Hi! Mit-chan and Jessie here! And we bring forth to the light... 'Kicking Stones' chapter 9! Yay!

Kid: The symmetry...

Mit-chan: -eye twitches- …

Jessie: Where did Rycii go?

Rycii: -growing mushrooms in a corner- …

Kid: The beautiful symmetry...

Mit-chan: -nerve snaps- SHUT UP, KID!

Jessie: Oh dear. We don't own Soul Eater. Enjoy. -rushes off to stop Mit-chan from killing Kid-

-

-

)( Chapter 9 )( Rycii's POV )(

-

Oh. My. God.

I stared at my face in the mirror. I was still half asleep, but after having opened both my eyes significantly less painfully this morning, I'd bolted up and rushed to a mirror.

More correctly, I'd stumbled about the bedroom in the dark of the early morning, scattering all my belongings around the room and sending a pile of Mit's magazines sliding to the floor, which then made me trip on those and crash into the door, hurting my face (again) and stubbing my toe. Great – I was sure this day was bound to be fullof good luck for me.

I got up with a bit of a groan (who wouldn't have after that?!) and squinted around the dark at the damage I'd caused. Figures – I have to turn a room upside down before I'm able to get to the door. Either way, after that, I managed to get the door open and quietly creep down the hallway to the bathroom – which had a bunch of Mit's stuff lying messily on the shelf, and Jessie's stuff lined up neatly on the shelf next to it – then check out my 'second head'.

But, as close to a miracle as it might sound, there was no second head growing in the place of my eye. It was just a bit dark, like I hadn't washed off mascara properly. I was completely taken by surprise.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Why is Rycii seemingly surrounded by Mit and Jessie's stuff?" Well, the answer to that would be that I'm at their place, not Kid's. It might seem a bit weird, considering that we only came here to pick up my stuff, but the thing was that I couldn't very well see where the hell I was going with one eye trying to swell itself shut, and Kid couldn't very well carry me back. So we said I'd stay the night here and see if I was still partially blind by the morning. Strangely enough, I wasn't still partially blind. Which really was nothing short of a miracle. As I had already said.

I checked out my eye a bit more, leaning forwards to get closer to the mirror over the sink, turning my head and looking at it from different angles. I discovered that it wasn't completely healed, and if I scrunched up my eyes it hurt like being punched all over again, and squinting too much or widening my eyes also stung a bit. Oh well. At least it wasn't swelled shut.

I sighed thankfully, taking one last look at my eye in the mirror, then straightening up and turning towards the door. As I stepped out into the dark hallway, I watched the floor, avoiding the patches of creaky wood on the landing, when I suddenly bumped into someone.

"Oh! Sorry!" I whispered, startled, looking up at the person in front of me and automatically stepping back. Luckily, I wasn't completely out of it and I managed to avoid the creaky areas of flooring.

"Good morning, Rycii-chan! I didn't know you were with us again? It's good to see you!" the twins' Dad smiled at me kindly, but I was still a bit nervous. How would he react to us being here, without notice?

"U-uh, yeah, I stayed last night, 'cause... like, some... stuff happened..." I muttered, looking down. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you up with my banging?" I asked quickly, thinking of the disaster my room was now.

"Oh, no no no. Don't worry about it! I was already awake," he explained, smiling again and moving past me towards the stairwell. "I'll be downstairs if you need me."

I nodded and smiled. "Thank you!" I said, then turned carefully to head back towards my room, when I walked into another person. I looked up again, then felt my cheeks get red. I stepped back quickly, but tripped and stumbled and hit a creaky patch, ruining the relative quietness of before. I swore loudly, then cursed again for making more noise. Then I heard a bit of a chuckle.

"You really aren't very good at being quiet in the morning, are you?" Kid commented, laughing quietly at me.

I went red, and was about to say that it was his fault that I stepped on a creaky patch of floor, but then my brain thankfully thought about it and shut my mouth for me. For a change. "I'm not usually..." I mumbled, looking down and hiding my embarrassed face. I heard the laughing slow, and tentatively peeked up at Kid to see his expression; he was stifling a yawn.

I looked down again as my face heated up. I told myself over and over not to think about the fact that Kid yawning was so freaking cute, and tried to think about other stuff. Annoyingly enough, I couldn't dredge up any thoughts from my black hole of a mind.

"Rycii? Are you okay?"

I looked up quickly, suddenly blabbering out an apology about not being very talkative and 'stuff'. God, he must think I was such a freak. I decided maybe a better approach would be to stop blabbering and just say sorry like a normal person and ignore my frazzled brain connections. Wait. How did that work??

Okay forget forgetting the frazzled brain connections.

I suddenly shook my head, so annoyed at myself. Why couldn't I at least keep my mind on things actually happening around me rather than have arguments and what not with myself in my head?!

I glanced at Kid, wondering if he'd be annoyed at me or something, but he was just staring intently at me. I was wondering why, when he grabbed my wrist and dragged me off towards the guest room he was staying in, shutting the doors behind us. I briefly wondered why we hadn't made any of the floorboards creak, but then a light was on, and he grabbed my face instead and turned it towards the light.

Oh.

I watched his eyes tighten as he saw the bruise in the light, and wondered if he was going to start making a fuss about it, when he just let go of my face and sighed, stepping back.

I took a moment then to look around the room, and was surprised by the tidiness of it. I mean, it was... I don't know, just, like, perfect! It was even more of a miracle than my eye!

"I'm a terrible person... a trash like being..."

My head turned quickly towards Kid. He was doing it again, going into his depression with anything asymmetrical. I quickly bit my lip and gestured to the room frantically. "Y-you're not, Kid-kun! Look! I mean, just look at this room! It's perfectly symmetrical!" As I said this, I realised it was true. The room was perfectly symmetrical. I wondered how long he had spent fixing it up... "And, I mean, i-it's not your fault my eye is bruised! It's mine, I was clumsy and you tried hard to make sure it got better and it worked, and the bruise isn't even that bad anyway, it's just a bit dark!" I saw that he was sliding towards the floor slowly, his back against the wall, and I knew I was arguing a moot point with him. Then I had an idea.

-

)( Later )(

-

I smiled as Kid picked up one of my bags for me, while I carried the other, and said goodbye to Mit and Jessie. I could see their Dad in the kitchen with his back to us, doing the dishes. My lips twitched at the memory of his expression when Kid had walked into the kitchen. The broke into a grin when I remembered the look on his face when I'd walked into the kitchen, with a bruise on one eye and heavy mascara and eye make up to hide it one both eyes.

Mit put her arms around me and squeezed the breath out of me, then Jessie hugged me too, but more gently. I said goodbye to both of them and waved as Kid and I walked down their driveway and back towards his home. I heard Mit shouting a loud goodbye and looked back to see her waving both arms in the air and jumping up and down. I caught sight of Jessie as she ducked to avoid her twin's killer wave.

"REMEMBER TO CALL! WE'LL TALK TO YOU SOON! AND BRING DEATH-CHAN AND PATTI-CHAN AND LIZ-CHAN AS WELL NEXT TIME, 'KAY!"

I nodded at her, sure that Jessie would see the gesture, and waved back, then carried on our way through the city.

-

To be continued...

-

-

Finished!

Mit-chan: Yay! Death-chan is coming as well next time!

Rycii: Please stop with the pet names...

Mit-chan: -pouts- Mou, Rycii-chan, you're so mean... ¬.¬

Kid: Thank you for reading.

Jessie: Please review!