Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled SoMa for some Black Star and Tsubaki (I literally don't know the cool abbreviation for this pairing?). Also, I always make myself cry when I write father/daughter scenes and I did it again.

Black Star was leaning over his desk, an activity that was essentially strange to him since what use did he have of letters or other's compositions but it was just as good a place to stare as his bed. He was examining the grain as he chewed over Maka's words, hating her more with every passing second even though any other man would easily admit that it wasn't loathing he was feeling. "Stupid," he muttered.

The knock at the door was soft, definitely a trick of his ears.

"What is it?" he called out, sure to hear nothing but a ghost in the hall.

The hinges creaked in reply, and a beautiful cascade of dark hair came before an even more lovely face. "Can I come in?"

He tempered his mostly joyous wave of acquiescence with the snap of his voice, "What do you want?"

"The princess-" Tsubaki cut herself off with a laugh before correcting, "Maka said that you weren't feeling well, suggested I bring your favorite." She stepped the rest of the way into the room, a tray in her hand with a pitcher and glass, wafting the barley smell into the room.

"That bitch," he muttered as he turned his head back to the wood grain.

"I'm sure the prince wouldn't appreciate that language." The scolding brought red creeping up his neck, only flushing worse as she came next to him at the desk and slid the tray into his view. "She worries about you."

"No one asked her to," he muttered back as he grabbed the glass and started for the pitcher. Even after he'd filled it he didn't bring it to his lips, just staring at the amber liquid.

"I'll leave you then."

Black Star swore he could hear a sigh at the end of it that made his fingers clenched into the goblet. As her footsteps got dangerously far away he cleared his throat. "I heard she offered you a ladyship."

Thankfully the footfalls stopped. "She did. For all of us."

"Nice for you."

"I didn't choose just yet."

"Don't see why you wouldn't. Out of the kitchen, the whole gaggle of you together. No more work to be done since you'll all be thrown to handsome lords that'll spoil you." A soft laugh came from her lips and he turned his head to see a vibrant smile on her face. "You laugh but it's the truth."

"You are good at that, telling the truth," a wistful sigh followed that one and he narrowed his eyes at her but that only seemed to encourage her smile. "I heard you asked for godfather."

Black Star snorted, "She told you that?"

"Yes, and I was surprised." That smile was starting to irk him and he toyed with ways to negate it.

He still hesitated, words leaving his mouth that had escaped from the background of his mind. "Had nothin' else to ask for."

"You didn't want a lordship? Maka seems to want to change things, Soul, too, I suppose." Her fingers were dancing at the edge of her apron, making a pittering pattern along the hem.

"Me? A Lord?" he scoffed but had to let his eyes fall back to the beer, not able to take another second of that stupid smile.

"I wouldn't have imagined you as a nurse either, but I've seen you with the little princes."

A grunt involuntarily dislodged from his throat and the red crept further into his cheeks. "I go where Soul goes and he spends so much damn time with those infants that-" He cut himself off with the cup to his lips, taking a sloshing sip that almost choked him.

She didn't seem to notice the intensity of his swig, her answer coming back in the same pleasant lilt. "He is a good father, don't you think?"

"He's fine," he gritted between his teeth so hard it echoed in the silence in between.

"Would you like me to go?"

He huffed, "I think you should take the ladyship."

She laughed sweetly, "If we're offering unsolicited advice, I think you should take the lordship."

"I-" The words died on his lips as he turned his head back to her. "I'm best the way I am."

"That's true," she nodded solemnly. "Probably more than the best, but I'm not entirely sure that you would let being a lord change who you are, and maybe I think that's why you should take it."

The revolution of his eyebrows continued unabated, up and down as he thought to snap at her but that smile was wearing him thin and her lips. He stood up slowly, abandoning his hold on the cup and finding that no matter the steps forward she didn't balk, didn't move, just stood, smiling but still worrying her fingers into the cloth. He had gotten too close to her and he knew it, his fists almost into those fine fingers as his eyes focused on the movement so that the words could actually leave his lips because those eyes wouldn't allow for him to speak, not for the life of him. "Do you like who I am?"

"I think so," the words came with an amused sureness.

"But you didn't before."

"No, I did," she laughed, "but maybe your actions took a little polishing. You've grown, I think. Before, you didn't like to show who you really are. It seems easier for you now, even if you're being difficult at the moment."

