They were both sitting now, on their shared bed facing each other. They were already in pajamas ready for sleep. Maka was sitting cross-legged holding her pillow against her chest. Soul thought she kind of looked like a little kid at a slumber party, sitting like that in the dim light from one of their bedside tables.

He was sitting cross-legged as well, shoulders hunched forward in a posture much like the one his mother was always telling him off for. He sat up a little straighter then, remembering the constant needling from his parents to keep a straight strong back, it helps with the piano playing don't you know?

The memory almost made him grumpy, then he realized that they were probably all long gone anyways so he felt a little guilty instead.

"So," Maka said.

"So," Soul replied.

"This shouldn't be awkward, I mean we've only known each other for what…like 50 years now?" She said with a smile.

If she was trying to ease the tension it worked. He laughed a little before replying.

"Technically speaking I guess," he said with a grin.

"Well, how do we start then…I guess I can say pretty confidently, that I think you were my best friend Soul. It didn't take long, but you were definitely the only person I had confided in so much back then. You knew everything; there was no one else in my life that I had spoken to about my abuse. Even when I was with Tyler –"

He cut her off then and wearing a big smirk he said, "Woah, his name was Tyler? Man Maka you should've known he was going to be a douchebag."

She laughed a little. "How did I miss that particular warning flag?" She said sarcastically.

He raised his hands as if in surrender.

"As I was saying," she started again. "I hadn't even given him most of the details of my childhood. And I was planning on marrying him at one point."

He nodded, encouraging her to continue. "And?" He said when she didn't do so immediately.

"Well, I just thought you should know, the fact that I told you so much, that really means something. And I know we were getting pretty close now anyways, but I just think that's important…I don't know what I'm trying to say." She stopped with a big sigh and her gaze dropped from his face to her crossed legs.

"Maka. It should go without question. But I was close to no one in the past. Even my brother was not privy to everything, and if I am being entirely honest I always resented him a little, so I never really let him see passed the…the walls or whatever. And my gran, well she was the greatest. She helped me with some of my insecurities indirectly, but I could never really share everything with her. I knew some of my thoughts and feelings would be kind of upsetting for her to hear, you know? Like with regards to my parents and stuff. She wouldn't have wanted to hear any of that. You're right, and I think I know what you're trying to say," he stopped to swallow.

He'd never been so eloquent in his life when it came to sharing his thoughts. "We got close fast back then, and even before we knew our connection in the past, we got close pretty fast now. Whatever is going on…its pretty special? You know, since neither of us had…anyone to count on. I don't know about you but I trusted no one for so long. So, yeah. Consider yourself special, nerd."

He knew sharing these thoughts wouldn't make him look very cool, but he had come to realize that with Maka, he never needed to feel cool, he felt safe enough to be himself around her.

She was smiling now, genuinely so that he could even see the smile in her eyes.

"Exactly," she responded. "So should we talk about what we remembered now?"

"Yeah go for it," he shrugged.

"Nuh-uh, I went first in the machine, you go first now."

"Naw man that doesn't count. You volunteered to go first."

"Right that means now you volunteer to go first."

"This seems more like voluntelling to me," he grumbled.

She just quirked her head to the side and started humming the Jeopardy tune.

"Jeeze, okay. Well it started with my gran's funeral. I was there with my parents and brother and all these people that should not have been there. Dad's business buddies and stupid idiots that never even met her. So when I started crying my mother basically told me to man up because my dad's business partners needed to see that there would be a strong legacy behind his business, you know encourage investors and whatnot."

"That's awful!" Maka said. Her eyebrows were pulled down in a frown and she looked a little like a pouting child.

He looked down before continuing. His fingers had found a loose string on the hem of his pajama pants to fiddle with now. "So I just took off, I was too frustrated to be there in that situation and it just wasn't fair to my gran, so I bolted. And then I saw the little clump of trees followed a little footpath between them, and found you."

