Make a plan to love me

"You know, you never really… do anything with me."

He turned his head. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Ah, nothing," she said quickly, tugging at one of her pigtails. Soul eyed her suspiciously. Her gaze was fixed on the TV screen, and he seriously doubted she'd developed a sudden interest in the lame '80s flick. They were on opposite sides of the couch, he with his legs sprawled over one side and Maka perched primly at the other end. He was used to Maka throwing her legs across his lap and leaning into his side while they watched a movie. He loved it, in fact, and her readiness to drape herself all over him meant he didn't have to look uncool by initiating the touchy-feely-ness himself. Besides, he'd never object to a close encounter with Maka's legs.

"What don't I do?" he asked, keeping his voice casual. She'd been a bit off lately, and he'd noticed, but didn't want her to know he'd noticed—not yet, anyway. If she knew he was worried, she'd try to shrug it off even more.

"Well, we're a… a couple now," Maka said.

"Yeah," Soul agreed. He still got a little thrill of amazement when he thought about it. They'd started dating shortly after the battle on the moon. It happened in such an underwhelming fashion; an old woman had recognized them at the grocery store as two of the Shibusen students who'd defeated the Kishin, and wanted to know if they were together.

"Yes," Maka had replied. Soul turned to her, shocked. She met his startled gaze with a questioning look. They were a Weapon and Meister duo, weren't they? But the elderly woman was sighing sentimentally, and Soul's ears had turned pink like they did when he was flustered but trying to hide it and—oh. Oh. Maka's face burned with the realization.

"Oh, are you really?" the woman cooed. Maka hastily opened her mouth to clear up the mistake.

"Yeah, we are," Soul told her. He had a bit of a dazed look on his face.

Now it was Maka's turn to whip her head in his direction. He still had that strange look on his face, but he was smiling a little now, too. She felt like she had when he'd called her "angel" out of the blue, that pleasant lurch in her belly that made her head feel a bit light. But this was so much better—because surely he wasn't making fun of her this time. He was wearing a small smile, not the usual shit-eating grin he wore after saying something to rile her up.

The furious red of her face had simmered to a faint blush. The entirety of her body now seemed to be focused on his three little words, frozen to the spot yet warm with a satisfaction she didn't quite understand. Did he realize she'd misunderstood? At that point, she didn't really care. When he took her hand on the walk home, she just looked up at the sky and closed her eyes.

That had been a month ago.

"Isn't it just easier, more convenient to call us a couple?"

Soul frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"We're best friends, we live together, we support each other, we hold hands sometimes, we can literally feel each other's' souls."

"Sounds like couple stuff," he said. "Except that last part. That's just us. I mean, that's why we never came out and said it before, right? We were already there. We just hadn't put a label on it or anything, you know? Not that I mind it being official and all that." Then he got that look again, the one Maka didn't get at all. That same smile touched his lips.

As lame as Soul thought labels were, he couldn't help but relish the thought of them as a couple. He'd been more than happy with their relationship before, had never really bothered to examine his feelings for his meister that closely. She was his partner in combat, his inspiration, his closest friend. Of course he cared for her. More than he cared for himself, that was for damned sure. And maybe he wanted to keep her to himself. Just a little bit. And if Maka Albarn was officially taken, then he wouldn't have to worry about some other asshole trying to steal her attention.

"But nothing's changed," Maka insisted.

"Isn't it okay like it is?" Soul asked. "What's supposed to change?"

She pierced him with a look that said: "Soul, you cannot be that dense." But apparently, he was. Instead of giving him an answer, Maka turned her face away with a small huff and went back to staring at the TV. He glanced at the screen, feeling a strong urge to drive his scythe arm through it just so Maka would stop using the damned thing as a cop-out. But cool guys didn't lose their shit like that. Soul knew he wasn't a cool guy, but sometimes the old habits came in handy, at least when it came to preventing property damage.

He made a half-hearted attempt to reengage himself with the movie. It was time for the obligatory sex scene, apparently. The hero had a woman in his lap, grinding her hips against his lasciviously while he pressed open mouthed kisses into the skin of her neck. The soundtrack had shifted to some sultry, psychedelic song and – hold on, was Maka seriously watching this with a straight face? He peeked at her from the corner of his eye; she had this placid expression as if this was just the weather forecast, and here he was, red as a tomato. The hell?

Sure, he'd thought about doing those sorts of things with Maka before. He tried not to entertain those fantasies for too long, for fear that his freakishly observant meister would somehow read his mind and finally send him to the grave with one of her tomes. He'd even wondered if their newfound couple status might send them in that direction, but he'd squashed those ideas quickly. He was perfectly content with the way things were between them. The label was just a little bonus, something for his peace of mind, nothing major.

