Hello everyone, thank you for waiting so patiently for this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own soul eater or any characters, they all belong to Atsushi Okubo.

The teenagers sat in the lecture-hall style classroom; the early morning sun fell across the blackboard thorough the high windows at the back of the room. This morning's lessons were academia. Professor Stein sat at the front of the room in his rolling chair twisting a screw shaped earring around and around. There was a faint clicking sound with each turn.

"Good morning class." Stein greeted his barely awake students, a cigarette hanging between his lips. "We have another two new students to add to our ranks. I want you all to be nice to them and help them out especially in the first few weeks. Soul Evans and Tsubaki Nakatsukasa will you please stand."

Tsubaki stood and smiled at her surrounding peers, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Soul stood and went with a much cooler "Hey." accompanied with a casual wave.

Maka swore she saw a couple girls in the corner swoon when they saw him. She heard them whispering about who his partner could be.

"Maka, will you tell our newcomers about the initiation process at lunch?" Stein broke through her reverie.

"Of course professor." Maka replied at once.

"Of course you're a goody two shoes." Soul grumbled as he sat back down.

Maka decided to just let him off with a warning this time. "There is nothing wrong with wanting to do well and being polite." She hissed.

The morning went fairly smoothly after that with only an occasional whispered question from either Soul or Tsubaki. When the class broke for lunch it was Black*Star that led them to the cafeteria.

"Yahoo! Lunch. I'm starved. Man, Stein went on and on this morning, eh Soul? I mean, I am going to surpass god one day, why do I need to know all that crap?"

As they lined up for food Maka hear a dry voice behind them "As confident as ever I see."

Maka turned to see Death the Kid, Liz and Patty all standing there. Kid continued "Liz and Patty have their initiation in about a week and want to go over it one more time. Would you mind if they listened while you explain it to Soul and Tsubaki?"

"Of course not, please join us." Maka smiled at a nervous looking Liz - not that the older girl would ever admit it.

"It's not that scary of a process. Once you initially join the gang, there are about 3 weeks where you are a probationary member. Its not that you've done anything wrong, it's just to make sure that this life is compatible for you. People usually leave in the first two weeks if they can't hack it. There are no commitments in the first few weeks, so leaving is not a big deal. If you are unsure at the normal initiation time it can be put off a little while longer. It can be a pretty big decision." They had claimed a table and sat down while Maka explained. "The initiation ceremony itself isn't that big of a deal to be honest. There are a few older members of the academy present and your partner or close friends. You then swear your allegiance to Lord Death and the DWMA. There are some formalities exchanged and then comes probably the most difficult part. All full members of DWMA have a tattoo declaring our loyalty. It's a skull, same for everyone, but we each get to choose where it gets placed. That's pretty much it. Care to add anything?" She looked to Black*Star then Kid.

"That pretty much covers it."

"Names!" cried Black*Star. "You forgot possibly the coolest part!"

"Oh yeah. Names. When you join the Academy you leave your old life behind. If you wish, you can leave your name behind as well and claim a new one. Not many people do, but it is an option. My Papa took the name Spirit, I'm not sure if it's Steins given name, but his first name is Franken..."

"Cool," Soul looked really pleased. "I am gonna pick a good name. Gotta say," He turned to Black*Star "You came up with the coolest name."

"Hahah, Thanks Bro! Black is a pretty cool name isn't it! Hahaha!"

Soul looked slightly confused, so Maka filled in the missing details for him. "Black*Stars family name is actually Star. He just changed his first name, from Barack Star to Black*Star."

"With a Star in the middle!" interjected the over-excited blue haired teen as he took a pen from his pocket. With a flourish he autographed the closest thing to him – Tsubaki's forehead. The endlessly patient girl just giggled at his antics while Liz brought out her compact mirror.

"There really is a star in the middle of it." she said examining her new 'artwork'.

If looks could kill, Black*Star would have about a thousand daggers protruding from his body thrown from Maka's eyes. Afraid that she might skip the metaphor and go straight for the knives, Soul tried to get Maka's attention.

"So, you mentioned tattoos? Where do you guys have yours then?" he enquired.

Maka calmed down a bit and turned from Black*Star, patting just below her right shoulder. "Here. That way I can easily hide it or reveal it."

Black*Star lifted his shirt right up baring the skull tattoo on his right pectoral muscle. Exposing the entirety of his – surprisingly well defined – chest was not a good way to further calm Maka.

"Black*Star! We are in the cafeteria, put you shirt down this instant!" she screeched.

