There are plenty stories about young Kid and Lord Death floating around the fanfiction sites, but I have read NONE of them! Partially because I don't like "Kid has a mom" AUs/headcanons and young Kid tends to get paired with that, but also because I wanted to write my own. If this happens to be similar to another lil boy Kid story, or is super cliche in the lil boy Kid genre, sorry bout that.

"Sir, I've read a lot of parenting books, and I don't think it's very natural. It can't be good for him."

"You've read a lot of human parenting books Spirit, Kiddo is a Grim Reaper. We stand for order and justice. I think it's good for Kid to believe in that so strongly at such a young age."

Newly Death Scythed Spirit Albarn and Lord Death were sitting together in his mirror room, talking, unsurprisingly, about Death the Kid.

For his own safety, not many people knew about the young, fragile death god running around; only the trusted staff at the DWMA were allowed to even know he existed, and only the very most trusted actually got to see him. Of course, as he grew older the restrictions would loosen, but at the moment he was much too fragile to have a big 'I'm a Grim Reaper' target on his back. Both Albarns proved themselves worthy with their impeccable loyalty, work ethic, bravery, and all else that was needed to collect 99 kishin souls and 1 witch soul. They both have now met young Kid, and ever since they did, Spirit has been avidly comparing the young reaper to his own child, especially about one thing in particular.

"He cried when he saw me because there was 'more hair on the left side of my head than on the right'. Maka would never do that."

"Kid's not Maka~"

"I know sir. I'm just saying-"

Spirit was cut off by a six-year-old reaper bursting into the room, tears streaming down his face, and with an exasperated death weapon close behind "Father! Ms. Yumi didn't cut my apple slices into eight perfect pieces! They had three different sizes!" Kid looked at Spirit and put his little hands over his eyes as he cried harder. "He has an asymmetrical haircut, Father! He's going to spread the asymmetry-y-y! I don't want to be more asymmetrical! I don't wanna!"

"Oh Kiddo, come here, give daddy a hug." The young reaper ran to his dad's embrace, never taking his hands off of his face. Lord Death started caressing his child's head comfortingly. "It'll be okay, Kid. Apple slices come in all shapes and sizes, but that doesn't make them any more delicious."

"Yes it does!" he cried. "They taste like uneven garbage! I don't like eating garbage, I like eating apple slices!"

Lord Death didn't really know how to respond to that. He looked to the two Death Weapons for help, and didn't get the response he was hoping for, although it was expected.

"You know Maka never complains about her apple slices," Spirit said.

Azusa cleared her throat. "With all due respect sir, your child is… excellent… but I can see this obsession of his being a big problem if it's not addressed."

Sighing, Lord Death put down his son. His weapons were right: this really wasn't healthy behavior for a child. The obsessiveness of his son was becoming more and more present as he got older, it felt like it was only a matter of time before it consumed him. If Kid went down the same path as… he didn't even want to think about that… "You're right. Don't worry, I'll help him."

Kid looked at Lord Death with big, wet, golden eyes. "Son, I need you to do some things for me, okay?"

"Like what things, Father?"

"Well, first let's see these apple slices of yours. And Azusa-"

"Yes, sir?"

"Thank you for watching Kid! You should get started on packing for your transfer."

"Of course. You're welcome sir." She left, as per her orders, and Lord Death left with his son, making Spirit sit alone in the mirror room with nothing to keep him company but his thoughts.

Kid guided Lord Death to the teacher's lounge where a plate with eight nearly identical apple slices was out. "See Father, these two are smaller than the other four, and these two are bigger!"

He could see that, but it was such a microscopic difference that anybody without reaper eyes would have never been able to tell. Honestly, it was impressive how nearly perfect they ended up being. "Hmmm, I suppose they are… but these four are perfect, right?"

His little head nodded. "But I can't eat four. Four's such a yucky number."

"How about this: You eat a small one, then make the taste go away with a perfect one. The perfect one is bigger so all the yucky wucky-ness won't be able to win, right?"

Kid pursed his lips together, looking between his dad and the plate in front of him. His gaze settled long and hard on the slices. "I dunno…"

"Awe, but don't you twust me?" Lord Death booped Kid's nose as he said it, making the young reaper giggle.

"Okay, okay, just this one thing." With a deep breath, Kid closed his eyes tight and opened his mouth much too wide and shoved one of the ever so thinner slices into it. He chewed it up faster than humanly possible, swallowed it, and wasted no time putting a perfect one in.

