She was worried about me and I wasn't even sick. And then I acted like a jerk. I slam my pillow into my face when my alarm goes off. I've been awake for at least an hour, but I still don't want to get up. I can't fake sick again, Maka will know. I crawl out of bed as slowly as possible. If I'm ever going to talk to her, which was all Blair's idea, I've got to stop being a jerk. It's just sometimes she doesn't know when to quit and it gets annoying. I know it's because she cares, well, I'm assuming. If what Blair says is true then she must. Maka walks by me in the hall, but doesn't say anything. "Good morning." I say, for the first time in forever. I figure it's a good place to start. She stops toweling off her wet hair midway, and turns to look at me. "Good morning." She replies, almost a question. I turn and can't help but grin. She really didn't see that coming.

We ride to school, but since there's no elevator, we have to walk up the stairs. I sigh when I see them, but there's nothing I can do. I try not to complain, Maka gets irritated when I do that. When we reach the top, she looks at me. I pretend not to notice, and when she looks away she says, "Too bad we don't have an elevator."

"Right! That would make things so much easier! And we wouldn't have to leave the bike around the street with all the people and cars and—," I stop, thinking it might be a trap, but Maka laughs (actually laughs!), and shakes her head. We keep walking, and I'm starting to feel pretty good about myself. Our classes go by, Maka has some that I don't, and she has less. So she's waiting for me by the bike, and when I get there she smiles. I smile back, because I haven't seen her genuinely smile at me in a long time. But she's fake smiled at me a lot, she does it when she's mad at me but doesn't want people around to know. But if you know Maka, you know that smile. We ride home, and I'm thinking that tonight I'll tell her. It couldn't be more prefect, right? She's in a good mood and everything. But when we get to the door we both stop.

Maka looks at me, "well?" she says. I look at her funny; I don't know what she's expecting me to do. "What?"

"Aren't you going to open the door?"

Crap. "Oh, right." I act like I'm going through my keys, but I know I don't have it. "Funny story, Maka…" But I don't get far. "Are you serious, Soul?!"

"Well, I don't normally have the keys so I don't know why you're getting so mad!"

"I gave them to you this morning, remember?"

"No!"

"UGH! Soul, I gave them to you to add to your bike keys because we just got new ones and I wanted you to have one since you're always running off at night and I hate leaving the door unlocked."

"So you just decided to stop carrying your house key?! And don't just run off, I have places to go! I have a life!"

"No, I just thought it would be fine since you have one. And since when do you have a 'life'?!"

"Well, that's stupid! There are two of us, we should have two! Wasn't that you're plan to begin with, I'm pretty sure you just forgot it. I've always had a life, you don't have to be there for it. In fact, it's better if you aren't!"

"What is that supposed to mean?! I'm not good enough for you?! Super cool Soul has to do stuff all by himself, because he's sooo cool!"

"What? When have I ever said that?!"

"Why should you have to when I know you're thinking it?!"

"Oh and all of a sudden you know exactly what's in my head?"

"We're partners aren't we?!"

"Are we, 'cause last time I checked, partners weren't supposed to be so freakin' annoying!"

"HA! I'm annoying?! You forgot the key!"

"So did you! So stop blaming me for your own crap!"

"Stop being so lazy and not doing what I ask of you!"

"I'm not your pet, Maka! You don't get to just throw me around and tell me what to do!"

I hadn't noticed how close we'd gotten to one another while we were arguing, and now that I did, I saw that her face was only a foot from mine. I was so mad at her, she was being a total bitch. But, I loved her. I really did, and maybe, if there was anything I could do that would make it all stop…

"Soul, I don't do that to you! It's not like I hate you that much!"

"Well, you've sure shown a lot to prove it to me! Why do you think I wander off at night anyway?! It's because of your constant harassing!"

"I'm just trying to get us to share responsibilities!"

"Well, you're making me mad, and I don't like it and I hate arguing with you!"

"Well so do I! It's not fair that you get to leave and I have to stay home without you and worry about where you've been! You could just tell me—mph!"

And that's when I kissed her freakishly loud mouth. The closeness was killing me and when she said she actually worried, I couldn't handle it anymore. I'm only so strong. She had her hands on my shoulders like she might try to push me away. But she didn't. And before I knew what was happening, she started kissing me back. I pulled her in closer, I wasn't thinking anymore. Her hands clasped around my neck, pulling me in even more. I couldn't breathe, but I didn't care. Her body was small and my arms wrapped around her so easily. Her fingers had moved up to my hair and when she tugged, I made the mistake of letting a moan escape. Suddenly, the spell broke and she pulled away from me. I still had my arms around her, but she held her distance. We stared at one another until our breathing caught up to us.

"Uhm…" was her only reply.

"Maka. I'm pretty sure I love you."

"Well, I love you too Soul, but…"

"No, Maka. I mean, I'm in love with you."

She stared at me, green eyes unwavering. I had no idea what she was thinking. "Even with all the arguing?" I couldn't help but laugh, "Yeah, Maka. Even with all the arguing."

"Why?" This is the question I didn't expect to hear. And so at first I didn't say anything and I swear she almost started to cry. "Soul, if you're just making this up!"

"What? No! No, Maka, I wouldn't! Seriously! I'm pretty sure I've been love with you for a long time, it's just, when the arguing started it got harder to see."

"I'm sorry." I probably look surprised, because I didn't expect to hear that either.

"What? Why?"

"Because I love you, too. And if I'd just told you way back then, we wouldn't have gone through 5 years of hating each other so much. It's all my fault, and I'm sorry. I'm really, I'm so sorry." She's crying now, and I assume she thinks I hate her now, but I'm pretty sure I only like her more. So I do the only thing I can think of to prove it to her. I kiss her again. I'm softer this time though, because I really want her to understand. I cup her face in my hands, and I can still feel the tears sliding down her face, so I just keep kissing hoping she'll stop. I'm so bad, I don't know what else to do. So we just stand there, on the second story of our apartment building, making up for lost time.