Disclaimer: Soul Eater does not belong to me. The Anime and Manga, including the scenes which come before and after this one-shot, belong to Atsushi Okubo.

Pairing: SoMa

Warning: Violent reference and some mild language.

Brief: Soul begins to act strangely shortly before Maka's birthday, and she becomes suspiscious. What is it that Soul is hiding from his Meister?

Rertyan the Dark: Okay, I'm taking some time off of the usual things I'm working on to get this done. It's an idea I've dabbled with for some time and finally gotten written out and posted. Hopefully you all will enjoy this.

Soul: Did you seriously call yourself 'Rertyan the Dark'? So uncool.

R.T.D.: Hey, I don't go at you for your name!

Soul: Mine is what was given to me, yours is a pen name which you chose.

Maka: Soul! Stop being so rude!

Soul: Whatever, Tiny-Tits.

Maka: MAKA CHOP!

Soul: OW! Maka!

R.T.D.: While they sort this out, I'll just say that I'm not affiliated with Atsushi Okubo or his work, Soul Eater. Now would you two stop fighting?

Soul/Maka: SHUT UP!

Soul Eater One-Shots

One: Maka's Birthday Surprise

"Soul!" Maka's irritated tone shrilled through the small shared apartment. She was stood outside her partner's door, having knocked several times and shouted in now four times into the room beyond the wooden barrier. Now angered by his impudence to ignore her so valiantly. Huffing in fury, she barged into his room. "Dammit, Soul! I swear, if you keep ignoring me like this, I'm gonna-"

She stopped abruptly in mid-rant, her eyes gazing around the lit room. The bed lay empty, the cover messily folded flat over it's form, and Soul's own form was nowhere to be seen at all. Maka's eyes drifted to the desk beside it, where a folded sheet of white paper lay, her name written in large, red letters. She picked it up and flipped it over in her hand, reading the letter.

'Maka,

If you're reading this, you've clearly been looking for me, got pissed and tried to beat my skull in for ignoring you. When you find this, I'll be long gone, so I imagine you're pretty pissed and confused right about now.

I'm sorry to have done this to you again, but I have something I must do, and I can't do it with you, hence why I left without awaking you. It's been like this all week, but I wouldn't let myself live if I spoilt the surprise when I'm so close to completing it.

I know how uncool it is for me to do this, but it is more uncool to ruin the surprise, and I'm sorry that I can't tell you what exactly is going on.

I'll be home late, and I'll bring Chinese take-out with me. Let me know if you either don't want any or if you'd rather have something different.

See you later,

Soul.'

Squeezing her fist around the paper in a display of her hurt, Maka tossed it into the waste paper bin before leaving the room, her features furled into a mask of hurt and confusion. She slumped down on the edge of her bed and looked at her calender, the purple number '17' in the box corresponding to the next day filling her heart with dread. She was almost 17 years old, and yet her partner and the person she considered her closest friend of all had shown no signs of knowing this fact. She sighed and kicked bedside table pitifully.

They had been through a lot together, her and Soul; they had helped destroy the Kishin Asura a year or so ago, she had made Soul into a Deathscythe after all their effort, and they had freed Crona from Medusa once and for all. And yet this new predicament; Soul's sudden out of character behaviour whereby he went behind her back and kept secrets from her, it was unsettling for the young Meister to comprehend or even attempt to understand. He had never been like this with her, and it was not a common occurrence for her Weapon partner to disappear without a word and leave a note behind for her.

"Soul," she whispered in a tone she rarely used; it was laced with a deep emotional hurt and confusion which she never let through. "What are you hiding?"

Heaving another sigh, Maka stood up, grabbed her latest book and curled up on the couch to read it and await Soul's return.

"This is so uncool," Soul muttered to himself, his hands thrust deep inside his pockets.

The scythe had a look of disappointment at his own actions; leaving Maka to her own devices without so much as a goodbye or an explanation to her. She deserved to know what he was doing, and he felt terrible for going against this ideology, but he had no choice in the matter now. Looking back, he realised long ago that it was the lesser of the two evils, going by the fact that the end result would be so much better than if he explained his actions.

He walked up to the door of Gallows Manor, rapping eight times on the door as the clock turned eight o'clock, knowing that the occupant's OCD tendencies would go off the rails if he did not. The amber-eyed male opened the door with a courteous smile.

"Ah, Soul," he said. "Right on time, I see. I take it you want to get back to where we were yesterday, right?"

"Yeah," Soul nodded, following the Meister and son of Lord Death to the room where they had been working for the last week. "No sense in delaying it any longer."

"Can I ask you something, Soul?" Kid asked as they walked, glancing at his friend behind him. "What made you decide to do this?"

"It's what she would want," Soul said simply. "After all, what kind of Weapon would I be if I didn't know what my Meister would want."

