Author's Note: Hey guys! Hope you're enjoying. I'm headed on vacation tomorrow to a (yet another) tiny island, so I'll hopefully have the chance to write out chapter 10 while I'm chillin' on the beach! If not, expect a chapter as soon as possible when I get home, of course. Do let me know what you think of this one, though! Things are gettin' set in motion. :)
All damn day they'd been walking. He scowled up at the setting sun that peeked through the expanse of canopy above them. His patience was wearing thin, and tried as he might to keep his frustration in check, his irritation mounted with every step.
There were five million different things he'd rather be doing, and they all weighed heavily on his brain. He'd give anything for a few gulps of milk out of the carton, or maybe a five course meal – the idea of three or four souls sliding down his throat was almost unbearably wonderful – but above all, it would be great to just sit the fuck down for a second.
Distracted as he was by his own bitterness, his foot caught one of the branches in their path and he tripped. This was getting ridiculous. He'd lost far too many battles with gravity today. It happened so often that he'd been demoted, moved to the back of the single file line they'd been forced to adopt.
He didn't understand how the three of them seemed to have the world's perfect balance, infuriatingly floating over all of the rocks and fallen trees in their path while he blundered about behind them like a fucking rhino. Though… there were some benefits to being at the back of the line. Mostly ones involving a certain scythe meister's already short skirt lifting up ever so slightly when they had to cross a particularly big obstacle.
In addition to the occasional peep show, this preposterously long walk had its perks. He'd done a lot of… soul searching. He groaned inwardly, mentally berating himself at the unintentional pun.
He'd realized something. He didn't want to fight it anymore. Since this whole being-desperately-attracted-to-Maka thing was probably going to ruin him, he may as well come to terms with it. Granted, he'd still guard it from everyone else with his life… but he'd stop lying to himself, at the very least. He was done with trying to hold back.
And just like that, he accepted it; signed the consent form on his attraction and mailed it to himself. It felt curiously liberating, and it placated him enough that he didn't even feel guilty when his eyes wandered to her ass a little too often. He entertained himself via shameless gawking for the rest of the afternoon.
After an hour more, night was falling and the trees and branches had gotten so wild and thick that their backpacks were having trouble squeezing through the gaps. But amidst Liz's appeasements and encouragements, they pushed on towards the tiny light in the distance where their elusive 'camp' awaited them.
When they finally arrived, he couldn't believe it. There was no way in hell that Spirit knew about this.
Their path opened up into a large clearing, and three structures that could be roughly considered tents stood before them, black flaps blowing softly in the breeze. Still, the word 'tent' was almost laughable, he thought to himself. The central one, which could only have been Kid's (as the flaps had been tied back into perfectly identical triangles) had goddamn columns lining the sides, for crying out loud. The other two tents that stood on either side were slightly smaller, with the image of Lord Death's mask tattooed onto their sides. Air mattresses that were much closer to beds than anything else peeked out from the interior. Dim yellow lanterns lined the clearing, flickering happily at their arrival and bathing the trees and their faces with an eerie glow. A few feet from the tents, a fire was blazing, casting more shadows onto Black*Star and Tsubaki's knowing smiles as they roasted marshmallows atop the flames.
"This is us staying under the radar?" Soul said, his backpack hitting the damp earth beneath their feet with a thud.
"What, ten miles deep into the woods isn't low-key enough for you?" Black*Star countered with a laugh, his exuberance causing a smoking marshmallow to swing a little too close to Tsubaki's face. She ducked and sent him an exasperated look.
Soul wasn't convinced – surely this was too conspicuous, surely they should be sleeping in a ditch somewhere, right? His unease must have shown on his face because Black*Star grimaced at him.
"Oh, calm your tits, there's not a damn soul out here!" he said. "Your girl here would know if there was," he added, gesturing to Maka and winking.
