CHAPTER 11

A/N – Yaaaaaaay 100 reviews already! *pops the champagne and gets soaked in the process* Otherwise… yeah, last chapter was a bit short and a bit violent and our favorite blonde got her ass kicked. I mean, damnit, I really thought she was going to win! :)))) And no, Kid will not apologize about that either. Anyway, without further nonsense/spoilers/etc from me, here is today's update. Enjoy!

"I think she is about to wake up"

The voice had resounded somewhere close, shattering the shadows and silence of the eerie dream the blonde had been engulfed in. A known voice – Dr. Stein's. Could this be real? Was she really alive and hearing his voice?

"I'll leave now, I've got other work to do. Send for me if there's anything the matter and try not to be too much of a pain in the ass"

Footsteps drifted away as Maka finally attempted to open her eyes in the semi-obscurity, only to meet the familiar blackened stone ceiling of her cell. She was once more lying in her small cot, her body feeling numb and stiff under tight bandages as she tried to figure out… figure out what? In her dream she had been trying to figure out something, maybe the reason why she was still alive now when her death had seemed so certain and unavoidable.

There was someone else in the room and Maka knew who it was even before shifting her gaze to the white haired boy who stood leaning on the doorframe, she could intuit his slightly bored but nevertheless present grin before actually seeing it.

"Don't you dare say it," the scythe said without any prior introduction. "In fact, don't even dare think it"

The blonde's gaze swept downwards over his slightly hunched frame, away from the stern expression of his face to the long scar now crossing his bare chest. It looked ugly and roughly patched with large stitches where the rugged edges of his crushed metal breastplate had cut into the flesh and the area around the edges was almost raw. But he was up on his feet because Stein was a good doctor and because a magic weapon healed much faster and was far more resilient than any human.

"You live, Evans. I live too… that's funny," she croaked, not caring what he had meant earlier. But he had probably meant that he wasn't in any way grateful. Oh no, Gods forbid that troll eater be grateful for anything…

"I live because I made Harthgor nice and ready to be stabbed in the back by you and you live because the fucking blue haired prince found you amusing enough. At any rate, none of this is because you're a good fighter, Maka Albarn. In fact, you really are a shit fighter! I mean, you fucking threw both your weapons at your opponent, just how retarded was that?"

Oh, so he's here to insult me…

"I get it, troll eater, you're pissed, most likely for several reasons," Maka replied neutrally, again shifting her gaze to the dark ceiling. "But the worst must be that – against all odds – I have fulfilled your stupid challenge. I even broke the shinigami's mask if you want to know, so I believe that's enough of 'drawing his attention'"

The scythe boy's expression suddenly melted into an amused grimace before he burst into laughter."I'm sure that you broke his heart too, by the sound of things! I have clearly underestimated your foolishness, it is most perplexing!"

"Maybe I did. After all, the last thing he said before I passed out was 'It's time for you to sleep now, my little emerald'," the blonde pointed out, more for herself as she began pondering on that particular memory. He had really said that, the shinigami. It must have been just a tease – the prince had probably ordered him to make this amusing – although he'd barely whispered it, for her ears only, and his choice of words had been quite weird. As if the shinigami knew her or something. That's just ridiculous, of course he doesn't know me! He must have been messing with my mind just for the sake of it…

Soul snorted. "The lack of boobs must have done the trick for him. Perhaps he really thought you were a boy in disguise"

"Either way, I'll hold you to your words, troll eater. Now you'll have to give it a try at being my weapon," Maka muttered in reply, already feeling sleepy again as she shifted onto her side, away from him. She knew what his answer would be even before words left his lips.

Burns… it burns! Her whole body was on fire, she could tell, despite the fact that there was barely any pain. Sweat was dripping down her forehead and Maka was once more awake, this time gripped by horror. Dr. Stein had taken good care of her shoulder and she could barely feel that injury pulling as she moved, but the other wound… there was something wrong with it! The flesh felt hot under the bandages as the blonde touched it with a weak, trembling hand. Images of the shinigami's black blade flashed through her mind as she put two and two together. 'Time for you to sleep'… he killed me. He said that as he was killing me, no, he had already killed me… This is it – I'm really going to die now. Maka's eyelids fell shut as a helpless, choked sob left her pale lips.

But then there was the vaguest rustle and rush of air somewhere close and the light from the small oil lamp Stein had left lit in her cell flickered for a moment. Someone had walked in, unseen and unheard, like the shadow of Death itself. And there it was, Maka saw as her eyes opened once more almost against her will – a black shrouded figure with a skull shaped white mask.

"Have you come to put me out of my misery? To make sure I was dead?" the blonde croaked, not knowing for sure if he was really there or if it was a hallucination of sorts, or if he was, whether it was the same shinigami. After all, they all looked the same.

The figure drew closer with unheard footsteps until he was standing very close to the lamp and shook his head. "The prince wants you to live, that's why I am here. Your wound is infected and you will die unless I take care of it immediately"

That voice, it was the same. Maka was too mesmerized by the dangerously soft sound of it to make much of the words. And then the shinigami walked and sat down on the edge of the bed, causing the blonde to instantly jerk away from him. Her eyes were glued to the white mask in horror, why would she trust him?

"Don't be afraid, I'll finish quickly and it won't hurt"

Kid placed his hand as gently as he could over the trembling one clutching the blanket. As a shinigami and mercenary, he was rather clueless on how to be soothing or comforting to anyone. He may have been different around his human sisters, but the Emerald girl was simply too fragile to handle now, like a frightened little animal, all her fierceness from before utterly gone and it made him very uncomfortable.

