Every minute of the day was a strange, exhilarating navigation of what this new normal was. Each action felt like something new, even though much of it was old. Exchanging glances, touches, or tiny words were completely transformed by the slow dissipation of that ugly boundary of fear. Lingering at home was even better, soft kisses exchanged just when the thought struck one of them. Or, really, for Maka it was whenever the idea came. For Soul, it was a gradual fight at a snail's pace, a touch of a pad of a finger to test the water, tense eyes looking for hints of rejection. It was a stormy battle, but like always, Maka pulled him along.

At bedtime, he didn't resist the urge to walk her to her door or to plant a tender kiss on her lips and then allow the one on her forehead. He smoothed the hair from her face and whispered goodnights before throwing his tired body to the bed. There was no relaxation for his mind again, and he was sure that he'd spend the night starting at the ceiling and dissecting the day when the knock on his door brought him quickly up to his elbows. "Yeah?"

Maka opened the door but there was no pillow in hand, just a beautifully bitten lip teased out by her worrying teeth as she leaned into the doorframe. "I, um…"

"You OK?" He was about to scramble up when she put her hands out, forcing him to stay put.

"Stay there, like that." That was a solid attempt at an order but it warbled as the blush hit her cheeks. Even with the wobbling words, sure steps brought her to the side of his bed. Soul could only lift his head, his eyes glued to hers as any thoughts and words left him when she moved to straddle him on the bed.

Where do my hands go? What do I say? How long until I spring a fucking boner and she- Thinking about it was enough, or really he should have known the unexpected pressure of her against him was instantly going to create the problem, but even with the stir she only stared down at him with a smile.

"I… kind of couldn't stop thinking about today, last night and…" Maka leaned closer so she could plant her hands over his shoulders.

Every touch had to be calculated and Soul realized Maka was waiting, leaving him space and time to make his careful decisions. Tentatively, his hands planted on her hips, and while that other voice in his head was screaming, it was quickly quieted by the way that shine in her grin renewed, her voice coming back without hesitation now. "And I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Talk?" There was a definite squeaky quality to his voice that he didn't enjoy, but he had no choice. Talking with her on top of me, getting harder by the fucking second because fuck, now she smells fresh out of the shower and I know she didn't put a bra on since this goddamn tank top is as thin as gauze and of course I've been thinking about today too, and-

"You said something today, well, two things, that I kind of… can't go to bed without talking to you about it."

"Oh," was the only answer he could offer because his mind was already running with the prompt, retracing every possible misstep and hating just about every other word that came from his mouth.

"Were you…" she did add a sigh there, edging his panic but as she felt it wave over her, she was instantly brushing her fingers gently against his cheek in a strange but reassuring motion. "Were you actually afraid I wasn't going to want to tell them? That I wanted this as some kind of secret?"

His mind couldn't assign the level of alarm because while her words were muddy, difficult, her face was anything but. It was tender, glowing in that surety that he wanted to steal from her fist over fist. "You…" This was like prying a pearl from an oyster and Soul hoped she would consider this just as much a treasure. "I'm cool, and you and me, partner-wise we match, definitely, but… I think about how beautiful you are and, well, maybe it just doesn't seem like I add up to someone you should be with."

"Hm," Maka hummed it out thoughtfully, his eyebrows furrowing. "Is that really it? You've definitely called yourself handsome more than a few times," she teased.

Soul snorted out a laugh, "Maybe not just beautiful in the look's kind of way, Maka. That's what I mean. The all-around kind of way."

"So your dark and moody doesn't match?" Maka raised her eyebrows playfully.

"Hey," he started to gripe but to his surprise, she placed a finger over his lips.

"How about my stubborn and know-it-all-ness? Do they match dark and moody?" She slid the finger and with it seemed to pull a smile out of his lips.

"Maybe," he let half a grin brighten the word.

"Soul, I care about what people think, I definitely do," Maka shrugged weakly. "But not when it comes to something that would hurt you. I'll let anyone say or do anything to me if it means you're not hurt. So today, saying everything was normal, I don't want you to think I was trying to cover it up, keep it ambiguous because I didn't want them to know. If you want, I can say-"

Soul was shaking his head, cutting off any more unnecessary rambling. "Don't think you need to. Pretty sure girls got the gist and Black Star is gonna think whatever suits him so… one of those things were maybe our business is just our business."

"And you're usually so eager to shout everything from the rooftops," she let out a giggle as she seemed to sink lower with every word, her stomach first pressing against him and working to her chest.

He couldn't tell if his laugh was short because of the way she was crushing his diaphragm or the need that washed over him as her lips came into range. Soul didn't spend time wondering about it, one of his hands coming from her hip to dig into her hair, bringing her the last inch or two to allow him the chance to taste her. Chaste kisses had been most of the night's endeavors so he let this one linger deeply.

