A/N: I wanted to start this like weeks ago, but life happened... Oh well... New Year fic with my new favorites, Soul and Maka. Sickfic. Some cutesy caring stuff. Some SoMa later on. Rated M because well... let's just say there are multiple layers to meaning of the word 'wet'.
The alarm clock went off with a loud and obnoxious beep beep beep. Soul grumpily slammed his hand on it to turn it off. That's odd… – he thought. – Maka usually wakes me before it has a chance to go off, since she insists that we would be late to school with the time I usually set it to.
Nevertheless Soul scrambled out of bed and began to get ready and dress, then wandered to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Going out to the kitchen he was surprised again. Maka was still nowhere to be found, no sign of the breakfast she usually prepared either. Maka always stressed that breakfast was the most important meal of the day, and always made a fuss about making sure Soul ate something in the morning too. Although he would have been content on just eating some snacks once at school, since his stomach usually woke up later than what his meister had set out for him. Muttering something incomprehensible along the lines of 'annoying, bossy meister' under his breath as he remembered these, he made for her door and knocked on it casually.
"Hey, Maka? You there?" – no answer came so he continued. – "Not that I care, but we are going to be late if you don't get up now." – to that some shuffling could be heard and a few seconds later a very disheveled ash-blond girl emerged from the room. Still in her pajamas.
"Just give me a minute and we can leave." – she said hastily, her voice still thick with sleep, then closed the door on herself once more, probably to get dressed. It didn't escape Soul's attention that Maka's eyes had bags underneath them, like she didn't get much sleep last night.
The albino demon weapon just shrugged his shoulders. Turning back to the kitchen he realized that there won't be any time for Maka to eat if she were to start cooking now, so he got a bowl, and poured some cereal and milk in it for her. That should do it for today.
About five minutes later Maka emerged again. This time fully dressed and Soul was sure that now he was the only one who would able to tell just how tired she actually was. Her eyes wandered to the bowl waiting for her. To tell the truth she wasn't particularly hungry that morning, but she was not about to share that with Soul. There was no need to get him worried.
"Thanks." – she mumbled as she sat down to eat it quickly. Soul noted that her voice was still a bit off.
"You okay, Maka?" – he asked, genuinely concerned. Not that he would admit that. It would be totally uncool.
"Yes, why?" – his meister replied after a beat, trying to be nonchalant. Soul always thought that she was a terrible liar.
"Did you stay up too late to read again or what?" – Soul inquired with a smirk as he watched her spoon the last of the cereal in her mouth.
"Uhuh." – Maka hummed in agreement, her dark green eyes not meeting Soul's red orbs in the process.
"Whatever." – he knew that she was keeping something from him. – "Come on, we should still make it, if we take the bike to school." – normally they would just walk and keep the use of the motorcycle restricted to assignments and missions, but this seemed like a good enough reason to pull her out of the make-shift garage at the back of the complex anyway.
Maka seemed like she wanted to protest and claim that she was totally fine with running to school if they had to, but Soul grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to the entrance, fishing his apartment and motorcycle keys from the bowl by the door and was already nudging her out, barely letting her get her own keys.
Soul ran ahead letting Maka to close up while he got the bike up to the front of the apartment building. Maka sighed as she trotted down the stairs that led up to their flat. Even though she hadn't stayed up late like her weapon had insinuated she was uncharacteristically tired that morning and she knew that Soul knew too.
Within a minute or two the white-haired boy was wheeling the bike out, motioning for her to get on quickly. Maka swung her leg over the seat to position herself behind Soul and hugged him around the waist like she always did when they rode together, but this time she laid her head on his back too.
Soul didn't comment on it. He could feel Maka's soul wavelength fluctuate lazily like it usually did when she was tired or unfocused and just chalked up the change in habit to that. Not that he minded. They were partners and he would be there for her for anything she needed. Even if was being a pillow. In actuality he would have loved it if she were to lean on him like this more often, going beyond the usual support that the weapon-meister partnership would require, but he wasn't about to admit that. So he kept to being unusually protective of his meister when in battle and hoped that one day she would notice the reason behind it.
