Tied by Contract, part two

"Are you sure about that?" Kid asked in a tiered voice. The first part of the competition was a beauty pageant, the judges being Lord Death, Kid and surprisingly Professor Stein. By now they have gone through seven out of the twenty five girls invited, and none of them showed any promise at all. The crowd cheered at the beautiful girls as they made their speech and showed their talent. 'In conclusion I think we should all work together to save the rare blue cockroach!" The blond girl finished with a tear in her eye. Kid slammed his head on the table. "Now now Kid, the next one will be more... interesting." Lord death said. Kid raised his head again. Who could that be?

"Oh." He said bluntly.

"Hello, my name is Maka Albarn; most of you know me from school." Maka smiled at the crowd, spotting her silver hired partner on which she had a tiny crush on for some time now. Kid looked at her with interest. Maka was wearing a simple black dress with green tips and white gloves, and her hair was out of her pigtails. All in all, Maka looked symmetrical. Stunning- so stunning Kid couldn't stop himself from staring at her. Thankfully she didn't notice, but guess who did?

"Hmm... I wonder." Stein chuckled to himself as he caught up to Kid's eyes. "I came here today not to brag about my skills or looks. When I was younger I thought beauty pageants were just a way for men to control woman, and it is, mostly, but not this time, I assure you that much. If I wanted to, I could quit right here and now not depending on any man at all- this competition is for me and me alone to prove myself! If I won't win, that's okay, if I do, better. So don't you think less of me because I'm here, or I'll have to call you up and kick your ass to prove otherwise!" The crowd clapped. Kid smiled at her. She was wrong, so very wrong, but he couldn't tell her that, now could he? Maka noticed his smile and frowned back at him.

Maka stepped back, ready for the second part of her performance. "For you, I have made not something I can show on my body; it's a structure, a creation of my brain and knowledge." A confused wave passed through the crowd. "Does she mean like a sculpture?" a girl whispered. "Yes, it is. Though, not exactly the typical sculpture you all know." Maka smiled, lingering on Soul's face. The curtain fell, causing the crowd to call in awe.

Maka climbed a ladder to reach for a switch. As she did, a small ball dropped and turned in a path Maka made beforehand. Kid quickly caught up to her doings: Maka built a huge domino effect structure. The ball hit the can, which rolled to her side and hit a hummer that fell and hit a small toy gun, and so on again and again. Kid grinned. Maka was defiantly something else. But how did she know to build something like that? Who taught it to her? Did she learn it on her own? "I haven't saw anyone this promising since young eibon." Lord Death said, ripping Kid out of his daydream. "I can do that too." He whispered to his father. Maka glared at him.

"I say ten for creativity." Lord Death decided. Kid looked at him with anger. "Hmm, I say ten for being the one girl that doesn't speak absolute bullshit." Stein joined. Kid felt nervous. At this rate Maka might as well win. She deserved it, yes, but if she won they would have to get married. Then again, he didn't want to hurt her feelings...

"Eight." He decided. Not a point more.

"Then the average is nine!" Lord Death announced. Maka smiled brightly, stopping to glare at Kid. Why was she picking on him?

After the last girl finished the last boring sentence Kid stood up and quietly left the place. Not only that none of them were his type if he ever had one, but they were also some of the most cliché, stupid girls he ever saw. He knew every each and one of them had a big soul and a wide heart, but he felt like crying thinking of a future with one of them.

"Kid?" Kid turned around "Oh, hi Maka. We must stop meeting like this." Too late did he notice her death glare. "MAKA CHOP!" she screamed, hitting him with full force. When Kid regained consciousness, she was already gone. "What the hell?" He asked in anger. That girl was crazy. Little did he know at that time Maka was thinking the same thing about him. "He is SUCH a JERK!" she called as she kicked a small can with fall force. How dare he insult her like that! She worked her soul into that structure, and there he goes telling everyone how it wasn't a big deal. 'I bet he can't build anything! All talk, but I'm the one who studied physics, aren't I?' Her frown deepened as she thought more of the incident.

...

The second part of the 'Miss shibusen' tournament was a simple test, giving Kid nothing better to do than sit quietly in his chair and watch the girls fly through the questions. The third part, a sports tournament, included a race, a weapon handling check ATC. For the fourth and last part, the schools all over the world set up a voting system that will give the competitors popularity a take on their ratings. One thing didn't change at all throughout all of the different parts, and that is Maka's rotten attitude. She was always so rude to Kid. Of course, she had a good reason, but Kid was not aware of the hidden offense she took from every second word he said.

