Soul had woken up early, leaving Maka still deep in dreamland and proceeded to do what he thought would be best: cleaning. It was one of the few leftovers from his own mother, the idea that when guests were coming it was imperative for the place to be spotless as if clean surroundings meant the dirty little secrets in your life didn't matter. He was also hopeful that it would clear his head, making the chance to meet Maka's mother and dealing with Spirit shrink with each inch of washed space. Except with each surface came a new worry to try to wipe away from his mind, and by the time his cleaning for the day was over, ended by a still exhausted-looking Maka stumbling into the bathroom, he still found himself overwhelmed with the day's prospects.

"You cleaned?"

"You say that like I never do," Soul grumbled from his all-fours position in the tub where he'd been scrubbing any mildew that dared to show its face.

She laughed to check her next comment, not wanting to stop this kind of behavior in the future. "Sorry, just not sure Mom's going to care about our shower."

"But she'll care about the living room, the kitchen." His voice rumbled in the shower acoustics before he stood up and made his way out of the tub.

"Maybe." Regardless of the bleachy smell and possible residual grime, Maka moved towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in close enough to plant a kiss on his lips. "Don't be so worried."

Soul grunted out a rueful laugh, "Sure, just look forward to meeting your mom for the first time just so I can tell her I knocked you up."

Maka let out a huff of air like that sentence came as a blow, letting her arms drift away from him because the smell was actually making her nauseous to the point where she could feel the acid strike the back of her throat. She swatted at him, motioning him to the doorway just in time to flip up the seat on Soul's newly cleaned toilet bowl and expel pure bile.

"Shit," Soul muttered, a mix of misery from the tarnished bowl, his own struggle to resist the common urge to copycat puke, and at least a little bit of worry for the woman he loved. His eyes hit the ceiling as his hand went to her back, at least trying to rub away her sorrow but still keep his stomach in check. He waited for the retching to stop before murmuring, "You OK?"

Maka moaned in reply, flushing the toilet as punctuation. "Looks like you're going to be the one cleaning for a while because that smell," she added another groan at the end.

"It's the kid, right? Morning sickness?" He looked down at her just in time to see her blink up at him in confusion. "I mean, let's get out of the bathroom. That smell isn't going away any time soon so…"

Maka let him help her to her feet and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste from the cabinet. They moved out the door but she didn't leave the words behind. "How do you know about that?"

Soul shrugged before struggling through the words, "Maybe I googled some stuff. You know."

She began to guide him down the hallway, working her way towards the kitchen sink. Her hand was clenched in his shirt, finding resistance in his steps. "When did you do that?"

"After you told me to think about it," he offered quietly. She let him go at the doorway of the kitchen and began the task of brushing out the horrible taste in her mouth, leaving a mint that wasn't technically more appealing but at least didn't make her retch again. Even though her silence was situational, Soul grasped onto it, taking it for another act of pressure for information. "Look, you know me, I have to know everything. I just… I wanted all the details I could get."

Maka spat some toothpaste from her mouth, watching it drain in the sink. "What other stuff do you know?"

Soul's nerves started to drop from him, seeing that ridiculously beautiful smile shining right through the toothpaste foam. "Huh?"

"Tell me more."

Soul spent the rest of the morning unloading all of the knowledge he'd compiled over the last few days. It definitely wasn't enough, spots that he couldn't necessarily remember or hadn't looked up in the first place, leaving him bent over the laptop while she lounged on the couch. It was a solid stream of discussion, the truest display of their partnership as they hashed out the intricacies of their next big mission: pregnancy. There was a hint of parenthood thrown in, but Soul tried to veer away, working on one panic at a time. He slowly felt all the knots in his body dissolve, a coolness coming back to him that had been missing.

Eventually, he ended up on the couch with her, laptop long forgotten as his new focus fell on soft murmurs and even softer touches. It started with the intent of being calming, soothing, to seal in the positive feelings of the morning's discussion. He should have known better, especially as her hands started searching underneath his shirt while she hushed his whispers with kisses. No sooner had she wrapped her leg around him, pushing his hips against her in euphoric friction, than the doorbell clanged.

