Author's Notes: Hello, everyone. So, after getting reviews saying that I rushed my plot and I didn't think things through clearly (which I definitely didn't) I have revised this story to meet higher standards. I will leave the first draft up as the second chapter in this story if you feel like comparing. But, I feel that this revised story has definitely added much more to the plot and makes so much more sense. Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own them! Just the plot.

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart.

But the very next day you gave it away.

This year to save me from tears,

I gave it to someone special.

Maka flipped through the channels on the TV, nothing but Christmas specials all day. It was the same predictable schedule every year. People rush around for gifts for a whole month. Even up to the last minute of the day, people are shopping constantly to find the right gift for their list of growing people.

Maybe if people just stopped for a second and realize that Christmas isn't about giving gifts, then they wouldn't be freaking out every second of the day. She sighed.

This Christmas started off dull. The memories and pain of last year didn't help her move on. It still stung, deep down inside. Hiro, who was her boyfriend for four years, had broken up with Maka on the day of Christmas. Having a boyfriend was already a huge step in her "Forget about Soul" plan. But Last Christmas… It was so sudden, considering the fact that nothing was going wrong in their relationship. Or at least, that's what she thought. That day it was cold and snowing. But it seemed so warm to her, because she had everything she could ask for, love. The day started off great. She had wonderful breakfast in the morning, hung out with the girls all day, and as much as she regretted it, she spent time with her papa. It was perfect. Perfect, until after dinner. That was when Hiro decided to drop the bomb on Maka. He said that he was getting bored in their relationship and that it would be best for them to move on without staying friends. On their anniversary, no less! She took it hard, but didn't fight back.

What BS. I can't believe I actually fell for that last year.

Now, Maka was curled up in a ball on her couch. Looking for something to not reminder her of the lasting, bitter memories. The jacket that was wrapped around her was Soul's old jacket. It did not smell of Soul anymore after these five long years of nothing. Whenever Maka had a problem in her life, she could always come back home to the smell of Soul and calm herself down. But, after so long the scent could only last for a while until it faded away into nothing. Instead, she let the material drape over her entire form, as if she were wrapping herself in a cocoon. The memories she could recall with this one item of clothing surrounding her were enough to make her happy. Make her forget, even for just a moment, why she was unhappy with her life right now. It made all her problems go away and remind her about the good times. When Soul was still living with her in this very apartment.

"Oh, am I not the most miserable person on Christmas this year?" She said aloud to no one in particular.

There was a knock at the door. Maka's eyes looked toward the door and scrunched her eyebrows together. "I wasn't expecting any visitors this year." She slowly pushed herself up from the couch and opened the door.

It was Soul. He stood in the doorway, his white hair shining brilliantly just like the old Soul with his headband still in place. The leather jacket added a nice accent to his 'cool' look that he always preached. Although he stood with a slouch, his form still hovered over Maka. He had grown over the past five years, to say the least. "Hey, sleepy. How's it goin?"

Maka stood there, shocked. "Soul? Is it really you?" She paused, not quite believing what she was seeing. "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I've come back to see you." He raised his eyebrows in question.

"I- but, you- how…" Maka could not formulate any words at this moment because of her shock.

"So, are you going to invite me in?" He shifted closer to her; the light smell of cologne was lingering in the air.

Maka didn't trust her voice and nodded her head in response.

He followed her into the room. Looking around, he noticed that everything was in order, just like Maka had always kept it. Then he saw the mountain of snack foods, drinks, and other items stuffed onto the small coffee table. "You didn't have anything planned today?" He motioned towards the pile of food.

"Umm… Well, that was all for me. You see I didn't plan to have any visitors. " She stood next to the couch.

Soul then noticed the jacket on the couch. It was his old jacket from when he was a kid. As soon as he laid eyes on it, the memories flooded back into this mind. The days of soul hunting and Shibusen school. It brought a smirk to his face as he spoke to Maka.

"Still keeping that old jacket, I see."

