Chapter Three: Kai: Party Crashing; is there Any Way This Could Go Wrong?
"This is a bad idea!" Maka whispered as we walked up the drive to Death the Kid's mansion. Liz was leading the group of us four girls, with Patty skipping close behind her. Maka and I trailed warily behind the two sisters and did our best to convince them of the idiocy of what we were doing. More and more I wished that I had just bluffed an opinion on my movie preferences and appeased Liz with my vote for The Notebook.
"Come on, Maka! You'll get to see Soul! Besides, I'll bet all they're doing is playing video games and making fart jokes."
"Somehow, I doubt that Crona is making fart jokes." I commented drily, dragging my feet.
Liz paused, "You have a good point."
"And Kid is probably trying to fix a painting…" Patty giggled.
"Or fold the toilet paper…"
"Or straighten the rug….
"Or arrange the refrigerator magnets…"
"Or clean up after Black*Star!" They finished together, cackling at their joke.
My face fell as we grew closer to the front door, each step closer feeling like a step closer to total embarrassment and awkwardness. What exactly were Liz and Patty hoping to accomplish by doing this? I would rather fight a kishin than crash a boy's sleepover.
Seriously.
If a kishin popped out of the bushes right now, I would just throw myself at it.
"You know what?" Liz stopped walking, turning towards the rest of us. The door was literally five feet away from her and I was still hoping that she would change her mind so I could return to my Milk Duds. "We probably should have changed out of our pajamas first."
Patty looked down at her pink pajamas, covered in giraffes, and giggled. Liz and Maka looked slightly more appealing: Maka in her two-piece green set and Liz in a suspiciously lingerie-like babydoll nightgown. I brought up the rear, according to the rules of attractive sleepwear, with my outfit. I looked like I was about ready to go play a game of hoops.
"Oh well!" Patty sang, skipping up to the door and walking inside. "Hey Kid!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, "Liz and I forgot some stuff so we brought the girls!"
"What the hell, Patty! I told you this was my night to have the house to myself!" Kid appeared from the hallway, scowling. Lord Death's son sported a plain black t-shirt paired with a pair of black pajamas pants that were decorated with little white skulls. I snickered at the irony, earning me a gold-eyed glare – as if he knew what I was thinking. He studied me for a minute with his intense gaze and then, out of nowhere, asked, "Is that Black*Star's shirt?"
The blush returned.
"Maka?" Soul joined Kid in the hallway, grinning when he saw his meister. "Hey, cool of you guys to show up!"
"See, I told you this was a good idea!" Liz laughed at Maka's giddy expression.
Slowly I followed the others inside, closing the door behind me and looking around. I had never been to Kid's house before, but the black and white décor was pleasing to the eye. The amount of symmetry was almost too much, however, and I had an intense urge to run around and mess everything up. I now knew why Black*Star was always creating such a mess for Death the Kid: he had some major OCD problems. Hell, I wanted to tip the painting just to see his reaction. It made me wonder just at what expense Kid went to so that his OCD didn't bother him. I felt slightly bad for making fun of the young Death God, then. To be chained by something so trivial when you had the power of Death at your fingertips; it was almost ironic.
"What are you guys doing here?" Black*Star bounded into the room, sliding to a stop in his socks. Crona peeked around the door frame behind him, huge dark eyes darting around the room before he quickly shuffled to Maka's side, twiddling his thumbs nervously. Kid, sensing that we were planning on staying for more than just a quick pick-up, began ushering us all into the living room with a perturbed huff that made me laugh a bit. Quickly, Team Maka settled in the couches, and we all occupied ourselves with playing video games together – as Liz had predicted. The fart jokes, however, were kept to a minimum in the presence of the females.
Sitting by Black*Star's side, utterly dominating the rest of our friends in a game of tag-team Halo, I felt content. It almost seemed like nothing could go wrong. Hell, I know I'm just inviting disaster by saying it, but for once in my life everything felt like it was going well. I had a meister that, despite what I had first thought about him, I was falling for. I had friends, and we were closer than I had ever been with anybody. I was well on my way to becoming a Death Scythe (even though we had failed on our witch hunt a few weeks ago).
For a girl who had lived with a kishin inside of her, it seemed almost too good. Looking around at my friends, a weird feeling began to dominate my stomach again. Something seemed to be hovering on the edge of my perception, something dark and complex. My own madness perked up, aiding my senses as I cast out my own (budding) Soul Perception. Stein had discovered that I possessed this ability during a lesson when I had first come here and since then I had been stretching it to its limit. Today, however, it did its job. Everything was normal in Death City.
It was strange. The last time I had felt like this was last year, during the Exchange Program. Then, however, I had mirrors breaking all around me – enough evidence to send anybody with half a brain into curiosity. Now, I had nothing except for a bitter taste in my mouth and my new sixth sense tingling.
"Kai, is everything alright?" Maka asked, piercing my thoughts.
I grunted, "Huh? Oh, yeah. Just thinking."
"The Games?" Soul interjected with a smirk, his sharp teeth flashing as he blasted another avatar on the screen. "They sound cool."
"Yeah!" Patty cheered, throwing her hands in the air with a giraffe stuffed animal clenched in her fist.
Kid's golden eyes glinted in the low light, fastening on me as if he knew that the Games hadn't at all been what I was talking about, but he also went along with it. "My father has certainly come up with a decent idea this time. I'm rather interested to see how it will turn out."
"I know how it's going to turn out!" Black*Star grinned smugly, puffing out his chest as his character shot Soul's. "Kai and I are going to win! No one can compare to a god!"
