I definitely made myself cry writing the last scene. Ugh, I love this story.

Maka made sure to fidget just the right amount. A lady was supposed to be nervous when undressed and while she could produce it on cue there wasn't an ounce of it in her heart as she watched the woman with tightly wrapped blond braids and yellow eyes stare back at her. "And the gloves, why do you wear them?" The questions were all invasive but each one came with a slim grin.

With a sweet smile, Maka wiggled her fingers and put them on display between the two of them. "It's just that it's improper, a young woman allowing her bare skin to touch a man's. If we're betrothed, that's different, but the prince is still a man. He might get the wrong idea if I were to touch him with bare hands." The vapidness of her own voice amused her and she could only imagine the snickering from Black Star or Soul at the explanation.

The physician examined her fingers with mild interest before nodding. "And you've started your monthly bleeding?"

Maka bit back the grimace. "Since I was twelve."

"And your mother bore how many children?" Her eyes darted up to Maka's as she tilted her head. "I'm sorry, you're the orphan, aren't you? If you are unsure…"

She was sure there was a smile hiding behind those words, amusement at the pain that it could bring. "I was an only child, but my mother disappeared, so it was not a problem of not being able to have more if that is what concerns the crown."

"Ah," the physician's smile remained the same but Maka was sure there was calculation rather than commiseration in those eyes. "Your mother, she was that witch hunter, wasn't she?"

Maka let out a trill giggle. "Are those the rumors the other girls are spreading? I know my parentage is in question and I suppose that leads to these fantastic stories. As far as I know, my mother was a mother. My father was, is a soldier. He fought in the Witch Wars and earned some acclaim but-"

"But you're an Albarn, correct?"

"I am a Mjolnir," Maka kept the sweet, insipid smile while beneath the surface her blood was boiling. Those rumors spread too fast. We still have three more days.

"I apologize, that was simply my own curiosity, nothing for the crown to worry about," the physician offered a dismissive wave of her hand. "Would you mind turning around for me?"

Maka was glad to get away from that stare but the idea of putting her back to this woman didn't settle with her. As she moved, Maka kept her eyes over her shoulder, watching the physician in her periphery. A cold finger ran up Maka's spine and she couldn't stop a gasp.

"Again, I apologize. The castle here is drafty and even with the fire I fear my hands are a lost cause." The chill stopped but the woman didn't step away. "You can turn back around now."

With a deep breath, Maka scrambled her feet, letting herself lose her balance as she tried to turn back towards the physician. As she teetered, the other woman grabbed Maka, giving her the opportunity to place a hand on top of hers. Maka refused the change in breathing and the flush that wanted to come to her face. Instead, she let another goofy smile slip across her lips. "I'm sorry, I'm just so nervous. This whole process has been… well, very trying."

"Have you been sleeping alright?" The concern was perfectly faked and Maka would have believed it if it hadn't been for the touch.

"No, I often pace at night. I assume as soon as this is over I'll be back to normal, but it's been difficult."

As soon as Maka steadied on her feet the physician released her, "If you'd like, I can make something that will help. I'll have it delivered to your room this evening."

"Would you?" Maka gushed. "That would just be so helpful."

"Consider it an apology for my rude behavior before," that saccharine smile returned.

Maka let a hand fall to the table, grabbing at her robe before she pulled on one sleeve. "Please, it was nothing, but… would you mind telling me your name? I always like to have the name of people I'm indebted to." She slipped on the second sleeve as the physician kept that steady smile.

"Medusa."

Without a single word, Black Star had grabbed Soul. It was far too early for any of the usual drunken carousing and Soul was sure his mother would be instantly on the lookout for him. Technically he was supposed to be in the great hall now, awaiting the physician's findings on the girls though none of that sounded appealing to him at all. It was actually intrusive, horrible behavior that had made him cringe when his mother described it but he had little choice in the face of the heir argument. The insinuation was that every one of those girls would need to be able to bear a child, and he'd been actively trying not to fall into much thought on that because Black Star's warning rang true: What did he want to see on the wedding night?

