Equal parts sappy and action. Enjoy.
Soul was tearing across the yard, up the porch, and through the door. "Stein?" he wasn't reserved, his tone unchecked even though he knew Shelley was in the house. "Kim? Kilik?" It was just a desperate array of names, all he could say as the phone sat lifeless in his hands.
There was movement upstairs but the first face he received from the kitchen was Stein, eyebrows raised. "Soul, calm down."
"It's Maka," he could only groan out as there was no way to suck air into his lungs. He was drowning in it, the dread that he had tried to keep off of the phone when he was with her, but now it was swallowing him.
"What exactly has happened?" Stein's voice was still even as he approached Soul, planting two firm hands on his shoulders.
"Giriko," was all he could manage to croak, the air still thinly leaking into his mouth even with the gaping.
"Sit down." Stein forced Soul onto the couch just as Kim and Kilik thundered down the stairs.
"What is it?" Kim's eyes looked just as wide as saucers as she rushed to the couch, sliding in next to Soul.
"Give him a moment," Stein warned.
Kilik was slower, his eyes falling with disbelief on Soul. "Never seen him like this."
Stein offered a sickly smile, "First time he's ever been completely powerless."
That's it, isn't it? Soul wanted to scream but there still wasn't enough oxygen. He needed to be right there with her, fighting next to her if there needed to be a fight, not useless with a phone in his hands. But she told you, staying calm is the only way she's going to do this and what if she calls now? You going to gape into the phone? Is that all you're good for?
"Come on, Soul," Kim urged as she pressed into his shoulder.
Soul tightened his grip on the phone in his hand as his lungs accepted enough for a sentence. "She's on the subway but Giriko is following her."
"Giriko?" Kilik's forehead wrinkled. "Why the hell would he even know who she is?"
"Met him at a work party," Soul squeezed as he put a hand over Kim's on his shoulder. "She's going to Marie's."
"Smart," Stein didn't embellish further as his initial reaction made Soul groan desperately again.
"I could… I don't know, call Jackie, see if she could go over?" Kim offered weakly.
"No good," Kilik cut her off. "Anyone who's with one of us can't be there. Giriko has to think Maka's on her own."
Kim echoed one of Soul's helpless noises before turning her eyes back to Soul. "She's smart, Soul. She managed at the pit and it's a neighborhood, right? People are bound to be watching."
"We do have a few nosy neighbors," Stein added.
"See, it'll-" The words instantly died in Kim's mouth as the phone in Soul's hand started to buzz again.
Soul forced more air into his lungs before he put the phone on speaker. "How close is he?"
"He's still hanging back. Didn't sit in the same car on the subway but I could see him in the next." He was surprised by the clarity in her breath and voice, the eerie calm that exuded from her.
"If he touches you," it took every last bit of restraint to keep that from being a growl, "Everything you got, Maka. Get him on the ground and run like hell."
"He wouldn't. Even now, I'm turning on the street and there are families around, an old lady on her stoop. He wouldn't be that stupid, Soul."
"You don't know that," Soul pleaded. "Don't underestimate that asshole."
Maka seemed to ignore that with a sigh, "Look, I can see the stoop, I'm going to put the phone away so I have both hands for the door. I'll call you when I'm inside."
"No, lock the screen and keep the phone on in your bag," his voice was rising with the order along with the color at his neck. "I need to hear-"
A yelp, the clatter of the phone, shuffling feet. That's not what he needed to hear, but that's what he did, followed by more strange, unidentifiable sounds. Soul felt the whole room tense, not a breath between the four of them. There was even less room for sound when the line went dead, the hang-up tone sending a shockwave down his spine and settling coldly in his gut.
"We're leaving," Soul could barely breathe it out as he got to his feet. Stein instantly caught him, wrapping a tight arm around Soul's shoulders.
"To do what, Soul?" he whispered softly.
"If you just expect me to let him hurt her," Soul was straining against the hold, his hands tensed into useless fists.
"He already has hurt her," Stein continued the infuriatingly calm tone. "What is done, is done. We're nowhere near the position to retrieve her."
"Stein!" Soul was bucking but it was no use, the older man holding tightly.
"If he has her, he'll leave with her long before we're even there, so rushing to the house will leave us nothing but out in the open." Stein paused to let it sink in, hoping his words could perforate the rage he felt building in Soul. "If we're lucky, he will take her to Medusa."
"Lucky?" Soul shrieked as he tried to renew the struggle between them.
