Author Notes: Perks of being back in school is having more things to procrastinate on by writing. A little NSFW for nudity but not in the way anyone wants it, please don't get excited.

August 24th

Maka has almost forgotten how loud Black Star is until he's in their apartment boisterously eating fried chicken. The summer has been so quiet until he got back and demanded to see their new digs.

"So this is the love nest." He wanders the apartment while Soul leans against the wall tiredly.

"Dude, it's like midnight. Go home." After being relaxed for more of the summer, Soul's permascowl has taking up residence on his face again.

"I thought you said you wanted to hang out when I got back?" Black Star asks. "Don't you want to see your best bro?"

"I want to go to bed." Soul rubs the bridge of his nose. It's more than it being late at night - Maka knows he hasn't been sleeping well for the past couple of days and she'd also love to see him pass out for a solid eight hours.

"Bed is for suckers. I'm still on Japan time; as far as I know, it's late afternoon. Time to get wrecked."

"Black Star, why don't you just come over tomorrow? It's late," Maka suggests gently, the first step before she punches him out the door so Soul can get some sleep.

"Oh I get it, Maka, very sneaky." Black Star cackles, a sound Maka has not particularly missed. "Trying to get me to leave so you can get to pound town, well you've had all summer ya nasties."

"I'm sure Tsubaki would love for you to go home too." Arguing with Black Star about the nature of her and Soul's relationship has become a losing battle she's given up on for the sake of her sanity.

"Are you kidding? We were just on a plane for ten hours. She's antsy, we're going swimming and you're coming with us. We gotta get the gang back together for one last hurrah before we sell our pride back to the university."

"Why isn't she here then?" Soul questions.

"She's parked outside blocking a driveway, so hurry up, nerds." Black Star slams Soul on the back with an open hand, nearly knocking him over.

"You're not going to leave if we say no, are you?" Soul grumbles.

"No way. I'll crawl right in bed between you guys."

"You know we have our own rooms, right?"

"Doesn't mean you use them."

Soul sighs loudly, looking ready to collapse. "Let's get this over with then."

Maka's about ready to smack Black Star upside the head, but Soul is just looking at her tiredly like he's not in the mood for existing so she desists. She just grabs her swimsuit from where it hangs in the shower from swimming the previous day.

The car is idling in the driveway. Tsubaki apparently had confidence that Black Star would get them out of the apartment quickly; she hadn't even bothered to turn off the engine.

"Have a good summer, Tsu?" Maka asks, sliding into the shotgun seat and locking the door before Black Star can try to drag her out.

"Yeah, it was relaxing," the other girl answers with a sympathetic look to the back seat where Soul droops. "Hope you got some down time between all the work."

"Mhm, I only had the one job for the summer - Stein didn't need the extra person without all the art students coming in." Maka doesn't mind the small talk; it's nice to catch up with her old roommate, but she's concerned. Black Star nudges Soul for attention for the entire car ride like an untrained puppy. Red eyes meet hers briefly in the mirror, a cry for help. She gestures toward the back seat but Tsubaki just rolls her eyes and Maka knows. Tsubaki's been dealing with Black Star's excess energy for long enough and knows there isn't much to do about it without picking a fight.

"Yo Maka, where do you swim around here? Liz wants to know where to meet us." Black Star tries to prop his feet up on the back of Maka's seat but she knocks them off. For a second she panics having to share their spot with more people; there's a few too many sacred memories there of reading out loud and touching Soul's ungelled hair. It's a big lake though, plenty of other docks around for shenanigans. She might even recall one with a rope swing.

"Just about twenty miles east on the highway - it's right off the freeway, she can't miss it." Seeing Liz will be fun, could even make the night.

The gate to the park is closed when they arrive, Liz already on the other side with a flashlight. "What's up nerds?"

"Hi Liz." Tsubaki hugs her over the top of the gate before hopping over easily. "Is that Killik?"

"Darn, I was gonna try to scare you guys." Killik stands up from crouching in the bushes. "Harvar, the gig is up."

