(A/N: Lol when I was typing this two-shot in one go, I was thinking of Disney Pixar's Frozen's "Let It Go" while writing this and I was thinking about how adorably irrelevant that song is to this two-shot. Anyways enjoy the second chapter!)
oOo
The black chariot soared from the open crack of the Earth. Instantly when the crack healed, Kid and his two advisors looked all around the barren land for something fresh.
Soul looked in the vineyards, Black*Star looked in the tropical jungle, and Kid looked within some bushes for fruit. It was frustrating, knowing Demeter had barren the land sparing almost nothing since she found out her daughter was taken away. At least she doesn't know it was him who did that.
Kid was about to give up, when Soul and Black*Star were yelling and pointing at something.
Kid, concerned that they could be in danger, rushed to their side, only to find them perfectly fine.
"Are you two pulling my legs or what?" Kid asked, now clearly annoyed, "We have to find fresh fruit!"
"No, we're serious! Look!" Black*Star lifted a thick mat of dead vines to reveal one green branch with one perfectly ripe and juicy and large pomegranate. Kid smiled and quietly praised his two advisors.
Plucking the fruit, he tucked the fruit in his cloak and said, "Now let's go."
"You sure? We can look around more if you want, ouji-sama," Black*Star whispered.
"It doesn't do us anymore good. Come, let's go," Kid whirled around to the chariot and the two got on board.
The ground cracked open near the dry riverbank that used to overflow with water before he kidnapped Maka.
The crack sealed and he flew down to the Death Room to his father.
"Well? Did you find anything?" Lord Death asked.
"We did, honorable father," Kid said.
"Oh now you treat me with respect? What an oddball," Lord Death mused.
Kid glared but then ceased it as he didn't want the fruit to rot under the level of his power. He took the big pomegranate and showed it to his father.
"Good, good, Kid. Now just preserve it and if she avoids food before the end of the year, then ask her to eat the pomegranate. She won't refuse, I think, because she will think it is all right to eat it since it is from Earth," Lord Death praised his son, and Kid smiled. He could make Maka happy as his Queen and convey to her how much he loves her.
"Thank you father," Kid smiled.
"Well go preserve it while I have to write a letter to my annoying brother," Lord Death sighed.
"I'm sorry," Kid hung his head in shame.
"No it is all right. You just remind me of the time I fell in love with Kami, but she didn't fall in love with me. I feel like you are stronger than me to keep your stance, Kiddo," Lord Death smiled.
Kid smiled, before going into a separate room and putting the pomegranate on a high pedestal. Encasing the fruit in high glass walls, he put his hand on top of it and when purple aura and skulls surrounded the fruit, he knew the preservation was done.
He went and closed the doors behind him and said, "Maka, please eat soon."
oOo
On Mt. Olympus, Spirit was consoling Kami.
"Please do not fear, I sent Hades a warning letter, and he will surely respond. He has authority so if he commands his son to do something he will do it."
Kami nodded, and calmed down. She had faith that her daughter didn't eat anything down there.
"Please, Maka, please don't eat anything down there…" Kami whispered.
"I know your daughter is very smart," A voice interrupted her, and she looked at Stein.
"Poseidon…" she uncertainly trailed off. Stein wasn't too fond of complimenting anybody, really.
"I know so. Have some faith invested in her, all right?"
Kami nodded.
"Good. Now according to this data…" Stein moved back to his lecture, making the harvest goddess sulk her head in intense shame once more. Stein was trying to console her so that she doesn't dampen the mood of the meeting. That is why he did that.
oOo
[Nine months later]
Maka was starving. She needed food, and she needed it fast.
Good thing she was an immortal or else she would've died of starvation long before. But she managed to stay strong without food and water from the dead world.
The door opened just in time to reveal her enemy, Death the Kid who says he is in love with her, and yet kidnapped her all for him.
Yet why does she feel so warm and comforted in his embrace and loving words and kind smiles and caresses? Would she want another woman to experience this? Or is he going to dump her for someone else? She doesn't want that to happen, she doesn't want that to ever occur.
But why does she hate him and love him at the same time?
"If you want me to eat food, then I bluntly refuse," Maka's voice wasn't hard with hate like the first day, it was just soft with sadness and longing and some hints of love.
"I know you won't eat anything from the underworld," Kid began, "But won't you eat this pomegranate?"
