I think this is one of Soul's best ideas yet: taking advice about girls from a magical cat... not! I decided to throw a couple of new pairings in this chapter just to add to the drama of the whole love... well it's not really a triangle anymore... anyway hope you enjoy :D

After my conversation with Spirit I decided to head home; if I was going to talk to Maka then the best place to catch her would be at home. The walk back also gave me a chance to clear my head and get my thoughts in order. If I was going to tell her how I felt about her (I mean really doing it not just pussying around the subject) then I was going to have to make the most eloquent speech I'd ever made in my life and eloquence wasn't my strongest subject, the best I could do was garbled and tongue-tied. When I finally reached our front door I had the semblance of a speech prepared in my head. I took a deep breath as I opened the door – it was now or never.

"Maka?" I called out as I entered, shutting the door behind me. "You home? I need to talk to you about something important."

"Yeah, hang on." she called out rather hurriedly. My heart sank. That meant that she had a guy here that she didn't want me to know. I wanted to go to my room and wait for her to get rid of him, whoever he was, and then come and find me but stupidly I decided that I would let her know that I knew. I went over to her bedroom door ready to face the music. I guess it was because I was so ready to say what I had spent the whole walk home devising in my head that I needed to get it out before I lost my nerve. I opened her bedroom door and I instantly regretted it.

"Hey…" I breathed, my mouth hanging open slightly as I tried to process what I had just walked in on. Kid was sitting on Maka's bed, clothes slightly rumpled and hair not as perfect as it usually was. Maka was also in a similar state of disarray; her lips pink from where her lipstick used to be and a very similar shade also covering Kid's too. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and realise that they had been hooking up when I walked in.

"Kid was just dropping off some book I had lent him." she stated matter of factly as a pitiful form of explanation.

"Ok." I replied flatly. She must have thought I was a complete idiot or something because there was no way in hell she actually expected me to believe that. Did she? I was still thrown by the whole situation though. "Um, we can talk later." I should have left the room at that point but the message wasn't quite getting through to my legs.

"No, what did you need to tell me?" Maka asked ignoring Kid completely and fixing me with a hard stare obviously a little irritated that I had walked in when she had effectively told me not to. I opened my mouth to speak. Part of me wanted to tell her it could wait until Kid had left but I was pissed off that she had been hooking up with him in the first place, let alone trying to lie about it when it was clear what they had been doing. Another part of me just wanted to get it over with and tell her now but I couldn't do that with him sitting there so I took the coward's way out.

"I bumped into your dad earlier," I told her. "he said he wanted to have dinner with you at some point." I tried to make it sound as convincing as possible. I don't know if it worked or not.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Maka muttered angrily under her breath. "If he wants to see me so badly he can call, why the hell does he think that he needs to go through you to get to me?"

"Because you never answer the phone when he calls." I pointed out a little petulantly. Maka looked about ready to explode. I knew I shouldn't have said that but at the same time I knew it would get enough of a reaction out of her.

"We've had this conversation Soul." she said icily and I knew I was in trouble. She hated it when I pointed out that she was wrong about something. She was so fucking stubborn like that.

"I should probably get going." Kid stated awkwardly, looking between the two of us and feeling the noticeable change in the atmosphere.

"Probably." I replied flatly. I wasn't feeling particularly friendly towards him but at the same time I didn't want to show just how pissed off I was. Kid straightened his clothes and made a valiant attempt to smooth down his hair before getting to his feet. As he left the room he made a move as if to put his hand on my shoulder but thought better of it. Probably a good idea too. I didn't want either of them to know I was pissed and if he tried something like that I don't think I'd be able to restrain myself from knocking him the fuck out. Neither Maka or I moved until we heard the front door close behind him.

"So was that it?" she asked coldly.

"Yep."

"Whatever, I'm not dealing with this, I'm going for a shower." she stated getting off the bed herself. "I'll get dinner started once I'm done ok." I didn't have much time to respond either way as she made to walk past me to the bathroom but my hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. I didn't turn to look at her but I could feel her eyes boring into me.

"Are you staying here tonight?" I asked. There was a long pause. I could feel her trembling slightly and when she spoke there was a catch in her voice as if she was crying but I couldn't bring myself to look at her to find out.

