Chapter Seven: Kai: Surprising Twists; The Final Sixteen Are Modeling?
The next morning I woke up with more sore muscles than I had ever before acquired just by fighting. With a groan I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling for a while, trying to catch my brain up with the rest of me. It was difficult to move, let along think. After a moment I gave up and shut my eyes, instead relishing the warmth of my blankets and quietly praying that Black*Star would be as comatose as I was and stay in bed – or at least silent.
A knock came softly at the door a few moments later, surprising me. "Come in?"
Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Black*Star shuffled into the room sleepily and came directly to the bed, crawling over me and ignoring my protests as he curled into a silent ball between me and the wall. Blushing furiously, I stared at him for a long few minutes before I finally just accepted his presence and tried to relax. That, of course, was a losing battle. I simply couldn't get my mind to leave Black*Star while the fit boy was lying right next to me – in a bed no less. Call me a pervert, but my hormones just wouldn't allow a situation like this to go unnoticed. The red in my cheeks deepened and I shook my head, embarrassed.
I got to my feet, sparing the sleeping boy one last glance before I moved out of the room. My bare feet touched the cool wood and I traced the white walls with my hands, sleepily following their parameters until I reached the kitchen. Staring into the cupboards, I wrinkled my nose at our lack of food, but quickly shot down my plan of heading over to Maka and Soul's for something. The Golden Duo had worked out their issues, but things were still tense around the Alburn and Evans apartment. That was something I would rather avoid first thing in the morning. With that figured out, I sighed and decided that for once in my life I would actually attempt to cook something for breakfast.
We had just survived round one of the Games, after all. It would be like a celebration.
It started with the eggs: what was supposed to be a batch of eggs over easy quickly became dry scrambled eggs after several mishaps concerning the yolk and then the burner heat. Next, the waffles decided that spontaneously combusting was a good way to commit suicide. One or two turned out alright, after I had put the fire out. I just hoped that they wouldn't taste too much like the chemicals in a fire extinguisher.
Placing my sub-par breakfast on the table, I stared at it for a long few moments while I grew more and more embarrassed. Even from afar you could see the eggshells in the crumbling mass of yellow. The few waffles that had survived were more crisp than they had right to be. Even the orange juice, which I had poured out of a carton – how could that go wrong? – looked too damn watery to even pass as orange-flavored water. While I contemplated the possibility of my being cursed, I quickly began trying to get rid of the evidence of my disgusting breakfast while calling a café down the street and ordering two breakfasts to go. It was sneaky and underhanded, but at this point I was just glad that we were going to eat this morning.
After rushing down to the café and picking up out food, I came back to discover Black*Star already seated at the table, motionless and staring at a plate of what looked suspiciously like my failed attempt at eggs. I bit my lip, noticing the fork in his hand, and realized that I had left some eggs in the pan…
"You ate some of them, didn't you?" I winced.
He nodded numbly and sat there quietly as I stole his plate and unceremoniously dumped the contents in the trash before setting the to-go container in front of him, opening it up and letting the delicious smell of food cooked the right way escape. The bluenette nearly forgot a fork as he began shoving it into his mouth, his eyes slowly gaining a bit of light to show that he was waking up. It was pretty adorable. The more he woke up, the more he gained back a bit of the excitement that he'd had yesterday. By the time I had swallowed the last of my own food he had already ran to his room, gotten dressed, and was calling the gang together for a basketball game.
Chuckling slightly, I stretched and proceeded to go change into my own clothes – ones that I could be comfortable in no matter what we ended up doing. I grabbed a random tank top and threw on a pair of black short shorts underneath it, donning my black high tops and pulling a black sweatband around my left wrist. When I left my room, pulling my blood-red hair into a high, waving ponytail while leaving my bangs down, I almost ran face-first into Black*Star's chest.
"Hey! So we're all going to meet down at the courts in a few minutes and… isn't that my tank top?"
