"Soul! Come on already! We're going to be late!" shouted Maka. Her weapon was constantly thinking about his stomach and had insisted that they stop "really quick" so that he could get some smoked salmon from a street vendor. She knew that if she said yes that he'd keep them from getting to Black Star and Tsubaki's apartment on time, but he'd looked so hilariously uncool when he'd begged in the middle of the street and she just couldn't refuse. However, the longer he took to order his food, the more her temper swelled up and if knew what was good for him, he'd – oh. Soul was jogging back across the cobblestone street, to where she was standing, with a Styrofoam bowl in hand.
"It's about time," she huffed, to which he simply smiled and began walking along her. Had the situation come to it, he would've endured a Maka chop if it meant he'd get to snack on some of his favorite food. As he enjoyed his delicacy, Soul knew that despite having to trudge even faster to his friends' house because they hadn't budgeted time for his food run and having to listen to Maka's grumbling, the food was entirely worth it.
Despite initially arriving in a foul mood, Maka warmed up shortly after pulling her weapon across Tsubaki and Black Star's threshold.
"Maka, Soul welcome," greeted Tsubaki with a smile.
"Yes, welcome to your god's humble abode!" Black Star added or rather shouted, causing everyone else, consisting of Kid, Liz, and Patty, to smack their palms over their ears. The late duo found places to sit and engaged in quiet conversation, excluding a certain blue-haired assassin of course, that made the hours breezily pass by.
Checking his watch Kid exclaimed, "Liz, Patty, it is time for us to go. It is exactly eight minutes till eight and we should let our friends enjoy such an hour of perfect symmetry in peace." Before, anyone else could reply, he grabbed both of the sisters' arms and dragged them out of the apartment. The remaining friends confusedly listened to Liz's shouting and Patty's laughs of "good bye" through the door until they faded away altogether.
"Uhhh…well…I guess we should get going too. What do you say Maka?" Said meister nodded in Soul's direction and after thanking their companions for having them over, they began their trip home.
Hands laced together, Maka and Soul originally trudged through the empty streets in silence. However it wasn't long until they lapsed into joking banter which, of course, promptly escalated into a situation composed of an infuriated meister and a weapon carelessly sprawled out on his back.
"Sooooooouuuuullllll!" she whined while tugging his arm nearly out of the socket, "I didn't mean it, really! Can we please just go home?" Soul's only response was to fixedly gaze at the darkening sky above them as if she wasn't there at all. Maka sighed heavily, loosened her grip to the point where his arm was elbow was sagging down to the ground, and bowed her head.
"I'm sorry."
Her head jerked up incredulously at the sound of him laughing uncontrollably.
"Well if you can call me Shark-boy then I'll just have to keep calling you Tiny-tits!" he somehow managed to cackle out between laughs. Maka waited patiently until he finished cracking up before delivering a well-earned Maka-Chop to his cranium and then turned her back on him expecting him to get up and follow her. After a few steps, fortitude all used up, she whirled around angrily to tell him to get a move on but froze when she saw him looking utterly perplexed. Soul had moved into a sitting position and had one arm resting on a knee while the other was tensely wrapped around his throat. Instincts kicking in, Maka immediately traveled to his side and took a knee.
"Soul, what's wrong?" she questioned however the only answer she received was him coughing vigorously into his hand, which certainly did nothing to quell her worry. Unsure of how to aid him, she settled for rubbing small circles on his back however, the coughing only escalated. He jolted forwards onto his knees and supported himself with his one hand whilst the other was over his mouth, as he desperately tried to free the obstruction from his throat. After a few more minutes of figuratively hacking up a lung, Soul felt an accumulation pass out of his mouth and into his hand. Now freely able to breathe, he sighed happily until he thought he felt the mass in his hand move. Unsure, he slowly opened his hand and made a very un-cool like sound and sure enough when Maka looked upon it she shrieked as well.
"Is-is that what I think it is?" she frantically asked. But the most Soul could do was quiver and stare wide-eyed at the saliva covered worm twisting unhappily within his palm. Anxious and fearful, she grabbed it from him and threw it as far away as she could down the street. Maka wiped his saliva onto her skirt and wrapped an arm around Soul's waist.
"Come on, I'm taking you to the hospital." He nodded dazedly as she pulled him to his feet and ushered him hastily down the street.
"It's called Anasakis," the doctor explained, "It's a parasitic nematode that invades fish and marine mammals. Have you eaten any saltwater fish within the past twelve hours or so?"
"I got some salmon from a food vendor some three or four hours before I got here," Soul explained.
"Ah, that would be where you picked the worm up from. You're actually very lucky though Soul, had you not coughed up the worm things would have been much more serious but don't worry, the fiber optics device that we ran through your stomach didn't detect any additional worms. A nurse will be in shortly to release you."
"Thank you so much Doc, but what are the chances that if I eat salmon again, that I'll eat more worms?" Soul asked while cringing at the very thought of this all happening a second time.
"It is very unlikely that you would ingest another Anasakis worm but I would advise you to either make sure to thoroughly cook your fish or to at least avoid getting food from street vendors in the future."
"Will do, thanks again."
As soon as the doctor left the room Soul fell back onto the hospital bed contentedly. He wasn't sure if he'd ever look at raw fish the same way ever again, but it was nice to know that he could still eat it without worrying too much. Maybe Maka could make it for his birthday next week if he felt up to trying it once more. As if on cue, the blonde-haired girl flew through the door and stopped nervously by his bedside. She intently studied him as if expecting him to be missing a leg or something and after accounting for every hair on his head, she pulled over a chair and tiredly sunk into it. Just as she began to open her mouth, he cut her off.
"Please spare me the lecture alright? I know this is entirely my fault," Soul grumbled. Maka shook her head and grasped his hand between her two smaller ones. Her fingers soothingly brushed over his knuckles as, he supposed, she was thinking up some long speech about how they would've been on time to hang out with their friends earlier and she could've been using all the time she spent in the waiting room studying for the test they have tomorrow.
"If only I wouldn't have let you stop for food when we were on our way to Tsubaki and Black Star's, then none of this would've happened. I'm so sorry Soul." He really should've known she'd find a way to blame this all on herself. Soul reclaimed his hand, internally thanked the doctor for already removing his IV, and tugged her chair even closer to the bed.
"It's not your fault," he earnestly said and before she could object he gently pressed his lips to her forehead. When he pulled away she was bright red and he inwardly smirked at his newly discovered way to render her speechless.
"Fine," she stated rather breathlessly, "but it's not your fault either."
"Agreed." Maka warmly smiled at him and threw her arms around his neck.
"Oh and you're so not getting salmon for your birthday dinner this year," she whispered into his ear. Soul hugged her back despite his internal objection to her statement; regardless of what she said now, he knew that she'd give him anything he wanted for his birthday.
Don't be afraid, if you live in the U.S. there are less than 10 cases of Anasakis infections per year. I didn't go through and add more descriptions like I normally do but I hope you still enjoyed it. Please review and let me know if you'd like to read more parasite stories. I just finished taking Parasitology and I'd be happy to share the scare haha (: Thanks!