I really can't wait until I can give you sweet SoMa stuff again but I have to finish this plotttttttttttttttttt. It's hard.
It was an iron maiden around Crona's heart or maybe a noose around their neck. Choking, bleeding, that was the closest approximation to having poison in their pocket and somehow still managing to look Maka in the face. Worse yet was the smile, that glow that she always had and gave to them without hesitation. "Oh, Crona," she cooed from the bed as she got an elbow underneath her. "How are you? How was being with the boys last night?"
Crona's gut churned and teeth ground but they moved another step forward, forcing a hesitant smile to their face. "It was nice. They were nice."
"Were they really?" Maka narrowed her eyes. "Don't lie: Black Star and Soul behaved?"
They nodded shakily.
"Well," she sighed sweetly, "I'm glad. Did you drink at all? You know it's alright to try it if you want to."
"It doesn't taste very good," Crona mumbled.
"No, I suppose not," she giggled in return and motioned them forward. There were a few painful steps and then another stop. Maka tilted her head as that glow focused even harder on them, burning a traitorous hole in their chest. "What is it? Are you nervous about today? I told you, I'll be fine, and you definitely don't have to be there. It's your mother and… Oh, I'm so sorry, Crona." She reached for them but found the same indecision that had plagued them since they walked through the door. Don't be selfish! You're killing their mother today and you want to comfort them?
"Um, it's… not a big deal, Maka," that trembled off into a murmur.
"It's a huge deal," she urged back. "And it's OK to feel whatever you're feeling. Do you want to talk to me about it? I'll always listen, Crona."
Those worried little fingers clutched into their robe, straining the fabric desperately. "No, it's OK. I… just wanted to see you. Talk like normal. About normal things." That word thundered in their head, cackling laughter resounding in the echo.
"OK." Maka tried to let every last ounce of that come cheerfully but most of it flaked away as Crona continued to fidget next to the bed, just out of her reach. Again, you can't comfort them about that, not after what you plan to do so be a good friend and give them as normal as you can manage. "Well, Soul wants to leave soon, go back to the big castle and I was thinking, if you'd like, you can come with us. We have a lot of friends there, too, for you to meet and that's where I'm going to have the babies."
"Friends." It came as an echo of her voice, Black Star's, Soul's, just a cacophony of sound to torture from every angle. "Maka-" Crona started and stopped, barely trapping the desperate groan that wanted to come after.
"Don't worry," she tried to soothe the air between them by patting her hand into the bed like it was their arm. "You'll do great there, just like you have here. It always takes some getting used to but so far you've settled in at every step."
"But I'm…" Horrible, terrible, a traitor, even thinking about killing your friends. Killing babies! Killing at all!
"Fine," she urged again. "It'll be more people, but you'll get used to it and when we first get there you can stay-"
"What if I don't go?" It was practically a whine and they winced at the sound.
Maka tried to refuse the sting but it needled into her heart, making the tears come to her eyes. "That's fine, too, Crona. What happens to you now is up to you. With her gone, you'll be free."
"Free," barely eked from their lips.
"Good morning, Maka," Liz crooned as she opened the door, tray brimming in her arms. "Oh, good morning to you, too, Crona."
"Hello, Liz," Maka's sweetness was back in her voice, the worry temporarily abated by Liz's cheer. "Is everyone down at breakfast?"
"Mostly." Liz brought the tray over and placed it on the bed next to Maka. "But I've already been told that you're to stay in bed by King Worry-Wort downstairs."
Crona listened to the increasingly harmonious lilts of their voices as the sweat broke out on their neck.
"Oh, I like that nickname for him," Maka teased as she reached for some bread on the plate. "I guess I really will have to stay imprisoned until lunch. Well, you'll keep me company, won't you, Crona?"
They had been staring at the food on the plate, seeing Medusa's face, that sick grin shining in the cup of broth, her eyes hiding in the bunches of grapes. There was a shadow to each bit of sustenance, dark spaces calling to be filled with the ichor in their pocket. Medusa said to kill her, them. But as their eyes searched back up to Maka's face that unending concern was there, the real feeling of mother's warmth. Friends came back in that terrifying harshness. "Um, no, I, I have to, I need to go." Each syllable rushed too quickly, and Crona's feet followed that momentum as their knees knocked together on the way to the door.
"Oh," Liz watched after them with a furrowing brow. "Are they upset?"
"I think so," Maka sighed. "But I shouldn't expect differently."