"Difficult," he scoffed. One fist unclenched and it was the first time in active memory that his fingers ever trembled like that, jittering until they reached her hand and stopped the motion. Pulling her hand shouldn't have brought her with it but the distance closed anyway and he just let his lips touch hers. Nothing desperate, because he wasn't, not at all, obviously, but just a softness that again was never part of his own recollections of himself. "You should take the ladyship," he echoed again over her lips.

"Then you would have to take the lordship, wouldn't you?"

He could practically feel the turn of her smile, the way it grew across her face. He grunted again but it was really nothing more than a sigh. "Let me court you."

"Court me?" That innocent lilt was deadly, especially that close.

"I'm not chasing after you," he griped.

"Because chasing would be…?"

"Your skirt above your head," he sighed. "But I want to… try the rest of it. With you."

"And I have to give my permission?"

"Yes," he launched back in exasperation.

A delicate giggle erupted from her throat and he tugged at her hand again, still too proud to admit he was desperate to kiss her but feeling it all the same. "Court me, then, Lord Star."

"Don't call me that," he grumbled before losing the fight with himself. One hand sunk into her hair and the other tangled into the apron at her waist, tugging her close enough to him that he could steal her warmth. That ache was nowhere near fed but he swallowed it, letting his hands come away even though he found hers gently sitting on his chest, burning a hole through his shirt. "Go back to Maka and tell her to mind her own business."

Tsubaki's fingers tapped into the fabric as she pressed her lips together to savor the sensation. "I'll tell her something nicer than that."

"Of course you will," he sighed. "I didn't need her help, I would have-" It was no use, the words jamming on his tongue especially as she giggled again.

"I know," she whispered before letting her hands fall away but not fall back into anxious pulling but simple relief at her sides. "Good night."

"'Night." He stepped back, leaving her space to turn and move towards the door. He watched her hair wrinkle over her back and he wanted his hands there again, pulling her back to him because he wanted whatever it was Maka had impressed in his brain, whatever idea had started to spring to life the minute she uttered those stupid words about him. "She didn't tell me to say any of that, alright?" He hated the childish ring to it but she didn't bristle, just shooting a smile over her shoulder. "And don't expect any less from me," it was a solid order, like he was yelling at his men on the field. "I'm the best at everything I do, so…"

Tsubaki nodded as a flush of pink took her cheeks. "I expect a lot from you."

Sleepless nights were in steady supply with two hungry mouths but Maka was finding less of her slumber stolen by them and more by the anxious wait. Time was measured by seconds and she was sure that any one of those would produce the people she needed to see, the real answers to compare to the ones she so desperately had already created in a million different scenarios in her head.

It was in the dead of one of those nights that her watchful eye paid off, only allowing it to rest on her husband and sons for a moment before slipping out of the room, leaving them in blissful ignorance. The first moments of walking out into the yard produced joy: Marie clutching her tightly in an embrace that brought her heart to a steady strum, and Spirit tentatively reaching for her and Maka falling into it, his lips brushing her cheek like they used to when she was small enough to fit into his arms. It was the last face that made Maka shut that door, clamping the elation tightly behind that barrier she had so often used to keep it safe. "I need to talk to you." Maka used every last ounce of that princess voice as she could muster.

"Yes, of course," Stein replied with a smile so knowing that Maka felt her gut and her resolve turn.

Both anxious pairs parted and while the other two were on a crash course for Soul, Maka could barely give it a second of thought. Instead, the questions zinged over her lips, fighting for first as she led Stein to a quiet, barely used study. Inky black tucked in every corner of the room so Maka knelt and started at the hearth. As soon as it offered a tiny glow of light and the promise of warmth, Maka stood and turned to Stein.

Stein raised a hand as he leaned against the desk, his head dipping as if to bow. "This is overdue. I'll ask that you let me start and what I don't answer you can ask after."

Maka nodded firmly while all the rest of her wavered like stalks of grain against the wind. That crushing worry was lapping at her again, that preemptive feeling of loss, and she clenched her fingers into the stone of the hearth in a weak attempt to keep it from clubbing her.

"I have committed many sins," Stein offered without an ounce of pity, "but I consider none more egregious than the ones against you. I won't ask for your forgiveness, nor do I plan to receive it: I only ask that my transgressions are not confused with Marie. Do not punish her for any of this because the only hand she has ever played was loving you because she wanted to. You are her daughter, Maka, simply because that's what she wished, what she felt for you from the beginning."

That nod came with a trembling and more pressure on the unforgiving rock.

