Usual disclaimer applies~ Enjoy reading~
SOUL----
The dull grey walls of Stein's laboratory surrounded them.
Continuous clicking bounced against the small room's walls, each arduous echo rebounding inside the boy's head.
"So you're saying," the professor drawled in his usual bored tone, "that you didn't know what that diamond's importance is? You. The one who delivered it?" The inquirer was sat on his computer chair, his chest and arms leaning forward against the back of the seat. He released a puff from the cigarette that he had inhaled from, wrapping it around the teenagers who sat around the small coffee table.
Soul, who sat on the edge of the largest sofa, coughed slightly and delicately covered an unconscious Maka's mouth with his hand to prevent her from unintentionally inhaling the vile smoke. The said meister was laid along the length of the sofa, a pile of jackets, namely Soul's, Kid's and Stein's, covering her currently fragile figure. Her head was resting on the Death Scythe's lap - carefully placed there by Soul himself - as she slept after falling unconscious.
Beside them, sat on the floor were the trio of Kid, Liz and Patti. During the panicking about his meister's condition, he had not been able to talk to these two new pistol weapons but seeing them close up, they looked like sisters.
Kid was another of those who panicked after seeing Maka, especially since he said that she had just suddenly flown into him as if she had been thrown from a distance. He said that he felt something crack from the impact - hopefully not something of Maka's.
The three had arrived at the best time yet even with their help they were unable to retrieve the stolen object. As for how they got there, they had entered Shibusen from the north and to return to Shibusen, they had to pass by the cemetery.
What Soul found amazing about Kid as he had watched from behind the red glaze of the scythe blade was how he had fought. He had never witnessed his friend in a fight before so seeing him with two very symmetrical guns held quite unusually very much stroke awe into the Death Scythe. Kid wasn't the Shinigami's son for nothing.
As for the weapon, who was currently watching how the light hit the sleeping meister's hair, highlighting it gold, the questions Stein had been throwing at him being met with deaf ears. Or just a sleepy scythe.
"No," Soul drowsily remarked, "I was kind of…out of it when we delivered it."
"Oh? Like you are now?" Soul looked up to glare at the statement although it had not been intimidating since fatigue weighed down his eyelids.
"Professor," Kid called, Soul only hazily taking this conversation in. "My weapons and I will head to Shibusen; we'll get Nygus-sensei here." The trio stood, seeming to simultaneously brush off imaginary dirt, a girlish giggle echoing throughout the room.
"Understood." Stein turned in his chair to face the monitor behind him, a sudden storm of clicking sounds from the keyboard being heard.
The large warehouse like door creaked open and then slowly creaked once again to shut close, the loud bang echoing inside Soul's hazing mind.
"Sleep, Soul, I'll interrogate you tomorrow," commanded the now busy Stein.
Slowly, slowly, the feeling of his hand stroking Maka's hair beneath him faded, his eyes closing. His head flopped back onto the back of the couch and there he fell asleep.
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Pure white walls greeted the groggy weapon, crimson eyes gradually adjusting to the brightness around him.
Sound? There was none. It was only comfortable silence that met him.
Blinking, he stayed reclined where he was, feeling quite refreshed. The white ceiling seemed to have suddenly caught his interest as he continued to stare, light from behind him sending beautiful patterns to reflect on the surface above him.
Inhaling deeply, he turned his head to take a look around at his surroundings. As his right cheek met with the bed that he had only just noticed he was on, he sat up almost instantly in surprise, blood quickly rushing to his head that he almost felt a slight wave of nausea overcome him.
On the bed beside his was Maka, also sleeping peacefully, a pure white bandage wrapped around her forehead, beige strands of hair randomly sticking out from beneath it. She was in a much rougher condition than he with all the fresh, small scars found around her face – what was most prominent though was the bruises on her jaw line, ones which he hadn't noticed in the darkness of Stein's laboratory last night. Five long, oval-shaped and redding bruises. Regardless of all her damage, she was tucked in quite snugly, sleeping almost peacefully and Soul hoped that she was alright underneath the sheet.
"Maka…" he whispered her name with guilt as he crouched by her bedside, thinking that she might probably wake up from his quiet call. He gingerly stroked her cheek with his index finger, careful not to wake her up.
What had happened again? He tried to recall as his hands started to delicately brush strands of her hair back.
Oh, right. Stein had taken him from her, reluctant as he was, leaving her unguarded. But Kid said that she had crashed into him. Why?
