Chapter Nine: Ain't No Time Like the Present

There was nothing she loved more than the smell of textbooks in the morning.

Maka practically skipped through her university's bookstore, collecting an armful of books for her upcoming semester. Around her, fellow students shuffled somberly, faces growing more and more pale as they tallied up the final cost in their heads. She was right there with them, and the price going in her head was becoming daunting, but the smell of new books were giving her too good a high to get bummed out.

Besides, once she finally spent the money on this, she could take what was left and go hit up an art supply store. Eater was running her through her markers like crazy. She wasn't going to complain about that either. They may have only gotten what looked like a corner of it done, but it was already beautiful.

His prissy painting style did compliment hers rather well, even though he complained about the amount of pens she was making him help drag from the bridge to their overpass. He'd been complaining the last time they had met up, how he might not be around for a few days, he had to get ready for his classes again, and he mentioned something between clenched teeth about a family dinner. She didn't push, but she did find herself thinking about the stoney look on his face when he mentioned his family.

It wasn't a good look on him, he should smile more.

Like now She thought, staring at Soul across the courtyard on campus. She paused for a second, wondering for a second if she was seeing things. Soul didn't go to her school, he went across town, that couldn't be him. She watched him for a second, as he looked behind himself, then nearly tripped over his own feet.

Yup. That was him.

"Soul!" Maka called his name, shifting her stack of books into one arm so she could wave to him. "Hey! Soul!"

Across the courtyard, Soul finally spotted her. He smiled for half a second, then his face dropped. He held up his hands towards her, and she stopped mid step. For an awkward couple of seconds, she and Soul just stared at each other. He made a cutting motion across his neck, and Maka scoffed. Fine, if he wanted to be an absolute asshole about it, then she would just storm off. She went to turn away, and her books tumbled from her arm.

She growled, bending down to pick them up. Only Eater would be able to ruin Book Day. Two paint stained sneakers walked towards her, then bent down, and he gave her a face. "Sorry! Sorry…"

"What, too embarrassed to be seen with some geek?"

"What?! N-No I was trying to avoid-"

"Soul I was gone for two minutes, what the hell did you do?!" Another voice joined them, and Maka looked up. Instantly, it all made sense. Soul looked familiar because he looked just like the Music TA! The TA looked at Soul, who was stuttering out an excuse and trying not to look at Maka, his face getting redder.

"Oh, is he your brother?" Maka asked Soul, and Soul looked at her, his face pleading her to be quiet. Maka scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. I'll be quiet."

The TA looked at her again, and joined her and Soul on the ground, collecting her books. "I'm sorry, did my rude little brother run into you? He's a klutz like that."

"Shut up Wes."

"What's got your panties in a knot. Geez, I'm just being nice to-...Sorry, what's your name?"

"I'm supposed to sit here and be quiet apparently." Maka spat at Soul, who groaned. He took the books out of Maka's hands to add them to his pile, and he stood up. His brother, Wes apparently, and Maka joined him. Wes piled his books on Soul's pile as well, and shook his head.

"Soul, don't be an asshole."

"I'm not! I….fuck. Okay. Fine, Wes, this is...this is Angel. Angel, this is my brother, Wes." Soul's face was red, from his chin to the tips of his ears. His brother's face was still, then stretched into the biggest smile Maka had ever seen on an non animated human being.

"Oh my God! It's so nice to finally meet you! I feel like I know you!" Wes pulled Maka into a hug, and Soul sputtered out apologies while trying not to drop the stack of books he was now in charge of. Maka laughed, and Wes released her, shaking her hand. "You do look familiar! Ever take one of my classes?"

"Oh no, aha. No way. I'm not exactly musically blessed." Maka laughed and shuffled her feet. "I hear you're really good tho."

"Please don't encourage him." Soul muttered from behind the books, but he went ignored by his present company.

"Nonsense! I'm merely here to guide the youth."

"Stop talking."

Wes continued to ignore his brother, so Maka followed his lead. Wes continued to ask her about her schedule, and which classes she was taking. Soul stood next to his brother, his scowl getting deeper and deeper until he was full on glaring at his brother. "Eater? Do you want me to take my books back?" Maka asked.

"Nah, he's fine." Wes answered for his brother, and Soul's glare got even deeper. "He's just bitter because he hasn't had any coffee yet. I promised I would take him to get some if he stopped by campus with me. Oh! Would you like to join us? We can go to Soul's cafe! They have great coffee there!"

"Wes!"

"That sounds really good actually, unless…" Maka looked at Soul, to see if he was alright with it. He looked at her, and he sighed, and shot her a smile. "Then yeah, I'd love to. Where do I meet you?"

Once Maka's books had been deposited into Wes' car, she ran back to her friends to let them know she wouldn't need a ride back, and Soul descended upon his brother.

