Destroying a Perfect Soul

Chapter 26: An Ending He Deserves

"Soul...I never got to tell you...yes"

"Yes, I will marry you."

Black*Star had been complaining the whole way to the school for being called a lady but Soul said nothing of it. He just walked slowly along with us with his hands in his pockets like usual. Tsubaki tried her best to keep him calm and away from choosing to turn and snap at me. I couldn't help but wear a smug smile on my face, feeling a bit triumphant since I had caused them to be speechless once I said it. Kid and Liz were busy trying to arrange how they were going to walk on the way there, since they were trying to hold each others hands while Patty was just skipping along without a care in the world.

"Do not...ever call me a lady again," Soul mumbled from beside me, causing me to look over at him quietly, the smug smile disappearing. His crimson red eyes were staring off into the distance as we walked. "…it kinda blows my self esteem, you know?"

I rolled my eyes. "Soul you know how manly I think you are…~" I reached over and pinched his cheek lightly, not as nervous being around him as I used to be. His cheeks either turned red from blush or turned red because I had pinched them, but I didn't care. It was cute as hell, and I would never let him hear the end of it after seeing him blush. "Blushy Soul is cute~"

"Hush, woman…"

I giggled softly as we approached Shibusen's main staircase and as Black*Star picked Tsubaki up to carry her up, Patty hopped up each one like she was playing some sort of game. Kid was making sure Liz made each step accordingly correct, at the same angle and at the same pace as his steps while Soul and I, of course, were the two in the back that did our own thing. I set my hands behind my back as I walked up each step with my own little hop. Soul was by my side maybe a little behind me, and he seemed to drag his feet up a little.

"Soul~" I asked, looking towards him, sticking my lip out a little. Soul glanced my way lazily and lifted a brow, pausing in his climb up to the top. "Why don't you ever carry me like that?"

Soul looked at me like I was stupid. "I used to carry you to bed like that sometimes,"

"Yeah, when we got intimate…" I mumbled towards him with a pout. "You never do it like 'that'…" I pointed up at Black*Star and his girlfriend up at the top.

The pianist sighed and kept walking up the stairs. "I don't want to drop you," he then said to me, reaching up to rub his neck. I kept pouting and followed him again. "If I do that, you'll get hurt…"

"Fine…"

Soul was quiet the rest of the way up the stairs and we finally caught up with the rest in time to say "see ya" to Black*Star before he could run off to visit with his team. He had given Tsubaki a large kiss, in which we had to turn away to shield our not-so-virgin eyes, and then left us in the front to walk to the gym ourselves. Our shoes clicked and echoed in the halls and I couldn't help but glance in the doorways to see the empty classrooms as we walked by.

In there, the bleachers were nearly filled with people waiting for the game. Everyone and their mother was there! Students, teachers, parents, graduates! Even lord Shinigami was there in his own little chair to watch the game. I couldn't help but smile and look around as Tsubaki, Kid, Liz, Patty, Soul and I made our way up to some bleachers to sit down and wait for the game to start.

"It's been awhile since I've been in here…" Soul mumbled as I sat down on his right side. I looked his way and gave him a soft smile, happy to see that he thought about that stuff too. I took a moment to think about what I should do next. Should I lean against him like Liz was on the other side of Kid? No…what if he was too into his thoughts? I could startle him and he could hit me! No! I had to stop thinking like that! Of course Soul wouldn't do that to me, my mind was just being paranoid.

Hesitantly, I began to lean towards his shoulder, still keeping an eye on the few kids warming up on the court, but I was immediately cock blocked when a freakin' ass was thrown in my face. "Excuse me…" A man spoke in slur as he shuffled by Soul and I. Soul immediately wore a scowl on his face when the person tried to squeeze between him and Kid, which slid him towards me and caused me to slide down the bench a bit too.

