I apologize for this being so short, but it was getting way too long as I was working on it, and I decided to break it into two parts so I can put something up to hold over until I finish the rest of it. ^ ^;;

Maka glanced at her phone when it rang with an unknown number. Guessing it to probably be Liz, she picked it up. "Hello?"

"Maka-chan?"

She smiled. "Hey, Tsubaki. What's up?"

She could hear Black Star making a ruckus on the other end of the line, but Tsubaki seemed to be ignoring him. "Liz-chan gave me your number and told me to call you and ask if you were free tonight?"

Maka glanced over at Blair, who waved at her to go. "Sure, where should I meet you guys?"

"Actually Black Star and I were going to pick you up. Liz-chan and Patti-chan are already waiting for us at Soul-kun's house, and I have to drop Black Star off there anyway. Soul-kun says you live near us?"

"Oh, yeah," She remembered Soul had mentioned that Black Star and Tsubaki had lived down the street from the club, which also wasn't far from where she was. "I'm at Cottonwood."

"Oh, Black Star used to live there… is the security code the same?"

"Same as it's been for the last five years." Maka replied.

She could hear Tsubaki scribbling details as she spoke. "Alright then… getting in shouldn't be a problem. Are you on the north or south side?"

"North."

"Alright. As soon as I can get Black Star to put some pants on and stop bothering the neighbor's dog, we'll head right over."

Maka didn't know whether to be impressed or unnerved at the nonchalance at which Tsubaki said that. The girl had the patience of a saint. "Is there anything I need to bring or wear? What's going on tonight?"

There was a slight pause as Tsubaki stopped to think. "If you needed to do or bring anything special, Liz-chan would have probably told me so I could let you know, but I haven't heard anything. Seeing as the boys are being confined to Soul-kun's house for the night I'm guessing we're having a girls' sleepover or something to that effect. I should probably warn you that I think it's a cover for Liz-chan and Patti-chan to get to talk to you and learn more about you. They seem to want to get to know you well. Possibly because Soul-kun considers you a friend. They're quite protective of him."

Maka laughed. "Should I expect the overprotective parent talk?"

Tsubaki giggled a little before replying. "No, they're not like that… You may have to expect to field the question of when you're going to start going out with him. Soul-kun's already had to deal with that."

Maka rolled her eyes and scowled meaningfully at Blair across the room. "So have I."

Blair stuck her tongue out at Maka before going back to the TV. Maka rolled her eyes and turned back to the phone. "So should I bring PJ's or something, since sleepovers may be involved?"

Tsubaki hummed thoughtfully on the other line. "Maybe. I'm bringing a set to be sure. Like I said, I know the boys are spending the whole night at Soul-kun's. Black Star mentioned all night video games."

Maka nodded. "Will do. Unless there's anything else I should know, I'll see you when you get here?"

"Nothing else I can think of at the moment. Ah… Black Star, get down from there! I have to go, Maka-chan. We'll be down in a few minutes."

Maka smiled. "Alright then. Good luck."

Tsubaki chuckled slightly. "Thank you. I may need it in a second or two. Goodbye, Maka-chan."

"Bye."

Maka snapped her phone closed and went to her room to get a small bag together. Blair followed and plopped down on her bed while she dug around in a drawer for a pair of sleep shorts.

"So what's going on tonight?"

"So far, I think just a sleepover. Liz, Patti, and Tsubaki apparently want to get to know me."

Blair pouted. "No boys?"

Maka sighed. "No, the boys are doing something else."

"Bah. That's no fun."

Maka rolled her eyes. "Sometimes your idea of fun scares me."

Blair grinned. "Oh come on, you've only had to bail me out twice."

Maka smirked back. "Oh yes. And the break on rent was nice, too."

Blair pouted again. The two times Maka had had to come bail Blair out she'd made the other girl make up for it by paying the rent by herself for the month. "That was mean, by the way."

"But well deserved." Maka replied from under her bed, growling slightly at not being able to find those damn sleep shorts.

