PART FIVE: "Christmas Sweaters"

Maka Albarn had always been an overachiever, no one would ever deny that. But even Maka Albarn grumbled when she had to trudge through a snowstorm to return to work the first day of her Christmas break because she'd been too busy goofing off with her idiot of a computer nerd best friend instead of finishing her filing and prep for January.

He had barely been without his stupid camera since they got back from Marie's business trip. She'd given up resisting him, instead pulling faces, going on rants, holding up signs with rude words or vaguely insulting comments whenever he looked away or left it in her care. Really, it was almost worth being behind on work. Somehow the camera had turned from something intimidating and threatening into something fun. She almost looked forward to the moment when he'd pull it out, not the least because it led to a number of pranks on Black*Star, only one of which had ended badly for her and Soul. She'd never look the old supply closet in the face, or rather door, again.

Who was she kidding; it wasn't the camera that made her heart soar in excitement and anticipation. It was Soul. How had that happened?

Maka frowned at her unsorted filing. She didn't date. She definitely didn't date her coworkers. Yet here she was, contemplating just that. She couldn't deny that Soul had somehow become an important part of her life. Their quick coffee breaks had turned into lengthy lunch breaks that had turned into all night movie marathons and weekends spent wandering their favourite spots in the city, or cooped up at her place watching movies for their soundtracks. He had a toothbrush in her bathroom, a tie in her closet and a firm hold on her whipped cream loving heart.

Maka groaned. This was meant to be an easy job to help get her back on her feet and it had. She'd managed to work enough overtime and do well enough to earn a very generous Christmas bonus. She could go back to business school, prove herself, reconcile with her mother and yet, her applications sat empty on her desk. She pushed them aside and turned her attention to the two addressed envelopes she needed to mail today. It wasn't too late. She could still put them in the shredder, pretend like she'd never strayed from the course, from the family dream…

"Maka?"

She squealed and jumped in her seat, scrambling for something to defend herself with. No one else was meant to be here.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." The voice was deep, familiar and holding back laughter.

"Shit Soul, what are you even doing here?"

He approached slowly with his hands held out in mock surrender.

"Had a project I needed to finish. What are you doing here? Surely not even you're a big enough nerd to come pull overtime three days before Christmas."

"It's not overtime, it's time owed. Time that technically you owe me seeing as how you're the reason I'm behind." She tried to maintain her composure, posture rigid and eyes glued to her computer screen.

"Never forced you to ditch." He shrugged, leaning against the edge of her desk.

Maka sighed and risked a glance up at him. He smiled down at her, affectionate and unguarded. She felt a flush creeping across her face and resolutely ignored it.

"In fact," he continued, smile turning devilish, "If I remember right, it was you who decided we needed to start a prank war with Black*Star."

"He started it!"

"You're a real hell raiser Albarn. You know that?"

Maka pouted at him. "You're my enabler, that's just as bad."

"I'm your enabler, am I?" His fingers tapped a steady rhythm against her desk, close enough to hers that one wayward beat might see them touch.

Maka poked them gently. "Partner. I'm not serving a full sentence while you get off with accessory charges."

He hummed somewhere from the back of his throat and chased her finger around the desk. "Do you have much work to finish?"

Maka walked her fingers quickly around his. "Maybe forty minutes' worth."

"Come down to IT when you're finished? I want to show you something." His fingers stilled and she looked up at him, meeting his gaze.

She glanced back down to their fingers and tried to stay cool. "If you've made a Christmas tree out of Diet Coke, you're too late. Black*Star beat you to that one."

He sighed. "It's not a Christmas tree of Diet Coke."

"What is it?" She inched her fingers closer to his.

"A surprise."

"A nice surprise?"

He moved faster than she'd expected, his larger hand dwarfing her own, squashing her fingers flat beneath his. She pouted at him and he smiled back.

"Finish your work, nerd."

He pushed off from her desk, but kept a hold of her hand, squeezing once before letting go. Her heart hammered inside her chest and she turned back to her work. She could probably get it done in twenty-five minutes if she really focused.

Maka hesitated just inside the half open door to IT. Soul sat hunched over at a desk with his back to her, fussing over something on the computer. Half of her wanted to chastise him for his bad posture, but she leaned against the doorframe instead, taking in the sight of him. His pale hair was fluffy and free of gel, falling a little too far down his neck to be considered fashionable. He was wearing the hideous Christmas sweater that Marie had presented every employee with before the break, a garish black and yellow striped pattern with a red reindeer that wasn't smiling so much as looking like it was about to devour the souls of the damned. Somehow it worked on him. If Maka was being completely honest, she thought pretty much everything worked on him. Things were different since the business trip. She'd decided to stop denying herself her dreams.

