"So that's all the candles?"

"Yep!"

"The fan's still on in Kid's room with the windows open, right?"

"Yeperony~"

"Did you go into Kid's hand for like a minute?"

Patty giggled. "Yeah~"

"And Kid is…"

"Still in the living room, watching the TV."

Liz nodded. She and Patty started cleaning the house of all of Stein's candles the second they got home, and then just started generally cleaning so Kid wouldn't be so mad when the effects wear off. As nice as they seem on the surface, they really were more trouble than they're worth, and were going to be returned to the Professor when they got to school the next day. "I'll go take them to the school, I've just gotta do something real quick."

"Kay. Have fun~"

With that, Liz went to the living room, and sure enough Kid was sitting there alone, staring blankly at a turned-off TV. She pulled one of the chairs around to sit in front of her meister. "Kid," she said simply, getting his attention. At least she hoped she did, he still had the blank stare. "You'll remember all of this after the candle effects stop, right?"

He shrugged. "Probably. I remember everything that I, um, paid attention to the last time… when I stopped being affected…"

"Okay," Liz mumbled. "Could you pay attention to this then?"

"...sure…"

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry. It's not Patty's fault, I take full responsibility for everything. I should have listened when you told me the side effects, and I really should have stopped all of this so much sooner. You'll probably be mad with me once you can be mad again, but honestly-" Liz stopped herself. She was about to say how she kind of wanted him to be mad, since at this point that would be better than the emotionless shell she'd been talking to all week. About how his eccentricities were charming in a way that she never saw until they were gone. Even about how she wanted to hear one of his lectures again. She missed Kid, the real Kid, but she couldn't swallow her pride enough to say any of that. "Could you try not to be too mad?" she ended up saying instead.

"I suppose."

She knew it was such an unfair thing to ask, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. Pouring her guts out to a brick wall wasn't an option. At least she said sorry. Now all she had to do was return the candles and wait for their effects to reverse. In other words, wait for Kid's 'I suppose' to turn into a 'no' too.

Liz woke up to a sound of very muffled retching. Even if it was quiet, she absolutely hates that noise. After a quick look at the clock, she saw it was about 3am. If something was waking her up so early, it was bound to be Kid. The noise seemed to be coming from the right direction too.

As much as she hated it, she left her bed to go to Kid's. Even as barely conscious as she was, she had a guess that whatever Kid was doing had to be because of her candle stunt.

They opened Kid's door earlier to dissipate the smoke more, and it seemed like Kid never bothered to close it because it was still wide open.

He was laying on top of his blankets, looking miserable. If Liz didn't know any better she would assume he caught a cold, but she could have sworn that Kid had mentioned he can't get colds at some point. His eyes were closed, but she knew he was awake.

"You okay?" Liz asked.

Kid groaned In response.

"You've never been sick for as long as I've known you. Should I be worried or…"

"I'm not sick." Kid sounded incredibly annoyed, which in a weird way made Liz feel relieved. "My mind and body got so used to the candle's effects, my soul adjusted to that, and now it's trying to adjust back. 'Flu-like' symptoms tend to be a side effect of rapid soul shifts. I'll be fine in a few hours." One of Kid's golden eyes opened into a glare. "Of course, this wouldn't be happening at all if somebody listened to me!"

"Yeah, I know," Liz mumbled.

"I told you how I clearly don't think right while under its effects, but you used it again regardless. And then you went and got yourself into a dangerous situation!" He sat up in his bed, and began glaring at Liz even harder. "How would I-" Kid cut himself off with a wince as his hands instinctively went to his head. He obviously didn't have a headache often if he thought he could sit up like that.

"Do you want some medicine or something?"

With his hands still on either side, Kid shook his head lightly. "It won't work on me."

"Well, is there anything I can do to help?"

"I don't know, will you actually listen to me, or will you start drugging me again?"

Liz groaned. "Listen, I said I was sorry."

"And I said 'the candle intoxication was a one time mistake' but apparently-"

It was bad enough dealing with her own guilt, but hearing Kid harp on and on about the same thing irked her. She was trying to be patient, but it was still 3am, so it didn't last too long. Liz interrupted her meister. "You tried to give me and Patty up and you don't see me bringing that up every two seconds! Stop being a spoiled little brat about this."

"I tried to willingly give you up, but only because you made me into an uncaring, disorganized mess! I would have never willingly condemned you or Patty to death. Or any good-natured person. Even if it wasn't as severe as that, I can't lose you two as weapons partners. Symmetrical weapons are hard enough to come by, and then finding ones that put up with me is a whole other problem."

"Put up with you? ...Is that what you think me and Patty are doing?"

"Well, you two don't make it subtle."

Liz was quiet. She wanted to say 'how could you possibly think that,' but she already knew the answer. Her and Patty were always complaining about the new rules they had to follow and all about how 'perfect' they had to make things. She just stopped candling away his emotions, which doesn't help her argument. "We don't… I don't…"

"I'm not stupid," Kid mumbled. "And I'm not deaf either. You always call me crazy, or a freak, or say I'm better off dead or-"

"I have never said that."