Maka looked moderately annoyed at being called "your girl" (a realization that gave Soul the impression of being kicked numerous times in the stomach), and trudged off to one of the tents to put away her things without a word. Well, that couldn't be good news. Despite the fact that his meister was mysteriously pissed and that his legs were begging for respite, he seized his chance to fill Black*Star in on the demon's little secret.
"We need to talk," he said flatly, and dragged Black*Star away from the campsite and into the darkness of the forest, ignoring Black*Star's amused shouts of "Jesus, Soul, if you want a little fun in the woods, at least buy me dinner first!"
Once they were far enough away, Soul explained to Black*Star what he'd gleaned from the conversation with the demon. It was a mark of how much they'd been through that Black*Star was neither concerned about the black blood, nor angry with Soul for dragging him into it. Actually, he did the complete opposite of what any sane person would've done – he burst into laughter.
"You really know how to get yourself into some shit," he added with another chuckle, leaning back into the tree and crossing his legs. "But really, it seems like an easy fix to me. I'll just pull you both together faster. No room for the little fucker to jump in and pull any surprises. We'll work on it later."
"Are you sure you'll be able-" Soul started doubtfully. Black*Star's face immediately contorted into a mask of mock indignation.
"Of course I'm sure; don't you know who I am?!" Black*Star exclaimed. "Besides, there's not a drop of black blood out there that would dare infect me."
Soul rolled his eyes, but he had to appreciate Black*Star's blind optimism at times like this. A glimmer of hope took hold in his chest.
"Although…" Black*Star started, looking apologetic. "I hate to agree with your weird-ass demon friend, but... you really could just tell her."
Soul smirked. "You do realize that would make that whole little blackmail plan of yours completely useless."
By the look on his face, it was clear that Black*Star had not realized this, but he quickly recovered.
"Eh, what can I say? I'm a merciful god." He put his hands on his hips and looked up at the sky, smug. "Just think about it, will you?"
"Yeah, okay," said Soul, even though the chances of that happening were about as likely as Spirit boycotting Chupa Cabra's. Or Kid suddenly deciding the shape of his toilet paper no longer mattered.
They arrived back at the campsite at the tail end of a somewhat heated debate about the sleeping situation, where any worries – okay, hopes was probably a more accurate word – he'd conjured up about being in a confined space with his meister that happened to include beds were instantly put to rest. While the girls took the smaller tents, the males had somehow managed to inherit the column-ridden monstrosity. Soul noted with mild interest that he wasn't the only one sulking.
"Like I'd wanna sleep next to any of them anyway," Black*Star said, forcing a laugh while Soul threw his backpack on one of the air mattresses. "I don't even really need a weapon, why would I want to sleep in the same room as her, doesn't even make sense-"
Soul looked at him suspiciously, but said nothing. He opened his mouth to ask him something, but at that moment, Kid, all business, poked his head in and said, "We're briefing, let's go."
"So it's like hide-and-seek!" Patty squealed, clapping her hands together. Liz's resulting eye roll was so slight that Soul wasn't actually sure it happened, particularly in the low light of the fire.
"Sure, Patty, just like hide-and-seek," Liz acquiesced. "But instead of saying 'found ya' when we win, we'll put a gun to their head instead, okay?"
Patty bounced up and down with excitement, all disappointment about giraffes long forgotten, while Kid gave them the rest of the run-down.
On the whole, Kid's speech was simple – mostly because there wasn't much information to process. Soul had really hoped that this would be a true brief, that there would be a direct link or path or possibly a plan for finding Crona, but instead, all they had were a bunch of suspicions. And some caves, evidently. That was their only lead – a series of caves near the forest could be a good place to start looking, Kid had said. Nobody asked him how he knew this, though all signs pointed to the file marked 'FOR LORD DEATH ONLY' that sat at his feet. Apparently they were all destined to become delinquents on this trip, Soul thought wryly.
"There are nine caves," Kid continued. "We'll split up into partners and search three each."
"Still no information on who could be doing all of this?" Tsubaki said, twirling black locks around her finger nervously.
