He never realized how close they were. At the beginning of their partnership, he couldn't get away from her. She would constantly nag about soul resonance this and tidying up that that he would usually stop listening within the first few minutes of her harangues. (Of course his cranium would pay for those mistakes later.)

After one year, two years, five years into their partnership, he noticed that the longer they were apart, like in different classrooms apart, his wavelength would unconsciously act up, causing Maka to send him soothing waves from her soul. Yeah, he thought, that was uncool, but he just shrugged it off.

After knowing the girl for six years, suffice to say he had some serious separation anxiety whenever they were apart for very long. His consolation came from the fact that Maka felt the same way too. So when Maka was offered an espionage mission in Japan for two years, his heart sank. It was a typical information-gathering mission on rumored witch organizations that refused to sign the peace treaty. It was a solo mission. He'd been offered solo missions as a deathscythe before, but none lasted more than a week or two. Two years. That made him feel like crap. He saw how distraught Maka was about the mission, and she was keeping most of the inner turmoil she was feeling to herself, because she knew how he was feeling. That made him feel even crappier. Kid gave her time to accept/decline the job.

She took a week to accept the mission, under the condition that she would not engage the suspected targets weaponless. Damn right! If Kid, or Soul, deemed it fitting to employ force; Soul would be shipped off on the next flight to rendezvous. Three days later she was all packed, and ready to board the next flight to Okinawa.

He pondered on their relationship as she went to print her boarding pass. They had mutual thoughts about each other; they were in constant low resonance, so it was nearly impossible to hide the romantic feelings that blossomed along the way. They couldn't see the other's insecurities. She was broken; her image of men was … intimidating to say the least. He was an outcast; he grew up feeling like a failure. But none of that mattered, and as he was seeing her off, he finally had the balls to say the three words he was too afraid to say before.

"I love you."