Comfortable

Summary: Long bus rides are hell. Especially with painful cramps, path-blocking partners and sleep-talking idiots.

This sucked, Maka thought as she desperately tried to get some much needed rest. Stupid class trip, stupid bus, stupid Soul!

Originally she had been so ecstatic about going on their first class trip ever, expecting lots of fun, spending lots of time with her friends and sightseeing lots of museums in some unknown fascinating place.

Then they got to know their destination. Camp Death. A village of deserted huts somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Maka instantly knew that this wasn't supposed to be much of a class trip, but rather a training camp for weapons and meisters alike. Well, whatever, she'd tried to convince herself. She'd still be having a great time with the people most dear to her and nothing was going to prevent her from enjoying this. And besides, it would also help her getting stronger.

Of course Maka couldn't be allowed to keep up her optimism. Used to traveling by plane or helicopter or even scythe as she and Soul were due to the distances they crossed every now and then for their jobs as a three-star meister/death scythe pair, it'd been years since they had to ride a bus for more than an hour or two.

So this stupid 30 hour ride was sure to lessen her excitement.

Nevertheless the meister had tried and succeeded to hold onto her view of the bright side of things…

Up until now, anyway.

After merely five hours of being stuck in this stupidly slow bus with the loudly rattling windows and roaring engine when driving at 50 miles per hour (not to mention that Maka could swear it was the same model Rosa Parks had written history in), her back and shins hurt, the air was so stuffy she'd gotten a headache two hours ago and Soul was peacefully snoozing away next to her!

Damn it, he was supposed to be awake right now, so that at least she wouldn't have to sit there on her own staring ahead thoughtlessly while her eyes just didn't seem to want to stay closed! He'd always complained about long rides, no matter if they went by train, plane, helicopter or car, stating that he just couldn't fall asleep because it was too loud. And uncomfortable.

And goddamnit, was he snoring now?!

To make matters even worse, Maka could feel a cramp crawling up her left leg because she'd been stuck in this uncomfortable position for far too long without being able to move.

Stupid Soul nagging her about taking the window seat!

... Okay, so she was the one to ask him if she could, but he told her that he'd wanted to ask her to anyway because he'd need more space for his longer legs…! And now he wasn't even using it!

Honestly, how could he sleep like that anyway…? The scythe had slid down his seat to the point where his head was almost on the same level as his stomach, his legs angled with his shins resting against the seat in front of him. His arms were crossed in front of his chest while his head had lolled to the right, almost leaning against the armrest. One of his earphones had fallen out, but the music was too quiet for her to hear anything. (Or maybe his batteries were dead by now.)

In short, he was blocking her way to the corridor quite effectively.

Quickly standing up - and banging her head against the unbelievably low roof of the bus in the process - Maka cursed violently under her breath as she tried to get rid of the stinging pain in her left leg and foot by moving all of her weight onto it and slowly stretching the limb. She didn't want to wake up her partner for something so trivial, after all it was just a little cramp, she could take care of that on her own, right? So what if it was a little uncomfortable to stretch her leg with her head and shoulders bowed down like this? So what if nobody seemed to even notice her pain, even among the ones that were still awake? So what if she felt so utterly alone in this stupid bus full of stupid people she held dear to her heart that stupid tears sprang to her eyes at the thought that nobody cared?

She didn't care...!

Still, it would've felt nice to know that her partner was at the very least concerned for her wellbeing, not completely caught up in his blissful state of sleep.

Whatever, the girl told herself, she was a strong young woman and she didn't need some stupid guy to take care of her. She was just fine without the help of anyone. That's why when she decided that her leg was okay again and sat back down to try and get some rest after all, she moved her leg carefully, feeling anxious about the cramp returning - and she wasn't disappointed. Yelping in surprise at the sudden pain jerking up her leg, she abruptly shot up again to and bit the inside of her cheek to keep from waking everyone up.

"... Maka?" She heard a quiet groan beside her as Soul woke with a start at the sound of her pain. His sleeping position seemed to pay off as he rubbed uncomfortably at his neck after sitting up properly, probably regretting falling asleep the way he did. When nothing but a quiet whimper escaped her as an answer, though, his blood-red eyes immediately focused on her, concern flooding them as the boy took in her pained expression and the fact that she was stretching her leg. "... Cramp?" He asked carefully, aware of the fact that this was a regular occurrence whenever the girl was dehydrated. Sighing slightly when she could only nod without crying out in pain, Soul instructed her to sit down and place her aching leg on his lap once she felt like she could stop stretching for a little while. As soon as she did so, he began to massage her foot lightly where he knew she still felt stings of pain, stretching it once in a while against his hand to make sure he didn't hurt her further.

"Sorry for waking you up..." She sighed quietly as she sat back in her seat, the tension in her shoulders slowly leaving as her weapon's hands worked on her foot.

"It's fine. You should've just done that before your cramp got this bad anyway, didn't I tell you that before?" His eyes didn't stray from where he massaged away at the girl's aching limb, but Maka could tell what he looked like anyway. After having experienced this so many times, she knew by heart how his eye brows would furrow and his mouth would pull into a frown. But his hands always remained gentle since Soul knew that she was in enough pain already. He preferred demanding some sort of small favor in return, be it a cup of hot chocolate or an evening without cooking duty. She was grateful, so she'd probably do something like that for him regardless. After all those times he'd helped her, the girl felt she had to repay him somehow, no matter how many times he insisted that he'd do so even without some kind of reward.

