Note: I do not own Soul Eater or any of it's characters, those rights belong to Atsushi Okubo. This was kind of sort of written for a wonderful friend of mine, who inadvertently helped get me out of my writer's block.

This is rated M for sexuality. If you are not okay with that, please proceed no further. Otherwise, enjoy!

Nostalgia hits him hard enough to make him stumble a bit over his own feet, standing in a patch of sunlight in the forest from his childhood, listening to all the music of the animals and wind whistling through the trees and smiling in remembrance. It's a wonderful feeling of déjà vu, bringing a smile to his lips. He turns to Maka to ask her something, but the words catch in his throat before he can utter a syllable.

Her leaf green eyes are wide and full of wonder, glittering from the way the gentle breeze makes her eyes water, but unable to close them. She doesn't want to miss a single moment, each minuscule detail being taken in by her curious senses. Her mouth hangs slightly agape in awe, head whipping this way and that, trying to see everything all at once.

She's never been to a place like this before. She grew up in the desert, and though they've had a few missions in the woods before, she never got to enjoy it this way…

She's never felt so incredibly comfortable, so joyous. This place, this person here with her, they're exactly what she needs to find euphoria, the hum of the forest thrumming through her veins, her soul comfortably embraced with Soul's. A beautiful smile sneaks onto her face, and she giggles, spreads her arms out and twirls in place a few times before toppling onto her backside into soft moss, grabbing Soul by his wrist and pulling him down atop her just as she tips. He yelps as they fall, but she just laughs more, pulling him closer to her, her fingers combing through his thick snowy hair, and he sighs contently into the silken skin of her throat. This feeling he has is so familiar, yet so different.. he feels like a child once more, but he still has the knowledge he's gained over the years and the companion he was lucky enough to meet.. A girl he trusts with any and all things..

"This place… reminds me of when I was kid." His cheeks flush at the admission, but she just keeps playing with his hair with one hand, stroking his back with the other.

"Really? Did you go camping a lot when you were younger?" she asks softly, her hushed voice blending effortlessly with the rustling leaves on the tree boughs. He breathes deeply, lips pressed to her pulse as he thinks over how to answer her. He takes a deep breath through his nose, appreciating the sweet scent of strawberry that emanates from her skin before he speaks.

"Not… not really camping. But when I was younger, Wes and I would always run into the woods behind our house and uh, jesus this sounds stupid, we'd play hide and seek and stuff. I always hid behind the same blackberry bush though.. Hah, mom would get so pissed, we'd come back with dirt all over and grassy stains on our pants. Hah… sometimes we would forget we had blackberries in our pockets. Mom got so mad when we dyed her sundress pink by accident," he chuckles, eyes twinkling with mirth. She smiles faintly, shimmying downward until they are forehead to forehead, their noses brushing lightly. She kisses him lightly and pulls back, a silent prompt for him to keep talking, she loves it when he speaks with such emotion in his throat. His arms tighten around her slightly, his chest flush against hers as their legs tangle lazily. "I remember… haha, Wes told me there were faeries that lived in the grass one day. It started raining really hard and we hid inside this giant dead tree, and he said that the faeries must be having a sprinkler party," he laughs, blushing bright in embarrassment. "I was so mad at him, cause he always tried to play tricks on me like that, but when I really thought about it.. I mean, it was possible, right? Why not? Of course I figured out he was kind of lying, but on the way back home that day I made him carry me home on his back cause I didn't want to step on Violet's wedding…"

He's so close to her, but his eyes are glassy and there's a faraway look in them. He blinks once, then several times and looks back into her eyes, only to flush and bury his face in her shoulder. She can feel the heat from his cheeks radiate through her clothes into her skin, and she chuckles, fingers circling his temples until the tension falls from him, body going slack in her arms.

"Violet..?"

"Faerie warrior princess or something. I didn't wanna spoil her day, ya know? Wes had to tip toe home but it was totally worth it. We saw a rainbow on the way back, and I thought she made it for us. Kinda stupid, huh?" he mumbles into her neck, and she shivers slightly from the way his breath dances across her skin. Her fingers curl into his hair and she giggles, feeling his scowl against her.

"It's not stupid Soul, it's cute. "

He groans, burrowing further into her shirt and sighing. She's ridiculous, really.

But he'd be lying if he said he doesn't feel the best he has in years. They lay together without speaking for a while, listening to the harmony of their heartbeats and breath, birds twittering and leaves rustling in the wind. The sun bakes their skin delicately, warming them comfortably, and they soak it in happily.

