Music
"The only reason you're with her is because she doesn't know music...right Soul?"
Soul reread the letter in his hand and scowled, his hands starting to tremble.
"What's that Soul? A letter?" His blonde partner appeared behind him, looking at the letter curiously, wondering what could have been so bad to make her usually cool-headed partner, look so angry and disgusted at the same time.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." He crumpled the letter and threw it behind him into the trash can.
"You sure?" She turned her head to look at him.
For a moment he was rendered speechless under her piercing, green gaze.
"Yeah, I'm," he cleared his voice. "I'm fine Maka. Let's just get to school."
He threw his leg over his new motorcycle and kicked up the kick-stand. He tilted his head towards her, "You coming?"
She looked so innocent right than that Soul felt bad for deceiving her all those years ago. Her sandy blond hair was still up in pigtails making her look like a middle-schooler—her body didn't exactly help with that either—and her eyes were still big, green, and almost childish in their innocence. She was wearing her regular outfit, a white button up shirt with a loosely tied white and blue striped tie, and her black, opened, zip up hoodie on top with a—really, really—short light blue skirt, showing off her mile long legs (the worst part was she didn't even realize she was doing it in the first place). Her hands were clasped behind her back and she was bending slightly at the waist, giving her a look of someone who was trustful and naive, and she had a small smile playing on her lips.
"Of course," Maka straddled the bike and wrapped her thin arms around his stomach. He revved the bike and they were off. He could almost hear what people in his hometown would say about him and her if they were seen with each other. If she was the innocent school girl than he was the corrupting bad boy, he looked certainly looked the part. White v-neck with an open leather jacket and ripped blue jeans. His snow white hair, blood red eyes, and pointy shark teeth certainly didn't help his image. He looked the exact opposite of her, he didn't look innocent. He looked like he'd seen all the world had to offer, like he'd seen the bad and good side of the world.
"Hurry up Soul! The light turned green already!" Soul was jerked out of his reverie.
"Jeez, what would you do without me?" The girl—woman technically but with that body she could hardly be called that—behind him pouted.
"Well, first I'd get a sexier partner, one with an actual chest." He smirked back at her. Liar, his mind accused.
"Just watch the road Soul." Maka rolled her eyes.
"Can anyone please tell me why we can't just choose our partners at random or why they can't be our best friends?" Stein's eyes roved around the room, Soul wasn't really listening though. His mind was still stuck on that stupid letter.
Stein's menacing gray-green eyes landed on the weapon, "How about you, Soul?"
Soul lazily lifted his head from his comfy arms and mumbled intelligently, "Hm?"
All laziness was quickly gone as soon as a very shiny, very sharp scalpel was launched at his head, missing by mere inches.
"Pay attention next time or you'll be having detention with my operation table." Stein pushed up his glasses making one of the lenses have a glare. "Now what's the answer?"
"It's because your souls have to be compatible if it's not than your souls will reject each other in battle and that can cause the death of both of you." Soul had said, read, and heard this so many times he could answer the fucking question in a fucking coma.
"Correct, now then, is it possible to force a connection? Your thoughts Lindsey?" Stein moved on to his next victim.
Force a connection…
Soul scowled, once again reminded of the contents of the letter.
Maka looked at her partner and frowned, there was definitely something wrong with him today. Usually he'd be trying to annoy her but not today. It had started with that letter he had gotten, maybe that had something to do with it?
Soul opened his locker and almost—if he wasn't so used to it already—jumped back to avoid the avalanche of letters that fell in a piled in front of him. He and Maka pretended not to hear the giggles of girls that were acting like they weren't paying attention, like they weren't the ones who'd stuff the letters in his lockers.
Maka picked one up and opened it, reading the letter out loud.
"I have admired you for so long now but I never had the courage to do much more than watch you from afar. But now that I've gotten more confidence will you please accept my feelings? Please meet me on the steps after school to give me your answer."
Maka looked at him and smirked, "What are you going to do?"
"What're you talking about?" Soul asked, a bit irritated at the fact that he had to clean up the letters now.
Maka waved the love letter in his face, "What else? Are you going to meet up with her after school?"
"Why should I?" Soul stretched his arms above his head, yawning, giving the people in the hall a quick glance of tanned, toned skin underneath the white shirt. The girls in the hall blushed and the boys gritted their teeth in jealousy.
Maka wasn't affected, "Well maybe because she isn't as creepy as your other love letters? I mean, seriously, just look at this one, 'I know that you have feelings for me Soul, just admit it. You're just shy and yes I will definitely marry you. Signed, the future Mrs. Soul Eater.'"
Soul scowled scooping up all the letters, dumping them in the nearest trash can and started walking away with Maka quickly catching up to him with no trouble, "Crazy bitches just don't know when to stop."
