I really hope these 4 to 6 month long waits for updates cease, but so much crud has been going on I haven't had time for any writing at all!

Today I realized I was doing nothing, so I decided to pop in and write up this continuation chappie. It's short, but its something, so I'm proud I got this far.

Don't forget to leave a review! I thank GeekyKittenCat for reminding me that I really need to get this cliffhanger over with! Lol, thanks, fellow fictioner! ;)

Okay, well, here goes nothing!

~8*Chapter 6*8~

~8*Too Far Too Soon*8~

~8*The Return Of An Old Fiend*8~

"Well, what is it?" Liz asked, wishing they'd quit sitting there being quiet and say something.

"We… don't want to be girlfriend boyfriend anymore." Patty said quickly.

"What? You're breaking up?!"

"After all that time I spent trying to get you and Patty together, Crona, you let her slip away?!" Kid pounded his hand onto the table, earning a giggle from Kiseki who liked seeing her Daddy mad from someone besides her.

"Calm down, you silly geese! We're only breaking up so that we can get married." Crona was starting to look even more nervous than before she announced this whole thing, he seemed to be back to the anxious, stuttering version of himself they had known years ago.

"Oh, well, Patty, you don't break up to get married, you just-" Kid was quickly interrupted by his excited young wife.

"You're getting married?!" Liz jumped from the table and ran over to pick up her little sister and give her a big hug. Kid smiled at the scene and placed out his hand towards Crona to give him a handshake, but the young man flinched away.

"K-Kid, can I talk to you about something? In private?"

"Uh, sure." The two left the room and headed outside. Once they reached the front porch and were far out of ear reach from the two girls who were discussing dresses and colors and wedding stuff, Crona pretty much collapsed into a chair and gave out a heavy whine.

"I have no clue what to do, Kid! This is really, really bad…"

"You're getting married! I understand it can be a little nerve wrecking, you're trading a life you've always known for one that you're totally unsure about, but it's a wonderful journey, and-"

"No, you don't get it. I don't want to get married." Crona put his head in his hands and whined again.

"What? Isn't it you who asked her?"

"No! She just sort of assumed from what I was originally trying to tell her, and she just wouldn't listen to me. So I gave up trying to say anything and now we're engaged."

"Well, what were you trying to tell her?" Kid crossed his arms and faced him fully. Crona looked up at him with tearful, nervous eyes.

"Don't get mad at me if I tell you, please?"

"Depends."

"Well, I wanted to break up with her… Well, no, that's the wrong word, I wanted to take a break from her. We're just such opposites, and I know she brings out the best in me, but, sometimes I want to be alone and she's just always there and she doesn't know the meaning of alone, and I don't want to fight with her or anything but…" Crona trailed off and looked to the side, totally wrecked with emotion.

"I get it. You don't want to break up with her, but you want space."

"Yeah. And I've been missing time with Maka. We use to spend so much time together, but since she got married it's been tougher on her too. Soul gets really upset if he finds out we were alone together."

"Well, it's not entirely appropriate for you and Maka to be alone together concerning your history." Kid rolled his eyes and remembered that awful incident, praying it wouldn't ever repeat itself again.

"That was a tiny mistake on her part. I'd never cheat on Patty, I love her, but I have a totally different love for Maka that I still want to keep strong."

"Well I'm sorry, but marriage makes two people a unit. If you can't take one without the other, you can't take one. Why don't you try doing double dates with them and Patty?"

"Because I need a break from Patty. She's so wild, she has no boundaries, and she gets upset when I tell her to leave me alone. And I hate making her upset."

"I understand where you're coming from, but my only advice is that you be entirely honest with her before this whole thing gets worse. I can tell she's already going to be upset once you tell her the marriage is off."

"There's no way I can break her heart like that. She's so excited about this, I'm considering just going through with it so I don't have to see her cry."

"That's not what love is about. Love is about honesty and balance between two people. If you try too hard to make her happy for fear that she'll get upset if you don't, then you'll both end up unhappy in the long run. She loves you and I know she'll understand if you're just honest."

"But honesty hurts!"

"The right thing always hurts. Just sit her down, be kind in your words, and tell her how you feel." Crona darted his eyes around for a moment before focusing them on kid…

"… Can you do it?"

