Author Notes: I own nothing, as always.
His lips were rougher than she had expected them to be. They were also still, and it made her feel foolish for the furious pressure with which she pressed hers against them. In books she'd read, it seemed as if kissing came naturally to everyone, but Maka found that it was shaping out to be a more complicated endeavor than she had predicted.
Making a frustrated noise, Maka wound her hand around her partner's neck and moved her lips forcefully against his. Her teeth pressed painfully to her skin. She waited for Soul to reciprocate, but he seemed frozen in her grasp, his breathing shallow. She squeezed the back of his neck slowly, trying to project her desire for him to do something- anything- that would let her feel less of a fool.
Soul could read the earnest frustration of his meister's music and there was a part of him that wanted nothing more than to gather his meister into his lap and kiss her silly. But this was too fast, too soon...her scent was in his nose and her warmth was pressed too close and her lips were harsh on his in a way he had never expected. He'd always envisioned their first kiss to be something gentle, something he initiated.
This impassioned, somewhat violent kiss was not what he expected at all.
Her hand tightened at the nape of his neck, preventing his halfhearted attempt to pull away from her. Growling in frustration, he slanted his lips against hers, using the leverage to tilt her neck. The extra space between them gave him the chance to pull away. Using one of the hands that he had been using to support himself as Maka leaned against him, Soul tangled fingers in her hair.
Smiling, he leaned in so that his forehead was touching hers. Her music flowed in frustration and embarrassment, causing Soul to chuckle softly.
"That wasn't what I expected it to be," she grumbled. Her hand slid off his neck, fingers splayed against his thigh. She breathed a heavy sigh, causing Soul to gather her chin in his hands.
"No, Maka," he murmured, pressing his forehead against hers with a gentle pressure. "Don't be upset."
He could feel the furrowing of her eyebrows against his skin. "You didn't kiss me back. I thought-"
"Maka, don't." He tilted her chin upwards so that their foreheads were separated and their lips were only a hair's length apart. Soul could feel her soft breath against his face. "You were being too aggressive...it's hard to kiss ya back when you're pressing that hard."
"Well, I've never done this before, so..." Maka's cheeks tinged slightly.
"It's kinda hard to study for kissing," Soul supplied, a grin splitting his face. "Why don't we take it a bit more slowly this time?" Turning his head, he let his lips ghost against the corner of Maka's mouth. His grin widened in satisfaction as he felt her shiver.
"I suppose practice makes perfect." Maka's hands were tugging at his neck again, trying to bring their lips together again.
"My meister, the bookworm," he breathed against her skin. He kissed her cheek deliberately, listening to her music flare from the teasing. "Mine."
Maka's eyes flashed as she took a deep breath through the nose. "Mine," she repeated, voice forceful. Soul rolled his eyes at her tone, but he leaned in closer, letting their lips just barely touch.
"I love you." It was a whisper, a promise. Though they were pressing into the shady territory of the unknown, all would be well. They were partners, bound by their souls; this new ground would not undo them.
Maka's quiet 'you too' was swallowed by their mouths coming together. It was more gentle this time, the pressure of Soul's lips against hers cautious and exploring. Though she felt impatience rising in her, Maka fought the urge to press more urgently. Kissing, she found, was not like fighting. She could not simply strongarm her way through it- it required finesse and precision and a knowledge of how one mouth fitted against another and she wasn't quite sure how to manage it.
She stretched her soul out to meet his, hoping that the resonance would help them find a more pleasant medium. The link shimmered lightly between them, amplifying their sensations. A small moan escaped Maka's lips, but before she could feel embarrassment for it, Soul responded in kind. Soul's hands, still cupping her chin, tilted her face upwards slightly, pushing her bottom lip more firmly against his. Slowly, as if it were an experiment, he ran his tongue along the curve of her lip. Though, intellectually, she found the sensation to be strange, something in her was quite pleased when he did it again with more confidence. As he did it one more time, he sent a careful tendril of suggestion through their link. She caught it and parted her lips slightly, wavelength vibrating as he took her bottom lip into his mouth.
His end of the link radiated caution, urging her to hold still while the points of his teeth worried her skin. Maka had never realized just how sharp his teeth were; she felt a sudden surge of empathy for her partner and how disastrous it must have been for him to learn how to eat without hurting himself.
Now that's not a very romantic thing to think about, he teased. He let his teeth sink a little into the tender skin of her lip, pleased with the moan it awarded him. Maka found herself torn between reaching for a book to deliver a Maka Chop and continuing to let her weapon administer his careful attentions to her mouth. She leaned back a little, letting their lips slide apart. She took in a shaky breath, the cold air of the room stinging at her oversensitized lip. Soul raised a questioning eyebrow, but before he could say anything, she was leaning back in, lips parted, and taking control of his mouth again. Trapping his bottom lip with her teeth, she was about to return the favor when the harsh ringing of her phone- too loud in the heady atmosphere of the room- startled her.
