Chapter 3: Stein or It's all fun and games until someone is dissected, part I


If you asked Stein about fatherhood, he would probably question your sanity for thinking that asking him such questions was a good idea in the first place. Honestly, nine years later and fatherhood for him was mostly trusting Marie to stop him before he screwed up their son too badly. Stein had never been good at connecting with people – he could count the few exceptions in one hand. He loved his son dearly, but he had raised Victor to deal with reality, not to be pampered or protected as Spirit-senpai had tried – and failed – to do with Maka.

Stein taught his son the thin line between right and wrong; he told Victor to always work hard no matter what he wanted to do with his life, and he repeatedly encouraged him to be more like his mom in every aspect of his emotional life or anything that involved connecting with other human beings. All things considered, Stein concluded that he hadn't completely failed at the fatherhood thing, but he would never use himself as a fine example to be followed.

Yet, he could list at least one parent that had screwed up more miserably than him.

That was the conclusion he came up with after unintentionally spending a day babysitting Sound and Aika.


Six hours earlier

With a discrete move that would make Tsubaki – the real ninja of her partnership, if you asked anyone – proud, Soul took a couple of pictures of Maka and Blair without them noticing. Sitting on a chair wearing nothing but a bathrobe, with her face covered by a mud mask, fresh purple polishing drying on her nails, and half of her hair tight in hair curlers, Maka was the perfect image of all her worse nightmares. However, it was her 25th birthday and Blair's present for her was a complete makeover. The cat in question was excitedly fawning over the Meister, moisturizing her hair with some homemade blend of coconuts, aloe, and other stuff Soul honestly didn't want to know, but that smelled surprisingly good.

Their plans for later that night included going on a fancy restaurant with their friends as Spirits' treat, hence why Blair was so excited to finally have a reason to doll up Maka. In his wife's defense, she was putting up with their roommate's antics fairly well, and keeping her complaining at a minimum. Maybe Maka wasn't the most girlish girl around, but Soul could see that she was having a lot of fun now that they were over the Brazilian waxing process.

Now that was an image that had scared him for life, and he had fought against the Kishin on the fucking moon.

Women were too powerful.

Soul's part in the whole princess day had been basically run errands for Blair, massaging Maka's shoulders and feet and playing the piano for them. Kilik was acting as their babysitter for the day, since it would be impossible, according to Blair, to create a proper relaxing atmosphere in the house with two hyperactive three-year-old running wide. Soul couldn't agree more, and the twins loved playing with Fire and Thunder, so it was a win-win scenario.

"You should probably go pick up the kids, Soul," Maka murmured to disrupt her mask the least possible. "Knowing Papa, he could show up any minute from now on."

"Death Scythe-san is so excited!" Blair agreed, still curling Maka's hair in perfect little curls. "He's so happy he's going to spend your birthday with you, Maka-chan!"

Maka let out a noncommittal noise that made a poor job at hiding that she was, in fact, happy with her papa's plans this time. Soul allowed himself a few seconds to crack his spine after getting up, but before he could announce he was leaving, their doorbell rang.

"Speaking of the devil," the weapon commented, rolling his eyes. Blair giggled in agreement, and Maka mumbled something too low for him to hear. "I'm off to pick up the kids, I'm letting you deal with Grandpapa-from-hell."

He grabbed his keys and leather jacket and lazily walked to the front door, mostly out of spite to annoy Spirit. His brain only registered that, contrarily of what normally happened, Spirit wasn't repeatedly hitting their doorbell, when he finally opened the door.

It wasn't Spirit.

His first thought immediately was Maka, which was absurd, because his wife was still trapped in their kitchen being properly pampered by their magical roommate cat. The woman who stood in front of him had around the same height and physical type, and even the same deep forest green eyes, but her long bob was pitch black and her facial features were unmistakably Japanese. She looked like Maka a great deal, but while his wife's aura was soothing and energetic, this woman's wavelength gave him a massively, stupidly no-bullshit feeling.

He heard Maka gasping from the kitchen.

And then it struck him like a lightning bolt.

Maka's mom.

"You must be Soul," she said. There was no judgment or expectations on her voice – those were two feelings he could say he was used to identifying. No, her expression was calm and even amicable, and she seemed more curious than anything else.

