Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, its characters, or its concepts!

Chapter 2: Interjection

Soul and Maka walked along along the graveled park trail. Days like this were the best. There were no kishins or witches to hunt. Trees shaded their pathway, which winded around left and right seeming forever. Wind blew casually, ruffling their hair into their eyes now and then. It was only them and the air around them.

"There!" exclaimed Maka, pointing rigidly towards a simple empty bench. Earlier she'd suggested finding a nice resting place. The walk was nice, but so was resting, after all the fighting they had been doing lately. Ever since Soul had been titled the last Death Scythe, many duties fell upon them, as Kid wanted to make sure his best remained in practice.

"Sure, whatever." Soul answered casually. As soon as they arrived at the empty wooden bench and sat, she immediately pulled out a thick book from the sack by her side. As she began to read, Soul pulled out a portable game system. Digging around his pockets, he fretted slightly, stopping himself before Maka noticed. "Damn!" he uttered lightly, but then stopped when he saw Maka looking his way with one eyebrow rose.

"Bored already?" She asked skeptically. "We're not leaving, Soul. I came out here to read, and that's what I'm going to do."

"Yes, Maka, you bore me to death." Dead pan eyes stared back at her. She glared back, rearing her book back, spine forward and ready to strike him. He quickly brought his arm up in defense, leaning back from the paper-made weapon. "M-Maka! I'm just kidding! I left my headphones! See!?" The weapon pulled his pockets out, showing off that they were empty.

"Good…" his meister remarked, sneering lightly, but not meanly, and turning back to read her book again. They weren't about to turn back around to get anything.

Smiling sheepishly, Soul had to admit, this was the kind of thing that made Maka unique from others. She did what she wanted, when she wanted, and nobody could stop her. She had motivation to go after what she wanted and wasn't afraid. Sometimes the stubbornness worried him, recalling their first encounter with Chrona at the church, but he was willing to stick with her no matter what she decided to do.

With this, he sighed in satisfaction of her presence alone and turned on his game system. Who cared what he was playing anyway? Nobody was around to distract them, and she'd be too buried in the story to care.

With the time they had to spare, each continued their own pursuit of entertainment, Maka's eyes skimming words, while Soul's skimmed his game. They hadn't particularly said anything to each other, but neither did they really need to. Just this peaceful was enough to make them both happy. Occasionally, they would glance at the other, eyes tempting to look elsewhere other than their face, lips curling in a smile just knowing they were there, and hands tempted to grab ahold of the other's, but never quite making it there out of fear that the other would disapprove. Both were fairly observative of the feelings they had for their partner, but worried over what would happen if they actually became bold enough to take action.

Finally, Soul had become brave enough to make a first move, though. What would it hurt, after all? They held hands all the time when they were getting ready to fight, so this shouldn't feel any different, right? But it did. His fingers crawled to intertwine with hers. Finally, he was going to do it, and not just for battle purposes!

However, just as his hand began graze hers, both partners yelped, nearly dropping their belongings with one hand as their other instantly felt the back of their head. They turned quickly to see what had ironically snagged them both at the same time. However, their faced immediately turned to that of annoyance. There stood Spirit holding a strand of hair from each their now-tender scalps, snickering.

"Serious, papa! What was that for?!"

"AH HA! Caught you red-handed!" The man behind them exclaimed in return, pointing his finger accusingly towards Soul, who couldn't help but to lean back for preservation of his personal space. Or to avoid having a finger jabbed into his eye.

Maka couldn't help but bury her face in shame, face flushing red. "Papaaaaaaaa! I thought you promised you would stop stalking us! We're old enough to take care of ourselves!" She'd have Maka-chopped her own father if she wasn't too busy dusting the dirt off her book. Instead, she glared at him menacingly, silently threatening him to go away.

When he didn't go away, however, she abruptly stood, hand now firmly grasped around Soul's wrist. "Come on Soul! We're going somewhere else…. And you better not follow us, Papa! Or I swear you'll get it twice as hard!" The meister held up her book and glared from behind it as she waved it in threat. Those chops were not to be underestimated!

Soul's stumbling figure dragged behind her, failing at an attempt to keep up with her stubborn pace. "Wait! I'm coming!" he pleaded as Maka's rough pace refused to slow down. This time, she was truly fed up, and refused to give up until he was out of sight entirely. The white haired boy clumsily shoved his game system back into his pocket before it could drop recklessly into the gravel.

In most cases, Spirit might have pouted, or begged for her attention and forgiveness, or possibly even hid in the embarrassment of conducting such idiotic acts for petty reasons, but today was different. There he stood, simply watching the two walk away, head cocked to the side. He held an odd bit of satisfaction in his gaze as they fled their once-comfortable bench.