A/N: Ya know, Soul Eater should have had a Christmas episode, it would've either been really cute or really hilarious. Yeah I know it's a little early for Christmas fics, but once I've got inspiration I have to type it out :) Hope you all find this hilarious and heartwarming, I tried to make it so.
And I STILL don't own Soul Eater
It's the Time To Say "I Love You" – A Soul Eater Christmas Story
"Alright guys, you know the drill," Maka Albarn announced, shaking up a paper bag that contained several folded slips of paper inside. It was a week until Christmas and Maka and her friends had planned to hold this gathering earlier, so as to give eachother more time to shop around. But final exams, combat assignments between all three of the teams, and Death the Kid's insistence that they must meet on an even-numbered date of the month had gotten in the way, so they would have to make do with the circumstances this year.
"Would one of you care to go over this with me one more time?" Kid asked, carefully evening out two piles of books sitting on the coffee table. "I'm not sure I understand—"
"Oh c'mon, don't tell me you've never done a Secret Santa exchange before!" Black Star laughed loudly.
"They made us do 'em in elementary school, it was so uncool," Soul Eater complained. "You pick a name of someone in your class and you have to buy them a gift without telling them it's you beforehand. And every year, I always got some kid I hated."
"So…if we don't like the person, can we put their name back?" Crona asked tentatively, rubbing her right arm self-consciously. "And what if nobody likes me enough to buy me something?"
"No Crona, everyone in here likes eachother fine," Maka said in an assuring tone.
"Most of the time," Kid mumbled, eyeing Black Star out the corner of his eye, who was glugging down eggnog while Tsubaki timed him with a stopwatch.
"And if you get your own name, you have to put it back," Maka continued, as she passed the bag around, each person taking a slip of paper out and glancing at it briefly.
"Psst," Soul leaned over to Kid, and whispered, "Who'd you get?"
Kid quickly glanced around to make sure they wouldn't be overheard, then out the corner of his mouth, "Black Star…"
"Huh?" Soul's brow furrowed as he looked at his own slip, "I got Black Star, too."
"Yeah, me too!" Patti Thompson exclaimed, her sister Liz nodding beside her.
"Same here," Crona mumbled.
"Black Star!" Maka shrieked, shaking her own slip in the air angrily, "You wrote your name on all the slips!"
"Now you all gotta buy me gifts—yahoo!" Black Star pumped his fist in the air, then deflated upon seeing Maka's face. "Hey, take it easy Maka, it was just a joke…"
"Give me those, we'll start over," Maka snapped, snatching everyone's papers away and tossing them in the trash before whirling back around. "Well, I thought this was a nice idea!"
"It is Maka, really," Tsubaki smiled kindly.
"Here, let me write up the names," Liz added, grabbing pen and paper from the writing desk.
"I just wanted all of us to be together this Christmas," Maka addressed the room in general. "I mean, do you know how close we came to not being together?"
Here we go, Soul thought. Sappy speech number five thousand…
"Only six months ago…Asura could have killed us all…Medusa almost killed you, Crona!" Maka swallowed hard, staring down and fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. "I want us to make the most of this time we have—because we may not be so lucky the next time."
"You're absolutely right, Maka," Kid said firmly, "Without you, we all wouldn't be here."
"Chill out, Maka," Soul said warmly, "If you want us to take this seriously, we will—even Black Star."
"Sorry…" Black Star muttered out the corner of his mouth, and Tsubaki patted his shoulder.
"Thanks," Maka said with a small smile, taking the bag from Liz once again. "Now let's try again—"
"And whoever gets me better get me something good!" Black Star announced, digging his hand in the bag and withdrawing a slip, grinning down at the name.
One by one, each person withdrew a name from the bag, finally reaching where Kid and Soul sat. Kid stuffed his hand in and withdrew a slip—then groaned outwardly at the name he had drawn. Soul almost did the same thing when he removed the final name from the bag, barely hearing his meister as she laid down the last minute rules.
"Remember, don't make the gifts too expensive—and don't tell eachother who you got," Maka eyed them all individually before resting her gaze suspiciously on Black Star, "because that ruins the fun."
