[Authors Note] Hello everyone, Chapter 21 is up, and I apologise for the wait. This chapter took me a while because I couldn't get particular paragraphs to work properly, and yeah, you'll probably get the picture when you read it :) Enjoy guys.

Melon Fox Jozei / Josaphina out!

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: Chou

The frustration over the situation at hand was all that Serah could feel. Blinding frustration that had Serah struggle to stop that shout from escaping her.

In fact, she had practically forgotten everything else in the understanding that her Step-Mother was watching the entrace to the Apartment building as she waited for Serah to come outside. It didn't help Serah to recall just how tenacious and stubborn the woman was or even if it began to rain, let alone just how sharp her memory was.

Any marginal hint that she didn't remember something was an outright lie; The woman still remembered many events and people from pre-school, even at the age of Forty. If it did start raining, all Heather would do was to the extent of buying an umbrella and sitting on the bench once again.

About the only thing Serah could do was run out of the door, but knowing her luck, she'd fall over. Even if she was lucky and didn't trip, Heather was not only a much faster runner, but she could run in heels as if she was bare-footed. Serah couldn't even run in bare feet without either crashing into something or tripping on thin air!

Serah knew right at this moment that she'd been trapped, and if she were to so much as set foot outside, the woman would have her.

'So … You're staying for lunch, Serah?' Maka's voice cut through Serah's reeling thoughts with great effect.

Serah flinched in surprise, and turned her head towards the blonde meister.

'Sorry?' Serah hedged, her eyes blinking as she saw Maka cast her a small smile.

It was only now that Serah was beginning to notice that there wasn't that very light tint of blue in her vision.

Odd ...

'Are you staying for lunch? Or are you going to brave the outdoors and get your belongings from Kid?' The frown that touched Serah's face in respones to this merely made Maka laugh just a little as she began to search the fridge.

'Sure. Not like I can run away from the woman without killing myself on another door, or anything.' She eventually gave in, lifting a hand to gently rub her eyes as she began to approach the kitchen table once again.

It was in this moment that she noticed the absence of her glasses; She couldn't feel the frames shift from the rubbing of her eyes, and she let out a breath as she realised where they were. Like with her bag, they had probably ended up scattering over the floor. If they hadn't of been rescued along with the rest of her stuff, they were probably stepped on and smashed to pieces by second period.

'Well, we have, bread, salami, cheese …' Maka began to list off as she searched the fridge, causing Serah to look over in curiosity. 'We have some lettuce and chicken too, so how about sandwiches?'

'Can I pass on the meat and cheese?' Serah ashed hopefully.

Maka straightened up to fix Serah with a rather surprised look.

'But that's just leaves lettuce...'

'Sounds perfect.' Serah responded with a small grin.

Maka seemed to stare at her for a few seconds before she began to pull out items to prepare lunch with. While it didn't appear that she'd disregarded the confusion over Serah's words, Maka didn't really ask about it.

At least, not yet, anyway.

Serah had learned that when Maka started to worry, she wasn't going to drop it unless it became too much hassle, or she had an explanation. And it was going to be the latter, because Serah didn't like making a big deal out of it, because she'd rather no attention was brought to it at all.

In fact, Serah found herself deciding that it was better to give Maka that answer before she even asked the bloody question.

'I'm a creature of glutton, if it's bothering you.' Serah offered as an explanation, earning a rather curious look from Maka with little effort.

'Huh?'

She sighed as she resigned herself to just lifting her top and jumper from her stomach in order to pinch the skin, and she then pulled.

Maka seemed to look down at the amount of stretch her skin had in confusion, at least until comprehension overcame her a few seconds later.

'Oh! I get it now.' Maka responded with an apologetic smile.

Of course Serah just let her clothes back to cover her stomach.

'I've put a lot of work into regaining my current build.' She explained as she settled back in the chair she'd been sitting on earlier. 'I'm an emotional eater by nature, and I'm really trying to break that.'

'That really sounds like a pain.' Maka spoke sympathetically.

Of course Serah let out a breath in exasperation.

'You have no idea.' Serah remarked in all honesty.

'Well, you should eat something decent for dinner at least.' Maka spoke up as she began to put together sandwiches, casting Serah a small smile as she worked. 'You lost a lot of blood just from crashing head-first into that door, after all.'

'Noted.' Serah spoke up with a sigh as she reached out for her glass of juice. 'I'll pick up some stuff for stew on the way back.'