Soul knew Black Star excelled at chasing skirts and had tried to share the wealth with his friend at one point or another but Soul's preference ran towards going to bed by himself. Maybe it was the nightmares or the gruesome scar he carried across his chest and in his heart. Whatever it was he'd avoided the idea of soft curves and bare skin, but it was possible that after last night, after that unanswered question his mind had created a few not so unpleasant answers.

And as Black Star pushed him towards the music room he couldn't help but let a few of those daydreamed memories back into his mind, revived by the view of the curtain and the possibilities of how much more improper that hand could get. He was rushed behind the curtain without a word and as he turned his head back to bark at his friend for an explanation all the air left him. Soft hands were pressed desperately to his chest and when he looked back those jade eyes were giant as her face was only a few inches from his. "You can't take any more of those tinctures."

"What?" he barely squeaked out as the heat practically strangled him as it crept up his neck.

Maka was leaning closer, her voice in a whisper just meant for him. "Medusa, that woman who you all call a physician, she's a witch."

Gone were his daydreams, the blush shutting off with a cold certainty as he grabbed her shoulders to give them a firm shake back to reality. "A witch? There's no such thing anymore, Maka."

"You're wrong, and keep your voice down," she spat back. "Whatever she's giving you has to be tainted. That's why you've only gotten worse. Soul, promise me you won't take another one. When she has them sent to you, put on a good show but do not drink another."

"What if you're wrong?" Soul whispered. "What if I stop taking them and I… this all gets worse."

Maka shook her head firmly, "They haven't stopped the pain in your scar, the hum of voices in your head, or-"

"How do you know that?" He erupted, his fingers tightening against her shoulders. "I didn't tell you that, I didn't tell anyone that."

For the first time, he watched her falter, her lip trembling before she let out a slow sigh. "If I touch you with my bare hand, touch anyone, I can read what their soul says. I told myself I wouldn't do that to you but last night…"

"So you took all my secrets without telling me? Without giving me a damn explanation?" He shook her again and whatever whispers were in the back of his mind refused to be quiet, new ideas beckoning as his fingers tightened.

As his hand pulled at the fabric, it slipped off her shoulder and sent her robe askew. "Calm down," she ordered as she placed a warm hand firmly to his cheek.

Suddenly, in the room and in his head there was silence. There was no more throb in his chest, instead replaced by a fluttering that left him breathless. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could feel more puzzle pieces locking into place, tiny moments flashing in the background. A bakery in the early morning. A library with that sweet but musty smell of old paper. The way Maka used to put her hair in pigtails and never wear it down as she did now. Amusement at her and Black Star bickering like siblings until one or the other brought him into the fight.

"Better?" she murmured.

"How did you…?"

"I can kind of do both," Maka smiled softly. "When it's something a witch has done I can usually negate it. Not permanently, but I can quiet it down enough that you get some reprieve."

"But the memories?" Soul was still sifting through them but all of it was leaving him buzzing.

"That I don't know." Maka tried to pull her hand away but he suddenly clasped his over it, keeping her locked in place. "It'll last for a little while, even if I'm not touching you. Maybe you… did you sleep better last night, after we talked?"

"No," he still refused to relinquish her hand, keeping it tight against his skin. "But that was probably for other reasons," followed in an almost inaudible mutter. With all the rest going on in his head it was only now that he realized that she was still just in the robe from her check-up which had flimsily pulled apart by his rough treatment of her. There was nothing much to see other than her shoulder and the fine curve that hinted at the dip between her breasts but that was more than enough to light his face up as crimson as his eyes. "I'm sorry." Soul released her, turning quickly on his heels both to hide and to give her an ounce of dignity back.

