Disclaimer: Soul Eater is not mine yeahyeah
Author's Note: This is an AU. It was a drabble written for the "fight" theme of SoMa tumblr week (which I think was around a month ago). I don't really update this story anymore and maybe not that many people are following it anymore but... enjoy. :)
Summary: She has finally cornered the infamous Jewel Eater, and he's more than she ever could have expected.
She chases him fleet-footed down the marble coordinator. Her lungs crack like winter-dried skin as she struggles to catch up with the perpetrator.
"Halt!" she screeches as he turns into a dead-end, unlit hallway. Maka breathes gently out and aims her gun as he backs against the wall, clutches tightly to his priceless loot. "This is where it ends. You've fallen for the trap."
His eyes peek through his black-mesh mask for an escape, but there's not even a vent in sight. He wouldn't be surprised if she constructed this herself for the sole purpose of cornering him.
He bites his bottom lip and lunges for her, then at the last minute slides between her legs. But as he takes the corner he trips and loses the urn from his gloved hands. It bounces once, twice, and it shatters and he has a momentary flashback of his first car accident at the splintering sound.
Maka stands over him, and he rolls over to look up at her. Her police badge pinned to her uniform sparkles like reflecting scratches on the windows. It's an old badge, passed down from her chief-of-police father.
"Eater." She addresses him by his tabloid title, and it makes his skin crawl. Her gun remains on his concealed face. "You are mine."
Before he can fight back, she reaches down and rips the mask from his head.
Her expression as she registers him in the pane-divided moonlight resembles the broken urn. He cringes when he notices her blink back a tear.
"Soul?" The gun slides from her trembling hands, and the clatter of it resonates with him more than the artifact, because this is Maka breaking apart, his real treasure. "You are…"
His ruby eyes roam away. The guilt holds him down beneath her. He wants to dissipate as a dust mote into the streams of lunar silk drifting onto the floor. He wants to sink into the ground. He wants her bullet in his heart. It's only fair. "Yeah… the Jewel Eater."
Maka collapses to her knees between his legs. She puts her head in her hands. "I've been chasing my own best friend, who I live with, this entire time? And I never knew? Never figured it out? How dumb am I?" Her jade-tinted eyes seek his in a disoriented way, that remind him of how she fumbles for her keys in the dark of her green-walled room. "And how dumb are you?"
She grabs the collar of his ebony shirt and shakes him, but it's weak. He keeps drifting from her grip; her tears make her fingers as slick as minnow. "You…"
She gets up, grabs her gun and starts to stomp away, but Soul grasps her free hand and turns her around. "Listen to me before you storm off like a thick-ankled buffoon!"
She gives him tense silence as a response.
He sighs. "I did this to protect you."
"By doing all this for years behind my back?"
"You were in danger!" Soul shouts, his eyes narrow. "You were so involved with the serial killer case that you didn't even realize you were meant to be his next victim!"
She gasps. "What…"
"I started this crime spree and you decided to pursue this on your own like I knew you would – you love a challenge… and I gave you one." His fingers coil further around hers.
"You always have."
He raises his eyebrows.
"And now," she continues, "you've given me a new one. Trying to not hate you. How did you keep me on my feet so long?"
He presses her gently against the nearest wall, buries his head in the dip of her collarbone and smirks against the slow-forming goosebumps. "That's easy," he murmurs as he runs a hand along her side and rests it on her hip. "I'm very familiar with your movements."
She throws an unexpected punch straight into his face.
He stumbles back and looks at her in shock. Crimson butters her puffed-out cheeks, her glare garners intensity. "Maka, what the…"
"I'm not forgiving you that easily! You're still a wanted criminal; you owe the museum money for that vase and a bunch of other stolen goods! Including last night's dinner you… you lout!"
He is already perched in the nearest window while she continues to rant.
Maka puts her gun up, but he smiles and waves at her.
"See you at home, Maka!" he yells before jumping from the ledge.
She runs to the window, fires a warning bullet at his feet and he jumps and yelps. "You're doing chores for the rest of our lives!"
He laughs. "I accept your marriage proposal! And don't worry, I have the perfect diamond ring for you at home!" He dashes through the foliage to escape.
She kicks a piece of the pottery. "Men!"