A/N: this was inspired by a thunderstorm while I was on holiday, hope you enjoy :)

They had just finished pitching the tent. It was a long mission, and the fight over what pole goes where wasn't helping their situation. The storm that had started wasn't much encouragement either.

The pair were curled up in their sleeping bags, both unwilling to talk, the cold increasing by the second and the rain pelting down. Both Soul and Maka were still agitated by the fight, so tension was rising quickly.

When the first flash went off, Maka pretended not to notice, and tried not to jump too high, but the small noise she made didn't go unnoticed by Soul. By the third roll of thunder, she had inched closer to him.

"Maka?" He could barely hear his voice over the continuous onslaught of rain, "Maka!?"

"What?" She replied rather timidly

"Are you okay? You seem a bit jumpy."

"Yeah, I'm fine, the thunder is just making it hard to sleep" she lied.

He wasn't convinced by her answer, but left her alone.

The next flash and crack came barley a second apart. Maka yelped and jumped a bit, making Soul slightly worried, he could feel the tension in her through their link. "Come over here" he said, patting the spot beside his mat.

"Really Soul, I'm fine here" she was glad it was dark, so he couldn't see the blush forming on her cheeks.

"No, you're not, now come over here!" He demanded in a soft tone.

"Soul, seriously, I'm fine where I am" he knew she wasn't, so he reached a hand out from his sleeping bag, grabbed on to her camping mat and started to pull her towards him. "Soul? What are you doing!? Soul! Stop!" He ignored her attempts to resist and continued to drag her across the tent's floor and closer to him. "Isn't that better?" He asked looking down at the small dark blob beside him, the shape seemed to nod so he relaxed again. Truth be told, he had feelings for his meister and was willing to do anything to make her feel better.

She was still reluctant to be this close to him, Maka had been dancing around her feelings for her weapon for a while, never wanting to act on them for fear of what happened to her parents, but Soul was different, wasn't he?

Another flash and a large roll of thunder made her jump yet again, and she curled up against Soul. He smirked as he looked down at her, "It's okay, I'm here, nothing will get to you" she snuggled further into his chest. Soul desperately wished the sleeping bag wasn't in his way. Another loud crash and she pushed up against him.

"Soul?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you" she said in a whisper, barely heard above the rain outside. He smiled gently down at her, then before he could stop himself, wrapped his arms around her dark form. She snuggled even further into him-if that was possible-and closed her eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep. Soul stayed awake for a while, stroking her hair and offering words of comfort to try and calm her down. Her breathing had slowed, and Soul assumed she was asleep. Settling down himself, he brought her closer to him. "Maka," he said in a near whisper, "I think I love you" he admitted, more to himself than her. Soul was sure she was asleep, and it felt good to admit it. Pulling the sleeping bag up, he felt her head move.

"Soul?" She was looking up at him, and he could see the gleam in her eyes. "Mmmmh?" He hoped she hadn't heard him, but tried to play it cool. "Did you really mean that?"

He looked down at her, he couldn't lie, so just nodded "Yeah, I did"

She smiled, but he couldn't see it in the darkness. "Good" she said, wrapping her arm around his torso, she pulled herself up so she could look him in the eye. "I think I love you too, Soul" she smiled and stared at him with the most honest look he had ever seen. He smiled back and settled down to sleep, she shuffled back to her original position, and curled up closed to him, barely noticing the flash outside. Just as she was drifting off, he planted a light kiss on her forehead, then they both drifted off into the abyss.