"I…" Maka looked a little embarrassed that she left it out on the couch. She had not expected Soul to be here, so naturally it was lying in plain sight. "I wasn't expecting any visitors."

They both sat down and waited in an uncomfortable silence for someone to start the conversation. The TV was still on, and added some background noise to there otherwise dull talk. Maka slightly fidgeted and curled her feet underneath her legs. Both of them could not find anything to talk about. Instead of getting straight to the point, Soul asked the most cliché of questions that were swimming around in his head.

"How have you been?"

That question struck a cord in her.

For five years I've been living a grand life. Every since you left, I've been miserable, immobile and alone. How could he even ask that question? What am I supposed to say? "Oh, I am just doing wonderful now that you ask! Oh, and we can't forget that today is the anniversary of my breakup! Yeah, life is just peachy.

"I'm doing well." Maka refrained from saying what was on her mind.

Soul looked at her and smiled. "I can see that…" He hesitated. "Maka…" She looked him in the eyes. "I…" He stopped, trying to figure out what to say next. Death the God was being cruel to him, making him nervous. "How about we go out tonight and have dinner?"

"Soul, it's Christmas day. Nothing is open." Her response was flat.

Oh yeah. That's right. Plan B, then.

"OK, then I will cook you something for dinner. What do you have to eat?" Soul got up to look around in the kitchen.

Maka got up and reached out for him. "Oh, Soul. I don't really have anything in the kitchen." She grimaced. Waiting around for his life story didn't seem like the most joyous thing, so she opted to blurting out the obvious. "Soul… why are you here?"

She finally asked the question that was bothering him for quite some time. Five years, to be exact. It was just a question, but that question brought back serious memories of when he first left Death City. It was just a week after becoming a Death Scythe. Everyone was celebrating and congratulating him. Even Black Star, who still claims that he will surpass God. Shinigami-sama and the rest of Shibusen were so proud of him. Even Maka's papa was surprised that Soul made it to the top with only a few years experience. Life was going great, and the most important person in his life was with him. The celebrating continued throughout the whole week, with Liz and Patty coordinating the festivities. It was a great week of just chilling and relaxing with everyone. But, unfortunately the party came to an end when Shinigami-sama announced that Soul was needed in Egypt. Apparently, someone was trying to create an army full of kishin. Obviously it was his duty to be where I was needed. But…

Knowing what Maka was really asking, he responded. "Maka, you know as well as I do that I must follow Shinigami's orders." His back was faced towards Maka.

"That assignment was for one year, Soul! One year of fighting and you promised you would be back! That's what you told me… and now… it's been five years. Five years, Soul." Tears threatened to leak from her eyes. She bit her bottom lip in frustration.

The guilt was building up inside of Soul. "Maka… I…" There was no excuse he could say to make things better. In all honesty, he hated being away from her for so long, but… "There were some, er… complications with my assignment. It's not like I could just pull out whenever I wanted to. It's important that I don't ignore what Shinigami-sama says." He tried to explain with as little detail as possible.

"Soul, that's bullshit, and you know it! Did you ever think to come back? Or was this all part of your plan to escape Death City and leave me- alone?" Her voice cracked. Just thinking about this was painful, to both of them. She had heard rumors that Soul had left to fulfill his goal of becoming a womanizer. But Maka did not believe them because she thought she knew Soul. But, what now? What was she to think of him when he leaves with no warning, and comes back five years later?

Maka looked at Soul's hand. Well, at least he doesn't have a ring on his finger. That would've sent me over the top!

"I didn't intend to leave you like this, Maka! It was painful for me too, okay?" Breathing in and out, Soul's shoulder's lifted up and down. This was sending him on an emotional roller coaster. Night after night he regretted leaving Death City for good, with no warning. It was tough but in order to make his parents see that he was dedicated to Maka he had to stop talking to her.

Her eyes scrunched up. She wiped the fresh tears from her eyes and sniffled. "What are you talking about, Soul?" Taking a step forward, Maka was about to reach for his shoulder, but he quickly turned to face her.

