Hello! Thank you to those who have reviewed and been following this, it is greatly appreciated! :3

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN SOUL EATER. Nor do I own the song, 'Trouble Sleeping' by Corinne Bailey Rae. (The inspiration for this chapters title)

Three: Trouble Sleeping

"Miss Albarn." A firm voice started Maka awake, her chin slipping out from under her hand. Her eyes flew wide and she looked around in confusion, her head clearing of its sleepy fog. She paled as she realized who's voice had woken her.

Professor Stein stood in front of her desk with a stern expression, though it held a hint of…amusement? Maka's mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish out of water. She didn't know what to say, she had no excuse for sleeping during his lecture. As she became more awake her surroundings became more apparent. The room was empty, only her a Professor Stein remained.

"I-I-" she started with a stutter only to give up, she put her head down in shame. "I'm sorry." The Professor adjusted his glasses.

"I don't know what's wrong Miss Albarn but normally you're one of my best students." He leaned forward. "Because of that fact, I'll make an exception for you and not penalize you for your behaviour. However," he looked down at her with a concerned expression. "I am advising you go home for the rest of the day. It's only lunchtime now but clearly you need some rest. You have to be careful not to spread yourself too thin." His warning echoed Marie's in the coffee shop the previous day. She stifled a yawn.

"But I still have more classes-" she started. He held up a hand to silence her.

"I'll talk to your other teachers. Go," his expression was intimidating. She just nodded, scooping her books off the desk and into her arms. He turned and walked back to his desk, mumbling something to himself she couldn't hear. She tucked her booked into her bag and threw it over her shoulder as she left the room.

She pushed her hair out of her face as she slipped into the quiet hallway, she'd left her hair down today. She hadn't slept well at all and as a result after having a shower she'd dozed on the couch until it was time to leave; skipping breakfast and most other things she did in the morning, like putting up her hair.

Her pocket buzzed and she pulled out her phone, catching a glimpse of her tired reflection in the screen before she answered. She winced as she hit answer.

"Hello?" she answered, biting back a yawn.

"You answered, I thought you were in class," a rough voice crackled into her ear. She made an annoyed face as she pulled the other strap to her backpack on, blinking tiredly.

"If you didn't think I would answer why did you call?" Silence for a moment. Wait. she thought. Who am I even talking to? She pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment, glancing at the name on the call display. 'Sexy Soul Eater Evans'. She frowned, it had clearly been a mistake to let him put his own number in the phone, a huge mistake.

"I was going to text you but I changed my mind."

"What do you want?" she asked a little impatiently.

"My my, someone's touchy today. What are you doing since you're clearly not in class? Hooky…?"

"For your information, its lunch time. I don't do hooky."

"Boooo-ring." His taunting tone aggravated her to the point where her eye twitched.

"I was going to go home for the rest of the day though."

"I thought you didn't play hooky?" She made a noise of disgust and his throaty chuckle followed.

"If you must know my teacher told me to go home."

"What for?" She detected a hint of concern in his voice and had a sudden burning need to taunt him about it. Alarmed, she pushed the feeling away.

"None of your business. What did you call me for anyway, besides to waste all my minutes with this useless conversation?"

"You're no fun. I was going to ask you if you wanted to get together and work on some of the songs?" She bit her lip, her mind trailing back to Chris' message. He'd see her after school maybe he'd said. It was part of why she hadn't slept well. The maybe haunted her, maybe he'd be there, maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he'd show up somewhere else she frequented. She panicked at the thought of him being around as she went to meet Soul. "Maka?" Damn, she hadn't said anything for too long.

"I don't know." She mumbled. She'd stopped walking and was huddled near one of the empty classrooms.

"You can't blow me off Maka we have to do this. The band is counting on us, we've got shows coming up." She felt a flash of irritation as his sudden desire to impress the band.

"You think I don't know that?" she snapped.

"Well, you don't have a choice. I'm gonna come pick you up." Pictures of Chris spotting Soul picking her up flew threw her mind.

"No!" she almost shouted.

"Too late." There was a click as he disconnected the call. Cursing she closed the phone and tucked it into her pocket. What was wrong with him?

She hurried along the hallway, panicking mentally, praying Chris wasn't hanging around outside somewhere. Picking up the pace she sped walked towards to the doors hoping she could make it out and down the street a bit before Soul came ripping through the courtyard again. She had no luck, the fastest route through the massive building was blocked off for renovations, she had to go all the way around. Heaving a sigh she rushed along, her shoes squeaking as she went.

