Early November was always an odd time of year for Soul. Nevada didn't change with the seasons, so any semblance of fall was a chill that lingered in the morning. With all major holidays weeks away and no change in the colors of the trees, it was hard to be excited for fall break.
Kid's mansion was generically decorated in the symmetrical skullmetric styling of the school. Candles dripped down perfectly carved splits in the wax in identical streams. While immaculately kept, Soul highly doubted anything moved, lest Kid spiral into further paranoid delusions things were out of place.
It was nice to visit, but he was certain Maka would be bored senseless living that way. He severely underestimated how far Maka would go to make her mother happy based on her relationship with Spirit. It was getting kind of hard to watch, but a cool dude like him wouldn't go back on his word. This was a battle Maka had to face without him.
What he could do was casually suggest they all hang out for a movie night, like they did before all this mess, and let the extroverts in the group take care of the rest. Everyone had chosen a spot on Kid's huge sectional. They'd put their choice of movie in a bowl and pull at random, so he felt safe stepping away to make the popcorn. Patty's instructions on where to find the kitchen were a little unclear, and he realized halfway down the hall he'd gone a little to far.
Then something meowed.
Not the borderline yowl of Blair begging for his attention, but a high pitched peep of something very small. The source of the sound was a small silvery kitten finding a way out of a pocket. Which was strange, since pockets usually came attached to people, so there had to be a person there. He was just having a hard time seeing who it was. They seemed to notice the same time he did, that the kitten had figured out where the ground was and wished to be there very much.
"Hold on, we're almost there." Almost there, being Kid's room apparently. Be it the light, or the figure locking eyes with him, Soul was finally able to identify Black Star. He was frozen, except for the puddle of a kitten trying to escape his grasp. Soul looked at the door to Kids room, then the kitten and back again.
"What are you doing?" He couldn't even be that angry, he was mostly perplexed then anything. Clearly, Black Star hadn't planned on explaining himself, as a simple question had him stumped. With no grand lie to fall back on, Black Star went with the truth.
"Maka said if I wanted to be friends with her, I should help her lose the shinigami. She doesn't want him dead, so, kinda limited on options." This guy was like her roommate, he probably had some idea of what was going on.
"And the kitten?" Not a single emotion played across the scythe's face.
"It's a kitten." Black Star gestured with the creature toward the room. "It'll claw and pee on things. The kid's a neat freak, right? Also I need fewer mouths to feed in the house." He shrugged. "Two birds, one stone." He would have brought more, but he had been trying to prevent a stray meow getting him caught.
"And Maka asked you to do this?" He asked in an even tone, though the hint of mirth threatened to seep in.
"Her exact words. No new friends until she isn't engaged to the dork."
It was the stupidest idea Soul had ever heard, but he also could see it being really funny. There was no way Patty would let the little thing leave the house once she laid eyes on it. He finally broke down laughing.
"Don't put it there," Soul said "let it out in the hall." It would eventually be found or find someone, but this way there'd be added suspense to movie night. "He'll think it snuck in while people were coming and going."
"Aw man, you're right." Black Star set it down. The kitten galloped down the hall, tripping over her own paws in the process only to begin again. "...Why are you helping me?"
Maka had told Soul several times that the heir to the Star Clan hadn't meant any harm and tried to help them. The circumstances they met in hadn't been ideal, but seeing him now sincerely trying to prank his way into being friends, Soul was starting to get it. In retrospect, things that had come off as off putting was a product of this clumsy earnestness. Regardless of how uncool he acted, he carried himself like he was the center of the universe.
"Now I don't owe you anything." Soul shrugged, but one thing itched at the back of his mind. "Just out of curiosity, when did she ask you to do this?" He was calm with the aura of an angry guard dog. His energy clashed with the kid's ego.
"What are you her boyfriend or something?"
Maybe he was just that dense.
"Not even if she paid me." Soul pinched the bridge of his nose, the whole thing mildly headache inducing. He needed to ask Maka instead, at least then he'd get a straight answer. "See, I don't really believe anyone would do this just to be friends with someone."
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Black Star wondered under his breath, deeply offended that even strangers were questioning his decisions now.
"Look," Soul had an ounce of pity in him, "can't you just talk to people?" He wanted to add 'like a normal person', but it seemed rude.
"The second person I ever talked to stabbed me in the shoulder."
Soul noticed Black Star's features were less harsh when they weren't hovering over a bleeding body. The uncanny nature of his eyes had decreased since they last talked. Maybe Soul was just growing numb to demonic features in general.
