The past three days have been long. Very long. I feel as if though I've been forced to run five miles then do an obstacle course. In the mud. So I'm sorry for the day-late update but if you're extremely curious as to why it's been a long day then read at the end. Any edit I want to make will come later, so don't freak out at any mistakes I make. Instead calmly follow this procedure: Scroll to the review box, type in the problem area/typo, hit publish review. Then we'll ALL be happy.

I'd just like to remind everyone that this story will have VERY slow-rising romance as of right now seeing as how I have to establish a close bond first. So if you're in for some quick fluff then at this point you'll have to turn elsewhere. However there is some of Soul being a perv AND protector in this chapter!

Disclaimer: Same as usual: I don't rule the world, I don't own Soul Eater nor any of the other things I may mention in this chapter.


"I hate you," Maka pouted and crossed her arms, turning away from Black*Star.

"C'mon Maka, I don't want you to go around alone when someone is trying to kill you. Tsubaki would go with you but she has her last test for the year and she can't miss that, and Lord Death wants to see me today. Plus it'll be a chance for you to get to know Soul better," Black*Star said.

"If it's anything like it is whenever a cute guy walks into our school then he's going to be distracted by all the girls pushing their boobs towards him," Maka replied.

"You think I'm cute, huh?" That was a boost to Soul's self-esteem…

"Would you rather I say you're ugly?"

…maybe. Maka stood up and began making her way towards the women's bathroom to brush her teeth and hair. Black*Star and Soul followed her into the restroom, much to the displeasure of Maka and the poor woman from forensics who had been in there. Although she did a good job of ignoring them, Maka still cast irritated glances towards the other two occupants. She continued to get ready for school, already in a bad mood due to the arrangements that had been made and the fact that she forgot her rubber bands to put her hair up with. Liz hadn't thought to get any last night, and it would be ridiculous for Maka to be mad about that if she hadn't said anything.

"All they're asking is that you let Soul go with you to your classes and just sit there to make sure nothing happens at school. I know it's not Asura's style to attack in public, but he changed his MO slightly, plus he has to have allied himself with someone by now who would. I hear Arachne is making a big comeback due to a new member of her organization that could possibly be Asura," Liz added in, breezing into the bathroom past the two males, "And this is a women's bathroom boys. I expect you to go and apologize to Kana about that, or else."

"We'll go do that right away!" Soul said, exiting the bathroom and pulling Black*Star with him. Everyone knew before coming here, the Thompsons lived on the street, which is the reason why Liz was such a great undercover officer in Vice. She could hurt a man without a weapon in two seconds flat if they pissed her off and Soul didn't want to take any chances.

"Maka, just do it," Liz said, pulling out a nail file and leaned against the sink, beginning to file her nails.

"I just feel like they underestimate me, I did take years of martial arts and self-defense seeing as how my parents were paranoid about something happening to me," Maka replied, grimacing.

"Hun, we're all just worried about you. Look on the bright side you can stick close to Soul for the next eight hours," Liz waggled her eyebrows at the younger girl. She chuckled at Maka's confused expression, "Don't tell me you haven't noticed how hot he is! You want to become a detective, maybe you can get to know him and become his partner once you graduate from the Academy. We all have bets on how long him and Black*Star are gonna last, and I say a week tops, they're too incompatible."

"I haven't noticed," Maka said defensively, her cheeks flaming up, "It's just with everything that happened last night, I didn't get much of a chance to actually look at him."

"You poor soul, pun intended. Now be a good girl and let the man go with you. He has to be at least intrigued by you, he volunteered for this since Black*Star couldn't. From what I know about him he wouldn't do that to a stranger he has no interest in," Liz said. Once she finished speaking, there was a knock on the door and Black*Star's head peeked in.

"Maka, Soul says you guys should probably go now," the bluenette said.

"That's right!" Maka grabbed her stuff and hurried out of the bathroom towards the bunk she was using, "I need to get the homework for the next week or so since I won't be able to come in," After storing all of her stuff in her bag under her bed she looked around the room, "Did Blair already come and get Kitty Blair?"

