A/N: Chloe5616 here! We're back! Anyway, just a warning, this story will probably take longer to update; but I also think it's better quality, so, that's good. And I'm gonna tell you right now; there's not nearly as much plot as there is mindless fluff in this chapter. Really, like two pages out of nine are actual plot. It's kind of like the beginning and the end could be stand-alone fluffy one-shots, with some plot squeezed in the middle. Don't worry, more plot is on the way! Reviews are still amazing. On with the story!
A/N: Hey. This is a very pissed CronaSoulEater. I am forced to type this on a tablet because being on the computer too long is bad, according to everyone but me. Probably going to take me ten minutes to type this. Anyways, this chapter doesn't have a lot of that saliva exchanging (what Chloe calls it), but I will work on putting more out there for the next chapter. Please excuse any spelling mistakes, I really can't stand touchscreen keyboards.
Maka's POV
"Soul, I don't know.." I looked up anxiously at the huge ride Soul was begging me to go on. I was afraid of heights, and he knew that, but he didn't want to go alone.
"Please, Maka? For me?" He begged, looking at me with big puppy dog eyes. It was hard to resist that look.
"Ugh! Fine." I said with a sigh. He had been begging me for over fifteen minutes now. Overjoyed, he did a quick fistpump before grabbing my hand and dragging me into the line for the ride.
Once we boarded, I squeezed the bar holding us and closed my eyes, wishing I was anywhere else. I really don't know why I always let him drag me into these things. I almost wished we hadn't even come to this stupid park, but it made Soul happy. At least one of us should be happy, especially with all that's happening. My thoughts were interrupted when I felt a light squeeze. I opened my eyes and looked down to see Soul holding my hand.
"It'll be fine, Maka. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen." He said with what I assumed was supposed to be a reassuring smirk. I tried to smile back, but it came out as more of a grimace. Soul chuckled softly, squeezing my hand again.
When the ride started I felt my heart drop down into my stomach. I closed my eyes and counted the seconds until it would be over. How long can this ride really be? Two minutes? I can survive two minutes, right?
My idea of counting was completely forgotten as the ride suddenly stopped. I dared to open my eyes, and nearly threw up. The ride had paused at the top of the lift, and any second now we would plunge down the huge drop, followed by several sharp turns and huge loops. I locked my body in place, and my hands turned white where they were holding onto the bar. Then we fell. Instead of screaming like the people around me, I curled in on myself and tried not to puke. I heard Soul laugh and shout in glee next to me.
Luckily, the drop was over soon, but then came the turns. I was thrust into the other side of the seat, and incidentally into Soul. I gripped onto his arm for dear life. I was too mortified to look at him, ashamed at how scared I was. Another turn was coming. I was pretty sure that was the last one, but that meant the loops were next. Oh no. I clutched Soul tighter, probably cutting off his circulation, and buried my face in his jacket. My knuckles were white from gripping so hard and my face was, I'm sure, a deep shade of scarlet.
Soul's POV
I laughed as Maka tried to hide herself in my jacket; it was cute though, and I blushed a little. I felt a tiny bit guilty for making her come on the ride, not that I would ever tell her that. I really just wanted her to be scared and cling to me. It seemed to be working. Pretty soon we were on the loops, and she held on tighter. My arm was quickly turning numb. I took the rare advantage of her not paying attention to stare at her. Usually if she caught me staring she would Maka-chop me before quickly looking away, blushing. Black*Star thinks I should ask her out. I remember when he first brought it up.
"What?" I had asked, jumping at his words.
"Dude, it's obvious you like her," He said in his usual arrogant tone.
"Seriously?" I said too quickly. I had tried to cover up my apparent embarrassment with "I don't like her.."
My thoughts were interrupted by Maka's silent sobs. I could feel my heart shattering, and I felt even worse about asking her to come with me. I would just have to make it up to her.
As soon as we got off, I grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the crowd of people getting off the ride. I lead her over to a dark, small space in between a few tents.
