During the drive home, they eventually stopped resonating, though their souls still vibrated in sync. Maka wasn't thinking really, she was too wrapped up in the feelings Soul's song had produced in her and she clung to him closely on the back of his bike. Soon, they arrived home and before she knew it they were alone in their apartment. Maka had entered first and walked further into the room to drop her bag on the living room table before turning around to see Soul, standing in the middle of the room and staring at her.

It was at this point that Maka realized perhaps going home wasn't the best idea. Now, they were alone, in an apartment with access to beds, and they were both so keyed up that it was very possible things would spiral out of control. A zip of anxiety snapped across her senses and tightened her chest like a rubber band. At the same time, something else entirely wound tight in her stomach.

Soul must have picked up on her nerves, because his intense stare broke. He rolled his eyes and heaved a sigh before walking across the room to her. She squeaked when he gathered her up into his arms, not expecting the sudden hug.

"Chill out would ya? Just cause we're alone doesn't mean I'm gonna go all, 'me Tarzan, you Jane,' and drag you off to have my way with you."

She couldn't help but sputter in laughter and buried her head in his chest, still snickering. "Damnit Soul, why do you always know what to say to make things better?"

She could feel his shrug. "It's a gift."

A hum of agreement vibrated her throat and she relaxed some in his embrace, but not entirely. She wasn't really all that worried about Soul going after her; it was her she was more worried about. That, and these sorts of things simply bugged her. The idea of any sort of physical intimacy was still a bit of a sore spot for her, and she wasn't quite sure what to think about it. At the very least, she knew for damn sure that she wasn't ready for anything super sexual….but at the same time she was very much interested in some milder stuff…like kissing.

After a moment he puffed a breath of air onto the top of her head in exasperation. "What's got you so tense? We don't have to do anything at all if you don't want to."

"That's the problem though…I do want to. I think." She grumbled under her breath, but he still apparently heard her because she felt a few of his chest muscles tense and twitch.

"Okay, so…what's the problem again?"

With a sigh and groan, she pressed the top of her head further into his chest, as if to push out the thoughts. "I want to…but what if we end up doing stuff I'm not ready for?"

"Dumb Maka." He grunted, and one of his hands tugged on a pigtail, getting a noise of protest from her. "You're overthinking shit again. You know I'm not gonna force ya into anything you don't wanna do. And I highly doubt you're gonna blow a fuse and rape me."

Once again, she found herself bursting into surprised laughter. That finally got her head up and she looked at him, wiping amused water from her eyes as she chuckled. He grinned back down at her. After a moment he cleared his throat, flushed a little, and then busied his fingers with pulling out the hair ties holding her hair up. She let him, though it was a bit unexpected.

As he messed with her hair – being gentle so as to not pull out any – he spoke. "Like I said. We don't have to do anything."

With a blush of her own, she mumbled, "I'd like to…do some stuff. I just don't wanna go too far."

His eyes flicked down to her face, glanced at her, and then averted back to his hands and her hair as his flush increased a little. "Okay. Then how about we just do what we're doing right now? Hugging and stuff." He paused and then added, "…and maybe…I can touch you a little."

"Um, touch me how?" She asked hesitantly as he finally freed her hair and it flopped into her face. Before she could blow it out of her eyes with a puff of air he was already smoothing it back with gentle fingers.

"Just, you know, like this." He demonstrated by running his palm down her spine and then back up while the fingers of his other hand threaded through her hair. "Simple stuff."

It was as good a place to start as any she supposed, and frankly it felt pretty good. In any other circumstance it would be more soothing than exciting, but given her already hyper state and the current situation, she found it to be both.

Relaxing further into him, she nodded. "Okay. We can do that."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and let herself relax even more. Staring up at him expectantly, she waited to see what he would do. Her stare seemed to fluster him a little, and his eyes averted as that small flush popped up again on his cheeks. It was really cute.

He still wasn't that much taller than her, so she didn't have to crane her neck back to look into his face, which was convenient and meant she could watch him without a neckache.

Eventually, after a little awkward pause, the hand still in her hair began to move and his eyes flicked back to focus on that. His fingers ran through the loose strands, stroking them back and away from her face.

Almost absentmindedly he mumbled, "Your hair's really soft, by the way."

She flushed and smiled, happy at the small compliment.