'That's if you can leave without your Step-Mom seeing you.' Maka reminded Serah in a kind of taunting jest.

Of course Serah's cheeks puffed out in her tempermental mood, much like a chipmunk.

'Thanks for the reminder.' Serah grumbled, earning a small laugh from Maka.

But of course Maka's words were rather prominent; How the hell was she going to leave the building without the woman spotting her? It wasn't like the woman would listen to Serah if told to go away. She would have thought the way she ran away from the woman just a matter of hours ago was enough of a sign that she didn't want to be anywhere near the woman.

'Here you go.' Maka announced all of a sudden, placing a plate with a lettuce sandwich on the table right in front of Serah. 'One lettuce sandwich.'

'Thanks.' Serah spoke up with a sheepish smile, watching as Maka sat herself down on the other side of the little table. She glanced over at the door that Soul had disappeared behind, before returning her gaze to the sandwich on her plate.

'Sooo, can I ask you a personal question, Serah?' Maka asked after a few seconds, causing Serah to glance up at her as she picked up her lunch.

'Sure, you can ask.' Serah responded as she took a bite of her sandwich. 'But that doesn't mean I'll necessarily answer.' She added after a couple of seconds.

Maka smiled slightly in understanding as she lifted her own sandwich to take a bite.

The silence continued for a few seconds, until Maka had finished her mouthful.

'What kind of person is your Step-Mom?'

A frown touched Serah's face as she considered the question.

'What kind of answer are you actually after?' Serah couldn't help but ask.

'Well, I was just wondering, so any real answer will do.' Maka spoke thoughtfully, pausing to continue eating her sandwich for just a second. 'She seemed to really throw her weight around when she was in the classroom, but then as soon as she saw you she dropped it and started acting like a squealing, adoring Mom.'

Serah let out a faint breath as she continued to eat her lunch and consider what she was going to say in answer.

'Well, I used to really like her.' Serah spoke honestly, her gaze remaining upon the sandwich in her hands as she rearranged her words. 'You know how I said I never had a Mom? Well, Dad and her hooked up when I was like, seven or something. Old enough to know that I don't have a Mom, and this woman was supposed to be some kind of replacement for something I never had to begin with. I don't have any siblings of course, and because of Dad's work, I never really had any friends, but it didn't bother me because I had Dad and all of his work-friends were really nice and played with me whenever they had some spare time, so I wasn't lonely. Heather wasn't much different from them, either – She'd play with me when she saw me at work, and basically was my first friend. I've never seen her as a Mom, to be honest, even when she moved into the house with us – It just made Dad really happy when I'd call her Mom, so I kind of stuck with it and it just became habit after a while. It was just like this really nice, but weird lady who would play video games and sing with me moved in to keep me company; She seemed to spend more time with me than Dad, to be honest with you.'

'Sounds like she was a lot of fun.'

'Yes and no.' Serah responded honestly, glancing up at Maka with a wry smile. 'Really, she acts more like a kid than an adult, which is probably why I never saw any form of adult or substitute-parent in her. She'd eat nothing but sweets if she could get away with it, and she wanted to play more than do anything. She'd even skip out on work if she thought she could get away with it, and she threw a lot of tantrums when things didn't go her way. I think Dad was hoping that Heather would be one of those fun Mom's for me, but it ended up with me having a less-mature friend trapped in an adult's body, instead. It was fun when Heather was in a good mood, though.'

'But you don't like her anymore …?' Maka spoke up curiously.

Serah considered the question for a few seconds, before another breath escaped her.

'I don't dislike her. In actually, I really, really loathe her.'

'O-oh …'

'But I don't hate the her that I knew back in Chicago.' Serah answered as she set the sandwich down on her plate once again. 'I don't even think she remembers what she used to be like – She likes to act and show off so much that I wonder if she's forgotten what it's like to relax a little. Almost like she's terrified of being honest with herself, let alone anyone else. It's just … it all changed her for the worse, and the old Heather's not coming back.'

'So … what are you going to do?' Maka asked after a few seconds, causing Serah to look up at her. 'I mean now, what with the fact that she's here in Death City?'

'Dunno, to be honest with you.' Serah responded with a sigh, turning her gaze to the rolling storm-clouds building up outside. 'It's been five years since I've seen her, and it doesn't look like she's aged a bit.'

'That's not what I meant.' Maka spoke up, causing Serah to blink up at her in surprise. 'I get that you don't want to talk to her, but you can't really run away from her again.'

