Authors note: Inspired from the song The beginning by One Ok Rock. It was scareygirl15 DeviantART who suggested me to write this one-shot based on that song. It's an awesome song so I suggest you listen to it ^-^

Lighthouse

His legs dangle from the ledge and the wind caresses his cheeks. The cold air nibbles at his exposed arms and naked feet. The cold steel he finds himself on cools his body furthermore. The darkness surrounding him offers no comfort. The silence is killing him from the inside and out. It's a plague he can never escape.

He feels his eyes close, but the world remains as dark as it was, no shift in the dense darkness. Shakily he inhales the cold air to then exhale equally unsteady.

If he let go and jumped outward, then he knows he would no longer be trapped in limbo. His soul would be free for the first time in many years. The weights and chains on his heart would crumble and he could finally take off and fly.

This was it. His journey. Where one chapter would end and another one begin. A chapter of agony and misery. There would no longer be hopeful thoughts of a better tomorrow to only be crushed into dust. Seven years has passed but he's still trapped in the same place he was then.

His eyes flutters open and he cracks his lips apart. His tongue moves and his throat vibrates, but his dark reality stays cold and silent.

Slowly he closes his eyes again and his hands move from the cold flat steel surface toward the juncture between horizontal and vertical. His grip tightens and his feet press against the round bars of the railing on the lighthouse.

He inhales the salty air and exhales.

He's ready. Ready for this change. He can't be afraid. Not after such a long period of pain.

And he lets g―

Warm arms wrap around his stomach, preventing him from leaving the top of the lighthouse.

Of course, only she who acted as his ears and eyes could stop him.

Her body presses against his back, her face nuzzles his back and he feels her lips move against his back.

"You can't do this. You can't give up." He manages to make out from her movements of her mouth against his shirt. "I know we'll come to a solution."

Seven years has passed. After several experiments at gaining back his eyesight and hearing, from being hopeful to then crash into the ground still trapped in the cold dark space, he's run out of courage to continue. He's exhausted and come to accept his condition won't turn around. He's trapped in the dark and he won't accept another second of another day in the cursed realm he's left to rot in.

"Just give it another week or two. Stein and Marie are working hard on healing the dead cells in your brain. I really do think this is the solution we've been waiting for." His hands place on hers. Not removing them or embrace them. Simply resting his over hers. His head slowly shake, his bangs tickle the bridge of his nose.

"This isn't how we're going to end. This isn't how you are going to end. Don't let Oni win."

He'd already won. Seven years ago, Soul lost everything. He fought the battle of the century and his world came crumbling down. The comfortable lifestyle he maintained ceased to exist and he was left with the broken pieces of what he once had.

Wet spots grow on his back. Warm drops. Maybe as salty as the air he inhales.

"If you… if you… Oni wins…"

Soul shakes his head once again.

It wouldn't be a loss. It would be a gain. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to take off.

"You have to be reasonable." Her hands tremble slightly underneath his. "I don't want to lose you… you're my best friend…"

And that is why he has to let go.

"You have to understand…" He feels the familiar touch of her soul. Warm and soothing gently caressing his own. The silence break with bare feet hitting marble floor and the outlines of Maka's body enters his cold realm once again. Only her green eyes are clear to him. Only those two eyes that stared at him with so much grief and agony and her voice hoarse from screaming his name. Her arms had cradled him tightly to her as his blood poured out from his chest.

"Soul." She whispers and the colour he remembered naming grey, reaches out toward him. "Take my hand."

His lips part and he inhales. He hears the air sucking into his mouth and his beating heart pulsing.

"Okay." He whispers and immediately clears his throat. His hand entwine with hers. His fingers feel the scars on her skin from that day everything came crumbling down. "I told you." His thumb runs over the large bump on the back of her hand he remembered his scythe breaking her skin. "I told you to get these removed."

Her green eyes that penetrate through the darkness cast down to the outlines of her hand. To his dismay, the black void between the grey lines where he knows her body is, is decorated with the scars covering her whole body. From the scar from breaking her foot, to the scar on her head from bashing her head against the concrete repeatedly.

"And I told you," her other hand cups his and moves it to her lips, planting a long and gentle kiss on it, "I'm broken as well. I'm not going to get the scars removed until you get your senses and weapon ability back."

His heart stabs at her words.

Seven years he's begged her to get those scars removed for her own sake. Simply remembering her clutching his dying body with her own full with wounds and blood, it was tragic. Her hair was red from the wound on her head, her left eye blue and swollen and wounds on her stomach and legs pouring out her blood. Over the course of the seven years, he's felt the scars on her body and how ugly they must look. It makes him sick to the core of his soul that he was the one who dealt them to her. He's the reason she's damaged and covered with ugly scars.

