A/N - Welp, here's chapter two. I think it should be clear by now that I have no idea what I'm doing. Which is why you should review and tell me exactly what you think of this fic and what I do best/what I should improve on!

Also, thank you to Superhero17 for favoriting the fic! I was really excited when I looked at my stats and saw that!

Notes and translations of the Latin will be at the end of the chapter.

DISCLAIMER: Soul Eater is the intellectual property of Atsushi Ōkubo. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.

Chapter Two - Time Flies! The Tea-Loving Meister's Swift Entrance, Part 2

"I still can't believe you actually bring your tea and teacups to school. Aren't you worried about them breaking or something?" Tempus questioned, idly leaning against the wall opposite the mission board, his golden eyes focused on the pink-haired meister sitting on the floor beside him. Well, one of his eyes; he'd meticulously groomed his hair so that his long blonde bangs fell over his right eye.

"Not really. It's not like I'm doing this right in the middle of a practice spar or anything. And it's not just the cups and tea blends," Alecto said, unscrewing the top of the thermos she was holding with a well-practiced (and heavily bandaged) hand. "It's also the water. Having good water for tea is very important. You can't just use any old stagnant water."

"Of course not," Tempus said, injecting just enough sarcasm into his words to annoy Alecto a little, but not enough to genuinely upset her. Tea was a big deal to the young Latin-speaking meister. "That would be a disgrace to the tea, I bet."

"Yes, actually!" Alecto said, dropping the handmade tea bags she'd brought with her into the three teacups she had laid out in front of her. "Tea is best when the water is freshly heated, but since that isn't an option at school, keeping the water I boiled in the thermos is the best option. The water won't be at the temperature it needs to be, but it'll be hot enough to brew a serviceable cup of tea." She poured the water into the cups. "This is why I always bring white tea to school. Keeping the water hot enough for, say, an herbal tea would be a lot more difficult."

"That was more knowledge on the brewing of tea than I ever needed or wanted to know," Tempus said, staring at Alecto. "Wait, if there's just the two of us, how come you've got three cups?" He began to fiddle with his tie nervously. If they were meeting with someone and he didn't look his absolute best, he'd fear he might faint from the mortification. A good impression was important, after all.

"Because I'm making tea for three people," Alecto retorted. "Didn't you hear people talking in the hallways? Apparently Black Star botched his 'assassination'" - she raised her hands to make finger quotes for emphasis - "attempt against Don Alcapone and his gang yesterday."

"So you're making him tea."

"Black Star? Of course not. He wouldn't appreciate this tea, anyways. It's white pear tea, a weh-ree… ugh, a very mild blend with a crisp flavor to it. Probably too mild for the 'big man.'" More air quotes. "So yeah, Black Star isn't getting any tea from me. No, this is for-"

Before she could fully answer his question, a familiar shout of a phrase that in Tempus's thoughts had long overstayed its welcome in this world filled the air. "YAAAAAA-HOOOOOOO!" A boy too short for his ego and with hair too blue for his overblown personality barreled through the hallway, stopping right in front of the mission board. "Come on, Tsubaki!" the boy shouted.

"Coming!" A tall, pretty girl with porcelain-pale skin and ebony hair approached, a gentle expression on her face. She smiled at Tempus and Alecto as she approached. "Hello, you two!" she said. "Are you here to pick up another mission?"

Alecto shook her head. "We're still working on the Hudine mission. I thought we'd finally managed to corner him, but he got away." She gave a small smile and a blatantly half-hearted shrug. "Ah, well. You know what they say about tortoises and hares. What was the old aesop, again?"

"'Slow and steady wins the race?'" Tempus supplied.

"Yeah, that. Festina lente."

"Ha!" Blackstar exclaims, putting his hands on his hips and puffing his chest out. "That sort of strategy may work for some smaller people, but for a guy as big as myself that's too easy!"

