Chapter 21: Returning to Almost Normal

Ryuka's POV

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I wore a soft black slip with layers in my skirt, which went all the way to my ankles. My bare shoulders were pale against the dark silky fabric. My birthday was last week and Kid was sure to get me plenty of nice night-dresses. I'm not sure why though. They were all long, and flowing with no sleeves, but each one was different. This one pretty much left my entire back bare. I ran my fingers through my hair and smiled. This was a pretty dress, or at least I thought so.

Then I felt a pair of familiar arms snake around my stomach, running his fingers over the thin, black, silky fabric. I could see him in the mirror behind me, "You look beautiful," He whispered into my hair, astonished. I smiled and ran my fingers over his.

"Thanks. I really like this one. It might be my favorite," his hands laced across me ever so gently. I could feel his lips running over my neck. So soft, "Kid?" I asked leaning back further into him, "What are you trying to do?"

One of his hand let go of me and danced its way over to my I-pod jack. Then some techno music started playing. I recognized it as ET by Katy Perry. I loved this song, and he knew that. Then in a flash he had me to where I was facing him. He held one hand on my waist, and the other in my left hand. He pulled the other of mine onto his shoulder. He was leading me so we were swaying back and forth in small motions to the beat. This didn't exactly fit the type of music that this was, but I was too lost in his hypnotic gold eyes to object. Then the chorus started up.

Kiss Me. Ki-Ki-Kiss Me. Infect Me With Your Lovin'. Fill Me With Your Poison. Take Me. Ta-Ta-Take Me. Wanna Be Your Victim. Ready For Abduction. Boy, You're An Alien. Your Touch So Foreign. It's Supernatural. Extra Terrestrial.

I smiled up at him as he pulled me closer. I leaned in, clinging to his white dress shirt. Then he spun me around and held me from behind. I leaned back on the beat of the music. I could feel my bare back pressing to his chest. His hips grinding against me from behind as I leaned into his all-to-familiar body.

I'm not one hundred percent sure what happened after that, but the next thing I knew I was on my back, my white quilt beneath me. Kid hovered over me, lips on mine. The song had started over from the beginning as the two of us lie on the bed. His lips were so soft, so moving, against mine. I ran my fingers down his torso, undoing a each button on his shirt that I came to. Within moments his shirt was discarded onto the floor. I traced his chiseled chest with my fingertips, earning a moan from him. I felt his hands run up my thighs over the dress, then he lifted my legs, wrapping them around his waist. His lips trailed down my jaw and to my neck, is hands on my back, pulling me closer to him. The skirt of my dress had now fallen around my torso, leaving everything below my bra-line exposed. My black panties in fact matched the dress. I hadn't really noticed before. Kid ran his hands over my stomach, along my stitches. Then his tongue dipped into my naval. I moaned at the feeling. There was this heat building up inside of me. I knew that my cheeks were on fire, but I really didn't care. All I wanted was him. Just him.

"Ryuka," He panted, meeting my eyes, "Before I get too caught up in myself, I want to make sure that you want this. I could never forgive myself if you didn't."

I looked into his lust-glazed eyes as he panted over me, "I want this," I breathed back, whispering into his hair, "I want you."

I felt his cool hands trail down my body in satisfaction as I felt knots building up inside me as I waited in anticipation for what was to come.

Morning

Ryuka's POV

It was still dark outside when my eyes opened. The stereo still played the same song continuously. ET still played through the room. I felt Kid's arms holding me to him from behind. Our sweat covered bodies pressed together felt remarkable. I could feel his breath on my neck, it's cool temperature practically dropping my body's heat level. I remembered being so hot before. Now it felt like I was freezing.

I faced Kid and wrapped my arms around his body, holding him close to me, "I love you, " I whispered into his skin, "I love you so much."

"Really?" he asked, halfway opening his gold eyes, "I never would've guessed. You said it so many times last night, and then the way you screamed my name…"

I blushed as he kissed my forehead, "K-Kid…."

"I'm only teasing, Ryuka," He gave me a smile, "I love you, too," His arms wound around me tighter, forcing us closer. Our bodies pressed so tightly together that I could fell almost every inch of him on my skin.

Everything about last night had been astonishing. Even with the pain at the beginning, that all seemed like nothing compared to all that pleasure. I had still wondered how we had managed to stay on my full sized bed without falling off. Sorry, you probably don't want to know about all of that. I'm just still quite a bit love-drunk from it all.

After a few moments, the two of us got up. Feeling the air on my sweaty, naked skin was almost like being slapped back into reality. I found my panties on the floor and slid them on before pulling my nightdress on over my skin. I looked over my shoulder at Kid, who was only in his boxers and black slacks.

"Wow," He said as I crossed the room to look into my reflection in the mirror. He walked up behind me, weaving his fingers into my own.

