed. He wanted to go home and he would get his royal pain in the ass way.
Patty didn't have any opinion on the mater, and just sat gleefully in front seat of the car as they drove back to Death Mansion, looking as usual for the "shotgun."
*.*.*
"Patty, would you get me the box of supplies the hospital sent home?" Liz called busily over her shoulder while scrubbing away at the lunch and dinner dishes left untouched from the day before.
"You're the boss apple sauce! Tehehe."
Once the dishes were done, lunch prepared and carefully arranged on the mahogany tray, she set the medical supplies in the crook of her arm and carried them up to Kid's room, calling for Patty to come eat her own lunch on the way.
At first glance, and second, and third, Kid seemed to be sleeping, propped against the generous stack of black and white pillows where the nurse left him earlier that morning.
It was an absolute waste to wake him when he looked so untroubled, but his dressings need changing every four hours and it was encroaching on twenty minutes till, plus he should eat and hydrate and…
Liz's worries seemed to become less and less important the longer she watched her Meister resting soundly. The un-kept black hair that fell into his face, the long lashes both dashing and innocent, and the slight part in his lips all played havoc on her priorities.
She could gladly spend the day sitting on the lush bed watching Kid sleep, maybe blowing through those lashes to disturb him every so often.
Then his eyes were open and on hers like a shot in the dark, and Liz nearly spilled the lunch from the start it gave her.
"You always did scare easily." He teased with the faintest hint of amusement, shifting just slightly to sit upright as he eyed the lunch tray hopefully.
"…yeah…" It was probably the dullest response possible but it was all she had left in her arsenal for the day. Everything else ran away.
The tray went over his lap, and a glass of water and a spoon were offered as Liz unveiled the curry plate.
At his raised eyebrow she gave a nonchalant shrug. "At least you only need one hand to eat it."
"Hm."
This looked suspiciously like home cooking, and while Liz could do just fine with an oven baking cakes and sweets her culinary adventures weren't always…well, they had an equal chance of being disasters, bland, or delicious.
Hoping for delicious—or at the very most bland—Kid scooped a spoonful, kept the snarl from his expression at the slight pull against his stitches, and warily popped a bite.
Liz waited through the chewing, the typically Kid pondering and considering, then felt a wave of relief when he went for a second taste.
"It's ok?"
"It's not as spicy as I had assumed."
She laughed lightly. "Of course. Nobody would feed a sick man chili."
His ears perked at the phrase. Had she ever referred to him like that before? Unlikely, but then again it could just be a figure of speech.
But damn it he was a man, and since she'd made him lunch she was either planning to stay or fatting him up for the kill.
He'd just have to set things back the way he wanted.
"Now your pills." Liz held out what looked like little skull shaped candies when his plate was clean, watched closely as he swallowed them down.
"Thanks for the food."
"Sure. Take your shirt off."
With her head and most of her upper half leaning towards the floor for the medicine box Liz didn't see the scheming in Kid's eyes—or the light twinge of shock that she could be so blunt—even if she was just being "nursely."
He slipped out of the already unbuttoned dress shirt with little difficulty, though considerably more pain that what it took to raise a spoon.
Liz didn't miss this, and was very careful as she unwound the long cloth from his torso, holding back the desire to flinch at the sight of his open wound and run screaming for Patty. But she gagged back that whim and pressed forward, this was partly her fault, and she would set it right.
Cautiously she dabbed a shining layer of antiseptic and one of Nygus' herbal mixtures over the ridge of the offending hole in her Meister's chest, being extra careful of the line in his stitching where the skin looked red and irritant.
Some of the last flakes of blood clinging to the organic string came off onto the cotton ball she cleaned him with, and the overall look of the injury after a small, unskilled, round of nursing looked slightly improved if she did say so herself.
Still, it might have been a tad easier if Kid's eyes weren't stalking her every move.
"Arms up." She gestured as cheerfully as possible given the stress and strain, and went about re-wrapping his thin body.
Liz was cautions about grazing his sides or the slightly sculpted abdomen as she traded the wad of gauze back and forth, around and under, just like in the books. If she would beat this want—and she meant to—she'd have to avoid unnecessary contact.
