"Maka, Maka, look! Look what I got!" A small voice squealed just before the small boy bounded through the woods, raising something high in the air. The blonde meister looked up to address the boy only to be caught off guard at the rather plump dead squirrel being flaunted mere inches from her face, skewered through the throat with a small, makeshift arrow. "He's so big isn't he?"
"Nice job." Maka commented, trying to suppress a laugh as she drew her head away from the rodent carcass.
"Yep, caught it all by himself." Kid spoke, emerging from the same direction Robin had appeared. "He found it, too. Killed it before I even knew it was there."
"Yeah, like you would be any help." The boy giggled, rolling his eyes playfully at the reaper. "Imma go show Patty!" He squeaked, running off towards the cave that was now tucked behind a save barrier of thick brambles, rocks and bark. The cave proved to be a safe sanctuary for the group, and Kid seemed to think Katsuo and his gang didn't know the true location of their hideout; plus, the place had too many memories, in Kid's opinion, to give it up.
"He did pretty good. Like I said, it was dead before I even noticed it was there." Kid continued, walking towards Maka until he was at a comfortable distance from the meister, which happened to be a few inches.
"A heard of deer could get past you with out you knowing. You're hopeless when if comes to hunting." She giggled giving him a playful shove on the shoulder.
"Hey, at least I'm good with my hands, these traps don't build themselves." He smirked, bringing attention to the two skinny rabbits caught in an intricate trap comprised of a mess of barbed wire, a spring and what seemed to be a metal coat hanger.
"Those have nothing on Robin's fat squirrel." Maka said, a matter of fact tone laced in her voice.
"No? I thought they might make for a nice warm stew or something… I swear, I don't remember it ever getting this cold in Death City."
"I know what you mean." Maka sighed, taking a seat on the cold ground, observing what she had been doing just before being interrupted by the young hunter. "There was frost last night, all the winter spices I'd been trying to grow are history." She clutched her fist around a clump of pitiful, browning stems and tugged them from the ground, throwing them out of sight in frustration. "Sorry. No seasoned meat anytime soon."
Kid shrugged. "That's Blackstar who complains about the bland flavor. Not me. But we do need to consider scouting for warmer clothes. All we really have are short sleeves and fall jackets. Those can only get us so far… That aside, how are things today?"
"Staz, Patty and Liz had a good fishing day today, considering the weather, three bass and a catfish; and of course they brought back water to filter, so we're ok with that. Soul and Blackstar were out rotter hunting and just got back a few minutes ago, nothing unusual there, but they did bring back a couple of sports jackets off some bodies that weren't too beaten up, so Tsubaki's boiling them now." She sighed, leaning into Kid. "Just another day survived."
"Don't look at it that way." Kid shook his head.
"In what way do you want me to look at it? That's how it is, isn't it?" Her voice wasn't argumentative, but defeated; which scared Kid even more. "It's like there's nothing to look forward to anymore. You know things won't get any better, I mean how can they?"
"Maka…"
"I know, I know. I can't be thinking like that. And you know me, Kid. I'm usually a glass half full kind of girl; just give me this one time to vent." Kid wrapped an arm around her, knowing everything she said had a point.
"Hey you two love birds!" Liz purred, poking her head out from behind a piece of bark shielding the cave. "You can have your lovey-dovey moment later! It's-"
"It's your turn to prep dinner and I'm hungry, so get your asses in here!" Patty growled in a finish, her voice echoing inside the bowels of the cave menacingly.
"Yeah, what she said." Liz laughed uneasily at her sisters hostility and retreated away from the couple, but not before giving them a week. Both slightly flushed, Kid pushed himself to his feet and dusted off his permanently dirtied pants, causing Maka to giggle.
"Do I amuse you?" He smirked, offering a hand to help the blonde up. She grinned, accepted his hand and allowed herself to be pulled up to his level.
"It's just funny; Even though we're living on the land to survive and fashion really isn't an issue here, you still wear those stupid slacks." She smirked accusingly.
He shrugged it off. "Old habits die hard, I suppose. But how about you? You continue to fix your hair every morning in those pigtails, quite symmetrically I might add. I'm not complaining, but it seems just as redundant as my choice in attire."
"Hey! At least my pigtails are practical! It keeps my hair out of my face, giving me a wider field of vision. Besides, I don't want to hear you complain about the asymmetry." She countered, giving him yet another playful shove as they slowly shuffled towards their makeshift home. "I do have to keep an eye on your sorry ass, don't I? You just might be a likely candidate for the first reaper to ever be mauled by a squirrel."
"If you say so." Kid chuckled.
"I do."
"Fair enough."
