Hello little souls! The idea of Paperman belongs to Disney, as this is an AU of Soul and Maka in this little disney short. If you haven't seen the short, warning of spoilers since it does follow the storyline fairly well. Well, enjoy my little souls~
It was another day; same train to wait on in the same type of work clothes. Clean, crisp suit tailored in a gray tone along with a white button up underneath with a black tie. It was I wore to work generally for the last 3 years, signing and stamping off paper after paper at Stein's document filing building. After falling hard from program created and taught by my own family, I searched for the easiest and furthest job I could find; and I fucking stuck with it. Through the terrible bosses and quiet, keep to themselves co-workers; I lived a life of complete solitude. And I fucking loved it.
The loud whistle and thundering rolls of a train sounded behind me, the usual 8:15AM that came five minutes before my own, drew me out of my thoughts. I could feel the brushed off wind roll against my right side, stirring up my jacket and pants slightly. I clenched my folder of work in my left hand to ensure I didn't lose any documents. My other hand weaved through my snow-white hair, setting it back to its usual casually messy do. However, a strong gust of wind came from my right again and ruined it anyway. I sighed and closed my eyes to avoid any kicked up dust at the station.
SMACK
I startled out of my calm and reserved pose as what felt to be a large leaf or newspaper smacked right into my right ear. I snapped my eyes open and with slight turn of my face, it followed a calmer breeze and released the side of my head. I faced forward again, feeling a slight scowl cross my face from embarrassment. Suddenly, a whiff of strawberries filled my nose and someone dashed in front of me. My head whipped in her direction as she ran past, hand outstretched for the paper, now fluttering on a dying gust. She grabbed it nimbly, skidding to a stop in her black pumps. With a heavy breath, she slid the paper back into a vanilla folder that was held even tighter against her chest.
Slowly she turned towards me, her head bowed with a shy and embarrassed smile. I gave a small smirk, but quickly adverted my eyes off to a station bench. For a moment, I felt her eyes rest on me and when I let my own eyes slid towards her small frame, she was looking elsewhere. I looked up towards the sky (and her gaze was upon me again, I was sure!) recalling her features. Creamy skin like a caramel apple that I could imagine sinking my teeth into, the appealing thought that unconsciously moved my tongue over the row of unnatural sharp teeth. She seemed to wear little to no makeup, excusing the rose red lipstick that was perfectly applied to her lips. Perhaps some light eyeliner and foundation was set, but it hardly looked so when she looked so natural and fucking cute. Ashy blonde hair rested on her shoulders with a slight curl to the end, shaping her face nicely. Her bangs were swept off to one side, to the right if I remember right… I glanced over at her and for a mere second, our eyes met before a small something slipped right out of my-
SMACK
A gust of wind kept pushing in her direction and I'm sure I gaped like a fish, realizing it was one of my own documents from my folder that had slipped out and hugged her face! I quickly reached towards the paper, but gently grabbed the top with the tip of my fingers. I pulled back, unable to hold back a blush at her cutely scrunched face; eyes squeezed shut and cheeks slightly pink. Once she no longer felt the presence of the paper, her eyes flicked open at the document before they slowly made their ascent to my own eyes. I stood their dumbfounded, unable to comprehend the irises looking at my own; the green so vibrant and beautiful, I could not explain them on the spot. But suddenly I became alarmed as she stifled back a laugh, her cheeks bubbling up as she bit down on her lips. Was it my own eyes she found to be laughable, the burgundy I disliked so much because if it didn't match up with the freak show that I already looked like, it surely must have been for how unpleasant they were, that it was laughable.
Yet, her quirky smile and laughing eyes weren't looking at my own, but down at my shoes, or the gum on the ground, or (dearly hope not) my crotch, or my paperwork- Aha! It was the paper; surely, and as I looked upon it, what was supposed to be approved with a business stamp at work was replaced with a scarlet stamp of her lips. I chuckled at the back of my throat and with mirth, closed my eyes and pointed to her how silly the custom stamp was.
But when the world appeared before my eyes again, she was gone and the world felt empty again. Panicked, I looked right and then left to see her butt- BACK! I meant back, being closed off to me by a train door. Once the doors were closed, she quickly sat in a chair closest to the door, leaving me to stare wounded at the back of her blonde hair. The wind blustered again, but my fingers gripped the single paper tight, still holding it up in forlorn silence. Despite the bustle of other people in the background and the screechy rolling of wheels, the world was all too quiet. Zoned in on her, my soul silently pleaded for my legs to move, for my lungs to scream wait and pray that she would do something of the same; yet, I settled for the small look she offered to me over her shoulder. The look I smiled to hopefully, too fucking hopefully, she returned a smile back with the truth; apologetic, downhearted, and a forever farewell. Not believing her, I stood there a moment longer before my own reality beckoned me with a bellow of wheels and a whistle for the 8:20AM train.