The sunlight hit her blindingly as she shoved open the doors. She threw her hand up to sheild her eyes and give them a moment to adjust. She paled immediately when they did, thoughts of Chris slipping from her mind.

Since it was lunch time and the day happened to be so gorgeous, multitudes of students were frolicking outside around the building. At the bottom of the steps, the same place he'd dropped her off yesterday, was Soul. Seated on the bike he was chatting to a group of girls who'd gathered around the bike and were giggling and flirting with him. Maka clenched her fist, hastily loosening it when she realized what she was doing. He glanced at her and she narrowed her eyes at him, he grinned sharply in response and she let out a breath to calm herself as she started down the steps.

"Maka!" He greeted, raising a hand in her direction.

"Couldn't you have waited in the parking lot like a normal person?" she hissed. The group of girls looked at her sceptically, clearly wondering why she was talking to the good-looking bad boy with the motorbike in such a way. He shrugged coolly and she swore she heard one of the girls stifle a squeal. Pathetic.

"I figured it would be best to wait somewhere familiar? How would you find me otherwise?"

"You have my number, you called me!" she replied incredulously. He shrugged again and reached behind him, lifting a second helmet off the back of the bike, his had been in his lap as he spoke to her.

"I brought a second one this time so you don't die if we crash." Maka twitched.

"How…thoughtful." He nodded like it was nothing and Maka felt angry eyes on her.

"So, lets get outta here. I was thinking we could get some lunch-" Maka wasn't really listening anymore.

Nervously, her gaze slid to the girls who were now glaring quite pointedly at her. She was imagining how their conversation sounded. He has her number, brought her a helmet this time, he was thinking they could get some lunch. Okay, maybe these things weren't that suggestive but she couldn't shake the feeling that her life had suddenly been placed in mortal danger. She felt like she was standing between a pack of lionesses and their last meal. Soul being the meal of course. "Maka?" a rough looking hand with slender pianist fingers waved in front of her face. "Hello, earth to Maka, are you in there?" Her gaze snapped back to him.

"Oh, uh, ehehe…" she nodded. "Sorry…how did you get here so fast? I only talked to you like ten minutes ago." He handed her the helmet he'd brought and she climbed onto the back.

"Isn't it obvious?" she frowned and put the helmet on as he did the same. Tinted visor up, he glanced back at her and smiled. "I'm stalking you." He reached behind him and pushed her visor down before she could retort. She gave him an outraged look, knowing he could see it but feeling his laughter as he put his own down and kicked the bike into gear. It lurched forward and she squeaked unintentionally, her arms circled his waist and her fingers laced together tightly to avoid being thrown off by the abrupt movement. The bike swivelled, kicking up gravel. The lionesses squealed and scrambled away as Soul pulled out of the courtyard with little concern for anyone's safety.

Maka muttered grumpily to herself about recklessness as he barely avoided hitting several students before pulling out onto the road.

"Sushi?" Maka frowned and made a face at where Soul had brought them. Soul looked surprised.

"You don't like sushi?" he exclaimed. She grimaced.

"Raw fish? Blech," she wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue to emphasise. Soul sighed an steered her into the restaurant anyway.

"Well you're in luck, they make a delicious teriyaki steak too."

The restaurant was dimly lit, Maka glanced longingly through the window at the restaurant with the outdoor patio across the street. The sun was beaming down on the brightly coloured awnings and umbrella's pleasantly. Soul caught her elbow, dragging her along as he followed the hostess who was showing them to their seats, wobbling forward on her heels.

The booth was wooden with useless plastic covered cushions that stuck to her thighs unpleasantly. Fed up with trying to keep her skirt between the cushion and the back of her legs she just shoved it aside and sat on the wooden bench. Soul didn't appear bothered by it and was contentedly ticking off things he wanted on the order sheet with a little pencil. She glared at him, not pleased with his choice. If he was going to force her to go to lunch with him the least he could have done was agree to go somewhere she liked too.

"If you're not careful your face will stick that way," he said with a disinterested tone, his eyes never leaving his little order sheet. She huffed and looked down at the little laminated menu. It was beyond her why he liked this place, not just because it was a sushi place either, there were so many other sushi places around town that were much nicer. Annoyed, she stood and went to the washroom.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket as she finished washing her hands, she pulled it out.

"Hello?"

"Hey!" She recognized Tsubaki's voice.

"What's up?" she turned and leaned against the counter as she spoke, stifling a yawn.

"Remember when I said we'd go shopping together?"

"Umm, yeah."

"Please don't be mad but I'm going with Black Star this afternoon."

"Why? It seems odd he'd want to go shopping."

