They didn't try resonating again after that, though they planned to. But it seemed like things kept getting in the way… or maybe that was just Maka making excuses.
A few weeks passed, and before long they found themselves attending the annual party celebrating the founding of Death Academy. It was a big deal, and Kid had made sure they knew to dress appropriately. So, Maka had spent extra time picking out an outfit, though that was made somewhat difficult by her own closet. She didn't exactly have a large wardrobe to be honest. To go on a job or to class she wore her normal outfit, a red plaid skirt, white button down covered by a cream sweater vest, and a green tie. She had three sets of that outfit and did laundry once a week. Outside of that, she had her comfortable clothes which consisted of several baggy sweatpants, a few shorts, some t-shirts, and some hoodies and jackets to choose from, but no formal wear.
So, she had to go shopping and thusly tagged along with Tsubaki on an expedition to find outfits. The boys came too, and they all headed to the Death City Mall, which would give the boys some stores to occupy themselves with while the girls did their clothes shopping. They split up, and Tsubaki lead Maka to her favorite store. The ninja weapon had a good sense of style, so Maka hoped she could get a few tips. For some reason, she had an unexplainable desire to look really good for this party…and absolutely refused to acknowledge that it might just have the ever so slightest bit to do with her new interest in Soul. Nope. Nothing at all.
The store Tsubaki picked out was reasonably priced, but had really cute items, and she began browsing the shelves, racks, and tables for her own outfit. Maka stood there…lost for a moment, but followed suite and began to hesitantly peruse the shelves. It wasn't like she didn't know how to clothes shop, but she hadn't ever done it with a girlfriend before, and it made her feel a little like a fish out of water.
Soon though, she found that it could be fun as Tsubaki began to laugh and held up some sort of ridiculous poufy pink dress that would look super cute on a Lolita type girl, but on her tall frame looked entirely out of place. Maka couldn't help but laugh right along and soon she was relaxing and enjoying herself. Before long, they had both picked out a handful of options and headed to the dressing rooms to try them on together. They had seen each other undressed plenty in the girl's locker room and gym showers at school, and so they didn't think anything of taking a large dressing room and sharing it.
Both girls stripped and started trying on their chosen outfits, while chatting and laughing at wardrobe malfunctions along the way. Tsubaki called attention to a humorous muffin top issue she had run into with a too tight pair of pants that she had been trying, and Maka did the same with a dress that had chest made for someone with D-cup breasts.
After a bit, they slowly settled on their choices, helping each other decide which ones looked best. Tsubaki noticed Maka's slightly uncharacteristic interest in looking good, but didn't comment on it.
The ninja weapon finally settled on a pretty mint green halter dress with a ruffle at the bottom that really brought out her figure. And then she helped Maka choose, since the scythe meister was still undecided.
The last dress she tried on was plum colored, simple, and quite pretty – at least on the hanger. Thankfully it proved to be a perfect comfortably, and when she slid it on and looked into the mirror she paused to take a longer appraisal than the others. It had spaghetti straps and landed a couple of inches above her knees at a cute but still formal length. It was a simple one, just a sheath dress that fit snuggly down to her hips and then opened up to a wider skirt that whirled around her thighs as she did an experimental spin in front of the mirror. The back was the only slightly fancy part about it, being a deep V with some crisscrossing strings like a very open corset back. But it looked really pretty in her opinion and showed off the nice muscles in her back from all her training with Soul.
She spun back around to look it straight on in the mirror again. The fit was perfect. It clung in all the right spots and emphasized her form which had begun to become just a tiny bit curvier in the past few months. Her bust had grown a smidge bit lately, and so she was happy to show off that slight difference. A solid A-cup may not be a lot, but it was nothing to sneeze at in Maka's book. It may have taken her longer to get them – 17 years – but they were there, and she was happy to have them. And the scoop neck of the dress emphasized what she did have in a pretty way.
She didn't have nearly as many curves as Tsubaki, but the dress did show the small dip in her waist and the gentle curve of her hips which had only recently happened. Her normal baggy clothes didn't show the slight changes in her body that had occurred lately, but this dress did, and in a rather dramatic way – which brought up a slight issue.
She simply didn't wear clingy clothes like this. Though it looked good, she was suddenly a little self-conscious.
"Does this dress show off my body too much?"
"What do you mean show it off too much? Isn't that what you want? To show off?"
