How to Utterly Fail at Playing It Cool

Ever since Maka's soul perception ability had started evolving further, the girl had started to spend more time with Death the Kid. This was not for any strange reason, but for the sake of practice. Kid was one of the few other students with the ability and therefore the best partner for Maka to practise with. It was completely reasonable, but still Soul felt unnerved by it all.

Black*Star had been the first to notice Soul's changed mood. The sometimes-assassin had first queried if something was wrong, sounding reasonably concerned, but as soon as Soul had admitted to feeling uncomfortable about having Kid join Maka for homework every other day, the blue-haired teen had burst into laughter and jeered at Soul about his jealousy over his Technician. The other's merry mood had stopped instantly once Soul had snapped back about the other's not quite platonic glances towards his own partner.

Besides, it was not the fact that Maka spent more time with Kid that had Soul so anxious. The thing that really bothered the Weapon was having Kid in the small apartment he shared with Maka so often, especially when Maka told Soul to keep the Shinigami company while she went to get them snacks. Every time that happened Soul would be spending most of the time silent, giving short and tense replies whenever Kid asked him something between comments about school and the like, using that low, soft tone he seemed to always use when they were in private, as if not wanting to be overheard. And those golden eyes would spend the whole time not straying from Soul's face, making the albino feel even worse about it all.

It was an awkward cycle, but still one Soul did not wish to break. However, it seemed that something like this could not go on for long in a circle like theirs when during one of their practice sessions Maka suddenly had to leave the apartment because she had forgotten to buy groceries that day. It was completely unlike Maka, but the meaningful glance she shot at Kid before she left told Soul all he needed to know; he had been set up.

Knowing very well what it was all about, Soul crossed his arms and threw his leg over his other one, turning his head to the side so that his whole body language would discourage the other from attempting to start a discussion. But, Kid was not to be deterred, and so the Shinigami rose from his seat on the couch and walked over to Soul's loveseat, standing close enough so that Soul's instincts made him look up at the other's face.

"You've been acting strange", Kid commented and Soul only scoffed in response.

"Only around you", the Weapon replied, intending his words to be biting but noticing that they were far from that, mentally cursing himself for letting something like that slip.

"Maka and I figured that much", Kid concluded and his tone was again a tender hum that actually calmed Soul's nerves somewhat this time. "She proposed a simple solution for the problem."

"Oh?" Soul queried with an incredulous raise of his brow. There was no way there was a simple solution to this much confusion and anxiousness. "And what is that solution?"

"Simple", Kid answered and a small smile came across the thin lips. "We'll be going out on a date."

"D-date?" Soul stuttered, staring at Kid in bewilderment. "A-as in a romantic date?"

There was now a slight blush on Kid's cheeks, the reddened color rather prominent against Kid's pale complexion, and the boy muttered in an embarrassed manner: "I'm not sure how romantic it'll be exactly, as I don't know much about this sort of thing, but that is the general idea."

The idea was completely stupid, that was what it was, and Soul was sceptic about the assumption that this strange nervousness could be solved by spending even more time around its cause. Soul personally did not think he wanted to go out with Kid. And yet, when he opened his mouth to reply, the answer that came out was: "Excellent."

Oh dear lord above, he hoped he was not grinning like a fool, because that would not be cool.

The End

Author's Notes: I'm still pretty much practising writing these two, so this is more of a template for an idea I have that will involve same themes as this one, only I will be (hopefully) dealing with them better then. For this reason feedback is, naturally, highly appreciated.