Kid noted Soul's choice of words and his reaction with a simple nod, but turned to face forwards without so much as a change in expression in his eyes. The young reaper knew his friend well enough to gauge his responses and know what his underlying thoughts are.

"Well, here we are," Kid announced, opening the door. As Soul stepped in, he went to leave him to his devices, when the albino Weapon spoke up.

"Oh, Kid, is everything ready for tomorrow night?" he asked. Kid turned and nodded.

"The girls and setting up as we speak," he nodded. "Tsubaki will be here tomorrow to help prepare the food and drink, and I'll be arranging the music system to correspond with your personal decisions on what is best. I'll let you know when we are ready for you, but aim for eight o'clock."

"Figures," Soul chuckled a little, moving inside the room and closing the door. "Some people never change..."

True to his word, it was fairly late in the night before Soul returned to his apartment, two cardboard containers of noodles with various additional flavourings in the white plastic bag in his left hand and his keys in his right. Opening the door, he placed the bag on the table in their kitchen and hung his jacket on the rack.

"Maka, I'm home!" he called. No response. "Hey, Maka! Hurry up or it'll go cold!"

Still nothing. Soul frowned, venturing towards the sitting area, the sound of soft snores getting louder as he approached. The scythe leaned over the back of the couch, gazing down upon the seats, spotting the source of the sound with a gentle smile.

Maka lay sprawled out on the cushions beneath his gaze, her hand draped over the edge of the couch with a book open on the floor beneath it. The forgotten hardback had no signs of being reclaimed any time soon to Soul, who noticed that Maka had, at some point, changed into her pyjamas prior to his return and her falling asleep. From the form-fitting clothing she now wore, Soul could see that his Meister had changed a lot over the year; her chest was noticeably larger than his jeers had implied, though she always wore loose jackets in fighting, and the shorts she wore proved that she was far from undeveloped about her lower body. He smiled a little at the cute face she had due to her slumbering form, and he had to will his blood away from his nose to stop the inevitable nosebleed he felt readying to spray itself from his being.

Prying himself from the sight, for he knew that his Meister would complain about having a stiff neck and being sore all of the next day if he left her there, Soul opened the door to Maka's bedroom before then scooping her up in his arms. Reacting to this, Maka wrapped her arms around his neck, snoring into his chest all the while. Blushing as he continued to go about his task, Soul carried his tired Meister to her bed and carefully placed her on the mattress. The years of fighting gave Maka's slender form a great deal of strength, and it took quite some time for Soul to untangle himself from his sleeping Meister, but, once he was free, he tucked her in and took one last look at her before leaving to deal with the take-out, closing the door behind him silently.

He did not hear the single word which escaped from Maka's mouth as he did so.

Maka awoke the next day to the scent of a certain sweetness laced with a heavy burning smell. Confused by this mysterious aroma, as well as the fact that she was curled up in her bed instead of the couch where she had last remembered being, Maka dragged herself from the cushioned cocoon in which she had been ensnared and opened the door. Through the grey smog which coated the air of the living room and kitchen area in the apartment, the blonde Meister could make out Soul's form with his back to her. She crept forwards, only to hear a roar of pain from the scythe as he quickly tipped the contents of the pan into the bin and threw the offending item of culinary function into the waiting sink, a hiss resounding as it hit the water.

"Fuck!" he shouted, gripping his left hand and glaring at the frying pan with a look which would have melted it in a moment. "You bastard! You did that on purpose!"

"Cursing at it won't help, Soul," Maka said from the window, which now was open in an attempt to clear the mass of smoke in the room. "What's going on here anyway?"

"M- Maka? You shouldn't be up yet!" he said awkwardly, still holding his singed hand. "I wanted to surprise you!"

"By burning down the apartment?" Maka asked coyly, moving to her Weapon and inspecting his hand gently. Soul rolled his eyes.

"No, it was meant to be that French toast you like," he sighed. "It's... harder, than I expected."

Maka followed his gaze to the counter, where a series of broken fragments of egg shells, a now empty bag of sugar and a half used-up loaf of bread which she had bought yesterday. She giggled a little as she ran the cold water over his wounded hand, the display alone enough for her.

"It was a nice gesture, Soul," she said, removing the hand to check it once more, satisfied that it was okay. "But there was no need to do something like this and push yourself so." She smiled at him as he grinned back. "I'm going to go shower; let's go out for breakfast instead, 'kay?"

"You got it," Soul replied as she sauntered passed him.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAKA!"

The resounding shout as the Weapon and Meister entered the room of the Gallows Mansion where their friends were gathered. Both grinned at the sudden reaction to their arrival; Maka because of the efforts her friends had gone to to do this for her, and Soul because of Maka's reaction. He could not help but think how cute she looked when she was surprised like this.

"You guys... did all this for me?" Maka squeaked.

"Damn right!" Black Star shouted in his usual flamboyant manner, hanging from the banner on the back wall of the room. "It's not everyday that you turn seventeen! Yahoo!"

