I do not own Soul Eater and as promised, here is the next chapter. So happy that I managed to upload it because I had the most wonderful thing happen to me today. I am officially engaged to the love of my life! (and therefore want everyone to know) Anyway, hope you all enjoy. :D

WYRW- Chapter 3

In retrospect, Maka supposed that she shouldn't have been that surprised that Hiro saw her and Soul talking… and hugging. She couldn't keep her cheeks from heating up at the very thought of that moment.

"He's trying to steal you away from me Maka!"

Maka's blush immediately faded. "Hiro, you're being ridiculous. Soul is not trying to steal me away from you. He's a gentleman, unlike you apparently!" she yelled back before storming away.

She was pissed. She had been in the middle of hugging Soul, when suddenly a hand had reached out, yanked her away from him, and began to drag her off. Thankfully for Hiro's sake she had realized it was him before reacting too violently towards him, and upon looking back at Soul he didn't seem too upset. But he was probably just happy that she was going to get the chance to actually talk to her boyfriend. Too bad he was wrong.

Maka was quickly coming to the conclusion that Hiro didn't want to talk to her, he just wanted to yell at her, and frankly it was pissing her off. From the moment that he had begun dragging her away he was either yelling or just lecturing her about everything she was doing wrong to ruin their relationship.

How he had been waiting for her after her first class and started worrying so much the moment that she didn't come out of class. How he had called her a billion times and she had never picked up. Never mind that her phone was currently on silent because she was at school. How he was so worried that she had been kidnapped or something worse and was about to call the police when he saw her in the arms of another man who was kissing her!

First of all she was irritated because frankly Hiro made her sound like this damsel in distress who couldn't do a thing without him there looking over her. She was not a damsel in distress! Sure she wasn't exactly perfect, but she was not weak and she could take care of herself for the most part. And secondly, "He did not kiss me!"

"Yes he did!"

Maka threw up her arms in frustration. For the past two days Hiro had been pissed with her because apparently Soul had kissed her, which made absolutely no sense because he didn't! "Talk to me again once you have your head out of your ass Hiro!" She yelled knowing it was childish of her, but frankly she couldn't care less.

"This discussion is not over young lady!"

He didn't really just call her that did he?! Geez, he sounded more like her father than her boyfriend. She was currently storming away from Hiro already on campus heading to her first class of the day. You would think with as busy as Hiro was that he would have something better to do that follow her to school and give her a lecture, but apparently he didn't.

"Fine you know what, I'll admit that Soul kissed me."

"Hah you admit it!" Hiro said looking more happy to have won the argument than what winning meant for him.

Maka rolled her eyes, "You didn't let me finish. I'll admit that Soul kissed me, when he actually does!" And with that she walked away … right into Soul.

"Maka?" he asked obviously quite confused at the last statement she had pretty much screamed all over the campus.

"Soul," she blushed heavily at her words. Of course he would just happen to run into her right after she said something like that.

"What are you talking about with your boyfriend?" he asked seemingly confused, but the light pink spreading across his cheeks did not go unnoticed by Maka.

For a moment Maka simply floundered with her words, not sure of what exactly to say to Soul much less how to say it. "We're talking about how you kissed my girl," Hiro quickly interrupted stomping up to the two of them and shoved his body in between Maka and Soul, meanwhile pushing Maka back forcefully.

"Hey, be careful," Soul quickly retorted eyes only on Maka, looking for some sign that she was okay. Upon seeing that she was still glaring at her boyfriend though, he immediately came to the conclusion that Maka was just fine.

"Don't tell me what to do," Hiro instantly countered. Soul simply rolled his eyes in response

"Hiro stop being such a jerk," Maka quickly interjected herself between Soul and Hiro, pushing her boyfriend away from her friend flashing him a small sympathetic smile.

"He's the one who's a jerk, kissing other people's girlfriends," Hiro quickly shot back at Maka.

