"You notice how Kid doesn't smile as much anymore?" Maka sighed and Black Star could practically see her pinching her nose in frustration.
"Star, that is the third time during this ten minute conversation you've asked something like that. Yes, I've noticed. It's because he's stressed- being a shinigami is new to him still. I know it's been a couple of years, but he's been healing the rifts between humans and witches since his first day. We both know that, so why are you asking?" Black Star cursed quietly as he pricked his finger on the sewing needle; Maka was coaching him through fixing up his binder.
"You know why." From her lack of response, Black Star assumed she was displeased, but the soft tone to her voice surprised him.
"Black Star... It's been years and you still haven't acted on your feelings for Kid. I've never seen you hesitate over anything the way you do about him- maybe it's time to let it go?"
"I can't."
"But you could, right? Listen, Star, I know you won't be able to find someone whose on the same level as you and Kid are, but just because the two of you are so equal, that doesn't mean you have to be together!" No, it didn't. But that wasn't why Black Star liked Kid. "I just feel like maybe you're putting him on this pedestal-"
"I'm not!" Black Star immediately interrupted, pricking his finger again. "I'm not, Maka. I like every aspect of Kid I know. I'm not putting him on a pedestal- I'm the only one who deserves that!" He grinned to himself, holding his binder out and looking it over with pride.
"Every aspect, huh?" Her tone was dry, but Black Star was serious. He liked the Kid whom had beat him to a pulp the first time they met, he liked the Kid whose eyes sparkled when he spoke of the potential symmetry in the world, he liked the Kid who he sometimes held and sometimes fought at odd hours of the night and morning when Liz or Patty called him because their meister's nightmares had brought the controlled madness inside of him to the brink of exploding outward. Those times he'd never told anyone about, of course, aside from Tsubaki.
"All of him," Black star confirmed, pulling his binder on and stretching his arms up and out for a minute, testing the thread to be sure it would hold. "Especially the part of him that agreed to go on a date with me." There was no reply. "The great Black Star has shocked you into silence again, huh?" Just when the silence on the other side of the line grew worrisome, someone spoke.
"Date? With who?"
"Soul! Dude!" Black Star grinned, flopping back on his bed. "Maka said you were out!"
"I was. What's this about a date? You? No way."
"You saying I'm undateable or something?"
"Absolutely. Who'd you con into going on a date with you? I thought you still had it bad for Kid."
"No cons. It is Kid."
"What's Kid?"
"The person I'm going on a date with, man, keep up." The line was silent again, and after a few moments Maka's voice came crackling through the speaker.
"Hey, Star, Soul didn't have a good day- I'm gonna go comfort him. See you!" She hung up before Black Star could reply, and he stared at his phone for a moment before giving a little shrug and setting it down. He'd be able to check on Soul later.
"Yo, Kiddo!" Black Star called, walking under the guillotines in the Death Room toward where Lord Death usually resided. After the moon had been enclosed in a sphere of black blood and things had calmed somewhat, Kid had raced to see his father; they all let him go, knowing how eager he was to share his status as a true Shinigami with Lord Death. It had been about half an hour and Black Star still hadn't heard from him, so he'd gone to the Death Room himself (against orders, of course- as if a few broken bones would stop him from checking on his friends).
"I killed him." Black Star pulled a face; was that Kid's voice? He sped up, finding Kid kneeling on the floor where Lord Death was usually found, clutching some sort of black fabric to his chest.
"Kid?" Something slid from his arms to the floor- Lord Death's mask? "Kid, what happened?" Black Star was at his side now, kneeling down next to him. Fuck, it hurt. He reached toward his friend, but Kid turned toward him before he was able. He looked up at Black Star, eyes bright, cheeks wet, face drawn, and Black Star swayed a bit as he was hit with an overwhelming sense of triumph. Something could still break Kid, a God. They were still equal.
He shouldn't be happy about that. His throat closed up, and he put a shaking hand on his friend's shoulder, giving it a tight squeeze.
"I killed him," Kid said again, voice hollow and quiet in the large room. Black Star recognized the fabric in his hands as Lord Death's cloak. "I became a Shinigami, and it killed him." More tears spilled from his eyes, and Black Star tried desperately to squelch his growing feeling of giddiness. He felt sick to his stomach. He shouldn't be happy about Kid's pain. He wasn't happy, he wasn't, why did he feel like this. "I didn't know!" Kid cried, clutching the cloak to himself tightly and burying his face in it. He looked so small curled up as he was, and Black Star wrapped his arms around him, ignoring the pain the stretching of muscles caused.
