Story No. : 02-SOE-007

Name : A Merry Christmas – Even Heroes Need A Holiday

Rating : T

Pairing : Soul x Maka (Many other pairings, but it's just because of the mistletoe :D)

Genre : Humor / Friendship

Warning : Slight Fluff, Slight OOC, No fighting,

Description : It's 2012, and it's approaching Christmas. The gang spends it's time at Soul and Maka's shared apartment. This paves the way for some happy, amusing, and slightly disgusting things to happen. It's no different than Christmas anywhere else, right?


x-X-Beginning of Story-X-x

"Maka, it's just for a couple of days!" Soul said. Soul's goal was to get Maka to agree to a sleepover of the entire gang at their shared apartment. Maka, however, found this idea less than pleasing. "No Soul. There will be a big mess and I won't be able to study and read with all the noise you all will make." Maka said simply. She had been very much against this idea since Soul suggested it.

"Come on Maka. Kid won't let anything upset our apartment's symmetry. Besides, this is a chance for you to get to bond with your team. This'll ALSO help us match soul wavelengths better so we can link all of our souls more easily and in the end, we'll be a better team!" Soul knew that he couldn't outwit Maka. He knew that challenging Maka to a debate was pretty much like asking a bull to stop charging at everything colored red. However, Soul was surprised by Maka's response.

"Well, I suppose you're right. There's always my room, and maybe this will give us all the time to get to know each other better." Maka snapped the book she was reading shut. "But, since it's approaching Christmas, we need to decorate this place. You should go and tell everyone and see if they agree." Soul nodded, keeping his cool-guy disposition and almost ran out of the door.

"I sure hope I haven't made a mistake…" Maka said to herself.

xXxXx

Soul quickly jumped on his bike and drove to Gallows Manor, where Black Star, Tsubaki, Kid, and the Thompson sisters were chilling out, waiting for Maka's answer. Soul was sure that he broke the speed limit driving there, not that he cared. He pulled up in front of Gallows Manor, and ran to the door, where he rang the bell.

Ding Dong

…God Soul hated those stupid doorbell sounds. The door opened and a black-haired boy with three stripes on the left side of his hair stared at Soul.

"Did she agree?" Death the Kid asked. Soul nodded. "Liz, Patti! Maka agreed, so get ready!" Kid yelled into the manor.

"Kay!" Patti shouted back. "Already packing!" Liz yelled. Kid smiled, and invited Soul inside Gallows Manor. As usual, the living room was perfectly symmetrical. Each painting was perfectly level, and the room looked as massive and perfect as usual. 'Never underestimate Kid's ability to make anything symmetrical' Soul thought to himself. Black Star and Tsubaki were waiting patiently beside one of the Christmas trees, specifically the one on the right. Soul walked over to his long-time friend and his partner.

"Hey Soul." Black Star said, high-fiving the albino. "Well, did she agree?" Tsubaki asked, and Soul nodded in agreement. Before Soul knew it, he was being dragged by his best friend out of Gallows Manor and towards the Christmas tree yard.

"With your GOD choosing your Christmas tree, it's bound to be awesome!" Black Star yelled. "Although as awesome as ME, of course!" He added. Soul sweat-dropped, and allowed himself to be dragged by his best friend to buy the Christmas trees.

"Black Star, I hate to say this…" Soul said, and Black Star looked at him curiously. "…But we already have a Christmas tree." Black Star, of course, didn't stop.

"So? This one will be far more awesome!" Black Star yelled. Soul sighed.

'This is going to be one long weekend…' Soul thought.

xXxXx

Maka was sorting out her apartment, being sure to dust and prepare. The Christmas tree was already decorated with Christmas lights and candy canes, and already in its place in one of the corners. Maka was sure to get everything ready and decorate the place in a Christmas fashion. The apartment maybe small, but it was enough for seven people. Maka finished setting up the tables and chairs, took some mistletoe from a nearby shelf. She used one of the chairs to climb up and place it on the ceiling.

'Nasty shock for two people that are under here!' Maka thought happily, as she resumed her duties with getting the apartment ready.

Just then, there was a loud knock on the door.

"Come in!" Maka shouted. The door opened, revealing her five friends and her weapon partner, who was being dragged by Black Star. Maka resisted the urge to laugh at her poor partner, who had learned the hard way that being dragged by their overactive friend Black Star was not a laughing matter. Kid and his weapons quickly entered the room, and made themselves at home at Maka's request. Kid was, as usual, inspecting Maka's work, looking for any flaws in the symmetry. He corrected several flaws, but found that Maka had done an excellent job with decorating her apartment symmetrically.

"Excellent work as usual, Maka." Kid said. Maka smiled and nodded, and she went into the small kitchen to get some food for everyone. She took a tray of some of the Christmas cupcakes and walked over to the table, which was decorated in a Christmas fashion. The moment she set it down, Black Star rushed forward and grabbed as many of them as he could, before munching on them greedily. Tsubaki was really embarrassed because of her partner's greediness.

"I'm really sorry Maka." Tsubaki said. Maka looked at her and smiled. "It's alright. After all, it IS the holidays and Black Star eats a lot more than most people…" Tsubaki smiled and bowed her head. Liz was looking around the place and Patti was laughing at a random picture which seemed to be amusing to her.

