I do not own Soul Eater or Let the Flames Begin. They belong to their respective owners.

I do own Desmond, Rain, Emily, Lucas and his gang.

THIS IS A FLASH BACK CHAPTER!

Rain put on his coat.

"Where are you going?" his father, Michael asked.

"Out," Rain said.

"With who?"

"Elmo. Who do I ever go out with?" Rain said getting annoyed.

"Whom," Michael corrected.

Rain put his hat on. "I know you're an English teacher, you ain't gotta remind me by correcting what I say all the time."

"Don't have to. Ain't isn't a word," Michael said not hearing what Rain was complaining about.

"This is what I'm talking about!" Rain yelled and opened the door.

"Where are you going?" Michael yelled again.

"OUT!"

"Maybe if you took the time to make friends then you wouldn't be like this. Don't walk away from me!" Michael yelled.

Rain stepped into the hallway and slammed the door. He stood outside his door for a little bit. Rain took a pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket and looked at them, but put them back. He looked over to the door across the hall. He hasn't ever seen anyone go in or out that room.

Rain walked around New York City when he was bored. He walked past the hospital on the corner of 14th and Wayne and stopped. He looked at a second floor window with the curtains drawn. Rain sensed a great soul wavelength coming from that room, but dismissed it and kept walking down the block.

As he walked passed corners he saw people dressed as Santa Clause ringing bells, asking for change. He walked passed one and spit in his bucket, and then walked away.

Rain walked into Light-Life Teen Club like every other teenage boy did. Everyone could tell that he was just barely a teen, but he was a teen. Emily gave him his usual coke and he sat in his usual corner watching the world pass him by.

A boy named Lucas walked over to some girls and hit on them. They all turned him and his friends down like every night. Rain's favorite though was this girl with black hair and gray highlights yelled at him because she was trying to enjoy some time with her sister away from their fighting parents. Rain found it especially funny how quickly and often Lucas was being turned down.

The eighteen-year-old boy approached him. "Is something funny over here?" he asked.

Rain took a sip from him soda. "Not specifically here. Just mostly where ever you are," he answered.

"Oh really? How funny is this?" Lucas asked punching him in the stomach.

Rain looked up, spit in his face, and then laughed. "If you think that was a good punch then hilarious," he said.

"YOU WANNA MESS PUNK? I'LL TARE YOU TO BITS!" Lucas shouted.

The group of eighteen-year-olds dragged Rain out of the club and past everyone dancing. The young girl with the black haired girl that yelled at Lucas caught his eye. He automatically sensed her soul wavelength. It's her! Rain thought alarmed. She's my meister!

The girl turned around and made direct eye contact with him. He felt sorry for her because her eyes were filled with tears and he assumed it was because of her fighting parents. She stopped dancing and watched him get dragged out of the club.

Rain took beating after beating in the alley that Lucas dragged him to. Each kid took his turn at getting the weapon to bleed.

"Leave him alone!"

Rain looked up to see the girl that was crying on the dance floor standing in the alley defending him.

She started to fight Lucas and was winning. He couldn't believe it.

She has to be my meister. I have never met anyone like her before, Rain thought watching the girl fight.

She was doing a lot better than he ever had in a fight.

"Behind you!" Rain yelled to help.

She took the blow to the stomach and fell. After she stood up, she took another blow to the face falling again. She finally stood up and steadied herself.

"Hold out your hand!" Rain called.

The girl held out her hand and Rain transformed into his weapon state: a demon yumi.

He felt an increase in her power level and at that moment knew that they were supposed to be partners.

"There are no arrows! What good is a bow without arrows?"

"I don't know! No one's ever made it this far!" he yelled back.

"What do you mean no one's ever made it this far?" the young girl asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like. Just figure something out!"

Before her, no one had even been able to hold the giant bow.

She took a swing at Lucas's crotch rendering him useless in the fight. Now all that was left was one. She was crafty and figured a way out of the alley without getting either of them hurt.

She and her sister ran down to a park where Rain returned to his human form. The soon-to-be meister fell on the way there and her leg was cut and bleeding a lot.

"I don't know what's going on and I don't want to be involved. Here's your purse sweetie, and good luck the two of you." The friend walked away

"You should go to the hospital," the girl who just saved him said.

Rain looked at her leg and the trickle of blood that started at her hairline. "Maybe you should too."

She smiled, "they're just scratches. You really should go to the hospital."

"They're sick of seeing my face there."

"Well what are you going to do then?"

"Go home, probably take a pain killer or two, and then go to sleep. You?" Rain said with a chuckle.

She shrugged.

"Why did you sister leave without you?" Rain asked.

She looked up at him confused. "She's not my sister. Why did you think that?" she asked.

"I heard her tell Lucas that she was trying to spend time with you: her little sister, away from your fighting parents," Rain explained.

The girl laughed. "She was just using it as an excuse to not dance with him."

She needs a big brother, Rain thought. Or at least someone to be her big brother.

Rain stood up and offered to help her up, "My name is Rain by the way."

As she got up she told him her name was Desmond.

Rain laughed at her. "That's a boy's name," he said.

Desmond laughed. "Rain's not a name," she told him.

"True. See ya Dez," Rain said walking away. He thought he heard her say something but wasn't sure.

He walked home to an apartment building. Went to his room and did what he told Desmond he was going to do. Took two painkillers and was going to go to sleep. As he started to get settled he looked out his window to see Desmond walking into the building. He ran to the front door to see if she walked down the hall. Sure enough she walked down the hall and walked into the apartment across the hall.

Rain walked up to his father who was sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper.

"Dad, who lives across the hall?"

His dad looked up, "Burned off some steam have we, in a fight nonetheless. Mrs. Flint. Why the sudden interest?"

"Does she have a daughter?" Rain asked not answering his dad's question.

"Yes, but she doesn't live with her. She lives out of state with her father. I think Catherine said Nevada."

"Do you know her name?"

"No. All I know is is that it's a boy's name. Is that all?" Rain's dad asked.

"Yeah. Thanks dad," Rain said before going into his room to sleep.

A few weeks later walking into the elevator Rain walked into a girl with black hair and gray highlights. As she bent down to pick up the apples that had fell on the ground he recognized her.

"Dez?"

She looked up.

"Rain?"

Later that year they were walking around NYC together and Rain pulled out a pack of cigarettes, took one out and offered one to Desmond. She smacked the pack out of his hand and flicked the cigarette out of his mouth before he could light it. "What was that for?" he asked annoyed.

"It's not good for your health and if you're going to be my weapon, then you sure as hell better stop smoking!" she shrieked at him.

A nurse that was passing by clapped and said, "you tell him sweetie! Us girls always gotta look after our man's health."

The two watched her walk by and laughed.

"But seriously. Stop smoking."

"Okay."

A year and a half later, the two started to travel across the country to Death City, Nevada to first let Desmond find her 'family' there. One day on a train Rain looked at Desmond and said, "I'm a trouble maker. I'm not sure you would want to be seen with-"

"I ran away from home." Desmond paused. "I ran from my home in Nevada. Then I went to New York by myself. Everyone's standards for me and the people I meet are low. Trust me, they'll love you," Desmond said. She fell asleep on the train quickly after that conversation. While she slept Rain looked at her.

"I'll be your big brother," he said.

Desmond woke up from her nap after the basketball game, "As long as we have each other."

"What was that Dez?"

"Nothing."

Desmond laid back down and went back to sleep.

Rain looked over to her, "I'll be your big brother, I promise."

He smiled.

I give it all my oxygen,
So let the flames begin,
Let the flames begin.
Oh glory
Oh glory…