Kays! Part One (two? *mutters to self* Do I count the bus ride or not?) of day one!

Thank you everybody for the ideas, and keep them coming! I'll do my best to find places to fit them in~ (I originally planned for this whole trip to be two chapters: one for each day, but once I get them talking, the charas just don't shut up- bless their little hearts.)

Planned activities: Canoeing, three-legged race (mom...), marshmallow-roasting (ChaosreigN), magical marco-polo in the dark (thank you, Win!), and fishing (MonkeyQueen88 YT).

Possible activities (let me know if you think these are worth adding): Log rolling, bouquette-making (yes, I'm aware I misspelled that...), cave-exploring, hiking (I'm confused about how much fun this would be or what to do with it, because the times my dad dragged me out for it I ended up constantly tripping and almost killing myself, and therefor rather missed the fun aspect...), and bracelet-weaving.

Activities I can't add (I'm sorry): Scary stories. I can't add outside ones as it counts as Plagerism, and I'm not good at thinking them up.

Jay-chan, hope you like the chapter, and does it live up to your suggestion?

Thank you, everybody; I love you all. Please enjoy!

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Soul sighed and stepped off the bus, Maka and her brother just behind him with Ragnarok bringing up the rear. For all the fuss the teachers had made of getting off the bus, they were left standing around with nothing much to do until the requisite ten minutes were up. At which point rampant screaming started coming from both buses and the tardy students began pouring from the two vehicles.

The screaming crowd overtook the rest of them and they were all tossed about in the shuffle of bodies. Maka was shoved into him and he once again steadied her; seeing the tension in her wary posture and grabbing her hand before she gave in to the urge to Manifest. The last thing they needed first thing in the morning -or the whole trip, really- was another fight. Besides vibrating in tense silence like a muted harp string, the ash-blonde put up with his touch and Soul counted that as a win. The lack of bloodshed was another victory.

"You okay?"

Maka bit her lip, but nodded without speaking. It irritated him; the press of the bumbling students surrounding them, Soul could almost feel them being penned in. Like cattle for slaughter. He shook his head and took a few steps back, pulling Maka with him, and blatantly using Ragnarok for cover. The taller Second-Level had saved his own partner differently: picking the slighter, pink-haired boy up off the ground entirely and setting him up on his shoulders.

Without even knowing the kid, Soul could tell the boy was caught between fear of the pressing crowd and being put on the spot with such high-level human contact; choosing to cling to Ragnarok with his face buried in the taller male's hair and ignoring everything around him. Maka's fingers were clutching his own like a lifeline, for once not arguing about getting help since he and Ragnarok were acting as her meat-shields.

Another five minutes had been wasted in the panic of that 'wake up' by the time all the escorts had managed to get everyone calmed down, and Soul pulled Maka along as the teachers had them all line up, refusing to let go until she did.

The blonde nurse caught up with them after the stampede ended. Flicking a long lock of golden hair out of her face, the school Nurse faced them all, "Now that everyone's awake and functioning, allow me to explain how this little trip is going to work. For the next step of your education- teams, you need to have a strong, trusting relationship with all of your teammates. All of you have found a partner, and over the next two days, you'll be put though trials and activities to both forge and test the bond you have with them in hopes you'll be compatible to form part of a four-person team with.

"Food will not be served: everyone is going to pitch in for the whole. Hunting, trapping, fishing, foraging. Today is all about sharing trials and experiences with your partner, tomorrow we're having team activities that will test that new bond by pitting you against each other. We're doing this as both a vacation and assessment of your skills for school; so there will be a grade for the trip, but failing here won't affect your school grade. There will also be a hidden points system for listening well to instruction, execution of given tasks and activities, and team effort.

"As with any point-system, it'd have little point at all without rewards and penalties. The lists of chores, for instance. The judging began the moment you were told of this yesterday. Points have been given and taken based on: How well you followed the list of necessary\allowed items, you've been awarded for every item you remembered, and taxed for each one you forgot or had to have removed as frivolous or rule-breaking. I've come into possession of quite the stash of disallowed food items -Blackstar- and one complete extra set of everything -Death the Kid- all of which will only be returned at the end of the trip when we're back at the Academy. Those of you who've had to have things added, or hauled to the bus when you were given specific instructions of when to be ready to leave, and of course those of you who failed to heed my disembarking warning; have all lost points.

