The Balcony Scene
Or...
You can take the girl out of the Academy, but you can't take the Academy out of the girl!
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It was official: She worked too much.
Sighing, Maka gave her throbbing feet one last second off the ground before reluctantly heaving up off the curb to cross the deserted street. She looked both ways, but there was little point—it was past midnight on a Friday. Everyone was either asleep or in the middle of a binge.
A small part of her grumbled about how unfair it was that while everyone else she knew was with family or out of Death City on vacation or missions, she was stuck working minimum wage for three months. But only a small part. The rest of her considered this to be as yet another challenge and to not to be such a baby. She had no money to go out of town, and she had spent half her life away from both her parents during the summer. There wasn't much incentive to change that this summer.
As for missions, Shinigami-sama was all too happy to appease Maka's request for the summer off. Her work for him the last spring was significant to be sure. She made yet another Death Scythe, this time out of Rosaline, a bright young girl who took the form of a battle axe. The two of them were partners for three years collecting the 99 souls they needed. Maka hardly took a day off in all those years in high school and up through her first two years of Shibusen Tech in order to keep her goal of become the most successful, power meister there ever was.
It was the last witch she and Rosaline went up against that convinced Maka to take it easy. It took her nearly eight weeks to recover, something that surprised the twenty-two year old. The young woman realized, with help from the blunt advice of Dr. Stein and the gentle logic of Tsubaki, that she was wearing herself out.
"These tests show that your body is breaking down at an alarming rate, Maka," the professor had told her dryly. He tapped the folder holding the results of her physical on his knee. "As someone whose job is to keep meisters like you in fighting condition, I would advise you to take a break from being a meister."
"That doesn't make any sense," she had protested. "I have been training constantly, I have faced two witches to make two Death Scythes! I am not—" She was cut off by the older man raising a stern hand.
"I am not suggesting you haven't worked hard enough," Stein said. "Maka, it is, in fact, the opposite. You are working too hard. Your body cannot handle the stress you are putting it through."
"Then I'll just train harder! I'll get stronger...you-you know I can, Professor!"
"I have no doubt about that." He smirked a little at her reckless determination. "But only if you take my professional recommendation that you let yourself relax for a few months. Trust me, it'll be good for you. Hey, it might even make you a better meister."
"How is lying around for a few months supposed to make me a better meister?" she had complained to Tsubaki later that day. Fuming, she kicked at a garbage can, her hands stuffed in her jacket.
"Rosaline is already going through Death Scythe training with Shinigami-sama, and Soul..." She trailed off. Tsubaki looked at her with interest, and for good reason. Maka hadn't brought up Soul in a while. "Well, neither of them have needed a break."
Soul would think that you working so hard was really uncool, a voice in her head muttered.
"Neither of them have needed to train as hard as you have. You deserve a little Maka-time!" the Death Scythe urged, taking Maka's hand and smiling warmly at her. "I don't even remember the last time I saw you with a book that wasn't assigned for class!"
Maka couldn't argue with that. She did sort of miss those small windows of time where she used to sit and read a good romance on the couch, Blaire purring on her lap, and Soul sprawled out beside her, watching a game on the television.
Those days were long gone now, though.
"I'm at least going to get a job," she had told her friend. "I think I might go nuts without something to do for the whole summer."
Not that it was easy to convince herself that "taking it easy" was harder to accomplish than she thought. She was so used to busting her ass for the Academy, she took so much pride in immersing herself in battle after battle for so long that it felt strange to suddenly stop. Getting a server position at Los Castelvines helped a bit when it came to taking up time in her day.
Most of her friends from school and around Death City left by the end of the school year, but some people she knew stayed behind. Blaire was still working at Chupa Cabra, but she still didn't see her much. Tsubaki stayed in town about a month in and helped Maka adjust to a life with a lower amount of adrenaline. She coaxed Maka to have girl's nights out with her every week. It took Maka back to her middle school days, before she kicked her ambition and work ethic at school into high gear. Before she realized just how much more she didn't know about herself and her abilities. Before she turned Soul into a Death Scythe.
