Day 5 - Date: Both stood up for a blind date" AU

"Maka?"

"Soul?"

Soul stares in disbelief as a ghost from his past sits merely inches away from him at the coffee shop. He's feeling a lot of things and feelings generally make him uncomfortable. For a split second she looks equally as uncomfortable but then in typical Maka Albarn fashion, it quickly melts away into some happy-confused hybrid.

"What are you doing here?" his high school chemistry lab partner and first love asks.

Her hair is longer than he remembers and now she is more pretty than cute but everything else about her is the same. Same long legs and same big eyes and same electric smile that starred in many of his pre-pubescent fantasies. His teenage crush on her had been so cliche it was painful– Soul was the rebellious and sarcastic "cool" kid and Maka was the sweet and ambitious valedictorian. They had never dated but they had been good friends before they parted ways for college.

After the initial shock wears off Soul decides that he is happy to see her, more so than he can articulate. "'Meeting a friend here. He was supposed to be–" Soul almost says, Setting me up with some girl I could care less about, but getting ditched on a blind date is so pathetic. "Anyway, he's late. You?"

"Tsubaki– do you remember her?– she was bringing her new boyfriend and his friend here and we were supposed to have a double date," Maka says honestly. "I've been here for over thirty minutes and no one's showed. I think I've been stood up."

What are the chances they had both been stood up? What are the chances they had been stood up in the same coffee shop? It's all too coincidental for a cynic like Soul. He smells a scheme. He opens his mouth to tell her as such but quickly snaps it closed. When is he ever going to get another chance like this?

He looks down at his cell phone. 1 new message from Black*Star, it says. *****DUDE, YOU OWE ME BIG TIME*****.

"D'you want to grab a coffee since we're both already here?" Soul asks.

"Good idea!" Maka shrugs her jacket off. "I want to hear all about what you've done since high school. I don't think I've seen you since you threw up on my boots at that graduation party."

Soul groans. He hadn't even thrown up from drinking too much alcohol. He had been battling the stomach flu for days before that party and his idiotic best friend Black*Star forced him to go anyway. He spent most of the party with his head in the toilet or sleeping on Maka's lap. "I told you to forget that."

"Is that why you never answered any of my emails after we graduated?" She asks innocently.

"Partially." Mostly because I had a stupid crush on you. "Sorry."

"Forget it. It's in the past." Maka is still too nice for her own good. It's both endearing and frustrating as hell. "But maybe, if you want, since we're both still in the same city, we could hang out–?"

"We've been set up," Soul blurts out. "I'm your blind date."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"I see."

"Yeah."

They stare at each other before Maka's lips quirk into another smile. Soul smiles back and they start laughing at the ridiculousness of this "blind date". "What a stupid plan," Maka says between giggles. "I still would have shown up if Tsubaki and Black*Star had just been honest about who I was meeting."

"Really?" Soul asks, trying not to get his hopes up.

"Really," Maka confirms. "So, where are you taking me on our second date?"