"No, I cannot-" He interrupted by throwing himself to the floor in front of Kid.

"Pleeeeeeaaaassse?"

"No, Crona."

"Please please please please please…"

"Stop it!"

"I can't deal with her being upset! She cries and stuff, I can't see her cry, I can't! I'll end up doing something stupid if she cries, anything to make her happy again. You're stronger than me, more solid, you won't break down to a girl crying if you know it's the right thing."

"You obviously have no clue what a woman's tears will do to me."

"Huh?"

"Well, let's just say Liz has gotten me to do a lot of stuff just by crying a bit."

"Like what?" Crona was interested now, so he got up and sat back down into his chair.

"Well, most of the time was during her pregnancy. I thought the baby nursery should have been black and white striped, but she insisted on pink and blue stripes, so it wouldn't matter whether the baby was a boy or a girl. I thought it was silly, it would look like cotton candy, and I didn't want our daughter growing up with her room looking edible. I told her no, and that we could do way better picking unisex colors than just painting it pink and blue. She had a fit and started randomly crying, and I simply couldn't control myself, I had to give in to make her stop."

"But Kiseki's bedroom is yellow and white striped."

"I'm getting to that part. Well, it was around a month after we painted the bedroom pink and blue, and she ended up not liking it as much as she thought she would, so she pitched to me that the color scheme should be changed to green. I again said no and she started crying again. So, we changed it. Not even a week later she decided she hated the green and wanted it all blue since blue is a pretty color for boys and girls. At this point I already knew from the baby's soul wavelength that it was going to be a girl, I just didn't want to tell her that, so I suggested yellow instead if she really hated the green that much. She cried again. We changed the color scheme and of course the whole thing happened again only with red. And once more with a darker blue. And finally she told me yellow might actually be pretty."

"She really changed it that many times?"

"Yes. Eventually she learned that I'll easily break down and do whatever she wants if she cries for it, and life has not been the same since."

"So, women's tears are designed to break us down into doing their bidding?"

"Pretty much. Now that's just example one, you should have seen what she did to our bedroom when we got married."

"I still don't think I can do it, Kid. If Liz's tears are as powerful as you say, what about Patty's?"

"I'll be there to back you up so you don't do anything stupid. You just have to be honest with her, okay?" Crona began getting up from the chair, almost ready to face her…

"O-okay… I think, maybe… Nope. No, I can't." And he sat right back down.

"Crona!"

"Oh fine, I'll try, but I really hope she doesn't cry." He got back up again and faced the door as Kid walked over and opened it.

"That's the spirit. Go on now, I'll be with you the entire-"

"Daddy!" Kiseki came flying out of nowhere, holding a small note in her hands as she did so.

"Yes, Kiseki?"

"Here." She handed him the note and beckoned him to read it.

"What is this?"

"I found it in the bathroom last week. I thought it had something to do with Patty and Crona, but Mommy says it's not."

"I'll prove my love to you in five years. I will return for you. –Siren."

"Check the mirror…"

"She's coming back." Kid went pale, remembering his "twin sister" from not too long ago.

"Who's coming back?" Kiseki asked in her innocent tone.

"Siren. She's a reaper like me, only she's not from here. She did some very bad things when she came the first time, and she hurt your mother very badly."

"What should we do? We can't just ignore this and go on in our daily lives until she shows up someday." Liz was just as concerned as Kid was, but again had no clue on what to do or what to expect.

"Well there isn't too much we can do except be prepared for if she does come." Kid placed a hand on Kiseki's head and nudged her close to him.

"What if she tries to hurt Kiseki?" Liz asked, staring at the little girl and she hugged on to her fathers leg.

"I won't let that happen. We're all going to be okay, I guarantee it."

"I really hope I can guarantee it…"

There was a silence in the room for a moment or two. Crona wanted to go through with telling Patty about the wedding being off, but at the same time felt it was suddenly an inappropriate topic.

He could tell Kid was in deep thought and was suddenly no longer concerned with the pink head's issues, so the young boy simply walked up to Patty, took her hand, and led her outside where they could be alone.

"Patty, there's something I have to tell you."

"Okay, what is it?" Crona took a deep breath while staring her straight in the eyes. The moonlight illuminated her features and beautified them, making her even cuter than she already was. The boy was crumbling quickly.

