So the portmanteau for my favorite pairing is either Soma ( the drug from A Brave New World ) or Maul. I… feel this sums up their relationship perfectly.

-12.00 hours

"Aw, shit. Really?" Soul sighed as the plethora of multi-colored envelopes fluttered from his locker, coating his sneakers in an avalanche of paper. Red, blue, green, black; they were obviously going out of their way now to pick the 'cool' colors in the hopes of attracting his attention. It was wasted effort and a waste of some perfectly good trees. All he was going to do was dump them in the garbage, just like he did every other day.

As he crouched down to scoop them up he became aware of heavy footsteps walking toward him. Soul glanced to the side to see Maka walk up and stop, hands pressed flat against the front of her skirt as she held a book. It was a good thing too. As close as she was it wouldn't have taken any effort to see right up her skirt… Not that there's much to see anyway. "This again? I thought you cleaned your locker out this morning."

"I had," Soul groused. He slid them together, trying to form a mismatched pile to make picking them up easier. "I'm actually surprised there aren't more. Seriously, can't they take a hint? This really isn't cool at all."

"What do you do with the letters?" she asked, head tilting a bit to the side. Soul just looked up blankly, unsure what her question even meant. "I mean, there's so many of them… how do you find the time to read them?"

"I don't." All but a few had been gathered together and Soul stood up. Maka frowned as he walked a few steps down the hall and, with no ceremony, deposited the love-notes into the garbage. "I did, when it first started. They all say the same thing. Oh Soul, I love you. Oh Soul, please be my partner. Oh Soul, you're my everything." He rolled his eyes and chuckled, amused by the obvious desperation. "I know I am that cool but it's really getting pathetic. You'd think these girls would have something better to do than fawn over me."

"Huh." Maka didn't seem to share in his amusement. As he walked back to his locker she shifted her foot out, boot stepping down on the lone white envelope. "I… guess it's a little sad but… some of these girls are probably pouring their hearts out to you and you can't even give them the courtesy of reading what they wrote."

"Are you serious Maka?" Soul laughed against as he picked the stragglers up, though when his fingers inched toward the letter caught under Maka's shoe the brunette shot him a withering look. With great care she bent down and snagged it, bending it between her fore and middle finger. There was some writing on the front, though she didn't give him enough time to see what it said. The handwriting was familiar, though. "You really think any of the girls care beyond just, just wanting someone like me as their partner?"

"I don't know." She didn't sound angry, exactly, but Soul still felt uneasy at her tone. Sad? No. Disappointed? In him? But why? "I guess if a girl's going to resort to this to talk to you she probably deserves to be ignored."

"Uh, yeah. Maka, that letter-?" Even as he reached out to take it from her Maka stepped back. The white paper was folded and slipped into the book, its crumpled tip poking out to mock him. "Hey! Someone wrote that to me!"

"It's not like you were even gonna read it," she said flatly. "I need to stop by Papa's for a bit but I'll be home before dinner."

"Oh. Uh, actually…" Soul rubbed the back of his neck as he stood. "I'm kind of having dinner out tonight, so-"

"Oh." He couldn't bring himself to look up at her. "That's fine. Don't worry, I won't wait up for you."

"Soul?"

"Huh?"

"You were saying?"

Soul blinked, snapping himself out of his reverie. He was standing by the sink, a wet rag in one hand and the bottle of vodka in the other. He grimaced before turning the bottle upside-down, emptying its remaining contents into the sink. "Right. So how this happened. I was out tonight with… doesn't really matter but I got home late. I didn't think Maka would still be awake but…"

-3.00 hours

The first thing Soul noticed was that all the lights were still on. They were pretty lucky with the apartment ( well, actually, luck had little to do with it; all academy students had access to the same plan ) and the bill included electricity and water but even so Maka wasn't the type to waste money even if she wasn't the one paying for it. The second thing was the noise. Even as he stood outside fumbling with his keys Soul could clearly make out everything that was happening on the TV. Holy crap. Just how loud does she have it?

The doorknob twisted easily as he tried to open it and Soul realized that Maka must not have locked it. That was the third thing and now he was officially worried and suspicious. None of these things were like her at all. Crap, maybe I shouldn't have stayed out so late. What if something bad happened to her? He pushed the door open slowly and crept in quietly. What if-?

"Heeeey! It's Soouuuul!" The door swung shut behind him as Soul froze. Eyes wide – the expression deer in the headlights suddenly made an amazing amount of sense – he glanced up, expecting to see the worst. There would be strangers, the apartment would be trashed, Maka would be in trouble-

Or Maka would be sitting on the counter, laughing and pointing. Soul's worry melted away, instantly replaced with a surge of annoyance. "What the hell Maka?" he snapped, toeing his shoes off, and his meister just laughed even harder. "It's almost past midnight and we have school tomorrow. What are you even…" His voice trailed off as he caught sight of the bottle she was holding tightly. "… what are you drinking Maka?"

"What are you drinking Maka?" she mimicked before giggling again. Feeling like that was confirmation of his worst suspicious Soul walked over and grabbed her hand. She allowed him to slip the neck of the bottle out easily and he stared at the label. Cotton candy… vodka… The smell seeping from it was out of control and he wrinkled his nose before looking up at her. "Where did you get this?"

"I said I was seeing Papa. Idiot." Soul groaned at that, eyes sliding shut for a moment. Almost immediately they snapped back open and he looked down again, this time trying to judge how much was gone from the bottle. It looked barely touched, the liquid barely half an inch down from the curve on the bottle.

"Awesome. Was this already opened?"

"Nope." He stared at the bottle some more, trying to figure out just how much she had consumed. An un-open bottle was up to the neck, and even with the little that seemed gone… Did she chug down like four straight shots? "Hey. Hey. Hey!" Soul looked up and she smiled. "Hi!"

"… Maka, why are you drinking? I mean, screw the fact that you – you – just stole a bottle of liquor from your dad and decided to get wasted on a school night, you did it alone? You're not stupid. I know you know that-"

"Pfffft." She leaned forward and pressed a finger against his lips, causing Soul to recoil as he tasted the alcohol on her hands. "Just whatever. You know, maybe if you were here… but fine. I'm okay. You don't have to watch me."

"You are so not okay right now." Soul put the bottle down beside her and frowned. "You're going to hate yourself tomorrow and you're going to deserve it and you need to…. Drink, I think, water? And sleep." He wasn't unfamiliar with alcohol and drunks, but his admittedly limited experience had only involved watching his own parents' trip over each other after having too much wine at dinner. "I definitely know you need to drink some water."

"Hmmm nope!" Maka giggled as she slipped down from the counter. She let out a very audible 'erp' as she landed heavily and for a moment she swayed, looking a bit queasy. The expression disappeared almost instantly, though, as she reached back for the bottle. "I'll drink more of this."

"No!" Snatching it back himself Soul gave her another dirty look, though it seemed to have no effect on her. "Damnit. How would you feel if I just started chugging some of this down?"

For a moment this seemed to have the desired sobering effect on Maka. She paused and stared at him, meeting his gaze. Soul's hopes for an easy resolution were dashed, though, when she started to grin. "Do it. Do it, you won't do it."

"Wow." Black Star looked fairly impressed as Soul took a break from the story. His stomach was starting to turn and he stared forlornly into their food cabinets, knowing he should eat but feeling like everything would make it worse. "She… that sounds really annoying."

"Yeah, it was. And stupid me, I did do it." He glanced back at Black Star. "One of the worst decisions of my life."

"… so then what happened?"