Predictably, as soon as they got home the next day, Soul was on top of her, pestering her to try resonating with him.

It was a rather odd situation for Maka, being on the other end of the nagging for once. Usually being a mother hen was her MO, since she was always on Soul to get up on time, eat a healthy breakfast, show up to class on time, and everything else she was always pestering him about. So for him to be the one now pestering her was a rather odd experience. Normally he was so laid-back, pretty much okay with just about anything, that seeing him on the warpath was just a little freaky.

She knew that he was only this serious because not learning how to resonate would undoubtedly end up with her getting injured, an activity which he tried to prevent in a very active manner. He was the most protective person she knew, at least when it came to her safety. That wasn't anything new by any means, however unfortunately it triggered some doubts that she had been harboring since the Crona incident.

For the first time in their partnership, she was not happy about how meister/weapon relationships worked. The entirety of their partnership, she had been more than satisfied, because as the meister she took the brunt of the damage and risk. The only problem with the arrangement though, was that Soul's role to play in their partnership was to protect her – technically even at the cost of his own life. Since he always stayed in weapon form during battle – which was close to indestructible – this little clause hadn't ever been a problem. But ever since he popped out of weapon form and took the blow that was meant for her when they battled Crona, it had hit her just how cruel a rule it was. What was even worse, she just couldn't quite help this niggling little worry in the back of her mind that the primary reason he did such a drastic and stupid thing was because of that rule.

This incredibly irritating crush of hers had obviously scrambled her brains and caused her to worry over irrational thoughts she hadn't ever entertained before. She knew protective instincts like his didn't just come from a sense of duty. To even consider that he had gotten himself nearly killed simply because it was in his job description was shockingly stupid. She had always believed that they possessed a bond, one which drove him to protect her - and her to win so he wouldn't end up getting hurt. So why now? Why were such senseless ideas torturing her now? Would this crush never stop messing with her head?

This had been going on for close to two months now, but she'd thought that she had gotten better with these particular worries lately. However, with him acting so overprotective, those emotions from when he got hurt were triggered again, and that just made her even more wired. This was not good – not at all – because she was already wired enough as it was, just from the insane amount of stress that she was currently under. Being pressured into doing something that was absolutely terrifying to her did not make for a happy, relaxed, or peaceful state of mind.

So, it wasn't a surprise when her extra emotional charge translated into irritation, and she became moody Maka. Soul hardly seemed shocked when she fought back against his nagging. She tried complaining that she didn't want to try to sync her soul to his today, that she had to study, that she was tired and had a headache, and a million other excuses which seemed to fall on deaf ears.

He was persistent, pestering her nonstop as she fended him off with excuse after excuse, first by making dinner, then complaining of a stomach ache – and yet nothing seemed to deter him.

"Maka…we talked about this remember? We've gotta do this so that you'll stop going out there and getting all beat up in the field. We can't work together properly without a good soul-bond."

Finally, she grew fed-up.

"What's the big deal anyways?! What does it matter if I get myself hurt? I'm the meister, it's in the job description! You're being so annoying! I know protecting me is what you're supposed to do, but just give it a rest already!" The words coming out of her mouth were beyond stupid and ridiculous – not to mention hurtful – and she instantly regretted them.

Soul looked absolutely shocked, his mouth open a little as he gaped at her. Once he had collected himself a little, his eyes narrowed and his lips pursed, and if she hadn't known him as well as she did she would have missed the hurt look passing through his eyes. The sight of it had guilt once again settling into her stomach like a heavy stone.

As for Soul, he was not a happy camper by any means. Yes, he was hurt by the dumb insinuation. He had thought that she would know by now why he was so adamant about protecting her. But apparently she, for some reason, needed him to spell it out for her.

"Well, yeah, I swore an oath as your weapon to protect you, and cool guys never go back on their word, but-"

She flinched and turned away, looking like she was almost getting ready to go lock herself in her room or something. Not letting him finish what he was planning on saying, she muttered. "That's stupid. I don't want you protecting me just because it's part of your job. You'll end up getting yourself hurt again…and for what? I hate that rule."