Tempus felt a wave of apprehension wash over him, and he saw Alecto's usually soft black eyes harden into flinty circles of black ice. "Ah, yes, that is your modus operandi, is it not? Choosing missions that are ultra vires. "Black Star's lack of response indicated that he didn't understand what that meant. Neither did Tempus, if he was being perfectly honest with himself.

"In fact," Alecto added, venom practically dripping from her voice. "You went on such a mission yesterday, didn't you? The mob boss Don Alcapone, if I'm remembering what you said correctly." Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "How did that go?"

"Ally," Tempus said, quietly and cautiously. He could tell exactly what was going on; he was Alecto's weapons, after all, and they'd be poor partners if they weren't able to figure out the other person's emotions and the meaning behind their actions. It was clear that she was still upset about the night before, and taking her frustration out on her least favorite person in a roundabout way was probably her way of venting that frustration.

Before the words that had been spoken and the unfriendly meaning behind them could escalate into something more than just an early-morning conversation, Alecto looked down to the three teacups ahead of her. And then it was as if a supernatural force had taken hold of her, and her disposition did a complete one-eighty. "Oh!" she said gleefully, a large smile stretching across his features. "Tea's done!"

"Already?" Tempus said. He wasn't really that surprised by her shift in demeanor. Tea always had that sort of effect on Alecto.

"This tea doesn't take very long to brew," Alecto said, picking up two of the cups with a delicate hold and pushing herself to her feet. She carefully handed one of the cups to Tempus, who accepted it with a nod and a small, grateful smile, even though he honestly didn't really want any tea at the moment. She turns and holds out the other cup of tea to Tsubaki, and Tempus could practically feel the rose-haired meister's nervousness roll off of her in waves. "I made you some tea, too, Tsubaki!" Alecto said. "It's white pear! I'm, ah, sorry if it's not the greatest, I wasn't really able to prepare it with freshly-boiled water."

Tsubaki smiled as she took the tea. "Oh, thank you!" She took a sip, and her face lit up. "Oh, this is good!"

"Ah! I'm glad you like it!" Alecto said, beaming as she knelt down to pick up her cup. One look at her face and Tempus instantly felt obligated to drink the tea. She just looked so… cute. The smile lit up her whole face, and it was a smile he hadn't seen since they'd taken on the Hudine mission. Just looking at her being genuinely happy made Tempus feel like he had clockwork butterflies zipping around his stomach.

He took a small sip of the tea, being careful to avoid burning his tongue. Alecto had been right in her assessment of the beverage; it was a very light tea, a lot lighter than the strong aroma would indicate. The "pear" part of "white pear" was incredibly light as well, but it was most certainly there, and if Tempus was a pear sort of person, he'd probably declare it a damn good tea. As things stood, though, the only thing he could really think to say was, "This tea would taste a lot better if it were cold."

Alecto waved him off. "Tea never tastes better when it's cold, silly." She was still smiling, though.

Tsubaki and Black Star, meanwhile, had turned their attention to the mission board. Tsubaki was looking over each mission carefully, the scrutiny apparent in her dark blue eyes. "I wonder if there are any good missions for us up there," she mused.

Black Star seemed to sulk a little at this, something that caused Tempus no small amount of amusement. "What are you talking about?" he said. "We already have one! We still have to take down Capone and his thugs."

"We're on a bit of a losing streak right now, Black Star," Tsubaki pointed out. Tempus thought that was a bit charitable, and glancing over at Alecto he could see that she shared a similar sentiment. "Maybe we should think about taking on an easier mission."

"Yo!" Yet another familiar voice sounded out from the farther end of the hallway. The four of them turned in near unison to see meister Maka Albarn and her weapon, the alabaster-haired Soul Eater approaching.

Tempus held a great deal of respect for the two. They'd worked harder than any meister and weapon pair that he had met, and had managed to fulfill their soul quota far before anyone else. In fact, Tempus was sure that they had their eye on the witch Blair, last he'd heard.

Soul Eater was the one who'd called out as he ambled forward casually, hands stuffed in the front pocket of his jacket. "Looks like you two screwed up again last night, huh?" he said, grinning that trademark lazy grin of his with all of his sharpened teeth showing.