Before her life became consumed with training, with feeding this need to become better, faster, stronger, smarter, braver...
Goodness, she should 'chop herself. She was beginning to think like Black Star. Ick.
In any case, Maka was finally beginning to get used to the idea of giving herself a break from being a part of the last line of defense from the imminent doom of the world, presented by witches, Kishin-ripe souls, and other nasty things that go bump in the night. She still had no idea how it was supposed to make her a better meister, though.
She walked down the moon-lit street, taking in the cool breeze, appreciating the muted sounds of this part of the city. She sent out her Soul Perception, making sure that her walk home wouldn't be ruined by some evil soul that wanted to jump her. Luckily the distance between herself and her apartment was clear of any such nuisances.
She looked up into the sky, and smiled to herself. It was nice to not have to worry about anything tonight except for getting a good night's sleep and a nice weekend. Blaire worked most weekends, so she would have the apartment to herself just to read, watch movies, and giving into those random urges to go through those techniques her professors were getting her to use to try to get her latent weapon blood to come under her control.
She ground her teeth for a moment at the thought. It was the one thing she couldn't get a handle of in all her years of training since the Academy found out she had inherited her mother's meister abilities and her father's weapon blood. It was aggravating to say the least. Maka refused to accept Stein's hypothesis that she would only ever recover that ability when unconscious.
Regardless, it was a beautiful night as Maka finally arrived at her apartment tired, sore, and ready for the weekend to start with a nice, long, and dreamless sleep.
When she reached the door to the complex, she stuck her hand into her pack, rummaging through it for her keys. She never carried a purse.
…
"C'mon..." Maka muttered, sticking her head closer to her bag, peering into it as she shoved the various items around. Her hands usually made contact with her keys at this point, but she hadn't even heard them jingle. Her stomach tightened in distress when the keys did not appear.
Okay, stay calm. You probably left them on the kitchen counter after you came back from buying groceries today. Just call Blair to see if she could swing by to open the apartment, or the landlord...she thought to herself, anxiety building after she dumped all of the contents of her bag onto the sidewalk. She was reaching into her jacket pocket when she remembered something.
Crap.
Crap.
Crap, crap, crap.
Her phone was with her keys.
Shifting from one foot to the other, she considered her options.
Not like she had many. She mentally kicked herself for foolishly leaving her phone and her keys inside her apartment, locked away for good. She didn't want to walk a mile down the road to find a phone and call the locksmith; she had already been on her feet for twelve hours straight. Working in a Mexican restaurant, though it paid her well and the management was nice, wiped her out to the point of collapse nearly every Friday this summer (luckily she only had to deal with this stupid double one day a week). Nor could she knock on her neighbor's door at one in the morning without intense embarrassment.
With growing discontent, she accepted that there were only two options at this point: Risk getting caught breaking into her own home and having to deal with the police; or waiting for the near non-existent possibility that her roommate, Blair, would show up before morning. Letting out a heavy sigh, she realized that there was no way she would stay outside all night.
She sized up her nemesis once more, her forth-story apartment. She could possibly scale the building by lifting herself up over balconies and windowsills. It's not like she hadn't the upper-body strength; all those hours in combat training made her arms quite capable of throwing a significant amount of weight around. Even though Soul Resonance made weapons nearly weightless to their meisters, the Academy taught its students to advance their athletic stamina and strengthen their bodies. Now that her training had increased to working with a variety of weapons, she had to deal with their varying souls and thus, their various weights. She was nowhere near, say, Black Star's massive (even—dare she think it?—godlike) power when it came to physical strength, but she certainly did some damage when at the gym.
And when you can outdo 80% of those muscle-heads at the bench press on any given weekday...well, it also gave her less feminine appeal then she already had, if that was even possible. Not like she cared, though. She got over that whole issue years ago, when she still had a smidgen of hope that a guy would look at her like that.
Oh well.
