A/N: Sorry for the wait! It's the end of my first college semester so things have been kinda hectic around here...hopefully I'll have chapter six uploaded within the next week, but it's not a promise :S I only have about a week of school left and then a month off for the holidays, so I'll most likely get a lot of new chapters up... :)

Warning: Must I keep putting this here

Disclaimer: Soul Eater isn't mine blah blah blah

Of Souls and Symmetry

"I'm telling you, we failed! We failed!" Kid shouted in distress as he fell to the ground on all fours.

"I don't get your logic, Kid. We killed the guy, didn't we?" Liz sighed, transforming into human form along with Patti. They kneeled in front of their meister, patting his back as Patti giggled in the background.

"Before we struck the final blow…"

"What about it?" Liz asked, generally confused.

"He sliced my cheek open," Kid stated, bringing a hand to his face. His fingers brushed against the already-healing wound on his skin.

Oh, boy…if this is what I think it is—

"He only did it to one of them!" He shouted in agony, wrapping his hands around his head, "To add, three blood splatters landed on his left cheek, but only two on his right! It's horrible, dreadful, even!"

"But he's dead…" Liz countered with a sigh.

"That may be so, but I'm not! My cheek is still cut, but the other…the other is perfectly bare!"

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Not at all, Liz! I'm atrocious! I'm garbage! I don't deserve to be a Grim Reaper!"

"Not with that attitude…" Liz pointed out. She then grabbed Kid by the collar and dragged him up a few inches, followed by a still giddy Patti. They then found themselves in front of the DWMA.

Liz mumbled to herself as she hauled her mesiter up the stairs of the Academy, ignoring all of his protests and self proclamations.

"Hey, hey, sis! Is that Maka and Soul?" Patti suddenly wondered aloud, appearing right in front of Liz. The latter froze in place, shocked to see her sister magically in front of her, but didn't question it.

"I'd be able to see if you stepped out of the way…" The older said, letting go of Kid in order to push Patti away from her field of vision.

And there, in plain view, lay Maka and Soul, sprawled on the stairs a few steps ahead of them. How she had not noticed before was beyond her. Then again, she was busying herself with Kid and was too preoccupied with her mumbled complaints to notice.

"Shit, are they alright?" She asked mostly to herself. Kid scrambled to get up and dusted himself off, standing on his tippy toes to see past Liz.

"What are we looking at?" He inquired, shoving Liz out of the way just as she had done to Patti not a minute before. He gasped when he saw the unconscious heaps that were his friends, and quickly ordered his weapons to get help as he dashed to weapon-meister pair's aid.

He said their name a few times, hoping to wake them up, but to no avail. He decided to gently move Maka off of Soul and laid her next to him in a more comfortable position so that she wouldn't awake with neck cramps or anything of the sort.

He shook Maka's shoulders lightly, which caused her eyes to blink open once before she shut then hard, removing the fuzziness in her vision. She opened her eyes once more, and, without saying anything, looked around to take in her surroundings. She then noticed the reaper kneeling by her.

"Kid? What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? Helping you, of course! What happened to you two?"

Two...?

Oh!

"Soul!" Completely ignoring her friend, Maka shakily stood up and spun around in search of her partner.

Seeing the frightened look the blonde had, Kid got up as well and placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. With his free hand, he pointed to the ground.

"He's right there, Maka. He's not going anywhere any time soon." The boy stated, removing his hand from her shoulder.

He then noticed that her usual white shirt and yellow vest were tinted red, and though he couldn't see much behind her shadow of a cloak, he knew that it was blood.

"Again, mind telling me what happened?" He asked, not wanting to mention her injury right away. Besides, Kid knew that within a minute or so, her adrenaline would wear out and she'd begin to feel the pain.

"Fight in the forest," She said as if out of breath, "A weird meister and weapon duo. Soul and the weapon fought, I tried to tackle the mesiter. Then," She hissed suddenly, as if on cue, and placed a hand to her side, "That..." She uttered, dropping to the step she had been standing on.

Soul must have felt his partner's wavelength sizzle in pain, because his eyes snapped open and he let out a small 'Maka' as he gasped for breath.

"Soul!" Both meisters called at once, feeling the sudden burst of energy in his soul.

Ignoring their seemingly worried calls, Soul crawled a few inches over to Maka, before brushing a strand of hair from her face to reveal a small cut on her forehead.

"You're okay," He sighed.