That confused him. She was obviously deeply hurt by what he'd said, which made no sense since he had always thought she was cool with their partner relationship. She had known from the get-go how a weapon and meister relationship was set up, and she hadn't ever complained about it till now. Still, while he was cool with the arrangement, it was way more than that. The thought that she believed he was only concerned about her wellbeing because it was what he was technically supposed to do according to some rulebook somewhere…it bothered him more than he'd like to admit.

So, without really deciding to do it, he spat out, "Damn it, Maka! I thought you were smart enough to know that it's way more than that!"

She paused and then slowly turned back around, pinning him in place with her green eyes. "Way more than what?"

Gulping, because this was going into touchy feely talking territory, a place he was distinctly uncomfortable with, he cleared his throat and managed to force out, "More than rules and shit. I don't just protect you cause it's what I'm supposed to do. Thought you'd know that by now."

"Then why do you?" She asked softly, a hint of vulnerability in her voice and gaze which he hadn't seen before.

This seemed to really be bugging her for some reason. He wasn't entirely surprised. After all, sometimes Maka would get a stupid worry stuck in her head and would end up freaking out about it for months and months, until it turned into a big thing.

"You know I'm not good at talking about this stuff…" He mumbled, wincing a bit and rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I know, but…please?" She asked, so nicely and with such a soft tone, that he was helpless to deny her.

Blowing a hard exhale out of his pursed lips, he sucked the air back in around his sharp teeth, looking at the ceiling and raising his hand from the back of his neck to run through his white hair, tugging at the ends a little. "Shit…I…it's a lot of things, I mean…for one, you're my best friend…and my roommate…and I… uh, care a lot about you…I mean, I'd rather die than see you get hurt…" He grimaced, unable to believe all that stuff just came from him.

He was freaked by it all, and when he risked a glance at her she looked pretty freaked out too, her eyes wide and her hand over her mouth. There was an incredibly long silence, full of weird tension that had Soul scratching at his scalp with his blunt fingernails and tugging on his hair some more, at a loss of what to do now.

Finally, Maka took a deep breath and said, "Yeah. I knew all that…and I feel the same way." Then with a swift exhale she rolled her eyes and admitted, "To be honest, I've been thinking about it since Crona got you. Seeing you hurt so badly because of me, I just…it freaked me out. And now with this whole mess and the stress of it all, I kind of exploded. Sorry."

He huffed, clearing his throat a bit and putting up his normal façade of disinterest to hide his still crazy emotions. "Stupid, Maka. We're partners. You get hurt all the time, and I hate it, but I accept it as part of your job. You gotta accept that I might get hurt too. Not getting hurt is gonna require us getting stronger … and resonating."

"I know that!" She said, sounding slightly ticked off again as she sent him a sharp glance.

Shrugging, he stayed quiet. There was another long awkward silence, and then finally he risked pointing out, "Of course, if we wanna do that, we've gotta get used to working together without that damn shield."

Maka, meanwhile, knew he was right, and had known he was right from the start. She just hadn't really wanted to take that step today. But after this little blow-up, it was obvious they had to go ahead and do it, otherwise it was going to mess up their partnership.

"Yeah…" She sighed. "I know, but can we cool off for a bit first? I don't wanna try right after having an argument."

He shrugged again. "Sure. Wanna watch a movie or something and try after that?"

Relieved he was going to give her at least a short respite, she nodded, and while Soul picked out a movie, she popped some popcorn as a peace offering. He accepted wordlessly, just starting up the movie and parking his butt on one side of the couch. They settled the popcorn bowl between them and shared it, watching some sort of action video that Soul had recently picked up. Maka didn't catch much of the plot - still being all tense and worried about what was going to happen as soon as it was over - but at least it helped her to get a little less wired.

After the relatively long movie, Maka was ready to try, mainly to just get it over with.

