A/N - Oh. Um. Gosh. I guess I have a bit of explaining to do, don't I?

So, uh, long story short, I got hit with a bad case of the dreaded Writer's Block and ended up getting really worried that my writing wasn't that good. Why? Well, because I'm deathly terrified of writing the canon characters out of character. My little sister eventually had to drag me out of my funk kicking and screaming my reminding me that I'd put so much effort into this already and that if I just gave up I'd be letting down both my readers and myself.

Have I mentioned yet that my little sister is awesome and totally cooler than I am?

Also, fun fact: At over 6000 words (counting the author's notes), this is the longest chapter I've written so far.

Speaking of awesome things, this story got five reviews between last chapter and this one! Whoa. :O So, thank you to Carolinefdq, turtledove237, Guest, and Crona. ismyspiritanimal for reviewing!

In response to Carolinefdq's review, I can say with complete certainty that I am never going to write a "love at first sight" story. A swift-arrived crush, sure. I'm a teenager, I know what it's like to look at a cute boy and think "oh gosh (heart sign)". But having the two lovebirds think about how perfect they are in agonizingly purple prose while they're meeting for the first time is just sloppy writing.

Also, my little sister is 12 and I'm 15. One of the biggest things we do together is sit on the couch together and marathon whatever we grab off the DVD shelves, often riffing on stuff along the way. I was the one who got her into Soul Eater. (Her favorite character is Crona because, I quote, "I want to hug him and take him home and give him so much candy because he deserves better than what he got." I have taught her well.)

To turtledove237, I give a big "thank you!" Especially on the pacing comment; I'm always worried that I'll go through a plot point too quickly. I don't know why I'm constantly worried about that, though, considering I'm at like 60K words and we're not even a fifth of the way through the anime's storyline. But I am, and it's good to know that I'm not rushing through anything important!

To the Guest, I say thank you, and I'm glad I'm making Latin enjoyable for you! (I'll admit I'm not very good at Latin, though. I'm resorting to the internet for approximately 100% of this, so some of it may probably be a little grammatically incorrect.)

To Crona. ismyspiritanimal (I had to put a space in your name so that the FFn text editor wouldn't delete it, sorry!) I say a really big thank you! I'm glad you like Tempus so much, because he's an absolute blast to write, the snarky ass. Thank you! :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 Sixteen - A Boy to Remember - The Time Meister Meets Death the Kid


Knock knock. The sound of a firm hand tapping against the solid wood of the front door split the calm silence, causing both Tempus and Alecto to look up from the books that they were reading. Alecto was reading a story about a society where people lived in a classist society based on age and attractiveness and everyone surgery to become "beautiful" when they turned sixteen, and she'd been quite enthralled by it. So a bit of irritation laced her voice as she'd asked, "Who's that?"

"Who else comes knocking at this time at night?" Tempus pointed out, closing his book (a Charles Dickens novel of some sort) and pulling himself out of the worn leather chair that he'd long ago claimed as his. "I'll get the door."

"Thank you," Alecto said. stretching and sinking even further into the cushions of the couch. She'd have gotten it herself, but the couch was really, really comfortable, and she was reaching the best part in the book. At least, she assumed this was the best part. This was the first time she'd read this particular story.

Tempus swung the door open. "Who could it be that is rapping, rapping on my chamber door? Oh, 'tis some visitor, and nothing more!"

A warm, familiar voice piped up from the other side. "Unless Poe's raven brought double-fudge brownies when he went to haunt the narrator's psyche, I don't think that quote is really appropriate."

Tempus's golden eyes sparkled with glee. "Double fudge?"

"Yep!"

"Well, this visitor is most certainly welcome in." Tempus stepped to the side and held to door open, inviting Nadia in with a dramatic sweep of his hand. The blonde girl had added a bright green-and-purple scarf to her usual denim-jacket-and-khakis ensemble, probably to accommodate for the surprisingly cold weather outside.

"Hey, Nadia!" Alecto said, waving at their guest. "Feel free to sit down, there's plenty of room on the couch for one more! How've you been lately?"