Tsubaki looked over at him with an expression that could best be described as "crestfallen agreement," but Black Star looked incredulous and a little bit indignant. "I don't know what you're talking about!" he declared, a self-satisfied grin appearing on his face as he high-fived Soul. "It was awesome! I was the biggest star in the whole room yesterday!"

"I'm sure it was a great show, Black Star," Maka said, "but shouldn't you be worrying about collecting some Kishin souls?"

Black Star almost looked genuinely surprised at that, as if the idea of doing his job as a weapon meister hadn't actually occurred to him. "Yeah! I guess I forgot that! Ha ha!" He burst into irritatingly hammy laughter.

Tempus took a risk and glanced back over at Alecto. She still had that smile on her face and was sipping her tea nonchalantly, and it was only the faintest twitch of the muscles at the corner of her eye that gave away the true emotions that lay beneath her shell. She was boiling pissed.

"What about you two?" Tsubaki asked of Maka and Soul. "How have you been doing lately?"

All at once, it was as if a cloud of shame and despair had fallen on the light-haired partners. "Please don't ask," Soul grumbled.

"Yeah, it's too depressing to even think about right now," Maka added."

Tempus chuckled. "I guess we've all had a bit of a rough night, eh?" He gestured to Alecto, who held up one of her bandaged hands for emphasis. "We went after Hudine last night and, well, we didn't get very far."

"Oh, ouch, that looks like it hurt," Maka said, wincing sympathetically.

Alecto shrugged. "I just want to catch the bastard at this point. Hurt palms don't mean much to me as long as he's still out there." She pouted and adjusted her grip on the teacup in her hand. "Though, I will say that it makes drinking a nice hot cup of tea considerably more difficult."

"Iced tea," Tempus repeated. "It would solve all your problems."

"Iced tea is gross, Tempus."

"How can you, of all people, say that? I thought you loved all sorts of teas."

"Iced tea isn't tea. Iced tea is evil."

Tempus opened his mouth to point out how there were many scenarios in which iced tea was not, in fact, evil, and was actually better than hot tea (the white pear tea, for example), but before he could say anything the school intercoms buzzed to life. "Meisters Black Star and Tsubaki of class Crescent Moon, please report immediately to the Death Room." The six of them all looked up, with more than a few brows furrowing in confusion. "I repeat, Meisters Black Star and Tsubaki…"

"Us?" Black Star said. "What for?"

Alecto snorted. "I can think of about a hundred reasons," she muttered.

"You'd better go see why you're needed," Maka said. "You wouldn't want to keep Lord Death waiting."

Black Star seemed to contemplate for a moment, and then grinned such a grin that Tempus was worried that the cyan-haired boy's face would split right in two. "He probably just wants to congratulate me on my awesome performance last night! Come on, Tsubaki!" With that, he turned heel and strolled confidently down that hallway, in the general direction of the Death Room.

Tsubaki didn't look quite so confident. "Oh, no," she said under her breath before handing the still half-full teacup back to Alecto, who takes it with wide, bemused eyes. "Thank you for the tea, it was very nice and I'm very sorry I wasn't able to finish it, but I really should go see what Lord Death wants, goodbye!" With that, the chain scyther was chasing after her meister. "Black Star, slow down!"

Alecto still looked a little dazed. "Uh, yeah," she said. "I'll, uh… I'll just… hold this for you… I guess." She didn't really seem to know what to do with the teacup.

Tempus turned to Maka and Soul, who were looking over the mission board. "So, what did happen last night that's got you two so down, anyways? Haven't you two been trying to kill the witch Blair?"

The pigtailed meister and her albino weapon let out a groan in unison. "It really is too embarrassing," Maka said.

"Well, you don't have to get into all the sordid details. Just a quick summary will do nicely."

A rather sizeable pause followed. Then…

"She was a cat."

Tempus blinked, the metaphorical gears in his head screeching to a halt. "Wait, what?"