Maka didn't turn around. Surely the land of the dead had some kind of garden that grew fruits of all types? She shouldn't give in and she shouldn't let her tummy get the better of her. She has to resist.
The bed beside her, dipped, and Maka's heart accelerated and her face heat up when warm arms wrapped themselves around her. They were shaking, and she heard soft hiccups. At first she thought Kid might be doing it for show so she gives in because it is almost rare to see a man cry, and impossible to see a god shed tears. It is unspeakable to think about, lest see.
"You're just trying to make me cave in with those crocodile tears," Maka wearily said, "If I had the energy right now, I would hit you on the head with a book to make you stop."
"I really…really…love you…" Kid gasped as another wave of sobs racked his body. His emotions weren't a show, and it certainly weren't superficial. He never shed tears because they would bring him down, and he would rather kill himself than seduce a lady through tears. He really fell hard for Maka, the soft goddess of spring and a decorous bookworm who believes women should be as equal as men.
Maka froze and didn't say anything.
"I know…it was brash of me to kidnap you…but I fell in love with you really hard. Father thinks this is the only way for me to replace him as Lord Death, but I would give up my high status just to have you with me. Maka please, eat, please drink something. You are so thin you break my heart. If you die, then I have nothing to live for. Please…" Kid sobbed furiously onto Maka's dress, which was the same one she wore in the meadow, had still the fragrance of life and beautiful flowers.
Something inside Maka felt warm.
Someone cared.
She loves her mother and her friends on Earth, but her father basically destroyed her view about men as disgusting little pathetic players that will roll women to the side when they are done using them for their own benefit, a point that Kami repeatedly stuck into Maka's head until she adopted it as one of her principles to keep close to her heart.
Her dress became wet with Kid's tears and she was appalled. No man had wasted their tears on her.
Is this what a weak man looks like?
Maka unconsciously wrapped her thin arms around Kids head and rested it there. She brought them down on the bed and as Kid wept furiously, Maka eyed the pomegranate sitting on the nightstand, waiting to be eaten. It had the perfection of her mother's fruits. Scanning the insides of the fruit with her sharp abilities, she found indeed that it was one of her mom's best pomegranate.
He went out of all this trouble just to make sure she eats something from home?
"You do know if I eat this pomegranate, I will be stuck here, right? Partially in fact," Maka said knowingly, "I would be able to go to the land of the living because the fruit was grown by my mother's hand. I would be able to come here because I ate the fruit here."
Kid nodded, and thought, that instead of making the first morsel she ate from the Underworld, this would be better, now that Maka worded it.
"Do you still want be by your side? I am no elegant lady, Kid," Maka sadly looked the grim reaper in the eyes, "I am no one special."
"You are everything to me. You are worth sacrificing my sleep, health, happiness, comfort, luxuries, and so much more, all for you," Kid's tears spilled freely like blood from a huge gash.
Cupping her delicate face, Kid weakly stroked it and said, "You are so much to me, and I would lose it if you died. You know, if you keep doing this to yourself, even immortals can die."
Maka eyed him in wonder, and said, "Really?"
Kid hiccupped and cried. Maka saw that he was very thin, but not as much as she was. His skin was deathly pale, even paler than his normal fair skin, and dark bags under his eyes.
Maka hugged Kid close and said, "Shh…shh…don't cry…"
Kid wrapped his arms around Maka and cried himself out for the night. When there were no more tears that could be spent, Kid nestled his face into Maka's wet dress front, soaked by his tears. He happily relished the faint fragrance of wild flowers and honey and sugar and everything delicious and delectable, like the land of living. He was cold as winter and she was warm like spring.
"Will you eat?"
"In the morning. Right now I am tired."
"Promise?"
"Only if you promise to stay the night with me."
"I will never leave you Maka. You are the only one I love."
"I love you too."
oOo
Crrnch! Mnnch! Mnnch! Mnnch!
Crrnch! Mnnch! Mnnch! Mnnch!
Crrnch! Mnnch! Mnnch! Mnnch!
Kid wearily opened his eyes to hear little munching voices. Maka was sitting up straight eating the pomegranate as quietly as she could, making Kid chuckle.
"What's so funny?" Maka blushed.
"You, my dear, are hilarious," Kid laughed.
"H-How?"
"You try to eat the fruit like you don't want to make me up."
"Well you did look like you didn't sleep for months, last night. That's why I thought I should keep quiet when I eat. Want some? Mom's fruits are the best."
"No, it is for you," Kid started to be tempted by the tangy smell of the pomegranate seeds.
