I really don't know how we've gotten to 41 chapters without an ending in sight. I'm glad you're still along for the ride, readers. I have to say this part took me longer than usually because of the **sexual content** because I'm still not sure how I feel about it...
Spirit knew that loathing Soul was childish especially since one of the few memory he had of him was as a boy practically dying in Maka's arms. It was a strange jealousy, spurred on by that looping memory in his mind.
Stein had done the best he could to dress the wound but there wasn't a hope for consciousness and he wasn't actually holding his breath for survival, though he would never tell Maka that. She insisted on cradling Soul's head in her lap, stroking the scraggly white hair and murmuring with words that were drained of all character. In a way, she seemed just as much a ghost as Soul did. After a few more minutes that had all the comfort of removing fingernails, Black Star rushed back into the room.
"We've got the carriage. We're going." The finality of it left the air in the room frigid and Spirit watched the chill run down Maka's spine from his place standing over her.
Stein knelt next to Maka and Spirit watched her suddenly become her mother for a moment, that instant flare of fire and fight coming to her eyes. But Stein had always been better with that than him, watching Yaara's rages and letting them fall useless at his feet while Spirit would always wither. "Maka, let me take him," Stein said with an evenness that most would consider cold.
"Please." The likeness to her mother dissolved as the blur of tears took over those sweet verdant eyes that fell back to the boy in her lap.
"I'm sorry, Maka." Stein started to pull the boy as gently as he could as Maka kept her hands on Soul until Stein lifted to his feet. Her hands hovered momentarily before they turned into fists and fell with futility to her lap. With that, they disappeared, Spirit the only one left with his daughter.
The idea of comforting her wasn't alien and everything in him was screaming for it but as he took a step forward, the reminder he was there was enough to make her bristle. "Maka…"
"What?" The word trembled but held firm.
"I'm sorry." It was as much use as a glass of water to a drowning man and received just as well.
"You can go," Maka hissed.
"I was going to-"
"You can go," she repeated each word with the stiffness of a corpse before he saw that flash of her mother again as she glared up at him.
"Maka, please, I came to-"
"I don't want you." Each word shot from her mouth. "I don't want you here. I don't need you. I need him!" She threw her hand at the door, pointing accusingly. "I need Soul! He's the only one who's never-" Maka cut herself off as she let her hand fall and slap uselessly against her thigh with a trembling groan. "But I can't say that anymore, I can't, I can't," it turned into a wild murmur for a moment before she slapped a hand over her mouth.
"Maka…" he reached for her and in an instant she exploded, slapping his hand out of the air.
"Why couldn't it have been you?"
That was the echo in Spirit's head when he met the scarlet eyes that only flicked to him momentarily as Soul entered the room. He didn't seem intent on Spirit to begin with, continuing past him to stand in front of Crona. Spirit was opening his mouth, ready to bark at the brat to keep away when Soul interrupted the thought instantly with an extended hand.
"I don't think we got a real introduction," Soul's voice was low and soft as he let the hand easily hang between him and Crona. "Soul."
Crona's eyes darted to Black Star standing behind Soul and when he nodded his approval, a happy grin on his face, Crona held out a limp hand. "I'm Crona."
Soul did most of the shaking, Crona watching the connection with wild eyes. After releasing them, Soul jammed his hands back in his pockets, taking another second to eye Crona. "I, uh, about what happened-"
"I'm sorry," Crona blurted. "I'm really sorry, and-"
"Calm down," Black Star barked as he pushed past Soul and grabbed a not completely unwilling Crona by the nape of the neck. "Look at him," he gave Crona another shake. "Does he look mad?"
"No?" Crona looked hopefully at Black Star.
"Then you apologize once, which you did, so cut it out." Black Star released them only to give them a sturdy pat on the back.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Soul grinned softly at the pair. "I'm… sorry, too."
"What?" Crona blinked at him and both Black Star and Spirit couldn't contain their eyebrows.
Soul shrugged off the disbelief, that smile staying easily on his face. "Maka said you had a pretty tough life and I can guess it hasn't been that much easier. So, I'm sorry."
"Oh, well," Crona looked to Black Star who shrugged just the same. "Thank you."
"Now that's out of the way," Black Star stared glumly at Soul before jutting his chin in Spirit's direction.
