"Maybe it's just a daughter's job to piss off her mother."
- Chuck Palahniuk
"Mama!" Maka flung herself at her mother, groping hungrily for a hug.
"Ouch! Don't jostle, Maka!" pain sharpened Kami's voice, and Maka backed contritely into the chair beside the bed. She slipped her injured hand between her thigh and the side of the chair, but her mother had sharp eyes.
"What happened?" she demanded, glaring at Maka's finger. Her daughter hurried to reassure her that it was nothing to be worried about, but Kami wasn't having any of it.
"Is it broken?" she asked.
Maka nodded, "Yes, but it doesn't hurt all that much." she held up the injury for inspection, "I'm just glad it's only one finger or I couldn't-"
"You need both hands to fight," Kami interrupted, "How long will you be out of commission?"
"About three weeks."
Kami flopped back onto her pillow, "Well, that's just dandy," she grumbled, "Almost a month. You're going to get rusty."
Maka dropped her hurt hand into her lap and guiltily hid it with the other, "Sorry, Mama! I don't want you worrying about me. What about you? Are you feeling any better? Can I get you anything? Do you-"
Kami sighed, "Your father has been here fussing all night. Please don't tell me you're here to follow in his footsteps. I'm not sure I can take much more coddling, honestly."
Maka longed to do something. Performing any little service for her mother would be balm to her battered soul, but she forced her desires down. This wasn't, she reminded herself, about her.
"Papa is such a pain," She said, retreating to a familiar place of solidarity between them. A common problem to be shared and clucked over.
"He's not so bad," Kami replied, "Misguided, hysterical, and completely incapable of keeping his hands off other women, but not so bad."
"I - what? What do you mean, Mama? He cheated on you!" Maka's eyes widened in shock, "You hate him!"
"Not anymore. If anything, he amuses me these days." Kami smiled slyly, "Besides, it's nice to know he's never gotten over me. I like being the one that got away - it has a certain power to it, you know? And I've had better things to do than carrying around old grudges for the last few years."
Maka picked at a loose bit of tape on her splint, unable to look her mother when she asked, "Like watching Kid's-I mean, Sophie?"
"Yes. You don't waste time on old arguments when you have more important things on your mind. Do you know how she is?" Kami leaned forward in anticipation, showing her first real interest in the conversation.
"I have no idea." Maka said stiffly, "Why do you even care, Mama? That crazy woman tried to kill you yesterday and-"
Kami cut her off again, "Of course I care! It was my job to look out for her, and I failed. We told her Kid was dead, and I let the cat out of the bag by leaving my computer open. The poor woman had a psychotic break, and it was all my fault. It'll take me ages to regain her trust-"
It was Maka's turn to interrupt, "You're not going to go back to her, are you? She's dangerous! I thought maybe you'd be able to stay here now. Until you get a different assignment, at least. We could hang out, and you could help me figure out the new technique I'm designing for Lord Death. Can't you stay, Mama? I've missed you so much," she knew she was perilously close to whining, but Maka had to make her mother see that she was needed. And that spending any more time with Sophie was a terrible idea.
Kami shrugged dismissively, "You're a big girl. You'll figure that new technique out on your own, and you know it. You just have to want it bad enoughnad devote all your attention to it. I don't want you leaning on anybody to prop up all that strength you have, not even me. No daughter of mine is going to be a weak underachiever. And yes, I'll be taking Sophie away from Death City as soon as I'm better, and she's stable enough."
Anger reddened Maka's face, "So you're leaving me again? I don't understand why you me left the first time."
"Don't be so dramatic!" Kami huffed, "You were plenty old enough to take care of yourself when I left, and you're certainly old enough now. Kami is my best friend. What was I supposed to do, tell Lord Death that I was turning down a plum assignment that he specifically wanted me for because I had to stay here and play wife and mommy? I've wasted too much of my life supporting your father's career, and I wanted out of this little godforsaken place, anyway."
Maka leaped up, eyes blazing, "You call being a glorified babysitter a plum assignment? And I was not old enough to be without a mom; I was twelve! I haven't seen you once in five years, and you can't wait to take off again ASAP? Why did you even have me if you hate being a mother so much?"
Kami's brow furrowed, "I will not let you talk to me like that, Maka. I never said I didn't want you. But I'm also not staying in Death City to be one of those helicopter moms who monitors everything their kids do. I raised you to be a strong woman, and you are. As for Sophie-"
"Oh, fuck Sophie!," Maka snapped, "I'm sick of her. You don't know how much she screwed Kid up. She almost killed him and you, and even thinking about her hurts Lord Death. You want to know know what happened to my finger? She broke it because she wanted her ring. The one Kid gave me when he thought she was dead! Nygus said I was lucky it's only a fracture. That bitch is a reaper, and she could have ripped it off completely! Imagine how long I'd be out of commission if that happened. She almost maimed me, and all you're worried about is that I'll get behind in my training and how soon you can take off with her again? Really?"