He looked up at her then, through thick silvery white lashes. She nodded in what she hoped was an encouraging way. She knew what happened next, but she was fascinated to know his perception of the whole thing.

"So you started talking to me and…I guess when you said you were sorry for my loss. Well, it was the only time someone had said that to me, and was actually genuine. So it just kind of broke me down… Not to mention I was so tired already. I didn't really think I was going to survive much longer to be honest…Actually… I think I might've offed myself that night if I hadn't met you."

She felt like she wasn't even breathing anymore and realized that she had been holding her breath for a few moments. "Oh." She said quietly.

"So yeah. We started chatting. I could tell you were struggling with something. And then I just felt compelled to introduce myself. So I did," he finished with a crooked smile.

She thought back to that moment when they shook hands and realized, that was when the memory ended for her. "What happened after we shook hands?"

He shrugged, "Dunno, that's where it ended for me."

"Odd," she said quietly.

"What?"

"That's where it ended for me too. I wonder what else happened that night."

"Oh. Yeah, weird," he said. He hadn't given it much thought.

"Well, what else do you remember?" She asked.

"Oh no, nope. Your turn to go pal. What did you remember about that day?"

"Uhm, well I hadn't been at my father's long at that point. So he hadn't driven me completely crazy yet. But I had gotten up early to check out that spot. It had been years since I'd hid out there but I wanted to see if it was still the same. And it was always so pretty in the morning. The stream would look kind of sparkly in the light and the birds would still be all chirpy. So yeah that's why I was there then. Everything was the same for me as you remembered. Oh except I remember thinking your eyes, they were so mesmerizing. The red seemed extra bright from the morning sun and I had never seen red eyes on a person before."

He reached behind his head to scratch his neck, the movement was to distract from his embarrassment. "Yeah, yeah, I look like a demon monster kid. I've heard." He knew he sounded morose, but it was hard to disguise it. As a kid he often felt out of place or down because people were frightened by his slightly demonic appearance. And Maka…she felt like the exception for a while, but she was finally letting on that she was as freaked out by him as anyone else had been.

"Not at all! I mean I guess if someone described those features it could sound demonic…but if somebody saw you they wouldn't think so."

"I don't think so. Tons of people have been freaked out. Heck moms hustled their kids passed me on busses. I've honestly learned to roll with it. It makes it easy to avoid people."

"Soul seriously. Want to know the first thing I noticed?"

He raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged.

"You looked so profoundly…sad. It was in the slump of your shoulders, the heavy shuffle of your feet…but mostly, your eyes Soul. They looked so deep and troubled. They were like…Well I don't know but… you...definitely not demonic."

He felt his mouth pull up into a smile. "Well…you're the only one to think so…but I really appreciate you saying that."

She gave him a big smile back before her eyes narrowed into a glare. "Now, what else did you remember?"

"Uhm, well later that night I was at home feeling restless so I left my parents place and was kind of drawn to my Gran's grave. When I got there I played her a recording of the song I wrote for her. Then eventually I wandered back to the place where I met you. And there you were again."

"Right, I remembered that one too. You had scared the hell out of me, just turning up in the middle of the night, silent like a creep," she said.

"Hey now, I was plenty noisy trying to not to trip in the dark. You were just really caught up reading something."

"Oh yeah." She thought about the note, still crumpled up in her pocket the day she landed in the present.

"Then we just stayed up most of the night talking. You were a little weepy but I remember we had some laughs too," he added.

She recalled crying a lot, ruining his shirt, and then feeling guilty about it. Then she remembered he made her laugh and she decided then to meet him the next day.

"Yeah, then I said I'd make you lunch the next day to make up for getting tears all over your shirt," she chuckled.

"You know, I didn't need you to make up for anything, I just liked that you wanted to hang out again."

"Oh no no no, I merely felt obligated, I didn't want to hang out with a creepy demon boy," she said with an exaggerated drawl.