Maka blushed. "Not…not like that. I mean, I don't want to look slutty or something…"
"Oh! No, no, no, it's not indecent or anything. It just shows you off in a really pretty way, but not like that. It really suites you Maka, you should definitely get it."
"You think?!" Maka said, her voice uncommonly high pitched and happy as she smiled into the mirror.
"Oh yeah, for sure."
Having decided, they both redressed and took their picks with them. They rejoined with the boys shortly thereafter and enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the mall, getting some food at the food court and picking ice cream up in a small shop on the way out.
The day of the party, Maka couldn't deny that she was a little jittery as she put on her outfit. She especially felt silly putting on the little flimsy pasties that she was to wear instead of a bra, since the straps and back would show in the dress. With small breasts like hers, the pasties were plenty, but they still felt and looked funny to her. The sheer black thigh-highs were equally strange to her, with their sort of sticky tops to prevent them from sliding back down. She slid on the dress and then the black strappy sandals she had picked out to go with it. They had 2 or 3 inch heels, and felt flimsy compared to her normal clonky boots - but they did make her feel elegant.
She slipped the black lace gloves on her hands, which hid the scars on her fingers and palms. And then put on the matching black lace choker and black jeweled studs in her ears. Over all, it was a pretty ensemble, but she still had to fix her hair. She left it mostly down, but pulled the sides up into a ponytail in the back which she curled, and left two little chunks of hair to dangle down one side of her face, which she also curled. She didn't bother with makeup aside from swiping on a little bit of lipstick that darkened her lips just a smidge and was slightly purple toned to match the dress.
Once she felt that she was presentable, she left the safety of her room, feeling a ball of nerves building in her gut. Why she was nervous to go out there – when it was just Soul who would see her – was not something she wanted to analyze, but she still couldn't entirely mute the insistent thoughts wondering if he would find her pretty.
Sure enough, Soul was already dressed and ready to go. He was standing in the living room looking bored as heck, but Maka took the opportunity to admire his suit. His suit. Not him (she assured herself)…his suit.
He had dressed himself in a black suit that fit so well it looked tailored. It was plain and simple really, just a black jacket, black dress pants, black dress shoes, a white button down, and a black tie. For once his hair was not tied back by his hair band or bandana, but had been tamed – mostly – by a comb it seemed. It still stubbornly stuck up on the right side, but he had combed it to look smooth and intentional. Somehow, despite the simplicity of the outfit, he looked….really good.
Maka absolutely banished every single word having to do with sexy, hot, attractive, handsome, beautiful, nice looking, and the like from her vocabulary for the remainder of the night.
Surely his appearance was due to how well his suit was tailored, which was why she was so interested in the suit…just the suit…nothing else. It was simple curiosity really, just an intrigue at how the cut of a suit could make someone look so…
She shook her head, giving herself a stern lecture.
It was at this point - a minute or so after he heard the click of Maka's bedroom door - that Soul finally decided to turn and look to see if she had come out or if her door had just made some sort of odd noise. Given the fact that she hadn't said anything, he was wondering what was taking her so long…at least until he saw her, and then all thoughts whooshed right out of his head.
She looked…
Well, he honestly didn't have words for it, not for a good few seconds at least. And then the words started flooding in, including some he had never applied to her before. He had always found her cute, even when he hadn't had these confusing crush-type feelings for her. Lately of course he had found her even cuter, with the new addition of pretty, and noticed more often the bright green of her eyes and the way her dusty blond hair shone.
But now…sexy was a better word for it, or gorgeous, or beautiful…all those things.
She wore such damn baggy clothes he hadn't ever really spent much time looking at her body, aside from admiring her long legs – though he tried to keep that to a minimum. This dress though, it was decidedly not baggy and clung to her like a fucking glove … and a snug one at that. Within the span of ten seconds, he made the fantastic individual discoveries that she did in fact have breasts, as well as hips, and a small waist. All at once. And it very nearly gave him a torrential nose-bleed on the spot. She didn't have Tsubaki's curves by any means, but her petite body had definitely sprouted some very lovely, graceful curves.
The fact that he was thinking up words like 'petite,' 'graceful,' and 'lovely' was proof enough that he had been knocked completely silly, since his vocabulary was generally much rougher.