"That's mean Soul," Maka chided lightly but it was obvious she didn't mean it—if anything she agreed with him.
"Hey what's that?" Soul pointed at the thing peeking out of her text book.
Maka pulled it out, a look of mild surprise on her face, "It's a letter."
Soul smirked, "Finally got a love letter Tiny Tits?"
Maka didn't bother to answer, deciding to just punch him instead. In the head. And she packed one helluva punch even if she wasn't trying. "It's very neat, kind of pretty too."
It was a plain white envelope with gold decorative border and on the front was her name in neat, curvy font.
Soul squinted at her through crimson eyes, ignoring his throbbing head, "You going to open it or not?"
Maka shrugged and sliced it cleanly open with the switch blade in her pocket.
"You know it still kind of makes me uneasy that you keep a switchblade on you." Soul said.
Maka shrugged again, "I have a knife in each boot too. I could use that to open the letter."
Soul's eyes wondered down to her boots, the only thing that messed up her good girl image. They were heavy, chunky, and clunky, knee high and almost all black with thick soles and large white buckles. These were made for combat not to go shopping with the girls or to pick up guys.
"Yeah and let the freshmen's' think you're more bloodthirsty than you already are? No thanks." Soul smirked, one of his sharp teeth peeking out.
Maka rolled her eyes and read the letter, "The guy wants to meet with me after school because he's having trouble doing a full transformation."
"Why can't he just ask a teacher?"
"Because it says here that he's barely passing as it is and he doesn't want to get his partner in trouble too."
Soul scowled, "Then why the hell is asking you for help? He shouldn't drag you into his troubles."
Maka looked at him and laughed, "Why shouldn't I help him? Remember how much trouble you had at first? The only thing you could transform was your arm and you could only hold that for a couple minutes."
Soul's scowl became deeper and he shoved his fists into his pockets, his eyes lingering on the letter that was asking his partner to meet with some random guy after school.
Alone.
Without him.
He had never wanted to punch anyone more.
Soul walked out of class without Maka by his side. She had gone ahead when the teacher had asked him to stay behind, something about trying to stay awake in class. He didn't pay attention, his mind had wandered two minutes into the lecture. The moment he walked out, two other students whizzed past him.
"Oi! What the hell was that for?" He yelled after them.
The shorter one turned around and shouted back, "Didn't you hear? Some blond chick's going to take on four upperclassmen!"
Soul scoffed, what idiot was dumb enough to take on upperclassmen? He froze before turning around and bolting to the front of the school, years of training and panic helping him easily pass the two students. He burst through the doors to see a crowd gathering on the steps of the school. He pushed through the crowd until he was in the inner ring, heart leaping into his throat at the sight in front of him.
Maka, his meister, was in the center, surrounded by four burly upperclassmen. All their eyes were narrowed, their bodies tense and ready, all four of them were practically radiating anger.
"What'd you say bitch?" The one with a pig nose asked.
Maka, on the other hand, looked completely relaxed, she even had a smile on her face like they were sharing some inside joke. "I told you. Give it back or I'm going to beat your ass."
The one with blue hair and black roots stepped forward and snarled, "You think you can girly?"
Maka smiled winningly at them, making them take pause, "Of course! Why else would I challenge you so publically?"
Pig-nose flushed bright red, "You bitch! We'll show you your place!"
He charged forward, swinging his fist wildly, Maka simply stepped out of the way and grabbed his wrist. She pulled him down, making him lose his balance, and kneed him in the solar plexus with so much force he coughed out blood.
The guy fell to the ground, coughing and clutching his stomach.
Maka looked at them, the smile gone from her face. "Anyone else want to try?"
The three remaining charged at her, the scythe technician dropped to the ground sweeping out her leg and taking out two of them. Black roots managed to jump over the leg in time. As he jumped his leg swung out, attempting to kick her in the face but she rolled back narrowly avoiding it.
She jumped up and landed on her feet, her fists up.
Soul swallowed, black roots—while not the leader—was definitely the biggest and the best fighter out of the four. Compared to him Maka looked like a rag doll.
"Dude, isn't that Takahara the third year? I heard he was the best fighter in our school!"
"I heard he beat up four three-starred technicians on his first day!"
Soul's hands curled into fist, the two of them needed to shut up before Maka wasn't the only getting into a fight.
Soul almost jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder.
"Don't look so worried Soul, Maka wouldn't get beaten so easily by a guy like that." Black Star looked surprisingly serious, his eyes never leaving the fight.
Soul nodded, letting out a tense breath, Black Star was right he needed to believe in Maka.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Soul asked her as soon as the fight was over—Maka was unsurprisingly the victor—as he pulled her to where his motorcycle was.