"What I mean is, I was forced to stay behind." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "My parents were the cause of all of this. They made me stay in order to prove my love for you." Maka's eyes were wide in shock. "They didn't believe me when I said that I love you. In fact, they thought I was joking." He stopped before bringing up more of the painful memories. "This is so not cool."

Maka looked at Soul, standing there pitifully. She stood there for a while trying to gauge how horrible Soul felt right now. It was agonizing to not know why Soul didn't come back, but it hurt her even more to hear that he could do nothing about it. She widened her soul and tried to reach out to Soul, estimating his reaction. He continued to stand there, eyes fixated on hers. She didn't know what to do next. He made the first move.

"Look, I know that's not an excuse and I probably have no right for coming back into your life, but I miss you, Maka. I've been thinking about you since the moment I walked out that door." He pointed at the door he had just come through. "It pains me, too, that I couldn't just come back here at any moment! How do you think I felt, not being able to communicate with you? To even tell you how I've felt about you after all these years? You weren't the only one suffering!" Soul ran a hand through his hair in frustration. His gaze moved to the floor in embarrassment for yelling at his meister.

Maka felt a little embarrassed as well. She knew she shouldn't have put all the blame on him, but after Soul abandoning her for five years, with not a single word left her in torment. All of this was coming at her at once and she didn't know what to do.

"Soul, I—" her words were cut off as she choked out a small cry. Her shoulders were visibly shaking from the small cries that were wracking her body. "What happened?" She looked back up to him. She only noticed now that he had grown just a few inches taller than her, making it painfully aware that she was still the little girl Soul had left in Death City.

Soul looked back up and motioned to the couch. They both walked over and sat as far away from each other as possible. He put his hands in his lap and had sighed. "A year after my mission had ended, I was extremely happy to come back to Death City. I had finished what we set out to accomplish and everybody was celebrating over the big success. Just as I was about to schedule my plans to leave I got a call from Shinigami-sama. He had told me to pack my things up and leave for the next assignment." The pain was visible on his face as Maka continued to watch him talk. "Apparently my job as a death scythe never ends, so he told me to say goodbye to everyone and find the next flight to South Africa for another operation related to a witch hunt. I reminded him that my job was only for a year, but he insisted that I needed more training as a death scythe. I didn't want to disappoint him, but I was also concerned that you would be worried about me. So, I tried calling you on Christmas that year." Maka tensed at his words, remembering her previous relationship with Hiro. "But, you didn't answer and I had to leave right that instant. I knew that I wouldn't be able to communicate with you while I was on the mission, so I asked Stein to pass the message along."

Maka's shoulders slumped and she put her hands up to her face, shielding any emotion written on her face. Soul gave her a sideward glance and looked at her with curiosity. "Did you not get my message?" He looked at her with worry clearly written on his features.

"No, it's not that. I—I did get your message. But, I was… busy." She tried to avoid the topic of Hiro.

"Busy?" He gave her a doubtful look.

"Yeah… I—look, Soul. Please don't be mad at me. I was already depressed that you were gone for a year, so I became friends with one of my classmates, and…" her words drifted off into a whisper.

Soul wasn't stupid. He could figure out what she was trying to say. But, he chose to ignore it. "So, anyways… I went to South Africa for another six months and that's when we finally made a breakthrough in the case, but it wasn't enough to finish the whole mission. It ended up taking flight, literally, and we had to follow them to another location in Europe." He paused to gather his thoughts.

"What about your parents? I thought you said they had something to do with this?"

