26. Flustered Fennel and Cream

Awkward

"It's a good thing you came on this mission instead of Kid," Soul muttered quietly, rubbing a towel vigorously against his damp hair.

"Why's that?" Kilik inquired, glancing back at the scythe as he threw on a black, sleeveless shirt.

"Seven kishin souls and only three weapons?" Soul scoffed, stepping towards the door of the pool's locker room. "He would've gone ballistic."

"Yeah, I guess," Kilik laughed, following Soul into one of the hotel's long hallways. "Thanks for letting Fire have the soul, by the way."

"Hey, you've got two weapons. It's no problem for me to give up a soul to a friend now and then."

After signing up for a mission in Chicago, Illinois, Maka and Soul had offered to let Kilik and his two weapon partners come with. The mission sheet stated a nest of kishin were sneaking around the outskirts of the city, taking whatever prey they could. When the group arrived, they found the nest smaller than they had originally thought and defeated the soul gobbling monsters with ease. Instead of returning back to Death City, they decided to stay in a hotel and get an early start in the morning.

The hotel they found was rather fancy, so to save themselves some extra cash, they all chipped in on a single room and chose to flip a coin for whoever would get to sleep in the two beds. There had been a small argument, but after Soul finally gave up his battle on how he'd totally called tails and not heads, Kilik and Maka had been the victors.

Not wanting to turn in quite yet, both Kilik and Soul had gone down to the hotel's swimming pool for a few hours before heading back up to their room where Maka, Fire, and Thunder were already asleep.

"Sorry about your situation, Soul," Kilik sighed as they approached their room. "Fire and Thunder both adore Maka, and she's fine with them sleeping with her, so you're the only one left on the floor. You're a good friend, but there's no way I'm letting you in my bed."

"That's okay," Soul muttered, pulling the key card out of the pocket of his shorts and sliding it into its slot, slowly opening the door. Inside was pitch black without a single light on, and the thick curtains had been pulled across the windows, choking out any signs of moonlight. "I probably wouldn't take you up on that offer if you asked anyway. Besides, the floor looks..." Soul trailed off, feeling the rough, almost jagged carpet beneath his feet and wincing, "...cozy."

"Yeah, sorry," Kilik whispered, gazing around in the darkness and briefly wondering where his bed was. "You can have my pillows."

"Thanks," Soul muttered, feeling around the dark room for the two blissfully large beds he wouldn't have the opportunity to touch. Why had he picked heads?

There was a quiet bang followed by Kilik's muffled swearing. "Why can't we just turn on a light?" he hissed under his breath.

"Because Maka will kill you, I swear. Never wake her up in the middle of the night at all costs," Soul replied, settling down in between the two beds. "Hand over those pillows. You promised."

"Yeah, yeah," Kilik replied tiredly, sliding under the heavy covers of his own bed and grabbing the two pillows balanced on the side. He whipped one at Soul, hearing a soft whump and a startled grunt before he launched the second one at him. "Sorry," he said with a smirk, hearing Soul's unconvinced, "Uh-huh."

Rolling onto his side, Kilik nestled his head into the mattress, pulling the sheets and blankets tightly around himself and closing his eyes with a long sigh.

-/-\-|-/-\-

Dim light shone through the edges of the curtain over the window, waking Kilik, and he squinted against the sudden brightness. Snorting in irritation, he turned his back to the sunlight and stretched his sore arms into the air. The tips of his fingers brushed against something soft and he dropped his arms back onto the bed. However, his arms didn't land flat but instead fell onto three lumps.

Kilik's eyes opened slowly, a confused look coming across his face. Sleeping quietly in front of him, just a few inches from his own face, was Pot of Thunder. Behind her was a peaceful looking Maka, and lying next to her was Fire.

And beside all three of them was himself, growing more and more horrified by the second.

Opening his mouth, Kilik timidly squeaked a few incoherent words before snapping his teeth together to stop himself from crying out and waking the whole hotel. He decided the best course of action would be to slither out of the bed like water and crawl into the (presumably, if Soul didn't cave) empty bed beside him.

He carefully rose onto one elbow, keeping a wide eyed gaze fixed on the gently breathing Maka and his two weapon partners. They didn't move so he steadily eased himself backwards. That's when the bed creaked the most agonizingly boisterous creak, much like Black Star's usual rantings, and everything went to Hell.

Maka's eyes fluttered open and Kilik held his breath, hoping her dead look would remain and she'd drift off into sleep again. No such luck, for Maka's countenance went from tired to confused and then to realization and demanding in less than a second. Immediately, she opened her mouth and exclaimed in a piercing voice, "What are you doing?"

Kilik shot backwards off the bed, plummeting downwards onto a snoozing Soul. Before he could scramble to his feet, the scythe below him jolted upright, sending Kilik toppling backwards. Soul was ready to fight in an instant, searching the room for what woke him so violently.

"S-Soul, hold up!" Maka cried, quickly pulling the now awake and startled Fire and Thunder close to her. "Everything's fine, I think!"

"What happened?" Soul demanded, shoulders dropping noticeably as he looked around the room from the fallen Kilik to the suspiciously neat bed.

"Look, it was an accident," Kilik assured Maka, rising to his knees. "It was so dark last night, I didn't notice which bed I'd crawled into, and I was sleeping on the edge of it so I didn't notice if there was anyone else in it! I'm really sorry about that Maka, and I was trying not to wake you when I got up so..." Kilik took a long breath, glancing nervously at Soul who seemed to be growing more and more indignant as the situation became clear.

"So, it was too dark and you didn't see us?" Maka asked hesitantly, and Kilik's head bobbed up and down. "But we spent the whole night like that?"

"I-I guess we all kind of did," Kilik mumbled nervously, focusing on the ugly carpet.

An uncomfortable lull fell over the group of friends as they waited for the awkwardness to fade so they could begin laughing at the mistake. When it was still a weird atmosphere after a few minutes, Kilik opened his mouth to say something but Soul beat him to it, demanding shrilly, "You mean I spent that entire night bending my body out of shape on that damnably diamond hard floor when there was a bed open the whole time?"

Maka and Kilik only stared back at him, dumbfounded until Maka broke the silence, snapping, "Really? That's the only thing you have to comment on?"

-/-\-|-/-\-

A/N: Came up with that one awhile ago… To the reviewer Giraffes: How did you know the next one shot I planned to post was a Kilik x Maka pairing? ;)