"What the fucking shit fuck was that?!"

"Chill out little man, your blood pressure can't handle your lack of chill."

"Why did you do that?"

"What? Invite her to coffee? Well you obviously need caffeine, and she's probably a coffee junkie too? Beside, I want to meet her! Why would that be a bad thing?"

"You're embarrassing as all hell."

"And being called Eater isn't?" Wes quirked an eyebrow and Soul punched him in his shoulder.

"Please try to be cool."

"When am I not?"

Sitting between his brother and this girl, Wes felt like he could see the future.

Maka, not Angel, Maka was perfect. She was perfect for his brother. Not that he himself was ready to push her or Soul towards anything, but there was something in the way that she talked to him that made Soul just, perk up.

And Wes was almost positive it had nothing to do with the caffeine.

The three of them were sat in the corner of the cafe Soul worked, at a small table. The entire store was dark, and it smelled of strong coffee. Around them, college kids chatted and older couples argued over a misprinted coupon with the tall girl at the register. Soul's coworker with the blue hair kept looking over at the three of them, trying to get Soul to make eye contact with him, but Soul was very much avoiding eye contact with anyone, wanting to keep his eyes on Maka.

When she talked to Soul, his shoulders weren't slumped, and he sat in his chair and drank his coffee and met this tiny girl blow for blow. It sounded brutal, the way they flung insults and traded sass like they were collecting points on it. But Soul smiled, genuinely smiled at her. It had been a while since Wes had seen him smile for real at anything that wasn't illegal and reeking of spray paint. It was a nice change.

Soul tossed back the rest of his triple shot and stared distastefully Maka's sugary confection and Wes' pretty cappuccino. "I can't even smell the coffee off either of your drinks."

"Coffee isn't that good."

"God, just kill me Angel." Soul tossed a palm across his heart and Maka made eye contact with him and took the longest drink off her latte that she possibly could. "You're cold you know that."

"Good think my latte will keep me alive." She responded with a smile, and set down her cup. "So how was your family dinner thing?"

Wes froze with his cup halfway to his mouth, his eyes on his brother. Soul wouldn't meet his gaze, instead he turned his focus to Maka. "Hasn't happened yet. They'll probably come within the next week."

"Oh, well that's nice right? You get to see your family?"

"Yeah, it's...yeah." Soul stared pathetically at his empty cup, and he pushed his chair out. "I'm gonna get another one, I'll be right back." Maka watched him walked up to the counter to talk to the tall girl at the register, and she looked at Wes.

"I didn't say anything stupid, did I? Sometimes he just like...stops talking to me and I feel like I said something totally stupid."

"No, that wasn't you. He's just an awkward little hipstershit. I wouldn't worry too much about it." Wes answered, taking another pull off his drink. Maka nodded, tracing the rim of her cup.

"Alright…"

"So, you're Maka Albarn right? You're the one on the short list for valedictorian already?" Wes asked and Maka blushed, looking down at her napkin.

"Oh, aha, yeah actually. I am. It's my junior year this year, and I wanna be the best by the time I graduate."

"What's your major?"

"Library Sciences."

"Very cool." Wes nodded and Maka snorted.

"You don't have to lie, it's like, the geekiest thing the school offers."

"Believe me, it's not. Although I am kinda surprised that you're out at night vandalizing property with my delinquent little brother."

"Pffffft." Soul snorted as he sat back down at their table. "Wes is just jealous that he's not as artistic as me."

"Actually I'm plenty artistic, and can express it without breaking the law."

"Where's the fun in that?" Maka and Soul both asked Wes at the same time, and they grinned at each other. Wes just took another drink of his cappuccino, and smiled to himself. Well, isn't this just sickenly cute.

He made a mental note to grab condoms next time he was at the store.

Also some candles. Their bachelor pad might be offensive.

While Wes finished filling out some paperwork for the actual professor, Soul and Maka walked around the campus.

She pointed out the places she liked to hang out, and he showed her the music room, since she had never been there before. They walked around the instruments for a little bit, while Maka drummed her fingers against the surface of the baby grand. "What's Wes play?"

"Violin. He's really good too. He'd be on tour right now if he didn't have this gig. He's on loan technically, from some fancy orchestra. They're patiently waiting to have him back." Soul answered, sitting down on the piano bench. Maka sat down next to him, poking a couple keys as she did.

"Can you play?"

"Mhm. Not violin tho." He shrugged. "My whole family can play something. If not a couple somethings."

"That's amazing! What can you play?"

"Piano mostly, but I'm kinda crappy."

"Are you lying so I won't ask you to play? Or so I will?"

"I'm not that dramatic, I don't want to play." He mumbled. Maka looked at him for a second, and pouted.

"But now I want you to play. Cuz you told me no."

"That's so spoiled."

