Rated T because Soul swears almost as much as I do
He was going to kill Wes.
As soon as this stupid hike was over, he was going to bash his brother's head in with the violin he so desperately loved.
"You shouldn't be lazing around your dorm like an urchin, Soul." His brother said. "College is about meeting new people, trying new things, getting out of your comfort zone."
"Fuck off, Wes." He groaned for the millionth time. "I'll go try new things when it's cool"
"For fuck's sake, are you still with that? I thought you would get over the cool phase when you bought that orange monstrosity." Soul could practically hear his brother shuddering.
"Her name is Caroline." he snapped. His brother's guffaws did nothing to calm him.
"Jesus, you named it?" He said in between his howls, trying to catch his breath.
"Was there a purpose to this call?" Soul asked, patience nonexistent, "Or is your life so lame that you have to call your brother to get a smidge of cool in your day?"
"Ha! As if playing video games every afternoon with your roommate is cool." Wes scoffed, used to his brother's snark. "But if I were you I would get to trying new things. Mom's been hinting at wanting to go visit, but just hasn't found the right reason to go, you know?" If there was a way to describe a voice as shit-eating, then Wes would have it.
The fact that Wes had threatened to call their mother, warned Soul that he was serious. Which is why he signed up for the first club he saw on the bulletin board. Which just happened to be the Sierra Club.
So now Soul was hiking up some godforsaken mountain with blisters the size of his hair spikes and running low on fucks to give. He was hungry, his hair had enough leaves in it to make him look like a nymph, and he was pretty sure his face was the color of a tomato. He had wandered off from the group long ago, too eager to be away from everyone's gazes.
Why had he even joined this stupid club? For Christ's sake his only form of exercise was running from his apartment to his bike when he was late for school. Curse his stupid brother and his good intentions. Curse his stupid brain for agreeing with Wes. Curse the stupid club for putting up a flyer. Curse the stupid forces of nature making the mountain.
Too busy cursing everything, Soul failed to notice that the path he was on was rather steep and rather muddy.
He felt his foot slip and was already tumbling down the side of the pass before he was fully aware of it. Luckily, the fall down was quick and the ground below grassy. When he looked up, he was at the bottom of the hill and had at least 3 different types of grass in his hair.
Fan-fuckin-tastic.
He considered laying there until a search party was sent out, would serve Wes right for making him exercise. But, before fully entertaining the idea, someone began calling down to him.
"Hello? Are you okay down there? Do you need help? Holy crap, are you unconscious? Please don't be dead. Shit. Tell me you're not dead." The voice continued.
"Still alive." He called back, already standing up and trekking up to the path.
The girl in question turned out to be another hiker from the club. He knew because he had been sneaking looks at her the entire bus ride over. He expected her to leave when she found out he was, in fact, alive, but she waited until he was almost back on the path and then stretched out her hand to help him. He reached for hand but as she tried pulling him up, her foot slipped on the exact patch of mud that caused him to fall in the first place and they both went tumbling down again.
"Fuck." Soul cursed again. This day was just getting better and better. First he got pressured into a stupid hike and then almost kills the cute girl from his classes. Not that he ever noticed her in his classes before or anything. This was so not cool. Speaking of cute girls this one was currently lying on top of him and not speaking.
"Oi, pigtails, you okay?" He asked, voice concerned
The girl in question seemed to realize that she was on top of him and jumped off with a small "eep!"
"Oh jeez. I am so so sorry. I'm sorry I didn't, I should've, Jesus, I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Please tell me I didn't break anything." She rambled on.
Soul was disappointed that she had left her spot from lying on his chest (not that he would admit it himself) but was content to see that she was fine. That and she looked pretty silly with all those leaves and twigs in her hair.
"Can you walk? You didn't hurt your back or anything did you? I'm so sorry, if I had—"
"Don't worry about it, pigtails. I was the one that got stuck down here in the first place." He interrupted.
With evident relief, that she hadn't been responsible for any injuries, she stood up and dusted off her shorts.
"What are you even doing here? This isn't even the path that the rest of the club is on." Pigtails asked, "And the name's Maka for your information, bub." She finished, somewhat annoyed.
"Ah well, I'm all about being one with nature you know. Isolated from society and find yourself among the trees and all that shit." He snarked.
"Yeah" Maka scoffed, grinning "How's that going for you? Have you found yourself a cave big enough for your pretentious ass?"
Soul laughed, unused to having someone go toe to toe with him.
They set out for getting back on the path, Maka definitely not checking out his ass as he climbed ahead of her. But if she was, which she wasn't, who could blame her? It was a very nice ass. Besides it's not as if she had been trying to build up the courage to talk to the reserved boy from her classes for the last few weeks. And if she joined the Sierra club, it certainly had nothing to do with the fact that she had seen him with one of their flyers.
When he reached the top, he reached out for her hand, careful to avoid the patch that had caused them to fall in the first place. Her hand was tiny and warm, and, for a moment, he was stuck staring at it, liking the contrast between their skin a lot more than he should. He quickly let go, realizing that he had been holding her hand longer than normal, internally groaning that he could feel his face heat up. What was he, twelve? Now that they were both, in fact, not dead, he expected that she would leave him to go rejoin the group.
"Any chance I can convince you to rejoin society?" Maka asked, walking by him.
"You can sure as hell try," he responded.
He had no way of knowing how much Maka Albarn, stubborn-headed over achiever would rise up to the challenge.
One month later, while they're talking in the lounge after marathoning Full House, he confesses that he didn't think she'd take him seriously. She tells him she's too stubborn to back down from a challenge. Two months later, when she managed to get him to a party courtesy of Black*Star, he admits to himself that he has no idea what he got himself into. The green-eyed bookworm that he called a friend had managed to get him out of his prickly shell. But, as he catches Maka's smile from the other side of the room, he can't really bring himself to mind. After three months, when he finally gets the courage to kiss her after not failing finals, he decides that maybe his brother was right in this once instance. A year later, when he holds her face in his hands and tells her he loves her, her eyes shining with tears of joy, he thanks the Sierra Club for putting up that stupid flyer.