Liz sat down tentatively on the bed, watching as it didn't alter Maka in the least before she dispensed her next ounce of comfort. "They'll come around, Maka. Maybe once things are settled and they can have a life…"
Maka blew the air between her lips before she tossed a crusty morsel into her mouth. She chewed skeptically before letting the thought leave her mind. "If Black Star had killed my mother-"
"What?" Liz gaped.
"He threatened," Maka added a roll of her eyes, "except I'm honestly sure he would have if it came down to it. She was being a… bitch." There was still a childish shame in it and Maka had to clear her throat before she could continue. "But if he'd done it, I don't think I could have forgiven him completely, even if there was some reasoning for her deserving it. I'd still… hold that against him and I wonder if Crona's going to do the same for me."
"It's possible," Liz offered a weak shrug, "but you'll have to accept it. There's no getting around killing her, is there?"
"No," Maka replied glumly. "Especially if it's her or them." Her fingers grazed over her stomach and the babies fluttered in reply. "They were wild last night. I hope they're not half as energetic when they're out or Soul and I will never sleep."
"It's your nerves," Liz nodded along knowingly. "They feel you being antsy so they have to be too. If you can relax-" She cut herself off with a laugh. "Sorry, I'm telling you to relax before you're supposed to kill a witch. I can't imagine that's easy."
Maka rubbed again, wincing as they moved in reply. "We can only hope."
"But it'll be over," Liz sighed sweetly. "And that means everything can go back to normal, or at least as normal as it's going to get with the two of you." It was a tease offered with a smile and Maka could only reply with a laugh of her own. "Just promise me after this you'll try to rest until the babies come."
"Rest," Maka huffed. "If I can. Since you're right, normal isn't exactly usually within our reach. I'm sure at least Soul will be happy to be home, and you, too. You must miss it."
"I do," Liz nodded quickly. "Though, it hasn't been as lonely as I thought it would be. I miss my sister, Tsubaki, and Kim, but you and Marie… I always thought ladies were haughty."
"It helps when you're not born one," Maka smiled a little sourly. "And in Marie's case, I heard both her father and mother were very strict, certainly old fashioned, so I assume she hated it so much she rebelled as the sweet, wonderful woman she is."
Liz's brow wrinkled slightly, "Maka, maybe it's none of my business, but how did you end up with Marie anyway?"
For a second, Black Star's words echoed in her head, Stein took me. "My mother and Marie knew each other. They were… friends, as much as they could be with my mother as a commoner and Marie as a lady but my father and Stein were close. They trained together as soldiers and worked together often as partners, that is until, well… Marie fell in love with Stein early on and you could say that threw my mother into the path of my father and the rest…" Maka put herself on display with a wave of her hand.
"Your father's here, though and your mother... she's not dead?" Liz offered hopefully.
"Neither is, apparently," Maka murmured, "but as far as I'm concerned Marie adopted me. I am the first daughter of this house, I am a lady, and… I married a prince." That sigh was a maelstrom of emotions, none of which stood singularly on their own.
Liz fussed with her lip for a moment before letting the correction come slightly chilly off her tongue, "Maybe you should say you married the man you love. He's a prince second, I'd hope."
"He is," Maka offered quickly with enough surety to drive away the clouds of the last statement. "I just still don't think I've settled into that world. I still feel so much closer to you than I do to them." Liz went to reply but as soon as thought clicked across Maka's face she clapped her mouth shut. "Have you thought about what you want to ask for?"
"What I want to ask for?" Liz echoed. "You mean the deal?" A weak trickle of a laugh came from Liz's throat. "No offense, Maka, but I wasn't exactly sure that anything would come out of that."
Maka lifted her eyebrows and shook her head adamantly. "No, I meant it. I meant all of it. And as for what to ask… well," she paused but a long breath renewed the resolve on her face. "I think you all should ask for ladyships."
Liz's face practically fell into her lap, her jaw refusing to close. "What?"
"Soul wanted to forget station, but…" Maka was looking off elsewhere as if he were about to come to the door, her eyes narrowing in thought. "While I don't think we can get rid of it, we can put the right people in it. You're loyal, you risked your life, and having a lady like that in the court… and I don't know if it matters, but it might give you the opportunity to marry well, to have a little more say in it."
"Maka, that's…" Liz stared with unsteady, untimed blinks, her mind betraying her and offering nothing more than a blank canvas.
Maka took the opportunity to snap her head back along with her hands grabbing out for Liz's. "It probably sounds absurd and you don't have to choose that, but it's something that I definitely want to offer." Her fingers gently and with an ounce of hesitation intertwined with Liz's as her thumb ran over her knuckles. "Think about it."
