Thankfully, things started to improve again. After sulking for almost a week, Adrian realised that Brina wasn't going to budge, so he gave Kid a rather gruff and insincere 'sorry' as they passed in the corridor on the way to class. It wasn't the best apology ever, but it was still undeniably what Brina had asked for.

After that, things pretty much went back to normal between them. Brina still felt a little guilty that Professor Stein's project had prevented her from spending much time with the twins, so she made sure to spend at least every lunchtime with them. It seemed to help. Jesse appeared happy enough with the arrangement and even Adrian didn't seem to be quite as surly as he usually was.

Brina was even doing better in class. She'd been practicing fighting using sticks every day after school and even on weekends. The first sticks had long since perished in one of their spars, but Kid had helped to fashion multiple replacements. Her balance was still abysmal, but the practice was doing its job to an extent. She felt she'd been improving significantly. And Kid didn't get annoyed with her anywhere near as much now.

Personally, Brina couldn't believe she'd gotten this far without being allowed to fight with Adrian and Jesse. And it was Kid she had to thank for it. She was amazed that he was still happy to help her practice when he knew how accident-prone she was, especially since the eye-blacking incident. Thankfully, there'd only been a few bumps and scrapes since then - nothing serious enough to give him another embolism.

The frequent practice was actually helping two-fold as well. Brina felt that she and Kid were getting on much better now. She knew that her clumsiness could be annoying, especially in his eyes, and in turn, she found it difficult to overlook his obsessive compulsive behaviour at times. She was glad that they finally seemed to be getting past each other's flaws.

When he'd first started at the DWMA, Brina had been a little afraid of Lord Death's son and his then hostile attitude towards her. Yet now, she found that she actually quite looked forward to their practices. Well, she had... Until Kid had decided that footwork was one of Brina's biggest downfalls.

He'd taken it upon himself to try and help Brina improve on her footing whilst she was fighting. So far, the balance exercises he'd improvised hadn't been very fun. Not to mention highly embarrassing.

"I've had an idea for something you can try," Kid announced, as they reached the basketball court after their classes had ended. It was now their usual practice area whenever it was free.

"I've started to dread hearing those words," said Brina worriedly.

Kid just scoffed at her. "How do you expect to improve if you don't even try?"

"Excuse me? I think all the bruises I have from falling on my butt are proof enough that I've definitely been trying," Brina objected.

"And those bruises suggest that you need to try harder."

Brina scowled at Kid. She may have been getting on a lot better with him lately, but he was still as obnoxious as ever. And it really did bring out a more obstinate side of her that she didn't seem to find with anyone else.

"Now stand back," Kid directed, holding his hand out in front of him, palm facing down.

Brina did as he said and watched in awe as purple and black sparks erupted from his fingertips. She knew that being a grim reaper meant that Kid had some unique abilities that humans did not, but she'd never seen any of them first hand before. It was like some form of magic - it was really quite impressive to watch.

Something materialised on the ground. Satisfied, Kid lowered his hand and the sparks disappeared. Brina stared at the object on the ground in disbelief, sure that her eyes must be deceiving her. "Um, what is it?"

"It's a skateboard," said Kid obviously, looking at her like she was crazy. "What else would it be?"

Huh. Brina hadn't really expected Kid to be one for skateboarding. "Oh. It just all seemed a bit over the top for just a skateboard."

"It's not just a skateboard," countered Kid. "It can also fly."

"Seriously?" Brina's eyes widened. She then felt a sudden sense of foreboding as realisation hit her. "Hey, wait a minute! You don't expect me to go flying on that thing, do you?"

"Of course not. I'm not stupid," said Kid patronisingly. "I just want you to try it on the ground."

"Err, I think I'll pass," Brina decided hastily.

"Skateboarding requires perfect balance," Kid declared, ignoring her.

"Which I don't have," Brina added.

"Which you will have," Kid corrected. "Even if it takes a few falls first."

"I feel like I've already had enough falls to last me a lifetime," Brina grumbled.

"Just try it, will you?" said Kid impatiently. "I'm sure you can at least step on it without injuring yourself."

Brina raised her eyebrows at him. "You have met me, haven't you? I think you're setting your sights a little high there."

