It only took two days for them to jump off a literal cliff.
Maka ran full-tilt across the rocky earth, Soul stretched out behind her in scythe form. She ducked and rolled, avoiding debris coming at them from all angles.
"I hate it when they explode," she yelled, dodging to her right when she heard whistling shrapnel flying through the air behind her. The impact knocked her down.
"Get up," Soul commanded. "We're almost there. Shit, that thing's about to pop. Move!"
"Says the jerk who doesn't have to do the running. Can you shift to flying form?"
"No time, you gotta jump."
She pushed her palms against sharp pebbles and took off again, heading straight for the place where the world dropped out of view. The pre-kishin with a knack for pyrotechnics rumbled loudly behind them. It sucked in a breath and held it, making everything go silent and still just before the meister and her weapon reached the edge of the cliff.
And then, BOOM.
Maka pushed off the rock, propelling herself with all her strength into open air. Fire billowed behind her, pushing her further on a shock wave even as it singed the tips of her pigtails. For a single second, they stayed suspended in midair above the blue, blue sea.
Soul shifted as soon as gravity took hold. He grabbed Maka's shoulders and wrapped himself around her.
"Straighten your body," he yelled into her ear. "This is really going to hurt."
They struck the water feet first, plunging down until the pressure in his ears sent jolts of pain through his skull. As predicted, his whole body hurt like he'd just hit concrete. The impact had separated them and he flailed around, trying to find her in the murky salt water. They needed to get to shore before the waves pummeled them back into the cliff face.
He shrugged off the jacket that was trying to drag him down, barely mourning the loss. The leather would be ruined, anyway. His lungs burned for air, and he swam up toward the light, finding Maka on the way and dragging her along by a coattail.
They broke the surface and gasped. Oxygen had never tasted so sweet. Maka went right back under and he followed, helping her yank off her own coat and abandoning it. When they'd both taken a few seconds to breathe and clear their heads, he wrapped his arm around her waist so he wouldn't lose her and they swam sidelong, parallel to the cliff. The waves were not a fucking joke, swelling and slamming them mercilessly until they managed to find a beach nestled in the rocks.
Undertow clawed at their feet and tried to drag them back as they made land. He made sure they'd both crawled well clear of the tide line before he collapsed, coughing up seawater. She rolled onto her back beside him, sputtering.
"That sucked," he rasped. "That sucked real bad."
"We didn't collect the soul," she responded, voice thick.
That was just like her. All business. He rose to his knees and stared up the cliff. There was a barely-there path, probably made by locals who used this isolated beach. "Not our problem anymore. Let the local meisters fetch it."
Maka sat up, her pigtails limp and dripping on either side of her face as she stared out at the water. "I really liked that coat," she said.
"C'est la vie or whatever," he said, shakily getting to his legs and offering her a hand up, which she accepted. "We're in the tropics. It's not like we need our jackets."
She leaned down to unsuccessfully brush wet sand off her skirt. "We've got to get back and give Kid a report."
"We can't take five minutes to contemplate our most recent brush with death?" He looked down at her just as she turned to face him, hands on her hips and look of determination on her face.
"No, Soul. This isn't a vacation. We're here on duty."
He also noticed that her white button-down was soaked through, and that she was wearing a pink bra with pastel polka dots. His eyes rolled skyward and he turned his back on her.
"Oh, you're going to ignore me now?" she said.
"No, I just figured you would want to deal with your chest situation before you continue to bitch at me."
"What do you mean my chest- oh my gods." The sound of wet cloth being yanked away from skin made him chuckle as he imagined her hunched forward and holding her shirt out in front of her.
"Don't look!" she squeaked.
"I'm not! I am literally, as we speak, in the act of not looking. I mean, there's more to see now than there used to be, but not by much." He reached down to the hem of his own dripping shirt and peeled it off, holding it out behind him for her to grab.
She snatched it out of his hand. "And how do you know that, you pervert?"
He spread his arms wide, shrugging to the ocean. "Uh, I don't know, maybe because you leave your bras hanging on that little rack thing in the bathroom sometimes?"
"So you checked the size? That's creepy." Her voice was muffled as she pulled his shirt over her head.
"I plead scientific curiosity."
"I plead that you're a perv." She paused. "I'm decent."
He turned around, snorting a little at his shirt hanging down past her own skirt. Either he'd grown a lot in the last year, or she'd shrunk.
Distant calls floated down to them from high up. Maka inclined her head, jumping and waving. Soul squinted up the cliff face and saw Tsubaki waving frantically back from the top of the path. He lifted his hand at her.
"We're fine," Maka bellowed with her hands cupped around her mouth. "Go get the soul."
"She can't hear you," he said.
She huffed. "Then we'll just have to start walking."
"Oh come on, Maka," he whined. "Can't we spend a little time on the beach, since we're already here?"
"I told you, this isn't a vacation," she popped a hip and planted her hand on it. "And not that all this -" she gestured to his torso "- isn't very nice, but we have places to be and things to do."
He broke into a grin, preening as he looked down at his own scarred chest. "You think this is nice? You think other ladies think it's nice?"
"Everyone with a pulse thinks it's nice, shut up."
He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, pleased. "If you wanna touch these abs, Maka, you just gotta ask."
