Strawberries and Chocolates
By Soul-Eater J. Evans
Summary: "Maybe I don't care about the others..." I clenched my fist and bit my lip. Why was this so hard to do? "I just have to know how you feel about me," she said, walking close to me, looking up. My stomach lurched and then I knew...
Author's Note: This is my first time writing something that probably doesn't totally suck. This fiction is sorta based upon real events. The names may or may not be changed, you decide. The events are dramatized, but the facts are the same. Can you really call it fanfiction? Oh, well... This is a kind of a one-shot.
Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, but my friends call me Soul, and my best friend is called Maka. See the irony? No? Well then, go ahead and read it.
The knock on the door was muffled by the covers over my head.
"Soul, are you okay?" I heard her say.
"Fine," I said.
I looked up from my Itouch, my head still buried in the sheets. I glanced at the screen once more. On Facebook chat, both Tommorow and Robin were waiting for a reply.
Tomorrow: So, tell me, how did you both meet? I wanna know.
And so I told her the story.
Tomorrow: Weirds O.o
Me: I know.
Robin: Hypothetical question, if she kissed would you kiss her back?
Me: Yeah, uh... sure, why?
Robin: I knew it! You like her!
Me: Wait...you tricked me! No fair T.T
I pouted and buried deeper into the sheets, my white hair was ticking my nose and so I sneezed. Suddenly the door burst open, and I sprang out of bed.
"Sam," said the girl. Her hands were on her hips and she was wearing her usual outfit of black sweater-vest and blue paid skirt. "Sam-J," she said. Her black pigtails were swaying as she stormed in front of my bed with my sister Bethany trailing behind. Beth-ann (as I call her) was grinning ear to ear, her dark blond hair in pigtails as well. The girl, Maka (as I call her) was hopping around my room like the hyper-charged bunny she is and began telling me about the newest book she'd just read.
Actually, my name isn't really Soul. It's Samuel John Evan. I'm a 24-hour cosplayer, first off. Second, I live across the street from this girl that just moved here this August. Her name's not really Maka, but she acts a lot like her, except more hyper and lolita. Her name is actually Kohaku Utada, but that's another story entirely. Exactly how did I meet this girl? It wasn't on moving day, I assure you.
Ironically enough, it was at school, at a piano.
At lunch or during free period I usually go to the music room and practice playing the piano. I've had lessons since first grade, and love music a lot, so I practice nearly every day. I'd just seen episode 36 of Soul Eater and I had looked everywhere on the Internet to find the sheet music for the piece Soul played as the background music. Sadly, there were none, so it looked as if I had to roll up my sleeves and get to work on transcribing the melody. I was making good progress, practicing the first fourth of the song when...
BAM!
I tried not to look up, and allowed my hands to get lost in the music. After a few seconds there was a soft gasp and I felt my head jerk upwards in surprise.
A girl, about 5' 3", darkish skin, brown eyes, black pigtails. She was staring at me like I was unreal, like she'd just seen a ghost or something. I guess I took it lightly. I mean, I cosplay all the time. Normally I need glasses, but I had gotten colored contacts with my prescription instead; red ones. And I even had bleached my light blond hair to white. Of course searching for and buying the de-bronzing shampoo was a real drag, but I did it anyways. I had even cut my hair to look like Soul's, if you would believe it. Maybe you don't, but okay...
I just sat at the bench and stared, my hands hovered over the shiny keys of the baby-grand and I gulped.
"Hey," I said calmly, when I finally found my voice.
Surprisingly enough, the girl walked over and held out her hand for me to shake it.
"Hi," she responded with a smirk, "I'm Maka Albarn, a Scythe-Meister."
I nearly fainted right there and then from pure shock, but somehow I kept my cool and smirked right back at her. "The names Soul," I replied. "Soul-Eater Evans."
And oddly enough, that was how our friendship started.
Funny, I faintly remember that day getting my first Maka-chop from Kohaku as well, but that's another story as well.
