Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater

The Basement

"That thing that you locked in the basement is trying to get out."

Maka looked up from her book, pretty lips pulled up into a hapless smile. "For the record, I did not lock him in the basement. Papa wandered there on his own."

"Yeah, and then you locked the door." Soul shut the door and plopped down beside her. The room she had holed herself up in had been a library once upon a time. Now, Kid said that it was simply a sitting room since all the books had been moved to a larger space. There were plenty of empty shelves, and the few books that remained were placed in perfect, colour coded symmetry. "And now he's wailing about and asking you to unlock the door."

She turned a page of the book patiently, unaffected by his testimony. "How did you find out?"

"I went down to get a couple more bottles of pop for Kid. Almost scared the crap out of me when I heard your dad moaning from the basement like some sad Kishin egg."

"Don't joke about that," she said as she chided him halfheartedly. "Kishins are dangerous."

"So is locking your father in the basement of a Death God's mansion. We don't know what Kid keeps down there."

"I don't know why he's complaining." she said, shifting her legs so that they rested on Soul's lap. He smirked and rubbed at her shins with his warm hands. The party dress she had on sat just above her knees all smooth and white. He couldn't remember when she had bought it. Perhaps it had been a gift from one of their friends. "It was his decision to follow the maid down there. He's the one who can't keep it in his pants long enough to go to a hotel in the city. Now he has some privacy."

"I don't think he would try to do something like that at an event like this. That sounds stupid, even for him."

"You don't know my papa's stupidity better than me, Soul. We can let him suffer down there a while longer."

He sighed. "Just let him out. He hasn't done anything stupid yet."

"Why are you defending him?" she asked. Her fingers tightened their grip but she refused to look up. "He's not worth it."

"He's your father."

"Then why didn't you go open the door for him?"

"It's your responsibility, not mine. Besides, you don't think someone else is going to go looking for him? That doesn't exactly look great for either of you." Indeed, if Kid found him locked away in the basement with a keyless maid, he would be less than pleased. If Patty found them, then the whole party would never hear the end of it. That, or she would blackmail Spirit with it and probably triple her stuffed animal collection.

"I'll just deny that I know him like I always do. It's not hard," Maka sniffed.

"Sure." Soul watched Maka try to return to her book, her eyes staring at the words instead of reading them. She had been feeling guilty. He could see it in the telltale shifting of her shoulders, the way she could not focus too long on a word without glancing up or looking over at her cell phone which still vibrated away on the coffee table. Her father's face kept illuminating the screen and Maka flipped it down onto it's back, letting it rumble on the wooden table.

"This is a very influential party," she said suddenly. The book snapped shut and she let it rest on her stomach. Soul continued kneading at her legs, his fingers moving lower to massage her calves. She hadn't quite recovered from her strenuous dance lessons with Kid and Liz. Girls were crazy to think about dancing in heels, no matter how much it increased their height and accentuated their legs. Crazy for thinking about it but amazing for being able to pull it off.

"I guess."

"Plenty of Death Scythes, meisters and their families from all over the world were called here to celebrate the anniversary of Asura's imprisonment."

"Yeah."

"And your parents are going to be here too."

He wrinkled his nose. "Eventually."

"Papa will make a big scene. I know it. Especially if it got out that he'd done one of the maids in Lord Death's own home. What will your parents think if they knew that their son's girlfriend has a father who wants to screw anything that moves? They already don't like me. I don't want to make it worse."

"What matters is that I like you. I don't have to like your dumb dad for that." When that didn't garner even a small smile, he sighed. "Look, Maka, your dad wouldn't do something to intentionally embarrass you, you know that."

"Do you have hard evidence? Because I have a lifetime of memories to back me up."

"Well, no, but he's not all bad. He loves you, you know?"

"He's got a funny way of showing it," Maka grumbled, staring him down.

"What if he actually wanted to help her with, I don't know, preparing something for the party?" Maka laughed harshly in his face at that notion. "Okay, maybe that was a bad example."

"You think?"

"I'm only stating the possibilities. Jumping to conclusions isn't cool." He took her wrists and pulled her up a bit. She didn't try very hard to fight him. "Give it a rest and let him out."

"That sounds like a horrible idea."

"It's the right thing to do. You know I'm right."

"I don't like it." He let go only to take a few strands of her hair and press his between his fingertips. With her hair curled for the party, the silky texture was something new and coiled. Maka shivered when his knuckles brushed against her neck.

"I know." Soul smirked and kissed her mouth quickly in the hopes that a little affection would deter her.

"I don't know why you protect him," she mumbled. "You know how horrible he is." That was the understatement of the century. Soul did know how bad Spirit Albarn was. He wasn't the best husband, or even the best person. He was one of the primary reasons it had been so difficult to pursue Maka in the first place. The agony his decisions had put Maka in would haunt her for the rest of her life. What Spirit had done was something he could never truly forgive. However, he was a father first and foremost and Spirit had never let anything change that fact. He wasn't the one who left to wander the world. Spirit had made a lot of mistakes, but at least he had tried to repair them. That meant a lot more to Soul than any non-existent mother figure.