This time those red eyes narrowed, staying put after they traveled to Spirit's face. "Spirit."
"Soul," Spirit offered without an ounce of feeling even though it was a thunderstorm in his head.
The pause sat between them for an eternity, eyes locked and faces cool. After a deep breath, Soul finally muttered, "I need you to do me a favor."
"A favor," and while it should have been a question it came off with a biting laugh. "You marry my daughter, send her off-"
"Old man," Black Star barked. "Shut the hell up and listen to him."
"No," Spirit balked. "Why should I? He can lob off my head as King if he wants to but as a father, he has no right to come to me to ask for favors."
"A father?" Soul hissed but Black Star's hand was on his shoulder almost instantly, making him shake it off along with the rage. "It's not for me, it's for your daughter."
Another steely gaze and another round of breaths passed between them. "And why wouldn't she ask me?"
"Because she's fine with being reckless," Soul shot back instantly, "but if I can protect her, I will."
"What does she even have to be reckless about? She's as big as a house now with your babies and-"
"And we need her to exorcise that girl we brought," Soul cut in glumly. "Something that Stein said just her or her mother could perform, and if I had to choose…"
"Yaara won't," Spirit laughed. "You think I dislike you? Her mother's got a particular opinion about you."
He couldn't truncate the wave of childishness that swelled in his voice, "She doesn't know me."
"She's seen what your blood has done to her daughter," Spirit came back easily and he watched it lance Soul in the gut. "And I think your best bet is to stay away from her. She's the kind to kill first, ask questions later."
Spirit watched Soul let that churn in his mind and half expected a stomping rush out of the room especially as tight fists appeared at Soul's side. Instead, a soft, deliberate whisper barely squeezed out of his clenched jaw. "I still want you to take me to her."
"I already said, Yaara will kill you," Spirit enunciated each word as if Soul was hard of hearing. And even if I hate it, Maka losing you again, now… I can't imagine what that'd do to her.
"I'll bet she's not," Black Star answered jovially. "And I think I'd really enjoy her trying."
Spirit looked between both boys, the only slightly less irritating one glowing with a smile while Soul still wore those hard eyes, a solid scowl. "Tonight. After Maka goes to bed."
Maka was leaning against the window frame, a frustrated groan starting at her lips. There were two entirely conflicting feelings in her legs that she currently had zero control over. The first was that under the skin, creepy crawly shivers, the kind that refused to let her even consider lounging back between the sheets. The other was the frigid tightening which only eased to dull throbs every few breaths and yearned to be pampered by sitting atop piles of pillows. The next sound that rumbled up her throat was somewhere between a mewling sob and grating grunt but she smothered it as soon as she heard the clattering of the tray.
Soul had come in as quietly as he could, a tray of tea in his hands and a secret churning in his gut. Spirit had told him explicitly not to tell her and that wasn't exactly something he was sure he was capable of at the moment, especially after her admonishments the night before. As soon as the unnerving sound came from her he was clacking the tray to the nightside table and rushing to grab her at the window, hands checking for any type of wound.
"I'm alright," she murmured.
"That didn't sound alright," he grumbled. "What is it? What hurts?"
"Everything," Maka offered with an exasperated sigh. "Every last damn thing."
He snorted, "Well, I can't fix everything, but… is it your shoulders? Your neck?" His hand was cautious at first like her skin was nothing more than glass but after a moment he dug purposeful fingers into the muscle above her collarbone.
The pleased groan snuck up on Maka, making pink lightly dust her cheeks. "A little," and she finished it with a soft hum as he rubbed again.
"What else?" He was trying to resist the urge to play at her lips instead, that blush goading him to no end especially as her eyes went half-lidded in what he hoped was pleasure.
"My legs."
He didn't take the hesitation in her voice for a second, just starting to press her back towards the bed. "I think I can fix that."
"Soul…" That feeling lurched in her again, especially as his hands went to her hips to ease her down to the bed, a motion she had many fond memories of.
"Bet it's not that different from after training with Stein." He let out a chuckle as he sat next to her on the bed and pulled her legs into his lap. "Can't say you ever let me do this before but Black Star's had plenty of cramps."
"And you've enjoyed massaging Black Star?" The playfulness in her voice was instantly destroyed as he dug into her calf muscle.