"Are you making fun of me?" He asked with narrowed eyes, he tried to suppress the grin he knew was making its way to his face.

"May-be," she drawled out again.

"If you want demon I can show you." He stood up then to his full height on the bed towering over her. As she went to make a move he quickly pulled the pillow from her arms and bopped her over the head with it. Then he jumped off the bed and rolled out of reach.

When he righted himself again he found Maka was nowhere to be seen.

"Shit," he mumbled.

From right behind his right shoulder he heard an evil little giggle before he was accosted.

"Ma-ka CHOP." Was his only warning before he found himself nursing a sore spot on the back of his head.

"How do you ALWAYS have a giant fucking book on hand?! Where do you even hide those things."

"I'll never tell," she said smirking as she returned to the bed, the book already tucked somewhere out of his sight. "Now, back to business," she said patting his spot on the bed.

He settled back into his seat and glared at her.

"Come one Soul, it's getting late."

"Well, there were a couple of other memories that I didn't like…relive? But I saw them brush by and then they were just back in my consciousness. I know we hung out a few more times. We just kept meeting at the cemetery. I showed you my Gran's grave and we went for walks through the tombstones. I remember now, one night we went through and made up back-stories for some of the names on the headstones. That was pretty fun." The more he talked about those memories the clearer they became.

"Oh yeah…Now that you say that, I remember that too. It was a really beautiful night out. We got chased out of our spot by an angry raccoon, that's how we ended up wandering the actual graveyard…"

He blushed then remembering more details about that night. He remembered there was a point she tripped over a particularly low stone and in his hurry to help her up he almost fell over too. They stood up practically nose-to-nose and he had wanted to kiss her…But he reminded himself of why she was there with him in the first place and decided not to. Having recently broken an engagement with an abusive man, she probably didn't have her the best feelings towards men or romance in general.

He shook off the memory and laughed along with her about the fat raccoon that had in fact literally chased them away from the stream.

"Did that happen to you too? Less immersive memories?" He asked hoping to change the subject before she could remember more details about that night.

"Yeah, now that you mention it I do know what you're talking about. Although I did have one more big memory."

"Me too. It was that last day in the past," he said quietly.

"I don't really want to talk about that one," Maka added. "We both know how it ended, that is all that matters I guess."

He nodded and was about to agree when he felt compelled to ask her one more question, "Why didn't you just run down to meet me? I would have helped you if he tried to start anything."

"I…I didn't think it was fair to burden you with anymore of my problems. It was a really hard but impulsive choice that I made, it took everything I had to run away from you. But I just pictured how awful I'd feel if he hurt you too."

He picked up her pillow again and bopped her on the head, less roughly this time. "Idiot, I would have gladly taken a beating if that's what it would have taken to get him to fuck off."

"I know, that's why I would've felt bad leading him to you."

"You know Maka, as soon as I realized you were being chased I ran after you guys. You had too much of a head start and I was way too late catching up, but I tried so hard."

"I'm sorry," she said, looking as though she may cry.

"On the other hand," he said, trying to lighten the mood. "When I finally did catch up I beat the shit out of Tyler," he drawled out the name with as much disdain as possible in his voice.

"Really?" She said with a bit of an evil smile.

"Yup, they had to take him to the hospital, in an ambulance, on a stretcher." He said proudly.

He knew violence to counter violence was ultimately wrong, and accomplished nothing in the long run, but he was proud of punching that guys face in, and it was pretty cathartic if he was being entirely honest. If nothing else, Maka at least deserved to know that Tyler got at least a little of the punishment he deserved.

She was smiling brightly as she responded, "That is quite the silver lining. It probably shouldn't, but that makes me pretty happy."