It's Maka who breaks their silence.

"Let's stay. Build a tree house and live in it." Soul almost chokes on nothingness, absolutely dumbstruck by her suggestion. It's not that simple, he wants to tell her, but the way she looks at him, so hopeful, genuine, absolutely adoring, it makes the words catch in his throat. Instead, what comes out is…

"I… I always wanted a tree house… "

And she kisses him, fingers tight in his hair, lips soft and warm against his, her tongue peeking out shyly to meet his. He flips them over, so he hovers over her body, his hands shielding her skull from the ground, thumbs stroking the spots right beneath her ears. She shudders and moans, pulling his mouth to hers once more, lips far more urgent than they had been only a moment ago. Snapshots of them sleeping in the trees, watching the stars flutter by on the insides of her eyelids, and she gasps when an image of the two of them connected in every way flashes through her mind, so vivid she can almost feel him. Soul is mouthing at her neck, gently nudging the strap of her yellow sundress off her shoulder, when she stops him, panting like she'd just run a marathon. He pulls away from her immediately, afraid that he had crossed some kind of line. Maybe she wasn't comfortable with doing these things outside? Maybe she-

Oh.

She flips them over so she is straddling his hips, pulling her dress up and off her body painfully slowly, reveling in his heated gaze once she's bared herself to him almost entirely excluding her tiny cotton panties. She leans down so her lips are hardly an inch from his, grinning like a fool, and he returns the grin before capturing her lips once more, hands exploring the skin of her stomach, waist, her back, every bit of her he can reach. Her hips rock against his lightly, but he grips them and stops her. He takes off his button up shirt and lays it out beside him, then lays her down on it on her back, kissing the wrist of the hand she's given him. From the inside of her wrist, his lips move to the crook of her elbow, and she squirms, thighs pressing together tightly and eyes screwing shut. He presses a smiling kiss into her collarbone, and watches as goose bumps spread across her skin. Her hands smooth over his back, nails biting in slightly every once in a while when he nibbles at particularly sensitive flesh. Their little gasps melt into the air, twining together, and then dispersing into the music of their surroundings. Their souls thrum quietly, the urge to meld together overwhelming.

But he won't allow it, not yet. He wants to taste her sun kissed skin first, see the way the depths of her colourful eyes increases tenfold in natural light.

So he kisses her, on her lips, and chest, her stomach, thighs, hips, the skin the covers her ribs, everywhere she'll let him, and she shudders beneath his touch. When he kisses her just below her naval, she moans outright, tugging him upwards by his hair so their lips can meet, tongues tangling languidly, hips rocking together at a slow pace. She runs her hands down his torso, fingers drifting toward old scar tissue, her touch making him shiver. Their chests heave in time with each other, and she takes his face between her hands, looks into his eyes and tells him,

"We're home." And for some reason, it just grasps his heart like a vice. They shed what remains of their clothes, giggling as their limbs get caught in cumbersome fabric, kissing all the while, and when he finally pushes into her, they both gasp, and sigh into the warm breeze, his body covering hers and her arms and legs wrapped around him. For the longest time, they just lay there together on the soft ground, until Maka leans upward, pushing Soul onto his back and grinding her hips down. The leaves on the ground beneath him crackle and crunch, poking into his skin uncomfortably, but with another thrust of their hips he forgets the leaves, instead focusing on the way her skin shimmers with a sheen of sweat, hair shining gold in the filtered sunlight, heavy lidded eyes the colour of dark moss. She was right, they are home, this is what home truly is, here with her in their most natural state, souls and bodies entwined. He isn't sure what to name the feeling that's blossoming in their joined souls. Euphoria? No, euphoria is short lived…

Absolute contentment.

A feeling of being whole that nothing will ever be able to take away from him. Not with her around.

He presses his fingers right above her core, and she cries out his name in a way that makes his entire body shake. He can feel the way her soul coils tighter and tighter around his, clinging desperately. It takes so little for them to release, but when they do, it is together, quivering and moaning, kissing and nuzzling at each other. When Maka comes down from her high, she topples over to the side of him, cuddling into his torso, idly sifting through his hair and picking out dead leaves and twigs. He grunts when she shows him her findings, and she can't contain her giggles. He just scoffs, kissing her forehead, sighing happily when he feels her eyelashes brush his cheekbone.

Home, huh?

Yeah. He could get used to this.