The Mechanics of Fighting,

With Soul and Maka

By vivalarapture

AKA One Week by Barenaked Ladies.

Anyone that knew Maka and Soul longer than a few minutes could tell there was an adequate amount of tension broiling between the two. Now, Tsubaki would bet her life on the tension being of the sexual kind, but for fear of being skewered by an overly sensitive Maka, she kept her mouth shut.

Kid was legitimately impressed by the intricacies that went into their fighting. It was always the same, no matter what the fight was about, and it usually lasted around eight days. On the first day, they would rant and rave and generally cause quite a ruckus. Patti had actually seen Maka tackle Soul before, launching herself across the living room with a fierce cry and pinning him to the carpet.

Black*Star thought it was absolutely hilarious, and loved to egg them on after the second day. He would rile Maka up first, knowing she was the easier target, and remind her of whatever silly thing had started their fight. Maka would nod along with Black*Star, her fists clenched at her sides as she echoed his accusations.

"Yeah! He should know better than to leave his shoes in the doorway by now!"

Black*Star would clap a hand on her back and push her forward, excitedly telling her to go confront Soul and give him a piece of her mind. He would snicker into his hand, following behind Maka on her war path and thinly conceal the joy he got from making his subjects dance.

The rest of their fighting was usually done behind closed door, and no one really knew how they kept up their perfect resonance after so much yelling. If anyone was to ask Liz, she would smirk knowingly and make an obscene gesture, winking wildly.

The rest of Spartoi had a good idea as to what went on between the meister and weapon, but tended to stay out of it. Besides Killik, who occasionally attempted to console a fuming Soul when he showed up at his house in the middle of the night and demanded they play basketball. The twins thought it was funny, and giggled whenever Soul showed up at their house and dragged their meister away for a few hours.

Kim and Jackie thought it was stupid, and made that fact known every time Maka tried to confide in the pair. Kim would roll her eyes and Jackie would raise an eyebrow, not understanding how any reason Maka gave them was worthy of a week-long brawl with her partner. They would tell her such, and Maka would leave even angrier than she had arrived.

OX observed from afar, and secretly relished the fights, knowing that whenever they had a blow out, that Maka was never as concentrated on her school work. It's not that he liked to see her fail, but after the unwashed dishes debacle of 2013, he had just nearly beaten Maka for 1st in the class. That was something OX just couldn't pass up, no matter how morally ambiguous.

Harvar had no opinion other than his normal distaste for anything loud and distracting. And if Maka and Soul's fights could be pegged as anything, they were loud and distracting.

"How long have we lived together, Soul?! How hard is it to remember that my toothbrush is red?! There's nothing worse than waking up and realizing your toothbrush has been reduced to a mangled mess of torn out bristles!"

"Well this wouldn't even happen if you could keep your toothbrush on your side!"

Maka stood strong, one hand on her hip and the other holding what looked like a toothbrush that had been run over a few times. She waved the offending object in his face, her eyes slit in a menacing glare,

"RED! IT'S RED, SOUL! How do you mistake my RED toothbrush for your BLUE ONE?! NO MATTER WHERE IT IS IN THE BATHROOM!"

Soul shrugged, and then immediately regretted the action, knowing Maka hated nothing more than indifference during their fights. That was actually half the reason he usually did it, loving getting a reaction out of her. But this was day four of their fight, and usually by day four he was starting to back down. Shrugging in the face of a furious Maka Albarn was definitely not backing down.

Her eyes widened before she stepped forward, jabbing the toothbrush into his chest, "A shrug?! Seriously?! You just don't know how in the world you managed to use my toothbrush and destroy it with your damn teeth?!"

There it was. Soul's nonchalant glance turned into a furious scowl, and Maka took a step back, realizing she had made the first misstep in their tried and true method of arguing. They never attacked each others weak spots during their fights, no matter how vicious they became, but Maka crossed the line.

Soul pushed past her, growling dangerously low, "Well excuse me, sorry my fucking teeth ruined your precious toothbrush. It's not like I can't exactly CHANGE THEM."

Maka turned around to try and rectify the situation before Soul slammed the door to his room, "I- Ah, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that!"

Like clockwork, the words "I didn't mean it like that." set off a reaction with the seething weapon, causing him to flip around halfway through his room, "Then how did you mean it?!"

Maka sighed angrily, shuffling her feet and suddenly finding the carpet fibers to be extremely interesting, "I-I just meant that.. That I like when my stuff is perfect. A-And you do tend to go through a lot of toothbrushes, and maybe so you don't have to use mine when yours gets.. Shredded, we could buy in bulk?"

Soul eyed her suspiciously before wrestling down the immense urge to hug his distressed meister and turned to go into his room.

"Whatever."

He shut the door behind him and let out the smile he had been holding back while Maka could see him. It wasn't his fault he found it insanely adorable whenever Maka would realize that this time it might just be her fault. She was so cute when she was mad, and it was getting increasingly more difficult to reign in both his hormones and his grins when Maka got really into an argument.

