The rest of the night was reasonably quiet. After such a stressful event, Liz decided to go to bed early, her voice shaky as she announced it. Staz followed her lead, giving up on the now shredded and half eaten fish and deciding to go to bed hungry. After splitting a can of raviolis Maka had found in a random box stowed away in the store, Robin and Patty decided to muse over his new coloring book; the small boy now lay against a tree, snoring with a red crayon in his hand and Patty was mere inches from drooling on said book in her sleep. This left Maka and Kid alone in silence.
No one had really brought up what had just happened other than Kid when he said he didn't remember much. "I just remember a lot of pain." He said, his eyes distant as he searched for the memories. "And screaming… My screaming." Kid looked over at Maka, seeing almost dried tear trails on her cheeks. He hesitated, but put his good arm around the blonde. "But I'm fine, Maka." He said, a bitter smile half-heartedly on his lips. He felt her shudder under his touch "I'm ok…"
Sobs wrecked through her body and she buried her face into his chest. "I-It's not over yet…" She managed, closing her eyes tight. "You're not cured yet…"
"…I know." He sighed, rubbing her shoulder in comfort.
"I'm so sorry, Kid…" Maka muttered through tears, letting her skinny arms wrap around his middle.
"Sorry? You don't have to be sorry, it's not your fault." Kid creased his eyebrows, though he knew she wasn't looking at him.
"I'm not stupid, Kid. I can read between the lines." Maka sniffed, removing her check from against his chest to look him in the eyes. "You said you broke a glass case, and that's what caused the rotters to stir." She paused to sniff again and wipe slowly vanishing tears with the back of her grimy wrist. "This is the only thing you could've gotten that would be secured by glass." She stated, gently tugging at her necklace for emphasis.
"And you think that's your fault?" He tilted his head slightly, then shook it. "No, no, no. I did that because I wanted to, and- no, look at me- and not because you told me to. You had no say so in the matter." He gently lifted her chin with his ringed middle finger for her eyes to be at his. "Don't blame yourself."
Maka said no more on the matter. It wasn't particularly that she felt it was her fault, but the fact that he got bit to get her a gift defiantly weighed guilt over her shoulders. The scythe meister looked away, almost a mock pout on her face. She bravely smirked through tears as her eyes finally met his and she gently shoved him on his good shoulder. "No more suicide gifts." And to that, Kid nodded in agreement.
Maka and Kid were graced with yet another sleepless and awkwardly silent night. After becoming slightly uncomfortable at their closeness without speaking, Maka acted like she was retrieving something from her backpack then replanted her self on the side of the fire opposite of Kid.
He didn't particularly seem to mind; he was actually rather grateful for the small bit of space between them. His mind was telling him so many different things he couldn't begin to sort through them all. It was certain that he defiantly harbored feelings for the blond, and they were feelings far beyond the point of friendship. Though he thoroughly enjoyed having Maka in his arms, he couldn't shut out the small voice in the back of his head shouting that she was an emotional wreck and just needed someone to be there for her; that she didn't really think of him in that way. Could this be true? Was she really just being this clingy because of her emotional state? The last thing Kid wanted to do was to take advantage of her needing comfort and misreading it as signs of affection; that would only end in hurting the both of them far too deep than necessary. Kid looked over at the subject of his thoughts and tried to hide a smirk as he watched her green eyes beginning to droop. He shook his head, uselessly trying to rid his mind of what he now deemed to be unhealthy feelings.
But what happened at the cave… That was defiantly something. Besides, she was the one that started it, right? He thought back to the moment, trying to prevent his cheeks from blushing profusely. No, he thought bitterly. That was me. He groaned inwardly; teenage emotions were such a pain in the ass. He sighed, running a hair through his horribly untidy hair and listening to the quiet snores of those round him. Kid decided then and there he would quit trying to, as Liz might put it, 'make a move' on Maka. They simply had too many priorities and teenage love defiantly should not be ranked highly on the list.
Hours slurred into day and days fused into weeks, and eventually, the group stopped caring what day of the week it was. Not that it mattered anymore; it didn't seem this world would be fixed anytime soon, if at all. Day by day Kid's wound seemed to heal at an unbelievable pace, much to the group's excitement; it seemed Robin had been right, leaving Kid very grateful towards the small boy. After a few relatively quiet days, Kid decided to try, though he knew it would be useless, to call his father. And, just as he expected, nothing but snowy static revealed itself on the shiny machete blade. He swore loudly, causing a dirty look to be cast his way from Maka who was now stringing makeshift bows with Robin; the child had picked up on some of the colorful language and its obsessive uses by the teens, namely Staz and Patty.
