Author stuff: I used to have a poll at the top of this chapter — as well as the next few or so — that asked about some names. If you look through the reviews, that's what was happening once upon a time. I got a lot of feedback… still do.
I've spent the last week or so shopping for Christmas presents, and I'm worn out. I still need to get something for my dad though…
Anyway, Happy Holidays to everyone out there. I hope you have a good Christma-Kwanza-Kah!
Also, so many thanks to everyone who favorited and followed me and this fic. There was a whole bunch of you, and I wanted to thank each and every one of you individually but it didn't happen. (I had a ton of holiday shopping to do.) So, I'm posting my thanks and love here to all of you beauties out there. You are amazing and, if I could, I would hug each and every single one of you.
Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or any of the characters. They all belong to Atsushi Okubo, who is signed under Square Enix in Japan and Yen Press in North America. The anime is directed by Takuya Igarashi, and produced by Bones, Aniplex, Dentsu, Media Factory, TV Tokyo.
Claimer: I do own Café Evans and Maggie.
CAFÉ EVANS
by infidelityONcrank
Chapter 3
Rainy Day Melody
I ducked under people's umbrellas and overhangs from shops as I skirted down the street to the café. My raincoat and broken umbrella didn't offer much protection from the onslaught from the sky. It had been threatening to rain all day, and the clouds only decided to burst as I left my apartment complex.
"Late," Soul said to me from behind the counter. He was busy washing and drying dishes, as seeing how the place was bare. He looked up at me and coughed back a laugh. "What'd you do, jump in every puddle on your way here?"
"No," I said, taking off my coat. "For your information, my umbrella decided it would commit suicide and flew out my window when the winds picked up. Besides, I was three steps out of the complex when it started to pour."
"...You left your umbrella open, didn't you."
"It was raining yesterday, too! Umbrellas need to dry."
"So you're the reason why we're not supposed to have umbrellas open indoors! It's not bad luck, they just fly out of windows." He chuckled, shaking his head.
"No need to be a jerk about it."
It had almost been a week since my interview at the cafe. I was quite comfortable and could pick out the regulars from curious folk who wanted to try the food. That, and after that short period of time I was starting to feel like I belonged.
"Oh, before I forget," Soul said, washing some glasses, "Tsubaki is covering for my last hour today."
"Why?" I said, counting the cash in the register — mostly out of habit — ...twenty-three... twenty-four...
"I, uh, have some errands to run."
"At three in the morning?"
...twenty-nine... thirty... thirty-one...
"...Yeah."
"What are you doing at three in the morning, Soul Evans?" I turned my attention away from the cash.
"Is that really any of your business?"
"Not really, but I'd like to know. You could be a drug dealer or crime ring boss or something."
"I'm not going to tell you."
"Please!"
"Maka... no."
"I'll scream," I said seriously. I had lungs and I wasn't afraid to use them. I opened my mouth wide and sucked in air... He clamped his hand over my mouth. I was teasing, really, but he took the threat a little seriously.
"Fine," he said. He looked around, shifty-like. "Don't be such a kid. I go to a jazz club."
I blinked. A jazz club. I've never been to one.
"Why do you go there?" I said.
"Look, there's this guy there that wants to buy this café."
"Just tell him 'no'."
"We have. One hundred and forty-two times. I understand why he wants it — great location, lots of business... He wants to convert this place into a 'swinging joint,' as he says. This is really all Wes and I have that's our own. It's our only escape from high society."
"High society? What...?" More secrets! I thought we were over hiding things from one another. Well, I didn't really know him. We had only been working together for a week.
"Uh, nothing, forget I even said that part!"
"Soul!" I was whining. It was annoying — to myself and any listener.
"Look, my family isn't all it's cracked up to be. That's all you need to know."
"Alright."
I let it go after that, but I couldn't help but wondering. High society? Was his family rich or something? It was like he was an undercover character in a book or movie or something. Huh, that'd make for an interesting plot.
"Maka, stop dwelling on things," he said in his usual tone, scolding me in the way only he could. Soul has this odd way of doing things with this voice that made me giddy and nervous and excited at the same time.
The bell tinkled above the door, calling our attention.
"H-hello," a timid person called.
"Long time, Crona," Soul said, nodding to the figure.
I couldn't quite tell if this person was male or female. Crona was thin, as if half starved, and tall with oddly cut pink hair and tired blue eyes. Ze wore a long black dress with white cufflinks and plain black flats. I had reason to believe this person was female, but their voice said otherwise(1).
"Here."
Soul handed the strange person a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Nobody I knew could refuse hot chocolate.
