A/N: This was a prompt given to me from earth-shines on tumblr. Enjoy! And remember reviews are greatly appreciated.
Smoothing down her skirt, Maka mentally prepared herself before embarking on a brief and unknown adventure with her best friend. It was only for one night. One night and everything will be over. Just another dinner between two friends who had known each other since high school along with her mother. That was all it was, and nothing more. There was nothing happening between her and Soul that crossed the line beyond friendship, she had to keep that in mind. No matter how many times his arm draped around her waist or her skin burned when he kissed her neck, it was all pretend.
Their relationship wasn't real.
It was all an act.
Right, because she wasn't dating her best friend she'd been crushing on since forever. She wasn't sleeping with her best friend even though she had fantasized about it countless times. She didn't make out with him on the couch in his apartment no matter how often she wished it were true. Her feelings were one-sided, and this whole thing was a facade, a show. It was a masquerade to make her mother think she was dating the man the other woman had wrongfully accused as her partner. And Maka, being the brilliant person she was, didn't correct her either.
But god did she wish she had.
"Are you ready?" Soul asked, startling her out of her thoughts as he appeared beside her.
"Yeah," she nodded, her voice coming out shaky. He offered her his arm and lowly chuckled at her nervousness.
"Be cool. Everything's going to turn out just fine."
She hated how it was possible for him to be calm and collected during moments like this, especially when she knew he was on edge himself.
"You remember everything I told you, right?"
"Your mom thinks we're together so you want me to pretend that we are by pulling the whole couple thing. I think I got the gist of it." He gave her a look that said she had been nagging about the whole situation to him for the last week.
Giving him a weak smile, she said, "I'm sorry. Just a little nervous about this whole thing." Maka closed her eyes and breathed out heavily. "And I'm sorry for getting you into this mess with me. If I had been thinking straight at the time, I would have told her the truth, but I wasn't and now—"
"Hey," he cut in, turning to stare at her in the waiting room of the restaurant, "we got this, okay. You're my best friend, and I'd do anything for you. Even if it's to pretend we've been dating for three years so as not to kill your mom's hopes, you know that."
"Right, I know." She looked up at him through her bangs and half-smiled. "Sorry."
"Now let's go in there and make this situation as cool as possible, 'kay?"
"Okay."
She marveled at the smoothness of his answers, how he didn't hesitate once when her mother asked about them, why he had fallen in love with her. It was as if he had rehearsed his responses beforehand, like he had expected her to ask certain questions. The sparkle in his burgundy eyes was genuine when he smiled sharply at her or talked about her specifically. His words sparked a gentle fire in her lower abdomen, and she found herself falling even harder in love with him.
But it was an act, a show, a masquerade. He didn't mean any of the words coming out of his mouth, and the sparkle in his eyes was the same one he gave to every friend of his. It wasn't real. Theyweren't real. She had to remember that. Soul was pulling out every trick in the book that he had most likely been practicing for weeks to help plead her case that they were together. That they did spend their nights wrapped in each other's arms or making out on the couch in his apartment. That he had been in love with her for the past three years.
It wasn't real. None of it was real.
Even when he chastely kissed her on the cheek, and pulled her closer to him, his eyes shining with adoration, it was still an act. It didn't matter how much her heart told her he wasn't pretending, that he truly meant every word that was coming out of his mouth. She couldn't allow herself to believe in that. She wasn't going to let herself fall into the trap of getting her hopes up. She wasn't going to be hurt by this facade. No matter how much she wished it were true, it wasn't.
Chills ran up spine as Soul leaned over to kiss her neck, and Maka let out a small, content sigh.
"I love you," he whispered against her skin.
Her eyes flew open, and she stared at him.
That wasn't in the plan.
That wasn't what they had talked about for days on end. She had set up a perfectly well-planned idea for the dinner, and he had promised to stick to it. They were going to pretend to be a couple, and nothing more. The kisses were false, the touches weren't real, and the term of endearment had been kept out because it did things to her. Things that she didn't expect herself to fall victim to as her heart leaped for joy, heat crawled up her skin, and the desire to kiss him — really kiss him — was strong in that moment. There was something behind his red eyes that pierced through her skin as it tried to convey something she couldn't quite set her finger on.
It was something familiar, something she had sensed for years when she was with him. It felt something like desire, like love. The kind of feeling she had only dreamt of him feeling for her because Soul didn't love her. He didn't love anyone, actually. She had known him for years, and not a single girl had stayed in his life for more than a few months. Soul wasn't in love with her, he couldn't be. It wasn't feasible. It wasn't true. It was an act.