She felt her smile falter as she remembered that moment she chose to jump off the bridge. She remembered the fall lasting an uncomfortably long time, and yet feeling like she could finally stop running. The only time she felt regret was as she entered the water. The cold waves hit her like cement and the last thing she remembered was seeing Soul's face flash behind her closed eyelids as her last breaths were ripped from her lungs. The only regret she felt was not getting the chance to know him better, regret that she wouldn't get to see where things were going. Largely she thought she would never be able to trust men again, given what she had seen from her father, and what she had experienced personally with Tyler. However, she felt some of those fears fall away as she got to spend more time with Soul.

"Maka?" She heard someone say as if from a distance. She realized that her eyes had gone out of focus and she had lost sense of where she actually was. "Makaaaa…"

She felt a warm hand on her shoulder giving her a gentle shake.

She blinked her eyes back into focus and found Soul leaning forward and looking at her with a worried crease between his eyes.

"Yeah?" She said realizing she had spaced out.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking about what it felt like to die."

"Shit," Soul said with a sigh as he leaned back into his usual slouch.

She laughed a little, "Sounds heavier than it was. It just puts things into perspective…I can appreciate more that I am here now with you…you know?"

He gave her a pointy lopsided grin and a nod. Obviously if anyone understood the feeling it would be Soul. She shook her head to clear away thoughts of death and looked at Soul. "Anything else important you think you remembered?"

"Not really, just that last day…you died…I beat a guy up…I died. Then bam fifty years later."

"Always so eloquent," she said with a giggle.

"Hey, I always just used music to express myself. Us brooding musicians don't have use for such mundane things as words."

"And yet, I have never heard you play!" She said indignantly.

"Well for starters we have yet to come across as piano, also we haven't really been here that long, and lastly, you likely never will," he said as he ticked them off on his fingers.

"Why wouldn't I ever hear you play?" She said as she pulled the covers up and started trying to get comfortable.

"Most people don't really get it…at least not when I play my own compositions. I could play you something else I guess. Mozart or Chopin, something more recognizable," he replied as he mirrored her actions and climbed into his own side of the bed.

"We'll find a way. And when we do I will want to hear some Soul originals." Maka turned off her bedside lamp and Soul did the same.

There was a dim glow from the alarm clock on Maka's bedside and nothing but quiet as they both laid there in contemplative silence.

Soul barely broke the silence, his voice just above a whisper, "Maka, you know how normally when we get into bed you're really cold?"

"Yeah?"

"Well tonight, I'M REALLY COLD!" He said as he wedged his icicle toes against the backs of her knees.

"GOD DAMN IT SOUL."

He started laughing obnoxiously as she started playfully kicking at him. Admittedly she was using a liiiiittle more force than necessary, but he wouldn't admit that he could already feel the bruises forming. Which would have been fine until she kicked a little too high for comfort.

"Whoa, whoa Maka, I give. You almost kicked me where it counts."

"Good," she said with a pout as she rolled onto her side away from him.

"Don't be mad Maks, its only fair."

"Hmph," was her only reply.

He sidled up behind her and poked her in the cheek, "Don't pout you big baby. I will be all warm and space heater-like in no time, you'll be able to steal my body heat again soon."

"Fine," she said grumpily. He took it as permission to snuggle up close behind her. And as promised it took him no time to get warm and fall into a comfortable sleep.

It took Maka a little longer to fall asleep, her thoughts still circling through her memories on repeat, hoping to remember more of the in between time she had spent at her father's house. However, Soul's deep, slow breaths and radiating warmth lulled her into sleep eventually. And for the first time in a while, she was not woken by her nightmares.

"WAKE UP NERDS!"

Soul and Maka were both jolted awake by a pounding at their door.

"What the fuck man!" Soul yelled back through the closed door.

"I get to train you guys today so I need you to be up, well fed and ready to go ASAP dude," Blackstar's jarring voice countered.

Soul looked at Maka with concern, "Training? With that lunatic? No thanks."

She giggled but responded to Blackstar, "We're up, go away so we can get ready."

