When Maka woke in the morning the Prince was gone. But, it was not a cruel or malicious way, it was almost a teasing game to her. As if he were saying, come find me.
And so she rose from the bed and got ready in no rush, knowing full well she will find him eventually. Wandering through the halls has become a much more enjoyable task for her. They days spent locked in her room under Deumos's order had the girl starved for some sort of conversation. At first the servants were hesitant to act anything less the formally with her but soon even they were breaking rules for her cheerful personality. Even as she walks through now gladly asking the whereabouts of the Prince she stops to chat and inquire on their health.
However, the closer she gets to him the quieter the house seems to become. The servants just rush past in the rare occurrences that they appear leaving her to wander about. The halls are filled with the same lovely furniture but Maka now has a new found appreciation of it. In a way it can be preserved forever now, in the true beauty it had once held.
Suddenly a small ping sounds through the hall, echoing against the stone walls. Tapestries waver as if pushed by a breeze as Maka just inhales the beauty of the sound. She allows the following notes to guide her to the source and she glides along the floor in her own kind of trance.
The notes are muffled by the thick door but it is easy to tell the music was coming from here. Recognizing it as the harp she knew that if she had found the music she had found Kid. She waited a moment before opening the door.
Inside was a small stone room. There was nothing special about it at all, no carpet or chairs. Not even a window. The only light came from a single candle resting on the wooden table the Prince was leaning over. Every now and then he would ping out another note before sighing to himself.
As she got closer to the boy she noticed that it wasn't a table but in fact a massive harp laying on its side. It was supported by beams made of old wood. There was no richness to the instrument as one would expect. It was made of ancient wood, with a plain and simple cut to it and silver flax strings. The only defining characteristic about it other than its size were five small patterns carved into the side: A candle, a flute, a star, a shell, and a small apple.
"Will you play for me?" She asked in a quiet voice. He jumped as she had caught him unaware. He seemed somewhat stressed to the girl. It made her wonder if she should leave or not.
"I don't know what to play? The harp has its own song, I'm just the one who plucks the strings." He smiles but it's somewhat hollow. There is a small fear tearing at the back of his mind.
"That's such a beautiful thought."
"It's not a thought but a simple truth. I play only when the harp gifts me with its song. Yet after all this time, it seems it has abandoned me." His hands clench slightly and he breaths out slowly trying his best to maintain calm.
Maka can somewhat understand how he feels. She spent many years coaxing Soul out of the same mood. In a funny way their purposes for playing were so alike. Soul felt that if he couldn't play he couldn't be himself; Kid seems to think that if he can't play he isn't anyone at all.
"Try again."
"Maka. I have been trying for hours." His tone is exasperated and Maka almost feels like a child pestering a parent.
"Well try again. Inspiration always hits when are at our lowest." She waves her finger back in forth as she lectures the young Reaper. He sighs and turns back to the massive harp. Picking at the strings here and there he picks up a bit of speed before falling back into random nothingness.
"See I told you." His head lolls lazily toward her with frustration flashing across his golden orbs. She strides to stand directly behind him. She loops her arms around his waist until her hands touch. The sudden movement makes him tense and she flinches.
Damn it! Why did I do that?! This was such a bad idea. Insecurities plague her mind and run rampant. The thoughts are tinting her face a dark scarlet and she is tempted to bury it into his back as a form of hiding. She is about to move away her hands when he relaxes back into his usual calm state. A Master of peace, an ocean of calm, a stoic friend of death.
Her thoughts of the boy clear as his fingers awkward being to dance along the strings once more. However, as his breathing steadies the digits develop a smooth grace that wasn't there before. They dance across the gleaming silver, becoming accustomed to the tune. The make no real song but the sound is comforting and peaceful. Maka closes her eyes to simply enjoy the reverberation in the dark room.
Slowly they develop; it is soft and subtle at first, as if it were tip toeing around the room to examine the two occupants. But then it builds, softly into scores that never connect but still seem to somehow flow together and play off the other. Suddenly, like a rubber bands snapping back into place the sects fall into order forming a beautiful piece.
It's slow to start. The notes are low and left to echo into the room. The deep sounds personify anguish and isolation. Maka feels trapped, as if she were surrounded by silence and yet unable to break it herself. It was a sorrow that fled deep into her core nearly drawing tears to her eyes...