Maka just gave him a strange look—like he was the one that decided to stupidly go against four upperclassmen—and shrugged his hand off her arm. She walked over to Angela and pulled something out of her hoodie.
It was teddy bear dressed as a samurai.
She gave it to the seven year old, "I believe this is yours?"
Angela's face immediately lit up, "Yeah! Mifune gave it to me! Thank you for giving it back to me."
Maka smiled softly, "No problem, the next time someone gives you a hard time don't hesitate to call me or one of the Spartois okay?"
The little witch nodded, her amber brown eyes wide and sparkling. The girl was going to be a real heart breaker when she grew up. "Okay."
Angela tilted her head up and a look that was mature beyond her years entered her eyes. "You and the Spartois aren't like most MW's"—slang for Meister and Weapon—"most of them don't care about me. Only that they get stronger."
Maka's face remained soft but her olive green eyes had hardened to an emerald green and narrowed just the slightest bit, making her look deceptively nice. A shiver ran down Soul's spine, from fear and from something else. "Don't worry about it. As long as one of us is here no one's going to hurt you. I promise."
Angela nodded, "I believe you."
"Alright Tiny, time to go," Black Star said picking up the witch and placing her on his shoulders.
"Bye!" She waved, as Black Star walked away with Tsubaki fussing over both of them.
"They make a cute couple," Maka commented absently as they walked to Soul's motorcycle.
"Who? Tsubaki and Black Star? I guess but Tsubaki's too hot for him if you ask me," Soul said, straddling his motorcycle and started it up.
"Who do you think will break first? Tsubaki or Black Star?" Maka held on as he revved up the bike and took off. They didn't bother with helmets, even if by some bizarre accident Soul lost control they were confident in their reflexes to save them and each other.
"I don't think either of them are going to say anything, Liz or Patty is going to end up getting them together," Soul said, trying ignore the feel of her chest against his back—just because she had a tiny chest didn't mean she didn't have one—and he could feel the warmth of her thighs through his jeans.
"You're probably right," Maka had her arms wrapped loosely around his stomach and her chin was resting on his shoulder, her breath sending shivers down his spine when she talked in his ear.
He smirked, "I'm always right."
He didn't have to look at her to know that she was rolling her eyes at him.
"That's what you're wearing?" Soul asked, scowling.
"What's wrong with it?" She was wearing a white tank and cut off jean shorts.
"It's cold out," Soul lied. That wasn't the reason. The reason was that, if the light hit just right, her white tank turned transparent and you could see the dark blue bra she was wearing underneath. His blood red eyes roamed over her, the slight curve of her chest, the smooth plane of her stomach and the long legs peeking out from under her ridiculously short shorts.
"I'll bring a jacket." Maka rolled her eyes, grabbing her hoodie from where it was resting on the back of the couch and tying it around her waist. "Happy?"
"Ecstatic." Soul said sarcastically.
Maka rolled her eyes and puffed out a laugh. "I'll be back before dinner, don't forget to cook the rice."
"Have fun on your date." Soul waved casually from the couch.
"It's not a date. I'm tutoring the guy." Maka scowled, before slamming the door.
"So naive." Soul couldn't help but smirk. But that wasn't necessarily true now was it? She knew all about the bad parts of the world, even the parts he didn't know about, she just chose to believe the best in people. So different from him, with cynicism and sarcastic words. He would rather believe the worst of people because it was a lot easier than letting them enter his lives and changing things up. But the moment he had partnered with Maka, change was inevitable. People thought he was the popular one and that was true to an extent. But Maka was the real popular one, there wasn't one person at Shibusen who didn't know her name and not one person who wouldn't kill to have her as a friend or just to talk to her. She was popular in the best way and she didn't even know it. And if Soul was honest, he would rather keep it that way. He knew about the looks she drew walking down the hall, some envious-mostly from girls-and most were from guys a little too interest in his meister. The only reason why she didn't get as many-if not more-letters than him was because knew they that there was no chance of her abandoning Soul.
Soul wasn't even sure why this training session was bothering him so much. He knew nothing was going to happen, Maka was too studious to diverge and the kid was only going to end up getting swept along with her energy even if he tried to derail the lesson. He scowled, glaring at his lap. He knew the exact reason why he was bothered by it, that letter had been messing with his head all day and he hated it.
Still…
By some strange force, he found himself getting up and walking over to the trashcan where he had thrown away the letter. He picked it up and smoothed it out on the wall, eyes scanning the letter like the masochist he was.
Dear Soul,
It's your brother Wes. Though I suppose you already know by the address on the letter, since mom and dad refuse to talk to you and grandma passed away a few years ago. I just wanted to know how my little brother was doing, it's been...what?...three years since we last talked? And even then it had been less than five minutes. I hope everything's going okay at that new school of yours, though I'm not sure what you see there. You're getting into life threatening danger every day but I suppose you've always dreamed of being a superhero.
