Hey everyone brand new chapter for the weekend. Hope you enjoy it :D

After an entire night of berating himself for being such a fucking moron and not thinking before he speaks Soul tries to work out what he is going to say to Maka to make things right between them. There is a part of him (the part that is a giant coward) that thinks she won't give him the time of day and that it's probably not worth it. She finishes her internship soon and then he'll never have to see her again... until Liz hires her as a paid member of staff and she ends up working in his department again.

But he doesn't want to do that.

Aside from the fact that, knowing his luck, Liz will hire Maka and she will end up working in his department he doesn't want things to just end like that. He likes her too much to just let it drop – she's fun and they have a lot in common. Ignoring the fact that he wants to slam her into a wall and fuck her like there's no tomorrow, he wants to do all that cute coupley shit that people in relationships are always going on about.

Unfortunately she seems content for whatever had been going on between them to just die by the wayside.

The next day at work she ignores him unless it is work related. She says basically nothing to him apart from the bare minimum and every time he tries to catch her eye she looks in the other direction. It's so bad it gets to the point where Soul realises that if he wants to talk to her he's going to have to make her listen to him one way or the other.

A few days later he's pouring himself a cup of coffee in the empty break room trying to think of how to get Maka on her own when he hears the door open and close behind him. He turns to see the focus of his thoughts live, in the flesh and flipping through some papers. She looks up and stops short when she sees him.

"Hey," he says.

"Hello," she replies a little coldly and they're right back to where they started before they talked every day.

"How's things?" he asks.

"Fine," Maka replies in that same clipped tone. "You?"

"I miss you," he blurts without thinking. He grimaces, instantly wishing that he hadn't said anything but he has so he's going to just roll with it. "I miss talking to you."

"I'm sure there's another line you can call," she says.

Ouch... ice cold.

"Can we talk?" he asks.

"We're talking now," she replies.

"I mean about–"

"I know what you mean and I'd really rather not," she says stopping him mid-sentence.

"Can I at least try and explain myself?" he asks. "I'm an idiot and I just sort of spoke without thinking. I was completely out of line and I want to make things right."

Maka looks at him for a moment, chewing her bottom lip as she thinks. Soul seems to see a flash of something in her eyes but it's gone before he's able to work out what it is. She shakes her head.

"Let's just keep things professional, shall we?" She turned to go, hugging the papers a little tighter to her chest.

"Maka!" he calls after her as she reaches the door.

"I'll have those papers done for you in the next hours," she tells him before she leaves the room, closing the door behind here.

Soul lets out a heavy sigh and runs his hand over his face. He really did balls this one up quite spectacularly. One way or another he is going to make this right – he's going to explain himself to her and let her know that he didn't mean what he said. Getting her to stay around him long enough for him to do that is going to be the hard part.

He pulls out his phone – he had gotten some sensible advice once, there was a good chance that it will happen again – and sends a text to Black*Star.

[2:15pm] FROM: ME – Dude, you got a minute? I fucked up and I need some advice

Soul waits for a response, tapping his phone against his chin before it vibrates against him.

[2:17pm] FROM: BLACK*STAR – COME RUB MY NIPPLES

Soul stares at his phone screen in utter confusion for a good thirty seconds before replying.

[2:17pm] FROM: ME – What?

[2:18pm] FROM: BLACK*STAR – SORRY, WRONG PERSON, WHAT DO YOU NEED?

Soul stares at the previous message again for a moment before typing out his reply. Don't question it, it's so not worth it...

[2:20pm] FROM: ME – I fucked up so bad and I don't know how to make things right, you got a minute to talk?

[2:21pm] FROM: BLACK*STAR – SURE THING, I'M ON BREAK SO I GOT TIME

Soul presses the call button on Black*Star's number and he picks up almost immediately.

"Bro what's up?" Black*Star asks.

"I fucked up," Soul replies.

"Yeah I got that," Black*Star says. "How?"

"You know that girl I've been seeing?"

"The phone sex girl who was at yours the other night?"

"Yeah," Soul replies, fidgeting with his tie. "See the thing is when she came over I..."

"You told her to stop the phone sex, didn't you?" Black*Star asks.