"Just get on already."

Still muttering to herself, Brina reluctantly stepped towards the skateboard. She very tentatively put one foot on the skateboard and went to step up with the other. As soon as she put her weight onto her first foot, the board tipped and she half fell, half hopped instinctively off backwards. "Ah!" Thankfully, Kid grabbed her arm to stop her from falling over. His reflexes had definitely been improved since he'd been partnered with Brina. "I told you I wouldn't be able to stand on it!"

"Well, you did step on the back," Kid pointed out. "Of course it was going to tip over. You need to stand in the middle."

"I thought I was!" Brina protested.

"Then you clearly judged it wrong."

After a fair bit of persuading and a few more failed attempts, Kid eventually managed to get Brina standing balanced on the skateboard. She still didn't feel as certain about it as he did though. "I really don't think I like this."

"You're only a few inches off the floor," said Kid exasperatedly.

"Yeah, well, in case you haven't noticed, I fall over enough when I'm on solid ground," Brina pointed out. "Standing on something with wheels just feels like tempting fate to me."

"Well, you'd better get used to it, because you're going to try moving on it next."

Brina stared at him. "You're kidding me, right?"

"It's really not that difficult," assured Kid. "Just put one foot on the ground and use it to push yourself forward."

"I can't," said Brina automatically.

Kid frowned. "Of course you can. You haven't even tried yet."

"No, I really don't think I can," Brina insisted.

Her feet felt like they were suddenly glued to the deck of the board. It had taken her long enough to get both of them on there. Now he wanted her to take one back off? There was no way. This was like kryptonite to her. She was positive that if she moved her foot, she'd fall.

Kid sighed and stepped round so that he was standing in front of the skateboard. He held his hands out. "Here, give me your hands. You're not going to fall."

Now feeling even more nervous, Brina gingerly reached out her hands until they were touching Kid's. He wrapped slender, cool fingers around them. Brina wasn't entirely sure if it helped. If anything, she probably felt worse.

"Ready?" asked Kid.

"Um... No," Brina replied anxiously.

Kid rolled his eyes. "I told you, you're not going to fall. Now just take one foot off the board and try to keep your weight even over both of them."

Brina tried to do as he said, but as she'd guessed, it didn't work out the way Kid had expected. She transferred too much of her weight to the foot still on the board as she tried to put the other on the ground. The skateboard suddenly shot backwards and out from underneath her, sending her crashing forwards quite literally into Kid's arms.

Luckily, Kid reacted a lot quicker than she did. He managed to catch Brina and still stay on his feet. He sighed again. "Are you alright?"

"Um, yeah, I'm fine... Sorry," Brina babbled embarrassedly as Kid helped to steady her. She was way too close to those piercing golden eyes for comfort. She felt the colour rise in her cheeks. "You said I wouldn't fall!"

"Well, you didn't so much as fall as you did throw yourself at me," Kid pointed out.

"I did not!" Brina protested, blushing even harder. "It's not my fault the skateboard shot off backwards."

"It technically is, since I told you to spread your weight more across both feet."

Brina refused to get back on the skateboard after that, no matter how much Kid tried to persuade her. She'd known it wasn't going to be a good idea, but it still hadn't made the ordeal any less embarrassing. Especially the fact that Kid had had to catch her. Urgh.

"Fine," Kid eventually conceded. "We'll use it again when you're feeling more confident."

That'll be never then, Brina thought to herself. "Why don't you just show me how it's done instead?" she suggested. She was still intrigued as to why Kid even had a skateboard, since he hadn't struck her as much of a skater type. She was definitely interested to see what he could do.

Kid didn't need much convincing. "Alright." He put one foot on the board and used the other to propel himself along the basketball court, skating around Brina in large circles.

He made it look so easy. Brina had barely been able to stand on it. "Is that all?" she teased. "You're not gonna show me any tricks?"

Kid raised his eyebrows. "You want me to perform for you?"

"Hey, you're the one who looks like you're eager to do more," Brina pointed out. He did look right at home with it.

Kid actually chuckled at that. "Okay then. You may want to step back a bit."