She jumped and while doing so, the underside of her bottom lip ran too quickly against one of Soul's sharp teeth. A faint taste of copper filled her mouth as she pulled away from her partner.
A look of deep embarrassment crossed Soul's face as he read her mental twinge of pain. Though the resonance made him aware that the cut didn't pain her, Soul inwardly cursed his sharply pointed teeth and his own lack of caution.
He reached out to see if she was okay, but she gestured at the still-ringing phone. "Answer it. It might be important."
Part of him wanted to growl at her commanding tone, but he had the sense of mind to say nothing as he rolled on his side and grabbed Maka's phone. Louie Miller's name flashed up on the caller ID and Soul felt his stomach drop. Maka awkwardly mouthed "who is it" behind the fingers she held to her lip.
Soul accepted the call, mouthing "Louie" in response as the it connected. Simultaneously he heard Louie's harried greeting and his meister's soft cursing. In a normal situation, he would have stopped to tease his meister, but there was too much distress in Louie's voice.
"Woah, woah, woah. Louie, calm down. I can't understand you." Apparently Soul's gruff approach was successful enough in calming the other man, because he gave a deep, shuddering breath.
"It's Lottie. I can't contact her. Normally she's really good about answering her phone, but I've been trying since you two left and she's not answering and I-" he took another sudden breath. "What if Mack got to her?"
Soul recognized that tone of voice. Being members of Shibusen's EAT class and put into constant danger, he'd spoken in that exact tone many times before. More than for himself, Louie felt fear for Lottie's life. And he, unlike Soul, couldn't resonate with the woman, couldn't draw her soul close to his. Couldn't throw himself in front of an oncoming blow to protect her. Louie was scared and helpless in the face of a killer with sights sent on the woman he loved.
"Where would she be at this time of day?"
"Home. She gets ready for the show pretty early and then comes here to help set up. She'd be due to arrive here at the Dive in the next hour on a normal day." Following Soul's businesslike tone, Louie tried to speak directly. The hysteria in his voice drained somewhat.
Maka was leaning in close, trying to hear what Louie was saying. She'd taken her hand off of the cut and Soul could see one beaded drop of blood on her lip. Scooting aside to give her room, Soul set the phone on the mattress and turned on the speakerphone so that his partner could hear clearly.
"Are you sure her phone didn't just run out of battery? She could walk into the Dive at any moment, it sounds like." Soul's tone didn't match the critical nature of his words.
"No. When you two came in, Jenny told us to keep our phones on at all times in case anything unusual happened. You guys have met Jenny. When she tells you to keep your phone ready at all times, your phone is ready."
Soul and Maka made brief eye contact. She nodded slightly, sliding from the bed. He could hear gentle rustling sounds from somewhere in the room, but Soul's attention was back on the phone. "Do you want us to go check on her? Maka's Soul Perception is strong. She could find Lottie in a heartbeat, since her soul doesn't have a Protect on it."
Louie's voice was shaky: "Yeah. Yeah, I'd rather that I have to explain to Lottie that I sent you two after her than not find out until tomorrow that..."
"I understand," Soul reasoned."We'll be out looking for her in a few minutes. Could you send us her address and any other places she might be?"
"There's a coffee shop out on Chicago Ave that she likes. Sometimes she grabs something from there on her way over. I'll text you the address...and her home address, too. Would you two check there first?"
Soul nodded for a moment before realizing that Louie couldn't see the gesture. He managed a quick 'yeah' directed at the phone speaker before narrowly dodging one of his shoes as it sailed past his ear and under the other bed. Whirling, he managed to catch the other footwear projectile that Maka lobbed his way. He hissed in annoyance as he bent to pick up the other shoe from where it had fallen. Though he turned to give Maka a stern look, he appreciated the determination in her eyes. Her boots were already strapped onto her feet. Soul knew the look she had on her face and he knew that it meant for hell for anyone who thought to get in their way. Soul found that he was grinning despite himself.
In any other situation, Soul would have enjoyed the way Maka's arms were tightly wound about his waist. Immersed in resonance as they were, she was faintly aware of that fact, but the majority of her mind was occupied with filtering through her Perception. Since she was only tenuously familiar with Lottie's wavelength, Maka was forced to extend her sense into a wide web, processing each soul they passed. The sheer amount of focus she needed required that she bury her face in between Soul's shoulder blades, trying to shut out the sights and sounds around her. Soul found her breath to be alarmingly shallow, but she had sent him a hazy assurance that she was fine.
