Disclaimer: All Characters belong to their original creators. I own nothing and claim no money from this work.

Hey, this is something i wrote quite a while ago (dont worry anyone whos waiting for more Lucky Star Yuri, im still on it!!), which i touched up and decided to post now. Its basically the first time i've written Soul Eater - apart from a few drabbles i never post - but i think it turned out pretty good. I've never really been very good at confining plots one shots, in fact im already thinking i may write more to this one day showing what happens when they get back to the mansion. At the very least, i plan to write more oneshots for Soul Eater one day. Hell, maybe ill post em both in this story. Have a little collection of stories.

Anyway, please enjoy my work.

Liz glanced up and down the street before giving the okay to her sister, who happily skipped down the alley. The taller girl sighed as she followed her, knowing what the night held for them.

Sometimes they slept in a hotel room using stolen money, sometimes they found an apartment someone had abandoned, sometimes they'd even steal a car and sleep in that. But somehow they always returned here, to the same damn alley that they called home.

No one who had any sense went down that dead end alley, because they all knew this place belonged to the Thompson Sisters. It wasn't much. There was an empty oil drum they put anything that would burn in, there was a wire hung above them to dry anything that would hang, and there was a dirty mattress - something Patty had found on the sidewalk and dragged there for a makeshift bed.

Over the years Liz had never gotten around to finding a second one even when they had more than enough stolen money to just buy one. Patty had never questioned this, because she suspected that her big sister - just like her - enjoyed the way they'd curl up together and fall asleep.

Oh, and there was a dog-eared old brown recliner with an inexplicable parasol over it, but that had been there since even before they'd claimed the alley as their own.

"Oneechan, are you still worried that guy is gonna find us?" Patty asked as she sat down on the mattress, broken springs squealing their complaints to her. Above them was a huge neon sign, the only cover in the alley keeping any rain that came off their bed.

Liz looked around from where she stood, staring at the entrance to their sanctuary, daring someone to show.

"Not just him. That was the Mafia after us there. Just cause that kid kicked their ass doesn't mean they wont come after us." Liz told her. Patty looked down at the floor sadly. She didn't care about the people after her, but she cared that her sister cared. She cared that it made her sad. "We shouldn't even be here. Everyone knows this is where the Thompsons hang, they'll look here first!"

"We don't have the money to stay anywhere."

"I know, I know. I messed up." Liz sighed, finally moving back and collapsing in the chair. "We haven't robbed a guy with any real cash in weeks, but I was sure we'd get some off him. He was wearing a suit!"

"Why didn't the bullets work when you shot him?" Patty asked innocently. Liz flinched, reminded that she had actually tried to shoot someone earlier that day. For all their crimes, the thefts and the threats and even the occasional assault (drunken, drug fueled or otherwise) she had never actually tried to use Patty to kill someone. Just the idea made her stomach churn. It wasn't the idea of herself being a murderer, it was also the knowledge that she'd be dragging her sister along for the ride.

Patty would become a murder weapon.

"I panicked, he grabbed your barrel and wouldn't let go."

"Patty knows, so why didn't it work?"

"Well we fire each other's soul wavelengths, and he said mine wasn't strong enough." Liz answered. Demon guns were different from other types of weapon. The bullets weren't bullets, but instead the compressed soul energy taken from the person firing them. The upside to this was that if you knew it was an option (which they did not), you could adjust strength from a shot that bruised to a shot which would take out an organ. The downside was something she had just experienced, some creatures were more resistant than others, and you needed a stronger soul to deal with them.

"Oh…" Patty didn't really get it, but she didn't ask more. Her sister had enough to worry about right now. "Is Oneechan's hand okay?"

"Wha? Oh… yeah. I think its good." Liz looked at the bruises over her knuckles, the pain ghosting back into her mind now that she was reminded of them. She'd punched him when they'd made their escape from the warehouse he'd approached them in. It hadn't felt like punching brick - even though she knew that was what people usually said when this kind of thing happened - because no one felt like that when you punched them. What it had felt like was punching denser and stronger muscle than any boy that young and pale had any right to possess. "Don't worry, your big sister will keep watch for him."

