Claire

Baby Monroe

Claire's POV

*** One week later ***

I glared at the trees before me, focusing all my energy and willpower into my soul wavelength, which was connected to Kai's, now. "Ready?" Kai asked quietly. I nodded, waiting for Kai to give the order. "Now!"

Before I lost control, I shot my wavelength energy in a lightning form, but I was too late; it hit two other trees around it, instead of just the one.

"Damnit." I growled. Kai frowned as he turned to me. "You've never failed at that before, not even last week. What's up?" I shook my head, sweating. "Just... I don't know, Kai. I'll get over it, I promise." Kai shot me a concerned glance, but didn't pry. "Well, it feels like we're standing in the hottest part of Hell right now, so how about we go inside for lemonade or something?" I giggled, shaking my head. "Yeah, because you know how to successfully make lemonade, Kai!" I joked. He punched my shoulder and I laughed.

Inside, the AC was running full blast. The cool feeling was like culture shock, due to the amount of sweat on my body, but it equally felt nice. I started mixing the lemonade when Kai suddenly said, "I heard you took an Arachnid class and a few hundred poison barbs to save Soul's life." I froze.

Honestly, I hadn't thought of that night since I'd been held in Stein's hospital room. And recollecting it now was like trying to see clearly through the rough surface of a sea storm and into the sea itself. "Yeah, I did." There wasn't any hesitation between my answer and Kai's next question. "Is that how you and him... Ya know, got together?" I shrugged, resuming to mix the lemonade. "Sort of... In a way, yes. We bonded through that; I saved his life and he helped me through the suffering. We have a lot of similarities, too." There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"You know Zero's coming to DWMA tomorrow, right?" The silence that followed filled me in on Kai's shock. "She's going to be housing with me, up in the guest room." I poured lemonade into two cups with ice in them. Kai took the cup politely, shocked. "Lenalis? She's coming--? How's she been? Is she okay? Has--" I shook my head. "I don't know; I haven't gotten in contact with her." I glared at the ice cubes floating harmlessly in the lemonade. "I just hope she's okay." Kai sighed. "Is that what you're stressing about, Claire?" I shrugged, and, not a minute later, the doorbell rang.

Kai mysteriously glanced at his wrist watch. "I've gotta go! We'll train tomorrow, okay?" I nodded slowly as he left through the back. With a sigh, I waltzed to the door and opened it, revealing a grinning Soul. "Hey baaaeeee, what's this?" I drew out "bae" as Black Star, Tsubaki, Maka, Death the Kid, Liz, and Patty all waved at me from behind Soul. "Well, your sister's coming to DWMA tomorrow, and we thought we'd do a small celebration for you!" Death held up champagne and I sighed. "If any of you get drunk, you're getting kicked out." I rolled my eyes as they all nodded, and opened the door. "Well, come on in." I shook my head. "Looks like I'm cooking fancy tonight." Soul leaned down to kiss my forehead, and I blushed as the others turned to stare for a moment. "Show them to the dining room?" I whispered.

Soul walked away, and Maka was standing behind him, her arms crossed over her chest. I shut the door, just waiting for a rant. Maka sighed. "Claire, I'm sorry for the way I treated you. I really am. I hope we can start over, ya know? Be friends?" She held out her hand with a small, honest smile, and I shook it. "Yeah. That sounds nice, Maka, thanks." She giggled. "I'll help you cook, Claire. Black Star has a bottomless put of a stomach!" We both giggled, and left to join the others.

***

The first couple of hours consisted of fun games, like Twister, Clue, Monopoly, Rook, and Uno. Tsubaki won Twister, I won the first round of Clue, Death won the second, Maka won Monopoly, Black Star won Rook, Soul won the first round of Uno, and Liz and Patty won the second. That easily covered three hours, and it was six. Black Star was complaining of hunger, so Maka and I got started on cooking lasagna and salad.