Soul had initiated their resonance again in an attempt to help her with the processing. Though most of his attention was on navigating the bike in the direction of Lottie's townhouse, he did what he could. Their combined senses and wavelength were enough to keep a proper scan of the people around them, though the diameter of their range was only a few blocks- dismally small for Maka's normally extraordinary skill. This made her soul pulse in frustration and her fingers clench lightly at Soul's waist; neither of them had the energy to waste on anything except an irritated acknowledgement that Chicago was much larger than Death City.
Though they were closing on the location on Lottie's home, Maka had yet to sense the weapon's presence. A road detour had caused them to go in a roundabout method, Maka's Perception just barely missing the block. Soul had cursed their bad luck and the awful traffic, finding that he rather missed the near-empty streets of their hometown. He resolved to take a long drive into the desert, taking advantage of the open road, as soon as they got back home.
On the plus side, the rental bike navigated well and was even a spot more graceful than his own. It wasn't flashy or loud, but it had a coolness of its own that Soul could respect. He turned a sharp corner, pleased with the ease of the maneuver.
Soul, I found her!
Her hands squeezed him forcefully as she zeroed her focus on Lottie's faint wavelength. It was barely on her radar, but now that she had a proper sense of Lottie's soul, she could let the sensation of the other souls around them drop off as she zeroed in on their colleague. But the amplified sensation of her panic had rebounded on Soul, causing him to start violently. The bike swerved in a drunken fashion, causing Maka to hold tighter to Soul's waist as he worked to right their position. Though he managed to do so, he narrowly missed hitting an oncoming car, which honked its annoyance as it sped away.
Dread flooded the link as Maka resurfaced from the depths of her Perception.
She's three blocks east of here, Soul. But she's in trouble; there's distress in her wavelength. She coupled the message with a concentrated sensation of Lottie's wavelength.
I'll get us there, Maka. But try not to do that again. Though his words were gruff, Maka felt his alarm. Soul turned the throttle, gunning the bike to move faster as they weaved through cars. Maka had removed her face from his back, eyes on the street.
Now that her focus had cleared, Maka could tell that Lottie was flagging and tired from being pursued. Try as she might, Maka couldn't quite get the sense of the pursuer. If Lottie possessed a sense of Soul Perception, her father would have told her. Which meant that in order for Lottie to be aware of her pursuer, he had to be close enough to be within the range of Lottie's five senses. Logically, Maka should have been able to identify the soul that had Lottie on the run. But she couldn't sense any predatory intent in any of the souls in the area.
The cold realization that Mack's soul was Protected set in.
Soul I think this might be-
Mack. Soul's tone was dark. I know. Are you going to be able to fight? We don't know what we're going to be up against and if you're not feeling your best-
My head is fine. Maka replied firmly. We'll get him, Soul. We've got this.
Soul flashed a brief grin over his shoulder before turning the bike again sharply. Maka's resolve was solidifying their link, resonance jumping in power until their thoughts ran together in a seamless flow. Battle-ready, they rounded on the street where Lottie was supposed to be.
But her soul had somehow vanished.
Confused, Maka deepened her sense of Perception again, trying to relocate Lottie's soul, but it had disappeared from Maka's radar entirely.
"Did Mack...?" Soul's voice was a disbelieving murmur, almost drowned out by the sound of the motorcycle's motor. Maka motioned for Soul to pull the bike into a nearby parking spot as she shook her head.
"I don't think so." It was not an answer, but a completion of their shared thought. Her eyes scanned the street. Everyone was walking along as if nothing had happened. Surely if a monster had leapt out and consumed someone's soul, there would be mass panic.
And there was a malingering sense of familiarity to the situation that Maka couldn't quite identify. Lottie's soul hadn't pulsed in the same sort of panic that most souls felt immediately before death. It was more as if a sudden curtain had been drawn, creating a barrier that Maka couldn't penetrate.
The engine of the bike quietened as Soul turned off the engine. Maka leapt off the motorcycle with grace, barely glancing at both sides of the road before darting across. Her weapon followed, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets as he tried in vain to help her locate their wayward soul.
"The last place I recall sensing her soul was this alleyway," Maka barked, grabbing at Soul's hand as they ran. He arched a brow at her, despite knowing through the link that it was mostly for convenience's sake- if she needed him to transform into a scythe, he would already be in her hands, prepared to strike. A faint tinge of pink flooded Maka's cheeks before she stubbornly turned away, rounding the corner of the alley.
Maka skidded to a stop, Soul a hair's breadth ahead of her. The alleyway was clear of all but a few dumpsters and a lonely-looking shoe. The link flared with their shared frustration. Squeezing her hand in consolation, Soul tugged Maka forward. They proceeded cautiously down the alley, hands still clasped in preparation for a fight.
They were less prepared for the invisible wall they both walked squarely into.
He'd been tracking her for a few hours and she was growing tired.
Lottie knew a thing or two about tracking an enemy, and whoever it was that was on her tail had a lot of experience. The only reason that she was able to evade him for as long as she had was due to the fact that he'd been unwilling to attack her when she was in a large group of people. It made sense, after all- attacking someone in broad daylight tended to attract attention to oneself.
