(Author's Note: Hey ducklings! Some of you may have noticed that Patty and Liz weren't in the last chapter! Well, I kind of idolize them, soo I decided they needed an extra long chapter! But then I realized poor Soul was left in Russia by himself and that didn't seem right, so here's the second part of Chapter Two! Oh, and one more thing: these are all UN-EDITED so if you see any mistakes, feel like a character's OOC, don't be afraid to message me!)

Chapter Two-Point-Five: Liz and Patty's Misadventures Down-Under; Soul's Frozen Wonderland

"Patty! Get off the security guard!"

This was what Liz had been shouting for the last five minutes as the two Thompson sisters had been neatly escorted from the plane. It was amazing how quickly the Australian police force mobilized when they thought somebody had a gun – little did they know that Liz and Patty were guns themselves. After a rather thorough search by unattractive guards Liz and Patty were sent on their way with an ecstatic kick to the ass on their way out the door. Literally.

"Dammit, Patty!" Liz groaned sharply as her sister landed on top of her, "Get the frick off of me!"

Patty, ever the child, didn't seem to notice her sister's discomfort, and instead bounced up and down giggling and calling her squishy.

Poor Liz stood up, knocking her sister off of her and spitting out a mouthful of gravel. They still had to sneak inside and get their baggage, not to mention find their new meisters, and she wasn't looking forward to either. Meeting new people always had an added sense of importance that was foolish yet, to her at least, rather nerve-wracking. Patty, on the other hand, was looking forward to meeting the two brothers that had been chosen to weild them for a year. She was also excited to see giraffes in their natural habitat, even though Liz had explained countless times that giraffes lived in Africa. Not for the first time, she wondered if her sister's head was a little special.

"Liz! It's too hot to be moving!" Patty whined, glaring up at the sun with a murderous look, then blinking in pain when the light got to be too much for her eyes. "Why couldn't we have just stayed with Kid? It wasn't so hot! And he fed us!"

"I'm sure these guys will feed us, Patty," said Liz dryly, rolling her eyes.

Patty sat down in the dirt and huffed a sigh. The younger Thompson was angry. Angry that she'd been told to leave Japan, angry that she'd had to leave Kiddo all alone with two unknown weapons! Anything could happen to her meister. What if they didn't know how to handled his OCD and, like, beat him or something? Only Patty could beat up Kid! It was the rules!

So, while Liz snuck back inside to get their baggage, Patty stayed glued to the ground, pouting. It was no secret that, of the two sisters, Patty was always a little more attached to Kid. She viewed him as a sort of… how did she view him? She considered this for a moment, trying to work her mind around her own feelings, but eventually gave up and returned her mind to giraffes. Giraffes were easy.

"I wanna' go see a damn giraffe," she growled, getting to her feet and brushing off her white shorts. Her head was getting sweaty under her hat so she, in a moment of reckless abandon, took it off and chucked it as hard as she could. Because the hat was cloth, and cloth never flies very far, the hat landed only a few feet away in the road, but Patty felt immediately guilty. Kid had given her and Liz those hats! Patty moved towards the edge of the sidewalk, her eyes only on her hat, her foot slowly sliding off of the pavement and onto the blacktop so she could rescue her ever-so-important hat.

Liz stumbled out of the airport with their bags, flipping the bird to the securities guards that had, once again, tossed her out. "Watch your hands, you pervert!" She shouted, glaring fiercely. "My boobs aren't muffins! Which, by the way, you should probably lay off of." The fatter guard, the one that still had muffin crumbs stuck in his mustache, suddenly stopped staring at her chest region and for the first time looked up at her face. His piggy eyes were set into the folds of his face, barely visible behind an impressive pair of busy eyebrows, but she could still see how pissed he was as he began to walk towards her.

"Did I say they aren't muffins?" Liz backtracked frantically, "I meant I was pretty sure they weren't muffins. They're just boobs, you know. I thought I saw some kids sticking gum under the water fountain! Arrest them instead!"

"Wow, Rex, looks like these two ladies are having a bit of trouble!"

"You're right, Hollin, we should help out."