Idly, the ticking of a clock passed slowly as her kiss sat on my desk, constantly rekindling my desire to know her, to have her, to love her; to firstly find her. I stared longingly at the paper, wishing I had at least let her keep it since it did have my business information to contact me, including my name and number. Yet, the thought didn't even cross my mind in that surreal encounter. Sure, I've met a lot of girls and judged them fairly on their looks and personality. However, not once did a girl make me feel this way. The way a man should when he truly loves; the getting down on one knee, the talk of one, two, three children. Even if the thought is brash and unreal, I want us to be that cheesy chick flick; sitting on a swing porch, hand in hand when her hair is as silvery as mine.
A stack of papers was abruptly, and rudely, slammed onto my work desk, cutting the room's silence like a knife through butter. Despondently, I peered up to the round glasses of Stein himself; the displeasure clear despite the reflective gleam that always hid his eyes. I looked down at the stack of paper; naked compared the single kiss-stamped sheet. Stein turned away from me when I looked back up, silently and irritably dismissing him, which was the same look he did unto me.
I watched his back disappear past my bland coworkers and into his concealed room. A draft tugged at my hair and drew me back to myself, luckily bringing my attention to the paper dancing across my desk to the open window. The kissed paper dancing to the open window!? Just barely, I slammed my hands down on the wooden pane, catching the end of the paper as it waved in the outgoing draft. I breathed out and pulled it back in, glancing out at the less-than-scenic view of a Newspaper publishing building that was across the way. I noticed a cute girl entering the room, slender and cute with a pleased smile that I could see from her. Before I was even able to turn back to my desk, a flash of green eyes appeared behind a flicker of eyelids.
I pressed my palms against the window, my nose kissing the glass as I started across at her in awe. She smiled politely, shaking the hand of some person with a curt nod. Then, she moved to a chair across a desk, brushing her grey pencil skirt beneath her and sitting down with confidence that even I could see from across the way. Perhaps the odds were in my favor if I could just get her attention! I yanked up the window more till it was open above my head, and with a small lean, I waved my hands desperately. Even luckier, her window was open! I opened my mouth to make a sound, ready to do anything, to get her to look my way.
"Evans." Came a sharp voice that slowed my motion to a stop, and upon looking back into my boring office area, Stein had leaned back in his chair to glare at me of his enclosed, private office before he went back to his own work. Without a word, I knew it was a silent order to get back to my job, but even then, I couldn't get her out of mind; let alone now out of my sight. I leaned back in my own uncomfortable wooden chair, thoughts racing through my mind on how I could reach her. Running a hand through the front of my hair to the back of my neck, I stressed over the best options.
I looked down at my desk, the red kiss still apparent on my paper, rekindling the small and newly fond memory of the document flying into her face and thus crossing each other's paths.
"Hmm… Flying…?" I muttered under my own breath and reached for the paper before quickly deciding to not use the one that was blessed with her lips, but the other useless documents that Stein had given me just minutes ago. I swiped the top piece, smacking it down with vigor before rewinding back to when I was in elementary school. Swiftly, I folded over edges of the paper and pressed my fingers down hard to seal my work; a paper plane. When I was young, my brother taught me how to make them and to make them right. Not any of those fancy or complex planes with twenty, no, like, thirty folds; the most simplistic, fucking fantastic flying paper plane. Who knew that bastard taught me something useful?
I held back a snicker, easily tucking my memories away and completing my task. I grabbed its underside, holding it tight between my fingers. I looked up first to Stein's office, his silhouette visibly sitting at his desk. I eased my body close to the open window, my groin pressed against the wall to get me as close as I could be. Without a second thought, I pulled my arm up at a ninety-degree angle and pulled back. Then, I let my hand whip forward and release the paper and there it soared!
"…"
Fuck.
I glared down at the plane, it swirling down as if in a toilet bowl. Determination setting fire beneath my soul, I reached for another document and folding it just as swiftly as the previous. Prepared, I held plane number two up for take off; and with a more graceful throw, I set it free towards her open window. It glided high above the bustling city below of honking horns and chatty businessmen and women. It looked so perfect!
"…" At least, till it went nose first into the side of the building, mere inches from the open frame. I sat down and quickly prepared another, spinning back to the window before a stern hand gripped my shoulder hard, the other hand attached to my boss slamming my window shut. I didn't even hear the damn man! He gave me one last hard glare behind his glasses before he stalked his way back into the office with a business guest of his own. I stared at the both of them as they disappeared from the workroom with the door shut behind them. How rude of them to interrupt me.