The man phased in and out of Lottie's vision. Sometimes she would see him- small, demurely dressed, face concealed by a hat with a floppy brim- and sometimes he melted back into the crowd or was entirely absent from her vision. No matter where she went, though, he would come back into her vision again within the next ten minutes. The weapon assumed that the tactic was supposed to make her feel trapped, to make her panic and make mistakes.
Instead it solidified her certainty that her stalker was the man that Shibusen had warned her about- the same man who had taken to killing her friends. For him to be able to track her without being in direct line of sight meant that he was tracking her through Soul Perception. Knowing this, Lottie had kept at her game of evasion, testing how long Mack was willing to keep up the pursuit. Her phone vibrated in her pocket at almost exact increments of ten minutes, but Lottie ignored it, knowing it was Louie. She wanted to prevent his involvement. At heart, Louie was a gentle soul; he would be nothing short of useless in a fight.
She had been more lax in her artifice in the first hour that he had followed her, testing to see if he would simply lose interest. After that, she was more careful in her maneuvers, deliberately weaving in and out of crowds and making sudden alterations in her course. Even someone with Soul Protect would have to focus hard to combat her evasion, but the phone in her pocket had buzzed a full twelve times and Mack had not dropped her trail. It was clear to her that Mack was not going to give up. she beelined for a familiar alleyway- an old place for meeting the intermediaries of former clients. Though she didn't want to encroach too much into Shibusen's territory and draw unnecessary attention to herself, Lottie had been given a golden opportunity to exact her vendetta. She would not be fool enough to let pass the chance to rend his throat.
As she rounded the corner, she reluctantly removed her phone from a pocket. Rolling her eyes at the number of missed calls, she dialed Louie's number. Mack was a few blocks away, so she had a few moments to call Louie. He'd make sure that Jenny and the Shibusen agents knew what had happened, in case anything went wrong.
But just as the phone began to dial, she heard a hoarse voice behind her and the call suddenly dropped.
Led by instinct, Lottie transformed her hand into a blade as she whirled. Though she had been wrong about Mack's location earlier, she was well aware of where he was now. It was only due to his incredible dexterity that Lottie's opponent was able to dodge her blow. The curved edge of her hand-blade glinted in the dim light of the alleyway. Mackheath straightened with a threadbare smile.
"I knew you were a good choice." His voice was much softer than Lottie had expected it to be, but she found enough menace therein for her lip to curl in distaste.
"Care to tell me what you mean there, bub?" She kept her tone playful, hoping that the conversation would buy her valuable time. Preliminarily sizing her opponent up wouldn't take too long, but every extra moment to observe the way he moved would be precious.
"Your soul is quite strong- I've been needing one like yours for quite some time. I've been living off scraps for too long."
Lottie's eyes narrowed dangerously as her second hand flashed into another rounded blade. "Scraps, you say?"
Reaching into his coat, Mack laughed thinly. He bowed mockingly as he withdrew a pair of spotless white gloves from a pocket. "I've found your Dive to be slim pickings for the caliber of souls I require. Nor has it given me the kind of combat experience I've been hoping for." He slid the gloves onto his hands, flexing his fingers experimentally. "I get the feeling that you'll change that."
Lottie changed her position, hoping to give a facade of relaxation. With a deliberate opening in her guard, she was enticing Mack to strike. She was enthused when he did.
The blade seemingly came out of nowhere, withdrawn with alarming speed from an inner pocket of his long coat. This didn't deter the weapon as she spun. She threw out her hand to carve an arc in the location of her opponent's shoulder. When her blow missed, she realized her foe's strike was a feint and quickly sidestepped to miss a cleverly aimed jab towards her ribs. The knife sailed high, cutting through the air where Lottie's neck had previously been.
"Yes, you'll do," Mack muttered, evading a blow from one of Lottie's elbows. He responded with another shot for the jugular that caught nothing but air.
"I'll do?" Lottie quipped, raising an eyebrow as she whirled to flank him. Mack moved in tandem, keeping his back out of her range. "I hoped I'd make more of an impression than that." She lunged, blades flashing towards his throat.
"You're not Shibusen-trained." He parried her with surprising ease. Lottie's chakram blades had the advantage of being larger, but Mack wielded his smaller jackknife with an ease that evened the playing field. Though she hated admitting it, Lottie had to acknowledge that she was outmatched when it came to skill in hand-to-hand combat. Though she learned a thing or two when she ran "favors" for the mafia, she mainly carried herself with assassination and information-trafficking. Her experience with melee combat was not going to be enough to carry her through the fight.