Brina did as he said. Kid zoomed off round the basketball court again, picking up more and more speed. As he reached the basket closest to her, he neatly ollied the skateboard over the base of the pole. He kicked the board as he jumped, so that it did a whole three-hundred and sixty degree flip in time for him to land back on the deck.

Brina watched, smiling, as he skated back down to the opposite end of the court. This time, he jumped the board directly at the base of the other basket, using the impact to bounce back and spin the board one-hundred and eighty degrees before landing. She really couldn't judge his character like she could with everyone else. He was obviously way better at skateboarding than she'd expected. And he was also clearly in his element right now.

"Watch this!" he called.

Boosters appeared from the trucks of the skateboard and Kid suddenly took off into the sky. Brina stared up after him in amazement. It really could fly. Did they make gadgets like that specifically for grim reapers or was that really just part of Kid's own reaper magic?

No longer hindered by the ground, Kid was able to perform a series of much more elaborate flips and sweeps in the air. Brina watched him in amusement. Putting aside the fact that he was skateboarding in the sky, it was currently impossible to tell that he was a grim reaper, an extraordinary meister or even an OCD freak. Right now, he was simply a typical boy's boy who liked to show off doing tricks on his skateboard.

Kid landed the front end of the board on the basketball ring, grinding round it in a small circle. "Hey, watch it!" Brina shouted up to him, as the basket wobbled precariously. "Don't start going round destroying the court."

Kid heeded her warning. He gave the skateboard another kick, ollied off the basket and landed right in front of Brina with a bump. It made her jump, which seemed to amuse him. "So how was that?"

Brina smiled. "I think someone was showing off."

Kid smirked back. "And I think someone's just jealous."

Brina laughed. "Of course. I could barely stand on it; let alone do any of that."

"Are you sure you don't want to try again?" Kid asked, stepping down from the skateboard and kicking it towards her.

"Positive," insisted Brina. "I think it's safer for the both of us that way."

Kid still wasn't finished with the idea yet, though he decided to let it go for now. They practiced sparring for a little while afterwards, but by then, the sun was starting to set. Kid agreed that they could try again after classes the next day.

Brina couldn't help but worry what he'd have planned for her next. Though as long as it wasn't something that would involve her falling on him again, then maybe she shouldn't complain.

XXX

The continued fighting preparation at least was worth it. Professor Stein organised all of the pairs against each other for practice during the morning classes. Brina and Kid were pitted against Black Star and Blood, which Brina felt was a little ambitious - they were both very competitive meisters.

Yet she managed to hold her own and she only fell over once. That was a definite improvement on before. Kid of course had no trouble, like usual, but at least she hadn't held him back this time. Brina knew she'd never be at the same standard as the young reaper - even with the use of her weapon partners - but she hoped she wasn't quite as much of an embarrassment to him anymore.

Both Professor Stein and Sid noticed that Brina had improved and they commended her for it. "Someone's been practicing," Professor Stein smiled, as he passed by their group. "Good job."

And not long after, Sid added, "Nice moves, Brina. You're getting better."

Brina was positively glowing by the time they broke for lunch. That was the first time she'd been complimented since they'd started this project - not including when Professor Stein had commended her for giving Kid a black eye, because surely that didn't count - and she'd even been praised twice.

When they returned to their classroom for the afternoon sessions, Sid wasn't there. That was usually a sign that they were going to be doing some lesser physical activities - Sid generally only stuck around to help out with the fighting practices. That must mean they had more trust exercises planned.

Oh, great, Brina thought to herself. Since she'd been getting better at the fighting practices, she'd grown to look forward to those and then dread the trust exercises. Some of them were a little too cosy for her liking and occasionally more embarrassing than just falling over her feet. She didn't actually know that this was going to be one of the worst ones yet.

"Now then... You've been teamed with your partners for the last three weeks now. Your fighting skills have been improving and I'm sure you've all been getting used to working alongside each other more," said Professor Stein. "So we're going to try a different trust exercise today. I need you all to come down to the front and stand facing your partner like we did with the vibrations exercise."

The class all filed down to the front of the room and did as he said. Brina wasn't so sure about doing another trust exercise so soon after her embarrassment with Kid the day before, nut if it was going to be anything like the vibrations exercise, then she couldn't help but be intrigued. She could still recall the feel of the intense electric shock she'd gotten from Kid's fingers.

