Maka towered over Black Star's seat on the log. Her new wings made her just a tad taller than him. Black Star still refused to accept them as actual height however.
She had her hands on her hips, a clear sign of her anger, but Black Star could only think of when they were younger and she would do the same when he stole her food. What he wouldn't give to go back to the simple times.
"Black Star, I've told you already, you can not do this."
"Maka, can we just drop it, maybe?"
"This is serious, of course we can't just drop it." Her voice went up into a shriek and Black Star lowered his forehead into his hands.
"I don't mean that we're done with the argument - god knows you'll never be done with it. I just want to take a break from it, calm down for a minute and just sit and talk maybe." He looked up to meet her softened gaze. "You've been gone for so long and then the first thing we do when you come back is yell at each other."
Maka sat down next to him with a sigh. "All we did before I left was yell at each other. Granted it was never over something quite like this."
A nervous laugh escaped his lips. "Yeah I guess you're right. About both things."
"But it is serious, Black Star."
"Yeah, I know, I just want to take a break from arguing for now. Please?"
"Fine. You've always hated talking about anything serious, so obviously, you haven't changed a bit." She nudged him with her shoulder.
"Hey, I've gotten seriouser in the past. You could say I'm a better person than I was."
"Still not one for grammar, I see." He gave her arm a little shove and she shoved back harder. When he sat back up straight, he smiled at her, happy to have her back. Have this back.
"It hasn't been the same around here without you." Black Star told her.
"Of course not. You can't expect it to be the same after you've lost one of your team members."
"Maka, how can you be so casual about that? Honestly, you leaving is not something to be taken lightly, you know."
"I thought you wanted to avoid serious topics."
"But this is the good kind of serious."
Maka picked her head up and arched an eyebrow at Black Star. "You think it's a good kind of serious? How is it good?"
"That's not what I meant. I meant it like, it's the kind of seriousness that I'm okay with talking about."
"Did you ever think that someone else may not like to talk about it?" Maka's eyes widened in surprise. Why was she surprised?
"I'm sorry." Black Star said, scratching the back of his neck, feeling bad for pressing the subject and not taking into account how she might feel. "I didn't think of that."
"It's fine, don't worry about it." She said, clearly trying to brush off the subject.
"It's just that I missed you, Maka." He chided himself for continuing on. Didn't she just make it perfectly clear she didn't want to talk about this? "Just ask Tsubaki. She knows better than anyone."
"Tsubaki, huh? Have you two finally sorted out your feelings for each other?" She nudged him with her shoulder.
"It's complicated."
"Complicated like you've told her and she doesn't want to start anything, or complicated like you still need to straighten out your feelings about her to yourself before you bring it up?"
"The first one you said." he grumbled.
"Really? I thought she really liked you?" Maka always knew the two of them so well, and had always tried to get them together. It was good to know at least that much hadn't changed.
"Well, apparently she did, but she said that I got too wrapped up in the whole angel thief thing that she thought I wasn't ready to start something serious with her."
"Oh," she said plain and simple. She almost sounded disappointed.
A silence fell upon their ears as neither one knew what to say next. It wasn't like the conversation went somewhere that couldn't have been taken anywhere. Honestly, Black Star expected Maka to comfort him, like she always did. She was always the one to encourage him to talk to Tsubaki, and it was her to make him feel better and not think so bad about himself.
It was Maka who spoke up first, (like always) saying "How did you guys learn so much about Soul - or the angel thief, as you call him - anyway?"
"Oh that? We met this band of, nomads as they called themselves, and they told us a bit about him."
She smiled that familiar smile at him "Oh?"
After the loss of one of their most beloved members, the assassins' camp was wary of anyone who approached. But their gentle hearts welcomed a band of fortune tellers, despite their shady reputation. At the fire, they exchanged songs and stories, though their conversation quickly fell to more deeper topics, trailing to darker tales.
Spirit glared into the flicker of the flames, spitting out his distaste for the unjustly death of his daughter, only to be met with cautious eyes of the leader of the strangers.
"You know, we recently heard of this one man with a very interesting story, if you'd like to hear it." offered Joe, the leader, and only man in the group of fortune tellers.
"Oh?" Liz said.
"Oh yes, it was a man who thought he ran away from his path but actually, he was following it perfectly. So on his way trying to, what he thought was getting back on his path, he actually got lost. And then, things in his life kept driving him farther away from his path, to the point where he lost all hope."
"Gee, that sounds depressing." Patti exclaimed in a loud exuberant voice, placing her hands on Liz's shoulders.
"What happened to him?" Liz asked, shaking her younger sister off of her.
"Nothing yet." Nicole, the blonde one, answered. "He's getting closer to being turned in the right direction, but he's still very far off the path."
"What's pointing him in the right direction? Do you know?" Black Star was curious, despite the fact that he was trying hard to stay neutral faced.
"That same thing that demonizes him in the public's eye."
"Whassat mean?" Patti asked.
