OH My soul! It's been so long you guys and I'm doing the dogeza to all of you for taking 3 months to get my next update. I won't bore you with any of my excuses. I swear I'll try to be a bit quicker with my updates. It's not summer anymore so I can't promise weekly chapters but it sure as hell won't take 3 months. I feel like this chapter is more of a filler chapter so I apologize if it comes out sounding half-assed. Anyway, back to the continuing story.

"So what? He's bipolar?" Tsuabki asked.

She was lying on her back on my bed scrolling through her phone. She was on a rare day where her brother didn't mind her coming over. She was slowly breaking loose. I searched through my desk some more. I was looking for batteries for my stereo. If I could find some, I could play my CD I had gotten a few days ago.

"I don't know. Maybe he is. He's hidden it well since he's hardly done anything in school for four years."

"But, you sort of like him yes?"

I faced her and deadpanned, "No, Tsubaki. In case you've forgotten, he's the bane of my existence."

I turned back to shuffling through drawers. I might have to go look for some in the kitchen.

"I didn't mean like romantically or anything. You're too stubborn for that," she amended. "I meant it like, you two could maybe be friends someday."

I shut a drawer and faced her again.

"Tsubaki, you know about what happened between us. You know how awful he can be."

"But you know how nice he can be."

I facepalmed.

"Where is this even coming from?" I mumbled.

Tsubaki sat up and placed a fist over her heart.

"It comes from my belief that people aren't always what they seem."

"You're a sandwich," I said turning back to my room.

"I'm a what? A sandwich?" she questioned.

"Yes. Because you're full of bologna."

Tsubaki chuckled as I left my room and went downstairs to look for batteries. After rummaging through a cabinet in the kitchen, I went back toward the stairs. Honestly, how Tsubaki could even imagine a time when Soul and I would play nice with each other was unbelievable. I'm sure that she could tell that we both hated each other. He obviously would have to in order to keep harassing me everywhere I went. Then again, Tsubaki always freaked whenever anyone did anything wrong, but then turned right around and prayed she was mistaken and that a good person still existed within them. I shouldn't be surprised. I opened my bedroom door.

"Ok, so I…."

Tsubaki was smiling at me strangely.

"What?" I asked slowly closing the door behind me.

"You like Soul at least a smidgen, if not now then at some point you did."

I rolled my eyes.

"You're still not going to let this go?"

"No. Because now I have proof!" she exclaimed.

I grabbed my stereo and proceeded to fiddle with the old batteries inside it.

"How can you have proof of something that doesn't exist?" I questioned.

The old batteries popped out, and I stuck the new ones in.

"Behold my proof."

I set the stereo back down and looked to see Tsubaki holding up my zombunny.

"How's that proof of anything?" I asked reaching for my rabbit. She pulled it out of my reach.

"If you really hated him as much as you say you do, then you wouldn't have kept this."

I frowned and crossed my arms.

"So what? I hate someone and that means I can't like stuffed animals?"

"Of course not," she said. "It just means that you don't hate him as much."

True, at the fair Soul had become an almost completely different person. Instead of being stubborn and annoying he had been protective and actually quite nice. However, Tsubaki needn't know that. If I just let her believe in us, nothing more would come out of this and she would learn what a hopeless train of thought she had boarded.

"Yah, whatever," I said turning my attention back to the stereo. "Just don't mess up SoMa."

The second the word left my lips I knew I was in trouble. I closed the lid on the back of the stereo, hiding away the batteries, hoping Tsubaki hadn't caught it. I was a fool to hope.

"You named it SoMa?"

I said nothing. Anything I say can and will be used against me. It was silent for a moment and then she giggled.

"That's a cute name for such a weird looking thing. Well, at least Soul has a little originality, you've got to give him that."

"Uh, yah," I agreed.

I really didn't want to talk about Soul anymore. I'd much rather find out what kind of band this Sleeping with Sirens CD had to offer. Just as I went to grab it a knock sounded at the door. I waited to hear my dad's footsteps going to answer it. Nothing. The knock sounded again. More quiet. Dad must have left with Soccer Mom again and another one of his clients is at the door feeling rejected and demanding an explanation.

"Aren't you going to answer it?" Tsubaki asked.

"Nah," I said waving the knock away. "It's probably just another one of my dad's female friends."

"Oh."

The knocking continued for another minuet. Tsubaki glanced at me trying desperately to rip the plastic off my album to no avail.

"Maybe you should tell her he's not here."

"She's pretty persistent isn't she?"

"Yah, almost like Soul is when he asks you out," Tsubaki said grinning at her phone.

"Ugh, not this again."

