A/N: Warning: slight lemony stuff towards the end, hence the M rating of the story.
Soul sighed heavily as he hit the street to hunt down some food. The fresh air did wonders to clear his head. It was kind of weird to see Maka like this. She never shied away from expressing how much she cared for him, but it always seemed that it was merely on a professional, weapon-meister level. Yet, this morning… The white-haired boy shook his head to dismiss that train of thought. – No don't go there, no need to get my hopes if there is no other significance behind it… she is just feverish…
Equipped with the grocery bags, on his way back from the store the scythe weapon spotted someone in the distance whom he would have much rather avoided at the moment. None other than Spirit Albarn. Quickly ducking into a side street to his left to take a detour back home Soul exhaled in relief for being able to evade the encounter. What the hell is he doing in this part of town now? Doesn't he have work with Lord Death at this time of the day? Oh, well, the little restaurant where he intended to buy the soup at was actually closer from this way anyway.
"Hey, Soul Eater, avoiding me much?" – came a grumpy voice two corners later from his right, making Soul almost jump out of his skin. So much for evasion… It seemed Death Scythe had spotted him too.
"Lay off, old man." – he groaned back after collecting his wits, strolling right past Maka's dad.
"Where is Maka, you usually go to the store together, don't you?" – How the hell do you know that? Are you having us followed?
"At home, resting." – Soul huffed, not stopping to chat.
"Why is she resting? Did something happen at the New Year's party? Did you get her drunk?" – Spirit screeched in outrage.
"Mind your own business. Don't you have work or something?" – the younger scythe weapon sighed disinterestedly.
"I do. Lord Death asked me to drop something off at Death Shipping." – he explained with surprising easy going attitude at first, then suddenly burst out yelling. – "But why the hell am I explaining myself to you? What have you done to my Maka?"
"Chill out! I didn't do anything." – Soul replied coolly, slurping in a little drool that accumulated because he forgot to swallow in the heat of the discussion. – "You could have taught your daughter that it isn't a great idea to go to the pool while getting ill though…" – he added almost inaudibly with thorough sarcasm.
"What? She is sick?" – Spirit exclaimed, clearly having caught that comment.
"Damn it..." – the red-eyed weapon groaned. – "Yes, she is under the weather, now may I go and buy her a damned bowl of soup for lunch?"
"I'll go with you!" – Death Scythe perked up and started walking faster like a man on a mission.
"Whatever." – Soul sighed with flat and bored resignation.
Reaching the apartment Spirit was still tagging along much to Soul's annoyance.
"Hurry up you dimwit, I want to see how my Maka is!" – Spirit trotted up with great vehemence on the stairs, shooting daggers with his eyes at the younger scythe for being slow in his opinion, not minding that his hands were full with bags.
Would you shut up already… – Soul gritted his teeth, his cool attitude starting to crack because of the obnoxious Death Scythe. He fumbled for his keys, trying to juggle the groceries in his arms.
"Come on, open the door!" – the redhead demanded again impatiently, but of course made no move to help the white-haired boy with the task. – "Fine I'll just open it myself!" – he exclaimed and transformed his arm to show his blades to get ready to tear the door down.
"Geez, knock it off!" – Evans yelled as he showed Spirit out of the way to open the door.
As they entered Blair was sitting at the kitchen table happily gobbling down some slightly burned fish that she had apparently made on the stove, leaving the dirty dishes in the sink for however was up to it to handle.
"Blair!" – Death Scythe perked up instantly with amorous intent evident in his voice.
"Hey, there!" – the cat in woman form looked up surprised at the man's arrival. Soul tried to signal her to drag the old fart away before Maka could notice that he was there. – "Why don't we go for a walk? I ought to leave for Chupa Cabra's anyway." – she grabbed the man by the arm turning him around and pulling him towards the entrance, glancing back at Soul, questioning the reason why he was there in the first place. The scythe weapon just rolled his eyes at her from which she seemed to understand without further explanation that Spirit had forced his way to the apartment without his consent.
"Sure thing!" – Maka's dad agreed without hesitation, seemingly his sick daughter forgotten without another thought.
