TRIGGER WARNING - Mentions of self harm, suicidal thoughts and abuse. Please read with caution.
when you were young, you thought you'd never die.
found out you could but too scared to try.
looked into the mirror and said goodbye,
climbed to the roof to see if you could fly.
Maka's room was about a five-minute walk from Marie's office. The door was a plain, blank white but Marie said that she would be given some paints and could paint it, claiming it may make her feel more at home. Maka scrunched her nose up. Yeah, she wanted nothing more than to feel 'at home'.
Maka took the time walking there to assess the other doors lined up the ward. Marie had informed Maka that her and these patients were all sharing this ward, and that she would see a lot of them.
There was a baby pink one, the names "Liz Thompson" and "Patty Thompson" were written in graffiti style writing. Next to that was another blank white door, but this one had "Death the Kid" written perfectly in the centre.
Maka hummed before eyeing the one in front of it. It was an electric yellow colour with the name "Blackstar" written frantically in the centre. Beside that one was a cream coloured door with beautiful flowers decorating the corners, the name "Tsubaki Nakatsukasa" printed in perfect cursive at the top left. Pretty name.
She turned to look at the door opposite her own. It was a flat black colour but had these distorted patterns circling around the perimeter. They grew more frantic and scarier as they made their way to the centre, where the name "Soul Eater" was printed in blood red, gothic writing. It was very well done and artistic, it must have taken a long time to complete. She had seen some weird names on the doors but this "Soul Eater" won by a far.
"So, any ideas on what you want to paint your door like?" Marie asked, her voice snapped Maka away from her thoughts. She dragged her gaze away from the door to eye Marie with a bewildered expression.
"What?"
"Your door. How are you going to paint it?"
Maka didn't even try to suppress her scoff.
"I'm not painting my door. Thanks anyway."
"You're not? Most patients enjoy doing it!"
"Guess I'm not like most patients." Marie's gaze lingered on Maka for a second longer. Maka thought she was going to say something else before she moved to pull the door open.
"Alright. You get settled and I'll send someone to come get you before dinner. Be ready by twelve, okay?"
Maka hummed in response before she made her way into the room. She didn't turn as Marie left, choosing instead to examine her new room.
It wasn't that big, but it was nice. The single bed looked comfortable enough. The wardrobe had no door and it looked like the hangers were attached to the pole. From what Maka could see there was no bathroom, but she had no complaints, other than the large mirror on the wall beside the window.
Maka tapped it and huffed. Strong. She probably couldn't break it with anything in here. Maka was a little surprised that she even had a mirror. She had read about mental hospitals and they all sounded so… cold. Strict. But this one seemed quite tame and light. Maybe they did this for their age group.
Maka glared at her own reflection and scowled at the unfamiliar but familiar girl before her. She was tiny. Only about five foot three or four - that's what she would guess since she had never bothered to measure herself. She had ash blonde, flowing locks, that tumbled gracefully over her shoulders and swayed beside her waist. Her eyes were weird - Even her stupid Dad used to say so. They were too big for her face, and her eyelashes were so dark and thick they made the green look unnatural. Too bright. Maka shuddered.
She had a small, proud nose and a defined jaw. Her cheekbones were too high and she hated her small, pixie ears so much that she always hid them under her thick hair. She shook her head jerkily, whipping her face away from the mirror to set towards her bags.
Maka had nearly packed everything away before hearing a light tap on the door. She contemplated ignoring it before it sounded again, sounding a little sheepish this time. She pulled the door open to see a girl who looked around her age. She had unusually long hair that must fall behind her knees when let loose from the high ponytail it was in. She had a nice figure, Maka noted with a frown. Her curves were modest, and her eyes were kind but anxious.
Her eyes shocked Maka. Not the colour, but they were so… kind. Nice.
"Hello," she said in a feminine voice. "I was asked to bring you to dinner."
"Ah," Maka nodded her head awkwardly. "U-uh, thanks. I'm coming now."
The girl smiled and stood back so that Maka could step out. She extended a shaking hand out toward the small blonde.
"I-I'm Tsubaki, nice to meet you."
"Oh, I'm Maka, good to meet you too." They shook hands and Maka could feel relief rippling from Tsubaki in waves. She led her down the school like hallway with an upbeat pace.
"So, Maka? That's an unusual name." Tsubaki said in a small, shockingly shy voice as she walked beside her. Maka looked at to incredulously. If you're shy, surely the last thing you want to do is make conversation with a stranger in a crazy house. So why bother?
"Yeah," Maka said slowly, hoping that would be the end of the conversation. They walked in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments before Tsubaki's small voice sounded again, much to Maka's disbelief. And annoyance.
"So," she squeaked. Maka sighed. "Any reason your parents named you that? I bet it's an interesting story."
Maka suppressed another sigh and resisted the urge to tell the girl to just back off.
"My Papa always wanted a son," Maka started. "There was some kind of problem with the ultrasound when they were finding out my gender, they said I was going to be a boy. Papa was thrilled. So, you can imagine his shock, and anger, when I popped out with no…"
Maka trailed off and shook her head, feeling uncomfortable under Tsubaki's gaze.
"He planned on calling me Makael." Maka continued in a tight voice. "When I was born, he still wanted to. My mum had to seriously fight for me to be called just Maka. I'm happy she did."
Tsubaki laughed lightly, causing Maka's head to snap towards her. She was giggling at her.
"I bet you were," she chuckled. "Makael doesn't really suit you. Not at all. But Maka does, it's pretty."
