Chapter Thirty-Six

~ Maka ~

"Maka," he gasped, throwing himself to his knees in front of me, and tightly lacing his arms around my shoulders.

I buried my face in his collarbone, gripping tightly at the back of his shirt until I felt my knuckles pinch white and my nails sting at my palms beneath the fabric.

His palm was placed on the back of my head, his fingers eagerly scrunching at my damp hair.

"Thank god you're okay," he exhaled, as if it was only then he was able to receive a sense of relief.

I nodded frantically, "are you okay?"

Slowly he pulled away from me, allowing me to see that of the dried blood that had marked itself upon his face as well as dribble slightly from his nose.

"I am," he smiled. "Black*star isn't."

My heart began to race at the mention of his name, and the thought of him being on top of me, and sliding his hands up and down my body.

My eyes watered, "I'm sorry..."

"Hey," he quickly pulled me close to him. "It's fine."

"I feel so bad," I felt the dribble of a tear stain itself upon my cheek. "I didn't know how else to get away from him..."

His hands slid round from the back of my head, and placed themselves upon my cheeks, his bruised thumb stroking away the salty water that was bleeding down my face.

"I'm proud of you," he whispered, staring deeply into my eyes. "You stood up to him, despite how you did it."

Another tear was wiped away beneath his skin.

"But I let him touch me," I shivered. "I let him think that he could have me."

He smiled softly, "well, he definitely knows he can't now."

I giggled slightly, feeling the lump at the back of my throat throb as if it tried to deprive me of feeling happy.

But as he placed his cracked, bloodstained lips upon my own, everything that hurt suddenly fell numb, and everything that felt cold, had burned into a warmth that had been sparked from his lips.

~ Death the Kid ~

I pulled away from her, slowly rising up from the ground, but placing my lips softly against her forehead before stepping away from her presence entirely.

I smiled at her sweetly, "I'll be back in a minute."

Before I fully turned away from her to walk into the kitchen, I watched as James sat himself beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to keep her company.

Soul stood leaning against the fridge as I entered the room. His eyes averting themselves upwards to watch me slightly as I walked over to him.

I stood opposite him, holding my palms against the worktop behind me and leaning against the cupboards.

I watched the floor, "thank you."

I looked up to see him clench his jaw, as he continued to try his hardest to keep his gaze away from my presence in that moment.

He didn't reply, he just stood there watching everything he possibly could, whilst trying to avoid eye contact with me.

"And, I'm sorry-"

"Save it," he muttered.

The tension was growing thicker with every second we remained standing there in silence. I could feel that of his own anger pulsating through the air around me, as if that of his emotion – rather than his fists – was trying to cause me harm.

"No," I said, pushing myself off of the worktop behind me to step closer to him.

He finally looked towards me out of the corner of his eye.

"I thought that what it was you felt towards Liz, was just something completely stupid," I stated, brushing my fingers through my hair. "Just some kind of sexual desire."

His body language shifted into something calmer. Removing his arms from across his chest and to his jeans front pockets, then turning his head to face me fully.

I sighed, "and now I realise that Maka, isn't the only one that needs saving from Black*star."

He rose an eyebrow, "what do you mean?"

"Well," I shrugged my shoulders. "Black*star is a manipulative sex maniac basically."

Soul stepped closer towards me, his red eyes glistening with concern.

"He assaulted Maka before, to get what it was that he wanted, and when she refused him, he beat her up."

I could see a sense of fear in his eyes, a tension in his shoulders beneath his black jumper, and a tremble of hesitation is his lips.

"He blackmailed Liz into showing up at the hospital, he knew that if she provoked Maka, that would lead to him having something against her."

His lips parted, his eyes narrowed, and his body stiffened.

I placed my hands in my back pockets, "tonight, he planned to take Maka to the police station, to get her charged for the assault on Liz. And I'm guessing that somewhere on the way, he was planning to make a deal with her."

Soul removed a hand from his pocket, reached up to his hair and ran his fingers through his blonde spikes, gripping at his hairline like this too, was stressing him out.

I closed my eyes, "Maka managed to get away, but only by making him believe that he could have her."

He looked back towards me, raising his eyebrows as if asking whether or not I was sure about the situation.

"And all I can think is," I bit my lip. "What is it his done or is doing to Liz?"

He inhaled deeply, "do you think he's hurt her?"

I locked my gaze with his, standing motionlessly as the tension within the room grew thicker once again.

"There is no doubt, in my mind, that he has hurt her."

~ Maka ~

"You okay Pidge?" James asked, tossing his keys on the table in front of us.

I tried ever so hard to nod. "Everything just seems, a little surreal."

"Understandable," he shrugged. "You basically got kidnapped."

I felt the corner of my mouth turn up slightly, but as fast as it appeared it was gone again, as if right then I was incapable of determining my own emotions.

But before this I was already incapable.

"You mean everything to him," James said, pointing through the kitchen door towards the black haired boy.

I smiled, "you think so?"

He replied, "I know so."

I slowly turned my head to face him, looking from the scars on his arms then up to those two dark brown eyes of his, then back to his scars.

I inhaled deeply, before asking, "why do you hurt?"

He smiled down at me, falling back to lean against the back of the sofa, before staring down at his scar covered arms and raising an eyebrow to possible ask himself the same question.

"I hurt because I hurt others," he chuckled.

I continued to stare up at him, waiting, anticipating for him to elaborate on why he felt like that.

"A few years ago, I cheated on my girlfriend," he stuttered. "I chased her out of the house, I didn't want to lose her, despite that, my actions had caused me to do exactly that."

His eyes began to glisten slightly, and he tried his hardest to avoid making eye contact with me, because if he did, he knew that he would most definitely have a reaction to something he didn't know how to react to.

"I chased her down the road," he continued. "And then out of no where, she was hit, killed instantly."

His lower lip began to tremble slightly, and as he continuously attempted to bite it between his teeth, in order to prevent it from shaking altogether, he did none other than fail miserably.

Slowly I reached my hand out towards his arm, carefully placing my fingertips above the scarred rim of a cigarette burn that had been stained there years previous.

And I did nothing, except hold my fingertips there for as long as he would let me.

"What was her name?" I asked, placing my head against his shoulder.

He chuckled slightly, sniffing at the same time, staring blankly at the wall that stood opposite the both of us, staring blankly back at it.

"Tsubaki," he smiled. "Her name was Tsubaki."

"Tsubaki..." I softly repeated, like it was too precious to stain that of the air around me.

Removing my head from his shoulder, I too rested my head back against the back of the sofa, this time watching the ceiling carefully, as if I was fully preparing myself for it to crumbling down on top of me.

"Hey Tsubaki," I whispered. "I know you don't know me, but this guy next to me, he loves you – he loves you a lot."

James began crying, his tears tickling at his cheeks and streaming down towards his jawline.

"Thank you, Maka," he sniffed, placing his shaking hand on top of mine, and squeezing it until he couldn't muster up the strength to do so anymore.