Maka tapped his chest with her finger, feeling him release the pressure on command. "One more thing… Black Star said you've been wanting to for a while…?" She barely got the words from her lips and the bashful blush made the burning from his kiss seconds ago seem like sucking on an ice cube.

Something halfway between a cough and a laugh left his throat. "Look, I never said that exactly, just-"

"But you didn't deny it," Maka chided.

Soul sighed, "About that…"

"I mean," Maka was quick to amend with the sudden flare of anxiety that she would lose him again to those feelings of disgust. "I'm not… against it. I don't know that much about it, honestly, but with you…"

She had been right to interrupt him because as soon as the words left her lips she watched the calming smile start to pull at the corners of his mouth. "You trust me?"

"With everything," she murmured back before pressing her lips to his again.

While he let them linger there for a moment, the fingers sunken into her hair pulled her away to expose those red eyes trying to stare through her. "Wanting to and being able to might be a little different," he murmured. There was another pause and she could feel him stubbornly holding onto that door, just letting his fingers keep it open a crack.

"So you still want to but….?" She prompted him, imagining sticking her fingers in the tiny rift over his and hauling it open just a little more.

"But," Soul could feel the tug of war, leaving the words strained but still dropping from his lips. "Just kissing you gets a little overwhelming." He punctuated that with a sigh and a slight tightening of his fingers as if to keep her from getting away. "I haven't even touched you."

"You can," she gave softly with no hesitation, and as the smile grew on his lips that bravery was leaching back into her. "I want you to. So… why don't we just start with that?"

One of his hands came out of her hair and drifted to her shoulder. "I want to," he murmured helplessly, not so much for her but as some kind of reassurance to himself. It's OK, it's what she wants, thankfully echoed only in his head. He pulled her back into the kiss, mouths eager again to explore just as his fingers drifted up and down her arm, spurring a trail of goosebumps.

"Um," she broke them momentarily and Soul held his breath. "Maybe… under the shirt."

That held air came out as a sharp laugh from his lips, "Always impatient."

"I told you," her voice came back as a soft scold that she could barely hold on to as he nipped at her bottom lip. Just as his nibble was through she breathed out heavily, "I want this just as much as you do."

The hesitation in his fingers fizzled away under her order, his hand running a tingling trail down her side to reach the hem of her tank top. As soon as the calloused pads hit the warmth of her bare skin there, Soul had to pause. This shouldn't be so alien, his hands having bandaged a million wounds on her body that would have required him to be all over her unclothed skin before. There had never been this much heat before and never with that kind of electric buzz from her skin, her muscles shivering even at the slightest movement of his hand. He kept one more moment of stillness to relish it.

Ribs ran under his palm as his slow stroke came just below the swell of her breast. There had to be another pause and even with her resisting, he pulled her away again. She barely gave him enough room to murmur, "Tell me when to stop."

"I don't think I'll want to," she gave back breathlessly.

"But if you do."

"I will." Maka refused to leave them parted anymore, his hand not unpleasantly tugging at her hair as she forced her lips back to his. She was sliding her tongue into his mouth, tasting the mutual frenzy as his hand made the final move to cup her breast. It was a wonderful tingling shot from his fingers to her center and the only thing her mind and her soul screamed for was more. There was no way he couldn't hear her or feel the hum that was reverberating between them so he let his fingers flex again, massaging into the tender flesh. As the pressure increased, Maka couldn't keep the moan from passing between her lips.

Soul was frozen, the sound barely quivering off his lips to her. "Maka?"

She sighed sweetly, "That was a good sound, Soul. Keep going, please."

The desperation in her voice cut the tie of another restraint for him, leaving Soul no choice but to use the anchored hand in her hair to turn her head, leaving her neck bare to him. As he renewed the grasp at her breast his mouth pressed to the flushed skin next to her jaw. This left the second groan from her lips to melodiously trickle out next to his ear, making something close to pride but definitely laced with lust to blossom in his chest. Again, he was urging her as he continued to repeat the motions with hands and lips that were losing that tight control.

"Soul," she purred out as it trailed off into another moan.

He hadn't been prepared for what that would do to him. The sweet way she said his name in those fleeting moments that he used to dream meant that she loved him had always made his heart dribble into a stuttering mess in his chest but this, that begging, needy request for him lit every last fire. When that hit him, he was right at the tender skin of her collarbone and he instantly needed more than just that whisper touch to her skin and found himself powerless against the need to nip at her. He pulled the skin between his teeth to taste her while toying with her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

Maka's body shuddered against him, all of her trembling for a moment that transported him from ecstasy to terror, tearing himself back from the madness he'd allowed himself to fall into. "Maka," he rushed out from his lips as his hands moved to catch her rather than touch her. "I'm sorry. I'm-"

"Sorry for what?" When those gorgeous green eyes opened it wasn't fear or pain but hazy desire that left him helpless to do anything other than to stare at it.