"The witch Blair was a cat who had a lot of magic and a human form," Maka repeated. "We ended up claiming the soul of a cat and all of our souls were confiscated. We've got to start all over."

"I've never felt more uncool in my life," Soul added.

Tempus had to practically chug his tea to keep himself from bursting into laughter. "That is," he said, fighting a smile, "a horrendous tragedy… pfft... and you have my utmost sympathies… pfffha ha ha ha!" He couldn't help it. He doubled over, the tea in his cup sloshing about as his dissolved into helpless hysterics. "I can't believe that! You really ate the soul of a cat, Soul?" He noticed Alecto edging away from him, but he was too lost in his laughter to notice why. "Did it taste like catnip? Would would catnip even taste like? Ha ha ha ha h-"

"Maka Chop!"

Tempus felt his heart freeze with fear a millisecond before the spine of a large and heavy book made contact with his skull swiftly and decisively. Stars exploded at the back of his eyes, and he collapsed to the floor with an equally decisive thump. "Where the hell do you even keep that?" he winced, raising a shaky hand to run a hand through his hair. He could feel a bump forming already. Fantastic.

Maka either didn't hear him or didn't care. "It's not funny!" she exclaimed. "Soul and I worked really hard to gather all those souls, and now we've got to start over because of some stupid cat lady who won't leave us alone!"

Tempus sighed. "Yeah, you're right. And I'm not just saying that because you hit me with a book." He got to his feet, smoothing out his goldenrod jacket and pants. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, though. You got ninety-nine souls before, you can get ninety-nine souls again." He turned to Alecto, who was staring at her tea with a blank look on her face. "You agree, right, Ally?"

She didn't respond.

"Uh, Ally? Ally!"

Alecto blinked and looked up at him. "Oh, uh, yeah, sure." She still didn't seem all that focused. "Hey, Maka, Soul? I need to talk to Tempus alone. We'll see you in class, alright?"

"Alright." Maka seemed a little confused as Alecto grabbed Tempus by the wrist and led him away from the mission board, by Alecto didn't seem to care. When they were a fair distance away from the other students, she whirled around to face Tempus, placing her olive-toned hands on his shoulders. "Tempus," she said.

"Ally," he said, baffled.

"It's about Hudine." She knelt down, placed the two teacups in her hands on the ground carefully, and stood back up, locking gazes with him. Her demeanor had done another flip, and the look in her eyes was of such determination that he felt a little intimidated. "I've been thinking… he's based himself after a performer, right?"

"Well, yes, I think we've already been over that."

"So," Alecto said, "if he's a performer, he wants to perform. He wants spectacle. He wants to savor the victory of slaying his marks in a grandiose manner. That's what he's been doing. What he did to us, last night, turning our trap into his? That's the sort of thing he wants. At this point the human soul is just a bonus."

Tempus thought it over. It did make sense, in a twisted sort of way. Of course, this was a twisted man they were dealing with. "Ok, yeah. What's this got to do with us? Unless you're planning on dressing us both as stage helpers, in which case I'm going to have to veto."

Alecto grinned. "Quite the opposite, in fact," she said, coal-colored eyes glinting. "Let's deny him the grand spectacle he craves."

A/N - I've never drank tea in my life. All of what is stated here is basically just what I've read off of reviews on Adagio, which is a fun site to browse, even if I don't understand what is going on at all. It still counts as learning! I'm learning stuff!

While I adore Black Star's almost satirical hamminess and ego, I feel like someone like Alecto (who views her job as meister as putting her weapon's needs first, always) would probably not share my sentiment. Tempest just sort of thinks he's annoying.

So, uh, Latin time.

Festina lente: Literally means "make haste slowly," which is essentially the Latin version of "slow and steady wins the race." If you rush into things too fast and too confidently, you get careless and end up fucking it all up.

Ultra vires: "Beyond one's powers."

Chapter three will be up within the week. In the meantime, be sure to review and tell me what you think!

- Diana "Nocte"