This story is a sequel to my Soul Eater fic 'after the sun goes down'. If you try to read this without reading that you'll probably be a bit confused by the context. (Can you tell I'm bored stuck in quarantine yet?)
But you're welcome to read either way!
"Are you sure that it wasn't just a fluke? A coyote, or something?" Black Star rolls his eyes for what feels like the fiftieth time in the short car ride. "I just feel like we're on a wild goose chase, here. Nobody fucking comes to the Nevada desert. It's the fucking desert," he riffs. He's got one headphone in one ear and listens to heavy workout music with one, hairy, toned leg propped precociously up on the dashboard.
"It's our job, Black Star. We need to make sure. If there's nobody around then we'll head back," Tsubaki says softly in reply. "I wish you wouldn't always put your feet up. It's so unhygienic, don't you know?" she smiles wistfully, knowing that he's not really listening. She knows her partner well, after all this time. What had it been, eleven years? There was hardly any scenario on earth that they hadn't been through together.
He'd matured, since they were fourteen, but he was still the same old Black Star. And Black Star had nothing if not a big personality. That's what Kid had called it, anyway. Tsubaki called it 'being a character'. Most others at the academy called him an arrogant, egotistical maniac.
It's okay, Tsubaki rationalises - because even though he's complaining – he's here with her, so it's not so bad.
He'd been so frustrated for the last few weeks, she knows that. He felt stuck doing parameter checks, distress signals, the 'boring stuff' as he put it. He wanted desperately to be put back on the frontlines; fighting kishin and zombies. Not that… that was the stuff that he loved doing.
Black Star excelled at fighting enemy targets.
"How is your leg feeling?" she tries for a smile at the figure slumped over in the passenger seat.
"It feels AMAZING. I had NO IDEA why Marie said I can't go out on proper missions." He scowls. "Imagine, trying to keep a GOD like me from fulfilling my righteous duties."
"This is important, too!" Tsubaki pipes up, her voice a quiet but persistent foil to Black Star's grating, melodramatic bluster.
A month ago, Black Star had sprained his ankle on a run. They'd been taken off active duty and put on other tasks, like the one they're on now. It was driving him crazy, and by proxy, was driving her crazy.
"That's not true!" Black Star rips the headphone out his ear. "They're just punishing me for being more godly than the rest of them!" he snaps.
"The rules are the rules for a reason, though," Tsubaki counters. "If you run on your ankle, you might make your injury worse," she points out, ever the pragmatist.
"Those zombies are beyond help," he mutters. "We should be killing them on site." He glares at her from underneath his dark sunglasses. "All I'm doing is God's work, ridding the world of it's dirt and… and…" his face turns a sickly shade of pale as Tsubaki's attention is diverted from her driving, waiting for the end of the sentence.
"What is it, Black Star?" she asks, patient as ever.
He points out the passenger-side window, mouth agape. "STOP! Stop the truck! Is that a person?" he asks, incredulous. Tsubaki's hairs stand on end and Black Star gets more frantic. "Look! Down in the sand!" he exclaims. "I think it's a person. Tsubaki, turn the truck around!"
Tsubaki's attention is effectively diverted and she follows his finger. "Oh my God, Star." She pales. "I think you might be onto something," she turns her steering round and they drive closer, the slow rumbling of the engine the only noise for a few seconds as they both stare. "Oh my. It is."
"Are they… dead?" Black Star voices the question on both their lips.
She shakes her head in disbelief. "C'mon, we should get out and check on them," she says, yanking her hand-brake on and turning off the truck. "C'mon!"
"Wait, Tsubaki!" Black Star stops her, grabbing her arm before she can run off. "We need to be careful. It could be… it could be a zombie. Watch yourself, okay?" he warns her. "You go, I'll grab first-aid from the back." He swings the door open and grabs whatever he sees first – a first-aid kit, some water, some bandages, some of Stein's miracle cure-all painkillers.
He's fiddling around with some nutrition gels when he hears Tsubaki audibly draw in a gasp of air into her lungs. "What? What is it? Is everything okay?"
"Black Star…" she says, slowly, like she can't quite believe it. "You should come here, quick. Black Star, it's… it's Soul."
There's a beat.
His mouth falls open so wide that his chewing gum almost falls out. He runs towards Tsubaki, suddenly very alert. They kneel on the ground next to him.
"He's out cold," Tsubaki says. "Jesus, Black Star – can you believe it? I thought he was dead. He's so thin," she gasps, eyes running over his practically emaciated body.
"It's gotta be him – look at his teeth," Black Star rationalises, his voice ramping up like an overexcited puppy. "Soul!" he calls. "Soul, buddy! Can you hear me?" Black Star asks, unscrewing the cap off a bottle of water and dumping it directly onto Soul's face. "Wake up!"
Soul murmurs in response to the water splashing over his face and he screws up his eyes, his body grinding slowly to life. It takes him a minute or two to come to his senses.
Before this, he had been convinced that he had just died – this now came as quite a shock.
"M-maka," he murmurs out. "Maka," he points to some spot far off in the desert, his brain trying hard to put his scrambled thoughts into audible words.
"Others?" Tsubaki asks, her and Black Star sharing a look. "There are others?" she mouths, shocked. "Soul, where are they?"
"I…" Soul falters. "Desert…" his voice comes out in only croaks as his head smacks back down against the sand, exhausted. "They need help," he adds, conspiratorially. He's frustrated at his current inability to articulate, but he's hoping that his murmured words are being understood by his saviours.
Tsubaki's eyes meet Black Star's; both wide as saucers.
This was shaping up to be a hell of a day. And, to think, Black Star dismissed patrol duty as boring.