CHAPTER 1: new emotions

Maka's P.O.V

The bell rang, school was over. I stood and left the classroom, my partner, Soul Evans at my side. He had his hands in his pockets and the usual emotionless expression on his face. I sighed a little as we headed for the door.

"Hey Soul...is something bothering you? You seem stranger than usual." I commented, and he looked up, his crimson eyes meeting mine.

"Eh? Nah, I'm fine." I looked uncertain but didn't say anything else. As we stepped outside, I heard a voice calling my name.

"Yo, Maka! Over here!" It was Black⭐Star. I turned towards him, then glanced at Soul. He shrugged.

"I'll see you later." He walked off, leaving me to go see Black⭐Star. I walked over and sat down on the bench next to him.

"Hi. You wanted me?" I asked, and he nodded a bit.

"Yeah, I just wanted...t-to say thanks!" I was confused by this point.

"Thanks for what?" I asked. He sighed.

"You know, for being a friend?" He hesitated on those words. I blinked, still confused.

"Okay...your welcome then. I enjoy being a friend." I told him, and he grinned. That seemed more like him. The blue haired boy stood up and glanced towards the direction where he and Tsubaki lived.

"Well, I guess..." He didn't ever finish. Liz and Patti ran up the road from their house. They grabbed my wrists.

"Maka, come on! We're going shopping!" I struggled to get away. Liz was always trying to get me to wear more revealing clothes.

"No, get away from me!" I exclaimed, kicking and struggling. I saw Black⭐Star snicker a little bit and shot him a glance. He shrugged a bit. Eventually, Liz and Patti let go of me and stood there, gasping for breath.

"You fight hard, Maka!" Liz exclaimed, glancing up at me. Patti grinned.

"Sissy's right!" She said in her cute voice. I had managed to hold them off this time, but they would try again, of that I was sure. Finally, they stood up and Liz turned to Patti.

"We'd better leave her be. She obviously doesn't want to shop right now." I breathed a sigh of relief as they walked away. Finally they realized that! I took a moment and glanced back towards where Black⭐Star had been, but he was gone. Probably left for his own house. I should probably get back to the apartment where Soul and I lived. I slowly walked towards it, head down as I was deep in thought.

~At the apartment~

"Yo, Maka! What did Black⭐Star want to see you for anyway?" Soul asked as I opened the apartment's door and stepped inside. I shrugged.

"He just said thanks for being a good friend." I explained as I headed towards my bedroom. Soul followed me.

"Did he say anything else?" I shook my head.

"He might have, but Liz and Patti made an attempt to make me go shopping with them." Soul chuckled a little bit.

"Don't they always." He stated simply, then continued.

"So Star didn't say anything else." I shook my head.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." I was getting annoyed from Soul's questions already. This wasn't his business! I gently pushed my partner out of my room and closed the door.

"Just leave me alone right now, Soul. I'll talk to you later." I said quietly. Once inside, I flopped down on my bed. What had Black⭐Star wanted to say? He had seemed about to say something else before Liz and Patti came to drag me away. I sighed and lay back on the bed, closing my eyes. Before I even knew it, I was fast asleep.

Black⭐Star's P.O.V

I kicked a rock down the side of the road on my way towards my own house. Why couldn't I just say it? Thank goodness Liz and Patti had come and decided to try to take Maka shopping at that moment, it gave me a chance to get away. Maybe I should just think about this a little bit more, before deciding to say anything to anyone. Yeah, I know that sometimes I'm a jerk, but even I have thoughts and feelings sometimes. As I entered my house, I saw that Tsubaki was already there, waiting. She looked up as I came in, and for a brief moment, I felt comfort at the simple thought of being home with my partner. Then that feeling faded, as my own personality had forced emotions like that to. I was a Star! Stars can't have simple feelings like that! Tsubaki looked over at me.

"Black⭐Star, are you okay?" I jumped a little as she spoke, then nodded.

"Just fine..." She frowned and we went into the living room and sat down on the couch.

"You don't sound fine." She stated. I sighed and turned away, not wanting to tell anyone just yet, not even my own partner. She put her hand over mine, and I realized just how small her hand was compared to mine. I lifted my gaze to her face and a small, faint smile was there.

