I really apologize for this taking so long! Forgive me.
The day had actually been vastly interesting, or at least to Maka, as Flore and Liz led them through the surrounding forest for what could be considered a botanist's nature walk. Susanna and Elena hadn't seemed to enjoy it half as much, but as soon as the mimosas started pouring back at the cabin all was forgiven. After such a hard trek, not Maka's words but definitely Susanna's, it was apparently time for all the pampering that they were meant to have on such a trip. While Susanna and Elena set up the treats, a variety of chocolates and an assortment of spa supplies finished with various not entirely appropriate party games, Maka stood at the window sipping at her more juice than champagne.
She told herself she wasn't looking for him, just another glance at the beautiful scenery, but that happy little glimpse of him trotting after Wes into the cabin was an added bonus. Maybe he wasn't the only hopeless romantic.
"What are you smiling about?" Lizzie cooed from the kitchen as she was pouring herself another glass.
"Nothing," Maka tried on innocence but it didn't exactly fit. "It's just gorgeous outside. Soul made a good choice, that's all."
"He did," Lizzie smiled softly. "He's a good man, just like his brother, though I think their goodness might be where the comparison ends."
Maka rolled her shoulders in a slow shrug, taking another chance to glance at the other cabin, hoping for another appearance but seeing none. She turned back to Lizzie who was just finishing off preparing her drink, her lips pursing for a second in thought. "What is Wes like?"
"Oh, and can I again ask the question 'why the hell are you getting married?'" Elena added from the couch as she threw her head back to look at the two women.
"Elena!" Susanna squealed.
"I'm not ragging on Wes," Elena corrected. "Just still wondering how Lizzie, our patron saint of never ever not in a million years will I consider matrimony, is getting married."
Lizzie offered a satisfying laugh and Maka gave in to her own giggle at the description. "Well, I suppose it's girl talk time, anyway, right?" Lizzie walked back over to the couch and squeezed between her sister and her best friend. Maka made the slow move to the loveseat with Flore facing opposite of them, suddenly feeling like she was settling down to storytime. "Wes is…" Lizzie swirled her drink with a sigh, "A lot of things. He's a hopeless romantic and I would almost say he loves too much, but I think that's simply a symptom of those awful parents of his."
Maka felt that statement more than heard it, that ache in her heart at the unexpected similarity. She had always assumed Soul to be the black sheep, left out of the love and yearning for it, but it almost seemed worse to realize that they'd both suffered and didn't even have the ability to find it in each other until now. I wonder if it would help him to know that his brother is just like him.
"He doesn't go out of his way to be right about anything," Lizzie furrowed her eyebrows, "Does that make sense?"
"Not at all," Susanna huffed.
"I guess he doesn't enjoy being right, being superior, he enjoys the act of finding out, working towards fitting the best piece in the puzzle. He's a compromiser in everything." This brought a dreamy sigh to Lizzie's lips. "I think that's the first time I realized I could marry him was when every trouble I threw his way, everything that I thought would throw a wrench in the gears he simply sat down and logically figured it out." She nudged Susanna, "You think of Mom and Dad and you see two people who love each other but can never concede, always having to have a winner and a loser. I hated that." As Lizzie brought her eyes from Susanna out to Maka they widened. "Maka, are you alright?"
"I'm just-" Anything that could have come from her mouth after that was a lie, something scripted and clean, made for social niceties like this, but Maka knew her face was already betraying it all. Her eyes had that swimming feeling and no matter how much she fought against it there was no winning. "Sorry, my parents were the same way, or I should say are, because even though they're divorced it's… not very different," Maka let the sigh tremble from her mouth to punctuate that. But it wasn't just the idea of her parents, but it was the all too eerily similar description that seemed to match brother to brother again.
"Was it recent?" Lizzie murmured and Flore as if by extension put a gentle hand on Maka's arm.
"No, in my teens, but I don't think they actually fight less, just long-distance," Maka let out a spiteful laugh.
"Is that why you're so dead-set against marriage, too?" Those words may as well have been a ton of bricks, threatening to crush the air from Maka's lungs.
"Oh, for fuck's sake, Susanna," Elena groaned.
"What? It's fair! She was awful avoidant when I brought it up at the shower," Susanna huffed.
Elena shook her head, "And that should have been your first clue that she didn't want to talk about it."
Maka bit her lip before letting the words squeeze from her throat. "It's alright, Elena."
"Don't let her bully you," Elena started but sighed. "Not everything is Susanna's business."
"Hey," Susanna started but upon receiving a glare from Lizzie fizzled to a stop.
"We were talking about Wes, anyway, weren't we?" Lizzie offered softly, sending a commiserative glance to Maka. "Even with all his traditionalist ways, I wasn't even sure he wanted to get married for the same exact reasons. His parents aren't exactly the shining example of a healthy marriage either." Lizzie pursed her lips for a moment, hesitating but bringing her eyes back to Maka. "I think we hold on to those hurts and let them bleed into every facet of our lives whether we like it or not. I guess it was only when we realized that our marriage never had to be our parents' marriages, that we could dictate exactly what our marriage looked like and would mean to both of us, that we both changed our minds."
