Over the next four months, Maka became a normal part of Soul's life. Though, she was more like a cat than an ordinary friend, she came and went as she pleased, sometimes she appeared every day for a week, sometimes weeks went by before she appeared back in his living room with a puff of smoke.

After one of her longer absences, he decided it was about time that he introduced her to the human activity of 'going to the movies'. They had been out plenty of times since he had bound her to him but he had never taken her to the cinema, keeping to cheap restaurants, the park and the occasional grocery store. He was a broke student after all.

"We're going to see a horror movie," he announced as he shrugged on his leather jacket and pulled out the gloves stuffed in its pockets. Maka had already learned to appear dressed in ordinary human clothes and had long stopped wearing the fancy black dress around him. "Though it'll probably make you laugh more than a comedy or whatever."

"Will they be like your movies?" she asked, glancing over at his movie collection as he pulled his boots on, hopping about a little.

"Uhh, not...really? Most of mine are vintage, the one we'll see will have better special effects and acting and stuff," he said, avoiding her gaze awkwardly as he tightened the boot laces.

"Ah, yes, you are a 'hipster', aren't you," she teased with a smile and he scoffed.

"Should've never taught you human slang," he grumbled though a smile tugged at his lips.

Just as he was about to open the door he turned to look at her and grimaced. "Wait, you'll need to wear a scarf or something, it's really freaking cold today."

He moved to his coat hooks to look for the scarf his mother had sent him for Christmas (the only thing she had sent aside from a brief 'you should visit' note that he ignored) even as she argued against it.

"I am naturally warm, Soul, I do not need a scarf or gloves."

"Yeah, but you'll look weird without it. You already give off a weird supernatural vibe, don't need you to gain more attention."

She sighed and took the scarf when he held it out to her winding it around her neck in the same way that he wore his.

"This good?" she asked in exasperation and he nearly laughed at how human-teenagery she sounded.

He grinned cheekily and gave her a thumbs up. "Perfect for a demon lady. Now, let's go, the showing's in twenty minutes."

The walk itself to the movie theatre (thankfully only about ten minutes away from his apartment) was pretty uneventful. Maka had become mostly disinterested in the city landscape around his home. It was at the cinema however that he came across a familiar face.

"Hey, Soul!" Kilik called from where he was standing to the side with a young boy, waving him over.

Soul forced a grin and waved back. Kilik had not met Maka yet and vice versa, since Soul had the unique skill of being able to avoid people he knew outside of the places he knew them. However, eye contact had been made this time, and it could not be avoided. With a hand at Maka's back, he steered her towards where the other man was standing.

"Hi Kilik," he said stiffly, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He looked down at the young boy standing next to his colleague and nodded in greeting. He met Kilik's eyes again and tacked on, "How're you?"

Kilik shrugged with an easy grin. "I'm good. I mean, this cold weather sucks, but it's sucked for the last couple of months, 's nothing much I can do about that. At least spring's coming though, right?"

Soul could see Kilik's eyes move from his face to Maka and then back to him, easy grin morphing into something more sly, but before he could say something embarrassing, the young boy at his side tugged on his sleeve.

"What is it?" Kilik asked, looking down at the boy.

"Can we get popcorn this time?" the boy asked in a little whine, latching onto the older male's arm.

A young girl, looking about the same age as the boy suddenly appeared at the man's other side, also latching onto his arm.

"Can we, Killy, can we can we can we? Pleaseeeeeeeee?" she said, hugging his arm.

Kilik's expression became firm as he shook his head. "Not today, guys, we just had dinner."

The two kids pouted, almost in synch and started tugging on his arms as they groaned, loudly.

Kilik only laughed and shook his head, turning his attention back to Soul. Soul raised an eyebrow in question.

"Aidan and Tama," the darker man said in explanation, nodding to first the boy, then the girl. "The annoying kids I've told you about."

Soul hummed and nodded in understanding.

"But—" Kilik continued, smirking now "—I don't think you've told me about your friend." The other man very obviously nodded at Maka.

"Uh, this is Maka?" He even cringed a little as the statement came out as an awkward question.

"We met in the library," Maka added, grinning brightly. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Maka," Kilik said, extending his hand for her to shake after pulling it from the grip of his brother. "I'm Kilik, one of Soul's colleagues."

Maka opened her mouth to say something but Soul interrupted her before she could say anything inhuman and make Kilik question his sanity more than usual.

"So, what movie are you here to see?" he asked.

Kilik gave him a pointed look but said pleasantly, "We're here to see the new Marvel movie, they're both into superheroes and stuff."

"I like Iron Man the best," Tama said in a giggly voice. "He's so cool and smart."

"And I like Captain America," Aidan said, grinning with a slightly gappy smile. "He's so brave."

"What are you guys here to see?" Kilik asked in return, glancing between them mischievously. "That new rom-com? Or that romantic tragedy? Eh?"

"We're here to see a horror movie," Maka supplied happily. "I do not particularly enjoy romantic comedies, they seem extremely repetitive. Horror movies are at least varied in their attempts to horrify or terrify people, even if they do not succeed most of the time."

She kept grinning, the little demon weirdo, even as Kilik raised an eyebrow.

"So, I'm guessing you don't scare easily," he said.

"That's right."

Her beaming smile was almost enough to make Soul laugh but he kept it to a controlled twitch of the lips.

