Author's Note- I hadn't counted on having to go to work on New Years', or that it would be insanely busy and leave me with no time to write between calls, and as a result, this is late. GRRRRRR. My apologies.

Anticipate the epilogue soon-ish. Like, before January 2 rolls around (for me anyway, pretty sure it's already January 2 in Australia or something).


❅ Chapter 5


Breakfast the next morning started out sluggish and ended up a celebration.

It had all started with Black*Star and Tsubaki being unusually affectionate, holding hands under the table and exchanging little kisses, which was unusual because Black*Star was not a very cuddly person and although neither of them minded engaging in (sometimes excessive) PDA, they were usually pretty calm in public. On this particular morning, however, they couldn't seem to keep their hands off each other.

After the third time Tsubaki grabbed Black*Star's ass when they passed each other in the kitchen, Soul finally grumbled, "God, can you two stop for like three seconds? I'm eating here."

Tsubaki tried to look apologetic, but only ended up grinning widely instead. "I'm sorry, Soul. I guess we just can't help it." She glanced at Black*Star, and the two exchanged a knowing smile. "Should we tell them?"

"Tsubaki is gonna marry me!" Black*Star shouted.

The room had been full of cheerful morning chatter, but at this loud pronouncement, everyone fell dead silent.

"What?" Maka squeaked.

Tsubaki beamed, and rolled back the long sleeve of her sweater to reveal the full length of her fingers. A small gold ring on her fourth finger glinted in the sunlight. At the sight, Soul covered his ears, earning him a confused glance from Kilik.

Soul's precautions were well-founded, because immediately after the ring was revealed a chorus of high-pitched shrieks went up from the girls around the table as they threw themselves at Tsubaki, all attempting to hug her simultaneously. Even Maka was enthusiastically clinging around Tsubaki's neck, giggling and congratulating her. The other boys quickly moved to emulate Soul.

Once the initial fervor had died down, and Patti had been dissuaded from loudly pestering Black*Star about why he'd bought her a plain gold band and didn't Tsubaki deserve a big diamond, didn't he love her enough, huh, huh? ad infinitum, Soul deemed it safe to remove his hands from his ears.

"Congratulations, man," he said, once he was positive Black*Star would actually be able to hear him. "When did this happen, anyway?"

Black*Star grinned like the cat that got the cream. "Yesterday! I'd been planning to ask Tsubaki for awhile now, but I kept putting it off."

"Why?" Harvar asked. "You nervous or something?"

"Hell no!" Black*Star protested, though his sheepish look seemed to indicate the opposite. "I knew she'd say yes, of course! Nobody would turn down the great me! While you guys were all wandering around playing Pick-Up-Sticks, I got Tsubaki alone..."

The deep snow muffled even Black*Star's heavy footsteps, which was fortunate because although he truly had learned to move silently like a true ninja before and during battle, in his free time he was still as loud and careless as ever. He tugged Tsubaki along by the hand, leading her enthusiastically through the sparse undergrowth.

"Black*Star, where are we going?" she asked, laughing in confusion.

"It's a surprise!" Black*Star laughed wildly and tugged her along a little more quickly.

After a ten minute jog through the woods, during which Tsubaki grew increasingly more confused and a little bit worried, because it was rarely a good thing when the words "Black*Star" and "surprise" were put together in the same sentence.

At last, they reached an open clearing in the woods, high up on a ridge overlooking one of the avalanche chutes on the peak. It was a beautiful view, and Tsubaki took a moment to admire the scenery before Black*Star tugged on her sleeve to get her attention.

"What is it?" she asked him. "What is all this about?"

The blue-haired meister cleared his throat. "Uh, I wanted to do this the traditional way, because I know your family's really old-fashioned and I figured I should do this right, but I since I wasn't actually raised in Japan I don't know any of the traditions and I know you tried to teach me but I mostly forgot. So I tried to research it but the books in the library weren't helpful and you know I can't look stuff up on the internet because I get distracted, so I tried asking Kid but he just went on some weird tangent about flowers and I couldn't ask Maka because she'd figure it out because she's smart like that and then she'd tell you, so I didn't have any way to find out, so I figured I'd just-"

"Black*Star," she murmured wonderingly, interrupting him. "Are you nervous?" Black*Star had been known to talk incessantly about nothing (or, more accurately, about himself) when he took it into his head to do so, but this kind of run-on rambling wasn't his style. She began to get an inkling what this was about.

