I glanced at the clock. 11:50pm. If I would have told my younger self that I'd still be at school this late when I'm in my 30s, he'd probably say 'man, that's not cool.' Honestly, he wouldn't be wrong.
This isn't my first late-night-stop-Kid-from-spiralling session, and I know it won't be my last, but today it just kinda felt different. It was December 31st, 2021. Ten short minutes and it'll be a whole new year, but I won't be out at a party drinking champagne or making promises I can't keep up for a whole year. Instead I'm at work, talking about the logistics of how to teach the kids once they come back from winter break with an overthinking Death God who doesn't really understand the concept of sleep anymore.
Actually, nobody seemed to care that the year was almost over. I never expected Kid to care, he doesn't celebrate holidays much, but even Maka and Black Star weren't doing anything all that different either. It was just another day to all of them.
When we were younger, new years were always a fun time. It was the only day of the year Maka wouldn't go to sleep at nine o' clock like a square, and Black Star would always drink too much champagne, or cider when we couldn't get away with underage drinking, and then make the most stupid resolutions you've ever heard in your life. Patty would bring hundreds of balloons over and Liz would bring a bunch of noise makers, which both would make Maka complain, but I knew she liked it anyway. Kid immediately always went to whatever we had that was counting down and would basically spend all night making sure the time was 100% accurate, milliseconds and everything. Every year, Tsubaki would cook all of us some 'osechi ryori', which tasted absolutely delicious each time. Blair and Spirit used to go shopping together for New Years glasses and cheap paper top hats, then Maka would try to kick them out, but would always give up. When it was one minute before, Maka would gather all of us around and we'd count down the seconds together. It was a whole show.
During these parties, I would sit in the corner, complaining about being tired, and not really caring about anything. "A different year isn't going to really change anything," I used to say. It's true, on paper nothing is really all that different about January 1st compared to any other day, but in hindsight that didn't really matter. Every holiday doesn't really need to be attached to whatever date it's on, but they're still important. New Years is all about hope. It makes the past the past, and shows how much of a blank page the future is, and you just have to sit down and write a good enough baseline, the melody the rest of the year follows should be even better than the last.
I can't believe I'm thinking this, but all those parties I said I hated, I miss them now. Sure, it still hits a bit too close to my crappy childhood, but it was just good carefree fun with my friends, and they're so much better than my family ever was. I should have seen that back when I was 14. I used to be such an idiot.
The years started passing and one by one we all stopped having these parties together. Kid was first. Again, he never really got into holidays all that much, so when he had to take over as Lord Death he was usually too busy to hang out with us on days when every other worker had a day off. Next was Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty. Due to contracts Kid made with the witches, after me nobody could be turned into death weapons, so none of them had any reasons to stay in Death City. Now they were going around the world, doing who knows what. Yeah, they kept in touch and still visited every now and again, but New Years was never a holiday they showed up for. Then was Blair. Magically gifted or not, a cat's life span isn't exactly the longest. I don't think she's dead yet, but she went off to 'retire the right way', whatever that means. That only leaves Maka, Black Star, and me. Also Spirit, but nobody really wants to celebrate with him. And well, whoever said that three's a crowd has never thrown a party with three people, because if it really was a crowd then it would seem so sad. I don't think any of us even stayed up until midnight for last year's New Year's Eve, besides the one of us that's physically unable to sleep now.
I guess it's only fitting that this year we're stuck working while the calendar turns over. This is what being an adult is.
Still, I wonder what the others are doing. I know Tsubaki has kids now, Atsushi and Ichika, so maybe she celebrated New Years with them at like 10 to get them to bed on time. They probably had some osechi ryori for dinner too. And maybe Liz and Patty watched the ball drop live in New York. I might have been able to see them if I wasn't still in this meeting three hours ago. I bet Blair had a line of people to kiss at midnight, or will have depending on whatever timezone she lives in now.
I glanced at the clock again. It was 12:00 on the dot. 2022. 2021 disappeared without any cheers, or noise makers, or anything. Everything was dead quiet besides Maka reassuring Kid that the rest of the plans for the semester were fine and all the students weren't going to be disappointed and quit.
It's stupid, but a part of me thought that maybe somebody else, probably Maka, would have an alarm on their phone or something and would start a countdown. Maybe Black Star snuck in some champagne after all and would share it with all of us. God knows that we could all probably use a drink. It wouldn't be like those parties we had as kids, but it'd be something.
This was nothing.
A whole year gone, and still nothing.
2022 will be nothing too, or nothing special at least. The students might as well quit, it won't make too much of a difference.
Am I getting too old for this? But I'm not even 32 yet.
I must have sighed out loud or something because Maka stopped talking and looked at me. If I did, Black Star and Kid really couldn't have cared less. One immediately started 'spicing up' the semester plan with explosions, while the other looked like he was going to cry at just the thought of that.
Regardless, Maka came and sat on the floor next to me. "Hey, looks like it's a new year."
"Yeah, I guess so"
Maka inched a little closer. "I know I'm like a minute late but-" she grabbed the collar of my shirt and the next thing I knew, our lips were locked together. I could feel my whole face turn warm.
No matter how long we've been together, I can't stop blushing if Maka starts the kiss. It's embarrassing. I guess it's better than a bloody nose, but still.
She pulled away and went to my ear to whisper. "Don't tell Kid, but there's a certain festive drink in the teacher lounge's fridge that should help."
"What, sparkling cider?"
"No, idiot." Maka looked at me with that adorable smile of hers. "I'm not that lame."
I smiled back. Both Black Star and Kid were keeping eachother very distracted, so we didn't even have to whisper if we wanted to keep it a secret. "Wait, are you saying that you, the one and only Maka Albarn Evans, brought alcohol to school?"
"Maybe~"
"Who are you and where'd you put the real Maka?"
She shrugged. "What can I say, new year- new me. Go check the fridge if you don't believe me. And I wouldn't mind it if you would bring me back some 'cider' either."
"I should bring you back a priest. I don't think whatever's possessing you will leave without one," I said, standing up.
"Shut up," she laughed as I walked off to see if she really was telling the truth.
After making it to the teacher's lounge, low and behold, in the paper bag labeled Maka was a full bottle of champagne. Jokes or not, Maka disobeying a rule as basic as 'don't bring anything non-kid-friendly to work' was incredible. I guess she really is a new person now, and that person seems just as amazing as the one I married.
With a surprise so early into the year, who knows, maybe 2022 won't be so bad after all…
A/N: Imagine working on New Year at midnight, HAHAhaha... ha... This story wasn't wish-fulfilling self-projection at all :,)... BTW, if you've read any of my other Soul Eater stories you'd notice that I really like one character in particular, who is barely in this and is not the titular Soul Eater, so this is really my first story to star the main man himself. Was he well written / in character? Granted, he's like 30 in this, not 14, so there's bound to be some slight changes, but still. I'd love to hear any of your thoughts, good or bad, insightful or not, so leave a comment. And I'm like 13 days late, but Happy New Year :D