"Well, we need to go get our tickets, it was nice see you Kilik, see you at work," he said in a rush, before grabbing Maka and steering her away towards the front counter.

Maka threw a wave over her shoulder which Kilik returned cheerfully, seemingly no longer bothered by her weirdness.

Soul mumbled a couple of cursed under his breath. He was gonna get hell from the other man, fuck, he was not looking forward to it.

However, he was mostly able to forget about his inevitable death-by-teasing once they got their seats and the movie started. Maka was not afraid to criticise the movie, though she did keep her voice down, thankfully. Since the movie they were watching consisted of a demon possession and an exorcism, she had quite a lot to say on the matter.

"Only lower demons would degrade themselves by forcing a host to become contorted like that," she hissed. "And they're the ones who wouldn't be able to cause that much damage to the house, this is completely unrealistic."

He merely grinned as he munched on his popcorn. Normally the jump scares might have gotten to him, but with Maka's constant stream of complaints, even that did not get to him.

"Just enjoy it, don't focus on the flaws," he whispered, though he was grinning too much to really be taken seriously.

He had to clamp a hand over his mouth to stop his guffaws when she pouted and 'humpfed', crossing her arms and all. It was made all the funnier when he remembered that she was supposed to be someone important in hell, given that she looked like a sulking child.

A week later however, this new sense of normalcy was disrupted.

It had been a normal (or what he now considered normal) Saturday evening. He and Maka had been lounging on his couch, him with an x-box controller and her with a book. He would glance at her every so often to make sure she was not making that adorably pouty confused face due to the humanness of the book. It definitely was not because he sort of liked to look at her anyway. Definitely not.

There was a loud bang and smoke suddenly filled his living room. He just about burst out of his skin and let out an uncool yelp, dropping his controller and curling up into a ball on the couch.

The smoke swirled and then cleared, leaving three what looked to be teenage girls standing in the middle of his hall; a blonde, a brunette, and one with black hair. They all had horns and tails and wore varying styles of black dresses.

Soul blinked at them, about to yell something along the lines "who the fuck are you" but he only got so far as opening his mouth before Maka jumped to her feet. She began to yell at the three presumably-demon girls in that sharp language of hers.

The girls seemed to cower before her but the black-haired one, a demon that did not look much older than sixteen, with her hair done up in pigtails, was pushed forward and began to hesitantly argue with her. This went on for a while and eventually the other demon girls joined in.

Finally Maka held up her hand and the demon girls fell silent. She sighed deeply and seemed to almost deflate a little. She mumbled something in demon language tiredly before forcing herself to stand up straight. With a snap of her fingers she changed into an outfit he had never seen before.

It reminded him faintly of the black dress she had worn after he had summoned her but it was armour instead of fabric. Her sleeves were chainmail, with black braces tied to her forearms and tight-fitting gloves on her hands. She had a chest plate that started at her neck and finished at her waist, where a belt was securely tied and the 'skirt' part of her armour began. The skirt was made of many strips of black metal, the top layer reached half way down her thighs, the bottom layers went to just below her knees. Under the skirt were a pair of black what-looked-like-leather boots that went up her shins and more chainmail.

Under her arm she held a helmet, made of the same black metal as her body armour. Her hair was no longer loose but tied back in what looked like a braid, though he could not quite see from the front. In a word, she looked domineering, her mere presence demanded attention.

"I must leave," she said, startling him out of his thoughts. "I am needed in Hell."

"What are you needed for?" he asked before he could stop himself. It was a stupid question, she was wearing armour, it was obvious what she was needed for.

She smirked a little and shrugged a shoulder. "There is a powerful demon causing mischief for my Lord and as his right hand, it is my duty to see to the rogue." With that she slipped the helmet onto her head and held her hand out to her side.

Black mist appeared, like it was coming out of her hand, and morphed into a pole with a sharp, curved blade at the end. A scythe. Decorated with gold furnishing as the top and something that almost looked like a large eye, like her it commanded respect by simply existing. The blade itself was red and black, gleaming in the afternoon sun that came through his living room windows.

"Uh, OK then," he said lamely, unable to take his eyes off the weapon.

"I do not know when I will return," Maka continued, voice dragging his eyes from her weapon to her face, or at least the part of her face he could see with the helmet on, it had a bit that covered her forehead and nose. "But it will probably not be for some time. Wait for me?"

He nodded and swallowed dryly. "Of course."

She smiled and nodded in return. "Good." Then she looked over to the demon girls and told them something before returning her attention to him. "My apprentices will look after you until I am back. It is unlikely the Heretic and his—" she spat something in demon language then, teeth gritting as she spoke "—will come to this realm but I would rather be reassured than regretful."

And with that she turned and walked two steps before being consumed by smoke and disappearing. He stared at the place she had been, mind running blank for a moment. Then his gaze slowly moved to the three demon girls standing to the side, huddled together and watching him just as warily as he was watching them.

They started hissing to each other in their demon tongue before falling silent. Eventually the blonde one puffed herself up and stepped forward.

"So, you are the mortal my Mistress is bound to now?" she asked in a strange, almost Russian, accent.

"I…guess?" Soul replied awkwardly.

She nodded and steeled herself again, clenching her hands into fists at her sides. "And are you a…real commoner?"

He blinked at her in confusion, face scrunched up slightly. "Wait, what?"