notes:

my first ResBang ever, and man was it a frickin journey lmao.
this fic was an actual struggle to write, but i don't regret it at all.

thank you to KARIN848 for claiming this fic and drawing a hot piece of art to accompany chapter 4! you can preview it on this fic's cover photo. you can also see a link to the full art on my profile or find this fic on AO3.

special thanks goes to soundsouleater aka SimplyVeva, my IRL friend Jordan, Marsh of Sleep, and sojustifiable for beta reading and all of the support. I seriously wouldn't have been able to finish without you guys.
also thanks to the Grigori Wings Discord server for always having my back, and to the ResBang mods for regularly organizing and hosting this massive event without fail!

please enjoy!

"This is looking to be a great start to the week," Maka thinks drily.

It's 10:30am on a Monday and she sighs dejectedly, slumping over her seat. Frowning at her monitor, she deletes the sentence she just wrote, types in a few words, and then backspaces it all again before letting out a small whine.

The only good thing about this situation is the fact that she doesn't necessarily have to bottle up her angst. "Ah, the perks of working in a startup where appearances don't matter," she muses.

"Alright, let us know if you have any further questions or concerns! Have a great day!" From the cubicle on her left, Tsubaki promptly ends her support call as cheery as always before turning towards her and concernedly asking, "Maka-chan, are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just…" Maka feels a forest looming in her head, burying the right words with cold wet leaves and tangling her thoughts tangled amidst thick branches – she feels tempted to press her hands into her eyes, but doing so would smudge her makeup so she stops herself. Instead she gets to her feet and simply says, "Need more coffee. Wanna take a walk to the kitchen with me?"

The two girls chatter idly as they make their way across the office. The cubicle walls are partly transparent and only a bit shorter than Maka's height, to provide a fine balance between open concept and personal space, and there are a few spots where the desks are completely unoccupied, including around the corner where her department sits. Marie had told her that it's because Shinigami-sama, their CEO, is planning on really scaling up the company and hiring more employees soon, but Maka likes how the extra surrounding space gives her more room to do what she has to.

The kitchen bustles with activity as people get their morning caffeine fix. Maka clutches her favourite mug – which features a large crescent moon sporting a twisted grin, next to block text that says, "I've got 99 souls but a witch ain't one" – and exchanges greetings with a few of their coworkers as she waits her turn for the coffee pot. Meanwhile, Tsubaki puts the kettle on for tea, and as she waits for it to boil she turns towards Maka and asks, "So how's your morning going so far?"

"Meh," Maka shrugs and takes a sip of her coffee, hoping on the off chance that this time it'll taste decent; she usually likes it untouched but the beans the office provides aren't so great for black coffee. "I'm getting faster at writing things with fewer revisions, but it still doesn't feel like it's fast enough." She sighs. "I seriously don't know if I'll be able to finish all these requested articles before the deadline this time."

"Hmmm." Tsubaki frowns. "Well Maka, you're a great technical writer and you always do such good work! If it's time you're worried about, I'm sure you can go to Marie and she can give you an extension."

"Maybe." Maka adds a little sugar to her cup, trying to replicate the "sweet spot" that her first coffee from earlier in the day had. It's true that Marie, the manager of the client outreach team that she and Tsubaki are a part of, is reasonable and has said that she's more than willing to vouch for her on things like this, but Maka hates being the weakest link. "I don't wanna be that person though, you know?" she tells Tsubaki with a small smile; the coffee doesn't taste exactly the same but, well, it's close enough.

"Oh, Maka." Tsubaki looks at her meaningfully and says, "You could never be that person. We all know that you always strive to do the best that you can, and sometimes things just happen outside of anyone's control. You should take an extension if you need it."

"Thanks, Tsu. I will," she responds, although it's more because it's the expected thing to say and not a suggestion she might actually consider. She knows Tsubaki means what she says, and even though Maka has only known her since she started working at Shinigami Software Labs a few months ago, she can tell that Tsubaki is genuinely kind-hearted and empathetic, which is the complete opposite of what she could say about anyone from her previous job. At the same time though, something about Tsubaki's words make her feel a little uncomfortable, as if she's saying them not necessarily because they're true but simply because they'll make Maka feel better.

Before Maka can change the topic, a loud "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" comes from the rec room leading to the other side of the kitchen. Maka thinks she knows exactly who the voice belongs to, but she and Tsubaki still share a glance as they hurry over. However when they enter, she realizes there's no need for concern – it's only BlackStar and Patty on opposite sides of the ping pong table, and judging from BlackStar's reaction, they're in the middle of a game and Patty is handing his ass to him.

"Jeez, could you be any louder," Maka grumbles, wondering how BlackStar hasn't ever been told off yet, or maybe someone had tried – like her – and failed because they couldn't get through his thick skull. She sometimes feels that if BlackStar wasn't such an amazing programmer, he'd be out the door already because no one would be able to handle him. In fact, she's still surprised that when he'd referred her to the company, people had taken either of them seriously.

"Excuse me – IMPORTANT match happening here," he fires back at her, getting ready to serve the ball. "I have the right to be able to express myself however I wish during my comeback!"