"I have always known Yaara was alive." That was weight from Stein's chest but the words came with a light factualness. "I never received confirmation from her of that fact, but my close contact with Kid and his father, aptly named Death, often gave me news of her and her travels in the world. I purposefully kept from her what Spirit was doing, or I should say not doing, his absence as a father, and I begged for Kid and Death to do the same. I did not want her coming back to take you, and I made definitive steps to keep that from happening."

"But Marie," that came with a deep sigh that rattled his chest, "sent word to your mother, and that's when you got that letter about Spirit's transgressions and Yaara's idiotic attempt at rationalizing her abandonment of you." Maka watched his fist flex only once before his fingers returned to nothing but loose. "I will admit that my motivation to have you with us was not purely to save you from what your home had become. I did know you'd be powerful, and there were many exchanges between myself and the council, The Great Old Ones, about your potential and what should be done about it."

"I suppose I should explain The Great Old Ones…" This left him only able to pause, having to carefully arrange words on his tongue. "Kings and Queens change, there are many of them and will be many more, but the council will always stay the same. Just as witches are otherworldly, so are these men, if you can even still call them men, and they've made it their business to ensure that witch-hunters exist, that there is balance and protection in this world. I would certainly not say that they've done everything with the best intentions - I'd be a fool if I did - but for the most part, they have ensured that the world continues to turn."

Stein stopped to nod and let those words settle between them. "So when they asked for you, I denied them."

Maka couldn't help it, the word shooting off her tongue, "What?"

"I thought their intentions at the time were, well, selfish," he let out a rueful laugh. "Even though I should definitely point out that my intentions were just as selfish. They wanted you for your power at a very young age. They wanted you trained, perfected as a soldier just like Yaara had been before you. I wanted you to be a child." He cleared his throat and Maka watched with a mixture of horror and confusion as his lip trembled momentarily. "They asked for you the first year Soul came to stay with us since it was certainly troublesome to have you mixed up with a prince but… I saw the instant attachment to him. I saw a chance for you to mend more than Marie and I had been able to coax forth so I… denied them their request."

"Why?" Maka forced.

"Because I love you," Stein said with short surety. "It was not just Marie loving you as a daughter. It never has been."

Maka clapped a hand to her mouth, forcing back the sob that threatened as her nails ached against the hearth as they dug in to hold her steady.

"So I allowed for the selfish hope that you'd heal if you stayed," he nodded slowly, "and I honestly wanted to avoid creating another Yaara." Stein paused, fighting the past and his own pity. "Your mother's family gave her away, Maka, at a very young age. I thought that it was what kept her from loving the people in her life the way she should. I did not want the same to happen to you. I wanted you to have a chance to use the entirety of your heart because while you are powerful in many ways, I had come to believe that most of it was rooted in the strength of your heart, not just innate ability."

Stein cleared his throat roughly before putting more weight on the desk behind him and let his chin drop towards his chest so his eyes could linger across the cobblestones. "Regardless of that protection, of keeping you with us, I've freely given all and any information to Kid and Death. They know everything about you, about Soul, about all that's passed. I did so without consulting either of you. I guess it was the closest thing to a trade that I could barter though making that deal without your knowledge was in no way kind of me. I excused it with you being a child but you are very much grown now and should have been entitled to know."

"Did-" The question strangled her, clutching to the inside of her throat until she could swallow shallowly. "Did you plan for me to marry Soul? Did they plan for me to marry Soul?"

He chuckled softly, "I didn't plan anything like that. I definitely did not have the shadow of a chance to influence that one way or another." Stein tilted his head, his eyes raising to hers with a twinkling amusement. "Maka, do you think anything I would have said or done would have stopped you from loving him?"

"No," she murmured.

"Good," he let another laugh take him. "I'm powerful, The Great Old Ones are, too, but nothing is as compelling as a woman in love. Or a young man, for that matter. Soul married you completely of his own intention. There were no strings pulled there."

Maka bit at her lip, trying to catch the next thought but finding it with desperate legs of its own. "The babies… did you have to put your foot down about them too? Because my mother made it seem like… she didn't want them to be born and I wonder at how you've said that my being with a prince was troublesome."

Stein sighed lengthily, his hands coming together in his lap to fiddle before giving in to speak again. "I was asked my opinion and I gave it just as I did to you: the babies are fine. Your mother gave hers as well, unfortunately, and that is why Kid is at your door. He will be the final say."

"He will be no such thing," Maka hissed as her fists clenched. "Those are our sons, born and breathing, and if anyone wants to change that I will kill them myself."

While the anger boiled across the dark divide between them Stein did nothing more but nod slowly. "I will support you in that."

