Usual disclaimers apply and as per usual, enjoy your read~
Story begins from an unknown perspective--
"So? What's next?" a calm voice in the darkness asked.
"What does it do anyway?" another, gruff voice inquired.
"Patience," the cold voice calmly said, as if stating a fact. "You will get to see for yourselves in a while. Now, as we planned: let Step Three commence."
"Right!" the gruff voice said energetically, a rustling sound heard in the darkness. And then...footsteps. "Let's go catch us some pre-kishin!"
MAKA----
Soul held her forearm as she tested her sprained foot. Planting it on the floor, she began stretching the limb, twisting and turning it. It felt right. Back to normal.
"Thanks Kim," Maka said gratefully, turning to Kim Diehl, the resident healer. Kim bobbed her pink haired head in welcome. Now...when to start on her ribs?
Her friends were sat around her in the infirmary, visitors that had only known about her condition that Monday morning. Tsubaki was, of course, the one who worried the most, since they were best friends and all. Black*Star was sat on the bed Soul had been on the day before, watching with apathy the scene before him, yawning – luckily, he wasn't as noisy today. Jackie stood by Kim as they looked on at how Maka was faring.
In addition to their group were the two new students, Liz and Patti Thompson, who Kid had left in their care since he had matters to assist in. Although new, the sisters fit in pretty well in the group. Liz was the more mature and liberated sister, as expected from the older one. Patti was a surprise; although she was only a year younger than her sister, she was...very childish, giggling at the simplest thing – cute, they might call it.
As for Soul and the earlier awkwardness between them, he just returned to her room yesterday and, as he had said, he brought food – probably a peace offering of some sort just in case he thought he had somehow offended her with the odd comment. Afterwards, the comment was never again mentioned, somehow a silent agreement that one shouldn't speak of it anymore. They were back to normal.
Truthfully, once she knew who her fiancée was, she had no problem with it. He did though. About her meeting his parents or something... Certainly, they should not be that bad.
Contradicting his words though, were his actions. Yes, she did notice, she wasn't stupid. But blinding her from the subtle signs and signals were her own denial and selfconsciousness. How his touch seemed to be gentler. How often he was touching her. How gently he looks at her, still reflecting each other's gazes and emotions, yet his had another element added. He had kissed her twice, yet both weren't on the lips – even so, this action of endearment is just too important to ignore. He never used to do that...
She felt giddy, smiling to herself uncontrollably. She stifled the urge to laugh out loud in disbelief.
The feeling of his hand on her wrist was warm. Out of curiosity, she wondered what an embrace would feel like.
"Maka?" Tsubaki asked, a relieved smile playing on her features. "You're smiling."
Raising her head, Maka beamed at Tsubaki, her head tipped a little bit to the side. After making an affirmative sound, she said, "Yeah! Kim's done a great job!" She was smiling partly because of what she had said, but also because of her earlier thoughts. Mostly because of her earlier thoughts.
Turning to Soul, she also showed him her goofy smile and in turn, he showed her his sharp grin – of course reflecting her goofiness.
"So, Soul," Jackie questioned from the back, "Why didn't you go on your mission again?"
Kim shushed her. "Jackie. Isn't it already obvious?" As she turned to Maka and Soul, she gave them a mischievous smile – like a Cheshire cat – and it does suit her being one, with the pink hair and all. "He stayed for his princess, of course."
Princess!? Maka swore she exploded from embarrassment then and there. Unbeknownst to her, right beside her, Soul had flushed red. The five girls in front of the two seemed to corner them, observing them wearing cheeky, knowing smiles and devious eyes.
"Ah! It makes sense now," the taller Thompson sister remarked. "I could feel a couple-like feeling coming from these two. I guess my senses were right." Her hand was on her chin, as if speculating, scrutinizing the two embarrassed people.
Maka began waving her arms in front of her, forming an X. "Guys! Guys! It isn't like that!" she forcibly denied, her face beet red. She laughed to hide her trembling voice, filled with embarrassment. "Really!"
"Denial!" squeaked Patti with her childishly high voice.