Patty wanted to say she wasn't afraid of the boy who had claimed his name was Death. Sure, he was silly, but she liked silly. Besides, he beat up all those bad men who wanted to hurt her, she didn't think someone would go to the trouble of doing that just so he could hurt them himself. But she had also seen the look in his eyes that her sister had, and knew that was why she was afraid of him. When they'd met him in the alleyway, his eyes had been blank and dead, and that had been bad enough. But when they saw him in the warehouse and he had been asking them to join him they'd been wide and happy and oh-so-crazy that she got why her sister thought he was dangerous.

Yes, she wanted to say that just because he was crazy didn't mean he was bad. But she didn't. It would only mean arguing with her sister, and she didn't have the energy.

"Oneechan, I'm tired."

"Kay, but you know what I told you."

"Patty's gotta check all round the bed for needles before she lies down. If she sees one she shouldn't touch, 'cause Oneechan'll take care of it." The younger girl parroted for the eleven hundredth time.

"Good girl." Liz replied smiling for the same amount. "And why's that?"

"Cause needles are bad, and only stinky bad people use them!"

"Yeah…"

It took her sister only a few minutes to do her overenthusiastic search, but Liz trusted her to do it properly. Patty wasn't… stupid. Not exactly, she could never call her sister stupid. But she was... different from how a girl her age was supposed to be, and people often thought that meant she couldn't follow any instructions. Most of the time they were right, but Patty always did what her older sister asked her to do.

It was a warm night, and the smaller girl could get away with just lying down then and there, quickly nodding off. If it was cold (which it was most nights) they would have to either find a blanket or just lie there and try to get to sleep using each others warmth.

Liz sat back in the chair, simultaneously trying to relax and stay awake at the same time. She had to stay conscious, who knew who could sneak up on them now? They'd trained each other to transform in an instant, even when just awakened, but that wouldn't help at all if they were both asleep.

Liz never made Patty keep watch - the innocent smaller girl never even suspected that her sister was watching over her whilst she was more defenceless than ever. Sometimes she questioned the extensive bags under her big sis' eyes, but more often than not she just didn't notice.

But Liz hadn't slept a full eight hours in days, any second now she knew her eyelids would lose the battle to stay open. And right now, sleeping meant a possible death. She needed something to stay awake.

Reaching into her pocket she took out the small metal tin and opened it. Inside were the very same things she was forbidding her sister from touching.

Shaking fingers lifted one and she put the rest away, taking one last glance at Patty to make sure she wasn't awake. Liz held the needle to her arm and took a deep breath, trying to work up the courage to force the metal spike into her flesh.

"Hypocritical, aren't you?" It was the same voice from before, but now it was much worse. It wasn't the bored one from this morning, or the happy and slightly mad one from a few hours ago. He sounded serious now, and every syllable was as heavy as a tombstone.

Liz froze in fear. There was no way. She was watching the only entrance, there were no doors behind them, no other ways to get in.

Very slowly, she stood up from the chair and turned around. Then she stepped back.

He stood only a few meters away by the bed, giving a disapproving frown. Patty slept soundly to his side, unaware of his presence. He was wearing a large cloak over his suit now, the bottom of which seemed to her eyes not to be entirely solid, looking more like a shadow or some black fog than anything else. But his physical appearance was still as creepy as ever.

Had he been normal she might have called him handsome, but there were a load of things about his appearance that just didn't make sense. First of all he was entirely monochrome. From his shoes to the top of his head, there was nothing there not black or white, except his freaky yellow eyes of course. Eyes that didn't look human, eyes that didn't look safe, eyes that looked like something that hunted to feed.

His skin was pale to the point of being almost grey whilst his hair was true black – black like midnight in a coal cellar. But the most bizarre things were the three white lines that took up precisely half of his hair.

You couldn't dye those in… surely.

"I need this." Liz croaked, the needle still shaking in her hands and taking a step away.

"You don't. You're just addicted." He sounded almost… disappointed. Liz could have laughed at the thought if she hadn't been so scared. He'd barely known them for a day, and he already had expectations for her?

"N-No… I've taken some lighter drugs before, but not this one."

"What is it?" He hadn't blinked yet. Liz wanted him to. To do something to make him seem more human and less deathlike. She wanted those damn eyes to do something that normal eyes did, to take away that fear she felt for him.

"Methamphetamines." She saw his blank look and guessed he didn't know what they were. "I heard they keep you awake, and stop you from feeling hungry." She'd been given them for free by a dealer, he must have thought she would get addicted and come back for more. Liz knew she wouldn't though, she couldn't. That would mean taking money away from Patty, and she couldn't do that.

