Lesson 21: Keep moving forward.

When Soul returns to the world, it's to a series of soft beeps, hushed voices, and a warmth around his hand that vanishes when he tries to wiggle his fingers.

"I think he's waking up," a voice says excitedly.

"Really?" another voice answers. "But his eyes are still closed."

Distantly, he recognizes that they belong to Maka and Black Star, but he can't seem to move his mouth, or open his eyes, to confirm that he is awake. Instead, all he can do is wiggle his fingers again, more feebly than before, although without the warmth around his fingers that he assumes was Maka's hand, they don't even notice he's moving.

"It could take some time for him to become fully conscious," replies a voice that Soul recognizes as Kid. "He has been sleeping for over a day, after all."

Black Star's voice takes on the same steely tone it always does when he's faced with a challenge. "Well, maybe I can speed the process up."

There's a beat of silence, then both Maka and Kid yell, "No!" as Soul feels Black Star open his eyelids. Soul's vision blurs as he gets a glimpse of Black Star's face peering demandingly at him "Wake up, already!"

He recoils back on instinct, but he's already lying on his back and can't go back any further. Black Star's face disappears as he's yanked back by an unseen force. There's noise of a small commotion as Maka growls, "You idiot!"

"I thought you wanted him to wake up," protests Black Star as Soul blinks rapidly.

"Not like that!"

The world sharpens into view the more Soul blinks, and he moves his head to see Maka being held back by Kid while her hands claw for Black Star, who dances out of reach. His voice comes back to him as he watches them. "Hey."

Immediately, their heads snap towards Soul, and Kid lets go of Maka as they rush forward. "You're awake," she exclaims as she reaches the head of the bed. Her arms are half-raised, as if to hug him, but she appears to think better of it, reaching out to brush the hair hanging in his eyes instead.

Black Star, however, has no qualms about hugging him, and Soul is seized with the sensation that his ribs are being crushed as Black Star all but strangles him with the force of his hug. "We thought you were dead, dude!"

"I'm going to be, if you don't let go of me," he wheezes.

Kid is the one to haul Black Star off this time. "Soul's parents are going to kick us out of the room if we make their son black out as soon as he wakes up."

"Sorry," says Black Star, repentant, while Soul blurts out, "My parents are here?"

"They are," Maka answers, breaking off the glare she was aiming at Black Star to look back at Soul. She goes back to brushing back his hair, which prompts Black Star to waggle his eyebrows at him. "So is Wes. They went down to the cafeteria a while ago. Do you want to see them?"

Resolutely ignoring Black Star, he nods with some difficulty, and Kid says, "I'll get them."

"Wait," says Soul as Kid heads to the door, and he waits until Kid turns back around to speak. "What do they know?" he asks. "Did you tell them the truth?"

Black Star snorts. "Oh yes, we told them all about the cult that tried to murder us twice in one night," he says. "Definitely went into details about Giriko's freaky powers, too."

"I'll take that as a no." He shifts himself up as subtly as he can, uncomfortable with being stared at while he lies flat on the hospital bed. However, Maka sees right through him, and presses the button on the side of his bed that pushes the upper half up. "Thanks," he says when he's been raised to a sitting position. He glances from her to the others. "So, what did you tell them, then?"

"We were playing hide and seek in the mines when we accidentally set off a cave-in, and you hit your head on a wooden beam that fell," Maka answers. "We carried you through the tunnels while we searched for the mine entrance."

"Wow," he says after a moment. "I would have believed that."

"I came up with it," Kid answers with a hint of pride in his voice. "I'm glad you found it believable."

"Very believable." Soul pauses as his body fully registers the fact that he is awake, bitterly protesting the fact by sending a wave of exhaustion through his head. He fights against it as something about his current situation nags at him. It finally comes to him when he looks down and spies the hospital band around his wrist.

Soul looks up at the three. "How did we get here?" he asks, looking around the room, which definitely does not belong to the tiny clinic on Market Street. "Where is here?"

"We're at the general hospital in Eibon," replies Maka, exchanging a glance with Black Star and Kid. "The police were already outside the mine when we made it out of the elevator shaft."

