Chapter 21: "Panic Room" Au/Ra

Soul woke up to the sound of his brother playing the piano. He was slightly uncomfortable, having fallen asleep sitting up. He shifted slightly before realizing Maka had curled herself up and was laying across him, still deeply asleep. Soul lay his head back for a moment more, enjoying the relative peace in the moment. The music suddenly stopped with a discordant twang, which was completely out of character for the Wes that Soul knew. Voices had been murmuring behind the sound of the piano, but now he could hear them more clearly.

"He clearly doesn't remember me from be-before." Soul heard Crona barely stumble over the sentence before continuing. "I think we-we're in the cl-clear."

"He doesn't remember because he doesn't want to remember." Wes's voice was filled with cold disregard, and it burned its way into Soul's heart. Wes continued, "We can't use this as a safe house for awhile. Unless you want to remove that girl from the picture." The detachment in Wes's voice was an entirely different persona than what he had been performing yesterday, and Soul's head began to hurt as the voice seeped into his subconscious and started to pull at threads of memories from several years ago. Soul didn't want to hear anymore, it was going to unravel things he didn't want, that he couldn't bear to remember. He stood up quickly, completely forgetting Maka curled up partially on him and the couch. This sudden jump pushed her onto the floor, with a large thump.

"Oh my god, Maka!" Soul dropped to his knees and reached out to Maka as she sat up a bit dazed from the sudden elevation change.

"S'ok!" she mumbled, one hand rubbing the back of her head, the other held out to him waving him off. "Really, I'm fine." She blinked sleep out of her eyes and started to get up. "Wow, what a night!" She yawned and stretched, as Wes and Crona came through the doorway.

"Wh-what happened?" Crona started into the room toward Maka.

Wes stayed in the doorway, looking critically at the two of them. "You both just woke up?"

"I had one of those dreams, where you start running in your sleep, and Maka must have been sleeping on me. So, when I twitched she fell off." Soul held his brother's gaze as he lied. He didn't know why it seemed important that Wes believe they were both asleep. He chuckled and he hoped it sounded believable.

Maka looked around the room. She still felt a little dazed from her abrupt fall to the floor. However, she wasn't sure if it was that causing her to imagine a heavy tension hanging in the air. Maka looked around at everyone in the room. Wes was grinning at his brother in what seemed to be amusement, Crona was looking at her with concern, and then Soul chuckled. Then tension seemed to fall away with the sound. Maka gave a mental shrug; she must have imagined the feeling.

"Y-you're ok-kay?" Crona looked at Maka as they said this.

Maka smiled at her friend before smiling widely and chuckling herself."Just fine! Sorry to cause any worry." She smiled again, "actually if you guys are ok putting up with us a little longer, I'd like to shower, but then we'll get out of your way?" Maka's voice rose at the end creating a small quaver making it seem much more subservient than her intention. She shook her head slightly. "Or maybe we could swim," she continued looking brightly at Crona, "do you swim, Crona?"

"I n-need to g-get b-back to w-work." Crona grimaced a bit.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry." Maka started toward Crona, when suddenly the doorbell rang.

"Should I get it?" Soul started toward the door as he said this.

Maka barely caught the frantic look that Crona threw at Wes, but she did see Wes's quick twitch indicating no.

"That's fine, Soul. It appears to be some of your friends anyway." Wes said as he glanced at his phone before turning back and heading to the music room. "Crona come with me, please." Though Wes's voice carried the same inflections as yesterday, the warmth was lacking, and Maka almost started after the two, but Wes's statement to Soul made no sense. So, instead she followed Soul to the front door, as the doorbell rang once again grating against her ears.

Soul looked through one of the side panes of glass as Maka came even with him in front of the door. "Oh what the fuck." Soul muttered as he opened the door.

"How the seven hells?" He asked the trio standing outside on the porch.

Maka peered around him, and squeaked out, "Kid?"

He waved weakly at her, before Tsubaki launched herself in the house and wrapped her arms around her. Maka heard BlackStar's 'yo' and what must have been a hand clasp between him and Soul, but Tsubaki's arms were wrapped so tightly around her she couldn't see a thing.

"Tsu, you're choking me a bit." Maka managed to mumble into her friend's ample chest in which she had so quickly been enveloped.
"Oh, Maka I was just so worried." Tsu dropped her arms and stepped back as she said this. "It honestly feels like a miracle that we found you at all."

"And how did you find this place, meine schÓ§ne Frau?" Wes's voice carried across the hall from the doorway where he stood with Crona. Though he was using the same types of endearments as before, again the chill in his voice made Maka twitch.

Everyone turned to the pair, and then suddenly Crona was enveloped in Tsu's arms as quickly as Maka had been.

At this point Kid spoke out. "We actually found this place through Instagram geotagging." He grimaced a little as if the thought disgusted him. "Crona had posted the photo of the four of you and geotagged the beach nearby. You're actually the eighth house we've been to." Kid sighed heavily.

"Kinda creepy, when you think about it." BlackStar laughed, "but hey! We found you guys." He smiled but his smile fell off his face quickly as in the span of a moment, as Wes had grabbed Crona by the arm and began to drag them back.

Tsu startled by the sudden movement fell heavily to the floor, and Crona began to squeak out a stuttered apology.

"W-wes, I-I d-did-n't, I w-wasn't thi-" Again before anyone could move Wes had dropped Crona's arm and just as quickly his other hand swung back and slapped Crona across the face.

The sound echoed around the room, and Crona sank slowly to the floor, tears leaking quietly down their face.

"Du bist fertig." Wes spit the words at Crona before continuing down the hall and slamming the door to a side room.

"What the fuck." BlackStar said. Everyone seemed frozen in place.

Finally, Maka dashed over to where Crona lay on the floor. Tsu seemed to gain function at the same time, and the girls quickly hugged their friend, while getting Crona to their feet.

"Let's go." Kid quickly took control of the situation, galvanizing the boys into action. "Soul can you grab anything you and Maka brought and meet us at the end of the block?"

"I'll stay with him." BlackStar cracked his knuckles glaring through the hallway to where Wes had disappeared.

"No." Soul's voice was quiet and full of broken glass. "You should go, BlackStar. Wes won't bother me." The threads had come undone.