"I'm ho-ome! Everyone better have their pants on!" Maka announced as she walked through the door. She immediately noticed a strong smell of cooked sauces floating around. She tossed her hat towards the couch and sniffed about while walking towards the kitchen. Maka recognized the intense aroma of the dish as it was her favourite from the sports bar her brother worked at. She slipped her cleats off and opened up the microwave to find her dinner waiting.

Maka grabbed the cardboard container and set it down on the dining table. It was still warm. She looked towards his closed bedroom door and noticed a light flashing through the crack. Maka walked over and knocked.

"You home?" a moment passed while she waited for a response. She could make out the sounds of controllers clicking and explosions out of the television coming from the other side of the door. "Thanks for the food." Maka said before turning back to her food.

Maka opened up the dish and was met with a variety of flavours. It was a thing of beauty, to her at least. Penne ala Vodka was the one dish she assumed the restaurant was capable of making right. And it had chicken and bacon in it! Oh she'd definitely have to give her compliments to the chef and Star. He knew her well.

She savored every bite, it was her absolute favourite and more. Maka believed she could live off it if the situation ever came about. She'd be damned if anyone was to dig their fork into her dinner. She was more than halfway done when Black*Star emerged, still with his work clothes on.

"Hey, how was practice?" He asked while headed towards the fridge. He picked out an opened bottle of cola he left in there from a couple days previous. It was flat but still tasteful.

"Not bad. How was work?" Maka scarfed down another bite while Star pulled his seat out. He propped his feet up on the table and leaned back in his chair. She thanked whatever deity was watching that her food was canceling out the smell of his feet.

"Man it's a good thing I brought you home something cause damn, you stink. Have you smelled yourself lately? Did you slide into a pool of mud or something?"

Maka rolled her eyes. "Doesn't smell half as bad as the time you come home smelling like oil. Or did you forget how it took a week to get the smell out of the apartment?" Maka argued as they recalled the time one of the chefs accidentally knocked over an entire bottle of vegetable oil on the floor. Star walked away without any serious injuries.

"Yeah, well...it wasn't that bad!" Black*Star argued as he sat himself up right and attempted to steal a bite of Maka's dinner. It wasn't happening over her dead body. "Owww. My hand's not a piece of meat. Jeez."

"Well technically…"

"Shut up nerd." The two continued to bicker and talk about their days while Maka finished eating. Before long they prolonged their conversation well over an hour until they ran out of things to talk about. They lived together but rarely saw one another due to both of their busy schedules.

"Anyways, I should probably wake Tsu up. I think she may have work in the morning." Black*Star pushed his seat out and disposed of Maka's empty carton.

"Wait Tsubaki's here? Has she been here the whole time? I didn't interrupt anything did I?" Maka turned away to blush as her mind went in circles thinking of what might have been.

"Hmm? Nah. She fell asleep while we were playing. She seemed tired so I just let her sleep. That's why you didn't hear me screaming when you walked in." he explained as he walked towards his room.

"Oh...ok, good. I thought I might have barged in on you two...um...yeah."

"What, sex? Not tonight. It was a long day for both of us. I think she opened and closed today. Something about someone calling in sick or something. Either way she had to stay late." Star explained. He nudged Tsubaki's arm as he tried to wake her up.

"So sorry for your loss, but thank God.I really don't wanna barge in on something like that. It's not exactly on my list of fun things to do, ya know?" Maka had been rolling her eyes and shaking her head through the entirety of the conversation.

Tsubaki sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. A quick look towards the window told her it was a lot later than when she fell asleep.

"Oh jeez what time is it?" She squinted her eyes and yawned.

"Past 11."

"Oh wow, I was out for a while...Oh! I'm sorry Star! We were-"

"It's alright. You were tired. No big deal. We'll play another day. Anyways we should get you home soon." Black*Star helped Tsubaki off the bed and walked her out of the room. When they made it to the front door Tsubaki turned back to Maka.

"Oh Maka! I just remembered. That guy with the uhh…"she blinked and looked around for her words while snapping her fingers "...uhh white hair! Ya know with the rescue cat! He came in today and was looking for you."

