Work Text:
When you first looked at him, he appeared to be a mysterious, yet strangely elegant boy. When you really got to know him, he was the symmetry-obsessed son of lord death. Whenever anyone heard the name "death the kid", their minds immediately went to his OCD, his obsession with balance and his weird love of the number eight. That's all everyone ever saw.
Except for Black Star.
He didn't know when he first noticed it, and he didn't know why he noticed it, but he did.
"Hey kid," the said teen didn't look up from the book he was reading.
" What is it, Black Star?"
"Why do you wear that if it doesn't make you edgy?". He pointed his finger to the brooch that was pinned on Kid's collar.
" The goal wasn't to be edgy Black Star," he said while not looking up from his book.
" Well what effect were you going for? Because right now, it just looks like you love your dad a whole bunch." That's when he noticed it. A small quirk of kid's lips, pulling his flat mouth into a smile for a split second.
"That's because I do, Black Star.
"Oh," said Black Star, leaning back to lie down where they were sitting. He snickered for a second, making Kid turn in question. "You're a huge dork." Kid turned back to his book, and there it was again, that small smile that was barely there, but still bright enough to make Black Star feel warm.
Later that night, the image of Kid's smile flashed into his mind. "Wow, and we weren't even talking about symmetry..." That's when it came to him. Maybe Kid was more than just symmetry.
He started trying to notice more things about Kid. Not just his smiles that made him feel weirdly warm and queasy whenever he saw them, but other things too. Like how he liked to do cool tricks on his skateboard, and how he even... named it?
"I'm sorry that's what now?" Kid huffed and kicked his skateboard into his hand.
" Its name is Beelzebub." Black Star looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
"That's... interesting," Black Star said as Kid hopped on the board, or as Black Star knew now, Beelzebub. As he watched Kid fly off into the distance, he wondered what other weird things Kid had possibly given names to, or maybe he had an entire skateboard family. He decided to continue his search, uncovering more interesting, and even some slightly weird facts about Kid. He discovered that even though they were a bit creepy, Kid could make drawings like no other artist Black Star had ever seen before.
"I don't know why you're so interested in those," Liz told Black Star while absent mindedly painting her nails,
" They're just blueprints for me and Patty's eyebrows, the weird freak has to have them perfect every time." Black Star flipped around from where he was sitting at her coffee table, rolled up blueprints scattering everywhere.
" You don't think that these are freakin' awesome??!". Liz sighed and blew on her drying nails.
"It's a bit annoying if you ask me." Black star turned back to the drawings. Not only had he learned Kid was a great artist, but he was also extremely underappreciated for it.
Being underappreciated, Black Star learned, was not a new thing for Kid.
"Kid, hurry up, I don't want to wait in line for pizza!" Soul was leaning against his front door, anxiously waiting to go out to eat.
"Just a second, I'm organizing the posters in your living room, half of them were on your floor." Soul leaned forward, his face changing from annoyance to anger,
" What?! That's what you've been doing this entire time?! I thought you had to go to the bathroom or something!" Kid looked over with his deadpan gaze,
"Well, I thought since you were constantly tripping over these, I could just hang them up. I even arranged them in an aesthetically pleasing manner-"
"I don't care!", Soul yelled as he dragged Kid out of his living room," your neurotic tendency shit made us miss happy hour." Black Star watched Kid's disappointed face slide out the front door before turning around to observe the living room. "Kid's right," he thought as he followed his friends out the door, "it is really aesthetically pleasing."
Kid's efforts to help his friends were again unappreciated when Maka had finished top in her class for an extremely important test the academy had given.
"I'm so proud of you Maka!", Tsubaki said as she smothered Maka in a huge hug.
"Thanks Tsu, I worked really hard for this!"
"We should throw a party!", Tsubaki threw her arms up into the air after the exclamation.
"Yeah!", Patty agreed from across the room," and there can be SNACKS!!!" Tsubaki clapped her hands together,
" I'll make cupcakes!" Patty jumped around the room while screaming "CONFETTI!!!"
"And I'll gladly plan the party," Kid said, casually offering to help. The entire room went silent.
"Um, no offense Kid, bit I'd rather have somebody who knows how to have fun plan it," Maka said from where she was standing.