The arm around her waist eventually relaxed and both hands came up to thread through her hair. To make it easier for him, she moved her own down from his neck and wrapped her arms around his waist instead, admiring the feel of his body as she did. He shivered and his hands stuttered, fumbling a little for a moment. After another short pause, he continued with what he was doing. Eventually those careful fingers tucked her hair behind her ears, taking a moment to gently rub them while he was at it.

It felt a little odd and wasn't exactly something she would have thought of, but it was kind of nice once she got used to it. She could sort of understand now why cats and dogs liked having their ears rubbed.

He didn't stay there for too long; soon he was curiously exploring again and his fingertips moved down to map out her jaw while his thumbs swiped across her cheeks. It was like he was trying to memorize her through touch, and the light caresses sent flutters through her tummy while her heart picked up in pace. It was strangely intense, even though it was so innocent.

One hand stayed cradling the side of her face, his fingers burying into her hair once again, and she leaned into the touch. That opened her up for his other hand as it traveled down and his fingers played across the sensitive skin of her neck. At some point her eyes slid shut and she let herself enjoy the almost ticklish sensation as he explored the muscles in her neck with a light touch. He stalled over her pulse, feeling her heartbeat for a while with his fingertips it seemed, before traveling down and caressing her shoulder and collarbone.

When his whole palm cupped over her shoulder she twitched a little in surprise, having gotten used to the light touches. His warm hand smoothed back up over her shoulder and then up her neck.

At this point, Maka had decided that she wanted to give it a try too. It wasn't fair that Soul got to do all the touching. And so, after getting up enough courage, she moved her hands back up to loop around his neck and opened her eyes. Moving her hands up had dislodged his, and after a moment of hesitation he settled them at her waist as he gave her a questioning look.

"Can I give it a try?" She asked, her fingers giving a little tug on the hair at the nape of his neck to clarify.

He blinked, and then nodded before swallowing thickly and muttering, "Uh…sure."

The first thing she did was remove the headband from his hair, and then indulged in running her fingers through his mop the way he had with hers. She'd wanted to do that for a while to be honest, so it was a very enjoyable experience. His hair was surprisingly silky… she'd almost expected it to be greasy with product.

After a bit, she lightly captured some between her fingers and gave a gentle tug. That got an unexpected response as his eyes slid shut and a tiny pleased hum came from his throat. Apparently he liked having his hair tugged on, a fact she tucked away for use. To verify it, she tried it again, and though he didn't make any sounds he did seem to like it, based on the way his head tilted into her grip. Curious now, she tried tugging on some of the hair at the back of his head, and he tilted his head back, exposing his throat more.

She discovered that he also liked it when she gently scratched at his scalp, and she couldn't help but wonder if she'd look this blissed out when he was touching her.

Probably.

Eventually she moved on from his hair and explored the tendons and muscles in his throat, also pausing over his pulse the way he had done to her. It was strangely fascinating to feel, and weirdly intimate. His heartbeat was going as fast as hers, she discovered, but that wasn't really surprising since they were both breathing relatively quickly.

Her fingers found their way to his shoulders, and she thoroughly enjoyed giving them a little massage and getting a good feel for the tightness in them. He didn't really look it, but he was actually pretty fit and had some muscles for her to grope. Soon enough she moved her hands back up, and buried her fingers in his hair once more. She traced his jaw and then risked a little touch on his lips, which got him twitching back and his eyes popping open in surprise. He almost looked a little disturbed, so she moved back to touching his hair, which quickly relaxed him again into closing his eyes.

By this point, she really wanted to kiss him, especially after that brief touch of her fingers to his mouth. It felt soft, if chapped. The only time they'd kissed it had been kind of rough, so she hadn't been able to really appreciate the softness of his lips, and now she found herself wondering what it would be like. She couldn't stop staring at his mouth and wondered if she was daring enough to go for it.

After some consideration – and a pounding heart nearly strangling her – she finally succumbed to the curiosity and desire.

Tightening her grip in his hair, she pulled him down and leaned up to connect their mouths. She did it quickly, but carefully enough to not to bash their heads together. She did however miss her mark a little and only got half his mouth. He hissed and then yelped, tensing up impossibly. It was obvious she'd caught him by surprise and he'd gone stiff with shock.

She pulled back a second to realign and this time landed the kiss correctly.