It wasn't visible behind the mask, but Lord Death was smiling from ear to ear. He was so proud of his son. It wasn't the first time Kid has cried about the 'asymmetry' or 'unevenness' of his food, and it unfortunately probably won't be the last, but he handled it so well this time. Last time there was so much more crying, and it pained Lord Death to see his own flesh and blood that sad, but it really was for the greater good. Baby steps at a time, symmetry should become less and less of an issue for the young reaper.

"So how's it taste, Kiddo?"

Kid shook his head, then swallowed. "Never talk with your mouth full!"

"Right, sorry, how silly of me to forget."

"I can talk when all eight are gone," Kid said. He closed his eyes and did the whole process again with the next two.

He was about to reach for a fifth, but stopped. He was on the verge of tears again looking back at Lord Death. "Father! These are bigger! They'll be stronger than the perfect ones and make me taste garbage and throw up!"

"Don't be so sure. Remember how much bigger those first two perfects were? That'll stay in your mouth and fight back against all the garbage taste."

"Dat's so smart." After some hesitation, Kid started eating the rest just like how he ate the first.

Children were pretty easy to lie to, but they still do deserve the truth.

It didn't take too long before all eight slices were eaten and swallowed. "I did it! Take that, you apple! Now there's one less asymmetry in the world!" he rejoiced.

"That's amazing! I'm so proud of you Kiddo!" Lord Death leaned in. "Hey, do you want to know a secret?" he whispered.

"What?" Kid whispered back, even quieter.

"All the slices tasted the same."

Kid gasped, dropping the whisper. "No way!"

"Yes way."

"Then… Then how come… How come the apple then…"

Lord Death knew what Kid was trying to say. "Because every apple slice on that plate, big or small, was perfect in its own way, so they're all perfectly yummy!"

The young reaper stood there flabbergasted. His little mind was blown.

Lord Death scooped Kid up, carrying him like a baby. He was probably getting a bit too old for the arm cradle, but he was just so light it was hard to resist. "Come on, let's go back. You need to apologize to our new Death Scythe, it's not very polite to call someone asymmetrical."

"But it's true."

"True or not, people don't like being told that. Would you like someone to call your hair asymmetrical?"

Kid looked sadly to the floor as he was being carried. "No… but it makes sense. My hair's ugly."

"Don't say that~" Lord Death cooed. "You're perfect the way you are. I love you from your stripes to your feetsies. Even all this ticklish stuff in between!" He began tickling Kid's stomach with his free hand, making him laugh. Kid tried fruitlessly to push away the big white fingers, but his little hands were no match. The six-year-old's laughter, however, was quite contagious.

Unfortunately, the cure for it came much too fast. The mirror room's door swung open, making both Reapers fall quiet. "Ah, Lord Death! I found a perfect way to help!" Spirit said. Without waiting, he pulled them into the room where Sid Berret was waiting. "Sid's got a little boy too. I think he has some good advice."

Lord Death plopped down his son. "Spirit, I-"

"I heard that you and your kid have been having some behavior issues," Sid said. He looked at Kid, who in turn looked to the ground meekly. "Black Star used to always throw tantrums, but I found some way to help. If you ever need a hand, just tell me and I'll help any way I can, that's the kind of man I am."

"I appreciate the offer, but I can raise my child just fine."

Sid nodded. "I understand. If you ever change your mind, you know how to find me."

As Sid stood up to leave, Spirit casually ran his hands through his hair, making it even more uneven. Kid immediately screamed and shoved his face into his dad's cloak.

"Reaper Chop!" With those two words, Lord Death had left a giant, hand-shaped indent in Spirit's red hair. Despite being such a new weapon, it wasn't the first time he'd been chopped, and it probably would not be the last. "Don't go out of your way to antagonize my son!"

"I didn't!" Spirit cried.

With a sigh, Sid looked at Kid, who even with a hidden face, was obviously crying. "He's six now, right?" That earned a nod from Lord Death, so he continued. "That's about the age they really need to start making friends. I'm the kind of man who's honest with you, and I have to say, not many other kids will tolerate someone who cries over something as simple as fixing hair."

Sid really was brutally honest. It's part of the reason he became such a trusted member of the DWMA. He even had the nerve to call out Lord Death when nobody else would, which always seemed to snap the Reaper out of his denial. This time was no exception, but he still hesitated.

