Author's Note: Glad people are enjoying the story I appreciate all the feedback

Chapter 14: Change of plans

For a minute Maka felt as if the world had just suddenly came to a stop. All she could do was watch in stunned silence as Soul glared at Travis first and then glared at her before starting to walk over.

"Hey look, he's coming over, isn't that great? Now we can all have a friendly chat together!" Travis stated with a smile and a wave as Soul got closer.

Travis's jeering broke Maka out of her funk and she quickly got up out of her seat and ran over to Soul.

Soul looked down at Maka coldly as she met him halfway. "You better have a real good reason this time for why you're out on a date with him of all people." He spat out.

"Listen, I know what this situation looks like, but I swear we aren't out on a date; just believe me and hear me out." Maka stated trying to keep the apprehension out of her voice.

"Okay and why should I believe you when you've been so secretive lately anyways? Isn't that the same guy who was with you by your locker just a few weeks ago? Why are you hanging out with him now? Do you hang out with him on Wednesdays because you know that's when I have training with Kid?" Soul asked, bringing up multiple questions at once.

Maka sighed. "Yes it is the same guy, but I'm not hanging out with him because I want to, I'm doing it because of what Professor Stein suggested I do."

Soul still regarded Maka with a detached expression. "What the hell does Professor Stein have to do with any of this?"

"He thinks this guy might have something planned against the school, so he wants me to keep watch on him to make sure he doesn't try anything." Maka answered. 'Well at least that's part of the reason why I have to endure being around him.'

Soul arched an eyebrow at this. "Why did he specifically ask you to do this though?"

"For some reason he seems to be really interested in me. I'm not sure why though, but I don't think he'll try anything as long as I'm watching him." Maka explained.

Soul scoffed a bit at this. "I can clearly see he's interested in you that's for sure, but I don't like the idea of you being around him alone, even if it is for a solo assignment apparently."

"I don't like spending time around him either trust me, but he's not a normal person he knows things he shouldn't know." Maka said quietly. 'Things I'm definitely going to track him down about and find out with due time.'

Soul became a bit concerned at this and dropped his voice down to a whisper. "Like what? He doesn't know any important secrets about the DWMA, does he?"

"I don't know maybe. I mean he knew stuff about me like what type of weapons I've used and he even knew you came from a family of musicians." Maka whispered back.

Soul looked stunned for a second before becoming annoyed again. "If he really knows all that than that's all the more reason why I think you should avoid him Maka or at least let me ask Stein to help you out with this task." Soul stated before smirking a bit at the thought of slicing Travis apart due to an 'accident.'

"No!" Maka cried startling Soul a bit. "Ah, I mean I don't want to get anyone I know personally involved in this assignment. I don't know what tricks he has up his sleeves."

Soul just shrugged. "It's not like he doesn't already seem to have the resources to track anyone down at the DWMA anyways. Do you really not want my help?"

"It's not that I don't want your help, it's just that you're a death scythe now so you need to focus on training with Kid now along with all the work you have to do as a weapon in general." Maka clarified.

"Screw all of that! You know I barely do my homework anyways. I don't mind helping you with this case if you really need it." Soul snapped back.

"Look call it a hunch, but I really don't think he cares about attacking the school, I think he is more interested in the abilities of the people who attend the school more than anything else and yes I know you don't do your work, that's not something to be proud of though." Maka explained as calmly as she could.

Soul scowled and gazed at Maka for a minute, he could tell Maka wasn't going to let him interfere in whatever the details of this guy's case were.

"Alright Maka, I'll let you handle this guy alone for now, but as soon as he tries anything I'm going to cut him into pieces no matter what." Soul stated gruffly as he pulled Maka into an embrace.

Maka's face heated up. "Soul stop it, what are you doing? You don't need to worry about me I already told you I can handle him alone I-"Soul decided to cut Maka off midsentence with a kiss.

Maka froze up for a second before beginning to relax and kiss him back by wrapping her arms around his neck.

Soul grinned slightly against Maka's lips before kissing her a bit more roughly letting his teeth scrape against her bottom lip before he decided to pull back.

"W-What was that for all of a sudden?" Maka managed to stutter out her face still burning.

"First to apologize for what happened with that fake Maka last week and second to wipe that damn grin off of that guy's face." Soul finished with a smirk as he looked back in Travis's direction.

Maka blinked confused for a moment about who Soul was talking about before suddenly remembering Travis had been watching the two of them bicker and then kiss this whole time. Maka turned her attention back towards him and sure enough as Soul had said, Travis was giving them a dirty look before turning away.

Maka frowned and huffed a bit. "Hey, you didn't just kiss me in order to spite him, did you?"

Soul became uncomfortable at Maka's sudden question. "Uh, well yes and no. I did want to kiss you honestly, but I really wanted to also make sure that guy knew not to mess with you."

