This is seriously the never-ending fic. Thanks for everyone who has stuck with me this far 3 I swear I'm trying to put together the most heartwarming, cutesy ending to reward you.

Black Star hadn't bothered to wash his hands and Maka hadn't balked when he took hers, the blood now drying between their palms. The nurse was talking at him, asking questions about Soul that he probably shouldn't know but thankfully Mosquito had actually prepared him for this once before. "Check his wallet, back right pocket. He's got his advance directives in the billfold. I can tell you right now, the name's Marie Mjolnir and she's already on her way. Don't bother calling her again."

"Advance directives?" Maka murmured dumbly after the nurse had walked away.

"In case you can't make medical decisions," Black Star sighed. "Learned that lesson the first time, when he got stabbed. His mom showed up and barred us all from being with him."

Maka turned dazed eyes to Black Star. "So we'll get to see him?"

Black Star nodded along tiredly with his words. "Yeah, blondie, when they're done patching him up. They'll let Marie in first and then us."

Her eyes wandered from his face to his shirt and then their fingers, imaging the blood it took to drench him. "Do you think it's patchable?" It was barely more than a warbled whimper.

"Don't do that, dummy." Black Star went to reach for her face but realized both hands were flaking with dried blood and opted to pat their connected hands instead. "He just lost a lot of blood. And since I'm already well-versed on his blood-type, it's just going to be sewing him up and giving him a refill."

Maka squeezed his hand tightly, feeling the tacky blood crackling between their skin. "He did that for me."

"Of course," Black Star scoffed. "You think he wants a world without you?"

"But leave me in one without him?" Maka shot back as her free hand came to her face, pressing hard against her eyes to keep the wave of tears from wetting her cheeks.

Black Star tapped her hand again, "Bet he already warned you he'd die for you." That choked her just as he would have guessed and he gave up on their hands, instead throwing his arm around her shoulder to let her press her face into the crux of his neck. "But he's not. You two are going to have plenty of time to keep making me sick." A weak laugh drifted from her mouth before a sob swallowed it whole. "Alright, bl… Maka." He held her tight, trying to remember Soul and letting all the gunk that had built up around him wear away, letting the girl fit into him. Because, after all, isn't this my new sister?

He didn't have to hold her like that for much longer, Free and Mifune showing up at the tail-end with Mosquito handcuffed on a stretcher. Mifune continued on, but Free stopped to have a short discussion with the nurse before instantly bounding into the waiting room to Maka and Black Star. "How's our boy?"

"Don't know," Black Star shrugged. "Mom'll be there any minute, she'll get the info unless you want to pull your magical strings."

"On it." Free made sure to touch Maka's shoulder before heading back towards the nurses' station.

Maka brought herself out from hiding, watching Free as she returned her hands to worry away at Black Stars. "He has to be fine," she murmured.

Black Star didn't bother to back her up, especially as that second blond on a mission burst through the door. "There's Mom." He got up out of his seat, Maka quickly after him but relinquished his hands as they reached instead to motion for Marie's slowing.

"Oh, God, are you hurt, too?" Marie grabbed him by the collar, checking his shirt.

"No, Mom," Black Star tried to uncurl her fingers but it was a death grip that he could only be shaken in again.

"That's all his blood?" She was begging for the negative but Black Star only nodded. Marie was frozen for a few breaths, looking between her son and Maka before her mind finally reset. "Alright, I'm going to find out what they're doing." She slung the backpack from her shoulder onto the seat next to them. "Fresh clothes for all of you. Just… leave Soul's in there. He'll need them later."

Maka followed Marie with her eyes, watching as she intersected with Free to have a brief exchange that seemed to leave him with his tail between his legs. As Marie was led off by the nurse, Free returned to them, a reserved smile on his face. "Well, good and bad."

"Don't sugarcoat it," Black Star spat.

Free sighed, "Bullet shattered his clavicle. He'll have to have some pins, maybe a plate, but it missed the important stuff. His trachea, all that stuff for breathing and eating is clear. That and he'll need a few pints of blood before the night's out."

That breathed life into Maka, the good far outweighing the bad. "How long until we can see him?"

"Well, Marie's talking to the doctor now, they'll start the surgery, and who knows how long that'll take." Free looked around the waiting room. "But both of you have had a long night. Why don't you let me drive you both home? Get cleaned up, and I can even bring you back…"

"No," Maka shook her head firmly. "Marie brought clothes, I'm fine."