Soul allowed for a dry laugh, "Don't tell him, but I think I prefer you. You do have a nicer set of legs." His words brought just as much heat as his fingers and Maka pressed the back of her hand to her mouth to keep the next sound from escaping.
For his station, this was probably incredibly improper but those were usually the types of things that Soul was best at. His hands worked rough melodies into her skin, breaking up the soreness under each deliberate touch and calming all of the tingling need to move. While the journey started at her calves his fingers climbed, lifting her dress without a second thought and clutching into her thigh one after the other. His eyes seemed intent on his work and that gave her some reprieve since her face refused to cool, one colorful splash after another hitting her cheeks. Because this is the most he's touched me in months and I… oh, I can't stop thinking about it and-
"Better?" He turned his head to her with softly raised brows as his roaming hands rested on her thigh.
Maka nodded since her hopeless tongue was tied.
"Doesn't look better," his brows fell to furrowed. "What's that face for?"
"Um," peeped from her throat before she shook her head quickly.
"What is it?" He prodded. "I brought tea but if you need something else…" As Maka tried to shift, Soul was on the move, slipping out from under her legs and moving to sit up against the headboard with her. "Maka, don't be stubborn," he chided hopelessly as he angled his head to get a good look at her eyes.
Maka's hand reached up, sinking into his hair and pulling him only the few inches closer that she needed to catch his lips. She pressed needy at his mouth, forcing her tongue to his only to get a soft hand to her neck, separating their mouths.
"Maka… this is," he sighed wearily. "This is hard for me."
She worried at her lip first, her mind giving a million answers to her question before she asked it. "What is?"
Soul cleared his throat to buy time arranging his words. It was hopeless to get them in a line that made sense so he offered the pathetic bare truth, "Being gentle with you."
"Gentle?" It brought a refreshing humor, lifting the weight off her heart and letting her play with the hairs at the nape of his neck in contentment.
"You know," he grumbled.
"I don't," she teased. "What do you mean?"
He hissed a few curses under his breath before he pulled away far enough to let stern red eyes fall on her. "You're… I haven't seen you in months and before you left," he huffed out pure frustration. "You made me make promises about beds and that was easy while you were away but harder when you're right here."
A sweet sigh spread across her lips to accompany the smile that was already there. "I am in your bed."
"Maka," he griped.
She tugged just slightly on those tiny hairs at the base of his neck, making him grimace even more than the complaint. "What do you want, Soul?"
His sigh was nowhere near sweet, just heaving with dissatisfaction at his own words, "I want you to feel better, feel like yourself again, but I know that you're, well, you're, not exactly… the babies are the priority." Even with her fingers resisting he leaned back and let his head thunk against the wood as he expelled another grunt of air.
Maka let her hand slip out of his hair and drift down to rest on his chest. "Not that I ever thought I would do this, but I think I might have to quote Papa right now."
An unrestrained grimace hit his lips, "Why?"
"Because, for once, I think he was right," Maka shrugged amiable, even though the words were flaked with rust. "You can't just be a parent, and when you are, when the other person isn't there it takes a toll."
"We aren't even parents yet," Soul started ruefully.
"Exactly." Maka flexed her fingers into his shirt, rubbing slightly at the skin underneath. "And I don't expect… well, I don't seem to know…"
The inkling was slow to crawl into the forefront of his mind as he watched her suddenly stumbling over words just as much as he had. Power in moments with her was usually fleeting so he took it when he could and slid that thumb lingeringly against her jawline. "What do you want, Maka?"
Her lip started to curl into a pout and Soul almost forgot his question as she leaned into him, letting her head tuck into the crux of his neck. "I want to… it's selfish but I want to try to find out how much I can stand."
Soul's eyebrows furrowed so hard he was sure he pulled a muscle. "Uh, Maka, what the hell does that mean? How much you can stand?"
Hiding her face was the only way she could ease the words from her lips and even then they came out in a tight whine. "I'm not even sure you can touch my breasts because they hurt and, well, they're, not the same, and… I haven't even dared to think about let alone try to, well, you know, but just now, all that rubbing my legs felt so good and I, at least my body definitely isn't making arguments against it."
