Everything For You

(A/N: This is a not quite high school AU. Crona is a trans woman in this and uses she/her. TRIGGER WARNING: TRANSPHOBIA AND CHILD ABUSE. (Also, murder, possibly.))

2005

It was the last night of their senior year. Crona wasn't allowed to go to graduation and Kid had hardly had a moment to get away from his father, who couldn't stop talking about how proud he was that his son had gotten into Harvard.

This might be his last chance to fix things, to convince her to leave this town with him.

Kid was aware how odd his car, a 2004 Chevrolet Impala, looked parked in front of the squat rundown ranch style house Crona lived in with her mother and step brother. He knocked softly on the door and almost immediately it opened. She'd been waiting in front of it then, waiting to see if he'd come. Crona only opened it part way, hiding her face behind the door. He wondered if she was doing it to block the noise or if she had another black eye.

"Kid-id." Her voice told him everything. The 'please be quiet, mother is home and she won't like to see you,' the 'Ragnarok is on the couch and in a mood,' and the 'I can't come with you.'

"Crona. Please." His voice was quiet. Kid reached his fingers through the crack in the door, reaching for her hand. She flinched back.

"Come with me Crona. We'll get away from Medusa and Ragnarok. You can come with me to Boston."

"B-but, your father, he wants you to go to Harvard. You want to become a lawyer! You need to go Kid."

Tears were slipping down her face. There was a noise from behind her and Crona looked over her shoulder. "I can't come with you. P-p-please, leave!" She shoved the door harder, pushing him out.

Kid struggled with his temper as the door shut between them.

"I would have given up everything for you." Was the last thing Kid ever said to her, slipping away in the dusk.

Ten years later, 2015.

Thursday, the 23rd.

"Kid."

"Kid."

"Kid!"

He flinched when a pretzel hit him in the face.

"Liz! What on earth are you -"

"I've been calling your name for ten minutes, fool." Liz snapped, brushing a bang out of her face.

"That's no excuse to throw food." Kid lectured. Liz rolled her eyes at him.

"You're so out of it you didn't even realize that we're getting ready to land. Put on your belt before the attendant comes back."

Kid rolled up the blind on the window he had been staring out of. The plane slowly descended into Las Vegas, Nevada. The city was stuck like a cactus in the middle of the shining desert, isolated from the rest of the world.

Kid sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This was easy part of traveling back to Death City, and one of the major reasons he hadn't been back in ten years. He took out the neatly creased letter that had arrived for him three months ago.

Dear Mr. Kid Morte,

We are delighted to invite you back for your ten year reunion at Death City Academy. The reunion will take place the last weekend in May, from Friday the 24th to Sunday the 26th. Friday there will be open tours of the school for alumni to come back to our hallowed halls and fondly reminisce on their time spent here. Saturday is the Alumni Picnic for family and friends, and finally on Sunday evening is a catered dinner and formal dance hosted by Death City High School. Please feel free to bring your partners and families along. RSVP by May 1st.

Sincerely,

Vice Principal

Spirit Albarn

Kid sighed again. With this letter had come a handwritten letter from his father, enthusiastically explaining how great it would be to see his little boy after ten years apart, and how Kid should bring who ever he wanted to with him back to Death City, so long as he came back home for this one weekend. He a flicker of guilt tighten his stomach.

Was it really Kid's fault if the previous times he had tried to go back home had been thwarted? There was simply never a good time for him to get away from school, first at Harvard and then in law school. And the past two years Kid had finally had the opportunity to manage his own cases, and not just take grunt work from the law firm partners. It was good that the school had sent these out three months early or else he would have never been able to take the time off.

The plane set down with a gentle bump. Across from him Liz stretched, and ran a hand through her hair. Next to her, Patti had already taken off her seat belt and was rolling up her magazine.

'First class does have some benefits.' Kid thought to himself as the flight attendants opened the doors and the other businessmen and woman prepared to leave the plane.

Then the heat hit. The previously chilly cabin quickly baked in the sun.

