The mind of Patty Thompson was a simple affair, and could usually be boiled down to one or two keywords that were blanket terms for whatever emotion she was feeling at the time. These didn't have to be words that made sense of course, that would be silly. Instead, the youngest Thompson chose them on the fly and they were usually at least tangentially related to what was around what she felt. For example, whenever she was drawing her favorite animal (giraffes of course, she was a lady of refined tastes) she was squiggly, which was obviously a good thing. Or whenever she and her sister were squashed up against their Meister on the couch watching a movie, their limbs irreversibly tangled together, she always felt gooey, which was also good.

These words were law as far as she was concerned but unfortunately they didn't translate well outside of her brain, and so she was forced to keep them to herself unless she wished to explain to her dear sister and Meister the equivalences of her perfectly accurate interpretations.

But right now, at the sight of a total stranger, cutesy and bleach blonde and wasted as she may be, draping herself over Kid, their Meister, Patty didn't need to correlate. She didn't need to invent some descriptor, plucked from thin air, to attribute her mood, because the English language had kindly provided one for her, ready-made for just that scenario, something that was apocalyptically bad, and had her clawing at the edges of her brooklyn persona.

She was pissed.

She marched alongside her equally furious sister, cutting through swathes of innocent bystanders with reckless abandon, uncaring for the scared faces of fellow students that shrunk in fear at the sheer aura of the Thompsons.

Silently, behind the mask of fury, Patty berated herself. She shouldn't have left him alone, she shouldn't have, but the party had been so fun and he was being so annoying about his self selected costume when Liz had arrived that Patty couldn't help but leave him to his own devices. But that didn't matter now, Liz was with her and together they would make sure no two-bit school girl could touch their man.

"Your hair is just like, so cute! What dye do you use?" Patty could just about hear the edges of the girls flirting that was no doubt bouncing off of Kid's impenetrable armor of stupidity, and it made her want to start swinging. Luckily, Kid's own silky voice punctured her wrath and pushed her more towards laughter, something that came much more naturally.

"Why on earth would you assume I did this to myself by choice? It's hideous!" The young Death questioned, borderline hysteric. He ran his long fingers through his mismatched hair, looking on the verge of breakdown and still immune to the bouncy charms of his hanger-on.

The girl was momentarily thrown off by this, but to her credit she recovered quickly. "Now why would you say such a thing?" she hummed, squeezing Kids arm ever so slightly and inching her leg, barely covered by her air hostess costume, even further over Kids own. "I think it's super ho-," but that was as far as she got before she felt the weight of a perfectly manicured hand clamping down onto her shoulder. The petite girl jerked her head in the direction of whoever dared interrupt her flirting, scowl an expert mix of irritated and pleasant for that perfect passive aggressive vibe sure to send any rival scampering. Unfortunately for her, what stared back was nothing short of the cold, unforgiving streets of Brooklyn neatly packaged in two sets of bright blue eyes.

"Hi Barbie, just need to borrow the corpse there for a second, do you mind? Great," Liz said with a New York winter behind every word. Patty decided that her sister was leaving too much room for discussion and so opted to grin from ear to ear and to run her thumbnail across the width of her throat.

The rattled interloper, surprisingly, steeled her nerve in the face of Liz's dead eyes and for that Patty commended her. "Umm like, no offense but you look a little old to be talking to him," but there's a fine line between 'bravery' and 'stupidity', and the girl clearly didn't know how to walk a tightrope.

A vein that Patty knew all too well (and had nicknamed several times) twitched angrily at Liz's temple. The older Thompson leaned in close, leaving a scant few inches between her and her prey. Patty had seen this a hundred times, though usually she had been in weapon form, cold steel pressed harshly underneath the target's chin. If Liz had been smoking, it would have been right about now that she'd have blown a cloud of smoke into her victim's face. "Listen here Barbie, I'm gonna let you off easy since you're obviously pretty stupid. This moron, Death save me, is ours, and we don't play nice with others. So why don't you find someone else to throw yourself at okay?" She said, venomous as a cobra. Patty could see the feral edges of her sister's grin and giggled like the devil she was.