"This is a man who is known for one crime." Joe began, talking in a low voice. "A crime that will, actually, in the end, help him get back on track. He's a man that is known for getting lost on his path to find himself. He's a good man, but no one talks about the good in people. They only talk about the good that they've done. But everyone loves to talk about the bad in people. Any wrongdoing gets blown out of proportion and their face and reputation becomes marred by society."
"What makes him a good person, Joe?" Liz asked, losing her poker face.
"That's an excellent question, but before I answer, may I ask you all this; what do you think makes someone a good person?"
They all stopped a moment. Everyone should have expected him to say that, and yet it caught them off guard. Sitting and pondering in silence, it seemed that no one could come up with anything.
"Well, it's definitely not never doing bad things in life." Patti spoke up suddenly, rolling over with her stomach on the ground, kicking her legs back and forth. "Because everyone does bad stuff. Maybe it's more like it depends on how bad you feel when you do bad things. Like if you do something bad and then feel… what's the word, sis?"
"Guilty?"
"Yeah, that's it! So it's like, when you do something bad, and you realise that it's bad and you feel guilty about it."
"That's a very good answer, Patti," one of the other fortune teller women congratulated her.
"Would you agree, Black Star?" Joe asked.
"I would say it makes sense. A good person is someone who realises what they've done and does everything in their power to fix it."
"Oh, not quite, dear." Blair shot quickly.
"What do you mean?"
"You're close, but just a little off." She said, a little too perkily for his taste. It was bad enough he had to deal with Patti on a daily basis, he did not need the added bouncy personality.
"How am I off? That's exactly what Patti said."
"Well, almost," Joe said. "There is a slight difference. You can still be a good person without trying to fix all that you've done. Now I do think you should try to ultimately resolve those things, but if it would cause more harm, or if it is impossible at the time, then naturally, you shouldn't try to fix it. But realising that it needs to be straightened out and knowing full well the extent of the severity of your actions and owning up to the fact that you've done wrong is what ultimately makes you a good person. Obviously, there's more to it than that, and one could discuss it for hours on end, but that's a nice strong definition."
He looked over at Black Star, a challenging look in his eye mixed with a slight charm.
"But Mister Joe," Patti raised her hand, leaning her head to the side after taking away one of its supports. "What about the man you were talking about earlier? What all did he do that he feels bad about?"
"Well, you see, Patti, he committed one of the many taboos in our society. Very rarely does something like this happen, and it's a wonder how so many people have already heard of it already, considering how well he's hidden himself from the world."
"What are you talking about? What does this have anything to do with our previous topic?" Spirit's low and quiet voice cut through the casual atmosphere, bringing all eyes to him.
Joe hesitated before continuing onwards. "He's… an angel thief."
Black Star doubled back. "What? Why does that even matter?" he demanded.
"Well first, tell me, do you know what an angel is?"
"I always thought they were a myth." Liz said.
"No, they're definitely real. It's just that you don't see them very often."
"Why?" Patti asked.
Nicole cut in, "An angel is created when someone does a righteous or noble death."
"Indeed," Joe nodded at his colleague. "And this man, is rumoured to have found an angel, kidnapped it-though it can't be much of a rumour, all things considered. It is said that he is now hiding it somewhere deep in the forests or mountains. No one knows for sure where he really is though."
"But you said what made people talk about him is also helping him get back to his path. So is it the angel that's helping him?" Patti said.
"Very good." Joe smiled at her. "There are different kinds of angels with different powers. This certain angel has the power of healing, and she is helping him, healing him, and trying her best to help him get back to the path he started out on."
"It's a her?" Spirit asked, voicing everyone's surprise.
"Mmhmm!" Blair hummed with her bright pink lips pressed together. "The minute he found her, his fate was doomed, soon to be marked as a demon. If you think about it, it's the classic love story between an angel and a demon."
"Indeed it is. But how will it turn out in the end is the question." Nicole pointed out.
"No one can really know that." Spirit offered, though distractedly as he stared into the fire, deep in thought.
"You speak truth, my friend." Joe said cheerfully. "Well, having said that, I do think that we have well overstayed our visit, so we should be heading out." Everyone stood up, Joe and his friends preparing for departure. "It was incredibly kind of you to extend your hospitality and let us stay for dinner and conversation. Who knows? Maybe we'll meet again in the future."
"You're welcome, and I'm sure meeting again would be nice. But next time you provide the food." Spirit joked, as he grabbed Joe's hand to shake, still looking distracted, annoying Black*Star.
"It's a deal."
They all bade them goodbye, and Patti made sure to give each of them a hug, and before they knew it, they were gone.
Black Star wandered over inside his tent, exhausted from a long day. As he lay under a very thin blanket, he tried his best to forget all that they had said. The thoughts still swarmed in his head and they lulled him to sleep, and upon waking in the morning, he had finally come to a conclusion; he hated fortune tellers.
But Spirit came to his own conclusion that morning as well. The creation of an angel. The angel thief. His missing daughter. Pieces of a puzzle were coming together, all leading to the inevitable truth that Maka had become an angel.