They reached the stairs leading up to the DWMA without uttering a single word between them. If it weren't for their perfectly attuned soul wavelengths the weapon might have been inclined to think that Maka had fallen back asleep on their way there, but he could tell that she was awake just didn't feel like filling the silence between them.
Getting off the motorcycle Maka really started to wish that she stayed home, but that would have ruined her perfect attendance record on the very last day, her only absences were due to mission related injuries. Give it to the DWMA to have classes even on December 31th. True only a half day but still… it was New Year's Eve for crying out loud.
Glancing up the seemingly endless stairs the meister sighed to herself and began her ascend. Soul watched attentively after her. Something was definitely off if even Maka was reluctant to the idea of school whatever day it was and that sigh couldn't have meant anything else.
He hurried to catch up with his meister after he locked the bike down. She kept her eyes on the top of the stairs, while Soul kept stealing glances at her. The ash-blond girl seemed unusually pale to him now that they were out in the mild winter sun of Nevada.
"What is it, Soul?" – Maka questioned with a hint of annoyance after the umpteenth time she caught him doing that.
"Nothing…" – he shrugged, dropping the subject. She was more irritable than usual and there was no point in getting in an argument. Could she be PMS-ing? – Soul asked himself in thought. He didn't keep record of his meister's menstrual cycle like a certain young Shinigami did with his twin death weapons, thank you very much. That would be waaaay too gross and frankly intrusive in his opinion, but at times like these it would have helped immensely if he had at least an inkling of an idea what might be wrong so he could either steer clear of the danger zone or offer his support.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't even realize that they made it to the Crescent Moon classroom, and on time at that. They took their usual place in the middle row next to Tsubaki and Black*Star. The perceptive and versatile ninja weapon that she was, the black-haired girl spotted right away that something was off about Maka.
"Everything okay?" – she asked her as she placed a hand on her shoulder, glancing between Soul and Maka as if he had something to with the foul mood that his meister was in.
"Yeah, just tired." – Maka replied, putting her head on her desk in front of her. Truthfully, she started to feel like shit, but she wasn't about to admit that. Her throat was kind of scratchy that she hadn't noticed when she woke up, and she was definitely starting to get a headache.
'PMS?' – Soul mouthed at Tsubaki, putting his hands up questioningly, trying to get her opinion, but she just shook her head like she was sure that was not the case with Maka. Are girls that attuned to each other or was she keeping track of that damn thing for her friend too?
Black*Star, who miraculously kept quiet till now and just stared between the three of them, decided now was the best time to draw attention to himself. Pretty loudly at that too.
"Why so glum? No need to be sad that it's the end of the year, because your king is here!" – he yelled obnoxiously, making Maka wince at the sudden noise.
"Shut up, Star, can't you see Maka isn't feeling well?" – Soul tried to defend his meister's interests, but ended up raising his voice to almost the same volume as his blue-haired bro.
"Oww… shut up, both of you." – Maka groaned, still face flat on the desk but she brought up her hands to cover her head.
"Sorry." – Soul offered, in a much quieter tone, but Black*Star just kept going.
"Are you guys coming to Kid's pool party for the evening?" – he inquired still a bit too loud, but at least he wasn't screaming anymore.
It was this moment that Maka remembered the reaper's invitation the day before. In all truth she was looking forward to it. It's not like they had to worry about the weather in this climate but as far as she knew the pool was indoors at Gallows Manor, with slides and everything. It sounded like fun.
"I don't know…" – Soul began as he glanced at Maka to assess the state she was in before answering, but he got interrupted.
"Of course we are going!" – the ash-blond girl perked up, and instead of lying flat on the desk decided to perch her head on her hands with a smile to at least give the semblance of being well enough.
Truthfully she was beginning to think that she might be coming down with a cold, but she was not about to pass up this opportunity. With the way her childhood was – having a meister for a mother and a death scythe for a father – she didn't really ever have the chance to go to the pool or beach with them while young, then their nasty split and subsequent divorce happened, plus her life as a DWMA E.A.T. student didn't help in this regard either.
