AN: I do not own Soul Eater, or any of it's characters. Those rights belong to Atsushi Okubo. Rated T just to be safe. Steampunk au even though i have no idea what I'm doing. Some friends requested the prompt and I attempted to fill it. Enjoy!
"You look like our grandfather clock threw up on you."
"Hey. screw you okay? This style is totally in. Just you watch."
Soul, this is ridi-….did you steal one of my gears to hang from your ear?"
Soul quickly pulls the flaps of his pilot's helmet down over the evidence of his idiocy. His goggles slip down his face, flopped awkwardly over his nose and cheekbones.
It's cute and all, but she knows that he knows better than to mess with her leg, and being cute will not make up for the fact that she's had to hobble around all fricking day cause of him.
When they were kids, he used to loosen a few of the bolts in her ankle joint when she was sleeping so she couldn't chase him down and knock him senseless when he had to wake her up early.
It's no funnier now than it was then.
Soul is absolutely clear on the fact that she's not pleased. What he's not clear on is that even with her incomplete machinery, she's still more agile than most. This is made apparent when she springs at him with a feral snarl, tackling him to the deck(with a hand cradled around the back of his head so it doesn't crack against the wood planks). The air wooshes out of his lungs with an 'Oomf' as they land.
He can see she's furious, but also notices how she takes care to protect his skull, and NOT drive the thick metal of her kneecap into anything but the deck. He feels guilty, hearing the nasty grind of gears shifting and groaning. He had a reason, really he did, but it seems absolutely idiotic now.
"What the hell, Soul? I've been off balance all damn day because of you! Why didn't you just ask for spare parts? I may think you look ridiculous, but I would have helped all the same! Why would you take a VITAL piece of mine?"
His helmet had slipped off when she tackled him, and her fingers tighten in his hair slightly with each word, She sounds angry…
But she looks hurt.
She had thought that something was wrong with her, when really it was just a missing piece. A piece he took.
He feels terrible. And he knows he should.
"Look, hey.." he reaches up to touch her cheek, and surprisingly enough, she lets him, if not a bit begrudgingly. "It was a dick move on my part, and I'm sorry… I just wanted to have something of you with me, even when you're not.. now it seems- no- it IS stupid. I'm an ass." His hand slips from her cheek to her shoulder, then down her arm to the hand curled into his hair. His other hand fumbles with his makeshift earring, but he hands it back to her with a sad, apologetic smile. She takes it from him and slips it into the breast pocket of her overalls.
She doesn't move for a moment, hand still in his snowy locks, eyes a bit glazed and distant, contemplating.
When her eyes clear, pupils dilated and aware, she untucks a chain from her shirt.
She had saved the gears she could retrieve from the destruction of her first prosthetic and kept them on this chain. She pulls it up and over her head, and it catches on a pigtail just for a second, but Soul has the good grace not to laugh or comment.
She studies the old pieces of her in her palm. They are few, but they mean much…
Finally, she untangles her other hand from his hair and loops the chain over his head. He stares at her wide eyed and speechless, but she just smiles, and brushes his bangs back from his face.
"Now you have something of me with you, wherever you may end up."
He grins, hands finding their way to her hips, his palms warm even through her canvass uniform.
"Thank you Maka. I'm sorry..I should have just asked. I messed up."
"It's okay, Soul. But! You have to fix it for me. And as of now, I'm not entirely sure I can walk. Sooooo you'll have to carry me to the workroom. So sorry." She smirks at him. He rolls his eyes, sitting up abruptly, and she slips from his stomach to his thighs with a yelp, blush burning furiously in her cheeks and the tops of her ears. His face is so close, her eyes almost cross when she looks at him.
He chuckles quietly and kisses her pink cheek before wrapping her up in a quick hug, which she reciprocates, much to his relief.
"Okay. Get on my back."
She snorts at the statement, but knows he's serious, even if she hadn't been, so she does as he asks, and giggles at all the exaggerated groaning as he hoists both of them upright.
"Jeeeeeezuz woman, how do you even stand up?"
"I guess I'm just tougher than you, huh?"
"Damn right, you are."
The metal of his necklace is warm again, sure of it's place with him. Just like she is.
Even if he looks like the lovechild of Father Time and Lucifer.
Plus his butt is super nice, a fact she informs him of while hopped up on some Onyx Dream as he works to reconnect her repaired limb. She falls asleep before she can see his scarlet blush.