It was true.
It always did rain when things went wrong.
Maka wiped the rain, or what might have even dared call themselves tears from her cheeks with a heavy sigh and a knot in her stomach. She hated to admit it, but she may be crying right now. Not that there was much of a difference in the various liquids running down her face. Just that sometimes the tears felt warm on her skin, not often, since by now the blistering winter wind had numbed the majority of her body now since she'd stupidly chosen to leave without her coat.
To say she thought of herself as pretty brainy, she lacked common sense when she really needed it.
So now, through her own faults, she was wandering to who knows where sobbing, freezing and absolutely sopping wet from the December rain. It seemed whenever she thought 'Things can't get any worse' they did, how ironic. It was like life was laughing at her.
No, It was like he was laughing at her. Right now, Maka didn't think she could physically get her tongue to move in the correct way to even say his name, even then, if she did somehow spit it out then it would leave a bad taste in her mouth for the whole night.
Soul.
He'd been, Well there were many words she could use but the most polite would be Insufferable! Or maybe it had been her that had originally started it? It didn't matter any more though since she had convinced herself not to go 'home.' Not that it was her home anymore. For nearly 3 months now her's and Soul's relationship had gone from bad to worse. Every minute of everyday they were fighting, at first there had been a reason. But it had quickly escalated to the point where the pair fought for half an hour at a time over something stupid like, forgetting to buy milk or leaving socks around the house.
They'd tried every method they could. The only thing left had been to chance a mission but nobody wanted to try it, since having a fight in the middle could possibly mean injury or death for them. In fact, nobody had even suggested it out loud.
What worried her most was what if they never got over it. She'd never heard of anyone having to change their weapon partners before. Of course, her father had gone from Stein to her mother, but she'd never talked to him about that. It was difficult to talk when you're being crushed in a hug and drown out by fatherly affection.
The more this thought occupied her mind the more she thought about why she'd even chose soul as her partner in the first place. All he ever seemed to do was call her a nerd or laugh at her lack of female attributes. And if he wasn't doing that, then he was whining about something being 'uncool'...
No. She stopped herself there, before she could convince herself that she hated Soul. Because she didn't, she really didn't. It was quite the opposite, she loved him. He had been a brother to her from day one, from the moment she'd shook his hand and she couldn't count on her hands how many times he'd saved her, took a hit for her or nearly been killed in her place. He was a good weapon partner. This was just a squabble, they would get over it, they'd gotten over so much worse.
However, right now she couldn't go home. It seemed to her that a little break from one another, from fighting, might do their friendship some good, at least until they could calm down enough so that they'd be able to talk, and maybe make up.
Now, she just needed to find somewhere to stay for a week or two. The only place that came to mind though, somewhere she knew she wouldn't be a burden, was the apartment that Crona had recently acquired. It appeared Shibusen had finally trusted enough to become a proper citizen of it's city and right now the swordsmen was in a small flat on his own. And though he might appreciate the company, she sort of felt bad that she'd be mooching off him. Of course, there was worse she could do, because Crona would let her...but still, a knot tied in her belly at the thought she may be imposing.
As she reached the door of her pink haired friends home, she was suddenly aware of just how heavy the suitcase in her hands was. It was practically bursting at the seams, considering she'd packed it in such a furious hurry, she only had herself to blame.
Knocking, she looked around, then up at the rain and down again when it battered at the pavement noisily. Focusing on it, stopped her from noticing that the door had been opened and Crona was staring at her with his large pale eyes, a smile on his face.
"Maka?" He questioned when she just seemed to be staring off into space. This caused the girl to jump and looked up at him, saying nothing. For the first time in all the years they'd known each other, Crona could not find the light that twinkled in her green eyes, there was no smile on her face. She looked fragile and small. Not his Maka at all.
"Sorry...I uh, may I come in?" The blonde asked as he stepped out of the way and allowed her into his home. It was quiet and from here the swordsman could hear the drops from her clothing hitting the floor. She truly must be dripping wet from the rain. Worry set into him instantly and he began to fuss over her.
