The thought of his failure during the tournament weighed on Kid's mind for a few days. He should have been better than that. He should have been able to defeat someone as simple-minded as Ame. But it didn't matter—it was really stupid! Playing a game like that when the Demon Lord was out there raising an army of black-blooded titans to overthrow the school. What if something had happened? Well, the other death scythes had been guarding the school, so at least everyone would be aware of an attempt at infiltration.

He knew he was just distracting himself. The thought of being the only one left on his team and not even making a difference in the end upset him past the point of sanity.

All the stress from everything was staring to take its toll on him. The weekend after the tournament, when the others had invited him to play basketball in the park, Kid simply sat on a bench and watched the game. They were honestly playing another game, now of all times? It was foolish. Kid thought about the Shiro, wondering what the demon was up to right then. Was he planning another attack soon? Did he have other followers yet? What was his plan? He didn't honestly need twelve demon gods.

Kid wasn't that aware of his surroundings anymore. He didn't even seem to notice that he was dozing off, his head slowly nodding down and his eyes sliding shut. When Ame was taking a break to get some water and sit by Kid for a while, she noticed. She grinned; she wouldn't let this go to waste. She extended her hands right in front of his face and clapped them together loudly. As expected, Kid was startled awake by the noise. He turned his head to look at her for a moment before his face melted into a soft, lethargic smile.

"What is it, sweetie?" he asked, putting a hand on her head gently. Ame smiled back at him and said nothing. She was just doing that to annoy him. Now that Kid was finally awake, he realized that it was a bit late in the moment to be pissed off at her.

Growing Tension; Can You Not be Happy?

It didn't bother Kid that he lost as much as it bothered him that Ame didn't seem to give a crap. He was familiar the technique of acting calm and relaxed about everything just so everyone else thought she had things under control and there was no reason to panic. He tried confronting her about it alone that evening. She had followed him around a lot that evening, so she was with him in the study already.

"Why are you staying with me?" he asked. He was sitting at the desk whilst Ame sat on the ground propped up against the side of the desk. "Have nothing better to do?"

"Just wanted to see if you were okay," she replied. Her voice was tired, as if the stress was starting to get to her too.

"I'm fine," Kid smiled reassuringly at her. "You sound tired. It's been stressful, hasn't it?"

"No," Ame raised her head. "Have you been stressed?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Kid asked with a rather disdainful look. "Shiro's out there making an army to destroy us all and we've been doing absolutely nothing. We need to do something about this."

"We're doing all we can," Ame said, sitting up, turning around, and propping her elbow on the edge of the desk.

"Will you stop sounding just like my father?" Kid demanded, irritated. "You two are so carefree all the time. I mean, Eibon is on our side now, and all you do is drink with him!"

"…" Ame wasn't sure how to respond. She could sense the madness within him growing. Maybe she should leave for the night, just to get him away from her madness for a while. She didn't want him to get upset now.

Kid seemed to know what she was thinking and averted his gaze unhappily. "I'm sorry, I'm just… tired, I guess."

Ame managed a small smirk. She got to her feet and wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a loose hug. "It doesn't matter. I'm going to go stay with a friend tonight. You just take some time to yourself and relax. It'll be okay."

"Alright," Kid nodded calmly. She left soon, but he still felt a bit edgy. Maybe checking the paintings in the hallway would help. He measured each painting and straightened it according to his liking, still thinking about Ame. She really wasn't worried at all! How?

That just led him to a more important question. Why does she have all that power, but the inability to use it? Why wasn't she doing anything about what was going on? No one was—it was all Kid. He was the only one doing shit about anything lately.

His hands were shaking; he couldn't get the painting just right where he wanted it. He tried and tried for ages until he finally ripped it off the wall in frustration. Liz, who had heard the noise and wandered out into the hall to see what was going on, saw Kid sitting on the ground against the wall, hugging his knees to his chest and shaking. She went to him quickly and knelt next to him.

"Kid?" she asked. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I hate this!" he yelled. "I have to do everything by myself because no one else cares! I'm the only one that does anything about disorder, and look where it gets me. I can't even maintain order of myself or anything else around me. I just can't stand it anymore!"

He put his head between his hands in distress. He just wanted to have fun, be light-hearted like the others. He really didn't want the stress to bother him so much, but he couldn't just take it all away like Ame did. Liz carefully pried his hands from his skull and helped him to his room. Usually, being in his own room helped when he had such episodes. Kid sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the floor in silence.

"I'm sorry," he finally apologized. "That won't happen again."

"Don't feel bad, Kid," Liz said, rubbing his back gently. "I know you're stressed about it, but you can't let it get to you like this. It's not your fault Shiro came back, so you just have to do your best, okay?"

"But that's not enough, Liz," Kid insisted. He didn't even want to think about what they might have to do to increase their chances of winning. "We did our best last time, and he's bounced back more quickly than ever…."

"Then we'll just have to do better," Liz said. "We can do that."

