Author's Note- This would have been posted sooner, but I got distracted with poking around at a Liz-centric AU I'm working on and it captured my attention quite thoroughly for a couple of days. Well, that, and I had to drive to the 'burbs on Sunday to pick up a liquor cabinet from my roomates' parents house, because we're trying to be classy and not just have the booze sitting out in the open. Would've been cooler if I could've also found a way to get my piano from my parents' house to mine, but I love that thing way too much to transport it in such a casual/dangerous way (and also if I had it I would probably never leave it alone and drive my roommates nuts playing Finzi at four in the morning) so I had to settle for just bringing my oboe down. Three months in and the move-in process is FINALLY almost complete...
Yada yada yada, my chaotic IRL stuff isn't why you're here, so long story short it's been a weird couple days, but now the new chapter is here. And I wanna thank everybody who reviewed last chapter! Waking up to all the nice things you guys had to say really made my day. You're awesome! *sends you over-enthusiastic interwebz hugs*
Fidelity
Soul was just leaving the supermarket with an armload of sugary deliciousness which he fully intended to survive on for the next week or so when he caught sight of a flash of red hair. He was about to slip around the corner in order to escape the notice of a certain death scythe when he got a better look at what he was actually seeing, and stopped dead in his tracks.
Spirit Albarn was not Soul's favorite person in the world. Their first meeting had gone well, but he hadn't been Maka's partner then, and as for their second encounter... well. Let's just say there were some things best forgotten. The man was overprotective to the point of paranoia, enthusiastic to the point of thoughtlessness, and almost stupidly energetic (rather like his daughter, actually).
Most importantly, however, he clearly had it out for Soul. He was almost painfully blatant in his distaste for the younger scythe and had gone out of his way to make Soul's school life hell. He hadn't been successful, but that was mostly due to Maka's intervention. The death scythe's interference had amounted to very little, but had earned him more than a few painful blows to the head courtesy of his feisty daughter. Soul's ever-growing respect for his partner couldn't help but ratchet up a few notches every time she defended him like this. She took his side against her father almost always, even in those circumstances where he maybe kinda-sorta deserved Spirit's wrath (because yeah, the dude was annoying and he might or might not have been known to provoke him occasionally), and it was more reassuring than he would have thought. But the fact that she was proving to be unbelievably cool wasn't the point. The point was that Spirit Albarn was kind of a dick.
Now, though, Soul had an entirely new reason to scorn his partner's father. Across the street, Spirit was chatting up a pretty woman with gusto. It wouldn't have been out of the ordinary, if the death scythe weren't very much married... and the woman in question weren't very much not Maka's mother.
It had taken an uncommonly long time for Soul to meet Maka's mom, considering she lived right in Death City. Maka had been eager for him to meet her, but every time she attempted to bring him home with her after school or arrange a meeting some other time, Kami Albarn canceled. She had a meeting, she had a mission, an old school friend she hadn't seen in years was suddenly back in town for just a few days and she had to work around their schedule in order to visit them... after a few months of this, Soul had begun to wonder if the woman even really existed.
Eventually, though, he had finally gotten to meet her. Kami Albarn was practically a mirror image of her daughter with the exception of her raven hair and darker skin, and the buxom blonde across the street bore no resemblance whatsoever to the petite Japanese woman Maka had enthusiastically introduced as her mother.
Soul couldn't help but stare at Spirit, hoping desperately for Maka's sake that he was misreading what he was seeing.
The young man's posture was casual, leaning his left wrist above his head against the stucco wall beside him to support his weight, left ankle casually crossed over his right and scraping absently at the concrete with the toe of his shiny black shoe (Soul scoffed- he was gonna scuff perfectly good Italian leather doing that). A light smile played across his lips as whatever comment he'd made drew a laugh from the blonde, who threw her head back to toss her falls of sunshine hair over her shoulder in a move that even a not-quite-twelve-year-old could recognize as seductive. Spirit's grin widened and he leaned close, whispering intimately in the woman's ear. The woman leaned back to meet his eyes, nodding eagerly.
The ivory-haired scythe could only stare in shock as Spirit slipped an arm around his companion's waist, hand riding dangerously low on her hip, and guided her around a corner.