She told herself that she could only remember it so clearly because the idea of sensing soul wavelengths in that way interested her. That was the only reason. Really.

"All of you must hold hands with your partner whilst still facing each other," Professor Stein directed. "Both hands."

"Ew, really?" said Black Star loudly. A few of the girls started giggling and some of the other boys grumbled under their breath. Professor Stein ignored all of them.

"This exercise is to demonstrate the importance of two things between individuals," he continued. "Physical contact as well as eye contact. You are to look only at your partner's eyes and nowhere else. You can blink as normal, but don't allow your gaze to stray elsewhere."

"Aw, what?" The ones who had been griping about the idea were now even more outraged.

"Um, you want us to stare into each other's eyes?" asked Cory, disbelievingly.

"No way, I'm not doing that!" protested Blood, shooting a look of disgust at Black Star.

"You can either do it or you can go and wait outside my classroom," said Professor Stein calmly. "This exercise is as important as any other, so do as I say or you can forget being a part of this project."

Blood huffed to himself, but he didn't say anything else and neither did any of the other students. Brina had barely heard a word any of them had said. They had to hold hands and basically stare at each other? Great. Just great. She'd known this was going to be embarrassing.

She knew that it would be worse for the teams of boys – Black Star and Blood were particularly unhappy about it – but once again, she was very aware of the fact that she and Kid were the only boy-girl team in the class. She just had to remind herself that it was strictly for the project. No need to get so worked up about it, right?

"What are you daydreaming about? Everyone else has already started."

Brina snapped back to attention and looked around. Whether they found it uncomfortable or not, everyone else was indeed already holding hands with their partners. Kid was waiting and watching Brina expectantly, holding both hands out ready.

"Oh! Err, sorry," said Brina, grabbing his hands a little too quickly.

Kid just rolled his eyes. He'd gotten used to Brina being a little jumpy at times. But what he wasn't used to was how unusually concentrated her silver eyes seemed. "There's no need to look so intense – it's just an exercise."

Brina blushed. She hadn't even realised. "Right. Sorry."

"And you don't have to keep apologising. I was just telling you."

"Sorry... I mean okay."

This could not be anymore uncomfortable. Brina could feel heat rising in her face. She was desperate to look down at the floor or even just somewhere else around the room. Anywhere but at Kid. Were her hands sweaty? Could Kid tell that she so obviously wanted to be doing anything but this?

Brina had never been much of a hand-holding person. She'd never really liked anyone enough to think about things like that. But now, standing here and holding hands with Kid, she realised that she actually quite liked it. The churning of her stomach wasn't nausea – it was butterflies.

Oh, this was bad. It was just Kid. She'd spent the last three weeks working with him. So why was this having such an effect on her?

Because he's been growing on you this whole time, a niggling voice at the back of her mind pointed out. You actually look forward to practicing with him now. You admire him. You think he's smart. You think he's funny. You even think he's kinda cute...

"Brina, what on earth are you doing now?"

Brina suddenly realised that she'd forgotten the exercise entirely and had been scrunching her eyes closed tight, trying to clear her head. She'd never understood the phrase 'battling with yourself' quite so literally before. She quickly opened her eyes to find Kid staring at her, looking puzzled. She'd never seen him with that look on his face before. It really was cute.

Brina felt even more colour rush into her cheeks. "Err, I, err... think I have something in my eye," she improvised.

Kid frowned. "You do? Let me see..."

Still not letting go of her hands and breaking the exercise, Kid pulled her even closer so that he could inspect her eyes properly. Brina suddenly felt like she was about to have a heart attack. This was way, way too close for comfort. She automatically averted her gaze towards the floor.

"Brina, you need to look up so I can see," Kid prompted her impatiently.

Great. This clearly hadn't been the best lie to go with. Brina reluctantly looked up, silver eyes meeting golden. Up close, she could see that Kid's eyes were actually two different shades of gold. It really was quite something.