Maka had no interest in those activities, probably disapproved of them entirely, Soul was sure. She'd associate them with her dad, right? The last thing he wanted was to make his meister uncomfortable with him by reminding her of that old creep.

There was no way Maka could be implying what he was starting to think she might be implying. But if she was…

"Maka," he said. His voice cracked embarrassingly, making him wince. This was already not going well. There was a strange tightness in his chest, as if his insides were trying to crawl up out of his throat and the ground had fallen out from under him. What the fuck was his problem? He forced his voice into a low, careful register, and shifted closer to her as suavely as possible. "What is it that I don't do?"

He was rewarded with the sight of the tops of her ears turning pink. It was his moment. This had better be the coolest damned move he ever made in his life, or he might just slink off into his room and never come out. He reached out a hand, let it feather against the side of her jaw for a moment before tilting her chin to face him. Hopefully she was too flustered to notice his blush or his shaking hands.

He was totally cool. The target was in sight. Her lips were thin and delicate, a deceptive mouthpiece for fierce declarations and charged battle cries. His head was tilting forward (albeit jerkily), his mouth set on a direct collision course, and she was just inches away—

"W-wait," Maka said.

Soul froze. Had he fucked up? Oh Death, he had. He'd completely misread the signs and now she was going to murder him, right here on the couch. Worse than that, though, was the feeling of rejection blossoming in his chest. But that was stupid; he didn't really want to kiss her, anyway, right? He thought she'd wanted him to, and the thought of her turning to someone else because he wasn't "doing things with her" made his chest ache. He just wanted her to stay. No, he had to calm down. She wasn't rejecting him, he told himself. Soul knew that Maka cared about him, that she wasn't going to leave him. Enjoyable wasn't a strong enough word for what he thought kissing Maka might be like; she could probably come up with a dozen better ones off the top of her head. But he couldn't entertain that thought, anyway. Their relationship was fine. He didn't need for them to take that… extra step.

"If you don't want to, it's okay," Maka was saying. Her eyes were two swirling, moss-green galaxies and he was suddenly caught by the gravity of her gaze. "Soul, we don't have to be a… a couple."

Wait, what? Had he missed something? Was she was breaking up with him, or worse—his heart skipped a beat at the thought of her dissolving their partnership, kicking him out of the apartment, telling him she never wanted to see him again. But she was making it sound like his idea, and he was totally lost.

"Soul." He snapped back to reality at the sound of her voice. Maka was smiling, but it was strained. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here for you until you tell me to go, okay? You don't have to pretend to date me to get me to stick around."

Soul knew he was missing something here. He latched onto the phrase in particular that had him stumped. "Pretend to date you?"

She nodded. "I know you don't see me in… that way."

"That way?"

She scowled at him, although the effect was diluted by the sudden, apparent wetness of her eyes. Soul felt his stomach drop. "You're not attracted to me," she said. "I know that, and you know that, and that's okay. But you should date someone that you really want to kiss. It's okay. I'll still be your friend and partner. Unless you'd rather we… we broke it off altogether." Her voice was small at the end.

"The fuck? Why would I want to break it off altogether?" Soul wasn't sure if he should be panicked or enraged that she could even think he'd just send her away. Why did she keep putting words in his mouth? He opened his mouth again, not quite yet sure what he would say. The words struck him suddenly, and it was amazing to him how easy it was to blurt them; he'd been telling her all along without even knowing. "I love you!"

The silence was thick for a moment, and the reality of what he'd admitted hit Soul harder than any of Maka's books ever had. There was no hiding his shaking frame or his flushed face at this point. Any semblance of cool that he'd mustered up for the failed lip-lock had completely evaporated. He was just Soul now, the nervous, reclusive idiot fumbling to convey his feelings to the girl he loved.

"I love you, too," Maka said slowly. She let out a wry chuckle. "Dating seems like such a shallow word for people who can feel each other's souls, you know? I feel stupid for even thinking about it. I never thought I'd even want to date. I knew it wasn't right to let you do that, but I'm just so selfish. I thought, if I let you say we were dating, maybe those other girls would stop trying to steal your attention. But that's not fair to you. It's not your fault you don't feel the same."

She was really crying now and that was unacceptable. "Maka. Maka. Just, just stop for a second, okay?"

She jerked in surprise. His hands were on her shoulders, his face much closer than it had been moments before. She could see every spiderlike vein in the whites of his eyes. He still wasn't sleeping well, was her vague thought before he spoke again.