"Ooh, Maka wants to have fun for once in her life!" Black Star cackled loudly—just before a dense encyclopedia collided painfully with his skull.
Soul wasn't paying attention, he simply shook his head down at the name he had gotten. Of course one of them was sure to pick out their own partner…as his slip read in Liz's tidy scrawl:
Maka
But why did it have to be him?
"Can you turn off that music and help me please?" Maka called out as she entered the apartment several days later, carrying several grocery bags in her arms. Soul sighed and pushed himself away from his computer, where he had spent the better part of the past week combing every online shopping site he could think of for Maka's Secret Santa gift. Moving into the living room, he chuckled as Maka nearly tripped over Blair coming in the door and finally took pity on her as the bags nearly flew out of her grip.
"We just had to have the party here, didn't we?" Soul groaned, taking the bags filled with finger foods, baking supplies, and all those other things women used when they prepared a big holiday meal into the kitchen.
"Kid said his place looks so asymmetrical right now, 'it isn't worthy of our presence,'" Maka said in an exact impression of Lord Death's son, and Soul had to laugh. "So what've you been up to?"
"Last minute shopping—I swear, the internet is a God-send," Soul sighed, happy with how much he had accomplished that day. He sent out a brief email to his parents and brother, wishing them a half-hearted "Merry Christmas" and bought gifts on expedited shipping for everyone he could think of—except the person standing beside him, shoving all of the cold grocery items into their fridge. It was two days until Christmas, and now Soul just had half a mind to run to the nearest Bones & Noble and grab the first book he saw. Yeah sure, get Maka a book, just like he had every other year—except he didn't want to.
Even though he had tried to brush off what Maka had said the night they all got together, Soul knew everything she had said was true. They could have died, every single one of them had fallen victim to Asura's crushing madness. Soul had taken the blast for his meister—again—and he would continue to until the day it killed him, no matter what Maka berated him to do otherwise. He had collapsed into her arms, hearing Maka scream his name over and over, feeling her tears fall on his face as she cradled his head in her lap—he had struggled to open his mouth and formulate the words he wanted her to hear, the words he was always too cool to say out loud, even though he felt them in the deepest part of his soul ever since the first time it had resonated with hers. But the suffocating blackness of unconsciousness had consumed Soul before his true feelings for the strong, compassionate girl who wielded him could be voiced aloud. And there he had remained until he awakened to a cry, an earsplitting soul-breaking cry that defined the very depths of fear and pain they had all fought against for so long—Maka's cry as Asura tortured her, forcing her to succumb to her fright, and Soul could do nothing but lie there and listen to her. Maka had almost died…just imagining the possibility of losing his beloved partner was enough to make Soul throw up. And it was the heart of his desire to make Maka's Christmas gift better than any stupid book could offer her.
"What is this anyway?" Maka asked waving her hand in the air to indicate the music Soul had playing through the surround sound speakers.
"Swing 'n Soul Christmas," Soul replied as an upbeat jazz rendition of Let It Snow started up. "We can turn it off if you—"
"No, I like it," Maka insisted, sitting down on the couch slowly as she stared off into space, listening to the seemingly effortless piano grooves and saxophone riffs. "It's so…you."
"Yeah well, like I said," Soul smiled slightly as he sat beside her and leaned back, closing his eyes, "This is the kind of guy I am." For a while they both just sat and listened until the final track faded out, and Soul opened his eyes again to see that Maka wasn't smiling anymore—in fact, she looked kind of depressed. "You okay?"
"Yeah…I'm just thinking about something," Maka spoke into her lap, her hands wringing together.
"You wanna talk about it?" Soul asked, trying to peer at her downcast face through her ash blonde bangs.
"This time of year…I mean I love it, I love how cheerful everyone is and exchanging gifts. But…it's just never going to be the same for me."
It took a few long moments of pondering before the realization dawned on Soul all at once, and he nodded slowly, "You're talking about the divorce…aren't you?"