She suddenly felt more relaxed. It wasn't like Kid could read her mind – he had no idea what she was thinking. He wasn't trying to make her feel uncomfortable. He was just trying to help her. Like he'd been doing for the last few weeks. He really wasn't anything at all like Brina had originally expected.

"Okay, guys; you don't need to stand that close to each other," came Professor Stein's amused voice.

Brina abruptly dropped Kid's hands as she jerked back away from him. Kid did the same. Circa and Kera, who were next to them, couldn't help but notice the sudden movement and started giggling. The brief moment of calmness gone, Brina could feel her face growing hot again.

"Brina said she had something in her eye," Kid explained hastily. If Brina didn't know any better, she'd have said that Kid was embarrassed by the interruption too.

"Hmm, you don't say..." Professor Stein studied Brina's face. "Do you want to go and check it in the bathroom?"

"Yes please," Brina squeaked quickly, jumping on the opportunity to get away from the classroom.

"Alright then. Just try to hurry back. This exercise is more important than you probably think," Professor Stein smiled knowingly.

Brina didn't even bother trying to decrypt that – instead, she concentrated on escaping from the classroom as fast as she could. She headed to the girls' bathrooms like Professor Stein had suggested, just in case anyone saw where she went. And at least she'd be able to slap some water on her cheeks to try and cool off.

It turned out that wasn't enough, however. Brina ended up splashing the whole of her face and even her neck and shoulders with cold water. She stared at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were still pink, even though she'd been loitering in the bathrooms for the last ten minutes.

What was she playing at? This was just getting ridiculous now. Sure, some of the past trust exercises had been embarrassing too, but she'd never felt the need to literally run away from Kid before. The whole hand-holding thing had just thrown her off. Not to mention the cringing skateboard fandango from the day before.

She knew she had to get back to the classroom. Ten minutes was certainly more than enough to remove imaginary dust from her eye, but it was still very reluctantly that she trudged back after drying herself off.

"Everything okay?" Kid asked when she quietly slipped in through the door in an attempt to be inconspicuous. It clearly hadn't worked. He was standing at the edge of the classroom, whilst the other teams were still continuing with the exercise.

"Err, yeah. It's fine now," Brina lied, as she joined him tentatively.

Kid suddenly frowned at her. "What have you been doing?" He reached out and caught a strand of her hair between his fingers. It was damp. "Your hair's all wet."

Brina felt her heart sputter. When had he gotten so comfortable around her? "Oh, err, I was just washing the, um, dust out of my eye."

"Ah, Brina, welcome back." Professor Stein sidled up alongside them. "How's the eye?"

"It's fine," Brina repeated, whole-heartedly wishing she'd never started the whole thing. Her usual clumsiness already drew enough attention to herself as it was.

"Good," said Professor Stein, satisfied. Brina suddenly felt like she'd given the wrong answer. "In that case, you two can carry on with the exercise along with the rest of the class."

Brilliant. Brina could hardly find another way out of it now. She and Kid joined the rest of the class and resumed their positions from before. Brina may have wasted ten minutes with the fake 'dust in eye' story, but it clearly wasn't enough. The exercise still seemed to drag on forever.

She tried really hard to occupy her mind with random things. Anything. Pizza toppings, cherry soda, penguins, biscuits, the new curtains she'd just put up very badly in her apartment... But no matter how obscure the topic, it couldn't completely distract her from drowning in gold.

To her relief, Kera eventually voiced the question that kept visiting Brina's mind. "Professor? What exactly is this exercise supposed to do?" Several other people murmured their agreement, showing that they'd been thinking the same thing.

"Good question, Kera," said Professor Stein, clearly pleased that somebody had asked. "Now there are quite a few people here who can see the souls of others – myself included. And you'd be surprised at the physical results you can see from people's souls with an exercise like this."

"So wouldn't it be beneficial for those of us who can see souls to observe the results as well?" Maka piped up. She still didn't break eye contact with Casper, even though her words suggested that she was very intrigued to do so.

"Maybe we can try that another time," Professor Stein smiled to himself knowingly. "But for now, I'm the only one who needs to see the effects of this exercise."

Professor Stein's answer only made the reason for the trust exercise sound even more mysterious, causing several of the students to start muttering to each other again. By the end of the lesson, however, everything suddenly became all too apparent.