"Are you alright? Do you want some tea or a towel or something?" The boy rushed out. Earning a small giggle from the scythe meister "A towel would be good, thank you." She replied, watching him as he scurried away. She decided to wait in the hallway, sitting in his living room and getting his couch all wet wasn't really good manners for a guest, even if she did need a rest. Desperately.
When the boy returned, he passed her a soft fluffy cream towel and she immediately set about drying off her hair, she hadn't even bothered to tie it up, so it fell around her shoulder, sticking to her flesh. Though, all of her clothes were doing that too, and as she realized, she suddenly felt very self concision, but Crona hadn't seem to have noticed. He was still looking at her with concern in his eyes.
"What happened?" he asked as he noticed the bag in her hands. He, like the rest of their little friendship circle, knew of the arguments between her and Soul lately, in fact, the entire school probably knew; they were loud enough.
"I can't stay with Soul anymore, We're fighting too much and I think a break might just fix things..." came her quiet response as she mussed her hair with the towel. "I wanted to ask...well could I stay with you for a week or two...just until we can calm down and have a proper conversation?" she asked, not bothering to voice her concerned about being a bother, Crona would only fuss and she didn't want that.
"You didn't even need to ask." The swordsman replied and looked down at her clothes for a moment before tilting his head "Perhaps you should take a bath and get into some dry clothes first though?" he offered.
Maka returned a shy smile but nodded. Crona had matured quite a bit since their first meeting, he was nearly a full grown man now, his stammer had improved and now he only usually did it when something actually embarrassing was happen, instead of just because he was nervous all the time.
"Do you have somewhere I can put my things?" She asked, changing the subject, mainly for herself so she'd stop standing around in the hallway, dripping wet like a lost puppy. Crona seemed thoughtful for a moment "I think...Maybe, just for tonight you should stay in my bedroom, it's the only bed in the house and tomorrow I'll try and buy you something to sleep on properly...I'll be on the couch..." he replied in short burst like sentences, he was quite proud of his little idea.
"Are you sure? Im the guest I can't be putting you out, even if it's for a day I-"
The boy cut her off, holding up his hands "Don't honest, it's fine...leave your stuff in there and go and get warm...I'll make tea when you come down..." Crona told her and leaned over to hug her gently, trying to keep his clothes dry but wanting to offer comfort. He then left her to her own devices, he would have offered to escort her and take her bag up. He might be over doing it a bit then, and Maka preferred to be independent anyways...She didn't need pandering to.
Once she'd put her suitcase by the wall in her friends room. Maka had instantly fled to the bathroom and sorted herself out towels and warm dry pajamas to get changed into after she'd cleaned herself and warmed up.
As she slipped into the warm bubbly water she felt her worries almost disappear like the steam around her skin. She could already tell she'd get sick, not severely, but a sniffle or a couple of headaches were definitely coming. Though, hopefully, if she got warm and dry now she could avoid something bad happening and herself being even more of a burden on her friend.
For some time, she remained in the bath until the water had cooled a considerable amount, and even then she didn't really feel like getting out. She knew Crona would probably want her to talk about the troubles between her and Soul. To get it off her chest so she could sleep peacefully and focus on something else for a bit. In truth she didn't really want to talk about it. She just wanted her promised cup of tea and to act normal for a change, normalcy had long since dissipated from her life and it'd be nice to forget.
After drying her hair, Maka changed into a pair of warm pajamas. A simple set of soft pale green pajamas that were well suited to the December weather. Upon entering the living room she spotted Crona seated on his couch, or more lay on it with his hands over his belly. She wouldn't voice it, but she was surprised with how normal he looked, compared to the nervous husk of a lad he used to be.