The reality of what she was up against dawned slowly on Kid's admirer, but as her eyes darted from the cold fury to the savage joy of the sisters' stares, it crashed over her like rough tide. Shaken, she looked to her peers for support, or at least someone to bolster her diminishing chances of survival, but she was met only with looks of pity. No one messed with the Thompsons, that was all but law. The slender fingers of iron bruising her shoulder dissuaded her of any notion of standing her ground physically. "Wh-whatever, grandma, not like he's the only guy here or anything," she trembled, the need for keeping up appearances somehow beating out the need for keeping all of her organs where they belonged.

And to Patty's surprise, Liz did little more than grin maliciously as the younger girl stalked off, thoroughly stung.

Satisfied with the marking of her territory and smirking like Blair, the older Thompson sank languidly into the spot previously occupied by the other girl and she wasted no time in snaking one meaningful arm around the shoulder of her Meister. She looked smugly around the room, gaze lingering slightly too long to be friendly on any watching women. The message was clear to all.

Mine.

Luckily for Patty, the threat didn't apply to her. She giggled, glee wiping the dark thoughts from her mind, as she claimed her rightful place on the opposite side of young Lord Death to her sister. She burrowed herself under Kids' welcoming arm clinging to the loose bandages of his disintegrating mummy costume with childish glee. "Yay! Kiddo's free from the evil cheerleader!" She cried, happily accepting the one armed half hug from her Meister.

Death the Kid rolled his eyes. "It's not polite to call others evil Patty," he lectured, though his gaze softened around the edges once the younger gun nuzzled his chest. In a public display rare for someone so prim and proper, he placed a soft kiss on the tip of Patty's nose earning him a delighted giggle. "However, I am happy to see you as well."

Even with murder on her mind and in her eyes, Liz felt her heart swell. Then remembered that she was annoyed at her Meister. She flicked him lightly on the forehead. "And just where the hell have you been huh? You go missing all night then we find you cozying up to some hussy?" She growled, though her anger didn't seem to be enough to move her from her comfortable spot at his side.

Kid's eyebrow twitched irritably. "I informed you that I was going to the restroom to fix my costume Liz," he said, rubbing the mark on his forehead. "And please don't use such language, you're setting a bad example for you sister,"

Liz gaped at him. "Kid, that was three hours ago!" The blank stare she got in return was enough to tell her that he considered the time frame irrelevant in his point. She sighed in defeat. "You're impossible, you know that!" She huffed, resigning herself to his ways. Despite her annoyance, she rested her head gently on his shoulder leaning into his warmth.

On the other side of the obstinate Death, Patty laughed at the antics of her partners.

It had always been this way between the three of them, even back during the early days of their arrangement. Kid's obtuse nature was anathema for Liz and her snark, and Patty was often too busy enjoying their silly bouts to intervene. The looks on the faces of their friends after they had announced their relationship was one Patty would never forget, she'd never seen so many jaws on the floor in all her life. Yet in her expert opinion, it was everyone else who was wrong. They completed one another, in a way that felt so right.

The life of her and her sister in Brooklyn had been hard. Hard enough that they had both been forced to sand down the parts of themselves that didn't fit the mold of hardass street demons. She could remember looking on helplessly everyday, as her loving big sister was replaced piecemeal by hollow eyes and cigarettes, and knew in her soul that the same was happening to her. And then, as if from a dream, along came Kid, their very own guardian angel with the face of Death. He'd taken them from that hellish place, sure. But more importantly, he'd saved them from themselves and had allowed them to become who they'd always wanted to be.

Patty could see it in Liz. In the way she'd once again began painting her nails meticulously, in the way she'd stopped smoking so much, and of course, in the way she hugged herself tight against their Meister without a care.

Patty wasn't stupid, she understood the funny looks and quiet judgment they got from others about their love, but the truth was that the jagged edges of their puzzle piece souls wouldn't fit with anyone else. It didn't matter, 3 was a pretty symmetrical number anyway.

"Come now Liz. How can I be impossible when I am sitting right next to you?"

