How To Utterly Fail at Seducing Your Date

Soul arrived at the fountain at exactly eight o'clock sharp, or at least that was what he would tell Kid, who the Weapon spotted nearing at that exact moment. Because Kid had been the one to suggest the date, it would not do for Soul to appear on the scene half an hour before the set time of their rendezvous. But the lie died on Soul's lips as soon as the Weapon laid eyes on his date.

Kid's sense of 'formal-casual' was certainly an interesting sight to behold, although it was a good thing Kid had not appeared wearing any of his suits. Instead the young Shinigami was dressed in a pair of straight, dark blue jeans, a red button-up shirt and a white tie. Soul noted that the outfit was very similar to the ones the other forced Liz and Patty to wear on missions, and wondered if the clothes in question had been an attempt to have them all match during missions before Kid had decided to stick to his usual black suit. Still, the lively colors, accompanied by the other's delighted smile at spotting Soul, made Kid appear, well, cute.

Suddenly Kid's eyes had widened slightly in surprise, as a faint tinge of a blush colored his usually pale cheeks. The Shinigami turned his face to the side bashfully, while murmuring in an embarrassed manner: "Um…thank you. You look…very handsome, yourself."

Oh lord, no. Had Soul really just called Kid cute out loud? Seriously, cute? It was customary to compliment your date's looks, yes, but certainly using the word 'cute' was not cool at all. Despite the uneven flow in Kid's response, a clear sign that the other was too embarrassed himself to think any less of Soul, the Weapon felt his own face flushing with shame as he picked at the left sleeve of his light jacket.

Wait. Did Kid compliment him back? Kid thought he was handsome? Soul's cheeks suddenly felt even hotter as he looked back at Kid, who was now meeting his gaze with a small smile on his lips.

Soul coughed into his fist, conjuring up a confident smirk as he spoke: "Let's get going then. I have good tickets to this cool new movie." Of course he could not really know if the movie was cool or not; he had not seen it. He only hoped it was cool for the sake of this date's success.

Kid's smile widened the tiniest bit before the other nodded his consent and said: "Alright then. Lead the way." The Shinigami stepped beside Soul as the Weapon began leading the way down the street. His hand twitched as he wondered if it would be alright to hold Kid's hand. That was what couples did, right? But this was just one date; they were not a couple, not really.

Soul almost jumped out of his skin when Kid sidestepped so that they were walking closely together, so closely that they were almost touching. The position would make an attempt at grabbing the other's hand a bit awkward, so Soul tried to bring his hand up to Kid's back instead.

The response was certainly not negative. Instead of recoiling away from the touch Kid accommodated into it, moving so that his shoulder was against Soul's own and Soul's hand trailed down to rest around Kid's waist.

Well, this was certainly a lot cooler than holding hands, Soul mused as he led the way to the movie theatre. He was certainly starting to get the hang of being a good date. If things kept going this way, he would certainly have Kid coming back for another date.

Everything seemed to be going perfectly, until Soul got their popcorn from the stand. It was a double-size pack, large enough to be shared between the two of them, which would give Soul a chance to try and get his and Kid's hands to brush. Soul was not going to do something as pathetic as to openly grasp Kid's hand; that would not be cool.

As Kid came over to Soul with their drinks, the Weapon suddenly heard a very familiar obnoxious voice. There were only a few people who sounded like that, and Soul had gone and gloated to that very same person a couple of days back. But, he would not really come and stalk them, would he?

It seemed that he would, Soul determined when he spotted a flash of electric blue hair among the crowd in the movie theatre. He quickly turned to look at Kid, who had a curious eyebrow raised and who was looking towards the same direction where Soul had spotted Black*Star. Damn it, now the Shinigami would want to make sure if the wannabe-assassin was really there.

As if feeling the other's eyes on him, Kid turned to Soul and the Weapon said: "We'd better go check it out, just to make sure."

"Agreed", Kid murmured and so the two slipped into the crowd, making their way through with efficiently learned from battling in different environments. The two broke trough the other end of the crowd and there was Black*Star with Tsubaki. The blue-haired male was boasting about something to his partner, most likely about his 'amazing stalking skills', and had not noticed the two new arrivals. Tsubaki, on the other hand, started in a nervous manner and gave a weak smile and a small wave as a greeting.

"Good evening, Soul-kun, Kid-kun", the female Weapon said gently and immediately Black*Star whirled around to face them, speaking much more loudly than what was necessary: "Oh! Hi there! You came to witness my grand greatness, didn't you?"

