When Kilik opened the door and discovered the distinctive absence of Reggie, part of his smile faltered. "Something up?" He hesitated to move to the side, but the twins were already clamoring around his legs, pushing through and making room to grab Maka and pull her in before an answer was even plausible.

As flutters of 'Maka' resounded accompanied by little scampering feet, Soul trailed behind and came shoulder to shoulder with Kilik. "Somethin' weird 'bout today."

Kilik let out a weak laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck, watching the twins and Maka disappear into the kitchen. "Honestly, Soul, I'm starting to feel like something weird is happening every day. I would blame it on Maka, but…"

"Yeah," Soul sighed, "but maybe even stranger than usual. Gotta talk to Nana Rung."

"About?" Kilik's eyebrows furrowed.

"She didn't tell me much, but I think I'm puttin' a few things together." Soul left it at that, jamming his hands in his pocket before wandering after the gaggle. "Come on, she's gonna probably want you there, too."

Kilik took the summons, following dutifully behind Soul as they entered the ruckus-filled kitchen. The twins were still buzzing with excitement even with the loss of Reggie, but Kilik could see the stern look taking hold of Nana Rung's face, signaling the demise of their joy. "Go play outside." It wasn't a sing-song request, and the twins instantly booked it through the back door, letting the screen slam on the way out. "Both of you boys can go on, too." She started waving a deflecting hand.

Maka shook her head as she used her own gesture to block their path. "Don't you think Kilik wants to know?"

Soul winced at the audacity as Kilik chuckled.

"Do I have to remind you what I said?" Nana Rung warned with a lingering sense of amusement. "There's things that I'll believe, and then there's things that they'll believe. I don't think there's much overlap."

"Soul already knows," Maka pressed back, but Soul offered up innocent hands.

"I'm cursed, remember, Ms. Albarn? I ain't one for judgin'." He turned his glance towards Kilik. "But I guess I'll vouch for Kilik…"

"Oh, boy, you know better than to cross me," Nana Rung snapped at him.

"Uh, do I get a say?" Kilik attempted to answer his own question as he took a firm seat at the kitchen table. "Whatever it is, it involves you and my two friends, so I'm a part of it."

Nana Rung let her hip settle against the counter as she looked between the three. "So you went to church today, Maka?"

"Which church?" Kilik snapped instantly.

"White chapel," Soul answered low, giving Kilik all the sympathy he could manage in a glance.

"I…" Maka started but paused to suck in enough air to inflate her courage again and to remind her that the burning hadn't followed her. "It's not going to make much sense, Kilik, but I sort of saw what happened to Chi. After the fact."

Kilik shot a glare at Nana Rung, waiting for some drop-dead reaction, and when he found only her steady breathing, he brought incredulous eyes back to Maka. "Like there's some video or something." There was no question in his voice as if the answer had already come. "Because you weren't living here when Chi died, Maka. You don't know anything about it."

"Except that charm that your mom gave me…" Maka risked a glance at Nana Rung before bringing a weak smile back to Kilik. "Because it was Chi's, I could see what she saw when she died."

Only breaths were exchanged as Kilik stared uneasily between Maka and Nana Rung. He finally leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees to rest his dreaded head in his hands. A ragged sigh bellowed towards the floor. "I knew you were up to something."

"Kilik-" Maka started but stopped as Soul grabbed her wrist.

Soul shook his head gently.

"So is she playing you?" Kilik lifted his head to settle a glare on his mother. "Or are you playing her? How much do you believe of it, Mama?"

Nana Rung set her lips without a reply.

"And what do you get out of it?" Kilik spat at Maka.

"Calm down, Kilik." Soul moved close enough to get a steady hand on Kilik's shoulder but the other man bucked. Kilik's eyes popped out of their socket as Soul refused the maneuver, holding him steady as he stared down sternly at him. "It ain't her fault. She wasn't meanin' to pry- it just happened. She's…" he let an unsteady laugh break his words until he glanced back at Maka. "She's the Rossignol, Kilik. It's her own curse, I guess."