Patty giggled again. She loved Kid beyond measure, but even by her own standards he was a little silly sometimes. Sometimes she wondered if Kid acted the way he did just to make her laugh. She wouldn't put it past him. The whole world knew that Patty had her Meister wrapped around her little finger, and unfortunately for Kid, Patty knew it too.

In fact…

A sly, mischievous grin crept triumphantly across Patty's too-cute-to-be-evil face and she snuggled further into Kid's side to hide it from him, lest her plan be ruined. "Sis is right Kiddo! You need to be punished for running away and hiding from us, right Sissy?" She beamed maniacally up at her sister, waggling her brow for added impact. Liz, too used to Patty and her schemes did little more to ascertain her sister's motives than tilt her head to the side in question, but her eyes shone like high beams when Patty spoke again. "Kiddo needs to buy us lots of presents to say sorry!" She grabbed Kids cheeks and pulled them gently, morphing his normally expressionless visage to her whims.

"You heard the boss, pay up Kid," Liz said, inspecting her nails with feigned disinterest.

Kid said nothing, but the two sisters could tell by the way he raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow that he was considering it. Even contorted by Patty's attentions the pair could read their Meisters blank face like a book.

"'Of course my beautiful and wonderful and pretty weapons. I will buy you all the gifts in the world, because you are the bestest and smartest and beautifulest ever!'" Patty lowered her voice into a crude facsimile of Kid's deadpan tone all the while tugging at his cheeks, lifting the edges of his lips into motion.

An undignified snort and the silent shaking of shoulders, the tell-tale signs of Liz's true laugh, told Patty that her sister was enjoying Kid's torment. "Ohh Kid, I've never heard you say such kind things before, what's gotten into you?" She swooned, dramatically holding the back of her hand to her forehead while draping herself across the young Death's lap. After a second of silence, she glanced upwards, catching Kid's disgruntled eye. "Aww Kiddo," she patted him gently on the cheek, letting her hand linger to stroke his jawline. "You're so cute when you're grumpy," she said through her grin.

"I'm beginning to see why Soul calls you demonic, Elizabeth," Kid replied, though Patty's hands had never left his face making the words a little strained. The charged smile that Liz returned to him was amplified tenfold by a concupiscent wink.

Patty giggled in delight. "Kiddo made a joke! Kiddo made a joke!" She removed her manipulating hands and clapped them together.

If you asked history's greatest scholars about the nature of Death, they would all give you relatively the same answers. Death is cold and unforgiving. It is as immovable as the mountains and as unfathomable as the seas: something that cannot be talked back to, cannot be defied. Yet, if you asked any of the members of the DWMA they would give you a much different response.

Something along the lines of 'The one that carries Liz and Patty Thompsons shopping bags'.

"Very well you two, tomorrow we shall attend the mall and you may buy yourself whatever you wish," Kid sighed, accepting of his fate.

Patty's cheer of joy was mostly rivaled by the pounding music, but it brought a small smile to Kid's frigid features all the same. The dual kiss he received, from the pair, one on each cheek, had him downright grinning. Well, grinning by Kid's standards anyway: a slight creasing at both corners of his mouth.

"So then, have you two been enjoying the party? I haven't experienced much of it, what with the urgent business of my costume and all," Kid asked, settling comfortably into the couch while Patty hugged him tighter and Liz returned her guarding arm around his shoulders.

"Sissy's been a-meddlin'!" Patty chirped.

Kid quirked a brow that models could only dream of, bringing the full force of his disapproving gaze to bear on the older Thompson. "Is that so?"

Liz nodded almost imperceptibly towards a darkened corner of the room at the same time she hooked a thumb towards the balcony of the property to her left, and Kid's gaze slid from one to the other in quick, calculating glances. He sighed. "Elizabeth, I am sure I do not need to remind you that these are the lives of our friends you are interfering in?"

Liz only rolled her eyes at her partner's words. "Relax Kiddo, I'm being considerate," she said, idly playing with the tresses of his hair. She snickered, eyes dancing with mischief. "Besides, looks like they're enjoying it even more than I am," she gestured to the shadows.