"I-I thought that I could take care of something like that on my own for once. I mean, it's so stupid to wake you up because of a little cramp! I... I didn't want to always be so dependent on your help..." The three-star meister felt like crying right there, but held back the tears in favor of keeping her pride in check. No need to embarrass herself any further when the entire class could be potentially listening in on them.

"Maka, I'm your weapon but above all else, I'm your friend. I'm supposed to help you whenever you can't take care of something by yourself. So stop apologizing. It's not like you don't do enough for me all the time either." Soul berated the girl, sighing in frustration when she sniffled stubbornly. He could tell that she'd still try to do everything on her own, never asking for help. That was just the kind of person his meister was. Eventually he'd just have to step in of his own accord, like always. Then again, that was also just how their partnership and their friendship worked and honestly, Soul wouldn't change it for the world. He knew she trusted him. She was just too stubborn for her own good. He was too, though, so in the end they were even. They balanced each other out. (Well, when they weren't bickering, that is.)

"Thanks..." She mumbled, indicating that the uncomfortable feeling had vanished by now and he understood, but continued massaging anyway because with one wrong movement of her toes she could make all his work for naught. (Not to mention that he liked showing off their familiarity like this. It kept other guys away, even if they didn't do anything couple-y or anything. She wasn't very fond of physical closeness in general but drastic situations called for drastic measures, right?)

"No prob." One of these days he'd have to accumulate a few more favors and ask her to go on a date with him... But that would have to wait a few more days... or weeks, what with the fact that he always chickened out whenever he tried something cool like that. Well, whatever. For now he had her trust and that was already more than most males could claim truthfully. Gazing at the girl briefly when he heard her yawn, Soul smiled slightly. "Didn't get any sleep yet?"

"Unlike a certain someone, I had trouble falling asleep because everything was so loud...!" Her words might've sounded accusatory, but the smile on her face led him to believe that she wasn't seriously angry at him anymore. Smiling a little sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head, the scythe looked away slightly uncomfortably anyway, since he always made a big deal about this, but usually he really did have problems with resting in loud environments. It wasn't cool to make a fuss out of something and he kind of felt bad that Maka had to experience his difficulties this time.

"Yeah, well, just try to rest a little. I'll try not to snore, okay?" He advised with a small smirk playing across his lips as she couldn't bite back a second yawn either. Too cute for her own good, seriously.

"Please, you don't snore. And even if you did, I wouldn't be able to hear you over Black Star's sleep rambling!" Maka chuckled slightly. It was true that Black Star talked in his sleep. Loudly. Even while being gagged by Stein at the front of the bus.

"Bow down before me, my... underlingzzzz...! For I am Black Star, the man... zzz... surpass god him... zzzelf...!" The teens both heard him start on another slurry rant, while still soundly snoring away in between words. "Tha's right, you lowly... zzz... people just can't get 'nough of me, can you?" The blue-haired meister hyahahaha'd softly before slipping off into his dreams again.

"Whatever. Good night, Soul...!" Maka huffed slightly, leaning back with her head against her pillow on the window. She moved her legs to stretch out slightly in the space between the seats, still careful to avoid another cramp. Her weapon had done his job dutifully as always, though, so she soon relaxed into her seat with every intention of finally getting some sleep. Unfortunately, her head just kept bumping against the glass because of the unevenly moving vehicle. She groaned when she hit her skull against the glass.

"You sure you want to sleep like that?" Soul asked her doubtfully, observing how she kept adjusting the pillow in an attempt to get more comfortable.

"Well, how else do you propose I sleep?" She was getting frustrated at her inability to rest, he knew. So he bit his tongue to avoid the sarcastic remark from escaping his lips.

Instead Soul made her rest her legs on his lap again so that her head was leaning against the back of her seat instead of the window. Her cheeks reddened slightly at the intimate position but in the end she accepted his gesture with a soft, but content sigh.

Leaning her head against his shoulder, her eyes soon closed as his hands resumed gently caressing her jeans-clad legs.

"Night, Maka..." The white-haired teen mumbled quietly.

"G'night..." And with that she was gone, not even feeling the ghost-like touch of his lips on her forehead, the never-stopping stroking of his hands on her legs or his hair when he let his head fall down to gently rest on top of hers...

He'd have an (even more) aching neck when he woke up and she'd be complaining about her stiff legs (and Black Star would be nonstop giggling like a school girl because of the awesome blackmail material).

But for now, they were comfortable like that.

Well, experiences from my own classtrip... Though I wasn't directly involved in this scene itself, I saw it happen more or less in front of me (well, mostly the leg massaging and the sleeping position, the rest is artistic licence!) and in the end it was just too cute to not turn it into a story. Soul and Maka seemed oddly perfect for the characters... And thus, this... thing was born. (Honestly, I have no idea why I'm posting it...)

Please tell me what you think of my story so I can improve!

Last but not least: I don't own anything! Seriously, even the idea belongs to the plot bunny hiding under my bed!

- Tracy247