I got up to look out the window. Whoever she was she had no quit in her. I only took a couple of steps when I immediately froze. From where I stood I could see my driveway. From my spot I could see Tsubaki's car. I could also see the black motorcycle right behind it. Tsubaki noticed my standstill.

"Maka?"

I walked back to my desk, grabbed a pair of scissors and stripped my CD of its plastic casing.

"Maka?" she tried again.

"Yes?"

"You ok? You kind of went still for a moment."

The knocking persisted.

"Yep."

There was no way I was opening the door, talking to him, or acknowledging his existence. Ever. Yet again, the universe had different plans.

"Maka, I know you're in there!"

My eyes widened. Tsubaki looked at me.

"Did she just call for you?"

"Nope."

"Maka! I'm getting kind of bored out here!"

Tsubaki stood and moved to the window. I cringed.

"Isn't that Soul's bike?"

Drat. She whipped her head around, her eyes wide.

"You agreed to see him again?!"

"No!"

"Well, he obviously wants to see you again!" She said turning back to the window.

I sighed.

"I knew he had planned on coming, I just didn't think he would ever actually do it."

Tsubaki gave me a dumb face.

"You doubted that Soul meant what he said? After everything that's happened?"

She was right. Whenever he set his mind to something, it would be done. I was a fool to hope otherwise.

"Just go answer it," she said.

"No way," I promised.

Tsubaki groaned.

"At some point you're either going to like Soul or learn how to live with him, because it's pretty obvious he's not going to go away for the time being. Besides what's he going to do for either of you? It's just going to keep you a miserable wreck and he'll just keep on living obliviously."

Whether it was Soul's annoying knock or Tsubaki's prodding that caused me to stomp down the stairs, I'll never know. I threw open the door.

"What?" I said through gritted teeth.

Soul was grinning, clearly amused.

"You feel like leaving?"

"Huh?" I questioned.

"I'm kidnapping you."

I rubbed my eyes. This had to end, now. I don't care about any of the future consequences. I just didn't want to deal with him anymore.

"Soul, do you hate me?"

The grin faded from his face.

"No," he answered simply. As a follow-up he said, "But, you don't hate me either."

I looked at him oddly.

"If you don't hate me, why do you bully me into doing things with you?"

"You wouldn't do them otherwise."

"Duh! Because I don't know you!"

Soul's hands went into his pockets.

"Isn't that the point of hanging out? To get to know each other?"

"But not when it's forced," I said. "Besides, we've hung out already and I don't know anything about you and you don't know anything about me. Just call it quits and stop bothering me!"

Why couldn't he get the picture? What taught him that friendship, or whatever relationship he though he wanted with me was obtained through this weird abuse?

"You are smart."

"What?"

Soul was looking down at the ground.

"You were the valedictorian of our class."

"Yah, so?"

What was he getting at?

"You have three best friends: Liz, Patty, and Tsubaki who you're closest to."

I blinked.

"You live with your dad who doesn't give you enough attention."

"Hey!"

He looked up at me, his eyes bright.

"You look really good in red. You can't hold down alcohol for shit. You have a necklace that holds an extreme amount of sentimental value."

What was he saying? Why all these facts about me?

"You would rather read at home than do anything else. You wear your hair in pigtails most of the time. You're uncomfortable in crowds."

"Soul," I said.

"You take care of your friends. You're not afraid of heights. You're flat-chested."

"Rude," I commented.

He continued on.

"You're close-minded when it comes to new things. You don't trust many people. You are honest. You like zombie rabbits. You are drawn to me in the faintest of ways."

He leaned his head down closer to me. I couldn't breathe. When did he get so close? How had I not noticed? His lips parted revealing rows of sharp teeth. My heart was pounding. It had to be fear, right? His voice was now a whisper.

"If I tried to kiss you, you'd probably let me."

Where was I? I was clearly not all here. I couldn't feel anything. Not my feet on the ground, not my hands at my sides. Somewhere in my brain was the spark of thought, 'he's doing it again'. However, another spark said, 'let him.' Before I could figure out what was happening Soul hugged me to him. His heart was beating just as fast as if not faster than mine. If I could feel his there was no possible way he didn't feel mine. His breath was on my ear.

"You think I'm an asshole when I do things like this."

He pulled away eyes staring straight into mine.

"Don't say I don't know anything about you."

He turned away and walked across the lawn to his bike. He sat on his bike and turned the key. The engine came to life. He looked back to me, and smiled gently.

"I'll try again another time Maka ok?"

He backed out of my driveway and went roaring down the street. I stayed shocked in the doorway for a few moments then slowly closed the door. I turned around and found Tsubaki looking at me.

"That was…wow," she said.

