The DSM
Chapter 27: Always Reason For A Party
The next day Maka and Soul helped Dawn and Justin move her things. Justin took care of all the bigger boxes per Lord Death's continuous insistence on the young teens avoiding anything strenuous.
"I don't get why he's being so persistant."
Dawn was organizing her music collection into the CD rack hanging on her bedroom wall.
"He probably just wants to make sure we don't aggravate any of our wounds until they're completely healed." Maka tried to ease Dawn's annoyance.
"Yeah." Soul chimed in, bringing in a small box. "I bet the nutty professor had more to do with it and Lord Death is just the enforcing authority."
Dawn finished with the CDs then took the box from Soul.
"I suppose you may have a point there."
"Of course I do." He grinned.
"Ok Einstein let's leave the girl to finish up." Maka rolled her eyes as she grabbed Soul's hand and dragged him out with a quick wave goodbye to Dawn.
"Oh and Dawn." She poked her head back around the doorframe. "Don't forget that the party is on Saturday."
"What party?"
"Lord Death is throwing a celebratory party for the destruction of the kishin. … Go figure eh?"
This wasn't much of a surprise to Dawn, Lord Death did have a thing for throwing parties with any excuse he could get. Though one thing did concern her, since her future with or without the DWMA is still being debated would she be allowed to attend? Her worries were disregarded when she saw the expectant look on her friend's face.
"I'll be there then."
"Great!" Maka seemed genuinely happy that she would be attending. "Tsubaki, Liz, Patty and I are all going dress shopping tomorrow we'll come get you around 8 in the morning 'kay?"
Laughing at her enthusiasm Dawn nodded. "Sure thing Maka."
"Good morning!" Justin sang happily, and quite loudly per usual, as her burst into Dawn's room.
She groaned, burying herself further down into the comforting warmth of her bedsheets.
"Five more minutes."
"But dear sister…" he drawled with a tone far too innocent sounding to be anything but the opposite. "Your friends will be here in five minutes."
"What?!" she shot up in her bed and threw the covers off turning to her clock to verify that it was indeed 7:55 am.
"Why didn't you wake me earlier?"
"I tried ten minutes ago, and then ten minutes before that, and ten minutes before that…"
Dawn gaped as he continued.
"I've been trying to get you up every ten minutes since six o' clock and every time I came in you said you were getting up."
…
"AND YOU BELIEVED ME!?"
"Of course not. You just need to learn to get up on your own."
She groaned yet again, standing and shuffling her way towards the door.
"Justin why do you always have to do things this way?"
"AH!" he cried indignantly. "How dare you speak in such a manner! A lady should never use such language!"
They continued bickering as Dawn attempted to shove her brother out of her room.
"What are you even talking about?"
"You should never resort to cursing!"
"I said nothing bad! You're reading lips wrong again!"
"Huh?"
"I need to change! Get out!"
With a final shove, Justin stumbled backwards followed by a loud 'SLAM' as Dawn shut her door hastily so he had no chance of running back in. It was clear he had no idea what was going on and the last thing she wanted was him in her room when she needed to change.
"Dawn! You best be getting ready in there!"
"Of course I am, that's why I pushed you out." She muttered to herself as he wouldn't hear her anyway.
Getting ready in record time, Dawn was waiting in the front entrance with seconds to spare. When 8 o' clock came and went it became apparent that they were running late. To top it all off Dawn was never a morning person and was relatively touchy if woken up by some outside source. Witch in today's case had been Justin dancing into her room and annoying her with his good morning attitude.
"I hurried to get ready and everything and they're not even here on time!"
*knock, knock, knock*
"Figures, the second I mentioned anything about them being late and they finally show up."
Opening the door she found an embarrassed Maka, a smiling Tsubaki, Patty being… well Patty, and Liz lazily making her way up the walkway.
"Hehe… sorry about being a little late."
Even with her bad morning attitude and general annoyance about the way her day was starting, Dawn was never able to stay upset with her friends.
"Don't worry about it. You're here now aren't you?"
"Yay! Now let's go!"
"One minute Patty, just let me do one last thing."
Dawn turned around to grab a sticky note pad and pen. She wrote a quick note for Justin and stuck it on the inside of the door as yelling out a goodbye as she left would be absolutely pointless.
"Okay, now let's do this."
Hours later all of the girls sat in the death city café, dress bags hanging off the back of their chairs as they watched the civilians on the street.
"It's amazing how quick everyone has gone back to their everyday lives." Tsubaki commented with her usual sweet smile.
"Tch, none of them almost died."
"Liz, the entire world almost ended." Maka pointed out in response.
The weapon just crossed her arms and shrugged it off. Meanwhile her sister took the opportunity to speak in the silence.
"Yeah, if it wasn't for you and Dawn, Maka, we'd all be goners."
"N-Now I don't know about t-that!"
Maka waved her hands furiously in front of herself trying to distract the others from the embarrassed blush quickly covering her face.