For a little while it seemed he got caught up in the moment, and after his initial shock he relaxed some and kissed her back tentatively. This time was much gentler, almost tentative, and she found herself giving him kiss after kiss, unable to really stop. It felt so nice, warm and soft like this, and after a while she stopped pulling back altogether and simply left her mouth on his for a single long kiss.

Then, all of a sudden, he jerked back with a gasp.

He would have disconnected completely and maybe even bolted, given the force he put into pulling back, but she still had a grip on his hair and reined him in to prevent him from running away. Through their soul sync, she'd felt a bolt of anxiety go through him, similar to the one after their first kiss, and this time she was determined to get to the bottom of it. So she held him still while he balked, and then once he had calmed down a second later she loosened her hold and slid her hands to his shoulders – allowing him to put a little bit of space between them.

His eyes were wide and refused to look at her as he licked his lips and then began chewing on them. He was obviously very upset about something, and she suspected it was the same something that had disturbed him the last time.

"What's wrong, Soul?"

"Uh, n-nothing. It's fine…" He mumbled unconvincingly, still refusing to meet her eyes.

"How is it that you're the one who got freaked out? Isn't that supposed to be my job?" She joked, hoping to get some sort of positive response.

It worked, he snorted a little. Then with a heavy sigh he risked a glance at her and held the eye contact for a moment before averting his gaze once again. "Really. It's nothing."

He fidgeted, and seemed like he wanted to put even more distance between them. So, to make them both more comfortable for what was sure to be a long process of tedious extraction, Maka released her grip on him and snagged his hand instead. Using it, she led him to the couch and he hesitantly sat. She released her hold on him entirely and sat next to him.

"Okay. We are going to sit here on this couch until you tell me what's bothering you."

He grumbled something under his breath, and she figured she probably didn't want to hear it.

After a long period of silence, with him stubbornly refusing to look at her, she decided to start the conversation herself. "Alright. I'll talk and then once you get tired of hearing my voice you can tell me what's really going on."

No response.

"I know it has to do with kissing me. You got all freaked out after the first time we kissed as well. Are you scared your teeth will hurt me?"

He grunted.

"If that's the case, you should get over it. We aren't going to learn how to not cut me if we don't practice. As long as we're careful it should be fine. Besides, I'm not scared of a little nick here and there; I'm used to that sort of thing. I'm a meister remember?"

He sent her a sour look.

"Obviously that's not all of it though is it? Alright, then." By this point she figured she'd just come up with really stupid and outlandish reasons for him to not want to kiss her, and eventually he'd have to laugh or get pissed and then he'd tell her what was actually going on. That was the theory anyways.

"Stop me if I'm right. You…you're afraid that I'm a vampire and will bite your face off."

He twitched.

"You're terrified of cooties."

His jaw clenched and an eyebrow spasmed.

"You have oral herpes."

He actually responded to that. "No, I don't."

"Good to know. Then….you must have a rotten tooth and you're afraid kissing will make it fall out."

His lips flinched and she could swear he was trying not to smile.

"Your grandmother forced you to kiss her on the lips when you were a baby and it traumatized you into not wanting to kiss anyone."

He grimaced. "Ew."

"Guess not. That's good; I've heard some grannies actually do that. Anyways…um…oh, how about this? You have a mysterious disease and whenever you kiss someone you suddenly believe you're in a musical and start to sing everything instead of speaking normally?"

That finally got him to snort in amusement. "Where do you come up with this shit, Maka?"

"Dunno. I'm just coming up with anything that might cause you to not want to kiss me. Like I said, stop me when you're ready to talk." She paused, and when he didn't speak up, she started brainstorming again. "Alright then. You're addicted to garlic and it gives you terrible breath."

He sent her a look. "You would have smelt it."

"True. Then…maybe you think that kissing someone can make them pregnant."

He sputtered with laughter. "Do people actually think that?"

"I dunno, young people maybe."

By this point he had turned so he was facing her, and was watching her with amusement, even if there was still some tension in his expression. She was making good progress.

"Are you scared that I'll suck your soul out through your mouth?"

"I'm the one who eats souls, not you." He pointed out, and then winced.

She had a feeling she was getting close and he'd just given something away, but she didn't want to scare him into silence again, so she ignored the slip-up and kept going.

"True. Then maybe you're scared of girls."

He just rolled his eyes.