Even if Maka didn't quite see it that way, he did.

Soul played with the edges of Maka's ashy pigtails and watched her blink curiously at his scrutiny. She didn't like thinking that she had inherited anything of her father's. Maka had once told him that she was glad to have gotten looks similar to her mother despite the fact that her hair colour and eyes came from her great grandmother on her father's side. She didn't seem to see the determination and recklessness she had inherited from her father. She did not see the courage and unbridled optimism in battle. Soul would say all heart and no head, but that wasn't quite Maka. Her mother had definitely made brains a part of Maka's charm even if it was the determined heart she had inherited from her father that led her to so many amazing people.

"But he's also your father," he said, "and he still loves you a lot. You should go let him out."

"You say that like it's the ultimate argument. Like saying that he's my papa is your trump card."

"It is my trump card. Every time someone brings him up in a conversation, it feels like you forget."

"I couldn't forget even if I tried; believe me."

He sighed heavily. "Let's go."

"What if we don't?" She scooched closer, struck by a cunning idea, and leaned in to kiss him. "We could just stay here until the party starts."

Now that offer was tempting. "As much as I would love to-" Her mouth swallowed the rest of her words and he cursed her quietly in his mind. Gone were the days where Maka would shyly look for excuses to hold his hand and kiss him. The Maka he was dating now was far more comfortable with physical contact than he could ever have anticipated, and he secretly relished in the fact that she was so bold. Still, he also knew that Maka was aware of just what to do to get him to shut up and focus on her. She had used it against him many times, and Soul was not going to let that happen in Kid's second floor sitting room. "Maka," he tried again, fighting her lips in a very inefficient way.

"Soul?" Maka let her book slide to the floor as she rearranged herself on the sofa so as to get more comfortable.

"I-" He lost his train of thought for a moment, the front of his body feeling warm and a little heavy.

"Nu-uh. Don't worry about it."

"I mean it. Your dad-"

"You realize how much of a turn off mentioning my papa is, right?" She pulled her mouth away from his and he realized that in tilting towards her, he had somehow let go of Maka's hands which fit themselves behind his neck and played with the white hair there.

"I am aware." Soul pushed her off his lap, stood, and offered her a hand. "Come on. You have a father to release."

"You make it sound like he's some wild pet that I'm about to let loose into the wild," she pouted, rubbing at her lips.

"While I'm sure that's what you would prefer, I was thinking we'd just unlock the door and leave him be. What do you say?"

"Why can't we just stay here? We still have an hour before the party."

"You're always nagging me about doing the right thing. And right now, the right thing is to let your dad out of the basement and let him make his own stupid decisions. Have a little more faith, Maka, he's only human."

"Actually, he's-"

"Maka, come on."

"When did you get so responsible?" she grumbled, letting him pull her up and to his side.

"Since you started acting like a kid." He tucked the book into her bag and tugged her towards the door. "Now let's go."

"You hate parties," Maka was saying as they entered the hallway. "Becoming a Death Scythe changed you."

"I said we're going to get your dad. I didn't say anything about going to the party."

"Soul."

"We're going," he reassured her mildly, "but I was banking on us leaving early."

"You don't want to stay longer? It is technically a celebration in your honour, considering that you helped seal the Kishin in the moon."

"Yeah, well, we've had enough of parties and I'd rather not socialize with my parents. It gives me a headache just thinking about them." Maka let his arm rest around her shoulders and she tucked herself in next to him. Soul felt himself relax. It felt like he had won this battle. "We'll unlock the door, enjoy dinner and skip out when they forget about us. How does that sound?"

"I wish we could do that in reverse order, but if that's what makes you happy," Maka sighed, snuggling closer to him, "then okay."

"Good."

"But I do have one request."

"Hmm?"

"You have to read me the rest of my book. Out loud."

"Maka, come on-"

"No chance, Soul Eater Evans. You want me to unleash my dad on the party then fine. But you've got to make it up to me by reading the last few chapters of my novel to me."

He groaned. So maybe he hadn't won the battle. "How many chapters?" He was certain that she could feel his resignation radiating from his soul.

"Thirty two."

"Death help me, Maka, are you serious?"

"Dead serious," she quipped back, stunningly chipper. Had this been her plan all along? No longer did her body hold the reluctance he'd sensed earlier. Maka was completely happy now and it was as if nothing could disrupt the peace that she felt at that moment. She couldn't know that her unlocking of the door would unintentionally lead to Death Scythe coping a feel on one of the witch ambassadors, something she would Maka-Chop him for in a few hours.

But for now, she was happy and, for Soul, that was enough.

Thoughts? Questions, comments or concerns? I hope you all liked this oneshot. It's small but I liked writing it. It helped bring me back to the Soul/Maka mindset. The next chapter of Damsel In Distress should follow soon. Stay tuned!