"Which is where Black Star is," Stein hissed. "So between Black Star looking out for her and Medusa probably still obsessed with watching you suffer, nothing will happen to her, at least not for now."
Soul strained one more time before desperately sucking in air. He released it as an agonized bellow, a sound that made both Kim and Kilik wince. For a few more excruciating moments, Soul spouted scream after scream until his throat gave in, the rawness too much to bear.
Maka had spent the subway ride replaying memories. In a way, they were the sweet kind especially as she looked back and found moments where afraid-of-being-loved Maka had refused to interpret the clear signs. Like the way his face had grown the reddest she'd ever seen it when she touched his scar at the gym, letting her fingers trail along just to watch how his mouth gaped desperately. If this were a better time, she'd have made a mental note to try that again, to see if that kind of touch still made him ache the same way even after he'd explored her.
Instead, it was to catalog every move available in her arsenal because while she was still firmly trying to hold on to the idea that Giriko was just watching, Soul's warnings always took precedent. Stay away from him echoed in her head as she planned. There was one trip not all that long ago that came to mind when Soul was playing through the usual wrist grabs.
"If someone grabs you by the hair, it's a little harder." He wasn't rough though, his hand coming behind her head and just daintily resting it there. She wondered what it would feel like for him to actually sink those fingers in and a blush lit up her cheek. He quickly broke the contact. "But there's one thing you can always do, but we're sure as hell not going to practice it."
"Why not?" Maka frowned, the idea of 'off-limits' never settling well with her.
"Because I want to have kids someday," he laughed.
"What?" Another blush and a little breathlessness.
"If it's a guy, always aim for the crotch, no better way to put a guy out of commission for at least a minute." Soul laughed and almost as a reflex angled his hips away from her. "Seriously, kick, hit, whatever gets the job done. Just don't ever do it to me."
His smirk then had been one of the cutest and Maka wished she could fall into it.
She wished she was looking at it instead of the pavement as Giriko grabbed the back of her hair.
She wished Soul wasn't going to worry as she watched the phone tumble out of her hand and crack against the sidewalk.
Because now was going to be her first taste of practice. She bent over, not allowing him the balance of pulling her up and balled her fist. She hinged at the elbow, bringing the strike back hard between his legs. Giriko coughed out a groan, his hand releasing her hair. As soon as his fingers untangled, Maka grabbed his leg, sweeping it out from underneath him. She was relieved to hear the gasp of the air leaving his lungs as he hit his back but she didn't revel in it. Maka sprinted for the stoop, ripping the keys from the front pocket of her bag and fumbling with them at the door.
The seconds before she could turn it were agony and she tried not to listen for any new noise from him. She got the door open and spun herself inside, locking every mechanism on the inside before rushing to the back of the house to make sure the back door was equally as secured. The back was locked but she slid a kitchen chair under it as well, just in case, before rushing back just in time for the door to shudder the first time.
"Let me in, princess," came a grating growl.
"Leave now, Giriko," Maka managed to heave from her lungs as she peeped through the eyehole.
"Why should I leave? The fun's just started. And your little boyfriend isn't back yet, is he? Or else I'd be hearing a whole mess of bullshit from the other side of this door."
"He'll be here any minute," Maka forced as she refused to let the withering fear take her. "And even if he isn't the cops will be."
Giriko paused in shaking the door down to let out a laugh. "How the hell did you call the cops with your phone cracked on the concrete? Or with the line I cut on the side of the house?"
Maka panicked for a second, the idea that communication was out of her reach deadening a little of her hope. "Take a look across the street," a shaky grin started across her face. Because Maka had seen them even before Giriko grabbed her as she appraised the street. An elderly woman across from Marie's was sitting on her stoop. Two houses down there had been a mother and baby bobbing in the doorway and Maka had even taken a second to wave at them, to make sure she was seen and more likely an object of their attention. "Or two houses down. If grandma isn't calling, the other one is."
"Fuck," came the grumble on the other end.
Maka didn't wait for his decision, starting back into the house to test the truth in Giriko's words. She lifted the receiver in the kitchen and got nothing. Again, her stomach lurched but a deep breath kept the feeling at bay. For the time being, all she could do was sink to the floor and wait.
Soul's throat was wounded and useless, or maybe that was just all of him. He had spent hours replaying that entirety of the morning, hating himself for ever loosening his grip on her, for letting that plan move forward. Death could lose a client, they could lose the money and security of the Eibon job, but he couldn't lose her. Now the future was water slipping between his fingers and no matter how tightly he tried to hold on the flow wouldn't stop.