Maka looked up at him and nodded in response, "Last year, I didn't really think about it—I mean how could I? The Kishin had been revived that night and we had all barely scrapped through that one alive—last year, it was the furthest thing from my mind. But now…now it's all I've been thinking about." The corners of her mouth turned upward slightly in reminiscence, "Christmas was…amazing when my folks were still together. Mama and Papa were fighting all the time, but they always managed to put it all aside for me, 'cause they knew I loved the holidays so much. It was the one time of year…we were all really close, you know?"
"I can imagine," Soul answered, draping his arm across the back of the couch behind her.
"There was one year when I was really young, and there was this huge blizzard on Christmas Eve," Maka went on—the smile was gone again. "Mama said she'd be home at five sharp, so me and Papa waited for her before we ate, decorated the tree, watched Christmas movies on TV, all the things we did together as a family. We waited for four hours…then Papa turned on the TV and saw there was a five car pile-up on the expressway Mama took home every night—no survivors. I was only six and stupidly naïve thinking that nothing bad could ever happen to me and the people I loved. And there I was, sitting in my Papa's lap while he held me close, sure that my Mama was never coming back."
Soul instinctively reached for Maka's hand and she grasped onto it firmly, brushing away a couple tears that had escaped down her cheeks. "Turns out Mama was fine though, we just couldn't get ahold of her 'cause of the storm. But I learned something that night…and I learned the same thing again when you almost died against Crona, Soul—and it's that in this world, anyone is up for grabs. No matter how much you love someone, you can't protect them from everything that's out there, and you never realize how much you care about someone until you think you've lost them." Soul knew, he knew exactly how it felt—was she reading his mind? "That's why I wanted to spend this Christmas with our whole group, to feel that togetherness…that I'm never going to have again now that Mama and Papa have separated. I know I act like it doesn't bother me most of the time, that the divorce was for the best and Mama did the right thing by leaving. But it still hurts, Soul…it hurts so much."
"You miss her a lot, don't you?" Soul said quietly, wrapping his arm around her while Maka rested her head on his shoulder, still holding tightly to his hand, and she nodded with a small sniffle.
"But it's alright," Maka said in a distinctly more cheerful tone. "I have you—and I have Tsubaki and Black Star, and Kid, Liz, Patti, and Crona. I'm surrounded by people who would do anything for me, and it means more to me than any of you will ever know." She sat up and smiled at Soul, squeezing his hand, "Sorry I rambled on and on, I didn't mean to dump all of that on you."
"It's cool," Soul shrugged—the smile on her face didn't reach her olive green eyes, which were still sad and pained. But that was going to change, Soul swore to himself as Maka got up to go to the kitchen and prepare lunch. Maka was going to feel that togetherness she longed for once again.
Because Soul was going to get his meister the perfect gift for Christmas…
"You're insane," Kid said, sipping from his Deathbucks coffee casually as he and Soul sat together in a booth.
"First Black Star, then you!" Soul exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation. Of course he had told both of the guys that Maka was his Secret Santa—Soul Eater was never one to play by the rules. His gift plan, however, garnered a more undesirable reaction from them. "Why does everyone keep saying this is such a crazy idea?"
"Because no one's been able to locate Kami Albarn since she took off," Kid said simply, "Not even my father—she was one of the first people he tried to contact when Asura was revived. She's covered her tracks incredibly well, which I take to mean she merely doesn't want to be found."
"Kid listen, I gotta do this," Soul said with a soft desperation. "Maka wants to be reunited with her mother more than anything. You didn't hear her yesterday; she told me how much this divorce has hurt her. Finding her mom, spending Christmas with her mom—it's the best gift I could possibly give her!"
"Soul, I understand your intentions, but this is one of the greatest meisters to ever graduate from the DWMA we're talking about," Kid explained. "And Christmas is at midnight tonight. To find and bring Kami to Death City all in a matter of sixteen hours—you're asking for the impossible, Soul."