That just left the question of whether or not Blair's window was unlocked. Usually, it was...the cat liked to perch on the windowsill and take a catnap in the sun when it wasn't too hot. But, then again, Maka usually had her keys and phone on her at all times. It would be just her luck today...
Maka narrowed her eyes and mapped out her plan of action. She was going to pull herself onto the balcony directly above her and make a zig-zag towards the second floor windowsill and then hoist up across to that third floor balcony. The far left of that balcony would put her in arm-reach of Blair's windowsill.
Let's just hope that no one spotted her and called the police.
"Ow!" She put her finger against her lips, glaring up at the ledge where a hidden nail stuck her skin when she had tried to lift herself up.
Now praying enthusiastically to whatever great and generous god that helped fools locked out of their apartments, Maka attempted to get another good grasp on the ledge, cautious of other hidden tetanus-threats. She swung herself back and thrust her weight upward, allowing the momentum to help her gain height. Her sneakers caught the wall and pushed once, allowing her leverage to swing one hand to grasp the top of the balcony. She scrambled over and went to perch precariously on the narrow bar. She slowly allowed herself to straighten, holding the wall for balance.
Now came the hard part; taking the second-story window to the third-story balcony.
Lucky for her, Sid had whipped her ass with dead-weight pull-ups, and she had her fair share of hanging by her fingertips on tall buildings. Especially in situations much more dire than just being locked out of her apartment.
She peeked into the window above her. She let out a sigh of relief to see that no one was present inside to witness her reckless breaking-and-entering. Maka reached out and grabbed the windowsill with both hands, tentatively letting her weight fall forward. With a small leap, she pulled herself up and swung her knee to land it on the ledge. Luckily the ledge was just wide enough for her to stand on, but it still barely allowed half of her foot. She hugged the brick wall as she straightened and slowly inched to the left to the next balcony, breathing evenly and keeping her core engaged to keep her balance.
With another calculated jump, she made it onto the other balcony with little incident, though she did try to avoid stepping on the tenant's sea-shells, which lined the balcony's railing decoratively. Rubbing her hands, which were a little raw already, Maka quietly walked to the other side of the balcony to look up to her apartment window.
Okay, now to Blair's win—
"Oh...crap." Her shoulders hunched in defeat. She miscalculated the distance between the third-floor and the forth due to the dark. She would have to make one hell of a jump to get there and not fall to her death.
Frustration built up inside of her. Cursing the gods for this unlucky night, she grabbed a conch shell in front of her and chucked it at Blair's window, her face screwed up in an angry snarl. It hit the window with a dull thud before falling to its death on the sidewalk below. The window didn't break, seeing as it was reinforced. Shibusen required good security at its student's living quarters. Her window was locked at all times, but Blair didn't care too much about safety.
There was a lawn chair out on the deck of the balcony. Maka resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to stay there til morning.
"Ugh!" she exclaimed. "This is so not cool!"
"The hell?" A voice called out from above her. "Holy shit...Maka? What are you doing down there?"
Maka's head whipped up to Blair's bedroom window, and her jaw went slack in surprise.
What light from yonder window breaks?
Peering out the window of her apartment and looking just a little less shocked than she was (he was obviously a little better at keeping his cool) was Soul Eater Evans, her former partner and weapon.
And he was shirtless. His lean body glinted in the moonlight. It was sinful how like a sculpture he looked, almost like he wanted to make the moon itself pale with envy.
Dammit, don't think about that! Maka shoved that thought away viciously before the blush on her cheeks grew too noticeable in the moonlight.
Soul was looking down on her curiously, obviously waiting for an answer.
"Soul? What are you doing up there?" Maka shot back.
"I just got into town this afternoon. Blair didn't tell you I was staying over?"
"No, she didn't. I've been working all day." And I didn't have my phone on me...crap, she probably tried calling me to let me know.
"Same old Maka," he chuckled, shaking his head and smirking. He stopped and leaned on crossed arms against the ledge. "So why are you down on that balcony and not in your own apartment?"
"I left my keys inside this morning," she muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. "I forgot to bring them to work with me."
"So...what? You tried breaking the window?"