'I ran out of panic, not because I'm wary of her or don't want to talk to her.' Serah spoke with a small sigh as she rubbed her eyes slightly. 'I could do with never speaking to her for the rest of my life, but that's not going to happen anymore. In actuality, if I speak to her, it's not going to be pleasant for anyone to witness.'

'I'm not going to ask what actually happened, even though it's really obvious that something did.' She began as Serah prodded at her lettuce sandwich. 'But you probably should sort this out sooner than later – By the looks of it, she's the stubborn type that will probably follow you everywhere until she gets what she wants.'

'I will speak with her if I must – Just not today. I'm liable to be charged with manslaughter if I do.'

Maka watched Serah for a few seconds in silence, as if thinking on Serah's words.

'Well that's fair – You do need some time to get your mood back in order.' Maka eventually spoke as she went back to eating her sandwich.

'Hey! I feel that concussing myself on a door more than justifies my mood!'

'Sure, sure.' Maka spoke through a mouthful of sandwich, causing a scoff to escape Serah as she decided that her sandwich probably should be put out of it's misery right now. 'You and your accident-prone tendencies, indeed.'

'I heard that!' Serah grumbled, though she did inwardly smile at the knowledge that it was more of a joke than an actual jab.

'Damn, I kinda miss those headphones right now.' Maka prodded with a smirk.

'I bet you do.'

'Damn right – It was kinda fun having an excuse to throw paper at you.'

'You throw paper at me, even if I don't have my headphones on.' Serah responded easily, smirking as Maka cast her a sheepish grin.

'Well, yeah …'

A kind of comfortable silence decended between them as they finished their lunch, enough so where Serah had drifted off into thought that was thankfully unrelated to Heather. She wondered if Amanda was going to pop around later in the evening, like she had yesterday? It would be enough to put Serah in a happier mood, no matter whether she ended up getting followed and pestered by Heather or not.

In fact, anything that was unrelated to Heather would put her mood back in order – And that included just going home to bed.

A curteous knock at the door to Maka and Soul's apartment caught Serah's attention, and it appeared that Maka had noticed as well. She turned her head to look at Maka as she lifted herself from the chair, a curious look to her rather warm features.

'Coming!' Maka called out, leaving Serah there to wonder who it could be; She guessed that Liz would come around with her stuff after classes.

'Hiya Maka!' Came an energetic, girlish voice all of a sudden.

'Hey guys. You're here early, aren't you?' Maka's muffled voice echoed in response, however Serah's attention was instead rerouted to Soul as he emerged from his room with a small frown.

The albino male leaned around to look at the door before turning his head to fix Serah with an exasperated smile.

'Bathroom's that way.' Soul spoke as he pointed towards the afformentioned room. 'You might want to avoid the symmetry melt-down and clean up.'

Serah blinked at Soul's suggestion, however she did as she was told as she realised who was at the door.

The collective term 'Guys' was obviously Liz, Patty and Death The Kid.

Serah shut the bathroom door behind her and flicked on the lights to reveal her reflection, making it immediately evident why Soul had sent her in here – There were lines of dried blood down the right side of her face, and her cerulian blue jumper was unfortunately greatly flecked with drops of dried blood all around the neck and down the right side of the chest. There was also dried blood in the corner of her mouth, too.

Serah realised that the drama over whether she had actually managed to kill herself on the door was not actually all that exadurated, and she felt herself go little pale at the thought.

She really had to thank Soul for giving her the heads up before she went through another of Kid's symmetry-fits.

After arguing with her hair while carefully pulling the jumper off, Serah then made a quick task of cleaning off all the blood so that she could avoid any symmetry-related issues. By the end of it, Serah's head was feeling more than just tender, and she was beginning to feel dizzy again from all of the bending and stretching to clean herself of way more blood than she had thought possible.

'You alright in there, Serah?' Soul asked through the door, causing surprise to flash across Serah's face as she turned to look at the door. 'You've been in there a while.'

'I'm fine – It just hurts if I move too fast.' Serah responded, and after one quick glance over in the mirror, she opened the door to step out. She found after a glance around that he was standing against the wall just next to the door. She then realised that he had been there more or less in case she passed out or slipped and needed help.

'All good?' Soul asked as he turned his head to look at her. For some reason, she found it weird that the guy was talking to her so much.