"You don't need them." He told her flatly.

"What would you know?!" She snarled at him suddenly, burning anger from the depths of her soul temporarily overriding her fear, daring him to contradict her. "You're just some suit-wearing prick from far away, what would you know about anything here?!? You don't know what It means to fight for your life!!"

"Its true I have never lived like you have, but death is something I know all too well. Both in relation to myself and countless more." The intruder told her in utter confidence, and for the first time she saw a glimpse of emotion in those unnatural amber orbs, before it disappeared again. "Besides which, I'm sure your sister would have something to say about this, wouldn't she?" The bizarre looking boy asked simply.

"I'm doing this for her." Liz said quietly, her fury lost as quickly as it had been found, a hollow feeling left where it had been. "I have to stay awake to protect her, so this can help. We don't have the money for much food right now, so I've been giving it to her and I'll keep doing that. This should keep me from needing it for a bit at least."

"You're a good sister." He stated, his voice only slightly softer than before. Liz laughed, a long bitter laugh with no happiness or humour in it.

"I give her everything. Its at times like this I wish I could breastfeed, at least then Patty'd be getting something I knew was okay instead of who knows what wrapped in food poisoning." Liz half-joked, though her voice was still sour. "Then again… I'd probably just give her some disease." She ended with a pathetic sigh. Her tough girl criminal personality had been demolished long ago by him, walls torn down by his fearlessness and his displays of power. Now there was only a young woman who loved her sister, and wanted noting more than to protect her - even if it meant taking from herself.

"Patricia, that's her name?" He asked, looking at the sleeping girl.

"Yeah…" The demon gun responded awkwardly. She put the syringes cap back on and put it down on the chair. For now this conversation could keep her awake and besides, she didn't think he was gonna let her do it.

"And yourself?"

"Liz."

"You mean Elizabeth?" Kid raised an eyebrow.

"No, Liz." The tall girl told him firmly. "You gonna give your real name?"

"I told you already. Death the Kid."

"No one names their son that."

"You have heard of Shibusen correct?"

"Of course I have, practically everyone's heard of it! Especially us Demon Weapons." Liz berated. "Shibusen, located in Death City, Death Valley and... headed by... Death..." Her eyes widened in surprise before she reigned in her expression. "You're what? His son or something?"

"Yes."

"W-Well I don't care who you are." Liz tried to use her tough girl voice again, only to find what came out far too quiet and lacking in confidence to sound threatening in the slightest. "Get lost, Patty and I have enough death around without you. We need to survive, not make friends with death."

"There is another option. I did offer you a deal, I don't understand why you refused."

"What, the 'Become your weapons' deal?" Liz asked sarcastically. "Piss off. You think I'd trust you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on. This isn't a fairytale, this is real life. Rich guys don't just drop out of the sky and offer girls like us homes. Not unless they want to do something real sick." She scowled at him. "You're young, but I've met some pretty messed up fucks out there who were your age. So it doesn't mean I'm gonna drop my guard."

"Then you will not accept my offer?"

"Not a chance."

Kid stepped towards her, the end of his black cloak licking at the floor around it as he moved. As he passed the chair he picked up the discarded syringe.

"What the hell are you doing now?" Liz asked him as she moved backwards to stay away. "Put that back!"

"Give me the rest." He ordered her sternly.

"No!" Liz glanced left and right, trying to figure out a way to get away that didn't mean leaving Patty alone with him. There was none.

"I won't leave until you hand them over. And you know I can take them if I want." The voice like a funeral bell returned to her, and she found its very employment left her shaking in his presence.

Because yes, she did know. She'd seen him fight when he had saved them. Those Mobsters wouldn't be getting up soon, if at all. Strength like that wasn't right, it wasn't normal. It wasn't human, was it? Then was that the strength of Death?

"F-Fine. Just take them and go." She threw the metal caseas hard as she could at his head, only for him to catch it easily. As he walked past she pressed herself flat against the wall out of sheer survival instinct, thousands of years of ancestors screaming at her through her genes to stay out of his reach.

His face showed nothing but disgust and loathing, at first she thought it was for her before realizing the things he hated so much were the things in his hands. He looked at her once, and then at those objects he detested. In front of her eyes, Liz watched as they erupted in black flame and turned to ash that crumbled between his fingers.

The teenage girl squeezed her eyes shut out of fear for just a moment, and when she opened them he was gone.