"What's the big deal, I was just showing the "declaration of my loyalty"." He made a face at his uptight friend.

Death the Kid interrupted them before things could escalate even more. "I have mine on my back, between my shoulders - just under the collar of a shirt. For the same reason as Maka, but it also keeps the balance of symmetry on my body."

Coming out of her little rage, Maka commented "It depends on your personality where you want to put it. I know it differs for a lot of people. Professor Sid has his in the middle of his forehead. He has that bandana covering it all the time, but that's where it is. My dads is on his left forearm. Mainly 'cause he like to show it off to all his 'lady friends'. And I know there is one guy in one of the older groups that his on the side of his neck. It all depends. Think about it before getting it done. You will have this thing for a long time."

"I'll briefly go over the different levels of members." Kid took over for Maka while she finished her lunch. "As Maka mentioned, there are probationary members and full members. The full members get divided into Student, Regular and Upper. Students need to complete 99 tasks for Lord Death to become a regular member. Upper members need to complete one special assignment and are then trained by Lord Death."

"That seems pretty straight forward. But isn't that a lot of tasks for students?" asked Tsubaki.

"And what is that 'special assignment' business?" added a sceptical Liz.

"It just ensures that students are fully trained before moving up."explained Maka. "Students like us have to work in partners for safety and always check in with the professors or Lord Death himself. Regular members can work alone if they wish, although a lot don't, and they can take more difficult jobs."

Suddenly interested in the conversation Black*Star interrupted Maka. "For the 'special assignment' nobody is supposed to know until it's asked of you, but there are enough rumours around that everyone knows. We have to kill someone." Liz, Patty, Tsubaki and Soul looked at Black*Star horrified. "Haha! The looks on your faces! Haha! Okay, it's not just anyone. It's someone from another gang that has crossed us. Our biggest rival is a gang called "The Coven." Their members - mainly women – are called "Witches". They are involved in a lot of shit, and always cross us. So it's not as big a deal that we need to off one of them. Most recently, we were infiltrated by the witch Medusa. She was undercover for a long time. She tried to do crazy experimental shit with Maka and a couple of the other students-" Black*Star stopped suddenly as a hand came solidly into contact with his skull. Maka was leaning across the table to reach the boy. Her eyes were a mix of seething rage and utter terror.

"Black*Star! You... why?..." Maka was at a loss for words. "I'm heading back." she added quickly, trying to contain her emotions and left before anyone could stop her.

"What just happened?" asked a very innocent Patty as she watched Maka run from the room.

Death the Kid glared at Black*Star, disapproval rolling off him in waves.

"Shit. I fucked up." Black*Star jumped up and ran after his friend. "Maaaks! Wait up!"

The remaining five teens, along with everyone else in the large room, stared after the pair.

Kid turned his golden eyes to Patty "Maka went through a traumatic experience recently and Black*Star brought it up in a not very nice manner." he explained, answering her question.

"Is she okay?" Soul asked Kid "Is there anything that I should know? I mean, she is my partner now..."

Kid intently appraised Soul before answering. "There is much that you should know about Maka. But it's her place to tell you, not mine. I will say she is tough as hell though. She will be fine. And if you end up hurting her, just know that she is very precious to both Black*Star and me." Golden eyes bored into red ones. Soul stared right back with equal intent. " A cool guy would never hurt a friend, especially his partner."

Neither of them looked away, knowing the first one to do so would lose. The tension grew.

"So, uh, we've been here for a while. When is lunch over?" Tsubaki broke the spell over the two and suddenly they were back to normal.

Kid looked over to a clock on the wall. "Yeah, we only have 10 minutes left. We should head back pretty soon."

Stein was just finishing his lecture. Black*Star was bouncing on the edge of his seat staring at the clock. Three minutes to one o'clock. "Nearly time for combat class." He whispered under his breath.

Soul looked to Maka for possibly the hundredth time in the hour they'd been back in class. She looked fine enough now; staring attentively at Stein and writing line after line of perfect little notes. He had caught the tail end of the conversation between Maka and Black*Star right before class. While it didn't seem like she had fully forgiven him, she had already moved past it. He figured the thing with the Witch must have been pretty serious for her to react like that. He hadn't known her for long, but she had always responded with anger and annoyance to Black*Stars previous comments.

"...Soul Evans, Black*Star and Tsubaki Nakatsukasa. Please stay behind. Thank you, that will be all for today" Soul snapped back after hearing Stein call out his name.