A bang was heard behind the five girls and they all twisted their heads in shock, only to see Black*Star poised, towering over them all as he stood over a desk, apparently crashing onto it as his usual entrance. "ORA!" he shouted over them all, making his small audience flinch in surprise. "Come on? You girls are so weird, squealing over stupid things. So what if they're together? It's not like they're getting married!"
The scythe meister froze in the middle of her denying motion, her face frozen in an expression of mortification. Well, unknown to Black*Star, he was partially correct. Unless Soul changes his mind about the whole engagement thing, he was still technically her fiancé.
Of course she wouldn't tell them that.
"Now turn all of your attention back to ME!! NYAHAHA!!" The spectators who had all turned to the egotist sweatdropped in chagrin. Well, at least the attention was pretty much drawn from the two. The girls started chastising Black*Star about his idiotic habits of scaring them with his attention-grabbing entrances.
Being ignored by the girls, Maka chanced a peek at Soul to see what his reaction had been only to see him looking at her as well.
His hand on her wrist felt so heavy. But warm.
She grinned at him. He grinned back and then he bent down, his mouth near her ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin. "What Kim said was partly true," he commented simply, his low voice sending unexpected shivers down her spine. What? His staying for her? Or the princess comment?
Since he was near earshot, she quickly decided on a reply. "Well, you make a great prince," she joked after releasing a soft chuckle.
Soul straightened up, his face a mask of incredulity. A lopsided smirk played on his lips as he turned to the scene in front of them and he chuckled softly, almost nervously. Maka only hid a smile of satisfaction from him, the weight of his hand on her wrist being the only thing her attention was focused on.
KID----
No...
No way!
Not with him!
Why did he have to be on this mission with him!?
"Yo, Kid what's up?" asked Liz with a noncommittal tone as she played with her fingernails, not once looking at her meister.
Kid's index finger shot out in front of him in disgust, pointing at what seemed to have been annoying him. The direction he was pointing at landed on the blue haired meister stood ahead of them, a finger buried in his nose as he stared at the Death god in boredom. "That!"
Tsubaki turned around to look at Kid who had squeaked the word loudly in annoyance, a hand shielding her eyes from the glaring brightness from the sun. Patti was down on her haunches, playing with the sand beneath her.
"Oi..." Black*Star said as he took out his finger from his nose, finished with his business as he flicked something unseen into the desert around them. "You should actually be glad that someone as great as I am working with the likes of you. You'll see, I, the real god, will surpass you!" And then he began cackling aloud to the empty background.
They were in Egypt, in the deserts southeast of Cairo. The five had left on the Tuesday, and they had been traversing Egypt's deserts for a day and a half - a headache for Kid since he could see nothing symmetrical amongst the sand dunes and an even bigger headache courtesy of Black*Star. The heat didn't help as well, especially since Kid had insisted that he wear his symmetrical black uniform.
Where was that damn excavation point again?
Here they were, on the mission to gather any kind of information with the only lead being the place that Charles Evans was kept hostage in. The excavation shelter. He recalled that day of the rescue: in the dead of the night, charging in the small and rickety shelter and knocking out the man who was in the middle of shapeshifting into a werewolf. Afterwards they had taken Mr Evans into the closest hospital where he was able to find out from his identification cards that he lived in a town close to Shibusen. He didn't even consider returning to this place until now. Ther only landmark that he remembered from this trip was the...
Ruins. That's right. They better start looking for ruins if they don't want to burn to death and start eating each other.
"I give up!" Kid screamed at Black*Star, his throat hoarse and dry. Summoning Beelzebub, he rode it and started elevating towards the sky.
"AH!" Black*Star started in a flurry of panic, immediately jumping to catch a hold of Beelzebub's tail. "Goddammit! Are you just gonna leave us all here to die!?" Beelzebub's flight was hindered and Kid felt his balance going out of control.
"You idiot! I'm not going to leave!" Kid crouched down, almost sitting on the skateboard, tempted to swat away Black*Star's hands that held onto the flying object. They were still rising despite the weight and unbalance. "If I wanted to leave, then I would obviously take my weapons with me!"