" Yeah Kid, we're supposed to be able to relax, and judging by how you just spent the entire time we were congratulating Maka organizing her shelf, we aren't really expecting that from you," said Liz with her arms crossed. She said it with such a calm face, and her words had no bite behind them, but it destroyed Kid all the same. It even tugged at Black Star's heart, and although he had no reason why, he didn't ignore the pain in his heart and on Kid's face.
" Well, Liz I'll have you know I have good intentions for doing this. As you can see, aside from being symmetrical, the clutter littering this bottom shelf is completely gone, giving more space...," In the middle of Kid's rambling, Black Star noticed the group slipping out the front door.
"Hey! Where are you guys going?", Black star called out.
"Shhhh!", Liz whispered as she slinked through the doorway," he gets like this sometimes, if you're quiet enough you can just slip away before he notices!". She slipped out through the doorway, leaving Black Star staring at the empty space where she was.
"Hey, where'd everyone go?", Kid questioned as he paused his rant.
"They... uh...," Black Star scrambled,
"Oh... they left, didn't they?", Kid said quietly from the shelf. "Well, it's my fault, I tend to get a bit too excited when cleaning," he said, turning back to fix something on the shelf. Black Star looked at the shelf, then smiled a little. Kid had arranged it so the award she received for being top of her class now sat directly in the middle, displaying Maka's amazing achievement and intelligence. Then he remembered how she had just slipped out like Liz, and wouldn't even let him help congratulate her because he was a buzzkill. The smile on Black Star's face turned into a frown as he thought about how awful his friends were, but was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard fingers taping on the front door.
"Hey," Kid called from the doorway, "do you want to go to the party? I'm sure Maka found a party planner that's way better than me.". Black Star sighed, then got up from the couch he was sitting on.
"Yeah, I'm coming."
On the way out of the door he told Kid there was no better party planner than him. They walked in silence to the celebration, but Black Star felt like the little quirk on Kid's lips filled the silence perfectly.
He wondered why he hadn't moved his eyes up sooner.
Black Star, Tsubaki, and Kid had went on a picnic in an open field. Tsubaki had left early, needing to go meet with Maka and Kid's sisters, and had told them to remember to clean up and be careful not to bother the wildlife (she said the last part while looking directly at Black Star. "Yeah Kid, don't go too crazy," Black Star joked, while Kid just rolled his eyes.) Of course, not even a minute after she left, the two boys left their remaining food forgotten and proceeded to beat the shit out of each other, ignoring all their surroundings and destroying a great deal of flowers. After they had worn themselves out, they retired to laying in one of the few patches of nearby flowers that wasn't already destroyed.
"Hey Kid," Black Star asked while twirling a flower between his fingers, "why aren't you super pissed all the time?"
Kid turned to look at Black Star." Why would I be pissed all the time?"
"Well I mean, you do all this nice stuff for people, and they just call you uptight about it."
"What do you mean?", Kid asked, picking a flower of his own and twirling it between his slender fingers.
"Well I mean, you organize everyone's shit for them and they're just like ' Oh Kid, you're stupid OCD is so annoying.' like, no one ever thanks you, or even takes the time to listen to your reasoning. It's bullshit dude."
Kid twirled his flower a bit slower, thinking hard about an excuse to defend his friends." Well, I mean, I do tend to get carried away with cleaning sometimes, and I've cost us some valuable time both on missions and on our free time, and my rants do get pretty annoying...," he got quieter at the end, his excuse for his friends ending up sounding like an insult for himself.
"Kid, maybe you do start cleaning or worrying about symmetry at the worst times, and yeah, maybe your rants do get a little long," Black Star paused, remembering a particularly long speech about why Black star should fold his toilet paper neater, " but those shitheads have no right to criticize you for it, and they sure as hell don't have the right to walk out on you for it!"
"Well, I mean..."
"No," Black Star said, sitting up and crushing his twirled up flower, " I don't care how annoying they think you are, they are going to hecking appreciate you."
Kid looked up at him, bewildered, before his lips twitched up into a smile. "You said shit three times, but you can't bring yourself to not say 'hecking'?"
