Soul's arms had both transformed into blades as he quickly avoided Crona's attack. Crona held Ragnarok tightly in his Demon Sword form and swung him in Soul's direction, but Soul managed to get his right scythe in front of him and stopped the sword from slicing him in half. Maka gasped and ran towards them, possibly the fastest she ever ran in her entire life. "STOP!" she yelled, and Soul immediately looked at her, which caused him to loose his concentration and accidentally drop his guard. Crona took this opportunity to slice his sword through Soul's arm, leaving a mean cut. A drop of blood hit the ground. Then two. Then three, until it started running out and over his arm, dripping on the ground with great speed. Soul bit his tooth and ignored the pain, pressing a piece of his sweater against the wound with his left arm that had transformed back. "Crona what are you doing ? STOP!" Maka came closer, but stopped walking when Crona turned to her. "Your eyes, how.." Crona's pupils had disappeared, and still he seemed to stare into her soul. How is this possible, what is happening with him ? She didn't have much time to examine what could've been wrong, because she saw Soul approaching him, and she knew he would try to cut through his neck. "NO!" She yelled and she started running again. "He's not himself ! You'll hurt him!" She jumped in front of Crona, the same way Soul had protected her from him. Soul wasn't able to stop himself, but quickly transformed his arm back, that way he would only slightly hit her neck. Soul fell hard, and moaned when his injured, still bleeding arm hit the cold ground. Maka opened her eyes and turned to Crona, who stared at her and then collapsed. Maka kneeled down beside him, held his head with both hands and sighed with relief the moment he opened his eyes. His pupils were back, Crona was back. "Maka.." he looked around, and when he saw Soul laying on the ground, and all the people standing around them, he froze and then started shaking like a lunatic. He was to shocked to cry, what had he done ? Did he really try to kill Soul ? Why would he do that ? Dr. Stein came running followed by Marie, Lord Death and Spirit. Maka stepped aside and Stein leaned over him, pressing his hands on Crona's shoulders. He looked at him from top to toe, then turned to Maka. "What happened ? Was there anything special you noticed ?" "He- He was fighting Soul, and when I looked in his eyes his pupils were gone. He really wasn't himself so protected him from Soul's attack, then he collapsed on the ground and his pupils were back to normal" Stein nodded. "I'll take him for the rest of the day. You and Soul can go home, I'll inform you about Crona tomorrow" Maka was still worried, but she nodded. "Oh- dr. Stein!" Stein turned around to look at her. "Take Soul too, he injured his arm!" She intended to point at Soul, but noticed he wasn't there. Stein raised his brows, then turned around with Crona in his arms and walked back inside. Maka quickly searched the area with her eyes, but didn't spot Soul anywhere. Concerned, she started walking to their apartment, hoping Soul would be there too.

Soul was angry. Really angry. And hurt, maybe. But he refused to admit that, even to himself. He slowly walked home, desperately trying to stop his wound from bleeding by pressing every piece of clothing he had on to it. He was sure his face was red, and he looked like he could kill anybody right now. And he could, especially Crona, maybe even Maka. That's how angry he was. He arrived at their apartment and went straight to the kitchen, opening the cabinet with the first aid box in it. With one hand he opened it and roughly pulled a piece of bandage out of it. He took his sweater and shirt of, smeared a clot of ointment on the wound and carelessly secured it with the bandage. This would do for today. Soul didn't put his shirt back on, he felt like his body could use some refreshing air after being covered in sweat and blood. He grabbed some chips and got comfortable in the sofa with a blanket covering him in case he would get cold. finally he had some time to think.

After about 15 minutes, Soul heard Maka open the front door of the apartment and sighed. Here we go, he thought. Maka would probably yell at him for fighting with Crona and blame him for everything, he would get mad and like every other day, they would fight until someone left. "Soul ?" He heard her call his name and tried to analyse her voice, but he couldn't. He couldn't hear if she was angry, sad or if she didn't even care. But judging by her personality, it wouldn't be the last one. Soul didn't answer, but remained silent on his couch, occasionally grabbing some chips. "Soul ?" he heard her footsteps head in his direction. "Oh good, you're here. Why did you leave ? Did you take care of your arm ?" She came closer and grabbed his injured arm, but he pulled him back, kind of surprised. Maka looked at him strangely and grabbed his arm again. She looked at the bandage, that was drained with a mixture of blood and ointment already, and shook her head. "Let me do it for you" She walked to the kitchen and signed Soul to follow her. Soul was confused, what was happening ? Why wasn't she yelling at him, why wasn't he yelling at her ? He didn't move a bit and heard Maka sigh loudly in the kitchen. She returned, took both of his hands and pulled him up, which caused the blanket to fall on the ground and reveal his bare chest. Maka's eyes widened for a moment before a light blush warmed her cheeks and she turned around and walked to the kitchen, once again. Confused, Soul followed her and stood next to her as she took out the first aid box and put in on the counter. She grabbed his arm and removed the badly wrapped bandage. When she saw the wound, she shivered for a second, she didn't expect it to be this deep. "Hold your arm under some water" she ordered, and Soul did what she asked. She took out some wipes and carefully started cleaning the wound, which made Soul moan out of pain sometimes. Maka hated to hear him do that, but this had to be done. The wound was almost clean and she started lightly dipping on it with the wipes. Soul stared at her as she concentrated on his arm. He was so angry with her for caring more about Crona not so long ago, and normally this would be the time that he brought it up and started a fight, but he didn't. For some reason his anger had disappeared completely, all he did was stare at her. Maka started putting something antiseptic on the wound. Soul didn't understand himself. Starting a fight with her was a regular thing, and he had a grounded reason to be mad at her. Maybe it was because Crona wasn't here ? Maybe this one night without him would have a positive effect on their relationship. Speaking of Crona, although he is the main reason for him to be so frustrated and angry all the time, still Soul knew that Maka was right. He wasn't himself when he tried to kill Soul. Something was terribly wrong, and hopefully they would find out tomorrow. Maka noticed him staring and looked up. When their eyes met Soul woke up from his thoughts and looked into her beautiful, grass-green eyes. After a few seconds, Maka rapidly turned away and started wrapping a new, cleanly cut bandage around his arm. She secured it with some kind of special tape. "All done" she said, while she put the box in its place and looked at Soul. "You should let someone check your arm at Shibusen tomorrow, to make sure that it'll be okay. Now, what do you want for lunch ?" "Whatever you want" he mumbled. Soul didn't hear what she answered before she started taking stuff out of the fridge, he was to busy staring at her. For some reason he felt an unbearable, sudden urge boiling up in his body. He felt like hugging her, kissing her.. Wait a minute, what ? He had hugged her so many times before, why did he really want it now ? And kissing her, why would he even think of that ? Stupid hormones. That should be it, hormones. Going through puberty wasn't always all fun.