After so many years hearing about the infamous Mrs. Maka's-mom-former-Albarn, Soul wished he had a more proper reaction than the one he was capable of coming up with:

"Aaahnn…"

"Oh, sorry, am I at the wrong address?" she questioned and looked at their door's number to make sure. It was that simple, mundane gesture that made something snap inside of him.

So many fucking years and Mrs. whatever-the-fuck-is-her-name acts like everything is okay.

Soul, however, should have remembered that he was in front of the woman from who Maka had inherited her Soul Perception. As soon as the rage started to boil inside him, she slowly raised her head to confront him, green eyes hardening with surprise, challenge, defensiveness and curiosity, a reaction that was so ultimately Maka that he felt at lost for a second.

"…Mama?"

And just like that, all the tension between him and his mother-in-law broke, only to be replaced by a more thick, serious one. The vulnerability Soul heard in Maka's voice felt like a slap on his face – who did he think he was? He had no right to be mad at Maka's mom – the only thing that should be occupying his thoughts right now was to support his partner through that situation. It was Maka's decision on how to deal with her own mother, after all.

He stepped back, opening the door so mother and daughter could finally see each other.

"Maka," her smile was small but genuine. "Is this a bad time?"

Maka's face was still covered by the mud mask, most of her hair pulled up in little buns.

"No, mama, of course not, please come in," she stuttered, nervously wringing her hands. Soul had never seen her so disconcerted.

He closed the door behind his mother-in-law, and Maka took a hesitant step towards her. The older woman said nothing; she only stared her daughter with avid interest, before gently holding her face and giving her a small kiss on the hair.

"Happy birthday, Maka."

No apology, no explanations for her fifteen-years-long absence. Soul didn't know if that was worse, but for Maka, it seemed enough. She pulled her mother to a tight hug, hiding her face in her neck. She was startled at first, but soon she recovered and hugged her daughter back. It would be a moving scene if Soul wasn't so mad at his in-law.

And what was her freaking name?

"Oh, you must be Maka's mama!"

Blair's cheerful greeting couldn't be more misplaced in Soul's opinion, but the two other women didn't seem to mind her. His mother in law had once again an analytical look in her eyes, and Maka discretely whipped her eyes, smudging her mud mask.

"Yes, I'm Kamiko." Thank the Shinigami, her name was Kamiko. "But you can call me Kami. You must be Blair. Maka told me everything about you, of course."

Blair grinned, still holding the homemade moisturize.

"All bad and all true, I hope!"

Was that… The worst possible thing to say to Spirit's ex-wife? It probably was, judging by Kami's quizzical brow. Maka bit her lip, at a loss of words for the first time since Soul had met her, her eyes nervously wandering between the two women.

And then, Kami did the last thing Soul expected her to do:

Sheshrugged.

"All I know is that you helped the kids through all these years."

Blair's eyes immediately softened. "What can I say, they are my precious kittens."

Soul felt the affection he had for Blair warming his chest. Kamiko only smiled, a longing expression on her face. Maybe she was considering how fucked up it was that a magical cat had done the mother's act in her place. Hell, Soul was the one who bought Maka's first pads, he could write a list of people who had done a better job mothering Maka than Kamiko.

She probably knew that, because she didn't thank Blair or pushed the subject. Instead, she adjusted one of hair curlers that was falling from her daughter's hair. "It's good to take some time off to take care of yourself," she observed, absently-minded.

"Exactly!" Blair exclaimed, pulling a chair and motioning to Maka. "Sit down, kitten, let me finish."

It shouldn't be so easy for Maka to disentangle herself from her mother's arms, but from Soul's point of view, it was. She obediently sat and allowed Blair to keep working on her hair. Kami occupied the couch and looked around, absorbing the ambient. Her gaze lingered for a while over their kid's pictures on the wall, before moving to Soul.

He sustained his mother-in-law's gaze. There were questions there; poorly hidden curiosity and maybe a bit of sadness.

Maka looked so much like her.

"You don't like me."

Oh, well, fuck: she was Maka's mom through and through.

"Mama!"

"It's ok, Maka, I know you resent me too."

Oh.

Well.

Fuck.