"This is our chore list. When I call your names, step forward and pick two chores. Maka and Soul."

With a subtle flick, Maka freed her hand from his before they stepped up, eyes scanning over the pinboard the other teachers set out. Soul glanced at his teammate, "One each?"

Maka nodded without looking at him, and even though she didn't blush, the white-haired teen was almost certain she was ignoring him because she was embarrassed. Her gloved hand twitched, then curled, and she finally glanced at him, "You pick first."

Ruby eyes scanned over the many jobs offered before shrugging and picking one he thought should be easy enough, "I'll take fishing."

Medusa nodded and made a mark on a clipboard, "Maka?"

"Snares."

The the golden blonde nodded and marked it, then turned to get them their equipment, "Here you are: everything you'll need. Back into line, please. Crona and Ragnarok."

Maka smiled at her brother as they went past, the pink haired boy still perched on his partner's shoulders, face flushed and mostly hidden. Ragnarok didn't even seem to notice, tapping Crona's knee and nodding at the board. Hesitating a moment, the slender teen pointed to his choice, "Berry F-foraging, please."

"Then I'll pick gathering firewood."

Medusa called out the next names and Kid and his partner stepped up to the board. The two didn't seem happy to be partners on this trip at all, Kid immediately plucked up his choice, "I'll tidy up around camp, I suppose."

"The entire clearing's going to be symmetrical by the time we get back." Soul whispered to his teammate. Maka covered her smile with the back of her hand, but her green eyes danced with laughter as she looked back at him and nodded in agreement.

The other boy eyed over the choices before eventually picking tending the fire.

They stepped back when the Nurse nodded, "Thunder and Fire."

And on it went, the brother and sister picking food prep and dish-washing respectively. Tsubaki and Blackstar ended up somewhere around the last third, with Tsubaki's meticulous nature making up for Blackstar's... not meticulous one. The ones who'd been asleep on the bus and hadn't woken when told to were assigned the worst chores, and it was rather vindicating when Donna and her partner, among several others, were given the job of digging the latrine trenches. Soul didn't even try to hold in his laughter, though Maka had more control.

When everything was decided Medusa turned back to them again, "You'll all have two hours to your assigned task. Come back when your school clips give off this sound." she paused and watched them all jump when their skull-pins let out loud chirps, "You'll have forty-five minutes to get back to camp before you're considered lost and this tone starts." they winced as a high-pitched whine-shriek emitted from the skulls, "At which point you'll not only have to deal with the sound of that until we find you, but also the humiliation of being 'rescued' and dragged back to camp. If something does go wrong, smack the pin and it will send out an alert, hit it twice and we'll consider it an emergency. If the pin is submerged in water for two minutes or touches human blood, it will send out an immediate emergency signal automatically." she pulled a stopwatch from her cloak like the kind they'd seen on Sid in Gym and held it out, "Your two hours begins... Now."

Being a city-boy, Soul asked if Maka knew what she was doing in the forest and, receiving a relieving nod, told her to take the lead. The ash-blonde blinked at him in confusion for a moment, then gave a twitch of the lips that Soul was mentally counting as a smile, and led them into the forest. Soul was glad one of them knew what the hell they were doing, because he was clueless about this whole 'wilderness' thing. Every snapping twig had him twitching and expecting... well, he didn't really know, but nothing good!

The whole forest was sort of creepy and the silence around them was really starting to freak him out after about ten minutes. He outright jumped when Maka sighed and turned on him with an annoyed expression, "Please stop that."

Soul blinked in utter confusion, "Stop what?"

Maka stared at him for a moment, head tilted cutely -he mentally smacked himself for the thought, because in the weeks he'd known her it had become painfully obvious Maka had some kind of relationship phobia about other people- before looking pinched, and Soul had the distinct impression of Maka wanting to facepalm herself. She settled for a sigh before looking back at him earnestly, "What do you hear?"