"You two are so cute," her mother cooed. Maka slowly turned to stare at the women as if she were crazy, but she didn't pay any attention to her daughter. "I'm going to run the girl's room. Leave you two alone for a while."
She watched as her mother stood up, winked at her and Soul, and walked in the direction of the back of the restaurant where the restrooms were located before turning on the man beside her. A low growl erupted from her throat and fury rushed through her blood. It wasn't fair for him to toy her feelings like that, whether he was aware of them or not. There was a specific plan, and saying those three little words were not a part of it.
"Soul, what are you doing? I thought we had agreed not to say something like that. We aren't a real couple, you know that! We're just friends." She paused and swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. "Best friends, and that's it."
His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed and licked his lips. "I'm sorry, it was just the spur of the moment thing. It felt right, and before I even thought of it, the words came spilling out."
"But that wasn't part of the plan," she hissed. God did she love and hate him in that moment. Her mind was racing with how this was going to affect their relationship while her heart continued to pound with glee, and the world was spinning around her…
Wait. Did he say it felt right?
"I know, but…" He trailed off, and she felt the tension that was building in his chest like a time bomb. Something was bothering him, and it was about to explode. She only hoped it wasn't something too terrible.
"But I didn't say it as part of this show we're putting on for your mom. I meant it, Maka. I really did mean it."
"No," she whispered. "No, you didn't. You just got caught up in the moment. It's completely understandable. Friends don't say those kind of things—"
"I don't want to be just friends with you, though." He took bother her hands in his, and stared at her straight on while her heart thumped loudly for the world to hear. Her blood felt like it was on fire as it surged through her body, and the small gleam in his eyes made her melt. "I do love you, Maka. I love you more than a friend should, actually, and I've been trying to tell you that for years. I agreed to do this because I hoped you liked me too. I mean why else would you not correct your mom when she assumed we were together? If you had only seen me as a friend, you would have told her the truth, probably been repulsed at the idea. But you weren't. You agreed to it, and that's enough for me to believe that you do love me."
She felt herself shaking her head. "But we're friends. We've always been friends and nothing more. You don't love me, you can't. It's not… It's not possible."
Her heart slowed down as he moved a little closer to her, and her skin burned as he cupped her cheek in his hand, guiding her toward him.
"Do friends do this with each other?"
And he kissed her.
He kissed her, and all rational thoughts escaped from her mind as she allowed herself to melt at the smoothness of his lips. She allowed herself to marvel at how well their lips molded together, how her toes curled when his tongue swiped out to taste her, how her heart jolted when his sharp teeth bit her. God did it feel so right, and not at all the kind of kiss that was shared among friends — if there even was such a thing. She felt the desire and love he had kept cooped up for years, and she felt her own coming to the surface and screaming out for more. More of him, more kissing, more everything.
When he broke away from her, she didn't want it to end. She wanted it to continue forever, and as she opened her eyes, the dewiness in hers reflected in his, she thought that maybe it will.
"So?"
Once again she felt her head shaking, but it was for a different reason than before because now she believed him. "No, friends don't do that to each other."
God, did they not kiss with that much ferocity behind it, or kiss at all for that matter!
"Maybe we can try it out again later?" she asked, a coy smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Soul lowly chuckled, his voice rough when he spoke and they caused goosebumps to crawl along her arms. "I'd like that."
They weren't an act, a show, a masquerade. They were real, true, right.
He didn't love her as just a friend, and she didn't love him as just a friend. They loved each other as so much more, and later that night, they expressed that to each other in ways they never thought were possible. In ways they had only dreamed of, imagined. Pent up tension that had built up between them throughout the years was released, and the sound of his name sounded right as it broke through her mouth. The feel of his fingers on her body was needed as fire coursed through her, and she knew it then more than ever.
He loved her, really loved her, and she wasn't going to let him go. She was going to keep him with her because she needed him, she needed his love. She needed to hear her name being called out in the dead of the night, the feel of him moving within her, his body moving as one with hers. She needed all of it. It reminded her of a symphony, slow at first before the climax finally hit, and then it was downhill from there. Their love creating something beautiful as they clashed against each other, and she was grateful for her mistake.
Especially if this was the end result.
It was all thanks to her mother assuming what everyone around them already did, but the two lovers involved were too stupid to realize what was right in front of them all along.