"I don't-" Maka insisted, but Kamiko raised her hand, silently interrupting her. He had always pictured his mother-in-law as the kind of woman who commands respect with the simplest gest. Even so, it was weird to feel so powerless in his own house.

"You do. You should. I have no doubt about that." She looked around once more. Although her words were precise and collected, she was unmistakably avoiding her daughter's eyes. "I didn't come to help Shibusen in the battle against the Kishin, or in the years that followed it. I wasn't there at your wedding, or in the birth of your kids. I left you alone."

They weren't resonating, but Soul could feel the way Maka's body went stiff. Her face was showing hurt, confusion, and her conflicted thoughts. He knew she had probably pictured the moment when she would finally see her mother again many times, but he doubted that she had foreseen this scenario: the one when her mother says the objective truth she had avoided thinking for so long.

"She wasn't alone."

He had formulated those words in his mind, but Blair was the one to say them out loud. Without taking her golden eyes from Maka's hair, she repeated them, her voice sweet but incisive: "Maka was never alone."

"That's right." Soul had planned to interfere the minimum in their conversation, but he would be dammed if he didn't stand his ground now. "She had me, her old man, Blair, and our friends. Maka wasn't alone." His hand rested on her shoulder. "But that doesn't mean she didn't want her mother here."

Maka's hand found his and she intertwined their fingers together, a silent thank you. Soul held his chin high, his eyes locked with Kamiko's. At that moment, he knew that everything he had ever heard about his mother-in-law was true: calm, collected and deadly serious, Kami stared back at him with experienced eyes who showed no emotion, but that seemed to penetrate his body and read his intentions on his soul.

After a long silently minute, Kamiko once again surprised him: she smiled.

Her smile was small but sincere, and the lines on her face seemed to relax. Her expression was suddenly gentle, and that made her look so much like Maka that it disarmed him.

"I see," she commented, eyeing their entwined fingers. "You do love my daughter, Soul."

And just like Maka, she could reduce him to a bumbling idiot with a few words.

"I… Yes. Yes, of course. What?"

Blair giggled at his expense, finally finishing moisturize Maka's hair, taking a step back to check out her work. How he envied her carefree attitude right now.

"In every letter, every call from Maka, she would always talk more about you than her," Kami explained, reclining on the couch. Maka let out a low indignant 'mama!' that was ignored. "At first, I was preoccupied, because I didn't want her to commit the same mistakes I did. But I can see it now that I had nothing to worry about. You're good for each other."

She didn't explain further; there was no reason for it, anyway, and Soul was starting to think his mother-in-law was more emotionally constipated than his teenage self. He couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for her.

Her words, however, had the opposite effect on Maka.

"If you were so worried about us, why did you take so long to come back?" She held his hand tight, probably asking for reassurance. Blair also noticed the change in her tone and excused herself to take the beauty products back to the kitchen.

It was such a Maka thing to do: get over her emotional confusing state for his sake. He would scold her later if he didn't remember doing the exact same thing when he introduced Maka to his family.

"You know why," Kami sighed, and Maka suddenly tensed at his side.

"Because… because I was an accident?" she whispered, and Soul felt his blood freezing on his veins. Hurried heels clacking against the wooden floor told him that Blair had hushed back after hearing that, which was good: if Kami confirmed those words, he would need the cat to prevent him from murdering his in law.

However, for the first time, Kamiko showed signs of genuine distress. Eyes widening, she kneeled in front of her daughter, and her hands rested on Maka's knees.

"Maka… no." The way she pronounced those words left no room for doubt, but she still reinforced her point with a vehement head shook. "It's true that you weren't planned, but from the minute I found out I was pregnant until this day, there was never a moment when I didn't love you. Not having you was never an option."

She hesitated a little before caressing Maka's cheek. Blair promptly offered her a wet towel, which Kami accepted with a thankful nod. She gently started to remove the mask from her daughter's face. "I… I am not a good mother, I know. I'm not maternal, at all. I did my best to raise you, but eventually, being here, after everything that happened with your father, became too much. I was…" She swallowed hard. "I was so hurt."

"I know that, mama." Maka's hand left his to grab her mother's instead. "I remember the fights; I remember the divorce and… everything. I don't blame you for leaving but…"

She took a deep breath and Kamiko smiled, trying to reassure her. It was a little ridiculous, but suddenly Soul felt like he was intruding. That moment belonged only to them and it felt wrong, somehow, to be there, watching those decade-long wounds being open.

