Odds and Ends

How Typical?

"Stein reserved this place?" Maka asked her tone obviously disbelieving as she stared at the building with mistrust. Kid shrugged.

"I really didn't have much part in planning anything. Stein gave me a list of contacts and who to talk to when we got here. Other than that he told me to 'Go get 'em'," Kid's monotone and fake enthused mocking of their professor didn't go well together. She refrained from rolling her eyes as she turned to give him a small glare.

"Well if you had told me that earlier I could have helped some… then we wouldn't be staying in this d—"

Kid's hand clapped firmly over her mouth, holding her close to his chest as someone stepped out of the building to greet them.

"This lovely hotel," he finished smoothly without missing a beat.

As if he was trying to write it off as a couple's thing he placed a quick kiss to her cheek making her blushing in response. She jerked away from him, glaring all the while, and made a show of wiping her face clean. To which she didn't get a reaction from either the man out front or Kid as they were already engaged in a conversation. She clutched her heart, feeling it pound in her rib cage. Just nerves, she told herself, nerves and jet lag. She glared at the back of his head, and tried to focus on the building instead. It looked like any day it could be condemned; the paint was peeling, bits of the roof had crumbled off and fell to the sidewalk below, the gutters looked rusted, and some of the numbers from the address were missing leaving their faint imprint behind. She felt a vein throb in her forehead as she stalked up to the two conversing men.

"Well?"

"We're staying here for the night," Kid assured her guiding her into the building before the man could reply. They were stopped in their tracks as a pair of keys flung at them, which Kid caught deftly.

"Third room to the right," the man barked. His voice had a thick accent of some sort, but Maka couldn't quiet peg it.

"Room?" Maka practically growled as Kid pulled her up the stairs and around the corner.

"Yes… well, I was trying to take care of that," he dismissed with a hint of his own annoyance. They had both picked up the singular usage of the word room from the caretaker. Maka cringed.

"Like it isn't typical enough…" Kid breathed out under his breath and continued to half pull her along.

She knew he didn't mean for her to catch what he had said, so she ignored it. Her mind raced at the situation. This was typical, two teens sent off to a frozen waste land to fix a blunder for a professor just to earn a little bit of extra credit in his class, and now they were going to share the same room for the night. Wasn't that in every single romance novel she had ever read? Where the heroes were trapped together in situations out of their control and they spent a romantic night together? She froze in her tracks as they stopped outside their marked door. This situation isn't out of my control, she thought to herself, in fact I'm in charge of the outcome. There is no reason—

"There is a couch though. I can crash on that," Kid's hopeful voice broke her thoughts, and timidly she stepped into the room after him.

It was dingy and saying that was a compliment. The wallpaper was outdated by at least 20 years, the carpet looked like it had mold growing on it, the room smelled stale, there looked like there were crumbs of leftover food spewed about complete with a matching pizza box on the lone coffee table, and that list wasn't even half of what Maka had to complain about.

"You can't get another room?" she growled as Kid closed the door behind him and set their bags gently on the bed. On the upside the bed looked clean and sterile; the couch that Kid had mentioned earlier was another story. Maka was scared to even peek inside the bathroom.

"Yes well I was trying to do just that. Mr. Leo doesn't take kindly to guests talking badly about his hotel… Stein said so in the note," Kid added quickly as he noticed Maka's darkening gaze and pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket as proof. "That and we are on a budget, we can't use any of the money from the academy. We're stuck solely with what Stein has given us," he flushed and looked like he was starting to sweat under Maka's stern gaze.

"I was just stating the truth. This place is a dump," Maka growled. "And what was up with that peck on my cheek earlier?" she accused, her hand shot up to rub her offended cheek and help cover the blush she was now fighting off.

"We're under cover," Kid said with an eye roll. "We're supposed to be a pair of teenagers from the States that has run off to elope. Remember?"

"I don't see the point of sticking to a cover story—"

"We can't exactly run around like academy students right now. We'll be found out quickly even with the small population," Kid interrupted with a growl. His own annoyance flared before he took a deep breath, "we won't have to worry about that once we are in the middle of nowhere. But it is better to be safe than sorry right now."

He was right. How annoying would it be if her father or someone else found them and caught them now? They hadn't even seen their objective or made it to the correct location. With a sigh Maka flopped on the bed.

"You're right… I'm just tired," she grumbled. She was actually having a hard time keeping her eyes open and the lumpy mattress was strangely appealing right now.

"Jet lag," Kid agreed. He sat wearily on the edge of the bed, as far as possible from her, as he eyed the couch with distain.