Did she jump into him in surprise since she hadn't seen him for more than a month? Crash into him even? In the face of an enemy?
No. If it was what he thought it was, then what could explain the bruise marks? The only most logical explanation was that someone had attacked her. But whom it was, Soul couldn't find an answer to.
Instead he busied himself by looking around. They were in Shibusen's infirmary. A clock hung on the wall notified him of the time: one minute past eleven.
Guessing that he couldn't have slept for more than twenty-four hours after the post-battle interrogation, it was a Sunday. During this day, only a few teachers and staff would roam around in the quiet halls of Shibusen.
Should he go and look for someone, he debated.
As he looked back to his unconscious meister, he decided against it. He didn't want her to wake up alone. Or he just wanted to be the first person she sees when she wakes up. Something like that – well, he tried to be indifferent about it but it wasn't enough to stop his oncoming blush. He couldn't stop comparing their situation to something out of girly fairy tales – princes waiting for their princesses to wake up after bestowing the much famed 'kiss'. That's pretty uncool..., he thought as he let his hand slide down the length of his face in chagrin.
Finally relaxing after his inner confusion, he placed his chin on top of his crossed arms which were laid on the bed by her arm, his nose gently grazing the bare skin of her upper arm. He watched her sleep gently, seemingly unaware of her current condition.
The door to the infirmary creaked open behind, unbeknownst to Soul, as he concentrated his attention on the slumbering Maka. The sound of the visitor's voice from behind him alerted him of the unknown presence.
"Oh, so you're awake now?" said the quiet voice. Even with the almost silent volume used it had still made the white-haired boy flinch and as he turned his head to the side, he saw the older Death Scythe walk towards the other side of Maka's bed. Strangely, he was quiet today.
"Yeah." Looking up to his senior, he commented his thoughts, "This is different. Shouldn't you be panicking around now? Shrieking over Maka's sleeping form?" His tone sounded as if recalling past events, a smirk inserted subtly into the wording.
"Being a smartass are you?" The red-head snickered, his blue eyes angrily piercing into the Soul's cheeky red ones. "Well, to answer your question, I had already done so when you had been admitted into here about six hours ago. And my miraculous calls of love had actually reached her as I woke her from her from her slumber," the older Death Scythe stated proudly.
"She woke up?" Soul asked, astonished. Was he that loud that he managed to wake the almost-dead. Well, why didn't he wake up then?
"Yes she did, over an hour ago and my dear little Maka was almost fine and dandy. I thought that if my presence was around, she would get well twice as quick as normal," the father started to spin around happily (creepily in Soul's point of view), dancing around the little white room.
"I don't think so," muttered the red eyed boy, averting his eyes from the quite embarrassing sight.
Spirit froze mid-dance as his head quickly swivelled to glare at Soul. "Why are you so close to her anyway?" Soul was still positioned beside her shoulder, nose tickling her skin.
"What? Oh... You have a problem with it?" He showed his senior his signature wide, sharp-toothed smirk as he shuffled closer to her arm, almost nuzzling into it.
Spirit Albarn childishly stomped and flailed his arms around in protest, his face contorted in sudden anger and pain. "GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU EVIL WHITE DEMON!!" Soul guffawed at the horrendous sight.
"Ah! Too noisy!" a weak voice muttered from beneath both of them. She began to shuffle back to life as she turned to the side facing Soul, her hands grabbing hold of both ends of her pillow and using it to block her ears from the noise. Positioned so, she had her eyes scrunched up in fake irritation, like ones that she wears when he always used to annoy her.
She knew Soul was there because only a few moments later, she opened one scrunched eye to look at him – they were now eye to eye – and gently showed him her smile, albeit she looked like she was in pain. "Hi," her weak voice said, rough from all the sleep she had had.
The young Death Scythe could've sworn he couldn't breathe there and then. Through the scars and bruises, she just looked perfectly...Maka-like when she had uttered that simple word to him. She had simply looked beautiful at that one single moment.
Moving his hand, he set his large hand on her forehead and smoothed out the stray strands once again. As his gentle gaze probed her green and now lively eyes, he asked in a whisper, "Hey. How are you feeling?"
"Hurting all over..." was her simple answer but she was still smiling, and the way she had uttered it, it was like she was joking. But he knew it was serious. That was probably why she was using that tone; to let him loosen up a little from the tension.
