Soul stares at Maka as she sits on his now right-side-up couch, arms crossed, staring off into space.
"Are you… okay?" one of his eyebrows raises questioningly as Maka sighs, letting her head fall back onto the couch cushion behind her. She smacks her hands to her face, dragging them down slowly and groaning.
"I just… do we have to go? Can't we just stay here and marathon Orphan Black? We'll tell him that your apartment still needs to be fixed." She looks at Soul hopefully, green eyes wide, and it takes everything in his power not to cave in.
But he doesn't.
"Maka, it doesn't take 3 days to straighten out an apartment. He'll see right through your excuse. Plus, he seemed excited to see you. It's just a few hours at most. It will be fine." He pulls himself off of the couch, extending his arms out to help her stand next to him.
She sighs again as she stands, staring at him for a moment, seeming to take in features of his face that she hasn't yet seen.
His breath catches in his throat as he stares back, and he smiles, hoping she can't notice his knees shaking. She seems not to, though, as she takes another deep breath and turns toward the door.
"Alright, then. Let's go see Papa."
Soul walks in silence next to a chattering Maka. He rolls his eyes as she goes on about the way he should act around her father.
"-and he'll probably try and interrogate you. Don't let him. And he'll probably say something irritating- hey. Are you listening Soul?" she hits his arm lightly, and he turns to her.
"Hm? Were you saying something?" He waves a hand dismissively, the other one stuffed into his jacket pocket.
Maka scoffs, stopping in her tracks and putting her hands on her hips. She frowns at him, and he laughs.
"I'm kidding. I was listening. I can handle myself, don't worry." He smiles at her, and she stands for another moment before sighing, jogging quickly to catch up to where he is.
"So, where's your car?" She looks around the garage before turning back to Soul, and watches as his smile turns into a wicked kind of smirk that has her somewhat concerned.
"I don't drive one."
Maka's hands find their way back to her hips, and she raises an eyebrow questioningly. "Then what are we doing in the parking garage if you don't?"
Soul only motions behind him. Maka's mouth falls open as she looks in the direction he's pointing, stepping back, as she shakes her head. "No way Soul. No way."
Behind them sits a bright yellow motorcycle with two helmets on the seat. Maka doesn't even want to know why there are two, as she refuses to believe that one is hers.
Her beliefs are proven wrong, however, as Soul picks up the smaller of the two and tosses it her way. She fumbles the helmet around in her arms a bit before it falls, clamoring to the floor and sending an echo through the parking garage around them. Soul's laugh chases after it as he picks up the fallen helmet, dropping it onto Maka's head.
"Come on Maka. I promise it will be okay. Trust me."
It comes out more as a question than a statement, and Maka looks up at him through the helmet visor, still a bit skeptical. "Alright, fine. We're already late anyway."
The smile Soul gives her could rival the sun. He wastes no time sliding onto the seat, holding out his hand to help her on behind him. She climbs on hesitantly, slipping her arms around his waist and sucking in a deep breath.
He kicks the bike to life, shivering a bit as Maka rests her head against his back. He smiles to himself as he maneuvers the bike from the garage, making their way out onto the street. Maka's grip around his torso tightens, and Soul is positive that if he wasn't driving his bike right now, he wouldn't be able to see straight.
He takes one hand off of the handlebars to briefly squeeze her arm, and is quickly yelled at by Maka. He can hear her voice reach him over the sound of the bike and the wind, and she can feel his torso shaking with laughter, the rumbling almost matching that of the motorcycle beneath them.
It takes them five minutes to make it to the restaurant - half the time it'd normally take her by car. And though she would never admit it, the motorcycle didn't seem to be such a terrible thing after all.
They make their way inside. Maka tugs at her jacket sleeves, pulling them down over her wrists nervously. The last thing she wants is for Papa to see her Sentence; She'd wait until after he had met Soul.
A hand closes around hers and she looks up to see Soul staring down at her, slightly concerned. She nods her head at a statement never said, taking a deep breath and entering the dining room, searching for her Papa.
It doesn't take long to find him as he stands almost immediately, waving his arms around wildly and calling out her name. Several people in the restaurant stare, and it takes everything in Maka's power not to turn and leave.
She groans instead, making her way through the crowded tables to the one her father sits at, Soul trailing behind her. His grip on her hand tightens.
As they approach the table Soul switches their positions, taking the lead. As soon as they're in front of Maka's father, he extends his hand.
"Hey. I'm Soul."
Her father eyes him skeptically for a moment before taking his hand. "Spirit."
They nod at each other briefly before sitting down. Spirit turns to Maka almost immediately, his eyes practically shining as he holds his arms out from across the table.
"Maka! My darling. Papa is so glad you came to see him!"
She scoffs before sitting next to Soul, pulling her menu up to block him from her sights. "I'm only here to eat."