They heard his cackle grow fainter as he retreated back down the hall.

"You just doomed us to a day with that tool," Soul grumbled as he slid out of bed.

"It was bound to happen eventually," she replied grabbing her shower caddy and a towel.

Soul found himself ready before Maka even returned from the showers so he headed towards the dining area on his own. It was a little uncomfortable, the idea of dealing with these people without Maka as back-up, but she was right, eventually they'd be spending a lot of their time with all the people at the underground hideout so onwards he trudged.

"Good morning Soul," Marie said with a smile as he settled at the table. He had already grabbed some toast and scrambled eggs from the cart before he sat down.

"Morning," he said trying to muster more than a grunt. Mornings were his least favourite, and when he felt the least human. He could admit to being grumpy in the morning, but Marie was always like a ray of sunshine and he did not want to be the one to bring her down. Kidd and the twins were already seated at the table munching away. Although, they were interesting to watch. Patti was hunched over her food as she shoveled eggs into her mouth, as if she were trying to protect it. Kidd was alternating taking bites from various sides of his plate, to maintain symmetry he assumed. And Liz was fixing her hair in her reflection in her spoon.

Tsubaki and Blackstar were standing some distance from the table talking animatedly to each other. It looked a little like an argument, but he couldn't imagine Tsubaki actually being mean to anyone, presumably if it were an argument it was guaranteed Blackstar was in the wrong.

He continued to eat his breakfast in silence, unsure of how to connect with the strangers surrounding him.

"So," said Tsubaki as she and Blackstar came to join them at the table. "We were thinking that after supper tonight we could go to the basketball court and play a little. Since we're all on the same team, we might as well have some fun! And practice working together of course."

Soul swallowed his mouthful of toast before responding, "Uh sure, I'll let Maka know."

"Where's that chirpy little broad anyways?" Blackstar chimed in while shoveling to eggs into his loud mouth.

"She was still getting ready when I left, should be here any second though…"

As if on cue Maka came out the residents' hall with her hair drip drying onto her shoulders. She was however, dressed for the supposed training they were about to receive. She was wearing shiny black, skin-tight pants, and one of those weird women's fitness tops that are half shirt and half sports bra. She looked ready to run a marathon, and he'd already seen proof that she could. He made a little space on the bench next to himself so she could sit down with her breakfast.

"Morning!" She said brightly as she spread jam on her toast.

Soul nodded and filled Maka in, "Tsubaki suggested we play some basketball tonight after dinner. Some bonding time activity."

Maka quirked an eyebrow, "Where would we even play?"

It had never occurred to ask where the basketball court actually was.

Kidd broke his silent plate arranging to respond, "There is a full size basketball court down here in the compound. Basketball courts offer beautiful symmetry."

"Okay you lunatic, enough with the symmetry. You guys actually haven't seen even half of what this place has to offer. There's a pool down here too," Liz said.

"Cool!" Maka said. "I'm down for some basketball."

"But first we train! The sooner you finish stuffing your face the sooner I can kick your asses," Blackstar said slamming the table with his palms.

There was collective eye rolling from the table as everyone finished their meal and piled their dishes back on the cart.

After a few more minutes of idle conversation everyone had finished their breakfasts. Marie pushed the cart back to wherever it came from, Liz slowly following to help with the dishes.

Soul and Maka went back to their room to have a bit of a breather before going to get their "asses kicked".

"What do you think training is going to be like?" Soul asked as him and Maka pushed into their room.

"Probably obnoxious, but who knows, maybe the kid is a great assassin or something."

She perched in front of the mirror to check her teeth for food before tying her hair up into twin pigtails.

"Battle ready?" he said with a chuckle.

"You should get up and dress in battle appropriate gear too you know. Skinny jeans and a hoodie? Not ideal."

He rolled his eyes but got up to comply.

Several minutes later they were waiting for Blackstar in the training area across the room from the dining table. They had just gotten bored of waiting and were about to leave when a blur landed in the space in front of them with a light thud.