"What? Why me specifically?" Maka asked, a bit perplexed.

"I dunno. I think he said something about pet sitting. Told him we couldn't give him your number though, so we'd ask you for him when someone saw you. So...yeah."

Maka blinked and nodded her head in understanding. She waved Tsubaki goodbye as Star walked her out.

~!~

"Hey Maka, I think you may have an admirer. He's pretty strange lookin' too. We should get to class before he confesses something weird." whispered Jacqueline as she packed up her books and slammed her locker shut. She gestured for Maka to hurry up and follow.

Maka tried to get a look through her peripherals but couldn't see anyone. "What do you mean strange looking? What does he look like? Is he tall? Short?" Maka whispered back as she hid behind her locker door.

"First starters he's got white hair. And-"

"Oh, him." Maka shut her locker and turned towards her red eyed acquaintance. He had a lazy grin upon his face. She coulda sworn she saw a gleam of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth.

"Maka, right? You look...different. You do something with your hair?" Soul cocked his head as he tried to figure out what was throwing him off.

"Hmm? Oh these! I usually have my hair like this at school. I keep it in a ponytail or up in a bun at work so the animals don't tug at it. If you dangle something in front of a cat, they're more than likely going to try and grab it." Maka explained while tugging her own pigtails. He didn't seem to care for the explanation.

"Yeah, well you two have a fun chat, I'm gonna go on ahead. I'll see you in class Maka."

"So Tsubaki told me you had a question for me?" Maka asked. She looked past him and noticed the hall was becoming empty as classes were filling in. They didn't have much time for a chat.

"Yeah I need someone to pet sit for me for a week. I'm going out of town and I-"

"You'd rather someone stay at your house instead of boarding her somewhere? I get it. We'll discuss details later. I don't want to be late for class. Find me later and we'll talk, ok?" By the time Soul could voice a goodbye she was already halfway down the hall.

Soul found his way back to her locker after the last bell. He found her surrounded by his blue haired friend, the same girl from earlier and another with pink hair.

"Star, what's up?"

"Yo! Ready to get your ass whooped again?" From Black*Star's personal records, he'd won one-on-one games 15 out of 17 matches.

"Yeah yeah sure, just give me a minute with your sister, need to talk to her about something." Soul informed as he passed Black*Star by.

"Whatever dude, just meet me in the gym when you're done. I'm gonna go see if Killik can stick around today." The two pounded fists before Star walked off.

Soul waited for Maka's attention, standing behind her two friends as they talked of possible school related things and other non sense he couldn't keep attentive for. The hallway had begun clearing out before she had even acknowledged his presence with the wave of a finger.

Maka slung her backpack over her shoulder and shut her locker door before waving her friends off. "What's up?" Maka asked while walking past him and towards the girl's changing room. He followed like an obedient puppy dog.

"I've gotta go out of town for a few days, so I was wondering if you could watch Blair for me." Soul explained while following behind Maka.

She let the thought of taking care of his cat linger while they walked to the locker room. She measured the pros and cons in her head. Naturally, she could give an argument for either side, but was leaning towards helping him out. She stopped just outside of the door to the changing room.

"So I'm considering this, convince why I should help you personally instead of you boarding her at the hospital." Maka had one foot through the door while awaiting his reply.

"I can think of 200 reasons why you might want to do me a favor." Soul replied with a smug grin.

Maka rolled her eyes. She wasn't so easily bought. Her first impression of Soul was that of a decent guy who gave a helpless animal a chance at life. But this was just shallow. She shook her head and snapped her fingers at him.

"Come on Richy Rich, you can do better than that." She expressed, halfway through the entrance.

"Uh wow, ok. How about 300?"

She scoffed. "Stop with the money, give me a decent reason why you'd rather have me cat sit than board her. Show me you're not just some rich boy throwing his money around." demanded the pigtailed athlete. She turned her back to him and began into the locker room.

"Wait wait wait! Ok, no games. I'm going out of town and I'm sort of, worried I 's been doing better warming up to me at home and I don't want to put her in a cage and undo all the hard work it took getting to this point." explained the white haired boy as he followed Maka into the changing room, unaware of where he walked into.

