Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a long fanfic. This was based off of a role play I did with my Soul ^_^ Please Rate and Review - let me know what I could do better (I want criticism!).

Disclaimer: Soul Eater and all associated characters and content belong to Atsushi Okubo.

The door opened suddenly. Soul lifted his head lazily off the arm of the sofa to look over the back of it. He smiled when he saw that Maka had returned from her shopping trip.

"I'm back!" she called happily

"Hi" he said coolly from the sofa.

Maka closed the door, took off her shoes and placed her keys on the side board. She slipped away in to her room for a split second then returned to sit by her weapon's side, without her shopping, by which point Soul was lying back down on the sofa.

"How have you been?" she asked smiling.

Soul sat up a bit more. "Alright," he answered in his usual cool tone. He smiled at her. "Did you get everything you need?"

Maka nodded, the same smile still spread across her face. "I got that dress Tsubaki was on about. She was right, it does look awesome."

"Anything else?" he asked, trying to sound interested in his meister's day shopping, despite the only shopping he enjoyed was the kind that resulted in food at the end of it all.

Maka paused; her face fell slightly. "Now that you mention it… there was a snake that seemed to follow us around all day." She shivered slightly.

"Aww… poor Maka" Soul mocked as he put his arms around Maka and hugged her.

Her smile soon returned as Soul embraced her. "I'm sure it was nothing."

Soul recoiled away from her. Without a warning, the sentence she had just spoke turned into an uncontrollable giggle, which, seconds later she ceased. Her face dropped slightly in concern. Something, she knew, was wrong. Soul noticed nothing, until she started manically giggling again.

"Are you alright Maka?" he asked. The amount of concern for his meister was clear. This had never happened before.

She managed to stop again, and looked at him with a smile. "Everything is fine," she told him. "Do you want a drink?"

"Mmm" Soul nodded, and Maka got up and headed for the kitchen.

"What would you like?" Her voice sounded from behind the door.

"Orange wo-" Soul started, but another burst of maniacal laughter cut him off. It ended abruptly with the sound of coughing, followed by a short pause, then the clatter of cutlery hitting the tiled kitchen floor.

Soul leaped up from the beaten seat he had been so comfortable in and made haste towards the kitchen to find Maka, surrounded by cutlery, on the floor trying to steady herself. He skidded on his knees across the smooth kitchen floor to his meister's side.

"Maka," his voice was full of concern "what happened?" He wrapped his arm around her shoulders in an attempt to reassure her.

Maka didn't answer. She just sat on the floor, trying to catch her heavy breath. Without warning she coughed, and naturally covered her mouth with her hand. The sight that greeted her after was one which sent shivers down her spine.

Soul's face looked more worried. "Are you okay?" he asked. Then he saw her palm. There were tiny ink like flecks in the middle of her hand; they were black. Soul eyes widened in shock and terror; what the hell was going on? Why now?

Maka placed both hands on the ground and attempted to get up. She succeeded and ignored the scattered silverware. Soul got up too, and guided her back to the sofa.

"How do I stop it?" Maka asked as they moved. Her voice was not as strong as usual.

"I don't know," replied Soul, flopping down on to the sofa. Maka perched herself on the arm and allowed herself to slide off, on to the cushions below, and rest her head on Soul's lap. She watched his face, particularly his eyes, as he gazed off; past the glass pane of the window, in to the distance, as if searching for an answer to comfort her.

His eyes were ruby red; she loved the colour - a colour full of passion; a passion for her - helping her protect innocent lives from the threat of the Kishin.

She hoped that he would never leave her side. Since her parent's divorce, she had lost faith in all men, except Soul. He had stuck by her and protected her. She smiled sweetly, but that smile soon surrendered to a madness she was struggling to suppress. Her tactic of focusing on her favourite thing was failing. She stopped, bending double in a coughing fit, which lasted a few seconds. Soul's eyes snapped back to her; he watched tentatively, in case things got worse.

On relaxing, Maka looked at her hands again. There were more inky splashes added to the stains which were already there. She looked up at Soul.

"I think my body is rejecting it." A small smile appeared on her face, but quickly disappeared. "But why now… it has been months since we defeated Asura. Nothing happened like this… I thought that we were rid of that…"she shivered and paused as if trying to avoid saying something, "…curse."

Soul observed her face as she spoke. Although she was small, Soul knew Maka was a force to be reckoned with, all too well; he admired that trait in her. "Well, your body seems to be rejecting it. That's a good thing isn't it?"

He coughed and checked his own hand out of worry. Thankfully, it was clean. He looked down at his meister. She looked as if she was peacefully asleep on his lap. He smiled down at her, and stroked her hair, before scooping her up and carrying her off in the direction of her bedroom.

Her room was fairly large and airy, even though there were a few things left out on the floor. The walls were light yellow in colour, though one could almost not tell for the posters on her walls; the bright colours gave the room a life of its own. Soul nudge some books out of the way with his foot and placed her carefully on her neatly made bed, and went to draw her curtains. He came back and sat on the edge of the bed, and watched her sleeping.

It was a good thing he did. No sooner than he had sat down, Maka's breathing changed; it became far shallower than a sleeping person's should ever be. He leant over her, concerned.