By this point his body had caught up with him, and he could feel a little bit of blood threatening to escape his nose, and had to turn away and wipe it on his handkerchief, leaving a bloody stain which he folded away into his pocket. Still facing away from her, he shoved his hands in his pockets and rearranged himself, rather shocked that he had to do such a thing. Yes, he had decided that he had a crush on her, but even so he hadn't ever been quite so turned on just by looking at her. He had wanted to maybe kiss her or something…but he hadn't instantly wanted to …do stuff with her.
Well…this threw a kink into his emotions and the whole crush concept. He had wanted to explore it - and still did - but this particular situation was distinctly uncool. Sporting a boner in dressy pants was the definition of bad.
Oh well.
"So, Maka, you ready to go?" He asked, attempting to keep his voice level and cool, and mostly succeeded aside from a slight hick at one point.
"Uh, sure…."
Maka wasn't quite sure what to make of his reaction. Upon seeing her, his red eyes had gone wide and gave her a head to toe once-over the likes of which was usually reserved for Blaire when she got naked.
Speaking of…that stupid cat was still 'living' with them, though she was gone more than half the time doing who-knows-what. Still though, Maka had grown used to her when she was around, but had laid down the law on prancing around naked. She hadn't tried it again after getting Maka Chopped twice for doing it the last time.
The look he had given her was definitely the kind she had seen him give Blaire, only lacking that edge of irritation. But then he had turned around so fast she wasn't exactly sure what had happened. For a second, she entertained the idea that maybe he thought she looked bad…or slutty or something.
However…she could swear she saw him discreetly wipe his nose, and caught the slightest glimpse of red, which indicated that maybe – just maybe – he had gotten a little bit of a nosebleed. Maka wasn't sure what to think about that though. Did that mean he thought she looked good? Didn't that indicate he liked what he saw? But…in what way exactly? If he sprouted a nosebleed around a naked Blaire, and had just gotten a nosebleed around her, then did that mean he was … interested in her? Like that?
Woah…dangerous thoughts. Abort! Abort! Rewind! Back up! Halt! Maka thought, her mind screeching to an all-stop. Thinking those sorts of things was bad for her sanity, and so she resolved to put all thoughts of nosebleeds and anything else down that avenue away in the recycle bin for disposal.
Physically shaking her head, she nearly missed his asking if she was ready to go.
"Oh, uh, sure."
They awkwardly walked out in silence, which continued on the drive to the Academy and the party.
…
About an hour or so later of mingling and party going – and a very botched speech that Kid attempted to make which was interrupted by Black Star – Maka found Soul sulking out on the balcony. It wasn't surprising, he hated parties like this. He was fine with parties that Kid held where it was just them and their friends, but he didn't like these kinds of big formal events. She wasn't sure exactly why. The only time she had inquired about it, she'd gotten some sort of mumbled reply about, 'bad memories' and then he walked off and refused to talk about it any further.
Still, she was determined to try and pull him out of his funk.
She had even piled her plate high with sushi, which he loved and she hated. Of course she also had the stuff she loved, safely on the other side of the plate.
Putting the plate down on the balcony railing, she leaned next to him. "Hey Soul. What's up? Why are you out here?"
"You know why, Maka."
Sighing, she tried something else. "You should check out the food. There's lots of good stuff."
He grimaced, showing a flash of shark teeth. "Naw. I don't feel like standing in a long line. Just give me some of yours."
"No way! Go get your own." She snapped, despite the fact that she had gotten all that sushi specifically for him. It was a knee jerk reaction to his laziness, and she regretted it after.
He huffed and looked away, already all sulky and just getting more-so now.
After a long moment of silence, Maka broke it. "Hey…is something wrong?"
He started saying something irritable along the lines of, "I already told you-"
She quickly interrupted him. "I don't mean your dislike of these kinds of parties. I already know that. I just meant…well you've been acting a little off lately."
Really she was trying to get him to talk about the nightmares she knew were still plaguing him. Just last night she had heard one on a bathroom and water trip in the middle of the night. It bothered her that he hadn't talked to her about it, even after resonating. During said resonance, she also hadn't picked up on any hint as to what might be causing the nightmares. He must have hidden it very well…which indicated he must have an anti-Maka box just like her anti-Soul box, and she still wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.
"No." He said simply in response to her inquiry.
For another moment there was silence, and after a while he glanced down to the plate she had set on the railing. He stared at it for a long contemplative moment.