"F-Freak." She breathed out – stuttering - pressing her hands to her chest and taking deep breaths to try and settle her terrified heart. When she had calmed she rushed to Patty's side, checking to see he hadn't done anything weird to her sister. But she was fine, fast asleep through it all.

Liz kneeled down beside the girl who was both her sister and her best friend, and then gave her a hug.

"Oneechan, Patty's hungry." The younger girl whined as she woke up, recognising the warmth of her sibling on her and glad to find it.

Liz felt her heart break, knowing for a fact they didn't have anything left.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing." When tears of guilt began to appear in the corners of her eyes, Patty decided to shut up. She was not so dense that she couldn't recognise when her sister was feeling delicate, and in those times she tried to be a little a burden as she could.

"That's okay, It's not so bad. But Oneechan looks tired, come to bed."

"You've always been a good girl." Liz smiled through the threatening tears, wiping them away with the back of her arm. "But I've gotta stay up." Shakily she got to her feet before leaning against the wall for support. "Ill join you in a bit though."

"Promise?"

"Promise." She smiled again.

The exhausted and hungry girl wanted desperately to lie down next to her sister again, or at least sit, but she knew if she did it would be the end of her will. She'd be out like a light for the rest of the night.

Liz's thoughts turned back to their stalker, and she wondered what his intentions were. She had no doubts anymore that he wasn't Human, or at least not a normal one. But did that mean she could trust him?

He had saved her, without a second thought she had seen him jump in front of those guns. It had been selfless, brave, dangerous and terrifying to anyone watching. Then he had stood on the bodies, and asked them to become his weapons - the grin on his face positively manic. And when a survivor at the bottom of the pile grab a gun from one of his comrades she could have sworn she had seen… something knock him out.

It had looked like a floating black line - and a skull – spending just a second in her vision before vanishing.

She had run away at that point, but had that really been the best option? If he was telling the truth, he wanted to give her and her sister a home. She had no idea where he lived, but anything was better than this wasn't it? And the son of Death? That had to be worth a comfortably large house at least.

"Maybe I shouldn't have sent him away." Liz said out loud quietly. "Now he's gone forever…"

"I was hardly going to give up so quickly." A voice by her ear stated.

Liz leapt away from the wall like a bullet, and looked for the source of the voice. Unable to find it, she followed a terribly unsettling hunch, and – preparing herself for the worst - looked up instead.

Death stared back at her. The black suited boy stood above her. At ninety degrees to the wall.

Liz clasped her hands over her mouth to stop herself screaming and waking Patty as he walked downwards, eventually reaching the floor and carrying on like his gravity defying abilities were as normal as anything.

"I told you I wanted you to go away." Liz whispered, her eyes still wide and terrified. It felt so ridiculous, that fear. She hadn't been scared in years, but this boy had made her jump more times in a day than she had in a year.

"What a child wants, and what a child needs are two completely different things." He responded, and Liz felt her jaw drop.

"Me? A child?!" She asked angrily. "Patty and I are both seventeen. What about you, huh Mr Death?"

"Fifteen."

"So what gives you the right to act like your so mature??"

"I'm Death." He let that sink in for a while. "In addition to that, I can be a provider."

Liz didn't notice he'd been carrying a large brown bag until he threw it to her.

"What's in here?" The tall girl asked as she caught it. "Wait, its warm."

"I was unable to find a five star restaurant open this late, so I had to go with fast food instead. I hope its alright."

"After all that you went out and bought us…" Liz just trailed off, and Kid found himself slightly disturbed that she found such a simple act was enough to warrant speechlessness. The girl in front of him didn't bother finishing, instead she just ripped the bag open and kneeled at her sister's side, shaking her gently.

"Uwah? Oneechan?" The smaller girl yawned.

"Wake up Patty. I've got some food for us." She told her with a smile, taking out the first polystyrene contained, marveling at how much there was.

Kid raised an eyebrow at that, but guessed they weren't used to manners and didn't really care enough to correct them. After all, he hadn't bought it because he wanted to be thanked.

"Oneechan… the monster boy is behind you again." She warned.

"Its okay, I don't think he's too much trouble after all." Liz cast a suspicious glance at him, and got a deadpan stare in return. Patty smiled.

"I could have told you that! You're silly!" Patty announced, throwing her arms up in the air happily.

"Heh, do you want to eat or what?" Liz asked her with a wide grin on her face.