Soul sent her a look, moving the empty popcorn bowl to the table and shifting to sit cross-legged facing her. He seemed to expect her to protest, and almost appeared somewhat surprised when she wordlessly shifted to match him, facing him at her end of the couch.

"What…no complaints about a sore stomach or anything?" He teased.

"Look, I just wanna get this over with."

"Okay, okay. Sure."

"Let's just try syncing with each other okay? Just to start with?" She wasn't sure she was ready to tackle resonance yet, not when she hadn't even gotten used to synchronizing their souls without her shield before.

"Sounds good."

So, they closed their eyes and both focused on their soul wavelengths, attempting to matching them and synchronize the way they did when Maka wielded him normally. Her shield instantly popped into place out of habit.

"Maka…your shield is up isn't it?"

She winced. "Yeah."

"Well…take it down!"

"It's not that easy Soul! Give me a minute!"

He grumbled, and she started working on the shield, trying to get it to go away, but it was incredibly difficult. Soul lost his patience pretty quickly with her fumbling to try and bring the wall down between their souls, and he attempted to take matters into his own hand. His soul's wavelength increased exponentially and tried to just barge right through. If synchronization was likened to dancing, Soul had just taken the lead by force and was practically pile-driving through her.

Maka felt the pressure as he shoved heavily against her shield and panicked, her soul going haywire and breaking any sort of sync between them. "Soul! Don't do that! There's no way I can bring the shield down if you push me! It'll only make it thicker and stronger to keep you out!" She protested – loudly – her breath coming fast and her heart pounding out of control, symptoms of an impending freak out.

Soul's eyes went wide, all irritation and impatience bleeding out instantly. "Woah! Okay, I'm sorry. I won't do it again, I promise."

It took a few moments for Maka to calm down enough to try again.

This time, Soul stuck to his word, just waiting patiently while she worked on removing the shield. It took a while, but eventually she managed to relax enough that the defense dropped out from between them, letting their souls come into contact. They both jumped a bit at the feeling.

It was different from the other two times. Those had been in battle situations, where most of their concentration had been preoccupied with not getting hurt or killed – not to mention of course that it they had been resonating, not just synchronizing their wavelengths. Synchronizing meant they matched their soul wavelengths to each other, so that they would be perfectly compatible – which was utterly necessary for wielding. They had done it a million times while fighting together…but that had been when she had her shield up. Without the shield, they could feel each other's souls, due to the fact that they were using the same wavelength.

It wasn't nearly as intense as when her shield had been shattered. They had been resonating during those battles, not just synchronizing, and so the contact had been much more involved, as if they were melting together. This time, since they weren't resonating, their souls stayed as separate individual beings… they were just individual beings that were in contact with each other in a very intimate way. As before, she couldn't help but equate it with a naked friendly hug – or at the very least a conversation held while both were naked.

Still, even though technically it was much less intimate than full-on resonance, this experience was almost more intimidating than the previous two times. This time, they could focus all their attention on the other person, and Maka instantly felt Soul… in a whole new way.

She got a few fleeting emotions that she knew were from Soul, probably the strongest ones he was experiencing - shock, surprise, curiosity were the top few. Those were the ones that he was accidentally projecting across their shared wavelength – much like a radio wave. She probably felt much the same way except with a good dose of fear and uncertainty.

Once she got over the initial shock though, things got a little more awkward. This soul to soul contact was super intimate. Even worse, getting to sense Soul's very being so close to hers…it made all those fluffy, fuzzy, warm, irritating feelings flare up, and suddenly she had to break it off to shove them all into her anti-Soul box and hide them. There was no way she was going to let Soul have even the littlest whiff of her crush on him.

She had no idea that Soul had already dealt with his mess of confusing emotions in the same way.

Just like her, at the first soul-to-soul contact he had experienced all kinds of fluttery, stupid, warm, melty emotions that made him think he was definitely getting a crush on his meister. That was a thought that he wasn't entirely sure what to do with, because he had no idea if that sort of thing was even feasible. Would he want to be with Maka like that? Did he want a relationship? Would she want one? Was there any chance in hell she might like him back? Fuck - was a relationship even allowed between a meister and weapon who were partnered? Wait…her parents did it, so it was probably allowed…right? That didn't necessarily mean it was encouraged though.

