Black Star easily settled back into his role as Kid's Friend™ in the days leading up to Angela's stay with them; it was no problem to stop flirting when he knew it was what Kid needed. The sudden lack of advances seemed to throw Kid for a loop, but Black Star figured he'd ask about it when he had less on his plate. He was busy enough that he didn't have too much time to dwell on the state of things between them, and Black Star thought that was best.

The time not spent helping Kid with preparations for Angela, the exclusive interview, researching the history of the area where Soul had been attacked and other things were spent with Soul and Maka. Star and Maka had had a long talk about their friendship and the miscommunications that had happened; he and Soul hadn't done the same, but the weirdness that had been between them seemed to have dissipated and they were back to hanging out and playing video games, more often than not with Kilik.

"You know," Black Star said, kicking at a pebble with his toe. He and Kilik were walking home from Soul and Maka's, the two planning to pick up fast food somewhere before parting ways. "After Kid and I went on that first date, you kinda like... Backed off, I guess? I haven't seen much of you lately, man." Black Star glanced at Kilik, who only shrugged.

"I don't wanna get in the way of anything- People are already talking about some ridiculous love triangle thing with the three of us, y'know, and Kid's in the spotlight a lot lately. I thought it'd be better for him without adding on some scandal or whatever." This made Black Star laugh, and he punched his friend on the shoulder.

"Dude! No one thinks you and I are dating, and Kid and I aren't even dating-"

"Not dating? You go on dates, that's called dating." Kilik raised a brow, giving him a shoulder nudge.

"Kid needs a friend right now," Black Star clarified. "Not someone who's had a crush on him since they were 13." He opened the door to a fast food restaurant, waiting for Kilik to follow him in. "And I'm chill with that. We have like, a lot of time for dates. They don't have to happen right now, I can be patient." Kilik eyed him warily.

"Dude. Stop being mature, okay, it's weird." They both laughed after a few seconds, earning glares from a couple other customers.

** A/N: i know this chapter is short and shitty and late and i'm really sorry

i just got out of an abusive relationship so that's been draining, and the rise of nazism in america is kind of really terrifying me right now

i'm going to try to do updates every other wednesday from now on but forgive me if stuff still comes late

if you want updates on the fic progress you can follow "sometimeseights" on tumblr, it's just an empty blog right now but i'm going to start posting there in a few days

super sorry guys, things are rough right now