"Can't argue with that." Blair replied after a while before nudging Maka in the butt with her toe, holding up the shorts she was looking for when the other girl emerged from under the bed in a huff. Maka grabbed them and stuffed them in her bag before getting up to grab her toothbrush when Blair asked a question that nearly made her freeze in the doorway. "Oh, by the way. What was Soul doing here last week?"

Maka blinked before turning back to her friend. "He insisted on giving me a ride home. He came in for a glass of water and then left. How the hell did you know that?"

Blair smirked. "Your boy wears a very unique aftershave."

Maka rolled her eyes as she continued down the hall for her toothbrush, Blair following. "He's not my boy. And I'm not sure I wanna know how you know that."

Blair huffed. "I've talked to him. Remember when I told you he wouldn't tell me his name two weeks ago?"

Maka sighed. "Okay, but still… that's weird. I mean, I don't exactly go around smelling my friends."

Blair laughed. "Neither do I, but it was kind of hard to ignore. It's different from most. You can't tell me you didn't notice that."

Maka gave Blair a blank look, and Blair sighed.

"Right… You wouldn't notice something like that anyway."

The doorbell rang at that point, and Maka finished shoving things in her bag. "There's my ride. I'll see you sometime tomorrow morning I guess."

Blair nodded and all but shoved her out the door as she barely managed to grab her keys. "Have fun!"

Black Star blinked at the closed door as Maka walked by. "She seemed in a hurry to get you out. She havin' a guy over or something?"

Maka laughed. "Not tonight, I don't think. She's just happy I'm being social for once."

"Oh?" Tsubaki asked as she led them down the stairs to a small sedan.

"Yeah," Maka replied as she hopped in the back seat as Black Star called shotgun. "I don't get out much. I usually just stay home and read or watch TV. I'm kinda tired after work most days."

Tsubaki nodded at this. She looked like she wanted to ask more, but didn't. Maka figured she was saving it for the sleepover.

The drive over was mostly silent, save for Black Star occasionally shooting his mouth off, which Tsubaki seemed to politely ignore, so Maka followed suit. She glanced out the window at the neighborhood they were currently in. Average street with average houses. Tsubaki parked near one that already had a couple cars and a very familiar motorcycle parked outside. Judging by the perfect symmetry of one of the cars, she was pretty sure she knew who that one belonged to.

Black Star shot out of the car like a rocket and barreled through the door. Maka blinked and stared after him for a moment before noticing Tsubaki getting out at a more sedate pace, so from what she'd seen and heard about him, she guessed this was normal.

She shouldered her bag and followed Tsubaki through the still open door before closing it behind her. She wasn't sure what she was expecting of Soul's house, but some of it didn't really surprise her. The front room was small, and had nothing in it but a small table with a radio on it and a guitar case in the corner beside a chair. The room angled around the corner and her breath caught at the sight of a beautiful pure black baby grand piano. Its lid and top were currently closed and there were papers with what appeared to be songs in various stages of being written scattered all over it, but it was still polished and looked well cared for. After a few more moments of gawking, she followed the direction Tsubaki had gone to see everyone in the large family room.

There was a long couch that angled along the wall facing a large wide screen TV where Patti, Black Star, and Kid were fiercely locked in a game of Mario Kart while Liz watched in mild interest, cheering her little sister on and laughing hysterically whenever someone took a blue shell. Kid looked mildly stressed out, and she noticed that poor Luigi was in 8th place. She smiled a little when Kid pulled up a place, and almost cheered him on when she noticed him grimace and immediately hit the brakes, dropping back into 8th place and relaxing visibly. She shook her head and chalked it up to part of his OCD.

Tsubaki had wandered into the kitchen shortly after Maka had entered the room, and after another quick glance around the room she spotted Soul curled up sideways in an armchair with a worn spiral notebook on his knees and a pen in his mouth, scowling thoughtfully at the page and occasionally writing something down or scratching something out before going back to chewing on his pen. After a while he got up and paced around for a bit before flopping down on the couch opposite the racers, still scowling at his notebook.