That whole mess of confusion was systematically shoved into his mental closet to deal with at a much later date and also to keep it away from Maka. That would be the last thing she'd want to come across during this already tough exercise. Soul could already picture how that would go down…with her probably refusing to ever try synchronizing with him again. So he put a lid on it, locking it up tight, and throwing away the key for now. He had no desire to address that situation any time soon.

Maka meanwhile had finished shoving everything away, and was ready to try again, taking a few deep breaths to center herself.

Thinking back on the experience…it hadn't been that bad really. So, this time around she went it a little more confidant, dropping her shield right away as they connected soul to soul again. She still flinched a bit at first contact, but then relaxed, trying to just focus on holding the synchronization and matching her soul wavelength to his as best she could to make it a smooth connection.

It was awkward and still too intimate, the same way seeing or touching Soul while either he or she were unclothed would be, but it wasn't…bad exactly. It was just…Soul. And her. Touching.

Slowly, very slowly, she began to relax little by little, letting herself feel a bit more of him - as if they were in a sleeping bag and she had been all curled up into a little ball, but now allowed herself to stretch out and feel his foot touch hers or something. He seemed to have adjusted pretty well. She was no longer getting those sharp flashes of shock that she had first felt coming from him. Now it was mostly curiosity and intrigue, as if he was interested in this little experiment even more now.

When she opened her eyes, to look at his soul, she was a bit interested to see that his glowing core was pulsing lightly, as if to some rhythm only he could hear. When she concentrated on the gentle contact between their souls, she could feel it too … sort of like a heartbeat.

Without speaking aloud, she thought to herself, "Why is his soul pulsing like that?"

He jerked. "Wha'? Did you just say something, Maka?"

She blinked, realizing he must have somehow picked up on her mental question. "Well…I thought of a question, but I didn't say it out loud."

He blinked, looking surprised, and then grinned. "That's cool. So maybe we can talk mind to mind?"

"Probably more like soul to soul." Maka corrected absentmindedly, already thinking about how convenient that would be in a battle situation. No wonder the advanced weapon/meister partners always seemed to know exactly what the other was going to do. Their souls weren't just in sync; they could actually speak to each other without words. It also meant she'd have to be careful about what she was thinking about - no need to send any strong thoughts his way about her crush on him.

After another moment, Soul said mumbled something softly – so much so that she was sure he was mostly talking to himself. "Hey Maka, your soul sounds…pretty cool."

She blinked. "How so?"

"It's just…before, when your shield was up, I sort of heard it like…like music through a wall. Now though, it's much clearer, still soft probably cause we're not fully resonating, but yeah. It's cool." To her surprise he actually flushed a little and averted his eyes, and the feel of his soul against hers grew warmer and softer, conforming to her own more. It was…nice actually.

Once she got over that first kick of fear, she realized it was pleasant. Warm. Friendly. Comfortable. Because it was Soul, the one person in the whole world that Maka cared about and trusted more than anyone else. She already knew him, practically inside and out, and now…it was just confirming what she had previously seen and experienced. It was like sinking into your favorite warm blanket, the one you've had for years and smells like you and your favorite things, like books and food and whatever else it came into contact with. Soul was like that, so comfortable, so warm, so familiar and…loving. It made Maka wonder just what she had been so scared of anyways.

But then it started to get too comfortable, too nice, and Maka realized she wanted to sink further into him, way too much. It was getting out of hand and those locks on her little Anti-Soul box were growing loose with all the emotions she was experiencing. Soul also seemed a tad uncomfortable, and so they agreed to break it off and leave it there for tonight.

For the next few days they kept practicing, and each time it grew just a little easier and just a little less scary for Maka, and a little less awkward for them both. Soon enough they both got relatively comfortable with it, though it was still slightly awkward for Maka, but that probably wasn't going to go away for a while since it was so new.