"Wow Kid! You weren't jokin'. I can already see Lizzy getting a sunburn." Patti giggled as the trio were waved off the plane by the attendants. Liz wrinkled her nose.

"Don't joke about that Patti! Do you want me to melanoma?" She scolded her younger sister.

"You're already a little melodramatic, big sis. I don't think you need any more." Patti grinned.

Liz groaned. "Not really what I meant Patti."

They enter the terminal, and headed towards the baggage claim. While his father had blithely given him permission to bring anyone to the reunion, Kid doubted he had the Thompson sisters in mind.

He had met Elizabeth and Patricia Thompson his first month in Boston. When they had tried picking his pocket. Luckily Kid always carried two wallets, so as to keep his outfit precisely symmetrical. They grabbed the dummy wallet, right before Kid noticed. A week later, the sisters found his private apartment and demanded who in their right mind kept a wallet with no money in it.

Kid had quickly found himself playing host to them on a regular basis. It was when Patti had casually referred to his apartment as home that Kid had invited them to live with him. The three of them had been inseparable since. Kid had been an only child and since cutting ties with everyone in Death City, he had been on his own in the east coast.

Liz and Patti were from Brooklyn New York and when they met Kid in Boston had several warrants out for petty theft, breaking and entering, and assault.

After helping them to get jail time and fines reduced, Kid had worked with them to rent a larger apartment and the three of them had lived in Boston. Liz finished her GED and quickly caught up to Kid, getting her bachelor's in communication. Patti was bartender at one bar and was a bouncer at another one. After Kid graduated, they'd moved back to New York when Kid was offered a job at one of the smaller and less exclusive firms.

Since then Liz had been promoted to a full time supervisor for a Verizon call center, Patti helped manage a local pub and Kid was one of the junior partners for the firm.

"It's already way too hot." Liz as they walked out of the terminal. She squinted in the bright sunlight. "Kid you rented a car for this right?"

"Yes. It should be reserved for us at the dealer." Kid gestured to the west part of the parking lot. The rental station was slow when they entered it's air conditioned lobby. Kid strode up to the desk. The receptionist was on his phone, and chewing gum, and only gave a passing glance to Kid.

"Can I help you?" He yawned eyes still glued to the device in front of him.

"Hello. I believe I spoke to a mister Ash Williams on the phone about renting a car for this weekend? We're here to pick it up." Kid folded his hands in front of himself. The bored looking receptionist rolled his eyes but typed in his name and pulled up his request. His eyes widened at what Kid had reserved and he jumped to his feet.

"Yes sir. Right away. Let me bring that around for you. Would you or your ladies like anything? Coffee or tea?" His eyes flickered over Liz's form. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot, flipping her dark blonde hair over one shoulder.

"We're fine. Thank you." Kid checked his watch. The receptionist took the hint and went to drive the car around.

Liz looked at him suspiciously. "What car did you rent Kid?" Kid allowed himself the smallest of smiles.

"Let's go see it shall we?" They strolled out to the front of the building, the sun laughing over head.

"Wow Kiddo!" Patti breathed in amazement.

A gun steel colored Jaguar sat in the sunlight, it's engine purring.

"I'm driving it." Liz declared, blue eyes sparkling.

"Shotgun!" Patti's hand immediately shot skyward. She rushed around to get in.

"It has GPS!" She squealed from inside the car.

"Kid, sign the stuff and let's hit the road." Liz commanded, sauntering towards the car. Kid had never taken any interest in automobiles, but after years of hot-wiring cars had made both Thompsons autophiles. It was just one way of thanking them for agreeing to come with him for the weekend.

After signing for the car and letting the attendant load the luggage, Kid tipped with a twenty and slipped into the back seat.

"Do not get us pulled over, but feel free to do eighty on the interstate." He told Liz, who adjusted the rear view mirror and grinned.

"Got it, Kiddo."

