With Spirit and the other old dude bickering over something about cutting off a toe and Wes making gross bedroom eyes at the young Draconis leader named Kid, Soul was 200% done with the so called 'meeting.'
He wandered out of the tree hollow with his hands stuffed in his pockets, eyes glued to the ground, aimlessly kicking at the strewn pebbles amongst the sparse prairie grass.
Much to his disappointment, his leisurely stroll through foreign territory became quite uncomfortable. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his fingers began to twitch. Every Draconis fairy had their eyes locked onto him and Soul wanted to crawl out of his skin.
Stupid Wes.
Come to the meeting, he said. You're always in that stuffy workshop, he said. It'll be good for you, he said.
Oh but of course, Wes. Come hang out in a place where all of the most lethal fairies in existence want to rip off your wings. Totally better than staying in a safe, secluded workshop where the sharpest things are the magma crystals he found at the base of the mountain the other week.
Soul tucked his wings as close as he could against his back. Amongst all the scales and piercing eyes he felt like fresh meat, like a dumb bird that'd wandered into a pit of hungry reptiles.
Time to go home.
He turned east towards the border just in time to get slammed in the chest by what felt like a frickin boulder.
Behind horrible the pain of getting the wind knocked out of him Soul silently cursed his big brother.
He caught at least three feet of air before landing hard on his ass, limbs flailing, tumbling across the field.
Soul clumsily rolled onto his hands and knees, coughing and sputtering into the ground.
"What the fu-" Strong hands grabbed his collar and yanked him to his feet.
It was… a girl.
A Draconis girl. Bright orange and emerald scales streaked across tanned skin and her fiery green eyes bore into his with such enraged heat that Soul thought he might melt. Her wings were almost black, sharp, angled, with shiny horns that stuck out at the tips. And damn, the way she'd shoved him and how she was holding him now, she was strong. With that snarl on her face the Draconis girl looked like a nightmare.
She hissed, face inches away from his. "The hell are you doing here, tweety bird."
Soul forgot how to speak for at least ten seconds. She may have looked like a nightmare but damn it she was gorgeous.
He was snapped out of his trance when she straight sucker punched him.
"MAKA!"
Soul groaned and curled up on the ground with his bleeding nose in his hands.
"Enough, Maka," the same voice ordered.
He vaguely recognized the voice behind his throbbing skull. The Draconis leader. Soul almost whimpered in relief.
The next voice was a lot less appreciated. "Watcha been up to, little brother?"
"Oh screw you," Soul mumbled his hands.
Wes chuckled and grabbed him by the arm, hauling him up to his feet while Soul mumbled a slew of rather colorful insults.
"This is a clear violation of the clan boundaries," Maka hissed. Tiny - dangerous - fists raised, she lunged at Soul a second time.
"There are exceptions to the boundary restrictions when the purposes are diplomatic," Kid warned, holding his arm out in front of Maka. "And anyway it is wise not to punch the Aerialis leader's younger brother."
Maka scowled.
"Are you alright?" Kid addressed Soul.
In all honesty his ribs and nose were throbbing like hell, but for the sake of his dignity - whatever there was left - Soul nodded, looked away, and mumbled, "Yeah."
"Oh he'll be fine," Wes added with a clap on the shoulder. "Sorry for the trouble."
Kid nodded his goodbye and turned to leave.
"Motherfucker," Soul moaned as they walked, gingerly touching the bridge of his bruising nose. "This is all your fault. I think she broke my face. I think I'm dying."
Wes laughed and wrapped his arm around his brother's neck. "Not my fault you have a death wish."
"I do not I was just taking a freaking walk," Soul argued as they trudged back to Aerialis territory. The weight of his annoyance was lost behind a swollen nose and consequently nasally voice.
"And decided to piss off the head of the defense unit," Wes snickered. "By the way, next time try not to stare so much."
"I didn't piss her off I was minding my own business when she body slammed me," Soul snapped. "My toe is bleeding… And I sure as hell was not staring."
Wes just laughed harder.
(The Next Day…)
Maka sat quietly as the meeting continued, but under the small oak table her foot tapped impatiently.
There was this weird tension between Wes and Kid that kept them from exchanging more than a few overly polite sentences at a time. Over three hours into their second meeting and all they'd decided on was Black Star and Patty's punishment: suspension from the patrol unit and revocation of magic privileges.
Currently they were trying to sort out how to deal with the made homeless Draconis.
"It will take at least two months to rebuild them all," Maka's old school teacher, Professor Stein, pointed out. "Temperatures will start dropping in a few weeks. The Draconis are not made to deal with that sort of cold without shelter." He pushed up his silver rimmed glasses. "It would of course, speed up the process if we had some outside help."
"But we need all of our people for pre-winter harvest," the Aerialis with fiery red hair put in. "Our stock is already low as is. Unfortunately I don't think we can spare any workers, as much as I'd like to help." He tried to make eye contact with Maka for at least the hundredth time.
Maka examined her fingernails.
Professor Stein leaned forward. "But don't you think the Aerialis have some responsibility in helping with the repairs? Both sides did have a part in this."
The blonde Aerialis girl sitting across from Maka - named as Patty's older sister, Liz - deepened her already permanent glare. The feather's on her wings ruffled.
"Actually I believe the report was that it was just one girl," Kid commented. Maka noticed the strain in his jaw as he scrambled to maintain some diplomacy. "Perhaps Spirit is right in that it would be just as harmful to pull the Aerialis away from their preparations."