"Yeah, she stopped by while you were in the bathroom. Now come on, you don't want to be late to school," Soul said, grabbing Maka's arm and dragging her down through the precinct. He was mumbling something about stubborn small-breasted bookworms.

"I take offense to that!" Maka snapped, lightly slapping Soul on the back of the head. He rolled his eyes before shoving his helmet at her and climbing on the motorcycle. Maka climbed on after him while buckling the straps on the helmet, "Well I guess I won't be arriving at school the quiet way I normally do. Everyone is going to be staring!" Thankfully Soul was wearing a plain black leather jacket with an orange shirt underneath and jeans, so her classmates would just think that Maka was going out with a delinquent that was older than her. Great, and that's not being sarcastic at all.

Soul chuckled while the girl groaned and adjusted her messenger bag on her shoulder. Her head hit his back as she sighed and wrapped her arms around his waist and Soul felt his ears turn red, surprised by the movement. He gulped before starting his bike, "Are you sure you've never ridden a motorcycle before?"

"I never said I haven't," Maka quipped and smiled, "Patty had one for a while and made me ride with her everywhere. It was… interesting." Soul shuddered at the mere thought of having to ride with Patty from the stories he'd been told. It was a quick ride from the precinct to the school, so the two were soon there. Luckily there was about half an hour before school started so there weren't too many people to notice Maka's odd arrival, "Alright, my first class is AP Chemistry and Stein is subbing. He's the goddamn police forensics investigator so I have no clue how they got him to sub but he is. Then I have AP Lit with Ms. Marie and AP Comp with her later on too. I also have Calculus with Joe and then P.E. with Mifune."

"What about your two other hours?"

"One of them is lunch and the other is study hall, these are the only credits I need to graduate. Now let's go get my homework for the day," Maka grabbed Soul's hand and pulled him down the hallway to her classes. He managed to pull his hand away and clasped his hands together behind his head. He followed behind her and looked around at the school he had gone to four years ago. It hadn't changed much and he could still see some of the graffiti Black*Star and him had left, causing him to snicker and earning him a glare from Maka. They efficiently went from class to class getting all of Maka's homework for the week. With the amount she had, she thought it'd only take her a few hours to complete it. Many of the students seemed to be gawking at the two of them, surprised by Soul and Maka's lack of pigtails.

"Oi Bookworm, how much longer are we gonna be here?" Soul's voice broke Maka out of her mental calculations, causing the girl to frown.

"Well since we're already here I want to stay for the day, or at least until lunch since that's my sixth period with my study hall after," She replied. Soul groaned as he followed Maka into her first class of the day, AP Chemistry, to take her test. Luckily she sat in the back, so he pulled a chair up next to her desk and promptly fell asleep against her shoulder as Stein passed out his test on dissection. Maka bit her lip as she attempted to focus on the test as Soul's hair tickled her neck and his close proximity allowed her to discover that he had a very nice scent. It was masculine and faintly of leather and his motorcycle. Once she'd finished her test, Maka flicked Soul in the forehead (which didn't go over to well with the man who grumbled and once again called her a flat-chested bookworm. In return she smacked him over the head with the spine of her chemistry book which shut him up for the rest of the period) then turned it in to Stein.

Once they had finally survived two hours with the over-energetic Ms. Marie and another with the coffee obsessed Joe, it was finally time for the last hour that Maka had to be present for: P.E.

"Are you sure you can't skip this class too?" Soul groaned. Already today he'd been flicked in the head countless times then Maka-Chopped three times(he learned that Black*Star has had to endure these quite often which wasn't surprising) and now he had to sit through a period of girls in too short of shorts and guys being immature with gym equipment, and he'd know since he was a part of those guys four years ago.

