Alternating the POVs may be just what this story needs – a big thank you to CottonCoccon for the suggestion! The ball is now in Maka's court, as it were…and a later part of this chapter rather lives up to the first part of the story's title.
Not the owner of Soul Eater, nope. *cries*
It had been several days since the night of Maka's STEW episode (Stupid and Terrible Emotional Weakness; also known as That Night), and life in the Albarn/Evans-Eater household had since resumed its normal routine. Of course, their idea of "normal" included Soul's tendency to oversleep on school days, the occasional burned dinner, grueling practice sessions after classes were over, arguments over who forgot to clean out the lint trap in the dryer, and dealing with Blair's tendency to come home in the middle of the night after she'd gotten off work (which really shouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that Blair would frequently forget her key at home, and her wailing at the front door to be let in had gotten her human companions several dirty looks from their neighbors, as Blair's extraordinarily loud caterwauling usually occurred around 2:30 in the morning).
Yep, everything was back to normal.
...well, almost.
Soul hadn't pressured her to talk about That Night, but occasionally Maka would see the silent question about it in his eyes, and the only answer she had for him was a small, rueful smile and an equally silent plea for more time. She knew that his patience in waiting for an answer would only last so long before he dragged it out of her one way or the other; besides, she had never successfully been able to keep secrets from him for long periods of time. Nor had she really wanted to, until now.
But she knew that she had to handle the ramifications of her behavior from That Night correctly. The possibility that the trust and companionship of her closest confidante, the only person who fully understood and accepted her, could be permanently altered because of carelessness on her part was unacceptable. She couldn't bear to imagine how awkward and tense their relationship might become if that happened.
Maka didn't like unresolved problems; they gnawed at her sensibilities until she became frustrated and twitchy. Therefore she was determined she was going to solve her current dilemma, using logic as her weapon.
And logic stated that she should start by making a list of all the reasons why she was in love with her best friend.
"Whatcha doin'?"
"GAH!" Maka jumped in her seat at the kitchen table, the elbow she had been leaning on knocking over her glass of water. Quickly rescuing the notebook she had been writing in, she looked up at the person who'd startled her from her musings. "When did you get home?"
"Just now. I thought I'd said 'Hi, I'm home!' loud enough for you to hear me."
"Erg. Just hand me something to wipe this up." Maka closed her notebook and set it on the bar between the kitchen and the living room, then took the offered paper towels to mop up the water pooling on the kitchen table. "You're home early, aren't you?"
"Yeah, well, it was a slow night at the club, so they told me to go on home." Leaning against the refrigerator, Blair gestured at the notebook Maka had set down. "What's in there? A grocery list? We just went shopping a few days ago, y'know."
"It's not a grocery list," Maka replied grumpily, tossing the wet paper towels in the trash. "It's a – different list. Of stuff I need to write down."
"Oh?" Intrigued, Blair sauntered toward the bar, reaching for the red spiral notebook. "I wanna see!"
"NO!" Grabbing the notebook just before the transformed magical cat touched it, Maka backed away, clutching it to her chest. "It's a- it's private!"
That was definitely the wrong thing to say; Maka realized her mistake as soon as the words were out of her mouth, but it was too late. Blair's golden eyes lit up with curiosity, then narrowed in mischief.
"Oho! I definitely wanna see it, then," Blair purred, slowly stalking her prey around the small kitchen. "What's so private that you don't want to show li'l ol' Blair? Is it something about Scythie Boy, hmmmm?"
"W-what? NO!" Maka sputtered, red-faced and edging slowly towards the doorway that led to the hallway. "What makes you- it's just personal, that's all! Nothing to see!"
"Uh-huh." Lowering her shoulders and twitching her rump in anticipation, Blair prepared to pounce. "If there's nothing to see, why is Maka-chan all nervous? I just want a little peek…"
"No! ACK! Stay away!"
In the ensuing pandemonium, neither girl heard the front door open, or a disgruntled voice say, "I could hear you guys all the way down on the street, y'know. You're gonna get…the neighbors…on…our…case…" The rest trailed off into stupefied silence as Soul reached the kitchen doorway and took in the scene before him. He wasn't aware until later that his nose had started to bleed before his mind fully processed what he was seeing.
Desperate and only having scant seconds before Blair pounced on her, Maka had thrown her notebook on top of the fridge then proceeded to try and valiantly keep the magical cat away from her goal. In addition to the two kitchen chairs overturned, Maka's empty water glass underneath the kitchen window, the table leaning crazily against the wall that supported the bar counter top several open cabinet doors and drawers, and several lengths of paper towel draped over the whole mess, Soul was graced with the sight of his meister with her back against the refrigerator, one of her feet pushing against Blair's hip (and somehow in the process her toes caught on the waistband of Blair's black leather capris, pulling them down enough to show the high-cut sides of Blair's hot pink thong), her right arm swatting at Blair's outstretched hand and her left hand pushing against Blair's well-endowed chest. Though Blair was more intent on getting to the notebook than wrestling with Maka, the hand that wasn't straining for the forbidden prize had latched onto Maka's oversized T-shirt, pulling one side of it down and exposing Maka from neck to the swell of one breast. Both girls were panting and flushed, with Blair's determined growls and Maka's breathless exclamations of "No!" "You can't have it!" "Quit it!" the only other sounds in the annihilated kitchen.