"Pretty good, this week!" Nadia replied. placing the basket of brownies on the coffee table and plopping down on the couch with all the grace of a drunken elephant. "Oof, it feels good to get off my feet. I've had to work double shift today, since my dad's caught salmonella and has been banned from the kitchen until further notice."

"Uh oh. Is he okay?"

"Oh, yeah, it's not a severe case or anything, he doesn't need to go to the hospital. He just needs to learn to crack eggs without getting the egg bit all over his hands, that's all." Nadia gazed pointedly at Tempus who'd already scarfed down three brownies and was reaching for a fourth. "You're gonna end up getting sick if you eat too many of those, you know."

Tempus shrugged. "They're worth it."

"I guess I should take that as a compliment." Nadia leaned forward and delicately plucked one of the confections out of the basket. "You gonna have one, Alecto?"

"Uh? Oh, ita." Alecto grabbed a brownie and bit into it, the taste of thick, rich fudge chocolate filling her mouth. "Sorry, it's just been a pretty intense day."

"Kill any bad guys?"

"Uh, no, not anything like that. Just a bizarre day, that's all. Acquaintance of ours was being an arrogant self absorbed jerk, there was a fight, the son of Lord Death was transferred to our class, and our teacher tried to vivisect a specimen of an endangered species. It's, uh, certainly been a day."

Nadia looked like she was about to choke on her brownie. "Wait a minute. Okay. Before I make this conversation backpedal to the most important of those verbal bullet points, I want to know: does this have anything to do with that explosion we heard?"

"Um. Yes. You heard that?"

"It was sort of hard not to. Mom's been fretting about it all day, but I figured that since it was half a city away, it wasn't worth worrying about immediately." It wasn't surprising that Nadia wasn't concerned about the explosion that Kid's Soul Resonance had caused. Most non-meister citizens of Death City had a personal policy that as long as it didn't put their lives at direct and immediate risk, any strange goings-on could be safely brushed aside as "eh, the DWMA will handle it."

The concern of Nadia's mother, therefore, was a bit odd. Tempus seemed to share her sentiment, as he said through a mouthful of fudge, "Your mom does realize that explosions aren't exactly rare at the DWMA, right? Like, they're not distressingly common, but there are students there that can turn into missile launchers. There's a reason so much of the building is blast-proof. There's nothing to worry about."

Nadia shrugged. "Well, I know that. I've spent most of my life here, remember? But Mom grew up on a quiet little poultry farm in the ass end of nowhere. She raised free ranged chickens in this little town that wasn't even on the map, and the worst she had to deal with was foxes getting into her family's chicken coops. I don't think she'll ever really get used to this place in comparison, y'know?" Her gray eyes narrowed. "But enough about my mom. Let's go back to that 'son of Lord Death' you mentioned."

Tempus smirked. "Not as impressive as he sounds, believe me."

"I didn't even know that Lord Death had a son," Nadia said, shifting and leaning forward with an expression of curiosity on her face.

In contrast, Alecto leaned back, sinking further into the couch cushions and making herself more comfortable. "I don't think a lot of people did," she said.

"What, so is he some sort of secret illegitimate child?"

"I don't think so. Nothing so dramatic, surely. I just don't think that it was ever really an important thing to know about Lord Death." Alecto took another bite of her brownie. "There's a lot students don't know about him. You don't know every detail of your principal's home life, do you?"

"I'm homeschooled. My dad is my principal. So, yeah, I do."

"Oh. W-well, you see my point, right?"

Nadia nodded. "Yeah. So, what's he like?"

Tempus snorted. "He lost a duel he had a clear advantage in because he lost an inch of hair on one side of his bangs, tops. Also, he's short as hell."

Alecto frowned. "Everyone's short as hell to you, you're ludicrously tall. Kid also brought the fury of a Reaper down upon Black Star."

"Yeah, and he still lost."

"On a technicality!"

"You heard Maka. It was a legitimate win."

Nadia cleared her throat. "Um, I'm clearly missing out on a lot of context, so can I get the Cliffnotes here? Who are Black Star and Maka exactly?"