"Me, too," Black Star shrugged. "Speaking of, I'm going to get out of these. I'm a walking fucking biohazard." He motioned to the gore of his front with a sick laugh. "Be right back, Maka. Then it's your turn." Black Star hooked her hand for just a second before turning towards the bag and stopping himself again before risking the grime on his hands.

"Lemme give you a hand." Free grabbed the backpack off the seat before they started off down the hallway.

Maka's head swiveled between the two exits, waiting for the first to come back. She didn't have to wait long as Marie stuck her head out quickly. "Maka, come here!" The command wasn't necessary, Maka already rushing like her life depended on it right into Marie's open hands. She grabbed Maka by the bicep, pulling her around the corner to a room still bustling with people.

"Ma'am, no one else-"

"Just give her a second," Marie snapped before she pushed Maka at the head of the gurney.

Soul's body was a swirl of other hands, instruments, and gauze that came in a variety of shades of saturation. His eyes were shut, his skin now just as pale as his hair. That was what she could get her hands on, just touching at the soft strands, surprised that he still felt warm under her fingers. She tangled her hands there for just a moment. I love you, you have to be fine, she whispered through her touch. Marie started to tug at her, pulling her away from more complaints from staff until she was back in the hallway.

"They're taking him to surgery now. I'll be out in another minute. Just wait for me." Marie paused before clutching at her, her arm crushing around Maka's shoulders to steal her breath away momentarily.

Maka only nodded before letting her feet drift her back into the empty waiting room. The shellshock held her for another minute, her fingers and toes feeling numb and disjointed. She forced a breath before collapsing back into the seat, hand fumbling into her pocket. Staring at the screen, she contemplated, finger poised to unlock. Eventually, she did, easily bringing up the number and putting the phone to her ear.

"Hey, kiddo." It was so jovial a greeting that Maka could almost forget what she was doing, where she was, just envisioning his smile like it was every time he would come home from work, scoop her up, and cradle her in his arms.

"Papa," she started but felt the air squeezed from her throat.

The shift was instantaneous, his voice spiking, "What happened?"

"It's over," she sighed out, knowing that in so many ways it wasn't. "But we're at the hospital. Soul's been shot."

She had expected an explosion, a raging fear for her safety rather than Soul's along with a pointed 'I told you so' but instead there was a strange surety. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Spirit had just gotten Maka to close her eyes, his jacket scrunched in his lap as a makeshift pillow while she curled up on the chairs next to him. His hand was in her hair and her breathing had slowed, but her eyebrows never did seem to release, furrowing to tell him her dreams would be filled with worry. He let his eyes search over to Marie, seeing Black Star with his head against her shoulder, his eyes also stubbornly fighting being shut. When your almost adult child just becomes a toddler all over again, Spirit could almost snort.

Marie raised her eyes from their joined hands to watch the consciousness drift on and off Black Star's face. It had been years since he'd gotten that close beside the begrudged hug and she wished she could embrace the moment happily but the blood still stained it. She watched his fine eyelashes flutter closed before catching Spirit looking her way from across the aisle. "You never told her."

"Huh?" Black Star stirred.

"Hush, baby, go to sleep," Marie was somewhere between sweet and direct order, a surprising mix that lulled Black Star's eyes right back to shut.

"What's there to tell?" Spirit muttered with a shrug to his shoulders.

"About you and Stein. About why you and Rin moved to the 'burbs to begin with." The knowing smile on Marie's lips grated on him almost as much as her words.

"I wanted a different life for her," Spirit urged.

"And how did that work out?" Marie smirked.

It was high school all over again and somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear Rin giggling, feel her tossing her arms around his shoulders, and saying something to back up Marie that was just as scathing. "I always knew it would be a boy," he sighed.

Marie had to smother the laugh with her hand, careful not to awaken the still tenuously asleep Black Star. "If it had to be a boy, I'm glad it's that one. I know you don't want to believe it, but he's worth it."

"You have to say that, you're his mother," Spirit frowned.

She shook her head softly. "Just trust me."

Spirit let his eyes fall to Maka as he cleared a lock of hair that had drifted too far on her cheek. "You think they really love each other?"

Marie snorted a laugh, "That's a stupid question."

