A/N: Another late update. I hope I don't make this a habit! Sorry guys, cram school hit me hard. Who knew Calculus was so hard? (being sarcastic here) Hope I didn't make you wait for long, enjoy the chapter! X3
Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.
In a dark alley just a little way off from the local library, there stood a pair of panting university students.
In an M rated story, this would mean that our mains were doing naughty things. Aren't you all disappointed that this is T rated?
But nonetheless, that was the situation our hero and heroine found themselves in after a night of getting drunk (for the female) and cramming for an exam that happened to be postponed (for the male). Soul was beyond pissed.
He wanted to sleep. There isn't a thing in the world he wouldn't give to have a king-sized bed and a few days off right there and then. When they explained the matter to Maka when she woke up, she had apologized profusely while taking it upon herself to surpass tomatoes in redness. She agreed to go along with the rumour they had whipped up, saying that they were only friends and that they were waiting for the rest when they both passed out on the soft furniture.
All had went well until he got to university for his lectures and exam.
After finding out that the exam he had almost knocked himself out while studying for was postponed, his anger-o-meter shot up beyond its healthy levels when he saw a bunch of the pests that followed him around waiting for him expectantly. Was it their job to make his already bad mood worse? It couldn't be that hard to stay away from him, he was anti-social to everyone (pig-tailed 19-year-old females excluded), so he couldn't fathom how anyone would want his company, not when he refused theirs all the time.
He plugged in his headphones and made sure the volume was loud enough to block out a stampede; he couldn't deal with all of this shit, not after a couple of sleepless nights, one gruelling interrogation, a morning spent spreading false rumours about himself (it still sounds so wrong in his head), topped off with the happy (note the sarcasm) news he had just received.
With Apocalyptica's cover of Metallica's "One" making itself known to the public through his head gear, Soul had no chance to escape Maka when she made a grab for him and started pulling him while she went on running. Confused as hell, he took off his headphones, and his ears were met with the unmistakable sound of an actual stampede. Fearing for his life, Soul picked up his pace and ran neck to neck with Maka, out of the faculty, out of campus, and onto the streets.
Maka then lead the way to a particularly well hidden back street where they stood panting and gasping for much-needed oxygen.
"So," Soul spoke up as soon as his ability to breathe normally was restored, "Care to explain?"
She glared in reply; Maka was still out of breath, having run for a longer time than him.
"Why the hell did you drag me along?"
Maka took a painfully long breath and let it out slowly, trying to get her erratic heartbeat to calm the hell down. "Why did you lie to me?"
The confused look on his face looked far too comical, in my opinion. It's a real shame Maka was really angry then.
"The rumour, you said that you guys made it so we are just friends. Why in the name of all that is unholy are your fangirls accusing me of seducing you?"
He looked like he had been slapped across the face. Speechless wouldn't even start to define his state.
"Care to explain?" she threw his own words right back at him.
"By the look on your face, I'm guessing you had no idea." Maka nodded, kicking the gravel to take out her frustration, "I'm gonna KILL Patty and Liz when I see them! I'm gonna Maka-chop them so hard that they'll fall into a coma. It's one thing to give suggestions about my love life, but to actually set me up with some guy out of the blue just because they got the chance to is unforgivable!"
Taking another deep breath, she checked if the coast was clear and then motioned him to follow her. She maneuvered through the backstreets connected to the one they were in, trying to get them back to campus with the least amount of exposure. When they were well into the third lane, Maka's ringtone assaulted his ears. It was loud. And hyper. And if she doesn't pick up in the next five seconds he's going to suffer from internal bleeding.
Luckily for him, she did. And when she did, all of hell broke loose.
Maybe he wasn't so lucky after all.
As soon as she answered, she was interrupted by a frighteningly serious Liz, telling her to avoid going back to campus at all costs for the day. Repeating her warning again, she started to explain the situation to her.
Somehow, the rumour had mutated with the simple addition of air-quotations around the words "only friends".
It's a shame that false news travel fast.
So while Liz was frantically trying to contain this mess and fix it, they were ordered to lay low and stay out of sight. There was a possibility that Soul might have to start hanging out with them to dissipate any doubts left in the public's hearts about them, but Liz said she'll try her best to avoid that case since she knew Maka hated the limelight, and bringing a celebrity into the mix wasn't going to help her stay out of it.
But hanging out with one for an entire day and trying to stay out of sight totally would, because that's how logic works.
They kept to the back streets for a few hours, either messing with their phones, staring at the walls surrounding them, or changing their spot to change the scenery, although it didn't much. The atmosphere was too awkward for even a simple chat. How DO you talk to someone you tried to [drunkenly] seduce last night? Factor in the fact that she may have a tiny, tiny, suuuper tiny crush on this dude she barely knows but finds oddly attractive and all verbal skills she may have learnt in her life become useless.
While Maka's mind formulated more ways to torture her with all the awkwardness and humiliation, Soul's mind was going through a very fierce battle of wills.
He wanted to see her drawing, he wanted to talk to her, he wanted to get to know her, and many other friendly things you would expect to crave if you want to become friends with someone. However, last night had ignited something in him, and exploiting the ideas and wants going through his brain right now would surely start a nosebleed of epic proportions. One that wouldn't stop unless he passed out, or died of blood loss. Whichever came first.
He decided to make a mental checklist.
Talk to Maka
Ask her if he could see the drawing
Praise her drawing ability (even if he doesn't like it)
hang out together sometime later
He excluded the rest of his ideas from the list, he seriously needed to keep them strictly PG.
Revving up the motor of his conversational skills, he was just about to start on the first list item when Maka's phone rang again, that nasty ringtone bullying his facial expression into a pained one. He really hoped her musical taste wasn't that awful and that it was just a stupid ringtone. She could be anything in the world but not have an abysmal taste in music, he doesn't know how he'd take that.
I can tell you from now that Soul doesn't appreciate Trance and Dubstep.
But back to Maka. This time she was talking to Kid, who was assuring her that they've controlled the situation but that they'd have to make Soul join the gang to make their words more concrete. Before he hung up he made sure to tell her that campus was green and that they come back for their afternoon lectures, preferably separately.
She relayed the message to Soul and told him about their little predicament with the group. He shrugged in response.
She also warned him about Sundays and Saturdays. Whenever a Sunday/Saturday and good weather hooked up, the gang would go out to the basketball courts for a heated match. The weather forecast that day had given her a heads up that the weather will be nice next week, so she felt obligated to tell him so. He said that he'll try his best to come, since he was busy after four on both days.
And so Soul had one item to cross off his list.