"I kind of convinced him…" she trailed off. Maka sighed, she'd never understand what Tsubaki saw in their spiky headed manager. But him going shopping with her was progress; he rarely paid so much attention to anyone but himself and she wouldn't deny her friend of an afternoon with the object of her desires. Black Star was clueless and had yet to notice Tsubaki's affections, perhaps she was finally getting through his thick skull amazingly enough.

"Go for it," Maka encouraged. "We can go another time." Tsubaki made a soft, subdued version of a girly squeal and Maka couldn't help but smile.

By the time she'd returned to the table the waitress had already come and gone with their drinks. It appeared she'd picked up Soul's order sheet as well. Soul had ordered himself a bubble tea and for her, to her surprise, a strawberry milkshake. She furrowed her brow.

"Sorry, I got a call from Tsubaki." She apologized for making him wait. He nodded, just watching her as he usually did. Quietly, unnervingly. She couldn't even pinpoint what was so unnerving about it. Perhaps it was how calm he was, his eyes appeared sort of blank upon first glance but when she really looked he stared back for a moment unabashed before turning away as if it were nothing. The expression before he turned away always so…plain, no that wasn't the right word, intense maybe? It was as if she were transparent.

She took a sip of her milkshake and was delighted that it wasn't half bad. She plucked the strawberry off the rim of the cup and took a bite, holding it delicately between two fingers.

"How'd you know?" she wondered aloud. He smirked.

"After you left from the gig on Sunday your Dad came out with a strawberry milkshake for you. I just assumed a father knows his daughter best so I figured it was a safe bet to order and more creative than water."

"Oh, Papa," she mumbled. Feeling an annoying pang of guilt at missing her Papa trying to bring her a milkshake, she would never admit that to anyone of course. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." He leaned forward, lacing his fingers together, his elbows on the table as he did. "Are you and your Dad close?" She gave him a horrified look.

"Not at all. He's a lecherous, disloyal, creep." He cocked his head in amusement.

"And yet you call him 'Papa'. Not Spirit or even just 'Father'." She narrowed her eyes, choosing not to rise to his challenge otherwise.

"What about your Mom?" She lit up at the slight change of subject.

"My Mom's amazing. Strong, self reliant, smart, responsible, loyal." She took another sip of her shake. "I admire her more than anyone. I just wish she was around more is all but I understand why she isn't."

"Are they not together?"

"My Mom divorced him because of all his cheating."

"Cheating is definitely not cool."

It was odd, talking to Soul, the conversation came so easy and even the silences she would have thought she should find awkward with someone she met three days ago, were strangely comfortable. He'd ordered for her too apparently as the waitress brought the order. The table was soon piled with assorted sushi and sashimi and other things Maka couldn't even name all for Soul apparently. They placed a plate of teriyaki steak in front of her with a bowl of miso and sticky while rice. She nibbled tentatively at the first bite of her food and was pleasantly surprised, it was really good.

It was alarming how much Soul ate though, stacks of empty plates around the table as he finished. He titled his head back, opening his mouth and dropping in the last piece of salmon, he chewed a moment and she watched his throat bob as he swallowed. He titled his head down and made a small satisfied sound as he wiped his mouth.

"Delicious. What a meal." He stretched and patted his stomach.

The waitress cleared the table and put down the check, a pair of unappetizing looking mints left behind with it. Soul scooped one up and popped it in his mouth, Maka ignored the one meant for her and yawned, chin resting in her palm.

"How come you're so tired, practice ended pretty early yesterday." She nodded.

"I know, I have other things that take up time too you know," she blinked sleepily, her full stomach trying to betray and send her off to sleep. "School and-" she didn't continue, not sure what else there was. He grinned but didn't comment. Irritated she sat up, trying to force her treacherous eyes to stay open, she reached for the check.

His hand covered hers and she froze in alarm. Staring at it on the table for a moment, his hand on top of hers, completely covering it. She knew it was only seconds as he lifted her hand off of the little piece of paper and picked it up himself but it felt like hours. The chill of the room brushed over the back of her hand again as his warmth moved away. He didn't appear concerned with what had happened as he leaned back observing the bill.

"I'll get it," he said, using that same disinterested tone from earlier, not looking at her, "I forced this lunch on you anyway, it's the least I can do." Dazed still she tried to focus on his words.

"What?" His eyebrows rose.

"I said I'll get it." Realizing what he was saying she shook herself. Her exhaustion really was starting to get the better of her.

"Oh no, I can pay for myself-" she started digging through her bag for money but was too slow. The waitress, to Maka's dismay was walking by just as he dropped his credit card onto the table. The woman snatched it up too quickly and with an air of defeat Maka closed her bag. She gave the table a hard look.