"For the most part, yeah..." She agreed, forcing a smile. However, it disappeared quickly when the stinging sensation in her side started up again. She winced and rapidly placed a hand over the wound, only to stain her white glove with blood.

"Crap, the stab wound! I forgot! Dammit!" Soul swore, grabbing Maka's free hand and hoisting her up.

"Soul, its fine, really!" Maka defended, blushing slightly from having to be helped up, "It's just a scratch."

"Just a scratch?" Kid echoed, surprising them both, "Scythe meister Maka Albarn, that is not just a scratch!"

"Exactly!" Soul said in an exaggerated tone.

"Wait, Soul, what about you?" Maka questioned, remembering him lying on the ground less than a moment ago.

"What about me?" He asked, sincerely oblivious to Maka's concerns.

"You were just unconscious, stupid! People don't just randomly pass out!"

Kid watched them in silence; he knew from experience to never get in their way when arguing or being stubborn.

Or caring for each other in their own argumentative, stubborn way.

Soul hesitated a moment, not sure what to say. He knew that if he claimed he was fine, both Maka and Kid would be able to see right through it. However, he refused to let them know how he felt.

It was so unfair. Not to mention uncool.

"Maka," Soul muttered, "You were stabbed. Let's go see Nygus."

Kid quickly cut in.

"Liz and Patti already went to get her," He informed, loosening his shirt's collar slightly, "Is it hot or is that just me?" He asked, trying to change the topic.

Maka didn't pay attention to him as she shut her eyes. She relaxed and concentrated on sensing the souls around her. Opening her eyes, she looked over at Soul, who was by then sitting. She frowned when she saw a heavily damaged soul instead of his usual chipper one.

"Soul, you're hurt." She said simply, sitting down next to him.

"Do I look hurt?" He asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

"No, but your soul does."

"Well it can't be helped," He stated with a shrug.

Maka groaned in frustration and jumped up, shocking her partner and friend.

"Come on, you idiot, let's go see Miss Nygus!" She ordered, hands on her hips, "As your meister, I order it!"

Soul cringed. Damn, she ordered it? Technically, weapons were supposed to abide by the rules set by their meisters. Soul was no exception—whatever Maka said, went, regardless. End of story.

He didn't budge, however, and after a moment, Maka narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm hurt, you're hurt—can we just go see her?"

"I don't see how I'm involved," Soul admitted, standing up as well, "But whatever. You're right, you got hurt, so we'll go see her."

"For me and you,"

"For you."

"Ugh!"

"Hey, guys," Kid's voice suddenly rang out, temporarily ending their feud, "Here she comes now." He announced, pointing behind them.

Maka and Soul did a 180 to find Nygus, Liz and Patti hurrying down the stairs.

"They're awake, Patti. You said they were unconscious," Nygus pointed out as she approached the trio below them.

"They were!" Patti defended, folding her arms, "Kid must've woken them up!" She added with a pout.

Shaking her head, Nygus walked up to Maka and Soul, briefly checking them over for any obvious injuries. She then told Maka to follow her to the dispensary because of her wound, but she quickly interrupted her.

"Soul needs to see you, too." She informed with newfound determination.

"Oh? Is he hurt?" Nygus asked, having found nothing out of the ordinary from the miniature check up.

"No, Maka's just paranoid." Soul intervened.

Nygus sighed before walking ahead.

"Come on, Maka, Soul is fine. We need to address your wound."

"But Miss Nygus!"

"Go on, Maka, you heard the nurse." Maka's partner teased with a grin, earning mumbles from the meister.

When Nygus and Maka were out of sight, Kid slapped Soul on the cheek, earning a surprised yelp from the white haired weapon.

"What the hell?!" He asked, bringing a hand to his face.

"Idiot, your soul is in horrid condition!" Kid exclaimed, "You need to see Nygus as well!"

"And what exactly is she gonna do?" Soul asked, his pockets attracting his hands to them.

"Help you, silly! That's what she does," Patti explained with a smile.

Soul rolled his eyes and walked off, intending on going to see Maka, but Kid caught up to him as his weapons ran on ahead.

"Soul, you're really not in the greatest condition right now," The reaper admitted, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You should really allow Nygus to check you over."

"Again, what is she going to do?" Soul asked, his tone softer than before, "If it has to do with my soul—which she can't even see by the way—then it's beyond her control. I'll go see Maka and make sure she's alright, and then I'll take it easy at home, okay?" He assured with hard eyes.

Kid swallowed and nodded, but he was not fully convinced. However, he decided to not think much of it—it wasn't like Soul was going to over exert himself by staying at home. What was the worst that could happen there?