"No."

Later that evening, after Maka had left to 'go for a walk', I was sitting on the sofa with the TV on in front of me. I wasn't particularly watching it but the noise kept me distracted from actually thinking about anything. The thought of Maka and Kid together just made my heart ache. It was bad enough seeing her with anyone else but one of my friends was too much for me to process. I'd definitely try to steer clear of Kid for a while, just in case.

As I sat there trying to block it all out a pair of warm arms slipped around my neck from behind and for a wonderful moment I thought that it might be Maka. I placed my hand on top of one of them, leaning back into the embrace and turned to smile up at the person behind me. Unfortunately it wasn't Maka. My heart sank a little as I saw Blair standing behind me, her arms around my neck and wearing very little clothing.

"Hey Scythe Boy." she purred, fluttering her eyelashes. I dropped my hand from her arm and sat forward, breaking her hold on me.

"Hey." I sighed, disappointed. I know I shouldn't have been; Blair is a beautiful woman but (much like anyone else I've used to try and distract myself with) she isn't Maka. With a graceful wiggle she slipped over the back of the sofa to sit down next to me, putting her arm around my shoulders. This time I didn't try to escape.

"What's up Scythe Boy?" she asked. "You look down." I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"It's nothing." I lied, not looking at her. I didn't really want to get into this right now (or with Blair at all actually). It was all still too raw.

"Come on," she purred pulling me closer. "you can tell Blair anything."

"I'm fine." I replied. "It really is nothing. I'm just tired."

"Is it Maka?" she asked. I turned to look at her.

"How did you…?" I began, trailing off. She grinned at me.

"Blair is not as unobservant as you think she is." she teased, tapping me on the nose. I let out a soft, humourless chuckle.

"I guess not." I replied. "Yeah it's Maka." I added after a pause.

"You don't know how to tell her that you love her when she's always bringing other boys back home?" she asked.

"How did you…?" I began asking again. She might have been observant but there was no way that she could have known that unless she was very observant – like inside my head kind of observant.

"You might want to be a little quieter when you masturbate and think that no one else is in the house or check that you really are alone beforehand." she grinned and I felt my face heat up.

"Sorry." I mumbled. Damn, how uncool is that? Getting caught jacking off to the thought of my meister by the magical cat who lives with us. So uncool.

"It's ok," she smirked. "Blair doesn't mind. You look quite sexy when you're in the throes of passion, even if it is with yourself."

"Still." I mumbled. God this was uncool. I couldn't have looked any more pathetic if I had tried, or felt any more embarrassed.

"So Scythe Boy loves Maka but Maka keeps bringing other boys home and you don't know what to do about it." she summarised pouting slightly.

"Yeah that's about the size of it." I replied.

"Then you know what you have to do."

"What?"

"You have to make her jealous." she stated. When she put it like that it sounded so simple but I knew that, in practice, it wasn't going to be as easy as that. To make Maka jealous and getting her to admit it were going to be much harder than that and not just because Maka was horrifically stubborn.

"How?" I asked. She rolled her eyes and looked at me like I was simple.

"You've got to show her that you're not her little puppy that's always going to be there for her and find someone who she thinks is much hotter than she is."

"What?" I was confused; where girls really like that? I would have thought that all those teenage insecurities would be over and done with by now.

"You want to get Maka's attention right?" she asked as if she was speaking to a particularly slow child. I nodded. "Then you've got to let her see you with a girl who she thinks is prettier than her or has bigger boobs than she does or is just better at something she's particularly insecure about."

"Wouldn't that make me kind of a dick though?" I asked still not fully grasping the situation. Blair raised her hands in defence.

"Hey this is just how girls think. We know how our brains work and it's all about jealousy" she stated. "You want her to take notice then do what I tell you too."

"But what about the other girl who's involved in all this?" I asked. "I don't want to hurt anyone else by getting them involved and I'm certainly not going to pay anyone to do it." It was bad enough that she was suggesting I intentionally try to piss off Maka by doing this but I really didn't want to get someone else involved as well. Using someone like that isn't cool. Blair just laughed.