"Eh, I'm an only child. So please?" She grinned at him, and he let out a deep sigh, but he popped his knuckles.

"I haven't actually played anything real in like, a couple years, okay? S-so like, no judging or whatever alright?"

"I can't even read music, so I'll think you sound great no matter what!" Maka smiled at him, and Soul swallowed hard. He held his fingers over the keys, and tried to remember how this felt, how it was to play for someone.

Although his mind whispered to him, it helps that she appears to be utterly clueless about music. She won't know how badly you mess up. Soul shook the voice from his mind, and closed his eyes. The keys were cool, and after a few seconds of letting his fingers remember their positions, they were flying across the board, and the music came back. He had forgotten about this, the way that the music made the sounds that he thought, the music he heard, the very thing he had been trying to transcribe into art when the piano had failed him.

He'd forgotten how much he loved this.

When his fingers finally stopped, he seemed to remember himself, and he jumped away from the keys, his eyes on Maka.

She stared at him in awe and it made his face burn. He stammered out an excuse about how long it had been, and he really didn't have anything to play, he was just sort of guessing at what he was doing and he had never pretended for a second that he was anything close to a composer-

Maka finally slapped her hand over his mouth, and pulled him down so that they were eye level. "Hey. Really quick. That was amazing." Beneath her hand, his protests started up again, but she shook her head, and his as well. "Nope. Stop. Okay? That...that was amazing. You're really good."

He reached up and pulled her hand from his mouth, and brought it back down to the bench. "Thanks, really...but I'm kinda rusty. And...it really doesn't sound very good."

"Well I think I does! Who wouldn't! It's all edgy and cool and dark and sinister. It's like. Bam! It's like Death City." Soul blinked at her for a second, and looked back down at the keys.

"You actually like it huh?"

"Yeah! Why? I mean, you come from a family of music people, don't they say the same thing?"

Soul groaned through his teeth, dropping his head on the keyboard. The resounding clunk of the keys echoed in the empty music room, and Maka sat next to him patiently. "...Things are weird...with my family...just a little too...much...everything."

"What...what does that mean?"

"Like okay. So there's Wes, right? And Wes is the oldest, and he's great! And he's so good he's basically replaced the teacher since he's just that much better than him, and he always sounds good and Wes would be a damn sensation if he would just go back on tour, but he'd rather do this. And then...then there's my mom. And she was kinda famous already…"

"Really?! Your mom is famous?! For what?"

"She's an opera singer." Soul sighed, and Maka's face lit up.

"That's amazing! Holy shit! Like genuinely! On a stage dressed as a viking and everything!?"

"Not...all the time?" Soul did crack a grin though. "She's pretty good too, she's really loud. Celeste, that's her name-"

"Oh! Oh I've totally heard of her! We saw her videos in my Renaissance class! Oh my god she's so talented!" Maka stopped herself when she saw Soul's amused face. "Oh sorry, aha, you must get sick of people fangirling over your mom."

Soul waved her off. "Nah, my mom is kinda talented, so it's okay."

"What about your dad?"

Soul frowned then, and brought up his hand to play with the keys for a few minutes. "Uh, He's...he's the conductor, of the symphony that's loaning out Wes. It's my Dad's."

"Oh wow." Maka breathed, staring at the keys with him. "That's kind of amazing isn't it. And then there's you, huh? All talent with the piano keys and the edgy nonsense."

Soul scoffed, bringing his hand back down to the bench. "No. No, he and I don't agree, about my music, or really...anything, about me. We actually sort of got into a fight about the way they talked to me, like, almost three years ago. It was a fucking blowout. We couldn't find any common ground and I...moved in with Wes by the end of the summer. And I've been there. I just. Yeah...I can't talk to him. He and I just...just aren't on the same page."

Maka was quiet for a second, then she rested her head against his shoulder. "Well… I think you're amazing."

Wes leaned against the door of the music room, eyes on his brother and the little angel he caught holding hands.

He'd been searching for the two of them when he'd heard the unmistakable notes of his brother's music, and he'd snuck into the music room to catch the end of the private concert. It had been much too long since he'd heard his brother play. All he had been wanting was to hear his brother play, he wasn't there to snoop. But man, once the music stopped, Soul must've finally needed to vent.

He hadn't caught the first part of the conversation, but he'd been there for the end, when Soul told her about their parents, and their fight. He hadn't even been able to really get Soul to talk about that with him, and Wes had been sitting at the table when the Evans bomb had dropped.

The little angel leaned her head against his brother's shoulder, and whispered something. Wes hadn't been able to hear it, but he saw Soul rest his head against hers. He smiled to himself, and snuck out the door before the two of them saw he was there.

He would let his brother and his future sister have a few more moments to themselves.

Yay! Not too long a wait this time! Hope you enjoyed! Review if you could!