"Go enjoy your party or whatever, I did my part." Black Star shoved his hands in his pockets not wanting to push his luck.
Soul glanced in the direction of the media room, when he looked back Black Star was gone.
"Awww!" Liz squealed. "How cute!" He was missing it and he hadn't even made the popcorn yet.
"Patty, put that down, you don't know where it's been!" Kid's wails were drowned out by a chorus of cues as the kitten was placed on the couch to explore people's laps.
Black Star's intel had been wrong. There was no grand party at the Gallows Manor where people could come and go, just a bunch of kids hanging out. The house had been warm and inviting in spite of it's bigness. While he had been caught, through dumb luck, it happened to be by someone he sort of knew. There was a twist in his stomach when he left. Something about the loud shrieks of joy and the sheer volume of people casually enjoying the shinigami's company soured his mood.
When Black Star got back to his home, he couldn't help but compare. The mountain top village had more grounds than the young lord, greener and cooler than the harsh reds and golds of Death City. The main house was fairly large as well, just as clean, with an intention to host twice as many people. His grandfather had tried to bring as much of Japan as he could to the home, having laid each plank of wood by hand.
There were no excited voices echoing down the halls. The adults were busy paying the bills and Angela was studying as hard as she could with what little magic she had. He'd always made his own fun before, so it was odd for him to feel so dissatisfied with his home now.
Briefly he stopped by his aunt's old office. It had been his father's before that, and shortly after her passing, he'd tried to replace everything so it felt less haunted by her presence. There was no one to impress now, perhaps that was why he was feeling so lost. All his free time had gone to picking up slack on missions or managing the field agents. Really, all his meddling could have gone to Gopher, but then he wouldn't have a chance of seeing a friendly face outside of the house. After spending so long trying to prove he belonged here, why did it still feel like something was missing?
At the end of the room was a porcelain vase, welded back together with gold. It used to be where the souls of his family went when they died. Now it sat empty, the one decorative thing he wasn't allowed to get rid of. Glumly, he wondered if Venus would have agreed with his attempts at diplomacy. Though the most likely scenario he could envision was a stern face admonishing him for showing himself to the DWMA kids.
"How'd it go?" Tsubaki was optomistic. Compared to Gopher's suggestions, dropping off a kitten was relatively harmless. Though, she imagined it wouldn't do much in the long run.
He leaned against the doorframe and gave a thumbs up, even though his heart wasn't quite in it. The more he thought about her recommendation to leave things be, the more it made sense. The very thought made the strange twist in his chest grow more painful. He couldn't make sense of it.
"Is everything alright?" Tsubaki asked. It wasn't like him to be so quiet.
Had he been too focused on work and was looking for an escape, Black Star wondered? He could do that here. He didn't need an entourage of peers begging to come visit him. Having people here would bring up too many questions anyway. It'd put them in danger.
"Can we hang out?" He sounded so small. It was disgusting, but he knew Tsubaki wouldn't care. "Like not on a mission or anything." Maybe that was what was missing? He'd been kind of a crummy friend to her lately and she was sort of the only one he had.
"Yeah, but," she fretted, "your eyes." He thought he'd been looking at shadows on the floor. When he tried to look her direction, he couldn't see her so much as sense she was nearby. He blinked a few times, trying to clear the stars from his eyes, but they remained bright and ghoulishly outside of his eye sockets.
"Hunh?" That hadn't happened before. He'd stopped taking his medicine, but he'd been perfectly fine up until now. The ache in his chest was spreading up the back of his throat. "That's odd."
"We should take you to Elaine." Tsubaki said. "Then afterward we can do whatever you want. Do you need me to lead you there?"
She was oddly good at taking care of people, like she had experience doing it. Regardless, he refused. He was confident he could make his way through the house without stumbling into anything.
"I think I'm just getting in my head about things. I'm not sick or anything." Black Star said. "We can watch whatever you want to watch here."
It would take a bit for Elaine's chanting and talismans to do anything about his eyes. He didn't feel comfortable going out with his demon side fully on display, not after last time. To get Tsubaki to pick anything, he had to fight her on it, and even then, he could tell she was trying to pick something he'd like. He longed for her to be candid with him, but there seemed to be something in the way he couldn't put his finger on.
The door to the clinic swung shut behind Black Star with Tsubaki. A few people had caught a glimpse of Black Star's eyes and scattered out of sight. He was only a teenager and they ran from him like frightened animals.
It had Gopher concerned. White Star was one of the only adult members of the Star Clan left in chains, if Black Star really had a similar form hiding under the surface, maybe it was better not to tempt fate.