"And it doesn't hurt that he's handsome and rich to boot, right?" Elena raised her eyebrows at Susanna, getting the nod that she wasn't actually hoping to receive in reply to her sarcasm.
"It also helped that he asked so many times that he wore me down," Lizzie laughed, her eyes wandering off to follow the trail of memories in her mind.
"How many is so many?" Flore blinked. "I could have sworn you said twice."
Lizzie shook her head quickly, "Formally, I suppose, twice. Big deals, both of them, and the second of those was the one that I accepted but… he liked to ask a million little times, like before we went to bed or when I brought home the perfect wine. For a little while, it seemed to follow 'I love you' more often than not."
"How soon did it start after you began dating?" Maka tried her best to infuse innocence in that question, even though her mind was making it far from it. It was obvious that Soul had already thought about it especially after his fit at the shower. But it's too early, he knows that I know that.
"Well, we both know the Evans' men," she smirked. "'I love you' took a while, a whole year in fact, even though he often told me he cared, that I meant a lot to him." Lizzie sent a knowing glance to Maka and nodded her head in reply. "But as soon as he let out the first, it was only a month before the initial big engagement attempt."
"And you told him 'no'?" Susanna squealed.
"Not no," Lizzie sighed, "Just asked him to wait. To give me a little more time. We hadn't even discussed living together, France or the US or wherever, so I started those small steps afterward. First, we figured out how our lives could puzzle together, with his constant compromising, and then it wasn't all that hard to say yes."
While the rest of the room's mind seemed to be gushing at the romanticism, Maka found herself nibbling at her lower lip, wishing she'd put more champagne in her glass.
Soul was starting to reconsider the city altogether as he twirled the whiskey in his glass. It was actually the first moment of silence between them, both concentrating on the swirl of alcohol and the cooling of the night air. A citronella candle was the only light besides the girls' cabin and it was doing a better job at keeping the bugs away than actually illuminating the two of them. "Think the girls are enjoying themselves?" Wes was prodding at something as too much amusement fused into his words.
"Too much. Can hear them from here. Bet the whole cabin is going to be nursing a hangover tomorrow." He snorted a laugh before taking a sip from his glass.
"I'm not sure we're far from that ourselves." Wes tipped the bottle at him, eliciting another laugh from Soul. "At least a little quieter, though."
"I can start howling if you want," Soul shrugged. "I take my job as the best man very seriously and will do what I must." Another alcohol slicked laugh tumbled from Soul's lips as he let his head fall back against the Adirondack chair.
"Not necessary," Wes laughed. "Just glad to hear their ruckus which I think includes Maka's laugh as well."
Soul narrowed his eyes as if that would help his hearing, waiting to catch that beautiful throaty bit of joy that was distinctly Maka. "Yeah, she can have a good time when she wants to. Though I can't say she's one to usually get drunk. It'll be interesting to see her tomorrow."
"Does she have many friends?" Wes was innocently sipping as soon as the question came out of his mouth.
He let his head roll to the side, trying to examine Wes's face in the low light. "Not really, one she's close with from school, Tsubaki, but other than that… Why do you ask?"
"She seems to stand alone," Wes offered. "Lizzie commented that when arranging all the dates Maka's calendar wasn't an issue. She seems open besides school and you, of course."
"Well, she…" Soul paused, deliberating what exactly could flow freely between brothers. "I don't think she has anybody, Wes. I'm lucky I had you trying all these years, but I think her parents pay attention when it suits them which is even less than Mom and Dad bother us. And friends… it's not like she can't make them, especially when you consider how fucking sweet she can be, but I think she plays it safe."
Wes sighed before letting that sit in silence for another moment before finally letting out the whisper, "She has you."
"And you and Lizzie. She kind of made it pretty clear she wants us to be a little family, just maybe not with mom included." Regardless of bringing up his mother, Soul managed a glowing smile as his mind lingered over her beautiful admission of what she considered selfishness.
"Huh," there it was again, that delight mixed with a question that wasn't being asked.
"What's that about?" Soul narrowed his eyes at his brother before taking another long sip from his glass.
"No, it's just nice to hear one's own opinions validated," Wes shrugged.
"What opinions am I validating?" Soul tried his best to copy his brother's tone.
"I just remember someone balking at the idea of marriage and now we're talking about families." Wes delivered that as casually as a fast-food order but it hit Soul like a court sentence.
He couldn't stop those strange feelings from Wes's shower from resurfacing. "Yeah, well, while she was clear about the family she was also pretty clear that marriage isn't exactly her favorite thing."
"Ah," Wes nodded his head slowly. "Lizzie was the same way. Firmly against it. Refused me a few times."
"A few times?" Soul croaked. "Why the hell did you keep trying if she said no?"
"Now I am certainly not advocating the idea of wearing a woman down," Wes laughed, "but I honestly knew that it wasn't an issue of Lizzie not loving me. Thankfully she'd said it herself but at the same time, she never gave me the inclination in any other way that I wasn't the one for her. Instead, I realized it was another spot for compromise."
