A/N - And we've breached the 20K word mark! We haven't even reached episode 4 chronologically. Well, I promise that there's a point to what I write and that I try to keep the pointless padding fluff to an absolute minimum. Review and let me know how well I succeed in that regard!

While we're on the subject of reviews, a very merry thank you to Superhero17 for the sweet review! I'm really happy that you like my story so much! :D

Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.

DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.


Chapter Six - Post Tempestatem - The Rescued Citizen's Caramel Chip Cookies


"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on this. Lord Death… has a son?"

Alecto peeled her gaze away from the kettle heating up on the stovetop and turned to face Tempus, who was sitting at the kitchen table with an expression of utter bemusement on his face. "That's what Sid said," she affirmed. "And it's not like there was any reason for him to lie to us or anything."

"Well, yes, I know, but… It's still weird, you know? I can't imagine Lord Death as a dad." Tempus asked, running his hands through his hair. He'd pulled it loose from its usual ponytail, allowing it to drape over his shoulders. "Does this mean that there's a Lady Death out there that we don't know about?"

"I don't know. Probably not." Alecto drummed her fingers against the kitchen counter. "Sid didn't exactly go into detail. He just told us that Lord Death's son, assigned me extra laps in P.E., and left."

"Well, you could certainly use the cardio," Tempus remarked. He shrugged casually when Alecto glared at him. "What? You've got the worst cardio in Crescent Moon, everyone knows that." Alecto didn't let up with the glaring, and Tempus seemed to decide that it was time to change the subject. "So, what do you think this 'Death the Kid' fellow is like?"

"Not sure," Alecto said. "But apparently he's a Grim Reaper like Lord Death is, and he's got to be pretty talented if he's taking on three-star missions."

"Yeah, I was way off with my theories about that."

"You were hoping for Justin Law, weren't you."

"...A little bit. Justin Law is just a really big inspiration, you know? He's like, a legend! He's my role model."

"You're such a fanboy, Tempus." Alecto turned back to the tea kettle.

"Oh, don't act like you don't have a role model."

Alecto's thoughts flitted to Tsubaki and Maka momentarily, but she quickly derailed that train of thought before it even left the station. "Does tea count as a role model?" she joked, a wry smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"No."

"Vae!" Alecto's coy smile turned into a full blown grin, a grin that she was glad to see Tempus return. "Tea jokes and blatant fanboyism notwithstanding, I don't really have any idea about Lord Death's son. I haven't really given the matter much thought beyond the initial shock of 'Lord Death has a kid.'"

Now that said initial shock had long since worn off, Alecto tried to imagine what a son of Lord Death would theoretically look like. He was probably a few years older than she or tempus was, if he was taking on missions like the Pyramid of Anubis. She imagined that he was taller, too; Lord Death was incredibly tall, so it stood to reason that his son would be, too. Well put together, obviously; the notion of a Grim Reaper dressing like, say, her or Soul was bizarre enough to practically short-circuit her brain. Maybe he wore a cloak similar to Lord Death's?

Fweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Alecto was jolted away her thoughts and back into the real world by the shrill whistle of her tea kettle. Swiping the garish checkered pot holder off of the marbled kitchen counter to protect her hand, Alecto carefully moved the kettle off of the burner. "Do you think he acts anything like Lord Death?"

"Hm, maybe? I mean, they've probably got to share at least a couple traits. Nature and nurture and all that." Tempus suddenly froze in his seats, his eyes as round as coins and the blood draining from his face. "If he does the Reaper Chop too I quit."

"Quit what?"

"Everything."

Alecto snorted as she turn the stove off with careful fingers on the heat dial and a practiced flick of the wrist. "Somehow I don't think that's going to be necessary. It's not like we're ever going to meet him or anything." Pushing herself up onto her tiptoes, she opened one of the cabinets and pulled down a pair of teacups. "What kind of tea do you want?"

Tempus shrugged. "The usual."

"Okay." Alecto plucked two teabags out of two separate boxes; one was Tempus's favorite, a black tea with a rich almond flavor blended into it, while the other Alecto had chosen at random for herself. She checked the bag. Apricot Green. She'd have to wait for the water to cool a bit before preparing hers, then.