"I reserve fuck-words for when somebody's about to be pounded to a little pulp, thank you very much," Black Star said while placing his hands very dignified on his hips. Kid looked at him before breaking out into laughter, causing Black Star to start cracking up as well. Black star laughed for a second before his eyes wandered up from Kid's grin, and the very second he let his vision stray his laugh got caught up in his throat. Kid was beautiful, he realized, even more so when he was laughing. His golden eyes already shined brighter than a normal human's, but now they sparkled like the sun and stars combined. His eyebrows had moved from their normal frustrated crease to a soft arch, making his deadpan gaze look like a distinguishable emotion, and his thick eyelashes almost looked like a model's, lightly dusting over his rosy cheeks when he giggled.
Black Star had realized Kid was way more than symmetry. He also realized Kid was his first major crush.
He didn't know why he did it.
They were playing basketball, all of them, as a group. Soul was one team captain, Kid the other.
"Alright, you know the rules," Soul said while dribbling the ball, " winning team gets to choose the losing team captain's punishment."
" I vote that Soul has to give us a private concert," Maka said.
"Pshhh," Soul said while turning his head, " I already play for you enough Maka.."
" Yeah! And it's supposed to be a good punishment Maka," Black Star laughed, "like changing every other song in his mixtape to horrible meme songs!"
" Hey, no! I worked hard on that mix dude!"
"Yeah well, now it's just going to be a mix of 'cotton-eye Joe' and 'All Star'!"
" C'mon man, you can't even come up with any good horrible meme songs,"
" Well, what's your ideal punishment then?", Black Star laughed, already not being able to contain himself even before the game started.
" I vote that we rearrange one thing in every single room of Kid's house and not tell him what it is," Soul snickered.
"Now wait a second...!", Kid screeched, panicking over the new input.
Black Star froze. Normally, he'd be okay with this, normally he'd laugh and tell kid to lock his doors if he was him, but he didn't. Instead he thought of all of his friends, and Kid, and suddenly they didn't seem so friendly anymore, and suddenly he realized that he might have to use some fuck-words.
" Don't joke about that," Black Star said, all the laughter from him suddenly disappeared.
"Don't joke about what? The fact that when this game is over Kid's gonna have to remodel his entire house?", Soul said, snickering mischievously.
" I said don't joke about it," Black Star said, balling up his fists," you shouldn't use his OCD against him."
"But it's hilarious."
"No, it's not. It's gross."
Soul stopped laughing and stepped forward, his fists clenching similar to Black Star's. Kid and the others watched from where they were standing, open-mouthed and in shock.
"When did you become so defensive about Kid's problems? They're just little jokes, it's not like they're hurting him," Soul growled at Black Star.
" Yeah they are, every time you make a little 'joke' about his disorder, you're fucking with his brain."
" It's not that bad dude, you're overreacting and being a buzzkill-"
" No one makes fun of your depression over Wes, so what gives you the right to mess with Kid's mental issues you prick?"
Everyone gasped. No who knew about Wes ever talked about him, and they sure as hell didn't being up Soul's feelings on the issue, but Black Star just called him out in front of everyone, not to mention calling him a prick.Soul stepped forward, yelling directly in Black Star's face.
" When did you become such a shitface?! If you really care that much, then why don't I joke about this?". He swiveled on his heel and lunged at Kid. "Is this symmetrical enough for you Kid?!", an before anyone could react, Soul ripped off one of Kid's sleeves. The next events seemed to happen in an instant.Black Star had been standing looking at Soul and Kid, bewildered, and the next second he had lunged at Soul and begun pummeling him. Black star was slamming his fists into Soul's face, while Soul was trying to kick him off. Black Star felt Soul's foot at his back, and threw his arm backwards to grab his ankle. He proceeded to swing Soul backwards with his ankle, slamming Soul's face into the asphalt. He felt hands clawing at his shoulders, but he continued to lunge forward and grab Soul's neck, throwing the desperate hands behind him. He slammed his fist repeatedly into Soul's face, feeling the warmth of his blood and scrape of sharp teeth every time his fist made contact. No matter how loud Tsubaki yelled or how hard Maka tried to pull Soul away, he kept throwing his fists. He pulled back to land another punch, but the clawing hands stopped him. Black Star tried to pry his fist from the vice grip the hand had on his wrist, but the fingers only tightened around his raging pulse. His mind was empty, the only thing filling his ears was the ringing of his knuckles pounding into Soul's face and the screams of his friends, all sounding so distant even though their voices and tears were right beside him, so he did the one thing his brain had been telling him to do. He turned around and sent his fist flying into the owner of the clawing, desperate hands. Kid went flying across the court, the force of Black Star's punch causing him to release his grip on is wrists. Black Star was frozen for only a second, though it felt like he had been staring at the trail of blood leaking from Kid's mouth for one million years, watching the red liquid pool onto the asphalt slowly. He leaped up and ran to Kid, falling onto his knees and helping Kid sit up. A large, purple bruise was slowly swelling around his eye. Black Star ran a soothing hand across Kid's back, breathing shakily as he searched for words.