He gave her a sheepish grin. "Well, yeah. I mean, even a big star like me is allowed to get nervous when he's asking his star to marry him!"

And from his pocket he produced a ring.

When she was a little girl, Tsubaki hadn't really been the type to fantasize about the boy she would marry someday. She was a warrior first and a woman second, even from early childhood. But standing here watching Black*Star holding the unadorned gold band out to her, the most beautiful mix of hope and nervousness and confidence all blending together on his open features, she couldn't help but think that if she had been the kind of girl who dreamed about her perfect proposal... this would be it.

"And that's pretty much it," Tsubaki concluded. "I said yes, obviously, and then-"

"And then you spent like three hours doing it in the woods," Soul said drolly. "Yes, we know."

"How does he find the stamina?" Harvar asked, gazing at Black*Star empirically.

"All that cardio he does has other applications," Tsubaki replied sweetly.

Everyone groaned, and Liz cried out, "Oh my god, Tsubaki, there are children present!"

"I meant that rhetorically," Harvar muttered.


"Hey... Ox?"

The spear meister glanced up from the book he had been perusing to discover his ex-girlfriend standing before him, hands folded in front of her and a sheepish look in her eye as she shuffled her feet shyly. Despite the circumstances, a happy little spark flared up that she was talking to him, which he crushed ruthlessly.

"What?" he asked, aiming for disinterested, with mixed results.

Kim brushed a lock of pink back from her forehead. "I just wanted to apologize," she said. "For everything."

This was new. Kim was many things, many wonderful, terrible things, but apologetic or contrite had never been one of them. "Beg pardon?"

She squirmed a little, and he figured she deserved the discomfort, at least in part. "I thought a lot about us yesterday," she explained. "About how everything got so messed up between us. That's mostly my fault, and I'm sorry. I had an ideal I was holding onto and you always fell short, so I used that to push you away."

"I appreciate the flattery, but where are you going with this?" Ox asked, channeling his partner's deadpan dryness as best he could, though it was far from his style. He needed some of Harvar's cool at the moment. He had ended things between them because Kim was always saying things like this... usually much less nicely than this, granted, but the principle remained the same.

Kim glared at him. "Just hang on, I'm getting there, idiot! I just want to... explain, and try to clear the air so we can stop being so angry with each other."

That sounded good to him! "Go on."

"I had a plan for how my life was supposed to go, see, and you didn't fit into the plan," she explained. "You offered me what I wanted but not in the way I wanted it. I couldn't resist it. I couldn't resist you, because you're so sweet and you've always been so good to me. But I was always holding onto that ideal I was searching for, and I think a part of me resented you because as long as I was with you, I wasn't going to be able to find it, so I... I picked at you and put you down. That was wrong of me, and I'm sorry."

In all the years they'd been together, Kim had never been the one to apologize. Whether it was because she was too proud or because she genuinely didn't think she'd done anything wrong, he'd never been sure. This sudden attempt to make amends was an real turnaround for her, and it filled Ox with optimism. He suddenly felt ready to forgive her for any transgression.

"I accept your apology," he said.

Her shoulders slumped a little in what he could only interpret as relief. "Good, I'm glad," she said.

"Does this mean that we're... you know... would you take me back?" he asked. That wasn't quite the way he had meant to ask, because he had been the one to end this relationship, not her, but years of worshiping on his knees before her had become habit. He kind of hated that, but it might just be worth it if Kim had finally seen the error of her ways! Besides, the newly engaged couple in the house had put him in a bit of a romantic mood.

But Kim shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea," she said. "I really care about you Ox, and I... well, I guess I don't want to not be with you, but there are some things I need to figure out for myself. I need to reevaluate my priorities, I guess you could call it, and I think that's gonna be complicated enough without-"

"-Without me gumming up the works," he finished glumly.

"Well, I wouldn't have put it quite like that, but... yes, basically," she said, half-sour and half-amused. Her expression gentled, and she said, "I'm serious, though. I really do care for you, and the time we spent together meant something."

It felt, suddenly, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He hadn't realized how much he needed to hear that until she said it. His years of effort to win her heart had not been useless or in vain. It hadn't been one long exercise in futility. With those words, Kim had set him free.