And yet, as soon as the piece had been born it shifted. Higher notes find their way into the air and seem to tickle at Maka's ears. They sing of long summer days and years spent smiling and laughing. Maka can see the white sand and feel the clear water lapping at her feet. The beauty of it all is astounding but it is not hers.
A few feet to her right a group of teenagers are resting in the sand. They all joke around, laughing and tossing harmless insults at each other. Two however, seem to have a bit more sincerity behind them than the rest. A girl with white hair is shouting at a boy a year or two older than her with tan skin and black hair.
"You think you're so cool with that stupid tattoo. 'No future' what in the hell does that even mean!"
"Hey! I stay out of your business don't I? Now leave me alone Spot or I'll make you regret it!"
"Oh really Dog-Breath? How you going to manage that? Gloom all over me?"
"Watch it Froggy. I can be a VERY scary person." The two continue on and Maka can overhear the conversation of the two teenagers in front of her.
"They sure argue a lot, huh?"
"Yeah, but they still hang around each other."
"You don't think..." The two giggle and the scene ripples into a new one. The boy is wandering outside alone on a snowy day in some city. It's late and he doesn't seem to be going anywhere. He's just seems to be moving for the sake of moving.
"Hey, Dog-Breath. What are you doing out on a night like tonight?" The white haired girl appears from a building carrying a convenience store bag filled with groceries.
"Could ask you the same thing."
"Then you would either be blind or stupid. Who am I kidding, I'm giving you way to much credit." Her leer flashes in the street light but there doesn't seem to be much heat behind it.
"Well if you have to know, I'm heading back home from a woman's house. Not that you would know anything about it, Girly. Now why don't you run along and play house while us grownups do our grownup things." He turns around waving his hand over his head dismissively.
The girl looks like she had been slapped in the face before reforming the surprise into a scowl. "you really are an ass. I hope you freeze out here."
"Eh, whatever. Like I even care." The girls swiftly turns, but Maka catches the glint of tears that barely coat her eyes. She storms off down the street and the boy looks back with a look of longing. He shivers and pulls his thin coat tightly around him before wandering off in no specific direction.
The scene shifts again and the girl is surrounded by her friends. She seems to have grown and is about the same age as Maka. She smiles and chats with the girls about dresses. The boy walks up to the group and they all fall silent. The girls group up around their friend sensing the awkward situation.
"I gotta talk to you." The boy manages to blurt out before he pulls on her arm and yanks her away from the cluster of girls. He keeps walking until they file into a quiet room filled with books. From the look of it Maka guesses it's a school library.
"What they hell, Mutt? What's so important that you gotta drag me in here?" He mutters something under his breath and with his head pointed down. "What? I can't hear shit when you do that."
"I said... w-would you go to the Prom... with me." The silence that fills the air puts both of them on edge. The boy looks about ready to give up and leave when she opens her mouth again.
"Yes."
The rest of it blurs past Maka, the two dancing and laughing, their first kiss and marriage. It's all a whirlwind of love and beauty for them as their entire lives play through Maka's eyes in an instant. A sharp grating sound whips the music and the pictures to a stop. It takes Maka a moment to remember the source of the jarring sound. Kid's harp...
The images rematerialize into a rainy day. Red and blue lights flash off the puddles and windows that line the street. The boy has turned into a man and is now running down the slickened ground in a full panic. He slips and hits the ground hard but picks himself up without feeling anything. The view follows him as he rounds a corner onto the road. Two cars are smashed into each other, one a completely wreck and soaked in red.
Lying at his feet is the girl with white hair, its snow white silk now dyed a dark crimson. He rushes to her and falls to his knees as he gathers her head in his arms. He pleads for anything from her, any sort of movement but her eyes are already hollow, she long gone. He screams into the night and the rest of the image fades away in scenes of bars and drug dens, all trying to cover the hollow hole left in his heart.
Maka comes out gasping. Her arms cling tightly to Kid, and a sheen of sweat has formed on her brow. The Reaper has turned and soothing pets her head hoping to pull her out of the daze.
"What was- what was that?" Kid looks confused before checking her over for any damage.
"What was what?"
