Ame was in her wolf form, viciously stalking a cricket bug hopping merrily along the sidewalk. Her tail shook once before she pounced, taking the cricket between her paws and batting at it playfully. The bug hopped once in protest to her rough game, to which she barked heartily.

"Ame, are you coming?" Kid asked, slightly amuzed.

Ame snuffed slightly as she leapt to follow Kid, transforming and getting to her feet to walk beside him.

"So Maka told me about a carnival coming up soon," Ame said. She was walking to school with him. He'd been a little late getting around since one of the paintings above the fireplace was crooked, but he insisted Liz and Patti go on without him.

"Oh, that?" Kid asked. "It's not that far away, actually. It's held every year around this time; you know, in spring where they can do it at night without anyone getting too cold? Our class is actually going to set up a booth with food samples. It seems random, but my father actually wanted to kind of pay a hinting tribute to you and your power."

"Sounds great," Ame smiled.

Food Festival; Who's Cooking Skills Will Prevail?

"Lord Death asked me to supervise in the food-making for the carnival," Tsubaki told the others over lunch. The eight friends had gathered on the roof for lunch so Ame wouldn't have to deal with all the people in the cafeteria.

"You're great at cooking, Tsubaki," Maka complimented, giving her friend a thumbs-up. "I think he made a great choice."

"Thank you," Tsubaki nodded graciously. "I'm going to be stay late today to test a few of the recipes, but I don't think I can do it on my own. Most of this stuff is kind of complex and I haven't had that much experience with cooking in small portions."

"We can help you," Liz offered.

"You will?" Tsubaki asked. "Oh, no! You don't have to do that!"

"It's no problem," Liz assured her. "If you need help, you need help."

"Yeah, and besides, we want to see those recipes for ourselves before the festival," Soul added.

"Looks like I'm getting a free meal tonight," Blackstar said.

"Maka CHOP!"

"I've gained some experience," Ame said.

"More than just some experience, Ame," Kid smiled at her. "I'm impressed with your cooking skills."

"Just tell me what to do!" Ame continued, getting more and more fired up since Kid complimented her. "I'll help."

"Thanks, you guys."

After school, they all met up again in the home economics room. It was a bit deserted and not used very often; home ec wasn't really what they taught at this school.

"Glad you could all make it," Tsubaki smiled at them. "There are two cooking stations, and two recipes, so I think we should split into two groups."

"Sounds good," Soul agreed.

"I think Ame and Kid should be on different teams," Liz interjected suddenly. The two said beings turned to stare at her. "So they won't get distracted. Also, I think it would be cool to see who's really the better cook of the household."

"Why you," Ame and Kid thought at the same time.

"Fine by me," Kid shrugged. Ame felt as if he'd just stabbed her.

"Okay, then it will be Kid, Blackstar, Patti and Liz against Maka, Ame, Tsubaki and I," Soul said.

"I could switch with Patti," Ame thought. "We both have the same attention span, is all."

In truth, she just didn't want to be outshined by Kid or hurt his feelings if she outshined him.

"This isn't a competition, Soul," Kid snapped. "If it is, then why not you and Maka be on different teams? I'm sure you'd love to see who the better cook is."

"Okay, then Patti and I can switch," Soul said.

"No!" Ame thought desperately, recognizing she'd missed her chance.

"It's practically boys against girls now," Liz mumbled.

Tsubaki looked at the recipe card. "It looks pretty simple; it's curry and rice."

"Is it spicy?" Ame piped in, her ears twitching. She was kind of in a bad mood since she couldn't be with Kid.

"Give it a chance, Ame," Maka said in a rather reassuring tone. "You never know."

"We'll be cooking potatoes with cheese and bacon bits, it looks like," Soul said, staring at their own recipe card. Ame's ears perked and she turned to them with a hungry glare. They were put on the wrong teams.

"Uh-oh," Tsubaki said as she uncased the vegetables they were supposed to be using. "They're all stale."

The others stared into the container with looks of displeasure.

"Hey, Ame, didn't you say you had the power to heal plants?" Soul asked. "Go ahead and use rejuvenation on it."

"Okay," Ame used her tail to scribble furiously over the containers. Everyone was shocked when the spoiled, slimy plants became trees right in the middle of the room. Ame stared at her work with tired eyes. "Well, that didn't work."

"I can get some more from the store," Kid volunteered.

"That would be great, Kid-sempai!" Liz shouted, giving him an exaggerated hug.

"When are you going to let that go, woman?!" Kid demanded.

While Kid was at the store, the others started on their meals. Maka tended to the boiling water and Tsubaki and Ame cut vegetables.

"It helps when you cut things into random shapes," Tsubaki informed Ame as they cut the few vegetables they were able to salvage from the trees.

"Nyu," Ame nodded, cutting rather slowly.

"While Kid's not here, let's talk about him," Liz suggested. Ame perked and threw a knife skillfully at Liz's head. Liz dodged in time, muttering a small 'oh god.'

"Liz, you know better," Tsubaki chided, but she was smiling too. "Honestly, you've become a little trouble maker since Ame came along."

"I can't help it; Ame just makes it too easy to have a good time is all, can you blame me?"

Another knife was shot at Liz's head, but someone caught it by the handle two centimeters before impact. Liz looked up to see Kid standing in front of her with a small bag in his arms.