A light, shy smile crept across her lips. "So... friends?" She stuck out her hand toward him.

Without hesitation, Ox reached up and shook her hand firmly. "Friends," he agreed.


Perhaps the official end of the long, dramatic love affair between Ox Ford and Kim Diehl had left him looking a little more sour than he had believed, because it wasn't more than a few hours before Patti popped up at his side and demanded that he stop looking so glum. They were, after all, on vacation. She didn't take well to his insistence that he was fine and didn't need cheering up, because somehow by midafternoon, a snowball fight had been organized. The roads were too bad to risk driving upslope to the ski range to participate in Patti's new favorite sport, but the storm the night before had dumped another foot of wet snow on the ground and left them with perfect conditions for the mother of all snow wars.

Under Patti's imperious command, they were divided up into teams. She, Liz, Ox, Harvar, Black*Star, and Tsubaki all ended up on one team, with Kim, Patti, Kilik, the twins, Soul, and Maka on the other.

It was not, by anyone's evaluation, a very equal division of talent... but no one had ever claimed that Patti was good at playing fair. It became very apparent very quickly that Patti's team was going to cream Kilik's team and there wasn't much they could do about it. Kim did her best to enchant snowballs, both to multiply them with magic in order to produce them more quickly, and to improve their accuracy, but she could only do so much, especially because Soul had the aim of a blind homeless ostrich and Fire and Thunder were more interested in melting their snowballs than throwing them. Setting such a team up against the deadly aim of the Thompson sisters, Black*Star's sheer throwing power, and the mechanically perfect snow fort Ox constructed, there wasn't much to be done. Kilik and the girls did their best, and Maka's competitive streak and sheer stubbornness nearly turned the tides for them, but then Black*Star somehow got up into a tree behind their base and pelted them with snowballs from above.

During that devastating assault, Fire got a piece of ice (or maybe it was loose tree bark, none of them could tell for sure) stuck in his eye, and a brief halt was called so that Kim could address the injury. In the interim, the losing team set about patching up and reinforcing their pitifully unhelpful fortress.

Soul flopped face-down against the pack of snow, his arms splaying over the top of the sloped wall. "I have snow in places I don't even want to think about," he complained.

"Well at least it's gonna melt," Maka teased, cheerful despite being well on the way to being soundly beaten.

He made an annoyed grumbly noise low in his throat that made warmth flare low in Maka's gut. To distract herself from how frustratingly attractive she found her partner when he was being sulky, she tugged off a soaked glove and reached out to tousle his hair. There were more than a few chunks of snow tangled in his hair, not that you could tell because both snow and hair were the same shade of white. Maka took a great deal of enjoyment in brushing her fingers through his strands, picking out little lumps of ice for him. Soul had at least three times as much hair as any one person needed; it was ridiculously thick and unexpectedly soft, and she had always liked playing with it as a result.

Soul let out a little sigh and she grinned- she'd discovered years ago that Soul liked being petted. Not that he would admit to it, but he melted into a little puddle of happy sleepy scythe-boy if you played with his hair enough. It was quite possibly the sweetest thing she'd ever seen. When he unconsciously nudged his head a little closer to her hand, the gesture brought a sentimental smile to her face and reaffirmed the conviction that had been growing in her heart since last night.

She was ready to tell him. For good or ill, she was ready to let everything that had been building up inside her for so long come pouring out. But she needed to time it just right. She needed to get him alone and make sure there would be no interruptions like what had happened last night... and also to ensure that if he rejected her, she wouldn't have to be embarrassed in front of all their friends.

Oh death, he probably was going to reject her, too. Soul cared about her deeply, she knew that, but she also knew that he didn't think there was an attractive bone in her body. He'd made that much painfully obvious. She was going to get rejected and it was going to be humiliating and it would probably screw up their partnership forever and oh god why was she doing this again?

Right, because Kim's predicament had opened her eyes. As long as she had these feelings, their partnership was going to get screwed up either way. She could either sit around stewing in unrequited love and slowly poison their friendship with her resentment, or she could get it over with quickly and have a better chance of salvaging something in the aftermath.

When she thought of it that way, the choice was clear.

"Hey Soul?"

He hummed in acknowledgement, opening one eye to peer at her.