She began to pour the water into the tea cups when there was a sudden knock on the door. "You invite someone over?" she asked, putting the kettle back down.

"No. You?"

"No."

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds before Tempus stood up, beginning to switch into his weapon forward before Alecto shook her head at him. "A Kishin's not going to knock politely on our front door, Tempus."

"The first thing they taught us was to be alert, Ally. Who'd be knocking on our door this late at night?" Tempus pointed out. "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're not exactly social butterflies."

"Believe me, I've noticed," Alecto said, her voice going flat. She didn't need him to remind her that she could count the number of friends she had on one hand. "Look, I'm going to go see who it is. If they want to devour our soul, I'll desynchronize time long enough to get to you and then we can kick their ass, okay?"

"Okay… but if it's a door-to-door salesman, I fully reserve the right to stab him," Tempus growled, crossing his arms over his chest in an irate manner.

"Duly noted," Alecto said, though honestly she didn't think that Death City even had door-to-door salesmen. She approached the door, placing a wary hand on the door. "Who is it?" she called out, more for Tempus's sake than her own.

There was a short silence, and Alecto was considering heading back to the kitchen when suddenly the nervousness-laced voice of what sounded like a young woman piped up from the outside. "Um, my name is Nadia Chamomile. You saved me from that monster a few nights ago."

Alecto let out a sigh of relief and opened the door. Sure enough, the blonde-haired, gray-eyed girl that they had rescued from Hudine was standing there in an oversized denim jacket and a pair of loose-fitting khaki pants. She was holding an aluminum full of cookies in her hands and had a nervous smile on her face. "I wanted to say thank you," she said, "and then I realized I also wanted to bake something really badly, I so figured I'd kill two birds with one stone." She held out the tin awkwardly. "What I'm saying is, I baked you some 'thanks for saving my hide' cookies."

"Cookies?" Alecto nearly jumped out of her skin as Tempus spoke up from right behind him. She shot him a dirty look, but his focus was on the container of confections. "You… brought cookies?"

The girl nodded. "They're caramel chip cookies," she said, "modified from a recipe of my dad's." She shook the tin once. "I like to think they're pretty good."

Tempus reached over Alecto's shoulder and plucked a cookie from the tin. As he bit into it, the girl continued. "I was actually wondering if I could come in for a bit. It's a pretty long walk from my apartment to yours, and I was hoping to rest my feet out." She gestured to her feet, which were clad in black boots that had a fairly high heel to them. "As it turns out, these boots were not in fact made for walking.

"Uh, I don't see why…" Alecto paused, realizing something. "Wait, how'd you find out where I lived?"

"Oh, I asked around a bit. I didn't know your name, so I just asked people if they knew anything about the meister with the long pink hair and the Italian accent. At least, I assumed it's Italian, it sounds a bit like an Italian accent. Was I wrong?"

"Latin, apparently. You asked around for me?" Alecto was teetering on the edge between "confused and a little bit flattered" and "rightfully creeped out." "To bring us thank-you cookies?"

The girl nodded, a sheepish grin spreading across her face. "I know it sounds a little bit creepy, but I swear that my intentions are one hundred percent pure and honest. Pinky promise. I was just really grateful and I thought you were really cool and I wanted to say hi and thanks."

Really cool? Me? Alecto fell off the edge and landed straight into "confused and flattered." "W-well," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I can't distrust a pinky promise, can I? I don't see any reason why you can't come in." She glanced over her shoulder. "What do you think, Tempus?"

The boy seemed to be in some sort of trance, staring down at the half-eaten cookie in his hand with a reverent expression. "These cookies are amazing," he whispered.

"I think that's a 'yes.' Come on in." Alecto moved to the side, opening the door wider to allow the girl to walk in. "You said your name was Nadia, right?"

"Yup! Nadia Chamomile, age sixteen!" the girl confirmed cheerfully. She shook the tin of cookies. "Is there anywhere you want me to put these, or…?"

"The kitchen table's good. I'm actually preparing some tea, I'll get you down a cup." Alecto led Nadia into the kitchen. Tempus followed like a puppy on a lease, his gaze locked on the cookies. "I've got pretty much every kind of tea that you can imagine. What kind do you like?"