Simultaneously, a man inserted himself between Liz and the perverted piggy security guard, and another pulled Patty back just as a car almost squished the younger Thompson sister. All Liz could think was Thank God as she watched the fat-ass begin blubbering excuses and retreat back inside to the safety of his airport, where he had jurisdiction. Little Patty, however, began beating at her savior. None of the other three: not Liz, not either of the two boys who had come to their rescue, had seen her hat get run over. None of them, not even Liz, did anything until she got a good punch in on her guy's nose and dashed into the street, scooping up her hat and cradling it to her chest.

"Liz!" She looked up at her older sister, tears just beginning to well in her eyes, "My hat got run over!"

Understanding the importance of the hat, Liz walked over and comforted her younger sister. Sure, Patty was getting snot all over her in front of two really cute Australian guys, but it was as if she wasn't going to be living in Australia for the next year. There would be plenty of other hot Australian guys to occupy her time!

"Patty, I'm sure Kid will get you a new hat!" She reassured, patting her on the back, "I mean, he might have to get us both one so that he's sure they're symmetrical and all that, but we always cause Kid a bit of trouble so it won't be anything unusual!"

But Patty went on bawling and the two attractive objects of Australian manliness stood there and observed as their minds began connecting dots between what they were at the airport to do and the two girls in front of them. One grinned at the other, nodding towards them. The other responded by pulling out a slip of paper from his pocket and reading over it aloud: "Liz and Patty Thompson?"

The two girls immediately froze, having found that good things did not often happen after somebody used their full names. Liz turned, a protective arm still around her sister, but it was Patty that looked the most frightening. At the first sign of danger her tears had dried up and now she was staring intensely at the two boys, ready to pounce.

Sheepishly, one of the guys rubbed the back of his neck, "Sorry we're late, we got held up at the docks. I'm Hollin, Liz's new meister?" He pointed warily and Liz and she nodded, dumbstruck. This was definitely quite a change from Kid!

The other boy, obviously younger and quite a bit shorter than his brother – but still taller than Patty – smiled warmly, if not a bit insanely, "I'm Rex, I'll be Patty's meister."

There was silence as the two sisters considered the two brothers, before Patty suddenly broke the silence: "Do you like giraffes?"

"Giraffes?" Liz and Hollin asked in unison, though Liz said it with quite a bit more exasperation that the boy. Then, realizing what they had done, they both grinned at each other. This was when Liz accepted that, yes, she was going to like Australia very much despite the fact that she missed Kid a lot more than she was willing to let on. Who wouldn't like Australia when they had two guys like this to show them around?

"Giraffes…" Rex bit his lip, considering. "They're very tall, they have spots-"

"And really long tongues, too!" Patty interjected, waiting on his verdict.

At first, he paused, thinking a little more. He stroked his bare chin in a thoughtful gesture, jutting out his lip as he thought about the question rather seriously. Finally, Rex snickered, "Yeah, I guess I do like giraffes."

Patty turned to her sister very seriously and nodded in approval.

It was official: Liz and Patty Thompson had officially arrived.

Once again we visit Soul Evans as he treks through his new Russian home, now awkwardly sitting in a taxi with a driver than didn't speak any English. Running a frustrated hand through his white hair, he could feel himself reaching his boiling point as the man chattered on about things Soul couldn't even begin to suppose were anywhere near the albino's idea of cool. He just wanted this day to be over. Hell, he wanted this whole frickin' year to be over so he could get back to hunting kishin with Maka.

"I potom, moya zhena govorit, u nas net nikakoy ryby!" The driver snorted loudly, the car swerving nearer to the edge of the road – the edge of a fifty foot drop. Soul clung tightly to the opposite door and begrudgingly closed his eyes and waited for Lord Death to come take his soul.

If his meister had just shown up like they were supposed to, Soul was sure that this day would have gone very differently. Maybe the guy would have proven himself to be a lot cooler, he didn't know. All Soul knew now about his meister is that he was a lazy-ass S.O.B. who couldn't be bothered to pick people up from the airport. Not exactly a cool first impression.

"DWMAR!" The driver announced, pulling up to a dreary building surrounded by barbed wire, "Have happy time!"