"Soul, what are you doing?" She asked. I had let go of her hand, and was running my fingers through my hair, agitated. Apologies were not my thing.
Clearing my throat, I said "I-I'm sorry about the ride thing. I didn't think it'd be that bad."
"It's okay, Soul. Just give me a minute to recuperate." She said, looking down at the ground. An about how to cheer her up hit me.
"Wait right there! Don't move!" I ran over to the nearby cafe. A few minutes later I came back with one of those oversized pretzels they sell everywhere. I jogged back to Maka and handed it to her.
"Here, eat this. It'll help you feel better." She looked skeptical.
"Soul, how is eating going to help me after I could barely keep breakfast down on that ride?"
"Trust me, it'll make you feel more... I dunno- grounded, that's it! It always helps me when I go on an intense ride."
She hesitated, then nibbled on the edge of the pretzel. After letting that sit for a few seconds, she took another, larger bite. After a little more than half of the pretzel, she smiled widely.
"What do you know, Soul? You were actually right about something for once."
I smiled back at her. "What do you mean? Cool guys are always right, you just choose to ignore it." I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned against a sturdy tent, relaxed now that Maka wasn't upset with me anymore. It's good to see her so happy, she's been acting kind of down for the past few weeks, I thought.
"So what would you like to do while we're here?" I asked, wanting to make her happiness last.
She chattered happily about what we could do for the rest of the day while she finished her pretzel. After throwing away the wrapping that came with it, we started walking back towards to rides and games. I was happy just to follow her lead.
We played a few games before making our way towards the parking lot, where we eventually found my motorcycle.
I could tell Maka was exhausted when we arrived at the apartment. Since it was my turn to cook anyway, I made some Ramen for us to eat.
"Thank you for today, Soul." Maka said once we had finished eating. She looked tired and weary.
"No problem." She turned towards her room. "Goodnight, Maka."
She stopped walking for a moment, and turned back around. Before I knew what was happening, she had walked back over to me, kissed me on the cheek, and darted off into her room. Dumbfounded, I put my hand to my cheek and wondered what had just happened.
Maka's POV
Stupid, why the hell did you do that! I cursed myself. I really hope he doesn't bring that up. Ever. Still, I had bigger problems to worry about. Shaking the thought, I noticed a note laying on my pillow. Knowing what it was, I clenched my fists and took a deep breath. The number of souls I would have to collect; my debt to the witches. I blinked away tears, unable to stop the memories that had started to surface.
~Two Weeks Ago~
I was walking home from the academy, enjoying the fresh air and the view of all the blooming flowers that spring brought on when I heard a shrill scream from a few yards away. Immediately, I ran towards the noise, determined to help whoever was in trouble. I turned a corner and listened for any more noise to guide me. As I stood and listened, someone had sneaked up behind me held an odd smelling rag over my mouth. The next thing I knew, everything was black.
I had no idea how long I was unconscious, but when I woke up there was a blindfold over my eyes and my hands were tied behind my back. I heard muffled voices around me, but couldn't make out what they were saying.
They must have known I was awake, because pretty soon they jerked me up and had me walk. After a few minutes of walking, they shoved me back down onto my knees and pulled off the blindfold.
"Oh, is she finally awake?" The voice that had spoken was sweet, but had an edge, like someone who had spent a lot of time charming people into doing what she wanted. I looked up for the source of the voice. Sitting on what resembled a throne a few feet ahead was a woman with blood-red hair and black eyes. She wore an airy black gown that piled on the floor around her legs. I took a few seconds to look around and analyze my surroundings. The entire room had a cave-like appearance. The ceiling was rounded upwards and appeared to be red clay. There was a torch on both sides of the throne the mysterious woman was sitting in, and beyond those, small wooden doors on each side. It looked like some kind of cult lair.
"Where am I? What do you want with me?" I demanded to the throne woman.
"That's not a very polite greeting, now is it? We could at least start with an introduction. My name is Kairi; and you're Maka." Rising from her seat, she stalked over to me and grabbed my chin, studying my face. "You look just like your mother."