I nodded. I walked past her back up to my room. She followed. After flopping down on my bed Tsubaki broke the silence.

"Does this mean that he's not a bad person now?"

I growled in frustration. I didn't know. I didn't know anything. While he oh so obviously knew everything.

Days passed without any more interruptions. One evening, I was in my room on my laptop. My father called from downstairs.

"Maka! Your friend's here! They're going up to your room!"

"Ok!" I answered back.

Tsubaki would be a welcome presence. Soul's visit had really shaken me up. It made me think. He was a manipulative jerk that was true. But he was also a nice friend. Which left me to wonder, which version of Soul was the real one? The silent, heartthrob that he'd been at school for four years? The pushy, and stubborn guy that he's acted as? The protective and gentle person he's proven he could be? How could there be so many attributes in one person when they directly conflicted with one another? How could one person have such polar opposites of themselves in one body? It didn't make any sense. I really shouldn't be so flustered about it. No means no right? So, why did I keep saying yes, in my mind?

"God this is frustrating!" I yelled slamming my hands over my eyes.

"It really isn't. You just put your King on the empty space. And here I was thinking you were smart."

My breath caught and I whirled my chair away from my desk to see where the voice came from. Soul stood behind me leaning his back on the wall beside my door.

"Soul!" I freaked. "What are you doing here?"

He kicked my door shut and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor.

"I'm watching you suck at Solitaire."

I looked back at my laptop screen with red and black cards lined up with each other. I shut it, hiding away my game.

"No, why are you in my house? How'd you get in?"

"Uh, the door," He said twirling a piece of his hair between his fingers.

My dad must have let him in. Why would my father allow a boy to go up to his daughter's room alone and unsupervised? He really must not care. I turned my chair back to my desk. Fine, I didn't care either. I sat and stared at my desktop for what seemed like a long time. No one else seemed to be bothered by Soul and the way he acts. Was I overreacting? I was tired of fighting against the tide. Soul broke the silence.

"So, what do you want to do?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked not turning around.

"Well, clearly you don't want to play Solitaire anymore, and now you've got a friend. What now?"

I laughed. "Friends? Is that what we are?"

"If not, then what are we?"

I rested my head in my hands.

"I don't know what we are, but we're not friends."

"Ouch", he said behind me.

"If we were friends, you wouldn't act like such an ass," I said.

I was pissed and I didn't want him here and I most likely lost my Solitaire game when I shut my laptop. I was not in a good mood.

"Who said I was acting?" he chuckled.

"Ugh," I grumbled.

He laughed again.

"Soul, friends don't bug the crap out of other friends."

"I tend to be a rare exception."

I reluctantly turned. Soul was looking at me his white bangs falling a little over his eyes. I opened my mouth about to say something else when he beat me to the punch.

"What's your type?"

I huffed out a lungful of air.

"Huh?"

"What's your type of friend?"

I paused for a moment, thinking.

"Well, probably someone honest, loyal, and real."

Soul nodded. "I like that."

I looked around the room, at anything but Soul. His question had completely taken the wind out of my sails.

"So, I'm your type," he said.

I felt a slight heat rush at his choice of words.

"What do you mean?"

He grinned at me.

"Have I ever lied to you or cheated on you?"

"What?"

"Then that means I'm honest and loyal."

"So, what? Are you not real?"

"I'm not fictional," he said avoiding my eyes.

I was now curious by the way he skirted the question.

"Are you real?" I tried again.

He looked out my window.

"What do you see when you look at me?"

I didn't hesitate.

"Someone manipulative and bossy, and stubborn." I stood up and walked towards him. "You don't take 'no' for an answer. You have no consideration for anyone else's feelings. And you're always showing up at my house!"

I stood directly in front of him now, staring down at him. He looked up at me, his eyes a shade darker. He stood up slowly and soon came toe to toe with me. He was close again. I clenched my jaw refusing to give in to his spell a third time. Now, that I wasn't panicking I could take in way more of Soul. His eyelashes looked almost non-existent being as white as his hair. His breathing was steady and even. He had a straight and strong jawline. His eyes looked…tired. That struck me as odd. He normally was so full of energy. Must've been a long night last night doing who knows what? Soul grinned and said in a low voice,

"And you said you didn't know anything about me."

I tried to stay pokerfaced, but he could probably tell I was flailing again. He mercifully backed away and went over to my window.

"Ok, Maka here's the thing. When your dad answered the door he was happy to see me. Said it was about time you had a serious boyfriend." Soul looked at me over his shoulder with a smile. "I didn't bother correcting him."

"Soul!" I said angrily, feeling a furious blush crawl up my face.

He turned back around.

"He said I was welcome anytime."