Nadia grinned cheekily. "Chamomile?"

"Is that a genuine response or are you making a pun about your name?"

"Both, I guess. I'm more of a coffee girl. I could tell you the exact differences between a cappuccino and a latte and why cappuccinos are the superior coffee-based beverages, but I couldn't tell you the first thing about tea." She shrugged.

Alecto could never understand that. In her eyes, tea should be a universal beverage, with at least two or three flavors in every household. "Well, you've come to the right place, then! Now, since you're a first-timer, I'd recommend something straightforward. Do you like apricot?"

"There's a such thing as apricot tea?"

"Well, it's technically a blend. It's got a basic black tea as a foundation, and the apricots are blended into the leaves. But yeah, it's a tea. Sound good?"

"Uh, sure. I like fruits and stuff."

"Awesome." Alecto got down an apricot teabag and an extra teacup. As she prepared the teas, she said, "My name's Alecto, by the way. Alecto Bellatore. As you probably already figured out, I'm a weapons meister at the DWMA. The blond currently having a religious experience over your baking skills is Tempus, my weapon."

"Hi," Tempus said distractedly, grabbing a few more cookies out of the tin. "Your cookies are the best."

"Thanks," Nadia said, placing the tin down and taking a seat at the t. "I've always had a bit of a passion for baking. My dad would teach me a lot of his recipes when we were little, and we spend every other weekend baking as many cookies and brownies as possible for my mom and my brother." Her mood seemed to fall a couple notched at the last couple of words, and Alecto considered asking about it. She decided against it; the two of them barely knew each other, and she didn't want to seem weird and invasive.

"That sounds like fun," she said instead. "Tea's almost done, by the way."

"Cool." Nadia bit her lip. "It was really cool how you killed that bastard," she said. "You didn't seem afraid at all, even when he really wanted to kill you."

"Yeah, well, truth be told, I was actually pretty scared." Of course she was scared; it was instinctive, so much so that she hadn't even put thought to her fear. "I just couldn't let him get away, you know? He'd already slipped away the night before, and I just… refused to let that happen again." Alecto focused on the darkening liquid in the teacups, mentally counting out the seconds. "How are you holding up, by the way?" she asked. "After what happened, I mean."

"Pretty good, all things considered," Nadia said. "I'd be a lot worse off if you hadn't gotten there when you did. I'm really grateful for that, by the way," she added.

"Well," Alecto said, "I'm a meister. And Tempus is a weapon. It's our duty to help keep the world safe and protect people from Kishin. I'm glad I was able to take Hudine down, and I'm glad I was able to save you."

Perhaps Alecto was imagining it, but she swore she saw Nadia's cheeks redden a little. The grey-eyed girl shifted in her seat for a few seconds before speaking again. "So, what's it like at the DWMA? Being a meister? A weapon?"

Tempus joined the conversation, having finally sated his desire for caramel chip cookies. "Well, weapons are actually pretty passive in combat roles, considering that we pretty much turn into sentient tools for the meisters to wield. It's mostly the meister that actively takes part in combat. That night with Hudine when I turned into my human was just a special case."

"Well, it was awesome," Nadia said emphatically.

"Thanks," Alecto said, "it was my idea."

"An idea that got you a chain to the face," Tempus pointed out.

"Worth it," Alecto replied. "As for being a meister and a student at the DWMA, it's actually a lot more like traditional school that you'd think. We have classrooms, tests, the whole nine yards. But it's also pretty dangerous. We need to learn how to fight and how to collect the souls of evil and dangerous beings, and then we need to apply that knowledge in actual combat. And as you saw, evil people aren't going to hold back. They'll try to kill you, and you need to learn how to push your conscience aside and kill them instead."

"Oh," Nadia didn't seem to know what to make of that answer. "Um…" She shifted in her seat again. "My twin brother actually goes to the DWMA. He's a meister there."

"Really?" Alecto said. "What class does he go to?"

Nadia shrugged. "We… don't talk anymore."

"Is that why you're not asking him all these questions?" Tempus asked. "Not that I mind or anything, you're decent company."

