Little update! Sorry for the slow movement in the action.
Black Star hung behind, eyeing Soul walking in step with Spirit. While he was usually not one to read a room, the two of them were making the air thick with something and all he could hope was that the journey to find Yaara was short before whatever boundary that was keeping this mess at bay disintegrated.
"How's Maka doing?" Spirit broke the heavy silence.
As he pulled in a slow inhale, Soul considered his options which all brought him as much excitement as a lecture from his mother. "She's uncomfortable," he offered with as much honesty as he could stand.
"Of course, but…" Spirit sunk a deep sigh into it before throwing the next comment at him. "Her mood, I meant."
"Her mood for you?" Soul snapped back before shaking his head. "Because other than breakfast have you two talked to each other?"
"She's busy with her husband," Spirit tried not to make that a hiss but the clench in his jaw still squashed the words.
Soul felt Black Star's hand slapping at him but he shrugged it off, letting the sour words off his tongue. "Do you blame her?"
"I blame you," he huffed back easily and started to quicken his steps, trying to leave the conversation behind.
While Black Star was taking the space left behind, trying to ease Soul back with a slap of his hand to his chest, serenity was impossible to force. "For what?" Soul squeezed between his teeth. "It's not like I got in the way of your happy little family."
"You wouldn't know," Spirit muttered over his shoulder.
"Then let me know," Soul ordered back. "I'd love to know so that I can avoid hurting her the way both of you have."
"Are we close yet?" Black Star snapped between them. "It seems like it's taking an awfully long time to find Yaara and I can't imagine she'd be that far."
Spirit bit back what he had for Soul and grumbled out, "She moved further away yesterday. I think she might be avoiding more than just us."
Soul opened his mouth but Black Star shut it with a firm punch to his shoulder before filling the air, "Bet that's her campfire I smell though."
"The flame's low but you can see it." Spirit kicked some of the underbrush, once again sure that making any sort of sound wasn't going to spook her. If he knew Yaara, she was already brandishing a weapon. "You should stand back," he muttered to Soul.
"I want to walk out first," Soul corrected even with another hit from Black Star. "I swear, it'll be fine."
"Fine?" Black Star scoffed. "There's no chance in hell you're a match for her. Spirit goes first and you and I stay side by side."
"No," Soul shook his head. "I'm the only one she hasn't met yet and I'm sure both of you have already put a foot in your mouth with her."
"And you think you won't?" Black Star stole the words from Spirit's mouth. "Your temper-"
"Is fine," he hissed, leaving both men eyeing him unconvinced. Soul huffed as he pressed past Spirit and Black Star was immediately on his tail, a hand reaching for his shoulder. "Black Star," Soul turned and stopped, letting his hand reach him along with his furrowed brow. "Don't. Let me do this."
Black Star's nostrils flared with a few breaths before he gritted his teeth. "I swear, she touches her weapon-"
"Not even then," Soul urged back. "I'm serious."
Maka will murder me, came as a fleeting thought but Soul's face said he'd do the same. Futility sunk into Black Star's gut like a stone.
Soul turned back towards the scent of the fire and continued through the brush until the light broke and he saw the pale glow against Yaara's face.
"You idiots make too much noise," Yaara scolded as she poked at the fire. Her eyes lazily drifted around until they settled on Soul. "So you've come this time."
"I have," Soul took another step forward, the heat from her glare contesting that of the fire. "I needed to speak to you."
"I don't have anything to say to you," Yaara cut quickly before looking at Spirit. "I can't believe you even brought him here."
Spirit shook his head slowly as he rested his arms across his chest. "Just remember Maka's wishes."
That earned him a glare made of acid, but it didn't fizzle away the resolve on Spirit's face.
Remember to ask Maka what her damn wishes are, Soul noted with a deep breath to break that tremble in his gut. He swallowed all the hatred and for a moment channeled his mother, trying to imagine the angle of social niceties needed. "I don't have any right to ask for your help, but I'm going to imagine that you came here because you want to help, not me, but at least your daughter."
Eyes like steel stared unblinking at him without a word.
For all the ways that face reminds me of Maka, all the rest of her feels wrong. Like there's no way this is anyone close to Maka. "Stein said that it was a choice between you and her to exorcise this witch from a girl-"
"Why didn't you just kill it?" Yaara offered indifferently.