"Food!!" Patty screamed.

'Very admirable.' Kid thought to himself, allowing a small smile of his own to sneak onto his face. 'She's giving her sibling something to eat before she even thinks about herself.'

It took a full ten minutes for Patty to finish eating, and Liz didn't touch anything throughout. She wanted to make sure her sister had eaten her fill before starting herself, but there really had been nothing to worry about. There had been enough there for four people.

Kid leaned against the wall the entire time, his mind in another world, until he was roused from his imagination by the approaching young woman. She was in the middle of eating, noisily slurping up noodles and sauce, but he didn't really care.

"Look, thanks for all this." The long haired girl said quietly, not used to thanking people.

"It was hardly anything to be so thankful over."

Liz wasn't quite sure what to do, so she settled for looking at the floor. Despite his younger age and shorter stature, she was getting the overwhelming feeling he was far older than her – that he was so much wiser and more experienced - and it was unsettling. Less so though, than most of the things he had been doing around her.

Kid smiled at her briefly, and she looked at him in surprise. The smile wasn't the same one from the warehouse, wide and insane and creepy. It was just a simple smile, like the kind that people gave everyday, looking strange because it was on his face.

They were silent for a few more minutes, the only sound the sound of Patty's murmurings as she drifted in and out of sleep on a full stomach. That very fact made Kid smile another tiny smile, the knowledge that she was perfectly comfortable falling asleep around him – be it due to her sister's protective presence or actual trust of him it didn't matter, it was simply a good thing to find such a person.

"Is this really alright?" He asked looking up from the girl, gesturing to the alley around them. "Both you and your sister deserve better."

"You don't know us and you don't know that." She replied quietly. "We've done pretty bad stuff…"

"I have seen enough." He told her, without a trace of untruth. "And whatever you did, you did it to survive."

"We're wanted all over this state. We've got bounties and court orders and hundreds of police reports."

"I will erase all of that."

"You think you're above the law?" Liz looked him in the eyes, curious to his response. He nodded.

"I am Death. There is no greater justice than me. The hearts of men are easily swayed by money, but I cannot be dealt with in such a way." 'He'll bribe them?' Liz thought as she smirked.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Death threats." Death said simply, not breaking his stare. She got the feeling however, that this was a joke more than anything real.

"Ah…" Liz responded. "But there are people after us you know, maybe hundreds. Mafia, Police, Bounty Hunters and just plain old psychopaths we've pissed off." She continued, watching his face carefully to see if his expression changed. It didn't.

"Then I will protect you from them. If they wish to harm you, I will crush them." He said it so simply, like taking on all those people would be easy. For him though, she wasn't sure it wouldn't be.

Liz gave a small laugh.

"We'd be your weapons. Are you saying you'd try to protect your own guns from being hurt?"

"Of course." The creepy boy looked almost… insulted at what she had said. "I would die myself a thousand times before allowing one of you to be even the slightest bit harmed."

There was a pause as she examined him. Finally, after minutes of silence, she spoke.

"You would wouldn't you?" Liz asked in disbelief. "You'd actually do that for us."

"You should expect no less from me." His eyes were softer now, the emotion of a Human showing through the shield he possessed. And suddenly, Liz was a little less afraid.

"And you'd do all that other stuff you said too? Your deal?"

"In return for being my weapons when I go on missions, yes. I would feed, clothe, house and protect you."

"We haven't got much at the moment, but we're at least free." Liz told him carefully, again watching his expression.

"You would remain free. If at any time you wanted to stop our partnership, you would just need to say the word and I would allow you to go on your way."

"And we could come back to this?" The blond asked him, a little bitter again. "Not much of a choice."

He shook his head solemnly.

"I will never allow you to be driven to this point again."

Liz knew he was talking about the needles.

"You just said you'd let us be free." There was the beginning of a growl in her voice, as she demanded an explanation.

"Yes, I would. First of all however I would set up a monthly allowance to support you and your sister and arrange for you to be enrolled somewhere you can learn an employable skill, if you do not have one already. Finally I would locate you a reasonably sized house and perhaps drop in every month or so, to ensure you are comfortable."

Liz stared. She carried on staring for a long time. She cycled through several possible responses before simply giving up.

Her mouth fell open.

Kid leaned against the wall as composed as ever, looking her straight in the eyes, wondering what was wrong.

