Maka woke to a low rumble in the sky. Rubbing her sleep swollen eyes, she looked at her bright red alarm clock. The numbers flashed 3:21 AM in neon green. Moaning in repulse, she rolled herself out of bed and slid onto the floor. The rug smooched underneath her weight and burned her cheek as she slid to a stop.

Another restless night, she thought bitterly to herself.

Slowly, she picked herself off the ground –barely- and moved toward her bedroom door. Cracking her it open slightly, she took a look around the empty kitchen across the hall from her room. It was pretty – the sky was red-brown above her and gave the kitchen a spooky, unsettling feel.

Maka tiptoed into the white kitchen - but froze. Snoring sounded the dead silent room and her head suddenly pounded with the memories of that afternoon. Another frustrated sigh escaped her dry throat. She had fallen asleep so angry it had made her cry, leaving her eyes irritated and puffy. She made her way slowly over to the sink with a brand new reason to be angry.

This really isn't my day, is it?

Grabbing a glass from the cupboard and filling it with water, another loud crack shook the night sky and the rain continued to pat on her window. She had never been fond of rain – it used to scare her when she was little. She would run crying to Spirit whenever it came around, which was not often for Death City, being in Nevada and all.

Another crack sounded and Maka cringed. Suddenly she didn't feel so tired – she realized that she was restless. She had slept the past ten hours and she needed something to do – somethinganything at all.

Then she got an idea. Soul's snoring must have woken her up, right? Why not wake him up… just for enjoyment? She wouldn't be doing anything dirty handed if it was a… mistake…right?

She felt a sly smile cross her face, but quickly wiped it away. She was doing this by accident. She scooted to the living room and grabbed the television remote. She nearly busted the volume button on the controller and cranked the volume to seventy-five present. That's totally harmless, right? She then moved to the kitchen and turned all the lights on, even though they directed right to Soul's bedroom door. She raced to her own room and grabbed her red alarm clock with the neon green numbers. It had a radio set up to it, which after she plugged it in, turned it up fairly high.

The hyper music bounced around the room and the low beat made her want to dance - not enough though. She slid around the kitchen in her socks to the beat of the fairly loud song, grabbing different items for baking with.

She heard Soul moan loudly in the other room, but go silent. Smirking, she cranked the radio that much higher. She floated around the room listening to the upbeat music – pots and pans hitting the stove on her way. She flew over to the pantry and grabbed chocolate cake mix, and then skated over to the fridge, grabbing milk and eggs - including all the necessaries for cakes, such as whipped cream and sprinkles.

Suddenly, the music changed stations over to Coldplay. Maka jerked her head around to meet Soul's lazy red eyes. He stood by the radio across from her in his boxers and wool socks, his gaze menacingly irritated.

"Soul!" Maka chirped innocently, trying to sound surprised that he had gotten up after all that noise. "Morning." He grumbled like an old grizzly making his way over to the television. "What are you doing up?" She asked innocently. "What do you think?" he muttered darkly through the pillow that was now covering his face to hide his ears from the blasting television. As he was turning the volume down, he shot her a look. "And why the heck is the television on so loud?" She fumbled with the lace on her nightgown."No reason really…"

He walked over to where she was standing, still in his socks and underwear – which made Maka feel slightly uncomfortable for understandable reasons – and crouched down. Maka immediately felt horribly embarrassed, as his head was so close to her legs.

Her little night gown was awfully revealing, and him being so close to her made her feel slightly…awkward – but he didn't look anywhere but the floor as he stood upright again, towering a half a foot over her head and handed her a spoon. "You dropped this." Soul said tonelessly. "And what the heck is all this stuff doing out for?" He looked around, slightly disapproving.

"Well I was going to make a cake this morning since your snoring woke me up, but I don't know what I want to do anymore." Maka stood there, trying hard not to look like a creep for staring at his naked chest, when Soul started chuckling.

"Maka, go to back sleep – I'll try not to snore too loud." He emphasized. Maka trailed her eyes slowly up to his face –with difficulty, considering he was the most beautiful male in the room, school, and possibly all of Death City- and his face which still looked disapproving, now a trace of irritation and tiredness in it. "Maybe your right…" Maka sighed. "I guess a cake at this time would be stupid."

Maka began putting pots back under the stove when she felt Soul's muscular arm reaching over her shoulder, heads touching side by side, butting away a tiny pot. He was right behind her. She could feel his warm breath on her neck and his bare chest covering all her back, which was only protected from nakedness by a layer of thin material.

After he put the pot under the stove, he stopped. He seemed wanting to stay like that longer then friends should have normally wanted to. "Maka…" he muttered in her ear, making her shiver. He trailed his hands to her waist and stood her up. She turned around with a bright pink blush on her face to see that his face was the same color as hers.

They stood there for a moment, Maka suddenly feeling okay with staring at his bare chest, when he turned away. "Night." He muttered. "Wait!" she called, "what were you going to say?" He turned around again, his face with possibly the biggest blush she had ever seen on a boy, and replied "…never mind."

She stood there for a moment, watching him disappear into his room and shut the door with more force that was needed, and frowned. What was he going to say to her? She didn't know. Maka forgot about the mess in the kitchen, turning off the lights - a wave of disappointment washing though her and shut her own door with the same force Soul had. She zombied over to her bed and flopped, causing her blankets to completely fall onto the floor, a few of her text books fell along with the blankets making a thud noise, making her wince. It was 3:50 in the morning and she had nothing to do but think - or sleep- but sleep didn't feel like an option at the moment.