The white-haired boy sighed in relief once they were out the door. Crisis averted. Who knew that once it would be a rather lucky thing that Blair lived with them… He quickly put all the stuff he bought away then headed for the bathroom. Not paying attention he unsuspectingly entered without knocking or noticing that the light was on in there.
Glancing up, the sight of Maka in the tub – fully naked I might add – greeted him. It was so unexpected and surprising that for a moment he couldn't look away, then he fell backwards with a huge nose-bleed, preparing for the worst. Namely a mega Maka-chop that would possibly split his head right open as soon as she collected her wits – and hopefully garments.
But nothing happened.
"Soul, I can't get out. Could you send Blair in." – she whispered after a few seconds, closing her eyes, holding onto the side of the tub for her dear life.
"She left." – with your dad – he wanted to add but stopped himself. No need to upset her. Actually he had absolutely no energy or will to explain why he wound up at their apartment in the first place.
"Oh. Well, that's a problem." – Maka sighed as another dizzy spell washed over her.
"Why are you taking a bath?" – Soul inquired, purposefully still not looking. He was positive when he left that she would still be sleeping when he got back.
"I was cold and Blair thought that taking a hot bath was the best way to warm me up." – the meister confessed as she tried to hang onto her consciousness. – "It was no use telling her that it was a bad idea. She just went ahead and floated me in with magic despite my protests."
"Damn that kitty, seriously." – the red-eyed weapon groaned rubbing his face in exasperation, now that he paid attention the bathroom was rather steamy that indicated that Maka was not joking about the scalding bath. No doubt it did nothing beneficial for her already high fever. At least Blair could have warned him when they arrived. But no… At least Spirit wasn't still here to witness this.
He got up with his eyes closed and fumbled around trying to find Maka's towel then shuffled over to the bathtub, his hand offered for her to take while holding out the towel too.
"Can you stand?" – Soul asked, eyes still closed but turning his head away too just in case.
"Yeah, I think." – Maka replied, grabbing onto his hand and pulling herself up, but her legs gave out as she slipped a bit and her partner instinctively caught her. Luckily wrapping the towel around her in the process too.
"All clear?" – he inquired if it was safe to open his eyes and she was at least semi-decent.
"Uhum." – she mumbled in embarrassment.
With the permission to use his sight again Soul strode out of the bathroom with Maka in his arms to take her back to her room.
He set her down on the bed then bailed from the room faster than a bat from hell before his meister could come to her senses about what had just transpired between them and left her to dress. As he closed the door behind himself he slid to the floor panting slightly, his head rested back against the door.
"Are you hungry?" – Soul asked flatly after a few minutes. – "I brought soup."
"That would be great." – came the tentative response from the other side of the door.
The white-haired boy clambered to his feet and walked into the kitchen to warm up the chicken broth. After setting it on a tray he made his way back to the door then after a big calming breath to regain his cool he knocked and entered after being granted permission.
Maka was sitting back under the covers on her bed, dressed in a warm hoodie that awfully looked like one of Soul's, seemingly unaffected – at least in a negative way – from their way too intimate encounter not 10 minutes ago. She must be exhausted and dizzy from that hot bath – what was Blair thinking… seriously… – maybe she needs help eating?
Without thinking further about it, he set the tray in his meister's lap and started to reach for the spoon to feed her when he caught sight of her arched brows and questioning stare.
"I can eat by myself, you know. I'm not an invalid." – Maka huffed but there was no real anger behind it, more like a little bit of humor.
"Right." – Soul nodded after a second as he leaned back in Maka's desk chair that he had taken up residence in. Wow… talk about uncool… I must have looked like a real dork in her eyes just now.
As the ash-blond girl sipped her soup in silence, spoonful by spoonful, her weapon partner just stared into space, his face a bit aloof. Noticing this Maka decided to try and cheer him up a bit.
"You know, we could watch a movie afterwards." – she chimed a bit too fast and ended up coughing a bit.
"So that you could snooze on my shoulder again?" – the white-haired boy teased with a toothy grin.
