Y'know, his day had started out pretty okay. Wake up, look at clock, pry off Chrona, food, go see if there are any decent missions. Nope, only substitute teaching, which was super not cool.

So, he'd went home. Kid was doing death stuff, and Blackstar wasn't due to be back from his latest mission till tonight, and still weird hanging out with Liz and Patti outside of the group. The long awaited final book of the series had come in the mail yesterday anyways.

He was no Maka, but this sci-fi series had caught his attention, and anyways, it was only fifty four books plus the final eight siege series... and the twenty or so character study books, but those were what'd got him into this in the first place.

"Hey Chrona..." She was sprawled out on the bed, upside down for whatever reason. "So, uh. What'cha doing?"

"Absence of Detention." Came the half-hearted reply.

"So, uh. You beat that uber-boss guy yet?"

"N-not yet... I... uh. Almost? I think." She murmured, more to herself, but whatever.

"'Kay. Well, I'ma be in here if you need me then."

"Mm-hmm." She wasn't paying him any mind, too focused on her game.

It was strange, he'd have thought that those games would cause her more stress than anything else, but she instead of breaking down, tended to be able to cope well with whatever it threw her way. Same with most shows, and by shows he meant specifically animated shows. Marie had said to him something about how she knows they're not real so it doesn't set her off that often. Whatever makes her happy.

Now it's time to see if all those fan theories were right.


And of course just as it was getting good, there had to be someone at the door. He sighed, getting up. If it was Blackstar, he was gonna... Well, whatever. He'd deal with it later.

"Just a sec." Yep, still pounding on the door. Definitely Blackstar.

He should be a fucking oracle he was so good at this. "Hey dude."

"SOUL! Rejoice for your God hath arrived-eth!"

"That's still not how you do it." Blackstar did some spinny thing with his hands covering his face and backflipped for whatever reason before striking a semi-crouching pose.

"Shhh. I am a merciful god if nothing else, so I, The Great and Mighty Blackstar, shall forgive you once more of such treacherous doubts!" He dashed under Soul's outstretched arm.

"Now then! I have come unto you today to demand, uh... those little mini pizza thingies I know you keep in your freezer!"

"You mean the pizza bagels? Tsubaki still won't let you have any?" Blackstar pouted, which was kinda creeping him out all things considering.

Soul just sighed. "Mini freezer thing in the food closet." This was what having kids must be like. Bloody hell that was so exhausting.

"Oh, hey. Soul. Just a heads up. Maka'll be here in like, uh Thursday I think." Blackstar spat out with a mouthful of pizza. All over the floor he'd just cleaned the other day.

"Cool. She flying in or by car?"

"Yeah, Kid's gotta car for her at the airport in Phoenix."

"That's like, two hours away. Wouldn't it make more sense to just use the mission airfield?"

"It's cause she's like still on leave or whatever. Y'know, lame ass paperwork stuff... Hey you got a lotta old Disney movies. Never took you for that kinda guy."

"Yeah, they're Chrona's." Judging by the fact that he'd stopped to swallow, it seemed like a lightbulb went of in Blackstar's head.

"Oh yeah. I forgot about her. So how's things?"

"Please never use that voice again. Jesus Christ you sounded so much like a Maka's dad." Blackstar chortled to himself, no doubt planning on abusing his newfound power.

"But uh, they're good. How're you and Tsu?"

Blackstar visibly deflated. "She's being sooo mean. Like, she says that I can't eat in the living room anymore, or-or, make the guest room into a personal gym. And..." Soul stopped paying attention from that point on. The occasional grunt or murmured 'Geez bro' sufficed.

"Wow man, you really think so?" Oh damn he'd missed something really important there.

"S-sure. I mean, yeah. Why not?" Play it cool Soul Evans, just smile and nod.

"Thanks man, you really know how to help a guy out."

"Mm-hmm, just doing my duty."

"Well, I'm all outta pizza bagels now, and Tsubaki's prolly looking for me by now, so uh... Sorry 'bout yer rug, but uh... yeah."

"You're chill man. See ya later."


It'd almost slipped his mind to tell Chrona about Maka coming back, he'd only remembered it just as he closed his eyes that night. He exhaled loudly.

"Hey, Chrona?"

"Y-yeah?" She drawled out, her breath warm against his neck.

"Blackstar was here earlier, he said Maka'll be here around Thursday."

"Oh, that's good..." She trailed off, presumably going to sleep.

Soul decided to do the same, he had a feeling that tomorrow was gonna be special. Heavy sarcasm on the word special.

"Hey Soul?" She asked, mere moments after he drifted off.

Getting no response, Chrona quickly gave up, allowing herself to be enraptured by her mind. She mostly worried about the near future, a thousand different scenarios flashing forth, none of them particularly good. After awhile, she was able to focus on something else, like Ms Marie had taught her.

"Soul." More shaking. "Soul."

He sat up, dazed. "Huh, Wha'dya mean?" His eyes began to focus into the dark room, falling onto the orange lettered clock, 1:37. Chrona never woke hip up on purpose like this.

"What's wrong?" His voice tense, ready to either spring into action, or deal with her night terrors.

"Y-you like me, right?" This was rare, but not unheard of for her. But it'd always involved some sort of nightmare first.

"Of course I do, why?"

"N-no reason. Just uh. N-nevermind."

He stretched, joints popping as he did so.

"Well, I'm awake now anyways. What's wrong?"

She didn't answer, focused on the slow dance of the ceiling fan's shadow.

"That dream about your mom again?" She shook her head vehemently.

"You wanna tell me about it?" Again she shook her head.

He sighed.

"Alright then." He flopped back down. "Come here."

Soul watched her as she lay there, his fingers dancing in little waves through her hair until he was sure she was asleep. He'd awkwardly ignored the way her shoulders would shake, as he had so many times before. He mentally cursed whatever it was that had reduced her to this.

He brought his arm to a rest over her waist, hand on her back just in case.


Not as polished as I'd have liked, but it'll have to do until I can formulate a proper edit.

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