"Marie said that a weird-sounding dude who said he was your therapist called her on her personal phone," tacks on Kid. "He told her he got the number from your brother, but apparently it took him a while to convince her that he wasn't a prank caller."

"Stein?" Soul's mind whirls as he thinks back to his conversation he had with Stein. He hardly remembers what he said, much less what he could have possibly told Stein that would have tipped him off to the mines.

"That's what he said his name was when he met us at the hospital," Maka confirms.

"He doesn't look like a therapist at all, either," interjects Black Star. "Have you seen those scars? He's totally killed someone."

"He is also in the waiting room down the hall," Kid says mildly. "So, perhaps we should lower our voices."

"Marie is also here." Maka throws a glance to the door behind her. "If we go get your parents, they're probably going to come in, too. Are you ready for that?"

"Yes," Soul's reply is automatic, which surprises him since he usually avoids people when he knows his interaction with them is going to be unpleasant. But after the dream, or hallucination, or whatever the meeting he had with Grandma Evans really was, he feels stronger somehow, despite everything that happened last night.

"Alright." Black Star takes Kid by the hand, and they go to the door together. "We'll be back."

As their footsteps fade in the hallway, Soul gestures to the chair sitting by the window next to his bed, looking up at Maka. "You can pull that over if you wa-"

His words are cut off as she kisses him, fingers brushing up and down his face gently. There is an urgency to the way that she moves her lips against his, as if to make sure he's really there. He kisses her back after a second, falling into an easy rhythm, although the cloying fog in his head forces him to pull back sooner than he would have liked.

"Still very nice," he tells her, which tugs a smile from her mouth. "What was that for, though?"

She rolls her eyes. "I told you we should do it again sometime," she says, going to pull the chair over now. "I figured us coming out of a life or death situation was an appropriate time."

"You were always so smart," he says.

She laughs as she sits and takes his hand. "Thank you."

There's a silence for a moment as she plays with his fingers. "You had us worried when you fainted," she says, gazing at their hands twined together. "It looked like you weren't breathing for a minute."

"I felt like I died," he answers. He hesitates. "I think I saw what the cult was talking about when I was out. The Black Goat," he says. "Do you think that's crazy?"

"No." She shakes her head. "I don't know if there was something there before the cult formed, or if they built it up so much in their own minds that it seemed like it was real, but it felt like something really was watching us in the mines last night." Looking up at him, she asks, "Did it tell you anything?"

"Nah, it was a giant asshole, but I figured out some stuff," he says, waving with his free hand. He thinks hard about his next words before he speaks. "I saw my grandma."

Her fingers freeze where they're tracing a pattern in his palm, and she waits for him to collect his thoughts. "I'm not sure that that was real," he says after several beats. "But it felt real, so that was nice."

Maka is quiet for a long moment. "I've had dreams that I'm talking with my mom," she says finally. "I used to dismiss them because they were just dreams, but those dreams had to come from somewhere, and even if it's only my memories, they still came from her."

"I like that," says Soul after thinking through her words. "That's a good way to think of it."

Her smile returns. "I'm glad you agree." She wavers before asking, "Did she tell you anything?"

"That I should be more open with people I care about more often, rely on them, and work hard so they can rely on me," he says, thinking back to the dream. It still hurts to think of Grandma Evans, but it's not a pain so big he has to bury it to survive anymore. "That being alive means I always have the option of becoming a better person."

Maka starts to brush her fingers against his hand again. "She was always a very wise woman."

"I think I'm going to visit her after I get out of here." The words come out without him thinking about it, but they feel right.

A wave of conflicting emotions cross Maka's face for a few moments. And then she says, "I'll go with you, if you want."

He blinks. "I thought you didn't want to go back to the cemetery."

"Yeah, but I shouldn't be so afraid of ghosts," she says with a shrug. She glances at him. "Plus, I won't be alone."

He closes his hand over hers. "No, you won't."

In the hallway, there's a loud flurry of noise as footsteps approach Soul's room. He barely has time to brace himself before the cacophony reaches the door.