Maka continued to card her fingers through his hair. "I have something I want to talk to you about. To tell you, actually. Do you think we could go somewhere and talk once we finish getting our butts kicked?"

"Who says we're gonna get our butts kicked?" Soul asked, mock-frowning in her direction. "Where's that fighting spirit, Maka?"

"Oh hush, you," she said, tugging lightly on one snow-white lock.

He rolled over onto his back, dislodging her hand from his scalp and folding his hands behind his head as he stared up into the sky. "Yeah, you're right, we're getting our asses handed to us, aren't we?"

"Pretty much."

"Can I vote that we never ever let Patti pick teams again?"

"Definitely," Maka grumbled. "I hate losing."

"Never would've guessed," Soul drawled.

"Shut up." She smacked him on the shoulder. "Anyway, you never answered my question."

Soul turned his head to look at her more fully. His expression was inscrutable. "What did you wanna talk about? Should I be worried?"

Only if the idea of your partner being way more attached than she should be worries you, she thought dryly. Before she could open her mouth to put him at ease, however, the telltale hum of a certain flying skateboard cut through the chilly air.

"Kid's back! Kid's back!" Patti shrieked from somewhere across the yard.

Maka sat up properly and rolled to her feet as Soul followed more slowly, scanning the skies for a glimpse of Death the Kid. Sure enough, a moment later he emerged from behind the house on Beelzebub... and to her surprise, there was another person clinging tenuously onto him. Someone who looked oddly familiar, though she couldn't place why.

"Hey, he's got somebody with him!" Patti said.

"Who is that?" Kilik asked.

Maka craned her neck to get a better look as Kid landed. As the two riders stepped off the flying skateboard, she saw that the newcomer had light blonde hair, not quite as fair as Soul's but pretty close, and eyes of a shocking shade of blue she had only seen in the Thompson sisters before. He looked to be in his early thirties and although he was neatly dressed in a long black overcoat and a royal blue scarf Maka was pretty sure was silk, there was something rakish about the grin he wore as he looked out over the group in the yard. As she got a clearer look at his aristocratic features, she realized quite suddenly why he seemed so familiar to her.

Behind her, she heard Soul whisper, "Shit."

The stranger raised a black-gloved hand in a friendly wave, a blunt-toothed version of a certain shit-eating grin Maka was all too familiar with plastered all over his mouth. "There must be something wrong with my eyes! There's no way that's Soul Evans playing in the snow!" he called. "There's no way he'd be caught doing something so uncool."

Soul groaned loudly. "Fuck you, Wes."

The smirk on Wes Evans' face only grew. "Good to see you too, little brother!"


The arrival of Kid and Wes effectively put an end to the snow war, which was probably a good thing because even though it was inevitable, Maka didn't relish the thought of losing, especially not to Black*Star. Instead, they all returned to the lodge. The members of Spartoi who had been involved in the snowball fight all split up to their respective rooms to change into dry clothing.

Jackie peeled off her soaked sweater, grimacing at the feel of heavy wet fabric sticking to her skin. She was attempting to squirm her way out of her pants, hopping around on one foot awkwardly as she shook the other leg aggressively to get it to stop clinging to her foot, when her door opened with a loud let creak. She let out a squeak of surprise and fell over.

She grabbed for her discarded sweater, trying to cover up her semi-nude body. When she saw that it was Kim, she relaxed. It wasn't the first time Kim had walked in on her changing, and the partners had gotten over their modesty soon after they began rooming together. Jackie wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Kim was comfortable with them being around each other in varying states of undress. She certainly wasn't going to complain about getting opportunities to see Kim strutting around in nothing but her underwear, but she'd never been able to work out what that said for her chances romantically.

"Hey," Jackie greeted as she climbed up from the floor. She finally discarded her ice-encrusted pants and went rooting through her suitcase in search of a dry pair.

"Hi."

"What's up?"

Kim glanced to the side in that awkward way that she had when she was embarrassed by something. "I just... wanted to apologize."

Jackie furrowed her brow, confused, as she pulled on a fresh pair of jeans. "What?"

"I've apologized to everybody else, but I realized that I needed to say sorry to you as well. I've been acting really stupid the last few days, and I kind of ditched you a lot in the process. That's not how a partner is supposed to act," Kim said, a light blush on her face. "That's not how a friend is supposed to act."