"I guess we are going then." – Soul affirmed nonchalantly, but kept eyeing Maka for signs if she was really well enough to go but he really wasn't sure with the charade that she was now putting up.
Just then Professor Stein wheeled himself in on his customary stitched up green office chair.
"Okay class, given that your brains are probably already focused on whatever party you are going to tonight…" – he began looking up at the students from behind his glasses. – "Instead of some serious learning how 'bout we go down to the training grounds and practice some soul resonance during this double lesson that we have?" – Stein asked while turning the screw in his head up a few notch.
Everyone seemed relieved by the idea, since they were way past learning doing this. Noticing the sudden elation, the professor smirked evilly as his glasses shined with the light it reflected.
"Group resonance, that is." – Dr. Stein added and a little disappointed whine escaped from almost everyone in the class, since they were hoping they would get off easy with just doing it with their partners.
"Where is Kid by the way?" – Soul wondered as they went outside to the forest area after he had noticed that the young reaper – and by default Liz and Patti too – were nowhere to be found.
"Probably skipping to make sure everything is symmetrical for the party!" – Black*Star laughed loudly at his own joke, which wasn't all that funny. And in all truth it was probably exactly what Kid was doing…
"So it's just the two of us now, huh?" – Maka commented as she held out her hand signaling for Soul to transform to his weapon form after they have reached the grounds, Tsubaki doing the same for Black*Star, taking up her default kusarigama form. Maka wished Kid was here, he acted as a very good intermediary between her and Black*Star for the group resonance to even out their soul wavelengths a bit, but maybe this was a good opportunity to practice, she guessed.
It was always the meister's job to make the link with the other teams in the group resonance, with the weapons usually concentrating on maintaining the pair's resonance in the meanwhile. Resonating with Soul was like second nature to Maka, she could practically do it in her sleep and it came to her easily now too, her throat or head not distracting her one bit.
Black*Star was a whole different story. Even on a good day they had trouble synchronizing, even with Kid's help, but they could manage to keep it up for a few seconds-minutes depending on their concentration. So it wasn't really a surprise that now the minute she tried to interlink their wavelengths the resonance broke off immediately, sending them off from each other, landing Maka on her butt, while Black*Star just did a backflip and ended up on his feet like a good ninja should.
"You okay, Maka?" – Soul asked quietly from his soul space so only Maka could hear.
"Yes, I'm fine." – the meister panted as she got back up.
"Come on, Maka! You can do better than this! Don't bring the star of school down with you!" – the obnoxious assassin shouted as he trotted back to them.
"Be nice, Black*Star, you Maka isn't feeling well." – Tsubaki admonished him from her weapon form.
"You know that's no excuse!" – he yelled.
Maka just gritted her teeth and got back into stance trying to focus even harder.
"Relax, Maka, don't give yourself an aneurysm. This is just a dumb practice lesson." – Soul commented coolly. The meister just a took a deep breath to calm herself and began their pair resonance, the red-eyed weapon joining in as soon as he felt the little nudge from his partner's soul.
They took a little bit more time to make sure their connection was solid before Maka reached out to Black*Star, him doing the same. The same clash of wavelengths happened for a few more tries then all of a sudden after a few seconds that it seemed that their wavelengths will cancel each other out again, by some miracle the resonance connected and their individual soul bubbles merged into one bigger. Soul could feel that it's really taking a toll on Maka to keep it up. Nevertheless she gave it everything she got and they managed to maintain the connection for a whole minute before the blonde had to let go and collapsed on all fours, trying to catch her breath.
Soul and Tsubaki both transformed back to human form without prompting and rushed up to their friend to see if she was okay, with Black*Star following not too far behind.
"Maka!" – her weapon cried out with worry, all pretenses of cool uninterest gone.
"I'm alright just give me a minute." – she managed to say, but in actuality all she wanted to do was go lay down. Stein noticed that they stopped practicing and strolled over to check on them.
"What's the matter kids?" – he asked causally but it was clear to him with his soul perception that Maka had worn herself out in the effort.
"Nothing, we will continue in a second Dr. Stein." – Maka insisted before anyone could say otherwise.