"Ragnarok didn't follow me," Crona said to Soul. "I'm just letting you know, in case you see him. I didn't tell him where I was going."
"Don't know why you're still with him," Soul said, muttering bitterly.
"He... he protects me from the people who want to hurt me."
"Who would want to hurt you?" I asked. Crona looked at me, startled, like a deer caught in headlights.
"Don't worry, Maka doesn't bite... much." Soul said, trying to be soothing.
"I'm Maka Albarn." I said, holding out my hand.
"Cr-Crona," the timid person shook my hand. "M-my name is Crona."
Well, that didn't answer any questions.
"It's nice to meet you, Crona.
"M-most poe-people are afraid o-of me."
"Why? You seem perfectly normal."
"Because they th-think that what I am is-is a disease that they can ca-catch."
"And what's that? If it's not too rude of a question."
"I-it's fine. I'm a her-hermaphrodite(2)."
"It's not like it's a new strain of subtype H1N1." I hummed.
"H1N1, what...?" Soul said, blinking.
"The 'evolved form of the Swine Flu.' Turns out the origins are unknown(3)," Crona said.
"I thought you knew a crap load of random facts," I said, arching a brow at the white-haired male.
"Eh, some facts are more important than others."
"Worldly issues aren't important?"
"The world knows it, so it's not important."
"You're really a head case, you know that?"
Crona laughed, really laughed. The poor human was rolling on the floor, struggling to breathe, and crying from the pain. I wondered what gender zey went by — male or female or neither or both…
"Y-yo-you t-two are hi-hilar-hilarious," Crona said, managing to wheeze something at us.
The bell above the door rang and in walked at tall, dark, muscle-bound man. A white 'x' crossed his face. A spiked dog collar wrapped around his neck; similar cuffs were around his wrists and his ankles. His hands were gloved and his feet were booted. He was bald but wore a black leather hat. His belt was studded and held up spandex bottoms that only covered what was necessary and deemed decent for society. To me, he looked like something out of a kinky porn movie; he was only missing the whip(4).
"There you are," the man said. His voice was higher than what I had expected. It wasn't the rumble of thunder, it was... annoying, to say the least.
Crona winced and said, "H-hi, Rag-Ragnarok."
"So, you came to see your friends?"
"Ye-yes. I'm so-sorry I didn't t-tell you wh-where I was g-going."
"Huh... Who's the new chick?"
"Maka Albarn," Soul said. "She's annoying."
"She-she's rather ni-nice," Crona said.
"Whatever," the man said, folding his arms as he circled me. Like anybody else would have felt, I was the poor dead animal to some circling, carnivorous vulture.
I felt a light breeze from behind and yelped and grabbed the nearest thing: a phone book. It chopped him on the head. Someone was going to wake up with a headache that no hangover could compare with.
Soul and Crona both looked on open mouthed, gawking.
"What'd you do that for?" Soul said — shrieking in a high voice I'd never expect from him — recovering the fastest.
"He lifted up my skirt!" I said, shrieking back.
"You didn't have to knock him out with a phone book!"
"I don't think a slap from me would have done the job!"
Crona hunched over the body of Ragnarok and poked him with zir finger.
"H-hey, Ragnarok? I'm r-ready to g-go. Rag-Ragnarok?" Crona said, ignoring the surrounding world.
The bell chimed it happily and in walked two people. I would have almost thought them siblings but the age difference would put them as father and daughter.
"Soul," the little girl said, practically singing. She pranced over the unconscious Ragnarok and was swept into a friendly hug. "I'm hungry, can you make me a cheeseburger?"
"Sure thing. Want fries and a shake with it?" Soul said setting her down on a stool.
"Yay!"
I looked at her and sighed. An annoying kid at... 9:30 at night. Great, I've only been here for a half hour.
The man that accompanied the girl looked at Ragnarok's body and cocked a brow.
"R-Ragnarok looked u-up Maka's sk-skirt and sh-she hit him on the h-head w-with a ph-phone book," Crona said, feeling the need to explain. "P-Poor phone bo-book."
"I didn't mean to hit him that hard," I said, muttering under my breath. I looked over at the man. His face was serene but I could tell he was amused.
"Mifune's not a man of many words," Soul said, grilling a burger and quickly frying some fries. "He likes children, which is why he's Angela's bodyguard."
"I'm not a child," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Ah, but in his eyes, you are."
I snorted and studied the two.
Angela was a girl about ten or eleven, at the most. Her brown hair was chopped into a messy bob that framed a rather angelic face. Her ruby eyes were innocent and were blessed with long lashes. She wore a simple green dress under a simple green raincoat, which she discarded on the floor — I hung it up on a hook not too far from her seat.