"You have a colony of tiny fairies living in your mouth and you don't want to share."

For a second he stared at her and then busted out laughing. "Seriously Maka? What the fuck?"

She grinned, and then forced a serious expression on her face to deliver the next one. "No, I've got it now. You're from outer space and are actually an alien. If you kiss me, your babies will be implanted into my mouth to be born through my stomach, which will then kill me."

This only made him laugh harder, and finally he sputtered, "Okay! Okay! Geeze!"

She stopped and waited to see if he was ready to talk about it now that he was all relaxed. After he finished laughing, he finally pulled himself together and heaved a sigh.

"Fine. Look…It's uh, it's got nothing to do with you." Before she could get offended, he hurried to add, "What I mean is - there's nothing about you that makes me not want to kiss you. It's me that I…" He grimaced and stalled out.

"Okay… so you just don't like kissing?"

"No! That's not – no, I very much like kissing you, but…"

When he paused again, she prompted him some more. "You like kissing, but something about it makes you anxious? Or there's something about you that makes kissing…worrisome?" She was trying to understand. He'd said it wasn't her, so there had to be something about himself that he was worried about. "Is it your teeth? Cause we've already talked about that."

"Well…sort of. I mean yeah, I am worried about hurting you, so that's part of it, but…"

"There's more." She seemed to have to finish his sentences when he stalled out to keep him going. So far it was working. But she had to be careful not to do it when he was just pausing, because that might start to irritate him.

"Right." He nodded, looking uncomfortable.

When he didn't say anything again for a long moment, she had an idea. Scooting forwards, she reached out a hand, aiming to put her fingers on his lips. He instantly leaned back and caught her wrist, saying, "Don't!" rather sharply.

"So, it's not just kissing. You don't like the idea of your mouth getting anywhere close to me." She surmised.

He tightly nodded and sat back up straight, giving her a rather put-out expression.

"Why? If it's not just about your pointy teeth then.…wait….is it because everything about your mouth is different? Because that doesn't creep me out or anything – as long as you don't stick your unnaturally long tongue down my throat or something."

He flinched and she knew she was getting warmer.

After another long silence she prompted him again. "So, it's not just your teeth. It's your whole mouth area that bugs you?"

"Why are you so fucking smart?" He grumbled, looking surly.

"I'm right?"

With a puff of exasperated air, he finally started speaking again. "Yeah. Sort of. It's more about why my mouth is so fucked up that bugs me."

"It's not fucked up; it's just been altered from eating…oh." She started getting a good idea of what was probably bothering him.

"What kind of souls do I eat, Maka?" He asked, giving her a tired but somehow still sharp look.

"Kishin eggs." She answered, already seeing where this was going.

"And are kishin eggs nice and happy?"

"No. They're evil."

"Exactly. Not to mention full of insanity. I've eaten more than two hundred of them, even if the first hundred were removed. That shit's been all up in my mouth – teeth, tongue, jaw… it's all been tainted. There's no way I want my nasty mouth near you. You shouldn't either."

No wonder he was so freaked out.

How this particular thought had gotten lodged in his head she wasn't sure, but she could see why it would upset him. It even gave her pause because it had never occurred to her before. In the end though, it simply didn't matter to her where his mouth had been. It wasn't like he'd been kissing a bunch of girls or doing…other things to them with his mouth. That would bother her a million times more than him eating evil souls.

She scooted closer to him again and he leaned back some, averting his eyes once more.

This had to stop now, and she was going to put an end to it, even if she had to do it by force. Once she was close enough, she stopped and asked nicely first.

"Look at me Soul."

When he didn't, she used her meister reflexes to snap her hand forwards and snag his chin before he could jerk away or block her. He flinched hard and tried to pull back, but she just dragged his head around to face her.

His eyes were wide and he stared at her, almost scared.

"Seriously…for the guy who's always telling me to stop overthinking things, this is ridiculous. You need to listen to your own advice." She told him seriously.

"But…"

"I don't care." She said firmly, interrupting him.

His jaw went slack for a moment as he gaped at her and she relaxed her grip on his chin. Then he seemed to gather himself together again and protested. "Well I do."

"I don't care about that either." She countered. "It's stupid, and I'm not going to let you get freaked out about it. You're just going to have to get over it."

