[Authors Note] A second chapter in the same day; I'm hoping my success at writing Soul Eater chapters is not due to a lack of sleep on my part T_T Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please let me know what you think of it; Any feedback would be awesome, and will hopefully energize me back into Soul Eater works!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: A Flower Named You

Serah's mood was rather chipper as the sunlight from the ever gloating sun began to irritate her eyes. Serah wasn't a hundred percent certain, but she felt that her small sentence to derail Death The Kid's nervous fit onto something else was just what she needed to feel better. While what she did in essence was rather childish and mean, she just couldn't bring herself to feel guilty about it. She'd also ascertained that it was probably the best way to derail any uncomfortable situation with the Grim Reaper's son, which, she planned to do if any said situation arose.

Like normal, Serah stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom for a few moments, before she dragged herself upright, and looked around the room slowly. The gloating sun didn't appear to be too bright just yet – Serah estimated she'd woken up earlier than she usually did. Perhaps it was because she went to bed early feeling happier than she did the evening before? For whatever reason, it wasn't a problem – In fact, as Serah glanced at her bedroom door, she surmised that she had plenty of time to have a shower, get organised, and maybe stop off to pick up some Mango-juice on her way to the Academy – It was a Monday, after all.

One hour later, Serah was jogging up the front steps of the academy, cup of Mango-juice in hand, and headphones in the familiar place over her ears, playing There For You, by Flyleaf at a somewhat quieter volume than normal. Her magenta bag was hanging from her right shoulder, matching her rather worn converse, however she was dressed in a pair of light blue bootleg jeans and a long-sleeved lime green summer hoodie, unlike her usual outfit of minishorts and tights. Serah gently tugged at her haywire hair, for once not really bothered by it as she looked around aimlessly. She never realised how colourful the exterior of the academy actually was – now that she wasn't with her nose buried in a novel every chance she got, she could actually see more of the world around her, ironically speaking.

It appeared Serah'd gotten here earlier than she normally did, too. As she reached the top of the stairs to the Academy, there was practically no one there. Blinking momentarily as she found herself felling just a little confused, she decided to shrug it off. It was Monday, she was sure of it; There was no way she got her days mixed up and it was really Sunday. However, even if it did turn out to be Sunday in some weird, twist of fate, Serah wouldn't actually mind – She did remember that once again she hadn't had a training session with her Circlets since her first dance lesson.

The front door of the Academy was unlocked, reassuring her that she hadn't gotten her day's mixed up. Taking a sip of her Mango-juice, Serah began to drift into thought as she made her way towards her classroom. She did begin to wonder why Death The Kid freaked out so bad over her eyes being different colours. Yes, in hindsight she shouldn't have been surprised that he reacted, but it was more of a shock to her, given the situation. It just didn't make too much sense to her – Whenever she wore anything that was unsymmetrical, he only barked an irritated remark about it; He'd never shrieked about it like it was something blasphemous or anything. Now that she thought about it in a disconnected manner, he made it out as if there was some sort of foul growth hanging from her face.

Song change; Serah blinked, pushing her glasses higher up the bridge of her nose as she noticed a dark form walking down the corridor she was currently walking up. As the deep tones of bass to A Flower Named You by Asian Kung-Fu Generation clicked over, Serah found herself wondering if she'd somehow summoned the person she'd been thinking about; Death the Kid was walking towards her, without his two companions for some reason that didn't really make sense to Serah. However on a second thought, Meisters didn't have to be accompanied by their weapons every minute of every day – that would kinda be creepy. It appeared that the Grim Reaper's son had just visited his father; He was approaching from the main corridor that lead to the Death Room.

Deciding she should probably mind her own business, given the recent events, Serah took another sip of her Mango-juice as she directed her gaze to the many decorative pieces that lined the corridor; Which of course she hadn't known were there until now, thanks to her book-habits she was in the middle of breaking. She could feel Death The Kid's gaze upon her, but she guessed it was out of discomfort – She very much doubted he'd forget her lack of symmetry just because she had her tinted glasses on.