But still, with their new-found confidence, eventually the night came when Soul brought up the thing Maka had known was coming, and had been dreading.

"So…Maka? You think you're ready to try practicing soul resonance yet?" He asked after dinner, and her meal instantly flipped upside down in her stomach and gave her a mild belly ache.

Grimacing, she took a deep breath and grumbled, "…no. But, I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Good enough for me."

Soul grinned and promptly dragged her into the living room to get this thing underway instantly – probably because he was worried she would back out if he gave her a chance. Which was true.

"So…how do you wanna do this thing?" Soul asked as they stood eyeing each other across the coffee table.

"Well, probably we should start with you in human form. As a weapon you may destroy the apartment if we attempt soul resonance."

"Yeah, probably."

They parked themselves once again on the couch facing each other as they had the first time they tried synchronization, and initiated a soul sync - which they had taken to keeping up as much as possible, even during normal daily activities. They both settled into the connection, getting comfortable with the friendly soul hug – as she had taken to calling it in her mind. Soul could feel Maka's wavelength trembling with nerves, and he sent her a little encouraging nudge.

She nodded, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes.

"Okay…soul resonance."

She matched her wavelength to his and he did the same, until they began to synchronize even more than before. It took some time to truly mirror each other's wavelength and vibrate at exactly the same frequency without any variances, but eventually they clicked into perfect harmony and their souls began to resonate. It was almost like a build-up of electricity between their souls as the vibrations increased. That electric energy seemed to magnetize them and draw them closer together…and then closer…and closer still. They had already been in contact with each other, but what she had been calling a hug turned out to be more like a handshake compared to resonance. She had thought their souls were rubbing up against each other before, but that was nothing compared to being plastered up against Soul's soul so tightly.

At feeling him so close, and still getting closer, Maka freaked, and even Soul shied away a little. The connection was broken as they both reeled back their souls and shut themselves off for a moment.

"Erp…." Was the first non-word that popped out of Maka's normally verbose mouth.

Soul stared, and then snorted. "Okay, yeah, well…. That was…interesting."

"Sure…."

After a short breather, they attempted again, much to Maka's displeasure.

Once again they focused on each other, and only each other, and started synchronizing their souls' wavelengths until they found just the right frequency again. The connection crackled and sparked between them, drawing them together. This time they didn't back out of it half-way though, and Maka got a more and more intimate feel of Soul.

That magnetic pull brought their souls closer and closer together, until Maka could feel every little nuance of him against her – his heartbeat, his breathing, his thoughts…even the gurgles in his digesting stomach. And yet they still weren't fully resonating, their souls hadn't completely meshed with each other. They were like two songs almost in perfect harmony but just a half-beat out of sequence with each other. Still though, it was insanely intimate, and Maka knew Soul could feel every little shot of terror that set her nerves on fire. He probably even heard the random thought that their little friendly naked soul hug had turned into friendly naked soul sex.

That was almost what if felt like though, as if he was in her and she was in him, in the most intimate, soul-deep way possible.

Once again, the connection was broken as they cringed away from each other (possibly due to her inappropriate thought) and their souls got out of sync.

It took a few goes before they really solidly connected and managed to hold it. And with such a close connection, they could each feel what the other was thinking and feeling about the experience. Maka felt how Soul was at first shocked by it the first few tries. Then that shock slowly wore off, though a sense of awe remained – an emotion related to shock. She could sense that it was awkward for him, and that he wasn't entirely comfortable with it, but that it didn't really bother him too much. If anything he quickly seemed to grow to like it.

At the same time, she knew Soul could feel every little ounce of anxiousness, discomfort, fear, and awkwardness Maka had for the experience. The fear ramped up quickly, and it wasn't long before she reached a breaking point and cut off the connection once again. She left the soul synchronization active though, and so probably Soul could still vaguely feel how freaked out she was through that.

Maka was at her wits end. It was just too intimate for her, way too much. She couldn't handle it.