I continued to make the third, the fourth, and the fifth plane; alas, all my luck seemed to have vanished within a heartbeat. I watched as the many were just inches away from the window. Yet, how the one one made my heart soar with pride and anticipation as it entered their room across the way. However, her amazing looking butt was the observer as it went unnoticed into the trashcan behind her as she was occupied doing something else. One had landed perfectly inside the window on a desk, of a room one story down. The man seemed happy with the plane, until I motioned it was not for him and he grumbly waded it into a ball. Another had been knocked out of the air by pigeons; how the hell they didn't see it, I don't know. Irritable and depressed, I banged my head against the office wall to ease some of the pain this activity was doing to my head, heart, and soul.
I pressed on though, my fingers skillfully making the sixth, the twelfth, the thirtieth, the sixty-seventh-
CRASH
I didn't realize how many documents I had folded through until my hand had smacked the empty paper tray to the ground. I looked up at my startled co-workers, for who knows how long they were watching me. The gentlemen in front of me look too amazed for words, whether good or bad amazed, I wasn't sure. I then looked to the guy who was in the desk next to me, a frightened expression crossing his face as he wrapped an arm around his stack of paperwork and slid it closer to himself. He had his reasons, which I agreed on because I needed more! I needed to catch her attention quick. I turned back to the window and looked across, slightly concerned as she stood up from her chair again.
A fluttering sound emitted behind me and I looked back. And there was one left, kissed by angel to give me my last hope. As I held it down to the desk and perfectly folded it, I realized this was my last chance. Confidently, I returned to the launching position and breathed out to relax my nerves. It didn't help any though, as a draft caught the back of my plane and swiped it out of my relaxed hand. I tried to snatch it, but it floated out of my reach and tumbled down below. To top it all off, as I looked back to the room across, she had been escorted out the door and giving a quick goodbye before she turned down a hall and the business man closed the door behind her.
Heartbroken for an instant, the audible click of a door snapped my attention back inside my office to meet the eyes of Stein once again. I felt little guilt for some reason and looked down upon the street, catching her figure leaving the building down below. I turned on my heel, the image of myself racing down this building to reach her. But, I was only met with the wrath of more paperwork in the arms of my beloved Stein… Fuck yourself man, I mentally growled in the back of my mind. He was in charge, the man who took care of my job and money. And so as he set down the papers loudly, I followed suit in my chair. I looked upon the crisp, new sheets dejectedly as I knew that they couldn't be folded in the hopes of someone noticing it; of someone noticing me.
Something snapped within me, the surge of determination and life swelling in my soul. I challenged my eyes to the back of my superior with the even more challenging words that I just kept in my head as I pushed myself away from the table in an explosion of papers (kinda accidently hit the stack of paper on the way out, but whatever) and raced out of the office.
Fuck it.
Screw the elevator to go from the fourth to ground level, I practically leapt down the stairwell and ungracefully pulled on my suit's coat. Once back to the ground level I pushed my way past people, ignoring their grunts or comments, and crashed through the revolving door one way to get onto the busy street literally. My heart carried my feet through the traffic that honked at me as I barely dodged the cars, dancing my way through them clumsily. At last though, I had made it to her side of the street. I looked left, and right, and left again. I did it once, twice; my hands weaving tensely through my hair as my eyes darted everywhere for the sight of her. I ignored the stares of concern and caution, as I must've looked like a madman.
My adrenaline died completely and my heart broke even further because she was gone. And to spite it all, sitting on a mail drop off box was the only kiss I'll ever know from her on the last paper plane I think I'll ever make. I felt tears prickle at the corner of my eyes, a deep resentment choking up my throat. I just not only lost the girl of my dreams, but my decent job too, I'm sure after how I just performed. Bitterly, I snatched the paper plane and set it soaring once more off and down the street, hopefully into some wild flames or something. I didn't even bother looking where the hell it went; my feet heavy and my shoulders slumped forward as I proceeded making my way home.
Where all those paper planes went, who knows and who cares. A little sorry for trashing the city, as if it wasn't trashed enough, but I didn't really want to see another paper plane ever again. As I angrily continued on my way, I felt a light pressure brush against my shin. Looking down, speak of the devil, was a paper plane; even more upsetting, it was the last one I had thrown; the kissed paper. I yanked it away and chucked it back, not caring about if it even hit someone. Yet, it strangely stuck back to me again; as did others…? Soon, paper planes were swarming to my body like bees to honey.
"What the hell?" I grunted out softly as the planes seemed to push me back with force? I stepped backwards, not able to hold my ground against these enchanted things! I tried my best to push or smack them, anything to get them off and away from me. Yet, they advanced still and practically carried me away. People watched in confusion and awe as I danced by, covered in paper planes and barking for help. We danced back the way I came, through the people and the traffic. The kissed paper, who seemed to be the leader, fluttered away in a different direction as the rest of the papers held onto me and pushed me somewhere else.