"It sort of just slipped out," Soul says.

"You fucking idiot!" Black*Star groans and Soul can practically hear him rolling his eyes. "How did you even land a girl like that in the first place?"

"I don't know," Soul says truthfully, "but I need to know how I can make things right with her."

"Have you tried talking to her?" Black*Star asks.

"No I thought I'd leave it and see if that works," Soul replies sarcastically. "Of course I've tried talking to her, she won't give me the time of day."

"Can't say I blame her," Black*Star says.

"Thanks." Soul doesn't blame her either but that really isn't helpful right now. "I've tried talking to her but shy of cornering her and getting creepy...er I don't know what to do."

"It might be that you have to corner her," Black*Star says.

"Right..." Soul can already hear the sounds of a restraining order being written.

"What I mean is you gotta think outside the box if you really want the chance to apologise to her," Black*Star says.

"I don't follow," Soul says after a pause.

"Well if you call her number..."

"She won't pick up," Soul chimes in.

"I don't mean that number," Black*Star says.

"Oh?" It takes a minute but the penny finally drops. "Oh..."

"She won't be able to hang up on you," Black*Star says.

Soul thinks about this for a moment. While Black*Star's not wrong it feel a little weird. He is basically cornering her but if she hears him out and still doesn't want anything to do with him then he'll leave her alone. "I guess."

"I know it's weird and a bit creepy but it's the best I can offer under the circumstances," Black*Star says.

"Thanks anyway man," Soul says with a sigh.

"Let me know how it goes," Black*Star says.

"Will do," Soul say and hangs up the phone.

He sighs again as he pockets his phone and retrieves his now luke-warm coffee. It's not the worst idea in the world (although it is pretty terrible) but, right now, it's the only one he's got that just might work.

So, not having been able to come up with a better plan, Soul calls the BabeStation line that night and asks to speak to Bailey. He taps nervously as he waits for the call to connect for want of something to do with his hands. Next time he gets curious about something like this he's just going to ignore it. No more experiments for him. Finally he hears the tell tale click and then Maka's sultry voice.

"Hey big boy."

"Maka," he says, wanting to get right down to the heart of the conversation, "it's Soul."

"Oh for fuck's sake," she snaps. "You harassing me at both of my jobs now?"

"Can we talk?" he asks ignoring her question as both of them know the answer is yes.

"I'm hanging up now," she says.

"Wait!" Soul cries as he feels his one last chance slipping away from him.

"What?"

"Just hear me out," he says. "Just hear me out and if you still don't want anything to do with me afterwards then I'll leave you alone forever."

There is a pause down the end of the line and for a moment Soul thinks she's hung up before she speaks again. "You've got five minutes."

"Well I am paying for this," Soul chuckles, trying to lighten the mood but instantly regretting it. That was stupid.

"Goodbye."

"Okay I'm sorry," he says hurriedly. "That was a stupid joke."

"You think?" she asks and he doesn't need to be told that it's a rhetorical question.

"I'm sorry for what I said the other night," he says thinking it's just best to get on with it before his five minutes are up and she cuts him off. "I wasn't thinking and it was an incredibly stupid thing for me to say."

"No arguments there," she says. "You know I thought you were different and wouldn't get weird about it, all things considered," she adds after a pause.

"I know and I'm sorry," Soul says. "I just sort of kept thinking about the fact that you're having phone sex with other people and I got jealous."

"It's my job," she says.

"I know and I'm a prize idiot," Soul says. "I just really like you: you're gorgeous, funny, easy to talk to and I'd like to maybe try for something more than what we had going on before if you want to and will forgive me."

"Soul..."

"I don't need an answer right now," he says. "If you wanna think about it and still tell me to get fucked I'll understand."

"And if I want to give you another chance?" she asks and Soul's heart swells.

"I could take you to dinner tomorrow night and explain myself properly, not over a phone," he says.

There is another pause. "Okay. Dinner sounds good."

So the random opening text from Black*Star comes from the fact that the voice of Black*Star in the English Dub (Brittney Karbowski) also provided some voice for the English Dub of Ghost Stories (if you haven't see of heard of it watch it, you will not be disappointed) that line being one of them.