And then he remembered Blair, which caused his cheeks to burn a bubblegum pink, forcing him to look away from the weapon beside him.

"I'm trusting you with this, Soul. If you intend on staying true to your word, you may not want to attend classes tomorrow." He added quietly before leaving Soul behind.

Huh...it's that bad?

"You can count on that," Soul called.

"Knock, knock bitches! Black Star's here!"

Great. Just what Maka wanted to hear when she needed to rest.

"Would you please actually knock when you say that?" She spat, facing the blue haired assassin with a glare.

"Someone's edgy!" Black Star joked, ruffling her hair. With a scowl, Maka tried to pry his hands away from her.

"How the hell am I edgy—"

"I heard what happened, Maka! Are you al—hey, where's Soul?" The ninja asked, looking around the room with mock concern.

"Don't know, don't care." Maka replied, patting down her hair where Black Star had mangled it.

"Did something happen?"

Nothing at all, clearly.

Maka wanted to say that, but decided against it.

"Nope." She replied. Black Star raised an eyebrow as he glanced at her before turning around and crossing his arms, pretending to be upset.

"Then where is he and why do you refuse to tell me?" He asked in a fake distressed voice. Maka sighed and rolled her eyes.

"How can I tell you where he is if I don't know myself?" She argued, not wanting to deal with his nonsense.

"Because you totally know and you're just being stubborn." He replied, craning his neck to take a quick look at her before sticking out his bottom lip and turning to face the wall again.

"I'm not being stubborn."

"Denial!" Black Star countered, spinning around and pointing an accusing finger at her.

Maka didn't want to hear any of Black Star's ramblings. She was not in the mood. Her patience was thinning, and she was sure that if he made one more stupid comment, she'd probably Maka-Chop him to the moon.

"I don't know where he is, Black Star. If I did, I would've told you by now." She said matter-of-factly.

"Well something obviously happened if you don't know where he is." He retorted, growing tired of her apparent lies.

"Why? Am I supposed to know of his whereabouts twenty four seven?"

"Yeah, kinda,"

"Well sorry, but I don't. He could be at home, though. Why do you wanna know so badly?" At the last bit, Maka looked at him with a smirk.

"It's not about where he is, it's about why you don't know where he is." He replied without missing a beat, as if he was ready for her to ask.

"You're not making sense."

"Am too!"

To this, Maka's grin quickly faded.

"Don't start that with me, Black Star, I'm not in the mood." She warned him, leaning into the covers of the bed she was in.

"Geez, Maka, why are you so moody?"

"Wha—"

"You know what, never mind, a star like me shouldn't have to put up with this...!" He ran out of the room dramatically, one arm covering his eyes as if he had been crying.

Maka stared at the door in awe. She'd never understand that kid...and she had known him for so long...

Soul wasn't lying when he said he was going to see Maka and then head home, but he hadn't had the intention of visiting her immediately after his chat with Kid. He paced around the school, wincing every so often when the sun caught his eyes.

Blinded by the bright light more than once, he decided he had enough of the Nevada sun and made his way back to the stairs of the Academy.

When he entered, the first thing he did was glance at one of the many clocks on the walls of the building.

Half past three. I've seriously been walking around for an hour?

Sighing, he walked on, mentally noting his destination was right down the hallway.

Grasping the door handle in his palm, he suddenly found himself regretting his decision. What if Maka's wound was more serious than he thought? What if she had lost too much blood? What if she—

"Soul?"

He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he completely forgot about his partner's Soul Perception. Dammit.

Maka cocked her head to the side in thought. She had sensed Soul's presence right outside the door of the infirmary, but he had been standing there for a minute or so. She couldn't exactly read his expressions through only his soul, but she knew that normally, he would have burst in to see her.

"I know you're outside." She pointed out, eyeing the door suspiciously.

He turned the handle slowly, pushing the door open with caution as if expecting the worse.

"Geez, did you fall asleep or something?" She joked with a smile. When she didn't receive a response, she frowned. "What's wrong?"

Again, she was given the silent treatment. She sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head back. When she felt the bed shift weight from another mass, she looked up with worried eyes. Her partner had his hands on either side of him, supporting him on the bed, while his legs dangled off the sides. He was seemingly staring at them, but in fact he was simply hanging his head, not looking at anything in particular.

"Soul..."