"What?" Maka shook her head of the question as soon as it came from her mouth. "You're expecting me to believe that you bend to them, give them every last bit of information about us but then-"

"I believe what I said was correct," Stein advanced without a second thought for her anger. "They pose no danger and I'm sorry, Maka, you can't possibly believe that I follow all rules set in front of me like some good little boy."

If her mouth wasn't so set with venom she would have laughed especially with the challenging smile on Stein's lips. Her hands clutched into her dress as she pulled in air, trying to clear away the beating wings of those terrible thoughts in her mind. "I want to believe you," she groaned. "I want to believe everything you're saying, but…"

"You're a smart girl," Stein finished for her, "and I've lied to you so being weary of me from now on is an understandable plan."

Maka shook her head, forcing her hands to catch it to keep it in place and to hide her cheeks as tears threatened to mar them. It's not fair, she wanted to scream like a petulant child but instead let another weak, gritty grunt leave her throat. She refused the liquid in her eyes and raised her head, green eyes burning. "No more, Stein."

"No more what?"

"Telling them about me or Soul or the babies."

Stein tilted his head, "That's an order."

"Yes." She bit her lip rather than give in to the quiver.

He let out a thoughtful hum before smirking, "In what capacity are you giving this order?"

It hit her like a cold wind, jutting her head back and bringing heat to her cheeks. "What?"

"Are you being Queen? Princess?"

The playful, cat-and-mouse tone was spreading the pink to her ears. "I am your Princess, going to be your Queen but…" To echo her mind he had already started to shake his head slowly. "I'm giving this order as me. As a daughter would to a father because while Papa will always be Papa, if there was anyone who was ever a father to me it was you. So, stop it. Stop giving in to the rules of some ancient order - since you're right, rules aren't for you - and let me choose what they know."

His sigh hit her as content and she waited, spurring him to finally answer. "I wonder if you'll decide to let them know anything."

"That isn't an answer, Stein," Maka chided.

He chuckled, "Yes, princess, I will keep my mouth shut from now on. I'm actually interested to see the consequences."

"Not princess," she sighed.

"Maka," his laughter repeated, gaining vigor. "You've picked yourself a poor man for a father."

"I wouldn't say so." She let that unwind her, let the door creak open in her heart and the comfort of seeing him seep back into her veins. "Please tell me that's it. There are no more secrets that I have to wonder about with you."

"Oh, there's plenty of secrets," he nodded sensibly, "but no more that include you or Soul." He stood slowly, clearing the smile from his face as he approached her. "But about your mother…"

"What?" she could barely keep it from being a snap.

There was a second of hesitation before his hand came to the top of her head, pressing into the hair and turning those green eyes expectantly up at him. It did not matter that this was a woman who had borne children already because in his mind's eye this was still the fragile little girl he'd brought home to Marie. "Was she with you?"

There was no chance to keep just that sliver of an opening, all of it flooding from her soul and annihilating the last of that hesitation. Maka eased forward, sinking into his chest as he moved his arms to wrap around her. "No, she hasn't shown herself again," she murmured helplessly.

Stein only sighed in reply, letting the weight of his arms envelope her.

Maka allowed one more breath's time in his arms before she eased away. "Will you come see them now?"

"There is one more matter to discuss," Stein answered evenly but his hand spoke otherwise, gently falling to the crown of her head again. "I would like to know what you plan on telling Kid."

She fiddled with her lip for a moment before shaking her head. "I don't know. What I said to you, I suppose. My children are off-limits. My husband and I will decide for ourselves what is known about us, what Kid or the council can get out of us, but… did you speak to him about Kim?"

Stein's eyebrows raised for a moment, "No."

"You didn't because…?" she offered back quickly.

"The obvious - she's a witch and the normal order would be to kill a witch." He pulled his hand back to let a pondering finger drift to his chin. "I suppose I was waiting for the best time to broach it, which probably wouldn't come on the cusp of our little adventure."

"I suppose then that I'll broach it," Maka murmured back. "Especially since it's not just her, it's Free, too, and probably more than that even. We have to do something."

Stein chuckled softly, "There's our little Queen."

"Don't tease me," she snapped.

"Oh, not teasing at all," he shook his head, loosening that sly smile. "It's a refreshing change, and I'm glad to see Soul has rallied beside you. I will warn you that influencing the council will be different from ruling people… I'm unsure of whether you can change them."

Maka let a smile of her own trickle across her lips slowly, her green eyes glowing, "But we both know that doesn't mean I'm not going to try."