Like any good set of teenagers caught in the act, both fell into a state of panic. Soul rolled away, losing any grip he had on the couch and sending him thudding to the floor, any ounce of pleasure instantly forgotten by the rude awakening to his tailbone.

"My mom," Maka hissed the reminder to herself that she had needed about fifteen minutes ago. "Are you OK? I mean… your butt, but can I let her in?"

Soul sighed, "Let her in. I'm just… I'll come out of my room in a minute." He picked himself up off the floor, starting the walk to his room with a healthy dose of cold shower thoughts, his mind uncomfortably falling into a particular focus on some of the more nasty pregnancy facts. As soon as his door closed behind him he heard Maka move, making her way to the front door.

It was surprisingly silent, the only sounds right away the creak of the door as it opened. Rin barely waited to see the entirety of her daughter in the frame of the door before grabbing at her, bringing her into a bear hug as if she had been saving it up for her four-year absence. Maka didn't have any sound to give besides a trembling sigh, her whole body experiencing the emotional rollercoaster her mind was on as she was sure none of her organs were in their original positions, the inside of her feeling mashed and raw just from Rin's touch.

For one of the few times in her life, Maka was glad her father was there since he was the one who butted in, letting Maka have air. "Don't smother her," Spirit muttered.

"I missed my daughter," Rin shot back.

Spirit trailed a hand over Maka's hair, surprising her with the restraint in his affections, not the pouring, overwhelming usual greeting. "I get that, but we came here to talk to our daughter."

Why was she surprised that the fighting, while low-key and barely tempered yet, was starting? Even though it was just a duel over semantics right now, Maka could see it building slowly in their wavelengths, small cracks and pops lighting up the apartment. "Soul will be right out so why don't we go in the living room?" Maka waved the way down the hall and Spirit tramped off first, Rin following slow and smoothly behind him. "Mom, Papa, would you like some tea? Coffee?" Maka called from the doorway, almost unable to bring herself to step foot in the door.

"Water, darling, that's all," Rin answered but Spirit was decidedly quiet.

Soul was pleased that was the moment he could walk up behind her having recovered fairly quickly with enough new anxiety to fizzle any romantic thoughts from his mind. "I got it," he murmured, laughing shortly as she jumped from his tentative touch to the middle of her back. "Warm them up for me."

"They're already warm," Maka grumbled but accepted his push forward, sending her into the living room while he parted for the kitchen. The arrangement was awkward, Spirit leaning in one of the chairs while Rin took a spot on the couch, leaving the only option for Maka and Soul to split, not exactly what she wanted for this conversation. There was no chance it would be Soul next to her mother so she slowly eased herself down on the couch as Rin instantly gathered up Maka's hands from her lap.

"I'm sorry that this is the reason we're seeing each other." Thankfully Rin missed the eye roll from Spirit's direction, an action that would have started a war. "But when Spirit told me that you could be pregnant… Maka, how? How did this happen?"

"They had sex, Rin," Spirit spat. "Just how Maka came along."

Rin's eyes quickly moved from her daughter to narrow at Spirit, each word coming with sharp punctuation of its own, "But Maka is responsible. Or at least the Maka in my house was responsible."

"And what house was that? The one you abandoned?" Spirit was edging towards the end of his seat, hands clenched into the fabric of his pants at his knees. "And she's plenty responsible. People just make mistakes, Rin. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot, you can't seem to ever understand that."

It was a strange feeling as Maka was suddenly a child again, sandwiched somewhere into their argument in a way that she never really fit. This was the formula, her as a catalyst but them as the fuel, burning brightly against each other until she was all but forgotten in the mix. She was drowning, the exchanges starting to blur together as both of her parents just snapped back and forth. It wasn't until Soul entered that their voices cut and she realized only after the terror erupted on his face as he saw her that she had been crying silently.

"Maka," it was soft but desperate. Soul cracked the tray against the coffee table as he discarded it, not paying another second's attention to the water glasses that sloshed in response. Ignoring everything else, Soul crouched in front of her, hands coming to her face to clear away every inch of moisture he could find.

Maka let her fingers slip out of her mother's before letting them grasp at his. "I'm OK," she murmured.