He wasn't in denial that his son was a bit neurodivergent, but he knew the more attention drawn to that the worse, so he more or less acted like he wasn't. Of course, treating him like he was completely neurotypical could do even more harm, so he tried to stay in the thin line right between the two. In reality, he was in denial about how old Kid was. After thousands of years roaming the Earth, time feels different, and much too fast. It felt like barely yesterday he was turning a part of his soul into a living, breathing, beautiful little boy, not six whole years ago. All of the baby steps seemed to happen rapidly, but according to basically everybody that Kid has ever met, it was happening too slow. Although immortal, Reapers age basically the same as humans do, especially before they reach maturity, so the young should be following the same growth rate of humans. Kid couldn't keep being babied.

Maybe he should let the 'child professionals' help out...

"Okay," Lord Death finally said. "Sid, what do you recommend."

Spirit and Sid both smiled. It was obvious that they genuinely did want Kid to thrive, Lord Death just feared that they'd treat Kid too much like their own children, even though he's quite different. Still, it would be better than nothing. Right?

"When Black Star threw tantrums, I would challenge him. He hates losing, and hates being called a loser even more. He'd get so focused on winning, that he would stop caring about whatever got him upset in the first place."

"I suppose that could work. What do you think Kid?"

The young reaper took his head out of the cloak, his eyes dry again. "I suppose," he said. It was pretty obvious that he was just repeating, but it still wasn't a 'no'.

"Hey, you said he can't look in the mirror without crying, right?" Spirit asked. "You really can't be doing that in kindergarten. Sid should fix that first."

Lord Death winced slightly at that, but nobody could tell. Just using the word 'fix' being used to describe his son seemed so harsh in a way, and admitting that he talks about his son's problems behind his back didn't sound great either. Kid himself didn't seem to pay attention to the implications of what Spirit said, but children do have the tendencies to pick up on everything, even if it doesn't seem like it. Though, it really did sound like Kid only heard one word the death scythe said. "M-Mirror?"

It was honestly pretty surprising how often Kid was in the mirror room given how much he hated them. With it being a Grim Reaper's main way of transportation and communication, his reactions towards mirrors really were more pressing than Lord Death was treating it to be.

"You will have to look at a lot of them, Kiddo."

With a gulp, Kid gave a weak nod. "O-okay." He closed his eyes and marched in front of where he knew the giant mirror was placed. "So what do I do, Father?"

"Listen to Sid."

After another weak nod from the boy, Sid started. "Open your eyes."

Kid did. Then immediately closed them, adopting a more pained face than before. "Okay, I did!"

"Come on! You can keep them open can't you?"

"I don't know," Kid whined.

Sid let out a small chuckle. "Well, I bet you can't keep your eyes open for thirty seconds."

Kid peeked open an eye to look at Lord Death, avoiding the mirror in front of him. With nothing better coming to mind, he gave his son a big thumbs up, and it seemed to work. After reclosing his eyes, he opened them again to look deep into his reflection.

His reaction was pretty immediate. He bit his lower lip as the rest of his face scrunched up. Such a pure reaction of disgust for most kids would be saved for brussel sprouts or a bad smell, but this was made by his own reflection. It was hard to watch.

Kid barely made it eight seconds before slamming his once again watery eyes shut. His breathing was getting harder and shakier the longer he looked, so it was no surprise he gave in early. It was shocking how long he actually kept his eyes open for. Most days he looked for only two seconds at most. Of course, Sid and Spirit didn't help him brush his teeth every day, so they didn't know how amazing of a feat just that by itself was.

Sid didn't really have any good comparisons to use for looking in a mirror, since literally anything with eyes could do it better than Kid just did. He just used the first thing to pop into his mind. "A zombie can keep their eyes open longer than that, and they're dead. Are you even trying?"

"Yes!"

"Then make it seem like it! I'll even make it twenty seconds. A chair would be able to do that and it doesn't even have eyes."

Kid began crying again. "I have eyes!"

"Awe~" Spirit instinctively chuckled. A child saying something bizarre so seriously and dramatically was super adorable most of the time, but Lord Death couldn't help but feel bad. Still, he kept quiet.

It took a second, but Kid open his eyes and looked at the reflection. Between his narrow eyes and the tears, whatever he saw must have been incredibly blurred, but whether or not that was helpful wasn't too clear. This time he only lasted about three seconds before closing his eyes again. He fell to his knees, seemingly gasping desperately for air.

Sid put his hands sternly on his hips. "You can do better than that!"

"No, I can't!" Kid grabbed both sides of his hair as tight as possible and started yanking it in a way that it must have genuinely hurt.

"Death the Kid, you-"

"Sid, that's enough," Lord Death interrupted. "I don't think it's working."

