Soul entered her office with a smirk, and Tsubaki smiled. She had been seeing more of Soul's smiling face, and she was only too happy about it. He hadn't smiled for a long time and it was nice to see him opening up.
"I've been waiting for a while Tsubaki."
"Sorry, Soul I was talking with…"
"Black Star." He fills in, " I can't imagine how. Or why. It doesn't seem like there is a lot to the man."
"Perhaps you cannot see it as you've occupied your time with someone else?" Soul tries to hold back a grin, but fails, and Tsubaki rubs his back.
"Do you like her?"
"I think I might love her." He answers simply, and Tsubaki smiles.
"I feel the same way."
"Really? With Blake of all people? It's hard to see you with anyone else but my brother."
"Does it bother you? We both know Wes and I didn't love each other."
"But you were meant for him." Soul sighs, "I feel almost as happy, as I was before Wes… died. And I shouldn't. It's only been a year. We're both moving on too quickly."
"While, we do need time to mourn, missed opportunities are seldom offered a second time. If you had continued to shut Maka out, you might not have fallen in love with each other."
Soul grins, foolishly at hearing Tsubaki's explicit words. "I.. suppose that is true."
"Life will go on, even without your brother. You had forced yourself, to stay static after Wesley had died. Afraid, Miserable, Paranoid. But Maka, or the addition of a new person in your life, forced you to change, like Kilik, Kim, or even I could not." She sighs, "And I'm happy for you."
"But when you forced yourself to remain static, running away, the rest of the world had remained moving. She had remained moving. Maybe it's time you went back and confronted her."
"Tsubaki, you and I both know it's not that simple. She killed my family."
Tsubaki harshly speaks to him, "No one knows of her treachery. They will continue in their ignorance, unless you return and speak. We allowed to run away from your problem for a little while, to allow you to mourn. But days, turned into weeks, turned into months, and you are still running away, your tail between your legs!"
"Stop talking about it."
Tsubaki continued, in a slightly calmer voice. "Medusa had still been active, while you were missing, trying to hunt you down and kill you. We prevented her from the action, but she will soon stop had almost been a year since the day you went missing, and she will not wait any longer. If she knows that you are too afraid to come back, Medusa will assume power, and she will terrorize your subjects. You have to save them from her." She takes a deep breath, and adds, "King Soul."
"Don't call me that. That's his title, not mine. I'm not suited to be a king! My parents knew it. Wes knew it, and you should know it! I'm not a king, and I cannot save them. " He sighs,
"I know you're scared, but we can defeat her together. "
"I don't want to hear anything more from you, Tsubaki."
"I am your ADVISOR! You can turn to me when you're having trouble."
"You're not my advisor. You were meant to be his! You were supposed to be with him, guide should have been with him, while he died. You could have been the one preventing all this. If you took him away, instead of me."
"Soul," Tsubaki was aghast. "Wesley asked me to save you. He threw you to me, and turned back to fight the made me promise that you would make it out alive. And I kept my promise. You need to let go of the past; you need to kill her, and take the throne. Your subjects need you! Are you going to leave thousands of people helpless against her tyranny, because of your fear."
He sighs, and punches the wall.
"I can't Tsubaki. I don't want you, ,or anyone else to die."
"Once Medusa assumes the throne, the people she kills will lie on your conscience. Get your shit together, King." She says this, in a low tone. She leaves and closes the door behind her. Kim is waiting for her.
"That was pretty harsh. You couldn't have been nicer to him?"
"Nice wasn't working very well." She sighs, "I don't like it either, but he needs to move on. It's been a year. He has people to look after, and we can't keep helping him escape; he needs to face the truth."
"It's only been a year. It was his brother, Tsubaki."
"I've known Wesley as long as Soul had, if not longer. We both lost a brother that day.. Neptune only knows how I've moved on. But I did, and I had to, Soul was depending on me. And he has people depending on him."
Kim looks towards the door of the room Soul was in.
"I don't know if he's ready yet. He's had to grow up a lot in the past year. I mean for Neptune's sake, he's only 26. I want to give him a bit more time."
Tsubaki grimaced, "Time is something we don't have. Medusa has been respectful of the Council of Elders for the past year, but we don't know how long the fragile agreement between them is going to hold. Soul's been missing for a year, and Medusa is starting to get impatient. She's likely going to kill the Council of Elders, and usurp the throne."
"No! That can't happen."
"I know." She strides out of the room. "It won't happen."