What the hell had he just witnessed?
Soul was behaving... oddly.
Well, oddly for him. Maka had come to the understanding that her weapon was a complete weirdo, regardless of his (loud, frequent) proclamations that he was a "cool guy." As irritating as he could be, the vast library of quirks she was gradually discovering about him were kind of endearing.
Less endearing was his twitchy behavior for the last couple of days. Half the time he seemed lost in thought, and the rest of the time he was staring at her intensely with a look on his face that she couldn't read for the life of her. Whenever she caught him looking he immediately glanced away. If she tried to talk to him when he was so focused on whatever was going on in his head that he was practically staring through whatever he happened to be looking at at the time, it took her three tries to get his attention- and when she finally did, he was usually so startled he all but jumped out of his skin. It was downright bizarre.
Maka was many things, but a patient girl was not necessarily one of them. It wasn't surprising, therefore, that she got fed up with her weapon's odd change in behavior quite quickly.
She hit her limit when they were hanging out in one of Death City's municipal parks. After school they had met up with Black*Star and Tsubaki for a few hours, but the ninja and his demure weapon had returned to the Shibusen dormitory designated for coed partners shortly before five, leaving Maka and Soul to their own devices. Maka had plopped down on a bench beside the walking path and pulled out her copy of Moby Dick. Soul had sat beside her and indicated that he was perfectly content to sit and people-watch while she read... only it seemed that when he said "people-watch" he actually meant stare at her surreptitiously out of the corner of his eye.
After the third time she glanced back at him only to have him look away as if his eyes would fall out if they met hers, she shut her book with a snap. "Why do you keep staring at me?" she barked.
"I'm not staring," he mumbled.
"Yes you are. You keep looking away every time I look at you and you're twitchier than a squirrel with an energy drink!"
Soul raised an eyebrow but didn't respond.
"Come on, Soul, what's bugging you?"
"Nothin'."
A horrible suspicion entered into Maka's young mind, and the instant the idea occurred to her she was already mentally berating herself for choosing a male partner and allowing this to happen. "What, do you have a crush on me or something?"
Soul's reaction was nothing short of horrified. "What?" he blurted out, sitting up straight as if he'd been given an electric shock. "Ew! No! Jeez, no way! For one thing, you're way too young for me-"
"Am not!"
"Seriously, Maka, you're ten."
"So?"
"So I'm like a year and a half older than you, that would be weird! And for another thing... seriously?" He raised a pale eyebrow. "A cool guy like me, liking a bookworm like you? Fat chance."
Maka couldn't for the life of her work out why she was so bothered by his response. She was glad her weapon didn't like like her! That would have been a disaster, and everything would have gotten awkward and weird because there was absolutely no way she was making the same mistake her mama had made. And besides, even if she did decide someday to give some guy a shot (she wouldn't, but hypothetically speaking it was possible, in the same way a meteorite crashing into Death City tomorrow was technically possible), it definitely wouldn't be sarcastic, shark-toothed, irritating Soul. No, even if she did someday decide she wanted a boyfriend, he would have to be someone kind and gentle and brave and intelligent. Someone with a little refinement and a sense of decorum. Soul "I bet I can fit six donuts in my mouth without choking" Eater definitely did not fit the bill.
"You're such a jerk!" She smacked him in the shoulder, hard enough that he wince.
"Ow! Hey!"
She stuck her nose in the air. "You asked for it... jerk."
He continued to rub at his injured shoulder and grumbled, "How does somebody so tiny hit so hard?"
"Maybe that'll teach you not to insult people."
Soul shrugged. "I don't see why you're being all weird about it. Given all the weapon abuse going on I'd assume you wouldn't want me to like you, y'know, like that. I mean, jeez, I'm your partner! Isn't there some kinda rule about that?"
Maka tilted her head thoughtfully. "Not really. You're definitely right that there's no way that it'll ever be relevant to us, but there's no official rules against weapons and meisters dating. It's not encouraged or anything, but it's not frowned on either. I mean... look at my parents."