She knew she was being a bit harsh, and normally she'd take his worries more seriously. However, in this case, he needed to be snapped out of it – and quickly. This was one worry she was not going to let fester, and if she had to yank the tumor out by the tail she would. She'd take a page from his book when it came to dealing with her stupid worries, and do the same to him.

He was once again taken aback. For a long moment he stared at her, his lips mouthing words that didn't make any sound as he tried to figure out what to say to that. Eventually he just repeated, "Maka…I'm tainted. I can't…"

"First of all, you are not tainted. Sure, it changed you, but that's natural for a weapon. Second, yes you can. You even said you wanted to. And you shouldn't let a stupid worry stop you from doing something you want."

He sputtered some more, like a dying engine, and she hoped this argument would sputter out like one without fuel. Unfortunately, he just kept going.

In fact, he seemed to get mad, and to prove his point he cranked his jaw open all the way to expose all his pointy teeth, like a shark or snake that had dislocated its jaw. It was a sight she'd only seen once before, aside from when he popped a soul in his mouth, but it was certainly disconcerting when it was aimed at her. She almost flinched back when he bent and suddenly snapped those dangerous teeth at her wrist, which was close to him since she was still holding his chin.

However, given the point of this argument, she knew good and well he wasn't going to bite her. In fact, she was surprised he'd bit her in the chapter of Sloth, but suspected he must have been overcome with panic.

"I saw that." He said then, probably meaning either her discomfort when looking into his gaping maw or the way she very nearly flinched as he snapped at her. "You can't tell me you want that near you."

"Yeah, it's a little disconcerting to look down your throat." She admitted. "And the jaw-thing is freaky. But seriously, you're not going to be kissing me with your mouth open like that. And if you tried, I'd Maka Chop you."

"So it does bother you…"

"The idea of you trying to eat my face? Yeah, sure. I doubt you'd like it if I tried to bite your nose off or something. But come on Soul, you wouldn't ever try that. And that's not what we're really talking about here anyways. Like I said, your altered mouth doesn't bug me…as long as you don't do that…how are you doing that anyways?" She asked as he apparently tried to prove her wrong by sticking his tongue out at her. All the way out.

He looked like a lizard or snake with a long tongue. She'd wanted to know how long it was before and now she had a pretty good estimate. It was at least six or seven inches long, maybe even more.

"Is that as far as you can stick it out?" She asked curiously, leaning to the side to try and get a measure. Soul just rolled his eyes, obviously exasperated now.

When she reached out to grab the tip, intending on tugging it out as long as she could, he whipped it back in. "Maka! For fuck's sake! Would you get serious here?!"

"Hey, you're the one who stuck his tongue out at me."

He just snarled and grumbled some more.

"Seriously though. Like I said, that stuff doesn't bother me. It just makes me curious."

"Obviously." He grumbled, looking rather grumpy now. She refused to let him turn his head away though since she still had a good grip on his chin.

"And the other thing doesn't bother me either. I don't care what you put in your mouth. You could eat garbage if you wanted…though you would have to use mouth wash and brush your teeth thoroughly before I'd kiss you."

That got a little snort. "Maka…" He sighed, "I just don't…"

"Okay. I see we're gonna have to do this the hard way."

He tried to jerk back, but it didn't work.

What she was planning probably wasn't advisable, and frankly she wondered if maybe she should just let what they'd talked about sit. Maybe he would change his mind after some contemplation over their conversation. Then again… Soul was pretty damn stubborn when he wanted to be, and she somehow doubted he would get over this without a little shove in the right direction. So, she mentally apologized and put her plan into action.

She waited, and when his lips parted for another protest, she jammed two fingers from her other hand in his mouth. As expected, he didn't react well and tried to pull back, but she held him in place. There was no way for him to close his mouth without biting her. He balked and bucked in her grip and did his very best to get her fingers out of his mouth. In the end she had to essentially tackle him against the arm of the couch and then sit on him to hold him still.

Once he was immobilized and her fingers were still lodged in his mouth, she stared down at his slightly panicky expression. Her other hand was securely on his jaw, and his head was pressed back against the arm of the couch now since she'd toppled him over.

"You've gotta breathe, Soul."

He did so, albeit very quickly, and did his best to voice a protest around her fingers.