"Wait, what's going on?" Soul turned to Black*Star who was sitting to his right.

"Sid is out on a mission, so combat classes are cancelled for today. But for some reason the four of us" he indicated to Maka and Tsubaki " need to stay behind and talk to him."

"Oh. Well, that's a good start to a new life." Soul said sarcastically.

They made their way to the front of the class while the rest of the students left. Stein was twisting his screw earring again. Click click click click. The sounds really was quite creepy. It didn't help that Steins glasses seems to reflect light making him look a little crazy.

"I understand that you two are no longer partners." He looked to Maka and Black*Star. "And have been partnered with the two new members instead."

"Yes Professor, you understand correctly." Maka answered for all of them while the rest gazed at him mutely.

"That's right professor, I am finally able to show my true abilities now that I'm not being held back!" hollered Black*Star in his normal boisterous way.

Stein completely disregarded the boys comment while Maka gave him the stink eye, but held her tongue.

"Well, you are all still expected to be able to complete missions as soon as possible. The most important aspect to partnership is trust. You need to trust each other implicitly - you need to know that the other will have your back no matter what. In order to fast track this process somewhat, you are being given extra assignments. Today, we will be doing basic trust exercises." Stein rolled over to a desk in the front row. "Who wants to go first?"

Tsubaki meekly raised her hand. "I- I'll be first."

"Alright. You and Black*Star come over here." Stein pulled a chair around from the back of the desk while the teens walked over to him. "Tsubaki, stand on this chair and when Black*Star is ready, you will fall and he will catch you. Don't face each other, and remember to communicate."

Tsubaki stepped on to the chair and turned from her partner.

"Are you ready Black*Star?"

"You bet! I was born ready."

Tsubaki fell backwards into waiting arms and exhaled a breath of relief. She looked up into Black*Stars face as he looked down at hers. They couldn't help but smile at each other. Standing from the sidelines, Maka couldn't help but think they looked pretty cute in that moment. Next up was Black*Star. He clambered onto the chair and shot both arms into the sky.

"You ready Tsubaki?" he yelled at the back wall.

"You bet." was her reply, copying him from earlier, though a lot less exuberantly.

Even though Tsubaki didn't look very strong she caught the blue haired boy with ease. It seemed like such an easy exercise, but took a huge amount of trust for practical strangers like the pair.

"Good job you two. Okay, Maka and Soul, you're up next." Stein called them over. "Up you go Maka."

Maka stood on the chair facing away from her new partner. She took a deep breath trying to will herself to fall. Come on Maka. It's not that difficult. Just fall backward. I'm sure he will catch you. Unbid, her mind flashed back to all the times that no-one had been there to catch her. Most of the memories included her father in some fashion. If you are let down by your own father, why would you trust this random guy who showed up out of nowhere yesterday! Screamed the more rational and defensive part of her mind. Well, at least you won't be hurt too bad if he doesn't catch you. You've fallen further before. You probably won't even bruise. The cynical voice in her head took over. She took another deep breath trying to clear the doubt. It wasn't about the fall, it was about trusting him to catch her. She could feel everyone staring at her; wondering why she wasn't doing it.

"Come on Maka, what's taking so long?" Black*Star egged her on. She supposed that he was trying to be helpful in his own way.

"Are you ready Soul?"

"Whenever you are Maka."

She leaned back past the point of recovery - and changed her mind. She brought her feet back to land on them, which she did. But she also managed to step – more like fell – on Soul's feet as well.

"OW! What the hell Maka!"

"I'm sorry. I wasn't ready."

"How can you not be ready? You just have to fall back, it is literally so easy. Tsubaki just did it."

"Well I'm sorry I'm not Tsubaki! If she's so special why don't you go partner with them. Trio's have been done before."

"Maybe I will!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

Things escalated so quickly that it left both their heads spinning for a moment. Maka pushed past Soul, grabbed her bag by the door and stormed out. Stein took the cigarette out of his mouth, looked to the ceiling and blew a huge puff of smoke into the air. "That could have gone better. She's definitely related to you Spirit." he mumbled under his breath. "The rest of you are dismissed." he spoke in the general direction of the remaining teens.

Soul followed Black*Star and Tsubaki out of the classroom. "What the hell is her deal? She lands on my feet then blows up at me?!"

"Heh, yeah.. Maka can be like that sometimes." For once Black*Star words were hushed. He rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed about his friends behaviour.

"I've been saddled with a crazy partner. Is there any way to switch? I mean, it's not like we're invested in it or anything yet."

