Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater. I do own the plot.

Chapter Ten: Can Someone get Black*Star a Dictionary? And maybe some Ritalin?

"So… What are you saying?" Black*Star asked for the umpteenth time in the last five minutes. Currently, Liz was holding an ice pack to Maka's cheek to assure there was little to no swelling. Patty was trying to convince Chrona, whom was ducked into a corner from fear of facing the current situation and being unable to handle it, to come back out and socialize again. Tsubaki was helping Liz make sure Maka was okay while Kid and Soul were trying to explain the situation to the confused Black*Star. Spirit was seated at the large round table in the very back of the restaurant with the rest of the managers. Aside from the mentioned individuals, the rest of the workers had left out of the request of their boss.

"Justin Law basically screwed us over and forged Spirit's signature; therefore selling the rights of the restaurant over to that old bastard Mosquito," Soul explained with a tired sigh. Black*Star blinked a few more times before letting out an annoyed growl.

"The great Black*Star still does not understand! Forage; doesn't that mean to look for something? How can that effect the restaurant?" Black*Star snapped back. Everyone sweat-dropped at this although Tsubaki let out a nervous little giggle.

"Are you serious? We said forge, Black*Star, not forage!" Kid snapped back out. He lightly massaged his temples, growling, before opening his eyes and pinning the other male with a stern look. "Forge, the word we're using, means to imitate or replicate! Justin Law learned how to perfectly duplicate Spirit's signature and then signed a document awarding Mosquito the restaurant!"

"What? They can't do that, can they?" He called out frantically. Maka clenched her fists and glared up at Black*Star.

"Because of the stupid mistake my father made now we're going to lose everything!" She snapped angrily. All eyes turned to her as bitter tears pricked at the back of her eyes. "He lied to everyone, lied to me! All this time he's been saying he could never find love again but really he's just been having fun test-driving any woman he could find! And now he's slept with the wrong one and everything is going to be taken away! How could you to this to everyone?" Maka stood abruptly and glared at her father, who looked away with shame glittering in his eyes.

"Maka, I made a mistake-"

"And this time your mistake is going to cost us our restaurant! Everything was put into this place; all of your money and all of Mama's money when she was with us! This was the only place we had to keep her memory alive and now we're going to lose it!" She looked down, disgust marring her features, before she turned and headed to the door. Soul was following her in an instant.

No one tried to stop them.

Soul helped Maka get into his car and then slid into the driver's side. "Where do you want me to go?" He asked her gently. She shook her head, taking a shaking breath, so he just nodded and pulled out. He drove around the city and let Maka cry out like she needed to. He found an abandoned parking lot, pulled into a space, and then turned to her. "Maka, come here." He said gently, holding his arms out to her.

"Oh, Soul!" She whimpered before flying into him and burrowing into his chest. He held her tight, whispering sweet words into her hair as she cried into him. "Why did this have to happen now? Things were so wonderful! We're engaged, the restaurant is making great business, but then this has to happen? It's not fair! How can my father ruin everything like this?"

"He made a mistake, Maka, but that's just part of human nature," He said delicately. She blinked then looked up with her tearful expression. He gave a small smile before one of his hands cupped her face and brushed away her tears. "About a year ago, a smart, pretty young woman asked me if I wanted to spend the rest of my life hating my brother because of one greedy decision he made. And although it took some time, I forgave Wes for everything that happened and now we're closer than we'd ever been. I know that you're scared and angry and hurt, Maka, but you shouldn't let this ruin your relationship with your father. We'll find a way to make everything work out, find a way to fix this, I promise."

She blinked then sniffled lightly and nodded. "I guess I shouldn't be a hypocrite, huh?" She mumbled. He wove his arms tighter around her and kissed her forehead.

Soul himself was completely livid over the whole incident too, but didn't want to add fuel to the fire. Spirit had made a (quite a few, actually) mistake but he knew that getting angry wouldn't do them any good. Instead, he was going to try to figure out if there was some loophole they could use to trip up the whole situation.

He was just going to have to put his all into a counterargument.