When we were around each other, we usually insisted on calling each other by our character names, but it wasn't a set rule. Either I called her "Kohaku"(or Haku-chan),"Sarah" or "Maka," and she'd call me "Sam-J" or "Soul-kun." It was cool, and we liked a lot of the same stuff, it turned out. Anime, Manga, skateboarding, random things, fanfiction, drawing, y'know the basics; and then of course there was Soul Eater. We'd talk for hours about that. Kohaku-chan was the coolest girl I'd ever met. Some days I'd wake up and really believed that I wasn't Little Sammy Evan. (Kohaku thought it was hilariously ironic that our names were so similar, btw.) It was a strange little friendship, but it was ours.
That was before I learned she was the one who had moved in across the street.
I noticed it when I was sitting on my porch one morning. I was writing music while taking in the sun in an attempt to be more like Soul's tannish-yet-sallow complexion. And I heard the rolling of skateboard wheels. When I looked up I saw none other than Kohaku suddenly smiling in my face, one foot resting on her Tony Hawk skateboard.
"Ohayo Soul-kun."
"Hey, where'd you—?"
"I live across the street!" she replied, and then she rode off down the sidewalk, only to fall off a few yards away. "I'M OKAY!" she yelled, getting up. I only smiled and went back to writing. What a weird girl, I thought to myself.
She learned of Beth-ann and William later. William is my pervy older bro and Beth-ann is my twin sister. Beth-ann likes Soul Eater too, but she'd rather cosplay as Marie for some reason. She likes Stein I guess, she has lot of fan-art she's drawn of her and her fan-character, Beatrice.
Anyways when Kohaku met Beth-ann, I knew all hell had broke loose. The two were inseparable after that, and just the other day they had a slumber party.
Of course, Kohaku arrived and ate dinner with us. She was truly the life of the party then. My family usually doesn't talk much over dinner, but when she came they started asking her questions, and she responded honestly, making my mom and dad laugh a lot. William and his current girlfriend Fayah even joined in. And my brother saved his perverted comments until after dinner (to my relief).
SO...
After dinner my body felt kinda weak and tired so I snuck away to my room and went to lie down on my bed. Safely under the covers I whipped out my Ipod touch and logged in to Facebook. It was then I started talking with her friends, who were more than happy to "meet" me.
When Kohaku and Beth barged into my room, Kohaku-chan snatched my Ipod and wrote to one of her friends I was talking to. She handed back the device and looked at my face.
"You look flushed," she commented.
"Yeah, are you sick?" asked Beth-ann, her blue eyes went all "silly little twin bro", and looked at me with amused sympathy. I groaned and slid the covers over my head again.
"Go away," I heard myself say before the sheet was unceremoniously yanked away. With the sudden loss of my comforting warmth, I shivered.
Kohaku put the back of her hand on my forehead, and I just bet I got redder. "He's really warm. I think you have a fever Soul-kun..."
Now that she mentioned it, I did feel really woozy. And dizzy, don't forget that. I sunk back into the sheets and hammed it up a bit. Wait, was I sweating? I felt really cold all over too.
"Hey," said Kohaku, her voice strangely soothing, "Soul-kun you want anything to eat?"
I snuggled the sheet. "Shortcake," I said, quoting straight from "Strawberries and Mint."
Thought slitted eyes, I looked at the grinning girl. Maka understood completely and went with Beth-ann to the kitchen. Under the covers I chatted with Tomorrow a bit more, waiting for the cake. When it arrived I gave her the Ipod and she chatted with her friend as I ate. When mine was all gone Beth took the plate and Maka gave back the Ipod and she ate her snack as well.
Me: She's too cute eating that cake. ..
Tomorrow: I think your delirious man ^.^
Me: I [am] kinda sick...
Tomorrow: Sorry to hear that... : [
Me: Yeah, well I like the part about getting strawberry shortcake...
Tomorrow: Sounds yummy
Me: Uh huh it was...[pause] Oh, she's eating another slice.
Me: KAWAII!, sorry otaku fanboy moment there. : D
Tomorrow: So, do you like her? -evil snicker-
Me: I've already fallen into that trap once today with Robin, No comment. : [
Tomorrow: I think she likes you too but she probably is still in love/hate with Wong or Donnan.
Me: Who's those guys? O.o
Me: Wait, I'll ask
What I did not expect was her response. Maka gave me the most furious look I'd ever seen and stomped away. Beth looked to me.
Me: She's p.o'd, should I follow?
Tomorrow: Let her calm down
Me: But what if she's really upset?