"My marriage, mama. My kids. Why you didn't come?" Maka whispered.

"Because I had been away for too long," Kami promptly answered, still whipping the cosmetics from her daughter's face. "I will not lie to you, Maka, I felt like I was doing enough by calling you, by keeping in touch. I was convinced that I had no space in your life anymore. A mother that abandons her child has no right to claim anything."

Soul remembered Spirit saying, a long time ago, that Kami was headstrong and simple-minded in the worst possible ways sometimes. The displeasure of having to agree with the old man left a bad taste in his mouth, and that was probably the reason why he said the next words.

"Are you stupid?"

Maka and Kamiko turned around to glare at him, identical displeased expression on her faces. He would feel threatened if he didn't have thirteen years of experience dealing with that glare.

"You're her mother," he insisted. He tried to channel Evans patriarch's condescending tone. "Of course there was still a place in her life for you, if you had tried."

He wanted to say more. He wanted to tell Kami how much Maka had looked up to her. He wanted to tell her about the times when he held his wife while she cried herself to sleep during the pregnancy because she felt she couldn't do it without her mother. He knew that the hormones were partially to blame for that, but their fault only lied on helping Maka to express something she had always thought. He knew that, because it was what had always made it easy for them to understand each other, since the beginning.

An abandoned child recognizes another.

"I heard many things about Kamiko Albarn, but I never imagined that you were a coward."

He knew he had crossed a line at the moment the words left his lips: Maka drowned in a sharp breath and Kami send him a glare capable of freezing hell. Soul was probably overlooking the pain Spirit had caused her and overstepping on a discussion that belonged only to Maka, but… this was also about their kids.

And he had sworn to be a good father to his children.

"I'm not a coward," Kami stated, furious eyes locked on his. "I wasn't afraid, I was being mindful…"

The pleading look on Maka's face was what made him hold his tongue.

"If you say so…" he mumbled, before turning his back to them. "I need to pick up the kids so I'll leave you to it. As long as Maka is happy that you are here, so am I." He grabbed the doorknob. "There's no reason for you and me to fight over-"

And that was when Spirit Albarn burst through the door with a stupid smile on his lips, slamming Soul against the wall and landing on their carpet with a twirl.

"MAKA-CHAN! Papa is here for y-"

He froze, one of his legs still comically bend in a weird angle. Kami disentangled herself from Maka and took a calculated step away from her ex-husband. Blair muffled a snort, the door screeched as in a horror movie when Soul slowly closed it for extra dramatic purpose, and Maka's desperate eyes once again found his.

Stay, she silently pleaded. Don't leave me alone with my dysfunctional family.

His nose was hurting from being slammed by a door, and he briefly considered just murdering Spirit and saving the world from the trouble.

"Spirit," his mother-in-law said, ice dripping from each syllable.

"K-Kami. You, ahhnn… look great…?"

Oh, for Kid's sake, he was so pathetic that now Soul was feeling bad for him.

He fished his phone from within his jacket and texted Kilik that he would need him to keep babysitting for the day. Or at least, until the whole Albarn-family-drama was dealt with. He could only hope they would be able to archive that without any causalities.


The problem was, Kilik couldn't keep babysitting for the day.

Not only he already had his own set of twins to take care of, but he was also supposed to teach an especial class to the NOT! students about demon weapons dual welding. To be able to attend Maka's birthday dinner, he had to start that as soon as possible. Whatever was going on in the Albarn-Evans residence, they would have to just deal with it and come to get their kids. Kids who were covered in dirt, since they were helping Fire, Thunder, and Victor to build a sandcastle.

Yes, Kilik had a huge backyard that included a big ass sandbox. His weapons were little elemental shamans that aged slowly than regular humans, okay? He had needed something to keep his kids distracted. They appeared to be around twelve now, and he could only hope that their teenage years would pass faster than their extended infancy.

He called the kids to come inside because Fire and Thunder needed to bath before they went to work, and soon enough the parents would come to get Victor, Aika, and Sound. He ignored their complaints and focused on his cellphone again.