"If we're only here for a night…" Maka started noticing his distasteful look but yawning before she could finish, "you can sleep on that side," she told him pointing. It was more like half pointing, her arm refused to cooperate fully so it turned out more like a lazy flop of her arm. It was easier to just get to the heart of the matter and cut to the chase. There was no reason they couldn't be civil and share a bed. She couldn't count the times that she had fallen asleep on the couch next to Soul or Black*Star.

"That would be more symmetrical… and clean," Kid hummed mostly to himself before giving her a soft smile in gratitude. She had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at his antics, but really she was just too tired to care. He gently kicked off his shoes and climbed over to the side of the offered bed, taking care not to touch her.

()()()()()()()()()()

"Maka?"

She growled and rolled away from the prodding finger. In reflex she curled, tucking the blanket around her and used the pillow as a shield from her attacker. As an added benefit the pillow also blocked the light streaming from the window.

The voice sighed, annoyed.

"Maka, get up."

It was a little more of a firm command this time, but she still growled in warning as a hand shook her. There was a quick swoosh and suddenly her blanket was gone and a soft fluffy pillow smacked against her head.

Rolling, half in surprise, and half in defense, Maka stumbled out of the bed and unto the floor in an ungraceful heap.

She glared up at the golden eyes that were studying her with amusement. She was slightly taken back at first (and used to seeing crimson eyes) before yesterday's events came back to her.

"Oh…" she blushed and stood quickly, practically leaping off the dirty floor with a cringe. She brushed her bum off fighting the imaginary dirt from her outfit from yesterday. She had been so tired she hadn't even changed her clothes. Kid looked like he had showered, and was wearing clean clothes.

"We don't have much time. You're going to have to skip a shower," he apologized. "I tried to wake you but you sleep like a log."

"Yeah… I tend to be a heavy sleeper after traveling," Maka mumbled fighting the rising blush on her cheeks.

"No worries. You'd want to skip the shower anyways. It wasn't the cleanest," he smiled lightly. He gestured for her to grab a bag and then started out of the door. Frazzled, and still fighting to wake up Maka scooped up the single bag and followed her partner.

"Where is all of our stuff?" she asked wearily as the descended the stairs.

The place looked deserted. The air itself seemed stale. Timidly she used her soul perception and noted that the place was indeed empty. She shot Kid a curious glance once they rounded to the bottom.

"Already in the cab. We have to get moving. We'll be late to the docks," he mumbled, seemingly absentmindedly he reached out and took her hand, hurrying down the steps and ushered her smoothly into the waiting cab before she could really even process it.

She let out a frustrated sigh as the cab started to drive, peeling out in the dingy parking lot and drawing a few stares from some passing joggers and by standers.

"Why didn't we just use Beezlebub?" Maka asked after a few minutes of silent driving. She stifled a yawn and turned her gaze to Kid to hear him explain.

"Yes… well. That can easily be spotted flying over populated areas. We were going for discreet," he told her with a flap of his hand. "Once we get off the charter and get out of eye sight we can use it. That leg of our journey will be much smoother," he promised.

"I'm not sure what exactly to look for… the papers were vague," Maka told him nervously.

"If you can find a witch's soul while they are purposely trying to hide it I know you can find this soul," Kid said. His hand rested on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

Was it just her? Or were there something odd going on between them two of them the past few days? She had been writing it off as lack of sleep, traveling, and other stressful events. Without the constant presences of their friends butting in and pulling their short conversations away from each other she was starting to notice that they both just sort of clicked. She was very at ease around Kid and this trip was no different. She liked being around him and he was her friend. She didn't know why she had been freaking out so much beforehand. It had to have been the lack of sleep…

Her heart thumped a little fast as his hand moved from her shoulder and down her arm for a fraction of a second before he pulled away.

No, she wasn't used to this. Was that a signal of some type? Was he trying to reassure her? She raised her gaze to meet his only to have him avert his golden eyes out the window to watch the scenery. His cheeks tainted with a faint hint of red. Was she seeing things now too? There was no way he was blushing. This was Death the Kid!

Was that the reason? Was it because she wasn't used to being touched like this? She normally was the meister, so touching Soul in reassurance or restraint was something she was used to doing to others. She normally wasn't on the receiving end. She hugged her friends, gave high fives in reassurance, but under those circumstances it was her that gave that attention to people. Maybe it was alien to her when he touched her because of this. She was just nervous because he was treating her like a weapon and she wasn't sure if she could pull through for him on this mission. No, that wasn't quite it.

Her thoughts from the night before came back to her. She had been anxious, nervous even; when she had found out they would be sharing the room for the night. She had thought he would have pulled some type of move on her, and now she felt bad for her thoughts. Kid wasn't like that. He would never take advantage of her; he cared for her as a good friend just like she did for him. Only… only his hands were really warm. She liked when he grabbed her hand to pull her in the right direction. She kind of liked not having to analyze every little thing and let him take charge of this mission (although it had really only been a day so far). With that thought came another, and she was suddenly very aware of their future sleeping arrangements. She felt her cheeks flush as she suddenly became very embarrassed over how she had been woken up this morning.