Lottie eyed the entrance to the alleyway, calculating the steps necessary to execute her contingency plan. Mack's skill had taken her by surprise, but she knew that he wouldn't want for the fight to spill over into the street. It would give her the chance to try and make her call again. If she got the information on Mack's appearance to Jenny, she was damn sure that her boss would make sure that the bastard was found.
"Well, if that's a disappointment, I could always find a better sparring partner," Lottie cooed, voice calm as she narrowly avoided a cut aimed at her thigh. "I'm not in the business of sticking around with men who don't appreciate me." She took a few steps back, letting Mack push her towards the entrance. It surprised her that he was allowing her the additional ground, but it only eased her exit strategy.
His movements hastened, the knife slashing in wider arcs- aiming to draw blood. Lottie did her best to evade without losing her additional ground. Parrying a shot to the shoulder, Lottie reached out with her free blade. Though she knew that Mack wouldn't let her cut at his stomach, it would push him further back, allowing her to dance out of his range and into the street, where he wouldn't dare follow.
Mack turned to protect his torso as Lottie expected and she made a break for the side of the alley. She was a little shocked to see Maka and Soul turning the corner of the alleyway at the same time, but she wasn't going to complain about a little backup at that point. Mack was glancing at the newcomers with a dull sort of curiosity, head tilted. His knife glinted as he turned it in his hand thoughtfully.
Lottie threw her hand out to greet the Shibusen members, but they didn't seem to notice. Lottie watched as the meister suddenly fell, her partner pulled down by their interlaced hands. To Lottie, it looked like they had crashed into an invisible wall.
She heard a low chuckle from where Mack crouched, echoing menacingly through the alley. Lottie reached out again, this time not in greeting but feeling for the barrier that the Shibusen students had hit. Mack's laughter deepened as her transformed hand clinked as it hit the invisible wall.
Lottie pivoted to face him; he was hefting his knife as he shuffled toward her. She made a disgusted sound and swept her leg along the ground in an attempt to break his gait. Mack simply leapt closer to her, forcing her to take a few more steps back as he slashed wildly across her torso. One of her heels hit against the invisible wall.
The pit of her stomach dropped as she realized that she was cornered. Out of her peripheral vision, she could see the meister-weapon pair pull themselves off the ground. If they could see her, Lottie couldn't tell, but she knew that she couldn't count on them being able to back her up.
Her mind raced, trying to formulate a new plan. Mack now had the advantage of extra mobility, coupled by his greater experience with hand-to-hand combat. Though she didn't know the details of whatever magic he has enacted, Lottie knew that she couldn't count on there being an easily accessible exit.
The only option left was to incapacitate him.
She took a deep breath, allowing Mack to approach as she steeled herself against the wall. Sneering, she let her blades revert back into hand form. Mack raised an eyebrow at this, relaxing his posture enough to give her the opening she needed. Lottie launched herself off the wall with a bloodcurdling cry, reaching for her opponent as she transformed again. Circular blades protruded from the front of her body, but she kept her hands so that she could pull her opponent against the lethal steel.
There was a sharp pain as his knife slid between her ribs but despite this, she kept her limbs locked around her opponent, forcing him to thrash to attempt escape. He dislodged the knife as he did so, the absence of the blade causing Lottie's blood to spill more quickly onto her blouse. She wanted to make a quip about his ruining her good shirts, but she found that both breathing and speech were difficult for her. He must have punctured her lung. Lottie cursed inwardly and tightened her grasp, ignoring the sharp pain in her chest. The more Mack struggled, the more he lacerated himself on her blades.
Holding the man down proved more difficult as time passed- breathing was becoming increasingly more painful with each breath, and Mack thrashed violently, trying to throw himself from Lottie's grasp. She slid her bladed arm up towards his neck, trying to cut at the flesh there, but Mack had the sense to throw his chin downward and lift his shoulders, protecting his jugular. The curved steel dug into her opponent's cheek and shoulder, his blood spilling down her arm. Lottie managed a weak smile just before Mack was able to toss her.
She landed in an ungraceful heap against the invisible wall, legs failing her as she attempted to stand. As she crumpled, Lottie gasped for air. Her blades retracted; she'd lost too much blood to maintain her weapon form and she was quickly losing consciousness. Despite this, she managed one last look of defiance at her opponent.
He wasn't looking at her, however. Instead his eyes widened in something that looked like horror and spun on his heel. The wounds she dealt had taken their toll, Lottie realized with pride. Mack limped as best he could to the other end of the alley. It took her sluggish mind a few moments to realize that it was strange that he left no bloodstains on the ground as he walked.
As soon as she crashed into the wall, Maka realized why the situation had seemed so familiar. It was eerily similar to the Independent Cube that Free had cast upon the ballroom of Shibusen. When she told this to Soul, he was quick to remind her that not even Shinigami-sama had been able to break from that enclosure.