Tsubaki chose that moment to reappear, and Maka glanced back over her shoulder at the taller girl. She must have looked confused, because Tsubaki smiled and nodded to Soul.

"He's like this when he's got something. Inspiration usually strikes him pretty hard, and he zones completely out when it does until he's gotten everything down. He probably doesn't even know that we've showed up yet. If he was like this before Kid and the girls showed up, he probably doesn't know that any of us are here yet."

Maka watched him pace around a few more times before going to the piano in the front room and tinkering with a few chords before shutting the cover again and moving to the guitar around the corner, trying the same chords.

Tsubaki had left to answer Black Star calling for her to join in the game, leaving Maka to watch. After a few more notes on the guitar, Soul blinked and got up to move to the piano again, shuffling through the mess of papers on top of it before finding the one he was looking for, comparing it to his notebook, scratching a couple things out on the paper, writing a couple more things in the notebook, and then crumpling the paper up and tossing it over his shoulder into a bin behind him. He looked over his notebook one more time, frowned, scribbled something else down, then nodded to himself and closed it, tossing it into the pile on the piano before finally looking up and noticing Maka.

"Oh. Hi." He had the grace to look mildly embarrassed for not noticing her, and didn't seem to notice the half chewed pen still hanging out of his mouth. "How long have you been there?"

Maka smiled at his slight deer-in-the-headlights look. "Only a few minutes. I just got here with Tsubaki and Black Star."

Soul blinked. "Oh. Everyone's here then?"

Maka smiled. Tsubaki was right. Completely zoned out. She nodded and Patti chose that moment to whoop in victory as Black Star apparently ate a blue shell.

Soul raised an eyebrow before chuckling to himself and getting up from the bench. "I see they're got the Wii set up." She followed him to the other room and Tsubaki quickly passed her controller to him.

Liz glanced over at him. "You done?"

"Yeah, sorry." Soul replied without looking up from the screen. "Had something and had to get it down before I lost it."

"S'okay," Liz replied before turning back to her sister. "Oi, Patti. Kick Black Star's ass already, we're ready to go."

"Kaaay!" Maka watched in slight amusement as Baby Bowser used every boost and malicious item in the game on Mario, effectively dropping him to 12th place before crossing the line in first place, giggling maniacally and tossing her controller onto the couch before grabbing a giraffe print backpack and standing up.

Soul cringed, having been caught in some of the larger explosions, but still ended up in second. "Not sure if that was epic or just plain scary. Patti is too damn good at this game."

Black Star huffed. "Making me come in last place. Last place! I should be number one!" He flopped onto his back on the floor and pouted, further expressing his distaste for Patti's tactics.

Despite the nervous terror of Patti's many deathtraps, Kid was satisfied with himself, having come in at 8th place. He nodded once and sat back to wait for Black Star to stop pouting and start the next race, glancing up at Liz and Patti. "Kindly don't tear my house apart too much."

Liz smirked back before ruffling his hair, setting him into a frantic effort to straighten it again. "No promises, hun."

Patti tackled him with a goodbye hug which he returned once he pulled himself up from the floor, and turned to receive a much more sedate but no less emotional hug from Liz. He smiled at the both of them as he moved back to the couch. "Have fun."

Patti nodded and Liz smirked back. "Always."

Soul glanced over at Liz, a small smirk on his face. "Don't traumatize her too much."

Liz grinned back. "Again, no promises."

Tsubaki rolled her eyes and jokingly dropped a protective arm around Maka's shoulder. "I'll look out for her, Soul-kun."

Soul laughed at the silly determined look Tsubaki had put on as she'd said that, then shook his head. "Thank you, Tsubaki."

Liz rolled her eyes and called to Patti, who immediately saluted and moved behind Maka and Tsubaki to shove them all through the front room. Maka barely caught the boys' yelled goodbyes and the brief "good luck" from Soul before she was out the door.

In case anyone's curious, Black Star was Mario, Kid was Luigi, Patti was Baby Bowser (or Bowser Jr., depending on your preferences), and Tsubaki and Soul were Baby Luigi. :3