The other boy appears along side him, unbelievably still in sunglasses despite the near pitch blackness. "For now," he dead pans.

"If the lake is closed, should we really be going in there?" Maka asks, more for the sake of trying to get out of the whole thing than any actual concern about being caught.

"Wimp," Black Star scoffs and frog jumps the gate. It really only effectively keeps cars out of the parking lot. "You know there's literally two cops in this town."

"Pff, three if you count Sid. The rest of campus security is a joke, and still on vacation by the way," Liz laughs.

Maka is not one to be tested; she vaults over the gate and waits for Soul to lumber over like a grizzly bear woken from long hibernation.

They wander down to the water, Liz leading the way with the communal flash light while the rest of them aimlessly bump into each other in the near pitch darkness. The moon is close to full, but a haze hangs over the sky, obscuring the light. An executive decision has to be made - someone has to hold Soul's hand before he crashes into a tree. Maka decides she is a prime candidate; Soul doesn't complain.

"So, where's the best spot?" Liz lights up her face with the flashlight before pointing it at Maka.

Soul squints at her; he knows too. "There's a rope swing at the first dock to the left once we get to the main loop," Maka answers, pointing the way. The gravel path scrapes under their shoes as they follow Liz's light blindly along the path. "This is the spot."

"Yahoo!" Black Star starts running down the dock. Liz shrieks in regret for following his figure with the flashlight - there's no telling how he took his clothes off mid stride, but now they're all witness to the ass of Black Star. Well, Maka thinks, there's always bleach at home for her eyeballs.

"Liz," Harvar says, "please turn that light off immediately, before I vomit."

"It's just so muscular," Liz whispers, shell shocked. Harvar turns the light off for her. "How did it get that way? I didn't know it could look like that."

"Well, if it's that kind of swimming party…" Killik starts stripping his own clothes off and taps on Liz's shoulder with a grin bright enough to stand out in the darkness.

"I'm game." Liz grins back and heads for the end of the dock.

"Guess everyone is getting naked or something," Soul drawls, meandering to the end of the dock.

"Don't tell me you're going too," Maka protests. She can already feel the buzzing encroaching on her brain. Thoughts of Soul, naked and wet are generally only prominent when she can hear that he's in the shower, but here they come, creeping in uninvited.

"I forgot my trunks in the car, and if I don't go in I know I'm going to fall asleep. You know what Black Star does to people when they're asleep? This is the only way." Memories of Soul, wrapped in duct tape and not much else surface. Definitely not helping the hot-and-bothered situation. "Turn around if you don't want to look." The resolve is set; the shirt is coming off.

She wants to look. Very badly. She sputters and turns her back abruptly at the sound of his zipper. Oh god oh god oh god. He has to be sleepdrunk beyond the point of sanity; there is no way he would be stripping within five feet of her under any normal circumstances.

"I'm going to go put on my bikini," she squeaks out before making a break for the bushes. It really is very dark outside; no one is in any danger of unwarranted flashing as long as the light stays off, but the implications still have her flustered.

Everyone is in the water when she gets back, and it's loud as all hell. The late summer air has the smallest hint of a chill in it - she's glad it's dark enough to keep anyone from seeing the definite nipple activity going on. The water feels warm though; Maka silently thanks differences in heat capacity.

"Look who finally got in the water." Liz paddles over and makes a move to dunk her but stops when her fingers brush over the tie for her top. "Hey, you're wearing a suit!"

Maka fidgets, dusting the bottom of the lake with her toes. "I didn't feel like skinny dipping."

"Come on, it feels amazing, so freeing," Liz says, "and when's the next time you'll get a chance? It's about to be fifty degrees and dark for the next eight months."

"I already have it on though!"

"Just take it off under water and put it on the dock," Liz whispers. "If you put it back on in the water too, no one will ever know."

"I've never-"

"All the more reason to!"

It might not be that bad of an idea. Of course, taking off a swimsuit underwater takes a little finagling, especially with her stature making it necessary to tread water the whole while.

