Maka
Even after a summer of being with Soul, I was content. It was as if we had become the same and no one could stop us. The assignments that Stein and Shinigami-sama and Papa had given us to sharpen our senses had become a breeze and come Hell or high water, we would be able to vanquish any and all our foes. I would make sure that Soul was at his top game as he watched out for me and it was, in a word? Amazing.
Papa finally warmed up to the idea of having Soul call me his or kiss me lightly on the forehead as we walked through Shibusen together. The world seemed to be pairing up, even Stein had seemed to be partial to Marie, taking more care to be somewhat polite and normal around her when they were together. The fact that summer was over and we were in school again didn't seem to faze anybody, as it normally seemed to do when I was younger. Perhaps everyone was used to the longer break and eager to get back to training for epic battles that were sure to come with our times.
The group was just as strong as ever as well. Kid had worked Chrona through enough extracurricular exercises to catch her and Ragnarok up and have her fight against her mother and anyone else who would have come to us as a severe challenge. It was nice to see the close-knit bonds forming in our group, knowing that no one could break the bonds we shared. It was a comforting thought as I walked with Soul's arm around my shoulder to the cafeteria that first day back at school.
Soul
The energy with everyone was different since the summer. Patty was hardly at school after Nygus told her that bed rest would be a lot better for her small body than coming to school and working her ass off. Something about stressing the baby is bad for it's health, so we all talked her into it even though she wanted to come and hang out with everybody. Shinigami-sama let us take off-campus visits during lunch to go see her. During these times Star would become something like a maid. I'd never seen him work so hard for someone who wasn't himself.
"Do you need anything to eat? Anything to drink? How do you feel? How many fingers am I holding up?" Black Star bombarded Patty with a ton of questions at once, freaking the pregnant girl out.
"Just get me some ice cream and lay down with me!" When he came back with a tub of vanilla ice cream, Patty shrieked. "NO! THAT'S NOT RIGHT! I WANT THE YUMMY ONE!" he ran back downstairs and came back with rocky road, then she started to wail. "Why can't you bring me the yummy one? I just want the yummy ice cream! And I thought you were going to lay down with me? What gives? Don't you love me anymore?"
Star looked like he was going to break down into tears himself. He had been going into the fridge all night for the 'yummy ice cream' that she never specified by name and had been going through this since dinner last night.
"Patty, how bout you just eat this one? It's yummy too! See?" he took a bite of the ice cream and smiled a big, stupid grin that made him look like a molester.
"NO. I. WANT. THE YUMMY ONE."
I think that was the first time I had ever seen Black Star cry. He lay in bed, curled up next to Patty and started to bawl as Liz and Tsubaki disappeared down the hall. "I do love you, Patty! I just am so sick of you yelling at me! You never used to yell at me! And now that you're fat you do it all the time! I even live with that supposed god-boy just to be close to you! How could you ask me if I still love you?" He rolled to the other side of the bed where I stood and grabbed the sleeve of my hood. "Soul, what happened to Patty? She was so nice and sweet and now that she's fat she doesn't love me any more!" Before I could yank my arm away I felt the snot and tears accompanied by a loud sound—Black star blowing his nose into my sleeve.
"Stop calling me fat!" Patty screeched as she closed in on Black Star. "If you think I'm fat, maybe I should just eat you instead of the ice cream!" She looked like a hyena as she bit into the star on her fiancé's shoulder. He let out a high pitch screech and three pairs of feet came scrambling down the hall. "Patty! Patty! Let go of him, he's just a stupid retarded little—"
"Hey Liz, screw you! I will surpass the g—"
"Patricia, would you like some yummy ice cream?" Tsubaki interjected before her meister could finish his rant.
The younger girl looked up at Tsubaki who held a bowl of Neapolitan ice cream with salsa on top. She took it and scarfed the whole bowl down.
"Jesus, her idea of yummy is repulsive," I mumbled in Maka's ear. "Let's hope you don't get like that when you're pregnant." My hand reflexively wrapped around her waist, but she walked just out of my reach.