"Black Star, would you shut up and get down from there!" Kid pleaded. "You're ruining the symmetry! At least hang from the middle you idiot!"

"Oh brother, here we go again," Liz sighed, attempting to calm her Meister while her sister burst out laughing at the reaction and Tsubaki tried to get Black Star down from the banner.

"Man, this is so uncool," Soul murmured, rubbing his head. Maka glanced his way, lips parted slightly as if to say something.

Her features reformed into a small smile at Soul's typical behaviour. Before long, the party kicked off properly, with everyone dancing, talking or, in Black Star and Patty's case, stuffing their faces. The night wore on for several hours before Kid turned off the music.

"Hey, what the hell, Kid?" Black Star bellowed. "I was listening to that!"

"Not now, Black Star," Kid replied calmly. "It's time to give Maka her birthday presents."

They took their seats in a circle, each person handing their presents to Maka one by one. She received a copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare from Tsubaki, a book voucher from Black Star, which, oddly, was the best present he had ever gotten her to date, a pair of new dresses from Liz and Patty, and a number of hair-styling items from Kid, though she suspected that the Thompsons had influenced this. She turned to Soul, but he stood up and held out a hand to her.

"Come with me, Maka," he said. "I have something I have to show you first."

She was confused by his request, but took her Weapon's hand regardless and followed him down the corridor and into another room. This one was fairly small, with red walls and black and white checked floors. The room was lit by black candles with a blue flame, casting an eerie glow upon the black piano which sat at the centre of the room. Soul led her to the stool and they both sat down upon it.

"Soul, what is it you wanted to show me?" she asked. Soul chuckled a little.

"You can be so naïve sometimes, Maka," he said simply. "I wanted to give you something which shows you how I feel about you."

Without another word, Soul's fingers met the keys, playing the tune he had been rehearsing for so long with masterful precision. It was dark, much like his playing in the Black Room within his own soul, as Maka noted, but there was something deeper about it. At first, it seemed like sorrow, and a pang of guilt echoed through the chords of Maka's heart, feeling that she had done him wrong, but then she realised that was not it at all.

It was affection. Not affection like Weapon and Meister or just friends shared, but rather what a lover would use. The passion in his playing echoed this idea as all the emotions he felt for her laced his music, flowing through them both and connecting them to one another. After a while, the young Meister became lost in the beauty of the tune, but she was brought back to Earth when the tones stopped reverberating across her body.

"Soul..." she whispered. He smiled at her softly; a smile he saved only for her, and she knew it.

"I made this for you," he said, handing her a fairly small, wrapped item. As she pulled the paper away from it, Soul continued to explain. "You always say how you want to hear me play more often, but that I can't ever bring myself to do it, so I figured that you might like this."

Now clear in her sight, Maka's eyes widened greatly as she realised what it was. The hard plastic square was black completely except for a pool of light, on which was an image of a man with white hair and his hands grazing the keys of a piano with his back to the photographer. Beneath the image in white writing were the words;

'Tale of a Meister

By Soul Eater Evans

Dedicated to Maka Albarn'

Turning it over, she saw a list of various names, but the thing which caught her off guard was the person beneath the writing. The fair complexion, the emerald green pools and ashen gold locks held up into two pigtails; it was unmistakable that it was her in the black clothing she wore in the Black Room. She looked up at Soul, who was now grinning at the look on her face.

"Kid helped me with the artwork," he explained. "I told him how you looked and let him choose the best position for it. So, what do you think?"

Maka's grip stayed firm on the CD case as she flung her arms around Soul's neck, smiling sincerely.

"It's great," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "This is the best birthday present ever."

Soul hugged her back hesitantly, enjoying the moment. They pulled apart and gazed into one another's eyes. It was like a magnet, drawing them into one another. Their eyes drifted closed as their lips collided, the passion they shared for one another leaking into the kiss and the target of both of their affections. Soul ran his hands up her back, a tender gesture which increased the spark and intensified the actions. Their tongues grazed each other and fought for dominance in perfect harmony. The feel of his shark-like teeth sent chills down her spine as they explored the very being of their partner.

Finally they pulled back, unable to keep up their actions without first breathing. It was still a reluctant action, and the slow, delicate move ended with them looking into the other's eyes once more.

"I love you, Maka Albarn," Soul said softly, running a hand through her ash-blonde hair softly as she nuzzled against his chest.

"I love you too, Soul," she whispered, lost in the moment.

From her position in Soul's arms, Maka smiled softly, as she thought how wonderful her birthday had been.

Thanks for reading this. If you are interested in more of my work, be sure to view my profile or keep your eyes open for my updates to 'Soul Eater: The Next Step'.

I would appreciate any feedback you guys have to offer, so please feel free to let me know where I screwed up or did well!

For now, I'm off.

Bye!