Chapter Five: In Which There are Partnerships

Soul's eyes were dark and ringed. His lousy expression didn't meet his eyes which were uncharacteristically vigilant. Yet the rest of his posture suggested that he was out cold, catching up on the sleep deprivation that was the occupational hazard of being a Death Scythe.

He didn't like wearing black because it contrasted his hair too much. But his appearances meant very little now, at Shibusen, where it was the soul that mattered. So he shrugged on the weathered slacks, almost snuggled up to the familiarity of the fibers. It was cold in Stein-hakase's office besides.

"You should stop glaring at it like that," Stein-hakase said suddenly.

Soul's eyes were the only thing that was animated about him. They darted to the mad professor's form that was slung over a rack of charts and scribbles. "Keeping this thing around is weird." At the very least it was unconventional and unsafe, even for the professor.

But true to Stein's words the baby kishin egg didn't hurt anyone, didn't get in anyone's way (whomsoever chose to enter his chilly office that is), and mostly kept to a dank corner of the room where the other kishin egg soul floated in its glassy prison.

The baby kishin egg, free from Soul's trapping gaze, skittered off into anonymity.

"Keeping this 'thing' around," Stein-hakase replied, "is research. I'm watching its behavior in a confined environment. There's no better place to keep a threat than within the heart of a guarded fortress."

Such as Asura's case, I guess, Soul thought to himself. And he couldn't disagree with the professor either. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, eh?"

"Speaking of which," Stein looked up for the first time that evening. "Why are you here, Soul-kun?"

Soul hesitated.

"How is that even remotely related to what I just said?" for the first time the rest of his body moved with his words. He sat up and unfolded his arms and twisted in the chair to get a better look at his sensei.

"Well if we're on the topic of friends, shouldn't you be meeting up with Maka-chan? You two are partners again, right?"

Soul settled into a reclining position again. Again he was the embodiment of lethargy and stillness. "Yeah," he replied simply.

"Hm?" to himself, Stein-hakase hummed in amusement. It was due to tiredness, he saw through his Perception, that Soul lounged as he did. It was also in part due to his character, his need to remain cool. At the same time it was meant as an inhibitant: Stein could see that Soul was excited and happy to be Maka's partner. He was all but bursting at the seams.

He returned to his pervious question with more curiosity: "Why are you here?" Is it so that he could chance upon Maka?

But Soul sobered up a bit too much for it to be such a pleasure call. "Maka's dad is looking for me."

"Spirit-sempai? What for?"

"He's pissed that he's not his daughter's weapon."

And Soul had good reason to hide. Until Maka caught him by the collar Spirit refused to settle down. He'd rambled and cried and moaned about being divorced from his daughter as Kami divorced him, being rejected as she rejected him…Maka dragged him to the roof to settle the matter.

Death the Kidd watched them go with relief. At his right Patricia asked, "Why'd ya pair up Maka and Soul again, Kidd?"

"Maka is too strong to be without a weapon that's befitting of her and Soul's duties are catching up with him. They'll need one another to keep their sanity." Also he could tell that Maka was getting frustrated with Jacob, as patient as she had been with him, and with Michael Lee gearing up to strike them down they'd be more formidable teamed up than as separate top-notch Shibusen agents.

Kidd felt himself bouncing among a thousand duties, a thousand calls: he had the world in his hands. With Liz and Patty by his side, even if just for moral support, he identified the value of keeping friends close. He needed everyone to remain tightly knit. Tough times were preparing to rear their ugly heads.

He was grateful for the shoulder rub that Liz offered him now. She mumbled, "I'm sorry we can't be of any more help to you, Kidd."

He was surprised. Of course they wouldn't be ignorant of his multiplying stresses. He was touched. He touched their heads one after the other. "You two have been more than a great help. I'd have been a very different god hadn't you been by my side."

"Kidd…"

"Just stay by my side."

"Okay."

"On either side," he clarified.

Patty laughed. "Okay!"

As per Soul's and Stein-hakase's separate predictions Maka did appear in the chilly office. But it was much, much later and by then Soul had genuinely fallen asleep. When she walked in she paused, not expecting her partner to be here—here least of all. Most people avoided Stein now that he had a pre-kishin for a pet.

"Good evening, Stein-hakase."

"Hello, Maka. I heard that you've been transferred from my team."

She looked forlorn. "Kidd wants me on the Black Blood research."

"A wise call."

"I'd rather not work with that Lee character."

"He's a passionate bookworm at heart. The two of you have more in common than I think you would realize."

"That hardly makes me feel better."

He laughed. "Do me a favor and take Soul home, would you? He's been waiting on you for a long time."

She took a good look at Soul for the first time. He was wearing some oversized long sleeved shirt that was wide in the neck and wrinkled around his wrists that were loosely about him in a protected embrace against the cold. His head was leaning back and she took notice how long his hair was for the first time. The black contrasted his shock white hair more than his dark leather jacket ever did. He was also very long: his legs were propped against the floor and crossed at the ankles like he was cool, or something.

Stein watched her produce a thick tome from behind her back. A single trail of smoke rising from his cigarette, he steeled himself to watch the impact. But to his fascination she lowered the book. For a moment he imagined that there was tenderness in her eyes. But it was only imagination because no sooner had she dropped the book she slapped his face.

It was not a love tap.