I glanced down and began blushing furiously, realizing that it was indeed. Not only that, but my black sports bra was showing quite a lot more than I had anticipated, and you could see the uncovered skin of my torso through the armholes when I moved.
"Ah, hell, I'll just go change. I don't know why I grabbed this one! I mean, I washed it so I could give it back to you because I know you don't like doing laundry and I was grabbing something to play basketball in and… fuck, this is awkward!" Spinning on my heel, I went to go back into my room until Black*Star caught my wrist and turned me back towards him.
The assassin was bashfully rubbing the back of his neck with his freehand, a light blush on his cheeks. "Wear it. It looks… okay."
Gnawing on my lip in a way that I hoped was more 'I am trying to flirt and be cute' than 'rat biting on its own tail', I nodded. "Okay."
For good measure, I grabbed my wristwatch so that we could back on time later this afternoon. Lord Death had asked that the sixteen who would be going on to the next round return to the Land of Mirrors at what was four p.m. our time, so as long as we were back before then I didn't mind much what we did. Walking with Black*Star down the street was relaxing even if he was as rambunctious and fidgety as hell. The bluenette locked his hands behind his head and stared ahead, muttering to himself as we walked.
"Black*Star?"
His eyes slid over to me and he 'humphed' in acknowledgement. For a moment I paused, looking at him and not quite knowing what I wanted to say – or how I wanted to say it. How was it that he had matured so quickly? Or maybe maturity wasn't what it was, but all the same, something had changed within him. We had grown older, I guessed. When I had first met him… wait. "How old are you?"
"You don't know how old I am?" he asked in confusion, halting while I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, blushing, and trying to figure out how it had escaped me this long. It hadn't seemed to matter how old he was. "I'm almost fifteen, why?"
"Almost… fifteen?" I squeaked. I could feel the blood draining from my face as I stared at him with wide eyes. He didn't seem that… well, sometimes he did seem that young, but for the most part I thought he was the same age as I was. "I'm a cougar!"
"A cougar?" Black*Star's face screwed up in confusion as he stared at my nervous breakdown. "What the hell are you talking about?"
I pressed both hands to my face in embarrassment. "Black*Star, I'm turning seventeen. That makes me a whole two years older than you…"
"So?"
"So? If we were normal people, in normal high school, we would barely know each other!"
Black*Star scoffed, "I'm such a big star, I doubt you wouldn't know me!"
Rolling my eyes, I turned away. I didn't know why it bothered me so much that I was two years his senior, but it did explain a lot. Like his strange naivete, or his subtle stupidity. The cocky bastard had barely had enough life experience to crack through his huge ego, yet at the same time he, like many DWMA students, had seen so much that we couldn't really be called 'children' anymore. We were more than that, and stronger than that.
"Have you ever thought about what you're going to do after the DWMA?"
My question seemed to take Black*Star by surprise. He quickly recovered: "Well, a big star like me is gonna' be a three-star meister for sure!"
"After that," I sighed, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and furrowing my brow. "I mean, we can't spend our whole lives hunting down kishin. Don't you want to do anything else?"
"There's nothing else," Black*Star laughed. "I'll defeat god and I'll be a meister. That's all a big star like me needs!"
I sighed slightly, studying his assured stance from the corner of my eye, and then decided it would be best to just keep walking. For the remainder of the time my mind wandered, full of questions that I had never bothered asking. Was there ever going to be more to life than the DWMA, fighting, and kishin souls? It wasn't as if I was dissatisfied with my life, just that I had never stopped to question what I was doing with it. There had never really been much of a choice for me. Once I had awoken from my kishin state, I had been sent straight to the DWMA, and after that paying for the sins that I felt I had committed was the most important thing to me. Now… different things were beginning to gain more importance. The safety of my friends, for one, as well as my relationship with my meister (which was chaotic at best) were both things that I was starting to appreciate more and more as I stayed with Black*Star, Maka, Soul, Kid, Patty, and Liz.