"Oh please, you lost the last two matches and the score's still 18-2," Patty retorts. "Get rekt."

As the ball resumes bouncing between the two, Maka shakes her head, says goodbye to Tsubaki – who decides to watch the rest of the game – and heads back to her desk. She frowns as she jiggles her mouse and the words – her words, amateurish and inadequate – appear back on the screen, reminding her of her previous struggle and the forest from which it seems she can never fully escape.

Maka gives a deep sigh, suddenly very conscious of how small she feels in her chair, then squares her shoulders after a minute. There's no point in dwelling too much on the fact that she's always been subpar, she supposes; after all, there's too much shit to do and these manuals won't write themselves. She takes another sip of her coffee, slowly pops her headphones onto her ears, and gets back to work.

Two hours pass by before Maka resurfaces to the world and realizes she's getting hungry.

She kind of wishes she could continue working now that she's in the zone, but she can feel her focus starting to wane, and she knows from past experience that if she doesn't get some food soon, her productivity will exponentially decrease.

She takes off her headphones and meanders over to the kitchen. She's got leftovers from last night so she won't have to go out and buy lunch, which is a good thing because she's planning on eating at her desk so she has as much time as possible to finish.

"We've got a decent variety of drinks and snacks so help yourself to whatever you like, and if there's something you'd like us to have on hand, just let me know," she hears as she approaches the kitchen. She turns the corner and sees Liz, their office manager, standing next to an unfamiliar person with distinctly white hair. She wonders if he's a new hire – usually new employees get introduced to each person in the office as they're given their tour, but perhaps she'd been so into the zone that her introduction had been skipped over.

"Oh, and this is Maka!" Liz beams as she walks into the room. Yep, Maka thinks, he is definitely a new hire, but as he turns towards her she somehow feels a little intimidated. "Maka, meet Soul – he's one of our new devs on the backend team starting today."

"Nice to meet you," he tells her, his voice quiet yet assertive, holding his hand out. She grasps it – it's firm – and smiles, saying, "Nice to meet you too!" but he doesn't say anything after that. Now that she's looking directly at him, she thinks that he looks a little bored – his dull red eyes only adding to that impression – and before she can keep the thought from taking shape, her usual "men are trash" mantra pops up and she wonders whether he's the type of person who's too lazy to even comment on his code properly.

She stops herself, knowing that it's an unfair judgment to make when she doesn't know him at all, especially when he's the "new kid on the block" and she's the one familiar with their surroundings. "Maybe he's just overwhelmed," she thinks, remembering back to her own first day and how it had been a lot to take in – being handed her key card and work laptop by Marie, attending her first training session with Tsubaki, going around the office and being introduced to everyone one by one. How she had felt excited at the prospect of her new teammates being "kickass" (as per BlackStar's testimony) and not cutthroat or brutal like at her old job. How she had also felt very, very nervous that she would be fired once the company realized it had made a mistake in bringing her on.

She swallows with the relief that it hasn't happened… yet.

"Well, enough about that," Liz says, and Maka belatedly realizes that the office manager has been talking this entire time and she has missed all of it. Thankfully the next thing she says is something that doesn't necessarily require further context, as Liz turns to her and asks, "Maka, you drink a lot of coffee, right? Maybe you can show Soul how to use the espresso machine some time."

"Sure." She gives him a close-lipped smile that he returns, but she can't help but think that it looks superficial on him, and she wonders if it looks just as fake on her. "It is a pain in the butt to use at first, but once you see how it's done it's pretty straightforward." Then, because something about it just makes her want to wipe that smile off his face, she asks, "How do you usually drink your coffee, Soul?"

He shrugs. "About regular, with some milk and sugar. It changes from time to time though. What about you?"

Her response is dry and immediate, the punchline practiced but the meaning genuine. "Black. Like my soul."

Somehow this causes him to chuckle, and when he smiles again it actually reaches his eyes and she doesn't feel as daunted by his presence. Meanwhile, Liz just shakes her head and says, "Well, glad to see you both have the same sense of humour – I have no idea how you can stomach that shit," and Maka simply grins proudly.

"Anyway," Liz takes a glance at her watch and then turns to Soul, who has returned to quietly brooding and avoiding further eye contact, and says, "let's finish getting you set up. See you around, Maka!"

"See you! Hope you have a great first day here, Soul!" She smiles at him and he nods back silently, tilting his head up at her like a silent "cool" guy, before following after Liz. As he brushes directly past her and as the space between them closes to nothing, she thinks she feels something change, either in the air or within her – but just as quickly, it vanishes before she can analyze it too deeply.

Maka looks after him and wonders if she's going insane, but then shrugs and stalks off to grab her lunch.

The first time she sees him after hours, it's 6pm on a Monday.

And what a Monday it's been. Marie has put her on a project that involves redoing the copy for a new module on their site, and she's also kept busy with helping a swamped Tsubaki in the afternoon with support tickets. Not that Maka really minds; in a startup, it's normal to take on other duties and projects beyond what's listed on your job description, and providing technical support is something she finds rather easy compared to the actual work she's supposed to do. Plus, even though Maka tends to come in as early as 8:30 or 9am, she doesn't mind working a bit late since it tends to be quieter in the office.

