a/n:

I. AM. SO. SORRY.

I can explain though!

So I decided to switch to a different Internet provider, foolish me! By the time they got my router or transmitter or whatever the hell it is in my freaking apartment, the freaking thing didn't have WiFi! So, I had to go out and blow an extra $75 on a freaking WiFi transmitter/router/signal thingy! So here I am, feeling humiliated and betrayed by my Internet company! Please don't disown me! I still love you!

And, my mother bought me a poster board that's almost a yard long! I have no place to put it! I have no idea what she was thinking!

Please review if you would be so kind! I love hearing back, it gives me the stamina to keep writing in the face of an Internet crisis! Do an author a favor, please, I LOVE hearing what people think. So far I've only received positive feedback. Mix it up for me, beat me up for not updating...

So!

Soul Eater Crazy seriously made my day. They added me to their favorite authors, added Graduation to their favorite stories and to their updates, reviewed... If you can't tell, I'm smiling.

Nadezzhda and S0uleaterevens also reviewed and added this to their favorites. James Dayan, MehBeGianna, Smilesassy1123 and Alik Takeda added this to their story alerts.

I swear, S0uleaterevens, I seriously will read your fan fiction and review. I've been meaning to get around to it, but I barely have time to type Graduation. So, sorry, I'm not blowing you off, I swear! I'll get around to it before my next update. And with my whole Internet craziness, I've been deprived.

And thank youfor reading this!


Soul slid his fingers over the black and white keys, trying not to play dramatically, as he was prone to. He didn't normally play something so soft, so slow. He didn't like the stereotypical smooth jazz piano piece sound. It was just the same thing, repeating, over and over.

But the pay was good, the tips were great, and the hours were flexible. It would do for now.

The owner held his promise.

A week later, almost to the hour, Soul came back to Corner Street.

Armed with a smooth jazz piece and his best suit, he was almost sure his position had already been filled by the man he had met before, Raavi, but Soul wasn't about to back down. He walked into the club, the owner sitting behind the bar. The owner smiled at the weapon, the cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth.

Soul played, as best he could. In the back of his mind he thought he was being played, toyed with for the owner's personal amusement.

When the song finished, the owner got up and walked next to Soul, who stood up, the same way he did last time. At last, the owner held out his hand. "Name's Virén. JimVirén. You get to call me Virén."

Soul stared at him for a moment, then he grasped this '"Jim Virén's" hand. "Soul. Soul Eater Evans."

Virén chuckled. "I'm gonna give you some real jazz music. Music for an establishment like this! You work on weekday nights. Got it, kid?"

Soul played the repetitive song, and gave a half smile when a couple put a fairly large tip in the coffee mug n the piano with a post-it not with "tips" scrawled on it. The song ended, and he looked at the clock on the wall. His shift was over.

Soul emptied the tips into his pocket and walked to the bar. Virén was chatting up a very uncomfortable looking woman. Soul sighed, resting his head on the bar.

"Nice playing," a familiar voice said to Soul.

Soul knew that voice. That voice that flowed, but as always had that oh-so-perfect air about it that bother Soul so much. It couldn't be him, could it? He looked up, and was all too surprised at who was staring him in the face. "What- Kidd?"

Soul's former classmate smiled at him and lifted his drink in acknowledgement to Soul. "How's your graduated life?"

Soul was in shock for a moment, and just stared at Kidd with a dumbfounded look on his face. Finally, he took a breath. "Kidd, what the hell are you doing in a place like this?"

Kidd sighed, and took a sip of his drink. "Just wanted to get away from the house for a while."

Soul stared for another moment, and then he slumped back over the bar. "You're the last person I expected to see here."

Kidd smiled to himself, amused by Soul's reaction. "Maka told me you were playing the piano here, and I-"

"Maka?" Soul looked back to the Shinigami. "When do you see Maka?"

"She's taking classes to become a teacher at my father's academy." It seemed obvious after Kidd pointed it out. Of course that was it. What else could it be?

"I see her every now and then in the halls," Kidd continued. "We actually talk quite a bit." Kidd noticed that Soul looked like a little bit of color had drained from his face. "You didn't think we were having some kind of secret meeting, did you?"

A bit of red came to the weapon's face this time. "No way! Even if you were, I wouldn't care anyway."

Kidd chuckled to himself. "Of course. Falling in love is very uncool."

"Shut up, symmetry boy."

Kidd glared at Soul for a moment, but he was too upset to yell at him. "It is uncool."

"What?"

"Love," he muttered, taking another sip of his drink. "It's not cool at all."

Soul looked at Kidd for a moment. Hangon. Soul looked over Kidd. He was definitely upset about something. Something serious. "Kidd, did you get dumped or something?"

He didn't speak for a few seconds. "...You could say that." Kidd sighed dramatically. He looked at the clock out of the corner of his eye, then he looked at Soul again. "Maka's shift gets over in half an hour. Don't you think you should get going?"

He looked at the clock. "Crap! See ya, Kidd!" Soul jumped up from his seat and rushed out the door.

Kidd shook his head as his friend left. He sighed, and took a rather long sip of his drink. He twirled the bottle, watching the intoxicating liquid swirl around the glass sides. His reflection was distorted in the curved surface, but he could still see himself. These stripes, he thought, tugging on the half of his head with the white stripes.You piece of garbage. Kidd folded his arms across the table and rested his head. Disgusting. How could you just let her go like that? Disgusting, disgusting...