Maka smiled a bit. "That's not a very good answer, but I'll let it slide for now and trust me I can handle him I don't need you to protect me. I should go back to watching him now though. We probably just provoked him by just kissing like that.

Soul grinned back. "Good, maybe he'll take as a warning to go back to wherever he came from, but text me or call me if he tries anything." Soul finished as he gave one last glare in Travis's direction before leaving.

Maka sighed; still feeling slightly dazed as she gently brushed her fingers against her lips to feel the warmth.

Maka returned back to Travis and found him leaning back in his chair staring at the sky. a blank expression on his face.

Maka smirked at this. "Well this is surprise, for once you have no smartass remarks to make huh?"

Travis pulled the chair back into its original position and faced Maka. "Let's just head over to Hiro's and get the music practice done with." He grumbled as he got up from his seat and walked off ahead of Maka.

'I really didn't expect that. I guess I'm going to have to be more careful about how I go about carrying out any other future plans now that Soul is going to be guarding her more seriously.' Travis mused grimly.

Unbeknownst to the two of them Soul hadn't completely left the park yet as he watched the two of them leave.

'Maka may not want me interfering with her work involving this guy, but she didn't say I couldn't ask other people to watch what they might be doing.' Soul contemplated before actually leaving the park for real.

~X~

"You two certainly took a while to come. I was beginning to think you guys weren't going to show up." Hiro stated as he let both Travis and Maka in.

Travis didn't answer back so Maka decided to speak up.

"Yeah Travis wanted to take a detour so we kind of got off track, but we can't practice for long today anyways, Soul apparently got out of training early with Kid." Maka said.

"What? You ran into Soul when Travis was with you? How did he handle that?" Hiro asked interested in what Maka had to say and how she managed to get away.

"Well um…" Maka blushed not really wanting to tell Hiro what happened until Travis just said it for her.

"They basically just yelled at each other a bit and then made out to give you the short version." Travis stated blandly. as he took a seat on the sofa.

Both Hiro and Maka looked confused at Travis's attitude, but shrugged and took a seat as well.

"So since you're forcing yourself into Masquerade at least let us hear a bit of about what instrument you play and what name you want to go with." Maka asked trying not to let her annoyance come back into her voice.

Travis grinned gaining back his smug demeanor as he replied back. "I've decided that I like the name Platinum and I'm a good drummer."

"Platinum is a bit close to Diamond don't you think? I mean the colors of them are basically the same, what color would your mask even be? Hiro asked as he took out his box of masks he had got from the drama club.

"Yes they are both quite similar stones, except Platinum is more expensive and rarer than any old Diamond." Travis snorted dismissing Hiro as he rummaged through the box.

"At least pick a different color so we aren't all completely alike." Maka pointed out.

"Well for you Maka okay." Travis stated as he picked out a gold colored mask with blue jewels aligned across the top and bottom.

"I don't have a drum set here, we'll probably have to go back to Music Mania and see if Mr. Clark will let us practice on any of his instruments." Hiro considered, as he watched Travis check to make sure the mask fit him properly.

"There's no need for us to go out. I'll just show you a video I made, I just need to borrow your laptop." Travis stated as he sat up a bit in the sofa.

"Are you any good with technology?" Maka asked.

"Yup and after hearing some of the songs you two have already played I think I have an idea of what we can do next that involves the drums, guitar, and saxophone." Travis explained confidently, as he loaded up the internet and typed in some information.

"Ugh it took a while just getting used to Hiro, but I don't think I'll ever get used to dealing with Travis." Maka thought as Travis finally pulled up a video that showed him next to a drummer's set.

"Okay, are you two ready to be amazed by playing?" Travis asked moving the cursor over the play button.

"Just start the video already so I can go home." Maka snapped tired of hearing Travis showing off.

Travis sighed and pushed play and let his music speak for himself. Both Hiro and Maka watched him play with mild interest, but as the video went on they paid more attention. Not only did Travis sound good, but he was able to move so fast without missing a beat on each drum that by the time the video was over, Hiro was even clapping at the performance.

"I can play other instruments also if you weren't blown away with that Maka." Travis stated once the video was over.

Maka was about to reply back that what she saw and heard was fine until Hiro spoke up.

"That was great man, I had you all wrong! I'm actually glad we've added you to the group!" Hiro said, practically bouncing up and down excitedly.

Maka became confused as to why Hiro was so happy to have Travis as a member of the group so suddenly. 'I know Hiro likes the fact that we make a lot of money from playing at the Pub, but he honestly couldn't have forgotten so easily that Travis cut him up in order to get in, right?" Maka thought.

Travis regarded Hiro with fake enthusiasm. 'Wow this guy is going to be easy to manipulate, its Maka who's going to be the real challenge.' Travis thought as he sent a grin Maka's way.

Maka just glowered at him with contempt and took out her saxophone.