Mifune wore a white shirt that was loose and showed off his chest. His blond hair was long and pulled back into a lazy ponytail. His blue eyes were lazy and his lips were thin. He chewed on a reed and watched what was going around him with little interest.
"She's pretty," the girl, Angela, said, swinging her feet back and forth on the stool. "Don't you think, Soul?"
I looked at Soul. His cheeks had a slight pink hue to them. He turned away, so I couldn't see him.
"She's not ugly," Soul said.
"Pretty Lady, Soul thinks you're very pretty." Angela said to me, giggling.
"I do not!"
"Don't lie to Pretty Lady, Soul. Lying is bad." she scolded.
"I don't think she's pretty!"
After things winded down, and Soul and I were alone again, I popped the question that had been nagging at my conscious.
"Is your family rich?" I said.
"Why do you ask that?" he said, blinking.
"It's been bugging me since earlier(5)."
"Well," he said, leaning back on a chair, "you ever heard of the prestigious Evans family?"
"Yeah, they own that big house down on Crossbones Avenue that they visit once every five years. What about them? ...Wait, you're a prestigious Evans? One of them? No way. No freaking way!"
"Yeah, well, it's not that great. Mom decided that all of her children would take up instruments. Wes took up the violin, my eldest sister Norma decided that since she hates instruments and she would sing instead, and my youngest sister Esther plays the flute(6)."
"What about you?" I said, not missing a beat.
"What about me?"
"What instrument do you play?"
He grumbled something.
"What?" I said.
"Piano."
I blinked. He didn't look like the type of guy to play the piano. Then again, he didn't look like the type of guy to do anything.
"I wish there was a piano here so you could show me."
The bell above the door jingled, signaling that we had a customer. Soul froze at the sight of the man. I could only stare.
He didn't look human — in fact, I don't think he was. He looked more like a very short demon. His skin was a burning scarlet. His yellow eyes burned wickedly and his teeth glinted with a crooked smile. His ears pointed outwards in deadly points. Twin, pearly white horns jutted out from his forehead. His pinstripe suit was neatly pressed. He looked frightening.
"Well, hello, Soul," the demon said.
"Get behind me," Soul said, practically growling to me quietly. I did so. His voice was feral when he spoke to the strange man, "What're you doing here?"
"Why, the meeting, of course. Tell me, who is your lovely friend behind you?"
"Leave her out of this."
"Ah, so this must be Miss Maka Albarn. Miss Albarn, it is a pleasure to meet you in person. Soul has told me all about you."
"Who...?" I said, suddenly terrified that this strange person in front of me knew my name. "Who are you?"
"Why, my dear, just call me, Little Demon."
1. Since Crona's gender is unknown, and probably will be for a long time, I used the gender neutral nouns instead — "ze" and "zir" and "zey." (Although, I don't really see zey used very often anymore.) I originally used "they", which wasn't really insulting, I just felt the need to use the appropriate modern terms.
2. Hermaphrodite: A person with both male and female reproductive organs. Derives from Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. Hermaphroditus fused with a nymph, Salmacius, and then had both reproductive organs.
3. In 2009, everyone was in a panic about Swine Flu — or H1N1. I wrote it in as kind of a joke.
4. Crona was either going to have split personalities (good side: Crona, bad side: Ragnarok) or Crona and Ragnarok be two different people. I liked two different people because... well one of my cousins reminds me of Ragnarok and another reminds me of Crona. It's pretty funny to see the two together... and kind of creepy. The one that's like Ragnarok is kind of... kinky, as the few of us say about him. So, that's the inspiration of that.
5. This line honestly bugged me. It's not proper English. At all. But it's how people around here talk, so what else is expected. Heck, I even get caught talking like that. All improper and whatnot. A normal person might say "It was bugging me earlier." But no, here it's "It's been bugging me since earlier." My cousin thinks I'm weird, he just wants to let you know that.
6. I noticed that Wes sounds like West and Soul sounds like South. So, I thought what is they had sisters whose names sounded like North and East? Thus, Norma and Esther were born. Norma was rebellious and sings instead of playing the harp or something. Esther I was going to have as a dancer but decided flute for her, just because I felt that Norma being the rebel was enough. Esther is, by far, the one OC that everyone adores and dotes on.
Author stuff cont'd: So, yeah, this was one of the chapters I really wanted to edit and show my respect to all the different genders — which can get confusing at points, but should still be recognized by society.
And you get to meet the antagonist. Yup. Very exciting.