"Excuse 'me'." Soul growled, glancing to his left at the guy who had apparently looked his way too. I looked as well to see who it was because I felt his soul jump a bit in surprise and realization. "…Tod." The pianist said quickly. I groaned and leaned away from them to set a hand on my forehead. Oh goodie. How 'fun' tonight was going to be! And if you didn't realize...that was sarcastic.

"Evans,"

"Don't call me that."

Next to him, Kid couldn't help but glance over too, and as soon as he did his eyes had narrowed in a fierce glare. "Just wanted to see you myself," Tod mumbled, obviously drunk again. I rolled my eyes. This wasn't going to end well if I knew Soul's temper with him. It was not pretty. Not in the least.

-"Hey Maka…have you thought about it yet?"

Instantly I felt Soul's crimson eyes on me. "Oh…I actually…" As my eyes shut so I could smile at Tod, I could feel Soul tugging on my jacket sleeve. Just as he growled my name, I lightly shook him off. "I did think about it…" I then said; trying to ignore Soul, who had found my jacket sleeve to tug on again. I didn't want to go with Tod. But I really didn't want to upset him… "I've decided—"

"NO!" Soul snapped; spinning around so he could face Tod too. I looked at him completely surprised as he glared. "Maka isn't going to the ball with you Lancy, understand?" He then yelled; pointing at the taller boy. Tod opened his mouth to speak but Soul beat him to it. "NO! That was a rhetorical question! No answering!" He spun around, lifted his sweater's hood over his head and began walking away. But Tod just

'had'to speak again.

"I asked Maka, Eater. So don't go and answer for her!"

Soul stopped walking in the middle of the courtyard. He looked as if all besides the rain had frozen in time. That is…until he turned around and began walking back over. His crimson glare sent my skin crawling as I looked at his shadowed face. He did

'not' look happy. "You want to say that again Lancy?" He snarled; taking his place in front of the taller boy. With a confident grin, Tod nodded and opened his mouth to do so. But he never got the chance…Soul had punched him in the face and all I could do was stare as he grabbed my wrist and dragged me away…-

"And what is this?~"

During my careless flashback, Tod had seen Liz and Kid together and ignored Soul's angry wavelength radiating from his soul. But I guess that was just because I was the only one who could feel that anyway. Kid narrowed his eyes at Tod as Liz leaned away from the Shinigami to roll her eyes. "…You ditch me for the retarded OCD freak?" He then asked, obviously slurring his words like normal. What happened to Tod after all these years? It was sad…and it made me upset. I missed the old Tod. He didn't 'ask' to be punched like he was right now. "What're you, some kinda whore?"

"Excuse me!"

Kid was nearly at his limit, I could feel it. I could even sense Soul getting angrier and angrier by the second. I saw Tod point his thumb back over his shoulder towards me, and I knew whatever he was going to say was going to be the end of it. "…She may be more of a whore than Maka over here! She totally led me on awhile back and went for the albino hereee~" That was when I felt them both snap. Soul and Kid had sprung to their feet at the same time as Liz and I gasped in shock. The two men, at the same time, grabbed Tod by the collar and pulled him up with their inside arms.

"You know what wise guy," Soul began.

"There are small children here that don't need to be hearing your vulgar language right now," Kid continued.

"And you are never,"

"Ever."

And then at the same time, as if they were reading each other's minds: ", going to speak about our girlfriends like that again!"

Both of them brought their fists back and punched Tod square in the face at the same time, knocking him out cold; causing a few people to turn and look over their shoulders. Smirking to themselves, they dropped the drunken man down where he once sat and instead, since he was knocked out, he leaned so far back that his head banged against the bleacher behind us. Kid went ahead and pushed him over so no one would be between him and Soul again, and you know, the whole time Liz and I were staring in awe. Kid was just pleased the it all happened in a symmetrical manor, I'm sure. His soul sure said so...

"Thank you Soul."