"We have a fitness day today, and they're worth the majority of our grade in here, so no. I can't just skip this class," Maka snubbed as she walked into the locker room and away from Soul for the first time today. As soon as she stepped into the girls-only room, she was surrounded by girls. Only one girl actually confronted Maka outright, and that was Kim Diehl.

"Who's the hottie that's been tailing you Albarn?" Kim asked with her arms crossed over her chest, a move that should be snotty but Kim looked too innocent to pull off snotty. Her bubblegum pink hair stood out compared to the other girls at this school, rivaled in memorability by her "stalker" Ox Ford's hairstyle of two spikes by his ears. It wasn't that Kim said it meanly, actually the two girls had a rough friendship due to their annoyance at Ox, but it was exactly what Maka had been dreading all day. Truth be told if today hadn't been a fitness day then she probably would have skipped P.E. just to avoid this moment.

"The new detective at the precinct," Maka answered shortly, quickly changing into her shorts and loose t-shirt for gym, "There have been… some issues that arose so now he's here with me today so I can get my homework for the next two weeks."

"So he's single?" Kim asked hopefully.

"I don't know, ask him yourself. I just met him yesterday so it's not like I know all of his deepest darkest secrets," Maka rolled her eyes as the girls began chattering and giggling. She walked out of the locker room and outside to the track where most of the boys were already pushing each other around. She saw Soul standing to one side by Mifune and she moved over to where they were talking. He looked up and Maka saw him quickly wipe at his nose before turning his head pointedly to one side. Huh, he must have some allergies.

Honestly, Soul hadn't been expecting Maka to be one of the short-short girls. Then again, with the long legs he'd taken to admiring during the boring school hours anything would look short. Those legs seemed to go on for miles and Soul didn't know whether to be happy or wary of the fact that since she was eighteen no longer what the guys referred to as jailbait. His nose decided to betray him slightly so he made sure no signs of blood were visible.

"You're going to want to create a fake girlfriend, all the girls are going to be coming after you," Maka said as she walked past him to Mifune. His jaw dropped and he looked to where Maka had come from. Almost every girl had pulled their shorts up to maximum shortness, so the group of guys were gawking. The group closest to him however, were not looking at the girls coming out of the locker room, but one particular girl behind Soul. Said man could hear the majority of their conversation and his blood started boiling as he finally realized what they were talking about.

"Man Albarn looks hot without those pigtails in. She hasn't worn her shorts for gym since our last fitness day, and seeing those legs are like the keg at a party," Never mind the stupid analogy the teenager was using, he was talking about Maka like she was some toy!

"Is it me or do her tits seem bigger too?" Soul ground his teeth and glared at the teenagers, throwing in a scowl too that had them paling and shutting up. He smirked in triumph as Mifune stepped forward to begin the lesson.

"Alright, today you'll all be going on a run through the town. Don't even think about trying to ditch. For one thing," A small girl in a chameleon-shaped witch's hat ran up to Mifune with a bag full of something, "Angela has taken all of your cell phones. For another there a GPS devices in stitched into your gym uniforms so we'll be able to track how far you run and where you are. If you're idle too long then when you come back it's ten laps on the track. Now go."

Although it seemed like he was being a hardass, Soul remembered Mifune wanting to help kids, even annoying teens, be their best. The guy loved kids for some reason, so he'd do anything to make them happy. Everyone but Maka groaning, they began to take off towards the streets of Death City. Soul went to follow Maka, but was stopped by girls asking him to run with them. It wasn't long before he shook them off, but he had to go back to Mifune to check the GPS system and find out where Maka was, hoping she was fine. He took off at a jog in the direction her GPS was in, and soon found her. However, it wasn't exactly how he'd been hoping to find her.