"No!"
"Then what was that noise that woke me up?"
Maka grinned sheepishly, her bangs hiding her eyes.
"I was...kinda frustrated," she admitted. "I climbed up here to get into the apartment through Blair's room, but I didn't realize I couldn't reach the window from here. So I threw a seashell."
"Ah, well. That explains it."
"So..." Maka said slowly. "What brings you back to Death City?"
"Death called for a status report, and requested I do it in person," he told her. "Oh! So I heard that you made Rosaline into a Death Scythe! Congratulations."
"Yeah, thanks."
Awkward silence.
"You look like you're doing well," Soul offered tentatively.
"Yeah, well, I've taken this summer to relax a bit."
"You? Maka Albarn? Relax?" he cocked an eyebrow at the idea.
"Yeah, well...it's not like I had much say in it," she scowled slightly. "Shinigami-sama, Stein, and Tsubaki are convinced that I've been working too hard."
"Why would they think that?" Maka caught the sarcastic note in his tone and glared at him. "Glad to see they finally got through to you, though. The uptight, workaholic perfectionist I know would never have locked herself out of her apartment."
"The lazy, too-cool jerk I know wouldn't have crashed uninvited at a random friend's house."
"Au contrare, it is very cool to show up uninvited to an old friend's place."
"By the way, why are you sleeping in Blair's room?"
"Eh...hehehe," Soul smirked lecherously. "Why do you think I'm sleeping in Blair's room?"
Maka's eyes narrowed.
"Whoa, hey...chill, I'm kidding! Maka...Maka. That's a big book. Oh c'mon, you can't Maka-Chop me from all the way over...OW! WHAT THE HELL? Dammit Maka, it's not what it looks like!"
Soul peered over the windowsill, head throbbing and wary of any more paperback missiles.
"The new couch you have is too lumpy," he growled at her. "Blair said it was okay for me to stay in her room since she works nights."
Maka didn't say anything to that, she just crossed her arms in front of her and continued to glare at him.
"So are you going to let me help you up here, Romeo, or are you going to sleep in that lawn chair for the night?"
He stretched out both arms down to her, gesturing with his hands for Maka to grab on.
"Romeo?" she questioned.
"Yeah. It can't be Rapunzel cuz I don't have the hair for it," he told her.
"Juliet never pulled Romeo through her window," Maka pointed out.
"Ah well, there's a balcony involved, isn't there?"
She sighed and adjusted her pack, too tired to banter back at him. She lifted herself to stand on the rail of the balcony, one hand on the wall to balance. She grabbed Soul's left hand first, and then his right, nearly slipping off the rail as she did so. Soul's grip on her tightened, ensuring her stability until she could regain her footing.
"Careful," Soul muttered. "On the count of three, jump." Maka nodded. "Okay, one...two...three!"
Maka jumped, her feet scrabbling at the brick wall of the apartment building to give her leverage up to the window.
"Jeez, woman, you're a lot heavier than I remember!"
"Shut up, Soul! Just pull me up!"
With a strong tug, Soul lifted Maka up to the point where she could fit her torso through. With some awkward flailing and more help from Soul, Maka was back on her feet in Blair's room.
"Thanks," she said, straightening her shirt. Soul smiled and did something Maka didn't expect from her old partner. He pulled her into a tight hug. She felt herself blush in surprise as she was pressed into his bare chest, her hands squished in front of her. The blush went away when she noticed that a number of new scars littered his chest. Her brow furrowed for a moment in concern. What has he been getting himself into—?
"Soul, w-what—eep!" She cut off when she felt him kiss the top of her head.
"Missed you, tiny-tits!" Soul exclaimed.
"HEY! MAKA-CHOP!"
"ACK!" And down he went. "Man, if there's one thing I still don't get," he muttered as he stumbled back on his feet, "is where the hell you pull those books from. You really haven't changed a bit, have you?"
"Same to you...jerk."
"Bookworm."
"Sharkie."
"Why are you still in pigtails?"
Maka smiled in spite of herself.