"Did that hurt?" he barely could force the words out.

A sheepish smile was tugging her bottom lip out of her teeth that was worrying at it. "A little, but…" She let out a shaky breath. "I liked it," that was barely above a whisper and the words came so quickly that they were practically one.

"Liked it?" Soul was breathless and blushing as he stared up at her.

"I'm not fragile," she complained as her finger played at his sternum through his t-shirt.

His laugh was sharp but almost silent, more just pushing the air that was trapped in his lungs by fear. "You're full of surprises, you know that?"

She hummed a sweet affirmative as she nuzzled her nose to his. "Would you… do that again? Maybe a little harder," the request would be lost if it wasn't for their closeness.

"Harder?" The laugh that he thought would follow that fizzled and for a second he was sure it was going to come out as a helpless groan instead. "The… the hand or…?" The mortification of getting that much out was making his face burn.

Maka was momentarily flustered by the need for clarification but she swallowed any of her own stubborn worries and laid it out to him as she would any critique of their partnership. "Hand was good but the teeth maybe more."

He had to press that groan back again with a clearing of his throat. "I, uh, well, what if it leaves a mark?"

"Oh," Maka paused in thought and pressed in her chin as if she could see the spot he'd just toyed with. "Just, um… aim for where my shirt would cover?"

Soul laid there in stunned silence, his mind still trying to process the request but having as much success as a browser with 300 tabs open.

Maka let him stare for another moment before the blush exploded on her cheeks along with the words, "Or if that's too much! I mean, we, we don't have to, if that's weird or…" She was scrambling for more but all thought went dead as she felt the shift in him before the movement even came.

Rarely would Soul ever be considered the one to wield her but in that moment he was in control of her body as he rolled her over in the bed. The same pressure pinched at the peak of her breast but his mouth latched just above the neckline of her tank top. Those sharky teeth did as she asked, pulling at the skin just enough to leave a soft indent. In reply, Maka arched towards him, refusing to let his mouth get away without leaving a second and a third. Soul barely pulled away as he panted against her skin, "I'll always give you what you ask for, got it?"

Maka's eyes snapped open to meet his smoldering red ones and couldn't find the air for a reply, just a sharp nod.

"More?"

She nodded a second time and she was sure her chin didn't even get into the downward motion before his teeth were grazing that edge again. Maka took her hand out of his hair, using it to pull down the tank top, dipping it dangerously low and uncovering some of his hand underneath. As she offered him more room, he toyed with sucking at his skin just above his fingers, this time producing a cherry red mark.

A hickey! Her mind screamed and she almost urged a laugh forward in a half-mortified, half-amused state. There was a little bit of euphoria tangled in that feeling and while Maka would never call it ownership, it was definitely a hint of a feeling of being marked, of being his in a way that no one else was allowed to because she controlled it. I wonder if he knows, if he feels sort of powerful when he does this. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to ask for an answer to that.

Leaving his bed left them both frustrated, built up to a singing note that didn't sound because even with Maka's courage, the idea that wanting to and being able to being two separate things was just too close to the reality. As Maka tried to unwind, the screen on her phone lit up, his name and a link to video 12 popping up as the reason.

He was in the clothes she just left him in, still obscuring his face but holding the microphone from his headphones close to his lips so that husky whisper was in her ear. "You're thinking why am I doing this when you're right across the hall. When you just left my room a few minutes ago. Maybe it's because there are a million things I want to say but none of them beat kissing you. Except I know this is what you want, so here goes."

"The way you said my name tonight…" a warbling sigh left his lips but the corner was pulling in a smirk. "It's never sounded like that before and I want to hear it like that every day because it makes it feel like, I don't know, like you more than need me. That was… you wanting me, wasn't it? Tonight I touched you and even though I waited for it, there wasn't a second of wrong in it. No disgust or fear or anything like that because we both know it'd snap through our wavelengths like a sour taste but all I could get was a buzz. You and me, just a nice little harmony."

"I kind of wanted to ask you but of course I fucking chickened out, but… did it all feel good? I wasn't lying when I said I'd give you what you asked for but I hope that all the things I do leave you just as fucking breathless as everything you do to me. Maybe tomorrow, when you wake up and watch this, you'll let me know. Or hopefully," he paused for something close to a contented sigh, "you'll let me try it all again."