"Hey Maka, I'm gonna get to class, I'll talk to you later," Soul said wearily. He did not understand what exactly was going on between Maka and her boyfriend, but even if it meant good news to him, he didn't really want to be around to witness a breakup. Not to mention even if they were breaking up, it was really awkward just standing there and being blamed for things that he certainly didn't do.

However, that's when the idea hit Maka. In retrospect, Maka realized much later that such an idea certainly wasn't good and she probably shouldn't have acted on such angry impulses. Then again, she would eventually understand that perhaps her actions weren't all based on irritation.

"Stay," she instantly directed Soul, which quickly froze in place awkwardly. Then she turned back to Hiro, "Would you be happy if I admitted you were right and that Soul kissed me?"

"Yes!" He shouted rudely in her face.

"No matter what?!"

"Yes!"

"Well fine then, I'll give you what you want," she quickly retorted before whipping her head around and storming over to Soul.

Looking up at her friend she gave him a small smile. "I apologize in advance for pushing you into this," she said decisively before grabbing the front of Soul's jacket and yanking him before vehemently attaching her lips to his.

If Maka'd had any sort of reasoning before her lips touched Soul's, it quickly flew out the window. Suddenly any and all thoughts left her head and all she knew was that Soul was really really good at this. What had originally been planned to be a short and fierce kiss, quickly became something much more slow and deep, as Soul's lips coaxed hers into submission.

Pulling away Maka couldn't think. All she could do was stare at Soul wordlessly as he stared just as intensely back at her. Right then, in that moment, Maka felt like her heart was expanding to the point that it almost hurt. She didn't even realize such a reaction was possible, and from a simply kiss at that.

However, their moment was quickly shattered. "What the hell was that Maka?!"

Maka turned to her boyfriend as reality slammed back into her. "Y-you wanted me to admit to Soul kissing me, and the only way I'd do that is if it was true." Her voice was much weaker than it had been before. The ramifications of her actions were beginning to sink in. "So I made it true."

Hiro's mouth opened, and then it closed. He was obviously so overcome with rage that nothing was coming out anymore. "We'll finish this discussion later!" he demanded before storming away with nothing more to say.

She found herself sighing in slight defeat. "I'm sure we will," she whispered under her breath.

Turning back around, she was surprised to see Soul exactly where she had left him. She could feel a blush quickly overcoming her entire face as she simply stared back up at him.

"Sorry!" she squeaked out before slapping her hands over her mouth in pure humiliation.

Soul hadn't moved since the kiss, but Maka blushing in front of him and apologizing for something that never in a million years would he want her to apologize to him for, quickly broke him out of his trance. He laughed. He couldn't help it. The whole situation was so ridiculous that he couldn't keep himself from laughing at the two of them and even more so at himself for being sucked up into something so absurd.

"Don't worry about it Maka," he managed to get out between laughs. "Just give a guy a heads up next time okay."

And with that Maka caught herself smiling as her mortification began to die down. Yeah, she hadn't executed the most brilliant of plans, but she certainly hadn't alienated one of her closest friends. Therefore, all in all, she couldn't be too upset that things had gone the way they had. Then again, she couldn't help but wonder when her heart was going to calm down.

Maka didn't know that that would be the last time she would ever speak to Hiro again for a long time. That afternoon when she got home from class she found a message on her machine from Hiro saying that he wanted to talk but he also wanted to take her to dinner and a movie and to meet him at 7 in front of the movie theater. Maka showed up at 6:45, but Hiro never showed. As if the clouds were foreshadowing the couple's demise, they had begun building all afternoon and by the time it was 7:15 it was raining harshly outside. Not having bought tickets to a movie yet, Maka carefully stood under the theater's awning attempted to not get wet.

By the time 7:40 rolled around, Maka was extremely irritated with her boyfriend. After he had backed off the entire afternoon, she had hoped that they might be able to reconcile and return to some sort of semblance. But now, she wasn't really sure she wanted to. Not if this was what he considered acceptable. She decided that the first lull in the rain, she would return home.

