Soul woke in the middle of the night with the need to use the bathroom. He groaned, the consequence of his current sleeping arrangement fully hitting him like a hard blow to the spine. He removed the blanket from his chest, scuffled to the bathroom, did his business, and left. Just as he was turning to go back to the couch, he heard a noise coming from his bedroom. He drew closer to figure out what the sound could be. Unable to discern it, he eventually got so close that his ear was pressed against the door.
"No..." Soul heard Maka whimper, followed by a series of sniffles.
"Maka?" Soul opened the door slightly and called out to her in a quiet voice. There was no reply. He pushed the door so that he could fit his head inside.
"Maka?" he tried again. Still, she did not respond to him. Soul wondered if this was the right thing to do. After all, this was a girl he just met. She could be a murderer for all he knew and he was walking right into a trap. Somehow, he thought this unlikely.
He tiptoed over to the bed where she was laying. The rain had stopped and the clouds had disappeared, revealing a bright, full moon. The light shone through the bedroom window and illuminated the area enough to be able to see Maka's face. Her eyes were closed and her face was contorted in pain, glistening lines running down her cheeks. It occurred to Soul that she was crying in her sleep.
"I'm sorry...I..." she sobbed. She was talking in her sleep, too. Soul sat in his desk chair across from her, not sure of what to do.
"Stop... It hurts..." she continued to speak. Soul noticed she was curling in on herself; her knees were against her chest and her whole body was tense. She gripped the pillow with intense force.
"Don't leave...I'm sorry..." she cried. Soul slowly lifted his hand, wishing he knew how to help her. He pulled it back when she suddenly let out a wail. He wanted to do something, but this seemed like a private issue, and private issues weren't exactly territory for strangers.
"It's okay, Maka. I won't leave," Soul said softly, hoping she could hear him. He lifted his hand again, and this time set it gently on her hand squeezing the pillow. Her grasp loosened a little. Her face relaxed.
Soul stayed beside her all night. He fell asleep in the chair, his hand remained rested on hers. When he woke up, she was still there, sleeping peacefully. He stared at her for a moment, watching her body rise and fall in tandem with her breathing. She was no longer scrunched up like before, but he could see the leftover remains of a dried streak of tears on her face. Eventually, he took his hand away and slowly got out of his chair, his muscles screaming at him for sleeping in such a position. He stretched, then quietly moved to the kitchen where he began to cook breakfast.
"What are you doing?" Maka yawned, standing in the doorway of the kitchen some time later. She was rubbing her eye and her hair, no longer in pigtails, was messy and stuck out in strange places. The clothes Soul had given her were noticeably too big for her. The neck hole of the shirt leaned to one side and exposed her shoulder, and the sweatpants were bunched up at her feet, only allowing her toes to poke out of the front.
"Making breakfast, sleepyhead" he answered. Maka tilted her head in confusion, then reached up and felt her hair. Her face turned a bright shade of pink before turning the other way to make an attempt at fixing her mangled do. When she finished she turned back around and took a seat at the breakfast bar, a road of red still traveled over the bridge of her nose.
"What are you making?" she inquired. There was still a section of hair that jutted out at the top of her head. He was doing his best not to chuckle.
"Eggs. There's a coffee machine over there if you want some," Soul said, pointing his spatula in the direction of the machine.
"Just eggs? Nothing else?" she asked as she hopped off of her stool to grab a cup.
"And coffee," Soul responded smugly. Maka shot him a look. She selected a yellow mug from his cabinet and started a pot of coffee. As she was waiting, they both stood in silence, the only noises came from the sizzling eggs and the buzzing of the coffee machine. Soul fiddled with the eggs in the pan and thought about if he should bring up last night's events.
"Hey, Mak-"
"I think I'll head out after breakfast," she interjected. Soul stopped messing with his eggs and looked at her. Her back was facing him as she poured her coffee. It was then that he noticed a dark spot peeking out from under the neckline of the shirt around her shoulder blade.
"Maka, what's tha-"
"Hey, it actually smells pretty good," she interrupted him again. She had made her way over to him and was sniffing the eggs, coffee in hand.
"Uh, thanks," he said, looking her over to see if he could find any other of those dark spots. He couldn't.
"Looks finished. Let's eat!" she cheered. Soul transferred the eggs to two plates and set them at the breakfast bar. Soul purposefully set his food on the side of her where he saw the spot. As they were eating, he glanced at her back whenever he got the chance to try to inspect it further. Since he was closer, he got a better look at it. The spot seemed to be fairly large from what he could tell. It was a deep shade of purple and seemed as if it took up a big chunk of her back.
"Maka, are you hurt?" he blurted out as she was shoving a large bite of egg into her mouth. She froze. Her expression turned dark for a moment, but she quickly reverted back.
"No, why do you ask?" she said as she smiled up at him. She nonchalantly fixed her shirt so that the purple mark was no longer visible. She clearly didn't want to mention it, but if she was hurt Soul wanted to help. After all, she helped him with his injured nose at least a little bit.
"Well, it looks like there's a bruise-"
"Mmm, that was delicious! Thanks for the food," she blurted. "Do you mind if I use your shower?"
"Uh, no, but-"
"Great! Thanks," she cut him off, a friendly smile plastered on her face. She placed her dishes in the sink and scurried off to the bathroom. Soul sighed, finished his breakfast, and went to the sink to wash. He noticed she'd only eaten half of her eggs.
"Does she not want to talk about it that much?" Soul grumbled. He threw away the remaining food and began to fill the sink with water. He heard the slap of bare feet on the tiled bathroom floor for a few minutes, then the whoosh of the shower turning on.
The entire fifteen minutes she spent in there, Soul couldn't stop thinking about the whole situation. First off, this was a total stranger he just happened to bump into, and in the middle of the forest, no less. Now, she had stayed a night in his recently ransacked apartment and cried in her sleep in his bed. Her words kept playing over and over in his brain like a record skipping on its track: 'It hurts... Don't leave... I'm sorry...'. He searched his mind for possible dreams she could have been having, but the information he owned was so minimal it could be just about anything. The image of her, crying and scared, seared into his thoughts, along with the gruesome-looking bruise. He tried to piece it together. He wondered why he cared so much.
"Okay," she said as she came back into the room, startling him out of his contemplation. She set the clothes Soul had lent her on the kitchen counter, all completely folded. "I'm off!"
Soul barely had the chance to say anything other than the first syllable of her name before she was out the door. He caught a glimpse of another bruise on the side of her thigh under the hem of her skirt as she spun to wave him goodbye. Then she was gone, just like that. He stood there a moment staring at the door, mouth open, the unsaid words and questions leaving a foul taste on his tongue. He looked back down at the sink and realized he hadn't washed a single plate.
Soul brought his hands out of the soapy water, his fingers the wrinkled texture of raisins, dried them, and locked the door behind her. He took a sip of the coffee Maka had left on the counter, the sourness in his mouth turning to lukewarm bitterness as it forced the lingering thoughts down his throat.