"Well Kiddo, that is pretty much it. How do you feel?" Lord death looked utterly excited. Kid glared at him. "What? I'm excited. Soon there will be some new reapers around." His words made Kid start to fidget out of stress. After a time that seemed like forever, they spotted Stein approaching them.

"I have the results of the voting. It is as we thought." Lord death looked at Stein seriously. "Those are great news. I was hoping things would end this way." He added. Stein smiled sheepishly at the young reaper. "Who won?" Kid asked in a shaking voice. "You will have to wait until the winning ceremony to know that." Kid blinked in anger. "I agree. That will be way more fun." Death said in his typical silly voice.

...

The girls once again dressed fancy. Kid leaned on a wall and watched them twiddle around. A couple of girls looked at him, some of them smiling in a way that made Kid very uncomfortable. A young girl with wavy hair approached him, she was tall, about the same height as him, and her eyes were wide and cheerful. "Hello. Kid, right?" Kid bit his lip and nodded. "I'm Lilac, but you can call me Engie." "Engie? what does that have to do with Lilac?" Kid asked with sudden interest. "After my sister, Short for Energy. That's how we do in a family of a physician, a biologist and tween girls." Her answer released some of the tension Kid held. "That's a nice name." "She's dead." "I'm sorry." He quieted once more, wondering on the reason she told him all of that. "Excuse me, excuse me." A small voice made its way through the girls and towards the two of us. "Oh, Maka. Hi." He raised an eyebrow. "Hello Kid." She said coldly. "Who are you?" She asked, a little offensive towards the taller girl.

"I'm Engie. Are you Kid's friend?" Engie smiled at her, oblivious. "I guess you can call in that. I'm Maka." Engie looked at her, satisfied. "I liked your performance." She complimented. For a second Kid thought that maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he'd get married to a girl such as Engie, after all, she looked good and acted mature- but that thought was quick to fade away as he caught Maka's eyes focusing on him. His brain seemed to get erased whenever she did that, leaving only confusion in its stead.

"Oh, yea, the reason I bothered you!" Engie blushed a little when saying the next sentence. "Would you like to dance?" Her question caught Kid off guard. His mind searched for a reason to decline, when-

"Sorry, this idiot here just promised me his first dance earlier and forgot about it. Maybe later if you have the patience?" Wait, what? Kid barely had the time to digest everything that was just said. "Oh, so I promised you a dance." He raised an eyebrow at her frown. "I saved you, jerk! You could at least say thank you." He sighed. "Thank you." She smiled with satisfaction at his surrender, letting him twirl her around a couple of times while dancing. "She looked nice though." Kid chuckled, causing Maka to glare at him. "Go dance with her then!" She snorted. "Na, I'm good." he pulled his shoulders. "I'll take it you're enjoying yourself? The never dancing Kid-kun?" She asked, teasing. She had a point, after seeing how horrible he danced with Liz and Patty from, unfortunately, a viral video, Kid had avoided dancing with anyone. Of course, he had taken some professional dancing classes since, but the fear was there, fear of humiliating himself again, especially if it was Maka he danced with.

"I'm not actually supposed to dance with anyone." He answered. "But I guess you're okay because there's no danger you'll steal my heart." Maka puffed her cheeks. "What? Am I too ugly for your Highness?" Oh no. "Or is it that nobody wants miss tiny tits?" She proceeded. "Hey, stop it. You know there's no truth to that." His eyes softened. "Hmm, if you must know, I think you're really pretty. Especially in that dress, it compliments you." Kid blushed a little. Maka snorted and looked to some other direction, trying to hide her own blush.

...

"Oh look! Kid and Maka are dancing!" Lord death stood from a fair distance, looking at the two with a spark in his eyes. "Stein!" He called the meister near him. "Are you sure Kid didn't see the list?" Stein raised an eyebrow and twisted his screw, taking steps towards Lord Death to see what he was talking about. His eyes widened and he grinned, pulling out his cigarette. "Oh, that. Didn't you notice? Well I guess it's just their luck, because this thing was going on for even before the list came in." Lord Death closed his eyes, huge tick marks were spread on his forehead. "Shinigami-Chop!" He called, hitting Stein. "If you knew, then why the hell didn't you tell me? This is of major importance!" Stein raised his hand. "She won anyway." He pointed. "And what if she didn't?" Death was still angry with Stein, but it seemed that something he saw was distracting him. Kid, Kid was blushing. This was a miracle!

Death then rushed to the death room, he had an important call to make.

"Hello, Kami?"