A/N: Let's use our suspension of disbelief here and pretend that it can snow in Death City. I'm perfectly aware that they live in/next to a desert :D
I do not own Soul Eater, but I own the name scones. Someone told me it's called Egyptian rat-screw? I dunno xD
Shout out to Annie, who taught me how to play that game, and Caroline, my anime buddy. Also to the two lovely people who reviewed my last story, "Off Days", and to those who reviewed "Rainy Days" and "Sick Days".
Maka slammed her hand down on the alarm and pulled the covers over her head. She told her body to move: to get up, to pull the covers back, but it was all she could do to keep her eyes from closing. She couldn't remember the last time she felt so exhausted. Normally, she was able to get out of bed quite easily, but on this particular day she practically fell onto the floor.
She was still half asleep when she felt the coldness of the floor seeping through her bare feet. She shivered and pulled her biggest sweatshirt out of her dresser: a red one that was technically Soul's, but Maka had stolen it over a month ago and he had never noticed its absence. She breathed deeply. The sweatshirt still smelled like her partner; it was a scent she found to be strangely comforting.
She slowly padded across the hallway to his room. It was messy, as usual. Clothes lay strewn about the floor and papers were scattered everywhere. "Soul, it's time to get up." She said tiredly, rubbing her eyes. She glanced at his window and frowned at the white sky.
"What the…" she trailed off, her sleepy mind trying to process this new information. If the sky was grey, it was raining. If it was blue, it was sunny. If it was white….
"Soul!" she screamed, throwing herself at him. "It's SNOWING!"
"Good." He grumbled. "No school. Go back to sleep and leave me alone."
"But, I'm already up!" Maka said, suddenly full of energy. Soul pulled her down next to him and tucked the covers around her body. "Now you're not. Night." He rolled over and fell back asleep.
Maka stared at the ceiling. This was unusual behavior for Soul. He hated getting up in the mornings, but usually once she woke him up, he couldn't get back to sleep. She turned her head and looked at his back. He was breathing slowly in and out. He seemed…peaceful.
Maka bashfully realized that she hadn't really looked at Soul in a while. Now that she thought about it, she could remember dark circles under his eyes and sluggish movements around the house. He had been working just as hard as her, but had never once complained.
She sighed and shut her eyes for a moment, realizing that the comforting scent was all around her and it was making her sleepy. Maybe a day off was exactly what they needed- some hot cocoa, a warm fire, and no working themselves until they dropped.
She quietly picked herself up and exited the room. She would start their relaxing day by making a good breakfast.
Soul woke to the amazing smell of syrup and coffee. He pondered this for a moment. Once in a while he would stay over Black Star's place for the night and Tsubaki would make eggs and sausage, but he didn't remember going to Black Star's last night. In fact, he was lying on his own bed in his own room.
So that meant…Maka was making breakfast?
He swung his legs out of bed and walked to the window, pushing aside the curtain.
Death City was entirely white. The snow had turned every roof the same color as the sky, making the buildings look shapeless and short. Some kids were standing in the middle of the street throwing snowballs at each other.
Soul felt a grin slowly spread across his face. This was going to be a good day.
He dressed and made his way downstairs, where he was greeted by more wonderful smells. He noticed Maka standing at the stove, idly flipping pancakes and cradling the phone between her neck and shoulder. "…making breakfast, how about you?" he heard as he slid into his seat at the table. "No, he's not up yet…no…no…no! Why would I do that? Where's your partner?...oh, right. I shouldn't have bothered to ask." She laughed. It was a light and carefree sound. Soul couldn't recall the last time he'd heard Maka laugh. The past week or two had sent her stress level through the roof.
"Sure, that sounds like fun…..okay, call me when you guys are ready…..bye!" she hung up the phone and continued to pour batter onto the pan, humming a slight tune.
"Hi." Soul said, deciding to inform her of his presence.
She almost dropped the spatula. "How long have you been sitting there?"
Soul couldn't help but grin. "A few minutes."
Maka and set a plate of pancakes in front of him. They were a rich golden brown color with syrup dripping down the sides and a small slab of butter on the top. He dug in immediately, deciding it was the best thing he'd ever tasted. "What's on the agenda today?" he asked between bites.
Maka set a cup of coffee and a small plate of sausage in front of him. "I'm not sure. Tsubaki's gonna call back later."
"Oh." They ate in silence for a while, Maka reading a novel while eating calmly and Soul practically inhaling everything on his plate.
When he had finally filled his stomach to capacity, he leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "So, why all this?"
"Hmm?" Maka asked, glancing up from the pages.
"This." He gestured to the table.
"Oh, I don't know. I just thought we could use a relaxing day off. Good food usually helps that."
Soul couldn't help but agree. After breakfast, he helped her wash the dishes and they watched TV together (although Soul suspected she was reading her book more than she was paying attention to the screen).
"Let's play a game." Maka randomly suggested when she became bored.
"What game?"
"I dunno…scones?"
"Okay. You shuffle." Scones was a card game that Maka had picked up from a friend at school. The two often played it on rainy days when boredom got the best of them.
