"Are you okay? You haven't been eating recently." Liz asked.

It's been a few days and Kid began breathing in the candle smoke every night and day. It makes him cough less and talk more articulately now compared to when they first started, but he still did from time to time. Other than that, he's been acting more or less the same. Even as the days passed, it still felt weird interacting with the new Kid, but getting used to the old Kid's symmetry obsession also took a while so Liz knew that she'd get used to this too. Calling him 'the new Kid' felt wrong, but he clearly wasn't the same anymore.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I, um, don't really need to eat."

"That's not true, I've seen you eat stuff all the time," Patty said.

"Yeah, you have. Not because I have to though. I only ate with you guys because, uh, it tasted good I guess. I liked doing human things with you two."

"Food doesn't taste good anymore?" Liz asked.

"Well, it might. I-it doesn't really matter though…"

"Yeah, I guess not."

It was weird. Liz never imagined that Kid would do something so small entirely because of emotion. Then again, she wouldn't imagine that Kid following his dad's rules would still stick around without feeling. If anything, Kid followed and talked about his dad's rules and random advice way more now than ever. Liz guessed Kid might have been using his only family member's emotions and morals as a replacement for his own. That wasn't really a good or bad thing, Lord Death's a fine person to take influence from, but it was just interesting to think about. Which was nice because Liz had a lot of time to think about things. It wasn't that they weren't doing anything, they were doing a lot, but still somehow it wasn't really capturing her attention.

The three have gone on four missions since Monday, one a day, which was way more than they usually do in such a short amount of time. The missions were different though, yet somehow still the same. Instead of accidentally letting the kishin egg get away because he was distracted by symmetry or asymmetry, Kid now accidentally let the kishin egg get away because he was distracted by absolutely nothing. Of course, when focused he's still a good meister and was able to get a soul for each of them, but he was just as distracted now as ever. His soul was noticeably different too as it shot out of the twin pistols, but the raw power of the reaper was completely unchanged.

The biggest difference was on the missions, there were no lectures, they were never abandoned for painting, nor did they have to help a crying mess of a meister off the ground. Kid did the mission silently, and shrugged when he failed, coming back to Death City to get a new one the next day. The only reason they weren't out on mission number six that day was because Liz and Patty both asked to take a break for a bit. Now was said break.

The three were at lunch together, Kid wasn't eating though. On their break, they had been going around to the mall, bowling, and just generally doing whatever Liz and Patty wanted. Again, just like the missions, these things were fun but just felt off. Usually Kid would be complaining that they take too long looking at clothing or their throws weren't perfect enough, so not hearing that would of course be an improvement, but it wasn't exactly replaced with anything. Kid never talked unless talked to. Of course, it could just feel off because they're doing and asking for things they specifically know Kid would never agree to with his emotions, and yet he was going along quietly.

"So, what do you want to do next?" Liz asked.

"I dunno. Kid?"

"Whatever you want. Within reason of course."

"Hey Kid, can I make a ketchup art until our food comes?" Patty asked.

He shrugged. "I guess the ketchup and plates are… technically ours to do what we want with as guests. As long as we aren't kicked out I guess you can. Dad doesn't want me banned from more restaurants."

Patty smiled and wasted no time using the ketchup bottle to start drawing a pig's face. She was mostly the one that tested Kid's limits on what he would allow or not. Normally Kid would throw a big fit about how Patty shouldn't play with her food and make a mess, but now, like with everything, he didn't care.

"So you don't want to do anything?" Liz asked. "We could watch those weird black and white westerns you like."

Kid shrugged again. "If you want. I've already seen it once so I don't see the point in watching it again."

"Once? You've watched it, like, at least seven times. And that's only after I started living with you, God knows how many times you did before."

"Yeah… I know the plot. Which is why I don't need to watch it again."

Liz and Patty were given their food, so Patty stopped making her ketchup pig and Liz stopped questioning her meister.