Kid wasted no time to start running into his dad's arms and far from the mirror that caused him so much turmoil. He only let go of his hair wrap Lord Death in the tightest hug his little arms were capable of.

Sid was quite a second before nodding. "Yes, sir. I'll admit, Black Star really is something else, so this probably wasn't my best idea. I'll own up to that; I'm that kind of man."

"Huh… it didn't fix him much though, did it?" Spirit mumbled. That earned the second reaper chop of the day. "I didn't do anything!" he hissed.

"Don't make me chop you again for being an idiot!"

That put enough fear into Spirit to shut him up. Sadly, it didn't last too long. "Wait, is Kid scared of uneven things and stuff?"

Lord Death had mostly gotten his son to calm down again. The way how the young reaper reacts to things was more than just fear, but that was undoubtedly an aspect of it. "In a way, yes."

Spirit quickly completely recovered from the chop, his eyes now shining with an idea. "I know what to do!

"Maka used to be really scared of snakes and spiders. She would think there were some hiding in her shoes and stuff like that, so we took her to a zoo. They had a snake handler there, and it took a bit, but after she touched the snake, she realized that there was nothing to be afraid of and hasn't been scared since. She's so brave~ She agreed to even touch a tarantula once we find one that's safe. We just need Kid to touch a snake and the same thing will happen!"

Kid and Lord Death exchanged skeptical glances, although Lord Death's was hidden. "I'm not scared of snakes. And spiders have eight legs. Everything should have eight legs," Kid said matter-of-factly.

"I mean metaphorically. Maka's fear of snakes is kind of like your need for order. She touched a snake, you become unorderly. Now she loves reading about all the different snakes in the world, and soon you'll learn to love 'asymmetry'."

That made Kid stick out his tongue at the death weapon, shaking his head. To him, love and asymmetry should never, ever be in the same sentence together. "No. That sounds gross."

"I don't know Spirit… I think Kid is more than just scared," Lord Death mumbled. "And he's already done a lot today…"

"But sir, I have the perfect plan. Sid can make sure Kid stays still and I'll put some of this on half his face." Spirit lifted up a black marker, which immediately made shivers run down Kid's spine. "Maka's obsessed with whiteboards right now, so I've got a bunch of these. And don't worry, it's non-toxic and washable, so he won't be hurt, he'll just see how irrational he's been acting."

"I-I, um…"

"No no no no no no, NO!" Kid protested. "Father, please, tell them no."

Kid looked so horrified and desperate, it was gut-wrenching. Those two golden eyes were filled with more dread than a person usually experiences in their whole lifetime just because of a marker. This really wasn't normal. "Kid, it'll be for the best."

Kid didn't respond. It was unbearable to look at his son's hurt face, especially as Sid grabbed him into an arm lock. All of his emotions seemed to double. He began kicking and struggling in the meister's arms, which he almost never did, but even as a grim reaper, he was too young and wasn't strong enough to do anything. "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! FATHER!"

Lord Death closed his eyes. He couldn't watch this. Unfortunately, ears weren't so easy to close.

Spirit started walking closer with the marker, cautious of the wildly kicking legs. "NO! PLEASE! DAD, HELP ME!" Kid was back to crying at this point. All over a marker. He'd never heard anybody plead so loudly, even people on their deathbeds. Hearing it made Lord Death's stomach do summer salts.

"DAD! I'M SORRY I'M BROKEN BUT I CAN'T DO THIS! I CAN'T DADDY! I'M SORRY! PLEASE!"

"Wait-" Lord Death said. He held out his hand, stopping Spirit, but it looks like he was seconds too late. His son had a big black line streaked across the left, and only the left, side of his practically pure white face.

It became eerily quiet. Kid couldn't bring himself to breathe, and neither could his father. He was hanging limply in Sid's arms, his eyes incredibly wide, but his pupils were tiny and hallow. Lord Death felt like such a horrible person, standing idly by as a child went through that pain. The fact that it was his own child made him feel infinitely worse.

Spirit was the first to talk again. "See, Kid? It's not so ba-"

In a stark difference to the silence of mere seconds before, Kid breathed in and let out the loudest, most blood-curdling scream imaginable. It made all three adults' hands go to their heads in an attempt to save their eardrums. Kid was finally able to slip from Sid's grasp and immediately fell flat onto the floor. Without stopping his wailing, he grabbed his shirt and started rubbing the cotton collar against his face blisteringly fast and absurdly hard, turning it immediately bright red.

The child was seconds away from genuinely scrubbing off his skin, even though his reaper metabolism was already done rejecting the ink from his body. Lord Death shoved his hands over Kid's, somehow making his scream even louder, but he couldn't move anymore, no matter how hard he struggled.

All of a sudden, the screaming stopped. The noise got replaced with such a horrible, guttural retching sound. Lord Death moved his hands enough for Kid to sit straight up and vomit blood. The oceans of tears draining from his eyes started turning red too. Everyone watched in horror. Spirit fainted at the sight of all the blood, and Kid wasn't far behind. After one last retch, not regurgitating anything, the six-year-old fell unconscious in a puddle of his own blood and tears.

In less than a heartbeat, Lord Death grabbed his son and rushed him to the in-school hospital. Sure, a Grim Reaper is very hard to kill, but that was excessive.

The doctors took over caring for Kid, so Lord Death had time alone to contemplate where he went wrong. No matter what he did, the pain-filled shrieks of his son rang in his ears. He couldn't think about anything. The scream would just drone on and on, making him feel more and more guilty by the second. He was a terrible Father letting his boy go through that. He didn't deserve a son, let alone one as amazing as the one he has.

"Lord Death…" Hearing his name broke him out of his thoughts. He had no idea how long it had been, but apparently long enough for Spirit to become conscious again, since he was the one talking, Sid standing beside him. Both looked unimaginably guilty. "I'm really sorry about that… I-I thought it would help…"

"It's okay," Lord Death said. He didn't have enough will to keep up his overly-cheery voice that he'd been doing for centuries now. Now it was so quiet and solemn, you wouldn't be able to guess that it was still his voice. "I should have stopped you earlier. I should have done something… anything really… he was begging me-"

"You can't blame yourself, sir," Sid said. "Nobody knew that he would react that way."

"I knew…" Lord Death mumbled. It was true, he knew that there was no way Kid would ever be able to get over his issues the same way Black Star and Maka do. Kid's different. Not just because he's a Reaper, Grim Reaper psychology was the same as a human's, it was just because...

The door opened and Nurse Mira stepped out. Her face had a slight smile, making the three all breathe a sigh of relief. "Lord Death, good news, your son's body completely replenished all of the blood lost already. He should be waking up soon. I'm not entirely sure how Kid's biology differs from the books, but it looks like he's perfectly healthy too. As far as our tests show, that is just an extreme reaction to stress. It's basically like a nose bleed, but through the mouth and eyes."

Everything she said made sense, Reapers really did have very strange bodies compared to humans, and had such fast healing compared to them too. "Thank you, that's wonderful to hear! Can I see him?"

Mira nodded, stepping out of the doorway so he could walk in. It seemed very empty in there. Kid was lying all alone on a white bed that was much too big for him. He looked so innocent too. It was almost as if he'd simply fallen asleep. Of course, if he had, he wouldn't be in the school's hospital.

Lord Death took a seat when the open shelf of medicine immediately caught his eye. Not the medicines themselves, Grim Reapers couldn't use human medicine, but instead, he focused on how it was organized. It seemed so close to being symmetrical, but not quite there. It was funny, as a Reaper, God of control and order, he never really cared or even noticed all of the symmetry, or lack thereof, in the world until recently. Kids really do teach their parents, don't they?

After taking off his glove, since it was a bit big for the task at hand, Lord Death began rearranging all the boxes and bottles so that the left lined up with the right beautifully. The whole time he could practically hear Kid giggling, running around shaking with giddy as one more thing became perfect.

He actually heard Kid make a noise, so his admiration of the medicine cabinet was cut short. Kid had already sat up in his bed, and now both of his hands were tiredly rubbing his eyes in unison.

"Hey Kiddo. How do you feel?" He went back to his cheery voice, but it was much more half-hearted.

His voice seemed to give Kid a reaction of some sort, since he grabbed the white sheets and pulled it over his head. Even with a blanket obscuring him, Lord Death could see Kid sitting curled up with his knees to his chest. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Kid's voice came out muffled and unbelievably sad. "I'm so sorry Father. Please don't hate me."

"Why on Earth would I hate you?"

"Everyone hates me. I failed. I can't look in a mirror, or have a marker touch me, or be a good grim reaper, or anything. I'm yucky and broken like garbage."

Lord Death sighed. All of that 'fix' talk must have really gotten to the young reaper. He sat down on the bed, making it shift under his weight. It made Kid shift under the sheets as well. "Kid, I need you to look at me."

"Why?"

"I want to show you what I really look like."