The ninja had been squirming frantically as their ride rose, but he stopped abruptly, catching the Death god's attention. Looking at where the other meister's eyes were directed, he saw what they had been searching for. "That was why I flew up here, idiot!"
The landmark. A silhouette of ruins amongst the bright desert area. They're almost there!
Kid willed the skateboard to float down, slowly making contact with the ground. As soon as Black*Star's feet hit the ground, Kid saw that he jogged straight for Tsubaki. "Come on Kid! I saw someone over there."
The young Death god perked up from the fact. Someone? An enemy?
Kid stayed on Beelzebub and asked the sisters to transform into guns, grabbing them as they dropped from the air. "Black*Star, I'll go ahead. I'll check out who this is."
"You'll spot him. He's pretty big," Black*Star commented seriously as he grabbed Tsubaki's weapon form, dashing ahead of the Death God, heading towards the ruins.
"Hurry up. I'm still not sure if I will be able to handle him alone." Beelzebub zoomed forward, leaving the ninja coughing amidst the blown sand.
-----------
Kid landed and stuck to the crumbling ruin walls, stealthily approaching the centre where he could feel the slight pulsing soul. The person in the ruins didn't seem to have a clue about his presence, which was a good thing – he still wasn't sure if this guy was an enemy or not.
But why was he alone?
"We'll watch your back Kid," whispered Liz in her weapon form as Kid silently cocked both guns.
Kid felt the soul nearing his hiding place and slowly, the figure of a large man appeared beside him. He was great in size, muscular in build, a square object wrapped in cloth trapped in between his arm and side. The man looked down at Kid in shock.
The Death god noticed a tattoo above his left eye instead of an eyebrow – 'NO FUTURE' it said.
It's him! The shapeshifter! The one who he rescued Charles from!
Definitely an enemy.
Kid's gaze quickly flickered to the package in the enemy's arms. Whatever that was, it was probably important.
"Ah!" the big man stuttered with a jolt of recognition, frozen in place giving Kid the advantage.
Swinging the guns in front of him as quickly as he could, he shot several shots consecutively, sand rising up with each shot, blocking both of their visions.
Paper floated everywhere and sank along with the dust.
The large man had disappeared.
What the hell?
"Where is he?" Liz asked frantically, looking around their background from inside her weapon form.
"I didn't see him go hide," Patti screeched, not at all afraid of what could happen to them if they were ambushed.
Kid straightened. "He's...gone." The soul pulse had disappeared.
Walking up to one of the pieces of paper on the floor, he saw that there were several pages with the same scrawl – probably from the same book or from one author. The sisters reverted back to their human forms and started to pick up the pieces of paper left on the floor.
"KID!" Footsteps stopped right beside the Death god and as Kid looked up, he found Black*Star standing in front of him, gasping for air. "What happened? Where was the explosion?"
"Explosion?" the pistol meister asked, wondering what the hell this idiot was babbling on about now.
"There was a bright light so suddenly," Tsubaki said as if recalling the sight. "Pink and purple clashing with one another."
"Ah! The pink one is ours," said Liz, a bunch of papers in her hands. "I don't know about purple though."
"Where's the guy?" asked Black*Star.
"Disappeared."
"Hey Kid-kun!" Patti's playful voice drifted towards them, gaining all of their attention. "Lookie what I found!" Her hand shot out above her from the crouching position she was in.
Taking the piece of paper she was offering, Kid took one look and his brow furrowed. Black*Star, Liz and Tsubaki all peeked at the paper's contents from behind the Death god.
It was a picture.
Of a white diamond. Transparent. The size of a walnut.
A/N: i apologize for the lateness of this one
this week was a busy one and i was pretty much always away from the internet~
anyway, more plot building here and a slice of action~
for those that didnt get the sudden change of scene:
the Maka pov occurs on one day (a monday as i have stated above 8];;)
the Kid pov happens two days after as they had to travel - thats why BS is in both scenes~
right...okay...if everything goes well--
i will be updating on sunday
i'd like to welcome all the newer readers and i'd like to thank everyone for reading up to now~
and for all the reviewers - special thanks to all for sharing your thoughts~
Please dont forget to review~