"Look, my fingers are in your mouth, and nothing bad is happening, aside from you having a panic attack. So just calm down already." And then, having a thought, she said, "You know, if you really wanna speak about evil, these fingers-" she wiggled the fingers in his mouth and he squirmed, "- have been in as much contact with it as your mouth. You may be the blade that cuts and eats them, but I'm the one who wields you. I'm the one who kills them. These hands have killed many, many times. They've been covered in blood. So don't talk to me about tainted…because I'm just as tainted as you."

By the end of her little speech, he was staring up at her helplessly and had stopped trying to fight her off. Ever so slowly his tongue stopped curling back and away from the invading appendages and relaxed back into its normal position, which put it lying underneath her fingers. Just as gradually, his mouth closed, teeth gently resting against her skin and followed by his lips as he totally relaxed his mouth. Since it seemed he had accepted her fingers she pulled them back and wiped his slobber off on her skirt.

"Better?"

He took a deep breath. "Yeah…but that was kinda overkill don't you think? I nearly had a heart attack."

"Sorry."

She gave him a moment to relax and moved off him so he could sit up again. After a bit, she reached up again and gently put her hand on his jaw.

He tensed, and asked, "Uh, what're you doing?"

"I'm going to kiss you now, if that's alright." It was sort of shocking that those words had come from her mouth, but under the circumstances she had no problems with it.

"Um…I don't know about that…" He sputtered as she went up on her knees and leaned in. At least he didn't pull back, but she could see how he tensed up, nearly quivering with it.

"It still bothers you?" She asked, practically nose to nose with him. This close she could see how his pupils spastically widened and narrowed.

"It's…your mouth, so yeah…it's a bit different."

"Okay. I'll stay right here and when you're ready then you can close the last inch." She mumbled.

Soul wasn't the only one who was nervous about this particular thing. Kissing was still a bit intimidating for Maka too, especially in such an awkward setting. She found herself quivering a little as she stayed put…. but it was important for her to be the strong one here, so she locked her muscles in place and stayed.

It took a while, but eventually he tentatively leaned forwards and brushed his lips against hers. Once he connected she dropped her hand and let him take over. It was very hesitant, barely there, but it was definitely a kiss. It didn't take long for her to get lost in it, and he followed suite, both of them relaxing somewhat as they pressed closer. That continued for a while, until Maka deemed it time to go to the last stage of her "cure Soul from his fear" plan.

This was the part she wasn't exactly looking forward to. In fact, she found herself reconsidering momentarily. But Maka was nothing if not courageous. Usually that courage was absolutely lacking when it came to these sorts of things…but apparently the exception was when she needed to help Soul.

Her need to help Soul motivated her to go for something that she personally thought was probably going to be absolutely disgusting … at least for her. Hopefully though, he wouldn't be grossed out by it.

Carefully – and somewhat hesitantly – she placed her hand at the back of his head, where she could grab some hair if she had to. Hopefully he'd go along with it though. Pressing closer, she parted her lips more, not entirely sure how to go about this, but just going for it. He responded, and though it was a bit sloppy and uncoordinated, open mouth kissing was slowly initiated. It was wet, and probably Soul was drooling a little, and at first Maka internally cringed. After a moment though, she realized it was exactly as bad as she had expected.

It was certainly strange, but in some ways it was kind of…nice. It was warm and allowed for greater mobility, which gave her an even better feel for Soul's lips and how they could move against and with her own.

Even so, she wasn't looking forwards to the next bit.

Before she could chicken out, she went for it. There was no doubt in her mind that this was going to be awkward as hell and uncomfortable for her, but hopefully it would cement the idea in his head that she didn't mind his mouth at all. Trying to be subtle about it, she slipped her tongue forwards and managed to get it in his mouth before he knew what was going on. As soon as he did realize, he balked again, which she'd expected. That was why her hand was in his hair.

Something that sounded shockingly close to a whimper escaped him, but she held him as he attempted a few protests. His tongue did all sorts of interesting things to avoid hers, and so she busied herself with exploring, very slowly to try and get him used to it – and herself too. Eventually he calmed down a little, and very tentatively began kissing her back again, though it was obvious that he was reluctant. It took a while before he used his tongue though, but eventually he did make contact.

She hesitantly stroked his tongue with her own, and he responded – with about the same level of tentativeness. At this stage, the playing field seemed to be level for both of them – since they were both a little unsure about this. But Maka was willing to continue trying it, if – for no other reason – than to prove once and for all that she meant what she had said. His mouth did not bother her. If she could tolerate his tongue and hers touching…well, it said volumes.