"It's still a kid," Soul found it a squawking objection, his emotions still getting the better of him.
"And exorcising leaves you with another fight on your hands," Yaara shook her head. "Kill the child, the witch has no choice but to die. Exorcise her and you're giving her enough corporal existence that she'll be a pain in the ass. It's a simple choice."
Soul was starting a few steady footfalls to her and Black Star was stuck, trying to follow orders but also watching the movement at Yaara's belt, her hand on her sword. "I guess you don't have any fucking qualms about killing a kid but I do. And it's not even about that girl, it's about your damn daughter. If you don't do it, she's going to and that puts her and the babies in danger when it's fucking unnecessary."
"He's got a worse mouth than you," Yaara's voice was tight even as her smile was playfully shining at Black Star. "Take your friend away from here or I'll show him the kind of fight I do want. Because without him around, I don't think I have to worry about my daughter."
"Yaara," Spirit started to caution but Soul's voice blistered above it all.
"It wasn't until she got pregnant that it even mattered to you," his accusation fell firm, and with each word his tone turned closer to stone. "You were here before the wedding and you did nothing to stop it."
Spirit's eyes darted to Yaara's face at the accusation, "Is that true?"
Her lips tightened but not even air released from her.
Soul's voice was now a low, thrumming constant alive with cold anger. "And the only reason you came back after the wedding was because Mira said Maka might be pregnant. After that you waited-"
"For Maka to be alone, to be vulnerable," Spirit finished for Soul as he echoed his own indictment.
"She is making the same mistake I did," Yaara spit the words out like venom. "I wanted to keep her from that, keep her from you ruining-"
Soul ignored the rest of it easily, his deep grumble overwhelming her voice, "She's not making the same mistake because she is nothing like you."
"What would a demon like you know anyway?"
The blade was on a perfectly dropped arch just as the bitter question left Yaara's lips. Black Star calculated the trajectory, the way the sword was swinging from the scabbard, the way it would hit Soul right at the hip and considerately splitting him in two. The next measure was where Black Star could interject his own sword to somehow stop the flow before guts spilled but in the middle of all of his calculations came a hand, Soul's hand. While Black Star said a prayer of woe for Soul's fingers, delicate, beautiful things that he knew were never going to play the organ again, the swing stopped as the blade cracked.
Soul's hand flexed around the edge, allowing for a fine line of black blood to soak his palm and start a small trickle down his arm. "Don't call me that. But if you want to find out how close I can come, try to swing that sword again."
Black Star barely held in the guffaw, his mind half-mad from the absolute inability to comprehend how skin had stopped steel but also just the idea that Soul would have that much cool in him. Maybe he's not a hopeless case after all.
"Yaara," Spirit started.
Her eyes were wild between the splattered black and Spirit's cautioning eyes. "I don't care-"
Spirit's voice was calm and slow, "Look at his hand, Yaara."
"I see it!" She hissed back. "That's what I warned you about, the-"
"His finger," Spirit sighed as if exhausted and came behind Soul, pointing just as exasperatedly as his words had.
Yaara's eyes focused on the engraved gold band Soul was wearing on his ring finger and just as they settled they popped wide.
"That's your ring," Spirit stopped for a rueful snort of a laugh. "He's wearing your ring."
"That doesn't mean anything," she murmured back breathlessly.
Soul risked a glance Spirit's way. "What doesn't she want it to mean?"
Spirit offered the first smile he ever had to Soul. "Means you're not cursed."
"But the blood," Soul was just as bedazzled as Yaara, the words barely leaving his mouth. "The black blood's…"
"Something else," Spirit shrugged, "but isn't making you any less human. The ring would have killed you, melted through that finger since that's the one thing I didn't romanticize for Maka. It's real protection from demons and witches." He sent his glare back to Yaara, "Unless you want to tell me you don't see the magic on it anymore? And don't lie. It'd piss me off if we walked back to the castle and Stein had something different to say."
"I don't give a shit about Stein or you," she hissed.