She was approaching a full-on Maka freak out - wondering if maybe this was just impossible for her - when Soul managed to snap her out of her thoughts.

"Hey, Maka, chill alright? It's just me remember? You trust me right?"

At the question, she looked into his eyes and asked herself, did she trust Soul? The answer was instantaneous, and solid. Yes, she did trust him, implicitly. And if she trusted him with her life, then she should be able to trust him with her soul too right? The answer was wordless, as her heart answered for her with a blanket of that particular emotion, which calmed some of her nerves.

The sudden swell of trust leaked through their connection, which she allowed. It was her answer to a question he had asked after all. In response she got a surge of the same sort of trust, returned through that very same bond she had just shared with him. He had grown the emotion though, by combining it with some warm friendly feelings as well. She was shocked that he had done so, given that this was Soul - the notoriously cool guy who didn't like mushy emotions. But apparently that didn't necessarily translate to this form of communication, as much as it did when talking.

But - touched that he was trusting her in return and had made himself vulnerable with that sharing - she chose to respond in like. They traded emotions back and forth, each time their bond growing stronger and soothing each other, until finally they almost naturally slid into a resonance brought about by their emotions.

The resonance sparked fear within Maka again, as before, and she attempted to hide it from Soul - which was an effort in futility. Aside from her anti-soul lock box, everything about her was laid bare for Soul to see, and so he could feel her fears as if they were his own.

Though that soul-deep connection he whispered to her, "Stop trying to hide it already. It's okay to be afraid."

Something within her started to ease…a little ball of tension that ever so slowly began to unravel. It was the ball that her fear had curled into, so dense and heavy that it had been weighing her down. But with Soul's words, she gave herself permission to relax it and let it be what it was… fear. She stopped trying to hide the emotion and let it be.

Normally the feel of Maka's fear would have made Soul cringe - a knowledge that Maka suddenly knew since she could feel it within him - but feeling this fear wasn't making him recoil. He could feel that she wasn't afraid of him, and that he wasn't causing the fear. If anything, he could sense that her letting him see it - in all its raw self - was her trusting him. It took an immense amount of trust to let him see her most vulnerable side, all her fears and weaknesses she had been carrying for so long.

She trusted him to see her at her most vulnerable, to see her falling into that black pit and catch her. With this soul-to-soul melding, instead of sinking into that deep hole of despair and fears like she normally did, Soul plucked her out and filled her with warmth instead of cold darkness. That fear never went away, but with him by her side she could look at it and acknowledge its existence, but not get sucked into it.

It was an intense experience, for both of them.

They held the resonance for a long moment, longer than ever before, and both of their souls began to glow brighter, resonating and harmonizing with each other in a beautiful manner. Probably, if she had been wielding him, they could have used Witch Hunter - which Stein had explained was the first Scythe Master Technique that she had used briefly during the midterm exams and on the Wolfman.

Still, there was only so much she could take, and after a while of holding it, their souls broke apart once again. They had unconsciously grown physically closer as they resonated until they were sitting close enough for Soul to reach out and grab Maka as she teetered, nearly falling off the couch. The drain on her was immense, mostly emotional in nature but also somewhat physically as well. And she wasn't the only one to experience the exhaustion either. Working like this with one's soul could cause an immense physical drain as well as a depletion of the soul itself. They would have to practice to strengthen both.

But it had been particularly bad for Maka since she had been so terrified. So she found herself trembling faintly and feeling weak after, which is what caused the slight unsteadiness. Soul, being as overprotective as usual - if not more so - wrapped himself around her to keep her from falling.

It was a little awkward for both of them, especially after having had such an intense connection. So they separated relatively quickly, despite the fact that Maka really just wanted to sink into the embrace and stay there forever as she got herself back together. But it was just those kinds of thoughts that frightened her, and so she drew back and cleared her throat.

They both decided that was enough for one day.


Author's Note:

And there you have it. :D

Soul and Maka first proper resonance! Woohoo! I'm eager to hear what you all thought of it. ;)

As always, a big thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! You're all awesome!