A/N: Five years. It's been five years (six in October) since I wrote this fic. I was thirteen years old when this was posted, and now I'm eighteen, going on nineteen this July. Honestly...I'm still surprised (and slightly horrified) that after all these years this fic is still getting hits. I've come a long way since I've written this fic, I've completed 2 NaNoWriMos and written more fics for different fandoms than I can count. I was in middle school when I wrote this, and now I'm in college. So I had to give it a shot...I had to rewrite this, for comparison's sake. I apologize in advance, I haven't watched Soul Eater in a very long time. But I had to do this. I'd never delete this fic no matter how much it embarrasses me to this day.

I hope you enjoy this...And man, it's been a wild ride.

Soul is fond of his friends. Really, they're some of the best friends that he's ever had in his life. The only problem was that while he liked being around them, there were times that they were just so crushingly aggravating that it took all his willpower not to turn his arm into a scythe and slash them in the face. They had the strange tendency to assume that they knew exactly how he was going to live his life, without even bothering to even ask Soul in the process.

The other day they had just somehow naturally assumed that Soul was either in the process of hooking up with Maka or already hooked up with her. And to be honest, the thought of actually being in a relationship with Maka had never even crossed his mind. He had always considered a close friend, and nothing more. The real embarrassing part about all this is that he did indeed have a crush on someone, just not the someone most people would expect.

Blue eyes, short blonde hair, a cowboy hat, shorts…All the surefire signs pointing toward Patti Thompson. And honestly at this point he still berated himself on occasion for getting a crush on such a...strange person. She was nice enough, but he really had to question his sanity at some points when he cared to think about the small crush that he was harboring.

It had happened a few weeks ago, when he had been left alone to his own devices because Maka, Kidd, and Black Star had gone off to do their own thing, and as Black Star was happy enough to brag to him, it was "Meister's Only". Like he was an elementary school kid claiming that the club had 'no girls allowed'. Liz and Tsubaki had apparently chosen to go out shopping that day as well, and Soul hadn't particularly wanted to hang out with Chrona due to their endless amount of sulking.

That left him either to stay home bored out of his mind with nothing to do, or to brave the cruel unknown world of spending a day with Patti Thompson. Which is how he found himself standing inside of a bright colored shop entirely dedicated to selling stuffed animals. Patti was busying herself running around pouncing on the various little outfits that were sold and cooing over every type of stuffed animal that was available. It was tiring enough watching her run around like that. He sighed.

"Soul!" He heard loudly right in his ear, causing him to jump away and immediately put on a battle stance.

He relaxed slightly when he saw Patti standing in front of him, holding a stuffed bear. "What is it, Patti?" He asked, rubbing his ears from the sudden pain that shot through them from the loudness of Patti's voice.

"I'm hungry! Do you want to get pizza?" Patti asked cheerfully, clutching the stuffed bear with excitement.

If it let him get out of this damn shop, he was down for anything. "...Fine, lead the way Patti."

"Great! Let's go!" Patti bounded outside of the shop, leaving Soul to follow her at a much slower pace.

They had grabbed their pizza at a local shop nearby and sat down to eat. Soul was quick to finish his food, and they had dropped into a strange silence as Patti finished up eating.

"Soul, I'm bored." Patti whined, biting into the crust of her pizza.

He had to admit, he was pretty bored too, but he had no idea what sort of thing Patti would be into playing. Something simple enough that he didn't have to explain. Anything to keep her entertained for a few minutes while she finished eating. Something popped into his head and he looked up from his empty plate to look at her.

"Okay, I'll say a word and you say the first thing that comes to mind. We'll keep going after that."

"Great!" Patti nodded excitedly.

"Okay then…Fruit."

"Ramen!"

"Flower."

"Pudding!"

"Book?"

"Monkey!" Christ, she was energetic.

"Tropical."

"Giraffes!" That one...sort of fit at least?

"Thunderstorm."

"Aquamaorange!"

Soul stopped with his mouth hanging slightly open, unsure of what to say at that. "...Aquamaorange?"