Like Black Star, his mother nearly crushes him to death as soon as she reaches the bed, while on his other side, his father grips his shoulder tightly. She scolds him as she presses her hands to his face, but there's no real bite to her words. "What were you thinking, going to the mines?" she says, inspecting him as if he hadn't already been attended to by multiple doctors. "We always warned you to stay away from there."

"And aren't you a little old to be playing hide and seek?" adds his father, which earns him a glare from his mother.

"It was a dumb mistake," says Black Star as Maka silently rises from the chair and joins Black Star and Kid at the door. Soul frowns, but she gives him a shake of her head, and he bites back his words. "We went further in the tunnel than we meant to."

"I need to find a way to seal those mines," says Marie, gazing down at Soul with her familiar disapproving look, although it's softened by the relief in her eyes. "How far in did you go?" Next to her stands Stein, looking as impassive as ever, though Soul is practiced enough to tell that he doesn't believe the story Kid told them one bit.

"We didn't go past the second floor," says Soul. He knows Dave said all of the cultists were gathered there last night, but there's always the risk that he was lying, and even if he wasn't, it was best to keep her from looking too closely into what lay in the mines, particularly the fourth floor.

"The mines seem like an odd place to play hide and seek," Stein says, adjusting his glasses. "Particularly when you have all these trees around."

"The woods are dangerous," Black Star bursts out.

There's a brief pause in the room as everyone stares at him, and then Kid says smoothly, "We've been in the mines so many times that it seemed like they'd safe."

"Clearly, we were wrong," adds Maka.

"At least some of you admit that," Marie snorts. She sighs, gaze going back to Soul. "I already told your parents, and yours ," she says, looking at Black Star, "that we wouldn't be pressing charges for trespassing, even though there is a clear sign on the mining entrance." She glances at Kid. "And we already talked." To Maka, she says, "Your father didn't answer, but I know where to find him."

"We're all adults," says Maka. "You could just talk to us."

Stein speaks up again. "Yes, but I think Officer Mjolnir would like to make sure nothing like this happens again."

To Soul's surprise, a slight blush blooms on Marie's face. "I already said you could call me Marie." Then she seems to remember herself, and she says to Soul, "We'll leave you to rest, but you should feel very lucky."

Soul looks from his parents, to Wes, and then to Black Star, Kid, and finally Maka. "I do," he agrees.

Soul sits on the makeshift stage in the Balloon Buster, listening as Maka fumbles through the first chords he had given her to practice. She balances the keyboard in her lap, brow furrowed in concentration, although she gives up after another few seconds, swearing.

"I can't do it," she says. "Instruments just aren't for me." She tries to push the keyboard back in his lap, but stops her.

"Yes, you can," he says. "You've just got to stop holding your hands so stiff."

"No, she really can't, dude," Black Star says, tuning his guitar on the other side of the stage, while Kid reads a book next to him. "I've listened to her try to play "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" for almost an hour now, and she still sucks."

Maka flips him off casually while Kid says, "We really should start practice soon. I only have an hour before I go to cover for Kilik."

"I'll come over to your house later and we can try again," says Maka as she hands the keyboard over to Soul, brushing her fingers on the side of his face once before she stands. "We can practice without being interrupted," she adds, throwing a pointed look at Black Star.

Soul rises while Black Star and Kid take up their spots, putting the keyboard back on its stand. "In the meantime, you can play on your version of a keyboard and work on your stiff fingers."

She sticks her tongue out at him.

"Are you two going to start playing, or are you going to keep flirting?" complains Black Star.

"Like you didn't act the same way when you started going out with Kid," Maka retorts as Kid nods in agreement with her.

"What song are we going to play?" interrupts Soul.

It's quiet for a moment, and then Kid speaks. "Over the Moon?" he suggests. "It was Jackie's favorite."

A different kind of silence falls over them, but then Black Star strums the opening notes of "Over the Moon". He looks at them. "For Jackie."

Kid lifts his drum sticks. "For Jackie."

"For Jackie," says Maka quietly, fingers poised above her laptop.

Soul meets their gaze one by one, lingering on Maka. "For Jackie."

They begin to play.