Maka stared at her but eventually had to chuckle. Tsubaki sighed happily and walked more confidently at the smaller blonde's side.
"You can sit beside me and my friends at dinner if you'd like," Tsubaki told her with a smile. Maka frowned again.
"Your friends?"
"Yep! Don't worry, they're all very nice. Eccentric, yeah but they're all some of the best people you'll ever meet."
Maka raised her brows. She spoke pretty highly of crazy people. Must be crazy herself.
"What's wrong with you?" She asked bluntly. Maka could admit that she had expected the taller woman to be hurt or offended, but Tsubaki's eyes just softened as she stared down the hall they walked.
"You're curious, huh?" She muttered, smiling weakly. "I remember my first day here, some of the people's conditions were so obvious but some… I didn't know why they were here. I was always too scared to ask. I guess you're not."
Maka didn't respond. Tsubaki smiled again.
"I have severe anxiety. Well, had. I'm much, much better now but I could still use a little practice. I should be allowed out when I can be trusted not to have a panic attack or mental breakdown in public. My friends all have problems too. Obviously." She laughed.
"What are your friend's names?" Maka asked. Were they the people on the doors?
"Oh, they're Blackstar, Liz, Patty and Kid. They're all very nice, and all on our ward. You may have to get used to Blackstar - He can be very loud, but all in all they're all fairly easy to get along with."
Maka noticed she had spoken of all the patients on their ward except one.
"What about Soul Eater or something?"
Tsubaki's head jerked towards the blonde. "Soul Evans?"
"I saw his door."
"Oh, well yeah, Soul's our friend. He gets on well with Blackstar and Kid but he's very private. No one knows why he's in here for or how long he has been. He can get a little scary if you pry, so I'll warn you now not to if you do see him."
"What do you mean if I see him?"
"Well, Soul doesn't really stick to his schedule." Tsubaki explained, confusion plain in her voice, and Maka was quite sure she could detect some frustration. "I'm not even sure if he has one - If he wants to come to a game, or group session then he will, but it seems that he doesn't have to because if he doesn't want to, he won't."
Maka hummed. She cast her eyes back to the floor beneath her feet. She had never even met the boy and she was already curious.
"Anyway, we're here."
Maka looked up to see, once again, a school like dining area. It took about three minutes to walk to from their rooms, the hospital was much bigger than she thought. Maka hesitated before entering but Tsubaki soon drew her in. She even got some of that god-awful food they were serving.
Maka ended up walking beside Tsubaki to a circular table with three people sat there. There were two girls, Maka assumed they were Liz and Patty.
One was humming childishly and poking her food with the wrong side of her fork. She had short, bouncy blonde hair and wide, child-like blue eyes. Her sister (Maka assumed) had long, darker blonde hair that framed her face beautifully. Her eyes were a stormy blue but were narrowed as she eyed the room observantly, snapping her head around when a noise went off in the other direction. Sat in between the two was a boy with peculiar black hair with three white stripes running horizontally across the left side. He was picking at his food, looking as if he was arranging it.
"Guys," Tsubaki said brightly as she sat down with her tray and gestured to Maka. "This is Maka!"
The pretty one with suspicious eyes looked to the small blonde with a harsh gaze. When she saw Tsubaki's shine on the Maka, her eyes softened, and she looked more like a teenage girl.
"Hey there, Maka." She drawled, smirking and shook Maka's hand over the table. "I'm Liz. Welcome to the nuthouse."
A smirk tugged at Maka's lips and she nodded in return. At least someone had said it as it is.
"Maka, Maka, Maka," the younger, blonde-haired girl (Who Maka assumed was Patty) clapped, making Maka arch a brow.
"Now, now Patricia, what have we said?" the boy said, not even looking over his shoulder at the girl as scolded her lightly. She stopped mid-word to huff and slump back in her seat before responding.
"Remain calm and relaxed when meeting new people so I don't scare the new patients," she droned as if she had heard it a million times before. The boy smiled and looked away from his food to pat her head.
"That's right," he turned to smile at Maka. "Nice to meet you Maka. I'm Death the Kid but you can just call me Kid."
Maka nodded and offered a weary smile. What else would she call him?
The five jumped in unison as crazed boy jumped onto the chair beside Tsubaki, not even breathing heavily that he jumped an unnecessary five feet just to land on a chair.
"Well now, has everyone missed your favour-" He began, but was stopped short as Maka automatically threw someone's plastic, and certainly not heavy enough, plate at him.
"You're far too loud." I muttered, her heart still thumping at the shock of his jump and the loud one glared at her in disbelief.
It was silent before a gruff laugh sounded from behind her. The sound sent tingles down Maka's spine, and she turned around to meet a pair of amused, deep red eyes.
"Someone shut Blackstar up," he drawled but her eyes were planted on his. They turned up in amusement, and he started chuckling again. "You must be an interestin' one."
Maka seriously had to stop her jaw from falling open. This boy… Well, man, was seriously handsome. Shockingly so. He had deep, crimson bedroom eyes the colour of fine wine. They bore into her own, though his were tilted up upwards in amusement.
He had a mass stark white hair that hung over his eyes - He didn't appear to have styled it at all, but it looked good. He stood tall, at least a foot taller than Maka, even with his slouch. And his voice. It rumbled deep in his chest and nearly made her bones shake. She was pretty sure that she could detect a slight British undertone. But it was sexy in a kind of dark way. Maka was intrigued by him. More so than she had ever been of any male before…
But she certainly wasn't going to let him know that.