Unfortunately for Maka, there were no lulls in the storm. She was surprised when she got Hiro's text though.

Hey Maka, I went to lunch with a couple of girls today and realized that I'm not ready to settle down just yet so I think we should break up. But hey, you cheated first with Soul so you can't blame me. Later!

For a moment Maka was numb. She couldn't comprehend what Hiro was trying to say. She simply stared at the text dumbfounded not even noticing as the wind began to pick up and her legs began to get wet from the angled rain. Maka didn't know for how long she stood there, she only knew that something was wrong and apparently it was her fault.

Being dumped, no matter what the surrounding circumstances wasn't supposed to feel good, and she certainly didn't feel decent by any means. However, she didn't just feel bad about herself, she felt as if she was to blame. She had cheated on Hiro. She had kissed another guy while she was together with Hiro. She had become that worthless cheat just like her father was. She had essentially become the thing she hated more than anything else.

Maka didn't even realize she was crying until a tear dropped on her hand. Reaching up and touching her face, she realized that moisture was dripping down her cheeks and it certainly wasn't from the rain. Without thought, she stepped out into the thunderstorm not even bothering to put her cell phone back in her purse. She deserved to get soaked, she deserved to be hurt by Hiro, after all, she was a cheat and it was her fault that this entire relationship had failed.

Looking back down, she stared at her cell phone screen and Hiro's message, reading it over and over and over again. She had cheated first.

Maka would never be able to tell anyone for how long she was out their standing in the rain wishing it could cleanse her bad deeds rather than just soak her to the bone. She did remember someone calling, probably Tsubaki, but she refused to answer. Instead she canceled the call and went back to Hiro's text. She didn't deserve anything more than his text.

"Maka!"

She didn't look up. They were probably looking for someone else, whoever they were. She continued to stare at her phone.

"MAKA!"

She startled at the sound of a horn right after her name. And there right in front of where she was standing on the sidewalk was Soul, straddling a motorcycle. He quickly propped up his bike, swung his leg over the top, and jogged up to her.

"Holy Fuck Maka, you're soaked," he said upon grabbing her shoulders before releasing them as if they burned him. "What the hell do you think you're doing just standing out here in the rain like this," he shrugged off his jacket, although it looked just about as soaked as Maka felt. He wrapped it around her shoulders forcing her arms into the much larger clothing. "Tusbaski said she saw Hiro at the restaurant her and Black Star were on a date at and when she questioned him on where you were… well, she figured out you weren't with him pretty fast when two other girls came up to Hiro's table." Soul rubbed her arms through the jacket, obviously trying anything to warm her up as he continued to ramble. "She said she called you but you didn't pick up."

Not much was registering in Maka's brain, but the idea of picking up her phone did. She held out the wet device to Soul as if trying to wordlessly communicate with him.

"You have your phone right here though so…"

He took the cell in his hands and read the text message that she had left up on the screen. Looking back up, he was met with Maka obviously trying to keep from crying, and failing.

"Oh Maka."

And that's all he had to say before she completely broke down into frantic sobs. Pulling her into his embrace, Soul simply let her hold on to him as she cried harder than she could ever remember. He didn't mind that he got completely soaked in the rain. All he knew was that he never wanted Maka to feel this hurt again.

Maka wouldn't remember the motorcycle ride back to her apartment. Something about the delirium of crying so hard and being out in the rain for so long kept her from really knowing what exactly was going on. Knowing better than to try and do everything on her own, she simply handed Soul her keys when he pulled up to her apartment complex. He led her gently to her room without saying a word, unlocked the door, and brought her inside, which brought on a whole new set of tears.

"How can I help Maka?" he asked gently pulling her over to her worn couch and sitting down next to her.

"You shouldn't be helping me or being so nice," Maka sobbed covering her face with her hands. "You should hate me, cause I'm a terrible person."

Suddenly she felt something slip under her legs and something sneak behind her back before she was swiftly moved onto something much warmer, Soul's lap. "You are not a terrible person by any means, I don't care what you say."