"Black⭐Star, you know you can talk to me. If this is something you want to keep to yourself though, that's fine." I was thankful for her understanding. She always seemed to be there for me when I needed a friend. I managed a small smile.

"Thanks, Tsubaki." There was silence. Then Tsubaki stood up again.

"Well, I guess I'll talk to you later." Without explaining why, she turned and left the room. I watched her go in confusion.

"Okay, weird..."

~On the way to school the next day~

"Hey, Maka!" It was Liz and Patti. For some reason, Kid wasn't with them. That was fine by me! Kid and I never really got along anyway! I watched as Maka made her way towards the other girls, and Tsubaki went to join them. I just wanted to talk to Maka, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, so instead I just watched them as they giggled and talked, and I saw Maka glance over at me once or twice. As the group began to disperse as the school bell rang, I ran to catch up with her.

"Maka." I greeted her. She looked at me with those emerald green eyes, and for once I had no idea what to say!

"Black⭐Star, are you okay?" I had heard the question so many times! I looked up.

"Yeah! How can someone not be okay when they're as big a star as me!" I exclaimed, trying to cover up embarrassment with some of my own personality. Maka rolled her eyes, but to my surprise, didn't slam a book into my head, which I was thankful for. Finally, we reached the school. I didn't know what I was more eager for, professor Stein's class, or getting away from Maka, she made me a little bit awkward. At the same time though, I didn't want to leave her. Stein's was our first class today. I took my seat next to Tsubaki in the second row, while Soul and Maka sat one row above us. Professor Stein addressed the whole class.

"Class, today we are doing battle training. Soul resonance." I blinked in surprise. Usually, Stein just wanted to dissect something in the class. I was excited now. He spoke again.

"You will work in groups. Two meister and weapon pairs. Find your partners and then meet me in front of the school." He turned and walked out of the classroom. This was different! I saw Kid and the Thompson sisters looked around, probably looking for a perfectly symmetrical partner. Well, Kid was out of luck there. There wasn't a single person here aside from him who was perfectly symmetrical. Maka walked up to me and Tsubaki and poked my shoulder.

"Wanna be partners?" She asked. Soul was now talking with Tsubaki. I blushed a faint pink colour and nodded.

"Yeah, why not? I mean, I don't have a partner already, I mean-" She cut me off.

"Black⭐Star, calm down. You seem to be having some trouble." I blushed harder.

"Great..." Soul and Tsubaki walked over to join us.

"So...are we partnering then?" Soul asked. Maka gave a nod. She grabbed my hand.

"Come on, Stein said to meet him outside the school!" She started running towards the door, dragging me along with her, while I was trying to keep up with her. I heard Soul chuckle behind us and turned around to glare at him. Tsubaki and Soul continued following us. Finally, we were in front of the school. Maka let go of me. Stein saw us.

"Ah. There you are. We've been waiting for you." Already in the clearing were several students. Kim, Ox, Harvar, Crona, Kid and their weapon partners. We walked over to join them. Stein looked at all of us.

"Alright. Find your chosen partner and find a place where no one else is already standing." Kid tapped Crona's shoulder and I saw the pink haired meister jump in surprise.

"O-oh...Kid, I-it's just you..." They went towards a corner where no one else was already. It surprised me that it had been Crona who Kid had partnered with. Wouldn't Kid have found some sort of problem with Crona's hair, it's being so asymmetrical? If so, he hadn't said anything so far. Maka looked around. Now there was only one or two places left. She looked at me.

"Well, where do you think we should go?" I shrugged.

"Maybe over in that corner?" It was a corner by the wall instead of closer to the school. Mak grabbed my hand again and sprinted towards the corner. Now I could hear both our weapons laughing at us. She let go of me.

"Alright, we're here now. What do we do now?" She asked, and I laughed.

"Well, we either wait for the professor to tell us what to do, or we do our own thing!" I exclaimed. Maka looked at me out of the corner of her eye and I sighed.

"Typical Maka, always wants to wait for the professor..."

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