"I-Its only been a few hours since you even knew we were guns, but you'd do all that? Even if we wanted to stop being your weapons?" She asked, simultaneously touched and bewildered. "W-Why??"

His answer was nothing more than a shrug.

"Does this mean you have reconsidered joining me?"

"I'm thinking about it." Liz admitted, giving a long sigh. "Look, if it was just me then I'd go right away. But for all I know you're just some innocent front someone uses to lure girls like us in. Demon weapon girls are valuable you know. Some people like the rarity. They like breaking us." She spat.

"I see. Then I can only ask you to trust me, and hope that will be enough."

"Oneechan?" Liz looked at Patty, who was sitting up in the bed giving her puppy dog eyes. "I like him, lets go."

"It seems she has decided." Kid told her. "But I do not think she would go and leave you behind."

Liz gave the longest sigh of her life.

"Patty's usually pretty good at judging people, so I guess I have to say yes. But this doesn't mean I trust you, it takes a long time to get my trust." The Demon Handgun warned him.

"I can imagine." Kid told her with a knowing look. "And I want to start working towards that trust tonight."

"How?"

"You sleep, I will keep watch for any more of your friends."

"Bit of a leap of faith isn't it?" Liz asked with a scowl, but he simply shrugged again.

"You'll have to take one sometime."

In the end the Liz slept soundly throughout the night, bizarrely safe in the knowledge that Death himself was protecting them. Her sister on the other hand stayed up for a few more minutes, taking interested stealthy glances at the nice crazy boy who was helping them, until she too succumbed to sleep.

"Patty?" Kid called quietly into the partly open doorway, seeing the light still on in the Demon Girls room. "It's past midnight. Are you still awake at this hour?"

"Yes. Sowwy." Was the girl's response. Kid opened the door, and found her sitting cross-legged on her bed, dressed in her thin pink nightie with a wide smile on her face. "I dreamt about the day we met!" She announced with a grin.

"Oh? Was it a nice dream?" The pale boy asked with his trademark emotionless face, not making any move further into the room, but not making any attempt to leave either. Just being there to listen.

"Yup!"

"That's good to know."

"Kid-kun?" She asked, proceeding when she saw his nod. "Are you happy you found us?"

"Patty, you already know the answer to that."

"Patty wants to hear it!" She pouted, knowing he was right but still wanting the words to pass his lips.

"Of course I am." He reassured her, his face not breaking its stony features but his eyes telling volumes. "I could not have asked for better weapons, and I could never find better friends."

The next thing he knew, Patty's arms were wrapped around him and her head buried into the crook of his neck. Again, Kid made no attempt to hug her back, but neither did he attempt to pull himself from her.

"Patty couldn't have asked for a better Meister!" She told him with a widening smile and shining eyes. "And Kid-kun's my best friend!"

"Thank you Patty. Can you go to sleep now?" He asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Not until you hug me back~~" The mischievous girl smirked, pulling back and sticking her tongue out at him.

Patty expected him to leave, or tell her to stop being a child, but was instead shocked as she felt two strong arms wrap around her waist and pull her close to him, tentatively like he had never hugged anyone before. A fact that was – sadly - probably true.

"Kid-kun..." No more words came out, only a tearful smile at his embrace as she hugged him back. "Kid-kun never hugs Patty! Patty's asked again and again and again!" He didn't answer her for several minutes, not wanting to ruin the moment as they enjoyed one another's touch and warmth – leaning their heads against each other and closing their eyes- appreciating the presence of their respective loved one.

"I think its allowed in this case." The reply came, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "After all, its been six whole months today since you first came to Shibusen with me."

"It is??" Patty asked in amazement, pulling back from his hug suddenly. "Patty's gotta get Oneechan! She needs a hug too!!"

Kid wanted to stop her from running from the room and bursting into her sisters room, to stop her waking her sibling so needlessly. To tell her that Liz wouldn't be nearly so interested in receiving a hug as she was. But he didn't.

When Liz entered, tired and with bedraggled hair, she loudly declared her complete lack of interest in doing anything with him. But when Patty grabbed them by the wrist and forced their trio together, they're wasn't a single person who didn't enjoy the feeling.

Death didn't understand all the emotions of the living, and he sure as hell didn't understand the minds of the Thompson Twins. But he at least understood what was important to the girls, and he understood what made them happy.

And acting on that knowledge to make them smile? Well, that was the thing that made him happy.

Death smiled.