"I owe you gas money and for lunch now…" she said stubbornly. He waved her mutterings away.

"You don't owe me anything." The waitress returned with his card, he signed the receipt with a flourish and the two of them departed. Maka's rear end feeling very maltreated from the uncomfortable seat.

The day was just a gorgeous as it had been when they went inside as they stepped back onto the street. A girl giggled and gave Soul a flirty wave as she passed them with her friend. Maka was unable to avoid rolling her eyes.

"Where to?" he asked.

"How do you deal with that?" the words slipped out before she could stop them. He glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Deal with what?" He looked genuinely confused. The corner of her lip twitched, unable to understand how he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Since we met up earlier this afternoon six girls have come onto you." His eyebrow rose.

"You were counting?" he said with devilish grin. Her eyes widened and as she flushed her face set itself into an expression of denial.

"Of course not!" She spluttered. "Why on earth would I do that idiot? It was a rough estimate…" His grin was irrepressible but he shrugged deciding not to press her further.

"Okay, whatever." Maka frowned to herself. Why did she know how many girls had come onto Soul. It was a perplexing issue. She figured she must have subconsciously been keeping track. This was even more disturbing though as that meant on some deep level of her mind she did in fact care that six girls had come onto him and therefore…she had some sort of repressed attraction? She shook her head of the thought, she was over analyzing, as she always did; that was it of course.

They decided to go to Black Stars place since all the equipment and instruments would make the whole process easier. Maka unlocked the door with her key and ushered Soul into the wide entryway.

"Black Star?" she called out as she slipped off her shoes at the door and padded into the hall in her sock feet. "Hello? Anyone home?" only silence answered her. She peered back at Soul over her shoulder, he stood a little ways behind her in his usual pose, hands in his pockets. She suddenly felt nervous. But that was nonsense. She'd been alone with Soul all afternoon. Alone in public, a spiteful little voice in her head chimed in, Not alone in an empty house. Her stomach lurched.

"Maybe we should-"

"Well lets go get started," Soul interrupted Maka's feeble beginning of an excuse to leave as he swept past her. She followed him down the hall with her eyes downcast, watching her feet walk across the dark hardwood floors.

They began by adjusting some of Death City Kid's existing songs, creating parts for Soul to play. Maka played out the songs on her acoustic as Soul found places for his piano to entwine with the song, marking it down on paper as they went.

It was actually not a bad way to pass the time Maka thought absently as she played through one of their songs. She was seated on the piano bench next to Soul, though her legs were swung around the opposite way, her back to the piano. It was a pretty relaxing way to spend the rest of the afternoon. The sunlight was filtering through the windows on top of them and warmed Maka's skin deliciously.

She paused as Soul experimented with a few notes. Head turned to the side she watched his hands flow across the keys smoothly, slender artist's hands. He paused, picking up a pencil and scratching out a note on his page delicately, trying not to smudge the rest of the page. He scribbled in the note he was looking for and continued for a little longer before trying again. He rested for a moment, stretching animatedly, cocking his head to the side to look at her.

"What do you think?" She smiled, guitar resting in her lap.

"Its really good, I think most of it seems to be coming together really well." He nodded, giving her a crooked smile in return for her own.

"We make a good team don't you think?" She nodded, plucking away at a few strings dreamily, she was on the verge of being dead tired and was fighting through it.

"I'm jealous of your piano skills," she laughed softly. "I always wanted to play, I begged my parents when I was little to put me in for lessons." He cracked his knuckles.

"They didn't let you?" She shook her head, ash blonde hair shifting over her shoulder as she did.

"It wasn't that they didn't want to, just with the divorce things were crazy a lot of the time. I moved around a lot between houses so it wasn't really easy for me to take lessons and stuff," she continued to pluck distractedly as she spoke, the dreamy tune weaving along with her words. "My Papa bought me a guitar for my birthday one year though. It was more convenient, I could take it with me from place to place so I taught myself to play and forgot about the piano." She stopped playing as Soul's silence, green eyes searching for his expression. He had this odd sort of look on his face, almost kind of sad though she didn't understand why, he turned away for a moment.

"Its never too late you know," he said finally after a beat of silence. She titled her head and gave him a sideways smile.

"Too late for what?" He reached over and brushed her hair out of her face casually. Maka was quite certain she forgot how to breath for a second. He'd done it so naturally, as if it were nothing.

"To learn to play the piano, I can teach you." She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat a moment a go and nodded.

