A/N: I would give you excuses for my absence but I am not going to lie to you guys any longer. I was just very lazy. But here I am for another update!
Thanks to:
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Black Pichu: I'm glad you liked the previous chapter, I was actually hesitant on posting that one more than any of the others. Thank you for pointing the errors out! I have fixed them! The reviews you leave are never crappy, I hope you sleep more and get less tired!
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Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater.
Wall 6, 5 years old
Sound
"Be quiet! We don't like you!"
"Shut it, nerd!"
"Did we ask to hear your voice?"
"All you do is talk, do you ever shut up?"
"Quiet! I need you to be quiet!"
Everyone says that your voice is the most powerful thing in the universe. Words are the most powerful thing in the world, no matter the language.
It terrified them. It was terrifying how words could start a whole war, how it could break someone, how it could bring them higher in the social status. It was too much power for one person to have. It was too much power.
People became so afraid of the power of words that they created a word that changed the world; they created a word that made words powerless.
They created silence.
She lived in silence.
Soul stared at her intensely until she could feel his eyes on her and looked up.
"What? What do you want?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed. Ever since Kid had been training to be a Shinigami, Soul had less Death Scythe missions and training with Spirit. (Thank Kami-sama, he didn't particularly like be around the red-headed man. Most of their training days were spent with the older man yelling at him and telling him he wasn't good enough for his precious daughter.) Because of the lack of training and missions, their free days were spent with each other again. Then, the scythe meister had noticed that her weapon partner was being weird. Well, weirder than usual. She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment it happened but to her it didn't matter. It just kind of annoyed her. But, as always, she had to keep her mouth shut.
He shrugged, tapping his chin with the remote control he had in his left hand. "Have you always been so quiet?"
"Quiet?" she raised an eyebrow and shut her book, back straight as she faced him. Her partner had very interesting notions. Never had his thoughts been stupid, until now that is. "Soul, you know I'm anything but quiet."
"No, that's not what I meant!" he grit his teeth and ran a hand through his hair. "You just- I dunno, don't speak your mind." He shook his head, already realizing that what he said was stupid. When he stopped his head shake, Maka was looking into his eyes with deep concentration. What she was thinking, he had no idea. However, Maka didn't seem intent on backing down from staring (glaring) at him.
They stared at each other for a long moment, neither of them blinking.
His eyes were starting to burn, but he would not give up. (Maka always won, but not today!) He suddenly wondered why they were even doing a childish thing like a staring contest but decided against dwelling too much about it. (They often did things for no reason, it was just how their relationship worked.) He narrowed his eyes just as they started to water, tears escaping at the corners.
"Just blink."
"No way, you do it first."
"No!"
She growled, "You're already struggling. Blink, idiot."
"Fine!" he yelled, blinking away the tears and wiping them off his face. "Why do you do it?"
"I'm stubborn, you know that," she replied, crossing her arms.
"No," he chuckled. "I meant, why do you keep stuff in? You don't tell people things. It's weird. Every time-"
"What do you mean I don't speak my mind? I always tell you how much I hate when you don't clean your room or do the dishes or laundry-!"
"There's a difference between telling people how you feel and telling me to do what I'm supposed to do." He shut the television off before turning his body fully to her. "What are your biggest fears? What's your opinion about dating? What peeves you off the most? How much do you like your friends? What pisses you off about your friends? You don't talk and I don't know much about you. Face it, Maka. You don't speak what you think. You're like a..." He glanced down at the book she had closed on her lap. "You're like a closed book."
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, opening her book back up. "You shouldn't be the one talking about me being a closed book..." she mumbled, turning a page in her book.
Soul pursed his lips and glanced back at the television, not having a clever enough comment to retort.
He hadn't noticed before, but now it was the only thing he noticed. They were at each other's sides practically 24/7 but he had never noticed. Wow, it was kind of stupid that he didn't notice. Kind of? More like really stupid. He was really stupid. They had partners for around 5 years and he hadn't noticed.
He observed her from a distance, glancing at her whenever he had the chance (Black Star and Kid noticed but he ignored them when they asked) and noticed many things he hadn't before. When she was with the girls, she only talked when the other girls asked for her opinion. Even Tsubaki talked more than she did. This was really odd considering that Tsubaki seemed to be the quietest out of all the girls.
Shinigami-sama, was he getting worried. The worry had started to eat him up so much that his stomach felt like it was gnawing itself up and he couldn't help but dig around her past.
Hell, he even asked Black Star what was up with Maka. Because, although Soul had known Maka for 5 years, there were many things he didn't know that her childhood friend knew all too well.
"Dude, what's up with Maka? She's been all… Quiet." Soul asked one day while they were playing video games in Black Star's apartment. The girls had gone on a shopping trip once again and Kid wasn't able to make it due to his Shinigami trainings. Soul had found this as the best opportunity to ask about Maka.
The blue-haired boy shrugged, dodging the zombie on the screen. "She's always been like that, I guess. Never had time to really think about it though," he answered before taking a sip of his iced tea while he killed off three zombies coming after him. (Quite off topic but Black Star's skills when playing video games never ceased to amaze Soul.)
"Dude, she won't talk to me."
"And you won't talk to her."
Soul glared at the meister. "I have talked to her. I have talked to her millions of times. I've even talked to her about my family! She knows I hate talking about my family! But she won't talk to me!"
Black Star sighed and put his drink down. Whimp. He is so totally fucking whipped. "Look. All I know is that Maka doesn't like talking about things. It may look like she wants to talk about everything and anything but..." He leaned back and focused on the video game once again. "She has a lot of secrets. And she is really good at hiding them…" He would know, she had kept him in the dark about certain things for many years.
Soul stared at his friend for a moment before turning and continuing to play the video game with him. Black Star let out a cheer and smirked widely as they got to the 17th round, completely oblivious to the questions in his gaming partner's head.
What Black Star had said got the weapon's head spinning. Had she always been like this? Was it that when they talked, he didn't notice? Or was it because she was an outgoing person with him? What secrets was she hiding?
He didn't know now, but he was going to find out.
"Hey, Maka?" Soul started as he walked into the living room.
"Hm?" She looked up from her book again, her mouth full with red Twizzlers. One of her hands was occupied with an Arizona can, which was probably half full. He could only sigh at the sight of her. Maka and her story snacks were something else altogether.
"You wanna talk?" He brought the bowl of popcorn he had recently microwaved and sat next to her on the couch. He took the remote and turned the television off in hopes of forcing her to face him. It had been awhile (about 1 or 2 weeks) since Soul had that talk with the star-tattooed meister and had thought it was finally time to confront his own meister.
She raised an eyebrow, already knowing something was up. "Why?"
He shrugged in response, trying to feign innocence. Because that always worked, right? "Why not?"
"I don't want to." With that, Maka turned back to her book and shoved more Twizzlers in to her mouth. Whatever Soul wanted, she was not going to fall for it.
The innocent face card should have worked… He pouted. "Well, I want to."
"Just because you want to, doesn't mean everyone else does." She could already feel him pouting but decided not look up because she knew she would give in if she saw him doing it. Curse him and his adorkable behavior!
He stared at her again, the bowl of popcorn set aside on the coffee table. "Why are you so quiet?"
She rolled her eyes and continued to read her book, which only increased her weapon's temper. There was only so much he could handle when it came to her and he could not handle her quietness. He grabbed the book out of her hands and shut it. Her eyes flared with rage, but he didn't mind.
"Tell me. Now." He demanded, standing and raising the book over her head.
"Make me, Eater," she snarled back as she stood up.
The stare-down lasted a minute before Soul threw the book in the air and caught it with his other hand in mid-air.
Maka screeched.
"DON'T DO THAT TO MY BOOK!"
He, of course, did it again just to spite her.
"I SWEAR TO SHINIGAMI SOUL! IF YOU DO NOT PUT THE BOOK DOWN I WILL KILL YOU!" She picked up another book and made a chopping motion toward the top of his head, only to have him dodge it.
"I've lived with you for years. Don't think I don't know your moves, my master," he sneered, tilting her chin upwards with his free hand.
Maka jerked out of his proximity with a growl before standing on the couch and reaching out for the book. However, Soul stretched his arm behind him and pushed her away with his free hand. She tried chopping him but he only let go of her and stepped aside when she did, making her fall off the couch. And he didn't look sorry about it at the slightest. (Soul felt both smug and guilty when he watched her fall.)
"Maka, I'm not going to give your book back until you tell me." He sighed, trying not to look as heartbroken as he felt. It was such a simple question and they had known each other for a long time (5 years for Death's sake!) so he didn't understand why she wouldn't talk to him about it.
Her heart was beating loudly and blood rushed to her face in frustration. "Fine! If you want an answer so badly, here it is!" She pulled his collar towards her, so that his face was merely inches away from hers. "It doesn't matter."
"What?" He gave her a confused look. He didn't understand. Or more, he didn't comprehend what she meant by the claim.
"Nothing I say matters. It won't matter. Do you want to know why? It doesn't matter because no one cares. No one cares about what I think. No one is willing to hear what I think. There. Happy?"
He let his arms fall and handed the book over to her. She nodded and shoved past him, eyes brimming with tears. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. Why was he so stubborn? Even more so, why had she been stupid enough to fall for his trick and answer his stupid question?