His eyebrows refused to unfurrow and he turned to the other two in the room, his mind drawing a blank on all the etiquette he had planned on following today. "I didn't know you two were here to argue about your situation."

"Soul," Maka tugged at his hand trying to stop the deluge she knew was about to rush from his mouth.

It was useless, his eyes not even darting to her. "You both want to talk to us about the baby, so talk, and if you can't do that I'll kick you out myself."

"The baby?" Rin offered tentatively. "I thought you didn't know for sure."

Soul stood, letting one of his hands fall from her but the other still gently touched at her cheek, a soft thumb still stroking her face reassuringly. "We do now."

Spirit shelved the 'shit' he was about to mutter and replacing it with a sigh. "Stein said yes, for sure?"

"He double-checked," Maka murmured.

There was silence, only the movement of eyes and Soul's soft touch on Maka's face adding any life to the room. Soul hated it, feeling her pain through his fingertips and watching what should have been the adults in the room ponder this without even an ounce of excitement. "Well?" he barked, unable to rein himself in, "What do you want to say about it?"

"Soul…" Maka tugged on his hand again, getting him to release it and bring it to her shoulder. He could almost hear it, how loud her soul was begging for quiet, for calm, for him to come back to her instead of leaping into the deep end. She paused, testing if he was done, before taking a deep breath to force her voice to stay even, "We, Soul and I still have a lot of talking, a lot of planning to do but we're going to…" Maka searched for the words because 'try,' as they'd been saying for the past few days wouldn't cut it in front of her parents. "Well, we've always made everything else work, so we'll figure this out, too."

Soul squeezed at her shoulder but his face was still firmly watching the other two, silently daring them to give him a reason to make good on his promise.

"Maka…" Rin touched Maka's arm, letting it drift down to take her hand again. "You shouldn't rush this kind of decision, there are other options and I'm not entirely sure you've given them the time…"

Soul only caught himself from bursting because of the pressure of Maka's hand, the added pull of her soul trying to force calm on him that was almost completely unwelcome. He wanted to scream, to throw his hands up in the air, to say every last word that was on his mind and not allow this stranger to dictate his life. Try, was a whisper in the back of his mind and he just barely choked everything else out, his fist clenching so tight that crescent moons instantly dug into his palm.

"Mom, I don't think we want to consider anything else." Maka's eyes moved to Spirit, searching for some kind of anchor, help against Rin, but found him still staring into space, the wheels in his own mind working on what looked like an entirely different thought. "I don't think-"

"You're not thinking," Rin pleaded, squeezing her hand. "You two are young, and from what Spirit tells me just starting on the journey into a relationship. Think of what a baby would do to that. A baby changes love, challenges love, and sometimes you end up realizing-"

"Stop," Spirit's voice struck all three of them. "I know what you're going to say, and I already said that to her the day after we found out."

There wasn't enough serenity in the entirety of Death City to quell Soul as Rin's sentence finished in his head. "What you're insinuating is that Maka ruined it for the two of you so how the fuck isn't that going to happen to us. So let me just-"

"That's exactly what I said," Spirit fanned out a hand towards him, surprisingly placating Soul's yell. "And hearing it from Rin's mouth makes me hear how terrible it really is."

"What?" Rin turned to him, her eyes wide, "I thought we were a united front on his, Spirit. We agreed-"

"Yeah, but don't you hear it?" Spirit sighed. "I should've just known when we agreed that it was wrong." He stood up from his seat, motioning Maka over. "Humor your dad for just a second and come out of the range of that guard dog of yours."

Maka realized the crowd and pushed to her feet, letting both of the hands drop from her to take the few steps to her father. "What am I humoring?" She could feel Soul still smoldering behind her but she was more interested in this new strangeness from her father, this almost non-dramatic reaction.

"An apology." Spirit took her hands from her side, cradling them. "I'm hoping you can erase what I said a couple of days ago from your mind and replace it with this: I'm going to stand behind whatever you guys do. Sure, I'm scared for you, you're my baby, and, fuck, do I ever want to punch that kid in the face because he touched you, but that's a me problem. I think I've said before that you're going to do what you're going to do, and my best bet is just to trust in your strength." Spirit let his eyes wander over her shoulder, nodded at Soul. "And he's included in that your. Hate to admit it, but the kid was right, he's not me."