"No," Kid scoffed, eyes narrowing, "No one can."
"Take it easy, Kiddo-kun!" Liz patted the young Shinigami on the head, calming his competitive streak as she messed up his less-than-symmetrical hair.
"Yeah, take it easy!" I teased, snickering. "Your defeat will come soon enough!"
The Death God shook his head, fixing his hair and doing his best to look annoyed. I, however, could see the hint of a smile lingering on the corners of his mouth. In the time that I had been here, my skills of people observation had quickly given me the ability to puzzle out Kid, and in turn earn his friendship. Though my inability to be symmetrical gave him a nosebleed every once and a while, our relationship had since lost the tense feelings that had grown after my unintentional betrayal. I was glad that he and I could be friends now, because having a Shinigami as an enemy wasn't something I desired.
"But seriously, I wonder why we're doing it now?" Maka mused, folding her legs crisscross and biting on her thumb nail. "It's been a few months since things have all settled down. Why is Lord Death choosing now to start the Games?"
"Who knows why he does anything?" I muttered, glancing at the screen as, yet again, Black*Star bested Soul. "He's Lord Death, he can do what he wants."
"But there has to be a reason!" Maka insisted, her green eyes full of her trademark determined curiosity. "Kid?"
"My father has a habit of keeping things to himself," Death the Kid shrugged, at a loss at what to tell the meister. "Though I would admit the timing seems odd, the program itself seems like it might be interesting. I'm curious to see who ends up at the top."
Black*Star laughed loudly, nearly dropping his controller in his fit of laughter. "Do you really have to ask? I will!"
"This is serious, Black*Star." I frowned at my meister, nudging him with my shoulder to show him my sincerity. "We don't know what kind of meisters or weapons we'll be facing. Of course, Tsubaki and Snow are going to make it…" Earlier, before we had left, the girls and I had made a call to our friends in Africa and confirmed the Games. Tsubaki and her partner had been invited to participate, and their team of eight had accepted. I was excited to see the black-haired girl, and hoped to patch up our relationship before the Games were over. It was true that we hadn't exactly been on the best of terms last year, what with her love for Black*Star and my being a kishin…
"I was being serious," Black*Star's eyes narrowed, and he turned to look at me, studying my face. My mouth was set in a grim line, my eyebrows low over my eyes in a stern expression. Though I did believe that he and I had the ability to do well in the competition, I felt that being too overconfident was constantly our downfall. It was what had been our Achilles' heel in the witch fight: we had jumped into the match quickly, and without a plan, and before we knew it found ourselves overwhelmed by a witch we hadn't known was so powerful. I was doing my best not to be bitter or angry – or at least not to blame Black*Star – but I couldn't help but hold a slight bit of resentment towards his arrogant ways at times.
"I don't think we can just say we're going to win something like this," I shook my head, not meeting his eyes anymore. "We're strong, all of us are, but you know there's always someone stronger. There's always an opponent we haven't faced yet."
Black*Star leaned away, hurt. "Well… I'm a big star so… they better be ready!"
His response fell flat and made no sense, but the rest of the group pretended our exchange hadn't happened and we all went back to having fun. My worries, however, would not leave me alone. I felt anxious and moody, and soon I found myself driven to the porch in need of some fresh air. As I stepped out into the night, I felt a little bit calmer, and took a seat on the steps.
The door opened and closed behind me, and a figure sat on the steps.
"It's just his nature," Death the Kid sighed, taking in my grim expression. "He means no harm."
I shut my eyes and pressed my fingers into them, resting my elbows on my knees. "I know he doesn't mean any harm, but his arrogance is part of the reason we lost against that witch. And I'm not saying I'm not arrogant, it's just that he pushes the limits sometimes. If we keep walking into fights, completely unprepared, expecting to win, I…" I trailed off, shutting my mouth quickly against my fears.
"You're afraid one of you won't come back?" Kid guessed.
"Yeah," I let out a deep breath, studying the ground before me. "It scares me. Lord Death and Stein both agree that most other meisters wouldn't be able to handle Kishin Blade, and not only that but… Black*Star is…" I searched for the right words, struggling, and then said: "He's very important to me." Blushing, I clenched my fist and reassured myself. It wasn't a confession!
Then why the hell did it feel like one?
And why did Kid look like he was feeling as awkward as I was?
"Have you told him?" He asked quietly, looking up at the stars.
"If he can't tell, he's more stupid than we all thought!" I rolled my eyes, a frown returning as my thoughts turned to the Games again. I was really looking forward to going, but I was worried about the outcome. What would Black*Star do if we lost? Quickly changing the subject, I asked the Shinigami what he thought about the upcoming event. At first, Kid was silent as he thought, and the air was filled with the sound of wind and chirping crickets. When Kid finally spoke I was almost startled, but quickly remembered my companion.
"Black*Star is more resilient than we give him credit for," He rested his chin on his fist, staring out into the night. "I think you're right though. Losing something like this could have quite an impact on his self-esteem. It will be interesting to see how all of this ends."
I snorted, "It might just end up with him in a mental hospital!"
As we laughed, we both fell into our own thoughts, both centered around one thing:
The Games.
(Author's Note: Alright, excuse time: it's been crazy at school, which is such an over-used excuse I feel like a broken record when I say it, but... high school is a royal pain in the arse! Anyways, I also had some major writer's block with this chapter, but I finally got through all the boring filler/fluff stuff, so next chapter we get to start up the plot! Yay! I'm hoping to update soon, but next week is finals week soo... we'll see. I'll do my best, ducklings! Review, favorite, follow!)