"No problem," Soul sat back down and frowned towards the court as Black*Star and the rest of the team appeared to meet the team from the City on the other side of the desert. People began cheering and the game had started before I knew it. Though, all I did was stare at Soul as if he was the most amazing man on the planet. I seriously thought that was…attractive. I even thought that was…arousing. But why? I was kind of pissed off that Tod had the lights knocked out of him, but I found that simply…Oh I couldn't even explain it!

…But I wasn't ready for another night like 'that'…

Not yet at least.

I lightly slapped my cheek and focused on the game as Black*Star walked back and forth to keep a good eye on his team while they played. "Is Black*Star finally learning some responsibility…?" I heard Soul ask from beside me. I perked up a little and looked his way and I couldn't help but smile and nod as I looked back at the basketball game before it.

"You know what…" I breathed, reaching over to take Soul's hand as everyone around us cheered on the team our friend worked so hard to train. "…He just might be…" I saw Soul smile softly to himself and he laced his fingers with mine.

"It's just the box made stuff," I mumbled, setting a plate of food down in front of Soul at the table. He reached over and grabbed a remote to shut off the TV in the living room while I set down a fork for him. "It's cheap, but it's all I could make since it's such a late hour," I set my own plate down and sat across from him as he set the remote down. And then, picking up the fork, he looked up at me quietly. I had been staring at my pasta with the fork in my hand, but I could sense his eyes on me, so I looked up to meet them. "…Y-Yes?"

"I love you."

I nodded a bit. "I-I love you too, Soul…~" I then told him. Wow that was lame! Who just…'nods' to someone who says that they love you? Stupid Maka, Stupid Stupid Stupid! "…You going to eat?" I noticed he hadn't looked away from me yet. Although that seemed to snap him back to reality and he nodded. He then reached down with his fork, scooped the pasta up to start eating. I smiled again and started myself and commenced the war of the silence breaking fork noises. The quiet dragged on for awhile, but it wasn't like it was uncomfortable or anything. I kinda liked it. It let me think, and I knew it let Soul think too. He was always the type of person to talk more inside his head. He'd have conversations with himself in there…and he'd plan out all these different solutions for one problem under a minute. He was so smart…he just didn't always use that brain of his correctly.

Something in my arm pained me when I picked up the fork again, and I dropped it with a quiet cry of pain. Of course this caught Soul's attention immediately and he looked up at me quickly. "What's wrong, are you okay?" He asked in worry. I tried to say something but I only squeaked, so he got up, nearly knocking the chair over and came over to me. "How are your bandages…?" He carefully took my arm and I tried my best not to flinch back and away from him. "Does it hurt," Once he saw me nod, he got back onto his feet and made his way into the kitchen to go through the drawers. "Go in the room…I'll help you change them…"

"T-The dishes…!"

"I'll do them later, Maka."

I nodded and rose to my feet while my left hand held my right arm carefully in its clutches. I made my way slowly to the room and opened the door with my shoulder since it was already cracked open. The pain in my arm had calmed since Soul touched it—which was nearly impossible seeing that he had been the reason to make it feel so bad in past events. I sat down at my bed near the nightstand and brought my legs up to hug them. All of a sudden I felt terrible…I felt broken again, like I was never going to be happy again.

"Okay, I have some medicine and new bandages…" Soul said as he walked into the room. Strangely, feeling his presence made me feel a lot better about this. He paused in the doorway, seeing my pathetic state and then he frowned, closing the door behind him. "I'll…change them for you…" He then mumbled, making his way over. I watched him sit at the edge of my bed and reach for my arm slowly and carefully. Quietly, I held it out to him so he could take it, and as soon as he had it, he began to unwrap my arm, revealing redder and redder clothe as he continued. "…Why haven't you been changing them?"

I almost started crying again. "…I…It's hard," I then said to him, reaching up with my other hand to rub my eyes. "I can't do it by myself…its tough to clip it and wrap it with one hand…"

Soul sighed. "You coulda' asked me…"

"I-I've just recently begun to trust you again,"

Soul paused, his eyes staring at the red scar written across my right arm. I didn't want him to just look at it! He was probably thinking to himself about how terrible of a person he was to have done this to me. He seemed to be out of it, thinking and just thinking. So I moved my arm to snap him out of it. The musician sitting on my bed blinked a few times before reaching for the little vial of medicine he found for me. He rubbed a bit of it into my arm which was extremely painful but I tried not to make it seem like so.