"How generous," she smirked. Then she walked over and slugged him in the gut. Not hard, but enough to wind him. "Come on, let's go."
He rubbed his belly and followed her toward the path. "Touchy, touchy."
"Pervy, pervy," she called back to him.
After they'd secured the pre-kishin soul, Maka insisted on heading back to their beachside motel to call Kid and give him a report. They both showered first, ridding themselves of sand and salt water and leaving a convenient fog on the mirror for her to draw out the appropriate numbers.
Kid appeared and was almost immediately replaced by Liz and Patty, both fighting to peer through the mirror at them.
"Oh my gods is it amazing?" Liz said, clutching her hands together and looking absolutely miserable. "I can't believe we're stuck here. The one time there's a pre-kishin infestation somewhere nice and we're wrapped up in bureaucracy."
Patty tried to shove her sister out of the way. "Are you catching geckos? All the cute little tiny geckos? Bring me back a gecko, 'kay?"
Kid's hands appeared between the two girls' heads and he pushed them to either side, annoyance painted plainly on his face. "We're revisiting the witch treaty and it's extremely important and this is history in the making and I would appreciate it if you both started acting like weapons befitting a Shinigami, thank you very much."
He straightened his jacket and turned his attention to the meister and weapon. "Report?"
"Two down, three to go," Soul said. "The last one got a little hairy when she ducked into a lava tube, but we took care of it. No sweat."
Maka elbowed him in the ribs. "We're working hard, Kid."
The Death God nodded. "Very good. And the meeting with Pele?"
"Went wonderfully," Maka said. "She seems very pleased to have our help."
"Excellent. Please keep me appraised. And Soul," he said, training his eyes on the weapon. "Would you do something with this?" He waved his hand in front of his forehead.
Soul blinked. "Hah? With what?"
Kid waved both hands frantically over his head. "With this nonsense you call hair. Fix it."
"What's wrong with my hair?" He reached up and felt a cowlick sticking up in back that he hadn't had time to style yet.
Kid's eye twitched. "Just tell me you'll fix it."
"Yeah, I'll fix it, don't worry."
"Good. Carry on. Tell Black Star-"
Liz and Patty were back in the mirror again.
"Maka, you have to get yourself some really pretty clothes, okay? And make sure you get me some of those chocolate covered macadamia nuts," Liz said.
Patty clapped her hands. "Coffeeeeeeeee coffee coffee bring back all the coffee."
Kid shoved his way between them, exasperated. "Thank you for the report. Get some R&R this evening. Kindly keep Black Star in check. Kid out."
The mirror faded back to normal.
They looked at one another.
"Movie night?" Soul said.
"I'll go see what they have in the vending machines," Maka said.
They were both comfortably situated on their own double beds with a bag of gummy worms and arguing over whether to watch Lilo and Stitch or Hawaii Five-0 when Black Star pounded on their door. Soul grunted and got up to let him in. Ignoring him would result in a shattered door, and neither of them wanted that on DWMA's tab.
He bounded in and hopped on Maka's bed, bouncing her in the air.
"Kid said R&R night! Get dressed!"
Maka managed to swipe his legs out from under him with a swift kick and he landed on his side with his hand propped on his elbow.
"Babe. This is so sudden."
She shoved him off the bed as Tsubaki leaned against the doorframe with a bag over her shoulder.
Black Star popped up off the floor. "Seriously though, get up. We're going out. The local meisters invited us to a luau."
"I don't think Kid meant for us to go out partying all night, genius machine," Maka said as she gathered her spilled candy back into its bag.
Soul shrugged from where he slouched near the door. "Yeah, we got beat to hell today. Kind of wanted to take it easy."
"Stop." Black Star clapped his hands and pointed at them with twin finger guns. "Being total buzzkill losers. Party time. With hula. And food. Get off your asses. We're going."
Soul sighed to the ceiling. "I hate parties, dude. You know that."
"This isn't some dumbass stuffy suit party. Hula girls, man."
"Hula girls?" Soul raised an eyebrow, not quite swayed.
"Yep. And poke. And lomi-lomi salmon. And laulau. For free."
That caught his attention. "Free fish?"
"Yeah."
"Like, they're just going to give it to me."
"Yes."
"Okay, I'm in."
Maka groaned and threw herself back onto her pillows. Tsubaki came inside and sat next to her, digging through her giant bag.
"Come on, it'll be nice to unwind," she said. "I even have stuff for you to wear."
"I don't know if I like the sound of that," Maka mumbled through her hands.
Black Star backhanded Soul in the chest. "Put on your shorts and that broody 'don't touch me' look that makes all the girls want to touch you and let's go already."
Soul shot Maka a glance. "We are supposed to keep him in check."
"Yeah, Maka, you have to keep me in check," Star agreed, nodding slowly.
She sighed. "Oh, just go."
"We'll catch up later," Tsubaki promised.
Soul took five minutes to change into something beachy and fix the cowlick in his hair before following Star out into the lobby. The meister-weapon party was a mile up the road at a rec center, so they decided to hoof it. Soul strolled and let Black Star jabber on while he enjoyed the red-orange sunset and listened to the waves crash.
The air was still thick as honey, and he was starting to like it.
A/N: Please do not ever jump off a cliff into open Hawaiian waters because YOU WILL PROBABLY DIE.