"I'm gonna find her, whether I get your help or not," Soul said, gritting his sharp teeth determinedly. "You'll see, Maka's gonna have the best Christmas ever. She'll be so damn happy when she sees her mom that she'll—"
"Fall into your arms in gratitude and tell you she loves you?" Kid offered with a teasing yet knowing grin.
"It's got nothing to do with that…" Soul muttered, his face reddening a bit.
"Indeed," Kid smirked, lining the salt and pepper shakers up perfectly evenly before folding his hands in front of him. "Alright, let me see what I can do."
"You sure about this?" Soul asked as they entered the Academy library a little later, Kid walking with a confident spring in his step towards the thin, stern woman at the desk.
"Trust me, I'm the son of Lord Death," Kid answered, flipping his student ID around to show the weapon his family crest on the back. "They can't refuse me."
"May I help you kids?" the nasally librarian with a bird-like nose drawled, peering down at the two boys who had approached her desk.
"Yes, we would like access to the upper levels, please," Kid said politely, handing her his card.
"I'm sorry, but you're currently a one-star meister and I can't—"
"On the back," Kid cut in on cue, as if he had to go through this every time. He never got tired of the look of shock on people's faces when they saw who he was.
"Oh pardon me!" the woman said, flustered. "I didn't realize you were Lord Death's son."
"A common mistake, it's no trouble," Kid replied pleasantly, taking his card back as Soul sighed impatiently and checked his watch. "Anyway, we're in a bit of a hurry so if you could direct us to the fourth floor, there's someone we need to track down and soon—"
"The fourth floor—?"
"It's for my meister, Maka Albarn," Soul added.
"Oh, you're the weapon of Death Scythe's little girl," the librarian said in realization, "The one who defeated the Kishin."
"Yeah, and I need to find her mother—three-star meister Kami Albarn." Soul glanced over at Kid, who grinned back as if to say, "We've got this…"
"In that case—I'm sorry, I can't help you."
"What, why not?" Kid exclaimed, not unlike a spoiled child who was always used to getting his way.
"The fourth floor is exclusively for Death Scythes and faculty, no one else," the librarian explained in a businesslike tone. "Furthermore, you must be a blood relative of Kami Albarn for me to even begin searching for information on her whereabouts."
"It's…for a Christmas present…" Soul started, then faded out feebly. Yeah, like that's gonna change her mind. Sure enough, the thin bird-like woman shook her head in finality.
"You dumbass!" Soul bellowed at Kid once they left the library and gotten outside, "You said this would work!"
"How was I supposed to know they closed off the fourth floor?" Kid cried anxiously as Soul raised his fist to him. "If you were a Death Scythe, we could have gotten up there no problem!"
"Hey, Maka and I are working on it, alright?" Soul said defensively, lowering his fist and running that hand through his hair as they rounded the corner behind the library building. Dammit…it was the best gift idea ever, too. I can't give up this easily—there's gotta be another way to find out where she is and get her here in time. It was then that he noticed the back of the library building, and he looked up to the fourth story windows, thinking hard…
Kid noticed immediately where Soul was looking, the wide smile spreading across his face showing his sharp teeth, and the Grim Reaper shook his head viciously, "You are not thinking about doing what I think you're—!"
"Let's call up Black Star," Soul grinned up at the roof, "I think we're gonna need his first rule of assassination more than ever now."
"Ya-HOOOOO! I, the great assassin Black Star, master of stealth shall assist you!"
"Shut up, moron, you're gonna ruin the whole thing," Soul hissed as the three boys ducked back behind the library building later in the afternoon. He noticed the hyper blue-haired meister was carrying a stout rope instead of his devoted chain scythe. "What do you need the rope for—couldn't you just bring Tsubaki?"
"Hell no, she's too busy getting ready for the party," Black Star rolled his eyes, "She's been cooking all day—but at least the apartment smells good!"
"Liz and Patti left for the salon—at nine 'o clock this morning," Kid sighed and shook his head. "I sure hope they take all this time to make sure their makeup and hairstyles are perfectly even."
"Shit, Maka's gonna kill me for not being around to help her straighten up the place," Soul grumbled, hastily checking his watch. "If I don't get back by six, she's gonna Maka-chop me into the next dimension."
