Chapter 5: The Walk, Invitations, and Plans

Kai didn't understand what was going on anymore. He was alone, with Maka. She was saying words but he couldn't process them. Why did he feel nervous around her, why did he say yes to walking with her when he needed to get back to his dorm at the academy. To late to figure all that out now he thought.

"So how did you enjoy Kids?" Maka asked, not realizing Kai hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention.

"Oh, what? Kids, was good I guess..." Kai answered.

"That's good, I'm glad you had a good time. Sorry about Ragnarok, he's a bit rude, but you seemed to handle him just fine." Maka joked, remembering how Kai had said Ragnarok looked like a doll.

"Oh yea, it was nothing..." Kai stated.

They walked on a little further with Maka explaining to Kai about how they met Crona, and about Medusa. He couldn't believe somebody like him was put through that. Now he knew why Crona was shyer than Kai around a group of people. Kai however was lost in thought taking in all this knowledge and didn't hear Maka asking him a question.

"Kai? Kai?...KAI!?" Maka yelled shaking Kai from his train of thought. He looked over to see her with her arms crossed and an angry and annoyed look on her face.

"Oh...yes...sorry...I was just thinking about all that stuff..." Kai said. This seemed to relieve Maka from her anger and annoyance somewhat. She was glad he was listening to her and thinking about the things she said. It was certainly more than Soul and Black*Star ever did.

"Don't worry about it, I just asked how shopping with Liz was?" Maka asked cheerfully.

"Oh, Well it was an experience..." Kai joked, earning a small giggle out of Maka. "It seemed more like physical labour than actual shopping to me though." Kai continued.

"Yeah that happens, Liz likes to get lost in her own world filled with nail polish and jewelry." Maka continued to joke.

"Oh speaking of which..." Kai began. He pulled the small box from his pocket and handed it to Maka. She looked curious as to what was inside the box and why Kai was giving it to her.

"I remembered how you asked about my sword and chain I wear, I asked for some information when Tsubaki and Liz went to look at god knows what, and they had one like mine except well...?" Kai began. Maka couldn't wait any longer and opened up the small box. Her face filled with delight at the small scythe on the golden chain, she was touched by Kai's gift.

"It's a scythe instead of a sword." Maka beamed. Kai was happy the gift had made her happy.

"I got it for you to thank you for being a good friend to me, and I thought you'd like it." Kai explained.

"Thank you, I love it!" Maka yelled with joy. Her face turned red because nobody has ever done something like that for her. With out thinking she wrapped Kai up and pulled him into a hug.

Kai's face turned bright red and he didn't know what to do. He decided to return the hug not wanting to risk hurting Maka's feelings by pulling away from her. He liked the hug though, a part of him didn't want it to stop, but after a moment Maka released and Kai could figure out that he hadn't been breathing the entire time.

"It's beautiful, thank you." Maka stated, not sure herself why she had pulled Kai into a hug.

The two continued to walk on down the streets. Maka put the necklace back into the box and placed it into her pocket so she wouldn't lose it. Both Kai's and Maka's faces where red from the instantaneous hug that the two had over the necklace.

"So Kai, you gonna come to the birthday ball that where gonna have for Angela?" Maka asked.

"A birthday ball? What the hell is a ball?" Kai asked, he's never heard of such a word before.

"A ball is a formal dance for a special celebration. In this case Angela's birthday because Mifune noticed how she loved the dancers on her music box Lord Death gave her, so they decided to throw her a ball." Maka explained.

"She does love that music box..." Kai said. But a dance, he wasn't to sure about. He was struggling to talk to people how the hell was he supposed to deal with everyone at once. "I guess since it's for Angela I'll be there..." Kai said worried about the whole ordeal.

"Great, I can't wait to see you in a suit." Maka teased. This turned Kai's face red again. A suit was something new for him. Hell even the words formal and Ball weren't in his vocabulary until two minutes ago.

"Oh, um...ok..." Kai said getting all shy and anti-social at the thought.