It was hard for Serah to keep a straight face, though; The mango-juice today was rather acidic and over-sweetened, which made drinking it without wincing a hard task – That, and also ignoring the gaze she could feel upon her face with noticeable intensity. Of course, the headphones made it pretty easy for other people to tell she was off in her own world; Even if it was just a guise. Serah chose to remain with the straw stuck in her mouth as she walked, as she slowly sipped on the drink in the hope she'd get used to it rather quickly.

She walked past Death the Kid without a single screw-up, and no hurdles thrown at her by her homicidal luck; As Serah took a rather large sip of her Mango-juice in relief, she quickly found she was wincing at the over-sweet flavor that hit her. However for some reason, she still had the gut feeling that he was looking at her. Oh well, whatever didn't ruin her mood didn't matter; Serah proceeded to bop her head slightly to the beat of her music as she walked.

"Serah!" She heard someone call her name all of a sudden, and while she did know who had spoken her name, she wished more than anything that she was mistaken. Slowing to a halt, Serah looked over her shoulder as 'casually' as she could fake. Unfortunately for her wishes, she was proven right as she saw Death the Kid beginning to approach her rather quickly, and he had an uncomfortable look across his face. Sighing inwardly, and mentally kicking herself for speaking too soon, she kept a straight face as she turned around to face the Grim Reaper's son. Lowering the Mango-juice just as she raised a hand to pull her headphones down to hang around her neck, Serah found herself somewhat confused as he seemed struggle in finding words for some reason – he also had a few strands of hair sticking up in an unsymmetrical manner; The moment he noticed that, he'd freak. She couldn't help but tilt her head to the right slightly as she waited for whatever it was he was going to say to her – However she was more than just concerned he was going to make another symmetry-related remark to her; It was a task for her to keep her expression blank right at that moment.

A frustrated sigh escaped Death the Kid after a few moments, and as he seemed to place his weight on one foot, Serah noticed that he actually looked her in the eye – Oh this was not looking good for her; It was only a matter of time before he snapped again.

"I wanted to apologize to you – For the other day. I acted without any tact, and I understand that my tendencies had upset you." Serah couldn't help but blink as she stared up at the Grim Reaper's son, somewhat astonished over the fact that he was actually attempting to apologize to her. "I will try my best to refrain from careless remarks in the future. But for the past few days, I am sorry." Serah would have assumed it was a rehearsed apology from how formal this one was, however as she thought back just a bit, he seemed rather flustered before he seemed to calm down. He also seemed to be speaking sincerely – In fact, the longer Serah remained silent, the more he seemed to become concerned that she really was still upset, which of course was enhanced by the loose strands of haywire hair. This began to make her feel somewhat guilty of her 'socks' jab she made at him yesterday morning. She did distinctly hear an undeniably horrified cry within a minute of her jab at the time.

After a few seconds, Serah let out a faint breath as she thought about his words seriously; While she couldn't exactly forgive him for humiliating her in front of practically half of the class, she did accept the fact that he was sorry. She also gathered that he was trying very hard to refrain from acting upon his tendencies at that moment, given the situation – She saw his right eye twitch for just a moment. She found she couldn't really say anything related to his apology, so she opted to reach up and pat down his haywire strands for him after a brief mention of 'hold still'. Confusion was plastered across Death the Kid's face, however Serah merely let out a breath once again as she took her hand away, and stood flat on her feet once more.

"I fixed your symmetry for you." Serah remarked, inwardly hoping that this would be enough of an indication that she wasn't 'upset' about the scenario anymore; And it appeared to work. The confusion was wiped clean from his face to be replaced with a strange form of relief at her words. However she wasn't entirely sure if this was because of her veiled suggestion, or just because she put his symmetry back in place. But of course, Serah knew it wasn't really her place to figure that out; She wasn't sure on what to do about the situation now, what with the Grim Reaper's son looking down at her rather oddly, for some reason.

"Serah! Perfect timing!" Echoed a vaguely familiar voice all of a sudden, startling Serah enough where she actually flinched. Turning on her heel slightly to look over at who had called her this time, she was rather surprised to see Spirit approaching with a faint smile.

