Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, Atsushi Okubo does.
Trudging up the stairs of her apartment building, young Miss Albarn was letting out the colourful side of her vocabulary. Soaked to the skin, angry, and tired, she was more than ready to lodge a book into someone's skull at the smallest tick.
A pissed off Maka is a dangerous Maka.
The rain had stopped by the time she had reached her apartment. She decided to take a shower and do the laundry. Procrastinating never was more productive.
After half an hour of muttered curses, showers, and picking up clothes, she headed to the coin laundry place closest to her, making sure she brought everything with her.
Stepping in, she noticed that she was the only one in there, so she separated her laundry and put each into a washing machine, that way she would be done early. She grabbed her sketchbook and got back to her assignment. Needless to say she failed over and over again. She couldn't get the proportions right. She knew that a guy's hips don't align with their shoulders the way a female's do. She knew that their shoulders were more squared, collar bones were more pronounced, but how much was what she struggled with.
Wrapped in her little bubble of frustration, Maka failed to notice how it was raining on and off. She also missed the fact that she no longer was alone. A drenched young man had come in and he didn't have any clothing with him.
Heaving a sigh that sounded as if the whole world was on her shoulders, she got up and put her washed clothes into the driers and sat back down to wait. She still didn't see the look she got from the other client, nor did she see that he had taken off his shirt which was in one of the smaller washing machines by then.
So you can imagine her shock when she opened her eyes after trying (and failing) to imagine a naked man in a bored position in full glory for the millionth time and saw a shirtless man with a tattoo on his back scrolling through his phone in a way that made smart phones seem like the most boring and outdated things ever.
Without thinking, Maka's hand started drawing the sight before her, working out the details that had vexed her all this time. She drew everything except the tattoo.
The tattoo had given the stranger, with the slanted lighting coming from the front of the store, an other-worldly look. It's funny that a drawing of gothic angel wings on someone's back could make them look so frighteningly not-human.
She moved a bit to the left to get a proper view from behind, and sketched him with his tattoo in full display, drinking in all the detail of it. She took note of some other details, ones that she didn't need to add in her assignment.
The man was an albino. However, unlike what is usually expected for an albino, his body seemed healthy if a little too pale. She wished she had packed her colours with her, but had to make do with her sketching pencils.
He startled her when he got up to take out his shirt, and she quickly stuffed away her sketchbook and pencils and got up to take her stuff, too. It was done ten minutes ago but she was so focused on drawing the specimen in front of her to take note of it.
Putting her clothes in her basket, she was glad to see that the sky was clear. 'Finally' she thought 'my day is finally changing for the better'.
Not.
You see, unlike our heroine, the young man had noticed her acting strange, had seen her looking back and forth between him and her sketchbook as if her life depended on it. He'd heard all the scribbles that she started with, and noticed when her pace slowed. He even stole some glances at her when she was too immersed in her drawing to pay attention. She was an odd little thing, he thought, petite and of delicate stature. She had her hair in pigtails, which gave her a childish look, but the way she held herself hinted at her maturity. And although her body seemed to be fragile, the amount of clothes that girl carried without breaking a sweat was mind-blowing.
What he thought was her best feature were her eyes. Nice and big, and as green as clovers.
He wanted to see her drawings, after all, he knew he was in at least one of them.
However, when they were about to leave, both acted as if they didn't even notice that the other existed.
These kitties are such a hassle, right?
Now, back to our female object of interest. She was preparing dinner, her head bobbing to the music playing from the speakers of her phone. This session featured W&W. Maka was in a good mood. She had finished her assignment, she did all her chores, AND she got to draw something really good. Nothing could rain on her parade.
Tomorrow will be a good day.
At 2:00 pm the next day, a happy Albarn was leaving from her last lecture, feeling light as a feather. The instructor had praised her drawing, and praised her for her imagination (this made her feel a bit guilty, but she didn't try to correct him). And at night, the local radio station is going to air Above and Beyond's live radio show, and there was a book signing at the local bookstore this weekend.
Too bad that she's the lead of this story, otherwise her days would have gone on in the same happy-go-lucky way they are right now. Naturally, every main character has to meet an obstacle on their journey in the story. Here is where Maka Albarn's obstacle makes its grand appearance.
Or should I say his grand appearance?
She had reached the campus gates when she saw what looked like a mob of people blocking the way. Nasty loud screams of "Kyaa!" "So cool!" were the BGM of this scene. It simply made Maka's eye twitch.
Suddenly, the load sound of a motorcycle cut through the noise, and the star-eyed crowd split like the red sea.
Maka took this as her cue to slip out of the gates. She could guess the cause of the commotion. It must be the Evans boy that attended the music program in her university. She had managed to escape the hype for four months, avoiding the places anyone from the music program would go as if it's been quarantined. She even stopped buying her favourite magazine when it started publishing things about the Evans family's history. She didn't want to know about it, it's just that simple.
She didn't want to hear about the drama, the rumours, all the crazy fans, and, although she came from a well off family of talented artists herself, she didn't want to "mix and mingle" with the celebrities of other fields.
Actually, this would be the first time she would see what this guy looked like. It'd probably help her avoid him even in the future.
That was what going through her brain while she was cutting through the admirers. Yet, when she finally got to breathe some fresh air, she met a horrifyingly (well, it is in her case) familiar scene.
The coin laundry guy was riding on a bike, looking just as bored as he was the other day, the screaming fans staring at him with dazed eyes.
It took her brain a few extra seconds to process what she saw correctly. Stunned as she was, she couldn't help but stare intensely, the way her eyes expanded making her already large eyes seem like two bottle glass windows in her skull. It made her easy to spot.
And spot her is what the Evans coin laundry guy did. And for the first time she saw him show an expression other than boredom, recognition and surprise written all over his face.
And so, their eyes met.
And Maka's life decided to go down a rocky road.