Soul rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. "Yeah... your parents..." he mumbled. His tone caught Maka's attention and she zeroed in on him. Hie stared intently at the sandy soil beneath their feet. His expression was otherwise hard to read, but his eyes clued her in to some inner turbulence.
The suspicion that something of actual importance had been bothering him occurred to her, and in a slightly gentler tone she asked, "Seriously, Soul, what's up? You've been acting weird for a couple of days now."
He looked back at her, visibly conflicted, worrying at his lower lip with those curiously sharp teeth of his. She waited patiently (for her) as he struggled with whatever was on his mind. It wouldn't take very long, if the nervous way his fingers were tapping against the wood of the park bench were any indication.
"I uh... um... I'm not sure if I should tell you," Soul said. "I-It's really none of my business and I'm not even totally sure if I saw what I thought I saw so I wouldn't want to make trouble if I misunderstood what was going on or-"
"Soul," she interrupted firmly, "just spit it out."
He heaved a sigh, shoulders slumping in defeat. "The other day I happened to see your dad around the city, and he was kind of... well, the thing is, he was with this woman, and it wasn't your mother, and... uh, like I said, maybe I just misunderstood and I'm making a big deal out of nothing, but it kinda looked like-"
"Like my papa is a cheating bastard?" Maka finished for him.
Soul nodded.
Maka let out a sigh of her own. "It's funny," she said bitterly, "I'm not even surprised any more."
Soul's eyes practically bugged out of his head. "You mean you know?" he sputtered.
She hated that this conversation was happening. Her father cheating on her mother with his endless train of girlfriends, and on his girlfriends with his mistresses, and on his mistresses with various one night stands, and so on and so forth... it was something she'd been aware of as far back as she could remember. She had learned firsthand that there was no such thing as a happy relationship and no such thing as a trustworthy man. Black*Star came close, but he wasn't really a boy so much as he was a... Black*Star.
As awful as the entire male species had repeatedly proven itself to be though, her papa was always the worst of the bunch. It was so embarrassing, knowing that the biggest cheater in Death City- maybe the biggest cheater in all of Nevada, a state which did in fact happen to include Las Vegas- was the man who'd broken her mama's heart so many times even Maka couldn't count that high. She didn't want to talk about this.
But...
She eyed Soul speculatively. Soul was her partner, after all. In just a few months when the spring semester started, they would begin resonance training and they would be intimately acquainted with each others' souls. They had to be able to rely on each other. This kind of partnership demanded a certain level of trust in each other. And sure, Soul hadn't told her much (or anything, really) about who he had been before enrolling at Shibusen, not even his real name (because she wasn't gullible enough to think that Soul Eater was really his name, especially given the occasional practice Shibusen students had of changing their names or adopting nicknames when they came to the school). But someone had to take the plunge first and entrust the other with their secrets, right? If they didn't start to open up to each other now, the option of doing so on their own terms would be taken away from them once they began to resonate.
"Yeah," she said at last. "I know. Look, can we not talk about this here?"
"Uh, sure?"
She nodded. "Okay, let's go back to your apartment."
Maka was as uncomfortable as he had ever seen her. She was perched delicately on the edge of his couch, fidgeting awkwardly with her fingers twisting in the hem of her skirt. After several months' worth of partnership, Soul had thought he knew her pretty well, because she was ridiculously easy to read. Watching the ordinarily poised and ready-for-anything Maka looking miserable and nervous was strange. The tension she was single-handedly filling the room with made him itch.
"Uh, you want anything to eat?" he offered hesitantly. He might have left Connecticut, but he couldn't shake what his mother might have referred to as "good breeding" quite so easily. He'd always been terrible at putting people at ease, but he had at least been taught how to be polite.
She shook her head mutely, pigtails swinging.
"You sure?"
"No, I'm fine, thanks." She drew in a fortifying lungful of air, then expelled it, forcing the tension from her shoulders. "So, this isn't something I've ever told anybody about before. I..."
Seeing that nervousness creep back into her expression as she trailed off uncertainly, Soul said, "No one's gonna hear about it from me."
At the way her face relaxed marginally, he knew he had read her right.
"My papa has been cheating on my mama for a long time," she said bluntly.