"Makaaa; dinner. I'm hungry…." Blackstar whined, shoving the small pile of animal bodies at the blonde's feet as she entered the cave, Kid hot on her heels.
"Makaaaa, Chop!" the scythe meister growled, slamming the small basket down on the assassin's head as forcefully as she could; She heard a small giggle behind her. Still slightly hot headed from her most recent, though small, tantrum, she turned on her to see Kidd's trembling form, a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter.
"Haven't heard that in awhile…" He commented, composing himself remarkably fast.
"Shut it, Reaper boy, or you're next." She muttered, though a hint of playfulness could be heard in her voice. "Hand me that knife, will ya?" She called, taking a seat next to the ever comforting fire. One of the things she had always enjoyed most about the short, yet frequent camping trips with her papa was the smell of freshly burned wood that would emit from the campfire. There was simply no other smell like it; there was no way to recreate it, either. It was far too heavenly.
"So I was thinking." Kid pondered, interrupting her thoughts, "Maybe if we cut these just right, they might make a nice pair of gloves?" His voice was almost too automatic, it was obvious to Maka he just wanted to start a conversation with her and really had no interest in a pair of rabbit skin gloves; but why not have some fun with it.
"Rabbit skin… Gloves?" She cocked her head to the side with a smirk flashing at the black haired boy, his face beginning to heat rather quickly as random words seemed to flow from his mouth.
"Y-Yeah… You know, it is sort of cold… And we need out hands… for hunting, and if they're cold, well… We can't use them…"
"Gloves…. That we make… out of rabbit skin? That we caught?" She continued, her grin only growing wider.
"Just forget it." He muttered.
"No, no, Tarzan. I'd like to hear more of your fashion ideas. Maybe it'd be a good idea to hunt down a lynx or something, you know, to make a coat? Hey, I could probably just whip out my sewing machine and get right on it."
"I was just trying to help…" Kid grumbled, focusing on the animal he was currently skinning, trying to wipe any form of disgust from his expression.
"I know." Maka giggled with a sigh. "But you've got the right idea. We are running low on warm clothes. The rotters just don't have the clothes for the current season… We'd probably be more productive if we had a better wardrobe." Kid merely shrugged, still slightly stung by Maka's taunting. "I think we should make a run."
"I think Maka's right." Tsubaki chirped, obviously listening in on the two as she disinfected the newly found jackets. "We're running awfully low on supplies, and maybe some cough medicine wouldn't be such a bad idea either…" As if on queue Blackstar let out a roar of coughs.
"That's not getting any worse, is it?"
"It hasn't yet, but it's not getting any better either." The black haired weapon sighed in concern for her meister. "I just don't think going on a run should be completely out of the question."
The reaper mulled over the thought for quite sometime; long enough for dinner to be prepared and halfway eaten before he spoke of the issue. "I'm going on a run tomorrow. If I'm not mistaken, I remember there being a small outlet center in the opposite direction of the over run town a few miles from here. Staz, I was going to ask you and Soul if you would mind joining me."
"What about me?! I'm no small fry!" Blackstar chimed in after gulping down his last bite of fish. "You need a god in your presence!"
"You're sick, Blackstar. Besides, you need to stay here and keep the others safe." Kid replied.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea." Staz piped up. "Though we've secured this location and haven't had a problem so far, it is still possible those blokes from the over run town know where we are. I don't find it very smart to take that much power with you."
"He's got a point." Soul shrugged.
"I'll go with you." Maka commented, looking to the reaper for approval.
"No."
"What?! Why not?" The blonde retorted. "Sure I'm a strong fighter, but I'm sure Staz and Soul look much more intimidating than I do. Besides, I'm pretty sure we could travel quickly. We have before."
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"And give me one reason why it's not."
"I just… have a bad feeling. I don't want you to get hurt."
"If there's a group going, I'm joining it. It was my idea, after all." Maka's voice turned icy, making Kid sigh, almost audibly, in defeat. There was no use talking the scythe meister out of it and he knew it. He knew he should've chosen his words more carefully, now she was probably demanding to go just to spite him.
"I'll go with you guys." Liz joined in, her voice nonchalant.
"Not you, too-"
"Hey, hey hey! I'm hardly doing anything around here, Patti and Robin can collect the water with Staz when he goes fishing, I won't be missed! Besides, the more people you have, the more we can carry back, right? I don't see a problem here." Everyone was silent as Kid ran a pale, yet dirtied hand through his hair.
"Fine. Pack over night bags, we'll leave tomorrow morning."
"It's almost dawn." Kid blinked his eyes open as he heard a low voice and saw Soul standing over him.