"No I think this was enough for today. You guys are still the only group who can resonate in the class, so I think you earned it. Go home with Soul and rest. There is only a half an hour left of this lesson anyway and I will let Sid know that you guys will be absent from his class." – he said and left them be without another word.
"Cool! Teacher approved skipping!" – Black*Star shouted enthusiastically.
"That didn't apply to you." – Stein commented as he popped a cigarette into his mouth turning back to them.
"Ahhh… maaaan!" – the blue-haired meister punched the air in disappointment and stomped further away in the field.
"Come one, Maka, I'm taking you home." – Soul helped his partner up. Man, she must be really beat if she didn't even try to protest Stein sending her home in the middle of the school day.
"Bye, Maka, I hope you will feel better soon!" – Tsubaki waved after them and Maka gave her a half-hearted wave back.
After they reached the motorcycle and Soul unlocked it, he couldn't keep the question in anymore.
"What's going on, Maka?" – he inquired as he turned his back to look at the girl as she sat on the bike behind him.
"Really, I'm just tired, Soul. Let's go home." – she insisted as she leaned into him the same way she did only a couple of hours ago on the way there.
"If you say so." – Soul huffed, but kicked the engine to life anyway and drove straight to their apartment.
After getting to their building Maka took no haste in claiming that she was in need of a nap and locked herself in her room, leaving Soul clueless in the living room. If they wanted to eat some kind of lunch anytime soon he would have to start cooking now.
The problem was that Soul was a hopeless cook. The most complex meals he could whip up were scrambled eggs and toast sandwiches. Anything else he tried he tended to burn or it, or make a mess that Maka had to clean up afterwards. Oh, well… – he thought. – We can always order take out. It's not like we do it often so we can afford it this one time.
The white-haired weapon stood in the kitchen for a minute contemplating what he should order for the both of them. Thai sounded good from their favorite joint not far from their home. So he quickly called them up ordering their usual and felt very pleased with himself to have averted the lunch crisis.
While he waited for the food to come he popped a movie in the player to watch, but it just wasn't right. They usually watched movies together with Maka, relaxing together on the couch after a long and hard day of training or missions. Soul really missed the sensation of Maka snuggling up to him in this instance.
He sighed and turned the movie off and instead got his guitar from his room and played some tunes. Most people found the music he played and wrote dark and twisted but for some odd reason or another Maka didn't mind at all. Actually when they first met Soul purposefully avoided the crowd at the introduction ball, designed to have weapons and meisters mingle and find the right match for themselves, and retreated to that dark corner with the piano to play his creepy tunes to ward off everyone. Instead that was exactly what Maka found intriguing in him. It was like she could see right through him. Given that she has soul perception it was probably exactly what she did, even is she was not that in control or aware of that ability. But even with that she didn't mind his music at all, and offered to be his meister.
Good times… – Soul mused at the memory. Then the doorbell rang signaling that the food was here. He quickly paid the delivery boy and set the boxes on the kitchen counter.
"Who was that Soul?" – Maka's sleepy voice came from the corner. It seemed the ring of the doorbell woke her up. Crap.
"Just lunch, I ordered some thai." – the albino boy replied. Maka shuffled into the kitchen looking at the boxes with an unreadable expression.
"I'm not that hungry." – she announced after a few beats.
"But this is your favorite!" – Soul was absolutely lost. Maka had never passed up chicken pad thai before.
Seeing her weapon's thoroughly lost expression at the situation, Maka grabbed her box and chop sticks, and sat down at the kitchen table to try and eat some of it anyway.
Soul took his food too and sat down beside her.
"So do you still want to go to that pool party?" – he asked cautiously.
"Of course I do." – his meister replied flatly, like she was just stating the obvious.
"Wanna watch a movie or something?" – the red-eyed boy inquired after he finished. Maka was still picking at her food but it was obvious she wasn't going to finish it.
"Sure." – she answered curtly with a small smile and placed the leftovers in the fridge.
They made themselves comfortable in the small living room, the ash-blonde resting her head on Soul's shoulder. After like twenty minutes she dozed off, sleeping comfortably on her partner. Soul just rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself at the sight.