It was quiet for a minute as Liz and Patty ate and Kid sat there. Patty suddenly put her chicken strip down and put her hand into the ketchup art, ruining it. "Hey Kid, think fast."

"...huh?"

Patty put her messy hand against Kid's face, painting half his face red.

"Patty, don't do that!" Liz scolded.

She started licking the ketchup off her fingers. "Why not? Kid doesn't mind. Right Kid?"

Reaching for napkins, Kid shrugged. "I don't know…"

Liz grabbed some napkins too to help clean off Kid, and also to clean Patty's hand afterwards. "Just because he doesn't care, that doesn't mean you should do it."

"Yeah, I know. Sorry Kid."

"It's fine."

It didn't take long to clean Kid's face and Patty's hand, leaving them nothing to do but go back to eating and sitting in silence.

It was kind of funny, Liz still half expected Kid to start panicking about symmetry despite him not doing that for nearly a week now. It'll just take time to make all this not seem so odd.

"Kid, look, it's a butterfly~" Patty cooed. Their walk home from the restaurant was suddenly stopped so they all could look at said bug.

The butterfly sat perched on a gray flower. Its wings were huge and black with a completely symmetrical pattern of yellow shapes all over them. Under the yellow were some hints of blue. It looked gorgeous.

"Indeed it is. It's an Anise Swallowtail to be exact. In this state, they can live for about 6-14 days."

Liz and Patty exchanged glances. Usually when one of them found a butterfly, Kid would immediately fall in love and start praising it to high heavens, calling them every synonym to beautiful that existed. Unless it was interrupting a mission, Liz tended to love it when he did that. The utter joy he got from something so small was so adorable.

That must be why something felt so off recently. It wasn't just that kid stopped complaining, they could easily get used to that, but he stopped praising too. He didn't compliment their outfits' aesthetics or beam when he found the perfect way to make a strike.

"Hey Sis, maybe we should only candle Kid some of the time," Patty suggested.

Liz was looking at the floor. "Maybe" she mumbled. Of course, only temporarily candling Kid wouldn't really be an option. He wasn't exactly the most willing to be candled beforehand, but that was because of his fighting capabilities mostly, which haven't really changed. Liz liked to think she was taking away Kid's emotions for his own sake - which wasn't entirely wrong, she did genuinely want Kid to be happy and thought it would help - but she couldn't deny that Kid specifically said he didn't want to be under the candle's effects again. "Kid, if you do get your emotions back… how would you feel?

Kid walked in silence for what felt like an eternity to the older weapon. "Well," Kid said, "I'm not entirely sure, but going off of how I usually act while not under any influences, I imagine I would be mad. You did betray my trust and went against my wishes by giving me the candle in the first place, then you kept doing it for days… And in those days you did a lot of things I would have usually gotten mad at even though you know my usual opinions… and um…"

"Thanks, you can stop now."

"Okay."

Liz couldn't stop now. Every word Kid said made her feel more guilty, but at this point, they could never take him off of the candle's effects. She didn't like the new Kid, but the alternative would make Kid furious for who knows how long, and deservedly so. Seeing that would basically be unbearable.

"I guess we should probably wait then, huh?" Patty said.

Liz didn't want to say anything, so she just nodded. Maybe using the candles wasn't her best idea, but living like this wouldn't be so bad.

In all honesty, Kid was boring now. He had no hobbies and all his opinions were just taken from what is and isn't against the rules or what his dad says. Kid wasn't happy, but he wasn't angry or sad or driving himself crazy by thinking of imaginary unfolded toilet paper either. If they were to stop now, all that would come back, and probably worse because of all they were doing.

It wasn't great, but was it better than before? She didn't know. Maybe it was. Maybe it all is still for the best.

A/N: two chapters left. So what's you think of this one? This is the weakest chapter of the five in my opinion, so It's uphill from here~ I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for reading, and til next time~