He dared a glance at her: her hair was down and she was in her favourite green and yellow striped pajamas. Because she was completely covered, he couldn't see how bad her injury was. He brought his legs up to the cot and twisted his body around so that he was on all fours at the edge of the bed. He crawled to her before sitting on his legs right next to her. With one hand, he lifted her shirt slightly and with the other, he adjusted the blanket over her chest so that she wouldn't have to feel exposed.

Despite the adjustments, Maka felt the blood rush to her face. She felt Soul's cold fingers tracing the dressing on her waist. He was incredibly gentle, and she was wearing quite a thick bandage, but she shivered at his touch nonetheless.

"I'm gonna kill them," He said suddenly, much to Maka's surprise, "I'm going to find them, and kill them."

She knew Soul was protective of her—it was one of the most obvious things about him. However, she still held mental debates inside her mind as to why he was so protective. She'd always come to the conclusion that he had to be because of his weapon status, but sometimes, she found herself wishing that it was a bit more than that.

"Does it hurt?" He asked, bringing his arm to his side to lean on it.

"Not really—not at all, actually. It's kinda dull, like a healing bruise or something." She elaborated truthfully, "Nygus said I only passed out due to shock. I had totally not seen that coming."

"You've never seen anything coming," Soul muttered in response, "And you hardly ever pass out. Maybe once, twice, three times max since I've known you. And all those times, you were pretty beat up, be it physically or mentally."

Maka opened her mouth, but couldn't find the words to say. She shut her lips before opening them once more, only to yet again come up with a blank. She looked like a fish gasping for air as she tried to think of something to comfort her partner.

"I was dehydrated," She quickly added. It wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't a lie, either. Her mouth was so dry, and she could distinctly remember how thirsty she had been during their fight—not just after it, "That plus the shock. My body was under pressure so I guess it kinda just...gave up on me," She explained, blushing slightly from embarrassment.

Soul had never been the one to be skeptical, as it was deemed 'uncool', but if he had to pick one time in his young teen life to think twice about what someone had told him, it would have been that moment.

He sighed before slipping off the bed and stretching. He placed his hands in his pockets and grinned, showing his pointy teeth.

"Whatever you say, Maka. Just hurry up and get better. Last time you were here, Blair was so bored and I had to entertain her."

"Welcome to my world," Maka scoffed, smirking.

Soul walked out, holding his arm up as a brief wave. He quietly shut the door behind him before finally exiting the building.

He brought his hands to the back of his neck as he walked, sighing in relief. Maka was okay. She was hurt, but she was okay.

Did that even make sense?

Of course it did. She was injured, but she was fine.

Through all his thinking, he walked like a robot. He automatically turned on the right streets, stopped at the right lights and passed the correct crosswalks without even noticing.

He was focused on something he wasn't focused on.

Before long, he found himself standing in front of his apartment door. His hands dug through his pants pocket for the keys, and he slipped one of the keys on his chain through the lock of the door, not even bothering to check if it was the right one.

Cursing under his breath when he noticed it was the key to his motorbike, he fumbled for the strap dangling from the inside of his jean pocket and yanked at it, shuffling through the keys in order to find the one he needed to get inside.

Finally, the door obeyed and creaked open, inviting him inside his and Maka's apartment.

He was greeted with the scent of burnt fish.

"Blair, what the hell are you doing?" He questioned, stepping into the home.

"Making you and Maka a snack, mew~!"

Soul sighed, dropping his keys into the bowl by the door.

"Well you can forget one of the portions. Maka's not here."

Blair dropped the pan she was frying her food in and turned to face the weapon.

"Eh?! Why not?" She asked, hopping off the counter. With a cloud of smoke, she was right in front of the boy in her human form. "You didn't do anything stupid, did you, Soul?!"

Making a face, the scythe groaned and pushed her away. He felt the blood rush to his face and turned away quickly, not wanting to cause a nosebleed. Maka would've been proud…

"No." He said simply, walking to his room.

"Then where is she?!" Blair demanded, placing herself between the closed door of Soul's bedroom and its owner.

"At school." He replied, looking away from her.

Technically, he wasn't lying. Maka was at school; he just wasn't being specific.

"Oh…is she studying again?

Soul blinked once, and turned to face the cat. He smirked as he brushed a stray stand of hair from his eyes.

"Yeah. Yeah she is."

"She's gonna work herself sick, mew…" Blair said sadly, releasing her grip on the boy that Soul didn't even know about until then.

"She'll be fine; she's Maka." With that, Soul charged into his room, slamming the door in Blair's face.

"Rude…" She whined, turning on her heel and making her way back to the kitchen.