"Frankly… no," Kid said, shoulders slumping. He held up the file, his disappointment plain on his face. "I'm pretty sure even my father has absolutely no clue."
"What if, um," Maka said, raising her hand in a way that immediately struck Soul as being far too adorable as she looked up earnestly at Kid. "What if we need Black*Star?"
Kid scratched his head, debating. "To be totally honest, these leads are all slight. You probably won't need to resonate. The likelihood that we'll find anything… it's pretty slim."
"Besides, you two can still fight, can't you?" said Black*Star. "It's not like you've both become completely dependent and usel-unfflhuh?!"
He glared at Soul, who was innocently wiping his finger on a leaf to clean off the residue of the marshmallow Maka had handed him to stuff in Black*Star's mouth. Next to Soul, Maka licked her fingers happily.
"Alright, let's turn in," Kid said, throwing a bucket of water on the flames. Soul watched the embers sizzle and dance, a sense of foreboding filling him. Their search began tomorrow. He stood up and started to gather his things. Black*Star leaned over him ominously and said, "And where do you think you're going?"
Soul raised an eyebrow at him, confused.
"To sleep? Some of us haven't been lying around getting foot rubs from Tsubaki all day," he scoffed. He'd been kidding – he couldn't imagine that anyone would voluntarily give Black*Star a foot rub, even Tsubaki – but for one impossible moment he could've sworn he saw Black*Star flush. Regardless, the ninja's mysterious embarrassment evaporated when Maka stood and turned to leave.
"Hah, well you're gonna have to deal a little longer, my minions," he cackled, grabbing Maka by the arm before she could escape. "We're going to practice."
He was going to kill Black*Star, he thought as their resonance broke apart and he slumped to the ground. How many more damn times were they going to do this? His soul felt stretched, reduced to worn elastic from overuse and he could see the fatigue starting to take hold on Maka as well, even though she was fighting it. Poor Maka, who didn't even know why this little session was happening but still trusted them completely. Soul pinched the bridge of his nose. He owed her so much.
"Again," Black*Star said with a determined smile. He was either oblivious to their exhaustion or he just didn't care. Soul was betting on the latter. But he was right, they had a job to do. Soul exhaled and curled his fists, bracing himself.
"Hybrid resonance."
By this point, their connection was almost instantaneous. Through practice, Black*Star had made good on his promise; the second they resonated, he slammed their wavelengths together with a force that knocked Soul breathless, particularly since hybrid resonance on its own already left him gasping. The familiar blue flames lined his eyes, and even with eyes shut, he watched as they danced to this electric, impossibly sublime ballad to which their resonance had become attuned.
With every attempt, it got simpler. He felt his soul respond to hers and leap into resonance with less and less effort. It was becoming a reflex; it almost felt like his soul was reaching out to Maka's on its own, coaxing and connecting their wavelengths without any resistance.
Easy for you to say when I'm the one doing all of the work, Black*Star scoffed in his mind, and Soul just laughed because it just felt so good and all of the stress of the mission was completely lost on him when they resonated.
As practiced, they stopped, flipping the switch on their resonance all at once, and the three of them fell to the ground, panting. Soul's head was spinning.
"Can we stop, please?" he mumbled into his arm.
"Yeah," Black*Star said, whose face was pressed unabashedly into the dirt. Soul wasn't sure if the ninja was even aware of it.
They began the impossible task of getting back to the site, supporting and tugging each other forward as they walked. Soul may have possibly let his fingers linger against the side of Maka's neck just a little too long before they broke off from their little three-legged race. He was exhausted, and his inhibitions were next to nonexistent at the moment, and he figured she probably wouldn't have noticed anyway.
It was possible that she, too, may have followed him with her eyes just a little too long as he dragged himself into the tent and collapsed onto his bed, the smallest of shy smiles crossing her lips. But he probably wouldn't have noticed anyway.
:3
