Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.

Prompt #2: Grade - Honestly, it's a miracle she had any time to eat or sleep.

Words: 529

It wasn't that Soul was a bad student. Quite the opposite. Back home he managed to achieve close to pretty good grades on most of his assignments. That had been for show, sure, but he was perfectly capable of applying himself.

Here, however, he really couldn't bring himself to give a crap about school. How the hell was Algebra supposed to help him locate pre-kishin? That's right, it wouldn't. So why bother stuffing his brain with something as useless as that?

Maka cared about academics and the like, and since the grading system was the average of the meister and weapon's grades, his low scores meant she had to work extra-hard to be perfect. And she liked racking up those perfect scores, because it showed everyone that she was the brains in their partnership, and Soul was fine with being the brawn. He was a Demon Scythe, a weapon in human form that served his meister and combated the dark forces of madness and evil.

Besides, he had his own brand of intelligence. He knew important and practical things, like knowing which back roads and alleys could cut almost half an hour out of travel time. How to figure out what leads are possible and which are crap. How to stretch their money when a simple two-day hunt drags out into a week-long chore. How to keep his meister calm and focused when the pre-kishin starts taunting her about uncool things.

So he let Maka handle the academic side of things, and kept his focus on keeping her alive when they went out in the field. She was smart, a genius, but sometimes her book smarts didn't cut it in the real world. When she faltered, he was there to pick up the slack. That was another reason why they made such an excellent pair.

But sometimes he'd be heading to bed and see her light still on, a dictionary open and paper strewn across her desk as she scribbled away at some essay or report due the next day. Her eyes would be bloodshot and her hair mussed, her tongue caught between her lips in a focused expression that would send guilt shooting through Soul's scarred chest. He'd watch her power through extra-credit homework in an attempt to raise their grade night after night and never complain, not even when the circles under her eyes got darker and the increasing yawns threatened to dislocate her lower jaw.

When Maka got sick after pulling a series of all-nighters, that was it. Soul all but pried her from her desk, forced her to change into pajamas, and put her to bed. Then he swallowed his pride and his coolness, picked up his pen, and did enough homework to give their combined grade enough of a boost for Maka to take a much-needed break. The next morning, he cooked her breakfast and left a note ordering her to stay home, don't worry about the homework because he'd taken care of everything, and to get some rest.

After all, what were partners for?

I have a feeling this could actually happen. Don't you?

Review please!