"Friends of ours," Tempus said lightly. "Well, Maka's a friend. Black Star's… well, he's an…"

"An arrogant, self-absorbed spurius who doesn't realize just how lucky he is and eum odi." She spat the last words out like they were venom. They may as well have been; just thinking about Black Star's smug grin as he declared himself superior to the gods and called her "a small fish" made her blood boil.

"I was going to say 'an acquaintance,' but sure, that works, I guess." Tempus stretched out in his chair, and contented look on his face as he placed both hands on his belly appreciatively. "Those were some damn good brownies, Nadia. Anyway, Black Star, another friend of ours named Soul and Kid… Death the Kid, that's his name… got into a fight in front of the school. That's what the explosion was; it's take too long to explain all that needed to be explained, but everyone's fine, so it's not that concerning. Now, hold on to your seat cushions, because this next part is going to blow you away; Death the Kid? Lord Death's son? Grim Reaper, just like his dad? Incredibly proficient in both range and hand-to-hand combat, if what we saw was indicative of his true talents? Yeah, he lost."

Nadia looked about as confused as one would expect. "Yeah, you mentioned that. How'd he manage to pull that one off?"

"Because of a little trim off his hair, that's why," Tempus said. "Soul ended up cutting a bit of his bangs off during the fight - Soul's a weapon like I am, only he can turn into a scythe - and he ended up spitting blood and passing out because of it. Maka said it was because his symmetry was off or something, God only knows how she knew that. Duel was to either first bloodshed or professor's ruling, so…" he shrugged.

Alecto had practically crushed the brownie in her hand. "I don't get it. He'd basically won. He'd done a really good job in the fight, he was incredible… and he lost because he got a haircut. And now we're going to have to hear Black Star bragging about 'beating a reaper' for the next three weeks."

Nadia still looked completely lost. "Okay, yeah, next time we talk you're going to have to explain who these people are in more detail, because I still have no idea what you're going on about. So, besides that fact that he lost a duel over something really stupid like that, what's he like?"

Tempus shrugged. "Dunno. He's supposed to be in our class, but he wasn't there today. Apparently after the duel, Lord Death took him home, so we really didn't get to talk with him."

Alecto bit her lip. "I'd like to get to know him," she said decidedly.

"Yeah, he sounds like a really interesting kinda guy." Nadia stretched in her seat. "So," she said, giving Alecto and Tempus a pointed look. "Why haven't you two stopped by the Plenitude yet? Mom's been wanting to meet you guys forever."

A sheepish look crossed Alecto's features. "Ah, mē miseret. Going to restaurants has never really been our thing. We tend to stay home, let dinner be a small thing, so going out to eat tends to not occur to us."

"Well, that's just inconceivable." Nadia prodded Alecto in the shoulder with her index finger. "I'm putting my foot down. You two will come to Donald's Plenitude of Pies and have lunch with me within the next month or I'll make sure that Mom and Dad don't shower you in free pizza like they totally would otherwise because you two are pretty much freaking heroes in their book."

"Free pizza, hm?" Tempus said. "That's a very tempting offer. Ally?"

"I don't see why not," Alecto stated simply.

"Then it's settled, then!" Nadia declared. "Now, now that that's out of the way, I want you to tell me all about this duel. Don't leave a single detail out."


Honeybush orange tea was perfect for the early morning, especially a morning as mild and gentle as the morning that came after the day of the duel. The sweet honeybush based balanced out the delightful tartness of the orange, giving it a very breakfast-like flavor. It wasn't a caffeinated tea, so it wasn't the type to grab if one needed a quick way to wake up. But Alecto was already awake, and she didn't think she would need the extra energy.

So it was the honeybush orange she had chosen that morning, and it was the honeybush orange that she took a sip of as she made her way through the halls of the Academy. Tempus was a couple steps ahead of her, and kept shooting her impatient glances over his shoulder. She ignored him. She knew why he was getting antsy; Tempus had made it a personal goal of is to always show up for class on time because, as he put it, "I can speed up my own time and I can turn into a clockwork weapon; if I'm not punctual I'll be the butt of literally every joke ever."

