2He sighed at the mess before him, looking at the sky to contemplate whatever sin he had committed that earned him this punishment. Perhaps he was wrong when he cheated that one time he played games with Black*Star, but still, the retribution sure was disproportionate.
So he was a troublemaker, fine. At least his and Black*Star's pranks had never given anyone one-way ticket to meet Lord Death (at least, not as far as they knew). On the other hand, his level-headed, totally logical partner apparently had a knack to find trouble.
Hissing under thorny vines draped all over his body, he transformed one of his arm into a blade to finally free himself. Once he was done, he went to release Maka from her own thorny cage.
"Once we're home, you're going to fix me a dinner of my choice and promise me we won't go anywhere for the next two weeks."
His blade cut through the last knot and Maka's dangling legs fell to the ground. She gave him a sheepish smile, half-annoyed and half-bashful. Problem was she had nothing to counter with.
"L-let's just get going! We can still catch her if we're quick!" She stammered, hands plucking leftover thorns from her shirt and skirt.
He rolled his eyes.
It was supposed to be a very easy mission. Go to Canada, acquire reports from DWMA secret networks, return to Nevada. You couldn't get such a straightforward task wrong, right?
Blame Maka, her Soul Perception, and her crazy curiosity.
But then again, they never got anything easily.
Everything went smoothly that afternoon. They spotted the messenger and in no time at all, had the reports. On their way to return to the inn, however, Maka felt something was off from the direction of the city's outskirts so she pursued it (despite Soul's protests) and everything went downhill from there.
"How- I- How am I supposed to know there's a magical animal hanging around?"
That was her answer to his snide remarks a few hours ago.
The forest was totally out of place. They could tell something was very, very wrong but to Maka's defense, it radiated no malice. Just... Strange. She convinced him to explore the place for a while, with excuse to report it to DWMA if further action should be taken. Which was how they met a lynx with overly lively eyes.
As if ordinary lynx wasn't bad enough, they met the magical version which just happened to love playing with human. Correction: toying with human. Soul promised that he would treat Blair a little bit better after this. At least she didn't go around trapping people in her magical forest so it made her into his good book. That, and he decided he hated felines.
"I'm sure we have passed this area before," he said when they stumbled upon a familiar branch.
"We have. Look, it's the scratch where my ribbon was torn before."
"Dammit. We're walking in circles."
"There should be a pattern...hold on..."
He shot his eyes upward. The trees were as tall as skyscrapers but he could see some splash of orange and red. They had been trapped at least half a day.
He certainly wouldn't want to have to spend a night there. Both he and Maka had been battered and bruised after dealing with all those stupid traps scattered around the jungle ("to make it more fun," said the stupid lynx), they didn't bring proper camping utilities, and the place was too dangerous. He didn't want to know what sort of creatures wandered there in the night.
"Maka, let's take a rest here. I don't think we can catch her without any real strategy."
They were being played with. The more they tried to catch her, the cat would use even more intricate magic to make some sort of traps, leading them further from their destination.
"I know," she studied the trees around them, scanning for more information. "I think I've read about this. Beings that lure people into their realm...There are accounts of people missing. They're never heard of again."
"Fantastic. Very helpful," he muttered under his breath. Usually he would save his sarcastic remarks for when they reached safer place, but at the time he was too annoyed to care. Everything wouldn't happen if only she could suppress her curiosity, didn't let it get over her, and reported it to Lord Death at once instead of running off on her own. He had to tag along because no way on earth he would let her venturing foreign place weaponless.
He was being extremely grouchy today, of all day. For good reasons too, he convinced his inner voice. It was freaking Saturday. They were supposed to be at the warmth of their fireplace, lounging on the couch doing nothing but enjoying the moment. Perhaps find a decent movie or two if he was lucky instead of wandering in some magical realm with no way out. He was hungry as hell too. Heaven forbid, of all people, his partner was this troublesome girl.
It frustrated him because once they were safe in their apartment, he would find this side of hers endearing. The girl would be the death of him, one day.
Because he couldn't work out the mechanism of the maze-slash-forest, he gave up with a sigh. Their only hope lied on Maka, who was currently busy with her thoughts. She poked around, making strange gestures here and there. Soul watched him without interest. At least by stopping in one place they weren't going to fall to any harm again soon.
It seemed like forever until Maka's face brightened, voicing a loud,"I know!"
Soul stirred, looking around to realize he had been asleep for a while, leaving Maka all by herself. He cursed. How uncool. He was supposed to keep his meister safe. The lynx wouldn't kill them, it seemed, but he loathed to think how the whole scene could have played if they were facing a real enemy. He really must work on his self-control.
"Know what, Maka?" He entertained her, knowing for certain they would be able to return to civilization, finally.
"The way out, of course. Follow me."
With her guidance they finally reached the outskirts of the town. The moon was just taking its place in the sky, watching them with mocking smile. If only he wasn't too concerned about their safety, he thought he would like to make the moon lose another tooth.
It was way past midnight when they reached their apartment. Both exhausted, they threw themselves to the too-comfortable couch right away.
"Soul," called Maka.
He looked at her with half-lidden eyes. "What?"
"Can we just call delivery for today? I'll make you dinner tomorrow."
He had forgotten about his random comment after all the mess. All he wanted was a good night's sleep, so he answered,"Spare the poor delivery guy. I think I'm going to sleep."
They succumbed into the silence once again.
In an attempt to not falling asleep on the couch, Soul poked Maka's shoulder.
"You worried me so much, you know?"
"Yeah. I'm so sorry for today. That was certainly reckless."
"You're not afraid that we might not make it out alive?"
"Not at all."
"May I know why, Dear Brave One?" He threw his hand to the air, worshiping their ceiling.
If Maka was annoyed, she didn't show it.
"Because you are there for me."
All traces of sleepiness was erased in instant, replaced by paralysis as he felt every circuit in his brain fried.
Her voice fell and she hurriedly went to the kitchen to hide her blushing cheeks, while Soul stood there jawdropped. So he wasn't imagining things. It took him a minute or two to recover from his shock. Did she just-
Maka never explicitly told him of her trust on him before. She had made it clear that it took painful amount of time for her for simply letting herself trust anyone whose gender was male, thanks to the jerk that was her father. It hadn't bothered him for a while now because he could feel it in their Soul Resonance, but for her to actually say it was definitely a progress. Well, he couldn't let her down. Wouldn't.
His head was throbbing again. He made his way to his bedroom. It was enough for one day. Tomorrow (today, technically, but he had lost sense of time with the jetlag and sleep deprivation) would be Sunday and they had a lot of time to talk about it.
He grinned.
Yeah, of all people he had to fall for this troublesome girl.
He wouldn't have it any other way. Not that he dared admitting that out loud. At least not anytime soon.
A/N: Look, a SoMa! And no Maka Chop! *stupid grin* sorry for the cheesiness. Just something light to ease me from my exams. Timeline? About the beginning of the series.
Eh, this draft is a year old, starting back when I was writing 'The Burning Stars' . I still have eight or so Soul Eater fanfics in that folder I forgot existed, so I apologize in advance if you hear so much from me it bores you in the upcoming holiday.