"How would you know?" I spat, already seething at the mention of my mother.
"We'll get to that soon enough. First we're going to make a deal." Confidence dripped from her voice.
"Why would I ever make a deal with you? You're a witch, aren't you?" I assumed that here workers were witches as well, but judging by the throne that she was the most powerful.
"Good guess. And you're going to make a deal with me because if you don't, everyone you care about will die." She said with a wicked gleam in her eyes.
My eyes widened, but I controlled them quickly. I couldn't let the witches see any weakness. "And why shouldn't I just tell Lord Death and have him sick the Academy's finest on you?" I challenged.
"Now we're getting to the good part." She turned to her nearest henchman. "Bring out the prisoner."
He nodded and left with another minion through a door to the left of the throne. After a moment, they returned with the prisoner Kairi had spoken of. Her hands were tied behind her back and she was being roughly shoved to her knees on the dirt floor. However, instead of a blindfold covering her eyes, there was a black burlap sack thrown over her head. Kairi strode over to her and yanked off the sack in one fluid movement of her hand.
"Mom!" I gasped. As far as I had known, she'd been traveling abroad. How could a witch have found her?
"Maka! Are you alright?" Kami asked, eyes full of concern. My mother looked awful; her long blonde hair was tangled and matted, and her forest green eyes had dark rings around them, like she hadn't slept in weeks. It was probably true if she had been held captive for several days.
"I'm fine mom, but do you know what this is all about?"
She opened her mouth to reply, but Kairi cut her off.
"Now, now girls. Don't interrupt my telling of the deal." She smirked at me, then continued talking. "I'll be frank. Here's the deal; you're going to get me one-hundred human souls, and in exchange, your mother lives and your town stays intact. Tell anyone, Lord Death, your friends, anyone, about this and your mother dies. Do we have a deal?" She asked in a sickly sweet voice.
"What do you want with souls? You can't use them for yourself," I sneered at her.
"Now that's where you're wrong, Maka. Souls are power. Think of how many Kishin eggs would kill for them. That's a lot of power on my side."
"Maka, don't! I'm not worth-" Kami was cut off when a henchmen hit her with a gloved fist. She fell to the side, unable to hold herself up with her hands tied behind her back, and too weak from captivity to stop from falling. I felt useless, not able to help my mother or myself.
"I'll ask one more time. Do we have a deal?" Kairi kneeled in front of me, meeting my eyes. I bowed my head, breaking the connection, and looked at the ground. At least there was one thing I could do to kept my loved ones safe.
"We have a deal."
Present
I shuddered at the thought of what had happened that night. With a sigh, I flopped down onto my bed, too tired and distracted to change, and fell asleep.
Soul's POV
I woke up early, and had only slept a few hours; there was nothing to do and I was so bored. Usually Maka was up before me and we would do something together. Without realizing it, I had stopped my mindless pacing right outside of Maka's door. Driven by boredom, I eased open the door and slipped in, shutting it gently behind me. My eyes quickly found Maka, sprawled on the floor. I stifled a laugh and kneeled down next to her. She was a complete mess; shoes still on, clothes wrinkled from yesterday, mouth hanging open.. That was my Maka. Without realizing it, I had started to lean forward to kiss her. Praying she wouldn't wake up, I lightly brushed my lips against hers. I jerked back suddenly when her eyes fluttered open. Shit, shit, shit..
Trying to cover up my embarrassment, I put on a smirk and said, "Mornin'."
She stared at me for a moment with a shocked expression. Crap, what do I do? The look on my face was becoming strained. "I, uhh.." Oh shit, I'm choking! Quick, say something cool! I racked my brain for something to say. "Pancakes!" That works, too. "I'm making panca-" I was interrupted when she sat up and kissed me. Surprised and unsure of what to do, I kissed her back.
She pulled away after a few seconds. "So where are my pancakes?"
With another smirk and a deep blush, I got up, went to the kitchen, and started making pancakes.