"Gift," Maka corrected hesitantly. "And, technically, I did pry… or at least I offered to pry because Nana Rung wanted to know the truth."

"And you found it at the church," Nana Rung pressed.

Maka nodded but held her tongue to look at Soul. He took the message and patted Kilik on the shoulder again. "You wanna hear this or you wanna go with the kids?"

"I'm fucking hearing it," Kilik muttered.

"Alright, but you stay steady." Soul punctuated by leaning into him, keeping a hard hold.

Maka paused for any explosion but found Soul once again holding everything together and giving her a sharp nod. "The pastor, Justin Law, that was who I saw."

The chair squealed against the floor as Kilik tried to stand but Soul kept him in place. "That fucking freak?" Kilik lashed as he turned furious eyes to Soul. "No fucking way! Chi wouldn't go near that- that-" Nana Rung moved to him as Soul slipped out of the way, her body shielding Kilik from Maka's view as the words turned into rough cries. "No!"

"Alright, baby," Nana Rung murmured softly as she pressed her son's head to her stomach, letting the sound of his yelps deaden against her apron.

"What good does it do?" Kilik brayed mournfully. "What good does it fucking do to know, Mama?"

"I know it feels raw," she murmured. "It'll always feel that way, I suppose, but now we know who to protect those babies from. That was my aim, and the rest will be for God to do."

Kilik coughed out a bitter laugh. "I should-"

"Keep bein' the father those babies need,'' Nana Rung snapped with finality as her hands clutched Kilik's face and turned it up to her. "You finish school like we planned. Don't waste what you are on vengeance."

"What if I just don't believe it," he muttered as he pulled away from her. His hands started the useless task of clearing the pour of tears that wouldn't dry. Kilik peeked around his mother, catching Maka in his sights. "What if I just say I think you're crazy and that you should get the hell out and stay away from my family?"

"I'd say that's fine," Maka pressed her lips together for a moment, worrying the bottom with her teeth before continuing, "but I think it's better to know the truth."

"The Rossignol," Kilik laughed out ruefully. "Wonder which one it is: a blessing or a curse. For us, or for her."

Kilik heard the clink before the footsteps but didn't bother to bring his eyes to either. It wasn't until Soul settled down next to him in the creaking lawn chair and offered a beer bottle in the darkness between them that he let his eyes flick anywhere but the trees. "I don't wanna talk."

"Not sayin' you have to," Soul muttered back as he waved the bottle a little closer.

Kilik grabbed it without a word, letting the cool perspiration soothe the aching muscles of his hands that had been clenched in fists for the past hour.

"Maybe I want to talk 'stead of you." Soul started his own staring contest with the shadowy night but let the words move softly between them. "You good with that?"

"You're not one for talking," Kilik murmured back.

"Yeah well, the truth's gotta come from somewhere," he replied glumly before sipping at his beer.

Kilik mimicked him, holding onto the silence for one more moment before grumbling, "Mama'll give me an earful about it later."

"She sure will," Soul allowed for a chuckle to break from his chest, easing some of the tightness that came with long bouts of speech from him. "Look, I know you never believed in the curse…" He tried a furtive glance in Kilik's direction and hesitated as the other man's shoulders stayed tight. "Kinda appreciated that, to be honest. 'Specially after Viv died since… I know I wasn't doing a great job of keepin' my head-'' Above water. Soul's guts rolled, and he had to swallow hard to keep from spilling them as bile rather than words. "You know I'm not lyin' when I say that I know how it feels. All the blamin', all the wishin'... I know most days I'm settled with the fact that if I could switch it- Viv for me- I would."

Soul paused and risked another look, finding Kilik following him now as his lips pulled into a trembling frown. He nodded sharply and let Soul continue, "So the idea of knowin' makes no difference. At least not to us. Even if I knew why and even now that you know who, it still doesn't change that."

