"So uh... Soul's okay, right?"

"Of course! The doctors say that he should wake up soon, so everything will be fine." Black Star could see Maka was straining to keep her smile over the video chat; she wanted to be with Soul, not talking to Black Star, who hadn't had a decent conversation with either of them in a week. He'd had to find out from Kid that Soul had been attacked; he could tell by the sympathetic looks that everyone else had already known.

It had been a normal patrol, Maka said. There had been disturbances at night lately, and the two of them were more than capable of playing lookout; any place's streets were quiet compared to Death City's. They'd found a little girl crying on the sidewalk and, long story short, she'd been a witch who attacked Soul. Black Star had tuned everything else out (something about tensions between witches outside of the main coven and Shibusen coming to a peak), too worried about Soul to really think about much else.

"Star- he'll be fine, really! No way one witch is gonna take him down, huh?" Her smile seemed a little more genuine, but he knew it wasn't for him. He grunted in response, letting out a little sigh and putting a hand in his hair, tugging at it a bit. He needed to occupy his hands before he punched something. "You okay?" He smiled and nodded, then frowned. No, no he wasn't "okay", with this situation or how they'd been tip toeing around each other.

"Uh, you know, actually- I'm not. No." Maka furrowed her brows and opened her mouth, but Black Star cut her off, staring into the camera. "Why the fuck have you and Soul been avoiding me?" He was angry. He tried not to get like this- knew it scared his friends, scared Angela, scared everyone- but he couldn't help it now. The frustration building up since they'd left on the trip, the anxiety he was feeling over his best friend being in a coma, however short term, the ugly feeling in his chest he got every time he heard Maka's stupid excuses about why they couldn't talk right then- all of it had been coming to a head, and this had finally broken the dam,

"And- don't say you're not, okay, I can hear it when you guys talk to me, I mean for fuck's sake, I can see it on your face right now-"

"Black Star, you ne-"

"I don't need to do anything!" He threw his hands in the air and they came back down, tugging at his hair again. "I've been racking my brain like crazy trying to figure out just what I did to piss you guys off so much, and I can't come up with anything! I wish you'd just tell me so we could- could punch it out or something! Agh!" The little yell of frustration earned him his neighbors banging on the wall again, and he shook his hands out, standing and crossing his arms while looking at Maka on the computer screen. He needed to be up, doing something, everything was too much right now.

"Black Star, I-" she paused, like she expected to be interrupted again, but he just stood there with his teeth clenched. He knew he needed to let her talk, even if all he wanted to do was cuss her out. She lifted her hand to her mouth, chewing at her nail for a second. "... It's not really my place to tell y-"

"Bullshit! Dude! We tell each other everything, and fucking- I don't know if you know, but Kilik is a shitty substitute for emotional talk! I love the dude, but Jesus Christ, his answer to everything is just 'fuck it out'!" Maka winced a little, turning her head to the side, a blotchy red-pink blush working its way up her neck. She was embarrassed, ashamed- good.

"Star. When Soul wakes up, the three of us will talk about this, okay?" He saw her reach toward the screen, and he knew she was touching her fingertips to his shoulder. He wanted to cry; that sounded too much like a good bye.

"I cannot," he said, voice sounding thicker and more exhausted than he wanted it to, "keep doing this by myself." He saw Maka's eyes watering and wiped at his own angrily. "I need you guys. You're my best friends, and I- I just-" He took a breath. "If you guys are sick of me or something just. Just tell me okay, I get it and I'll just fuck o-"

"I've been an awful friend," Maka blurted, wiping at the tear tracks on her cheeks. "Star, I'm so sorry- I promise I'm gonna fix how I've been acting, okay? I'm not sick of you, I would never- could never- I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were feeling like this."

"Yeah, well. If you paid attention to me instead of rushing to hang up every time I call, maybe you would." She winced, but didn't argue; they both knew she deserved it.

"I'm really sorry," she said again, quietly. He nodded slowly and swallowed, slowly sitting down at the computer again. "When Soul wakes up, Stein is making us come home- let's talk it out when we're back, okay?" He nodded, cracking his knuckles one by one and looking anywhere but her face. He was embarrassed now about his outburst. "Star. Look at me." He looked up at her and glanced back down, then looked up again. She was smiling, and it didn't feel fake anymore. "I love you." His face went hot and he flipped her off, her laughter easing the knot in his chest a little.

"Dude, shut the fuck up." She giggled and he looked away; he always had trouble being affectionate after outbursts like this. He didn't think he deserved to. "I love you, too," he muttered, and her smile washed away any doubt he'd had about her words. Everything would be okay with them; it always was.

** A/N: i'm so sorry for bein awol oh my G-D, i got sick n the holidays happened n... it all sucked so long story short i'm so sorry for the unannounced hiatus but things are chill again, so expect regular updates! sorry this is kinda rushed n shitty, i'll prob come back later n revise it a lil, i jus rly wanted 2 get it out for yall