These characters are under copyright by Atsushi Ōkubo, Squar Enix, Yen Press, Shōnen,
Akatsuki Yamatoya. Madman Entertainment, Manga Entertainment, Funimation, and/or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.

A/N:

Caution: Brief mention of the possibility of rape.

Also, FYI, I am using "they" and "their" pronouns for Crona below, due to the character's non-gender specific nature in the original Japanese manga and anime.

Chapter 9 – Heart to Heart: What Happened, Kid?

"Crona! I didn't know you were here!" Maka said excitedly, a warm smile of greeting breaking out across her face like a sunrise, as her friend pushed Kid's wheelchair into the room.

Soul was relieved to see Maka smile at Crona, even as he studied Kid critically. He didn't like what he saw. Kid looked really upset, though he was trying to hide it.

Soul was out of his bed and heading for him before Stein or Nygus could object. "What's going on? What else has happened?" Soul demanded. He knew seeing Crona should have made Kid happy, not upset.

"I need to speak with you. Privately. And then you need to speak with my father," Kid said cryptically, his face flushing.

Soul frowned. What's going on? "Yeah. Sure. Where do you want to go? The roof? Or our house?"

"I was thinking my game room. If you wouldn't mind. I need to be home," Kid urged.

Stein approached, scowling. "You shouldn't be…"

Kid cut him off. "My father ordered it, and I don't think you want to argue with him right now."

To Soul's surprise, a look of concern flashed across Stein's normally impassive face. "He didn't do anything… odd, did he? He's not with anyone, is he?" He sounded more than a little anxious.

"Spirit was able to calm him down, and he's still with him. They're about to drink tea. I don't think they should be disturbed," Kid said.

Stein exhaled in relief. "Spirit's with him? Good. That's good. Alright, you can go, but you need to stay seated, or to lie down, and not just because of your leg – your ribs and arm and other injuries, too. You need to rest to heal. You can sit in a chair or on a couch – it doesn't have to be the wheelchair – but no walking until I say so. If you promise, then I'll let you go."

"I won't overexert myself. I want to see Liz before I go, though. Is that alright?" Kid asked, his voice both hopeful and a little lost.

"Sure. Follow me. As long as while you and Soul talk, Soul rests too," Stein agreed.

"Deal," Soul said, though he'd rest only if he felt like it.

Soul was worried about how Kid tensed up when he saw Liz. Granted, she looked terrible, pale, connected to all kinds of machines, an IV in her arm and tube up her nose, but she looked a hell of a lot better than she had when Patty brought her in: at least she wasn't bleeding her lungs out through her mouth, now. Though under all the bandages on her chest, she'd probably have surgery scars even worse than his scar, now, and for a girl, that would probably suck and… shit. That's why Kid was so upset. Not just that she was messed up, but she'd look even less like Patty now, especially if they wore those short little tops and stuff that they both liked.

"Liz," Kid whispered, reaching for her hand and grasping it with his good hand. "I'm so sorry. I should have protected you better." He sounded completely bereft, devastated.

Then Liz's eyelids fluttered open, and she turned her head towards the sound of his voice. "Kid? Don't be an idiot. I'm the Weapon, remember? I'm the one who protects you," she whispered so hoarsely they could barely understand her.

"You're awake!" Kid cried, leaping up from the chair, and catching himself on the railing of the bed, to keep from falling back down into it.

Soul was tempted to scold Kid, but he didn't want to risk it. He didn't want Kid feeling even worse. Instead, he turned to Liz.

"Take small sips," Soul urged, holding a straw to her mouth from the cup near her bed. He knew what it was like to be sliced open like that and barely able to speak after surgery. Although they'd made him start with ice chips and graduate to water. Maybe she'd already been awake and had the ice before.

She sipped carefully. "Thanks Soul. Are you OK, Kid? Why were you in that chair?"

"It's nothing. I hurt my leg a little, that's all. But I'm fine, and Patty's fine. Everyone's fine," Kid exaggerated.

"I'm fine too," Liz whispered.

"I know, Liz. I can see that," Kid agreed, even as tears started leaking from his eyes and dripping down his face.

Crap! He hated to see Kid cry. It made him want to punch someone or hug Kid or both.

"Then why are you crying? You hate how you look after you cry. And what happened to your clothes, and your hair?" she asked, frowning.

"Nothing important. You just get some more rest, alright?" Kid urged, wiping the tears from his face with the fingertips of his casted hand. His right hand was still gripping Liz's.

"OK," she agreed fuzzily, her eyes drifting closed. Soul saw her hand go limp in Kid's as she fell asleep.

"She's alright," Kid said, his voice choked, thick with relief and tears.

"Yeah, she's a tough girl, like Maka. She's going to be fine," Soul agreed. "Come on. Let's get you home, so you can change and clean up, and we can talk."

He was even more worried about his friend when Kid nodded wordlessly, instead of going on a rant about his clothes and the way he looked.

When they got to Death's mansion, Soul thought they'd have to ditch the wheelchair to go upstairs to Kid's room, but had no idea how Kid could make it and he wasn't up to carrying him. But then Kid showed him the elevator. He'd been there twice for parties, but hadn't seen the elevator those times.