Spirit's arms fall to his sides and he hangs his head, pulling up his own menu. Soul raises his eyebrows at Maka, but doesn't say anything.
An uncomfortable silence falls over the table, but Maka refused to be the one to break it. It's not until their waitress comes swooping in towards their table that someone speaks.
"Hiya! I'm Blair. I'll be taking care of you tonight." The woman leans over the table, dropping a basket of bread sticks onto it. The top three buttons of her shirt are undone, and Maka can see her bra poking out from beneath it. She looks at Soul next to her and frowns almost immediately as he stares at the waitress' chest, eyes wide, mouth opening and closing like some lame fish.
She doesn't even bother looking at Papa.
She wishes that this woman would leave.
Maka gives her order quickly, tapping her fingers against the table impatiently as the two men with her take twice as long to do the same. When they're finished Blair skips away, and another uncomfortable silence falls over the table. She reaches into the pile of bread sticks in front of her, picking one out and chewing on it absentmindedly. She stares down at her chest, thinking about her Sentence.
She swallows hard, wondering if things will end for her the same way they did for Mama.
She's pulled out of her thoughts as Soul clears his throat next to her, reaching for a bread sticks just as she had.
"So, Spirit… what exactly do you do for a living?"
Spirit pulls his gaze away from the other side of the room – most likely from the direction of Blair and her chest.
"I'm senior adviser to the mayor of the city. It's a very important job, really," he smiles in Maka's direction for a moment. When she ignores him, he turns his focus back to Soul, suddenly very serious.
"And what do you do, Soul? How will you be supporting my wonderful Maka for the rest of her life?"
Maka stiffens as Soul chokes on his bread stick. She glares at her Papa as her soulmate thumps on his chest to dislodge the piece of bread from his throat.
"I uh… I work at a motorcycle shop." He chokes out the sentence as he reaches for his glass of water. It takes both Spirit and Maka by surprise, as she realizes that she hadn't event known this bit of information herself.
But she wouldn't let Papa know that.
"Oh. How does it pay?" Spirit attempts to pry further, but Maka cuts him off.
"That doesn't matter, Papa. What matters is that he has a job that he likes as he goes to school."
Spirit holds up his hands quickly in defense, smiling. "You're right, you're right, of course. I just want to make sure my little girl is being taken care of. It would be awful if her soulmate was a failure with no future, right?"
He turns to look at Soul, who simply stares back. Maka thinks that maybe her father had hit a nerve of Soul's, because when he answers, his voice becomes very serious.
"You're right. It would almost be as bad as if her soulmate left her with a lined Sentence."
Maka takes another bite of her bread stick, turning toward Spirit with her eyebrows raised.
He leans back in his seat, pushing his hair out of his face and frowning at Soul.
"Tell me: do you plan on doing that?"
Maka turns back to Soul, bread stick forgotten as it hangs from her mouth.
Does he plan on doing that?
She watches as Soul thinks about his answer. She doesn't breathe as he contemplates, worried that the short amount of time they've known each other isn't enough for him to base an answer on. He's silent for a minute before he sits a bit higher in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.
"No."
The two letters slip from Soul's mouth quietly, seeming to remind Maka to breathe. She sucks in a breath of air, smiling at Soul as he continues.
Spirit raises an eyebrow. "Oh? And you know this already, after knowing her for a week?"
"Nearly two," Maka interjects, taking another bite of bread stick.
Soul doesn't seem phased, shrugging instead and leaning back in his chair.
"To be completely honest, I have no idea. I don't know what the future will bring at all, none of us do. But I know that Maka is supposed to be my soulmate. And I know that in the two weeks that I have known her, I've been happier than I've been in a long time."
Maka can feel something inside of her swell; a kind of warmth that tightens her chest and radiates throughout the rest of her body as Soul continues.
"I'm not sure how this soulmate thing works. And I'm not sure if we'll be together for as long as soulmates should be. But even if we're not, I'm going to enjoy the time that we do spend together. Because she makes me feel... Complete. And I like that. And I like Maka. So I'm going to be with her for as long as she likes me."
She watches Soul as he watches Spirit, who says nothing for quite a while.
Finally, she hears a satisfied hum come from the other side of the table.
"Alright. Don't do anything stupid then."
He reaches out and grabs a bread stick, stuffing the end of it in his mouth before continuing.
"I still don't think you deserve my Maka. She's beautiful and wonderful and smart and amazing and could do much better than the Evans boy that ran away from home. But if she chooses to love you and you do your best to treat her right, then I can't complain too much."
Maka sighs. Honestly, that was a better reaction than she had been expecting.
She reaches her hand out beside her, finding Soul's beneath the table. His hand is warm, and her chest tightens again.
She decides that she just might choose to love him after all.