"Kim, you were going through stuff," Jackie hurried to reassure her. "I understand."

Kim shook her head. "That doesn't make it okay. Maka pointed out that you're always there for me when I need you, but then I just ignore you like that..." She sighed. "It's the new year tomorrow, so I'm going to turn over a new leaf. That's what humans do on New Year's, right? Make resolutions to be better?"

Jackie laughed. "Yeah, that's it."

"Well, my New Year's resolution is to be a better friend to you, Jackie," Kim said. "You're always there for me, so I'm going to be there for you, too, now."

If you asked her later, Jackie would have fervently denied that she melted into a pile of gooey feelings right there on the maplewood floor. "Thank you, Kim," she said warmly. "That means a lot."

Kim smiled, the broadest and most genuine smile Jackie had seen from her in days. She grabbed her partner in a tight and unexpected hug, completely ignoring the fact that Jackie was still not wearing a shirt. "Thank you for being my partner," she murmured in Jackie's ear. The lantern went rigid at the feeling of her beloved meister's lips brushing against the skin of her ear, and it made it nearly impossible to concentrate on Kim's next words. "If it weren't for you working so hard to get me to partner with you, I wouldn't even be here, I wouldn't have all these amazing friends. You changed my life so much and I want you to know I appreciate that."

When she pulled back, Jackie's face was beet red from pleased embarrassment, both at Kim's proximity and her uncharacteristic confession. Her feelings were probably painted all over her face, but she wasn't thinking clearly enough to process that at the moment. "W-what happened?" she asked shakily. "You're never this sentimental!"

The pink-haired witch gave a secretive little smile. "Oh, I just had a talk with a friend who reminded me what's really important."

"What's really important..." Jackie echoed.

Kim nodded. "Yeah. What's really important. Happy New Year, Jackie."

And then she was gone.

Jackie reached up to touch her ear; her skin was still blazing where Kim's lips had brushed. "Happy New Year," she whispered to the empty room.


"Wow, Wes, this hot chocolate is even better than Soul's!" Liz exclaimed, blue eyes wide with awe as she peered into the cup.

If Maka hadn't been sitting right beside her partner, she wouldn't have heard him mutter, "You've gotta be kidding me." She glanced at him curiously, but his ruby eyes were impassive and he was watching the ongoing conversation with apparent neutrality.

"Why thank you, Elizabeth, but I can't take credit. The secret is in the... shall we say... enhancements?" He winked at Liz, then added, "Virgin, of course, for the little ones-" He tilted his head in the direction of Fire and Thunder. "-But for the rest of us, I thought adding a bit of kahlua would be a nice New Year's treat."

"Well, you thought right!" Liz exclaimed.

The rest of the cocoa was distributed promptly as the rest of the group filtered out into the sitting room. Wes was properly introduced to everyone and the group appeared ready to dive into further compliments to his superior skill with hot beverages when Soul spoke up suddenly:

"What are you doing here, Wes?"

"Beg pardon?" The musician looked startled.

"Did Mum and Dad send you to check up on me?" Soul asked churlishly.

"Soul!" Maka reprimanded, poking him in the side.

Wes's confused look settled into brotherly understanding. "Not a bit," he said. "I'm here because I haven't seen my little brother since he was eleven years old and I missed him."

Soul's belligerent expression drooped into something a little like guilt. "Oh. Yeah, I missed you, too."

Wes reached across Maka to ruffle Soul's hair, which the younger Evans boy protested violently. "Aw, come on, Wes, really? Don't do that!"

"It's not like you can tell the difference," Liz piped up. "Your hair's always a mess!"

"That's what he wants you to think, but he works really hard to make it look like that," Maka said, elbowing her partner playfully. "He spends more time in the bathroom getting ready than I do!"

Soul groaned and sank deeper into the couch cushions, turning a shade of red Maka found entirely endearing.

"In any case, I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier in the day," Wes said, bringing the conversation back on track. "I meant to arrive before three, so that I could spend the day with Soul and get to know his friends better, but my rental car got stuck in a snow bank."

Ox nodded. "Yes, the roads are pretty awful today, aren't they?"