"I mean, you all did a lot of great work too! We really all deserve the same amount of credit." She laughed nervously.
Glancing to her left, Liz caught sight of Dawn as she stared blankly out at the street.
"Dawn? Are you okay?"
Needless to say, this shifted everyone's attention to the blonde meister. Maka was infinitely glad for the change in topic but was equally concerned as to what was troubling her friend.
"Huh?"
Despite turning to look at the others her face maintained it's blank stare which only served to add to their concern. Something was obviously wrong.
"I asked if you were okay." Liz repeated. "My guess is you're not."
"Oh." Her eyes drifted back to the window before she was able to answer. "I've just got a lot to think about right now. I've been so busy since the fight that I've been able to avoid facing these problems but now that I've had a chance to relax I guess they all took my focus, sorry."
Tsubaki reached over the table and laid her hand on top of Dawn's in a comforting gesture.
"You know we're all here for each other in more than just battles. You can tell us what's wrong."
Turning back around, some of the worry in her eyes lifted seeing the faces of her friends ready and willing to help her.
"Well…" she sighed. "You see this is what happened."
Dawn recounted her conversation with Lord Death mainly the part involving her possible expulsion. Despite the fact her mind was torturing her with questions over what exactly had occurred between her and Kid along with what it meant she didn't dare tell them. All the other girls could do after she explained was stare, shocked. Patty was by her side in seconds, grabbing at Dawn's arm with tears in her eyes.
"B-But if you're gone then who will be there on missions to stop Kid from breaking down because of his symmetry obsession?!" she wailed.
"You'll just have to deal with it however you did before I came to the academy."
"So, we don't" Liz drawled.
A chuckle escaped Dawn and she shook her head a little. "I'm sure you will be fine."
The girls all decided to change the subject to something lighter for the time being. Later on they said goodbye and went their separate ways towards their respective homes.
Saturday came and Dawn stepped out of her room ready for the party.
"I know it's formal attire but isn't this a little much?"
Dawn fiddled with the hem of her dress, gazing at herself critically in the hallway mirror. The smooth light blue fabric held tightly to her torso but fell loose below the black silk belt around her waist that tied into a small bow on her back. It went down just below her knees and the top had two simple straps that fell off her shoulders. Her hair was held up in the back, curled locks falling down past her shoulders and two stray pieces framing her face, one on each side.
"You look so cute!" Justin gushed, strangling her in a hug.
"Gah! J-Justin! C-Can't… breathe…"
"Hehe… Sorry." He grinned sheepishly, letting her go.
"That's ok." She observed herself one more time in the mirror. "It feels kind of weird not having my arm sleeves on..."
While she was absent-mindedly rubbing her bar arms, Justin slipped his suit jacket on and adjusted his tie. The two began heading out of the door and he turned to Dawn.
"You really do look wonderful."
"And you're looking pretty handsome there yourself." Dawn nudged him playfully.
They both shared a laugh as they left the house. Stepping off the porch first Justin held his arm out to his sister.
"Miss."
"Sir." She nodded, taking the extended arm.
The two laughed again, heading towards the academy.
Arriving at the academy, they had only taken a few steps in when a high ranking meister jogged up to the pair. He had messy green hair falling in front of his eyes, it's wild look contrasting his neat grey suit.
"Justin and Dawn Law?"
"Yes."
"The death scythes are gathering behind the stage to make an appearance sir. And Lord Death wished to see you miss."
"Thanks Ren." Justin smiled and the young man left just as quickly as he came.
"You know him?"
Justin nodded, leading them down the hall towards the room the party was being held in.
"He's a very skilled meister. Did a lot of work in the European branch awhile back and I even accompanied him on a mission once."
"Cool, he must be really awesome then if he's good enough to keep pace with you."
"Sometimes I think you give me a little too much credit."
"And I think you're too modest about your abilities."
They parted ways once they reached the room, Justin heading to meet up with the other death scythes and Dawn continued down the hall towards the death room where she assumed Lord Death would still be. He usually waited until the last minute to show up anyway. Her palms began to sweat the closer she got to the room. Heartbeat quickening, she raised a fist to the large door to the death room however before she could knock Lord Death's voice called out.
"Come in Dawn."
His tone was hard to read, only adding to Dawn's worry. There was only one reason she could think of why she had been called to see him… he had finally decided on a verdict. She grabbed the knob and pushed the door, dreading the meeting to come.
Dawn was about to find out if she had a future with the academy or not.
Author's Note: Thought there was going to be more DawnxKid fluff? Sorry but only Dawn and Justin sibling fluffies in this one dear readers.
I GOT A LAPTOP FOR CHRISTMAS!
This will cut the work I need to do to create a chapter in half and give me more opportunities to work on it. This will fix the majority of the delays in my work. Any life related problems can't be helped.
NEXT CHAPTER: Will Dawn get expelled? Where has Kid been these last few days? What will happen between our dear young meisters? And most importantly, will Ren be making another appearance?
Find out next time!
-Vi