Soul closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, "I don't hear a thing. It's like we're the only things alive out here." his voice was not freaked out at all.

"That's because you're scaring everything away."

"Me?!" Well that was news.

"Watch your feet, don't step on twigs, be careful not to brush too heavily against the bushes, step lightly upon the ground. Crashing means grave danger and everything around will flee in fear of what could cause your flight. Too silent means predators stalking, and humans are too odd for defining what exactly we'd be hunting. Hear it?"

Since they'd been still and talking -quietly, but not making any effort to be especially silent- sounds of the forest had resumed, and Soul listened as birds chirped from the trees, small rustling sounds reaching him from bushes and underbrush. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted some form of furry woodland creature -mutant squirrel?- scurry up into the highest part of a near-by tree.

His breath left in a whoosh of wonder: "Oh..."

Maka smiled at the flabbergasted look. She hesitated, then reached out and took his hand, leading him through the forest again, and Soul would have fallen on his face without her there; too busy scanning around to get a look at all the wildlife surrounding them. He tried his best to look down at least every three steps to make sure he wasn't being too loud or clumsy, but this whole nature thing was way more fascinating than he'd thought it would be. And Maka seemed to know everything about it.

The blonde's soft voice filtered back to him, explaining the wonder of the world around them: tracks from animals they passed, plants that were edible or medicinal, the different trees they walked under, until they finally crossed what she identified as a rabbit trail. Soul nodded and started flipping through the booklet they'd gotten to see how to prepare the snares. By the time he found it and looked up, Maka was watching him watch her, traps already set up.

Soul had never felt quite so useless in his life- and that was saying a lot considering what he put up with when it came to his parents. So uncool, Soul. Face pink, he closed the booklet and shoved it back into a back pocket, nodding at his partner's flawless work, "Cool. Let's go find a fishing spot."

Maka closed her eyes and tilted her head for several minutes. Given the amount of experience she'd shown so far, Soul decided it was best not to interrupt her. Then green eyes flicked open, "There's a river not far from here. I can hear the sound of water over stone. It's... that way."

Soul's respect rose and he shrugged, "Lead on."

It didn't take them long to get the the river -well, 'river' might have been excessive; it was more of a wide stream, but it was more of a river than Soul'd ever had experience with- but Soul's hair was starting to look like the trees they'd been walking through; he was sure there were more leaves in his hair than hair... He set the equipment down and started plucking the foliage from his white locks as Maka looked on, stifling a laugh if the shaking of her shoulders were anything to go by. Soul couldn't help an amused smirk of his own and gave up on his hair, plopping cross-legged on the bank of the clear-flowing river and pulling over their fishing gear. They'd been given two poles and a small tackle-box.

He set out to untangle the lines and get things ready when he realized they were missing something, "Hey, there's no-"

Soul was left blinking when he looked up and found Maka crouching in front of him, holding several worms, "Got some bait."

"Where...?"

"The moist soil by riverbanks is softer and easier to crawl through for worms. You don't usually have to dig too far before you find some." she held up the sturdy, pointed stick she'd used to open a hole in the ground.

Soul shook his head and plucked the crawlers from her hands, trapping them in an empty pocket of the tackle box so they didn't escape. He finally got the rods ready and handed Maka hers, which she blinked at before looking back at him in confusion. "What?"

"I... don't know how to use a fishing pole."

The white-haired teen almost facefaulted; how could she be so awesome with the rest of this nature stuff and not even know how to fish? Not that it mattered, since this was one thing he did know how to do. "Here, hold like this. Click the button and back, then release on the forward swing." he put on a worm and demonstrated, watching the hook plop into the water and float downstream with the bobbin.

