Infomercials were the worst.
For the past two hours, Soul Eater Evans had been watching the same way-too-cheery man yell into the camera advertising some sort of sleeping bag/blanket/toaster hybrid that, surprise, also somehow had a pocket to store waffles in.
Soul yawned. It wasn't even seven o'clock yet, but he was weirdly tired. Maybe it was the weather. It had been gray and cloudy all day.
I'll just rest my eyes for a couple minutes, he thought sleepily.
The sound of keys rattling in the door jolted him awake.
Crap, Maka's already back? It hasn't even been that long. He checked the clock and jumped up from the couch when he saw the time. Nine thirty?! Oh, man. And she wanted me to clean the kitchen... Which I forgot to do. Oops.
He quickly shoved all the dishes in the sink and wiped off the counter with a towel, then zoomed back to his place on the couch.
Maka opened the door and came in, placing the paper bags of groceries she had been carrying on the kitchen table.
"Hey, Soul," she greeted, starting to unpack the bags.
"Hey," he said casually, throwing a hand behind his head. He looked at his partner and put his hand back down. "Whoa. Uh, Maka?"
"Yeah?" She set down a package of ramen noodles.
"You're soaking wet."
She glanced down at her clothes. He was right, she was completely drenched, and her light brownish-blond hair was dripping water onto the floor. "Oh. It started raining on my way back. But it's okay. It'll be dry in a minute."
"No." Soul got up and pushed her all the way to the bathroom, where he handed her a towel. "You're going to catch a cold or something if you stay in those."
"Soul, I'm fine, really! I have to make dinner, anyway. It's late."
"If you get sick, it won't do any good for the team! You're important, Maka, and as much as I hate to say it, I wouldn't be able to accomplish doing anything without you."
Maka gave a small smile. "That's very touching. But I still need to-"
"Plus it'll suck for you. Staying in bed all day won't help your grades."
She stuck out her tongue. "Are you trying to guilt me into taking a shower?"
"Just take a damn shower," Soul grouched. "I'll make dinner, okay?"
"If it makes you feel better," she teased, closing the door in his face.
Soul unpacked the rest of the groceries. Outside, thunder rumbled loudly as heavy rain beat against the roof. It was really storming out there.
Ramen seemed to be the only food he had time for. He didn't want Maka to come in and have to help him cook. Pouring water over the noodles, he realized he had boiled too much and decided to make tea as well. He put everything on a tray, moved it to the living room table, and looked proudly at his masterpiece.
Tea and ramen.
Incredible.
Just then, he heard the shower turn off and then a loud groan.
"Soul?!"
"Yeah?" He ran over to the bathroom. Maka poked her head out of the door.
"Can you go get me some clothes, please?"
"Um... sure. Does it matter which ones?"
"As long as they're comfortable, not really."
He tentatively entered her room. She hated it when he went in there without asking, so this was a rare thing to see. Everything was perfectly neat and tidy; her bed, her desk, even the floor was spotless.
Kid must be rubbing off on her, Soul thought. Ah, here we go. Her dresser.
He opened a drawer. Socks. All right. He took some and opened another drawer. Pants. Sweatpants should be okay, he said to himself, taking a pair and opening yet another drawer. His eyes flickered to the contents of the box and he nearly fell over and dropped the clothes in his hands. Maka's bras and underwear. He averted his eyes, looked at the ceiling, and quickly swiped some of each. No problem. Cool guys see girls' underwear all the time. Nooo problem.
"Hey, you okay in there?" Maka's voice carried all the way into her room.
Soul yelped and closed the drawer. "Yep! All good in here! Be there in a sec!" He grabbed a random t-shirt and sped off to the bathroom.
"Uh, here you go," he said, looking the other direction and handing the clothes to Maka through the doorway.
"Thanks. And I'm wearing a towel, you know. It's not like I would parade around naked in front of you." She laughed.
Soul said something like "uhyeahokayium" and left.
Sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, he wallowed in self-pity.
Ugh. That was so not cool.
A minute later, Maka came into the room. "Oh, you did make dinner. And you waited for me, too!"
She was wearing the sweatpants and t-shirt Soul had picked out, along with a pair of comfy-looking slippers with little cats on them. Her hair was back in her signature pigtails.
"Where's Blair? Doesn't she want dinner?"
"I don't think she's here," Soul said. "She's been out all day."
"Hm. Okay then. Wanna watch a movie while we eat?" she asked, sitting on the couch with a bowl of ramen in her lap.
"Sure. Any requests?"
"Ooh! How about that action one Black Star let us borrow?"
"I already watched it," Soul said. "Sorry."
"Tsubaki gave us that romantic comedy," Maka said jokingly. "We could always watch that."
"You know what? I can watch the action one again."
Halfway into the movie with their dinner eaten, Maka paused the movie.
"What?"
"Don't 'what' me, Soul."
"Huh?"
"I know how funny you must think you are, but I can assure you, I am not amused."
"What are you talking about?"
"My underwear!" she said. "Did I really have to say it out loud?"
"What about your underwear?!"
"I trusted you to get my clothes, but no, you had to do something dumb like you always do. You're such a boy."
"Maka, I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"You chose the goddamn ones my dad got me! Out of all of the others! I even shoved that stupid thing in the back of my dresser, but you actually dug around to look for it, didn't you?"
"Oh, God. I didn't choose those."
"Then did they just magically appear in your hand?!"
"I closed my eyes and grabbed a pair! How was I supposed to know they were the ones your dad got you?"
"You closed your eyes?" Maka's voice lost all of its anger and she actually giggled at that.
"What's so funny?" Soul felt his face heating up.
"Are you afraid of looking at underwear or something?" Maka laughed harder. "It's not going to jump out at you."
"Shut up," Soul said, shoving her lightly.
"Make me," she said, shoving him back, still laughing.
"Just turn the movie back on, dork."
An hour later, the credits finished rolling and the movie was over. Soul moved to get up, but realized that Maka was resting, no, sleeping, on his shoulder. She looked so tired he didn't want to wake her. He tried to gently remove her so he could go to sleep in his own bed, but her head fell into his lap instead.
Whoops.
He thought of how he could escape the couch without triggering the "oh-crap-I-woke-Maka" alarm, but there was no way.
Whatever. This isn't so bad.
He placed a blanket over himself, also covering Maka's body. She mumbled in her sleep and turned over, pulling the blanket up to her chin.
Soul smiled and touched the sleeping girl's hair lightly with his fingertips.
"Good night, Maka," he said contentedly, letting his ruby red eyes droop as he fell asleep to the sound of her breathing and the steady thrumming of rain.
When Blair got home at around two in the morning, she found both weapon and meister curled up together on the couch with a blanket wrapped messily around them. She shook her head.
"Idiots."