"I was lucky this fellow was passing by and gave me a lift up here," he said, nodding at Kid. He laughed lightly. "Of all the things I could have predicted happening in my life, being offered a ride by Shinigami-sama was not one of them!"

Kid shook his head. "Please, there's no need for titles. You may call me Death the Kid, or simply Kid. Everyone else does."

"Are you sure?" Wes asked. "It seems a little disrespectful."

Kid waved a hand dismissively. "Not at all. In present company, I prefer it. To be honest, I still struggle with the reality of being Lord Death." His expression was a little somber. "It was a responsibility I had not expected to bear so soon."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Wes said, and it was plain that he meant it. "I admit, I don't know much about what it is exactly that you do, but it must be very difficult to take your father's place while you're still mourning him."

Kid nodded solemnly. "Death is only another part of life, but not always a pleasant one. I thank you for your sympathy." He stared intently at the coffee table for a moment, seeming to look through it, then shook himself and perked up. "But this is not the time for such talk. Tell us about yourself, Wes. We would like to get to know Soul's mysterious elder brother!"

Wes cheerfully complied.


Soul's brother was far too charming. Kilik had decided this within twenty minutes of knowing the guy, but after several hours of watching him turn the charm on Liz, he knew it for certain. He and Soul might look an awful lot alike, but Kilik definitely preferred the younger Evans brother. Soul never went out of his way to flatter Elizabeth Thompson or make her blush with empty compliments. Wes was charming and polite to everyone, easily ingratiating himself into the group, but despite being easily thirty years old, he was definitely paying special attention to the blonde. When Liz's silver-chime laugh rang out through the room, Kilik had the sudden urge to pummel the young violinist who was chatting gaily away to her.

It occurred to him, suddenly, that he was jealous.

Kilik wasn't a jealous person by nature, but he did like Liz and he didn't enjoy seeing her flirting lightly with the older man. He watched in annoyed silence, responding distractedly to Black*Star's chatter. He decided it was time to deal with this whole thing head on.

When Liz got up to refill her hot chocolate, he followed her to the kitchen.

"What are we doing?" he asked bluntly.

Liz nearly dropped the ladle into the pot of cocoa in surprise, not having heard him come in. "Shit, you scared me!" she exclaimed, one hand over her presumably pounding heart.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"No worries, I'm easily startled," she said with a teasing grin.

As she set about pouring a few shots of kahlua into her cocoa, Kilik asked again, "I'm serious, Liz. What are we doing here?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Yeah you do. You, me, in a jacuzzi? That ring any bells?"

Her expression went from lightly confused to earnest. "Oh. That."

"Yeah. That."

"I'm not sure what you want me to say."

Kilik wondered if it was actually possible to tear out one's hair in frustration, because he was really tempted to try it right now. "Something's going on with us, and I wanna know where we stand," he said, with exaggerated patience.

"Oh." Liz brought the bottle of kahlua to her lips and proceeded to chug half the contents as Kilik stared in puzzled awe. Once she was finished, she slapped the bottle down on the counter as if it were a shot glass. Then she fixed him with a nervous, but resolute stare. "Okay then. Honestly? I don't know."

"You don't know?" That was disheartening, because Kilik definitely knew where he stood and what he wanted.

She shrugged. "It's just a little confusing. Because, see, I really like spending time with you. You're fun and funny and... I dunno, hanging out with you is nice. But, see, you're Boyfriend Material."

That statement made a grin- it was really more like a smirk- spread across his face. "Oh really?"

"Shut up." She gave his shoulder a light shove. "Look, I've never really been a relationship girl. I tried once or twice, but it just wasn't very interesting. Maybe I picked the wrong guys, I dunno, but I have my sister and I have my meister. I love them and they love me, unconditionally, and that's really all the emotional fulfillment I've ever needed. There have been some guys in the past, but they were really more like..."

"Like friends with benefits?" Kilik suggested, when she seemed to struggle for an appropriate euphemism.

Liz nodded, absently pushing aside the long curtain of her golden hair. "Basically, yeah. It's not that I object to the idea of a more... um... substantial relationship, I've just never needed it. And the thing is, I don't know if I want that with you yet. I like you, I know that much, but I like our friendship too much to just have casual sex with you, because that would make it all weird and I definitely don't want that, and I just... well, it's confusing. I'm sorry, I'm not making any sense."