Everything was still for a moment, but ever so gradually jet black, striped hair poked out of the sheets followed by a pair of huge, yellow eyes. Lord Death knew the curiosity would be too much for Kid to resist. It's been millennia since any living thing has seen his real face.

With slight hesitation, his still ungloved hand went to the mask. Slowly he took it off and knocked back the hood too so his whole head was seen. Kid gasped. He dropped the sheet entirely and put both his hands over his gaping mouth.

"I know…" Lord Death mumbled. He looked inhumanly old, because he was. It was even ungodly old. His entire body darkened with age and wrinkled beyond reason. His eyes used to be as big as Kid's, but now they were tiny and sunken in. His nose was big and flat, and so was his hairless head. At this point, his actual face looked more like a skull than his mask did. The only thing that stayed unchanged through the years was the three rings of sanzu that wrapped entirely around his head while still not touching it. They were like three big, glowing halos. "I've never told you this, but when a Grim Reaper matures, they still age, but they do it much slower. Most have a child after a few hundred years, which is when their skin starts really showing the signs of their age. The child grows and takes their place as the world's God of Death. It took me thousands and thousands of years to have a child... In all honesty, I was scared. I didn't want to lose my throne like my father did before me. I kept getting older, and older, until I couldn't show my real face to anybody anymore. It was too ancient. At that point, I knew I couldn't keep it up forever. I made a child, but he…" Lord Death teared up at the thought of his firstborn. It was such a tragedy. "He didn't make it. I became scared for a whole new reason. I didn't want to have another kid. I feared that I'd screw up again, and that if I had another one they'd turn out worse than the last."

Lord Death looked at Kid square in the face. "Then I had you. You were the kindest, strongest, beautifulest, smartest kid that I could have ever asked for. You were perfect. Even your imperfections were perfect in their own ways. I promised to never make the same mistakes, because I'd never have such an amazing child again, no matter how many times I would try. I broke that promise today. I let my fear get to me, and it made me let you get hurt. You're not broken Kid, you're nowhere close, you just need the right foundation to help you grow into the fantastic Reaper that I know you will be. I wasn't what you needed. From now on, we'll do things one step at a time.

"But Kid, no matter what happens, when you take over my position I need you to know that I am so, so proud of you. I always have been. And I'm sorry I'm not the parent that I should be."

Kid was staring in silence, probably processing the whole speech. Admittedly, it was a bit much to dump onto a six-year-old all at once.

To Lord Death's surprise, Kid started crawling across the bed to be perched right in front of him. His tiny pale hands went to his father's bald head. He smiled. "Will my lines go all circle too when I'm big and strong?"

Of course that's the main thing he takes away from this whole experience. "Yes, the Lines of Sanzu will connect when you're fully matured."

Kid giggled. "I'll be symmetrical~" He moved his hands to pick up the skull mask and put it over his face. It was much too big for his small head. "And then I'll be like you!"

"Yep, you will be." Lord Death carefully carried the mask away, showing off Kid's bright smiling face again. "But better." He put the mask and hood back on, hiding away his ancient face once more. "You know I love you, right Kiddo?"

Kid nodded. "Yeah. I lo-" Kid stopped himself. Something had caught his eye and completely took over his short attention span. "Woah! Father, look, the medicine box is all super symmetrical! It's so pretty!"

"That's wonderful! The doctors here must really have an eye for beauty."

"Uh huh~" It was obvious that the young Reaper became lost in admiration. He snapped himself out of it. "Oh! I still have to apologize to Mr. Albarn."

He closed his eyes in concentration then opened them again, obviously trying soul perception. Kid wasn't very good at it yet, so Spirit being right outside must have barely been in his range. Still, it seemed like he found him.

Kid jumped off the hospital bed and started his way toward the door. "Bye Father, love you!"

"Love you too." He did, and no matter what, he always will.

I don't know how to end things.

BTW, I wrote this whole story to get to one scene, and I ended up deciding that the scene didn't even fit! AH! I have to make another Soul Eater story to get that scene now. How sad. Woe is me. With that being said, I don't know why I felt so compelled to foreshadow the show that I'm pretty sure we've all seen by this point. But hey, what else am I supposed to do in a prequal fic? If you're curious, some stuff is headcanon BS, others are Manga-excusive canon, but it's (Hopefully) impossible to tell the difference, so don't worry people avoiding spoilers.

I based young Kid's personality partially on my autistic little brother (since I don't know anybody with OCD IRL), so if it seems off that's why.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story, good or bad. Don't be afraid to comment!