"You know, you can go on ahead, if you'd like," Alecto said. "You don't have to stick behind for me."

"You sure?" Tempus said. "We stayed up pretty late talking to Nadia, and you're moving pretty slowly. I'm just making sure that you don't fall asleep in the hallway or something."

"You stayed up just as late as I did," Alecto pointed out in response, taking another sip of her tea and letting the hot honey taste warm her throat. "I'm not going to doze off. I just feel like taking it a little slower today, that's all. I'm not going to be late for class, either; I'm a time meister, it's very hard for me to be late to somewhere."

"Hasn't stopped you before," Tempus muttered. "Didn't you fall asleep on the steps one time?"

"That was one time. Go. I'll catch up with you in a bit."

"All right." With a tick and a tock, Tempus was halfway down the hall. Alecto watched him leave before continuing her own walk, her thoughts turning leisurely in her head as she did so. She had to admit, it was nice to take it easy, without the stress of hunting kishin eggs resting on her shoulders.

But she still couldn't help but feel that she should be doing something. She had only gathered sixteen kishin eggs for Tempus. At first, that had seemed like a fine amount, but then she realized that most meister-weapon partners that had been there as long as they'd been had managed to gather at least twenty-five or thirty. Hell, Maka'd managed to get all ninety-nine, and it was through sheer misfortune that she and Soul were forced to start over. Alecto knew it was a bit unfair of her to compare herself to one of the top students in her class, but it didn't stop the feeling that she should have made more progress.

It certainly wasn't for lack of trying. They'd gone on far more mission than they had souls, which didn't exactly improve Alecto's views on the situation. Her footsteps slowed further as she thought about how hard she tried. She fought tooth and nail on every mission, refused to let herself give up and fail, and oftentimes Tempus had to practically drag her away from any hunt that was well out of their league. But no matter how hard she fought, no matter how many times she'd told herself "qui audet adipiscitur," it never really seemed to matter. She got hurt on almost every mission they went out on, and she hadn't even managed to get a fourth of the allotted souls.

So what the hell was she doing, just walking past the mission board without even glancing at it?

Any desire to "take it a little slower" was completely washed away by waves of self-doubt and determination in equal measures. She was about to turn around and go back, regardless of what Tempus would say about over-exerting herself, when an unknown yet bizarrely familiar voice cut through the cloud of worry fogging her mind.

"Are you sure this is the right floor, Kid?"

She looked up, her coal-colored eyes focusing. To her surprise, Death the Kid and his two partners were standing several yards down the hall, their backs turned to her. While she couldn't see their faces, she could easily tell who they were. There wasn't exactly a plethora of boys with three white stripes running through their hair, after all.

It was the taller girl with the long, caramel-blonde hair who'd spoken. "We've searched everywhere. Are you sure you know where we're going?"

"Of course I do," Death the Kid replied, his voice sharp.

"Really? Because it doesn't seem like it."

Alecto wasn't sure how the boy had managed to get lost in the Academy that his father had founded, but she wasn't going to question it. Goodness knew she'd managed to get turned around in the large, impossibly long halls a few times. Death the Kid was supposed to be in class Crescent Moon, like she and Tempus was, but he clearly wasn't sure where it was. She figured that she could be of some help in that regard, it was as good a way as any to introduce herself.

Approaching the three in front of her, she cleared her throat, gripping the thermos of tea tightly in her hands and letting its warmth relax her slightly. She was stepping a bit outside her comfort zone, initiating a conversation with someone she barely knew, but she wanted to get to know him. "Excuse me," she said, "but if you're looking for Crescent Moon, you're on the wrong floor. That classroom's upstairs."