The darkness finally came, Stein ushering him into the car. He had been stiff, lost during the goodbyes and he was thankful that Shelley was already in bed, though it had taken some time after his screaming. They traveled in silence, Soul's hood pulled up to the point that his face was missing. He kept trying to decide what they would find and what his reaction to each would be because if he didn't plan it now, he'd lose all control. She fought back, you know she did. She took on three men by herself. She's no weakling so maybe… except she hasn't called. Hasn't texted. It must mean she can't.
Soul illuminated the screen on his phone again, waiting uselessly for it to change. He wasted his phone battery like that for the entirety of the drive. He cycled through contacts, clicking and closing Black Star, Kim, Kilik, and finally Maka, each time waiting for new text to appear. All he needed was reality, that he could handle, but the limbo was tearing him apart. He needed her to be alive or dead because both had very obvious consequences to him. There was one truth that kept trickling into his mind: Giriko was a deadman.
They pulled into the alleyway, parking the car in the driveway next to the fence. Soul had no motivation to be the first one out, waiting until Stein was opening the fence entry before even bothering to get his feet on the ground. It was a slow amble into the yard after him but as he scanned the darkness his eyes fell on Stein who was smiling, the keys dangling in his hands. "There's a chair blocking the door."
"Huh?" Soul didn't catch a word, his thoughts still overwhelming in his head.
Stein raised his eyebrows, "Someone inside has blocked the backdoor with a chair."
"Someone…?" It was a weak whisper. Someone's inside. Someone's trying to protect themselves inside and that means… that means… Soul grabbed the keys that Stein was dangling and turned on his heels, breaking into a run back towards the fence. He was out into the alley in a flash, then on the side street before making the panicked turn on the sidewalk in front of the house. His lungs were burning and his legs couldn't get himself fast enough to the stoop and he overran it, skidding to a halt that almost brought him to his knees. The keys fumbled in his grip as his fingers trembled. Curses flew from his lips as the key met lock and turned. He only had to get one stumbling step into the house before he saw her.
Maka was sitting on the floor with her knees hugged tightly to her chest, the only light from her open laptop on the coffee table illuminating her face.
"Maka," came out as a strangled whisper.
"I guess you didn't check your email, huh?" A soft smile broke across her face and made every muscle in his body want to collapse.
"No," another quivering whisper before his feet finally listened and let him move forward. He crumpled to the ground next to her, his hands reaching for her shakily as he feared there would be nothing corporeal under his fingertips. "Are you hurt?"
"I might be missing a patch of hair," she murmured as she touched the sensitive part of her crown where Giriko had grabbed. "Other than that, nope."
His only reply was a trembling groan as his hands found real flesh on her shoulders, sinking into her skin with the satisfaction of its realness.
"Hey," she smoothed a hand over his hair. "Keep it together one more minute and tell me where Stein is."
"The back," he croaked.
"Oh, I left the damn kitchen chair," Maka sighed as she used her hands to ease him to sit. "Let me let him in, OK?" Soul nodded uselessly as she stood and walked out of the living room. Maka quickened her steps and got to the chair, moving it out of the way for a smiling Stein. "Welcome home," she laughed softly as she opened the door for him.
"Glad to see you here." Stein let a soft hand touch her arm, a gesture that surprised her with its paternal feel. "Everything alright?"
"Soul's kind of catatonic. He thought…?" Maka left it open form Stein with a sigh.
"He has this tendency to plan for the worst, so probably dead," Stein finished coolly. "Take him upstairs. I'll keep watch tonight, the two of you in the morning."
Maka snorted a laugh at the idea of Soul sleeping but nodded anyway. She started back towards the living room, Soul sitting vacantly where she left him. I was dead for a few hours. Dead to him and he's… "Oh, Soul," she sighed softly as she leaned over, slapping her laptop closed.
"Just tell me again that you're OK," he murmured as his fingers once again grabbed for her, trying to find warm skin to prove a heartbeat.
"Definitely scared, but physically alright." She put her steady hands on his arms. "Come on, come upstairs with me. Stein's going to take the first watch." Without argument or much at all of anything, Soul let her lead him up the stairs to the bedrooms. In the hours that it took for them to get here, Maka had already explored. It bordered on snooping but she had no real other option since there was no chance of even coming close to leaving the house. She entered what she assumed was the guest room, void of the pinks and purples of Shelley's room and the lived-in mess of the master bedroom, and settled him on the bed.