"Then why the fuck am I-" Kilik dug the beer bottle into his thigh with a huffing breath. His tone fluttered down, now a whisper instead of breaking towards a yell. "I didn't ask to know."

"But Nana did," Soul corrected with all the gentleness he could offer. "Same as me backin' down because Reggie wants Maka in his life. He-" his throat threatened to clamp again, and Soul cleared it with a swig from his bottle. "He says that when she talks, his mama comes with her like a shadow, an echo."

Something close to a laugh left Kilik's mouth but when their eyes met it was nowhere near mirth, just wounds open between the two of them.

"So I thought maybe I'd swallow my rage about that because Reggie needs her. Reggie wants whatever that gift of hers is offerin'."

"What do you mean 'maybe'?" Kilik questioned.

"Not that maybe I'm doin' it…" Soul trailed off with a shrug, buying more time and bravery with another gulp of amber liquid. "Just that maybe I'm not swallowin' it all down. I think… It scares me how much I think I'm lettin' go. How much I let his happiness feed over into me and…" He blinked at Kilik, lost at how to describe the feeling since there were no words for the gentle breeze that Maka was.

Kilik grasped the unsaid, the line of his mouth finally no longer anchored downwards. "So it's for them, huh? Doesn't matter what we feel because we love them and what they want is more important."

Soul snickered. "When you say it that way, we sound like idiots."

"Selfless idiots at least." Kilik fell in with his own chuckles.

"But no matter how crazy this sounds…" Soul made sure to steady his glare at Kilik, delivering the words without any more humor to them. "What she does, Kilik, it's real. I've seen it- the birds, the singin', the-'' Viv's face over hers in the moonlight.

"Like those witches of yours?" Kilik raised an eyebrow.

"And like Nana's healin','' Soul murmured. "It's all real. Guess maybe it depends on how much you believe but… this ain't snake-oil sellin' or carnival sideshow."

"You really sayin' that?" Kilik leaned towards him, examining the lines of Soul's face. "You really swear that it's not like how you believe about the curse? That it's not just because the alternative's too much to handle?"

Soul let that strike him harder than any boxing ring punch. That was a truth that had settled between them long ago, only a few weeks after Viv's death and the turmoil that Kilik had pulled him out from under. At the same time, Kilik had never brought it to the light of day again, and to hear it- to have those words rattling in his head again brought with it all of the horrors of lake-water eyes. But instead of being pulled under, he treaded achingly back to the top of his thoughts. "I believe her."

Soul forced his focus on the whine of the car's fan as her silence tried to eat up his attention. The tension from the kitchen had followed them throughout the evening and now stalked in the tight cabin during the drive home. Even church today couldn't bring him to pray, but the worry that he might start in the next few minutes of agonizing stillness was almost guaranteeing it.

"You can think I'm crazy too if you want," she murmured.

The breath he huffed out bordered on relief. "Again, I'm cursed. Don't think I have much room to judge."

Maka sighed in exasperation as she thunked the back of her head against the rest. "I told our friend today that I saw his dead sister get murdered."

"Yeah."

"And before that, you helped my best friend follow me while I went to go talk to my long-dead great grandmother."

"Blake's your best friend?" Soul asked skeptically.

"Soul," Maka complained.

"Think that's harder to believe than talkin' to ghosts," he muttered back.

She heaved another breath into the cabin.

"Fine." Soul paused to tap nervous fingers into the wheel. "But I'm gonna say what I said before: I'm cursed. I go to witches and drink potions that make me puke for days on end. If you're crazy, I'm crazy."

"Then we're both crazy," Maka added with tired finality.

"Sure." Soul went back to drumming along the curve of the steering wheel, trying to fill his mind with another sound other than her anxious breathing. The sight of the house didn't bring any stillness to his joints, instead amplifying the movement as he pulled into the driveway. He only separated from the wheel to jerk the car into park. As he tried to arrange the puzzle pieces that were words in his mind, she pulled in another deep breath.