When the process looked complete she tucked the remaining end in, and was rethinking whether or not to give it a little smoothing down when Kid executed the notion for her.
Much like the night before he assumed command of the hand he trapped in his own, brought her palm to smooth the ruffled cloth, pressing just firmly enough to surprise her and not torture himself. "Liz. About our agreement."
"Which one?" Keep your voice steady…
The tension swirling around her was like a silent triumph for Kid, and the confidence of it all eased him into his next move.
"The one about leaving." His golden eyes held her steady, wiling her to focus only on him and not what his hand was doing.
"Hm…" Do not gulp.
Smoothly he guided her hand to his lips, stopped there to let breath tingle over the little hairs of her knuckles.
"Will you be leaving Liz?" His head tilted just the slightest as he planted a slow kiss on her folded fingers. The half innocent, half smothering gaze did terrible things to her pulse, and she prayed he couldn't feel it in his tight grip.
"…No." Against better judgment and internal death threats Liz let the quivering word fall from her lips like water would have slipped through her trembling hands.
"Good." The smile on his mischievous face didn't seem very reassuring, but Kid released his prisoner and settled in comfortably against the pillows again. More at ease and content than he'd been in many years now that his home was back in proper order—or at least on the right track.
*.*
Liz left Kid's room with a much dignity as she could muster, but once beyond the door was free to hobble her way back down the stairs in a completely ungraceful daze.
What was that? What in the world was that.
Young Death simply grinned at his own efforts. He remembered that move clearly—remembered Liz's reaction clearly—from the movie she rented four months ago.
Watching movies with Liz, or rather, watching Liz watch movies, turned into one of his favorite past times these last six years. Her selection wasn't always the most interesting—the majority being romantic comedies, a few good dramas, and a handful of action—but the way she reacted to each scene was what kept his attention.
She cried for fictional characters, laughed hysterically with a humor that sometimes surprised him, waited in total suspense during the climax, and as those romantic, sexy moments rolled by on screen her blue eyes would glaze over like she wanted to be right there in the action. Being nibbled instead of watching the nibblers, kissing rather than tilting her head subconsciously for a better view, and Kid sometimes made special note of what caught her undivided attention.
Though he never expected to use them in such a way.
It might have been sneaky but it got him what he wanted, it certainly wasn't unpleasant.
That though had him raising a meticulously groomed eyebrow and peel back yet another layer of his hidden desires.
It wouldn't be the first time he enjoyed touching his Weapon, nor was he a stranger to craving hers.
He'd just never really thought of it that way before. To him Liz was both the scolding mother and the spoiled child he had to deal with on occasion. In her and Patty he saw the missing pieces of the "normal family" he would never possess as a child of Death.
Even though she was beautiful—and didn't he know what many of the other Shibusen residents were thinking—it always seemed a little odd to picture himself kissing her the way they did in movies.
On the other hand, if he'd known that the taste of her would linger on his lips in the most delicious way he might have tried it long ago.
*.*.*
With lunch and medical troubles settled Liz felt it was more than appropriate to sink into her favorite recliner with a loud sigh of annoyance to express her exhaustion.
"We're officially hiring a maid…"
Because the idea had her whistling and dreaming happily about all the free time it would allow Liz eventually drifted off into the depth of her problems.
She thought about the night before, about their enemy—some old Kishin fanatics who wouldn't let it rest that their idol had been destroyed barely a year earlier—and about the words they spoke to Kid.
Anytime someone mentioned "fragment" the boy would go berserk. It was almost more than the opposite of what happened when he froze because of symmetry.
Kid still lost a part of himself, he lost his reason, but he blazed bright with a fiery purpose she didn't really think he understood.
When provoked that way her Meister would stop at nothing to get answers, and deep down with the rest of her insecurities that was something that frightened Liz.
"It's probably because of Noah…"
Before that sneaky bastard interrupted their lives Kid never once bothered with that word. Now…it was like an on-and-off obsession.
What made things all he more difficult to understand was that he never talked about that time he spent as prisoner, not to her anyway.
She really regretted that.
And wouldn't it just be too awkward to ask now? Especially when it wasn't causing them any disharmony as Weapon and Meister. Too much time had probably passed—though last night's episode made the matter pretty relevant.