…

"Well I guess I should start looking for another job," Liz sighed as she and Kid walked back to her place together. They were kind –of-sort-of dating, though they didn't use the term "boyfriend-girlfriend". Kid would come hang out a lot, help her get chores around the house done, tag along when she went shopping and occasionally take her out for dinners and movies but she didn't have the courage to ask him for a label. She feared asking that may ruin whatever it was they had, and she was kind of fond of it. Sine Patty had pretty much become a leech on Chrona it was nice to not be alone (and have a cute male companion padding along with her). "Otherwise we'll lose the apartment. But with the way things are right now I'll probably have to go on unemployment for a while. Ah, shit!" She groaned lowly.

"Things with the restaurant could turn around," Kid offered casually. She looked at him sideways and then sighed lightly.

"I'd like to have my bases covered if things don't, though," She said sourly. She shoved her hands in her pockets. "I mean, Patty could just get a job at the karaoke bar Medusa owns; she'd give her the job simply because she's dating Chrona and all. Plus, if we ended up getting booted from the apartment, she could go live with them too! Me… I'm not as lucky as Patty. She's the bubbly, cheerful one that's a lot better at making friends. I'm slightly more jaded than her."

"Well if worst comes to worst you can always come and say with my father and I," She blinked and looked at Kid in slight alarm. He raised an eyebrow at her. "What? I don't want you to getting left on the streets without a home or anything of your possessions. You're… Very important to me." He was blushing a bit and clearly uncomfortable with the words tumbling out from his own lips.

In her time befriending (since she couldn't think of a better way to phrase it) Kid she had learned he never had a mother and never really learned how to deal with his emotions. Sure, his father had given him plenty of love and as much attention as he could, he had a lot to do with his business. It was usually less than stellar babysitters tending to the young male's wants and needs growing up. Liz suddenly understood the reason for his lack of social grace and difficult expressing how he felt at appropriate mediums (since it was normally either a panic attack, a crying fit or completely nothing with him) and found his attempts at normality that much more endearing.

And though she knew this wasn't necessarily a love confession, she decided she could run with it until Kid reached a point where the words "I love you" was a tangible expression for him to use.

At current she leaned over and gave him a small nudge with her elbow. "What makes you think I'd say yes?" She asked with a raised brow. He looked up, complete shock on his features, before it stepped back to reveal a more disappointed glint. She then grinned at him and laughed. "Did you think I was serious? I'd say yes in a heartbeat, you moron! No way in Hell am I ever living on the streets again!" She cheered out mirthfully.

Kid responded with a cute little grin of his own and nodded. "I'm glad," He said in a soft, sweet tone of voice. Something in the way he was looking at her made Liz blush and look away quickly. What was with this guy? One minute he made her eye twitch like a wonky spring in a messed up clock, and the next he had her heart thrumming merrily like the wings of a baby hummingbird! She did, however, decide she wanted to investigation this chain of reactions a little further.

…

Black*Star was grinning with his hands behind his head as he and Tsubaki walked home together. They lived right next to each other in the exact same apartment complex, much to their good fortune. "I can't see what everyone's worried about! They seem to forget the great Black*Star is working there! I'll be able to get that guy to change his mind with one simple look!" He laughed cheerfully.

Tsubaki skid to a stop at his words, causing him to turn around and look at her curiously. "How… How can you say things like that so easily, as if it doesn't even matter?" She asked meekly, looking down at her feet. She was shaking with the force of the emotions rampaging through her. She had always been a sweet girl, impossible of feeling true hatred toward any person no matter what they did to her; Hell ,she couldn't even hate her older brother who was currently doing time back in Japan for beating her daily and almost killing her! But this man, Mosquito, something about his attitude stirred up those bad memories and his presence reminded her of her brother. It filled her with fear, and a bitter taste at the back of her throat that she couldn't quite place. "The restaurant… It could be taken away and demolished! We could all lose our jobs and homes and… and!" She cut herself off as a sob threatened to choke out from her.

But she didn't want to just cry about this whole situation; she wanted to do something – anything – to make it just stop!

"Hey, Tsubaki," Black*Star said in a surprisingly soft voice for him. He dropped his hands from behind his head and approached her, letting his hands land first on her shoulders. She looked at him tearfully, her bottom lip being teased between her teeth, and he looked at her seriously. "You don't need to be worried. I'm going to make sure to take care of you, no matter what. If I… I can't find a way to stop that bastard Mosquito from shutting down the restaurant than we can find new jobs. Hell, we can even pay off your lease and you can move in with me! But just don't… Just don't cry, Tsubaki. I'll make sure we're okay somehow."