'Y-yeah. All good.' Serah took to answering quietly, watching as Soul pulled away from the wall and began to head back to the kitchen. Serah wondered if she had said something wrong, but shrugged the thought aside as she began to follow Soul.

'Hey, there you are!' Echoed Liz's voice as soon as Serah had stepped out into the kitchen, causing Serah to look up in surprise. The tall weapon was approaching from next to the fridge, where Maka was standing. 'I'm surprised you're conscious after an impact like that.'

'U-uh … you mean the door, right?' Serah hedged.

Somewhere in Serah's peripheral vision, there was a fidgiting movement subtle enough where she noticed, but didn't turn her head to look.

'Well yeah, it looked like it really hurt.' Liz responded with a rather sympathetic smile.

Serah wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so she just smiled sheepishly – She didn't trust her own words right now when she was still in a kind of bad mood.

'It was like BANG! Right as Kid opened the door!' Patty exclaimed enthusiastically as she appeared out of nowhere with arms flailing around. 'It was so funny!'

'No, it wasn't.' Liz spoke reproachfully to her sister.

'Yes it was! Did you see the look on Kid's face? He looked totally freaked out!'

'Yeah, I think you need to drop it, Patty.' Liz said as she glanced over towards the fidgiting that Serah guessed was Death the Kid. Serah didn't doubt that the topic was bothering the Grim Reaper's son, and she of course couldn't really blame him - the topic was actually beginning to bother her, too.

'Okay!' Patty announced, and wandered off in much the same fashion as she had leapt into the conversation.

Liz seemed to sigh as she leant forwards, motioning with one hand for Serah to come closer for some reason.

Curious, Serah decided to humor the weapon.

'But on that point there, you should know that Kid feels really bad about the whole thing.' Liz spoke quietly into Serah's ear, causing a small shudder to shoot down Serah's spine. 'So try not to hold it against him, okay?'

Perplexed, and somewhat hesitantly, Serah nodded her understanding.

She honestly wasn't going to hold anything against Death The Kid just because he opened a door. The whole incident was in all honestly her own damn fault, and she wasn't about to deny that.

However that didn't mean she wasn't touched by the fact that he felt bad for injuring her.

'What're you two whispering about?' Maka questioned all of a sudden, causing Liz to straighten up and look to the sandy-haired meister as Serah blinked in surprise.

'Nothing all that important.' Liz responded immediately as Maka came to a halt just a couple of feet away from Liz. 'I was just telling Serah about a bit of a rumor I heard going around the Academy today.'

'Oh? What kind of rumor?' Maka asked, seeming thoroghly surprised by the remark.

'Serah?' She heard a voice she vaguely recognised speak up all of a sudden, snapping her attention straight from the exchange between Maka and Liz, and to an approaching form to her right. At the sight of Death The Kid coming to stop just a couple of paces away from her, she realised that he was the one that had spoken her name. She couldn't help but notice that he seemed rather uncomfortable at that moment – Almost uncertain.

'Y-yes?' Serah hedged uncertainly, inwardly worried that she was going to say something stupid.

She did wonder what was up.

'I believe this is yours.' Kid spoke as he held out what looked to be a book to her, causing confusion to overcome her as she hesitantly accepted it.

It was as she looked down at the book that she realised what it was. It was Moondust, the particular book that had gone missing on her the other week.

'Hey – I've been looking everywhere for this!' Serah nearly exclaimed, lifting her gaze to look up at Death the Kid with wide eyes. 'Where did you find it?'

'You dropped it outside Lord Death's room the other week.' Liz interjected helpfully, earning Serah's attention with little effort. 'Remember? When you walked right into Kid outside the door and ran away?'

Serah tilted her head slightly as she wracked her brains for any kind of recollection, however she came up with nothing.

Curse all these prangs to the head! She was realising that there were more missing parts to her memory than she had thought.

'Nothing's coming to mind …' Serah answered as she glanced down at the book, making a point of pretending she didn't notice the concerned looks she was receiving as she then looked back up at Kid. 'But thank you for returning it – This book actually means a lot to me.'

'What book is it?' Maka questioned curiously, leaning over Serah's shoulder to look down at the book in her hands. 'Oh, I've never heard of this author before.'

'I'm not surprised.' Serah answered kindly, a small smile touching her face as she looked up at the Meister. 'She wrote a lot, but her books never took off very well. It was actually very hard to find any of her best work in stores back in Chicago, let alone her other stuff.'

'Really?'