After putting down her guitar she sat on the piano bench, facing the piano this time. Soul went over the key's with her and showed her how to play 'twinkle twinkle little star.' She laughed when she realized what he was teaching her. Her fingers struggled to move across the keyboard as fluidly as Soul's did, she frowned, biting her lip in concentration. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled as she felt his eyes on her. Her finger stumbled across the wrong key and a sharp awkward sound elicited from her mistake. "Shoot." She muttered under her breath.

A hand came down on top of hers gently, she stiffened. Soul was calmly adjusting the way she was holding her fingers into the proper position. He paused, seeming to realize something was wrong. Though he continued to hold her hands loosely in his own.

"Maka?" he said quietly, her posture was tense. A slow smile spread across his face as he came to a realization. "Maka are you blushing?" She snatched her hands away, turning from him sharply.

"Of course not, don't be stupid…" she scowled, her back to him still. Her mind raced as she attempted to will her cheeks to stop burning. She cursed herself, she'd gotten too comfortable, she needed to fix the wall that normally stood mentally between her and anyone who hadn't gone through her careful examination period. Somehow this boy had infuriatingly managed to sneak around that wall. She needed distance.

She stood abruptly, keeping her back to him. "That's enough break time I think. Why don't we try writing something new? I'll go sit over there and try to write out some lyrics…you-you stay here and try to start the music." She leapt up, walking over to the couch and sitting herself down, picking up a notebook from the table and a pen, she hunkered down so the book hid her face.

Soul stifled a sigh as he sat observing her for a moment. Completely closed off again. She'd loosened up as the afternoon had gone on. She'd been downright relaxed for the last hour. He hadn't even been really trying to put the moves on her. He knew she wasn't comfortable after her past experiences so it wouldn't be cool of him to try anything. Though he admitted he'd wanted to especially throughout that last hour. He reprimanded himself for pushing her hair out of her face. He just hadn't been able to resist, he liked the way it looked down and wanted to touch it so badly. He turned away to the piano again, feeling her absence from the space beside him sorely.

They had made progress though, they'd completed the adjustments to the existing songs for the show on Thursday. They just had to put them into practice now with the rest of the band. His mind trailed to the thought of Chris, cursing him for making her like this and also bringing to mind his prior decision to talk to her about him today. He sighed. He hadn't played anything yet and she hadn't even commented on it. His eyes turned back to the couch where she sat.

In the time he'd been thinking she had dozed off. Curled up tightly in the corner the sunlight had moved across the room as the sun had moved across the sky. It now fell across her face, peaceful with sleep. Her ashy blonde hair glinted with gold in the sunlight. The notebook hugged into her chest, the pen held limply in one hand. She'd been yawning often and appeared tired the whole time so he wasn't shocked to see her asleep. He swung his legs around so he was sitting on the side of the bench.

"Maka?" he called softly. She didn't stir. He hung his head in despair. So much for talking to her about Chris. Soul stood and went to her, pulling a throw blanket over her. He settled onto the other end of the couch at her feet and sighed, he couldn't bear to wake her so he would stand guard while she slept.

Maka wasn't sure what was going on, she woke to an unfamiliar swaying feeling. Her eyes peeled open, looking at a black clad chest. She was being carried? Her eyes flicked up to Kid's face, Kid was carrying her? Her gaze slid away from him, Liz was walking ahead of him, hands in her pockets. They were climbing stairs. She blinked sleepily.

"Well hello sleepy head," Kid greeted, seeing she was awake.

"What's going on?" she murmured. Liz glanced back at her and smiled.

"You fell asleep at Black Stars, we showed up a little while ago and offered to take you home. You were out cold Maka." That was when she realized this was the stairwell of her apartment building.

"Soul…" she murmured, realizing she'd fallen asleep on him, leaving them on an awkward note. Kid grinned. "He's fine, he didn't want to wake you so he hung out for a little while to let you sleep then we showed up. I'm pretty sure he went home. He would have taken you but he had his bike and all." Maka nodded, wishing Kid would let her down but since they were climbing stairs it wasn't really a good place to do so.

They dropped her off at her apartment door, she smiled and thanked them for the ride home. Once inside she didn't do any of her regular homecoming activities, she went to her room and collapsed onto the bed, asleep again almost the instant she hit the pillow. Too tired to notice the pink wrapped present left inside her apartment on the floor by the door. A present that hadn't been there when she'd left that morning.

I've been trying to develop this at a reasonable pace though I am eager to rush forward into some other events I have in mind. XD

I hope you've been enjoying so far and continue reading! More to come! Reviews are always love.

-Song