It was visible, though, Maka thought, pulling herself up from the ground. Though she had managed to avoid hitting her head on the barrier, there was a ringing pain that made her stand more slowly. Soul's hands were at her shoulders in a heartbeat, concerned for her head, but Maka waved him off. I'm fine. And I think that we might be able to break this wall.
Soul's end of the link vibrated questioningly as he tried to process Maka's disjointed flow of thoughts. She made a conscious effort to straighten them, making a clear line of cause and effect for her partner to follow. A grin split his face as he understood.
It's not the magic of an old witch; it's just a cheap trick. That means that it'll be easier to break. He slipped his hand back in hers, giving it a quick squeeze before transforming into a scythe. The sunlight bounced off the curve of his blade and reflected oddly upon the air before them.
They immersed themselves in resonance, letting the music of battle flow through their souls. Maka took a deep breath, lifting Soul high above her head. Her Anti-magic wavelength poured freely into his, pooling with power. It formed along the his blade, stretching the steel into iridescent angles as Djinn Hunter began to form. Power singing in their veins, they let out a battle cry in tandem, ready to cleave the barrier before them.
But before they struck, the barrier simply vanished and the illusion faded. They saw Lottie collapse into a small puddle of blood only a few steps to their right. Mack was nowhere to be seen, but Lottie's breathing was shallow and her face was frighteningly pale.
In an instant, Soul was back in his human form, pulling Maka's phone from her pocket as he jerked his head in the vocalist's direction. Maka nodded almost imperceptibly and knelt beside Lottie.
The woman managed a wan smile as Maka inspected the puncture. "Mack took off in the other direction. I got him almost as good as he got me. If you hurry, you can catch up with him."
"Not on your life," Maka frowned, looking up at her partner, who was already talking quietly with a dispatcher. "Soul, I need cloth to press to her wound."
"Remind me to smack you for that pun when I'm able to move my arms," Lottie wheezed. She attempted to lift her arm, but the sharp pain in her chest proved too much for her to handle. There came a rustling sound as Soul pulled off his shirt and tossed it to Maka. The meister set Lottie on the ground gently, rolling the bloodstained blouse up so that she could firmly press the cloth to the stab wound. Hissing in pain, Lottie did her best not to shrink away from the pressure.
"I look forward to it." Maka smiled grimly.
It was foolish for them to let their enemy escape, but without their efforts, Lottie's life was forfeit. For Maka, there was no question what the proper mode of action would blood from the wound was already starting to soak through Soul's shirt; Maka kept her weight firmly pressed against the wound.
"Right side chest cavity wound, puncture due to..." Though her words were for her partner, Maka looked askance at Lottie.
"Knife." Her voice shuddered. The added pressure to her chest was not making breathing any easier.
"Knife wound," Maka clarified, shooting a quick glance at Soul, who repeated the information into the phone. "Possible lung collapse," she added.
"Is she still conscious and breathing?" he asked.
"Screw you," Lottie mumbled. Though the sound didn't carry far, the brief quirking at the corner of Soul's lips made it obvious that he heard her.
The white-haired weapon nodded a couple times, muttered the address of their location, and closed the call with a jab of a finger. "Police next?" He looked questioningly at his meister.
Maka nodded. Lottie noted dimly that the girl wasn't wearing pigtails like she had been last time. Some of her hair had dipped into the puddled blood as she had knelt down, painting the tips with dark red. It had smeared onto her arm, as well, lurid against her pale skin. "Shibusen can be alerted later. Lottie said that Mack headed off in the other direction. I think the next street up is...Hurion? Just give them our current location and they should be fine." Maka turned her gaze to Lottie and her eyes softened. "How are you feeling?"
Lottie had to keep herself from laughing, knowing that the pain of the motion would incapacitate her. "How do you think?"
Maka's eyebrows furrowed in what Lottie realized was self-reproach. Lottie bit back a grin, afraid to laugh and cause her wound further irritation.
"I meant how well you were breathing," she mumbled.
"I'm fine," Lottie replied. "You called an ambulance, so-" she took a sharp breath "-I'll be okay. But if you're on the phone with the...cops you're gonna need...information on Mack, right?"
Maka shook her head. "Breathing is hard for you right now. The information can wait."
Lottie glared at the girl. "Don't be a moron. He's small...short. Pretty thin, too. Stronger than he looks, though." Her ragged inhaling forced her to speak in short sentences. "He was wearing a hat. Couldn't see his hair." She did her best to raise her voice. "You hear me, piano boy?"
Soul made a grunt of acknowledgement, raising his eyebrows at Maka before turning his gaze to the street. Their actions had attracted a crowd who had gathered some feet away, kept at bay by Soul's occasional flash of teeth and harsh glare. He did his best to keep his voice neutral as he spoke with the police, conveying the information that Lottie had given him while trying to keep their onlookers from getting too close.