"Hey." She pushed off from the wall with a smile.

Soul spun in his chair to face her and smiled back nervously. "Hey."

"So what's this surprise?"

He gestured for her to come over and she pulled up a chair beside him. He clicked away at the computer, closing and opening programs and documents.

"You know how I couldn't hack it in school?" he asked quietly.

Maka hmmed in confirmation.

"What I didn't tell you is that I haven't really written anything since, never finished any projects. Until, well… It just kind of evolved."

He opened up a final file and expanded it to full screen before turning to her, blushing as red as his eyes, but resolutely holding her gaze. "This is your song."

He tapped something on the keyboard and one note played, strong and simple. That note grew into a melody that was both calming and challenging: a presence that couldn't be ignored, the musical personification of the strength of both softness and standing one's ground. As the music rose, a video started playing across the screen. While there was no audio except for the music, footage of the past months played across the scene. As Maka watched herself pulling faces in an airport lounge, dancing badly at the Halloween party, running from a prank gone wrong on Black*Star, a smile spread further across her face than it had in years. She saw herself talking to the camera, grappling for it, turning it on an unsuspecting Soul that one time he'd left it at her desk while he went to get their afternoon coffees. Short clips flashed by of her working hard at her desk, scribbling into a notebook on her couch in the previous day's pyjamas, approaching with coffees, laughing at something, frowning at something, chewing someone out for improper kitchen etiquette, pulling Soul in for a selfie she hadn't realised was filmed in video mode. The music built to a high before slowly coming down, tapering off until it ended the same note as it began with. The final shot faded to black before a message appeared.

For Maka,

You gave me the courage to face my demons and my dreams.

Maka stared at the screen, not ready to turn to Soul. He understood her, recognised her soul and all the ways her heart was shared and torn. She thought about the image of herself curled over a notebook and the envelopes on her desk, one being a letter to her mother and the other an application, not to business school, but to a writing program. He didn't know she had thought about applying, had never pressed to know what was in her notebooks, or how she spent her work hours once all the work was done, but he'd recognised it was something that mattered to her. He'd included that quiet part of her that no one else had noticed. There would be time to return his openness and honesty, to share with him all her dreams in explicit detail. In that moment her life appeared both brighter and clearer, a life filled with beautiful words, music that resonated and Soul.

She turned to him, emotion thick in her voice. "Soul-"

He pawed nervously at the back of his neck. "Before you say anything. I don't expect anything. I just wanted you to know. You deserve to know."

She couldn't remember what doubt felt like anymore.

"Soul." Her voice was warmer this time and she didn't try to hide the smile spread wide across her face.

He looked at her hopefully and shifted in his chair, leaving his palms facing upwards on his knees. Maka knew she was probably supposed to take them, but instead she stood and walked back over to the door.

"Maka?" He looked terrified.

Maka's smile grew. "Come over here."

He stood slowly and walked towards her with purpose to stand under the doorway. His eyes never left her, but he quirked an inquisitive eyebrow. Maka looked up slowly and his gaze followed hers towards the mistletoe hanging there.

"Really?" he asked, barely a whisper.

Maka nodded. "I'll even let you steal my lunch after too."

Soul smiled down at her and gently cupping her face in his hands leaned down towards her. Maka closed her eyes in anticipation. She wasn't disappointed.

A year from then, sitting in front of a tree in their new apartment with a sparkling ruby sitting on her left ring finger, Maka would reflect that she was absolutely, completely, always and forever grateful that she had called tech support.

Authors Note:

While it may not be common knowledge, 2014 was an incredibly difficult year for me. I won't go into detail here other than to say that where I am now and where I was almost exactly a year ago could not be more far apart. I owe a lot of that positive change to the people who helped make this story a reality. For everyone who encouraged me, friend, acquaintance or stranger on tumblr and on the resbang chat, thank you. I would not have started writing again if it wasn't for you. To my amazing betas fabulousanima, kawaiipanda, awesomeasusual,khaleesimaka, zxanthe, and ackhilleus who have supported me and vastly improved this story over the past months, thank you. Of course a huge thanks to my artists swordbreaker and fistfirst who have supported me through all my writer's angst and provided beautiful artworks that brought this story to life. Finally I'd like to thank my outernet friends and family who always listened to me talk about this story even if they weren't 100% sure what a resbang, soma or 10k minimum fic meant.