"Good to have you back, Soul."
"Good to be back," he agreed, giving her a high five.
Maka started heading out into the living room, Soul following.
"So how long are you planning on staying?" Maka asked, throwing her bag on the kitchen counter.
"Dunno," he said, shrugging before he leaned against the kitchen table, arms crossed in front of him. Maka went to the fridge and took out a jug of orange juice, pouring it into a cup. "I haven't been assigned to any more missions yet, but Death will probably hand me something to do when I report to him tomorrow."
"Mmm." She took a drink, and studied him for a second. "So...are you just going to crash here til then?"
"As long as you need me."
Maka choked on her drink for a second.
"To let you in the apartment, that is," he added with a grin. Maka turned to put the jug into the fridge, desperate to hide the blush that came back to her face.
"Har, har," she said. "This is a one-time deal. I'm going to hide a spare key outside tomorrow so this doesn't happen again." She yawned, running her hand through her hair, letting down her pigtails. "But now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to sleep."
Soul gave her a crooked grin.
"Have anything planned for tomorrow?"
"No, why?"
"I'll be leaving early in the morning to meet with Lord Death, but I know I'll be free by noon. Meet me at the cathedral at one and we can go have lunch or something. I need to catch you up on all the cool adventures I've been on without you. I'm sure you're dying to hear all of those crazy awesome stories."
"Ugh, as if!" Maka scoffed. She had plenty of her own insane war stories to share. Soul wasn't the only one making history as a Shibusen student.
"Alright," he conceded casually. "The one with the best story gets to buy lunch."
"You're so on, Evans," Maka challenged with a grin.
"I'm looking forward to it," Soul replied, pushing off of the table. "And so...Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow—" he said, dramatically laying a hand on his forehead.
"Oh, shut up," Maka snapped, though halfheartedly. It was good to have him back. "I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow."
Soul winked at her and started to head back into Blair's room.
"Oh, and Soul?"
"Yeah?"
"Unless you want a hundred-pound slut on your chest in the morning, I suggest you lock the door."
"So does this make Blair Tybalt?"
"Good night, Soul."
"Good night, Maka."
Maka went into her bedroom and closed the door behind her. A small smile crossed her lips as a familiar, but forgotten warmth began to spread through her limbs. Relaxation...it had been so foreign to her for so long. Was it Soul that finally brought it back, or just the memories of a friendship long since past?
Romeo and Juliet, Maka mused as she got out of her work clothes and into pajamas. What a strange comparison.
And yet...
Sleep dwell within thine eyes, peace in thy breast! Maka ended the scene in her head as she lay herself down. Were I sleep and peace, so sweet to rest...
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Author's Note:
Now I want to make a balcony-scene sketch of Romeo!Maka and Juliet!Soul. Oh the laffs. They come to me.
So..You like? Both are a little OOC, but I wanted a little fluff.
I could just leave this as a one-shot, or~!
Commit to a Shakespeare-themed Soul Eater arc! SQUEE!
Well, c'mon, who DOESN'T want to see a Soul Eater/Midsummer Night's Dream crossover? (Possible future chapter maybe?...hinthintwinkwink) Oh, the ideas are delicious...
Okay. Calm.
Just let me know, mkay? The future chapters won't be as overtly expressed as in this chapter. I have to prioritize between this and my 20-page undergraduate thesis paper. This won out so far. XD
By the way, this was inspired by a real-life experience. Last week.
Yeah, luckily I just had to tear through and unlatch the screen, lift myself up and through the window over my kitchen sink on the first floor, and climb over dirty dishes. This window, by the way, was about as high up as my chin. I felt like a ninja.
P.S. - Los Castelvines (the restaurant Maka works at) comes from Los Castelvines y Los Monteses, a play by Lope de Vega from the Spanish Golden Age of theatre. It was written almost exactly the same time as Romeo and Juliet, oddly enough, and while the plot is nearly the same, it has a happy ending! Just think of it as a better (Spanish) version of Romeo and Juliet. I believe the full text is online somewhere.