Maka copied him, her first cast not even making it to the water, flopping to the ground at her feet. It was a beginner thing, and though extremely funny, Soul did his best not to laugh in case it discouraged her. After three more fails, he couldn't help his snickering, and Maka gave up; walked up the the edge of the water, held her pole out over the stream as far as she could, and click-released her button, letting the water do all the work, sitting down on the bank with an aura of 'don't even talk to me' surrounding her. Soul sat next to her unable to wipe the smirk off his face, and after several minutes Maka sighed and her lips twitched, the rigid expression fading to an amused one as they sat and waited for something to bite.

Maka was the first one to get a bite, but she yanked too hard and let it get away; losing her worm in the process. Soul carefully noted her clenched jaw, "Want me to bait and cast for you?"

Maka put the pole aside and stood up, turning around, "No thank you." then she walked away back into the forest.

Soul worried after her as she disappeared into the foliage. She probably knew what she was doing, but he hoped she didn't wander off too far. Not only did he not want to lose his partner; he hadn't been able to pay much attention to his surroundings when they'd been walking and he was essentially stranded here without her. He let out a relieved sigh when she came back and sat on the ground a bit away up-river of him, then tilted his head in confusion when she started taking off her boots, "Maka?"

She just cast him a sunny smile, otherwise ignoring him as she finished removing her footwear, then stepped out into the stream and moved to the middle of the flow, the water coming up to lap at her knees.

"You're getting your clothes wet..."

"They'll dry."

Shaking his head at his confusing partner, Soul turned back to his own task. It was warm anyway -not hot, not like the Nevada desert, but still warm- so the cool water was probably a relief. He couldn't help watching her, though, as she bent over and held her hand in the water, watching intently for he didn't know what. Soul smirked and rested his cheek on his hand as he waited for a bite. He did finally get one, reeling it in and seeing Maka watching him from the corner of her eye, not moving her head as he pulled the fish on-shore.

"You'll either have to hit it hard to kill it, or let it go until it suffocates. You may want to tilt your pole against a tree and use mine so you don't have to watch."

Soul grimaced, because he'd never caught a fish without planning on releasing it before. Maybe he should have thought about his choice in chore better... He listened to Maka and carefully leaned his fishing pole against a tree before baiting hers and casting, wincing a little at every bout of 'flip-flip-flipping' he heard behind him. He ended up glaring out at the river when it was finally silent, scowling at the water as he waited for another victim to bite.

Crimson eyes strayed to his partner, starting when he saw Maka watching him with the same intensity as she'd had for the stream. Then she turned back to her... whatever she was doing, and Soul let out a sigh.

He was startled out of his blank-minded reverie with an extremely uncool shout as something landed on the ground next to him and he leapt up away from the... fish? He glanced around wildly until his gaze landed on Maka's beaming form, her left hand clapped over her mouth as she obviously tried to hold in her laughter, her right hand -he frowned, didn't she ever take off those gloves of hers?- wet and still raised from... plucking the fish out of the water?

He looked down at the flopping thing, and then it started flipping its way back towards the water. "Don't let it escape!"

"I'm not!" He shouted back, dropping his pole and diving for the fish. He yelped as he grabbed the slippery thing and felt something pierce his hand, "Ah! Dammit!" instinctive reaction had him yanking his left hand away from the evil thing. The fish used that opportunity to escape from his grasp to the ground again and Soul chased after it, carefully trying to grab the damn thing. He caught it again, for all of six seconds before it managed to slip out of his hold and- SPLASH!

Soul was left standing on the shore, bleeding from the spiky fin, covered in fish slime and water with a shocked look on his face. Maka apparently couldn't take it anymore and burst out in full-bodied melodic laughter, holding nothing back. When she finally managed to get a hold of herself, she made her way back over and helped him wash the blood off so he didn't accidentally get them 'rescued' if he touched his pin, then wandered off to get some of those medicinal leaves she'd spoken of before, wrapping his hand for him; a giggle still escaping every few minutes.

Soul glared at her, then at the river, "...I'll say nothing about the pole kicking your ass if you don't about the fish owning mine."

Maka glanced up at him, the corners of her mouth twitching again, "Deal."

Soul was vindictive enough to have no issue with killing the rest of their catch after that.

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