"That was quite nice actually, thank you very much." – Maka confessed and blushed a bit as she recalled the previous day's activities and how warm and comfortable she felt in Soul's embrace.
"So what do you want to watch?" – the red-eyed weapon inquired after his partner slurped the last of her soup in her mouth.
"Surprise me!" – the blond meister offered with a small smile before grabbing her blanket to keep herself warm out in the living room.
To tell the truth… The Grudge wasn't exactly what Maka had in mind when she let the reins over to her all too gore loving partner. In 20/20 hindsight that frighteningly wide smirk that Soul gave her should have been a warning that something like this might ought to have been on his mind.
One thing was for sure: falling asleep on her weapon was definitely not one of her worries at the moment. Hiding in the crook of his neck every time something scary happened on screen might have been embarrassing but the scythe master was well beyond caring at this point.
And besides, this also meant that she was thoroughly cuddled which warded off the shivers and shuddering that may or may not have been from her fever. Or from the movie. She couldn't tell.
"Okay, I need something light-hearted after this abomination of horror movie you put me through or I'm never going to end up falling asleep for the next three days." – Maka sighed with relief when it was finally over.
Even though she understood Soul's need for this kind of disturbing imagery – that's just the way he was, he thrived on things that usually set everyone else little bit on edge – and she didn't mind this trait of him, not one bit, but still she just couldn't see the appeal of it for herself. It was same with his music. It was something that was just inherently part of him and actually just added to the fondness Maka held for her partner because it was something uniquely him.
"Hello, Earth to Maka!" – Soul waved a hand in front of his meister's face effectively snapping her out of her reverie.
"Hm. What?" – the ash-blond girl looked up at her partner unfocused.
"I asked if Scary Movie was okay with you. It's funny at least…" – the red-eyed weapon trailed off as he scratched his chin. Technically still a horror movie even if it was a parody and thus instantly losing any fright-factor in his opinion but he wanted to make sure Maka could handle it, given that she wanted something light-hearted.
She frowned a bit at the prospect of the movie. On one hand she wanted Soul to enjoy himself too and that was only possible with horror movies and awfully dorky parody like comedy films, the humor of which didn't quite reach Maka even on her best days. She enjoyed more relaxed, high-spirited comedies, or more serious, independent films. Or the overly emotional stuff that she wouldn't even have dared to mention to Soul. It would have been really 'uncool' in his opinion. On the other hand she wasn't sure if she could sit through another horror/non-horror movie right now, since she knew very well that even these parodies liked to play with the jump scare factor and she would have much rather just relaxed back into the pillows than try to anticipate when to hide behind Soul or have her heart skip a beat or two out of sheer surprise at something suddenly appearing on screen.
A cool hand on her forehead brought her back to the present again. Maka glanced up only to find Soul's displeased frown mimicking her own.
"I think your fever spiked, you keep spacing out on me." – he muttered as he tried to gauge his meister's temperature.
"I was just trying to decide if I was up for another adrenalin rush." – she let out a sigh as she leaned into their touch which felt oddly reassuring and nice.
"Yeah, I agree, you need something less exciting." – Soul commented. – "And maybe some fever medicine." – he added in almost a whisper a bit guiltily, getting up from the couch to go to Maka's room to get it for her, returning with not only that but the thermometer too.
As he made his way to his partner he heard her go into another sneezing fit then blow her nose so hard in one of the many tissues lying on the table that Soul was wondering how her ears didn't pop at that. Right on cue she winced a little.
"Do your ears hurt?" – he asked as he handed her the stuff. An ear infection would be just perfect on top of everything else…
"No, my sinuses." – his meister groaned in pain as she rubbed at her cheekbones then took the thermometer from her partner, since no doubt that's why he brought it. – "That bath actually helped earlier a bit to breathe better." – she mumbled with the stick already in her mouth.
"Don't talk, you will throw off the reading." – Soul chided. –"I can boil some water for inhalation if you want." – the weapon offered a few seconds later as he waited for the device to beep.
"Maybe later, I just want to lie here with you on the couch for now." – Maka stated after handing he thermometer back.
"103.6. Shit. Maybe we should go up to the school infirmary." – the albino boy wondered out loud.