When he reached for a piece of the sushi, she scowled and snapped, "Hey! I said get your own!"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh yeah? Since when did you start liking sushi?"
"Well I…don't."
"Uh huh. And so why did you get so much of it if you don't like it?"
Flushing, she looked away, pouting slightly and feeling silly. "Fine. You win."
He snorted. "Why you gotta be so hard to get along with?"
She flushed even harder, and almost got mad, but then was swamped by a surge of guilt. It wasn't his fault that she was confused because of her stupid feelings, and they were making her cranky. It wasn't fair for her to take it out on him…. Although, she did still feel somewhat justified in being pissy at him for acting lazy.
"…sorry."
That got a rather surprised look from him. It was obvious he wasn't expecting an apology, and didn't really know what to do with it now that it had been offered.
So they just let that one lie where it was put and there was more silence for a moment, until Maka happened to notice all the people dancing through the open doors of the balcony. That sparked an idea, and suddenly she was tugging on Soul's arm and saying, "Hey, how about we dance?"
Soul gave her a mildly disgusted look. "Uh, no."
"Oh come on, why not? You know you're a good dancer, Soul."
"No Maka, I don't wanna dance. You know these fancy parties aren't my scene. The last thing I wanna do is participate by dancing."
Maka pouted at Soul's slumped form as he downed the last bit of raw fish she had brought him and licked his lips. He sent her a sideways look, one which said he knew she wasn't done.
"I read that dancing is good for soul resonance." She tried in a persuasive tone.
He grimaced, and – seeing a weakness in his defense – she pushed the issue with, "Please? Come on, just one dance."
Why she wanted to get him to dance with her she wasn't exactly sure. It was simply a sudden impulse, and she was just sort of going with it. There wasn't much thought put into the request though.
She didn't wait for him to give her a reply, and simply grabbed his arm and started dragging him through the balcony doors and onto the dance floor. An easy song was playing, one that wasn't too fast or slow and didn't have any mushy lyrics that would have made it awkward. He was snarling, and his mouth was fixed in a patented displeased grimace she had seen many times when dragging him out of bed, forcing him to do his homework, or clean the house.
It was obvious he wasn't overly happy with the current situation he found himself in, but he reluctantly went along with it as she put her hand in his and her other on his shoulder. With a sigh he put his hand gingerly on her waist.
"You can lead if you want to…" Maka said with a smile, trying to prompt some sort of positive reaction from him.
He shrugged. "It's cool. Just do whatever."
His response could have easily come across as dismissive or rude to someone who didn't know him – but Maka knew it was simply easy-going. So she replied in kind. "Okay."
They started awkwardly stepping back and forth, kind of side to side and front to back in little baby steps. They weren't moving much at all really, and Maka quickly realized that maybe this hadn't been the hottest idea as awkwardness built. Soul was stiff, obviously uncomfortable, and he held her at nearly arm's length, which meant they weren't really in sync with each other in terms of movements.
Soul really was a good dancer – she'd seen him dance before once or twice when he hadn't known she was looking. He had even danced with her a couple of times, though she didn't remember it being nearly this awkward. Maybe that was due to her new-found feelings for her partner. Or maybe it was because she'd forced him to.
This continued for a little while, and the bundle of nerves only kept getting bigger in her stomach, but then suddenly something over Soul's shoulder caught her attention and distracted her entirely from the discomfort.
"Oh my god…Soul!" She whispered, her eyes popping open wide.
He twitched and looked her in the eye, which he had been avoiding as they danced. "What?"
"Stein and Nurse Medusa…I think they're about to kiss!"
Soul instantly craned his neck to look over his shoulder and try to see what it was she was looking at. "Where?"
"There!" She subtly pointed with her hand that was on his shoulder, and he adjusted his gaze in the direction indicated.
He blinked and for a moment stood still, saying, "…holy shit…" And then "Ow!" as Maka stepped rather firmly on his foot.
"Sorry." She winced, quickly removing her heel from his toe as his shoulders hunched and his head ducked at the sudden sharp pain. "You really should have led."
"Yeah…I see that now." He responded tightly with a slightly aggrieved grin.
Both their attention returned however to their teachers to see if they had actually kissed. To get a better look, Maka closed the distance between them so she could peer over his shoulder better. His white hair was blocking the view so she had to get closer and lean to the side somewhat, using her grip on his shoulder to balance herself. Lately, plastering herself to him would have freaked her out – given her current emotional outlook on Soul and the massive crush she was sorting – but at the moment she was way too interested in Medusa and Stein to care that she was probably popping Soul's personal bubble. Soul didn't seem to even notice that they were practically cheek to cheek as both teens stared avidly over his shoulder to try and spy on their teachers.