"Yeah." The way Nadia spoke indicated that she'd really didn't want to talk about that particular subject any more. Tempus seemed to catch on to that, and silently grabbed another cookie.

Alecto checked the teacups again. "Tea's done," she said, plucking the soaked tea bags out of the teacups. She grabbed two of them and handed them to Tempus and Nadia. "Almond for Tempus, and apricot for Nadia." She grabbed the final cup. "And apricot green for me." She took a sip, smiling contentedly as the light, almost floral liquid warmed her throat.

Nadia took a sip of her tea, and her eyes widened. "Wow," she said, "this is good!"

Alecto grinned. "It's tea. Was there ever any doubt?"


After that, the conversation dipped into small talk, with each person going into a little bit more detail about themselves. Apparently, Nadia was homeschooled, had spent most of her life in Death City, and her parents owned and ran a small "pizza and pastries" restaurant. "It's called 'Donald's Plenitude of Pies,'" she had said. "Kind of a cheesy name, but that's what my dad wanted to call it, and that little place had been his life dream, you know? If you ever get the munchies, feel free to stop by; you saved my freaking life, there's no way you won't get all the free pizzas you want."

At about ten-thirty, Nadia had left, citing a long walk home and an eleven-thirty curfew as the reasons why. Alecto had told her to come back whenever she wanted - she'd enjoyed talking to someone about something that wasn't fighting against evil - and as she closed the door behind Nadia, she was smiling.

"That's was nice," she said.

"Yeah, it's a shame we don't do it more often," Tempus said. He'd finally had his fill of caramel chip cookies. Alecto felt like there was an underlying point to his words, but she waved it aside. "Anyway," Tempus added, "I'm going to head off to bed. It's late, and I'd rather not end up falling asleep in class tomorrow."

"Seriously? You ate like a hundred caramel cookies, how are you not on a serious sugar rush right now?"

"I don't think the cookies work like that." Tempus shrugged his jacket off and slung it over the back of one of the kitchen chairs. "You'd best be getting to sleep soon, too."

"Yeah, I will in a few minutes."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"All right," Tempus didn't look convinced. "Good night, Ally."

"Valē, Tempus," Alecto replied, settling herself into on of the living room chairs and leaning back. Tempus disappeared into his bedroom, closing the door shut behind him.

Alecto ran her fingers through her hair, grazing the bump on her head. It was smaller now; perhaps she'd be able to take on new missions again soon. She thought about what Lord Death had said when she had reported Hudine's death to him. I'd hoped you'd have progressed a little bit quicker. Fifteen souls wasn't a lot, especially when you compared the amount she and Tempus had raised to, say, Maka and Soul Eater, but she'd thought it was a decent amount. It was better than nothing.

She bit her lip. Was she really not doing that well? She knew she wasn't the best meister in the Academy by a long shot, but she didn't want to let anyone down. Lord Death said he had high expectations for her, and Tempus was counting on her as his meister to help him collect the souls he needed to become a Death Scythe.

Getting up and ambling into her bedroom, she made a decision right then and there that she would take on a mission the very next morning, no matter what Dr. Medusa or Tempus had to say about it.

With those thoughts and worries still floating about in her head, Alecto fell into an uneasy, dreamless sleep.


A/N - See? There's plenty of points in this chapter! This took longer to release than it technically should have, and that's because I forced myself to take most of Thursday off because I was worried I'd end up burning myself out. So I took a break from writing Soul Eater fanfiction, and spent that break watching Soul Eater.

I may have a Soul Eater problem, guys.

So, this chapter re-introduces Nadia Chamomile. When I first started this fic out, She wasn't really a character I had planned, but as I was writing chapter three, she just showed up and wouldn't go away, and since she brought a lot of potential for good story stuff, I let her stick around. Plus, she makes great cookies.

There's not a lot of Latin in this chapter. Just a couple of words.

Vae!: Latin for "Damn!"

Valē: Latin for "good night."

See, that's it, that's literally all the Latin. Compared to earlier chapters, that's a pittance. We need more Latin up in here.

Chapter seven will be posted some time over the weekend. While you're waiting, feel very, very free to favorite and leave a review telling me what you think of the story! I love reviews a lot.

- Diana "Nocte"