Soul's face screwed up incredulously. "How do you compromise on marriage?"
Wes shrugged, "You just do. I had to take the time to find out what Lizzie wanted out of the future, what I wanted out of it, and then a balance of the two before I could offer her what our marriage would look like instead of just offering her the traditional idea."
That only brought a sigh to his lips, "What our marriage would look like?" Oh, fuck, don't even fall into that thought. She said 'no,' or at least 'not now' so stop, don't even. The mental berating didn't much matter, that snowball of an idea already turning into bolder-size as it rolled through his brain. It wouldn't be any different from now, would it? Living together, figuring out the day to day as easy as pie because we tackle problems. We're a team to begin with so that would be… "Easy."
With hangovers on all sides, the second day was a quiet gathering of both groups. None of them actually even remotely matched the boisterousness of the night before until at least dinner time, so Soul wasn't sure if Maka's quietness was a screaming headache or the thoughts that he was sure he saw running behind her eyes. He had enough of his own thoughts too, so prying was better left for later, but even as he started to drift asleep that night, Maka pressed next to him in their own cabin, Soul couldn't find the right question to ask.
"Soul…?"
He lifted one eyelid, finding satisfaction in the tone he'd waited for all day. "Yeah?"
"What if I got pregnant?"
Soul choked out a sharp laugh as he turned over on his elbow face hovering over hers, "You trying to tell me something?"
"No," she shook her head slowly. "Just hypothetically."
"Hypothetically?" His eyebrows furrowed. "You hypothetically pregnant would mean we had a lot of talking to do, I guess. Figuring things out."
Maka's eyes wandered to the ceiling, trying to avoid the completely confused glare on his face. "Be more specific."
"Again, you trying to tell me something?"
Another slow shake followed by, "Again, just hypothetically."
Soul let out a long huff of air, trying to play a scenario that between her birth control and his condom usage should be fairly impossible. "Well, deciding, do you want to carry a baby? That looks like hard work that only you would have to do. Do we have enough money for that? Do we have the time for that? Just logistics. Then maybe, excitement? Or possibly me being murdered by your father?"
That at least elicited a laugh from her. "What if I got a job a million miles away?"
"A million isn't possible," he chuckled as he drew a line on her collarbone in an attempt to get her eyes back to his but still no luck.
She rolled her eyes, "Far away."
"We'd figure it out," he shrugged.
"Be more specific," she urged again.
He wished he had time between these hypotheticals to start to build what she was getting at, but his mind was drawing blanks at this strange game of twenty-questions. "At the risk of getting me hit, I'm going to repeat what I've said before, Maka, I love you. Gut reaction from me is never going to be that we can't work it out. You need to move? We move, I guess. I pretty much can't imagine something I'd be doing that would be more important than being with you."
"I love you, too," but it came with such a forlorn sigh that his playful hand moved to her neck, tilting her chin his way and finally forcing those eyes off the ceiling.
"Can I ask a question? A hypothetical."
"And I shouldn't guess that you're trying to tell me something because of it," Maka murmured.
"No, purely hypothetical. Don't get any ideas and don't quote me, and…" he trailed off with a sigh. "Just humor me, and be specific."
She took a slow breath before running her hand up his arm, fingertips lighting up his skin. "Afterward, will you make love to me?"
"Wouldn't dream of doing anything else," he chuckled.
"Then ask," she whispered.
He hesitated and thought about tilting her lips to his first but knew all that would do was dissolve his courage by giving him the excuse to move on to her request. "Since we got here… I know Wes has said some stuff, probably the girls too since it's the topic of the hour. So, hypothetically, has it crossed your mind? Have you thought about it more than just my temper tantrum at the shower?"
"I don't think you know what a hypothetical is," her voice was small but a tick of an amused smile had started at the corner of her mouth.
"Guess not." He rubbed his thumb along her neck.
"And 'it' is kind of vague," another short upturn to her lips.
He huffed, "Look, you're asking me about babies, about moving, about a future that's somewhere out there for us so I'm just doing the same thing. You're not pregnant, we're not leaving the new apartment, and we're sure as hell not engaged but do you think about it? Would you think about it?"
"I've thought about it," Maka made all the amusement fall from her face because this wasn't about teasing him. "But you're asking me to keep thinking about it?"
Soul's hand slid from her neck to her cheek and into her hair as a wistful sigh broke his lips. "I guess I'm asking, I don't know. I know you're hurt. I know it's not an us thing but a mom and dad thing. Except we're not them, so don't toss it out the window, OK? I'm not saying you have to change your mind, but I want you to at least be letting it be in your mind. Weighing it."
Maka nodded slowly, "Alright."
"Yeah?" The surprise was genuine and the hope tensed in his stomach.
"It's not an outrageous request," she brought back a hint of that smile before lifting her head just far enough to brush against his lips.
That was Soul's cue, the 'shut up and kiss me, stupid' sign that he was starting to know a little too well. Right then, touching her, slowly undressing her should have been his prime objective and while his hands worked his mind still spun tight over the snippets of the hope he'd started to build. He was capable of love, of loving her, and maybe he could do it forever and maybe she would let him.