"Hey." Her hand removes from his and he grabs his chin, steering it back to her eyes. "It's not your fault. It's Oni's. You couldn't do anything to stop him from taking over your body to then separate himself from you. No one saw this coming. Stein… papa… even Lord Death could predict this. No one, not even you, knew Oni was capable of executing something like this."

"You don't understand." He backpedals away from her touch and grip. "Oni is me as much as I'm a part of Oni. It's my fault. I should've known. Oni'd been quiet for weeks and I should've figured he would do this." His heart stabs at the tragic sight of her glistering green eyes. "It's my fault I couldn't protect you. It's my fault Spirit died. It's my fault for killing fifty civilians. I was―"

"Soul!" She moves close to him and throws her arms around his waist. "Don't you dare putting yourself down like this! You and Oni could never be the same person. You're kind, loyal and caring. Oni has none of those qualities and if he did, he would've never done this." His heart clenches painfully as she nuzzle her face into his chest where the scar was larger and uglier than it could've ever been from Chrona's attack. "If you were as evil as you think you are, do you think I would've saved you? Do you think I would've stuck around all these years and acted as your eyes and ears?" Maka pauses. Soul stays silent. "Do you honestly think I would've shared my soul and body with you if I weren't crazy in love with―?"

"Don't." He squeezes his eyes shut as his tooth sink into his lip. "You can't love a monster. You can't―"

"I don't love a monster." Her arms tighten around him. "I love the bravest and the most unique man there is. He is my best friend and I hate seeing him suffering. He may've never studied much in our high school years, but he is clever, and I hate it when he's so stupid to think all of this is his f―"

"Maka don't." He backs one step, Maka keeps her arms caged around him as she squeezes her body close to his.

"No! You're going to hear this! I'm not going to let you brush my feelings aside like you have for years!" She sobs and it absolutely breaks his heart. He doesn't want to cause her anymore pain. "I hate it when you degrade yourself! I hate it when you think you're not worthy my love! You're not the one who decide who's worthy my love! I am! You're the only one who deserves my love and I want to give it to you! Why can't you just accept me―"

"Because I can't keep using you like this!" He shudders as tears free themselves from his eyes and trickle down his cheeks. "You offer me your vision on daily bases. You offer me your ears. You've already given me too much and I can't take your heart. You deserve some―"

"What?!" Maka screams and her hands fist the fabric of his shirt. "'I deserve someone who isn't broken'? I want you and you don't have the right to decide who I love. I love you and I know you love me."

"Y―"

"Don't try to deny your feelings!" A sob escapes her throat and she screams into his chest. "You would've never kissed me all those times if you didn't love me! I know you aren't a bastard who plays with people's hearts! You would've never slept with me all those times if you didn't love me too!"

She's right. He loves her beyond his own understanding. If it weren't for her, he would've died seven years ago. If it weren't to her, he would've died of depression. Every day he laid on the bed completely closed off in his dark realm of silence, Maka was the one who forced him out of his room and started to live. She always rip him out of his room and force him to hang out with their friends, she could never erase the fact he's a burden to her. Constantly having to be glued to his side, even love wouldn't d―

"Why can't you understand?" She whimpers and his shirt is soaked with her tears. "Even if it weren't like this, I would always want to be around you because I love you. You're not a burden because I want to do this. Not out of guilt or out of pity. I do this because I don't want to be with anyone else than you. As a girlfriend or a meister, we've always been a team and that is how I want to keep it."

He closes his eyes and his head rests on hers. Her hair tickles his nose and the smell of her flowery shampoo reminds him of all those times they shared a bed and he woke up with her hair in his face. Slowly his arms wrap around her and he's the one whimpering. "You're right." He sniffles and squeezes her in his arms. "I hate you for knowing me so well. I hate myself for loving you this much. I know the best thing for you is to be set free, but I selfishly steal you away and force you to love―"

"You could never force me to love you." Her grip on his shirt loosens and her thumbs gently draw circles on his back. "Please Soul, let's go back inside. You're cold and I think a cup of coco and cuddling is exactly what you need."

He snorts and plants a kiss on her temple. She'd always be his biggest fan and supporter, and he would always be hers, even if he did some hurtful things to her. He would always value her happiness and well-being before his own. Like she would always value his more. She would always be the lighthouse on the shore, guiding him toward land in the darkest of hours. She would always be the light at the end of the tunnel and the sun to his world.

"Fine. But I want to cuddle first."

She giggles as she slowly pulls away from him and entwine their hands together. "You're such a cuddle bug." She rises to her toes and plants a kiss on his cheek. "But that's just one of your thousands of qualities I love about you."

The corner of his lips twitch and he can't help but to smile.

Maybe his time hadn't come yet.