"Y-Yes?" Serah spoke, confusion creeping across her face as the tall, red haired man came to a halt a few paces in front of Serah; She could feel that Death The Kid wasn't looking at her right at that moment.

"Lord Death wanted to see you before class – I think he's got something he needed to speak with you about." Spirit commented, burying his hands in the pockets of his pants as Serah felt more confusion creep across her face. Again? She was missing out on a lot of class time of late.

"Okay..." Serah spoke, looking back at Death the Kid hesitantly, to see that he looked rather confused as well. She took this rather confusing escape out of the awkward situation, to wave slightly in goodbye, before she began to follow Spirit as he made his way back towards the Death Room. It felt rather weird to Serah, that she'd only said two things to Death The Kid in the five or so minutes she'd been standing there. There was nothing that really went through Serah's mind, other than the strange realisation that Death the Kid was much taller than her; She looked down at her free hand for a few moments as she wondered why she was even thinking about something like that! Must be the oddity of the day so far.

As Serah followed Spirit down the two corridors to the Death Room, she found her gaze wandering, as if she was absent minded, and bored – While she had some of her attention on following Spirit, she just couldn't seem to think properly; While the uncomfortable word with Death The Kid was reason enough for her to be feeling a little off, she began to wonder if she was returning to her slump the morning beforehand – if she was, she'd have to go douse herself in a bucket of icy water just to try and relieve her of her mood, like she had Sunday morning. She hoped that Lord Death didn't need her for anything urgeant; if it was, Serah wasn't sure if she could keep up with everything the Grim Reaper was throwing at her.

Suddenly, as Serah consciously looked ahead of her, a sudden force to the forehead knocked the wind out of her; Or rather, she knocked the wind out of herself with what she immediately realised was the door to the Death Room. She raised her free hand to rub her forehead gently as she looked down at her cup of Mango-juice. Amazingly enough, she hadn't spilled it in her collision with the door – Thankfully. While she wasn't particularly enjoying this batch, she didn't want to waste it.

"Are you alright?" Spirit's voice echoed all of a sudden, catching Serah by surprise once again. She nodded meekly as she looked up at the tall man who was standing just to her right. He seemed to eye her curiously for a few moments, before he opened the door to Lord Death's Death Room, and entered. The Death Room was exactly as it always was – Yellow sand with large metal crosses, blue walls with moving clouds; Serah inwardly wondered if there was any possibility that this room would change at all?

Serah had to drag her thoughts away from this train of thought as she closed the door behind her, and began to approach the centre of the Death Room, where Spirit had already ended up. It didn't appear that the matter was too urgent; Serah found herself once again wondering what this could be about? Was it to cancel her Dance Lessons, or something else?

"Serah! How wonderful for you to join us!" Lord Death's voice echoed with a booming volume, causing Serah to smile sheepishly as she picked up the pace – She of course didn't want to upset her favorite adult by not being 100 percent attentive. "How was your first Dance Lesson? Not too boring, I hope?"

"It was alright." Serah answered, coming to a halt in front of Lord Death as she paused for just a moment. "I felt like I was getting worse, though; I spent more time falling over than actually getting better."

"That come's with practice!" Lord Death piped up, causing a faint touch of exasperation to touch Serah's expression – Of course, that was the 'Adult' response to any complaint; She was rather surprised she didn't see that one coming. "Anyway, that's not why I've had you come here today." Lord Death remarked all of a sudden, bouncing on his spot as Serah of course listened patiently; It felt like she was just standing there listening to people all day today, and she was slowly beginning to become a little weary of it. "I have some excellent news for you – Better than what you're expecting!"

"And what would that be, Lord Death?" Serah couldn't help but as, her brow furrowing just the tiniest bit as she tried to figure out what was going on.

"A Part-Time Weapon Partner!"

"... Sorry?"

"Someone's come forward to become a weapon for you! You've got a partner!"

As Lord Death's words sunk in on Serah, it was just a second, before she squeaked out just one word;

"What?!"