"That movie, the-the pictures. That poor man." Her mind flashes back to the images, so filled with happiness and longing and the way they morphed so cruelly.
"I'm not sure I understand."
"It was all so beautiful and then there was this grating noise..." The prince's eyes dawn in realization before they look off awkwardly.
"Ah that... Maka. Do you know how we determine death here?" She shakes her head while still clinging to his chest. After what she had seen she isn't sure she can stand up. "We don't just pick it haphazardly. We decide based on life events and outcomes of factors we cannot predict. However, most importantly, when a soul decides to give up on life there is nothing we can do to save it. All we can do is help it move one."
"W-what do you mean?" Maka was honestly confused. None of that made sense. Who would ever want to stop living?
"The person who has that string... they... they have experienced some great loss in life and no longer have the will to move on. We are not sure what it is but it is something that has left a deep scar. Whether it is their body that has given out or their soul when they die their string is cut. An out of tune string is one waiting to snap, a marker for death." Maka thinks of the intense loneliness the man must have felt holding his dead love in his arms. It makes her cringe thinking that anyone wouldn't want to die.
"Then... will you cut it?"
"I already have; before you began to shake. No. You didn't feel it because it's all too natural. When a soul gives up it is done, there are no mistakes or missteps. This feeling that you felt was only a portion of the pain they had harbored inside themselves. In the end, this lets them go." Maka nods but is still unable to meet his eyes. Instead she just burrows her head into his chest hoping the foreign pain will pass.
"Let's take a break. I'm sure my father would love to talk to you about our trip to the Life Kingdom. I have already informed him of the main events but I'm sure he would like to hear things from your side, yes?" She nods and he lifts his hands from the harp, the inspiration robbed of him long before. Holding her closely he helps her into the hallway casting a sideways glance at the complacent harp.
00000000000000000000000000
"ANOTHER VACTION?!" Kid's voice rings throughout his father's large office, even scaring the servants away.
"I think it is for the best."
"I just got back. I have so much work to catch up on."
"Now Kid-"
"The maids ruined everything in my room and now it's horribly unsymmetrical and will take eternities to fix again."
"Kiddo-"
"And Gods, with that tiff with Hatred there is so much unrest."
"Ki-"
"And Death knows Maka can't continually be dragged half way around the underworld every week. And-"
"KID!" Kid jumped at his father's own booming voice that could be heard far into the castle. "Right-o! Now that I got you attention we can speak like adults."
"But I-"
"Silence. Now I am still your father and the keeper of this hold. I will not be spoken over by a Reaper a fraction of my age. Is that clear?" Lord Death slams his fist on the desk, caving the hard wood in slightly. Kid jumped at the out of character violence of his father before nodding and falling into place. He knew better than to challenge the King.
"The work will be managed as it always has been. As far as Hatred, that in itself is a reason I suggest this. In the case he comes looking for Maka, isn't this the first and easiest place to look? Even if she were in the castle at all times he could move on our Kingdom without any real effort from the others to stop it. Life may even lend him troops. Secondly, as you seem to care for the girl, which has NOT escaped my notice and I WILL question you on later," The pointed look received from his father only made the young Prince nod fervently before he continued. "humans are not like us. They cannot spend eons in one place, they need to be free and move. Think, would she really be happy here if you caged her?"
"I suppose not. But if it's for her own safety-"
"You know nothing of women." The older Reaper sighs and rubs his temples with his oversized gloves. "I'm not quite sure what is going on but you will do as I say. Trust me it's for the best. You can visit Light; her land is always filled with sunshine."
His smile reads as real but underneath it's hollow. They have involved the girl in a very dangerous game and he's not sure if they can keep her safe. "Plan to head out in one month, you can keep working until then, but try to take it easy son."
Kid nods and exits the room without another word leaving Lord Death to contemplate over the recent events. Life is getting very difficult for everyone in the kingdom and things are only going to get worse. It's best they enjoy themselves now, before the real fight begins.
Dun Dun Dun Dahhhhh! Dramatic. So I keep moving everyone around for a reason. Things need to develop in certain ways and this is one of them. Besides, who wouldn't want to see the light kingdom? And for those of you who read the AN here's a little present for you. We will also be making a trip over to BlackStars place! BTW YAY 100 Reviews!
Review please!