"I will." Liz practically had to mouth the words, air and sense still mostly escaping her. Maka's soft smile went back down to her plate, her hands slipping away to her food but Liz couldn't bring her mind from the idea. Me, a lady. A lady next to the Queen.
Free had enjoyed carrying the little thing up the stairs, dangling her by a single ankle out of biting range. When he entered the hall he found his presumption right, the prince instantly erupting in a frown. "Free, remember, that's still a girl-"
"Carrying a child by the ankle isn't so bad," he shrugged.
"Just - put her down," Soul sighed as he motioned next to Stein. "And you're never carrying our kids that way," he finished in a mutter as he ran a trembling hand through his hair.
Free enjoyed a laugh at Soul's expense as he deposited the mostly-child next to Stein. "You well-rested? Where's your woman today?"
Stein raised an eyebrow as his lips split into an amused grin, "Marie is upstairs. She'll be down with Maka soon."
"Good, don't want you getting all zany without a fix." Free met Stein's grin with his own before he turned to Black Star. "And you drank too much. I can smell it."
"I'm fine," Black Star muttered as he put a step between him and the giant man, adding a needed decrease in the volume. His brain was suspended on needles but it wasn't as if he hadn't fought that way before.
Soul was driving his feet against the stone, threatening to split the floor with the persistent stomping. "We might as well get them now. We should just-" He cut off his mutters as the footsteps started in the hall. Soul rushed to meet them at the door, praying for a last chance to turn her from this, to beg her not to give in to her courage but as soon as he hit the threshold of the door it was Crona, a painfully stretched grin tearing into their cheeks. "Oh, Crona…"
"Sorry, I… did you all start?" Crona knew the answer, having slunk into the dungeon to find it eerily empty and offering them no chance to plead their case, to beg for that word friends that had been bitterly resounding in their head.
"We brought her up," Soul started cautiously and without a second thought, he put a gentle hand on Crona's shoulder. "Honestly, Maka's better at this and I'm sure she's already talked to you this morning when you visited… I can't guess what you're feeling, Crona, but I hope you'll forgive us. We're friends, and I know we all want it to stay that way."
As soon as the word burst from Soul's lips it was a terrifyingly harsh dissonance of sound, a reverberating echo of a million voices like the way their blood used to call during the worst of it all. Crona took a shaky step past Soul, his hand falling uselessly away from them as they entered the hall.
"Crona-" Soul started as he turned, continuing behind them, missing the new footsteps in the hall at the strange thundering that had started in his heart. Something's not right. He tried to shed the feeling like old skin but it stuck to him. It's fine, you're nervous, that's all. He stopped as Crona did, locking eyes with the little impish child that was kneeling next to Stein.
The thing smiled, innocence slick with oil, before tilting its head slightly. "You look upset, Crona."
"Shut up," Black Star barked. "Crona, don't bother with it."
The door hadn't creaked yet but Crona could hear the footsteps like a steady beat in his chest and as a slow frown started to take the creature that would be their mother's face it all came crashing in on them. She knows. She knows I didn't do it and now- Crona didn't have time to finish that thought.
Maka had started the walk without Soul, picturing the tense, uneasy way he was probably running a divot in the floor and urged Marie to make the trip without an escort. She'd dressed simply, ditching the usual gowns and reveling in the fact that she could once again be free in her movements as she had stolen Soul's britches. Not that they fit all that well, having to be tied uncomfortably tight under the swell of her belly which thankfully was well hidden inside a flowy blouse that used to be an undergown, a last-minute creation of Marie's this morning as Maka hemmed and hawed about the restrictive nature of lady's wear.
Even with her hands holding the globe at her middle, Maka felt strangely normal, that old powerful trickle coming back to her veins. She smoothed the shirt over her skin as she smiled to herself. Today, you'll see how powerful your mama is because I can't lose. Won't lose. I have all of you to protect and this stupid witch is going to get everything she deserves. Maka planned on wearing that smile all the way to the door and her feet almost made it there, seeing the start of the crowd through the crack. It was Crona and Soul in front of the door, shoulder to shoulder, but just as her hand could even consider getting in the vicinity of the great wood it slammed violently shut.
She didn't risk a glance at Marie, just instantly rushing the last few steps to press against the seam but finding the door immobile. As she strained against the barrier, not feeling even an ounce of give from the hinges, her eyes drifted to the floor just in time to see the liquid start to ooze from under the crack. It was pitch. It was onyx. It was coal. But at the same time, it was blood.