Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Soul Eater on a legal scale and I never will. If I did, I would've changed some things up a bit.

This has semi-spoilers for the current plotline/arc of the manga. You have been warned. There isn't anything super specific, just the general "universe" they're in. If you have no idea what I'm talking about but still want to read, then go right ahead but don't say I didn't warn you (even if there isn't much this time to be warned about).

Character(s)/Pairing(s): Black Star/Tsubaki

Theme: 31. Love

May 10, 2010

She sat on the couch, legs curled up underneath her as she leafed through a magazine. Barely paying attention to the text on the pages, she absentmindedly flipped page after page, watching the colors change.

"So. We have something we need to talk about, you."

Tsubaki turned, craning her neck to see her partner leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen. "We do?"

"Something's been on my mind ever since we came back from that damned book."

She closed the magazine and letting it rest on her lap. She knew where this was going.

"It took me a couple of chapters of that book to turn back, but you didn't turn back until the last chapter."

She rolled her eyes. He had tried to approach this topic a few times, coming a bit short of sound reasoning. He couldn't wrap his mind around it. "Black Star. Again? Really?"

"No! I want to know! You're a horny girl. Why did you hide that from me? I'm hurt. The big me is hurt!" he frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Both you and Liz are freaks, but you were the one who didn't turn back until the last minute! What else are you hiding from me? What do you do when I'm not around?"

"Is this really a big deal?"

When he didn't know about this, he was a lot easier to control his outbursts. He would assume she was a morally upstanding woman, holding her chastity in check. Now that she was betrayed by an outside source—how was she supposed to know that she was going to be dropped into a book that could sense her deepest desires? She couldn't go back to the place where they used to be.

"Of course it is! You keep shit from me, and I thought that I was… I thought I was bad enough, and here you are!" he yelled, startling her with his outburst… especially when it held a bit of truth to it.

"Black Star—"

"Why?" he demanded. His eyes were fixed on hers, and if she didn't know him any better she would have broken a sweat. Those eyes, that face… they would be the death of her. They would do her in.

"Why…?" she repeated, eyebrows furrowed. "Why what?"

"Why wouldn't you tell me? I need a good reason."

She frowned. Like she could tell him the real reason. "Black Star."

He looked away dramatically. "I feel like I don't know you."

"W-What? But you do! You know me the best--"

"I bet Maka knew."

Tsubaki frowned, shifting to a sitting position. She scoffed. "Maka would explode if she knew exactly what goes through my head."

"But I didn't know this?" As an afterthought, he added, "Explode?"

He was hurt that she didn't share… this? It may not have been all that important to her, to their mission, but it hurt him that she wasn't open about her sexuality? He wanted to know that she secretly got off when she knew that he was watching her bathe, that he wanted to watch her bathe, maybe even bathe with her?

"I didn't know that it would pain you so much to not know."

"Well, it does," he said, moving from the doorframe and sitting down on the couch with a huff. He probably would've pouted if he were a normal human being.

"You don't talk about feelings too much, either, Black Star."

She could hear him plenty when he thought he was alone in the house. The only thing he knew how to use the Internet for was to look up porn.

"Yeah, well, this has been eating at me for a while now. You should tell me more about yourself, horny girl," he leered at her.

"Maybe this is why I didn't tell you anything?"

"No, no!"

There was a long pause.

"Do you… have any… toys?"

"Black Star!" she gasped, and on reflex pushed him away from her.

"If I check your room right now—"

"You will do no such thing!" she said, standing up suddenly. She all but sprinted to her room.

He was hot on her trail without so much as a second thought.

"You're going to hide something!"

"If you follow me into my room, I swear to Shinigami-sama that I will render you immobile!" she threatened, trying to shut the door in his face. He pushed back, obviously not using all of his strength—she would be on her ass already if he had done so.

"Come on! We can have playtime! Count it as training!"

She couldn't let him know that this was exciting her. She was horrible. She almost moaned out loud at her brain's progression deeper and deeper into the gutter.

She smirked, and then continued to play indignant. "Handcuffs aren't playtime!"

There was a pause. "Handcuffs? Oh, please! I've never wanted anything more in my life! Please, please!"

Oh, his desperation… it was delicious. "No!" she shouted in mock-exasperation. "Why do you want to know so badly? What would you even get out of this other than my utter humiliation?"

Was she really a masochist? He could be a sadist when he wanted to be.

"Do you really have to ask me that, Tsubaki?" he asked, voice suddenly soft. He stopped pushing on her door, making it slam in his face at her exertion. After a view seconds of surprise, she slowly cracked open the door. She peeked out to see him still there with a look she had never seen on his face.

"Black Star?"

He shifted side-to-side impatiently, as if he was anxious to be somewhere else. "Can we start this over? I don't want to fight. Not like this. Do over?"

Tsubaki's head was spinning. "You… oh. Okay, sure?"

He pulled the door shut the second she agreed, and she stood back simply blinking at what had just gone on.

There was a knock. She shook her head with a soft smile at his behavior, but opened the door after a pause. "Yes, Black Star?"

"I think I'm in love with you," he blurted out before spinning on his heel and almost running down the hallway.

Stunned, Tsubaki couldn't move for a good ten seconds before it clicked.

"Get back here right now!" she yelled, not moving from her room. She wouldn't. That would mean that she was dreaming since she was likely to start floating. This couldn't happen. Could it? It started as a fight about one thing and became something entirely different—or was it?

A couple of minutes later, her uncharacteristically reluctant partner shuffled up to her. She stared him down until he spoke. "Yeah, I messed up."

"Says who?"

He looked up, surprised. "What?"

Tsubaki shifted weight from one leg to the other, her hands crossed under her bosom. "Where did this come from, all of a sudden?"

"What? Asking about the book?"

He could play dumb but not that dumb. "No, the confession."

"It… can I not say?" he asked, a watery smile on his face. He was genuinely nervous. Where were the cameras for this moment?

"No," Tsubaki firmly replied.

"I… couldn't… stop thinking about you… in that way, and…" He frowned, "I don't have to tell you!"

"If you want me to respond to your confession, you definitely are. Especially if you want me to admit anything to you ever."

"I just got this burn in my gut. I knew telling you… that… would stop. It didn't, though. It's worse."

She smiled, realizing what he meant: lust. "You know your heart isn't in your gut, right?"

"Then… oh wait, that was… nevermind. Seriously, how did you turn back later than I did and you have it all together? I just don't get it."

"Black Star?"

The Man Who Surpassed God (yet not his libido) sighed, "Yeah. I messed up."

Smiling, she opened the door wider so she could step out of it completely. "No, you didn't." She had been waiting for this. She didn't want to lead him on, push her emotions onto him and instigate something superficial, when he didn't feel anything for her. Now, she knew. Now, she could. Tilting her head, she took a step forward to press her lips to his cheek. "You didn't mess up."

"I didn't," he responded as if he didn't believe what he was saying.

With a coy smile, she added, "But you have to earn the first-hand knowledge of why I was the last to turn back. Deal?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely."