Chapter One – Baggage

"I-I hate you!" My voice broke – I couldn't stand it. My weakness. My vulnerability. I closed my eyes, the image of my husband of two years on top of my best friend, in our bedroom, ingrained into my eyelids and memory dutifully. As if it's job were to torture me with the images I had encountered when coming home early from a mission.

"Maka, p-please! I'm sorry! Maka?" I could hear his feet shuffling across the carpet of our home. No, my mind spewed bitterly. It's only his home now.

"Damn it, Kid, you told me you love m– Ugh! You're just like my father! I knew this would happen!" I glared at him and wrestled with something on my hand before throwing it at him – a diamond ring and a wedding band engraved with three words. "'Against the odds', my ass," I snarled. "Men are all the same!"

He looked hurt; it didn't faze me. If anything, it made me feel a bit smug. "Maka, baby, please don't do this to me."

I stared at him, outraged. "Don't do this to you? Why don't you do the girl lying in our bed, in our room, in our house? Gah, I hate you!" I didn't care how loud I was yelling – the pain in my throat wasn't quite distracting me from the pain of the constriction in my chest, so I tried a new approach.

"I never want to see, or speak to you again, Death the Kid." My voice was soft and calm, with no venom. Only finality. I looked up at him and knew exactly what my eyes held, because they held what my heart did: the ache of broken promises, broken vows, the air brushing my ring finger where I would have preferred it's suffocation, the image of a wedding band and glorious diamond ring laying defeated on the hardwood floor, the sound of Elizabeth Thompson's pleasure, tears hitting hardwood like shattered glass, and the premonition of what I was about to do. "Never again." I felt a bitter satisfaction as his face fell despairingly. I didn't care that I was crying. I had every right to.

I didn't even look at Liz as I walked into the bedroom, grabbing a suitcase from the closet and stuffing clothes inside haphazardly as I tried to ignore the tears and the voices, all begging forgiveness.

"Oh, Maka, I'm so sorry!"

As Liz's pitiful apology rang in my ears, I whipped around and looked her dead in the eyes. "You are dead to me."

Liz's eyes widened in fear and surprise, and even Kid shut up for a moment. I had never been known for being mean. Feisty, yes. Irritable, yes. A scythe meister, yes. And a good one at that. But never had I spoken words dripping with such venom, teeth bared and all traces of whimpering wife, gone. There was only cold, blind fury. I now was a cobra, and fuckitall, I was going to strike one of these times. I took a deep breath and finished packing my things, tearing the pendant that Liz had given me off my neck, breaking the chain and throwing it at her without looking up. I shoved past Kid easily – he was a good head taller than me, but was still shocked from my ever-so-quiet outbreak. I was out the door before I knew it, walking through the rain. My feet found their way to Tsubaki's home and I knocked a few times. I waited, then was about to turn and leave when the door opened to Black Star.

The blue-haired boy had grown into a tall and muscled man, very handsome really, but he was too much like a brother for me to ever be attracted to him like that. Besides, he was married to one of my best friends.

"WHO DARES INTERRUPT THIS GOD'S TIME WITH HIS BEAUTIFUL WI – Whoa, Maka! Are you alright? You're soaking wet – come in! Seriously! I'll have Tsubaki make you some tea. TSUBAKI, BABE, C'MERE!"

The black-haired woman came bounding downstairs, obviously having heard pieces of Black Star's 'welcome' and wondering why I was at her doorstep, sopping wet with rain. The second she pushed Black Star out of the way gently, she sucked in a breath – I was quite a sight. Smeared make-up, puffy eyes, red cheeks, soaked to the bone in my mission clothes, and a suitcase clutched in white-knuckled fingers.

"Maka, honey, wh-" That was all she got out before shaking her head and rushing forward to wrap me in a hug. A sob shuddered out of me and I dropped the baggage – though only the literal form of, unfortunately – hugging her back.

I explained everything to her through my tears, which I'm sure, confused both of them until I got to the part where I walked in the bedroom, because I never cried. When I finished, Black Star had a face of blind fury I could only assume I had looked like when yelling at Liz, and even Tsubaki looked furious.

I took a deep breath. "I wanted to come to you first, b-but… I need to see someone else. I don't know why, but… I need to see him."

Tsubaki looked like she almost had an idea, but I looked up at Black Star, and we shared a knowing gaze. "He still loves you."

I took a deep breath.

"I hoped so."

Ten minutes later, I was on my way, trusting my feet to lead me where my memory had banished in anger and frustration. I walked mindlessly, not caring about the pouring rain and rolling thunder, just wanting to reach my frustration.

When I came up to the door, I hesitated, wondering if this was the best idea. Finally pushing away my fears, I knocked on the ever so familiar door, one I had never had to ask entrance for. I could heard a grunt, then the shuffle of feet, and saw a flash of white through the peep-hole. Then another flash of white, and another wait before the lock clicked and the door swung inwards to reveal a disheveled, shocked, and slack-jawed Soul Eater Evans.

"M-Maka?"

WHOA HO HO. WHOA. WHOA. Yeah. I don't know. I started writing a drabble in my notebook, which ended up becoming a structured story. So.. Yeah. Happy birthday. Yippeeeeeee. Review pleaaaassee! OR I'LL NEVER WRITE AGAIN. AND I'LL TAKE ALL YER FANFICS FOREVER. Rawr. Now go review:D

Love you guys!