"Hey, you're doing this all for her, aren't you?" Black Star said, throwing the grappling hook up to the roof where it caught with a loud clang. "She'll understand once she realizes that."
"Thanks dude, I hope you're right," Soul said, slapping him a high five as the three of them began to ascend the rope to the fourth floor. After yelling at Kid to stop pausing to admire the symmetrical architecture of the building, Soul used his scythe arm to slice a neat hole through the glass window so all three of them could hop through it.
"First rule of assassination," Black Star whispered, landing in a ninja stance on the floor in the darkened room lined with bookshelves and file cabinets. "Immerse yourself in the darkness and erase your breath—"
"Less talking, more looking," Kid interrupted him as he and Soul ran over to the wall lined with file cabinets. "I'm sure they're sorted alphabetically."
"Good, then she'll be one of the first ones," Soul said, using the tip of his scythe arm to unlock the cabinet labeled "A-L." As his arm shifted back to normal, he wrenched open the drawer and ran his finger hastily across the tabs, "Aarmand…Adams…Afred… Albarn!" Soul whipped out the contents and saw to his dismay that there were only two files—Spirit Albarn, "Death Scythe" and Maka Albarn, "Academy Student: One-Star Meister"
"Guys, I think we got company," Black Star said in a loud stage whisper, hearing voices and footsteps outside in the hallway.
"Shit, she's not in here!" Soul said a bit loudly.
"Maybe she doesn't use the name 'Albarn' anymore," Kid suggested, his forehead beaded with sweat as the voices outside grew louder. "What's Kami's maiden name?"
"I have no idea." Soul never even thought to ask Maka that in all the time he'd known her. He flipped open Spirit's file and scanned it as a loud banging on the door jolted all of them. "…Spirit his wife Kami (both Class of '94) lived together in Death City with their only daughter Maka until October 2008, when a divorce between the two was finalized. His former meister and wife's whereabouts are uncertain, although evidence suggests that she is believed to currently reside in—!"
"Drop the files son, and hands where I can see 'em," the low rumbling voice of the cop standing behind Soul, jabbing a black club into the weapon's back. Soul looked around as the files were taken from his grip, and saw the stern librarian standing with two more cops that had apprehended a feisty Black Star and a sniveling Kid as well…
"What time is it?" Black Star whined from the corner of the juvenile cell the three boys sat in, leaning his head wearily against the wall. For breaking and entering, the three of them were sentenced to a night in confinement unless they could be bailed out. Since each was given the customary one phone call, naturally they had immediately contacted their female partners.
"It must be close to seven," Kid answered, thankful that Black Star had grown tired of bellowing about how "No jail cell could hold the immortal Black Star!" He sighed deeply, "Please Liz, check your voicemail…"
"Aw don't worry, Tsubaki'll get us all out!" Black Star said confidently, "She was practically crying when I told her where I was."
"I think Maka busted my eardrum when she started screaming at me through the phone," Soul muttered, poking at his ear with his finger, "Goddammit…Goddammit it all!"
"You gave it your best shot, Soul," Kid said comfortingly. "Maybe it just wasn't meant to happen."
"I was so close, and then they had to just yank that file away from me!" Soul yelled, pounding the cot he was slumped on. "This Christmas could not be any more uncool…"
"Alright boys, bail's been posted," came the voice of the cop that had taken the file from Soul, and they looked up to see the burly man unlock the cell bars. "Get outta here."
"Black Star!" a hysterical, almost motherly voice cried out, and Black Star felt himself being engulfed into a hug by Tsubaki, dressed up to the nines in a cream party dress with her black hair piled on top of her head.
"Kid, you idiot—we were in the middle of something very important here!" Liz elbowed her way through, wearing a tight black mini dress and holding her hands up with her fingers spread apart to indicate a newly applied and still very wet manicure.
"Kid went to jail! Kid went to jail!" Patti sang out, hugging her meister tightly around the neck and bouncing up and down, giggling like a hyena.
