But you were young, you never thought you'd die
Found that you could but too scared to try
Looked in the mirror and you said goodbye
Climbed to the roof to see if you could fly


Soul growled again, his palms clenching into fists over the bark of the tree, the wood biting into his flesh but he didn't care. His anger made him defy all reason as he glared at the girl below him. He and Maka used to stand at the same height when they were kids, but from what he could see she haden't grown since, he stood a good foot and a half taller than her.

Maka did her best to hide her awe at Soul's new appearance. He was just so different when they were children, his short white tufts always hidden behind a hat due to him being self-conscious, he even wore a pair of shaded sun-glasses at times to hide his blood red eyes. But from what Maka could see now he was over it. Soul let his hair grow out, the mass of gravity defying locks hanging messily (but fashionably so) over his furious crimson eyes. His hair framed his aristocratic face, and Maka couldn't suppress the small smirk that tugged at her lips as she eyed him. He'd lost all his baby fat, now with a strong, masculine jaw that was taut as he glared at her in rage.

Soul's growl pulled her from her thoughts, obviously expecting an answer to his earlier question.

"What are you doing here?" he rumbled again, his eyes narrowing into slits as she watched her.

Maka just grinned up at him, leaning back almost casually on the tree, as if she wasn't be forced to stand there.

"Why, not happy to see me?" she asked, tilting her head in mock hurt.

"Maka." Soul warned, his lips curling back to expose his teeth, exposing how they got sharper and before disappearing behind his cheeks. Maka sighed.

"Come on, Soul," she drones, trailing a single finger over his chest provocatively. He snarls and pushes from the tree, stumbling back a few steps though his eyes remain on her.

"Don't pretend you're not happy to see me," she continues, still leaning on the tree casually, tilting her head back to rest on the bark as she still eyes him challengingly.

"Happy is far from what I'm feeling right now," he growls, his voice dropping a few octaves in anger as he glared at the girl before him. Maka just laughs, shaking her head before looking up at him, tilting her head once again.

"You know, it's not cool to blame me for everything that ever went wrong in your life just because I had to leave." She said suddenly, all joking and sarcasm gone from her voice. He looked up to see her standing straight, no longer leaning on the tree as she's stepped forward a few steps, her eyes sharp and hard as she met his angry gaze. She was serious.

Soul barked a laugh, making Maka blink. "Are you kidding? Do you even understand why I've come to hate you?" he asks, half serious.

Maka narrows her eyes. "Things went bad after I left," she says in a guarded voice. "Your parents, your brother…" she trailed off, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I got the impression from what I have been told previously that you blame me for it all, because things only went bad after I left you."

Soul laughed dryly again, the sound without any humour. He had the pleasure of watching Maka's previous confidence fall from her face.

"Are you stupid? The things with my family are entirely separate from why I'm so pissed at you." He snarled, stepping forward dangerously. "They have absolutely nothing to do with it. Just because other things went wrong after you left doesn't make me immediately think of you. This may come as a shock, Maka, but the whole world doesn't revolve around you!" he drawls, his voice calm but sinister. Soul takes another step forward, and Maka does something that he didn't expect. Something that actually surprised him as it didn't suit her new character.

She fell a step back.

Her face was still rigid and angry, but it was nice to know she had some sense. Soul wasn't the same little boy she once knew, and he had a certain dislike for the female gender, and it took an idiot not to see that. He knew Maka was no idiot, the fact that she had regained some sense to see some danger gave Soul the upper hand.

He liked that.

She fell another step back as his lips curled up into a menacing smirk, his head tilting as he eyed her small form.

"Something wrong, Ma-ka?" he rumbles, before his lips curled back again to reveal his teeth in a snarl as he edged forward, Maka backing away. She stifled a curse as her back hit the tree. Soul just chuckled, stopping to stand right in front of her, looking down at her small, lithe form.

Maka glared right back.

She squared her shoulders as she faced him, refusing to let him think he scared her. She suppressed another wince as his angry, crimson orbs glared down at her.

"It doesn't matter to you why I hate you." He said bluntly, and this time Maka did flinch. She knew he did, but to hear him say it…

"You just need to know that I do." He told her, before giving her one last look of disgust and turning his back, shaking his head as he sauntered away in the direction of his house as fast as he could, not once looking back at the woman who haunted his dreams.


Soul slammed the door shut behind him, throwing his keys on the table beside the door before making his way upstairs. He threw off his t-shirt before grabbing a clean one and throwing it over his head. He swallowed thickly as he eyes wandered to the window that exposed the wood behind his house. Reluctantly, almost in some kind of trance, he makes his way over to rest his palms on the window sill and glare at the opening of which he came out of. Not willing to admit to himself he was waiting for a certain figure to emerge so he could get one last glimpse of her. He saw her alright.

Walking along beside Liz.

They were laughing, Liz's face was all red which hinted Maka was teasing her, but they were defiantly getting along. As they came to the path where Liz had to leave, they hugged before parting, Liz's face alight with delight.

Maka remained where she stood and Soul's fingers curled around the window sill's ledge, the splinters of the worn wood biting under his nails due to the force of it. Maka's eyes turned up to his window and gazed right onto his face, before pulling an expression that made the man in the window seethe.

She smiled.

He knew what she was doing, she was getting back into the group. She was worming her way back into her childhood friends group so she could continue to torment Soul with her presence. Maka held his gaze for a moment longer before turning her back and walking away in the opposite direction Liz went, her eyes hidden by her bangs but the smirk that remained plain on her face.

Soul groaned audibly and ran his hand threw his hair. Gritting his teeth angrily, he jumped into his bed, pulling the covers almost over his head. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing, trying desperately to forget the day's unfortunate events and not think about the following days to come that will inevitably be an absolute nightmare.