"Look, I'm a fucking idiot. I know why you don't think I feel the same way, and it's all bullshit. I say stupid shit because I'm a moron, because I wanted to look cool, and because I don't want you to think we're gonna end up like your parents. I thought I knew how you felt about all that romantic stuff. I thought you were off limits, okay? So I locked that shit up with all the other emotional baggage." He gave a slightly hysterical, barking laugh. "Literally minutes ago I was telling myself I was just gonna kiss you so you didn't go kiss anyone else. And it made sense in my head. This is how dumb I am, okay? I just didn't want to scare you off. There were times when I thought maybe you wanted something more, but by that point I just didn't want to fuck up. So I let us skirt around it all that time. Fuck, I'm sorry."

He leaned his forehead towards hers, and to his relief, she met him halfway. She'd stopped crying. Their noses almost touched, warm breaths mingling pleasantly. But he could tell she was still tense.

"Can I… Is it alright if I kiss you?" he asked.

"You want to?" she said quietly, forehead still pressed against his, her eyes fixed on her lap in uncharacteristic shyness.

"Have for a while now."

She released a low, contented hum. "I'm sorry, too." He felt her face heat up. "And um, if you want to, it's… I think I'd like that?"

"Okay." When her head tilted upward so she could peek at him from behind her bangs, he craned his neck to the side and placed his lips on hers. Her shoulders tensed and her breath hitched, so Soul moved to pull away, when her hand ghosted against the side of his cheek and her fingers traced the outline of his jaw down to the heartbeat in his throat.

She leaned back. "So your heart's racing, too." Her warm breath against his lips made them tingle and had him swaying forward again. "And your soul's all jittery."

Soul flushed. "Never kissed anyone before," he mumbled, looking away. "Scared I'd fuck up."

"The best way to learn is practice, right?" In one fluid motion, Maka's lips were on his again. They stayed frozen in that position for what felt like hours, eyes closed and shoulders hunched forward. Then Soul moved his mouth experimentally against hers, and was rewarded with her svelte form sliding into his lap as both of their mouths began sliding against each other. His mind was suddenly working on overdrive, trying to catalogue every detail, and he could feel Maka doing the same. He caught hot, silky flashes of the tender flesh just behind the skin of her lips that left burning impressions on his skin as they cooled. Idly he wondered if her tongue would create an even stronger sensation. Her teeth would occasionally scrape against his lower lip if her chin was lifted too high, which sent jolts of excitement down his spine and across their link that soothed her embarrassment. Then one of his teeth caught against her lower lip, and he tasted blood. Soul sat back, panicked.

"Shit! I'm so sorry, I should've been more careful. Are you okay?"

Maka licked the blood away with one clean swipe of her tongue and puffed her cheeks out at him in annoyance. "As if your stupid teeth could hurt me. Look, it's not even bleeding anymore."

She wrapped her arms around him, burrowing her face into the crook of his neck, knocking him onto his back. He slid his arms out to rest around her waist. "Your soul is so warm." Her words, combined with the proximity of her lips to his jugular, made him shiver in a very uncool way. He felt her grin and retaliated by poking the spot just above the hip. She squeaked and moved to get off of him, but he just tightened his hold.

"Soul, you know this is a battle you won't win," she warned him. Yeah, his meister might be physically stronger than him, but he played a lot dirtier.

"Five more minutes and I'll make dinner," he said.

"Hmm. Seven if you bake dessert for me."

"Nine." He shot her his best puppy-dog eyes.

She harrumphed, apparently unimpressed, but he knew he'd won by the twitch at the corner of her mouth. "Then I get to pick the movie."

"Deal."

It took a few minutes, which Soul insisted did not count as part of the deal, but they ended up lying on their sides with Soul pressed against the back of the couch, Maka's head tucked under his chin. "So are we for-real dating now?" Soul asked, and she could feel his voice rumble through his chest.

"I'll follow you anywhere," she replied.

"Hey. Isn't that my line?" he grumbled.

"Must be," she agreed. "Only you could come up with a line that corny."

"Corny?! Who's the one who wanted to be called an angel, huh?"

"Shut up, that's different."

"My ass!"

"Seven minutes left."

Soul groaned and pushed his nose into her hair, but said nothing. They lay there in comfortable silence, their soul resonance a gentle hum. His meister drifted off in a matter of minutes. Soul relished the easy rise and fall of her back against his palms, her hair tickling his chin.

Dinner would have to wait.

This was supposed to be a quick thing based off of an adorable scene in the manga Horimiya and then stuff happened. and I can't come up with titles so enjoy another song title rip-off (Make A Plan to Love Me by Bright Eyes). also hi it's been a while