The loud rapping at the door may have been enough to wake him up if he wasn't already suffering from his stupid goddamn insomnia. He got up from his bed and started walking toward the front door. Who would be knocking on his door at 3am in the morning anyway? Wait, it wasn't…

He opened the door to see the messy ash blonde hair, the green eyes, and the blank expression that he had seen many times before at his door late at night.

Of course it was her. Who else would it have been?

He did what he normally did and snapped his fingers in front of her face a few times to see if it would wake her up. It didn't work. It never did.

Who the hell sleepwalks that much? And why did she always come to his door?

She didn't know the girl, not personally that is. They had passed each other often in the hallways, exchanged greetings, he knew her name was Maka and that was about it. He also knew she left for work at the same time he did and that she was incredibly perky in the mornings. She would, considering how well she sleeps. He also knew she never remembered sleepwalking and knocking on his door.

Why did it have to be his door? Out of all the apartments in the whole goddamn building, why did she choose his to always come and pound on? She lived three floors down for fuck's sake.

He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around, leading her away from his apartment and started leading her down the stairs. Halfway down the first set of stairs, however, she decided to lean her head on his shoulder and go completely limp. Luckily he had good enough reflexes to catch her before she could hurt herself from falling down.

He let out a tired and irritated groan as he moved his arm behind her legs to pick her up bridal style. She was a bit heavier than he expected, probably from the sleepy dead weightedness. Her head on his chest and she felt warm. He couldn't help but notice how nice it felt, the warmth, the physical contact, how soft her hair felt on his chest—

Crap, he forgot to put a shirt on. Ah fuck it, it wasn't like anyone was going to be coming out of their apartment and seeing him so late at night.

The two and a half flights of stairs took longer than usual with the added weight and the slow pace he was using so he wouldn't drop her. But her steady breathing and her tiny, light snores were calming. They made him forget his irritation. It was nice and he liked it.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts as he reached her apartment. He opened the door and walked through inside. It was nice and spacious compared to his own and it smelled like an Macintosh candle. There were a few bookshelves around, a three foot stack of books on the coffee table, and right in front of the coffee table was a sofa.

Perfect. He could just lay her down on the couch, that way he could avoid being too creepy for going into some girl he didn't know's room.

He walked the short distance between the doorway and the sofa, and he set her down gently on the soft cushions before grabbing a blanket and spreading it across her.

As he turned on his heel to walk out the door, he was not expecting to see any sort of movement, so when he saw a small black figure slink across the floor, his shout and falling over from the shock was the only natural response. However, that response managed to also knock over the three foot stack of books and some of them landed on his own face and— shit. They hit Maka as well. And she was starting to wake up.

Shit, shit, shit, how was he going to explain the fact that he was in her apartment? On her floor? In front of the couch that she was sleeping on.

He heard her tired and slightly confused moans turn into a gasp of complete shock and maybe fear, and he knew he was screwed.

"Who the hell are you and what are the fuck are you doing in my apartment?" She nearly shouted at him. And who could blame her for shouting? "Wait, aren't you that guy who lives upstairs?"

He stood up and turned to her, holding his arms up, hopefully showing that he wasn't here to harm her or anything. "Sorry. Yeah, it's me, Soul, your neighbor from three flights up. I'm here because you were sleepwalking and—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I do not sleepwalk."

"Um, yes, you do. In fact you do it a lot. And often. And you always end up knocking on my door."

"But you live three floors up from me." Her voice was getting higher, if it was from tiredness or something else, he didn't know.

His hand flew up to the back of his neck. "Yeah, we kinda covered that? Sorry, I just… you knocked on my door and I led you back here. That's all."

Her brow was creased in confusion, and he may have been imagining it, but he was pretty sure there might have been some anger in her expression. He figured it would be best to get out of there as soon as possible, in case she decided to react to her apartment being invaded with violence.

"So, I should, I should probably go. I'll just be going now." he said after a brief moment of silence before on his heel to leave.

"Wait, hold on," he stopped in his track and turned back to look at her. "You said I do this a lot? Sleepwalk, I mean."

"Yeah. Yeah, you do."

"And I always come knocking on your door?"

"Yeah, it's a pain in the ass to be honest." She looked almost hurt by his words and he quickly tried to find words to save himself while his hand instinctively mauled the back of his neck. "I mean, it's not like it's too much trouble. I'm usually already awake whenever you come knocking. And three flights isn't that long a journey."

"I'm so sorry. God, I didn't know I did that." she ran her hands through her bangs, looking almost ashamed of her unconscious habit. She looked up at him, her eyebrows knitted together. "Three flights?"

"Uhh, yeah? That would be correct."

"Wow. I am so sorry. I had absolutely no idea that I sleepwalk, and I'm so sorry that I apparently keep bothering you whenever I do."

He shrugged his shoulders, and waved off her apology. "Nah, you're fine. Like I said, it's not too much trouble leading you back here."

An awkward silence fell over them, and the back of Soul's neck burned from how much he had been scratching it. Just then a small black cat jumped onto the couch and into Maka's lap. So that was what startled him and caused him to wake her up.

"You know," he spoke up, breaking through the quiet. "I'm kinda tired, and I should probably let you get to sleep as well. So, I'm just gonna go now."

"Yeah okay." she stood up from her spot on the couch, letting the cat jump down and nuzzle her ankle as she took a small step towards him. "Thanks for leading me back here, I guess. I'll show you out." She placed her hand on his shoulder but quickly retracted it as it came in contact with his bare skin.

He just barely caught a glimpse of the dark shade of red that her cheeks had adopted as he tossed a "g'night!" over his shoulder and walked out the door.

…

The next morning when he passed her in the hallway, she blushed lightly as she did everything she could to avoid eye contact with him. He figured he should either just ignore her or carry on like normal with a simple greeting. But why not mess with her a little bit?

"Oh, and by the way," she looked up at him. "You snore too, and it's really cute." She blushed even more furiously and just as he said it to her, their neighbour, Black Star, who lived across from Maka stepped out of his apartment.

"Dude, does that mean what I think it means?" he said in slight disbelief and before they could correct him in his assumptions, he was already past them and running down the stairs, probably ready to spread some goddamn rumour.

Shit, maybe he shouldn't have said that.

He received a punch to the arm from Maka, and his suspicions were confirmed.

Yep. Definitely a mistake in saying that.