A party. Soul was throwing a party for death's sake. He hated his own birthday, but this, this, was a special occasion that "needed to be observed with the highest respect and celebrated in the greatest fashion." So there she was on her way to Kid's mansion to see what the hell Soul had planned for this party.
She got there the same time as Tsubaki did, who had on the sweet smile she almost always wore, but Maka knew that she had to think that a giant party for such an obscure occasion was a little overboard. Especially since Soul insisted on needing a mansion for it to be an adequate enough celebration.
"So Maka, do you know what we'll be doing at this party?" Tsubaki asked her as they walked to the door.
"What kind of party games could you think of for this occasion?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure Soul thought of plenty."
The two girls' laughter rang out as the door swung open.
"What are you two all giggly about?" Liz had her foot in front of the door and tossed her curled hair back, showing off sapphire earrings, that matched the colour of her dress. Right. This was a formal attire event. Everyone else would be dressed up as well.
Maka wondered briefly, when she was getting ready, if Soul would throw a fit if she showed up in sweatpants and a T-shirt. She opted not to.
"Just laughing at this whole thing," Maka answered their friend, gesturing broadly in the general direction of the party.
"What? The party? I mean, he's your partner, Maka. You should know better than all of us just how much he loves his piano." Liz said, her perfect eyebrows waggling suggestively. Maybe telling her about a certain nicknamed piano was not the wisest of choices…
They continued down the hall, paying no mind to the various art pieces that summed up Death City's aesthetic lining the halls, and made it into the party room, which was a very large and open space with a few balconies overlooking the room.
"Yes, but a birthday party for some Bartholomew guy who's been dead three hundred years just because he invented the piano? Isn't that a bit… much?"
"His name is Bartolomeo," Soul suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as if summoned by Maka mistaking the name of the inventor of the object of Soul's desire. "And he died two hundred and eighty four years ago, to be exact."
Maka was tempted to make a comment on how no one would know that, and how he was getting more than a little ridiculous, but, again, she opted not to.
She was about to ask what they were going to be doing when Soul seemed to have disintegrated from sight.
She chatted with Tsubaki and the Thompson sisters as they munched on various piano themed cookies; she had to admit, the selection impressed her. There were cookies with dark chocolate and white chocolate chips arranged to look like piano keys, some shaped like grand pianos, and there was even a whole display of cookies arranged to look like the inside of a piano, some as the hammers, some as the strings, and some as the wooden boards holding the whole piano together.
Clearly, her partner was not going overboard at all.
Ha.
After a considerable amount of stories had been told and cookies had been eaten, Soul called out to everyone from his place on the high balcony. He went on a two minute spiel about the occasion and the history of the piano, and then, at the end, he clapped his hands twice and suddenly streamers burst from the ceiling in a shower of ivory glory, shortly followed by a downpour of black balloons.
Soon they were all buried up to their waists in balloons and some people - namely Black*Star - found amusement in the loud and inappropriate sounds of them popping resounding through the large room.
The next half hour was filled with chaos and clamor while Fire and Thunder - whom Kilik had lost in the mass pile of balloons - decided to wreak havoc and start tripping people and pulling them down into the hellish pit of air filled latex. And then, some of their victims started to crawl around on the floor and join in their reign of terror. Kid was commenting on how it would be hell to clean up, (and how he was lucky, that cleanup was Soul's job,) Patti and Black*Star were still giving everyone a headache from popping them, Liz and Tsubaki had disappeared completely, and Soul was ranting about how no one was giving Bartholomew What'shisface the proper respect and recognition he deserved.
Once everything had calmed down, and Soul had insisted that there was no point left since no one cared about the genius mastermind behind the greatest invention given to mankind, they all decided to wrap things up. They let the guests grab some of the plethora of piano cookies and take them home, and then Soul managed to convince Kid to let him go home and then come back to clean up the mess the next day,(an incredible feat in and of itself), and that was the end of a very long day.
Well, for everyone except Maka.
On the way home, Soul would not stop talking and complaining about how the whole party turned out terrible and the whole occasion was ruined and nothing could make it better. He kept yammering on and on until they stepped into their apartment, and Maka pressed her lips against his in an attempt to shut him up.
It definitely did the trick in stopping his talking as he returned the favour and loosened his lips to work together with hers. It seemed like all the passion that he hadn't used up in his party planning and complaining was put into that kiss as he grabbed her waist and she brought her hands up to cup his cheeks.
She pulled away to look him in the eye, noting with satisfaction that he looked much happier than he did when he was going on about how everyone needed to refine their tastes and understand what was good in life.
"I'm sorry it didn't turn out how you planned it. And I'm sorry I kind of teased you about it and didn't take it seriously. I guess this does mean a lot to you, and I should have realised that."
He pressed another quick kiss to her lips and smiled at her as he brought his hands up to clasp her own.
"No need to apologise. I know I've definitely had my share of teasing you and not taking things that are special to you seriously."
"If you'd like, we can listen to some piano music to celebrate the last few hours of Bartolomeo Cristofori's birthday."
Maka loved the brightness and joy that entered Soul's eyes as she finally got the name right after a whole week of calling him Bartholomew. He smiled big and wide, his teeth on full display, and his joyful gaze gained a hint of mischief.
"Or I could start rambling again and you could try shutting me up."
She laughed at him before wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning up to meet his lips. That night Maka gained more appreciation for Bartolomeo Cristofori, the invention of the piano, and just what talented piano fingers could do after years of playing the instrument.