"The train station?" I thought to myself as I tried to grab the stair's bars, the pushy planes forcing me up them to a train car. I grabbed both sides of the train car's door, but with no avail, was also forced inside to a seat. Furious, hurt, tired, and mostly confused, I kept myself to my apparently 'assigned' seat. I crossed my arms irritably, trying to wrap my head around what the hell was happening. Having not a single answer, I growled out in anger and jumped up, but the planes quickly worked me back into the seat. It didn't help that little balloon boy was sitting next to me, probably thinking that I was some fucking loony. Thank god the mom pulled him away; it's fucking rude to stare…
I glanced out the window, noticing the familiar buildings and streets; we were approaching my usual stop to and from work. And as sure as I thought, the chime for my usual stop rang and the planes urgently pushed me off. I willingly let them, tired and now curious of why they would drag me back here. They suddenly stopped their antics, allowing me to just stand there. I looked at them, still holding onto me, but no longer put any pressure on me. The whistle of the train across from me sounded and I looked up, only to have my jaw drop at the sight of her. She was stepping out of her train, looking around at her surroundings, bouncing a very familiar airplane in her hands. Her green eyes were big, curious and confused as they peered upon the still plane in her delicate looking hands. Then, a gush of wind brushed behind me, scattering some of the planes off of me and around her, finally catching her attention.
She looked at me, the light streaming through her hair like an angel as she smiled warmly at me. I grinned back, amazed and giddy at her presence. I stepped forward, the papers sliding off of me with no protest; their animation, their life, suddenly gone. They were just folded paper planes again, rolling in the wind around the train's platform.
She brushed her hair back, stepping closer to me. I did the same, glancing down at the single paper that we had both recognized; the one who tied our fates since this morning. I looked into her eyes, and she looked into mine. From that instant, we knew that we didn't want to lose each other again.
"Soul. Soul Evans." I stated, branching out my hand to her. She looked down at my hand for a moment before she moved the plane into one hand, the other reaching for mine as she then looked back up at me with a grin.
"Maka Albarn. Seeing you with all those papers, I was about to call you Paperman." She responded, giggling. I laughed, actually and honestly laughed; it's been a while since I have.
"Call me whatever you want, but know it was my paper folding skills that lead you back to me." She turned as red as a tomato and I laughed even harder.
I invited her out, to whom she gladly and quickly agreed to, to vent about our day's events and to catch up. Over our steaming cups of coffee, she told me of the little paper that had found it's way to her. Far from our office buildings it flew to find her. Well, at least now her new office building as I learned that she had just been hired there, and no longer my office building across from hers because I was more than sure I was fired. She said she was looking upon a flower shop when it pushed itself into a bouquet in front of her. She recognized her lipstick stain, to which she cutely blushed at when said, and before she knew it, it had picked up on a wind that danced around her. When it flew away, she was instantly attracted to it. She followed it down different streets to the train station, to where it took her to her new usual stop; to where she ran into me again.
She admitted that she felt like it was no coincidence that it drew her back to me, and that she was drawn to me from the first meeting this morning. She laughed over my side of the story, how these paper planes came to be and how I threw all of my effort (and threw away my job too) to catch her attention. I learned quickly how I loved her laughter, in the way it sounded and how her face bubbled in joy.
As the day drew to night, we sat the little diner for a couple of hours, coffee always refilled with sides of biscuits on occasion. She was new to town, to fulfill her passion in writing and had luckily found a job here that gave a column in the local newspaper. She had moved out of state and just settled in only a day ago, obviously tired as she rubbed her eyes in the later hours.
I offered her my number for various reasons, but I coolly said that if she needed help finding or needing anything, being new and all, I'd be there. And I was there, through needing help with her writing, with her father giving her a hard time to the point that she'd cry, with her lonely nights that only needed me, as well as some Chinese food from down the street; I was always there. And she was there for me too, as I found a new job that was only a story up from her in the same building, as I fought with my parents over the phone again and again, as my brother visited me and harked on me for finding such a pretty girlfriend; she was always there for me.
We were there for each other when we moved in together, along with a little black cat that they had found on the street the same day; and the little plane too. He sat perfectly on our mantle in the living room, and even though he looked worn and the kiss was faded, there were times when we thought we could see him roll onto his sides, pleased at it watched our fates intertwine even more with each passing day.
I hoped you enjoyed my little souls! After watching the disney short, I could see for some reason Soul and Maka being these people instead, so I had to write on it. Let me know what you think. Thanks so much. Until next time my little souls~