"Yeah! It's aquamarine and orange!" She was just so...energetic about the strangest things.

Honestly it had caught him so off guard that he couldn't just help but burst into laughter. He felt like a complete idiot with his face turning hot as he couldn't even stop himself from laughing until a good few seconds after he started. At some point Patti had started laughing too, but it was unsurprising as she laughed at most things anyways.

Patti had finally finished eating and their laughter had died down. "So, what are we going to do now?" He asked, actually genuinely interested on what else they could possible do.

"Let's go to the park! I'll race you there!" Patti bounced excitedly, and before Soul could even process the sentence she had already bounded off out of the pizza place.

"W-wait, hey!" He stood up quickly and chased after her, down the streets and towards the park that was nearby.

Soul was actually able to catch up to her despite the headstart that she gave herself, and they were neck and neck and both ran towards the same tree that they nearly ended up crashing into at the same time when they both suddenly put on a burst of speed to try and beat the other. They both managed to stop themselves and were breathing heavily from the sudden race. Soul let himself collapse on the ground next to Patti as they entered another one of those silences that had been happening all day. But this was felt different. It didn't have the same awkward uncomfortable air that the others had had. This one was more companionable, more comfortable. It didn't make Soul feel awkward at all.

"So...Now what are we going to do?" He asked, looking over at Patti who was wiping the sweat off her forehead.

"I...I don't know." Patti admitted, shrugging.

That was surprising. This entire day it was Patti who knew what they were going to do. It was this, that, this and that. She always knew exactly what she was going to do (even if it would just pop into her head suddenly.) Having her be quiet like this was slightly disconcerting. That actually left Soul to be the one to figure something to do. He thought briefly for a moment to see if he could think of any sort of game like he had done at the pizza shop, but in that moment his eyes landed on Patti's hat.

Without even thinking, he reached over and snatched it straight off of her head. Soul stood up quickly and ran off, knowing that Patti would come after him and her precious hat.

"Hey!" Patti yelled, half in an angry tone, but still giggling. He looked behind himself for a few moments to see her already tearing after him. He sped up, sprinting through the park with Patti hot on his heels, until they reached a sudden dip down into a hill and Soul lost his footing at nearly the same time as Patti. They're both sent tumbling down the hill and Soul ends up rolling nearly on top of Patti. He felt his face get slightly red from the compromising position that they had to have landed in, but he looked away from Patti's confused expression and immediately rolled off of her, his face feeling noticeably hotter than before.

He grabbed her hat (that had flown out of his grip as they fell) and handed it back to her, and they both sat in silence again as Soul tried to sort out his own confused thoughts. He had to admit, he hadn't really had this much strange childish fun in awhile. Maka never really wanted to mess around with him, and they literally had to force her to play basketball with. Kidd had to stop everything whenever he saw something unsymmetrical, and Black Star could be a bit too competitive sometimes. Patti let him have fun and act like a kid sometimes without having to worry about his cool persona. He really did enjoy being around her.

"We should get back now...It's starting to get dark." Patti quietly, startling Soul slightly from the sheer quietness of her voice.

Soul nodded, and they both stood up, dusting themselves off from all the dirt that had gotten on them. "Hey, I had a lot of fun today. I honestly didn't expect that to happen." Soul mumbled, giving a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, I had fun too!" Patti grinned. "We should do it again sometime."

Soul realized that they were standing pretty close to each other. He felt unsure of what to do, but before he could chicken out, he lifted his hand up and gently tilted Patti's head downward slightly as he pressed a kiss onto her forehead. He felt Patti freeze slightly as he backed up but she smiled at him lightly.

"I'll...see you tomorrow then, Soul." Patti grinned more widely and hugged him.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." He hugged her back, and they both went on their separate ways.

They did end up meeting up again more often, much to the questioning of his friends already. Soul still wasn't still quite sure where he stood with Patti, though more and more every day he was considering the fact that if he really had to choose Patti or anyone else...He'd definitely rather be with her.