Gopher found Noah leaning over Angela's shoulder as she was going through her illusion exercises. A single tea light was lit, and it was her job to keep the flame blue until the wax evaporated. Tiny beads of sweat rolled down her forehead as she tried to do her best under the watchful eye of her guardian and teacher alike.
"Noah-sama," Gopher flinched when Mifune opened one eye at him, "may I speak to you." He was hushed by Noah, not wanting a single distraction, but it was too late. The flame dimmed back to a blank white.
"You made me mess up!" Angela stuck her tongue out.
"This is important grown up stuff," Gopher mimicked the gesture in childish rivalry, "you wouldn't get it." The actual grownups in the room were not impressed. "Noah-sama please, it's about the other experiment."
Noah excused himself from the other two as Gopher pulled him out as far away from prying eyes as possible without raising suspicion.
"You were right," Gopher continued, "I saw his eyes change, but others have taken notice. They're going to ask questions if this is the first time a partial transformation's taken place."
"He won't tell anyone." Noah assured him. "It will be interesting to see how far the transformation can go without a human soul to fuel it. If his mother truly was a witch as they say, he may have the same control over it as weapons do." He flinched as Gopher grabbed both of his shoulders.
"We can't let that happen." Gopher was immediately brushed off. "Weapons never have control right away, and that type of transformation is painful to go through. You already proved your hypothesis. He's more useful to us as he is."
"I'll decide when my hypothesis has been fully tested." He said with a cold detatchment that made Gopher wither on the spot. "A different set of eyes may be as far as it goes, we need to see if that's the case. Now, if I recall correctly, you're supposed to be keeping an eye on things for me. You can't learn what they think of things pestering me about needless concerns." The mask of a kindly teacher melted back over his features when Angela popped her head out into the hall.
"Are we done today?" She asked. "I want a snack."
"Not quite." Noah said. "You didn't actually complete the exercise." Angela rolled her eyes and stomped back into the room. "Light another candle and I'll be there shortly." He didn't spare Gopher a second glance, considering the conversation over.
Still, Gopher couldn't shake the uneasiness that came from knowing Black Star needed people to tell him when the shifting had started. If he couldn't notice when it was happening, there would be no way to control it. Gopher wouldn't dare disobey Noah's orders, but it seemed their time here needed to come to an end soon, before Noah's curiosity got the better of him.
A large, sparkling carriage rolled into town on golden wheels. With the help of a footman, Ponera stepped out into the small town. People these days seemed to be forced into plain clothes, not even made to fit the shape of their bodies. The buildings were featureless grey bricks in a variety of sizes. Lord Death had tried to sprinkle in his touches of colorful geometric shapes, but it just added to the unnaturalness of the architecture. Ponera and her procession stood out like a sore thumb.
"Uh, mam?" An elderly man eyed the giant insects the were yoked where horses normally would be. "You can't park in the middle of the road." On either side of her cars honked as people were anxious to get to work. He kept checking to see if anyone in elaborate dress was holding a camera of some kind.
"Roads are for people, not beetles." Ponera raised her head high. It was no wonder people kept getting run over if they made no room for them. "We wish to speak with the current lord and inform them they are apart of the New Aeaea now. Improvements will begin shortly there after."
Red and blue lights flashed as a car slowly poked through traffic to where they were standing. Perhaps earlier renovations were in order. A man in thick uniforms made his way to her. As his eyes glowed, he reached for a walkie talkie. She scuttled up to him in the blink of an eye. Her long nails wrapped around his wrist, the pink ones digging into his skin.
"There's no need for that." She said. "These are good people. We just want to make things better, safer. Aren't you tired of always being scared all the time?"
The walkie slipped from his loose grip.
"Yes, your highness."
"You could feel this safe all the time in my queendom." She said. "All you have to do is take Us to the lord."
The cop loosely offer his other arm to escort her. She relinquished her grip and accepted the escort.
"Her grace Teresa Sage will be accompanying me," she continued, "the rest of you get to work fixing all of this."
As she was lead to the cop car, concrete and pavement liquefied, melting into gothic shapes. The overgrowth had been chasing her carriage and curled around each new tower and lattice structure. Green and white painted over the grey modern buildings until all evidence of Lord Death was erased.
Last time Soul had tried to broach a touchy subject with his meister, he got a book to the head and a door slammed in his face. This time he had more time to think about his approach. It did mean zoning out during the movie and being oddly quiet on the ride home. Subtlety was not his strong suit. They arrived at the apartment, with only the desk lamp to greet them.