Suddenly, something even more shocking broke their concentration. The entire building shook and a deep ominous rumble resounded through the stonework.
Soul's head whipped around, spitting, "The fuck?!" in consternation.
His cheek collided with Maka's, and they both yelped. She immediately jerked back a little and spared a few choice words of her own. She hadn't realized just how close she'd gotten to him, but there was no time to focus on that. Any embarrassment or discomfort was wiped away by the threat of danger.
The next rumble and shake instantaneously caused his previously light grip on her to shift, and both arms wrapped tightly around her, much like hers did around his shoulders. They used each other for balance as the floor vibrated, and Maka's nose smacked into a hard spot on Soul's shoulder. She pulled back some, her eyes watering as one hand went to her nose.
Green and red eyes met, alarm obvious in both. They promptly parted while remaining a firm grip on each other's hand, in case they needed to fight. Any awkwardness between them had dissipated in a split second, and their clasped hands were sure and steady.
"What was that?!"
"Dunno…but it doesn't sound good." Soul responded.
The answer came bursting through the door a moment later in the form of Sid. He was all beat up and instantly yelled, "The Academy is under attack!"
There was immediate pandemonium, and then even more chaos erupted, as what seemed to be crackling electricity charged through the walls in great flashes. Through the doors and windows everyone could see a sparking green barrier was quickly inclosing the tower room they were currently all located in.
"They're locking us in!" Someone yelled.
Sid took abrupt action, and before Maka, Soul, and the rest of their group knew what was going on, suddenly coffins had appeared behind and under each of them, sending them plummeting down through the floor.
"Wha-?!"
"Coffins?"
"Fuck!"
"Maka!"
The shaft was dark and long, and Maka instinctively reached out to connect to Soul. Their souls found each other within an instant, and she was relieved to sense that he was also falling alongside her, hopefully going to the same place.
It was only a moment later when they exited the dark holes, and Maka managed to twist and land on her feet, going down on one knee to absorb the impact, though she didn't actually let her kneecap hit the ground since that might crack it. Soul – on the other hand – landed in a heap, as did Tsubaki, Patty, and Liz. The other meisters also landed on their feet.
It seemed that along with Kid, Patty, Liz, Maka, Soul, Black Star, and Tsubaki – Stein and Maka's father had been dropped down with them.
They all landed in the hall beneath the ballroom.
"What is going on?" Tsubaki asked, which was the question they were all wondering right now.
"Put simply, Medusa is a witch who infiltrated the Academy for the soul purpose of reviving the Kishin." Stein stated point-blank. At their confused looks, he proceeded to quickly explain about Medusa, the Kishin, and the situation.
The idea that such a monster could be situated beneath their feet all this time had them all shocked, except for Kid. He spoke up after Stein and confirmed it, saying that he had only just asked his father about it recently himself, and had received the same answer.
"So…these witches are after the Kishin? What do they want with something like that?"
"It seems they want to revive it with the black blood. The same black blood that you two encountered, Maka, Soul."
"Oh shit." The two mentioned said in sync.
There wasn't any more time to talk about it, because they had to get going. It was imperative that they got to the Kishin first and prevented him from being revived. Stein led the way to the underground entrance, though they all made a little detour to their lockers which were conveniently nearby, and changed very swiftly into work clothes. After that, they all dashed off to the underground passage.
Before they stepped through the rather ominous dark stone passageway though, Stein looked them all seriously in the eyes and said, "This is your choice. Going forwards means that you may very well die. I can't promise your safety. Anyone who wants to turn back, better do it now."
All of the younger meisters and weapons shared a look and then as one turned to Stein and said their own variations of, "I'm in."
It was go time. They all tightened their equipment after the quick clothes-change, a physical version of girding their loins, and set off into the creepy dank passage.
Author's Note:
Alright! We have first contact! Well...sort of. Haha, not really a date, but close enough right? They're definitely both becoming very aware of their feelings for each other...I wonder how long it will take for them to figure out it's mutual? Any ideas? ;)
As always, a huge round of thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story so far. Reviews really do motivate me to keep writing. :D