"With who?" Soul asked. "What's her name?" He was genuinely curious. He had only met Kami Albarn once but she seemed like a really impressive woman. She certainly put his mother to shame. And admittedly, the blonde he'd seen had been hot and all, but he was having a hard time understanding Spirit's reasoning.
Maka, however, just laughed. Bitterly. "I don't know. What did she look like this week? Blonde? Brunette? Honestly, it might be easier to list who he hasn't cheated with."
Soul had to work to conceal his stunned reaction. "So... he does this a lot, then."
"He never stops."
He scoffed. "Just figures," he muttered. "One more reason to dislike the guy." He wasn't sure he should press it. Maka looked so sad and that was new, because although she was the kind of person who wore her emotions on her sleeve and he'd seen her happy and tired and hyper and angry (lots of angry) and in full-on Nerd Mode (which in his opinion was an emotion in and of itself), this was the very first time he had ever seen her sad. It didn't take him long to decide that he didn't like it at all. So yeah, he probably should just make the smart move and drop it.
No one ever said he was the brightest bulb in the bunch, though.
"Does your mom know?"
She nodded. "I think she knew before I did. Papa's not the best at covering his tracks or being subtle. That's-" Her voice cracked and she paused to take a breath. Oh shit, was she crying? No, thank Death, not yet, but he was pretty sure that was a direction this conversation would go and Soul really didn't know how to handle a crying girl. Especially since this was Maka, and up until about ten seconds ago, he hadn't thought she even knew how to cry.
But she had steadied her voice and her breathing and was pressing onward, her brow furrowed angrily as she attempted to glare a hole through his carpet. "That's why Mama's gone all the time, I think. She takes a lot of missions all over the world, and she goes back to Japan to visit my grandparents a lot. If she's gone, at least she doesn't have to- to see him, you know?"
"Wow," Soul murmured. He didn't know what else to say.
Maka flopped tiredly against the back of the sofa. "I hate it," she said quietly.
"No kidding."
"Why do men have to be such cheating jerkbags?"
It was rhetorical, but the angry way she said it was at such a dramatic contrast with the sad look in her eyes that he couldn't help but respond: "I can't answer that one for you. Cheating is seriously uncool."
She turned her head, resting her cheek on the back of the couch to offer him a half-assed attempt at a smile. "Tell me about it."
He returned her smile as best he could, thinking hard. Up until now he'd kind of envied Maka's family life, because her father clearly (and loudly) adored her and her mother might be quiet about it but it was clear that she loved her daughter, too. He didn't feel quite so envious anymore, now that he knew how it was between her parents.
Some of Black*Star's weird comments about how strange it was that Maka had partnered with a guy (something he'd remarked on rather extensively during the first couple weeks of class, to Soul's consternation) made a lot more sense. If Maka hadn't had some issues with guys after growing up with a father like that, it would've been nothing short of a miracle.
Soul was way too familiar with daddy issues of various kinds. Having grown up as an unusually observant child among the wealthy upper tiers of Hartford society, he'd been privy to a lot of peoples' family drama. Hell, he wasn't entirely certain that he didn't have some issues thanks to his relationship (if it could be called that) with his own father! He had seen girls his brother's age going around with men more than old enough to be their fathers. He had heard about girls who rebelled and acted out and ended up stuck in rehab in their quest for attention. There were all kinds of ways girls dealt with their absent or hurtful parents. And Maka...
Maka had settled on hating guys, if he was putting the puzzle pieces together correctly (which he was pretty much positive he was). The thought made him unaccountably sad. She'd been given one lousy example and projected that hurt onto an entire gender.
Ignoring the thought that he was starting to sound a bit like the therapist his parents had sent him to, Soul came to a decision. He was not going to let Spirit Albarn wreck Maka's life. He wasn't entirely sure how he planned to accomplish this, but it was his resolution. Even if she was violent and nerdy and kind of a pain in his ass, Maka was undeniably cool, and she didn't deserve that kind of treatment.
He felt like he should say something sincere and meaningful or at least sympathetic or something, but he kept coming up empty, so instead he just asked: "So... you wanna order Chinese and watch cartoons until curfew?"
When a big smile spread across Maka's face, though, Soul kind of felt like he'd said the right thing after all.