"Now then," Professor Stein announced, after telling his class that they were finished and free to relax. "As I said at the start of the lesson, you've been practicing in these particular partnerships for the last three weeks, but now we're going to make a few changes."

"What do you mean?" asked Kilik.

"I mean that even though you didn't know it, the last three weeks have been another trial," explained Professor Stein. "Your teams were decided based on some initial decisions by myself and Sid. Now that we've seen how you work together, we can use that to designate some of you even better partners."

"What?"

Half of the class started talking at once – some of them conversing between themselves and others trying to ask Professor Stein more questions. Brina felt like the bottom of her stomach had just dropped out. He was going to change some of the teams? But who? Most importantly, were her and Kid going to be split up?

"But when we started the project, you said these teams were the ones we'd be staying in!" Ox pointed out.

"I lied," said Professor Stein brightly. "I knew that if you thought these were the partners you'd indefinitely be working with, then we'd see some of your best attempts to get along. This way, we've been able to get an even better idea of which of you are well-suited to each other... and which of you don't mesh quite so well."

This time, the classroom was silent. Everyone was shocked to find out that the whole project so far had just been another test. And even if Professor Stein did change the teams again, would that still be the final decision? Or would he do the same thing all over again until he was completely satisfied?

"Now don't get me wrong," Professor Stein continued. "I don't expect many of my original decisions to be incorrect. Not all of your teams will be changing. This exercise has just provided me with the final results I needed to know what choices need to be made."

"So which of us are switching already?" asked Black Star impatiently.

Professor Stein smiled. "Well, it wouldn't be very fun if I told you that now, would it? I'll have a last discussion with Sid about the changes and we'll announce them at the end of the week. Class dismissed."

Still muttering to each other, the students started to file out of the classroom. Brina stayed frozen to the spot. She couldn't believe it. Her and Kid had been getting along so much better lately. And her fighting had even been improving. But was there something else that might still count against them? Could this actually be their last week of working together?

She chanced a look at Kid. He hadn't moved either. He was staring straight ahead – he looked just as surprised as Brina felt. Her stomach twisted painfully. She wanted to be his partner still. She didn't want anyone else. She wouldn't be able to do as well with anyone other than Kid – she just knew it.

Who else would have thought to give her sticks to practice with as substitute weapons? Who else would shove her on a skateboard in an attempt to improve her balance and still catch her when she inevitably fell off? It was quite ironic really - when her and Kid had first been paired up, she would have given anything to have been swapped to a different partner. Now she couldn't imagine anything worse.

Brina bit her lip hesitantly. "So what do you think?" she asked Kid quietly.

Kid regained some of his composure. "I think we'll be fine," he said simply. "We shouldn't have to worry."

But he didn't sound very sure. And Brina certainly wasn't either. But they'd find out the result in a few days either way. Whether they liked the final decision or not.

XXX

Author's Note!

Ahh, bet nobody saw that one coming! Stein, you bastard ;D I've been planning this idea out for a while now. Not only does it through a bit of a wrench in the works for Brina (pardon the title pun) it also gives me a chance to move some of the OCs around.

As you know, I've taken on quite a few OCs from various people for this story. And some of those people are so clearly grateful that they haven't bothered to review from day one. See, now this is something I try to avoid with all of my stories. I don't want to take on characters from people who just jump on the opportunity, but never actually care about the story. Your characters aren't doing me favours - I can quite easily create them on my own. I just like to make it more fun for other people and see what characters THEY can give me.

This doesn't apply to all of you. Some of you have been fantastic, loyal reviewers and I can't thank you enough. Wolf718 and Charlotte Faraday especially 3

So now I've come to the stage where I'm going to be giving some of the other OCs much bigger parts. Obviously there are too many to do this for ALL of them. So I'm changing the pairs round so that the ones I want to play with are going to be together and then the ones who belong to people that have forgotten about the story will also be together and will just remain as stock characters.

It may sound like I'm being a bit mean, but it's really not asking a lot for you to just review every now and then to show that you're at least READING the story still. So again, thanks to everyone who's still been supportive. It will most definitely pay off for your characters now that the story's really coming into effect ;)