He raised his gaze to her face when she entered and suddenly felt as though a stone was lodged in his throat, So he scrambled upwards into a sitting position to give her some room to sit on the couch with him. The blonde obliged and smiled at him, causing the heat to rise to her male friends cheeks before he leaped up to his feet "I'll fetch you some tea!" he chirped, a slight squeak in his tone before he scurried off towards his kitchen.
He heard a giggle escape his friend as she watched him retreat and listened as he made them both a warm cup of tea.
Crona only ended up spacing out as he stared down in to the darkening water of his mug. Worrying over whether or not his readiness to let Maka stay her with him had revealed anything, shown his true eagerness to have her around him, without Soul around, without anyone around. It gave him the chance he'd been looking for to talk to her seriously, even though he was pretty sure she already knew of his feelings he still wanted to act like a man and confess, like normal people do.
He'd had a crush on Maka pretty much since day one of their friendship, and until recently he'd never been able to imagine himself worthy of her, defeater of the kishin, practically savior of the planet. Of course, people knew his name too, but for all the wrong reasons and as much as he'd tried to change that, there was always a shadow in the back of everyone's minds, questioning if he'd betray them again.
As he returned and passed a steaming mug to Maka, he watched as she held it firmly to her chest, cuddling into it's warmth and discretely pulling in a sniffle, as though she didn't want him to notice. But he did, he always did. Again, the boy stood and left his mug on the table beside the couch and disappeared upstairs to return moments later with a fleecy blanket that he wrapped around her shoulders before sitting back and smiling "Stay warm, then you should be alright." he said softly, sipping at his tea.
Maka nodded and leaned back, pulling the blanket tight around herself even though she knew soon she'd be too warm or something but for now she could appreciate his kind gestures. "Thanks Crona" she replied softly, her voice betraying her and revealing her nose was already blocked.
A worried look crossed the boy's face before he gave a mental shrug, she didn't like fussing, and there wasn't much more he knew how to do for her since it wasn't too bad right now. So he put his mind to a more pressing matter and the two of them fell into a comfortable silence.
Before he knew it, Crona was staring at the girl beside on his couch. His pale eyes slowly running over her pajama clad frame before finding her face, her eyes still held little light and she stared numbly into her tea cup. For a while he remained this way even after their tea was finished and the mugs lay empty on the table in front of them. Until Maka finally shifted and instantly noticed him, raising her gaze to look at him she asked, "Are you alright?" Her tone was riddled with fatigue.
A light, warm smile made it's way onto Crona's face as he stood up and pressed his hand to her shoulder "I was just about to ask you the same thing, c'mon, you should get some rest Maka." he replied quietly "It's been a hard day for you."
Maka made like she was going to protest, but made the mistake of looking into Crona's wide puppy dog eyes and felt any argument she could've made crumble on her tongue. Slowly, she nodded and got to her feet, giving a leisurely stretch before allowing her male friend to lead her up to his bedroom. As though she didn't know where it was.
Maka waited for Crona to leave before she pulled her tired body into his bed and curled up beneath his dark sheets, she didn't know what colour they were in the dim light, but neither did she much care. The small girl curled her legs up a little bit and threaded her arm under he pillow so it was lightly pressed against her nose, where she could smell faint traces of colognes Crona must wear. But mostly, it smelled like him, the most comforting scent in the world to her, the one she'd smelled the first time she'd hug him, the day they met, officially.
With that final consoling thought the blonde allowed her eyes to drift closed and fell into a peaceful sleep. Her first restful one in days.
A/N: So, I couldn't figure out a way to work in the confession part of this story yet, then I thought to myself "Why not make this your first multi-chapter fic and give yourself some time to work it in better and not rush it in a one-shot" So keep a lookout for the next installment of this and if you could be so, so kind then leave me a review.
Also, if you spot an error either grammatically or spelling, then please tell me WHERE it is, not that there just is one. I want to make this as good as it can be, so a constructivecriticism is much appreciated.
Chasezx3 - I hope that you liked it and it's something like what you wanted from me, of course, it's not finished yet.