Kid showed him the way to his room, which looked like he expected it would, everything symmetrical, and insanely neat and tidy. "Do you need help washing or dressing?" Soul asked bluntly, as Kid stood, this time able to keep his footing.

He expected Kid to snap something like, "Not since I was two." It worried him when Kid just shook his head.

"Seriously, are you going to be OK alone in the bathroom?" Soul asked. He won't do something stupid, like hurt himself, will he?

"Sorry. I'll be fine. I just… Liz almost died. I almost died. And then the rest of you almost died because of me. I… I'm going to take a sponge bath and wash my hair. I can't shower, because of the bandages and the cast," he explained.

"OK. I'll be right here. Is it OK if I sit in one of the chairs?" Soul asked, not wanting to mess up Kid's precious symmetry.

"Of course. Just please don't move it when you do," Kid said automatically, and then he hung his head and shook it in self-disgust. "It doesn't matter. It's just a chair." He headed for the bathroom.

"Don't you want to pick out new clothes?" Soul asked.

"I'll wear a towel. I don't want to touch them until I'm clean, and the steam would make them damp," Kid explained, his voice lifeless and listless.

"OK," Soul replied. He wanted Kid to hurry up and bathe. He hoped being clean might help. Then he thought it through. "Wait. How are you going to wash your hair, with your cast on, without getting it wet?"

He hated the way Kid wilted. "I don't know," he whispered almost inaudibly.

"Screw this. I'm helping you," Soul said, heading for him. "I'm going to sponge bathe you and wash your hair, and I don't want any arguments."

The look of abject terror on Kid's face made his stomach churn, as Kid backed away from him and shook his head in increasing panic.

"Kid, what's wrong?" Soul demanded.

"You can't see me naked. Not after what he did to me," Kid whispered.

Soul felt like he was going to throw up. No. Please tell me he didn't hurt Kid like that. "I don't care what he did. You're still the same Kid on the inside, no matter what he did to your body."

"I'm hideous," Kid whispered, his voice ragged and haunted.

"You're perfect. You're the most perfect person I know. I don't care what he did, there's no way he can change that. I'm going to wash you off, and then you're going to dress, in your clothes or pajamas or a robe, whatever won't hurt you, and then we're going to talk, like you said you needed to, in your game room, not here, but you need to tell me everything that's upsetting you."

Kid nodded, far too complacently.

Soul hated seeing it. Kid had always had a rebellious streak and sense of confidence that he'd admired and been drawn to, even if underneath it all was a crippling lack of self worth. It was like all that surface strength had been stripped away, leaving only the weakness below.

First he'd get Kid cleaned up, and then he'd coax what Kid needed to say out of him. And once Kid was OK again, he was going to hunt down that bastard Giriko and unleash his inner devil on that son of a bitch. He was going to chop him up into tiny pieces, cut him once for every second he'd held Kid captive and messed him up like this.

"That's it! Revenge is the sweetest music of all," the devil whispered in his head, powerless to do more than that since he'd overcome him, since he'd swallowed him and accepted that he was part of him, that he'd be part of him forever.

He ignored the voice with the ease of long practice, and began helping Kid remove the clothes he'd been wearing, in lieu of his usual suit, a long sleeved white shirt with the seam cut on the left sleeve to allow for the cast, and the right sleeve cut the same way, to match. He was also wearing blue jeans with the cuffs rolled and pinned, instead of black trousers, the clothes apparently borrowed from Mifune, except for the scuffed and battered boots, which looked like his own might have, if a truck had run over them a few dozen times.

It wasn't easy to undress Kid without hurting him, and the last thing Soul wanted to do was cause his friend more pain. He'd never seen so many bandages on one person in his life. He stared in surprise as blue silk boxers were revealed, with white cranes on them, something he couldn't ever imagine Kid normally wearing. Those must have been Mifune's too, and the thought really pissed him off, for some reason. "Underwear on or off?" Soul asked bluntly.

Kid collapsed onto the floor, like a marionette with his strings cut, and then curled into a ball, wrapping his arms clumsily around his legs, the cast preventing him from protecting himself.

Soul's heartbeat skyrocketed. Shit. Damn it! The tenuous, nebulous fears he'd had before crystallized. He wanted to hug Kid, to protect him, but it was clearly far too late for that, and he figured the worst thing he could do was touch him right now, if what he feared was true.

"Talk to me," Soul pleaded, as he sat down a few feet from Kid, not wanting to stand towering over his wounded and emotionally scarred friend.

Kid was trembling, tears were streaming down his face, but he looked angry as well as broken. "I'm sorry I'm so pathetic. I was just thinking, sure, I can take off the boxers, that's the one place he didn't hurt me, but then I remembered, when he was cutting my hair, he threatened to… with his leg, the blades were spinning, and he was pinning me and… he said he'd cut… and then I felt lucky, even grateful, because of what he said he was going to do to Justin but wouldn't do to me yet, because he said he wasn't a pedophile, but then he said he'd come back in a couple of years after he was tired of Justin, and…

"That's what I needed to tell my father, about what he said about Justin, but I just couldn't. Father was already so angry, and he was… He scared me. I've never seen him like that before, I've never been scared of him before, and tonight, when I most needed him to be the way he always is, he wasn't, and…"

Kid's whole body slumped, he just dropped his head down onto to his knees, like he was giving up.