Soul: shit just hit the fan dude

Soul: need u to keep watching them

Me: dont care how smelly ur shit is, i got work

Me: come get ur devils

The called the kids once more, this time adding that if they didn't behave, their parents wouldn't let them come back to play with the shamans. Surprisingly responsible, Victor was the one who held the two three-year-old's hands and started to bring them back to the house, with Fire and Thunder behind him.

His phone vibrated again, and he almost let it fall to the ground when he read Soul's answer.

Soul: cant

Soul: maka's mom is here

Soul: n Spirit is too

Maka's mom? The one Maka hadn't seen since her parent's divorce? The one no one even knew the name? And Spirit was there too? Yep, that was the very definition of shit hitting the fan.

Me: dafuq man

Me: ok I agree this is bad timing, but I have class to teach

Me: want me to take them to shibusen?

He didn't wait for Soul's answer, because a polite knock on his door told him Marie was here to pick up Victor. Kilik hurried up the kids once again, before going to the front door.

The years had been very kind to Marie, and she hardly seemed to have aged a day despite being married to Stein – what Kilik didn't doubt that was a very stressful situation – and having a kid. There were few, small age lines in the corner of her eyes, but aside from that, she was the same as he remembered teaching back in his Shibusen's days.

"Hey Marie, please come in," he greeted, opening the door for her.

"Hello, Kilik, I hope Victor didn't cause any trouble for you," she said, smiling affectionately. The meister shook his head.

"Not at all. He actually helps me keeping the trouble-twins in line."

"Yours, or Maka's?" she smartly asked, grinning.

"Both," he sighed, and suddenly he had an idea. Maka was terribly protective of her kids and had a very exclusive list of people who she allowed to babysit for her. Kilik had that dubious honor, and so had Marie. "To tell the truth, Maka's in a situation and we could use your help with the twins, Marie."

"What happened?" she asked, alarmed.

"Maka's mom is in town," he started to explain, and her reaction was immediate: her golden eye was huge, her mouth slightly open. "and Soul needs me to keep watching the kids, but I have to teach class later."

"Kami is here?" her voice was buried with so many emotions: disbelief, surprise, happiness, disapproval, distress. Kilik had no idea Marie and Maka's mom shared a past, but the way her eye was glistening with a murderous intent told him it was best to stay away from that story.

"Oh, so her name is Kami, good to know." The kids entered the room at that moment, saving him from having to continue walking a path that certainly led to disaster. They were leaving a trail of sand behind them, and Kilik made a mental note to sweep that while the twins were bathing. "Anyway, Marie, do you think you could watch Aika and Sound until Soul says it's ok to bring them back home?"

At first, he thought she hadn't listened, immersed in some internal debate – she barely reacted when Victor held her fingers with his tiny hand. He looked like a mini-Stein, but his eyes were golden like his mother's and his hair color was pale blond. His glasses were childish, as it was appropriate for a nine-year-old, and the lines of his face were impossibly gentle, in a way that made him look more like Marie when he smiled.

"Mom?" he questioned, inclining his head to the side as if analyzing her behavior. Kilik almost could picture him twisting a screw in his skull. He hoped that he never copied his father on that aspect.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetheart," she said, startled. She gently patted her son's head before turning back to him. "Of course, Kilik. I can look after them for you."

Something seemed off with her, but Kilik decided she was still processing the bomb he had dropped earlier. At this point, Kami Albarn was more a legend than a real person for most people, so he couldn't even imagine how it was like for those who had actually known her. She knelt, and Sound and Aika threw themselves on Marie's open arms when she called them, screaming 'auntie Marie!' in the process. Kilik had yet to meet a kid that didn't like the woman.

"Aika and Sound, mama and papa are still busy and I need to work, so you're going to Victor's house, ok?" he explained, very slowly.

To his relief, the twins were delighted with the idea of keeping playing with Victor. Sound was a cry-baby and Aika could throw a tantrum that was Maka-level when she was nervous, so that was good news.

Another good news was that they were Marie's problem now.

"Great. I'm going to text Soul to let him know they are with you, Marie."

"No problem!" she smiled, holding the hands of the younger kids. Victor didn't seem to mind since he probably understood that they needed help to walk on the streets more than him. Too responsible for his age, that kid was. "We are going to have lots of fun, right, Aika, Sound?"