"Where do you noobs think you're going?" The aforementioned blur said loudly.

"Oh, Blackstar, we didn't think you were coming," Maka said with crossed arms. She looked a little taken aback from his entrance.

"Where did you come from?" Soul asked.

"I was waiting in hiding until you losers gave up. It's to test your patience and stamina. You didn't do as badly as I thought."

Soul stared at the blue haired man blankly. "Do we really have to do this?"

Blackstar stared him down. "Yes. And I imagine one day soon you'll be glad you did. Now get ready."

Several hours had passed and Soul was EXHAUSTED. Maka did substantially better than him in almost every way with the training, including resisting the urge to give up and lay down. An urge that five hours into the training, he did not resist.

"Come one nerd get up, we're done for today anyways. You didn't do too badly, you don't compare to me in any way yet. But you aren't an embarrassment. Maka, you were even less of an embarrassment than your pale little boyfriend here. Did you have previous training?"

"A little," she shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. Soul however, could tell that the compliment was making her glow. She did have a bit of an over-achiever vibe.

"Alright, so today we covered some basic material. We will continue to refine these basic skills and then build speed and strength behind attack and evasion. Very soon you will at least have enough skills to come out for basic raids."

"What kind of raids?" Maka asked.

"We are all wanted, and it is impossible to know who is loyal to Medusa, or at the very least within her payroll, so we can't just go grocery shopping, or clothes shopping, or do any sort of supply trips without it being a silent break and enter. We do our best to be invisible and leave no damage or even visible evidence that we ever entered any of the establishments we have to steal from. We also disable some of Medusa's smaller operations, take out some of her known henchman and bases, gather intelligence for Marie and Dr. Stein."

"How do they know who we are?" Soul asked.

"Are these operations dangerous?" Maka chimed in.

"Medusa has her ways. On top of that she looked into all mysterious disappearances from the time where we all came. On top of that you compromised yourselves when you were on the surface did you not? And consequently you were targeted. She has eyes everywhere and if she didn't know who you were before, she does now. And to answer your question Maka, the sloppier we are, the more dangerous these missions become. So taking this training seriously is essential to our survival. Understood?"

They both nodded in response to Blackstar's little speech. They had never seen him so serious before and it was a little alarming. Suddenly the serious set to his face was cracked open by a large grin.

"Now! Rest up, eat up, and prepare for when you get your asses handed to you in basketball after dinner!" He shouted as he bounced away.

"Ughhhh, how does he always have so much damn energy, and why is he obsessed with our asses!" Soul groaned as him and Maka slowly dragged their feet in the direction of the dorms.

"Maybe he gets it from his hair," Maka giggled.

"I'm thirsty, can you take me to the kitchen Maka? I want water but I've never been there before."

"Sure let's go."

Maka led him passed the dining table, into a door and down a hall. They passed a few nondescript doors before arriving at a twin set of aluminum push doors. Maka pushed them open to reveal a large spotless kitchen. The kind you'd find in a restaurant. She pointed to a cupboard to the right of a large stainless steel sink where he found glasses.

A few minutes later he was watered and collapsed on their bedroom floor. He was spread out with his eyes closed and the empty glass next to his head.

"You just going to stay here?" Maka said leaning forward to hover over his face.

He squinted up at her, her head only doing an okay job at blocking the ceiling light glare from his eyes.

"Probably," he said with a little chuckle. "What are you gonna do?"

"I think I am going to try to take a bath, the hot water should make this hurt less tomorrow," she said smiling. "You should try it too!"

"I'm good Maks, have a nice bath though."

He closed his eyes but heard her rummaging around the room for a few minutes before leaving. He figured he had at least a few minutes of time to squeeze in a nap before he'd have to get ready for dinner, and a humiliating game of basketball. With a hefty sigh he dozed off spread out on floor.