"Hey hey what are you doing?! You can't be in here!" Maka yelled.

And at that moment Soul took a look around the room and realized what he'd done. His eyes had never gone so wide in his life, nor had his jaw ever dropped so quickly.

"Get the hell outta here Soul!"

"Oh shh…sorry sorry! You weren't listening to me so I followed you in! I didn't even realize that-"

"I'll watch your damn cat just get the hell out of here!" Maka commanded while fumbling to get her shirt back over her bra.

~!~

"You can stop saying sorry after every sentence, it's getting annoying. Just show me around and tell me everything I need to know." Maka requested. She'd only been at place for a few minutes and had already lost count of how many times he apologized for the incident at school.

"I'm sor-I mean, ok, right. So, I've been feeding her twice a day since we're at school for lunch. I leave some treats in her food at night sometimes and if she hasn't tried scratching me that day I'll give her some cat nip. Ya know, basic positive feedback training." Soul explained as they walked through the kitchen. He showed her where every cup, plate and cat dish lived and in the case of an emergency, his medicine box. He'd bought plenty of band-aid's since adopting Blair.

Blair followed them from the kitchen countertop and watched them walk into the living room. She hissed lightly and jumped down to stalk the giant two-legged monsters.

"Alright, so use the T.V. as you want. I've got satellite, there's plenty of channels to choose from. And don't worry about the couch, the cushions were steamed just recently. Thank my brother for that." Soul showed her around the laundry room and where his cleaning supplies were kept next.

For most of the tour Maka kept quiet as a mouse and just let him explain everything at once. Didn't want to interrupt him and stay any longer than she needed. It was already late and she still had homework to finish before classes in the morning.

"My room is behind this door here, it'll be locked. I'll show you into the guest room right over here now."

The room was plain, but clean. There was a desk with an alarm clock next to the queen sized bed. A flat screen television sat on top of an empty dresser drawer. The walk-in closet was empty barring various suits, both striped and solid.

"Pretty simple. Clothes goes here, you sleep there, any questions?"

Maka was surprised, but knew she shouldn't have been. The rest of the house was neat and kept sparkling, she didn't know why she thought the guest room would be any different.

"No, not that I can think of at the moment. Oh, one thing though, who's suits are those? I imagine you'd keep your own clothes in your own closet. Unless you have so much clothes that you actually need two closets." Maka joked with a sly grin.

"What those? Nah, too big for me. They're my brothers. It's easier for him to leave them here for me to get dry cleaned instead of packing them up and doing it himself. He's a busy guy who travels around a lot so this isn't anything strange. Is there's not enough room in there I can move those before you come by if you want."

"What? Oh no, you won't have to do that. It's just a few days right? I'll just use the drawers and a couple bags. No need to stress yourself over this." Maka settled. She wasn't going to have him go out of his way when she was the one doing the favor.

"Well if you don't have any questions I guess that's it. I'll stock up the fridge and the everything else before I go so you don't have to go out every night you're here. If you have anything in specific you want me to buy you can make a list and I-"

"No please don't. You really don't have to do this much. It's fine. I'm a minimalist type of person. Me or my brother cook every night anyways. I'll find something to eat, so you don't have to spend money on me, ok? I'm good, I promise. Got it?"

Soul could tell he wasn't going to be able to bargain with her, Maka was headstrong and would most definitely not budge. He wasn't going to fight her. He sighed and let the topic go.

"So if that's all I guess I'll be seeing you later and then again when you come pick up the key. I'll leave instructions for feeding and the alarm code for you on a piece of paper on the dining table." Soul explained while walking Maka to the door. She was halfway out the door when he remembered something. "Oh! Maka! One more thing I forgot to tell you. She jumps up on the table when I'm eating, so don't be bothered by it. She's just a little shit."

A/N: Shorter chapter than usual, sorry. Couldn't fit anything else without it overlapping with the next chapter. Hope you guys are enjoying this still. Sorry for the lack of activity. I do like this story and I hope it gets some more attention, that'd be great