The twins cheered, and Kilik accompanied them to the door, with Fire and Thunder silently following them. The five kids said their goodbyes and made promises for playing some other time. He could only hope it wouldn't be on his home again – he was starting to feel too old for babysitting.

Once they were gone and he let out a relieved sigh, Thunder questioned him why Marie was so angry.

"Was she?" he didn't doubt the shamans' sensibility, but the information had caught him surprised. He knew she was distressed, but angry seemed a bit too much.

They nodded.

"Angry like when she found out Victor broke his arm and he tried to patch it by himself," Fire explained.

Welp. Angry didn't even start to describe Marie's reaction that day. She had been out of her damn mind.

Nothing like being hit with the realization that your own son is just like his zero-self-preservation-instinct-father to make a mom flip her shit, he supposed.

"Oh, that's… bad." The twins were still staring at him, so he answered their silent question. "I told her Maka's mom is here; I guess that was what made her so mad."

They exchanged confused looks. It was so funny, sometimes, how they could keep a three-way conversation with him doing all the talking. "But I don't know what kind of relationship they have, or why she would react like that."

There was anxious expectation written on the twin's faces, and he agreed, with another tired sigh.

"I have a bad feeling about this."


Kilik: marie is with ur kids

Kilik: good luck with the family drama

Me: thanks man

Well, that took care of it for the moment. Marie was good with kids and the twins loved her. Now he could focus on preventing his in-laws from murdering each other, since Kami seemed ready to rip off her ex-husband's throat, and Spirit was one more interaction with her short from having a heart attack. He didn't need soul perception to know that the demon weapon's soul was already escaping his body.

If he was going be honest here, Soul thought that a bloodbath would be better than the weird, awkward silence that had fallen upon them since Spirit had arrived. Not even Maka was daring to move a muscle, and Blair was watching the scene with curious, interested eyes.

So much for giving Maka a peaceful, stress-free day as a birthday gift.

"Soooo…" Blair finally broke the silence, since it was obvious that no one else in that room had the balls to say something. "For how long are you going to stay in town, Kami?"

"Not for long, Blair," Kamiko answered, still frowning at Spirit. She didn't see Maka's face falling, but it was impossible for Soul to miss it. Fucking hell. "One week, at most."

"Oh, Kami, wait until you meet Aika and Sound! You're never going to want to leave them!" Spirit exclaimed, excited, making his characteristic 'dumb grandpapa' face.

Soul had been unfair to Blair earlier. That was the worst possible thing to say in front of Maka's mom. It took all of his willpower to not facepalm.

Kami's eyes were so sharp they could cut steel.

"Are you insinuating something, Spirit?" she asked, slow and coldly.

It was like she had become a totally different person from the one who had gently cleaned Maka's face while promising that she had always loved her daughter. Every word, every minimal reaction of her body seemed calculated to decimate her opponent. Soul finally understood why Maka admired her mother so much.

So that was the Kamiko Albarn who had crafted a Death Scythe.

He would be shitting his pants if all that hate was focused on him. He couldn't blame Spirit for losing all the color on his face. His father-in-law was sweating so much that it was already noticeable from afar.

"N-no, Kami, I just-"

"Mama, Papa, please," Maka interrupted, with a tired sigh. "Could you please… just not do this right now? I have seen enough of your fights to now this isn't going to solve anything."

Her parents seemed abashed for a minute, probably after realizing that, fifteen years later, they were still fighting in front of their daughter. It was an opportunity too good to pass.

"How about a truce, hein?" Soul suggested, his eyes going from Kami to Spirit. "It's Maka's birthday. You guys can ignore each other just for tonight, and we pretend to be a normal family, who goes out with normal friends, to have a normal dinner."

"You used 'normal' thrice," Maka immediately observed, probably because her nitpick-instinct was stronger than any of her parents-issues.

"Because so far this day has been anything but normal, and I feel we could use some peace right now."

"Soul is right," Kami suddenly declared, although she was still eyeing her ex-husband suspiciously. "This isn't about you and me, Spirit. Today's Maka's day."

"I-" the Death Scythe swallowed hard. "I will keep my mouth shut."