'I have every single book she released though, and all of her incomplete stuff that never got released, too.' Serah added with a smile, turning so that she could look at Maka properly. 'You know the shelf in the front room? Most of the books there were written by her.'

Maka blinked for just a moment, taking to looking down at the book once again.

'Have you met her before?' Liz asked curiously, causing Serah to blink momentarily.

'Huh? What do you mean?' Serah asked out of confusion.

'You talk as if you know her.'

'Umm, I don't really know how to answer that one...' Serah hedged, blinking slowly as she tried to come to grips on the situation.

Meanwhile, Soul had approached and lifted the book out of Serah's grip in order to flick through it out of frustrated curiosity.

'What do you mean? You've either met the Author, or you haven't.' Liz responded rather bluntly.

'Oi, Serah.' Soul piped up with a frown all of a sudden, causing her to turn her gaze onto him as he lowered the book to look at her. 'What's your Mom's name?'

'Wha–?' Serah spoke, snapping her gaze down to her hands as she realised she no longer had the book. A small frown touched her face as she realised what had happened, and took to answering the question. 'Her name's Anabelle-Rose... I mean, you're holding one of her books, Soul.'

'Wait a minute! Your Mom's an Author? Really?' Liz questioned curiously, causing Serah to blink in surprise as she turned to look at her.

What was this? An inquisition? She really wasn't used to all the questions, let alone all the attention she was getting.

Somewhere in Serah's peripheral vision, she saw Maka reach out to lift the book out of Soul's hands curiously.

'Ah, that's right.' Serah answered with a sheepish smile. 'That's actually the last book she wrote, so I'm kind of attached to it.'

A smirk crept across Liz's face as she looked down at the silent Death The Kid still standing next to Serah for just a second.

'Well, she must be a good Author – I don't think I've ever seen Kid read a book from start to finish in one sitting, before.' Liz spoke with a grin, and Serah found herself rather surprised to see Kid turn his head to fix the taller woman with a rather distinct frown.

Wait … what?

'Anyway!' Maka interjected rather forcefully, causing Serah to blink in surprise yet again as she looked to see the girl close the book gently with a rather symathetic smile, as if she'd just figured something out but wasn't going to mention it while there were others in the room. 'I don't suppose you have any idea how you're getting home without being followed, Serah?'

Serah stared at Maka for a few seconds as she tried to figure out who she was talking about.

At least until the words 'being followed' repeated in her head, and a rather sour look took over her expression instead.

'I figured I'd just throw something at her and hope it distracts her – Bonus points if I actually hit her.' Serah grumbled, not the least bit surprised to find that Kid had fixed her with a rather curious look.

Of course Soul shook his head with a grin at that.

'You're not talking about that woman outside, are you?' Liz questioned as she crossed her arms, causing Serah to look at her. 'She's kinda foreign, in a blue dress? She was in the academy earlier, I think.'

From Maka's sheepish laugh and the immediately more sour look across Serah's face, Liz seemed to chuckle slightly.

'Okay, that's her.' Liz said, more to herself than anyone else.

'I suppose you could stay the night if she's still out there.' Maka offered, however Serah didn't quite answer her – Instead she was silent as she thought on that for a few seconds.

'No, that's alright.' Serah eventually spoke as she threw a particularly sour frown over at the window. 'I actually want an excuse to throw something at her.'

'I don't know what's going on, but can I make a suggestion?' Liz piped up all of a sudden, causing Serah to look up at her curiously. 'Since we've gotta walk past your place to get to Kid's, if you don't mind being stuck in your weapon form for a few minutes, I can carry you. You know, since you are actuallya weapon.'

'Hey, that's not a bad idea.' Maka remarked with a smile.

Serah contemplated the pros and cons of her 'throw a brick at Heather' idea with Liz's suggestion, and aside from venting just a little anger, it was way better to go with Liz's idea. She was also rather touched that Liz would even offer to bail her out of trouble like that, too. But oh how she really wanted to throw something at Heather!

It appeared Maka was aware of her train of thought with the way that Serah's silence continued, for she gently tapped Serah on the head with the spine of her mother's book, gentle enough where Serah barely even felt the small jolt of pain.

'Enough of the violent thoughts – You know it won't work, anyway.' Maka said, causing a sigh to escape Serah. 'You have nothing but bad lu-'

'Shut up!' She cut Maka off with an indignant retort, feeling somewhat affronted by Maka's blunt reminder of her terrible, terrible luck.