"You're," Soul cleared the strangeling tightness from his throat, even then he offered a tiny whisper to the ceiling, "Oh fucking hell." Soul ran his fingers through her hair, hoping to offer as much comfort to her as he was hoping to leech away himself. "I turned you on?" he winced at the sentence that he could only imagine coming from Black Star's mouth.
Maka didn't seem to be bothered by the phrasing, only nodding against his neck.
"Oh," and Soul repeated that at least a few times as his mind started to threaten to offer each cataclysmic worry. He narrowed them down slowly until he forced the frustrated jumble from his mouth, "Maka, I'm going to do whatever the hell you want but the minute, the second something hurts or doesn't feel right or anything even close to that you have to tell me."
She nodded again quickly.
Soul let out a low, thoughtful hum that seemed half a groan. Pushing aside the worries was an uphill climb and while his hand trembled as he let one move from her hair to her shoulder, his mind was falling into steady resolve because if there was something Maka wanted, Soul's only job was to figure it out. He pressed her shoulder softly. "Roll over, on your side. That's more comfortable, right?"
"Away from you?" Maka looked hesitantly up into his eyes as she moved from her hiding place.
"Yeah," he nodded slowly. "It's… a little tight with this between us." Soul risked a tender touch to the curve of her belly. "Not that I think I mind, just the angle might be awkward."
Maka still let the confusion paint her face but she moved as ordered. Soul immediately took the pillow he was leaning into and brought it around her side, tucking it like he'd seen her do a few times to ease the weight. He pulled it lower and with a gentle hand ran down her thigh to her knee, moving it to rest on the padding. "This feels fine," Maka murmured.
"Fine or comfortable?" Soul instantly pushed, snapping at the weakness of the word.
"Comfortable," Maka corrected. "You're worrying."
"You're surprised by that?" he managed a weak laugh.
"No, just," Maka sighed, "I want you to enjoy yourself, too."
A sigh that spoke of a million daydreams drifted against her ear as he pressed his chest to her back, his nose nuzzling almost at her earlobe. "Trust me, if I can manage not to hurt you I will enjoy the hell out of this." That came with a sweet kiss to her hairline at the nape of her neck. As he spread a few more there, his hand moved to struggle with her dress, freeing it from being tucked into the bed enough that he could get the fabric up to the curve of her hip bone. His fingers danced along the back of her thigh, nudging that knee just a hair higher.
He situated himself a little higher and dug his arm into the pillow above her head, awkwardly tensing at his wrist so he could toy with some of the hair at her forehead. "Tell me," he murmured the order again.
Maka turned her eyes to his as her hand came over top of his just to momentarily hold it in place. "I don't think you can hurt me." That didn't come as a soft whisper nor was there any hint of doubt to it and it bought her another sweet, lingering press of his lips as his body fit against hers in the only way that still felt like it used to.
His hand slipped out from underneath hers, going back to roaming the smooth skin of her thigh back up to the curve of her ass to squeeze. The act forced a heated sigh from his lips and when Maka pushed back against him she was pleased to find nothing had really changed and his body was in no way disagreeing with the arrangement as a new pressure sprung up between them. "Fuck," he groaned out before sinking into the crux of her neck, lips and teeth plucking at her skin. On the next glide of his hand, his trail changed and his fingers smoothly drifted between her legs, ample space provided by the propped up knee.
Maka hummed out a moan as she bit her lip. A chill ran up her back as he slowly teased along the edge, making the next sound burst from her mouth with a start as he just dipped between them.
Soul paused with his mouth tensed next to her ear. "Too much?"
"No," the whine that wanted to follow surprised her almost as much as his finger flirting with splitting her again. "It's… it feels different."
"Bad different?" he was still again and it was killing her, forcing Maka to press her hips back and make him delve between them, fingers almost flexing at her clit. "Maka," he half scolded.
"It's more," she muttered, words not fitting what she was feeling. It was pins and needles. It was pure want. It was every time he had ever touched her all in one. "Keep going," was the only rational demand she could make and it brought a chuckle to his lips.
Soul shouldn't have expected any less than being ordered about and he fell into that old pattern of her body, painting a rhythm of slow circles that had her pressing hard breaths into the pillow. It was barely any work at all before her legs were quivering around his hand, her breaths short and broken by trembling moans. "Maka," his low whisper buzzed in her ear, and honestly, he was so taken by her, by being close again and feeling that steady hum off of her that he lost any last bit of sense and only repeated her name softly a few more times. She interrupted him with a low, shuddering cry as her hand jumped down to hold his steady, stopping those practiced motions of his fingers.