"Quiet Patti, I've been humiliated enough for one day!" Kid moaned into his hands. "And not one word about this to my father from either of you, understand?"
"Listen," Soul said to the cop, his hands shoved into his pockets. "About the break-in—it's not those guys' fault. It was all my idea; they just went along with it."
"We've gathered that much, Soul…the question is why?" The reply came not from the cop, but from the man standing in a patchwork white lab coat and blinding white spectacles, a cigarette dangling from his lips as Soul turned to see Professor Stein in the doorway. And beside him, in a velvet green party dress with her ash blonde hair in loose wavy curls, looking at her weapon as if he had committed a murder, was Maka.
"Hey," Soul sighed in relief as he went up to her, "Thanks for bailing me—"
"Don't you say a word," Maka seethed, folding her arms tightly across her chest, her glare never wavering.
"Dramaaaaaa…" Liz sang under her breath awkwardly as she eyed the weapon and meister pair.
"Alright kids, it's Christmas Eve, so let's move along," the cop ordered, shoving the lot of them out the door. "You look like you all got somewhere to be."
"I'm not going anywhere until these nails are dry!" Liz cried as she and Patti raced back to Kid's mansion.
"We'll see you guys a little later!" Tsubaki called as she and Black Star headed home, just as Stein rounded on Soul.
"I highly doubt you were getting a head start on next semester, Soul," the professor stated, turning the clanking screw in his skull. "So why exactly did you break into the library?"
"I—I can't tell you," Soul said uncomfortably, glancing over at Maka briefly. "Sorry."
"Sorry?" Maka yelled, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him down the street back to the apartment. "You've done some stupid things, Soul, but this takes the cake! 'Sorry' isn't gonna cut it this time!"
"Professor Stein?" Kid said once Soul and Maka had rounded the corner. "Soul…wasn't trying to do anything wrong. He just needed some information—"
"—about Maka's mother?" Stein finished for him, and he withdrew from behind his back a manila file. "This was confiscated from Soul when you three were discovered on the fourth floor of the library."
"It was…supposed to be a gift for Maka," Kid began hesitantly before launching into the whole story, Stein listening intently with a faint smile on his face…
"Alright, Secret Santa time!" Patti announced happily a few hours later, when everyone was sitting around Maka and Soul's apartment dressed in their holiday best. Even Crona wore a plain red dress and a Santa hat perched in her lavender hair, feeding a candy cane to her noisy weapon Ragnarok. Despite the fiasco of earlier that evening, everyone seemed to be having a pleasant time—save for Soul. He had barely touched his dinner, even though Tsubaki and Maka had outdone themselves with the feast, and spent most of the evening sitting moodily in the corner with his arms folded, occasionally getting up to switch the album playlists on the music playing through the speakers.
"I'll start us off," Maka said cheerfully, moving under the tree and picking up a long vertical box. "Merry Christmas, Patti!"
"Giraffe!" the blonde pistol exclaimed happily once she'd opened the box to reveal a rather large stuffed Build-a-Giraffe, "Thanks a bunch, Maka!" She dove under the tree and grabbed her box, practically shoving it under Crona's nose, "Here!"
"Uh, okay," Crona said cautiously, gingerly picking at the wrapping paper.
"You're supposed to rip into it, idiot!" Ragnarok scolded her just as Crona's gift was revealed to be a cosmetic make-up bag.
"What do I do with this?" Crona asked. "It's all plastic-y and there's a bunch of pointy things inside…"
"It's for your face, silly!" Patti giggled. "I'll show you later!"
"This is yours, Kid," Crona mumbled, staring down at her feet as she handed a flat package over to the young Grim Reaper, who tore into it eagerly.
"It's—it's beautiful!" Kid exclaimed, holding up a framed and perfectly symmetrical painting of the number 8. "The exquisite detail, the flawless execution—Crona, you're an angel!"
"I can't take this anymore, where's mine?" Black Star yelled, plowing through the presents under the tree until he found one with his name on it. "Here we go!"
"Black Star, you're supposed to wait until your Secret Santa—" Tsubaki sighed in defeat as her energetic meister ripped off the lid of his box.