I still had so much to learn.
"Hiya!"
Lord Death's large, blocky hand waved at us enthusiastically as we exited the mirror closely after Kid, Liz, and Patty. I blinked, slightly overwhelmed by his sudden movement. Beside me Black*Star lets out a yelp and jumps backwards, stumbling on his own feet and landing hard on his ass. I snickered lightly when he shot to his feet, roughly shoulder-bumping me with a teasing grin.
"What exactly are we all here for, father? The next stage of the competition isn't until next week. Shouldn't you be allowing us to rest?" Kid's golden eyes reflected his bored tone, and besides him Liz and Patty stood symmetrically on either side. Those three made quite the trio!
"Well, Kid, you see: a competition like this is always good for the reputation of the DWMA! So I've decided to publicize it as much as possible!"
"Won't that distract some of the competitors?" I frowned.
"What Lord Death is trying to say is that he's making money off of selling merchandise." Stein came up behind the Shinigami and adjusted his glasses. My favorite professor was wearing his typical lab coat with a few dark splotches towards the left of his chest that looked suspiciously like the blood of whatever he had been dissecting recently.
Black*Star jumped to the front of the group, striking a victorious pose. "Well everyone better get out their wallets, because with a big star like me they'll be spending everything they have!"
I facepalmed, smacking him upside the head while I walked past to follow Lord Death and Stein. The two older men had already began leading their way down the hallway. They still hadn't answered Kid's question but I had a feeling that they had done so purposefully. For some odd reason I felt like whatever it was, it was going to be out of our comfort zone – even for us as DWMA students.
"Lord Death, what exactly are you going to have us do?" Warily I eyed the halls we were passing through, some that I had never seen before, as Kid's eyes grew wider with each passing second.
The shadow of a Death god continued to bounce down the hall, giggling lightly. "A photo shoot, of course!"
A… photo shoot?
"What the hell?" Kid exclaimed, stopping. Patty bumped into him roughly and it caused the rest of us behind them to stumble into each other. "Father, this is ridiculous! No self-respecting student of the DWMA would want to take part in such a-"
"Yay, pictures!" Patty cheered.
The young Shinigami let out a noise of frustration before turning away from the group, but not before I could see the angry blush sprawled across his face. Even though I was no less pleased by this turn of events I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction.
Golden eyes glared at me as if they knew that I was silently making fun of them. I shrugged in response, sniggering along with my meister. Black*Star started running his mouth about how they were sure to sell a lot of stuff with his face on it. "A big star like me is sure to attract a lot of sales!" He guffawed.
Rolling my eyes, I shook my head in amusement. The ego on that boy had no limits, it seemed.
Then, I let out a gasp. One second we had been walking through the hallways of Lord Death's home in the Land of Mirrors and the next the sun was bearing down at us, smirking, and an abundance of golden sand led to crystal waters. The beach was an amazing, welcome – though surprising – sight. It had been ages since I had been anywhere near the ocean – other than our fight with Calypso, but that didn't exactly count.
"I believe you'll find the proper swimwear in those tents over there." Lord Death gestured towards a pink tent – for the girls – and a blue tent – for the boys – nearby. "Now let's have fun!"
With that, the black-clad Shinigami bounced energetically over to where the thirteen other competitors were milling about, already in their suits. Some, like Tsubaki, waved cheerfully while others either stared at them with thinly veiled hostility or arrogantly ignored us. A spark of anger lit in my stomach when I saw Merle lounging on a towel in a rather revealing set of swimwear. As we all made our way towards the tent she waggled her fingers in our direction, but something told me it wasn't for me.
Beside me, Black*Star blushed. On instinct, I punched him on the shoulder before stalking into the pink tent and letting the flap close behind me. Set up all around were racks of man different types of swimsuits, though most were designed to be overly cute and, in some cases, skimpy. With an angry huff and narrowed eyes I scoured the room for something that wasn't going to leave my less-than-plentiful assets hanging out all over the place. With a triumphant shout, I held up the DWMA school-issue one piece just as Liz and Patty walked in. What ensued was a brief moment of myself, staring at them in slight fear as they raised an eyebrow and shook their heads before denying me my relief: "What the hell are you doing?"