"Black Star probably knows…"
"What do I know?"
If anything could cause instantaneous death via heart failure it was a bright blue haired ninja standing on your ceiling.
And her blood-curdling scream woke Kid and caught Patty's attention.
The younger Thompson sister dashed into the room, hands pressed together with the threat of a pretend gun.
It didn't take the young woman long to realize the intruder wasn't "gun" worthy, but she fired a few invisible rounds anyway. "It's Black Star! Pew!Pew!"
Liz didn't find it so funny, as she was now squirming in pain from pulling on her stitches when she jumped and knocked the chair over.
"What. Are you. Doing here?"
The tall man jabbed a thumb towards the kitchen. "Tsubaki wanted to bring ya some food."
Some of the pain and hatred melted. "Oh bless you…"
Black Star grinned widely as he lifted the petite woman from her uncomfortable predicament to set her right again. "Yeah, I get that a lot."
Liz was about to retort with something nasty when a painful 'thud' on the stairs sucked away her attention and air.
"Kid!"
Two flurries of blond hair ran for the man crumbled between the top and middle steps, and though he showed more restraint Black Star wasn't far behind them.
"Liz…what was that?" He asked through gritted teeth as his Weapons fondled over him—well, Patty most sat on her haunches poking his foot, but Liz had him tight in her arms so he wouldn't go sliding down the rest of their marble stairway.
"That was Black Star being stupid. But not this stupid! What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking." He glared. "That you needed help."
Because she felt chilled blood drip through her fingers Liz ignored the comment and turned to Black Star with pleading eyes.
*.*
Well, if this wasn't the most pitiful, ridiculous situation he'd ever been in Kid didn't know what was.
Carried off like a damsel in distress because of a damsel in distress.
Though, he really should have known better. Not only did Liz have a flair for the dramatic she was also easily startled.
In consequence for his "stupidity" he spent the rest of the evening more or less nailed to bed, with Patty there entertaining herself on his feet.
Literally.
Getting up was now a matter of persuading Patty off his legs.
"Kid?" Decency was always lost of Patty, and as she crawled further up her Meister's lap, settled snuggled between his legs, tilted head propped on delicately painted neon fingers, he found that hadn't improved.
"Yes?" Kid never really knew what to expect from Patty, so he kept as calm and alert as possible.
Otherwise he'd be flipping a wig.
"What did you do to Liz-Siz?"
"….pardon?" She might have just knocked his composure out of the park.
"She's broken inside…" Whatever sadness Patti felt from her sister reflected in her own blue pools.
"Broken." A strong pain began brewing under his collarbone, so he paused a moment.
"There's tears that fall upwards."
"Are they falling now?"
For the first time Kid saw something almost "normal" in Patty's expression, the harsh yet careful way she seemed to threaten and beg at the same time. "Yes."
The Shinigami eyed his Weapon thoroughly before commanding her off him.
Patty knew she was suppose to stay and keep Kid from pulling the same stunt from that afternoon, but she also knew the only reason was so Liz could panic in silence.
She didn't like her sister to suffer alone.
So she obliged, rolled off his thin body to snuggle in the fluffy pillows, already back to laughing at the deranged game on her DS.
Kid knew he had to find Liz, set her "upside down tears" right side up—and hoped that it meant what he thought it did.
But walking proved just as difficult as it had that morning. He was weak from both the more or less liquid diet and the strain of recovery on his body, and the irritation that caused him wasn't helping either.
Ambling his way down the hall, Kid tried to locate Liz's soul, following the wisps of it around corners and through doors till he passed an open window by their side yard garden—found her draped casually over her white beach chair.
Was she crying?
He couldn't tell. She was beyond the light from their home.
Though Kid did feel an odd sense of serenity coming from her.
Climbing down the stairs and hobbling all the way around would be more painful and a greater waste of energy than it was worth, so he walked to the ledge, swung a leg over and jumped.
The thick thud of impact from his fall and the stifled hiss caught Liz's attention, and though she lazily searched for the source when she found it her eyes went wide and the entirety of her abdomen went crashing into her feet.
*.*.*
Oh poor Kid, falling off the second floor is painful even when you're not recovering a fatal accident. More later