Maka clutched her fist around the handle of the large, black door. The faint sound of music and laughter drifted through the crack under the door. Sweat dropped from her forehead. She had been training and studying for years for this very moment, and every ounce of her being trembled in anticipation, as she prepared to meet her first akuma partner.
What would her partner be like? What type would he or she be? Questions inundated Maka's mind. "Just remember," she muttered to herself, "be brave and strong, like Mama is." Hesitantly, she threw open the door.
There were people scattered in clumps around the room. Soft jazz music hummed from a record player in the corner, ornate candles centered all the dining tables, and black and white streamers hung from the chandeliers. The amount of warm bodies was a bit overwhelming, so Maka shuffled over to the refreshments and chugged down several glasses of punch.
She slowed down at her third glass, looking around the room and observing her potential partners. In the center of the room, she could see her childhood friend Black Star, whooping and flailing his arms. She giggled to herself and let her gaze travel the corners of the room. Her eyes rested on a white-haired boy leaning against the wall by himself.
She inched her way closer to get a better look at him. Red eyes, prominent jawline, bored and irritated stare. He was probably a dark-type, maybe fire. Either way, she was intrigued.
She grabbed a second glass of punch and brought it over to him. "Want some punch?" she smiled. The white-haired boy hesitated a moment and accepted the drink, mumbling a thank you. "My name's Maka, Maka Albarn. What's your name?"
"Soul. Soul Eater."
"Soul Eater? 'Eater' is really your last name?"
"It is now."
"Oh… Okay," Maka stuttered. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Soul Eater!" She offered her hand to him. He stared at her hand for a long time before smiling and taking it. The two made idle small talk for a while. "So, do you have a partner yet?" she asked hesitantly. At his silence, she get nervous, afraid that she might have wasted all this time on someone that already had a partner.
"No," he finally answered. "I don't have a partner yet. Do you?"
"No, I don't either!" After a few moments of painfully awkward silence, Maka stomped her foot and nervously sputtered out, "Well, I think we should be partners! We've already spent the whole night talking to each other, and at this point, we wouldn't have enough time to get to know another partner." She huffed out a breath and crossed her arms, glaring at him for an answer.
Soul looked slightly frightened, but he changed into a detached demeanor, folding his arms behind his head. "Well, I guess since you're not as lame as all those other losers inside, we can be partners."
"What did you just say?" Maka growled.
"I said that you better feel lucky to be paired with an akuma like me. Most people would kill to be in your shoes."
"Listen here, Soul Eater, I am the daughter of the prestigious Kami Albarn. I could get any akuma I wanted. I don't need you!" she snapped, jerking her hands to her hips. "Besides, you're probably a super lame akuma, not even worth an Albarn's time!"
The two growled and stared each other down. Admitting defeat, Soul folded his arms over his chest and looked away indignantly. "Whatever, flat-chest." He quickly received a whack over the head with Maka's left heel. "Hey! What was that for!?"
"For being such a boy!"
Maka fiddled with the corner of the page in her book. She had been waiting for Soul, Black Star, and Tsubaki for a little over an hour now. She vented out her frustration and impatience by reading her book faster and faster and with more intensity. By the time Soul was standing in front of her, ready to go, her nose was inches away from her book and her knuckles were white from gripping the binding.
"Uhh.. Maka?" Soul broke in. She jumped in her skin as her book flew from her grasp. Once she came back to reality, she snatched the book from the floor and smacked him across the face with it.
"Do you realize what time it is, Soul? It's almost ten in the morning! We were supposed to meet here at eight sharp!"
Soul rubbed the side of his cheek defensively, and looked like he wanted to scream at her and smack her in the face, too. But instead, he whined, "Look, this place isn't exactly the easiest in the world to find, okay?"
"It's not that hard," Maka nagged in defense. "You just follow Route 102 to Oldale Town. There are signs everywhere."
"All the trees look the same."
"What's wrong, Soul? Not quite the same as Lilycove?" she smirked. His face turned red and he mumbled under his breath. In the days leading up to their departure, Maka had persuaded Soul into meeting up multiple times throughout the day and getting to know each other. Once all the small talk was out of the way, they could truly get to know each other, and improve their level of resonance. They had shared details of their family, pastimes, dreams, passions, likes, dislikes, and little things in-between. Needless to say, Maka had learned that Soul was from upscale Lilycove. And she loved to use it against him.
They sat in comfortable silence, waiting for Black Star. She knew that he was the one soley responsible for both his and Tsubaki's tardiness. Maka had already taken out all of her anger on Soul's face, so when Black Star and Tsubaki finally arrived, she wasn't as irritated.
After double-checking all of their belongings, they set out towards Littleroot Town. The walk was short and simple, and they arrived in less than an hour. Littleroot Town was very small, especially compared to Maka's hometown in Rustboro. Several tiny houses were scattered around the settlement, but were eerily all at a reasonable distance from the laboratory. As they walked passed one of the houses, Soul reached down and picked a white flower, offering it to Maka with a smirk. She quickly scolded him for picking someone else's flower.
Maka tapped politely on the door to the laboratory. After a few seconds of waiting, Black Star began pounding on the door, chanting, "YOUR GOD IS HERE," "DON'T KEEP A BIG GUY LIKE ME WAITING," "DON'T BE AFRAID TO ANSWER THE DOOR FOR THIS MUCH AWESOMENESS!" Maka, Soul, and Tsubaki's expressions of embarrassment turned to horror as the wooden door gave way and splintered apart. A round man with a white lab coat leapt away from the door.
After a few moments of shock, Soul had to hold back Maka as she tried to swing wildly at Black Star. Black Star looked utterly humiliated, muttering that the professor should have had a more secure door put in, and Tsubaki bowed and apologized at least a million times.
Eventually, the professor hushed all of them and invited them inside, commenting that he was going to have a new door put in soon, anyway.
Due to her father working rather high up in the ATA, she had seen laboratories like these before. They were equipped with futuristic machines that were used to study resonance, and often held tiny akumas for specific experiments. All students that passed their knowledge training with the Akuma Taming Association, and were ready to move on to field training, had to visit Professor Birch in his laboratory to undergo their first resonance with their new akuma partner. Maka was itching to begin.
"So," Professor Birch started, "who would like to go first?"