"Get off of me!" The scene became darker, Kid suddenly looking up at him and shoving him back, not just with his hands but with his soul wavelength. He stood, towering above Black Star, the latter now sprawled on the ground staring up at him. "I know what you're thinking." Kid was 20 feet tall, and Black Star felt like 5 inches in comparison. "You're happy I'm hurting."
"I'm not!" Black star protested, scrambling back.
"Liz, Patty." The two sisters came from either side of Black Star- had they been there the whole time? Liz's face was in shadow, Patty's mouth stretched in an overly wide grin. Kid dwarfed them all.
"Did you really think that Kid would fall for someone as pathetic as you? Wake up." Liz and Patty weren't near him anymore, now instead in weapon form in Kid's hands. Liz's voice was echoing through the room. Kid raised his double pistols, eyes cold, no trace of emotion in his body as Patty spoke, her voice overly cheerful.
"It's time to wake up, Black Star!"
"Black Star! Wake up!" He let out a wheeze as something landed on his stomach; he pushed it off, scrambling over the side of his bed and reaching for the trashcan beside it, emptying the contents of his stomach into it before closing his eyes, leaning his forehead against his arm and taking a few deep breaths.
"Ewww! Are you sick?" Patty looked over his shoulder at him, but gagged and sat back, covering her mouth. He shook his head, giving himself exactly two more seconds of vulnerability before sitting up and grinning, stretching his arms above his head.
"Me? The great Black Star? Get sick? I don't think so!" He laughed, standing and going toward the bathroom to brush his teeth. He'd take care of the trashcan later.
"You totally missed first period! And you didn't answer our texts!" Patty cheerfully began digging through his drawers for clothes.
"Phone must have died," he said after spitting tooth paste foam into the sink. It had just been a dream. Kid didn't know the feelings he'd felt that day, and he never would. No one did but him and Tsubaki, and that's how it would stay. Nightmares were always hard for him to wake up from without an alarm, and without Tsubaki here he really needed to remember to plug his phone in at night. "Aren't you skipping class by coming to get me?"
"Nope! Kid excused me! He's busy in meetings today, and he was tired of people asking if you called out sick!" She threw a shirt at the back of his head as he began to strip to get in the shower. "He said he was sure you just overslept, but everyone was ~super worried~ 'cause it was unlike you to miss a whole period unless you were fighting!" Black Star grunted, still somewhat preoccupied with his dream. Well, partial memory, he supposed. Up until Kid growing unnaturally large and trying to murder him, that was pretty much how Black Star remembered things happening that day. Kid still had nightmares about his father dying, and Black Star still had nightmares about Kid finding out how he'd felt that day- those awful, ugly feelings he still hadn't come to terms with. He stepped into the shower, letting the water pound on his back and wipe away the sweat that had accumulated from his tossing and turning.
Patty came into the bathroom, dumping the rest of the clothes she'd picked out on the counter and placing his binder on top. "Nightmare?" She asked, voice as bright as always, a small edge underneath it.
"Mm." He didn't elaborate, and she didn't ask. The two had grown closer in the years since the Kishin battle, partially out of a mutual desire to protect Kid, but mostly because they easily brought everyone to their wit's end when together, cracking jokes and playing pranks. Patty was the only weapon other than Tsubaki that Black Star had successfully been able to resonate with one-on-one. He saw her as a little sister, similarly to how he felt about Maka, and the two of them had serious clashes only rarely.
He heard her in the kitchen as he got out of the shower, drying himself and putting on his clothes. Not what he'd usually wear, but not bad. He ran a comb through his wet hair and left it; he didn't really have the time to gel it up or anything, so he'd just let his cowlicks do whatever.
"Breakfast!" Patty said with a smile, shoving it in his face. "Breakfast" consisted of a peanut butter and nutella sandwich wrapped in a paper towel, and while he appreciated the effort, he needed protein.
"After school snack," he corrected, sticking the sandwich in the fridge and grabbing a snack baggie of pumpkin seeds and almonds from the freezer. He shouldered his backpack and pocketed his keys, phone and charger, heading to the door. "Ready to go?" She was out the door before he even finished speaking, skipping down the hall, and he locked the door behind the two of them with a little shake of his head.
He was glad Patty had been there when he'd woken up. He really hated crying.