"If it hurts…just tell me—"

"I-I'm fine!"

Soul reached for the new bandages and began to wrap them around my arm carefully. He was silent after that and I just watched him as he dressed my wounded arm. "S-Soul…" I sounded like I was sobbing, I'm sure, but my face didn't feel wet at all. He didn't look up at me, but I knew he was listening to me. I could just feel it. "S-Soul, I feel like I'm broken…I f-feel like I'm just like you were in the beginning." I reached up to wipe my eye as he clipped the bandage to keep it in place. Then, letting go of my arm, he set his own hands in his lap and looked up at me while I held it close again. "I could see it, Soul…that day in the bathroom…I looked into my own soul…and…it almost looked like yours had been…"

"Maka…" Soul whispered my name and leaned towards me, almost as if he was crawling towards me. I was looking at the wall, but I could see this in the corner of my eyes. He set his hands on mine as they lay in my lap and it wasn't long until his lips were on my forehead. I flinched…but I didn't want to. Although, I think he knew that because when he pulled away, he brought them back down onto my lips. Tears falling, I kissed him back and I took his hands in mine to hold them instead. His kisses were short, sweet, and simple…I liked it when he did that…In fact I loved it… I wanted him to kiss me like this for the rest of our lives…after we get married—wait!

My eyes opened. "Soul…~" I then mumbled, pulling away. Although I didn't want him to react the way he did...I didn't mind it.

"W-What?" He asked me quickly as soon as I said his name. "Am I hurting you, are you scared?" He asked again just as fast. I began to shake my head but he spoke again. "Do you want me to leave you alone? I'll go sleep on the couch—"

"Yes."

Soul seemed so confused. "…Y-Yes to what?"

"Soul…" I breathed, shaking my head a little, closing my eyes. I reached up to rub them again before looking into his once more. "I never got to tell you…yes…" I then told him quietly, smiling softly. His head tilted a little and he mumbled something about not understanding what I was getting at. So…I got straight to the point. "Yes, I will marry you."

He stared at me, his eyes widening and getting even more watery by the second. He was going to look so uncool, but I was sure he didn't care. Soul Eater Evans had nearly burst into tears. And when he did, his head fell into the nook of my neck and for once, I didn't flinch. For once it was my turn to put my arms around him for comfort. "I don't deserve this…" He mumbled into my skin, obviously sobbing. I rubbed his back softly and shut my eyes.

"Yes you do…"

Soul shook his head a little and his voice, muffled by my hair and neck, was heard again. "Th-thank you…" He mumbled as I continued to comfort him. "I love you so much…" his arms wrapped themselves around me in return and it wasn't long until he had started to repeat those words quietly, over and over again until he had finally fallen asleep in my arms. I smiled softly to myself, hearing another click, and kissed the top of his head. Oh how lucky I was to have someone like him to be by my side…

"I love you too Soul…~"

I knew that my soul had become broken just like his had been…but already could I feel it being fixed. I was sure I'd be back to my regular self again, very soon. It was all up to Soul and his actions from then on…We'd get married, and I'd work on finally getting into that damn college…and I'd be back to normal. Maybe with a job of my own…and maybe, with kids of my own to take care of…

All we needed was each other, and all we needed was time.

END

I love you guys for giving me so much support and being so patient with me.
If I could, I would hug each and every one of you and say thank you personally,

This chapter is the end, but there will be an epilogue coming as soon as I can get it done.

its not as amazing as it used to be since I stopped writing for awhile, so I'm sorry about that,

Thanks again, and I'm glad to have gone through this with you.
Expect new stories soon! I'm back in my Soul Eater stage, so I'm sure more stories will come!