(A/N: Yeah, that's right. Another one up. Bask in the glory. Read it up.)
"So Maka, how did you and Soul meet?" Hiro asked. They were in Hiro's car, following Tsubaki's minivan and Kid's Camaro.
Maka flinched visibly and Soul moved quickly for damage control. "We met at the park near her apartment actually," He said. It was nothing short of the truth he realized.
"Oh, that's interesting," Hiro replied in a tone that told Soul he was anything but interested. "Tell me, Maka, what in the world made you get up and talk to a complete stranger? That's not the Maka I know," He added, voice sugary sweet.
Maka was tempted to smack him upside the head for claiming to know her so well, especially after leaving for so long, but she decided that she and Soul needed more information than what the wily blonde could give them at the moment. She decided then that the best thing she could do would be to play along. "Well, I just...I felt a spark, y'know?" She knew it was cheesy, but she plowed on. "I felt it in my heart."
She looked at Soul out of the corner of her eye and was positively mortified to see him struggling not to outright cackle at her. Instead, he seemed to be satisfied with sniggering until it looked like he wasn't even breathing anymore. If only he actually needed air. Maybe he would choke on it and die.
"Well, that's quite the tale, Maka. I'm glad you could finally find someone," Hiro said, smiling goofily, the grin not meeting his eyes.
Maka felt her face burn as she stammered to correct the situation. "Oh no! We're just friends, nothing like what you're thinking!" Her traitorous thoughts flicked back to the feel of his fingers dancing on her overheated skin while she had still thought it was a dream. She had never been fully awake when he touched her and that almost made her wish that she had been. She felt warmth pool low in her belly, so she instead focused on playing with the hem of her sweater, struggling to ignore Hiro's musical laughter and her own burning cheeks.
Meanwhile, Soul was thanking every single deity he could think of for somehow giving him the strength to resist drinking from her before they had left. He could smell her right now and if he had any sort of lifeblood in him at the moment, he would have been sporting a rather embarrassing erection in the back of Hiro's car.
He could smell her. By God, he could smell her. He had absolutely no idea what had set her off, but he could smell arousal leaking from her every pore. She didn't look at him and he gave silent thanks once more, for if he had even been forced to look at those dazzling green eyes, he might actually take her right there in the back seat.
Soul clenched his hands tightly in his jeans, finding purchase with his sharper-than-a-human's fingernails cutting through denim. He bit his lip again, harder this time.
The sudden lurch of the vehicle as they pulled into the In N Out parking lot seemed to jolt both occupants of the back seat into reality and Maka's foggy cloud of arousal dissipated almost immediately.
"All righty then," Hiro chirruped, unbuckling his seat belt and stepping outside of the car. Maka and Soul followed suit, the latter quickly pulling up his hood to protect himself from the still-present rays of sunlight. "Why do you always put your hood up, Soul?" Hiro suddenly asked, eyes making a calculating journey over Soul's form.
Maka looked like she was about to implode under the stress of the question, but Soul was prepared. It spent the last couple centuries skillfully evading such questions. He replied smoothly and with diction, "It's the hair. People tend to freak out a little when they see it. The hood also hides the eyes a little better."
"Maybe you should invest in some slick shades," Hiro laughed, his voice and smile sickly sweet as he stuffed his keys back into his pocket (with perhaps more force than necessary) and made his way toward the front door of the restaurant, not bothering to check if Maka and Soul were following.
"Does he have super vampire hearing?" Maka said as softly as she could muster, having waited until Hiro was a good bit away.
"He shouldn't. The heightened senses usually come after the vulnerability to sunlight," He answered, taking her hand in his as they followed the blond head of hair into the greasy establishment.
"Well in that case, nice save," Maka smirked, reaching the door first and holding it out for him as they slinked inside, coming up behind the rest of their party.
"Thanks," Soul grinned. The light streaming in through the windows encouraged him to keep his hood up, so he ended up looking at her from under the snowy bangs pressed into his fore head.
As they moved up in the line, Maka was vaguely aware of the skater boys eying her from their table a few feet away. She was also vaguely aware of the fact that they were much to young for her—maybe sixteen or seventeen.
Soul, on the other hand, really couldn't give two shits. And, with a vicious, red-eyed glare, the huddle of boys looked sharply back to their food and didn't pay much attention to her any longer.
"I'll have a cheeseburger combo and a strawberry milkshake," Maka said to the cashier. Then she turned to him. "You want anything, Soul? I'm pretty sure you don't have any money, so I'm buying."
He looked a little shocked, but muttered a soft rumble of thanks before placing his order. "Double bacon cheeseburger and a large drink, please," He said. The cashier girl raised an eyebrow, trying to discern his face amongst the shadow. But, she was unsuccessful and merely rang up the total. Maka paid and they sat down on the vinyl waiting chairs.
"Isn't anyone going to look for a table?" Maka asked warily.
Liz piped up from he place between Kid and her sister. "We're gonna walk over to the park across the street and have a picnic or whatever," She finished her sentence with a pop over her bubblegum.
Maka rolled her eyes, fighting a grin. "All right."
.
.
.
A half an hour later, they were seated on a patch of grass in a large circle, talking about school and catching up with Hiro who, apparently was, "Just a lame old music major. There's a lot of shows near my apartment though, we should all go together."
It was around this point that Soul felt himself zoning out. He really didn't want to spend his time listening to Hiro blather about his indie band (He was a horrible musician, Soul could tell. Hiro didn't have the hands for it.) and about how hard it was for him to find a girlfriend because he "wasn't just looking for sex" but rather "A nice girl to drink tea with and cuddle while listening to sick tunes."