She was pinned against the brick wall of an alleyway by the three guys who Soul had overheard. She was strong, but when a teenage girl goes up against three boys with the element of surprise, the end results were bound to be rather stereotypical. Two of them were holding her arms as she struggled to release their grip and the third had his hand up her shirt, almost at her chest, "Get the fuck off me you jerks!" Maka twisted her arm and managed to get it free. She punched one of the guys in the face, sending him flying into the brick wall that he had been holding Maka against. The other one holding her arm pushed her deeper into the wall, twisting her arm behind her back and causing her to cry out in pain. That was what shook Soul out of his stupor and into action. He grabbed the first kid by the collar of his shirt and pulled him back, throwing him onto the ground. Then he went for the other boy and shoved him against the wall, punching him in the jaw.

"Soul!" Maka sounded like a high school student at that moment, frightened and nothing like the strong girl she'd been for the past 24 hours he'd known her. He left the three boys to step over to Maka and grabbed her wrist, knowing at this point that picking her up like he wanted to carrying her back to the school would only anger her, "Soul?"

"I'm taking you back to the school, you're changing and grabbing all of your stuff, then I'm bringing you to go get lunch," Soul said, his vision going red with anger, "I swear if I ever see any of those punks again I'm going to fuck them up, regardless of whether or not their only in high school! It's not cool to practically rape a girl!"

"Soul, calm down!" Maka said, stumbling to keep up with his longer strides. Even with her long legs, Soul's were longer, so he slowed his pace slightly to allow her to walk normally.

"Calm down?!" Soul's answer was almost hysterical, "You just got felt up and you're telling me to calm down?! Think of what would happen is Black*Star or your perv-for-brains dad woulda done if they'd been here! Aren't you at least pissed if not scared?"

"Of course I'm pissed!" Maka snorted, "And of course I'm going to make sure that Mifune finds out. He's the best one to tell when things like this happen since he can really make them pay. So all in all it's a fair punishment they'll be getting since nothing actually happened. I can't say I'm surprised though, other than most of the police officers Papa works with, the majority of men are the same: pigs."

The two had been walking fast enough that they'd now reached the school again. Soul explained the situation to Mifune while Maka got changed, making sure Maka got all of her points for the day and that the boys would be punished. Then they grabbing Maka's bag and got on Soul's bike, going through a McDeath's drive-thru for some quick food before heading back to the precinct.

"Remember," Maka whispered as they walked in, "No one, especially Black*Star and Liz, are to know about this. Otherwise we're both going to be up to our necks in trouble."

"Deal," Soul readily agreed, an odd fuzzy feeling going through his veins at the thought of them having a secret. I hope she doesn't go back on our promise otherwise I'm going to be dead meat for letting her get hurt on my watch. He may not have known Maka for too long, but he had a feeling that she didn't go back on promises. That made things all the more interesting for Soul, and he couldn't wait to know more about her.


"I don't care that she's being protected by the police Giriko, I want you to find the girl and bring her here for Asura. He can't afford to chance being seen in public and he's getting restless. Just do it," A busty, pale woman with black hair and wearing a long, formal black dress said from a chair. She leaned on it and was looking bored at the seeming inadequacies of her underling. The man in question, who had brown hair and a nose piercing, thought for a moment before sighing and nodding his head, "Good. Now go, I have a little catching up to do with my dear sister's activities. She had been posing as a nurse at the DWMA and I want to know why."


And on that note we end this chapter. We finally get a chance to hear from the antagonists which is always exciting. Now, for all of you who were wondering, "Hey, why did that brat update so late?" I have your answer.

On Friday, I had auditions for an All-State Choir which lasted until five at night. Not too bad, but then I realized that, oh shit my file of this chapter hadn't been saved and spent that night re-typing the first half.

Then Saturday I had a speech tournament (oh lord was that interesting) from seven a.m. until 4:30 p.m. then I had to go straight to the babysitting job I have until 10 p.m.

This morning (Sunday if you get your dates mixed up or aren't reading this today) I had to bus tables until 2 in the afternoon. I'm wiped, but happy with how this chapter turned out even after re-typing it. I'm uber busy this next week, so I'm hoping for an update by the end of the week, but possibly sooner than Saturday, but we'll have to see.

-Charlotte.