"Silly boy," she smiled. "I'm willing to do it for nothing and you know I won't get hurt I just want to help you."

"What's in it for you?" I asked narrowing my eyes at her.

"The knowledge that I've helped out my favourite Scythe Boy when he's in need?" she replied innocently. I continued to stare at her.

"Blair."

"All right fine," she replied. "You want Maka, I want her father."

"Spirit?"

"Yes. Despite what Maka thinks of him he's actually a really nice guy," Blair stated. "and, if she let him, he would absolutely dote on her, she just won't give him that much of a chance."

"And how is sleeping with me going to get you Spirit?" I asked. Blair laughed again and tapped my nose, trying to be endearing.

"You let me worry about that," she said. "you just worry about finding the perfect opportunity for Maka to see us together."

"She's not going to fall for this." I told her. "Especially after I walked in on her and Kid this afternoon she's going to know that I'm just doing it to get back at her. She's not an idiot."

"Then you've got to keep the act up silly." she grinned wickedly. I sighed and rubbed my eyes with one hand.

"I really don't know if I'm ok with this." I told her. Yes I wanted Maka, yes I was pissed off that I had caught her hooking up with one of our friends and yes I wanted to get her off this destructive path that she was on but I really didn't think that this was the right way to go about it. I wanted to go away and think about this properly but apparently I didn't have time as I heard keys jingling in the lock. Before I could stop her or respond in any way Blair was on my lap straddling my hips.

"Stick your hands down my pants and look like you mean it." she instructed.

"What…?" I just about managed to get out before her lips were on mine and her tongue slipped into my open mouth. I took me a second to register what was actually happening but I managed to recover pretty quickly as her hands delved into my hair, giving it a sharp tug and bringing my back to reality. I slipped my hands down into her underwear and grabbed a handful of her well-toned backside and, damn, she did have a nice butt, while massaging my tongue against hers.

Kissing Blair was unlike any kiss I'd ever had before; the motions our mouths were going through would make it look to an outsider like it was a kiss filled with passion, lust and desire. I didn't feel anything though. Sure Blair was insanely hot and, when I was younger, I wouldn't have minded sticking my dick in her (for want of a better phrase) but I just didn't feel anything. It might have been because I knew I was only doing this to make Maka jealous (I'm a terrible person). I did make damn sure that the kiss looked convincing though and it wasn't until someone loudly cleared their throat from the doorway that both Blair and I pulled away and looked round to see Maka standing there glaring at us.

"Maka!" Blair panted in fake surprise, getting off me. "I didn't realise you were going to be home this early."

"Clearly." she replied flatly. I could feel my face heating up from the death stare she was fixing me with. "So how long has this been going on?" Shit, she's seen through it! She knows I'm only doing this to make her jealous. I opened my mouth to respond but I couldn't make my vocal chords connect to my brain.

"A couple of months." Blair told her. "We didn't know when would be the right time to tell you but I didn't mean for you to find out like this. I'm so sorry." Damn, Blair was pretty good at thinking on her feet whereas my brain could barely function at that moment. I made a mental note to check everything she said from now on in case she was lying. Maka was silent for a moment, still staring at me before her eyes flicked to Blair and she gave her a small smile that didn't quite meet her eyes.

"It's ok," she stated but I don't know if it was. "I think I kind of expected something like this anyway." Blair cried happily before throwing her arms around her and hugging her tightly.

"Oh I'm so glad you're not angry." she beamed. Maka just gave her a tight lipped smile. "Do you want to stay and watch TV with us?" Blair asked after a short pause trying to seem friendly. "I'll go put some clothes on."

"No thanks," Maka replied. "I think I'm just going to go to bed."

"Ok, see you tomorrow." Blair giggled happily as Maka left the room. I waited until I heard her bedroom door closed before I looked up at Blair.

"See," I said gesturing in the direction of Maka's room. "unfazed." Blair opened her mouth to say something but before she could we both heard the distinct sound of glass shattering as it hit a wall coming from Maka's room. Blair raised an eyebrow at me and smirked.

"Oh really?"

And this, kids, is why lying about your feelings is never a sensible idea