"Liz, will you please stop antagonizing Ame?" he asked simply. He set the vegetables on the table and held a small box out in front of Ame. She perked immediately, reaching out for the Hello Panda with a kitty-face grin. "I got you a snack. Cheer up, girl."

"Girl?" Soul's head snapped up and he dropped his kitchen utensils. Kid blushed; he didn't mean to call her that! She was just so cute….

"Uh, yeah," Kid tried to defend himself before they got any ideas. "You know, we were thinking about names the other night and how you all thought her name was going to be something like Life the Girl? Well, I guess I took that and started calling her 'girl' all of a sudden."

"Yeah," Ame added, trying desperately to cover up his fault as well. "And I call him 'Kitty' cause we're sort of like a wolf and a cat."

"You're not helping," Kid muttered.

"Oh, I see," Tsubaki nodded, turning to Ame. "Is that right, girl?"

Ame hissed at her and bit her hand once for good measure before staring intently at Kid as if to establish that he was the only one allowed to call her that. She continued chopping vegetables at an alarming rate.

"At least watch what you're doing!" he cried in a near-panic. "And you shouldn't bite people!"

"Ugh, my eyes are watering," Tsubaki said as she cut the onions for the curry.

"Did you know that the chemicals actually affect the receptors in your nose?" Maka asked. Ame's ears fluffed.

"Really?" she asked. She reached for a half of onion and walked to the opposite team. "Bla-ack-star!" she sang.

"Wha-a-at?" Blackstar chimed back as if half-mocking her and turned his head so he could see her. Without warning, Ame squirted fresh onion juice in his face. The hit box reached both of his eyes, but not his nose. Blackstar doubled back in pain. "My eyes! What the heck, woman?!"

"It works on the eyes too!" Ame cried as if she just discovered something that amazed her.

"I should have known you were going to do something like that," Maka said.

Ame was just checking the rice when the delicious scent of food made her stomach growl quietly. She blushed.

"Uh—sorry," she apologized at once.

"Don't worry about it," Tsubaki smiled at her. "It's actually kind of cute when your stomach growls like that, so you shouldn't be embarrassed."

"Come to think of it," Patti chimed in. "What sound wouldn't be cute?"

"Well, now that I think of Maka's stomach growling," Soul smirked.

"Why am I the example?!" Maka demanded angrily. Just as she said the words, her stomach let out a loud boom.

"My point is proven," Soul said.

"Shut up, Soul!"

Once the meals were finished, it was tasting time.

"Try our curry first," Maka insisted.

"Sure," Soul complied. "Since we're saving the best for last."

"MAKACHOP!"

"I think we did well," Tsubaki told her teammates.

"The pain is almost bearable," Ame agreed.

"Not bad," Liz said as she tried the curry. "It's so warm. You guys did great."

"You've outdone yourself, Maka," Soul complimented. "You should try making this for dinner some time. I like it."

"God approves," Blackstar declared.

Ame stared intensely at Kid, awaiting his divine judgment. Her ear flicked once. Kid smiled.

"It feels warm on the inside," he said. Ame put her head down in defeat, and Kid tried to cover up whatever it was that he did wrong. "It's got a nice tang to it and the flavor is perfectly balanced, so I love it."

"Kyuuuu," Ame sighed, a cloud of depression draping over her body.

"It's really good, Ame, so… I don't get it." He didn't get why she wasn't happy and proud.

"Kid," Tsubaki said. "You know there's something you should say to a girl when she makes you a good meal, right?" she winked once and Kid understood immediately.

"Of course," he said. "Ame, I think whoever marries you will be a very lucky man."

Ame's lips moved rapidly as she made a soft 'fufufu' chattering noise before she collapsed backward in an extreme nosebleed. Kid sweat-dropped, as they all did.

"Ours next!" Blackstar cheered.

Tsubaki bowed her head. "Thank you."

"Tsu-ba-ki," Maka sang. Tsubaki turned her head in time for Maka to put a spoonful of potato and cheese in her mouth. "Mmm. Here, you should try it." Tsubaki returned the favor.

"So good!" Maka chirped. Ame watched the odd scene carefully. They looked cute when they fed each other. Ame lifted a spoonful of the food.

"Patti," she addressed quietly. The said girl turned to her and smiled like she was the happiest person on earth.

"Thank you!" she said, eating what Ame fed her. "This tastes so good!~"

"Ame?"

The wolf turned around to see Kid with a spoon in his hand.

"Open up."

Ame did as she was told and leaned towards the food. However, Kid pulled it away at the last minute! Ame was so upset that she just stared at him for a moment with furious tears in her eyes before jumping and biting him on the head.

"Ow!" Kid whimpered, dropping the spoon onto the table.

"She's biting his head off!" Patti laughed.

"That's so cute!" Liz agreed.

"I realized at the last moment," Kid choked out. "How hot it was." Ame paused in her relentless gnawing and looked down at him. "I didn't want you to burn yourself."

Ame sank to the ground, her face hot with a deep red blush. She glared at him and screamed.

"You idiot!"

Took me a few tries to get that first scene in there, with Ame being in her wolf form. Also, you may have noticed that I've stopped doing title sequences. Well, since it's the second arc, I kind of want a new theme. You can review if you have any ideas!