A man was struggling through the crowd, his cries made incomprehensible by the general babble of the crowd. In his hand was a battered suitcase that looked as if it had been hastily packed. He was undeterred by the white-haired weapon's fierce grimace and pushed to the front. A couple muttering girls gave the man matching churlish looks as he rifled through his suitcase. Upon finding what he had been looking for, he approached Soul, holding up a small white card.
"I'm a licensed EMT. I live in the apartments a block down and a neighbor ran and told me." His voice was breathless as he held the suitcase for Soul to inspect. Medical supplies rattled around- bandages, salves, antiseptics. "Is there something I can do to help?"
Soul stared the man down, trying at the same time to process the words of the police captain who was speaking to him over the phone. Reading the earnestness in the man's face, he nodded quickly, stepping aside so that the man could get to Lottie more quickly.
The police were assuring Soul that any officers dispatched to watch for Mack in the surrounding area would be ordered to avoid engaging in any sort of combat when Maka stepped quietly beside him. Her thin hands rested briefly on his shoulder before ghosting up to his neck. He resisted the urge to groan as her calloused fingers kneaded at a knot in the nape of his neck. Gathering at the threads of their lingering resonance, he sent her vibrations of gratitude. She smiled tiredly in response.
"And you'll call us if anyone spots Mack?" Soul asked.
The captain gave him his assurance, picking up on the finality in Soul's tone.
"Cool. Just a heads-up, though: this is my partner's phone, so she might be the one to pick up. Thanks." He let his arm fall slack, eyes drifting closed as Maka continued to knead at his neck.
"When did the ambulance say it would be coming?" she asked quietly, keeping a careful eye on the crowd before them. One of the grouchy girls from earlier had taken a couple steps forward, but when Maka curled her lip at the girl, she jerked back as if burned. The other murmured a few words to her, pulling at her shoulder. The meister carefully noted the brief furrow in in the girl's brows before she relaxed and let the other pull her into the middle part of the crowd.
"It should be here in the next five minutes, I think. Is she going to-"
"She's going to make it," Maka firmly said, hoping her sheer determination would ensure Lottie's good health. "Eric says that the wound could have been a lot worse. It missed most of her organs, though it punctured her lung."
Soul cracked an eye open to gaze confusedly at her. "Eric?"
"The EMT," Maka explained. "He's a nice guy." Her fingers paused as a thoughtful look struck her face. "Speaking of, we should call Louie."
Soul heaved a ragged sigh. "Yeah, I know."
"Not looking forward to it?" Though Maka's tone was light, he could feel her sympathy for Louie rattling untended through the link. "I know what it's like to see the person you love collapsed in a pool of blood. It's not a nice feeling."
Soul's eyes flew open as he turned a surprised look at his meister. Her lips pursed briefly but her hands continued their ministrations. She gave a rolling shrug.
I do, you know, she added, pulling at their link quietly.
His looked down at her intensely.. You what?
Love you. Even though you're a moron. Maka's gaze turned briefly to where Eric was hastily tending to Lottie. Life's too short for me to drag my feet about it. Especially considering how dangerous our lives are.
Soul's lips curved as he leaned in towards her, brushing a kiss against her hairline. "I don't think you know how long I have waited to hear that," he murmured. He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers and she shivered at the sensation.
"You should call Louie," she mumbled, finding the sudden pounding of her heart almost as distracting as her partner's self-satisfied grin. Her words managed to kill the grin somewhat, though he brushed his thumb against her cheek one last time. Their link shimmered with his promise to pick up the conversation at a later time.
Stepping away purposefully, Soul found Louie's number in the contacts list of Maka's phone and dialed, watching his meister as she went to find him another shirt.
Jenny's expression was a thing of nightmares as she stormed the hospital room. Any attempts to veil her rage had failed as soon as she saw the tube sticking out of Lottie's chest.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with a vocalist with a punctured lung?" Her loud arrival caused the woman in question to stir.
"Sorry there, Jenny," Lottie wheezed, "I tried telling him that stabbing me might hurt my career, but I guess that he's not a good listener." She managed a smile, squeezing Louie's hand as she did so.
The bartender had arrived at the hospital ten minutes after the ambulance, looking especially bedraggled and depressed. He had cheered somewhat when Maka informed him that Lottie's condition was stable, but as soon as he was permitted into the room he had gone to Lottie's side, grabbed her hand, and hadn't let go ever since.
Jenny shot an irritated glare at the injured woman. "Quiet, you. I'm pretty sure that your snark isn't good for your health."
"Neither is your grouchiness," Lottie teased. She gave a weak laugh at the imposing woman's scowl. "C'mon, Jenny. As far as we know, I'm the first person to survive a Mack attack."
Soul couldn't help but snort. Maka shot him a peevish glance that mirrored Jenny's, but the weapons shared a conspiring smile.