While he most certainly hadn't been lying, the idea that he'd hear that fulfilled moan from her making him entirely content, the hitch of air from her throat after forced it to crumble all away. "Maka?" He scrambled to free his hand and lean over her shoulder, getting only a sneaking view of her face as she pressed it into the pillow. "Fuck, did that hurt? Are you hurt?" He tugged at her shoulder, forcing her to show him the sunshine and storm on her face.
Maka's smile was wide but her eyes were completely clouded with tears. She had to sniffle before she could get the words out of her mouth. "No, it's fine, Soul, it's… perfect." Her hand reached to his cheek, bringing him down to taste the salt on her lips. "I… that's the first time I've felt normal in… well, since I left you. And to be totally honest I'm never able to contain these tears anymore. They have a mind of their own."
Soul let his forehead drift to hers, pressing a sigh near her lips. "I'm sorry it's been so hard."
"It's not your fault," she murmured.
"Doesn't mean I can't feel bad about it," he shot back quickly. "And sure as hell doesn't mean that I'm not going to try to make it better. What else can I do?"
The breath trembled over her lips again, threatened by a sob but not entirely unpleasant in the face of his sweetness. "You can let me do the same for you."
"I'm fine," he said quickly. "You don't need to worry about that."
Maka placed a firm hand on his neck, getting him far enough away that he could see the threatening in her eyes. "You're trying to tell me right now that you're not turned on?"
"I'm…" and before he could even try to generate the nerve to lie to her she was pressing back against him, proving her point as he was still very firmly poking into her, enough so that the friction brought a tempting groan to his mouth. "Alright, I get it, but…" he let out a withering sigh especially as she raised her eyebrows in little humor for his answer, "... I'm not… while I want to, I'm not exactly sure I'm going to be able to not worry about, you know."
Her eyes blinked up at him as her mind slowly translated his usual terror truncated language. "Help me out of bed."
He was dazed, glancing around the room as if expecting to find reasoning there. "Out of bed?"
"Just what I said," she repeated with little patience, starting to roll back to her side so she could get an arm underneath her to press up. Soul was out of bed in a flash, coming to the bedside to give her the extra strength to get to standing. As soon as she had the momentum, Maka was pulling him over towards the desk. "I've never done this before," her eyes were steadily focused on his shirt and her voice strained under the embarrassment, "so you'll have to tell me."
"Tell you what?" His confusion only deepened as she sat slowly in the chair, her hands drifting down his shirt until they settled on his waist.
"If it's alright." Without warning of ceremony, she tugged firmly on his pants, his erection not making the glide entirely smooth as he hissed as it caught.
"Maka, what are you-" It suddenly became an entirely stupid question as she used one hand on his hip to pull him a step closer and the other to grasp at the base of his shaft, making his tip hover closely to her lips. A warbled moan left his lips as her tongue flicked out and tasted him. "Oh, shit." His legs tightened and dedicated restraint just stopped his hips from jutting forward. Her fingers tightened their grip against his hip, allowing a slow motion to move him forward to produce a gentle guide of her lips along his length as low hum thrummed in his chest.
Her mouth was a burning heat and her tongue was drawing lazy, lingering lines over the most sensitive of skin. Those first few strokes were hesitant, slow and languishing but as Maka moved her hand to cup his ass, the squeeze elicited a flex of his hips that he couldn't deny. While Maka seemed to accept the motion, he quickly grasped into her hair, bringing her back with a hiss. "Slow," he was reminding himself as much as he was her.
With a perfect pop of her lips, she released him for a moment. "It was fine, Soul."
"Your teeth weren't fine," Soul murmured back with a pained smile.
"Oh," she stared up at him. "Sorry."
"No," he urged back. "Just… careful. Other than that it feels," he let a rough sigh say the words for him as he looped his fingers tightly in her hair.
"Then stay still," she teased not just with her voice but with her hand, gliding along his length, sliding easily from the lubrication.
"Oh," he groaned.