Tomorrow: Then go after her then :P
I jumped out of bed, and my head kinda spun from the sudden change, but I walked after her. Darn it, it was cold! I shivered again and found her standing in the hallway, and it looked like she was fighting back tears.
"Maka?"
She turned.
"What is it Soul?" Her voice was choked and slightly strained. "You should be in bed, you're sick with a cold."
"I wanted to see if you were alright."
"I am."
"You're crying."
She raised her arm to wipe the tears. "Sh-shut up, stupid."
The hall was kind of dark. It was nearly 11 I think, and I believe we were standing next to William's room door. I heard some faint grunts and squeals and I flushed again.
Maybe I should take a different approach.
"Sarah," I said.
Kohaku looked at me, her eyes reddish and watery.
"I'm sorry I asked you that."
"No, I...just didn't want you to know about them, that's all. Robin and Tomorrow probably told you everything didn't they?"
"Some," I admitted truthfully. "Not all, though."
"Then you know—," her voice began to break, and I was afraid she was to cry.
"They broke your heart?"
"Only Andy, not Alex, he just annoyed me a lot." She looked down. "I was afraid you wouldn't like me if you knew about Andy or Alex or Kyon."
"Kyon?"
"He was my boyfriend," her mouth twitched. "He's dead now."
"May I ask how?"
"He saved his twin bro from being flattened by a truck."
I winced. Ouch. "Oh, I'm sorry." I don't know what I'd do if Beth-ann was ever in that kind of danger. There was a heavy silence. "I, um, don't know what to say."
"You probably hate me now." Kohaku looked at me seriously. "The others—,"
"Maybe I don't care about the others..." I clenched my fist and bit my lip. Why was this so hard to do?
"I just have to know how you feel about me," she said, walking close to me, looking up. My stomach lurched and then I knew.
My lips were warm against her own and my eyes closed slowly.
I loved her.
When she kissed me back I felt my heart kick my ribs.
"That's how I feel," I told her, chuckling
And we laughed, making William burst out of his room in his boxers and yelled at us. I rolled my eyes.
"Go back to your little 'party'," I said. He grumbled some nonsense and listened for once.
"He's just like..." began Kohaku.
"Spirit," we said at the same time.
"Hey," I asked her. "What would you rather be called? I mean you usually go by Kohaku, but, my mind messed up and."
"Well," she started, "what would you rather be called?"
"Soul," I said.
"Maka, then."
"But your eyes aren't mint colored, and you're not blond."
"What are they then?" She gave me a puppy-dog pout.
"Chocolate," I said immediately.
"Then I'd rather be called my OC," she said, folding her arms.
"You mean the one you made? Sarah?"
"Yeah," she said. "Maka's cousin is the closest I guess I'll ever really be?"
"But what does that mean? How does your fanfic end?"
She looked down and poked her index fingers together. "You'll have to wait till I post it..."
"Oh," was all I said.
Sarah looked down. "This was kind of like Strawberries and Mint, huh?" My face scrunched up. Why was it that my life was turning out to be some weird mix of shows and doujinshi I'd seen?
I sighed and said "No, 'cause your eyes aren't like mint, they're like chocolates, remember."
"Oh yeah," said Sarah. "Then it's more like Strawberries and Chocolates?"
"I guess so, they sound better together."
"Like Soul and Sarah?"
"I guess..."
"Like me and you..."
"Um... I've got to go."
"Huh?"
I ran down the hallway, holding my mouth, the kiss still burning on my lips. Why was I running again? Was I dreaming? I know that I dashed by a very surprised Beth-ann on my way to my room.
Then I closed my door, locked it, and jumped into bed, exhausted.
Why am I such a loser? So not cool to abandon her like that...
The next day I was still sick and I couldn't go to school that Friday. So I was bored and went on Facebook. Kohaku's status update almost made me pass out, but in laughter, not shock:
Kohaku: Darn it Soul! You gave me your stupid cold! : P This is all your fault! MAKAAA~CHOP!
She was on chat so I said hi to her..
Me: Hello, and ow, don't hit me again please...
Kohaku: Look our yer window.
I did. Her bedroom's blinds were drawn up and she was standing there glaring at me from across the street. I laughed and she yelled "SHUT UP!" then sneezed.
Sometimes Maka, or Sarah, or whatever she calls herself is too darn funny.