Actually, she was making perfect sense, at least in his opinion. He still wasn't entirely sure where that left them, but he had a better idea of her mindset, and it helped clarify exactly what his plan of action was. "That's all I wanted to know," he said. "These last couple of days have been crazy, ya know? I just wanted to figure out what was going on with us."

Liz stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "And what I said helped how, exactly?"

"Have dinner with me."

"What?"

He grinned, liking that he'd successfully thrown her for a loop. Liz was always beautiful, but she was really cute when she was confused. "When we get back to Death City, have dinner with me. It doesn't have to be some big relationship thing if you don't want that. We can just hang out and see what happens."

She pondered that for a moment, then flashed him a bright grin. "You're on, Kilik."


It was only minutes to midnight when Maka realized that Soul was no longer with the rest of the company. She wasn't sure when he'd disappeared, only that she hadn't seen him in some time.

"Has anybody seen Soul?" she asked.

She was met with blank stares and apologetic shrugs.

"I'm gonna go look for him," she said, getting to her feet. "I don't want him to miss the countdown."

She wandered into the second wing of the house, feet padding softly on the hallway carpet. She peered into his bedroom, thinking he might have retreated to solitude there, which was his usual recourse at home when he'd had enough socializing. But the bedroom was empty. She poked around a few of the other rooms with no luck, and checked all the bathrooms, which were equally unoccupied.

Finally, she pushed open the door to the long balcony that ran along the front of the house and found him at last. He wasn't wearing a coat, or shoes for that matter, just slouching against the wooden balcony railing, staring down the slope to where the city lights of Aspen shone in the darkness. It was a moonless night, but starlight glinted in his fair hair and he looked at that moment very distant and ethereal and sad. To Maka's eyes he appeared, for a moment, like a character from a fairytale.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked. "It's freezing, and the countdown's going to start in a few minutes."

Soul didn't look at her. "Just needed some air."

She approached the railing as well, leaning up next to him. She studied him thoughtfully. "Are you okay?" she asked. "You've been acting weird ever since Wes got here."

He shrugged.

"Come on, Soul," she said, laying a hand on his arm where it rested across the rail. "Talk to me."

He tilted his head to look at her. "You really want to know?"

"Of course I do."

He shook his head with a soft sigh, turning once more to stare down into the valley below. "I haven't seen my brother in nine years, almost ten. We talk on the phone sometimes, and he writes, but... I haven't actually seen any of my family in a long time, and it's better that way."

"Why?" Maka knew some of Soul's issues with his family, both from what he'd told her and from things she had felt passing between their bonded souls. She was aware of, but did not really understand, his complicated feelings of love and resentment he held towards his brother. She drew her hand back, straightening up a little as she stared at him in confusion.

Soul didn't respond to her question directly. Instead he said, "I guess I thought things were finally different. When he showed up it was weird, but I thought, you know, with you guys all here with me it wouldn't be like it was before. But nothing's changed. I'm still just... Wes Evans' kid brother."

"What do you mean?"

Soul scoffed. "Come on, Maka. You've met him now, you can see for yourself. He's older and smarter and he's good-looking and charming and he always knows just what to say, not like me, I spend half my life with my foot so far in my mouth it's coming out the other end to kick my ass. Wes is fun. Wes is talented. Wes makes better cocoa." He rolled his eyes, but then his moment of sarcastic irritation fell away, and he dropped his head, staring at the wooden railing between his arms. "I just thought maybe for once I wouldn't be second best, you know?"

"Soul..." she whispered, laying a hand on his shoulder, which he immediately shrugged off.

"Hell, even you're paying all kinds of attention to him!" he said scathingly.

"Soul!"

He sighed, deflating again. "I'm sorry. I'm being really uncool."

It was Maka's turn to roll her eyes. Soul really could be an idiot sometimes. "No, Soul. Your feelings aren't uncool. I know you have a complicated relationship with your brother. But I don't think you're seeing the situation clearly."

"Oh yeah?" he asked dubiously.

She nodded, although he wasn't looking at her. "Yes. Soul, there's only one reason Wes is interesting to me. I mean, yes, he is all those things you said, but there are a lot of charming, talented people in the world. What makes Wes special to me is the fact that he's your brother."