"I don't want to bother them over the New Year weekend. I promise you can drag me up there if I'm not better by Monday." – she pleaded, trying to drag Soul by the arms of his sweater to sit back down beside her but the effort didn't even budge him. He relented without another word but her lack of strength was really worrying him.
Since being "trapped" by Maka he flipped through the channels to see if there was anything worthwhile on TV instead his DVDs so that he didn't have to get up again while she took the fever reducers to ease his mind.
"Oh, that's a good one." – she stopped him as they flicked to a movie that was just beginning. The Time Traveler's Wife – Soul thought about it for a second. He hasn't heard of it before, but it sounded like some sort of sci-fi. I can live with that. – he shrugged and set the remote down, leaning back against the arm rest sideways, Maka against him.
Two minutes in he already knew just how wrong he was. Romance – yuck. But Maka seemed content on watching it, so he decided to tough it out for her sake. She needed her rest and this was clearly more for her taste. So instead Soul watched his partner all cozied up to him, feeling her rhythmic although a bit shallow breathing. All he could really see was the top of her head turned towards the TV with her ash-blond hair sprawled out on him. Somehow she ended up lying on his chest with her body between his legs, not bothered one bit by the intimacy.
Her fevered, hot body pressed against him in ways he only dreamt of till now. He tried to rein in his line of thought since her stomach was pressed right against his manhood and surely she would feel it if he were to get an erection. Imagining that didn't help at all with his quest.
As if reading his thoughts Maka turned her head to look right into his eyes. A blush crept on his face as she smiled at him seductively, propping herself up to crawl a bit higher so that their faces were at level with each other.
"Soul, there is something I have wanted to do for a very long time now." – his meister whispered into his ear in a velvety voice, all raspiness from her illness gone from it, then nibbled on his earlobe, sending sweet shivers of pleasure down his side.
He couldn't help but moan a bit in appreciation that only seemed to entice the green-eyed goddess on top of him to continue with her ministrations down his neck. Her warm hands had wandered under his sweater, roaming freely on his abdomen and chest, exploring every inch of skin, feeling the muscles underneath, tracing even his scar that spread across his torso.
Her touch danced on the fine line of being pleasurable and tickling, driving Soul mad with anticipation. Much like her thighs, her slim but oh so sexily muscled thighs with their soft skin pressed against his own. When did she take her pants off? – the thought crossed his mind but couldn't bother to linger on it for long because Maka started undressing him. First his hoodie fell victim to her eager hands then she started fumbling with his belt to relieve him of his pants.
She kept her own sweater on, probably to avoid getting cold, but Soul would have given anything to see her perky breasts, her nipples stand at attention from the slight chill from how the room would have surely felt compared to the warmed air trapped between her skin and the fabric.
He reached up to feel her skin on her hips but Maka sternly held his hands down above his head and continued to kiss, nibble and lightly suckle her way to his collarbone. Then trusting him to not move his hands she released him and began to inch her way downwards, brushing her hand against him along the way.
She rubbed his cock with her hand, first above his boxer briefs but then on a bold whim she reached inside, grabbing it, not too hard but not too lightly either. It was… just perfect… – Soul thought. – Almost as if I was doing it for myself… just better.
"Soul?" – Maka's worried voice reached him.
"Hmm?" – he hummed still too lost in the pleasure to really respond.
"Soul, wake up." – she insisted.
At that his eyes jerked open and he looked around disoriented. Maka was sitting by his side – fully clothed – staring at him questioningly. Soul now noticed that he was still fully clothed too.
"Don't tell me that deep inside your tolerance for romance is just about as bad as mine for horror. I thought you were having a nightmare." – his meister arched a brow at him. In the background the movie was still going on.
Nightmare? When did I fall asleep? Was I dreaming just now? But then why do my pants feel wet and sticky…
"Oh, shit!" – the red-eyed weapon jumped up panicking and ran out to the bathroom, leaving behind a stunned Maka, who had no idea what had just happened.
Once in the safety and privacy of the bathroom Soul groaned at himself. – Having a wet dream about your partner… who is sick with a high fever I might add… So not cool…