She watched his eyes roll back as her hand pumped him a few more times. Just as another moan hit his lips, Maka let her lips join her fingers, now very aware of the thin line between that and sharp teeth. While he had cautioned her, after a few minutes he was pushing again as weak breaths broke low rumblings from his chest that, to her, were nothing more than cute little growls. She'd laugh at him later since at the moment he was looking down at her finally, red eyes storming with month's worth of stockpiled desire. As his fingers flexed into her hair, he let out one last aching groan as her mouth filled with an unexpected warmth.
"Here," he panted out as he reached behind her, moving a small hand rinsing basin on the desk to within her reach. "Spit." Maka listened, not exactly overjoyed with the flavor or the sensation but certainly still humming with pride especially as he just pulled his pants up enough to collapse between her legs, resting his head on her knee with a rough sigh. "I wasn't expecting that."
Maka twittered out a laugh as her hand ran through his hair. "But it was fine?"
"Fine," he huffed. "Fine definitely doesn't fit." His hands ran along her legs, threatening to massage into her skin again. "I'm just…" he lifted his head, staring up at her and catching her with eyes that glowed like a smoldering coal. "I'm only whole when you're with me."
Those tears with wills of their own were back and Maka shook her head softly, "You're ridiculous. Next you'll be writing me poetry."
"Not poetry," he laughed softly, "but I have something for you at home, when we get there, which should probably be soon, right?" A tentative hand rubbed at the swell just in time to catch another flurry of kicks, leaving Maka grimacing momentarily.
"I think they agree," Maka grunted. "Well, once the exorcism is done, we'll go."
"About that," he sighed as her eyebrows instantly furrowed. "If someone else could do it, would you let them?"
Any last dregs of humor left her face and Maka frowned at him, "I thought you said that I was allowed to fight-"
"You are," he cautioned, "but neither of us knows how much it'll take out of you and with the babies…"
"Soul," she hissed.
"I'm only saying," he clutched her hand, trying to urge peace with a thumb rubbing over her knuckles, "if I can find someone else, wouldn't it make sense to save your strength?"
Her cool glare after such warm moments was not what he wanted but it was all she could give as she murmured, "Who else is there?"
"I'm looking into it," he shot back quickly, still rubbing at her hand. "I'm going out tonight to talk to someone."
"Someone," Maka echoed.
Spirits admonishments and hers mingled as a yell in his head. The truth seemed impossible but after all his transgressions since she had gotten home, so did the lie. He sighed, but as his mind fed him back the memory of the joy from just a few minutes ago he withered in defeat, "Your mother. I asked your father to take me to see her."
For a moment, everything about her had turned to ice, from her skin to even the breath that managed to let the words out, "Why would you do that?"
Soul got to his feet quickly so he could cup her face and force some of the coolness out of her with heated fingers urging at her jawline. "I'm not going there to fix what she did. You want her, him as your business and I'm only accepting that because that's what you want but if I think there's a way to protect you, I don't care who I have to talk to, what I have to do, I do it."
"She could kill you," Maka murmured.
"Black Star's excited by that prospect," Soul offered with a pathetic huff of a laugh, "but I'm not looking for that to happen."
"You are if you go there," she snapped back frankly.
"What can I do?" He slipped his hands into her hair, bringing her forehead to his. "I meant what I said, you're the rest of me, Maka, and while I know you can do it on your own, maybe I'm not as comfortable with taking the chance as I was before."
"Why?" her voice was suddenly soft and her hands had clasped over his.
"Because maybe… I was still thinking it was just you," he murmured. "Seeing you now, feeling the babies, being with you again, it's fucking driving that old protective urge haywire," he finished that with a grunt of a laugh. "Let me be your guard dog, just this once. Next one you can beat me down and say no, but, with the babies, you, I need to do this."
"Are you asking for my permission?"
"Kinda, yeah," he laughed softly, "but I'm gonna guess I'm in the doghouse either way and that's… for now if you want to be mad at me, that's fine. I'll take it."
Her fingers moved from his hands, up to his arms until they jumped in towards his chests to make worrying little fists in the fabric. She was silent, and he was ready to take that as her anger and he tilted his head to try to offer her a sweet kiss of an apology when the words barely came above a whisper, "If she hurts you, she's not my mother anymore." He could taste the pain of it as she bridged the rest of the gap, giving him all the woeful permission he wanted.