"You got away from that bastard. You lived, and you escaped. That's what you need to remember. You tricked him, you beat him, you frustrated him, you messed up his plans," Soul stressed.

"But I didn't. Mifune rescued me, but he got Justin anyway. And he said… he said he was going to make Justin scream and beg like… like I did…" Kid mumbled so softly in shame that Soul almost couldn't hear him.

Soul almost wished he hadn't. He had to fight the urge to clench his hands into fists, in case it scared Kid. But the thought of Kid screaming, and worse, begging, made him furious.

"He said Justin's calm drives him crazy, that Justin was his prize for helping Esmeralda. He called Justin a Priest and said he was going to… to f… fuck the superior smirk off Justin's face, and he… he was touching himself when he said it. Then he threatened to blind me, when he was cutting off my hair, and when I struggled too much he… he threatened to… to castrate me," Kid said, shaking.

"Then he cut my hair and told me he'd come back and cut off an ear or a finger or something worse. And when I told him my father was going to kill him, that Spirit was going to gorge himself on his soul, he… he laughed in my face and told me to hurry and grow up because he wanted to teach me some manners. He said he wanted to… to teach me to suck, not bark and bite. And then he pretended to attack me, before he left and… and I just… I cowered… and when he left, I started crying! I was so useless! So weak and pathetic and helpless and…"

Kid starting sobbing, he just fell completely apart, and Soul couldn't stand it anymore. He scooted over to him and hugged him, half expecting to be pushed away, almost hoping he would be, because that would mean Kid wasn't completely broken. But instead, Kid burrowed his face against his chest and started crying harder, hysterically, loud, broken, wailing sobs.

"It's going to be OK. We're going to catch him and kill him. He's never going to hurt you or anyone else ever again," Soul swore, as he patted Kid's back, gently, because his back and shoulders were bandaged too. They'd rescue Justin, or avenge him, if they were too late to save him.

Thank Lord Death that Giriko hadn't attacked Kid sexually too. If Kid was this wrecked from his other attacks, he could only imagine how much worse it would have been if he'd been raped by that psychopath. At least Kid was letting him hold him, even though he was all but naked.

If someone had told him earlier in the week he'd be holding a nearly naked Kid in his bathroom, he'd have punched the guy in the face, and then probably gone off to hide, so he wouldn't embarrass himself thinking about it, but he'd never wanted to hold Kid like this. He continued to sooth Kid, telling him over and over that he was safe, holding him and stroking him, doing his best to calm and reassure him. Kid needed to feel safe and Soul needed to know he was.

Finally Kid seemed like he was in control of himself again, all the terror of his ordeal released, at least for now. Soul was certain Kid would probably have some pretty nasty nightmares about it, but he was confident he'd get over his pain and humiliation with enough time and loving support.

"Any time you need someone to hold you, or to listen, just come to me, alright? I don't want you to try and deal with this on your own. I know you're going to try to hide from Liz and Patty how much he hurt you, because you need them to see you as strong, that you need your father to see you that way. But I know how strong you are, how incredible. You don't have to hide what you're feeling from me, alright?" Soul urged.

"Alright," Kid agreed, to Soul's relief.

"How about you sponge bathe and then I'll wash your hair for you, OK? Because just because you're a bit banged up doesn't mean you aren't a little too tempting for me to bathe you," Soul flirted gently, not wanting to say anything that might disgust or frighten Kid, but wanting to let him know how desirable he still was.

From the way Kid's eyes widened and his face flushed, he'd say the interest was most likely mutual. That little devil inside of him made him want to press the point, but he settled for stroking his fingers more lightly against Kid's shoulder blade. The shiver he got in response made his lips quirk in a smile.

He successfully fought the urge to kiss Kid playfully on the tip of his nose, as he drew back. Now wasn't the time or place. Instead he stood, and held out a hand to pull Kid up.

He was gratified when Kid took it and allowed him to help.

"Just call me once you're done sponging off, so I can wash your hair, OK?" Soul urged.

"Alright," Kid agreed again. His eyes were still red from crying and his face tear-streaked, but he didn't look nearly as fragile as he had before.

Soul gave Kid his privacy and went back into the bedroom. They never had made it to the game room for their talk, but at least they hadn't been in Kid's bedroom. He'd be thinking about what happened enough as it was, without having the memory of his confessing to it and crying about it making it all the more real a threat when he was trying to sleep tonight. Assuming he wouldn't be sleeping in the Infirmary.

Soul sat back in the surprisingly comfortable chair, suddenly aware of his own aches and pains again. Sitting on the bathroom floor hadn't exactly helped any, but it had been worth the extra pain, for Kid's sake.