The last thing Serah wanted was for people to start associating her with a bad luck – That would most likely, if not definitely block all changes in her luck from happening at all. And knowing Serah's luck, it would be permanent, if it hadn't been set in stone already.

However from the amused look that Maka was wearing, Serah knew the blonde wasn't the least bit concerned.

'Wait – You're not superstitious are you, Serah?' Liz was the one to ask this time.

To which Soul gave an affirmative nod as Serah continued to glare at the thoroghly amused Maka.

Serah was more than just a little miffed - Maka already knew how she felt about pointing out bad luck, so why the hell was she doing it now?

Oh wait … this was a result of changing the topic from both her Mom and Heather, wasn't it?

God damn it!

Was condemning her to permanent bad luck really worth it?!

'Okay, okay! I remember what happened last time.' Maka finally gave in, though she was still grinning as she held her hands up in surrender. 'I take it back – You actually have very good luck!'

'Stop patronising me!' Serah seethed.

'I'm not.' Maka responded easily, her hands still up in apparent surrender. 'In terms of ending up in accidents and just general ill-events, you have very good luck.'

The agitation that the teasing jab caused was enough for Serah's words to stop working for her, and all she could do was stop herself from either curling up in a corner of the room to sulk, or stomping out of the apartment altogether. If there weren't spectators to this little exchange, Serah really would have just gone with the former by now.

'Uh, Maka? Maybe you should stop now.' Liz spoke up sheepishly as she watched Serah's twitching form. 'I think she's about to crack.'

'She normally would have cracked by now.' Soul remarked somewhere off to the side. 'She really doesn't like her particular kind of luck pointed out to her.'

In response to those words, Serah gave an involuntary twitch.

'I see.' Death The Kid spoke up with an understanding tone, and an equally as understanding nod of the head.

It was almost like he understood why it actually bothered her.

Then all of a sudden, a had-been ubnormally quiet girl popped up right next to Serah with a booming exclamation.

'SERAH HAS REALLY REALLY BAD LUCK!' Patty shouted loud enough for the whole apartment-building to have heard, startling everyone in the room with little effort.

However a strangled cry escaped Serah in response as her composure snapped with a resounding twang in the pit of her stomach, and before anyone realised what had happened, she had dropped to her knees and pressed her hands over her ears with a whimper. Her head was throbbing, her ears ringing, and it was so bad she felt like she was going to cry.

Serah's mind was entirely rerouted straight to the throbbing pain flaring to life, no thanks to that deafening sound. It felt like her skull was about to split entirely in half. So much so that she'd forgotten they were even talking about her bad luck at all.

All she knew was that this knock to the head was far worse than all of the others combined.

'Whoa – She really dropped!'

'Patty! What the hell-?' Someone had begun, however Serah failed to figure out who it was, no thanks to the incessant ringing in her ears.

'Are you alright, Serah?' She heard someone ask her.

It sounded like they'd crouched down in front of her, though she couldn't trust her hearing right at that second.

So Serah managed the smallest of nods as she tried to will away the throbbing that had come to remind her that she had collided with a door today.

There was a small sigh from whoever it was that had crouched down in front of her, and after a few seconds Serah could feel the pain in her head beginning to receed ever so slowly. She could feel the ringing beginning to die down, and finally, she could begin to follow what was going on around her a little more as she slowly opened her eyes.

Even through her swimming gaze, Serah didn't fail to notice the peculiarity of a black-clad form crouched down in front of her. It was enough of a peculiarity that she couldn't help but carefully lower her hands from her ears and lift her head to look up at him.

The sight she was met with had her rather stunned, in spite of the throbbing pain in her head.

In Serah's peripheral vision she could see Liz repremanding Patty a few meters away, while Soul and Maka watched curiously, but she didn't even look in their direction. She was instead kind of stuck looking the piercing gold eyes belonging to Death The Kid, and she couldn't quite understand why.

'I am sorry.' He spoke quietly.

Barely breaking out of her frozen state, it took a couple of seconds for Serah to actually realise what he'd said.

'O-oh …' Serah hedged as she realised he was referring to the door. 'Not at all, it's entirely my fault! I really wouldn't worry about it!'

'You shouldn't be so hard on yourself.' Death The Kid spoke quietly.

'… What do you mean?' Serah couldn't help but ask.

For some strange reason, she saw the look in his eyes soften at her words.

And it surprised her.

'You always seem blame yourself when something's out of your control.'