"Since you said you had an idea for what our next song could be let's practice it out already and stop wasting any more time."

~X~

The rest of the hour and half Maka spent at Hiro's place went by quickly and it actually seemed like if they continued to practice each of their parts on their own they might be ready to perform maybe again at The White Lily possibly the week after next.

In the meantime though, Maka fortunately didn't have to deal with any of Travis's advances for the rest of the week or even any of Soul's fan-girls except for Rachel and her posse who kept giving her the stink eye and sending their notorious hateful locker letters which Maka had to keep away from Soul's prying eyes.

Finally though, the weekend came and by the time it was Saturday morning, Maka was up bright and early ready to hopefully spend the day doing something with Soul when she noticed she seemed to be alone in the apartment.

"Hey Blair, have you seen Soul anywhere? It's not like him to be up early on a weekend or really to be up before me any day of the week." Maka questioned, peering inside Soul's room to find it empty.

Blair just shook her head. "I've been sleeping this whole time. I'm still stuffed from all the fish I ate last night!" Blair purred out before hopping back onto the couch.

"Why, did you have something planned that you wanted to do with Soul for today?" Blair asked teasingly once she had made herself comfortable.

Maka blushed and nodded. "Well, it wasn't anything big really. I just wanted to see if he wanted to go see that new action flick that came out, but I guess I can wait until he comes home to ask him."

Blair just shook her head in agreement before dozing off again as Maka went back to her room to lie down as well.

"There's no real point in making breakfast just yet and its only 9:30 am right now, if anything when Soul comes back we can just go out for Brunch or something."

~X~

"I demand an explanation for why you had to wake him up so early on a Saturday morning!" Black Star shouted at Soul, rubbing his green eyes sleepily.

"Black Star please keep your voice down. Liz and Patty are still sleeping, but I would have to agree with Black Star. It is unusual for you to want to meet up with us in the morning." Kid yawned out from beside him.

"It's important enough that I didn't want to wait until later to tell you guys about it." Soul stated responding to the two of them.

Seeing how serious Soul was being, Kid and Black Star straightened up a bit to hear their friend out.

"The other day Maka was with some strange guy that apparently Stein assigned her to follow and hang around with that I want one of you guys to look more into." Soul explained.

"Wait a minute Soul, I thought I told you to resolve your problems with Maka and now she's apparently going out with another guy!" Kid questioned, annoyed Soul was bringing him his personal problems still.

"Dude, were you like spying on their date or something that doesn't sound like a very "cool" thing to do." Black Star asked with a snicker.

"They weren't on a date. I don't know what the details of Maka's case are with this guy, but I can't be the one to go prying any further or Maka will just find some way to make sure I'm blocked out." Soul grouched as he mulled over his options.

"So that's where we come in, right? You want one of us to essentially spy on Maka just to make sure the case she's doing isn't too dangerous for her and that she was telling you the truth." Kid assumed.

"Yeah, pretty much." Soul replied back with a shrug.

"Well, count me out. You should be the one to handle this on your own. If you really trust Maka, then you should believe in what she is telling you." Kid muttered.

"I do trust Maka; it's this guy she's been assigned to that I don't trust." Soul grumbled.

"Sounds more to me like you're just jealous that this guy is closer to possibly getting with Maka than you'll ever be!" Black Star said as he started to laugh loudly until Soul punched him hard enough to cause him to stop.

"Oh you so you want to have a fight then? Okay then the great Black Star never says no to an opponent no matter what time of day it is or who it is!" He stated, as he cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

"There's no need for that, I'm not going to deal with any chaos this early or in my own home." Kid snapped out, as he pushed the two away from each other.

Black Star frowned and scoffed a bit before puffing up his chest. "Well, since Kid said he didn't want to do it. I'll find out what's really going on with Maka."

Both Soul and Kid were surprised. "You really want to do it?" Soul questioned, wanting to make sure Black Star wasn't going to slack off and make an empty promise.

"Yeah man I'll do it, but you have to pay me first. I don't work for free you now." Black Star explained as extending his hand out for payment.

Soul rolled his eyes and pulled out his wallet. "Here's a 50 dollar bill, if you actually manage to get any good information then I'll give you double that."

Black Star grinned as he stared at bill and held it up to the light just to make sure it wasn't a fake. "Just to make sure were on the same page, doubling it would give me 100 dollars, right?"

Soul sighed. Did he really want to trust Black Star to do this? "Yes moron, its basic math."

"Yahoo! Alright, I can use that type of money to maybe take Tsubaki and Angela out somewhere nice! Now, I just need to know Soul, when should I start snooping on Maka?"

Soul grinned; he already had in mind the perfect time for him to begin.

"Next Wednesday as soon as she gets out of class, and make sure she doesn't see you or sense your presence."

Author's Note: That's it for Chapter 14, let me know what you think with a review and as always thanks for reading!