"Oh," came her little warbled sigh at his back. "It's not… nothing happened and I wasn't here to… I wasn't trying to… be inappropriate," Maka barely eked the words out.

"No, I know, and I, grabbing you like that, I wasn't trying to…"

"I know," Maka interrupted, saving him from the shame that was spreading like fire in his gut. "I just needed to catch you before you took anything else from her. I don't know what her plans are but our first move should at least be loosening her control on you. And you… what's happening to you has to be able to be fixed or at least remedied."

Amidst all of the frantic embarrassment, he felt the hope blossom. "You think so?"

"Just keep meeting me here and I'll do what I can," Maka said firmly.

Soul would waver if he didn't look at her, and when he turned the blush on her cheeks made it worse, his voice faltering. "But in a few days…"

Maka shook her head quickly, "I don't want to talk about that."

He narrowed his eyes at her, "But you and I-"

"Soul, please-"

"We have to leave," Black Star popped his head through the curtain before grabbing a hold of Soul's arm. "You've already spent too long down here. Save it for tonight."

Soul let Black Star pull him back through the fabric. He wasn't sure what was going to be worse, listening to findings of those exams or filing through all of the questions left unanswered.

Maka had been decidedly quiet all through dinner and as Soul made the rounds to the tables as he seemed to have been instructed to, Marie noticed a new tightness between the two of them. She could swear it bordered on embarrassment but there was also a healthy dose of something she couldn't quite put her finger on. That wasn't to say she hadn't seen it before, actually, this used to happen between those two at least once every other month for the first few years Soul had stayed with them. But that was before the attack, before his brother's death and Soul became the last and only option to continue the lineage. In a way, it would be sweet if the situation didn't seem so dire now.

So when there was a knock at the door as Marie combed her hair for bed, she was sure that she was about to be in the way, and while she hated being the impromptu chaperone, she never minded being a fly on the wall. But instead of that still slightly awkward barely more than a boy with a white mop of hair and a sweet smile, Maka opened the door to a servant holding a tray. Again, she expected maybe it was a note or a trinket, but when Maka picked up the vial instead, Marie felt a chill run down her spine.

Maka excused the servant and walked over to Marie, giving her the medicine. "Do you think you could have this sent safely to Stein?"

Marie looked between the liquid and her charge for a moment before letting the accusatory tone saturate her voice, "What happened?"

She pursed her lips before sighing. "I read Soul."

"Maka," Marie chided.

Maka found her free hand waving, pleading her case in the face of Marie's annoyance. "But he's sick with some kind of curse or something, Marie, and then it turns out the physician who's meant to cure him is a witch."

"Maka!" Marie repeated in frustration. "We said we weren't going to do this until after the decision. You're putting yourself in harm's way before you even have solid ground to stand on. Remember, being the Queen would give you the power to make the changes, but if you die before that or are run-out by a witch who has social power in this family-"

"I didn't let on for a second that I knew," Maka urged back. "She probably thinks I'm just another ditzy courtesan. But Soul's life-"

"Oh, Maka," Marie moaned for the third time. "I know you care about him but we need to be very careful. Nothing is guaranteed."

"I," Maka croaked as she felt the heat come to her face. "Marie, it wasn't about that. I couldn't very well let him die before he made his choice."

"That witch hasn't killed him yet and it's been five years. She's obviously planning something more long-term and you sticking your nose in already…" Marie threw her hands up in exasperation before using the movement as an excuse to grab the vial from her. "But fine, I will send this to Stein. And when, if we all end up going home together he can take over yelling at you because I'm obviously no good at it."

"Thank you, Marie," Maka murmured.

"Now, go, isn't it past the time you usually meet him?" Marie raised her eyebrows.

"I don't, I haven't-" Maka started helplessly until Marie's grin made it fizzle. "I don't think I'm going tonight."

"You two did have the usual 'we had an awkward moment' faces on today." Marie patted the lounge next to her and Maka hesitantly acquiesced but refused to look at anything other than her hands in her lap. "Maka, please tell me the two of you haven't slept together."