She wasn't having the greatest time with the bow. She tried to untie it, but her fingers just wouldn't let her grasp the knot right. She struggled more, not about to loose to a mere double knot.

"Is the knot giving you trouble?" The blonde waitress Maka had met on her first day walked into that Mirror's view. She smiled at Maka's reflection, holding her own apron to hang it up.

"Oh, Seraphina!" Maka blushed and turned to face her coworker. "I can get it, don't worry about it!"

Searphina smiled wider. She admired that Maka was so independent, but she could also be so stubborn, and at times a little violent. She had a nasty temper, along with it. After debating what she thought of Maka for the first few days, she decided on "cute" and chose to leave it at that. "Here, let me get it!"

Maka tried to protest, as that would be admitting defeat, but Seaphina insisted. She untied the knot, and handed Maka the apron, her warn smile still on her face. "See? No problem!"

Maka smiled oddly at this slightly odd girl. "Thanks," she said, walking to the closet where they kept their aprons and hanging it up.

Seraphine grabbed Maka's wrist and smiled at her. "Come on, I bet your ride is here!"

"Yours is always here before mine."

The bubbly waitress laughed, and Maka couldn't quite think of what was so funny. They exited the back of the restaurant together, hand-in-wrist.

The girls smiled, and looked at each other.

"He's here!" Seraphina said, pointing at Maka. She ran to her ride home, a tall man with black hair, the ends dyed blue. His eyes were thin and black, and Maka thought he looked a little creepy.

"Baby!" Seraphine wrapped her arms around his neck.

Maka walked over to Soul, who was there too. "Hi, Soul."

"Hey," he responded, glancing from the oddly matched couple to Maka. "Work okay?"

"Yep. How about you?"

"Yeah."

Maka and Soul tired to focus on each other as they noticed the couple's kiss deepen and get louder. Maka cleared her throat. "Did many people come?"

"Yeah, it was actually a pretty good crowd. Oh, you're never going to believe who I saw at-"

"Maka!" Seraphina shouted loudly, immediately getting Soul and Maka's attention. "You never told me you had a boyfriend!"

"What?"

"No!" Maka held out her hand, her eyes wide. "He is not my boyfriend!"

Seraphina cocked her head to the side, the mess of blonde curls bouncing on her head. "He's not?"

"No way!"

"But," She pointed to the two of them with such enthusiasm, as if this were a new and exciting discovery, "You two are standing so close to each other!"

They both looked at their feet, and realized they were really, really abnormally close to each other. Their eyes met, both of their faces turned red, and they stepped simultaneously back.

"Sorry," Maka said, fiddling with her hands.

"No problem," Soul muttered. He cleared his throat, and he looked back up in Maka's direction, but he couldn't look into her eyes. "So, let's go then," he said, as coolly as he could possibly muster against all his embarrassment.

"Sure," Maka replied. She smiled awkwardly at Soul and followed him out of the restaurant.

"See you on Monday, Maka!" The meister's blunt coworker called after her, waving with an annoying amount of zest. Maka waved slightly at her, wanting very much to put a book-sized dent in the girl's head.

Soul started up his bike, and Maka hopped on behind him.

"Damn, that girl is annoying!" Soul said, brushing his hair back.

"She's okay if you bet to know her," Maka replied. "She means well. She's just-"

"Annoying?"

"Loud," she gave Soul her trademark glare. "Stupid."

"Shut up." The weapon started the bike and sped off, the tires squealing against the pavement beneath them.

Maka yelled and clutched her arms around his waist tightly. "Soul, be careful, you're gonna get us killed!"

"I am not," his thoughts stopped after he said this, becoming acutely aware of Maka's chest against his back. His gaze wandered to her as she held onto him and looked out to Death City as they sped through the streets. The breeze pushed her dress farther up than he was used to, exposing nearly all of her legs.

Her long, elegant, slender legs.

His eyes snapped back to the road. She was his meister, for god's sake! He couldn't think something like that about her. Not only was she his meister, she was basically his best friend. Such thoughts were out of the question.

Even so, Seraphina's comment hung n his mind. They weren't just school kids. They were older now, and Maka wasn't that bookworm at school anymore. She grew up, and so did he.

Then it hit him.

"Maka?" He blurted out, not thinking about how odd he would sound if he asked her.

"What?" She responded.

"...Do you..." He swallowed hard. What an odd question to just ask so suddenly! But, he had to ask her, for her sake! "...So, uhh, do people ever hit on you at work?"

She didn't speak. "...Why?"

"Curious."

"Sometimes."

"Huh." What if some one asks her out? His mind turned over the thought. What would I do? It's not like I wouldn't want her to be happy, but that would be... He looked at her again. She had a sweet smile, beautiful green eyes, and a nice figure. She was a waitress now, which would introduce her to lots of new people. There was no way she wasn't going to capture some one's attention. Someone was going to like her.

Someone could even fall in love with her.

"Soul?"

His mind snapped back into place. He looked over his shoulder a bit to Maka, and he looked into her green eyes. She really is pretty, I guess. How come I didn't notice it before? He looked into her eyes with a new found tenderness, and the distress that someone could actually take her away from him and there wouldn't be anything he could do about it.

She moved her head back. "What?"

"What what?"

"You're looking at me weird."

"I am not."

"...Well, what I was going to say is you passed the apartment.

Soul looked down the street behind him, and he saw their apartment building turn into a speck. "...Oh."