Soul didn't let her step away, grabbing her at the waist so he could pull her tightly to him. He buried his face against her stomach, finally feeling able to breathe even though it was through the fabric of her shirt, picking up scents of skin and detergent. As he muttered a tangled mass of curses from his mouth, Maka smoothed her fingers through his hair. "He grabbed me by the hair and I remembered a particular lesson from you where there's only one sure-fire way to put a guy on the ground."
He managed a trembling laugh, "Oh, that asshole deserved that."
"Yup, and you'll be proud, I swept his leg, too," she chimed as she continued the work of unwinding him, fingers caressing his scalp. "Put that idiot on his ass. I'm just sorry my grip slipped on my phone and left you not knowing."
"Not your fault," he murmured before hiding his face again.
"You only get to do that for another minute," Maka warned softly. "It kind of tickles."
He followed orders, taking one last inhale before slipping his hands down her legs and bending her to rest in his lap. With her there, his hands traveled back up, running along her arms to her neck to move her forehead to his. "I thought you were dead."
"I'm sorry," she let fall from her mouth uselessly.
"Again, not your fault." One hand sunk into her hair, angling her just enough to catch her lips. Now breathing was easy especially as she seemed to give him each one of hers in the form of sweet sighs. "You're amazing, you know that?"
"Didn't feel amazing until just now," Maka laughed softly.
"Should have felt it all along, Maka," his voice sounded oddly pleading and Maka opened her eyes to see that familiar look, the Soul stripped bare of all his guises. "Just having you as my partner, I thought you did enough then, but now, all of this, every day you give more and I… what do I even give you back? When we started this I thought it was even but it's not, Maka. You could have died today and for what? The chance to die another fucking day?"
She smiled softly, "I could die any day of the week, Soul."
"Maka," he huffed back. "You know what I mean."
"I do know what you're saying, but not what you mean," Maka corrected. "Maybe my problems don't become life or death, and I'm hoping after this maybe yours won't either, but every time I've needed someone, it's been you who steps up. When I'm scared or I'm hurt you're the first person I want to go to and when I do, I never regret it. It's like you automatically know the right thing to do or to say and even when you don't you make it obvious that you're trying your hardest. I can't think of another person who has ever done that."
"I do that?" There was an honest confusion on his face and Maka couldn't help that her heart broke a little, a fine crack.
For the first time that day, even amid all the panic, this was when her eyes watered, the idea that his love was invisible to him. "You don't see it?"
"Maka, I try, but I… feel like I mess it up more often than not," he sighed.
"Besides the trap, every moment before and after has been right." She didn't know how to give that word the strength that she needed it to have so she punctuated it with a delicate kiss, a lingering play of his lips against hers as she tried to make her fingers speak it against his cheeks. "You made me fall in love with you. Trust me, I tried to tell myself at first it wasn't possible but maybe it was when we went for cake or even before when you slept on being friends or - this is embarrassing - the first time you said my name. All of those little moments, each one of them chipped away at the protections I built. I didn't want anyone to get in but now I don't think I know how to live without you there."
"The first time I said your name?" A speck of a smile pulled at his lips.
"Yes, not bookworm, not blondie, not Albarn, just Maka. It felt like… when you lose your stomach on a rollercoaster." She laughed and it fed his grin, getting somewhere close to a smirk.
His eyes searched hers for a moment and while Maka thought he was going to pull her in again his hand instead ran from her hair to her cheek, touching at the corner of her lips. "The way you looked at me that night when you believed me about project manager. Same feeling."
Her dimple appeared under his finger as her own mouth stretched. "Do you think that's when we fell in love?"
"Maybe. Or maybe it was when I got a good look at those legs of yours." There was the smirk, just in time for Maka to put on a good show of trying to frown. "I hope it's worth it for you, Maka."
"It is, and it will be, when we can be home together, live our lives together again without this worry." She toyed at her lip with her teeth for a moment.
"Ask it," he sighed.
"Not asking," she murmured. "Just…" Her fingers moved through his hair again and he was surprised to see her blush. "I was going to say 'and then maybe, someday, we could think about that family you want' but you've already been catatonic once today I wasn't sure I wanted to risk another brain malfunction."
"Oh," warbled from his throat as his grip tightened on her. "You think that's a someday kind of thing? Really?"
"I'm not in a rush, Soul, but… someday. You deserve that. I think you'd be good at it, too."
He was speechless, mouth powerless to form words as he stared at her. He tried to swallow the idea down, her throat bobbing comically as the voice he produced whispered breathlessly. "I'm going to finish this tomorrow, Maka. I'm going to because that's what I want. That's the life I want to have. The life I want with you."