"Kid I-are you-I'm sorry, I-I- Kid...!"
Kid said nothing for a moment before slowly looking up at Black Star. His voice was quiet, and it sounded faraway, as if it wasn't him saying the words coming out of his mouth.
"Could you give me one on the other eye too?"
Black Star looked at him. He didn't know why he did it. He knew that he brought up Wes in front of everyone so Soul could understand how it felt to have his mental illness be treated like a joke. He knew that he beat the shit out of soul because he still didn't understand Kid's brain wasn't a plaything. He knew that he launched Kid across the basketball court accidentally because his own brain was foggy with rage and annoyance and sorrow for Kid.
The one thing he didn't have a reason for was why he leaned forward, cupping the side of Kid's bloodied face delicately, and cried.
He hadn't seen Kid in almost a month. Soul had stopped by to apologize but all Black Star had done was say sorry for Wes before closing the door. Tsubaki had tried to coax him out of his room, but he wouldn't set a foot out of his doorway, not even if it meant losing dinner. He couldn't stop thinking about what he'd done, how he'd plunged his fist directly into Kid's shining eyes, how he'd watched those thick, soft lashes blink away blood, how he'd lost all his words when he saw the red liquid pour across his lips- and how he sat there and cried with Kid in his arms, for no reason other than feeling bad for himself.
"I'm stupid, I'm supposed to be a god, and here I am, sulking in bed because I accidentally gave my friend a bruise. He even wanted another one..." . Oh. That's right. Kid had asked him to give him two injuries. Symmetrical ones. Black Star curled up deeper into his pillows. Maybe that's why people only saw him as Lord Death's insane OCD child. Because he was willing to bleed out in front of people who cared about him if it meant being even. Black Star sighed into his blankets, not wanting to leave his soft refuge, but also not able to go back to sleep. He was deciding on trying to force himself to nap when he heard a knock on his front door. "Must be Tsubaki," Black Star thought, not making an effort to exit his nest of bed sheets. She had left earlier to go shopping, possibly for some more food to try and bribe Black Star with. However, after the second pair of knocks, he was starting to suspect it wasn't her. "She would've let herself in already," Black Star thought as he went towards the front door. The knocks became closer together and louder, desperate almost. Black Star opened the door and was about to tell the visitor t have some patience when he locked eyes with golden, shining orbs, brighter than both the sun and stars combined. Kid was standing directly in front of him, one hand clenched in a fist beside him and the other held in midair, poised to knock.
"...Can I come in?", Kid asked, almost a whisper. Black Star felt his response form on his lips, but only his breath came out as he stepped to the side to let Kid enter. Kid slowly stepped in and walked into his living room, his footsteps barely making any sound. Black Star closed the door behind him and walked over to the couch.
"You can sit down, if you want to, I mean..."
"Oh...". Kid silently walked over to the couch before delicately sitting down. The two boys sat in silence before Kid started.
"It's better now... my eye, I mean..."
"Oh," Black Star mumbled while looking up. Kid was right, his eye had healed perfectly due to his reaper skin. " That's good."
"Yeah..."
The awkward silence returned as both boys didn't know what to say, Black Star was looking at one of his living room walls while Kid twisted his rings around his fingers.
"... I know it wasn't your fault, in case you were worried about that," Kid said, loud enough to get Black Star's attention, " and I know even though there were... better... ways of dealing with Soul, you were just trying to be nice..."
Black Star huffed angrily. " There were no better ways of dealing with Soul, he had no right to treat you like you're a little toy he can mess with whenever he wants, and he needed to be punished by a god."
"Yeah but, I mean..."
" No. He- No! Not even just Soul, everyone treats your disorder like it's a game, or something that just gets you a little annoyed sometimes, not like it's actually something wrong with you!"
" Black Star, you can't blame them, it's who I am!"