Speaking of superheroes, how's your partner? Her name was Maka I believe? Girl doesn't know much about music from the few minutes I met her though I suppose that's part of why you chose her. It wouldn't be very likely that she knows anything about the Evans name and even if she did you changed your name...that I never got. Aren't you proud of your abilities and your family? I'm sorry that was combative, that isn't the point of this letter. Please write back Soul, I miss you.
Love your older brother,
Wes.
Soul scowled, crumpling up the letter again and throwing it away in the trashcan. He was going to burn that letter later. Soul had never had a problem getting along with his older brother, quite the contrary they were remarkably close in a family that all but pitted them against each other. But it didn't change the fact that he had always been jealous of Wes, he was the clear prodigy and he never had to deal with the stares because of his dark taste in music when playing his instrument.
What bothered Soul the most was the oh-so-subtle hint that the only reason why he had chosen Maka in the first place was because she knew nothing about music, and therefore couldn't judge him for it. He hated it because it was true. Anyone who knew anything about music could tell that his playing wasn't normal, it was a little too intense and a little too mad with feelings, it was twisted, it was wrong and he loved it. Maka didn't know that though, all she knew was that his playing was fascinating and she liked it. She didn't know that it had all been in an act in the beginning.
Soul's hands started shaking as he grabbed the sides of his head. He really didn't deserve her. He was a selfish little prick and Maka...wasn't.
Soul was on the roof when Maka finally returned home more than four hours later, the sun had long since gone down and dinner was cold on the table. He had his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them as he stared up at the stars and the black moon. He didn't move when he heard the sound of the roof latch opening and the almost silent-almost because she could be silent but she chose not to be around him. He wasn't an enemy, there was no point in silencing her footsteps-footsteps. She sat down next to him, mirroring his position except she laid her cheek on her knee and was staring at him, he saw out of the corner of his eyes.
"How was the training?" Soul asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the night life. But there was a burning curiosity in him that he needed to know. Did she find someone better? More deserving of her?
"Good." Maka said simply, without exaggerating and Soul stayed silent even though he was bursting with a million questions and half formed apologies in his head.
I'm sorry I lied…
Did you have fun?
Who was the guy?
Was he cute?
I have to tell you something-
About the letter-
Maka the music-
Are you attracted to me?
Do you know?
About the letter?
About our first meeting?
About my intentions?
What do you know?
"He also wanted advice about asking out his partner." Maka suddenly said, and Soul looked at her sharply but her eyes were now focused on some point in the stars. When she spoke her voice was carefully casual but he couldn't tell what she was thinking. "Shibusen doesn't care if you're gay or straight but it's an unspoken rule that you can't date your partner. It's not an official rule of course, there's nothing about it in the books, but it's frowned upon. After all, being Meister and Weapon means that not only are your souls supposed to be compatible but that nothing can come before the partnership-not even feelings. It's the unspoken rule that nobody dares to break. It's why neither Kid or Liz have asked each other out, they both know that the students look up to Kid and if something were to happen…"
Maka trailed off, eyes lost but he could see the sad, small smile twitching the corner of her lips. Her eyes suddenly swung over to meet his and he felt trapped in her look. Those bright green eyes drilled into him with such intensity he couldn't move. Being with Maka was like a different kind of madness, something that you never knew about until it was too late and you couldn't find it in you to resist.
"I'll wait for you Soul." There was no need to ask about what she meant, of course she knew. Didn't she seem to know everything? Even the things she shouldn't know about she knew. She gave him a smile, the moonlight making her hair glow and her eyes greener for it. "I've been ready for a long time Soul but I know you're not. And I'll wait until you are."
Than she did something he definitely didn't expect, she leaned over and planted a kiss on the corner of his mouth, her lips lingering and hot. By the time he had gotten his senses back she was already over the edge and had landed in the living room.
I'll wait for you. Her words echoed in his head and his heart felt a little like it was going to jump out of his ribcage. She was right, he wasn't ready and he had been fooling himself for a long time to thinking that he was. He had used so many excuses in his life to not confront himself: Wes was just too good, his parents would never care, Maka was the one that wasn't ready.
So not cool. Soul gave a wry chuckle, breaking the quiet night sky.
A/N I've actually had this in my docs for...years lol and just finished it like last year. Forgot where I was really going with it but I just realized it's ready for publication so I hope you enjoy! I kinda like flipping Soul Eater tropes on their heads (which I will not get into because it will dissolve into a rant) but I honestly don't see this as out of character? Especially in how Maka is described? Hope you don't don't either! Favorite, follow, and leave a review guys!