As for the sensation itself…it was certainly odd, and not exactly what Maka had expected. It felt kind of slippery and slimy, but it was also warm and soft. There was definitely a gross factor at first for her, but very slowly that eased up just a bit as she got used to it. As she focused more of her attention on her lips and kissing him, it became a little nicer, and she decided that this type of kissing felt … kind of good in a weird way.

Once you got over the initial shock of it all, it wasn't half bad. It was almost like a dance – a very uncoordinated sloppy wet dance…or perhaps a wrestling match, although it wasn't nearly aggressive enough for that. Perhaps the best comparison for it would be two clumsy baby something-or-others bumping into each other and discovering each other for the first time…. and then wondering what the hell to do with each other. There really was sort of a conversation going on, as they tried to figure out where to go from here.

Slowly, the kiss started back up, and with the addition of lips, the game changed a little. Things got a little more pleasant, and Maka began to see maybe why people liked it. There certainly was a distinct and very powerful sort of intimacy going on with tongue kissing she hadn't necessarily expected. It ramped up the intensity of the kiss rather sharply, despite their clumsiness and inexperience.

In fact, to her absolute shock, Maka found herself beginning to enjoy herself again…though she was still ever so slightly torn about it. She definitely liked kissing him…even with tongues involved, though that was going to take probably weeks of getting used to before she would actually enjoy it.

Still, she ended up getting surprisingly distracted and wrapped up in the kiss, to the point where she got slightly out of breath. Based off the rapid puffs of air on her cheek, he was also into it, which was a huge relief. It was gratifying to know that, not only had her plan worked and he had gotten past a lot of his issues, but he was also seemingly enjoying himself.

Eventually they separated, panting heavily and staring at each other with wide eyes.

"So…was that…cool with you?" She panted, blinking to try and bring her mind fully back on line. It was somewhat shocking to discover just how fuzzy her higher mental functions had gotten from a single kiss.

A small choked laugh escaped him in reply to her question. "Yeah. Definitely cool."

At that point she looked down, noted her position perched on his lap, and stared, wondering how she ended up there. "Do you remember how I got here?"

"What do you mean?"

"In your lap. I don't remember how I got in your lap."

"Oh. Yeah. I guess you are. Huh." He seemed as bewildered as her. "I think you did it when you first shoved your tongue in my mouth."

"Hey!" She gave him a very light Maka Chop. "Don't say it like that!"

He winced from the tap, probably expecting something harder, and protested, "Well you did…"

With a huff she extracted herself, careful not to knee him accidentally, and then brushed herself off and straitened her skirt out. It was a semblance of control, when inside she really felt all trembly and shaky and discombobulated from that crazy kiss.

"Well, I think we should go to bed now." When she caught his look, she was quick to clarify, "Separately! Don't look at me like that! I just meant we should go to sleep now before anything else happens. I don't think I'm ready for anything more than that."

"Right." He sighed and then lazily shoved his hands in his pockets and stood. "I call dibs on the bathroom."

"Uh, sure."

Once he had disappeared, she blew out a breath and sat on the couch again, her thighs a little wobbly. That had been more intense than she'd expected and she felt a little off balance from it. Thankfully by the time Soul made a reappearance she had gotten herself mostly together again.

As for Soul, he went to bed quickly, pretty exhausted after the crazy day he'd just had – and of course sleepy from jerking off in the shower. Thankfully Maka hadn't noticed his hard on, because he figured she probably would have freaked. Then again, maybe not. She'd shown him a rather shocking side of herself today. He never would have expected her to take control like that, given how timid she usually seemed when it came to physical intimacies. Perhaps he'd underestimated her…not that he was complaining by any means.

Unfortunately, his rest that night was somewhat fitful, given the amount of wet dreams he experienced.

Author's Note:

Hello everyone! I hope 2018 is treating you all well so far!

As for this story, as you can see we finally got to a hint of citrus...yay! It's about time right? And we get to see how Maka deals with physical intimacies a little bit here. Obviously she's going to have to take things slow, but it seems like she's dealing pretty well. ;D

As always, a huge thank you to everyone who reviews! You guys are the ones who keep me writing!