"Absolutely perfect," Kid said, admiring the symmetry of his living room. He had just finished shifting a portrait back in place whilst Liz and Patti lounged on either of the couches.

"Kid, you've checked the same painting twice," Liz said. "Is something wrong?"

"Aren't you tired from all the training at school?" Patti agreed, slouching over the arm of the other sofa tiredly.

"I want it to be perfect all the time," Kid insisted. In truth, he was trying to distract himself from the rapidly occurring darkness within the school. The thing with the Keshen was really getting to him. "I'm going to check the portrait in the hallway."

Witch's Tears: Am I Undone?

Halfway up the stairs, he heard beautiful music floating amongst the second floor. He grinned and went out of his way to the music room. The teal-haired witch was seated at the piano, playing a new piece. The tune was slower, broken; melancholy compared to the other songs she played. Kid sat down quietly beside her.

"I thought you'd come here," he said. "It's been so hectic lately, and you never seem to unwind."

Bernkastel stopped playing, and Kid turned to her curiously. Crystalline tears fell onto the ivory keys as the girl sniffled. Kid frantically wrapped his arms around her; he wasn't prepared for comforting her.

"Please don't cry," he said. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's not you," she whispered. "It's just…" she began sobbing. "There's so much that I'm not telling you, and all of it hurts. It hurts like you wouldn't believe!"

"Shh," he murmured, rubbing soothing figure-eights on her back. "It's okay. Is this why you wanted to be alone?"

Bernkastel nodded.

"Listen to me, Bernkastel," Kid said, pulling away. "It doesn't matter if you're a witch or not. No matter what happens, we are your friends and we're here for you."

Bernkastel bit her lip to keep from crying harder. The pain in her soul gave a violent jolt and she whimpered, clutching at her chest. Kid put a hand over hers and drew her closer. She leaned into him and he laughed gently.

"It's alright. Come on, it's about dinner time. Would you like to help me?"

Bernkastel nodded, eager to distract herself. She walked downstairs and into the kitchen, immediately rooting around in the drawers and cabinets for food.

"I guess you're taking over," Kid said with a grin. She paused to nod at him before reaching into the refrigerator for thawed steak. Kid watched from the doorway, trying to fathom what she was trying to cook. She picked at the vegetables and such, bringing out potatoes, carrots, onions, and beef broth. She put a pot on the stove to slow-cook the steaks in the broth.

"Oh, are you making pot roast?" Kid asked. "Would you mind if I helped?"

Bernkastel waved him over and handed him a knife and cutting board. She had a cutting board of her own to cut the other half of the vegetables. Kid couldn't help but admire her respect for his obsessive compulsive disorder. He began cutting whatever she gave him into precisely one-inch pieces, oblivious to Bernkastel rolling her eyes behind him.

"Um… mushrooms?" Kid wondered out loud as Bernkastel piled the said vegetable next to his cutting board. "I didn't know mushrooms went in pot roast."

Bernkastel put a large bottle of teriyaki sauce beside the mushrooms and nodded seriously. She moved to her own cutting board and began chopping onions. Kid looked back at the pile of mushrooms. Wait… if there were this many mushrooms, the delicate balance had to be maintained by carrots. There must be an equal amount of carrots… but there weren't very many carrots.

"Where did you even get these?" Kid asked her irately. Bernkastel paused for a second, shrugged, and continued cutting. She held her palm out, and a mushroom grew from a veil of teal sparks.

"Really, Bernkastel?" he asked. "How many mushrooms do you need for a single pot roast?"

Bernkastel raised her head, setting her knife down and counting off of her fingers. After losing count, she shrugged again and snapped her fingers. Her knife began floating on its own, chopping onions into perfectly symmetrical wedges. Kid sighed.

"Well, I see you have this all taken care of," he said, turning out into the hallway. "Ish… I'm going to tell Liz and Patti that they don't need to worry about dinner."

Bernkastel nodded superficially, pouring teriyaki sauce over the steaks. Kid walked to the living room.

"Girls, Bernkastel's making dinner," he announced.

"Seriously, Kid?" Liz asked. "You made her cook for us?"

"She wanted something to distract herself. Besides," he dropped his head. "She's cooking at her own will. The amount of mushrooms that she's using and amount of carrots is totally out of balance. She's lucky I don't correct her."

"That's amazing, Kid," Liz said dismissively, turning back to filing her nails.

"I'm going to call Maka," Kid sighed, putting his hand against his forehead. "She's probably worried. You two have no appreciation for symmetry."

Soul Eater

"Soul! Soul! I can't find her anywhere!" Blackstar yelled in panic.

"This is really bad!" Soul said, banging his head on the door frame. "If Maka knows that I lost her, she'd be so mad!"

"What are you boys up to now?" Tsubaki asked, walking into the apartment through the front door with Maka. They had gone out for a little girl time earlier and were just returning.

"What would I be mad about?" Maka asked. The two boys froze. "Where's Bernkastel?"

"Uh… nowhere…."

"Soul?" Maka growled dangerously.

"Yeah?"

"You lost her, didn't you?"

.

.

.

"You idiot! You were supposed to be watching her! Where is she now?"

"How the heck am I supposed to know that?" Soul demanded. "I'm the one who lost her!"

"This is terrible!" Maka sobbed, thinking of the worst that could have happened to the witch girl. She collapsed against the wall. "She could have gone after the Keshen by herself or worse! What if she never comes back? AND IT'LL BE ALL MY FAULT!"

"There, there, Maka," Tsubaki soothed, rubbing her friend's back. "I'm sure she's around here somewhere. Blackstar, where is the last place you saw her?"

"Uh… last Saturday at the basketball court," Blackstar replied.

"Blackstar!"

The telephone began to ring and Maka reached up from her spot on the floor to answer it.

"Hello? Lord Death?" she rejoined. "I'm a failure. I lost Bernkastel."

"Maka? What are you talking about?" Death the Kid asked. "She's over here."

"She's what? Kid, that's wonderful!" Maka cried, leaping to her feet.

"Why don't you come over? We're about to have dinner."

"What's this? You also made her dinner?" Maka gasped quietly, tearing up slightly.

"Eh… sort of," Kid muttered, glancing around the corner to see Bernkastel dumping more mushrooms into the pot than science would physically allow.

"Alright, we'll be right over," Maka said. She was completely calm now. "Thank you so much, Kid." She hung up and turned to the others. "Good news; Bernkastel is over at Kid's place and we're all invited over for dinner."

"Oh, that's good," Tsubaki sighed.

"And Soul," Maka said.

"What?" Soul asked calmly, thinking he was safe. Maka slammed a book down on his cranium.

"YOU JERK!"

"I never knew you could cook like this, Bernkastel," Soul complimented as they ate dinner.

"Soul, you know she does half of the cooking at home," Maka whined.

"Oh, does she?"

"Of course I do," Bernkastel said.

"I always thought you were using your magic to make those incredibly delicious meals," Soul concluded. Bernkastel blushed an impossibly deep red.

"You really think so?" she whispered.

"Uh-huh," Soul said. "So, what's for dessert?"

"D-dessert?" she stuttered, blushing deeper. She sank under the table, trying to disappear.

"Oh, that's alright, Bernkastel," Tsubaki said. "We don't need dessert."

"I did make dessert," she squeaked from under the table.

"You did?" Kid asked.

"What did you make?" Soul asked. A pathetically tiny cake levitated to the center of the table. It couldn't have fed more than one person. "Um… are you serious?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Bernkastel whispered.

"Can't you make it bigger?" Blackstar asked. "I mean, you are a witch and all."

Bernkastel sighed, sitting up and putting her head on the table. She wiggled her nose and the cake grew ten times its original size. Blue and black frosting decorated the rims of the cake in a Gothic Lolita design that almost matched Bernkastel's attire. The others admired her work.

"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" Tsubaki asked. Her face became confused as Bernkastel got to her feet and left the room. Hesitantly, the weapon followed her out to the balcony. "Bernkastel, what's wrong?"

"I haven't done that in a while," Bernkastel admitted. "I miss something that I can't get back. Have you ever felt this way, Tsubaki?"

The demon sword thought back to the time that she had to kill her own brother.

"My brother became a Keshen," Tsubaki told her, leaning against the railing of the balcony and looking out at the dusty silver moon. "I had to kill him with my own hands. I didn't want to, but I didn't lose that much. I lost a brother, but… he wasn't my brother anymore."

"You humans are hard to understand," Bernkastel sighed. "But I'm glad you're here. Do you want to go inside and eat some enchanted cake?"

"Sure," Tsubaki said, following her back inside. "By the way, what's in it?"

"Mushrooms and virgin alcohol," Bernkastel replied.

"Um… ew?" Tsubaki thought.