~x~x~

Death City Nevada had been founded during the gold rush in 1847. Robert 'Robin' Morte had stopped to camp on a hill in the middle of the desert. While trying to dig for a well for water, he had struck crude oil instead. Under the hill was a reservoir of oil, and with the industrial revolution blooming, Morte was soon a rich man. In the west of Death Valley, he founded a small town, which quickly grew as people flooded in from both California and the east.

The town quickly became prosperous and in fondness for both the founder, Morte and its location, it became Death City.

From Las Vegas it was around two hours to drive out to the middle of the desert. Like lump of red and black turned over in the middle of the flat land, Death City rose suddenly out of the horizon. Kid quietly breathed out through his nose as his home came into view.

"Wow Kid!" Patti sat up from where she had been slouched down in the front seat. She'd grown bored trying to make them play 'I Spy' after the first fifteen minutes, and had spent the rest of the trip coloring her Avengers coloring book. "It's so pretty! Lizzy look, it looks like skull when you squint your eyes!"

"Patti don't say stuff like that about Kid's home. It's not nice." Liz shivered dramatically.

"Actually she's right. At the highest point of the city is a staircase that has the etching of Memento Mori."

"What? Why?" Liz looked at him using the rearview mirror.

Kid shrugged, looking out the window. "Well there is nothing but death in the desert after all. The founders of Death City became rich from the crude oil they had found but my ancestor Robin Morte, wanted to remind them that their success was ethereal. So at the top of the city, he built something would have a lasting impact on the city, a legacy that would remain even after his death."

"Oh! What is it?" Patti had turned around completely, blues eyes large and excited. The coloring book was held limply between her thumb and forefinger.

Kid smiled. "It was a school. You can't see it from this direction but on the three other sides of Academy have a book, a candle and a bell engraved on the steps as well."

"That's really neat Kid. I didn't know you were related to the founders of the city. Guess that kinda makes you like, a town hotshot or somethin'." Liz grinned.

Kid looked out the window again, face hot. "Well, uh, I suppose you should know. My father is the, ahem, mayor."

"Hold it, hold it, hold it. I thought you said your dad was the principal?" Liz asked.

"Yes, the first city law is that if your are elected mayor of Death City you also need to principal the Academy. Robin thought it would keep his successors humble." Kid explained.

"I think that's really cool Kid! So would you be, like, the next mayor if you move back?" Patti bounced in her seat.

Liz snorted. "Kid won't ever move back. He loves the big city too much, right Kid?"

Kid shrugged and stared at the approaching city. Patti glanced at her sister, eyebrows raised. Liz tipped her mouth down and gave a tiny shrug. She turned the radio back up, sensing that Kid was done with this particular conversation.

Since getting the invitation, Kid had been increasingly broody and distant with them. She caught him staring off into the middle distance when he was suppose to be working or at home. At first Liz had assumed that he'd changed his medication again without telling them but when doing pharmacy runs it was the same drill as usual. Trying to make him talk to her had resulted in a burned dinner and slammed doors.

Liz wanted to help Kid. He was like the high-strung younger brother with zero survival instinct she'd never asked for but received anyway. His behavior was making her nervous and she was hoping that having a break from work and relaxing would resolve what ever was going on.

Or at least, Liz hoped it wasn't going to make it worse.

~x~x~

"Nice house Kid!" Patti hopped out of car while Liz pulled to a stop. "It's huge!"

Liz got out and stretched, hands over her head. Kid got out of the car last, staring up at his childhood home. A victorian style mansion with three floors and large porch. It was built to the west of the school and you could actually see it from the dining room.

The front of house was dark and the door was locked. Kid sighed internally. Undoubtedly his father had either forgotten his arrival date or hadn't bothered to unlock the house before he arrived.

So much for all that 'So excited that you're coming home Kid!'.

With a creak the door opened into the foyer, dust motes visible in the dim light.

"Your dad does know we were planning on staying here right?" Liz peered around.

"Yes. I told him in advance." Kid groped along the siding for the light switch. Finding it, he flicked it on and the hallway flooded with light. A wave of nostalgia washes over him, his father hasn't changed a thing since Kid left ten years ago. His eyes are dry and he has to blink several times in the light.