"A bag of coal?" Black Star shouted out as he pulled the contents from the box. "And…a roll of duct tape?"
"To keep your big yap shut," Kid muttered unnoticed, hiding a smile behind his hand.
"Who the hell would give the great Black Star such a totally lame present?"
"I haven't the faintest idea," Kid replied, grinning a little too broadly.
"You think your gift is lame?" Liz exclaimed angrily, waving an envelope in the air. "All I got was a card and a piece of paper with your autograph!"
"A piece of paper touched by my greatness is best gift anyone could get!" Black Star said, clearly pleased with himself. "You should be kissing my feet in thanks, Liz!"
"You can kiss my hard Brooklyn a—!"
"Moving on!" Maka cut in, getting really annoyed that this wasn't going as smoothly as she had planned.
"Here Tsubaki, Merry Christmas," Liz said tersely, trying to keep her temper down as Tsubaki unwrapped her present.
"Oh Liz, this is gorgeous," Tsubaki gushed, her eyes welling up a bit as she held up a silky violet kimono with curved star designs patterning it.
"I thought it would bring out your eyes—and remind you of home," Liz smiled as she and Tsubaki embraced, and Maka gestured to them as if to say "Now this is more like it!"
"Soul?" Tsubaki approached the scythe weapon still moping in the corner and handed him a flat package, "Merry Christmas."
"Hey, Contemporary Jazz for Piano Volume 3," Soul brightened up a bit when he unwrapped his gift. "This was sold out at the sheet music shop last time I checked."
"Probably because I bought the last copy," Tsubaki grinned sheepishly, and Soul got up to hug her in thanks.
"Hey, there's nothing left under the tree," Crona noticed, pointing to the bare base of the skinny evergreen. "Are we done?"
"No, Soul hasn't given his present yet," Liz said with her brow furrowed, and Kid and Black Star exchanged a quick look out the corner of their eyes.
"Yeah Soul, who was your Secret Santa?" Patti asked, oblivious to the fact that Soul had turned away in indignity.
"Well, let's do the math," Tsubaki counted off on her fingers, "If Patti had Crona, and Crona had Kid, and Kid had Black Star—"
"You gave me those stupid presents?" Black Star roared at Kid, who had to fight to keep from laughing.
"—Black Star had Liz, and Liz—"
"It's Maka," Crona pointed silently to their hostess, who was standing idly by the tree, her formerly cheerful face having fallen when she saw no wrapped box for her under the tree.
"Soul had Maka?" Patti asked.
"You didn't get your own meister a Christmas present?" Liz added as her eyebrow rose in disgusted scrutiny at Soul.
"Geez Soul, what a jerk!" Black Star bellowed in an unconvincing display of feigned ignorance. "Is it so hard to run down to Bones & Noble and get her a book—ow, my face!" He fell backward off the couch as Kid delivered a hard punch to his nose.
"Is that true, Soul?" Maka asked quietly, facing her weapon with a dejected gaze. "Am I your Secret Santa?"
"Yeah," Soul turned back around to face her, angry at himself, angry that he caused her to look so upset right now because he was the most uncool, stupidly useless weapon on the face of the earth. Angry that he had put all his faith in one perfect plan he was sure would succeed—the plan that had come up horribly short and not only landed him in jail, but pretty much killed his Christmas spirit.
"Well—it's—it's not about the presents, right?" Maka forced a smile, but in her eyes Soul could practically see her heart breaking. "They're just things…it's the thought that…that counts…" She wasn't fooling anyone, not even herself as she avoided everyone's eyes by staring at the floor, biting her lower lip.
"Maka…" Soul began, feeling a hard lump form in his throat the longer he looked at his pained and disappointed meister. "I tried, I really tried. I was gonna give you the best—" He was cut off by a soft knock at the apartment door.