"Huh?" Soul asked, looking over at her with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Maka grinned at his adorably bewildered expression. "I can't speak for everybody else in there, but they're your friends too, and I bet they'd agree with me. If I passed Wes on the street or made small talk with him in an art gallery, I'd probably never think about him again, but since he's your family, I have a reason to want to get to know him. I care about Wes because I care about you."

Soul looked a little sheepish. "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh,'" Maka echoed. She was still smiling but she felt a little nervous, because she had just realized that they were all alone with no one around to interrupt... and there was something she still meant to tell him.

"I guess I'm being kind of stupid, huh?"

"A little bit, yes," Maka agreed. "I thought you were over all of these insecurities?"

He shifted a little uncomfortably. "I thought so too, but then Wes showed up like that and it was like I was ten years old all over again."

"You should stop being so hard on yourself," she said, hands clenching on the railing to keep them from trembling as she gazed out over the scenery to avoid Soul's gaze. "There's not a thing wrong with you, Soul."

"You and I both know that's not true," he said, sounding tired. "Hell, you've never minded pointing out my flaws before."

"Yes, well, I seem to have fallen in love with you flaws and all, so they must not be that bad," she said. Her stomach dropped sharply and she felt a bit lightheaded, unable to quite believe she'd really gone and said it, let alone so casually. At the moment she'd opened her mouth it had felt like the right thing to say, the right way to say it, but after the fact it made her dizzy as her own words echoed in her ears.

Soul was silent for a worryingly long time, and Maka couldn't bring herself to look at him to see the inevitable shock and probable disgust that she was positive she would find on his face.

Eventually, he stuttered out, "Y-you love me?"

"That's what I just said, isn't it?" she replied, and immediately clamped down on her lip to keep it from trembling. Her hands worked nervously against the railing.

One of Soul's large hands, fingers cold from the bitter temperatures outside, cupped her cheek and turned her head to face him. "You love me," he repeated, and there was a look of joyous wonderment on his face as he said it that made Maka's heart turn over.

Suddenly, she found herself pulled close to his chest in a tight embrace, his arms wrapped securely around her. "I love you, too," he said quietly. She felt his lips moving against her hair, and she shivered.

Then his words processed and she felt a surge of incredible joy. She couldn't understand how this could be, because there had been so many things Soul had said over the years to make sure she knew he was in no way interested in her, but she decided she didn't really care. And then again, Maka had always been an actions-speak-louder kind of girl, and while Soul had said he felt no attraction for her, now that she thought about it, some of his actions seemed to say differently. If Soul said he loved her, she believed him.

Maka looked up at him, needing to see his face again, and found that she had an awfully long way to look up in order to see his awe-struck expression. "When did you get so tall?" she asked, unable to think of anything else to say. "It seems like yesterday I was taller than you."

"Shut up," he mumbled. "I'm still trying to forget that."

She untangled one arm from around his torso to swat him lightly on the shoulder. "Shush, we were preteens, it's normal for girls to be taller than boys at that age."

"Yeah, well, you weren't the one getting all kinds of crap about being shorter than my meister from Black*Star."

"Black*Star doesn't have room to talk," Maka said slyly. "He's never been taller than Tsubaki and unless he has a miraculous late growth spurt, he's never going to be."

Soul snorted, but his amusement faded quickly, replaced by that same wonderment that had been there before. It was an expression of such pure happiness and adoration, it took Maka's breath away.

He removed one hand from around her waist to cup her cheek lightly in his palm. His thumb traced little circles against her skin. "Maka?"

"Yeah?" she whispered.

"Can I kiss you?"

The fact that he had asked made her melt just a little bit. If she hadn't loved him before, that shy, hopeful question would have done it. She nodded, and Soul leaned down to press his mouth lightly to hers.

Soul's lips were chapped from the cold and his hands were shaking, but she couldn't help the happy little noise that rose up in her throat when he kissed her, and she responded enthusiastically, standing up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. Soul squeezed her hip lightly, and she could feel him smiling against her mouth, which made her smile in turn. The hand that had been resting on her cheek slid back to bury itself in her hair, tilting her head back to change the angle of the kiss. Their noses bumped together as she moved, and Maka broke the kiss for a moment to let out a surprised giggle before diving back in with more enthusiasm.

Inside the house, the clock ticked over to midnight, and a new year began.


Author's Notes- So. Much. Cheese.