In fact, it's so quiet that Maka is certain that everyone has gone home already. Although the norm in startup culture leans towards long work hours and "living at the office", people at this company are pretty good about listening to Shinigami-sama when he talks about the importance of work-life balance and not thinking about your job beyond your allotted 8 hours a day. Plus Mondays are already hard enough, and even the other devs who come in later than 9am tend to pack up early.

And yet, Maka can't help the constant thoughts swirling around her head about how to work harder and get better and hustle faster and keep putting out awesome results, lest she gets trapped in the forest that is her complicated mind, and people suddenly realize she's not as competent as she makes herself out to be. Not to mention that she always strives to do the best she can, so that at the very least when she inevitably falls short she'll still end up alright.

She tries to ignore the nagging voice in her head telling her that's not true, reminding her of how every time she's done that so far she's still ended up a failure.

Before she can get sucked any further into her thoughts, she catches a sound from across the room, and then a shock of white hair pops up behind a cubicle wall. Her heart races and for a second she wonders if she's somehow caught up in an office space variation of the zombie apocalypse, before she suddenly remembers it's just her new colleague. Thank goodness she hasn't been singing out loud or doing anything else to embarrass herself.

She watches Soul as he stands up and bends his head over his desk, looking like he's putting his things away. She hasn't spoken to him at all after their initial introduction about a month ago, despite the promise to teach him how to use the coffee machine. He's one of the quieter devs who doesn't really talk with anyone aside from the people on his team, even in a group setting such as in the kitchen at lunchtime, and his desk is far enough out of the way that she doesn't have much of a reason to go near it.

As if summoned by her thoughts, he suddenly looks up, straight at her, and she flushes. She considers just looking back down quickly at her screen and pretending that she totally wasn't creeping up on him, but instead she gives him a small smile, trying to play off the fact that she was watching him.

She's almost embarrassed, until he flashes a quick smile back.

Maka is, to be quite honest, shook. She hasn't seen Soul much around the office, but every time she has, it's been with resting bitch face at best and at worst a genuine scowl. That, plus his intimidating demeanour and his near silence in the presence of others, had made her completely forget about that very first smile he had given her on his very first day. She was sure that he was either extremely introverted to the point of being antisocial or a pretentious, arrogant asshole who could simply care less about other people.

And yet, that smile now makes her wonder about her original assumptions.

Soul then walks past her area of the office towards the exit, and as he passes by her, he lifts a hand and loudly says, "Have a good night. Don't stay too late."

Then he's gone and she wonders if their interaction ever happened at all.

It must have happened, though, because it occurs a few more times. She surmises that Soul must work late two or three times a week – not that she's actually counting, though – because that's about how often they run into each other outside typical work hours. He always acknowledges her, whether it be with a glance or a nod or a "Have a good night".

One late afternoon as the autumn sun is setting, Maka squints at her screen, preparing some materials for an upcoming training session, when she hears a quiet, "Hey." Her eyes dart up and meet Soul's, and for the first time ever she realizes that they're a deep shade of red.

"Hi!" She forces a small smile, wondering how she hadn't noticed his approach and therefore not anticipating the sudden social interaction. She must've been super focused on her work. "What's up?" she asks more cheerfully, giving a small stretch. She figures that he's heading out since he's wearing his jacket, a black leather one that matches his dark blue jeans and the sleek laptop bag hanging off his shoulder.

"Sorry if I'm bugging you," he says, and she thinks he sounds rather sheepish. "I would've messaged you on Deathchat first but it said you were on Do Not Disturb mode." Maka's eye twitches a little and she wants to ask what the words 'do not disturb' actually mean to him – especially on their workplace's internal communication tool – but then he quickly continues, "I just wanted to drop this off on my way out," before tossing a small object onto her desk.

She glances at it and realizes it's a plain granola bar. "What's this?" she asks, picking it up.

"Just a little something to carry you through to dinner." He shrugs. "I got an extra from the kitchen earlier that I was gonna save for tomorrow, but it looked like you could use it now. After all, it's been a while since lunchtime and it's hard working on an empty stomach, right?"

For the second time ever, Maka is shook, and it's all because of him. "Wow. Thank you," she says, touched that someone would ever consider doing that for her.

"Don't mention it." Soul smirks but she thinks now that there's not so much arrogance in it, and she realizes for the first time ever that his teeth are jagged and razor sharp, but she doesn't feel as intimidated anymore. It feels like he's about to say something else, but then he simply walks off, waves, and cranes his neck to call out, "Remember, don't stay too late. See you tomorrow."

"Thanks! See ya!" she yells back, her eyes trained on him until he walks out the front door and she can't see him anymore, before glancing back at the granola bar. "Original, huh?" she quietly muses out loud at the flavour printed on the wrapper, slowly ripping it open and taking a tentative bite.

She's not sure why, but she thinks that somehow it's one of the best granola bars she's ever tasted.