"Good," Maka, Kami, and Soul said in unison. Blair only laughed, shaking her head.

"You can wash your hair now, Maka," the cat said. It was refreshing that at least someone there was facing the whole family-drama as an entertaining distraction at best. "You can take your bath now and put on your dress – I will do your make up later."

With the resigned sigh of someone who knew she wouldn't escape Blair's claws, Maka stood up and send her parents a glare that could pass for one good imitation of her mama's. "Are you guys going to behave while I'm gone?"

"Of course, dear," her mother said, while Spirit only gave her an enthusiastic nod. "It's your special day; please take your time."

It was obvious that she wasn't assured, but Maka didn't insist on the point. She threw Soul one last pleading look, before retreating to their bathroom, leaving her husband to watch over his in-laws.

She was so lucky he loved her more than anything in the world.

While Blair went to the kitchen, probably to clean up the mess she had made, Kami walked to the nearest shelf to see their family photos. True to his word, Spirit sat down on the couch and kept his mouth shut.

Soul observed with interest his mother-in-law's reactions to the photos. There was one of their marriage, and another one, the oldest, with him, Maka and their friends when they were still students at Shibusen. But aside from those, most of the photos had the twins: Maka was an avid collector of all the little moments of their growth. Kamiko's eyes were quickly scanning every single one as if trying to absorb all the information they contained at once.

Such a Maka thing to do.

Spirit was also watching her, but Kami didn't say a word. She only stood there, silently learning about the years she had missed. Her expression was impassive, and she made no gesture to grab one of the frames or ask about them. She was guarded, Soul realized. He had always thought that protecting herself against feelings was something Maka had developed by herself, but maybe it was just another thing she had inherited from her mother.

He should not have been so surprised.

"You can ask about them, you know," he blurted out. It was not his nature to try and fix other people's issues – that was Maka's thing – but this was his family, dammit, and he had promised he would always try for his kids. "You are their grandmother."

Kami gave him a speculative gaze and a sad smile. For a moment, he thought she would try to argue with him about how a grandmother that doesn't come for their birth had no right to claim anything, but instead, she just asked about their names.

That surprised Soul: he was sure Maka had told her mother at least that.

"Aika and Sound," he answered. Kami, however, shook her head.

"Yes, I know. What I meant was: why those names? What do they mean to you and Maka?"

"Aika can be written with the kanjis for 'music' and 'love'," he blushed just a little. It was probably the first time he had to explain that out loud to someone he had very little intimacy. "We… music is very important for me, and for Maka too, of course. For our partnership." He deliberately avoided Spirit's eyes. He knew the old man was smirking. "As for Sound… Well, you know, Spirit and Soul and… Maka thought it was a nice family thing to uphold. She takes the legacy you left to her very seriously."

It was not his intention to provoke his mother-in-law, so he bit his lips as soon as the words left his mouth. Kamiko, however, didn't take his last statement personally; she knew it was simply the truth. She hummed in agreement, eyes still fixed on the photos.

Soul was under the impression that Kami would say something else, but suddenly her eyes went wide, and she turned her head to the front door so fast he would swear he heard her neck cracking. Before him (or Spirit) could ask what happened, he heard the heavy, thunderous footsteps marching on the hallway outside, and getting dangerously close to their apartment.

"What the-"

For the second time that afternoon, his front door was violently thrown open, and a very distressed, very angry Marie Mjolnir Stein entered his apartment, glowing with the fury of one thousand lightning bolts.

"Ka. Mi. Ko. ~~" her voice was supposed to be musical, but there was an unmistakable threat in there, and her smile was Stein's smile. "You should have told me you were coming to town~~."

"Ooooh, Death," Spirit whispered before slowly starting to retreat to the opposite side of the room, clearly trying to put as much space as possible between the two women.

There was so much information to process here, and Soul's brain was going into overdrive. People kept invading his home – he should invest in safer lockers. Spirit seemed more scared than when he had first seen his ex-wife. Fuck, Kami looked as scared as he was. It was so disturbing to see his hard-as-nails mother-in-law panicking at the sight of Marie, who was probably one of the nicest people he knew. Maka and Blair were not even there to help him to handle this situation. And at the top of all that…

"Marie… Where are my kids?"