Freefall
by. Poisoned Scarlet
2a
"Wait a second, can you repeat that?" Maka squawked, stunned. The packet of sugar in her hand nearly fell in her coffee at her friends offhanded comment.
"...I am not dating Black Star. He is my boy friend." Tsubaki repeated, unsure of herself now. She ran the tip of her finger over the rim of her cup timidly, as her friend stared at her with that scrutinizing, bewildered, look in her eye. "Ah, I mean... he is a boy who is my friend?"
"Tsubaki, that doesn't make him your boyfriend." Maka slumped back in her chair, thoughtful. "That makes him your friend. Boyfriend is a totally different thing. You can't use that word to describe someone like Black Star..." Maka pursed her lips at the thought of him. "Maybe moron or arrogant but definitely not boyfriend... who'd want to date that idiot?"
"Oh, no, did I say something wrong again?" Tsubaki panicked. Never was there a time when English could have failed her any worse than it had there. Briefly, she contemplated speaking less Japanese in informal settings. "I called him that once!"
"What did he do?"
"He just... looked at me strangely then he laughed." Tsubaki mumbled, heart rushing to her cheeks. Tsubaki bowed her head, shutting her eyes in embarrassment. "That must have been why! Oh, I can't believe I said that! I'm so stupid, how could I have forgotten something so important?"
"Well, we hardly use it! Even when I was with Hiro, we hardly used that word!" Maka tried to assuage her embarrassment although it only made Tsubaki slump further into her seat with humiliation. "D – don't worry about it, Tsubaki, Black Star hasn't tried anything on you, right?"
Tsubaki shook her head.
"Then maybe he understood what you meant!"
There was a brief silence.
"No, not likely."
"You're right. I'll call Soul for damage control."
"Thank you so much Maka-chan..."
2b
"She's from Japan?" Soul asked, a few hours after recieving an emergency call from Maka for 'damage control'. He devoured the ice-cream cone he had bought within seconds. "Explains the accent." He swallowed. "And the fact that she totally led Black Star on."
Maka rolled her eyes, eating her own cone at a much slower pace. She scooted until her back rested against the bark of the tree at the park, her eyes automatically rising to the bright blue sky. The branches that caved in with the tree shaded her from the intense sunlight enough to admire the clouds. It was such a leisure day, she couldn't have spent it any other way, she found herself thinking.
"Don't blame her too much – she's not from here. Her English is advanced but there are times when she confuses certain words. She's been speaking a lot more Japanese around Black Star and me, too, so it's not surprising her English is a little rusty."
"You can speak Japanese?" Soul asked, surprised.
"You didn't know that?" Maka bit into the cone of her ice-cream while Soul waited for her to continue. "I'm half Japanese, Soul. My mama is Japanese, but my papa is American. I was raised in Japan for a few years before I moved here with them. And my mama always spoke to me in my native tongue at home although I was learning English at school."
"Huh, I didn't know that." Soul mused. "That's cool."
Maka smiled. "What about you? Do you know another language?"
"English, Italian and French." Soul replied absently, overlooking Maka's slack jaw. "What?"
"You know three languages?"
"Yeah, my mom made me take a bunch of courses when I was a kid." Soul yawned, nonchalant. "Dads American, moms French. Plus, learning Italian would help me understand most of the vocab when I was learning how to play the piano."
"Wow..." Maka trailed off, impressed although she was quick to look away before he noticed. "Your parents invested a lot in your education."
"I guess."
There was a brief silence, as Maka focused on finishing her ice-cream cone and Soul gazed distantly at the sky, lost in thought.
"You... what do you do for a living?" Maka asked, hesitantly. "I never bothered to ask, but...now I'm curious."
"I work for Death Jam Records." Soul replied, grinning at her blank look. He wasn't surprised she didn't know the company: her musical taste was enough to tell him she didn't bother much with those things. "It's a major recording company, Maka, let's just leave it at that. My dad is CEO, so he gave me a job after I graduated. I'm on break right now since a few of the bands are on tour and I don't wanna' deal with the others..."
"You're certified already?"
"Since I turned twenty one." Soul yawned again. At Maka's disbelief, he added with a wicked smirk: "I bribed Wes to do my homework. I tried on the exams. Kinda'." He shrugged at her dry look. "I always got at least a B."
"A B isn't good enough." Maka firmly stated, ignoring his roll of eyes at her nerdy statement. "Wow, you have your life all planned – wait... twenty one? Soul, how old are you?"
Soul slowly looked at her. "...why?"
"Because I don't know!" Maka straightened, leaning toward him eagerly. "Soul, how old are you? I can't believe I don't know! You know my age but yours..."
"How old do I look?"
"Twenty twoish?" Maka guessed, unsurely.
He grinned, cockily. "Then that's my age."
"No, that can't be! You said you graduated when you were twenty one – you...you graduated early, actually..." Maka left off, with a jealous glare. It didn't settle well with her that such a slacker had somehow managed to graduate earlier than herself.
"Connections make the world go 'round." Soul smirked, haughty.
"How old are you?"
"I already told you."
"Ugh, when were you born?"
"Not falling for that."
"Soul! What's your age!" Maka demanded, with an edge of fury. "My papa would kill you if he found out you're twice my age!"
Soul suddenly scowled. "Hey, that's insulting. Are you calling me old?"
"SOUL!"
"Relax." Soul drawled, leaning sideways on his hand. Maka stared, mystified, when he leaned up and licked the corner of her lip of vanilla ice-cream, eventually catching her lips. The cone, half-way through, cracked a little in her hand, and her heart drummed out any other noise except his breath when they parted to breathe and how the grass shifted against his pants when he moved closer to her. "Does age matter that much to you?"
"No..." She breathed, dazed.
"Then what's the big deal?" Soul reached for her hand, successful with his distracting, and ate the remainder of her ice-cream without a moment to waste.
It took Maka a few long seconds to realize what had just happened.
"You – you just ate my ice-cream!"
"You were lagging to eat it. It was melting already."
"But I was going to eat it! Give it back!" Maka demanded fiercely while he chewed with that cocky glint in his eye. "Buy me another one!"
"No, you'll get fat – OW!"
"Go! Buy! Me! Another one! Damn it!" Maka enunciated every word with a punch to his shoulder, watching with hidden pleasure as he choked on her ice-cream before finally swallowing, breathing heavily and staring wide-eyed at her.
"Woman, you could have killed me!"
"I know CPR."
Soul glared before wiping the edge of his sleeve against his mouth. "I'll buy you another one later, the ice-cream guy isn't going anywhere." He added, before she could protest. He laid back on the floor with a wide yawn. The grass felt humid, the sun hot on his clothes, but the shade the tree provided was enough for him to gaze up into the sky without much problem.
"By the way." Soul said, after a few minutes of comfortable silence while Maka read the book she brought with her, grumbling under her breath. "I'm twenty four."
A.N: I mentioned somewhere in Quicksand that Tsubaki and Black Star were an 'item'. But that was in Maka's POV, and Tsubaki is a native from Japanese and her Ingrish is rusty ;D
Haha, fun times ahead.
Scarlett.