"You think it." Kid looked to the floor, his voice turning quieter. "Everyone does…"

They both went silent. Kid stared at the floor, Liz stared at him. She had no idea how much what she said affected him. How could she? The most reaction she'd get from him was an eyeroll. And he constantly complained about them, so it wasn't like it was one-sided.

But then again, it made sense. Kid just turned 14 not long ago, so he's pretty young, and Liz and her sister couldn't possibly be the first people to talk about Kid's problems in a less-than-savoy light. All his life he was probably called a crazy freak.

She's heard Kid say 'I deserve to die,' before, but that was only ever when he was obsessing over something small, so Liz dismisses it as him being overdramatic. It being said in such a subdued, honest tone was harrowing. He must genuinely believe it.

"Kid…" Liz mumbled. She didn't know what to say, so instead of talking, she sat on the bed beside him, trying to think up the right words. "I really am sorry. I should have never kept forcing you to change. And I'll never do it again, I promise. I'll understand it if you never forgive me though."

"I know you won't," Kid mumbled. His head fell onto Liz's shoulder. Even through her shirt, she could tell he was much warmer than normal, probably because of the 'flu-like symptoms' he mentioned. "And I already forgave you, but I can't condone what you did. And I'm sorry for how I acted while under the candle's influence."

Liz started running her fingers through his warm hair. That's all she could think of to do in an odd attempt to comfort him. She wasn't being stopped, so that was probably a good sign. It felt so coarse, much coarser than hair should ever be, but that's how it always felt. "It's fine, you don't have to be sorry. But… you're not mad?" she asked.

"I am. I'm just cross at what you did, not you. I can't be mad at you. Besides, if we both hate each other, our resonances would be appalling...I can't have that…"

"I don't hate you." Based on what he'd been saying, it seemed like Kid assumes that everyone hates him, which wasn't even close to being the truth. "I could never hate you. Other than Patty, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me.

"I missed you all week. Even the things that you think are flaws, because they're a part of what makes you, and you're the most generous, dependable, and kindest person I know. Yeah, you're not perfect, but you don't have to be. Nobody's perfect. I shouldn't have got rid of all that just because you can be annoying. Kid, I love you-"

Liz froze. What was she saying? She respected and admired Kid and loved spending time with him, but did that mean that she - loved him - loved him?

"I love you too," Kid mumbled.

"What?"

"And Patty… and Father… and the academy. I really love the academy. It's so beautiful." The more he talked, the more it became obvious that he was basically half asleep on Liz's shoulder. She looked at Kid; his eyes were completely closed and he was apparently lost in thought of their school's architecture. She knew that she should leave him alone and let him sleep if she really did want him to be fine in the morning.

Liz sat back up and helped Kid get back into a lying position. He was smiling and mumbling incomprevensily about the perfectly symmetrical academy as he drifted back to sleep. Liz couldn't help but match his expression. This was the first time she saw Kid smile all week. That smile was well worth all the lectures, and Liz couldn't believe she ever thought otherwise. It looks like Stein's remedial lesson really did work after all.

"See you in the morning, Kid. …I'm glad you're back…"

A/N: that's the end of the story! Woohoo! Now that it's over, I should clarify that the moral is specifically only 'don't force your loved ones to change'. I know the candels have very direct parallels to anti-depressants/cannabis, but the moral is not to stop taking things that help you. If they genuinely help, that's awesome! Kid's drug metaphor was forced on him and hurt more than it helped, and in cases like that, it might be better to stop them. I'm not a doctor, so don't take any of this as medical advice, or even good advice. Like every moral, there are case-by-case nuances. Anyway, leave your thoughts and comments on the chapter and whole story and I'll happily read them!

But, even if the story is over, that may not the end of the fic. You don't have to read this part of the authors note, I know it's long, I'll TL;DR it down below, but the beginning and end of this are exactly how I imagined. However the middle (aka just chapter 3) seems so oddly paced and anti-climatic. I have this concept on a silver platter: Kid is emotionless, but I couldn't do much with it. I know chapter three was almost all telling instead of showing, and I could have shown more if I wanted it to be better, but the problem is, showing would have sucked too. In this fic, Kid is boring. The point of chapter three was to show that he's boring. Going through scene by scene would have been boring, and would have changed scenes way too frequently to fit in with the rest of the fic. To keep it not boring, I thought that maybe I could show alternate perspectives, but for a fic that starts and ends firmly in Liz's prospective, changing that for one chapter would be weird. That's when I thought, what if I just finish the story I wanted to tell, then do nonsense in the later chapters? The fic takes place over a week, so what if chapters 6+ were just random times from that week, not held back by POV or an arbitrary 1,700ish word goal. It could be Patty's perspective of the whole thing or maybe Kid's or Lord Death's ect. I could also make a like 500 word chapter of kid going on a mission and just vibing lol

TL;DR- I'm not happy with chapter 3 and might make chapter 6+ into whatever I want with the premise along with possibly comment requests