"Maka?" he called down to her, but she didn't move.

He moved so he was sat closer to her head. Looks like she is going to be out cold for a while he thought. He gazed off out the window, but his daydreaming was interrupted by a strange spluttering sound coming from beside him. He turned violently to see Maka lying on the bed, completely still. She had stopped breathing.

He froze.

Panic set in.

His face drained of its colour.

"Maka!" he shouted, hoping to provoke some form of response.

It didn't.

His mind started reeling. What had happened to her? What should he do? Was she going to be okay? He slammed his hands astride his meister and closed his eyes, attempting to get a grip.

After a second he opened them again, and looked down at the unconscious blonde below. He stared at her face, hoping it would give him some answers, or he would be able to hear her telling him what to do. It took him a few seconds to see it, but there was a tiny trickle of black blood running out of the corner of Maka's mouth.

That's it! She's choking on it!

Without further hesitation, Soul picked up Maka, rolled her over and lifted her torso, just below her ribs, allowing her body to flop over slightly. Placing his hands just below her ribs, he sharply jerked his hands upwards, in an effort to expel the blood from her system.

It worked. After a few movements, Soul could feel Maka's ribs contract violently, as her body tried to cough up all the dark, viscous liquid. At first it was just a little. Then, suddenly, she lurched forward, throwing up a great splurge of a liquid, which, once it landed, had the consistency of treacle. Maka hung, panting over Soul's arms, as the blood was slowly absorbed in to the duvet they were sat on top of. Thinking it was a good idea to get rid of it, Soul managed to get the duvet out from underneath them and kick it off the end of the bed, in to a heap on the floor.

Soul carefully lay Maka back down on her side and lay down next to her. She tried to open her eyes.

"Take it easy, Maka," Soul tried to comfort her "That was a lot of… blood you just threw up." He laid an arm over the top of her, as if to hug her, but allowed her enough space to breath. "Are you alright?" he asked, despite already knowing the answer.

Her voice was weak. "I… don'…t kn…know" she said breathlessly. Her breathing was heavy and laboured. She looked towards Soul, his ruby eyes were the only thing she could make out in her breathless haze.

"You had me worried for a bit there," said Soul, trying to lighten the mood. He reached for her hand and held it gently in his. "I think it might be an idea for you to try and sleep this off."

Maka tried to protest by shaking her head, but couldn't very clearly.

"I don't think that is a good idea" her speech was broken by heavy, yet shallow breaths. "The power… strong... it… take… me…"

Soul gulped and looked at her concerned. Maka was usually right about these kinds of things, but he was the only one to have experienced the true strength of the black blood. He had survived sleeping with it in his system, though he had never coughed it up before.

"Just don't push yourself," he said, in as calm a voice as he could manage given the grave peril his meister and best friend was in. He slipped his available hand behind her head and pulled her in close to his chest. He breathed in the scent of her hair (the sweet, pleasant, fruity aroma of the hair care set Tsubaki had given Maka for her last birthday was one that made him hungry)."Please just rest." He tried to reassure her, but Maka remained tense.

He sighed. "I don't know how to explain it. You… you have to ignore it. Just rest, and if you get scared you, you can... squeeze onto my arm and then I'll wake you up before it can take you? Alright?"

"If... sleep... won'... strength..."Maka tried to protest again, but Soul put his finger on her lips.

"See," He said with an almost smile "you need it." He pulled her up closer to him still. This slightly shocked her, but she didn't protest. Instead, she smiled sweetly with a small sigh. Her grip on Soul's hand tightened; though she was happy Soul was doing all he could to protect and calm her, she was still terrified. She fought to stay awake. The things she had seen in her brief dream before Soul had saved were too terrible to contemplate returning to. "For the love of god, just sleep."

There was a pause during which time Soul began to realise exactly how terrified Maka really was; she just lacked the energy to show it properly. He tucked her head under his chin; her feet barely reached below his. "I won't let anything happen to you," he said with an absolute conviction which gave the small blonde girl he held absolute faith in him; the pair of them trusted the other with their lives.

Without warning, Maka coughed again. Her lack of energy prevented her from covering her mouth in time and spots of black appeared on Soul's shirt. He looked taken a back, and more worried than before; this was going to be tough on poor Maka. She began to fall limp in his arms again; he could feel her soul's power getting weaker.

"Just keep breathing Maka. Concentrate on that." His voice was clearly full of worry. "I'll be here, so don't worry." Please don't die on me!

"Don't…. let… me…" Maka attempted to say, but she lacked the energy to finish. She fell limp, then suddenly let out a maniacal burst of laughter before falling still; she was breathing, but barely.

Soul lay staring at Maka's almost lifeless body. What should he do? How could he help? He didn't know how.

"Help me Soul" Maka's voice rung loud and clear in his soul; a terrified and weakening wavelength. Soul looked down to see Maka arching her back. Her forehead was angled towards his.

Could this be a sign? He pondered.

He sat himself up, rolling Maka on to her back again and moving her head on to his lap. Please let this work he begged in his mind. He slowly leaned forward. Don't worry Maka. I'm coming to find you.