The three of them turned to face her, each wearing three different expressions on their faces. Kid's expression was completely unreadable, his sharp yellow eyes boring into her. She also noticed that he'd evened out his bangs, fixing the impromptu haircut of the previous day. The shorter girl (Tempus had mentioned that he'd briefly introduced himself to them the day before, and that her name was Patti) looked more curious than anything, her large blue eyes full of interest. The taller girl (Liz, Tempus had said her name was) simple furrowed her eyes in perplexed recognition. "Hey, you're one of the kids from yesterday, right?" Liz said. "The one who wanted us to kick your friends' asses."

Alecto could feel her face redden. "I-Ita. Um, I mean yes." She held out one of her hands, offering a rather nervous attempt at a smile. "My name's Alecto Bellatore. I'm a meister here. The two of you," she directed her words specifically towards Liz and Patti, "have already met my weapon partner, Tempus."

After a brief, Kid took her and and shook it. "How did you know we were looking for class Crescent Moon?" he asked.

"Educated guess," Alecto explained. "I'm in class Crescent Moon, too. Yesterday our professor told us that you were joining our class. If you want, I can show you where it is."

"All right," Kid said. "You said it was a floor up, right?"

"Yup! Come on, I know the shortest way to get there." Beckoning for the three to follow her, Alecto resumed her walk through the hallway, taking another sip from her tea. There, she told herself, see? Introduced yourself, didn't bungle it up, offered a helping hand. Not so difficult, was it?

The thought cheered her up a bit, and she began to speak again, this time a bit quicker-paced. "I feel like I should warn you in advance that the two boys you fought yesterday, Black Star and Soul, are in our class. I don't think they'll try to give you any more trouble, especially not Soul, he's actually a pretty decent guy, and Black Star's ego's been sated enough, though I still think that winning on a technicality doesn't actually count. Speaking of which, that Soul Resonance you three did yesterday was incredible! I don't think I've ever seen a student pull off a mo-we like that." She paused at the bottom of the stairs as she realized her error. "Tch, vae."

"Is something wrong?" Kid asked. Alecto wasn't sure if he'd understood her Latin cussing (She wouldn't put it past him to have a basic understanding of Latin, being the son of Death and all) or if he'd just picked up on the irate at slightly embarrassed tone of her voice. She was willing to place her denarii on the latter; profanity had a way of gettings its meaning across, regardless of language or context.

She sighed and ran a hand through her rose-colored hair. "Nah, nothing particularly important. My accent just slipped, that's all." She'd long since accepted that she was never going to be able to perfectly mimic an American accent and, more to the point, she was perfectly content with pronouncing her a's and her u's differently, because she knew she could pronounce words the same way, say, Maka or Tempus did, should she try.

It was just that damned v-sound that had always tripped her up, mocking her with its difficulty. It wasn't a lack of effort that hindered her; hell, her parents had enrolled her in speech therapy not long after they adopted her. (It was actually in speech therapy that she learned that her accent was an accent, and not some sort of bizarre speech impediment.) But every time she thought she had it under control, she'd end up messing up somehow, as if part of her subconscious didn't want to let go of bad verbal habits.

Kid spoke again. "I've never heard that sort of accent before. Where are you from?"

"Uh, Maine?" Alecto shot a sheepish grin over her shoulder as she began ascending the stairs. "To be honest, I don't know where I was born. My parents adopted me when I was five, and I don't remember much from before that. Neither did they, really. I know that all they knew of me was my name and my birthday, and that I spoke more Latin than English." She neglected to mention that Latin was the only language she could speak when she was young. He probably thought she was weird enough as it was.

"Latin?" To her surprise, though, Kid didn't seem weirded out. He actually sounded a little curious, and Alecto had to quickly look away to hide her confused blush.

Curiosity directed towards her by fellow meisters was not a thing that Alecto was altogether used used to. Alecto was used to fading into the background, avoiding anything that would get herself caught in the unified gaze of student gossip. "Yeah," she said, a little bit quieter than before. "That's what the accent is, apparently."

"Whoa!" Patti exclaimed. She had a very expressive voice, so much so that Alecto could perfectly envision the look of childlike awe and excitement on her face. "Isn't Latin supposed be a super duper old language?!"

