It was late afternoon when she woke up, fully rested. It bugged her that her sleep schedule was messed up (more messed up than usual, at least), but she didn't regret her decision. She had had a dreamless sleep and she was happy about it. The last thing she needed was to dream about him.
She easily slipped out of the bed, taking a quick shower to wake her up and putting on fresh clothes. Less than half an hour later, she was climbing down the stairs, ready to switch with her dad who, she acknowledged, had been working hard. She entered the diner, not as full as it had been the day before, before she started searching for him. She quickly spotted him, his red hair hard to miss, and waited for him by the counter.
"Papa." She greeted him, smiling softly.
"Maka." He smiled back, half-heartedly. She raised her eyebrows, her dad was usually radiant to see her.
"Something happen?" She asked, glancing around anxiously, expecting to see something out of place. When that didn't happen, she eyed her dad, making sure that he wasn't hurt.
"You tell me." He replied, bitter. "Is there something you want to tell me?" She was staring at him, wide-eyed, wondering just exactly what her dad was hinting at. "Something about a boy?"
Her heart dropped and she couldn't find her voice. How did he know? What was she going to say? Her dad had never encouraged her to flirt with any of the customers and was, in fact, extremely protective. And she didn't want her dad to forbid Soul from frequenting the diner. "What do you mean?" She tried, her voice husky, before she cleared her throat and tried again, her voice louder this time.
"A boy. He's been sitting in the same damn table for hours. I'm taking he wanted to talk to you." Her dad answered, searching her face.
She had to try her best to suppress the smile that threatened to break out on her face. "Oh? Where is he now?" She asked, feigning indifference. "If he's waited for so long, I should at least come and say hi."
Her dad threw her a bitter look before pointing to the far corner of the diner, where she could make out a wisp of white hair. She smiled at her dad as sweetly as she could manage before wandering off to where he had pointed. She could feel his gaze on her back but couldn't care less, her heart trying to break out of her chest. Don't get your hopes up, she scolded herself.
"What will it be today?" She asked, business-like, notepad in hand. But when he looked up, eyes gleaming and a smile, a genuine smile planted on his lips, her resolution dissolved.
"Maka." He said, quietly. "I'm sorry, about yesterday. I didn't make myself clear." He mumbled, hanging his head in shame.
"You don't have to be sorry for telling the truth." She replied, taming her voice so to show the least emotion she could.
"But I wasn't telling the truth." Soul offered and Maka's expression instantly hardened. He noticed. "I wasn't lying either! I just thought it'd be easier to say I didn't remember than telling you the whole thing." He explained, afraid that he was further deepening his grave with each word he said.
Maka was still weary, but curiosity took over and she sat down in front of him, setting down the notepad and crossing her arms, her gaze unwavering as it settled on his eyes. And his eyes were burning so bright and so furiously that she feared the burn, but kept the gaze nonetheless. "I'm giving you a chance to tell me the whole truth now."
He stared at her, open-mouthed, for a few seconds, before he shook his head and guffawed. "I can tell you that I imagined this conversation to go many ways, but never like this."
His laugh did something funny to her. Soul wasn't one to show much emotion, but his laugh had seemed so genuine that she couldn't help but smile too. "Papa told me you waited for hours."
"I did." He confirmed. "I barely slept with the fear that I had ruined everything." It seemed like it was hard for him to confess such a thing, his face was stricken and he seemed uncomfortable, so she changed the subject.
"But I'm giving you a chance to explain." She said, kindly, hoping to put him more at ease.
"I dream of you."
She couldn't help but choke out: "What?"
"It's like, I didn't actually remember being here, in this diner, but I dream about it." He tried to explain, clearly shy. "I dream about your face, and green eyes, and coffee and chocolate cake and then yesterday I saw you and I needed to know your name." She was taken aback, both by his almost adoring tone and his blunt confession. Her mind was blank as she desperately searched for words, looking at him with eyes wide and heart thumping. When he looked at her, his eyes widened too. "Shit. I said that aloud, didn't I? This is so uncool." He ducked his head, avoiding her gaze, but she could still see the way his cheeks were tinted red.
It took her some time to find her voice again. "You're my favorite customer." She blurted out, unable to stop herself. "It's like I'm always waiting for you to burst through that door."
He looked up at that, managing to look both smug and shy as he smiled. "Really?"
"Yeah." She admitted, blushing fiercely. "But don't get the wrong idea, I just… you seem interesting."
"Do I seem different?" He asked, and he was much too smug for Maka's liking.
She cocked her head to the side, not understanding why he was acting like that. "Yes, I guess."
"So the part where you told me you liked different really happened?" He continued, obviously enjoying himself.
She squeaked when she remembered the incident, getting up from the chair, as she looked away. "I'm going to leave now." She announced, with a voice too sweet to seem seriously angry.
She heard him getting up too, between laughter, before she felt a hand on her arm, scorching her skin. "I'm sorry, I was just messing with you." She snorted, an easy smile showing up on her face nonetheless. "I'll be back tomorrow." He continued, and she could hear the smile in his voice.
"As you are now, or as your sleep-deprived version?" She asked, still avoiding his gaze.
He laughed loudly, and she became very aware of how close they were when she felt his breath on her shoulder. "I will never get back to my sleep-deprived self. You're good for me." She looked at him at that, throwing him a questioning glance, to which he responded by caressing her face gently, before moving away. "I'm trusting you'll be here."
And he walked out the door, as Maka was left to deal with her raging insides and the feeling that came with the absence of his touch. She could still feel his fingers on her cheek and she thought she may be going mad, although going mad over him didn't sound like such a bad idea.