But perhaps it was for the best. If Soul were actually paying attention to Hiro, he wouldn't have noticed the pair of figures standing near the bathrooms on the other side of the park, leaning against the wall under a rather dainty-looking parasol.
"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Soul grunted, standing up. Maka threw him a look, but Soul replied with one of his own. I'm fine. I'll be right back.
.
.
.
His trek across the park was a slow one, he didn't want to give himself away by going at top vampire speed just to get to the figures a little quicker. As he got closer to the pair under the parasol, he realized that it was indeed Stein and Marie waiting for him. He gave them a pointed look as he finally reached them, and together, they walked out of sight behind the bathrooms to continue their conversation.
"Hello, Soul," Stein smiled (a bit manically) as they rounded the final corner. He was still wearing some sort of not-so-inconspicuous traveling cloak. "I see you're fitting in well amongst the humans."
"I suppose so," Soul drawled, red eyes making a slow pass over the pair in front of him. "What brings you two out here?"
Stein's manic smile falters a little bit and he grows suddenly serious. "Well, we were trying to keep an eye on that abomination over there, but then we realized that you were here. We figured we would...compare notes if you will."
Soul raised an eyebrow. He could only assume they were talking about Hiro. "Well we can start with why you just called him an abomination."
"Goodness, did you never pay attention all those times I explained the mechanics of your new life?" Stein faked insult quite well, if Soul were being honest.
"I never pay attention to you. You know that."
Marie took her chance to speak up. "He's an Incubus. Well, the beginnings of one, at least."
Soul scoffed. "Well, that's hardly an abomination, Stein."
"He's started drinking blood already," Stein added, his face remaining impassive.
Soul nearly choked on his own spit. "Wha—are you serious?!"
Marie nodded sagely. "From what we understand his maker started changing him because they knew he would turn out like this. As I'm sure you're aware, Soul, different paces and techniques in a change can affect the outcome. Yours was one of the rarer ones. Your change was completed the second after you died. Just in the nick of time. You became something both shade and vampire, much like ancient Lemures from Roman times."
"We appreciated your Maker's eye for the classics—for a time," Stein cut in, causing the now dumbstruck Soul to stare at him instead. "Then, we wondered if perhaps your existence in two worlds at once would prove...inconvenient for the rest of us."
Soul gaped a little. This was all news to him. "So...for a while...I was the abomination?"
"Quite right," Stein said. The manic grin was back. "But no longer. You needn't worry. The same fear of inconvenience, if you will, is happening now. Regarding your little friend, Hiro."
"He's not my friend," Soul bit out.
Stein's grin grew wider. "Marie, my dear. If you will?"
The woman in question nodded firmly and began to speak once more. "We think they're trying to turn him into a Kukudhi—The perfect vampire."
Soul almost choked on his own spit again. "What?" Kukudhi were forbidden for a number of reasons, one of them being the fact that, if created successfully, a kukudhi would just be a big fish in a little pond. And, well frankly, none of the other vampires would get anything to eat.
"You heard me, young man," Marie said sternly. "They're trying to make the perfect vampire—one who can walk out during the day without cover, does not need to rely on his grave or coffin for rest, and will eventually grow so powerful, no one can stop him. I think their trying to speed up the process somehow, as normally it takes quite a long time for the vampire blood to...ferment in his system. But whoever it is, his maker, I suppose, is trying to achieve his Kukudhi status through more scientific and experimental means. There've probably been many before Hiro. Many failures."
"Well, that doesn't seem too different from a few of the other vampires I've met. That doesn't sound too different from me in fact."
Stein and Marie exchanged quick glances. "We think your Maker may have been trying to make you into a Kukudhi as well."
And then, for the third time in the span of twenty minutes, Soul almost choked on his own spit. "What do you mean?!" He hissed out.
"It seems—" Stein began, but then he paused, looking somewhere over Soul's shoulder. "It seems as if a sweet little young thing is in search of you, dear Soul." The manic grin became positively gruesome as he suddenly pulled Marie tight against him.
"Soul!" Maka's voice called from not too far off. Soul flinched, but kept his eyes on Stein and Marie.
"Wait, you can't just leave!" He growled. "I need answers!"
"And you'll get them, kiddo," Stein said, looking as if he were about to dissolve in a fit of giggles.
"Oh dear," Marie sighed. "It appears he needs his medicine." She placed a delicate hand on the side of Stein's face. "Soul, sweetie, we'll meet you tomorrow morning at your house. That should give you enough time to tell poor Maka about all this."
"Wait—!" Soul tried, reaching a hand out to stop them
But Stein had already whisked the cloak around the him and Marie, muffling his crazed glee as the pair disappeared with a poof.
Soul stood there for a moment in stunned silence.
"Soul?" Maka called, finally coming up behind him. "Soul! How long does it take to use the restroom?! Jeez!"
"Maka," He said, turning around to face her. He placed his hands on either side of her hips and brought her close to him, not quite hugging her. He almost burst out laughing right there with her in his arms. To think—he had hoped that he could just spend his time with her and have her be his bride and do things normal for a vampire-human relationship. But no, his luck had decided that it would be a perfect time for Soul to be on the receiving end of a cosmic butt-fuck. "We'd better go home. It's getting dark. And I have some explaining to do."
She looked up at him then, Green eyes narrowed suspiciously. When she saw the look in his eyes, like he had just learned much more than he had ever wanted to, she closed her eyes and groaned, dropping her fore head onto his chest with a thump.
"fuuuuuck," She moaned.
(A/N: Well, it seems as if things are starting to pick up a little. Please ignore the extreme bastardization of vampire lore. I only did a quick skim through wikipedia. I love you all, I hope you are enjoying this so far, my pretty little ones)