Soul continued on, knowing better than to let Maka get in a single word in the state that she was in. "Just because someone broke up with you doesn't mean that you are to blame or unworthy or whatever other crap you might be thinking."

"This isn't because he broke up with me," Maka wailed into Soul's shirt as she clasped onto it and hung her head down in shame as sobs continued to rack her body.

He was startled by that. "It's not."

"No!"

"You're not crying because Hiro broke up with you?" he asked, the confusion clear in his voice.

"No… yes… I don't know," she whispered as her.

They sat in silence for a while as Maka's tears began to diminish as she simply let Soul rock and hold her.

"Tell me what you do know then," she heard him whisper in her ear.

She wanted to smile, but all that came out was a half sob. "I'm a skank, I'm a cheater, I'm a whore. This is all my faul-"

"Shut the fuck up Maka," Soul said so calmly, she was more surprised than if he had yelled at her. She tried to pull away, but Soul wouldn't have any of that and simply pulled her back to himself strongly.

"But I cheated on-"

"You never cheated on Hiro, the dumbass," Soul said rather assertively. He sighed, "You didn't exactly do the smartest thing this morning, but the guy was egging you on and pretty much asking you to kiss me, so that's not your fault. It's not not your fault, but it's not completely your fault. Does that make any sense?"

Maka couldn't help it, she laughed. Something about Soul rambling in her apartment while they were both completely soaked on her couch just made her rather delirious.

Sough sighed rubbing the back of his neck, "That was so not cool of me."

She laughed even harder and pulled away to look up at Soul's face, who was now smiling despite his rather shitty pep talk toward her. "No, it wasn't cool at all," she agreed as he made a face. But that's when she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, "But thank you."

"Anytime Maka, anytime," he answered as he pulled his arms even tighter around the girl in his arms.

Maka's eyes gently fluttered open as she groggily sat up on her bed rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She surprisingly felt refreshed despite the early hour, she noted on the clock on her living room wall. 4:30 a.m. It was way too early to be up, but it was one of those rare moments that Maka felt rather awake despite the time. Looking around, she realized that she was still in the still slightly damp clothes that she had worn yesterday… and what she thought was a blanket covering her, was actually a man's leather jacket.

For a moment, she simply stared at the jacket stupidly thoroughly confused as to where it might have come from. She had never seen Hiro wear something of the sort so- her mind froze.

Hiro.

And just like that, the events of the previous night came flooding back in a rush. She couldn't help but feel her throat tighten painfully as she gripped the jacket in her hands. She just felt so dirty.

Without thought, she dropped the black jacket to her bedroom floor as she quickly stood up and strode out of her room heading to the bathroom. She needed to shower, she needed to get clean, even if she knew she was really a filthy person on the inside.

Throwing open her door she froze as her breath caught in her throat. For there, on her couch, softly snoring, was Soul. He was just in a simple orange shirt and jeans, but looking at him, she couldn't help but think she had never seen him in anything other than his black jacket. Glancing back into her room, she saw the vary jacket was the same that she had just dropped on her floor.

Cautiously, Maka tiptoed over to the garment and carefully picked it up, almost as if it were made of glass. Thinking back, she couldn't remember ever going to bed. In all honesty, she was pretty sure that she had passed out on the couch. Which could only mean one thing.

Her cheeks flamed red in embarrassment. Had Soul really carried her to bed last night? Peering back out into the living room at the deeply asleep Soul, she could only hope that she hadn't said anything too humiliating in her tears the night before, and that she didn't weigh too much. God, that would be mortifying if he'd had to strain under her weight. Unconsciously, Maka walked silently over to her couch holding Soul's jacket close to her chest almost as if it were a safety blanket.

Soul stirred for a moment, making Maka freeze, before settling back down as drool dripped out of the corner of his mouth. Maka scrunched her nose in disgust, but the thought of waking him up never crossed her mind.