"What is it?" I asked, stifling a giggle as I met his eyes.

"Look," He pointed at the mirror, "You really do look like Death's Mistress. Even with all the scars and stitches. I saw a small tear roll down his cheek. I wiped it away with my thumb.

"That wasn't your fault, you know," I kissed him softly, "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"You always tell me that," He said, cupping my face with one hand, "But I still feel really guilty about it."

"Don't," I said, picking up one of his hands and placing it on my scar from the bullet wound.

He looked into my eyes and pulled me into his embrace. I clung to his bare torso, taking in the clean clothes and spearmint scent of his skin, which now lingered all over me.

Eventually we pulled apart, looking deeply into each other's eyes. I now understood what Grey had told me so long ago. About when you truly love someone, how your heart will know. I knew that I could spend the rest of my life at Kid's side. I knew that I could love him to the ends of the earth. I had what it took to love a Shinigami, and these past nine months that I had been proof,

"I'm going to go shower, Kid," I said kissing him on the cheek, "See you in a bit," He gave me a smile as I walked into the bathroom.

Death the Kid's POV

I watched her walk out of her room and into the bathroom with a smile on my face. I picked my shirt up off the ground and pulled it on, doing up the buttons. I looked in the mirror and fixed myself to be symmetrical, aside from my ever so annoying stripes in my hair.

After becoming satisfied with my appearance, I walked out of her room, feeling the soft white carpet on my bare feet. I felt like I could fly. Probably the best I had felt in a long time. After that mission in the cold magnetic field, it just felt great to be home. I walked down the stairs, skipping the very last step, the way Patty always did. She said that it was lucky, or something like that.

I sat down at the opposite end of the couch from Liz, who flipped through the channels with one hand on her stomach. It had amazed me how much bigger that the baby bump had gotten in the past two months. Just one thing made me a bit mad about her pregnancy, she still wanted to go on the missions with me, despite my insisting on her not to. She was just so damn stubborn. I had been trying to talk her out of going on the mission tomorrow. The one Ryuka still didn't know about.

I felt a flood of guilt wash over me. I hadn't told her yet because I didn't want to spoil the amazing past two weeks we had spent together. Her birthday. The Park. Silver's piano recital with Soul, who had been teaching her for the past few months. Last night. I smiled before sliding my hand into my pocket and felt two slick papers. I pulled them out and smiled. These were the reasons I had gone to up to see her so late in the first place. San had gotten her and Stein and the two of us tickets to see Skillet in concert.

"Oh My God!" I heard Liz squeal in both happiness and alarm. I jumped and looked over at her.

"What is it Liz?" I asked sliding a bit closer.

"She moved!" She squealed in delight, grabbing my hand and placing it over her womb. Sure enough there was a small wriggling movement beneath my hand.

"So it's a girl?" I asked, smiling at the movement.

"I'm actually not sure, but I have a really strong feeling that it's a girl," She smiled at me, "Do you feel her?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I do."

I had never noticed how pale I was compared to her. My deathly pale skin looked white against her near perfect tan.

"Wow, Kid," She looked at me closely, "Something is definitely different today. I can feel it in your soul's wavelength. It's almost…happier." She gave me a look of suspicion and met my eyes, "Did you two do something last night?"

I felt a blush creeping up onto my face, "W-what? No…we didn't…"

"Kid, We've been partners, like, forever. I know about what happened last night. I could hear the two of you. You weren't exactly quiet," Her voice was hardly a whisper to prevent Silver and Patty, who were playing on the floor, from hearing her.

My eyes immediately went to the floor. A dark blush blanketing my face. It was true, neither of us had been at all quiet last night. Truth be told the two of us had probably been so caught up in all the pleasure to even care about all the lust filled moans, ecstatic screams and every other sweet noise the two of us had made. I remembered loving each time I had made her cry out my name. Loving the way her skin had felt on mine. The way our sweat soaked bodies entwined around one another. Sorry, my mind is detailed in memory.

"So, have you told her about our mission yet?" Liz asked, dropping the sex subject.

"No," I kept my eyes on the floor, "I just don't want to tell her yet. Not with all the fun stuff we've been doing together lately."

"When are you going to?"

"After the concert tomorrow," I smiled and stood, "Speaking of concerts, I should probably go tell her about that."

Sanguine's POV

I opened my eyes, lying down on my back in my small bed. I heard Stein knocking on my door.

"SAN!" He shouted, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN THERE? IT"S NEARLY NOON!"

I smirked and sat up, "It's called sleeping, Stitches!"

He opened the door and immediately flopped onto my bed, lying on his back and looking up at me with nearly bored eyes, "Your still as heavy a sleeper as ever," He said, a small smirk spreading onto his face.