"Ita vērō," Alecto said, reaching the top of the stairs and feeling the sudden urge to show off a little. "Nemo loquuntur lingua latina." She turned around. "Quid tibi? Loquerisne lingua latina?"

Three equally confused stares was the answer she got.

"Ah, didn't think so." It seemed that Grim Reapers didn't get introductory lessons in dead languages. There was a certain irony in that. "Come on, we're almost to class."

"If Latin is really old, how come you speak it?" Liz asked as they walked.

"Well, I don't have a particularly pronounced natural vocabulary, I was pretty young when I learned English, so it wasn't long before I knew English better. Most of what I learned I actually taught myself later on. I actively speak it because it feels more natural for me. As for why that is, well, like I said, I don't know. Maybe my birth parents were gladiators or something," she joked, starting to feel a bit self-conscious as she told more about herself. She stopped right in front of the door for class Crescent Moon. "Well, here we are," she said. "Class Crescent Moon, as taught by Professor Franken Stein. Class starts in about…two, three minutes?" Tempus was much better at accurately estimating time than she was. She supposed it was a fringe benefit of being able to turn into a weaponized clock.

She reached out to open the door, but stopped, her hand hovering a couple inches away from the handle. "Hey, uh… why did you get into a fight with Black Star? I mean, I know why he picked a fight with you, that's just something he'd do because he's an idiot. But what stake did you have in all that?" She could tell the difference between a person who was invested in a fight and person who was just going along with it after getting attacked with no real concern or anger, having been on the opposite side of such emotions several times, the latter more than she cared to admit. Kid had definitely been in the former category. No one who was in the latter let loose a Soul Resonance that powerful.

As it turned out, her suspicions had been right, as Kid's expression darkened a little. Behind him, Liz gave a roll of her dusky blue eyes in a here-we-go-again manner. "He broke one of the spikes on the school," the young reaper said, his eyes flashing with anger at remembering events Alecto knew nothing of. "He completely messed up it symmetry, it's beautiful balance…"

Symmetry. There was that word again. Maka had said that was why he had passed out the day before despite not having a scratch on him. "Um…Mē miseret if I'm being rude, but…" In her peripheral vision, she could see both Liz and Patti motioning for her to not continue her line of dialogue, with Patti shaking her head vehemently and Liz making an X-sign with her forearms. She continued regardless. "What is it you find so important about symmetry?"

Kid gave her a disbelieving amber stare as Liz slapped her palm to her face in the background. "Are you serious?" he asked incredulously. "Symmetry is it ultimate form of beauty! It is the purest aesthetic expression of order and balance and everything beautiful in this world. The building that this school is housed in is a perfect representation of that, perfectly balanced on both sides. To watch him vandalize such balance was unbearable, intolerable!"

After Kid finished his brief by loud rant, the silence that followed was practically smothering. Alecto stared at Kid for a few seconds, trying to process this information before her brain did a quick reboot and she shrugged. "All right." She spent her free time drinking tea and beating up bad guys with her best friend who was also a clock. Lord Death's son being agog over symmetry? Not even remotely the weirdest thing she'd ever seen. "I'm not going to pretend I fully grasped all of that, but I'll take your word for it."

Kid opened his mouth to speak, probably to explain more on the wonders of symmetry, when the familiar ding dong dong ding of the second morning bell sounded, alerting students that they needed to be in class now. Alecto flinched slightly at the sound at the sound before placing her hand firmly at the handle. "I think that's our cue," she said, pushing the door open and standing to the side, making a motion with her hand that indicated for the three to go first. "Post te."

"Thank you," Kid said. "I appreciate the help." He seemed a little reluctant to admit that he needed help, probably a little embarrassed about the fact that he'd gotten lost in the school run by his own father.

"No problem," Alecto said, shooting him and the Thompson sisters a friendly smile as the three walked past her into the classroom. Alecto noticed the collective class's eyes upon the reaper boy and his twin pistols as they entered, and wasn't exactly eager to receive the same attention by association. With a prompt tick, she shoved time out of sync and made her way past them, walking up to the empty seat next to Tempus. Tock.