Liz was right though, it actually is pretty nice.

She has no clue where Soul is, and while she's still very much on edge about the whole nudity thing, she's also a little worried he's going to pass out and drown. Boy has the self preservation skills of a possum.

"Soul?" she calls, paddling away from the dock where Black Star is trying to convince their other friends that naked chicken fighting is a good idea. He doesn't respond the first time, or the second time, but she gets a response at the fourth call.

"Over here, sorry I was on my back and my ears were underwater." Soul closes the gap between them. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah I was just making sure you didn't drown or something," Maka mutters, feeling a little stupid for getting worried about it.

"I'm not stupid, besides, the water's waking me up a bit." His fingers brush her shoulder in their path through the water and she needs to get out of here immediately.

"Well, obviously you're fine, so I'm gonna go. Bye." She starts to flee but Soul grabs her ankle on her way.

"What? Why? Where are you going?" His confusion might be well founded - obviously he has fewer concerns about this situation, but she's still trying to keep her state of undress a secret.

"Uh, rope swing," she blurts out before realizing that involves getting out of the water.

"Oh yeah, that's over there, could be fun to try."

Nope. There has to be some excuse to give for why he can't possibly come with her, but she can't find one to save her life. Soul is following her through the water back past the dock and into the inlet where the rope swing tree is.

The water is shallower here; Maka is able to stand again and the mud sticks to her toes as they wade inward. Suddenly though, Soul yanks on her arm and tumbles them into some rushes; his hand meets the side of her rib cage in an attempt to steady her. There should be a top there. Definitely should be a top there. The mistake is made.

His hand burns her for only a second before she realizes the water is only waist deep and immediately drops in up to her neck.

"Sorry." He backs up abruptly.

"What was that for?" she hisses.

"Killik and Liz," he whispers back and nods back toward the tree. "Didn't you see them?"

"No, it's so dark, what's going on?"

"They're… ya know."

"They're not doing it are they?"

"Doing it? Really, Maka? That's your phrase choice? I don't think so, but not far off from it."

"Then let's get out of here," Maka almost whines. She's a fish almost out of water and Soul's hand was within two inches of her boob just moments ago - not to mention that now he's crouching too and his face is very, very close.

"We got lucky they didn't notice us before." Soul speaks directly in her ear, making her cringe inwardly. There can't be much more space for him to lean in before her tits are touching something. "Just hold still."

Everything is deathly quiet and nothing is okay. She can hear faint splashing from the dark and then suddenly hushed voice from the tree.

"Was someone there?" Killik whispers nervously.

"I don't think so, quit being paranoid," Liz replies.

"This would be so much easier if you would just tell people about us."

"We don't need to make it that complicated."

"Let's go back for now then - we don't want to make anyone suspicious."

Maka can hear the surreptitious pair swim back out of the inlet and she lets out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. The moon breaks past the clouds for a moment, glinting on Soul's hair and flashing on the whites of his eyes. He's still very close, and apparently watching her very closely.

"Seems like we're safe." Maka laughs nervously.

"Hn."

"So we could go back."

"We could."

He doesn't sound very enthusiastic about it. Is it being tired of the group? He can't possibly be thinking of something else, Maka thinks. No, definitely not. She knows he wouldn't do any such thing, not Soul. Carefully, quietly, they make their way out of the reeds back to the tree, Maka careful to keep everything below the chin under water.

"Wait a second, Maka." Soul's voice is drowsy and hypnotic and she will definitely listen to him. He brushes her shoulder again; this time she doesn't leap away. There's a low sound in the back of his throat when he looks at her and she wonders if a little sleep deprivation was really what would do the trick to knock them out of the blurred area they've been dancing in.

"What the hell?!" Maka yelps. He had just pinched her ass, hard. "Soul?!"

"What?"

"Fuck!" Black Star sputters to the surface. It all makes sense, though Maka doesn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed. "I was trying to cockblock Killik, not you! Please, for the love of me, smoosh your faces together."