There weren't many lines between weapons and meisters. Nothing was ever really kept secret when the person closest to you had access to your every thought and feeling at some point. Last night could have been extremely awkward and intimate. Yet he hadn't touched her at all during the night. Was that normal? Even if there was no romantic situation between her and Soul she had woken up countless of times in his arms. No… this wasn't because they were now partners. This was different, yet she couldn't place her finger on it.

He wasn't being inappropriate but he wasn't just touching her because she was his weapon. It was friendly and innocent, yes. But maybe it was simply because they were never alone like this she had never noticed it. It wasn't awkward or alarming, but it gave her room to wonder about it. He was touching her because he wanted to.

Absorbed in her thoughts Maka didn't even notice when the car finally slowed to a stop.

"We have one month from today," Kid said with a deep breath.

He had somehow managed to wrestle her attention back to him when he spoke. She looked at her surroundings through the window nervously, and then grabbed the handle to the cab door. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves she shot Kid a weary smile. It was almost like he was nervous as well judging by the small twitch of his hands and the deep breath he took a moment ago, but she dismissed it. She rarely saw Kid with any type of emotion and now was no different. They were a good match, calm and collected.

"29 days, Stein said he started counting the day we left," she corrected pushing the door open and taking a step out.

She wasn't aware of how long she had been silent in that tiny car. Her voice cracked slightly from misuse and her body protested as she moved her limbs to stretch. Kid was at her side and ushering her towards the docks.

The air was colder here, and she was thankful that she was still dressed in jeans and a turtle neck from the long flight yesterday. Her boots clopped along the wood as she scooped up her bags and made her way after Kid towards the charter they had hired.

"Three days and I'll have you guys at the designated drop spot. Be back there in 20 days or I'll leave you to your fate," the man that Maka assumed was the captain barked at them as they made their way on board. He was the same man Kid had talked to the day before. She frowned and shot a look towards Kid who smiled happily.

"Oh don't give me that look," he said easily as he tossed his bag over and hopped aboard the ship. "Aren't you the type to turn in an extra credit assignment in early?"

"I think you are having too much fun already," she grumbled and followed after him.

The clock was ticking, subtracting travel time that they now had to allow for this one way part of the journey, they now had 26 days to get this assignment done. At least she hoped they had that instead of 23 days, she wasn't too happy about the slow travel this boat had to offer.

"I hope you two don't mind getting comfortable in this tiny cabin," the captain said pointing towards a tiny door just below deck. "It'll be a long three days otherwise."

"Oh I'm sure we'll find something to amuse us," Kid said with a grin.

The captain roared in laughter at that as he took in the queer couple before him. In his eyes they passed for exactly what they were going for, an eloping couple. It might have been from how close Kid seemed to stand next to her, or how he would quickly maneuver so that he could carry her bags as she struggled into the room offered to them. It might have even been the way he was purposely brushing against her when there was no reason to do so. Whatever it was, a small part of their mission was completed as they fooled everyone around them into thinking that they were a couple on the run. And it was lost on Maka until she heard the captain's reply to Kid's comment. She had been blissfully unaware of how important this role was in the first stage of their journey, and she cursed every god she could think of as she stood there dumbly trying to fight a blush from her cheeks.

"Aye, lad, I'm sure you will," he gruffed.

The joking and exchanged winks made her want to gag as she finally realized why Kid had been so keen on her not talking to strangers. That the two were joking… sexually, her face lit up in a blush she had been fighting so hard to conceal. It was a side of Kid she had never seen and she wasn't sure if she liked it.

The peck on the cheek, the hand holding, the cover up as a couple… she hated this. She didn't like hearing Kid say things like that to strangers; it just didn't seem like him. This had to be why she was so uncomfortable for the past few days. She stomped over to her room and glared at Kid over her shoulder.

"You wish," she half snarled and slammed the door behind her.

Oh Death, were all men such perverts?

A/N: A whole month! I would rant an apology to you guys now but surely this update makes up for it? :p. I'm so pleased with the feedback and amount of reviews this story has been getting, I'm truly flattered! I wasn't being sarcastic when I said I was amazed by the 13 reviews for that one chapter and yet the last one got 16 all by itself! You guys are amazing! I'm glad you are all enjoying the story. If you are following my other works I promise they will be updated soon! I had most of this chapter done and only had to type a few paragraphs. See I sprained my wrist so unfortunately I've been forced to bed rest... without my computer. Other than that I'll be back to writing soon!