He leaned against the back of his door, chuckling lightly when he heard Maka mumbling angrily and incoherently. He caught a fragment of one of her muttered sentences, and nearly pulled open the door to question the validity of his hearing.

"-stupid. I for one love his teeth.."

Maka roughly pulled open the door to her room and flopped down on the bed. It wasn't like she enjoyed these fights, but something in the way Soul's eyes flash every time he spits a clever comeback at her makes Maka's toes positively curl. She wouldn't say she likes the constant arguing, but watching him bare his teeth at her after a particularly snide remark makes her blood catch fire, and okay, maybe she liked that aspect of the fighting.

Maka covered her face with a pillow and went through the last few days in her head.

She woke up to a toothbrush missing half of its bristles.

She woke up Soul by throwing the toothbrush at his face.

They yelled.

The next morning she forgot to pick up another toothbrush and had to use the shredded toothbrush.

They yelled again.

The next day she had to chop Liz for telling her to, "Fuck and get it over with."

They gave each other the cold shoulder.

This morning Soul made a snarky comment about oral hygiene.

They yelled again.

She flipped over onto her stomach and stared at the wall that separated their rooms. Many arguments had been solved and started by calling through the paper thin walls. She huffed and put her face into the comforter. He probably already knew she was sorry, there was no reason to push the matter. It would still be a few days before she worked up the courage to really apologize anyway.

A few hours later, Soul took out his headphones and made his way into the kitchen. It was Maka's turn to cook, but they were behind schedule and he didn't need another week of this fighting. They were nearing day five and they weren't supposed to still be fighting. Maybe ignoring each other, perhaps pointed glares in the hallway, but not fighting.

Soul rummaged through the fridge and tried as hard as he could to not slam the door. Even their fridge suffered when they fought. He grabbed the cordless phone from their kitchen and dialed out for Chinese food. He plopped himself down on the couch and waited. Either for Maka to come out and start throwing pots and pans around to make dinner, or for her to scuttle into the bathroom to get ready for bed and not come out at all.

He wasn't sure which one he would dislike more.

He ran a hand through his hair, staring at the blank TV screen in front of him. He hated fighting with Maka. Sure, it was fun to rile her up and watch her cheeks flush pink, but his favorite thing in the world was casually attempting to cuddle with her on the couch.

There would be none of that for at least two days. He jumped when the doorbell rang, but quickly tore himself away from his thoughts and paid the driver who knew him on first name basis by now.

He dropped the food on the coffee table and was about to risk knocking on Maka's door when he saw her head peak out from behind the hallway. He smirked and waved her over. Her footsteps were soft and calculated, and he knew that meant she was still angry but was trying to act normal.

"Hey. It's my turn to cook dinner."

Soul flinched at the glacial tone of her voice, "Well yeah, but I was in the mood for fish and I know you don't like the smell when you cook it and.. So I got Chinese."

Maka raised an eyebrow, but padded over to the living room and sat down on the couch, "So what movie are we watching?"

Soul couldn't help the grin that spread over his face, scrambling over to the glass case to the left of their TV,"Oh, uhm.. How about a samurai movie?"

Maka hummed noncommittally and began to dig through the bag of food in front of her, "Whatever you want."

Soul couldn't believe his good luck. He put the movie into their DVD player and had to stop himself from leaping onto the couch next to her. Maybe the fight was over! He could just pretend to forget about her teeth comment, and to be honest, she kind of redeemed herself when she said she loved them, and they would be fine again.

These fights weren't as common as everyone else made it out to be, and he was excited for them to shift back to their normal routine.

Maka plucked a piece of chicken out of the container and chewed lightly as she watched the beginning credits roll past. She had to admit, Soul was playing a little dirty by ordering take out and watching a movie with her. Curling up next to her weapon and watching a movie was her favorite thing in the world, and no fight was going to stop her from enjoying his warmth.

I mean, maybe everything was okay again? She could just buy a bunch of toothbrushes and keep them stashed under the cabinet and everything would be fine. He didn't need to know that she was desperate to end this fight while simultaneously trying to keep her dignity. Just because the thought of Soul's mouth on her toothbrush brought about a whole slew of unnecessarily blood curdling feelings didn't mean he had to know that they weren't all anger.

Soul shifted closer to Maka under the guise of reaching for his plate of food. Maka held back a giggle and let his arm fall comfortably over her shoulders.

She knew that no matter what the fight was about, they would be okay. No matter how silly the argument, they would always get over it. They were a team, and no matter how heated the yelling and screaming got, they always knew that. If they needed to let off a little steam, they were both on the same page, they would always be there to be a punching bag. Because no amount of snide comments could make Maka fall out of love with her partner.

He was her rock, and she knew it. She was pretty sure he knew it, too.

Soul nudged her side and opened his mouth, his unspoken sign that he wanted a piece of her chicken. Maka laughed and shoved him with her shoulder,

"Nu uh! Two more days until you get food stealing privileges back."