"Turns out my parents were visiting in the same area the same time I was there. Although I haven't talked to them in ages, they still wanted me to visit them and catch up." His voice lowered an octave at those last words. Maka could sense a change in his tone and intently focused on him even more so. "That night, they were being a little more open than usual. It was weird, like they were trying to reach out to me after all these years. I told them about my years at Shibusen with you and the rest of the gang. They were very interested in you when I told them about our partnership. They were asking all these questions about you, and I blindly gave them what they wanted. When I finally got them to open up to me about the real reason they were there, they gave me an ultimatum. Either live life away from you for four years, or be cut off from the Evans life. I told them I wanted nothing to do with them, but apparently they still wanted me in their life. They said that if I chose to ignore them completely, that something bad would happen to you. I couldn't do anything. I felt so powerless, even though I was still thinking we were meister and weapon. It was childish of me to think that my family never wanted me in their lives after all these years. But, they proved me wrong. So, I had no choice but to accept." He leaned his head back on the couch and looked at Maka straight in the eyes. "I couldn't let anything happen to you, Maka."

Maka's expression changed. She realized that he had been through so much after all these years and he was still acting as if none of this was a big deal. As soon as her brain was working again, she got up and collapsed into Soul, wrapping her arms around him. Her eyes were full of tears as she sobbed into his chest. She felt so awful for not believing in Soul, but she also felt disgusted in herself that she didn't trust him as well. So many thoughts were swirling in her head that she opted for crying in his arms.

He immediately wrapped his arms around her and gave her a bone-crushing hug. Their thoughts were fried from thinking too hard, but at that moment nothing mattered except for them. The world stopped spinning, as they were the only ones that existed in that moment. She was still crying and he was feeling extremely guilty. Their lives had taken such different paths. For five years. But in this instant it was as if they had never left each other's arms.

"You're so stupid, Maka." He pulled her out of the embrace and looked into her eyes. Soul wiped her tear-stained cheeks.

She sniffled. "Not as stupid as you. Idiot." She smiled at him. Really, truly smiled at him. For the first time in five years. "I love you, Soul."

"Tsk— I know." He smirked and pulled her into a lip-locking kiss.

After a few seconds, Maka pulled away from him. She smiled at him and released herself from his grip.

"Makaaa… CHOP!" Soul fell to the ground, with a fountain of blood escaping his head.

"OW! Maka, what was that for?" Soul nursed his head wound.

"That was for surprising me after all these years and not warning me."

~ Two Weeks Later ~

"Maka. Why are you taking so long? We need to meet Black Star and Tsubaki at the basketball court." Soul paced back and forth around the living room area. They were already half an hour late. And knowing Black Star, he was going to make a huge entrance. Now that he thought about it, maybe it was a good idea that they were late.

"Soul…" Maka sounded a little worried.

"Maka? What's wrong?" He walked up to the bathroom door. "Hey, open the door." He twisted the doorknob and he opened the door. Inside, Maka was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, looking at a thermometer. "Maka, are you sick?" He lifted his hand to place it on her forehead.

"No. I'm not sick." She shook his hand off.

"Then what's the problem?" Soul raised his eyebrow up.

He was met with silence. One minute passed as Soul was looking at her, waiting for her to answer. "Maka, just spit it out!"

Maka looked up from the thermometer and showed it to him. He looked at the screen and it read '+'.

"Maka, I don't understand what… you're…" Soul's eyes were replaced with shock and confusion. He stumbled a little and fell to the ground. He noticed the box in the trashcan as it read 'Pregnancy Test'. His heart skipped a beat and he looked back up into Maka's eyes.

"Soul. Do you know what this means?" Maka paused, trying to read his expression. "It means you're going to be a daddy."

Instead of running away, which Maka had guessed he was going to do; he got up from the ground, walked toward her and put his ear to her stomach. He could hear nothing. But, knowing that it, their baby, was growing in there was enough to send him over the edge. He looked back into Maka's eyes and smirked.

"I bet it's a boy." He continued to smirk at her.

"Oh, great. As if I need ANOTHER Soul running around the place…" She rolled her eyes at his response.

"Oh, just admit it. You know you love me." Soul leaned in and captured her lips and smiled, a genuine smile. Life couldn't get any better than it is at this moment.

Author's Notes: Oh, goodness. This took me forever to write. I was hoping I could get it out by Christmas, but obviously that didn't work!

PLEASE REVIEW! IT MEANS A LOT TO ME, SINCE I NEED CONSTANT CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM!

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