Just then a figure ran across the hall in front of them. Pig-tails flew behind the figure before a door slammed shut behind her.

"Oh man." Soul actually felt kind of bad that she had heard that.

"She was probably waiting to apologize." Tsubaki's soft voice was not helping him feel better.

"Dude! That's uncalled for." Black*star was back to his normal volume, perhaps a bit louder in his agitated state. "I mean, sure, she has a temper, is stubborn as hell, and a book worm," he said counting off his fingers. "but she is an excellent partner. You got lucky getting her man. We've been friends practically our whole lives. Once, when we were little, I picked a fight with a group of older kids. Maka told me to walk away but I didn't. This was back before I was the Star I am today, so it was a really uneven fight. Maka never left my side. I'm ashamed to admit it, but she protected me after I fell and couldn't get up. We both got the stuffing knocked out of us, but she was arguable worse off. And she never ratted on me. I can't tell you why, but there are many good reasons she has a hard time trusting, but once she does, she will have your back no matter what."

"Oh man." Soul looked at the ground and kicked an imaginary rock. He could feel the partners' gaze on him. "I don't know whats going on with her, but I guess I should go apologize."

"That would be a good idea." Tsubaki said.

Black*Star nodded in agreement. "Mmm-hmmm."

Soul slouched over to the door through which Maka had fled. It revealed a large field enclosed by a low wall - the dormitory buildings were at the far end. He supposed she might have run along the wall and behind the huge buildings for some privacy and set out after her.

As he was rounding the large building, he found who he was looking for. Maka sat on the low wall facing away from him. The wall was at the edge of quite a steep hill with a different view of the city sprawled below them. He could see why she came here, it was peaceful and kind of reminded him of how small he was in the grand scheme of things. She sat with her feet over the edge and a book in her lap.

"Oh shit." The girl mumbled. She dabbed at the page with the cuff of her sleeve.

Wait, is she crying?! I can't approach her now, that would hurt her pride even more. What do I do?! He looked around and decided to carefully back up around the corner. He coughed exaggeratedly as he turned the corner for the second time. The girls head whipped around as she heard him approach, Soul could see the walls go up behind her eyes. She looked at him expectantly. After a beat she cleared her throat. "What?" He approached and stopped only a few feet from the wall.

"I uh, - I wanted to apologize for earlier. It was super not cool of me to react the way I did. It was just an accident after all." He stuffed his hands even further into his pockets, looking somewhere between her and his feet. Maka stood up and turned to face him; her face softened dramatically at his words.

"Yeah, I guess I took things a bit too far as well. I'm sorry that I over reacted. I still want to be your partner if you'll still have me?"

Soul looked up at her with a half grin. "Yeah, we're still partners. It'd be pretty uncool for me to ditch you over something so petty."

She looked at him with a genuine smile, even if it was small. She can actually be pretty cute. He thought.

The girl took a step forward to jump off the uneven wall. Her foot caught on a broken stone which rolled her ankle, making her lose balance. Her eyes widened in surprise and her arms reached out to empty air as she felt herself falling backward – toward the steep hill. On instinct, Soul jumped forward to grab her hand. He yanked her forward to keep her from falling off the wall. Unfortunately, he pulled too hard and she was now falling the other way. Maka's arms windmilled as she made her inevitable tumble forward. Seeing that she was not going to recover and instead going to land on her face, Soul wrapped his arms around his falling comrade. They both fell to the ground, but he was able to protect her by taking most of the force by hitting the ground first.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Are you okay Soul?" she scrambled off of the snowy haired boy to kneel beside him, patting him down for injuries.

"Heh, so it wasn't that difficult after all."he said looking at the large blue sky above him.

Maka stopped patting him down, but kept her hands on his arm. She looked at him confused. "What? I don't understand."

"'The trust exercise. You falling and me catching you. Even if this time wasn't totally intentional." he turned his head to look at his partner; a genuine smile on his face.

She looked blankly at him for a moment longer before giggling and breaking into a smile herself. "I guess you're right. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Thank you to everyone who is reading my story so far. I hope you have been enjoying it.

I feel like I may have made Maka a little over dramatic, but it seemed to flow nicely when writing it. So, I apologize if anyone felt that way while reading. I will try to make her more badass in future chapters. :)

Please feel free to leave feedback, I'm always open suggestions and (helpful) criticism.

And a big thank you for the people who followed/favourited last chapter:

Fluffyicesprite, Aurellia, Swoob and SilentSunrise.

~Tanima