"Hmm?" Kid hummed, trying shifting under the blanket he didn't remember putting over himself, but was pinned down by an unknown weight. He tried to hide his smile from the weapon as he saw Maka fast asleep, curled up under the blanket against his bare chest. Wait, bare chest? What the- oh right, Tsubaki wanted to wash his clothes. They must've fallen asleep while sitting next to each other by the fire… The death god shook his head; he was still half asleep.
"You better have pants on under there, Reaper." Soul growled, his red eyes flitting towards the blanket.
Kid frowned and shifted under the covers, trying to gently wake Maka up. "Give me more credit than that." He hissed, pleased that his voice had recovered from sleep so quickly. "I'm not that indecent."
"Tsk." Soul rolled his eyes and stalked back to his post at the cave opening.
"Fiv-mor-mnts…" Maka mumbled at the reapers unrequested movement. Kid chuckled and continued to remove the blanket from the both over them, earning himself a half-hearted, yet surprisingly strong, punch to the gut.
"Maka, we're going on the run, remember?" The scythe meister groaned as she rolled over, away from Kid.
"Fine." She mumbled. "I'm awake."
Yawning, Kid brought himself to his feet, stretching his muscles stiff from sleep. "That scar looks better." Kid almost jumped at the sudden voice, he thought everyone was asleep… He turned to see none other than his eldest weapon rubbing her eyes as she sat up from her slumber. The pistol winced, but didn't take her eyes off the wound; though it did looked surprisingly good for what had happened to it. The scab was officially gone and replaced by a thin layer of off color, raised skin which gave it it's scar effect; the healing process had been sped up due to his death god abilities, however scarce they may be at the moment.
Kid shifted slightly under her pale blue stare, and she seemed to notice, quickly looking away and busying herself with her travel bag. "Well… I'm glad they were able to save you." She offered, her words awkward and uncertain; she honestly didn't know what to say.
"Yeah. Me too." Maka spoke, finally sitting up from her blanket cocoon.
"Awww!' Liz grinned, thankful for the break in awkwardness. "You two are so adorable!" both teens looked away from each other, their face reddening.
Kid looked at anything other than his weapon or the meister. "We're leaving in ten minutes…" He muttered, then busied himself with packing his own bag of essentials.
Nope, still not dead. But I am on break ;) So maybe more writing will get done soon. Just to let you know, I promise I'm not just sitting on my butt not writing, but I'm also pre-writing chapters for my next fic so maybe there won't be such a long wait in the future. Thanks for baring with me you guys!
Replies~!
Checkered Brooke- Yeah, I was really wanting to take a 'road less traveled' route with Soul on this. He seems like he would be the perfect 'big brother' type towards Maka if he didn't have any romantic feelings for her. Besides, Kid and Maka have plenty of road blocks as it is XD
DeathTheKidsDinosaurRawr- I don't remember what you're saying 'I have no clue' to so… Yeah XD
Fancyslime- Why, thank you! I rather like Soul's character and think he is 'too cool' to be a jerk :3
Khfan12- I think its more of a 'he tolerates it' rather than 'accepting' it. He's still a bit skeptical.
GarGoyl- I know, Soul should really stop picking fights with gods of death… Oh well. And Spirit and Lord Death stuck in an elevator?! That's awesome XD If I didn't already have plans for them, that would've been something to consider XD
221BBC-MissMoriarty- No worries about Thief! I'm a cat lover/owner myself, so Thief most certainly will not die XD
Mikaela- Unfortunately, it will be ending soon, but there are still a few chapters left, but I promise this won't be my last KiMa! I'll have more on the way :)
Hawkllama- It's not really jelousy… More… Big brother-y.
Shell-kun- You know, I've heard of Homestuck, but I was never entirely sure of what it was.
MaryJ. Fox- Hope this update satisfies :D
88KidxMaka88- C'est à partir de Google Translate donc s'il vous plaît excusez toute grammaire, je ne parle pas français ^ ^ 'Je suis désolé, je ne suis pas sûr de ce que vous essayez de poser sur la base de la traduction m'a donné ...
Giraffe overlord- Yep, yep, I've never actually been anywhere west of Dallas other than the time I flew to Hawaii (we stopped in California). But man... I swear, Texas weather is being so bipolar right now -.-
Ringochan- I've actually really considered being a novelist ! Thanks for the reassurance
AsmilingDog- One sitting ? Wow, that's awesome, I give you props ! And actually, the idea of the weapons not working and why they wouldn't was the final idea that pushed me towards writing this that and Kidd's bite.
Girl – Thank you ! And absolutly ! The drawing contest is open until the three days after I post the final chapter of Beyond Help, which I predict I have about... 6-7 chapters left ? More or less, I'll let yall know ahead of time, but the sooner you enter, the better !