"Maka! MAKAAAA!" Spirit wailed from behind her, unable to hear their whispered conversation. "LIE DOWN PROPERLY NOW!! Remember your broken rib! We don't want anything to break any further!" Although the annoying father had incoherently wailed out the entire sentence, Soul had perked up when he heard 'broken rib'. He knew that she wouldn't be all fine underneath the blanket even though he had hoped but knowing what damage was really done to her, he just felt angry at whoever had done this to her and to himself since he had let himself be taken away from her.
Obeying without any sort of protest, Maka laid down properly with a small wince. Soul saw how much effort she was putting in all of her movement as he stood towering above her. Seeing her look up once again from the wince, and showing him a subtle smile using her eyes, he had no choice but to frown.
It was unfair, he thought. Why did she have to be broken while he was perfectly fine? He wanted to take away some of her pain but he didn't know how to. The only thing he knew was that he felt obliged to assist her as much as he could.
That was because...
A small hand subtly wrapped around his right hand's index finger, which was hanging limply by his side as he stood beside her bed. This jolted the boy out of his thoughts and he looked at her, seeing how she frowned at him. "What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.
A painful clench was felt inside his chest.
She was worried about him in her condition? She was frowning because he was frowning. She was worried because he looked pitiful when all he was doing was worrying about her.
So to take away the frown planted on his face and the one that currently invaded hers, he forced his signature smile out once again. "Broken ribs? That's kinda uncool."
He got the result he wanted when her grip on his finger tightened for a second and then quickly loosened. Her smile had returned only to be quickly replaced with a forced pout. "How mean! Can't you be a little nicer to me since I'm...temporarily disabled?"
"Yeah Soul! How can you be so mean!!" The stupid papa interjected from the other side, unaware of their minimal contact. "Ah!" The short sound grabbed Soul's attention as he returned his gaze towards his senior. "By the way, we have a meeting in ten minutes Soul, so why don't you scurry along and leave me behind with my lovely little angel and let my love filled voice radiate around her and miraculously heal her!!" The adult made a strange 'shooing' action with both of his hands as his face formed a pout that seemed so out of place that it was scary.
"Shut up, idiot papa... Go away," Maka rambled using her blank voice and this seemed to have worked since Spirit started to squirm in place, a hand on his heart – looking so hurt – and he was forced to saunter away...crying.
"Wow... I really do pity your old man," he said after observing the small spectacle. Turning back to his meister, he started to stroke her face tenderly with his left hand since his right hand was still held by Maka's own. He frowned each time Maka winced at the contact when he touched places that hurt. "Will you need anything from your apartment?"
"No, Tsubaki already volunteered to do that when I was last awake. So it's okay." Yet again, she showed her small smile which seemed to melt him.
He mirrored her smile for only a second when his features eventually returned to its grim arrangement. "These bruises...I don't like them."
"Not pretty are they?" she giggled a bit, obviously having trouble with even that one simple action. "I remember these were because the witch grabbed my jaw too tight."
Witch, huh?, he thought angrily. So it was a witch that did this to her? Well at least it was someone he was allowed to kill.
"They're ugly but these are only bruises...they'll disappear in no time," she said positively. Soul was amazed; she was worried about her looks than her health? When Soul showed her his questioning gaze, she elaborated further. "I can't go looking like this at the January ball now do I? Not in front of mama anyway..."
Finally understood, Soul grinned at her and her simple and straightforward way of thinking. Placing a hand on her forehead and smoothing her hair out once again, he replied, "Don't worry about your looks now, since you still look good as always. Worry more about healing at the moment." Bending down, he placed a chaste kiss on her forehead as a goodbye. "I'll be back as soon as this meeting ends," he remarked as he headed for the doorway, waving behind him at Maka, unaware of her blushing that seemed to have been produced by both his actions and words.
A/N: i dont know if i did a good job writing him, but i love the scene with Spirit
still Soul POV next chapter~
i have another new story idea~
and im currently building a plot for it~
but i dont want to leave OAaC in hiatus...
hmmm...i'll figure it out somehow X]
yay~ almost 200 reviews?
haha~ i cant stop feeling giddy xDD
okay~! the 199th, 200th and 201st reviewers can request a scene they would like to be drawn from OAaC if they like :D
any scene~ something simple dedicated to them Cx
just pm me if you think you got the place~
(o.o haha~? i wonder if this is a good way to celebrate or if anyone would actually want to get arts? =w='')
Thanks to all readers and those who reviewed last chapter~
Dont forget to leave your reviews~