"You know you want it~" Maka smirked as she raised her shoulders in mock defeat, and began to bring the fruit to her lips in an agonizing pace when Kid snapped and snatched a slice.
"Fine, just one bite."
Kid plopped the tiny heap of seeds into his mouth and when the seeds got crushed in his mouth, his eyes flew open in astonishment. Maka was right. Demeter took good care of her fruits when the world is green in springtime.
"Amazing…"
"I know right?"
"Yeah…"
"The thing that is biting me is…well…how am I going to tell my mom?" Maka asked Kid.
"You can always send her a letter, or let her come here with your permission. You can explain to her that you want to stay here, if you like," Kid said, "Or you can stay six months with her and six months with me."
Maka's eyes lit up and she hugged Kid.
"That seems much better."
oOo
[Two Months Later]
Kami was in Mt. Olympus reading her daughter's letter, telling every detail about what happened the past year, starting from being forced onto the chariot, starving herself for ten months and then eating a pomegranate that she was sure came from the grounds of her fruit patches.
"She…ate…food…" Kami paled.
Then there was one little note that changed her heart.
Mother, though I had gone through all this starvation and pain, I love Death the Kid, son of Hades. He said if his father wouldn't allow him to marry me he would give up his title for me and run away with me. He loves me and proved it when he cried for my health to return. I love him after I realized this and knew you would probably disown me as your daughter.
Please don't hate me or Hades or Kid. They don't have mean hearts. They aren't cruel. They are just despised, mother. Please understand it. Kid loves me very much that he said I can come spend six months with you and spend six months with him. He knows I love you very much.
I will never stop loving you as my mother.
Maka
Kami smiled, and ignored the shocked Spirit behind her.
"He better treat my daughter right," Kami smirked and Spirit gulped and faced her.
"What would you do if he didn't?" Spirit asked.
"Well I would make sure he starves or I would ask Maka to give him a million chops with a book. Which I might add," Kami whispered in his ear, "hurts as much as reaper's chop done by Hades himself."
"What kind of mother are you?" Spirit paled, and Kami shot him an annoyed glare.
"And what kind of father are you? I'm just doing my job so that Maka doesn't get raped and have her virginity taken away by wrong pedophiles like you," Kami glared.
Spirit wept underneath a table and Hera came to Kami with newfound admiration in her eyes and ask, "What shall we do to my husband?"
"Let's let him weep like a baby and then we will think of something, okay?" Kami looked at Hera, who nodded enthusiastically back.
"You too, Hera?!"
"Aw, shut up."
oOo
Kid and Maka walked down the isle after kissing each other to seal their permanent relationship. The dead souls cheered for having a new Queen of the Underworld, and the skimpy skeletons tried their best to bring their bony hands to clap together like living people for the sake of their Queen not getting offended, but Maka smiled at them.
"Do you regret that I fell in love with you?" Kid asked Maka.
"You want a nice hard encyclopedia coming down on your cranium?" Maka yanked her hand out of Kid's warm one and cracked her knuckles.
"N-No dear…" Kid sweat dropped and Maka smirked.
"Then quit asking me mindless questions. But if you want I will answer you one more time. After this, I will hit you on the head with thick books, also known as 'Maka-Chop'," Maka air-quoted her infamous move.
Kid gulped and nodded.
Maka smirked and leaned so that her face was an inch away from her husband's.
"If I regret making you fall in love with me, then I would be a hypocrite," Maka smiled before yanking her face away only to have two hands keep her face there, shocking Maka.
"Why would you feel like a hypocrite?" Kid insisted.
"Aw you know the answer why," Maka stuck out a tongue.
"But I want to hear it come out of your mouth, my Queen," Kid teased her.
"Quit being a royal bum when we're in the hallway, alone."
Kid blushed and didn't move, making Maka sigh.
"I'm getting a head cramp, you know."
"I know that."
"Then if you love me so much, why are you keeping my head painfully locked in one position?" Maka asked her husband.
"Because you never told me why you feel like a hypocrite," Kid insisted.
"Dear son of Hades, if I regret making you fall in love with me then I would be a hypocrite because I fell in love with you," Maka grinned, "And I don't regret it one bit."
Kid beamed a true smile before pulling his newlywed Queen into a long, lingering kiss.
And now everything was complete, now Death found his Life, and the Darkness met his Light, and the cold winter blended in with the warm spring.
-finalmente-