Tempus gave her a quick, knowing glance and a curious smirk that she fended off with a sharp glare. Down by the door, Kid looked a little startled by her sudden shift in position, his sharp yellow gaze flickering between the door and Alecto, and Liz looked a lot startled. Patti just looked gleefully wondrous as she took in her surroundings.

Hushed whispers began to rise as the three sat down, and Tempus seemed to take this as an opportunity. With a tick, he leaned towards Alecto and whispered, "So, what's he like?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Seriously? Don't bullshit me, Ally, I saw you walking in with mister talk-of-the-town over there. You met him. What's he like?"

"I don't know, okay?" Alecto hissed quietly, keeping an eye on the door for when Dr. Stein inevitably rolled into the room. "We only talked for a few minutes, and even then it was mostly me. All I really know is that he really likes symmetry and that's why he fought Black Star."

"What?"

"Black Star broke one of the spikes on the school building. Messed with the symmetry. I don't know. If you want to get to know him so bad, you go talk to him."

"I just might," Tempus replied matter-of-factly. "Assuming your initial impression of him was a positive one."

"Wait, what? You're the people person, why are you letting me " Alecto said.

"Well, yeah, but you've met the guy. Thoughts?"

Alecto thought about it. There'd been a certain… something about Kid, a quiet confidence that indicated that he was perfectly aware of his capabilities as a meister. Honestly, she kind of envied that sort of self-assuredness. He hadn't spoken much, but he hadn't really needed to. And he'd certainly seemed nice enough.

He was… "He's interesting. And yeah, I think I'd like to talk to him again."

"Alrighty then." Tempus leaned back in his seat and resynchronized time with a tock, his eyes trained on the back of Kid's head with an intrigued expression on his face.

And the more Alecto thought about it, the more she realized that she definitely wanted to talk to Kid again.


A/N - Yay, they finally met! It only took them 60,000 words to get there. You can probably tell that I'm a little hesitant about writing Kid. I don't want to end up writing him out of character at all because I adore him too much. Someday I will get over all these hang-ups regarding my writing. Someday.

We also get to learn a little about Alecto's history in this chapter. It may not be much, but I'd say it's a pretty important "not much." Of course, I say that because I am pretty much all knowing when it comes to Alecto and her Alecto-ness. :)

First person to guess which book Alecto was reading at the start gets... well, they don't get anything, but it'd be cool to see who guesses it!

On to the Latin!

Ita: Basically means "Yes." I say "Basically" because Latin doesn't really have a concrete word for "yes," instead choosing to go for statements of affirmation ("Do you dance?" "I dance") "Ita" is basically an adverb that Romans used when such statements would make the flow of the conversation awkward. Alecto's later statement of "Ita vērō" basically means "It is true, yes" with vērō being an emphasis on the truth aspect.

Spurius: Means "bastard" in the "That bastard!" way, not in the illegitimate child way. I think that's basically going to be Alecto's go-to insult for black Star from now on, that's twice she's used it to refer to him.

Eum odi: "I hate him"

Nemo loquuntur lingua latina: If my translations are correct, this should mean "No one speaks Latin." I wanted ti to say "No one speaks Latin anymore," but I wasn't sure how to include the "anymore" while still maintaining some semblance of grammatical correctness. Hell, I'm not even sure if what I have is grammatically correct. The basic message of the sentence still gets across: Latin is considered a dead language.

(My sister is loomking over my shoulder and has just informed me that "Dead Language" could totally be a viable ship name for Alecto and Kid. Like I said, my sister is awesome.)

Quid tibi? Loquerisne lingua latina?: "What about you? Do you speak Latin?" Alecto is totally showing off at this point.

Post te: Literally means "After you." I couldn't find if there was a roman equivalent to the meaning of the phrase, so I just translated it literally because I was lazy and needed to get the chapter out there.

Chapter 17 will be the start of a new arc (admittedly not a particularly plot-relevant arc, but it's going to have its moments of importance), and will be up in a few days. In the meantime, please feel free to favorite and leave a review!

- Diana "Nocte"