"Wait, I thought they were going back to the dock." Maka falls out of her fury for a second to put some pieces together.

"We were just making sure they didn't find out we saw them," Soul says a little too calmly. He has to be bluffing, or Maka is imagining things.

"Oh they're not back, which means… I'm finding a bullfrog." Black Star dives back under the water. Poor Liz.

This has to be the last close call though, Maka decides she is putting her swimsuit back on this very instant. She practically backflips away before Soul can say something to her.

The edge of the dock where she left her swimsuit is suspiciously empty though. A moment of panic gives her a good boost of adrenaline before she realizes Tsubaki is the only one on the dock. The one person in the world she can trust now.

"Tsu? Is my bikini there?"

"Let me check, I just moved some stuff so it wouldn't get wet with the boys rough housing," Tsubaki answers. Bless her. "I'm sorry Maka, I think it might have fallen in before I could move everything, do you want me to turn the flashlight on?"

"No! My clothes are there right?"

"Yeah, they're here."

"Okay, I guess I'll just get out then."

Tsubaki reaches a hand down to her, light in the growing moon light as the clouds start to clear. Maka hesitates for a second, but this is her last chance for darkness, choices must be made. She lets Tsubaki hoist her up, scrambling her feet on the edge of the dock before making a break for the pile of clothes.

"Maka?" Tsubaki calls.

"Just a sec, Tsu, I need to find my clothes." Quickly.

"Do you want a towel?"

Oh. "You are my favorite person, ever."

"Don't let Soul hear you say that - wouldn't want him moping." Maka wraps the towel around her torso safe and snug. Soul has seen towels before; she can cope with this arrangement while she shimmies back into her underwear.

Of course, there's still the fact that Soul is in the water and not clothed. She debates telling him that he definitely can not come out; the lake is his new home and she'll come to visit if he just stays in the water indefinitely.

That's probably not gonna fly with him.

The moon is thankfully retreating though, she could probably avoid any more close encounters by lack of light alone, but that doesn't stop her from running away from the dock entirely.

"I'm getting dressed in the bushes!" she shouts, clutching her towel. "Don't follow me." She can only hope that he is fully clothed when she returns - or that he follows her and gives her some proper smooching.

That's when Liz screams. That poor bullfrog.

The fluster of activity following frog-gate gives her enough time to properly get dressed and return to the dock at just the right moment to see Tsubaki waving the light around, trying to detach Liz from her death grip around Black Star's neck. What a trainwreck. Light falls on Soul's face where he lies flat on his back on the dock, mercifully wearing pants.

"Can we go home yet?" Soul grumbles. Maka reaches down to pull him up to his feet. He doesn't look at her - he probably won't look at her ever again after the rib touching incident. Then again, he had stopped her, hadn't he? Put his face next to hers and touched her shoulder. What had that been about? Had it been about anything at all?

"Soon," she answers. His head clonks into her collarbone a little painfully; she gulps down a lungful of air and scratches the back of his neck. "Once these idiots cut it out."

"Makaa." He rubs his forehead on her shoulder and wiggles upward until his chin is digging into her. "I'm tired."

"Poor tired baby," she murmurs, a little sarcastically, mostly out of sympathy. "Let's start for the car - this lot can catch up." Linking arms with him, she leads him back to the entrance.

They lie on the hood of the car for a good while without their friends showing up. Probably starting a full blown mud wrestling pit, Maka thinks.

"Hey you didn't see anything, right?" She asks suddenly.

"Hmm?" Soul starts awake from a cat nap. "What would I see?"

"You know."

"I saw a lot more of Black Star than I bargained for, but that is unfortunately not the first time I've seen that either."

"I mean me, idiot."

"Nope. Didn't see a thing."

She hears gravel scraping from down the path and hops off the car as Liz jumps the gate.

"I am never hanging out with you people ever again," Liz screeches.

"Oh come on, it was funny." Black Star laughs. "I'm hilarious."

Didn't see a thing, Maka repeats to herself. She'll just have to believe him, or die thinking about the implications of if he did.