"This looks more like a prison," Soul narrowed his eyes, staring at the sign on the front gate. Maka could have read it if she were here, but Soul's Russian was practically nonexistent.

The cab driver unloaded Soul's luggage from the trunk and tossed in roughly in the snow, grabbing Soul by his shoulder pushing him after it. The weapon was soaked to the bone as the cab driver quickly hopped in his cab and, with a brief wave, sped off while showering the boy sitting in the snow with yet more snow, thoroughly burying him in a mountain of the powdery stuff. Angrily he tried to unearth himself and, in succeeding, a trickle of snow felt down his collar.

"Frick!" Soul jumped to his feet, arching his back and tugging on the back of his sweatshirt to get the frigid stuff out of his shirt.

"Soul Evans?"

Twisting, the boy locked eyes with a man dressed as a security guard. His heart pounded in his chest, violently knocking against his ribcage. He may be a bit of a troublemaker, but he'd never been to jail. Soul narrowed his eyes and took a step back, ready to show this guy just who he was dealing with.

Smirking, Soul nodded. "That's me."

An unnerving smile settled on the guard's face as he swung the gate open and gestured for Soul to grab his bags and enter. After years of 'stranger danger' from his parents, he ignored his inner voice telling him this was a terrible idea, and picked up his suitcase.

"We've been waiting for you to get here," The man explained in a thick Russian accent as the made it inside the concrete building. "It's not often that we have a visitor. Most do not wish to come near because of our exterior, but I assure you that this is far from a prison."

Though he still wasn't sure, he acted as if he believed him. The main thing, Soul knew, was making sure his first impression was as cool as possible. It was a little difficult, pretending he wasn't getting nervous as he was led deeper inside the all-concrete building. Not to mention he was freezing: his clothes were still dripping with melted snow and his nose was running, which was definitely not cool. That moment the only thing he wanted to do was take a hot shower and sleep… and eat. But the cooking probably wouldn't be half as good as Maka's.

Dammit. Stop thinking about Maka.

"You and your meister will be sharing a room," the man explained, "and he'll be able to show you around the campus when you're ready. Right here!" They stopped in front of a metal door that looked like it once hid a unit for solitary confinement.

"Alright," Soul stared at the door, frowning slightly as he tried to figure out how to open it. He was saved the embarrassment by the guard, who quickly opened the door and ushered him inside.

Soul's eyes widened, her expression turning into one of horror as he stared at the room's decorations. "Hey! I thought you said my meister was a guy!" He shouted, twisting just in time to see the door shut – and hear the lock click into place.

"I am a guy!"

Slowly, Soul turned. What had appeared to be a pile of stuffed animals suddenly opened as a short, childish boy stood, his eyes roving the albino. "My name's Nanuk, I'll be your new meister. And let me just say, you're delish!" Nanuk, his head barely reaching Soul's shoulder, ran over and nearly knocked him over in a hug. "We're going to have such a great year together! I can't wait to have adventures and hunt kishin and check out guys!"

"What the-" Soul started, shoving the small boy off, "I'm not gay!"

"But your file said you were!" Little Nanuk looked offended.

This was when Soul realized that, several months ago when Maka had made him go through the Exchange Program papers, he'd handed them to Black*Star; mistake two of this entire thing. Completely uncool, he steamed. Next time he talked to the blue-haired ninja he would definitely be saying something.

"I'm not, it was my friend being stupid." He sighed, running a hand through his white hair and nearly knocking his headband askew, "I didn't mean to cause you any confusion, but I have a very nice meister back home who I…" Soul trailed off, for the first time not sure how to finish his sentence.

"Oh, I understand completely!" Nanuk squealed, smiling sweetly. "No hard feelings. And," he glanced around the room, completely decorated to the young boy lolita's tastes: pink, pink, and – you guessed it – more pink. "Apologies for the décor, I didn't think you would mind," sheepishly rubbing his neck, he glanced at Soul. However, Soul was surprisingly cool with his new meister being the type of guy he was.

"The pink will have to go." Soul said finally but, as he did so, he threw his arm around the sorter boy in a sort of acceptance, "But it doesn't seem too bad."

I really wish you were here Maka.