A/N: Loosely based off my personal anecdote. When I sat outside of my apartment because I locked myself out while others were in class, eating chicken wings. Yeah.

It started with Kilik.

He dropped off the twins with their parents after a long day at the park, buying three ice creams on their way back. His little cousins were happy to see him, and he needed that extended break from studying. Still working on finishing his own cone, he reached for his backpack's pocket, rummaging through the front.

There was at least three things that he still needed to do before his day was complete. Luckily, his two other roommates were the ones on dinner duty that day, so Kilik was free to do what he needed with his time before nightfall. Vaguely thinking, he hoped that Maka picked up around their three-way studio apartment like she'd promised. She wasn't normally a messy person, but she invited people over too often to keep on top of the snacks that spilled. If it wasn't done, then Kilik was ready to give a helping hand later in the day.

He continued to dig through his pencils, swinging the backpack towards his side for better reach.

There was also Ox, who stumbled into the room at an unholy hour after a night at the library. He tossed his books by the shoe rack and mistakenly climbed into Kilik's bed, staying there until Kilik had to leave to meet up with Lila and Feir- then again, he was unsure if Ox had woken up shortly after, or even at all.

Sighing, Kilik decided to check on him, once he could dig out his keys. He quickly popped the final piece of the ice cream cone into his mouth, freeing up his hands to properly look. Strange, he thought. That was the only pocket where he stored his lanyard. He shrugged off the pack and onto the ground, unzipping the rest of the sections.

Still nothing.

Frowning, he reached into his back pocket instead for his phone, firing away a group text to his roommates. "Hey," it read. "Anyone home? Forgot keys."

He heard a ding a little to the left, then the footsteps that followed.

Maka was making her way up the stairs, hoisting one paper bag of groceries on her hip and adjusting another on her arm. "Hey," she greeted. "Can you check my phone? I think someone texted me."

"That was just me. I forgot my keys so I was wondering if you could let me in."

She shrugged. "Sure, but you need to get the door. My hands are full."

Kilik reached over to take a bag. "Not anymore."

"Thanks, babe. Hold on, they're in my purse," Maka said, slipping her hand into a small opening.

While waiting, Kilik decided to ask her, "Did you see if Ox was awake before you left? He came in really late last night."

"I know, how could anyone not hear him," she grumbled. "We need to talk to him about that again."

"Like, we get it, but at the same time, some of us are trying to sleep at proper times, ya know?"

"Definitely. I saw him still in your bed when I left for brunch with Liz and Jackie. I haven't been back since then."

"What'd you get from Safeway?"

"Tonight's dinner and a couple of other things for the rest of the week. You know that salmon that Jackie gave us? I was thinking about cooking that up with some green peppers and other things for tomorrow."

He whistled, "Nice! I'll get some rice going before I go to tomorrow's study session then."

"That'd be nice… but… hey, can you check my bag for the keys? I've been looking but I think it's too cluttered." Maka slipped off her purse and into Kilik's waiting hand. "It should definitely be in the biggest opening."

"You took out that used tampon, right?" Kilik joked.

"That was one fucking time," she sniffed. "What kind of restaurant as a 'recycling only' bin in their bathroom?"

"Can't you flush those things?"

"The world isn't that easy. I learned that the hard way when I was fourteen."

"Cute image. Baby you, shocked over an overflowing toilet. Ok, I can't find those keys. Can you check your pockets?"

"Womens' pockets can't even hold a flashdrive. It has to be in there; I'm positive that I threw them in this morning!"

The both of them set the groceries down and huddled together next to their door. They emptied Maka's purse first, getting increasingly frustrated as each item that they pulled out wasn't what they were looking for, and then double checked Kilik's backpack. Spilling the contents out, they shuffled the papers around and even went through his wallet. Finally, after patting down their pockets, they desperately took each food item out of the paper bags to check if the keys had somehow made their way into there.

But there was nothing. Defeated, they repacked.

Maka growled, "God damn it. Twice in one week. I thought I was so careful this time, too."

Kilik patted her head, "Ay, Ox was home when you forgot them, so don't worry about it. You have hella on your plate anyway."

"Not an excuse to forget house keys, but I appreciate it."

"I mean, I forgot them, too, so let's hope that Ox is still in bed."

"Did he answer your text?"

Though they hadn't heard a notification, they both unlocked their screens.

"Damn, he may still be inside sleeping."

Banging on the door, Maka called out, "Ox! Open up!"

Kilik began to spam message him, hoping that either vibrations or noise would wake him up. After a solid minute though, he gave up, letting Maka take over the texting for a while.

"Come on," she moaned. "Let me in."

"Seriously, he's not that much of a heavy sleeper."

"Ox, I gotta make dinner!"

Sighing, Kilik resigned to his fate and sat down against the wall. "What's for dinner anyway? I saw those chicken wings but... "

"Yeah, I was going to reheat the mac and make some fried fish and green beans. The wings were my snack." She sheepishly glanced to the bag.

He raised his eyebrow. "All twenty of them?"

"I… come on, we have two hours before dinner time," she tried.

"Mmm," Kilik hummed. "You weren't going to share?"

Saved by the Ox, Maka waved to him as he was coming up the stairs. "There you are! We thought you were inside."

"Nah, I made a stop." He held up two bottles of wine. "It's the weekend, so why not?"

"Treat yourself, bro," Kilik nodded.

"I plan to. After I woke up, I finally turned in my essay so I should be free until tomorrow's homework madness."

"Congrats. Before we celebrate though, can you get the door? Kilik and I forgot our keys. We've been texting you for a while."

"Ah, whoops I think my phone is muted- wait I don't think I have it with me in the first place. But yeah, no problem. The keys are in my back pocket from last night."

"Ox."

"What?"

"You're wearing your pajama bottoms, though."

"Oh."

Ox gently placed down both bottles down next to Kilik's backpack and their groceries, sliding down against the wall with the other two. "I've failed you both."

Kilik put his hand on top of Ox's. "Solidarity, we're in this together now."

"No, no solidarity. We need to get into the damn apartment," Maka said, standing up. "I'm breaking down the door."

"Two bucks says you're not breaking down the door," Kilik said to her, patting Ox's back with his other hand.

"I'm going to break down the damn door."

"Maka, no," Ox glared. "The security deposit."

She was already positioning herself, lifting her leg into the air. "Maka, yes."

For the record, Maka did not break down the door successfully. She threw two dollars at Kilik and sat back down, looking away when he split the proceeds with his other partner.

"So what next?"

"We call our landlord."

In an hour, one and a half bottles of wine were empty, and the chicken wings had been picked clean. The trio were found napping on top of one another, seemingly full and tired, by a very confused landlord who was only able to come after traffic had settled down. They stumbled into their then opened apartment and collapsed into Kilik's bed to continue their nap.

Such was the life of college student datemate-slash-roommates, and all three keys were still hanging by their door.

Written for Soul Eater Polyamory Week 2018
Day 2: Resonance

Prompt:
-somehow between three people, w/ three separate keys, no one managed to bring theirs and we're all locked out of the apartment… imagine yr ot3

Thank you so much to Rebornfromash for her betaworks