"Of course he would say that," I muttered.

I couldn't wait to move out so my father couldn't pull any more of these ridiculous stunts.

"Plus," Soul continued "he said, and I quote ' I know how unreceptive Maka can be. If she gives you the cold shoulder just come back downstairs to my office. I have the cutest baby pictures I could show you."

I slumped on my bed facing the ceiling. "It's official, he wants to kill me."

There were enough photos of me, before we lost mom, to blackmail me from now until the end of time.

"So, I can either hang with you here or hang with you downstairs," Soul said.

I sit up a little to look at him.

"Or we could just go out again," he offered.

I fell back down. I closed my eyes. I was ready to give up. Ready to accept my fate. Ready to acknowledge that Soul's life and mine were going to be solidly intertwined, at least, for a little while. At the same time as I was annoyed I was also a little pleased. He would finally answer my question of his split-personality. Maybe he would answer my new question: Is he real or not? I let out a held in breath.

"Ok Soul, you win."

He was quiet for a few moments which made me wonder if he heard me. I opened my eyes ready to repeat my statement when suddenly his head appeared above me.

"Cool," he stated.

I jumped, startled and had a head on collision with his forehead.

"What the heck Soul?!" I said grabbing my throbbing head.

"What? You're the one who spazzed," Soul grumbled rubbing underneath his bangs.

"You don't just scare someone like that," I said glaring at him.

"Well, damn if I scare you, you need to be less jumpy. I'm not that creepy," he retaliated.

For the next half hour we insulted each other. Threw out every name in the book, and Soul added some that I didn't know were even part of the book. It was strange, but it felt sort of freeing to tell him exactly what I thought of him, even if half of the things I said weren't true and I was finally able to relax more knowing exactly what he thought of me even if he made some stuff up as well. Knowledge really is power. We were sitting on my bed after we had called it a draw. I looked over at him.

"So how often are you coming over?"

"Hmm?" he asked.

Soul was not stretched out on the bed next to me, though I made sure to leave plenty of space between us. He was preoccupied with SoMa, flipping his ears one way then the other.

"You're going to be showing up a lot aren't you, now that the doors are always open? How often?" I repeated.

"I don't know, probably whenever I feel like seeing you," he said sitting up.

I sat up a little more as well.

"I can't wait for the day you won't feel like it."

Soul paused SoMa's ear flipping.

"Maka, the day I don't feel like coming over, is the day you're already with me where I am."

And with that Soul looked away from me turning his attention back to the zombunny leaving my heart doing some serious somersaults. There was no way he could mean that.

Soul's P.O.V.

"Aww you didn't stay long," Maka's dad whined.

It was embarrassing how this full-grown man was behaving.

"I'll be back, don't worry," I promised as I made a beeline to the front door.

I breathed a sigh of relief when it shut behind me. I walked across the lawn to my waiting bike. As I was turning the key I looked up at Maka's room window. It was empty. I chuckled to myself. It was too early to expect her to watch me leave. I pulled out of the driveway and tore down the road. I remembered that one line I had told her an hour ago. About when I wouldn't want to see her. That may or may not have been one of my stupidest moves. It sounded as if I was in love with her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. As if that would ever happen.

I knew I couldn't, even if I wanted to. No, not after what that woman told me. Maka had piqued my interest for four years, but I never acted on that curiosity. I stayed far from any relationship, even friendships. Well except for Kid, whose O.C.D. kept him from people too. In a way I guess I saw him as a kindred spirit. A spirit who needed everything to have perfect symmetry or he would positively die. Unlike Kid, my relationship with Maka is intended to be short-lived. A 'summer fling' if I really needed to give it a label. Not long enough to let anything real take place. The cold wind whipped around me as I rounded a corner.

Real. Maka was almost realer than me. And I wasn't very real. Like me she hides herself. That's probably why she got such good grades, burying herself in her studies like she did. I blew through a stop sign getting an angry car horn in response. I hid too. Behind my middle school antics, the ones she so strongly detested. I wasn't really that person, but I had nothing else to go on. Nothing else to keep me caged.

I pulled up onto a dirt road and pressed forward. I got that uneasy feeling in my stomach. Like a stone is lodged there getting bigger and bigger with every passing second. I get the same feeling every time I started on this road. I wouldn't call it fear. Fear is what you feel when you don't know what's ahead. I would call this sort of thing something more familiar than that. I don't know if there's a word for how it feels. Perhaps dread? Maybe I'll ask Maka next time I see her. Then again maybe not. The less she knows, the better. I have our afternoon to think about now. To drown out any other thoughts. To keep me from exploding. I shifted gears as I started the bike's uphill climb.