"This kid isn't too bad," Lottie continued, jabbing a thumb in Soul's direction. "It's a damn shame I didn't get to see him action. I get the feeling he might be a better weapon than piano player."
The corners of Soul's mouth drooped a little, but he kept up with Lottie's teasing all the same. "You're talking to a Deathscythe, lady. One of the most powerful weapons in the world. Saying I'm a better weapon isn't too much of a stretch."
Lottie's grin spread. "Fair enough, kid." She nodded to Jenny. "You might want to just let him take the stage for the next few days. Tell everyone that you want to spotlight the new talent."
"Actually," Maka chimed in, aiming a cautious glance at the owner of the Dive, "we- Soul and I, I mean- were thinking that maybe you should close the club down for a few days." She colored a bit when Jenny turned a sharp gaze on her. "I know it might not be good for business, but if you shut down for a little while, maybe send out a warning to the regulars and let them know that there's someone out there with a taste for...well, maybe 'taste' is bad phrasing..." The young meister trailed off, not sure where to look to avoid the intense scrutiny of the woman before her. She found some solace in noticing that Louie was nodding in response to her words.
"I think that we should close down for a few days," he said quietly. "If we do, I can stay here and watch over Lottie."
"I'll be fine, Louie." Lottie squeezed his hand again. "The hospital staff will take good care of me."
Louie's brows knit together in concern. "But if Mack comes back to finish the job-"
"You'll be absolutely worthless in any attempt to fight him off." Jenny's tone was more curt than usual. "So instead of one soul, we'd be feeding him two. Don't be a moron."
The man looked crestfallen, curling in on himself as he let his hand slide out of Lottie's. The shadows under his eyes looked like bruises in the sickly hospital lighting.
Jenny sighed. "Unfortunately, closing the Dive does seem like the best option for now. I'll get the word out to the regulars that they need to keep an eye out. Some of them can defend themselves, but others are going to need help." She eyed Lottie. "Though if even you can't fight him off, we're obviously dealing with someone far beyond our range of expertise."
Sensible shoes clicking against the laminate floor, Jenny headed for the last open chair beside the door. She sat in the chair, spine straight, shoulders squared, looking for all the world as if she were the Queen of England. Maka found that, despite her crisp manners, Jenny was someone she rather admired.
Brushing at her pants, Maka stood. "Jenny, if I may..."
"If you must," the woman replied drily.
Soul snorted again, knowing full well that he would pay for it later as Maka glared at him. His meister cleared her throat once and straightened her posture.
"We were given further information on the case by our superiors from Shibusen. Apparently in the last string of killings done by Mack, most of the victims were also customers of a certain...uh...call girl. They had reason to believe she was connected to him somehow."
Jenny's expression hardened. "What does this have to do with the Dive?"
Maka shifted as she stood, widening her stance and throwing a hip out in what Soul recognized as a sign of defiance. "The attacks of the past shared a central locus of connection. This person...her name was Chantelle, I believe, might be the reason that the Dive has become Mack's chosen hunting grounds." She gave an uncharacteristically passive shrug. "But it's just a theory. Take it as you will."
Jenny's expression was stoic; a pregnant silence filled the room. Then, echoing Maka's previous action, Jenny cleared her throat and stood. "I'll look into it. Check the rosters of employees and their past experiences. I hire all sorts-" she shot an almost amused glance at Lottie, "and even though I can't remember anyone by that name, perhaps someone slipped through the cracks."
Maka's posture relaxed. "It might not turn up anything useful, but better something than nothing."
Jenny nodded, acknowledging the logic in the girl's words. Her eyes did a quick scan of the room, taking in everything. Louie sat with his head in his hands as Lottie breathed shallowly beside him. Soul was slouched in his chair, looking as if he were perfectly comfortable where he sat. But his crimson eyes darted around the room nervously, inevitably falling upon his partner every few moments. He, like the rest of the room, startled when a nurse strode angrily into the room.
"This is a hospital room, not a lounge," she said with a fearsome scowl. She shifted her clipboard under her arm as she checked Lottie's chest pump, looking meaningfully at Jenny. "I need to take care of the patient, so I am going to have to ask you all to leave and come back during visiting hours."
Jenny's face was sour as even she was chased out into the hospital hallway.
So this is a week late and I'm really, really sorry about that. This chapter gave me a lot of trouble and odat pulled extra duty trying to help me work my way through my awkward fumblings. I honestly have no idea how long it will take for me to get the next chapter up, since finals are right around the corner and if I have as many problems writing as I did with this chapter, this is gonna be another few weeks. So we'll see.
Thank you to all the people who have been supportive about this and have dealt with my constant complaining on Tumblr. Endless appreciation and love for those of you who left such nice reviews. You are lovely people. 3
To everyone who lives in areas that have experienced major upsets this past week:
I sincerely hope that you and yours are doing okay.