The sound of a bookbag dropping to the tile floor alerted Maka to the fact that there was an audience present. Peering around Blair's torso, she blanched. "S-Soul! Um, this isn't – I'm not – that is-" The distraction of seeing her partner witness such an outrageous exhibition cost her the slim advantage of being able to keep Blair at bay.
Soul just stood there, jaw hanging open and eyes wide and glazed.
Crowing with triumph, Blair snatched the notebook from the top of the fridge. "Got it!"
Soul continued to just stand there, jaw hanging open and eyes wide and glazed. A small trail of blood leaked from one nostril.
"NO!" With a strength born of panic, Maka grabbed at the notebook in Blair's hand, and the ensuing scuffle launched the item into the air, cover open and pages riffling-
-straight at Soul's immobilized face.
Ker-smack! Not mentally aware enough to avoid the paper missile flying his way, Soul staggered backwards into the doorjamb, the much-abused notebook covering his face like a spiral-bound shroud. He recovered enough to catch the notebook before it fell to the floor, though his shell-shocked expression didn't change.
Maka's wail of "Noooo, why me?!" was drowned out by a gleeful voice. "Soul got the notebook! Yay!" Quickly disentangling herself from Maka's weak grip, Blair shifted to her cat form and scampered across the kitchen floor to jump on top of Soul's head. "You got the prize, Soul-kun!"
"Wh-wha...huh?"
"Maka-chan's notebook, silly!" Blair clarified happily. "Seems like there's something written in there that Maka-chan doesn't want me to see, so you read it, 'kay? Then you can tell me what it is!"
Slowly regaining use of both his overloaded brain and his speech functions, Soul slowly rolled his eyes upward in a vain attempt to look at the cat perched on his head. "I repeat – huh?"
"I said-"
Maka hadn't been idle in the meager time she'd had to recoup her reeling senses during to Blair and Soul's little exchange. Recovery of her wits was immediate as soon as she saw the notebook in her partner's hands – and high levels of embarrassment and anger helped her twitching hands find a suitable weapon of divine punishment, as unfortunately she had no books in the kitchen.
"MA. KA. CHOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
Wasn't it just lucky for her that the heavy plastic pitcher they used for making juice had conveniently fallen out of one of the open cabinets and was well within reach of her questing hands? Not to mention she'd also managed to land an improvised Maka Chop on Blair, a rare feat in itself.
Nice to know that the goddess of serendipity hadn't totally deserted her after all.
After much incoherent yelling and cursing, strained apologies on Maka's part, sullen acceptance of said apologies on Soul's, and a reluctant joint effort between the two of them to clean up the kitchen (Blair had hightailed it out of the apartment right after she woke up from her involuntary nap, the little sneak; she'd had just as big a part in tearing up the kitchen as Maka did!), the weapon meister was finally able to escape to the sanctuary of her room. With a sigh of relief, Maka leaned against her closed door, then balefully eyed the battered notebook she'd tossed on her desk while Blair and Soul were still unconscious.
All she'd wanted to do was get her thoughts on paper, as a first step in figuring out why she loved her currently - and justifiably - cranky partner…yes, maybe Maka Chopping him into oblivion was going a little overboard considering he hadn't had a chance to read anything she'd written, but she wasn't ready to share those thoughts with him yet!
Especially since my "logical list" isn't really logical at all, Maka thought sourly, sitting at her desk and flipping open the red notebook. Sighing again, she gazed at the wrinkled page that contained what she'd written before the wild rumpus with Blair started.
What I Like About Soul
His smile, shark teeth and all.
His eyes. (Maka noted with a touch of grim amusement that a drop of blood from Soul's nosebleed had landed right on the word "eyes".)
He's sarcastic, sometimes lazy, kinda nosy and possessive, and DEFINITELY stubborn as all get out; but he's also loyal, compassionate, supportive…and simply the best friend I've ever had.
I can trust him, like no other.
Why do I love him? For all the reasons I listed, and…
Maka stared down at the answer that had taken her so long to write down.
..because I just do.
Obviously, Maka reasoned as she tore the paper out of the notebook, crumpled it up, and tossed it in her trashcan, trying to use logic wasn't going to be of any help. It seemed it was time to ask for assistance, since trying to do it on her own wasn't really getting her anywhere.
"Oi, Maka." Soul's voice floated through her closed door. "I'm gonna order pizza for dinner tonight. Think you can set the table without destroying the kitchen?"
"Snarky little…" she muttered, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I'll do it," she said loud enough for him to hear. "I'll be there in a minute."
Once the sound of Soul's footsteps faded towards the front of the apartment, Maka pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and quickly typed a text message. She hesitated before hitting SEND; once she went with this course of action, there was no turning back. Firming her lips, she jabbed the button before she could change her mind.
All she knew for sure was that she couldn't do this by herself.
Surprise, surprise – I managed to pound out another chapter before the end of the year! Of course, this means I'll have to try and get the next one done within the next two weeks.
'Cause I'm all about self-imposed deadlines, doncha know. XD
The insanity will continue!