"No!" Maka blanched as her wide eyes turned to Marie. "It hasn't been that, we just talk and with me behind a curtain, even. Only talking until, well, I had to tell him today not to drink any more of those terrible potions and he… he grabbed me. We haven't been that close since…" Maka let that go with a withering sigh.

"Oh, thank goodness," Marie let out the breath she'd been holding. "But I don't like the idea that he grabbed you."

"He was just scared, confused," Maka murmured as her eyes went back to her fingers worrying in the fabric of her dress. "He was asking questions about how I knew all of this and… he wants to know what happened between us."

"Oh," Marie paused as her teeth nibbled into her lip. "Maybe you should tell him."

Maka groaned as she dropped her head into her hands. Her voice was small, not just because of her palms obscuring her mouth but the strength lost dredging up these things from so long ago. "All I know is how I felt and even then… I was a child. I thought I knew everything about the world but we both know I didn't. The way we were those years together, that's all… maybe I just dreamed it all. Maybe what I thought we had was just some sad make-believe a lonely girl put together so when I tell him that, I'll be lying to him. And the last thing I should be doing is lying to him."

Marie sighed softly, "If you tell him that he loved you, then you are putting yourself in a very good position. He's already shown favoritism towards you, and playing up a past that may or may not have been that true would only help. But…" She grabbed one of the hands away from Maka's face, "I wouldn't be able to do that and I know you can't either. But not seeing him tonight means you're running from a problem, and that's most certainly something that I know you can't do."

Soul waited without playing, his fingers creasing into his pant legs as he slowly smoothed them over and over. Everything was discombobulated, the contest, Maka's recent revelation, and most of all, his feelings. Every snippet of memory spoke to him of knowing her, of being just as close with her as he was with Black Star, of having a level of attention for her that he hadn't had for anyone else before. The things that came back were a strange mishmash of information, from her hairstyles to the tea she liked best to the flowers she used to pick on the walk from the village to the castle. Why did he know all these little, inconsequential things if each moment with her wasn't somehow epically important to him? And if they were, did that mean that he must have loved her?

That brought fire to his cheeks and he sunk his head in his hands. How pathetic can I be? Not remembering the girl I loved, or if I loved her? And now she's here, working to be my Queen and I've forgotten her. That must have hurt her, killed her! Unless what I felt wasn't the same as what she did and this is just some awful coincidence. Air barely warbled from his throat with a weak groan.

"Soul?"

He practically jumped out of his skin as he raised his head to see her just peeking from the curtain.

"Please, just, stay there, alright?"

A sigh was all he could manage in reply and suddenly the burn hit his eyes and he feared he'd lose the battle with it, so he turned his back to her and tried to focus on the workings of the organ.

"I know you're upset," she murmured and he heard one more step but then no more movement. "I… this has been hard for me, seeing you again especially when you don't know what happened."

A bitter scoff left his throat, "I'm trying."

"I'm not saying you're not," she let her temper match his for a moment before softening her voice again. "But answering your question, what happened between us, is impossible because I only know my own feelings. You… you were hurt and went away before you had a chance to say anything to me."

"My scar?" he tapped his chest.

"Yes." This pause was so long he had to turn to her, seeing her clearing the tears from her cheeks as she took slow, steady breaths. "I know Black Star was your first friend, but you and I were best friends during the time you were at Marie's. You came to study under Stein, the captain of her guard because he's a very decorated warrior and both you and Black Star wanted to be the best. At the time, I was studying under Stein since both he and Marie were taking care of me as a favor to my father."

"You fight?" Soul raised his eyebrows.