"Damn it, " Spirit sighed. "Yeah, taking a bullet for a girl isn't exactly casual dating."

Oh, close the fucking blinds, wanted to be the first thing that groaned out of his throat as the world hit him like a hangover times eighty, but he urged it aside. Soul wanted it to be perfect, to turn his head and see Maka sitting there, watching him intently, and let the first thing off his lips to be 'I love you' so maybe all of this wouldn't hurt her so much.

Instead, as he tried to blink his eyes into focus on the ceiling first, Spirit's voice surprised him from the bedside. "Oh, fucking hell," he hissed.

Soul couldn't whip his head even though the surprise was telling his body to try and had to settle on letting his head slowly drift to the side, his mouth gaping as he saw just Spirit at his bedside.

"Kid, you have the worst timing," Spirit sighed. "Literally told them all to get lost ten minutes ago. Maka's been panicking about getting stuff for work, Marie wanted to check on Shelley, and Black Star was still kind of grossly bloody. He needed to do something about that. You weren't supposed to be up for at least another few hours."

Soul grunted in reply, letting the irony settle.

"Which means when they all come back you're playing dead and we pretend this didn't happen." Spirit leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

He managed a soft nod, regretting it almost instantly as any movement that close to his chest seemed to set him on fire. "Oh, fuck," he muttered. Spirit was up almost instantly, tapping the button for the nurse even though Soul was trying to wave him off, finding the intention there but his hand just kind of drifting on the sheet.

"Take the meds, kid. Probably hurts like fucking hell, so just let them do their job." Spirit loomed over him for an extra second and while Soul expected the appraisal it didn't come. He wasn't analyzing, picking apart, but instead, it was one of Marie's stares, the ones threatening your complacency or else.

"OK," Soul managed. The nurse bustled in, saving him from any more talking or looks from Spirit who sunk back in the chair. He watched her increase the drip before checking a few random things and then wandering back out, promising a return in another hour or so. There wasn't any immediate relief, his body still feeling like it was one giant throb, and while he tried to close his eyes against it Spirit's voice broke his lids back open.

"Maka doesn't know any of this, and if you tell her, I'll have the morphine to blame it on," he started but stopped, his teeth worrying at his lips that made Soul see Maka in him for a second.

"What?" Soul croaked.

"Stein and me, Black Star and you, same thing," Spirit sighed out as he leaned forward.

Soul didn't need words, the saucer-quality of his eyes being the only encouragement Spirit needed.

"Then Rin got pregnant, accidentally. We'd just finished high school, we were young and stupid, but I wasn't about to be idiotic enough to think I'd be able to protect a kid from all of that. So I called it quits, moved us to the suburbs, and Stein joined up with Medusa full-time." Spirit let out a hissing breath between his teeth before taking in another. "So Maka got to grow up in a normal world, or at least as much as we could give her. She doesn't know about me, and her mother… well, that's a whole other story."

He couldn't help himself, even with the static starting in his head. "Her mom, part of it too?"

Spirit shrugged, "I don't know anything her mother's up to anymore. I hear less than Maka does."

Soul weakly sucked his teeth before pushing, "But before?"

Spirit nodded softly.

A sickly sigh parted his lips. "Why tell me?"

"Because, you two want to repeat the past, don't you?" Spirit clenched his jaw tightly for a second before puffing out air. "Or at least that's what I'm afraid of, or trying to tell myself not to be afraid of. You're older, you're smarter maybe. Maka doesn't really know exactly what that world's like, but I think she's seen enough. You gonna guarantee me it's all going to change?"

Soul managed to lift his hand, an accusatory point wobbling just above the sheets. "I'm never going to leave her."

Spirit opened his hands and waved them in front of him in innocence. "Alright, kid. I don't think I have much of a leg to stand on to doubt you at this point. So just close your eyes, forget we had this conversation, and be ready for her to scold you when you wake up."

Soul was glad he had the painkillers or the waiting would have killed him.

Maka was clearing the hair from his forehead with desperate, hope-filled fingers when Soul finally opened his hazy eyes again. "There you are."

The relief came to his face as a smirk, ready to let those three little words drift off his lips when Black Star grabbed at his earlobe. "You total idiot." Soul groaned as he turned his head away from beautiful green eyes to his best friend's narrowing gaze. "How the fuck do you manage to get shot? And by the same guy as your stabbing. That's lame. You're never living this down."