"You figured that after fifteen years I would have changed?" I asked, getting up and crossing my room over to the closet, "I'm disappointed at that one."

He looked at me from the bed, nearly laughing at my sarcasm. Lately the madness had subsided a bit, but that didn't mean it was anywhere near stopping. I knew that because I could feel it too. It took me a moment to realize that I was starring into his eyes. I shook my head and pulled a t-shirt on over my sports bra. I felt like Flyleaf today, don't know why though.

After I was dressed, I walked back over to my bed and plopped down next to Stein. I can't remember the last time that it had been like this. Just me and him, alone. Of course Marie lived here too, but she would be out shopping most of the day. Right now it felt like the way it had used to have been. Before Ryuka. Before I was a Death Scythe. Before all of that. When it was just me and my meister. Stitches and Blood. The way it should be.

I reached over and ruffled his silvery hair around the gunmetal screw. He smiled and sat his hand atop mine, "Will you quit that?" He asked almost playfully.

"Nope," I insisted, getting up and walking out the door to get into the car, "Not in million years, Stitches."

Ryuka's POV

"THAT CONCERT WAS SOO AWESOME!" I squealed as Kid and I walked up the front steps of the manor. His pale hand inside my own. He smiled next to me, "Thank you MOM!" I shouted into the sky.

"Ryuka," Kid said, sounding urgent, "I hate to interrupt your strange spazzing, but I need to talk to you about something."

My eyes deadlocked with his, and then I knew he was absolutely serious, "Yeah, Okay."

"Ryuka, Tomorrow I'm going to have to leave."

"What? Wh-"

"I have to recover the last magic tool for my father. It'll be dangerous, and I don't know if I'll make it back or not but-"

"I could go with you," My voice cut in, "I could go so that I could protect you. So that you would be safe. We could get the last magic tool togeth-"

"No."

I felt as if my heart had been crushed by a two ton block of ice. A cold hand was slowly ripping it out of my chest. The world was frozen around me.

"But Kid-Kun-"

"No, Ryuka," He turned so that he couldn't face me, "I don't even want to take Liz and Patty. With Liz being pregnant, I don't want to giver her any risk of losing her baby. Where I'm going, no one has ever made it back alive. The only reason that my father is sending me is because my reaper body can withstand more. If anything happened to you, I'd-"

"But, Kid-"

"Ryuka," He turned to face me, gripping me by the shoulders, "You can't go. Promise me that you won't follow me. And if I go missing, you won't come after me."

"Kid," Tears stung my eyes, "I-"

"Please promise me."

"I-I," I bit my lower lip, sending tears streaking my face, "I promise."

Sanguine's POV

I walked beside Marie to the door. She carried a bag of groceries. Me, a pack of cigarettes. Stein had insisted I go and get them for him, but the thing was, I had just bought him a pack yesterday. Oh great. When he smoked more than usual, it meant that he was worried. It had to be the madness creeping up on him again. Damn it. When would this all end?

I tugged open the door for Marie. The second I stepped through the door, I knew something was wrong. The house was empty. Marie and I locked eyes for only a moment before the two of us split though the small house, looking for Stein.

"Stein!" Marie ran out the door shortly followed by me.

"Stitches," I thought in his direction, "Where the hell have you gone?"

Death the Kid's POV

I stood on the front steps next to Ryuka, the sun was just peeking over the horizon. I felt her had squeeze onto mine. I lightly clutched back before turning to meet her eyes. My skateboard, Beelzebub, Rested beneath on of my feet. Liz and Patty Stood down the walk, waiting for my order. I looked back over to Ryuka. She was crying so hard that she was shaking.

"I'll be back," I kissed her smoothly, cradling her face in my hands and wiping her tears with my thumbs, "I promise."

She looked into my eyes before flinging her arms around my neck. I returned her embrace, holding her trembling body in my arms, "I'll be here waiting," she whispered before releasing me.

As I took off into the sky holding Liz and Patty, I looked down at her and Silver on the porch. Stay Safe. I whispered into her thoughts before jetting off into the sky.

A/N: PHEW! Finally done! Thought I would never finish this! A lot of stuff happened in this chapter. They had sex. I think some people's reaction to that would be like: FINALLY! Another thing: Stein disappeared. No I know there are some of you who are going to go off on my about how: THAT'S NOT THE ORDER IN THE ORIGONAL STORYLINE! Weill I shall have you know that I am well aware of that and don't need to be told! I just wanted to mix it up a little because it fit better into this story! ANYWAY! Enough of my ramblings! REVIEW FOR ME! And I have a request for my readers…If you favorite my story, Why don't you review it? I'm not talking to the ones that do review, Because you guys are amazing! But those who have favoreited, REVIEW FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! I still have no idea why you like my story at all! The Next Chapter should be called: Waiting. I WILL SEE YOU ALL THEN!