He found out not long ago. He knew about her heritage, her magic, her past.

Interestingly enough, Kim doesn't mind it. Black Star was many thing, but malicious, he was not. Like her small world had expanded, Kim sought him out rather than ignored.

"You understand," she said one day, not as a way to confirm, but as a statement of fact. It was that day that she decided to place everything in the open; she, who concealed everything, wanted someone similar by her side.

Black Star raised an eyebrow, but didn't say a word against it. Instead, he pushed the bag of chips on the table closer to her and flipped to another page in his gaming magazine. "I guess," he replied drily.

He was so nonchalant that Kim wondered if he really did know what she was talking about. She slammed her hand down, making him look up from his magazine again. This time, he was irritated.

"Seriously, you understand, don't you? That we can't tell anyone about anything. You get how lonely it is and how fucking scary it is to be found out."

Scoffing, he said, "Do I really though?"

"Yes!" Kim yelled, voice still raising as she continued. "Of course you do! This is why you try so damn hard at everything you do. You try to scrub away your inherited past and you redirect everything to what you are now. It's to protect yourself!"

His eyes darkened, and he tossed his magazine onto the table where it slid and hit her hand. "I don't run away from it. There are plenty of people who know."

"Is that why Maka was kept in the dark about it until you guys grew up?"

"Better quit, Kim."

"Seriously, tell me then, why else would she be new to this if you weren't trying to bury shit behind you? Of all people, she should have been the first to know."

"She was."

"Then what if she turned away from you if she found out when you guys were kids? See? That's why—"

"She wouldn't."

Kim paused, hesitating when he did not. He was certain of that fact, unyielding, looking at her dead on until she broke eye contact.

"How— how do you know for sure?"

Black Star sighed, retrieving his magazine. "You'll figure it out."

Deflated, shut down, she lowered back into her seat. What was it about Maka that made Black Star defend her so reverently? Try as she may, Kim couldn't grasp why for a very long time.

It was only after she began to see Maka in the special light that Black Star did that Kim started to skim the surface. She, who couldn't bring herself to trust anyone other than her partner and her self proclaimed suffer buddy, suddenly wanted to add another person into her circle. It took Kim a while, but Maka was so full of love— it didn't take much effort for her to be let in.

"Great," Kim groaned into her hands. "I'm her new hero complex project, aren't it."

Black Star cackled. "What did you expect? She found out you're a witch, so you're basically fucked, but in a good way."

"That Soul Perception is a bitch."

"I told you she wouldn't mind. She's probably going to knit you a scarf, too."

Kim screeched at the thought of a bulky wool scarf around her neck, but oddly enough, she already felt warmer, safer, with Maka around. The girl was a bundle of uncontained energy, same as her childhood friend, and she released it in bursts of compassion, smothering any who came across.

After the battle on the moon was won, the young generation of fighters were still at war. Maka's next target was society's problems and the grounds for a new era, and while Black Star and Kim were in need of rest, they were still dragged along to their girlfriend's trip to the library on one particular night.

She camped at a table surrounded by documents and books, few that she'd published herself. All she asked from her partners was that they kept the seats warm so that no one else would sit in her area. Nothing else, especially not to read, Maka assured.

After all these years, Black Star never lost his love for magazines. He immediately kicked his feet up onto the table and began to read, ignoring Maka's exasperated plea to at least take off his muddy boots.

Kim, on the other hand, pretended to keep busy herself. Armed with a couple of old grimoires that she'd pilfered from the witch dimension, she cracked one open and hoped that the translations would come easily to her as when she were a child. Most of the words, she skimmed, whereas certain texts that were deemed easy to read were more focused on. Kim felt slightly guilty of her time-not-well-spent, but she was far too tired from her duties from earlier that day.

While she was in mid-sentence, Maka gasped. "Kim, where'd you find that?"

"Huh?" Kim looked up and saw eyes on her book's cover. "Just a thing I brought in."

"I need it," Maka said, lunging for it.

One should never stand between a girl and her books, people have warned Kim before, and so she let her have it, watching curiously as Maka pulled it over to her side of the table.

"What for?"

"Research."

"On?"

Black Star snorted, and Kim swore she could hear his eyes roll. "Her project. You weren't there for it, but Maks proposed a new thingy-ma-bob for fostering witch relations, yada-yada." He flipped to a new page in his airplane catalogue that he'd taken from his previous flight. "Just let her have it. None of us will have any peace until she presents at the next meeting."

Maka glared at him. "If you know, then make yourself useful."

"Not my thing, plus you promised I wouldn't have to do anything as long as I take up space."

"What ever." Turning to Kim next, and to Kim's surprise, she said, "Don't worry, I won't ask your for assistance because of 'bias opinion,' but I'm hoping that this will help in the long run." Maka returned to the book, scribbling notes onto her already dense and marked up papers every once in a while.

Shocked, Kim sat back in her seat, empty-handed, but full-hearted. She continued to watch Maka who furrowed her eyebrow on difficult parts, and unabashedly asked for Kim's translation at certain points. Eventually, Kim was forced to fork over her entire collection, and even then that wasn't enough for Maka.

She pushed her chair back and rose to her feet. "I'll be back," Maka said, already bouncing to the restricted shelves with her ID card in hand. "Watch my stuff, Kim, Star!"

"Got it, Maks," Black Star said without looking up.

After a moment of silence, Kim whispered softly, quietly, "I get it." She didn't need to say anything else before or beyond that. She heard a page turn.

"Told you," he scoffed, sniffing a little as he did. "Took ya long enough."

"God, you both are so annoying."

"You love us though, like, hella."

"Shut up, Star."

Written for Soul Eater Polyamory Week 2018
Day 4: Fighting Team

Inspired heavily by a discussion with Psychadelicrose.