Disclaimer I do not own Soul Eater.

Honorifics
by. Poisoned Scarlett

"Hey, Tsubaki?" Soul asked, reclined in the plush seat with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. Black Star and Maka could heard by the front, arguing about the best combinations of gelato. The cashier looked more than a little weary by their intense discussion.

"Yes, Soul?"

"What does '-chan' mean?"

Tsubaki cocked her head. "'Chan'?"

"Yeah. You always call Maka 'Maka-chan', but you don't use it with Liz or Patty—or Black Star. So what does '-chan' mean?"

Tsubaki smiled. "''-chan' is a Japanese honorific, Soul, and I only use it with Maka's name because she is half Japanese and she does not mind me using it. '-Chan' is used to refer to someone who is close to you, like a close friend. It would be rude for me to, for example, refer to Kim as 'Kim-chan' because we are not that close."

Soul hummed, thoughtful. "Ah. I get it. That's kinda' neat, are there more honorifics like that?"

Tsubaki beamed, glad to explain a sliver of her culture. Black Star usually snorted at such customs, although that might be because he would want to be referred to with the highest and most respectable honorific that existed. Surely, Maka would first swallow her tongue than to tag such a thing on his name. "Mhm! There are many! For example, the male equivalent of '-chan' would be '-kun'! However, you can also use '-kun' for girls or 'chan' for boys! It's like a term of endearment, if you could see it as such," she explained cheerily. "We use '-san' for basically anyone of any age or gender; you can consider it the equivalent of 'Ms.' or 'Mr.' here. Ah, and '-sama' would be an even more respectful form of '-san'. For someone who is older than us in school, we refer to them as 'senpai'. For someone younger than us, we use 'kōhai'. '-sensei' is usually reserved for teachers, and '-hakase'…would be closer to 'professor' in English!"

Soul's eyes lit with realization. "So that's why Black Star calls Stein hakase?"

Tsubaki nodded. "Yes! Black Star also respects professor Stein, so he would sometimes call him hakase-san," she giggles. "I think that's part of the reason professor Stein is so lenient with him."

"Huh. Cool. The Japanese have everything down, huh?"

"I think it's wonderful, to be able to refer to someone with exactly how you feel about them. Maka-chan is like a sister to me, though, so I suppose nee-chan would be more appropriate," she confessed, her cheeks warm. She twiddled her fingers as she said, "B-but I…haven't asked if that-that's okay with her…"

Soul studied for a moment, then smiled crookedly. "I think Maka would be thrilled if you did."

"You think…so?"

"Yeah, she's sentimental like that. You'd probably make her day," he yawned widely into his palm, sinking deeper into his seat. He searched out Maka and found her sticking a spoon into her cup of gelato, shouting something at Black Star. He was ignoring her, by the looks of it, and she was not happy with that. "Hey, Tsubaki, is there like, a Japanese equivalent to Meister?"

"Ahh…hmm, let's see," Tsubaki pondered, looking up a few seconds later with bright eyes. "I suppose '-dono' would suffice! Although, that's a very formal title…it's like calling someone a 'lord' or 'master'."

Soul smirked. "Maka-dono?"

Tsubaki laughed. "I think Maka would definitely not like that title! Why don't you try Maka-chan?"

"Maka…chan?"

"Yes! Maka-chan!"

"…Maka-chan."

"Chaaaan!"

Soul sighed. "Maka-chaaan."

Tsubaki beamed. "There we go! I think Maka would be very happy if you called her Maka-chan, Soul! Or, should I say, Soul-kun? If that's alright with you?"

"S'cool," Soul shrugged, not minding it. They were close friends; he had no problem with Tsubaki referring to him as such. "Although I'm not gonna' call you Tsubaki-chan or anything. Japanese honorifics are weird."

Tsubaki laughed lightly, fingering the rim of her tea cup. "Yes, you're…American, right?"

"Yeah, I was born here," he shrugged. He did not give away anymore details and Tsubaki was too polite to pry.

"Tsubaki!" Maka screeched, storming over to her. "Tell Black Star to stop harassing the cashier! He keeps trying to force him to put on four scoops of gelato into his cup even though no more would fit!"

"Oh, dear," Tsubaki sighed. "Not again. Sorry, Maka-chan, I'll handle this. Ah, take my seat if you'd like, so you can speak to Soul-kun!" She offered. Maka cocked her head at the attachment to Soul's name. She dismissed the thought, however, and sat herself down in Tsubaki's chair after thanking the girl.

"Want some, Soul? I got chocolate this time!"

"Yeah!" He grinned, reaching over for her cup immediately. Maka smiled warmly as he chomped down on a spoonful of chocolate gelato, a cold shiver running down his spine pleasantly. As he went in for another spoonful, he looked up at his meister and thought about what he was going to say for a moment. It would be weird to just spring such an honorific on her all of a sudden, so he decided to give her some background before he got carried away. It was rude to assume, right? He would rather not offend her, knowing that Maka was deeply immersed in Japanese culture because of her mother. "Tsubaki was talking to me about Japanese honorifics."

"Oh, was that it? I thought it was strange that she'd start calling you Soul-kun all of a sudden," Maka smiled. "What did you learn?"

"Nothing much, Maka-dono."

Maka choked and Soul grinned, laughing loudly when she coughed and tried to swallow the chunk of gelato that was lodged in her throat. "D-d-dono? Did she tell you to call me that?!"

"Nah, I wanted to," he grinned teasingly at her when she reddened, looking down at her cup to avoid his inquisitive stare. "Don't you like it?"

"Of course not! Dono," she scoffed, snatching her cup from him. "Do you even know what that means?"

"Vaguely," he drawled, smirking at her when she rose a brow at him. "Tsubaki told me to call you Maka-chan."

Maka's cheeks reddened even more, if possible. "Oh…well, I like that one better than -dono. I might be your Meister, but we're equals. I don't see myself as superior to you or anything…"

"Personally, I wouldn't call you Maka-chan. I don't like it," Soul began, casually. His grin grew on his face when Maka shot him a dark look, her brow already twitching in the tell-tale sign of irritation. "I'd rather call you…Maka-kun—OUCH!" He howled, holding his head to avoid another whack with her book. "What was that for, Maka-kun—OW—OUCH, OKAY! I'm sorry, Maka-san—HEY! I THOUGHT THAT ONE WAS OKAY—NO, senpai—MAKA-CHAN!" He shouted in fear, completely sunk into the seat with his arms wrapped around his head. Maka glared down at him, raising her book threateningly when he peeked through his fingers. "Maka-chan, there, are you happy?"

"Slightly."

He unfolded himself and eyed her. "What's the big deal if I use '-kun'? Tsubaki said you could use it on girls, too!"

Maka puffed out her cheeks, folding her arms over her chest. She was pouting, which meant what followed would either make him sigh or snort or both. "You can…but it's mostly for…for tomboys and the like. It's not cute," she grumbled and flushed when he snorted.

"You would be worried about being cute," he shook his head. "You're cute enough, you don't need anymore cute."

Maka looked up with doe eyes, green shimmering. "You think so?"

"Yeah…Maka-kun."

He wholly deserved that Maka-chop, he admitted it.

A/N: I beg you guys not to totally school me on Japanese honorifics. If I got something wrong, I apologize ahead of time. I did my research, but I thought it'd be cumbersome to include all the ways a certain honorific could be used. I tried my best. So, please, I'm not a Japanese guru. I'm just a fanfic author trying to get by lol

Scarlett.