Author's Note: This is a companion piece to All in the Grip. I don't own Soul Eater. It started off following the almost non-linear plot that All in the Grip had, but then it went somewhere else. I hope you guys still like it though!
All in the Form
by: Setkia
She can tell how he's feeling just from the way he moves. Companion piece to All in the Grip.
A common misconception about the two of them is that they were the perfect team from the start. They were not.
When she first meets him and he gives her that shark-tooth grin, she shakes his hand so tightly, she's sure that his bones crack. He has a calm, cool expression on his face, but she can feel the way his body tenses for a moment in surprise and slight shock.
When she wields him for the first time she can admit she doesn't try to synchronize with him, and she can feel the strain he's going through, trying to match her. Being a weapon means he can't see her soul, becoming compatible is not as easy as it seems. But he does it. She barely notices what he's doing but she does notice that from how stiff and cold he is in her hand, he's focusing on something very hard that may have nothing to do at all with the monster they're fighting.
When he clatters to the ground in that split second before her grip loosens and he falls, she can tell he's trying to hold on, as though through some kind of magic connection, his will power will keep the two of them together and they'll make it though the fight without her being defenceless. It happens anyway.
He runs to her the moment she's prepared herself to die. He sprints like a madman to get to her before the Kishin and she can see it with the way he moves his legs and the amount of momentum he's pushing himself through despite being bruised (she learns that some signs of rough handling of weapons remain when they transform and it hits her how hard she's been on him) and without even reading his soul she knows exactly how he feels.
Desperate.
Their hands connect and he transforms and she can feel it, the moment it happens.
Relief.
She's more careful now. Can't let him fall, not after seeing how her harsh treatment dulls his blade. She doesn't trust men, she can't trust men because of her Papa, but she has to try. If for any reason, so that they'll survive because she can't just synchronize with just anyone.
She thanks him and suddenly her eyes pried open and she sees it. She can hear it, feel it in the air. Though she's mumbling he picks up on it and gives her a grin. She can read his body language perfectly. He's not mad at her, he's not even upset that she dropped him, he's just happy that she's still alive and even if his words are simple and cool, she sees it in the way his shoulders sag in relief.
When she hits him for it, he complains but his body language says he's happy.
When they fight a harder Kishin she realizes this partnership can't go on if she keeps putting all the strain on him, he's going to tire himself out and she doesn't know how many more close-calls they can have before they run out of luck so she tries to match him.
It's hard since he's so different from her and it feels weird but she can feel him, can tell the moment they've synchronized and he isn't holding all the weight. She also knows the moment the realizes that she's matched him and her weapon sings in joy.
She starts to talk to him, now that they can fight together she can speak to him and it makes fighting with him a lot more … fun to her surprise.
She's always considered it her duty to fight, being someone who works for Death himself she doesn't see it as something she does because she wants to, she sees it as an honour that's been thrust upon her. Now when she fights with him, she's having fun. She likes it. He's fun to be around. He's … a friend? And from the way he feels beneath her fingers, the way the metal almost seems to hum, she realizes he's thought of it that way for a while now.
When she spars against Black*Star she can't help but notice how he's ten times more alert than usual. Almost like he's showing off, like he's comparing himself to Tsubaki and proving that he's better than her. It's noting personal, he's showing off to Black*Star about how he and she don't even have to think when they fight together, they just understand each other, he's bragging that she handles him with ease, that he's got the better Meister, that they're the better duo.
Almost like he wants her to proud of him.
She is. Proud of him. Always.
After Lord Death uses him and she holds him, she can feel a warmth spreading through her chest, almost as though he's telling her he's back, he's home, he wants to be in her hands right now and they're amazing together. She won't tell him but when she holds him after Lord Death, it feels like coming home too.
He gets aggressive around others, the metal heats up. When others ask him to be their partner she doesn't even worry because she knows that he likes her, he enjoys being hers. And when others ask her to be their Meister, he won't calm down for a few days, he'll feel hot to the touch, almost as though daring anyone else to use him, daring anyone to pull them apart.
Is that his way of being jealous?
He keeps himself in perfect shape. She can feel it, he makes sure his blade never dulls, makes sure he's well polished.
She can read his every emotion from the way he moves, from the way he feels.
And more often than not, if he ever slips from her grip (which almost never happens now since she's iron tight on him) it's because he's anxious. He's nervous. And before she picks him back up she can feel it, the split second where he worries she won't pick him back up. He's worried he's too much for her to handle.
Eventually though they sort it out and it never happens and his form is perfect and he works hard and he slaves over it every day, making sure he's always in perfect condition.
She hopes he knows.
That she loves him. All of him.
Because she can tell from the way he moves for her that he loves her, elegantly and graceful, almost moving in a way that she wants before she does it herself, like he wants to show that he knows her, that he can understand her and that he's ready to do anything for her.
And she can tell from the way that he worries every time he hits the floor by accident that he's scared she won't want him back.
So when they get together and he still worries, she reassures him in the only way she can. She tightens her grip on him, making sure he'll never slip from her fingers again, making sure he has no reason to doubt her again.
It takes a while but he gets around to it and one day, without a word being exchanged, she knows that it's gotten through to him.