"Actually", Soul growled out in a warning tone as he took a threatening step towards his supposed best friend. "We were wondering what you were doing here in the first place?" The Weapon glowered at the other. "Stalking us, perhaps?"

Black*Star snorted with overbearing grandeur, much like he did with anything, and said: "Of course not! It just happens that I'm on a date too! It's purely a coincidence that it was in the same place as yours."

Right. Of course it was a coincidence when Soul had told the other that he would be coming here with Kid. There was no way Black*Star had such short memory, so this was obviously just a very bad lie.

"Tsubaki?" Kid queried gently, directing his attention to the young assassin's partner. The raven-haired woman smiled apologetically before replying: "You know how Black*Star is when he gets stuck on something; I couldn't just tell him no when he wanted to come here." She leaned towards Kid with a hand cupped around her mouth and whispered in a conspiring manner that Soul and Black*Star could still both hear: "Being on a date is actually our cover story. I'm so proud of Black*Star. He seems to finally be learning some assassin skills."

"Oh yes. He indeed seems to be making some progress", Kid conceded with a polite smile and a nod. Black*Star got excited over this, as he short of knocked Soul over as he jumped over to Kid and cheered: "I am, I am, right!" There was no question in his tone, only assured confidence. Kid gave the other a grin, one Soul noticed to be one that promised nothing good, and quickly gripped the front of the assassin's shirt.

"Oh yes", the Shinigami repeated, this time in a snarl, and swiftly moved to the side to throw the blue-haired teen to the floor. He then proceeded to step on the other's back and pressed down as he snapped: "But you still have a long way to go." Black*Star mumbled something against the floor that was too muffled to understand. "And I'd better not spot you following on one of our dates again or I'll get really unpleasant."

"This is only slightly unpleasant?" Tsubaki murmured to Soul, who could not really come up with a proper response. This was mostly because Kid had used plural 'dates', as in he would want to go out with Soul again despite what a disaster their first date had been so far.

Kid now turned to Soul again and said: "We should get going; the movie is going to start soon and I'd hate to be late." The Shinigami grabbed the drink that had been floating in mid air up until then. Soul had not even noticed the other place it there before grabbing Black*Star. All the more proof that Soul was getting used to hanging around a Death God that was likely to do abnormal things on a daily basis.

Soul took the drink Kid handed over to him and glanced back to Black*Star, who had now stood up and was in the process of posing dramatically.

"I went easy on you!" Black*Star declared and Tsubaki released a long-suffering sigh beside him before murmuring: "Of course, Black*Star, of course."

"I'm sure there's some other unfortunate individual out there that you can grace with your presence", Kid drawled sarcastically. But, of course, Black*Star took the Shinigami completely seriously and cheered: "You're right!" He grabbed Tsubaki's arm and began dragging her off. "We must hurry, Tsubaki! The world needs my godly appearance!" Tsubaki only had time to give Soul and Kid a curt wave before Black*Start took her away.

Finally, Soul was the only target of Kid's attention again. The Shinigami smiled softly at the Weapon before using his free hand to grab the crook of Soul's arm and ask: "Now, where were we?"

Releasing a sigh, Soul glowered at the floor as he growled: "We were about to try to salvage what's left of this disaster of a date."

"I wouldn't call it a disaster", Kid assured Soul gently. "There hasn't been a single mess yet." Right, as long as things were tidy, Kid would be pleased with just about anything. "Not to mention this much is only to be expected with our circle of friends." Kid moved a bit closer, and Soul could feel a few locks of the other's black-and-white hair brushing against his cheek. "I think our date has been very cool so far."

It was that last statement that had Soul aware of Kid's closeness in a new manner; the way the two of them stood now was a lot like all the other couples in the theatre. Soul realized that during the duration of their date, Kid's actions had all managed to ease Soul's mind and that had actually been their purpose, to accommodate Soul's needs.

Soul knew he was now blushing as he looked into Kid's yellow eyes, and the other smiled at him expectantly. And so the Weapon began to lead the way while Kid followed, and all the while the white-haired teen wondered how it was that when he had been so insistent to sweep Kid off his feet, he had been the one who ended up getting swept off his own.

Well, as long as they would finally get to spend some time with just the two of them, Soul supposed he could live with that minor thing. After all, Kid had said that they would have more than just one date. Certainly Soul would do a lot better and make Kid swoon the next time they went out.

The End

Author's Notes: This ended up a lot longer than the previous part, but I think the quality is worse. Well, at least Black*Star and Tsubaki got to make an appearance! I personally think that I managed to write Black*Star the best here. I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks, though.