Soul flew out of his chair, arms and legs going every which way, losing his bearings and falling to the ground in a cluttered sounding crash. Maka had sidestepped his antics. In the argument that was to follow Stein-hakase reminisced and thought: "How nostalgic." When they left the silence was lonely.

The first nights living together proved especially rough. Their actions were discordant, their sleeping patterns erratic. Soul would be awake through the night suffering from jet lag and Maka would wake up at three in the morning and begin yelling that he can't be making omelets at two in the morning…Mornings were noisy and neighbors checked in regarding the anarchy. Soul began sporting more bruises than he'd ever remembered having.

But benefits quickly fell into place as well. Maka was quick with reports and documentations and organizing time. She throttled his schedule and picked up the workload he was unable to manage. She in turn began eating healthier: with the time split between them there was more time for one to work while the other prepared dinner. Her skin that had been increasingly growing paler and paler the past few months regained a glow.

Their fights didn't desist however. The hallways were reminded of that. Yet all at once fighting arenas were regularly full of fans watching Maka Albarn and the Last Death Scythe practice. Spectators once had the pleasure of Black Star joining them in a mock battle.

To Maka's confusion however, Soul was moody. Familiar with the discomfort that came as a result of being observed by Soul Perception, she respectfully didn't use her ability where her partner was concerned conserving his privacy and preserving his trust in her. But that left her in the dark as to the source of contentedness in his little gestures and expressions that were the exact opposite. She began to think to herself, "Is he happy that we're partners or does he regret it?"

She took note that their biological timekeepers were still unsynchronized and that added to their irritability towards one another and she accepted that he was more than likely unused to being accompanied on nearly every mission he had to attend (the idea itself seemed to have made him especially irate) and so she exercised patience. But before a month passed of them being intimately involved in one another's lives, she cornered him and asked him what the issue was.

She'd chosen the park to have this particular spat in, and the lazy Sunday vibe had kept the two of them relatively placated notwithstanding the gnawing that was within Maka's heart until she confronted Soul.

Soul was readjusting his hairband when she asked. "Hah? What are you talking about?"

She explained that he seemed off-putting, that his energy was rejecting at some moments and neutral at others. "Is there something you aren't telling me?"

"Jesus, Maka, barely anything's happened for me to be hiding anything from you. And what's with you besides? We're partners, not lovers. I don't need to tell you everything."

"It's my business to know if it's going to affect how we relate to one another," she remained firm and stood in his path when he made to move away. "As your partner I need to know if something's wrong."

He clicked his tongue, angry that she blocked his path as though he were a rowdy kid. She was determined today! He was in a pretty lax mood until his hairband broke in the middle of their shopping trip—not that she had noticed that detail. For some reason the fact the she hadn't noticed irritated him.

"As my partner you need to trust me to tell you if something's wrong," Soul countered.

"Are you saying I don't trust you?"

"You tell me, you're the one trying to start a fight asking me to spill out my guts."

"I'm not fighting you, Soul!"

"People usually start shouting when they're fighting!"

She gave a hybrid sound, a cross between a huff and a shrill screech. Soul would have winced if he weren't weaned into the past three and a half weeks of verbal battles. "You're so resistant! My partner listened to me!"

Soul looked at her critically and suddenly. Was she talking about him from the past? When they were easily partners and he considered her comments (which he still does!), or was she referring to Jacob, who was—so far as he could tell—far more pliant in Maka's hands?

"I do listen to you."

"I wasn't talking about you…!"

Aha.

"You were talking about that brat, right? When you figured no one would be your partner you had to grow one, huh?"

Maka flushed. "Don't talk about Jacob that way!"

"What's so great about that kid that you'd need to defend him?" Soul relished, incrementally, in the falter of Maka's aggressive proactive pace. She physically reclined away from him. "It's because you chose such an uncool partner that Kidd had to team us up!"

She had no respect for herself! Which self-respecting master meister picks a weapon that barely has half a star?

She retorted with force: "You mean you never wanted me for your partner!"

"Whether I did or didn't really wasn't my choice!"

Their shouting that was growing in timbre as well as in intensity suddenly came to its climax, an unsatisfying silence that surprised them both and suddenly allowed for multiple understandings and misunderstandings to be absorbed into their minds.

Soul witnessed Maka's expression crumple and fall and flush and her knees weaken and her fists clench and tremble. "So you don't want me for your partner." She managed to say those words and Soul was frightened.

Soul remembered how she looked when she first told him that no-one wanted to be her partner. He remembered knowing that she felt sort of content, if displaced, about that scenario so long as Soul was her friend and yet, with the sudden misunderstanding it seemed that Soul had robbed them of her friendship with his thoughtless outburst.

It was her fault, damn it! She had an unrivaled talent of pissing people off beyond comprehension!

She turned around. He stiffened, wondering what was next to come. She said darkly, "I'm sorry." She said that and he wanted to grab her and shake her and tell her to fuck off and that he was moody because he was stupidly elated that they were partners again and that was uncool and he started getting angry at himself, not at her, but they would argue anyway and it was a fucked up twist of events…

She walked away.

Author's Note: I apologize that this took some time to come out. Chapter five was giving me trouble since chapter three was conceived. I've finally resolved some minor issues that presented themselves and hopefully created a transition of events which doesn't dissolve away the conflicts of the plot but simultaneously creates room for romance to flourish.

Please provide your opinions on this: does the narrative voice flow?

Thank you for your patience and your reviews are forever welcome.