"So," he said softly, hoping to distract her as his other hand peeled away the rough cloth covering her body and exposed the bandaged area just under her right breast, "you think I must look hideous behind this mask, don't you?"

"Wha-…? No, I…" Maka stuttered, still very tense although she was too weak and did not dare in anyway oppose him.

"I have to say, your reasoning was not incorrect," Kid went on as he produced a small knife out of his pocket and began to cut through the layers of cloth, now damp with the blonde's sweat and a bit of blood."Why would anyone beautiful wear a mask to hide it? Yes, perhaps you could say we look quite hideous…" the young shinigami chuckled.

Maka blinked sleepily and sighed, willing her body to relax. It didn't matter anymore, what his intentions were. It was all going to end soon, most likely. And it was simpler if she kept her eyes shut through the whole thing.

"Why are you being so pleasant with me? It is rather strange, considering who I am and who you are…"

Kid tsked softly eyeing the stitched wound. It looked very bad already and it would undoubtedly be painful to remove the stitches in the first place. He cursed inwardly – this wasn't supposed to happen but she'd basically injured herself with his sword and now he had to fix this while keeping her distracted.

"The prince wants me to be nice and gentle with you"

"Why?"

Why indeed? A pain in the ass, giving explanations. "I don't ask why he gives certain orders to me, he is my master," the reaper replied a bit bluntly. Girls asked a lot of questions, knowing his sisters he should have expected that, but hell, how troublesome!

Maka chewed absentmindedly on her lower lip, trying to shift her focus off the painful stinging she could feel every time Kid pulled on a stitch. "But I thought he'd hate me, because I killed his magic monster"

"The prince can have a new magic monster, or even one exactly like Harthgor as soon as tomorrow if he wants it. And he is not a cruel man. And besides, if he held a grudge against a poor slave girl, what kind of prince would he be?"

"So you just… always do what you're told," the blonde concluded, although she had no idea why she'd actually said that out loud and clearly it hadn't been a good idea. It was truly eerie for someone to be this casual around such a character as the prince's guard.

Now Kid may have been blunt when it came to conversations and social skills, but he was very adept at smelling a challenge, no matter how subtly phrased. And the little Emerald brat was clearly challenging him. "Yes," he murmured, focusing on his task.

"Always?"

There it was. Kid snorted amused and shook his head." Why do you ask? Do you like to defy the rules?"

Maka sighed as a cool liquid was poured into the gash, instantly soothing the burning sensation."N-no… I just thought…that I would die anyway so it wouldn't matter. I thought I might just as well do something completely crazy, so that my master would be pleased and erase my father's debt. So that's why…"

The wound was already beginning to look better and her body heat was no longer that intense. The medicine had worked, but the young reaper would still need to remain by her side a bit longer, just to make sure she was alright.

"Come now, look at me," Kid said, pulling back the black hood and removing his mask. "I know you want to"

The blonde's arm instantly shot up to cover her eyes, even if they were closed anyway, as she almost jumped at the suggestion."NO!" she shrieked in panic."I couldn't! It's the law! Do you… I mean you do realize I'm a girl, don't you?"

Kid bit his lip, a bit perplexed at the question. Was he missing something here? "Of course. Most of the time my guess on people's gender is quite accurate. Besides, you have a girl's name"

Of course he knows I'm a girl! Only Evans could be that idiotic to suggest otherwise!

"Heh, right… you know my name… but then… it's a trap," Maka whispered weakly. "I cannot live if I've seen your face. The Ourouboros will kill me…"

"The Ourouboros isn't here. Who is going to tell him?"

The young shinigami reached out and gently grabbed the blonde's arm, pulling it away from her face and her whole body upwards until she was sitting up, very close. Her eyes had opened with the motion and now she stared, her gaze melting into his, in absolute wonder.

Indeed, all Maka could do was stare. She had truly expected to see some gruesome countenance behind the white skull mask now resting in Kid's lap, at any rate anything but what she was now seeing. His hair was raven black with some odd white stripes on one side and his face was ghoulishly pale, making the large, golden eyes stick out in a striking fashion, but still the shinigami was the most beautiful boy Maka had ever seen. And no matter how stupid she felt staring like this, she couldn't help it.

"Why did you do this?" the blonde murmured at last, forcing herself to look away from those fascinating eyes. "It's not like… you don't even like girls… I mean that's what I've heard. And I don't even know your name… Would you tell me your name?"

Kid couldn't help a smile at her embarrassment. She was so cute in a childish way which reminded him of his younger sister. "Shinigamis do not have actual names, but I am called Death the Kid"

Maka thought 'Kid' was very fitting to him and quite a cute name, 'Death' not so much. But she supposed there had to be a touch of oddity even to a shinigami's name. She also noticed how he had carefully avoided either confirming or denying that he did not like girls, so he was probably doing everything just to tease her. Had this been the prince's idea as well? The thought saddened her a bit.

"Listen Maka Albarn," Kid suddenly said, his hand cupping the side of her face and making the blonde look at him again. "You cannot tell anyone about this. Just say you don't know how the wound got healed, that you were asleep the whole time, alright? No one can know I was here or else… The prince will not save you again"

Maka nodded quickly, her stomach cringing painfully all the sudden. Yes, she had thought this much – they were playing a dangerous game right now and she did not understand why. Why would a shinigami sneak into a slave girl's cell in the middle of the night to take care of her wound? Why would he answer any of her questions? His voice wasn't for her ears, his beauty wasn't for her eyes.

"No, of course I wo-"

"And no, I don't like girls," the young reaper added, just before pressing his lips against the blonde's blushing cheek for a fleeting moment. And then he was gone.

To be continued