"Very well," Maka managed a laugh. "My father was a famous soldier and my mother was a witch hunter. I inherited her talents, the soul perception and the… I don't really know what to call it. Just, I can hurt witches and I can help heal what they've done to people and I was trying to get stronger because, well, as most of the world knows witches still exist. But I'm getting sidetracked," she sighed. "For four years, you, me, and Black Star lived with Marie and spent most of our time together. And each year, you and I would have the same fight, the one you remembered. You are a prince and I am just a girl, but really, in my head, what I wanted to say was I am nothing."

Soul tried to open his mouth but she squashed it with a dismissive wave of her hand. "That was because I… I have always lost the things that matter most to me. My mother, my father, and when you became a steady part of my life the fear started about you and being so young, so childish, I just picked fights with you. We bickered. We called each other names. That last year was the worst because…" Make let out a tear-stained laugh, "Because I started to think of you, wish for you to be more than just my best friend. I dreamed about… things that were very obviously not reality."

Maka let another derisive laugh leave her lips, "But what you felt, what you thought, I don't know. And it's the cruelest joke that as soon as I have the chance to ask you, there's no way you can tell me. You don't know, not anything, and that's… so much more painful than I could ever imagine. That's why I tried to avoid answering your question. I'm sorry."

"Don't," he murmured. "That's not… being sorry about that isn't right." He stared at her, a new throb starting in his chest as he watched her clear more tears from her cheeks. "It's not fair but… can I ask how you feel now? I know it hasn't been the same, but…"

Her eyes bought her time and breath as she let them wander everywhere but to him. "I feel the ghost of those feelings, but again, I… there is no guarantee I will be the one you choose and guarding myself, my heart has been one of my objectives."

"One of?"

Maka sighed, "I'm here to become Queen so I can make a difference. This world needs you to wake up, to see it for what it really is. You have soldiers here that have spent their life training but all you do is have them wander the grounds bored or police villages for taxes and minor infractions. Your parents think that the Witches are all gone but it's a lie, just something they tell themselves to feel like they've overcome what happened to your brother."

"That's enough," Soul barked. "I don't want to-"

"But you have to," Maka spat back at him. "The old Soul knew, he stood up for things, he protected people."

"And the old Soul paid the price," he growled back as he pressed a hand into his chest.

Maka shook her head, "That doesn't mean he's dead. I see him sometimes, in the things you do and say, but you have to make the choice. When you pick your future Queen, are you picking someone just to bear your children, or do you want this world to change?"

Soul let out a long breath as he hung his head. "You are… I don't know, Maka. I don't think I have a word that describes you."

"I could give you a few." She let a small laugh trickle from her mouth before letting an inhale flutter back. "I think Black Star would use bossy, impossible… You used to mostly call me stubborn."

He let out a weak laugh as he brought his eyes back to her. "I wish I could tell you."

"I know you do," Maka nodded softly. "And maybe someday, you'll be able to. Because no matter what the end of the week brings, Soul, I am going to help you fight this. I won't let you suffer, Queen or not."

"I appreciate that," he murmured as he got to his feet. There was no thought in his mind, just once again his heart urging the steps forward. He expected her to retreat but Maka stood still, not frozen or clenched but waiting for him. As he took her hand the haze was there waiting for him.

They were underneath a willow tree, lying on their backs and watching the sun poked tiny holes in the canopy. He was sore, feeling beaten down by training and he was sure she was feeling the same way, but the real ache, the real torture was the one he was feeling as his fingers crawled slowly across the grass, daring to come close to her hand. He had expected her to pull away, to hiss something at him, but when their fingers touched there wasn't hesitation, just connection.

Soul's head had turned to look at her in surprise, but she was still staring up as if nothing about that moment was different. Maybe that fed into his bravery but as he looked at her face he saw the smudge of dirt on her cheek and with daring fingers brought his other hand there to work off the dirty gently with his thumb. It wasn't the first time he'd seen her blush but it was the first time he had no excuse that it could be something other than him. His chest swelled with that feeling again.

As he pulled his hand away she let the words barely eke from her lips, "Don't leave me."