Soul had tried to pretend he hadn't seen the first few messages. That was until Blake continued to send them on repeat every fifteen minutes until he replied in the affirmative. Then, he had taken his time to get the replacement for the beer that hadn't been in the fridge. After that, slow steps brought him to the docks.

Blake had turned both of the chairs towards the water, seemingly unbothered by the idea of being snuck up on. "'Bout time you got here," he crowed as soon as Soul's feet hit the planks of the dock.

"Sorry," Soul muttered as he moved towards the seats. "Outta beer too."

Blake groaned.

"Which is why I brought the bourbon," Soul chuckled.

The other man echoed his laughter as Soul sat and offered one of two plastic cups he'd stolen from the stash in Blake's workshop. "Thanks."

"Well, got a feelin' you're gonna get at me again, so I should at least be buzzed." Soul reached into his jacket pocket and took out the oversized flask to pour a finger in Blake's cup before his.

"What makes you think that?" Blake's voice was barely innocent and his grin destroyed any of that lilt.

Soul tried to produce a shrug as his only answer before knocking back the contents of his cup.

"Whoa," Blake continued to chuckle.

He held up a cautioning finger in reply before pouring into his cup again and repeating the motion.

Blake only sipped since if it came from Soul, it was most certainly the type of liquor you were supposed to savor. He winced a little at the bite before starting, "You know what? I don't even want to talk about you- let's talk about me."

Soul raised his eyebrows as he started to splash a little more amber liquid in, adding a bit to Blake's for good measure.

Blake nodded at the courtesy before continuing, "I met Maka when we were one. Obviously don't remember it, but ask Marie and she'll blab for hours: 'Best friends since they were teething.'" He rolled the liquid around the bottom of the cup, watching it cling to the inner white plastic. "That's when I came to live with Stein."

"But he's-"

"Not my dad," Blake cut in without an ounce of emotion. "Technically my half-uncle- my mom's half-brother. Not that our family was all that close. When my parents were killed, he was just the only one around who wasn't in jail or dead." It was Blake's turn to upend his cup before offering it to Soul again who diligently refilled. "And Stein was barely eighteen, right- which means he knew jack-shit about how to take care of a baby. He roped Marie into it. She'd been pining after him for years anyway, so she happily fell into mom-mode."

"Does he… love her?" Soul honestly couldn't stop the question since all the interactions he had with Stein didn't actually spell out much emotion one way or another.

"Fuck yeah," Blake laughed. "He just sucks at it- kinda like you. Tol' you, bein' part of our clan usually means dyin' young or jail, so normal is hard to come by. Marie just kinda gets it. Like Maka gets you."

Soul quickly tipped back another swig, letting the liquor be the excuse for the red tips to his ears.

"But like I said before, Wren kinda wasn't right from day one. So a lot of the time it was me, Maka, and Marie. Sure, Spirit showed up a lot, tried to be a dad in between school and work, same with Stein, but Marie was our twenty-four-seven and Wren was…" Blake made a noncommittal shrug.

"I'm sensin' you don't care for her," Soul murmured.

"You shoulda gotten that eight conversations ago, slowpoke," Blake barked as he poked a finger to Soul's cheek. He took it with a disgruntled frown. "But that's not the moral of this story. What I'm saying is: Maka is gross."

Soul choked out a laugh before sputtering, "What?"

"She's my sister, bro," Blake groaned. "Like we took baths together- I've seen her pick her nose- I've bought her tampons- sister."

"Picks her nose?" Soul curled his lip in disgust.

"She was like three, cut her a break."

Soul started to snicker. "But Blake-"

"And she thinks I'm worse," Blake laughed, "and while it's a serious personality flaw to not find me the most attractive, perfect person on the face of the planet, she's not going to change that for the rest of her life. I ain't for her, she ain't for me. We're just used to each other."

Soul was suddenly very interested in studying the bottom of his cup even though he didn't have tea leaves to read to spell out what was being said.