"Which means it's still working fine," Spirit nodded. "Are you done with your temper tantrum now? Will you listen to the boy?" As he tried to move towards Yaara's side she stepped away from him while Soul let her sword fall from his hand. "Because if he's human, the babies are too, Yaara. They might have a little taste of what he's carrying but if that ring's not reacting it's something different from a curse, something controlled and probably, from the looks of it, powerful. Which means the only fear now for Maka is one Soul's already squashed - she's nothing like you. Even more important, he's nothing like me."
"And I should be surprised that you want that same boring life for my daughter that you wanted for me?" Yaara rolled her eyes wildly as she choked back a laugh that was halfway to a sob. "You want her strangled by motherhood? Wasting her talents to sit on a gilded throne instead?"
"I don't make choices about her life," Spirit said softly. "I can complain about it all I want, but I have no opinion, no sway, and neither do you. We both don't deserve that. What we deserve to do is whatever she needs or asks of us, and Soul's not wrong in his request. You should help her."
Yaara shook her head bitterly, "Kill the child. Don't bother."
Spirit offered Soul a withering sigh, "That's your answer."
Soul chewed over the idea and bitterly shook a splatter of black from his hand. The tingle of the droplets hitting the ground teased at the back of his neck especially as the aching heat started to rise in his chest. His fist squeezed and emitted a few more beads before he brought his eyes back to Yaara. "Then I want to ask you to do something else."
Yaara laughed incredulously, "What makes you think I'll do any favor for you?"
"It's for Maka," he gritted through his teeth. "Come talk to her. Ask her if she wants you to stay for the babies."
"What?" Black Star erupted as he slapped a solid hand into Soul's shoulder. "No fucking way. This bitch-"
"Is her mother," Soul set the words firmly between them, his eyes soberly focused on Black Star's face. "And you said yourself, Maka makes her own decisions with this. All I'm asking is you give her a chance to make it."
Yaara worked at her lip as she breathed slowly through her nose, clearing anything left from her eyes before she replied flatly, "What about your guard dog?"
"Who?" Spirit looked to Soul.
"The big guy who's been staying with the girl," Soul muttered. "I'll talk to him."
Her eyebrows lifted slowly, "You think you can keep him on a leash?"
"No leash," Soul shook his head. "But he repays favors. I'll see what he wants in exchange."
Spirit suddenly found himself hating the entire moment especially as Yaara's face softened. She sighed, "Come back in a few days. Tell me if your dog will stand down."
"Fine." Soul let that be the end of it, turning quickly on his heels and starting back the way they came without another word from his lips. There wasn't an option for pleasantries as he finally let his blood come to boiling, all of the vitriol he'd held back bubbling between his teeth with a few seething breaths. They'd barely made it to the edge of the forest when Black Star finally broke into a jog to match steps with Soul.
Black Star watched it rage on Soul's face but couldn't help his own contempt from spraying off his lips. "You know she wanted your babies dead, right? And now you invite her to stay?"
"It's Maka's decision," Soul muttered.
"Again, dead," Black Star spit. "Wanted Maka to run off with her just like she did before and leave you high and dry, no love, no kids, no nothing, and she's-"
"Her mother!" Soul yelled helplessly as he turned towards Black Star, flinging up his hands in a shaking rage. "You think I like it? You think I want her there? You think I even wanted to look at her face tonight? No," he groaned out the word painfully as he let his hands tug at the roots of his hair. "But you didn't see her before I left, the absolute fucking heartbreak in her eyes when she chose me over her mother. She said if Yaara hurt me that she wasn't her mother anymore and I've never-" the words caught in his throat, sputtering off into another agonizing moan.
"You told Maka?" Spirit interjected quickly as he stood dumbfounded behind Black Star.
"Of course I did," Soul sighed. "I don't keep things from her and I don't run her life. If she told me she was going to do the exorcism on her own I would have… I would have hated it but I would have let her. I'm just glad she wasn't so fucking stubborn this time." He expected some kind of reaction out of Spirit, maybe a complaint at the accusation against his daughter's character or some kind of sarcastic snip about the likelihood of Soul ever swaying her but nothing came. Spirit just stared at him, frozen as a statue.
Because the worst thing had just happened to the older man: he was suddenly realizing he didn't hate his son-in-law all that much.