And that was what did it. Black Star leapt up, standing on his couch before leaning forward to grab Kid's shirt. "But that's NOT who you are!" he said, his voice no longer a whisper, but a sound that was meant to carry through Kid's ears all the way to his heart. "You're so much more than that! You're a huge dork who loves his dad enough to wear his face on your shirt and on your skateboard, and even though you're a shinigami-reaper thing, you still hang out with human dorks like Maka! You didn't have to join the academy, but you still did because you wanted to protect humans, and you still put in your damn best every day! You even had the chance to choose any beautiful weapon you wanted, and you decided to adopt the Thompson sisters off the street after they mugged you for crying out loud!"
Kid blushed and turned away. "I only chose them because they were symmetrical though, doesn't that only prove I'm right...?"
Black Star grabbed Kid's chin and turned his face back towards him, causing the red on Kid's cheeks to spread even more.
" Kid, you may have chosen them for their symmetry, but you love them like sisters now, don't you?"
Kid looked down with thought swirling in his eyes. " I... I do-"
" See! And that's another thing," Black Star interrupted, leaving Kid to look at him in confusion and bewilderment, " you take them in from off the streets, give them a home and family, and even pluck their eyebrows and pick their outfits for them like your their mom, and they get annoyed because you take too long making sure everything's perfect for them? That's utter bullshit if ya ask me! And you don't do it just for them, you organized Soul and Maka's house so that they can actually walk and see their awards on their shelf, and you even said that one day, I'll be able to surpass you, a Death God."
Black Star stopped and released his death grip from Kid's collar, sliding his hands to cup his face. " The first day I met you, I wanted to beat the shit out of you, like, I was gonna use so many fuck- words," Black Star chuckled, causing Kid to giggle as well, " and now, you believe one day I'm going to be better than you. You work your ass off in school, and to be the best grim reaper you can be, I'm pretty sure you do more work than me in one day than I do in one month, and yet... you think one day I'll be greater than you."
Kid smiled sheepishly, trying to look away, but the action only resulted in him nuzzling his cheeks into Black Star's hands.
"Black Star..."
Black Star looked at kid with a dopey grin on his face, admiring the deep rose color that dusted Kid's face. He thought he was done letting Kid know how great he was, how he was more than just a personified disorder, but he surprised both Kid and himself as the next words came tumbling out of his mouth.
"You're perfect Kid, and I mean that. You're way prettier than any other girl I've met, and you blush a lot more than any other girl I've met too, but that's okay because it's pretty-"
Kid was shocked, he didn't know what to say, other than to try and stop Black Star so he could clarify.
"Black Star-"
" You also cry way more than anyone I've met, but that's okay too because it just means you're way more human than the rest of us, which is actually pretty ironic-"
" Black Star-!"
" Your eyes are also really pretty too, like someone melted the sun into gold and the stars into sparkles, and your eyelashes are prettier than any other girl's too, if your eyes are the sun, then your eyelashes are like the night, I guess... I dunno, I've never been good at metaphors- OH! And your lips are perfect too, I like the way they look so soft and how when you smile only one side goes up and-"
"BLACK STAR!!"
" What?" Black Star paused in the middle of his rant, coming to his senses after seeing the deep rose color had spread throughout Kid's entire face.
" Oh! Uh, I... Uh," Black star stammered, trying to find words that would save him from his embarrassment.
"It's fine, I'm... thankful for your support, and I'm also... flattered that you think I'm prettier than most girls," Kid said, the blush deepening in color under his fluttering eyelashes.
" Oh um, you're welcome, both for the support and for, um, being informed that I would gladly pick you over any girl."
Kid looked up, the golden suns in his eyes shining brighter than ever, and the deep night of his lashes hooding his eyes ever so slightly. The smile Black Star loved so much began appearing at the ends of his lips, warming Black Star from the inside out.
" Now, what were you saying about my lips?"
And before Black Star could remind him, Kid had already leaned forward and sealed his mouth over Black Star's.
Death the Kid was not just Lord Death's son who had an OCD issue with symmetry, he was a smart, beautiful death god who was willing to give unlimited amounts of time and effort to make sure everything was perfect, whether it was the world's balance between good and evil, or his sister's eyebrows. He was a huge dork who loved his dad and named his skateboard. He cried and blushed more than any of his friends, not because he was weak, but because he was human. He was more than just a disorder with a face, he was someone who had more heart and soul than most anybody else did.
He was also Black Star's first kiss.