"But it's also unsafe to leave the Draconis without shelter as the weather changes," Wes added.
Strange, the way Kid and Wes would keep defending each other's side, like there was some sort of hidden concern for each other. But if Maka remembered history class correctly the Death and Evans families had extremely strained relations, to say the least.
Maka sighed. She needed some air.
"May I be excused?" she asked politely. "I have to check up on the evening patrol."
Kid and Wes both motioned for her permission in unintentional unison. Spirit gave one last feeble attempt at getting any sort of acknowledgement from her with a hesitant, "Goodbye."
Though she barely had a chance to breathe before someone stopped her.
"Hey."
Maka turned to see the boy from yesterday - Soul - standing with his arms crossed and a scowl across his face. Though after they made eye contact his gaze softened into more of a hesitant pout. She noted the bruise on his nose from the… incident... yesterday.
"Hey," she answered back evenly.
Trying to reestablish his machismo Soul stuck his chin in the air and stared down at the shorter fairy. "You've got some nerve, you… you lizard face."
Maka suppressed a laugh.
Soul blushed furiously but continued. "You broke my nose."
"Whoa, woah I did NOT," Maka protested.
"Well okay whatever, you almost broke my nose. But what's the big idea of you and your friends breaking into my stuff!?"
"Wait what?"
"I mean I can suffer through a broken nose but do you have any idea how valuable all the shit that you guys stole is?!"
Suddenly angry, Maka shoved him in the chest. "Hey, listen, tweety bird," she hissed, glaring up at the taller boy with narrowed eyes, "I didn't do anything to your shit. Besides what makes you think it was me?"
Soul seemed to shrink a bit at her sudden assertiveness. "You attacked me yesterday for no good reason!"
"You were trespassing, that's a perfectly good reason!" Maka argued.
Soul groaned, raked his fingers through his hair. "Just… just come with me."
Though she didn't necessarily like the idea of spending time with an Aerialis, Maka complied, albeit begrudgingly. She was actually curious abut what this guy was going on about.
Soul led her through the unfamiliar territory. Every inch was completely covered in lush green grass with tiny flowers dotting the ground like freckles. Maka felt almost self conscious, stamping through the field in her chunky boots.
No wonder the Aerialis never wore shoes.
They finally stopped at the base of a small, sturdy tree. It was near the north end of the border, almost at the base of the Draconis mountains and practically overlooking the crystal lake.
"Look!" Soul pointed up in the branches, eyebrows scrunched together.
"Hm. You need a new door," Maka noted.
"Draconis fairies raided my workshop last night," Soul fumed. "Smashed a bunch of tools and took all of the stones and gems I had saved up since last winter. Do you know how hard it is to save up 105 sapphire shards?"
Maka blinked.
"Ugh." Soul dragged his hands down his face. "You don't understand." He waved his hand and produced a short gust of wind, then unfurled his wings and rode the artificial breeze up to a small platform in the tree branches.
Maka's eyes widened, taken aback by the sudden reveal. You could tell a lot from a fairy's wings.
Soul's were off white - like his hair - but not in a dirty water sort of way. They were more like… like, the pale stones scattered at the base of the valley mountains. They weren't overly full, but they weren't skeleton thin either. They were slender, sharp.
A strong gust of wind slapped Maka in the face.
Her face scrunched together. "Hey!"
"Well I told you to follow me," Soul said, annoyed.
Maka rolled her eyes.
"Look," Soul said when she joined him. The bracelets on his arms clanged together as he waved his arms around in frustration. "Everything is gone!"
Maka stepped slowly through the door to the workshop, blinking a few times to adjust her vision to the dimly lit room.
The floor was littered with stray beads and string, metal clasps, small pliers, other tools, a broken wooden chair and desk. A short lamp lay shattered amongst the wood splinters and debris. She bent over to pick up a would've been necklace snapped in half.
Well… it wasn't like a Draconis to do things half assed.
Maka did feel bad though. Really bad. She thought he was joking, over exaggerating, but he was right. There literally was nothing left. All that plus the pure anguish in Soul's eyes as he joined her in surveying the damage filled Maka's guilt to the brim.
"Ohhhhhh wow gosh, uhm, I'm sorry." She turned around to face the Aerialis making another rather endearing pout. "I'm going to find out who did this, okay?" Maka put her hand on his shoulder, genuinely feeling bad about the amount of damage her people did. "This whole thing is getting way out of control."
Soul seemed to freeze at her touch. "Uhm… it's okay," he stuttered.
"What's your favorite color?" Maka asked
"Uh."
She grabbed his wrists and held the swinging bracelets up to the light. "Black? I might be able to find some black stones around where I live."
"Uh, nooo that's okay." Soul avoided her gaze. Even in the minimal lighting his blush was apparent - something that made Maka panic ever so slightly, though she shoved that thought in the back of her head.
"No no I'll make it up to you, I promise," Maka insisted. "But I do actually have to go now. Patrol checkins, ya know. I'm sorry. I'll see you later, okay?"
"Uh, yeah, okay."
"Bye, Soul!"
Unknown to Maka as she flew away, Soul's heart was hammering in his chest and the skin where she touched him was searing.
She did, however, hear Soul's cry of protest when Wes revealed himself to have been waiting on the ground for him during the last few minutes of their conversation.
Said he had needed to talk to his little brother.
Said he wasn't eavesdropping.