"Professor-"

"I am not a professor!"

"Mr. Evans-"

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Soul!? I'm only like three years older than you!"

No need to remind her, Maka was actually painfully aware of the age difference (it was actually two years and four months) and the fact that he would only be her professor for another two weeks (16 days exactly…not that she was counting or anything) and then the semester ended and she might be able to do something with this stupid crush she'd manage to develop.

Sure, being a senior and taking her final general education course wasn't exactly cool, but she had been a little focused on starting the classes required for her major when she first started. So she found herself in a music theory class surrounded by freshmen and sophomores with a grad student as their professor. Mister-not-professor-Soul Evans.

The attractive bastard.

It was supposed to be an easy class, a GPA booster, no big deal. Except Maka didn't understand a damn thing about anything they went over. She did the readings, she went to class, she did extra readings, she even went to the study sessions that he held on Tuesday nights at one of the local coffee shops on campus.

She was usually the only one who showed up.

Soul just shrugged and tried to explain what she was missing, but like now while he tried to help her study for the final, it was nearly impossible. "Look, Maka, you know you're getting an A. Just show up to the final, even if you bomb it, I'm still giving you an A.

"That's wrong though! I have to earn it!" she countered, horrified that he'd even suggest such a thing.

"Yeah. You have. You're the only one who actually shows up to class every week on time, does all the readings, and you are the only one who has ever showed up for this stupid study session! Hell only reason I still have it is because I know if you don't you'll ask for office hours. Which you do anyway!"

"Prof- Soul! But I still don't understand this! The history, the math even sure, but the actual theoretical stuff? The music? I don't understand music at all!"

Soul groaned and dropped his head back against the fliers on the wall behind the couch they were sitting on. Maka had been a pain in his ass the entire semester. A really cute, obnoxiously intelligent, pain in his ass who had kind of made the entire semester worth it. Because if he could get her to understand this? Then you know what, he'd have done his job. And not just in a bureaucratic sort of stamp of approval move on way. But in a really personally fulfilling way.

Plus as soon as the semester was over, he was asking her out on a date.

He sat forward quickly, hit with a new idea. "Give me your iPod. Or whatever you use to listen to music." Maka handed her phone over after tapping in the security code (7685) to let Soul scroll through her library.

"Well no wonder you don't understand music. This is all dubstep and electronic shit. It's synthetic!"

"Hey!" Maka tried to snatch her phone back from him.

"Geez, can't believe I didn't think of this sooner. God, okay, knowing you you've listened to all those songs I assigned….you have a playlist for them? Really? And you named it Mr Not Professor's Music? Gee I'm flattered." She was immensely glad she hadn't named it something slightly more flattering (first option was Hot for Stupid Mr Not Professor). "There's a pretty good array of music in this, what did you like?"

"The classical was nice? I liked to listen to it while I wrote my papers."

"…Anything else?"

"I don't know!"

"Did you feel anything when you listened to them?"

"No?"

Soul actually looked distressed. "Okay, god. Sorry. Kinda failed you on that. Hard to understand music if you don't know what you're supposed to be looking for." It was a little funny the way Maka seized up when he said failed you. "Here, try listening to this." He handed over his own phone and let her plug her headphones in.

Oh, now she could sort of see what he meant. The song started with a crash and was dark, almost harsh to listen to; it made her shiver but she turned the volume up and pressed her ear buds closer. It was just a piano but every now and then she could hear the pianist breathing. Something she would have never really noticed before. It made her wonder what it would be like to watch the song being played.

One of the headphones was pulled away after a few minutes and Soul was smirking. "Yeah, thought you might like swing-"

"It isn't over! Shh! And it isn't swing, it's a piano piece." He grabbed his phone back, went pale, and paused the song. "Hey! I was listening to that! I think I get what you were saying. That was amazing. What was it?"

He huffed, cheek pink, "that was…my own piece."

"That was you?" Soul had mentioned that he played several instruments but he'd never played for the class. The notes still ringing in her ears suddenly felt intimate, like a secret she wasn't supposed to have heard. "I still…don't understand it, but that was beautiful, Soul. And I'd love to hear it again."

"You really don't know a damn thing about music," he scoffed, still looking at his phone. It was a shitty recording he'd done just using the phone's microphone because his brother had asked for a song.

Maka swatted his arm, "I'm trying damn it! But really. I-"

"When the semester is over and I'm not your teacher anymore do you want to have coffee with me?" Soul blurted out in a rush. His ears felt hot and he kind of regretted not playing it cooler. Especially when she was quite for a long moment. A very long uncomfortable moment. Fuck. Fuck, he'd really screwed this one up! Fuck!

"I'd like that. A lot. After. Right after." She plucked his phone back out of his hand, scooted closer until their thighs were touching, and tried to stuff her headphone into his ear. "But first, tell me about this song and what I'm hearing, professor."

Soul let out a shaky breath, somewhere between a sigh and a laugh, and let himself relax against her. "Cool. Right after sounds good. That's like what? Two weeks?"

"Sixteen days." Maka offered without missing a beat. And then blushed bright red.

"Glad I'm not the only one who was counting." He nudged her shoulder, smirked, and went on to explain the music. His music.

She aced the final.

And the course.

They got coffee the day after at the same coffee shop.