Maka was pleased Kai agreed to come. Even if he would have gone anyway. Kai and Maka reached the apartment and Maka wished Kai a good night. He turned and continued his walk to the DWMA and thought about what all had happened. On one side he was excited, and on the other nervous. I guess he had couldn't back out of it now.

Back at the mansion

Everyone was conversing about missions that they had completed before and how much stronger they were all getting. Soul was sitting beside the record player trying to find some good music, when Liz came and interrupted him.

"Hey Soul, why did Maka leave so early?" Liz asked

"Who knows with her, probably something to do with studying." Soul guessed, with Maka, that's all it ever was.

"You find it strange how she left at the exact same time as Kai did?" Liz asked with a grin. This caught Soul by surprise. He hadn't thought about it, but now that she mentioned it, Maka has been spending a lot of time with Kai.

"What you think something is going on there?" Soul asked, adopting the grin that Liz had.

"Well Kai did, happen to buy Maka an expensive necklace today while shopping, I think Kai likes her." Liz stated, knowing that even if Kai hadn't admitted it, she knew it was true.

"And Maka has been asking a lot of questions about him and hanging out with him since we met him...Maybe Maka likes Kai as well." Soul added. "But those two wouldn't admit it to anybody if they did." Soul began.

"Well then perhaps they need a...push in the right direction..." Liz grinned, "Perhaps we should be the people that push them together?" Liz joked, hoping that Soul would go along with the idea.

"Perhaps your right Liz." Soul stated.

Soul and Liz started bursting out with an evil laugh that everyone heard. Soon everybody crowded around Liz and Soul wondering what was so funny.

"Um guys...whats so funny?" Kid asked.

"Oh nothing where just planning on getting the love birds together." Soul joked.

"Love birds? Who is in love?" Tsubaki asked.

"Oh you know, Kai and Maka, they both like each other." Liz explained, "So where gonna give them a little bit of a push together." Soul explained.

"YAHOOO! THIS WILL BE AWESOME, I GEUSS MAKA HAD TO SETTLE FOR KAI NOT HAVING A CHANCE WITH A BIG STAR LIKE ME!" Black*Star yelled.

"...Yea sure..." Liz said, annoyed that Black*Star wasn't taking this seriously.

"Anyway so we need a plan in order to get those two to admit to liking each other, and to get Kai and Maka ready for the dance." Soul stated, hoping that somebody had some ideas.

The room went silent as everybody fell into a deep thought. Tricking Maka was easy, Soul did it all the time to get out of cooking or shopping, but Kai, the apprentice of Mifune, would be a lot harder to trick.

"Why don't you boys steal Kai's sword until he admits it." Patty teased the group. Everyone looked at her shocked. That idea wasn't bad, mind you they would be asking for trouble but it was something.

"Not bad, but that'll be a last resort tactic." Kid stated. "Here's what we'll do, the girls will go with Maka to Paris when she visits her mother as a break from the school. Meanwhile the boys here will get Kai ready for the ball by helping him choose a suit, be less clingy to his sword, and maybe help him realize it's ok to act like a human being for once." Kid joked, this earned a chuckle from everyone in the room. As far as they knew Kai could have been an emotionless robot, unless it came to Maka.

"I like it, but what do us girls do in Paris?" Tsubaki asked.

"I can think of a few things!" Liz quickly jumped in, her eyes lit up as she pictured the shops and and cool clothes and pastries.

"Big sis where gonna be there playing as spies and getting Maka's feelings as proof!" Patty jumped up and yelled, always wanting to have been a spy. As far as she was concerned this was all a game.

"Yea, yea I know but we can have a bit of fun, we'll be there for three weeks." Liz explained to her little sister, who was still wide eyed at the fact that this was a secret plan.

"Then where all in agreement, operation love bird is a go." Soul stated. Everybody agreed and couldn't wait to put their plan into action.

They finished there party and all went back to their respective homes. Soul evily grinned at the thought of this brilliant plan they had concocted. All they needed to do is to get the ball rolling, and any chance to mess with anyone that was even associated with Mifune, Black*Star was always willing to do the job. The worse Kai could do was a couple soul force attacks on him. At least he hoped that's all Kai could do.