"Patty, I…" He brushed away some hair from her face and placed it behind her ear. She giggled at the action and, tired of waiting for him to say what he wanted to say, leaned in and kissed him gently.

The kiss made him realize how much she meant to him, and how much he really truly loved her, but now was not the time for them to be married, it simply wasn't. He needed space, he was sure that she needed space as well, and they can't have space while being right on top of each other at all times. He lived his entire life not knowing what the world was like outside of his mother's controlling arms, he needed room to grow now that he was free. Being married, to anyone at all, would have awful consequences at this point in time.

He couldn't do it. He wasn't old enough, wise enough, mature enough, or strong enough to be a husband. He was assured that his best friend Maka would have been perfectly prepared for being married, and she tells him every chance she gets how hard it is. Yes, her and Soul lived together for years, but marriage made things different now. They no longer lived separate lives as roommates, they lived one life as a couple, and it was hard. If Maka wasn't ready, Crona knew for a fact that it would be a while before he was.

He pulled away and looked her straight in the eyes.

"I love you, Patty. But I can't marry you."

"What? W-Why?" Patty's wide eyes immediately filled up with tears. They were so good together, why didn't he want to be her husband anymore?

"Patty, that night we got engaged, I was trying to tell you I wanted us to take a break, not break up, but take a break. I didn't want to ask you to marry me."

"No… You… You said…" She turned into a crying four year old right in front of him. She broke down, fell onto the ground, and wailed.

"Patty, please don't do this! I love you, I still want to be with you, but I need a break!"

"Sis? What's wrong?" Liz marched out onto the porch, watching as her little sister cried pools of tears onto the ground. The older sister turned red and faced Crona, flames in her eyes as she prepared to kill him, "What did you do to her?!"

"Nothing! I didn't do anything!"

"He… He broke up with me!"

"I didn't say breakup I said take a break! Isn't there a difference?!"

"No." Patty said nonchalantly as she took two seconds from her wailing fit to inform him of that fact.

"Oh. Well then…"

"Crona, you were supposed to wait for me before you told her anything!"

"I had to do it, Kid. I had to tell her on my own." Liz comforted her sister tenderly and thought of several different ways to murder her source of distress.

"Why do you want to break up with my sister?"

"I don't want to break up! I want to take a break!"

"But why? After all the work Kid put in to get you two together and suddenly you don't love her anymore?"

"I do love her! I love her more than anything in the world! But I can't marry her right now, it wouldn't be right."

"If you're so sure about your love for her than why do you want to wait?!"

"Because I'm not ready yet! I need to focus on myself and my issues before I take on the role of being her husband. It would be selfish if I married her and then ended up not being able to fulfill my role."

"Sis… Can… Can I sleep here tonight?"

"Of course you can, Patty."

"I think it's best if we all just head to bed now. I've got a lot of work to take care of in the morning and I think everyone could use a good night's sleep."

"I think that's a good idea. Come on, Patty, let's go get you to bed." Liz walked her away into the house, Kiseki following closely behind. Kid was about to shut the door when he turned to Crona and smiled.

"I think you did the right thing. I know it's hurting her now, but she will understand in the future. Thank you for being honest and brave."

"Th-Thank you, Kid." Crona gave a slight bow before the shorter man walked inside and closed the door, leaving the young lover to travel home on his own.

Just a few hours before, he had been walking these streets with Patty holding his hand the entire way, giggling and jumping about and skipping like a schoolgirl. But he just broke her heart, and now he was walking home alone.

He passed by the alleyway that was directly next to his apartment, and heard a strange noise coming from a trashcan.

It sounded like a low breathing, mixed with scratching. He tried walking quicker, simply ignoring it for the time being as he fiddled with the keys in his pocket to try and drown out the noise. But the noise got louder, and suddenly he felt a presence directly behind him. He turned around quickly, and saw, covered in dirt and bruises and scratches and tattered clothing…

His mother…

Medusa.

Yeah, so, I bet you thought that was Siren for a second...

Well, maybe you did and maybe you didn't, either way I enjoyed surprising myself with that...

Our drama has only just begun, my pretties...

SE Love forever...

~TheSymmetricalist