Kami was sitting up now, poised like she might lunge out of bed at her daughter "Yes I'm worried about your training," she said frostily, "There is no second place, or have you forgotten that? The most important thing for me right now is fixing the mess I've made, and you ought to think about your priorities too. In the meantime, maybe you should come back after you've had time to calm down."
Maka turned away, every muscle vibrating with fury, "Maybe I don't want to be number one if it means not caring about anything or anybody except work and my ego. I'll come back when I calm down, but just so you know, that might take a while."
Soul was sitting in the hall outside Kami's room. When the yelling started, he'd popped his earbuds in and cranked up the volume on his phone. He'd had his fill of drama, and he'd learned a long time ago not to get involved in the weird relationship between Maka and her mother. If his partner wanted him to know what was happening in there, she'd tell him. But when she slammed the hospital room door open hard enough to be heard over one of Soil and Pimp Sessions' loudest offerings, Soul had to assume the visit hadn't been a good one. He paused his music and pulled one AirPod out.
"You okay?" he asked. He knew Maka almost as well as he knew himself; he could see the little-girl hurt hidden behind her anger. She snagged him by the sleeve.
"We need to go," she announced, ignoring his query and dragging him behind her.
"Slow down! Need to go where?" Soul hoped the answer was "get coffee" or "go home and have a nap," but the steel in her voice made those remote possibilities.
"To work," Maka said grimly.
A half-hour later, she dropped Soul on the practice field and sat down hard, dropping her forehead on knees and gasping for breath.
"Okay, stop. This is insane," Soul muttered through their bond. Said bond lacked its usual smooth flow; it was as gritty, grinding like power drill on a stripped screw. Soul transformed and lay back on the grass, pinching the bridge of his nose. Maka knew anger impeded her resonance and her moves, yet here she was, flailing away like a pissed-off thirteen-year-old. Only she had a lot more power than she'd had back then, including the bit of Kid's Reaper strength that made her downright dangerous.
"You need to calm down," Soul said, reaching up to pat her back, "You're going to start blowing shit up in a minute."
Maka was deadly pale, but her glare was fiery. Her partner knew she was about to unleash a furious denial at him and sat up quickly.
"Plus, you've only got nine working fingers," he reminded her, gently lifting her injured hand up between them. Looking at her splinted ring finger created a wave of fury that knocked Maka flat on the ground. She kicked wildly, pounded the one fist she could make, and screamed her frustration into the dirt. Soul sat next to her silently, keeping a steady palm on her back until she finally exhausted herself and lay still. He waited a couple of beats before asking if she was upset about her mom, or Kid, or both.
"Both," she replied, choking on a tiny sob.
"Don't be too hard on Kid," Soul said, "you guys were both freaked out last night. I don't know what happened with your mom back there, but at least you knew she was alive. Kid saw his come back from the dead; I can't imagine how fucked up he must be. Him coming over and having that fit...he's not that kind of guy, especially with someone he loves."
"Yeah, he really acted like he loved me last night," the words ground out, hot and bitter, from between clenched teeth.
Soul sighed and, "Truth is everybody's gonna hurt you. You just gotta find the ones worth suffering for. Bob Marley said that, by the way, not me."
Make sat up and rubbed at the dirt on her face, "I don't give a fuck about what Bob Marley said! Not only did Kid not protect me from his nutty mother, he threw me across the room like I might hurt the crazy bitch! I literally heard him tell Liz that Sophie is all he cares about, so where does that leave me? And then we had that fight, and he said we should break up. If he's gonna act like that, is he worth suffering for?"
"You were pretty nuts yourself," Soul reminded her, "And he'd never act like that if he was in his right mind, so, yeah, I think he's worth it but you're the only person who can convince yourself of that."
She was silent, and Soul was afraid he'd re-ignited her anger, but she was all burned out.
"I can't think about it right now. My mom, Kid...it's all too confusing. She's completely different, and Kid and I - we've had little spats and differences, but nothing major. I thought we had this really perfect thing going on, but maybe it just felt like that because nothing's ever really tested us before. Maybe we're not as good together as I thought we were."
Soul squeezed her shoulder and climbed to his feet, "Com'on," he said, extending his hand, "Let's go home. I'm starving."
She didn't move.
"I'll make dinner," he said in a wheedling tone, "Something greasy and bad for us. Like a whole bag of tater tots covered with chili and cheese."
She gave him a wan smile and let him pull her to her feet. "But it's my night to cook. Not like you haven't had a rough day yourself."
"Screw the schedule, I'll do it." he waved off her protest and slipped a comforting arm across her sweaty shoulders, "Besides, if I let you cook you're gonna sneak something healthy in there, and I am not about that life tonight."