"I-I'm picking out a swimsuit!" I said weakly, clutching the fabric to my body as the two looked at each other before the two sisters began smirking evilly.
Liz looked at me, "Patty subdue the target while I try and find something a little more… eye-catching. And get that god-awful one piece away from her!"
"Alrighty!" Patty cheered, sprinting over to me. I did my best to run away, adrenaline sparking through my veins, but the shorter blond girl tackled me to the ground and wrestled the swimsuit from my hands, holding it high above my reach.
Kishin, I could face. To an extent, they were less complicated than these two plotting, conniving, boy crazy girls who were about to force me into looking like a whore. I shut my eyes tight and held my breath, wondering if I could just asphyxiate myself and skip the whole ordeal. Also, I wished Maka were here. The meister would have been a great ally in this particular conflict.
"Why aren't you afraid of me like you're afraid of Maka?" I griped, keeping my eyes shut tight.
"You're a big softy, that's why!" Patty giggled. "Like a teddy bear!" She squeezed me into a hug and my eyelids slid back, my eyes nearly popping out of my head.
Liz made an enthusiastic whoop and I heard her footsteps approach quickly. My eyes widened, for a different reason, as she held up the swimsuit that she had chosen for me to wear. Before I could even say a word she threw it at me, Patty tossing the one piece towards her. A pair of scissors dashed my hopes of gaining it back as she cut out the chest area. Now… I had no choice.
Lying in my hands was a rather plain black bikini. It wasn't too revealing – no, that wasn't why I was against wearing it – and it had a halter top that seemed sturdy enough. The bottoms were a pair of short board shorts with a grey drawstring, so my ass would be covered up satisfactorily. No, what bothered me was on the left cup of the top: a bold gray star. Hell, if I had been partnered with anyone else it might have been super cute to me, but Black*Star's star tattoo was something that I had seen Tsubaki, his past weapon, also emulate on her uniform. For me it seemed as if wearing this was almost like… I was claiming him or something. Or trying to impress him.
Which, yes, would be a bonus but…
"Just put it on, it's not as big a deal as you think!" Liz rolled her eyes.
"Then why are you forcing me to wear it?"
"Because it's funny to force you into doing things you don't want to! Now put it on!"
"No!" I yelped.
Five minutes later, I stepped out of the tent with anger. Stomping, I ignored the gaping faces of my usual teammates and stalked towards Tsubaki instead, who waved me over when she saw my discomfort.
"Hey, Tsubaki." I sat down grumpily, nodding silently to Snow who sat next to her. The dark-skinned boy looked slightly confused by my irritation, but I did my best to ignore his attention.
"Hey Kai, I like your suit!"
I huffed, "Don't talk about it."
"Is it about this?" The dark haired beauty tapped her chest with a small smile.
My blush was enough to answer.
She laughed lightly, in good nature. "I understand. I remember the first time I started wearing it. I was…" she paused, thinking. "Scared, I suppose. That I was being too forward. But Black*Star was really excited about it, and I'm sure he'll feel the same about you wearing it now."
I nodded, surprised that her words were actually easing my stress. Looking over at my meister, I could feel that her words were true. After giving her a small, tentative smile I got to my feet and began going over to him where he was playing volleyball with a few others. At the moment I glanced over, he jumped up and aggressively spiked the ball across the net, his wavelength crackling like electricity through the air as it flew. My feet carried me quickly towards him, and he turned towards me with a wide grin, flushing slightly as he saw me in my slightly exposed state.
His grin faltered slightly as he saw the star.
"You're…" Black*Star trailed off before breaking into a wide grin. "I like it."
"The suit, or the star?" I smirked.
"All of it."