"This is beautiful Kid!" Patti spun around in a circle, tracing over the complex moulding near the ceiling.

"Thank you. I'll show you to your rooms." Kid picked up his suitcase and led them through the house to the second floor.

"What's on the third floor?" Patti asked curiously.

"Those are my father's room. Please don't disturb him." Kid answered simply.

"So wait, does your father live here or not?" Liz had picked on exactly what he hadn't wanted to tell them.

Kid stopped and sighed. "My father is extremely agoraphobic and a hypochondriac. Since my mother died it's been worse and he rarely ever leaves his rooms on the third floor."

There's surprise and compassion in Liz's eyes when he turns around and continues down the hallway.

"Anyway, I'm not sure if he'll be coming out of his rooms to meet you on this trip. Hopefully he won't neglect his duties as the principal and fail to show for the reunion party." Kid's back is turned and he misses the look that Liz and Patti exchange.

Trying to change the subject, Liz asks "Is your room on this floor?"

Kid nods. "Yes, it is in the middle of the floor. And this," Kid threw open a pair of french double doors, "Is your room."

The setting sun is illuminating room. There was a four poster bed in the middle of the room and two more doors. One of the left and one on the right.

"The one to your right leads to an adjacent bedroom and the left is the bathroom." Kid explained.

"Wow." Liz walked into the room and turned around. It wasn't huge but it was still probably as big as their kitchen and living room combined in New York. "Kid," Her voice faltered and she smiled at him. "Its beautiful."

"Yeah, Kid." Patti gave him a full frontal hug. "Thanks for inviting us."

"I wouldn't have anyone else." Kid said simply, squeezing Patti tighter and smiling at Liz over her shoulder. "Anyway, why don't you get ready for dinner? I want to show you around Death City."

"Alright. We'll see you soon." Kid walked back out into hallway and the door gently shut behind him.

He hadn't seen this door in ten years but the grain of the wod was familiar when he ran his fingers over it, and reached for the door knob. Kid pushed on the door and it opened on silent hinges into his childhood bedroom. Kid peered around, the light dimming and flicked the light switch on the wall. When light flooded the room, Kid could hardly hold back the nostalgia that threatened to sweep him off his feet.

Everything was exactly as it was when he rushed out in 2005, chasing an early flight to Boston. A thin layer of dust covered everything as Kid walked through the room, staring around. His bed is still precisely made. The mirror was clean and streak free. When Kid check the bathroom, the toilet paper was still folded into a triangle. It was as though his room has been waiting patiently for him to return.

Kid set his suitcase on the bed and began unpacking. When he opened the closet, the pictures that still adorned his wall fluttered and one tore loose, landing on the floor like a leaf in autumn. Before he could move to grab it, the door opened and Liz poked her head in. She'd changed from her travel wear of soft slacks and button up top with a heavy dark jacket to a much lighter pink blouse and designer jeans. Her hair was swept back into a ponytail with a butterfly barrette.

"Hey Kid, you still in here?" Her gaze landed on the photo on the ground. Before Kid could move, she stooped down and picked it up.

"Aww. That's a sweet picture Kid. Who's this?" Liz cooed. She turned it around and showed him.

It must have been his junior year. Maka had been on the yearbook staff, jockeying to become editor and had carried that stupid camera around with her literally everywhere. Kid wasn't sure, but there was probably at least another hundred in a shoebox under his bed. (All sorted by date of course.) This one was especially well done.

They were sitting under one of the oldest trees in all of Death City. It looked like it was a nice day, but Kid couldn't remember. His memory said that all of the days he had with her had been nice days.

"Did you have a favorite from today?" Kid asked, absently braiding blades of grass together. Crona was hesitantly flipping through her books. She was wearing loose jeans and an old sweater, even in the heat. Maka had let her borrow a scrunchie for her hair and today she even had a small amount of mascara on. Kid knew the scrunchie and the makeup would have to be gone before Crona went home, but she looked so comfortable now, it was worth it. (Mostly. The last time Crona had tried to wear makeup at home she'd gotten a black eye and forced to miss school for two days while the writing washed away. He'd never managed to find out if it was Medusa who wrote in sharpie on her face, 'Boys Don't Wear Makeup', or Ragnarok.)