"I mean, I definitely ain't takin' baths with her anymore, but when she's insufferable, I'll hold her hand, hug her, or whatever." Blake went back to take another sip, snapping his tongue after the swallow. "So you don't have to be jealous of it. It doesn't mean anything."

"Jealous?" Soul threw all his energy into balking but found it falling flat in front of Blake.

Blake crossed his arms, the red cup resting against his bicep. "If we're going to tag-team for this ghost hunters bullshit, I'm gonna need you to stop givin' me the stink eye every time I got a hand on her."

"I-" Soul stuttered the idea to a stop.

"And honestly, bro, until you nut up and kiss her, I don't think you should be givin' anyone that kinda look." Blake erupted into snickers as Soul shrunk in his chair, stuffing his cup in his face in an attempt to cover the million different emotions overtaking him.

"I sorta…" Soul started but the plastic swallowed it.

"You sorta what?" Blake shot back.

"I mighta…" Soul continued to grumble, letting his eyes wander across the water in search of some reprieve.

"Spit it out, dipshit," Blake barked as he messed Soul's hair before knocking the cup away from his mouth.

"I told her I wasn't gonna," Soul snapped.

Blake groaned at a decibel that forced a few birds to flutter in the distance as it echoed across the water. "You're dumb. Like colossally dumb."

"I- I had a reason," Soul pressed back uselessly.

"Yeah, a fucking stupid reason."

"Blake, I'm cursed," Soul spat as his spine straightened with an uncomfortable flare of rage. "That's bad enough, but- I was drunk, and I know it's not the only reason I mighta wanted to, but I know it was mostly because Clara had tried to touch me. I- I was trying to erase that. That ain't a fair reason to kiss her."

For the first time in Soul's presence, Blake backed down, leaning away from him in the chair with a raise of his eyebrows. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," Soul sighed.

"Huh," Blake murmured before studying Soul for another minute. "OK. Good reason."

"What?" Soul paused, looking from the liquid to Blake as if he might have imagined the moment entirely.

"Nah, man, that's pretty good." Blake shrugged before furrowing his eyebrows thoughtfully. "I'm actually surprised. You're pretty stunted, so-"

"Thanks," Soul grunted.

"It's the truth." Blake paused for a gulp before brandishing his cup Soul's way again. "But you're gonna kiss her?"

He offered Blake a withering glare. "I thought you said I was gonna get punched."

"If you don't think it's worth it…" Blake left that with a laugh before taking another sip.

Soul groaned as he planted an elbow on the arm of the chair so he could catch his face in his hand.

"You know how to kiss a girl, right?"

He only let out a weak laugh in reply.

"That's not very convincing," Blake snickered.

"I hate you," Soul sighed out with another trembling laugh. "I hate you for ever even suggestin' I give her a chance. For convincin' me-"

Blake let his favorite buzz rip, tearing at the last of Soul's nerves. "I didn't convince you of nothin'. You liked her the minute you met, admit it."

"Sure- headstrong, opinionated, won't take no for an answer," he snorted.

"Exactly what gets you goin'," Blake teased before another sip.

Soul let that settle, let his mind glance over his first memory of her on the lawn, challenging him, ensuring from that moment on he'd have to call her by her last name only. His fingers smoothed down to his lips and then to his chin, just enough to let the words eke out: "I'm cursed, Blake."

Blake sighed. "Whatever."

"Jus' 'cause you don't believe it-"

"Ain't about whether I believe it or not," rumbled from Blake with strong surety. "Ain't about you believing it or not either. It's about Maka. There's no curse out there that can beat 'er. That girl's been strangled, nearly drowned, watched her great-grandma burned alive, and she's still kickin'. Fuck your curse, man."

Soul couldn't bring himself to look Blake in the eye, to see either the deception or the assurance. "You think…?"

"Tol' you, I'm her brother." Blake gulped down the rest of his bourbon with a satisfied smack. "I know."