Something grabbed her wrist, restricting her from leaving the living room.
"I would care. If you told me something, I would care." The voice was soft and hurt, making her terrified to turn around. The simple statement had her heart clenching. The heat around her wrist went away and soon, so would she.
Black Star stared at him, anger clearly written in the way his eyebrows pulled together and the intense glare he shot him.
He tried to ignore him and shovel popcorn into his mouth. He wasn't in the mood to have the meister lecture him right now. Or ever. If Black Star were to lecture you, you knew you did something stupid and awful. And he already knew he did something stupid and awful. He really didn't need his lecture.
Whatever was on the television wasn't that interesting but it was enough to keep him from noticing Star. Even if it meant watching a spider eat another spider (her fucking mate what the actual fuck spiders are gross).
"You are a fucking idiot, you know that?"
"Shut up."
"I told you to leave her alone-"
"I said shut up."
"-but do you ever listen to me? No."
There is barely anyone in the world who would listen to you, Soul thought. "Black Star, shut the fuck up."
The meister crossed his arms and shook his head. Like hell he'd let Soul get away with this. "She hasn't been talking to anyone. Period. She hasn't talked to Liz, Patty, Tsubaki, or me. Do you know how worried Tsubaki is?" Do you know how fucking worried I am? Black Star thought, hands clenching into fists. He would never admit it out loud but he cared a lot about the ash-blonde (and admired her but again, he would not say that out loud). To him, Maka was like family (again, something he would never say out loud).
Soul dropped the popcorn bowl on to the table and turned to his friend. "I know. I fucked up."
"I know." He trusted the white-haired boy. He really did. "You better fix it."
Soul spluttered. "Wait- What?"
The blue-haired meister rose an eyebrow. He isn't serious, is he? That better had been a fucking joke. "What do you mean what? You fucking made the mess so you obviously fucking clean the mess up like you're supposed to. Alright?"
The weapon nodded. "Alright."
Black Star sighed and shook his head again. "You're a fucking idiot. She won't start talking again until a certain someone says sorry." He crossed his arms and leaned back on the couch.
Soul ran his butter filmed hand through his hair.
She sat on the couch, like the previous days. This time, she held no book in her hand. Instead, she stared at the television with a blank face though her eyes seemed to carry a lot of emotions.
He approached her, sitting down and staring at the show she was watching. It seemed to be a spy show. Or maybe a cop show. He didn't know which one it was, he just knew that the woman was very independent and badass (and reminded him of a certain someone). He also knew that she wasn't actually paying attention to the show.
"Um... Can we talk, Maka?"
She turned and blinked at him, shrugging.
"Look, I'm sorry. Okay? It wasn't cool of me to do that to you. I should respect your decisions and your privacy. I'm really sorry." He looked in to her eyes, watching as shock filled her expression. It quickly went away when she cleared her throat and spoke to him. It must have been awhile since she talked to anyone. Of course it had you idiot, even Black Star was worried! He thought.
"I... I understand." This caused Soul to look confused. Maka took a deep breath. "Just know that I'm not going to change much because of this." There isn't going to be a guarantee that I will be more open to you… She thought. Closed book… She chuckled internally.
He nodded in agreement. "It's okay. We'll just get through this together like we always do, right?" Like how they got through Blair, Crona, Kid's disappearance, the scar. They always got through things together.
She just shrugged.
The next day, Maka was acting like her normal self. She still talked less than Tsubaki when the girls were in their own little group. But she did speak up when Black Star was being an idiot and it brought a grin onto Soul's face (and an even wider one on the monkey on the table). Black Star patted Soul on the back when they were alone and told him he was glad he apologized. He also said that he approved of it (he didn't understand what it even was). Other than Black Star's comments, Maka and Soul continued their lives as usual.
A few days later, Maka would be talking to her weapon partner about a problem she was having. This would surprise Soul but he would listen attentively, nodding and analyzing the situation.
He would give her advice as best as he could and when he had nothing left to say, they would watch Netflix because she wanted to watch that movie Liz and Tsubaki was talking about. He would throw his arm over the back of the couch and she would cuddle into him. He wouldn't complain, he would just move his arm from the back of the couch to rest on her shoulders. She would whisper a thank you to him before she delved into a dreamlike state. He would smile, kissing the crown of her head and whispering something back before going to sleep himself.
He didn't know if he would also speak to her like she had spoken to him or if she would start doing this often. He knew they would get through it like they got through everything though.
They would talk often. Eventually.
The wall already had a hole in it, small but still there. However, when the wall fell, it was louder than the previous walls.
And she was okay with that.
Until next time!
-That Person