"Now we have someplace to send all the cat things Blair doesn't want." Maka immediately started to collect stuff before either of them forgot. "I still think Annabell would be a cute name. Out of any of the names Patty could have picked, Lucky isn't that weird. Too bad she wouldn't put up with a ribbon, it looked so cute."
Soul narrowed his eyes, she was filling the spaces in the conversation on purpose.
"A-anyway," Maka said, "I have some reading to catch up with, so if you wanted to shower first."
His consistent, unamused stare finally broke her anxious facade.
"You knew, didn't you?" Soul said. "You didn't think Kid would find it interesting someone was sneaking around his house."
"You seemed to have things covered." She turned away from him. At first she thought Black Star had come to talk to her again, but he just vanished just as quickly as he came. "I didn't see you ringing any alarm bells either, so clearly everything turned out fine." She couldn't pretend she was looking for hand-me-downs anymore and sat on the couch. "It was fine, right?" By the time she'd gotten up to check on them, Black Star was already gone. Soul hadn't said anything then, a little too eager to see what all the screaming had been about, and his popcorn completely forgotten.
"Well he said some interesting things about you." He sighed. "Like supposedly you'd only be friends with him if he broke off your engagement. I'm kinda curious if that was before or after Chrona started ordering weird stuff."
She put her head in her hands. It was obvious who was responsible, but she had really hoped it had just been a comedy of errors.
"Wait, friend?" She looked up at him. "Like, friend friend or friend?"
"You just said friend four times, what are you asking?"
An idiot, she was a total idiot. Of course Black Star hadn't been hitting on her, he had approached her at a networking event and asked to exchange phone numbers. That was what you were supposed to do at those kinds of things, he just hadn't had the credentials to get invited. She was literally the only person in power he was able to talk to, and she told him he couldn't come near her because of who her fiancé was. How could she be such a presumptuous jerk.
"Maka, what exactly did you say to this guy?"
"I thought," she wouldn't dare tell Soul what she actually thought, "it seemed like he was looking for something specific and just dancing around what it was he wanted. I might have assumed, if I told him I was engaged, he wouldn't want to talk to me anymore. I can see now why what I said didn't really make sense to him." She'd had taken blows to her ego before, but none that had stung quite like this. Soul took a seat next to her, less angry and more concerned. "In his defense, someone from the Star Clan should have been there, just wasn't clear who she'd left in charge. That's probably why he wanted to talk to me. I've had a lot of people wanting to be 'friends' lately that just want things from me." She should have told Soul when it had happened, he would have been able to pull her head out of her ass in a heartbeat. "I'll talk to him."
"I didn't get that vibe off of him." Soul offered as a consolation prize. The sudden mood change in his meister was a tad concerning. "You tend to attract try-hards that take things too literally. Which means, he's likely been harassing Kid for weeks thinking it'll make you happy." That was in many ways, worse. "Is there anything else that's happened that you forgot to tell me about?"
It was so small, but she might as well lay it all out.
"My mom's turned into one of them." With something more concrete to pin her hurt feelings on, it was like a floodgate had opened. "It was so stupid, all I was doing was waving to Kid, and she thought I was acting like I liked him for the cameras. Everything I do is being watched. I didn't even bother telling her where we were going so there wouldn't be stupid paparazzi 'conveniently' watching us leave, but she has to have a location tracker on my phone because she texted me as soon as we got there." A bunch of encouraging emojis had been sent her way the second she set foot in Gallow's Manor.
Soul had seen Maka's mom take her phone after the mission in London went sour, he hadn't thought much of it then. She would say no to him if he brought up talking to Spirit again, but he was the only adult Soul could think of that might actually be able to do something.
"Why don't you go shower first," Soul said, "I'm pretty good at getting bugs like that out of phones."
She handed him the phone, though she couldn't hide her confusion.
"How do you think I was able to hitchhike to Nevada without getting caught?"
With a half-hearted smile she dragged her way to the bathroom.
Water sprayed at top volume, covering the distant sound of the tv flickering to life in the other room. She should be relieved that part of the craziness around her was just a big misunderstanding. Just one phone call away and a clarification that stupid grand gestures were not necessary to make friends. She should feel relieved.
So many times she had insisted that she wasn't in a position to want anything more than friendship. She just couldn't help herself in the end, she had read into things, just to have something feel unscripted in her life. It had felt so good for such a brief moment, to believe there was a possibility of something else for her. Disappointed in herself, picking at a self inflicted emotional wound, she tried to find a way to feel better with cold hard logic.
He didn't like her like that, she had just hoped he would.
There was nothing wrong with that.
She would be fine.
Just not as quickly as she would have liked.