A ghost of red dusted Kid's cheeks, indiscernible to anyone apart from his Guns, at the sight hidden within the penumbra. "Regardless, tread carefully."

Liz gave a lazy salute. "Aye-aye cap'n," she drawled, to further Patty laughter.

Kid could only sigh again. He loved Liz and Patty to distraction of course, but wished they wouldn't involve themselves with the love lives of their friends as often as they did. Well, Liz at any rate, Patty was usually just along for the comedy. He could still remember Liz's ill fated attempt to set up Kim with, in her words 'that cute barista' from a few months back. It had taken days to put out all the fires, real and metaphorical. Still, he knew that she meant well and if he was being honest, this time around she'd probably gotten it spot on. "What am I going to do with the pair of you…" he shook his head.

Liz's languid grin turned wicked at his words. Gently she tugged at his chin until she met his eyes, her own smoldering lightly. "Was that rhetorical or were you looking for suggestions?"

A surge of excitement shot through the emotionless facade of Death, narrowing his eyes and quickening his breath. Torturously slow, she urged him forward. Still he had to maintain his holy than thou death god composure. "Elizabeth," he warned, not resisting in the slightest.

She wasn't having any of it, only smirking and making mock sounds of agreement as she dragged him closer until she brushed his pale lips with her own, angling his mouth to her liking. "Come on Kiddo, I hear ya', I'll lay off the cupid act. Now stop talking, Barbies still lookin' and I wanna give her a show," she murmured, breathlessly, her own pulse climbing with excitement.

He was putty in her hands from the moment they met.

Both they're eyes fluttered closed as Liz closed the gap and Kid let himself go. He didn't allow himself much, not when so much was expected of him, but this was different, this was His. She was His. Lost in the pleasurable haze of Liz's kiss, he allowed the mountainous weight of being a god to slip from his shoulders like so much extra baggage.

Like everything she did, Liz kissed slow, methodical, taking every second to enjoy the power she held over her Meister as she set the pace, demanding entrance with her tongue and grinning dangerously when Kid gave in. But just as soon as she did, she was gone again, leaving Kid gasping and floundering without her, only to renew her attack a split second later. Again and again, she peppered his mouth with soft lips and devilish smiles, tracing her tongue along the edges of his own when she pleased. The taste of cinnamon and gunmetal were Kid's world as the older of his Weapons broke him down one teasing little kiss at a time.

Dazed, eyes half lidded, and thoroughly pleased, Kid hummed his approval. He barely even registered the satisfied little smile that Liz sported as she pulled away, nor the wink that she sent to her sister.

"No fair!" Patty cried, pouting her most practiced pout and kicking her feet. She grabbed a tiny fistful of the rags around Kid's collar and yanked him towards her own awaiting mouth. The defensive walls of calm composure that Kid wore like armor around himself already lay broken at Liz's feet, but they shattered into dust under the pressure of Patty's bombardment.

To Kid, kissing Patty was like touching a livewire. She was lightning in a bottle, all giggles and enthusiasm, and her chaos only complimented his own. His back went rigid, a million little notes of pleasure, of warning, shooting up and down his spine as if his brain wasn't quite sure what to do with the overload of tactile and taste. Feebly he grasped for purchase to anchor himself back to earth and a slender, gentle hand found his. Feathered lips brushed his ear and Liz's warm, breathy laugh tickled his brainstem, doubling the already overwhelming sensation of Pattys assault. Little threads of his sanity still intact, told Kid that it was a damn good thing he had no need for air, because he wouldn't have had a chance in hell. Finally, after several agonizing, magnificent moments, Patty relented, leaving the young Death dizzy.

Shell shocked beyond retrieval, Kid stared into space, humming in content bliss. Vaguely he could hear the warm laughter and playful lilt of Liz'z voice. "I think we broke him Patty," she said, running her long, perfectly manicured nails though his hair once again, massaging his scalp with practiced expertise.

Patty giggled and wasted no time diving back to Kid's side, nuzzling into him without resistance. "Poor Kiddo, you think he'd be used to it," she grinned.

For the rest of the night, even after Kid had regained his composure, the trio stayed together, cozy and content, and unmoving as Death himself.