Soul rolled his eyes, thankfully an action that didn't bring him any pain.

"Don't roll your eyes at me," Black Star barked back. "Now you're going to have months of this bullshit. Physical therapy. Another surgery. And I can tell you right now once you can get back to the gym, I'm taking your ass to the mat for this."

Dummy, are you really going to make the first thing I do be to yell at you? Soul was trying to send those words through his eyes as he sucked his teeth at Black Star.

"Fine." Black Star moved his hand from his ear to grab Soul's cheeks, motioning his head back at Maka who was thankfully sitting there with an amused smile. "But don't think she's got nicer things to say to you than me. We're a united front on this shit, dumbass." His hand slipped away but not before softly patting at Soul's face in the most loving way he could manage. "I'll give you guys a minute. Gotta get Mom anyway."

"Thank you," Maka whispered softly as she reached for Black Star, letting her fingers touch his arm gently.

"Whatever, blondie," Black Star waved her off before turning back towards the door. "Just don't let him off easy."

Maka let a sweet laugh trickle from her throat as Black Star disappeared from the doorway. She turned her eyes back to Soul as his fingers finally flexed in her hand, another sign of life that brought the breath back to her lungs.

"I love you," he murmured as he squeezed again.

"I'm not supposed to be nice to you, remember?" Her voice cracked as she leaned closer, another knot of pressure from her chest unwinding as their lips met in just a feathery touch. "But I love you, too."

Soul let a shaky breath rattle from his chest, feeling the sting in his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Maka shook her head, "Don't, OK? We can argue that part of it later… just later." Her free hand was smoothing at his face again, trying to find safe spaces to rest her caresses since his chest still looked like a battlefield. "Do you need more medicine? Does it hurt?"

"Hurts, but not the worst," he murmured, only lying a little. It technically was the worst he'd ever felt in his life, but looking at her he could hold on to the idea that it was all temporary. He tried to pull on her hand, "Just don't go anywhere."

"I won't."

"And kiss me again," he whispered.

"Again, I'm not supposed to be nice," Maka let out a warbling sigh but gave in, her lips pressing to his as she fought back the tears. She pulled away with a sniffle, bringing her hand from caressing to clearing her own face from the first wave of liquid that hit her cheeks. Crying hadn't been allowed since that one slip with Black Star, that had been her rule but he was still so pale, his movements so limited by what she could only assume was pain that she couldn't help it.

"You yelled the whole time," he smiled back softly at her.

A trembling laugh left her lips. "Soul, I have to tell you, it's Wednesday."

"Yeah?" He croaked, sure the medicine was to blame for the confusion flooding his brain.

She fiddled with his fingers for a moment relieved that he moved them in accordance. "We're a few hours late for our meeting with Death."

"Shit," Soul groaned.

Maka sighed softly, "That was my thought, too, but when I called first thing this morning to reschedule Death said he had Eibon in his office at that minute and was going to excuse the absence except…"

Soul risked raising an eyebrow, finding it thankfully not painful. "Except?"

"Well, Death is coming by the hospital tomorrow, apparently. The fact that he knew we were here already means that Eibon has spilled some of the story but how much…" Maka rolled her shoulders as she eased a slow breath from between her lips. "Either way, we've got more to do this week. I guess you consider this my being mean like I was supposed to, though, really, I'm going to stop him in the waiting room. You need to-"

"Be with you," Soul interrupted in a low growl. "Don't take it on yourself."

"That's rich," Maka laughed bitterly. "You're in the hospital because you were shot. It was supposed to be me. At least let me take the boss."

Regardless of the pain he knew it was going to elicit, Soul let his head shake side to side, a thin breath breaking his lips to mitigate the burn in his chest.

"And I thought I was the stubborn one," Maka sighed.

That brought forth a wavy version of his smirk, a very gently eked out laugh.

"Just," she inhaled deeply as she let her fingers play along his jaw. "Don't do that again, please. Please." She didn't care about how much that came out as a beg. "You made me promise to stay and I was almost afraid I'd missed my chance to make you do the same."

"Maka…" The pain screamed across his chest as he lifted his arm but he refused to let it stop him, just slow him to a crawl as he brought his hand to her face. She helped him, cupping the hand to keep it to her cheek, feeling his fingers trembling under hers. "I'm yours. Not going anywhere but home with you."