Kid ignored her icy glance and continued to stare blankly at his knife which was now returning to a reflection of himself. How could his father do something like this to them? And it didn't seem to just be the city; it seemed to be the entire world. He tightened his grip on the handle so hard his knuckles began to turn pale white; but behind all this anger, dread and absolute fear dwelled, threatening to rear its ugly head. What if his father wasn't the cause of this? Deep down he knew his father wouldn't just do something as massive as this spur of the moment. Even if he was somehow secretly evil, he simply didn't have a motivated personality. Kid shook his head; he hated to think of his father that way… Which leaded to the other possibility, what if his father had no control over this? What if his father was… No, that was just too hard to consider as well-.
Kid stopped himself in mid thought, becoming all too aware of his own reflection in the knife. How untidy… He grumbled to himself, taking in his hair that had been long since brushed, the dirt smeared asymmetrically across his cheeks and down his neck… With another look of disgust, he tilted his knife further and further to take in the full extent of his offensive asymmetrical appearance. His breath caught in his throat as he came to his upper arm. His bandage had been off so it could get some air, and though it wasn't a deadly purple anymore, it was still hard to look at it; ugly, even. He let his fingers brush against it as he creased his brow. Reapers didn't generally get scars… But would this be an exception?
"Hey Kid, Robin and I are going out hunting." Maka waved a farewell, slung a homemade bow over her shoulder and set off deep into the woods, Robin jumping at her heels. At least she seemed to be doing better emotion wise…
"Now you have to hold it like… this…" Maka explained, though her verbal commands weren't nearly effective as her physical. She wrapped her small hands around smaller fingers and propped up the bow and arrow just slightly.
"This good?" Robin asked, standing statue still where the scythe meister had posed him.
"Perfect. Now shoot." At her order, Robin let the tension in the string free yet the arrow fell right to the ground at his feet. He dropped the bow and huffed with a scowl on his face. Maka suppressed a giggle and gathered the fallen weapon. "I think that's enough for tonight, don't you think?"
"But I didn't catch anything!" He exclaimed, glaring enviously at the squirrel and rabbit(1) that Maka had captured within twenty minutes of each other.
"That's ok, I think we'll have enough..." She reassured the pouting boy. "Besides, I bet Staz, Liz and Patty will have food as well." He gave a hearty sigh which Maka ignored, she knew the boy wanted to help, but he would have to face the fact that he wouldn't be good at everything on the first try.
The two had travelled a good distance from the camp during their all day hunting trip, leaving them a decently long walk back. Robin had been travelling a few paces ahead of the blond when he had spoken. "What's that?" He said, bolting off towards the right. Maka followed his lead when he stopped at a small pile of charcoaled wood and some empty soup cans. She felt uneasy of the whole scene, unsure of what to think about it. On one hand, she could be happy, ecstatic even, that there were more survivors, possibly even some she may know… But on the other hand, Kid had explained to her how dangerously easy it was to taunt the human mind and lead them to do the unthinkable. Or maybe, the most likely scenario, there had been survivors. Key words being had been. She reached down with dirty fingers, pressed them against the burnt log and gasped.
It was still warm.
Oh shiz… Maka went cannibal.
Long time no see? Sorta… Sorry, like I said before, this is my first week back and things are a bit hectic, let alone for some reason every night this week I've been getting home late. I've also run into a little bit of transition writers block; I know what I'm going to do with the story, I was just having troubles with the transition. Sorry for the wait then dry chapter, not much happened, but I need this chapter and next as fillers, so next chapter will be similar. After these two fillers, more action is sure to come; thanks for hanging in there guys!
Replies~!
Jeagar's Paradise- Sorry it's been so long from an update! And yeah… it was kind of… interesting in a way.
Art n' Music- Yeah, I was trying to be creative with it… And I didn't want it all in Kid's POV the entire time because he sort of blacks out soon afterwards and his instinct just sort of takes over; that's why he was asking Maka if she hated him.
Juvieyumi2500- Sorry it took so long to update!
Guest- Yeah, you gotta have some comedic relief in such a morbid chapter! Especially with Soul Eater, I notice they do that a lot in the anime and manga. They turn a serious or sad moment into something funny A LOT.
Shell-kun- Gross, creepy, sweet and funny all in a single chapter; it's a new record! And YES! All the new stories I have in mind are, in fact, KiMa stories. I have two multi-chapter (like this story) fics in mind, one being a crossover, and several one-shots and multi-shots; so stay tuned!
Mikaela- I know, I'd just want to give him a hug, though that would probably make it worse o.o yes, Robin's personality is very amusing to write, you just gotta have that smart ass in the group, it makes it even better that he's a little kid. And to the college question, technically, yes I am in college, but I'm also a high school senior. My high school is inside a college and we take both college and high school classes. When I graduate this year, not only will I be graduating high school, I will also graduate with an associate degree in college; I'm one of those nerdy smart people XD… But I will never abandon one of these stories, ever. I have done that on another account in the past and I COMPLETELY regret it, I will never make that mistake again, so no worries~!
XxDeathTheKid4EverxX- You're going camping?! Don't let the rotters get you! Haha I joke, I joke. But lucky! I would much rather be camping and such than stuck in the underground mall/cafeteria thingy by my school like I am now -.-'