"He's not," Maka murmured, "But sometimes what you are isn't half bad either, Papa. I accept your apology." She leaned in a little closer, whispering with an amused smile, "But you owe Soul one, completely separate, especially for the guard dog comment."

Spirit smirked back, "Never." The amusement on his own face didn't last long as Maka pushed herself forward, closing her arms around his waist. It was replaced with a soft, contented smile as his daughter offered him something he hadn't had in a long time, an embrace that didn't feel forced, compulsory.

"Spirit," Rin hissed, dousing cold water on a moment that Spirit wanted to hold on to desperately.

"Rin, I'm not going to argue this with you." Spirit savored what he thought would be the last moment of their embrace but Maka held strong, her face pressed into his shirt. For a second he could envision his baby girl, holding her like this when after a bad dream or after he'd come home from a difficult mission. "Now, Maka, tell your mother what you plan to do and that's going to be the end of it."

Maka planted soft hands-on Spirit's chest, making space between the two of them so she could turn her head to look at Rin. "Soul and I are going to have a baby, Mom."

"And we're going to be fine," Soul added as he slid a hand to Maka's hip. This slowly brought her back to him, the closeness adding to the calm of his statement. Soul found him leaning in, planting a soft kiss at her temple and kept his eyes on Maka, no longer interested in the rest of the room.

Rin gritted her teeth, shooting a breath between them. "You're sure there are no other alternatives you'll consider, Maka? Please, just-"

"No," Maka pleaded. "Mom, please, trust me. This is it for us."

"Maka…" Rin stared at her for a few breaths before looking to Spirit, eyes begging for a change but finding resolution in both.

Spirit wasn't used to saving Rin, maybe as a meister but not when she was his wife or now as an ex, and he was rusty as he started now. "I think I'll take your Mom back to her hotel. Let her settle. Maybe dinner tomorrow at the house would give us all a little more time."

Maka looked from Spirit to Rin, trying to gauge her mother's receptiveness but feeling an instant relief at the idea of her leaving anyway. It pained her, but having her mother there had done nothing but stirred up old feelings and put poor Soul on the defensive again. "We'll see you tomorrow, Mom." Maka moved to Rin, taking her hands and helping her off the couch before slipping into her arms.

This hug was less bear and more barely, weak hands patting at her daughter's back. "Tomorrow," Rin murmured, still mostly lost in her own thoughts.

"Come on." Spirit broke them, firmly taking Rin's arm before laughing softly as she brushed him off, par for the course. He let her get a few steps ahead of him, pausing to turn back to Maka at the doorway to the hallway. "I love you." He said it simply, sweetly, pressing a kiss to her forehead as he used to when she was so small he couldn't even imagine this kind of future for her.

"Love you, Papa," she murmured back, unable to relish the loving contact from her father because the tumble of emotion over Rin still dominated her mind. She didn't say I love you. Not the whole time, not for one second, and what's worse is nothing about today showed me she did, not words, not touches. "Mom," she called weakly just as she saw Rin's hand clenched the knob.

"Yes?" She only turned her head over her shoulder, catching a glimpse of her daughter around the golden locks that they shared.

"I love you," Maka offered as a salve to heal whatever wound she'd given her mother today but watched as it did no such thing.

The smile that Rin gave in return was only to placate, a coldness still keeping any brightness from her usually soft brown eyes. "Yes, honey, I love you, too."

"See you tomorrow." Spirit moved between the two, breaking a contact that Maka wasn't sure she missed as he pushed Rin the rest of the way out the door.

Even as it closed the harsh whispers started, her parents exchanging bitter words that would probably continue beyond the hallway, the apartment, the street. Maka couldn't stop herself from being glad they were gone, relieved to be in the almost quiet of the apartment, the only sound now being Soul's padding feet behind her. It was more of a crash than a hug and he grasped her so tightly she was sure she might lose her breath and maybe even part of her lunch. "I love you," was a desperate whisper from his mouth to her ear. It sounded the best of the three, closing out the bitterness of the last from her mind.