"Hey Maka…" Soul asked. "We can't just sit here eating and laughing. We need to play some sort of game." Maka looked at her weapon partner curiously. In her mind, she was wondering what Soul was thinking about.

"You have any ideas?" Maka asked. Soul's face didn't change at all. "No, I don't. That's why I'm asking you." The scythe said. Maka frowned.

Just then, everyone except the dirty-blonde meister and her partner grinned.

"What is it?" Maka asked. Kid pointed to the ceiling above their heads. Curiously, Maka and Soul looked up, and were met with a very nasty shock. Soul's cheeks flushed, and Maka turned bright red.

There were a couple of mistletoe leaves above their heads.

"No." Soul and Maka said simply, at exactly the same time. However, Liz and Tsubaki grinned even wider, while Patti was finding there embarrassment amusing, to say the least. Black Star looked like he was ready to push Soul and Maka's lips together. Soul looked rather annoyed, and so did Maka. After all, SHE was the one who put up that mistletoe, but she didn't expect that she was going to be the one under it.

"You have an obligation to do it, guys. After all, both of you are under the mistletoe." Kid said simply, with Tsubaki and Liz giggling softly in the background. Both Soul and Maka opened their mouths to complain, but thought better of it.

"Fine, but all of you have to turn around." Maka stated. Everyone except Soul and Maka turned away, but were either masking laughter, suppressing giggles, or holding back smirks.

Soul and Maka turned to face each other.

'Wow, he looks so handsome…' Part of Maka's mind thought. 'And his lips! Oh, I just want to press mine to them and keep them that way.' Maka was having an inner war with herself, trying to stop herself from kissing Soul or thinking those thoughts. 'Stupid teenage hormones…' Her rational mind thought.

Meanwhile, Soul was having a very similar battle.

'She looks so cute and pretty.' Soul thought. 'I can't believe that I've been insulting her all these years because she's a little flat. Wow, she looks so beautiful...' Soul shook away those thoughts. 'Damn teenage hormones. Making me think those sorts of things. But, her eyes…' Soul went back to fantasizing, as much as he tried not to.

Maka gently brought her lips closer to Soul's, connecting them briefly, before pulling apart extremely fast. This annoyed both of them, who were planning on having a longer-lasting kiss. Still, it was one great one for both of them.

"Can we turn around now?" Tsubaki asked.

"Yes." Maka said, walking away with a very red face. Soul's cheeks were also flushed, but he ignored it and went back to having fun, despite Black Star's and Kid's questions.

xXxXx

The rest of the day proceeded without much to say. Since the 7 of them weren't much for Christmas presents, they had skipped that part and went on to having fun and avoiding the mistletoe, which Soul and Maka has unwittingly fell victim to earlier.

Needless to say, they were having a very fun Christmas party and sleepover.

Maka and Tsubaki both cooked a massive Christmas dinner, which most of them ate gratefully. However, Black Star decided to stuff his face to the maximum before swallowing, and ended up devouring half of the Christmas meal all by himself, including dessert. Kid was freaking out over how Black Star was eating, much to the other's amusement.

"You ruined the symmetry of this dinner, you idiot!" Kid complained. Black Star paid no attention to the young reaper, and instead continued wolfing down his dinner at the speed of sound. Tsubaki was apparently as bothered as Kid, mainly because she thought Black Star would choke. But for some reason, he never seemed to.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Maka said, getting up from her seat and walking to the door. A small letter slid under the small gap in the door, and Maka gently bended over and picked it up. The letter had Lord Death's mask on it, which proved that this was a letter from Lord Death. Maka walked back to the table.

"From my father?" Kid asked, and Maka nodded. She opened the letter, and read aloud:

Dear Soul and Maka,

Hiya! How's Christmas where you are? I do hope that you're all fine and having fun, because it's just that time of the year. Anyway, when you come back to the DWMA, they'll be some gifts in your lockers, mainly because I think that it's time for me to start sending you all a little thank you for defeating the Kishin Ashura. And since it's been a while since he was destroyed, the time for all of us to completely forget about it and move on is here!

But sadly, this letter isn't just an invitation back to school. There have been rumors of a couple of kishin eggs going around Death City and stealing souls. Sooner or later they may become even more powerful and we'll have a real problem on our hands.

So, both of you are being assigned a mission. Your goal is to track down these kishin and eliminate them before they cause any more trouble.

I am really sorry for having to send you on another mission just when you're taking a break. However, every one of us in the DWMA is rather busy. So, good luck!

Signed, Lord Death

"Another mission?" Soul asked, bored and rather bummed because his wish to have a quiet Christmas was just destroyed. "Oh well. At least it'll bring me a couple of steps closer to becoming a Death Scythe." Soul rose from his feet and walked over to the door. Maka had already zoomed into her bedroom and came out wearing her school uniform and her mother's trench coat. She ran over to the door. Just before she opened it, she turned to the others.

"Keep our dinners warm, okay?" Maka asked, before running out the door with Soul in pursuit.

x-X-End of Story-X-x


Number of Words: 1,949 (Not including description and Author's notes)

Upload Date: Wednesday, 26th December 2012

A/N: I am REALLY sorry for not updating! It's just that I couldn't get motivated. Oh well… And I'm sorry for not updating yesterday, mainly because my internet died at the last second... Well, I'm starting a multi-chapter story soon. Oh well. Happy holidays!

~Omega02x~