"Um no. Not, really." She finally admitted. Kid looked up in surprise. Today had been a lesson in romantic era poetry in Mjolnir's class. Poetry was usually Crona's favorite subject and one she excelled at.

Kid cocked his head and abandoned the grass. He tangled their hands together instead.

"Why not?"

Crona bit her lip and looked down. He felt her squeeze slightly on his hand.

"They're all very traditional. I can't really understand it." Kid grinned, and kissed her hand.

"Lets look at them together and I'm sure we'll figure it out."

Maka had gotten them the moment Kid kissed her hand. Even at a distance the picture had been taken at, Kid could see the way they looked at each other in adoration. Young love at it's sickeningly naive finest. Kid touched it carefully, looking at Crona's smile. It was pathetic but he was happy it as still the same as the one in his memory.

Crona.

"Who's Crona?" Liz asked, and Kid blushed as he realized what he'd said outloud.

"Old friend. What did you want?" He asked, brusquely. Liz started back and her eyebrows furrowed.

"Patti is almost done with her shower. After she gets dressed we should be good to go." Liz said softly, handing the picture back.

"That sounds fine. I'm still unpacking." Kid said hurriedly, scooping it up, but trying not to look at it.

"Okay. Just let us know." Liz kept her tone soft. Sympathetic, but questioning. Before she turned away, Kid sighed and pressed the palm of a hand into his eyes.

"Crona. Crona she was, she was." His voice falter and he had to cough to clear it. "She was my first girlfriend, alright?"

Liz looked at him. Stared at him, really. In the nearly decade of knowing each other, Kid had rarely talked about what had prompted him to sever ties from his home town completely. The one timed Patti had asked, Kid had stormed away in a fit of temper. He occasionally mentioned best friends and the trouble they'd been into, including getting expelled from their own prom, but never, ever had he mentioned a girlfriend.

"She's cute, Kid." Liz finally said. "Is she here for the reunion, do you know?"

Kid shuddered, his head still down. "I don't know. We broke up the night I left for Boston. I haven't heard a word about her since."

"Oh no, Kid that's terrible. I'm guessing it was ugly?" Liz wasn't sure if being closer to Kid was what he need but she moved to put a hand on his back. He accepted, but every muscle was corded with tension.

Kid nodded jerkily. "Yes. Exceedingly so. I was only suppose to move to Boston in September but I managed to get an immediate flight the night we broke it off. Since then I haven't written to, called, emailed or messaged anyone who lived here other than my father. Elizabeth, if I am completely honest," Kid raised his head and he swallowed hard against the knot of emotion in his throat, "I really have no idea what the hell I am doing back here."

Liz could count the number of times Kid had called her by her full name on one hand. Two of them had been within six months of each other, when he was helping her and Patti settle their law infractions, and she'd risked doing jail time for robbing a gas station. Another had been when Patti had appendicitis and need to go to the hospital. Both times Kid had called her that to center her when Liz was panicking.

This was the first time Kid had ever called her that out of a need for support.

"Okay Kid. It's going to be fine." She wrapped her arms around him, squeezing tight. Kid let out a shuddering breath and sighed. After a moment, they both stepped back. Liz rubbed at her eyes while Kid cleared his throat uneasily.

"Thanks for telling me Kid. Just let me know if you need to talk about it any more, okay?"

Before Kid could agree, Patti opened the door.

"Are you guys ready yet?" Her hair was still curly from her shower.
Liz nodded and gave Kid's hand a squeeze. "We'll be waiting down stairs, okay?" She pushed Patti out the door, ignoring her sister's protests.

Kid sighed and looked at the picture again.

"This was a mistake." He whispered, although Kid wasn't sure if he meant coming home, or having a long standing infatuation.