Soul Eater

Even with the absence of all that stress, Kid didn't sleep nearly as well as he should have that night. Hence, he was ridiculously exhausted the next day. Liz and Patti could hardly drag him out of bed and get him to school. Kid was tired enough that he didn't check anything before they left and he said absolutely nothing on the way to school. The trio took their seats in class, and Maka and Soul, who sat behind them, hadn't even noticed Kid's rather catatonic state.

"Hey, Kid, what's up?" Soul asked. They were all aware of Kid's general stress and constantly communicated with him in friendly ways. Just because. Kid didn't respond. Soul put his feet down and leaned forward. "Hey, Kid, I'm talking to you."

Kid swayed sideways slightly as he turned his head around to look at Soul. Soul leaned back uncomfortably; now he could see that Kid really did look terrible.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" he asked.

"Soul," Maka rolled her eyes at Soul's tactlessness.

"Tired…" Kid moaned, his head falling onto the desk in front of him. Patti began laughing, whilst Liz mentally began to reconsider the decision to bring him to school today.

"Perk up, Kid!" Liz chirped, patting him on the back. "Just a little longer, then we can go home and sleep all you want!"

"A little longer?" Soul asked. "There's like, seven hours left."

Kid twitched slightly at the mention of the asymmetrical number, but otherwise showed no reaction to anything. Liz frowned and turned to Maka.

"He'll wake up after our first class," she said optimistically. "Besides, I'm sure Professor Stein won't call on him for anything, as long as he looks like he's paying attention."

Just as she said this, the professor wheeled into the classroom on his wheelie chair. Liz rushed to get Kid to sit up and stare at an open textbook as if he were studying. However, nothing gets by Stein—he gave Kid half of the class period to wake up before calling on him in class.

"Kid, would you care to tell the class the meaning of life?" he asked, turning around in his chair to look at Kid. Kid raised his head slightly and didn't miss a beat.

"Death."

There was a moment of silence. Stein merely went back to teaching the class as if that hadn't happened. That was going to be the last time he called on Kid.

After class, Kid was even more tired. Soul and Maka stayed behind with him and the twins in case they were needed for something. Kid was honestly starting to look a bit sick.

"How are you feeling, Kid?" Liz asked. Kid didn't answer; he just slid down the wall and sat on the ground.

"I don't think he'll make it through the day," Maka finally admitted. Kid raised a hand weakly.

"Wait," he said. "I'm fine, really…."

"I know!" Patti chimed, raising her hand enthusiastically. "He just needs a juice, that's it!"

"Worth a shot," Liz nodded. She turned to Soul and Maka. "You two mind staying here with him?"

"Yeah, no problem," Soul replied. Liz and her sister left for the cafeteria, saying they'd be back shortly. Soul just watched Kid try feebly to stay awake.

"Wow, I've never seen him like this," Maka whispered to Soul.

"Let's see if we can get him to say something weird."

"Soul!" Maka scolded.

"I'm gonna try it," Soul didn't pay her any heed as he raised his voice slightly to talk to Kid. "Hey, Kid, you doing alright?"

"Symmetry is like a basket of drinkable kittens in a basket by the fire…" Kid mumbled.

"Holy crap, it worked," Soul said. He hadn't actually expected Kid to say anything that quickly. He continued. "Is that so? What else do you want to say?"

"I haven't been crying for anyone," Kid continued, rubbing his eyes. He yawned.

"He's gone completely looney," Maka frowned as Soul stifled a laugh. Kid suddenly snapped his head up.

"I have surpassed the need for sleep!" he said. The other two just continued to stare at him in awe that he could make it this far.

"Hey, Soul!" Blackstar was making his way down the hall when he saw them standing about and decided to investigate. "What's up? What are you two standing around—huh?"

He looked down at Kid, who was smiling and waving.

"Hey, Blackstar… how are you?" he tilted his head slightly at the end, which was creeping the other boy out.

"What's wrong with Kid?" Tsubaki asked.

"He's lost his mind," Soul replied. "He's absolutely crazy."

"Soul," Maka said in that disproving tone. She'd been saying his name a lot this morning. "He's just tired. I think Liz and Patti will take him home after lunch."

Kid just watched them for a moment before leaping forward and shoving Soul and Maka into Blackstar and Tsubaki. Soul was the first to stand upright again.

"What the hell, Kid?!" he demanded. Kid just began laughing and laughing. He swayed to the side and he was silent for a moment as he hit the wall and collapsed on his side. He choked out a couple more chuckles.

"I think we should take him to the nurse's office."

"You think?!"

Once they brought Kid to the infirmary, he collapsed on a bed and didn't move. Liz stood by his bedside and tucked him under a thin, white blanket.

"He went right to sleep," she chuckled.

"And he didn't even lie down symmetrically," Patti smirked.

"Alright, you two," Naigus interjected. "Let him sleep and get back to class. He'll be here after school."

Kid didn't wake up again until after classes had ended. When he finally began to stir, the first thing he saw was Ame standing over his bed, watching him and covering her smirk with her hand.

"You are cute when you sleep," she giggled.

"Don't watch me when I sleep! Pervert!"

There wasn't that much dialogue in the first half…. I hope that I kind of lightened the mood with the last half. :)