Maka didn't know how surprised she'd be.

She never imagined something like this could happen so… quickly.

As she walked through the doors of the fire hall, a smile stretched across her face easily. Honestly, she kind of felt like laughing, as weird as it was.

She found Tsubaki in the locker room, the dark haired woman hugging her tightly, making doubly sure her partner was indeed in working condition. Maka promised she was and it wasn't a lie.

All her recovering made her itch for the rush of work again.

A rush that would have to wait apparently, because she needed to remember, this was a fire hall. Hardly called out to anything, it was more of a hang-out-and-eat-food-and-watch-daytime-TV environment than anything else.

A few weeks ago the prospect of that would have terrified her.

But now, as she sunk into the cushions of the worn out couch next to the Thompson sisters, the idea didn't seem so bad at all.

And it wasn't.

Between cards with Black Star, learning to cook with Jackie, watching Kid meticulously fold every single napkin at the table: she was starting to… like being here.

The only thing was, this was her fourth shift that Soul wasn't working.

It wasn't like she needed him around or whatever. I mean, all her calls had been pretty minor lately; just her and Tsubaki. There hadn't been a fire for a few weeks, and she did see him now and then. Like when they rolled over shifts, when she brought coffee in for everyone on her day off—

She would swear she had other motives than to catch a quick conversation with him.

He would swear that he wasn't smiling so much because of her appearance.

But when the fifth shift was scheduled with them working separately, it was Soul who knocked on Sid's door.

"Hmm?" The Captain answered,

"Captain, can I talk to you?" Soul sat down in the chair across from the large man.

"Looks like I don't have much a choice," Sid laughed, but placed a file down on his desk a little more harshly than he needed to.

"I'm just wondering… am I being punished for Albarn's behaviour?" He purposely didn't make eye contact, not wanting to seem like he was there for the wrong reasons.

Sid was silent for a long moment, looking Soul up and down before replying,

"No, not at all, what makes you ask that?"

"It's just that I was supposed to, you know, watch out for her and now… We haven't worked together since, uh, it happened." Soul finally looked up at him. The Captain just sighed.

"Soul. You're supposed to watch out her for but… I just worry that, well," he measured the fire fighters expression, "I'm worried she's going to be a bad influence on you."

There was more silence between the two of them before Soul burst out laughing.

"You're worried that Maka will be a bad influence on me!?"

"I don't see what's so funny." Sid threatened, Soul chocked his laughter down to a few short snorts before replying,

"Sir, that's really not going to be a problem."

"I certainly hope not. I'm not about to let one of my best men think it's okay to run headlong into a life threatening situation. That's not the kind of man I am." He crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair, "But if you think you're not going to pick up any… habits from her, I'll schedule you together again."

Soul stood to his feet,

"Thank you sir," he tried to supress his smile, instead fixing his expression to indifference. He turned, walking out of the door.

"Get rid of that bike, Eater!" Sid shouted after him. Soul just snorted again,

"Don't be so hard on Albarn, you two are more alike than you think!" He yelled back.

So that's what brought them to this exact moment.

The moment of Soul sitting on the couch, and Maka sitting next to him, head in a book, feet on his lap. It was strangely comfortable, strangely affectionate, strangely natural,

Strangely… Nice.

He hadn't noticed no one else was in the room until Kilik strode out of the room mumbling something about third wheeling or something. Soul was quick to notice that Maka didn't.

He sunk deeper into the cushions, and she absently adjusted her feet to give him more movement. He didn't notice his hand had come to rest just above her knee when he was comfortable again.

She did.

She was sure he was just absently watching TV, sure that he didn't mean it as… Well, maybe not.

Her book became quickly very boring and she became quickly aware that the rest of the fire hall was preoccupied with other things that kept them out of the room the two were in right now.

"Soul,"

He jumped a little, removing his hand from her leg like it had been slapped off.

"Ha?" he replied,

She fidgeted a little,

"I'm… glad we're working together again." She mumbled. He relaxed visibly, shoulders sagging, expression softening. His arms came up behind his head and he looked back at the television.

"Oh, yeah same."

She sat up a little more and he kept pretending he didn't notice she was getting incrementally closer to him.

"I don't want to be like, a burden or anything." She pursed her lips, "If Sid still has you babysitting me or whatever, I'm sorry."

"What? No, of course not. He doesn't. And besides, you don't need that shit anymore." He paused, looking at her finally, smiling, "I hope."

She laughed,

"I don't. I just… yeah."

"You just save people for a living." His smile fell a little, but it wasn't disappointment or anger, it was a sort of gentle understanding, "I do too, don't forget that shit. I know… How you feel. With all the red-tape and bullshit. I hate it."

One: she didn't realize she was grabbing his upper arm.

Two: she didn't realize she was almost entirely in his lap.

Three: she didn't mind that he had gone quiet, that their faces were inching closer and closer together. His eyes wandered from hers to focus on her mouth for a long while before one of hiFs hands was on her jawline. White hair brushed against her forehead. Her breath hitched as his feathered her lips—

Four: the fucking fire bell went off.

Like being woken up with a bucket of icy water, Maka flew back away from Soul, almost falling off the couch entirely. He caught her by the wrists, pulling her forward into an awkward but fall-saving embrace. He laughed quietly when she squealed.

He was to his feet, lifting her along with him easily. She found her footing fairly quickly and he spun around her,

"Sorry," he laughed again, nervous, "Fires and shit,"

He jogged out of the room and Maka watched after him, a little dumbfounded.

Neither of them heard nor saw the group of coworkers loudly groaning and shouting about 'bad timing' and 'those two never growing the balls to do it' from outside the glass of the other room.

Tsubaki had to shush them before running in and fetching the still-dazed Maka.