Maka dealt the cards according to the rules: they each got three facedown cards and three face-up cards. Then they picked three cards from the pile and held them in their hands. The point of the game was to get rid of all your cards.
Soul went first, placing a two down next to the pile and drawing another card. Maka put a three on top of it and drew her next card.
It went on like that for some time, until Maka set down an ace, the highest card. Soul glared at her. The only cards that could save him were a seven, a ten, or another ace. He had none of these, so he had to pick up the pile.
Maka set down an eight.
"Really?" Soul said exasperatedly.
"Sorry," she grinned behind her cards. "Lowest one I had."
He put down the ace, just to foil her, but she had a seven in her hand to save herself. Soul put down all four two's. She set down two kings. Soul's highest card was a queen, so he had to pick up the pile again. Maka set down a ten, her last card since the entire pile had been drawn. Her three face-up cards were a jack, a six, and a seven.
Soul set down all four three's. Maka topped them with a jack. Soul set down his queen, which meant she had no choice but to use her seven. Unfortunately for Soul, that meant the highest card he could put down was a six, which Maka could match.
Now Maka only had her three facedown cards, while Soul had seven in his hand and six on the floor in front of him. The rest were in the pile.
She flipped her first card: it was an eight. Soul set down an ace, trying again to foil her. She flipped her second card. It was a seven. Soul set down a five, the highest card he could put down. He could get back in the game if she flipped anything less than a five, but if it was anything higher, she won.
She turned the card over: it was a four.
Maka swore while Soul laughed manically.
Now, this was normally a long game, maybe a half hour or so, but this particular game had just entered its second hour, and both players were becoming frustrated.
Maka had spoken to Tsubaki on the phone during the first hour, agreeing to meet at Maka and Soul's place before going out. If either of them were paying attention to the time, they would have started getting ready.
15 minutes later…
This was it for Soul. He was flipping his last card. If it was anything higher than a jack, he could win. If I wasn't, he would pick up half the pile and be virtually tied with Maka.
He flipped the card.
It was a nine.
Maka started laughing, but Soul was so frustrated he threw the cards up in the air and tackled her to the ground, tickling her ruthlessly.
She laughed until tears were streaming down her face, rolling around on the forgotten cards trying to escape him, but he sat on top of her and refused to budge.
"HELLO! THE GREAT BLACK STAR HAS ARRIVED!" The blue-haired meister crashed through the front door with Tsubaki following him sheepishly. Liz popped her head in afterwards, while Kid yelled at Black Star for messing up the door's symmetry. Patti was giggling next to Liz and eating a lollipop that was almost as big her head.
"Um…what are you guys doing?"
Maka and Soul looked at the scattered cards and spilled drinks, then at each other.
"…nothing…" Maka said, pushing Soul off of her and standing up. She looked down at her pajama-clad body. "I need to get dressed." She sped out of the room, the girls following behind her.
"And I suppose I'm expected to clean this up?" Soul asked irritably from the floor.
"Have funnnn!" Maka sang to him from her bedroom.
"Are you guys always like that?" Liz asked from Maka's bed. Patti was sitting in Maka's desk chair ordering Tsubaki to spin her faster while Maka searched for clothes in her drawer.
"Not usually," she explained, pulling the sweatshirt over her head and moving to the closet to change. "We're very hyper today."
"You're just so…comfortable with each other." Liz stretched out across the bed and huffed. "You wear his clothes, you chill together at home…Kid is usually making the house symmetrical or off doing business-y things. Sometimes we go entire days without seeing him. Right Patti?" Patti giggled in response and Tsubaki stopped spinning her so she wouldn't fall over.
"What about you, Tsubaki? What's it like at your house?" Tsubaki stood back and thought for a moment. "Well, Black Star works out a lot…sometimes we'll have a movie night and order pizza, but he usually gets bored and starts doing sit-ups in the middle of the room."
"Maka, I don't know how you do it. Soul is like putty in your hands." Liz remarked as Maka emerged from the closet, fully dressed for the weather.
"No, he's not. We're good friends, that's all." She substituted her usual pigtails for two braids and a beanie.
"Oh, that's all?" Liz asked suggestively, wiggling an eyebrow.
"What else would there be?" Maka replied defensively.
"Do you sleep together, too? Have candlelit dinners and sing romantic ballads to each other?"
"No!" Maka snorted, although she had technically slept with him for a bit this morning.
"Mm hmm."
"Whatever. Let's go back downstairs."
"Escaping the conversation: suspiciousssssss."
"Shut up. I'm not escaping anything. The conversation was over." They arrived in the living room to find the three boys sitting on the couch looking bored.
"What conversation?" Soul asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We were talking about feelings!" Liz said dramatically. Maka punched her in the arm.
"Guess what we're doing!" Black Star shouted, jumping up from the couch.
"What?" The girls asked, more out of fear than curiosity.
"SNOWBALL FIGHT!"
a/n: This would have been finished a lot sooner, but my memory stick broke and I had to start the whole thing over again. I realized it would be too long of a one-shot, so I'm breaking it into two or three chapters. They should be finished soon. Review if you enjoyed :)