"I know this sounds selfish Soul…but you really screwed up," Maka shook her head, repulsed as she moved to answer the door. "I wasn't expecting anything fancy, I wasn't expecting anything expensive, but I thought maybe, just maybe, after everything we've been through together this year, you could have gotten me a little something that shows just how much our partnership—our souls' resonance—has meant to you. But apparently you're too cool to give a damn." Her words hurt him deep, but he knew he deserved them as Soul turned away and hung his head, not even looking up when Maka finally opened the door.
It was only when Maka gasped aloud at the person standing there that Soul did look up. A tall slender woman with olive green eyes and a soft loving smile—judging by Maka's expression of stunned ecstasy, there was no denying who this person was.
"Mama…?"
"Maka," Kami Albarn said softly, nodding. "It's been awhile, sweetheart…"
"Oh my God…" Maka whimpered, pressing her hands to her mouth. "You're here, you're really here." Kami opened her arms as her daughter burst into tears and flung herself into her long absent mother's embrace—holding her, inhaling her scent, unable to believe that the woman she cherished above everyone else was here after months and months of separation.
"Maka's mom?" Black Star gaped in astonishment as Tsubaki began to cry silently at the touching reunion. "But I thought we couldn't—"
"I thought the same thing," Kid responded in wonderment, absentmindedly handing Liz and Patti tissues as they blubbered, "This is so sweet!"
"I—I can't believe this, I just can't," Maka choked out, pulling back slightly as Kami gently brushed the tears from her daughter's cheeks. "How—why—when did you get here?"
"About a half an hour ago, it was awfully short notice," Kami said rather tearfully herself. "But someone told me that if I came here immediately to see you—it would be the best Christmas gift you could ever get."
Maka felt as if a ton of bricks had just crashed over her head as all the pieces suddenly fell into place. Slowly, not caring that her face was blotchy and streaked with mascara-soiled tears, she turned to face her partner, who had long recovered from this miraculous happenstance and was grinning broadly.
"You…Soul, you…the file in the library…this was all for…?"
"Merry Christmas, Maka," Soul said barely above a whisper. He couldn't help blushing a little as his meister flung her arms around him next, laughing and crying at once into his shoulder—why did she have to act like such a girl sometimes?
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I got so mad at you—"
"It's cool," Soul replied, embracing her just as firmly as she was him.
"No Soul, you don't know how much this means to me," Maka said earnestly, pulling back and pressing her hand to her heart.
"I think I've got some idea," Soul said quietly. "When it comes to my meister...I'll do whatever it takes for her." And at that, to the astonishment of everyone else in the room, Maka cupped his face in her hands and crushed her lips firmly into his. For a while there was silence, broken only by the swelling melody of Oh Holy Night wafting from the speakers.
"Thank you…thank you so much…" she whispered as they broke apart moments later, "I love you."
"I love you too, Maka," Soul whispered back, pecking her lips again briefly. "Now quit crying all over me and go hug your mom." Maka squeezed his hand one more time before breaking away to go introduce her mom to everyone else, saving Soul for last, and once the festivities started up again, Soul pulled Kid aside.
"What the hell just happened?"
"A Christmas miracle," Kid said in the tone of a Hallmark card.
"Bullshit," Soul drawled. "C'mon, this doesn't make any sense!"
"Sometimes it doesn't have to; not everything has a rational explanation," Kid shrugged. "Maybe there is no reason, maybe someone just heard your wish and decided to fulfill it…maybe you've got someone up there looking out for you…"
"Maybe Soul should have come to me first instead of trying to take matters into his own hands," Stein chuckled lightly to himself, sitting smoking a cigarette in his car after he had dropped off Kami Albarn, having tracked her down in a matter of hours using a bit of information from Spirit's file—and a lot of luck. He couldn't deny that when Kid had told him of Soul's intentions, he was immensely pleased and willing to go out of his way to see his gift for Maka through.
"He may be lazy in the classroom, but he'd do anything for his partner," Stein mumbled, tossing his cigarette out the window. "Isn't that what this season is all about in the end? It's not the shape or the size of the gift that matters…
…it's the soul behind it that counts."
A/N: I did base this story off a Christmas special I used to watch as a kid, so I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did writing it :) HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Oh, and reviews are cool, so please leave one on your way out!