Day 12 - Smitten: My roommate's boyfriend is staying over so can I please sleep on your floor" AU – Song referenced is the wonderful Etta James' Prisoner of Love

Soul was hunched over his sheet music when he heard a knock on his dorm door. He lowered the volume on his speaker, wondering if in his pre-exam delirium he had imagined it. At first the knock was tentative and quiet but then grew bolder as if annoyed that he hadn't immediately opened the door. It was 1:04 am on a Friday night, so Soul had a good idea of who was demanding his attention.

"At this point, I should just give you a key," Soul said, amused. As expected, Maka Albarn stood there with a pillow under one arm and her blanket in the other. Also as expected, she looked absolutely adorable and disheveled, as if rudely roused from her sleep. "Did Liz bring another guy over?"

Maka waltzed into his room and made herself comfortable on his twin bed. She was wearing the obscure band t-shirt he thought had gotten lost in the laundry. Her hair looked like it ate the last brush that tried to come near it. How was it possible for one person to be so cute? "She brought two guys over and one of them was dressed in a banana costume and honestly I cut out before I could figure out why. Can I sleep on your floor tonight? Please?"

Usually when Liz brought a guy over, Maka stayed in Soul's room for a couple of hours before the coast was clear and she could safely sleep in her own bed without having to worry about gross sex noises. Can I sleep in your room was a new development and it was one that Soul wasn't sure he was comfortable with. Battling his feelings for her was hard enough without her looking so good in his stolen t-shirt and sleeping in his sanctuary. "You can't sleep on the floor, it's freezing."

"Fine, then let's share the bed."

Every alarm, bell, whistle, and red flag went off in Soul's head. His first instinct was to scream Fuck no! because that was dangerous for all sorts of reasons. Maka took his silence as rejection and her face fell. He was a goner, he thought, because he couldn't say no to that damn puppy face. "Maka, I don't think–"

"I don't take up that much room," Maka insisted. "I'll leave really early in the morning. Please?"

Along from night to night you'll find me,the beautiful voice from his computer sang, too weak to break the chains that bind me, I need no shackles to remind me, that I'm just a prisoner of love.

That was how he found himself spooning the girl he had been smitten with since Liz had introduced them two years ago. Maka had been a bright eyed, pigtailed freshman and he a cynical, antisocial sophomore but somehow they had just clicked. It hadn't taken long before Soul had fallen in love with her the way most people fell off buildings– hard, fast, and painfully– and now he was paying the price for it.

"Soul, are you sleeping?" Maka asked from behind him. Uncool as it was, at least if Soul was facing the wall and Maka was the big spoon, she wouldn't be about to feel any sort of bodily betrayals like morning wood.

"Yes," Soul said, wondering what he did in a past life to deserve this kind of torture. He could feel her pressed to his back, all soft and smelling good and wearing his fucking t-shirt, Jesus Christ.

"How come you're not trying anything?" Maka blurted out. Prisoner of Love repeated over and over on his computer and it couldn't be more fitting. "My body can't be that boring."

"What."

Maka scrambled to sit up. "Well, it's just that– don't you like me? Oh no, did I get the signals wrong? Everyone said you liked me and it takes me a long time to realize these things but I like you so I thought–"

Soul rolled over in bed. Even in the dark, with only the street lights illuminating the room, he could see her blushing. "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"Um. Yes. Is it working?"

He started laughing, which was the wrong thing to do because Maka looked highly offended. She smacked him in the face with her pillow. "You're really bad at this," Soul said between chuckles. He was so relieved that all of that sexual tension wasn't one sided.

"Forget it," Maka said hotly. "This was stupid. I'm stupid. I'm going to go sleep outside and let the squirrels eat my flesh because that would be less painful right now."

Soul grabbed her arm and pulled her back down onto the bed. "Stop. Your problem is you think too much."

"YOUR problem is that your face is stupimmppph–"

He cut her off with a kiss because finally, finally they could graduate from "everyone thinks we're dating" to "we're actually dating, now take off your pants". "I like you."

"G-good," Maka's voice trembled. "Very good."

"Yeah."

"Mhhhm."

"Okay, stop trying to get the last word."

"Well maybeif youmpppph–"

Soul grinned against her mouth.

From one who's master of my fate now, I can't escape, for it's too late now, that I'm just a prisoner of love.