"This is normal," her whisper trembled out quietly. "I mean I grew up thinking that this was normal because this was what life was like- listening to my Mama's madness. She'd see things. Papa would find her in the middle of the night wandering around and when he tried to wake her she'd scream and scream." Maka brought her hands to her ears as if to block out the sound but let them slip down again lifelessly to her lap. "I always thought that I'd be just like her so… I guess while it's frightening, it's not exactly surprising."

Without a word, Soul slipped his hand to the edge of her seat, pinkie gently probing into the space next to her leg until Maka grabbed it like a lifeline. She exhaled sharply. "This is better than strangling or drowning, but Nana Rung's right. I'm putting myself in danger because even though I didn't say anything, I'm sure Pastor Justin knew something- or felt it. He said the Lord spoke to him and warned him to give that sermon about lying, about witches and charlatans- doesn't that just seem a little too convenient to you?"

"Pastor's always been a bit of a nut." Soul followed with an easy roll of his shoulders. "His dad was the pastor before him- even worse. Justin's weird but his dad, Pastor Henry was…" He interrupted the thought with a whistle. "Somethin' else. Plenty of rumors about him too. Bet you could ask the gun girls."

"I guess I will," Maka sighed out before pulling his hand closer, examining the crescents of his nail beds while the next thought churned worriedly in her mind. "Soul… that day at the lake…"

"Yeah," croaked back from his throat.

Her pulse was no better than a frightened bird in her chest. "It was the shell Reggie gave me. I didn't see Vivienne, but..."

Nothing came from him but a choking sound and when Maka brought her eyes to him he was straight-lipped as his jaw muscles worked.

Maka focused on his hand again, bolstering her hold with her second as she squeezed silent messages into his skin. It hurts you so much. I'm so, so sorry it hurts you this much. The need to comfort him stormed in her, finding an anxious place in her heart where it wrestled with her head. I wonder if you'd let me hug you? I wonder… would you ever reach for me or am I going to ask you one of these days?

Something close to a breath slipped between his lips before he murmured, "That night at the party… when you held Reggie I swear for a second-" He broke off as his free hand pressed over the lower half of his face.

Maka watched him as his fingers flexed over his face before uncovering trembling lips. "Soul, if you need to-"

"Whatever it was, it's fine," he let the tumultuous mix of words fall as his brow wrinkled. That's what I told Kilik, right? I do it for Reggie, even if knowin' isn't exactly what I want or need. Because knowin' the why… "You can do somethin' for me,'' his voice mimicked the wind, just a frail flush between them.

Maka didn't allow for a second's hesitation. "What's that?"

"I need your hand," he continued but let the thought trail off, leaving her blinking at him as he leaned forward slightly in the seat, studying the night through the windshield.

"OK…?" She wiggled her finger, prompting him to lift her hand and pull it towards his shoulder. Her fingertips just rested on the peak before he let go.

After another pause, he let seemingly lifeless words go from his throat, "I got an itch."

"What?" Maka couldn't stop the laugh that accompanied it.

"Can't reach it. Between my shoulderblades." He angled his head towards the steering wheel to hide the grin that was starting to hesitantly grow on his face.

"You're literally asking me to scratch your back?" Maka scoffed.

"That too hard?" he snipped back but his smirk was alive and well, something she couldn't place twinkling in his eyes as he finally angled his head towards her.

"No…" Her brow wrinkled, skepticism staring him in the face as she moved towards the center console. She flexed her fingers and he dropped his head against the steering wheel.

Feels like I'm stealin'. The glum thought couldn't take hold as warmth skittered over his back. The way Clara touches me always sits in my skin, makes it feel brittle, broken, but… I thought I was stupid for guessin' you could erase that, but I wasn't wrong. Maybe that's another one of those gifts of yours- erasing hurt. As she continued to scratch with no intention of slowing, Soul lifted his head, meeting her eyes and her smile as the most conflicted thought hit him: I didn't want to be wrong anyway.