For a moment she just stared at him. He was so damn nice. Then she remembered how he had called her weirdo and tiny so many times and she grimaced. Nice was definitely not the word to describe Soul. Without any thoughts on her actions, Maka slowly slid down to the ground in front of her couch leaning back against it lightly, making sure not to touch Soul in fear that he might wake up.

She leaned her head back in deep thought. Soul… was confusing. He was such a bastard so much of the time, and yet at other times he really had his friends' backs. She couldn't count the amount of times he had come through for her, and she knew that he had covered for Black Star and multiple occasions. He was just that kind of guy. She always felt at ease at his side and knew she could trust him despite his "cool" tendencies. Maka snorted lightly. Why he felt the need to be so cool she wasn't sure she'd ever know, but she had to admit it was kinda cute.

Maka pulled her knees up to her chest and let her forehead lightly fall against them while she still cradled Soul's jacket in her arms. What was she doing? She couldn't help but muse to herself while she let out a small sigh. Why was she out here in the middle of the damn night thinking about Soul of all people? Sure he was asleep right behind her, but shouldn't she be asleep too?!

Then again, thinking back Maka shivered at her previous thoughts in her room. It was funny. Not funny in a laugh out loud sort of way, but funny in an amusing sort of way. She had felt so dirty standing in her room all alone. But with Soul here, even if he was asleep, she didn't feel that way at all. She felt stupid for her actions leading up to Hiro and her break up, and she felt tired from crying all night, but mostly she just felt sad that things had ended so badly. After all, Hiro had been her first boyfriend, and while she hadn't expected it to last forever kind of thing, every girl dreamed that her first boyfriend would be her last.

The only thing that made Maka feel much better, was the fact that she hadn't given her virginity to the boy. She hadn't ever even said "I love you," to him. In fact, she knew she didn't love Hiro at all. She had been on her way to that point, but it was definitely wasn't going to get there any time soon. Looking back, she actually saw more annoyance with Hiro than anything else.

Soul groaned softly shifting on Maka's couch. She froze in response, the small hairs stiffening on the back on her neck until Soul had settled back down. Soul.

Her thoughts immediately shifted back to him. She trusted him. She wasn't one to trust easily, if at all. Her father had made sure of that when he revealed himself for the cheating scoundrel he was. But Soul, he had waltzed his way into her life, and now only mere months later, she really trusted the guy. He was just…. Soul.

Resting her head back against the couch, Maka found that she was more confused than ever. It was becoming clear to her just how much she enjoyed Soul's company over these last few months, even more so than her boyfriend. Her ex-boyfriend.

She closed her eyes trying to relax.

"What are you thinking about?"

Maka jumped awake as her eyes popped wide open and she gasped in surprise. She slowly turned around at the sound of Soul's laughter behind her.

"Shit! You scared me."

He only continued to laugh. "I figured that."

She frowned, "Meanie."

That only made him laugh louder as he threw his feet to the ground and sat up on the couch. Glaring at Soul, Maka slowly moved her hands up to the couch and pulled herself up onto it so that she was sitting beside him.

"You are too amusing Maka," he said between chuckles as he slid closer to the girl and elbowed her lightly in the side. He was smiling generously at her, and she couldn't help but let a small smile grace her lips despite trying to keep a stern glare on him.

"And you're ridiculous," she shot back shoving him with her own shoulder lightly.

For a moment the two of them simply sat leaning against one another slightly. It was then that Maka felt any weariness hit her for the first time since she had awoken. Yawning, she laid her head gently on Soul's shoulder and closed her eyes, enjoying the comfortable silence between the two of them.

It was then that Maka realized just how comfortable with Soul she was. She didn't have to talk and neither did he. They could just sit in absolute silence feeling each other's presence and simply enjoy it. At least, Maka could. And she certainly hoped that Soul was enjoying this moment as much as she was.

Then again, when she woke up the next morning, practically in the same position just with Soul's arm around her shoulders and his head resting back on top of her own, she supposed that was proof enough that he probably did.

Hope you enjoyed. The next update should happen next Thursday.- FFG