'Boys are such moronic losers….' She thought bitterly, but then her mind trailed to his bare chest, and unwillingly, their crash on the floor, and she completely forgot her anger. She couldn't deny that she liked him any longer, but his constant mood swings were giving her severe emotional whip lash. She had no bloody idea what he wanted…or what she wanted, now that she thought about it. He was her weapon, and she was his meister, and she loved him, and he loved hurting her… or it seemed like it anyway.

That's when the tears started in her eyes. She had no mother around and her she hated her dad – so it was only, "Soul and Maka." She said out loud – just to try it out. She liked the sound of their names together. She didn't want to be alone any longer…she would explode. Maka wiped her eyes and turned over, shivering slightly. 'If Soul was here, he could keep me warm.'

The thought made her feel hollow inside. 'If he was here, I could kiss him…' that thought seemed to empty all she had left of self composer. She started whimpering in her pillow – she had never had a boyfriend before and she was longing to know what it was like to kiss a boy…but it all came back to her body. She was called a 'flat chest' so many times that she had began to think that she would never grow…she even tried stuffing tissues into her bra when Soul and her went to the school dance before they had the fight with the Kishin - but abruptly stopped when she heard Soul's door open.

Her eyes closed as tightly as she could manage without looking suspicious and listened. Soul opened the door slightly and lingered there for a moment, testing if she was awake, and then moved into the room.

Soul sat down on the edge of her bed and sighed. She could feel his red eyes on her and it made her feel wary… self-conscious. He crawled to the other side of the bed and lay down so that they're backs were towards each other. Maka's heat rate started to increase as he rolled over to face her. She pretended to sigh in her sleep and curled herself into a tight ball, feeling very uncomfortable.

She expected Soul to go to sleep, or better yet, leave, but instead, after a moment of looking at her, he whispered her name. "Maka…" – it echoed around her room, and the sound of his voice calling her name made her smile.

She faked a tired moan and rubbed her eyes – "Soul? Is that you?" But he just looked at her with a glint in his eyes. The room started getting hotter than it should have been on any other normal night. He inched closer and she sat up, instinctively wrapping her arms around her legs in a defensive position – she wasn't good with boys. He crawled in front of her and then leaned in to hug her. It made her shutter – the sheer hotness of their bodies pressed together made her want to moan into his white hair – which she suppressed-, when suddenly she realized that he looked as if he was…crying

"S-soul?" Maka uttered completely disturbed. The moonlight shown down through the high windows of Maka's room, and confirmed his crying – the light reflected off of his tears, making them little shining crystals.

"Maka…I-I…" he trailed off, leaning away and wiping his eyes. He wasn't crying a waterfall or anything, but a few tears had escaped his eyes – and that was enough to make Maka just as distressed. She turned toward her night table and turned the lamp on.

"Soul…what's wrong?" she asked in the bravest voice she could monger up. "I…I just kind off….o' man this is so stupid." He said turning away, obviously not wanting to continue. Unluckily for Soul, Maka wasn't really a person to be thrown off of a subject – especially not something like why he was crying.
"Soul, look…you can tell me anything… I'm your meister, remember?" she piped, trying feebly to cheer him up. He turned around and looked straight into her eyes – she felt electricity run through her body and immediately knew that this was going to be very important.

"Maka…I really don't know why I was tearing up," he muttered "– so un-cool – but I really need to tell you something…I need to tell you that I – I…- and then he choked up. He pounced off of the bed, out the door, shutting it on the way, and then slammed his own door.

Maka sat there for a moment and then stood up. She opened her door and then walked over to his door and knocked lightly. When she got no answer, she went ahead and opened the door anyway. She had never really been inside of Soul's room before, with the exception of laundry, but right now it had a pang in the air of intensity and anxiety.

She tip toed over to where he was sitting on the edge of his bed – she didn't really know why she was tip toeing- and poked his shoulder as she sat down; it was four in the morning and quite frankly she was getting tired of this cat and mouse act between them. She wanted answers. Needed answers.

"Look Maka, I'll save you time right now – I don't want to talk to you about anything, so get out." Soul looked up and met her concerned gaze with a ferocious look. He was furious and she had absolutely no idea why. His crimson red eyes were glowing and violent – it scared her like crazy.

Maka, being Maka, met his gaze almost instantly. "What the hell do you mean 'get out.'? I came in here to see if you're alright and this is what you say? You've been having mood flashes all day – what's your problem?" she said in a voice like a crescendo – getting louder and more vigilant as the sentence went on. She could feel her throat swell with angry as he said nothing and told her to get out again. "Really Soul, what's bothering you lately? You're ticking me off!" she barked. Soul stood up, his towering figure somewhat intimidating, and pointed at the door.

"Fine, if you really don't want me talking to you anymore," she stormed to the door, "then ignore me all your want to. I don't care anymore." Her voice cracked. His gaze flickered for a moment, but regained its full intensity. She turned on her heel to get a good dig into the carpet and swung the door closed with a slam. The hinges rattled, but she didn't stop until she was in her room. After kicking her dresser with her right foot as hard as she could and cursing Soul, jumped on her bed, and curled up into a tight ball again.

Whatever; I don't need him. He can leave for all I care. Maybe that would fix everything…maybe I should just disappear… and to think…this all started with baking a cake…