"Black*Star," She sniffled lightly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. She then dropped her head to his shoulder and let herself cry, latching on to him tightly. His arms around her tightened.

"The great Black*Star will also protect you," He mumbled cheerfully, and she smiled too.

…

Spirit sighed heavily as he sunk into his chair at the kitchen table. He had really made a mess of everything this time, hadn't he? He never thought that his bad habits would catch up to him and have such a terribly backlash on him. He sighed and shook his head. "No, I knew this would eventually happen," He mumbled softly.

The real thing that hurt him was that Maka had to be affected by this as well.

Spirit had sort of assumed that his bad habits would catch up with him as some point. He had just been sort of hoping he could keep things under wraps so that no one else would have to handle it. He expected a woman to turn up pregnant with his child; he had planned to offer her child support if she agreed to keep everything to herself. He expected someone's husband to find out and beat him up over it; he had been prepared to lie and say he had made a bet he couldn't repay at the time.

He hadn't planned on betrayal and theft of his business, though.

The door creaked loudly and he flinched at the sound. "Papa?" Maka asked in a small voice, as if she were no more than a little mouse squeaking to make its presence known. He didn't look up, too afraid to see the scorn and betrayal in his daughter's eyes. She slowly walked over. "Papa, Soul and I went for a drive so I could clear my head. We talked a little and think we may have a solution." She said gently, her hand falling to his shoulder. He finally lifted his head and saw the small shimmer of hope in his daughter's large emerald orbs.

"What did you think of?" He asked quietly. He tried to quell the little ember of hope his child's words were starting to ignite in him. He had to be prepared for the fallout of his mistakes, had to be prepared if things didn't work as they planned.

"His mother works as a secretary for a top-notch lawyer," She started. She pulled up a chair and sat down, shifting her hands to take both of his in her own. "He's going to see if his mother can convince him to weigh in on the documents Justin signed. There isn't really a way we can prove that they're forged, since Mosquito and Justin could just lie on the stand in court, but there may be some slim little loophole we wouldn't recognize without the legal know-how. It's a long shot but it's our only chance now." She said with a tiny smile tipping up her lips. Spirit's heart fluttered at the sight and he finally broke apart.

"Maka, I'm so sorry," Spirit whispered sadly, tears finally falling from his eyes. She gently reached over and embraced her father. "Papa is so sorry, Maka. I never meant for this to happen. I-I never wanted to hurt everyone else like this!" He sobbed, his whole body shaking so hard it shook Maka as well.

"It'll be okay, Papa," She whispered softly, closing her eyes and tightening her hold on him. Maybe if she held him hard enough she could force herself to put more hope into this plan. Maybe if she held tighter to him she could force herself to believe that everything would really be alright.

End

Notes:

This chapter… Just, ugh, this chapter! So it's really short because I started out having no idea where to go since the next chapter preview for it was kind of lame. In the end, I decided it'd make a good chapter to sort of show different relationships developing and how they're affected by this new information (since I need to improve on that). And, also, I must confess some of my attention was taken from this to be spent on working on the first chapter of my next fanfic: Pulchritudinous. I am embarrassed to say that it really shows in the chapter. If you view this chapter as filler, I apologize: *bows* I shall make sure to do better for you all! The next chapter should make up for this one at least a little bit!

On a lighter note, I… Freakin'… LOVE… Kid in this story! I like getting to portray him as sort of emotionally retarded and socially awkward because… Well, he was raised a spoiled rich brat. And no offense to Shinigami-Sama (since I love that guy) but he probably didn't have much time to offer to his son when he was little. So… Yeah, Liz is going to fix him up pretty fast! Just like Patty and Chrona.

Are you guys enjoying all the cracky pairings I am putting in? Because I am. Just wish I would spend more time developing the relationships. :T

Poll is still uploaded; need it answered so I can start the planning process for Not Quite Twilight. Please get to it as soon as you can, ladies and gents~! :D

Next Chapter:

Soul proves to the world that he is more than just a spoiled rich boy trying to adjust to a more humble life; he also proves that he doesn't have a very high tolerance for pain. Maka finds herself unable to enjoy a cake tasting with Soul as much as she'd like with her life unraveling around her. I spend some time on relationship development with other pairings again (since I suck at it)! Why? Because shut up. (I am aware I am fail!)