"Soul, wake up. Soul?"

What day was it? What time was it? Soul didn't know. At the moment everything was fuzzy to him. Someone kept calling his name but he didn't care, He just wanted to rest. Surely he didn't get his eight hours of sleep already.

"Wake up! I don't have time for this. We do have school you know."

'Shut up, go away.' Soul thought. This person just wouldn't leave him alone.

'I heard that, you jerk.'

Since when could anyone hear his thoughts? Sure, he could hear only one other person's but as far as he knew, she couldn't hear his. With that, it had to be another person. There was no way it could be her. The voice sounded just like her though. Soul was curious now.

"You're awake now, right? Get up! I don't want to be late." The voice spoke out loud this time.

"Maka?" One eye opened halfway. His vision was blurry but he could still make out the figure of his meister. She peered down at him with an angry expression set on her face.

"Who else? Hurry up and get ready. I'm ready and Tsubaki has already left."

"Has she?" Soul grumbled. He eventually sat up and stretched but he hardly paid attention to Maka's words.

"Yes, she has. She left almost an hour ago. Looks like you have thirty minutes to get ready for school."

"I'll just skip today..."

"I didn't get you up just to hear that Soul. Don't you realize what we go to this school for? We aren't normal teenagers you know!" Maka's gaze never drifted from Soul's. It was just like before when their eyes just wouldn't leave each other.

"Yeah, I know. Some of us can turn into weapons while the others take care of the rest, correct?"

"In a way, but that's not the point! We are trained to fight, remember? Collect 99 souls and a witches. If you can do that then you'll become a death scythe. Lord Death's actually. Wouldn't you want that? You'd get respect, maybe even a fanclub!"

Soul frowned. It was too early to hear a speech, or maybe it was because he just wasn't fully awake. "Yeah I know that, a day wouldn't hurt right?"

"I don't know about you, but it will hurt me. I can't show up to class without a weapon you know. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was yesterday? I had to sit out because you and Hiro's incident." Now Maka was looking to the side with her arms crossed. Her eyes trailed from the wall to the clock on it.

7:45.

Soul watched her tense up. He really didn't want to get up but he did so anyway. Of course he let of a sigh and a few swears on the way. "Fine. Just know that you owe me Maka." He started to walk pass her, patting her head on the way.

"Owe you?"

"Yeah, you owe me. What do you owe me for you may ask? It's for making do things that I usually wouldn't." He threw his hand up as he entered the hallway. "I'll be ready in around ten minutes."

"I kept my word didn't I?" Soul grinned. It was true, he did keep his word. He also managed to get stuck behind a shipping truck on the way to school, making them lose time. At the moment Maka and Soul were standing at the base of their school. They didn't have much time left now.

"You did..." Maka sighed. She shook her head and stared up at the mountain of stairs. "Staying here won't help us. Looks like we'll have to sprint up them. You think you can do that?"

"Who do you think I am? Of course I can." Soul's grin grew and he started up the stairs with Maka behind him.

"Go a bit faster! That way we can we there faster."

"If you wanna go faster then just go ahead of me." Soul called back. He'd already woken up, wasn't that good enough for her?

"I'm using you to break the wind." Maka said. She smiled when Soul looked back at her. He gave her a questionable look but carried on.

"Thanks, that's comforting to know." Soul grumbled.

He decided on slowing his pace being as he didn't want to come in the first place. Besides, this wouldn't be the first time that he'd been late. Missing one class wouldn't be the end of the world.

"Soul? Did you slow down?"

"Of course not! Why would I? Don't you want to get to class?" He sounded hurt. Maybe he'd manage to make her believe what he said. But there was a good chance that she wouldn't, the Maka that he knew would never fall for something like that.

"Yeah sure. Hey Soul?" He grunted. "What were you doing on the couch this morning?"

Soul had forgotten all about then. Realization hit him before he knew it. There was another part of his plan but he seemed to have failed. He was suppose to wake up before Maka, that way he wouldn't have to explain anything afterwards.

"Must have fallen asleep?" Soul shrugged his shoulders.

"You don't just fall asleep with pillows and blankets that weren't there before. Besides, those were your pillows."

"What makes you say that?" He started to regret last night. His plan was backfiring on him already and this wasn't how it was suppose to be.

"There's only two rooms with pillows and mine do not have black pillowcase with little souls decorated on them."

"Well Maka maybe you do, you just never notice."

Maka carried on, ignoring what he said. "So that means that you got up and got your pillows that were on your bed, am I right Soul Eater?"

Soul let out a heavier sigh, he knew where this was going. "Yes, Maka."

"Then you could have stayed in your room. But you didn't, instead you came back and slept there."

"I was uncomfortable so I got the damn pillows."

"Is that so? What about the blanket?"

"It was freezing in there!" He yelled, wishing for the conversation to be over. Thankfully he could see the top of the stairs. Now all he'd have to do was make it till then.

"Sure it was. Face it Eater, you were worried!" Maka laughed. She was really enjoying herself.

"Shut up Maka." He warned.

"You care!" She said anyway.

"Really, you should stop." He warned again.

Soul could tell that his face was already flushed red. He couldn't stand it. It wasn't like he was actually worried. He was just making sure that Hiro didn't come into Maka's house. Speaking of Hiro, Soul would have to go through seven hours of ignoring the blonde if he came around. That would also mean that he'd have to stick to Maka like glue, to make sure that Hiro didn't show up near her of course. But then again, he figured that the day wouldn't be as bad as he thought.

"You... Fine." Maka said. She had her fun, besides, they were at the top of the stairs. Now they would have class to worry about, or at least Maka would. "I'll see you later Soul." She waved to him before starting off.

"Wait, what class do you have first?"

"Stein's, why?"

"When classes change I want you to stay there okay? It's an exercise Marie told us to do." He lied.

Maka nodded and waved again. She didn't see what the exercise was but again, she didn't care much to ask. There was a class that she had to get to.

Maka ended up getting to class with Dr. Stein letting her go with a warning. Soul on the other hand missed his first class. He figured that since he's already missed the first fifteen minutes that he would go ahead and miss the rest. He also didn't want to intrude on the lesson that Sid was giving. Instead, he waited outside of Stein's class, this way he wouldn't have to rush there. Finally the bell rung. Soul could hear Stein telling his class to remember their lesson and not to trample each other on the way out. He pushed himself against the wall to avoid the trail of students that were streaming from the classroom.

He noted that Black*Star was smiling when he came by. Maybe Tsubaki managed to get through to him.

"Thanks." he heard Maka say bluntly. Soul didn't expect the voice that followed. He was praying that Stein's voice changed during some weird experiment that he did.

"Hey Maka! There's something I wanted to say before class, but seeing as you weren't here at the time..."

"What Hiro?" she was irritated.

Soul's mood completely changed. Of all people, it was the one person that Soul wanted to stay away from Maka. But he had to give the guy some credit, he was persistent. Soul thought about waiting and listening to what Hiro had to say even though he didn't like that thought so well.

'Maka, come on. Don't wait. Remember the exercise?' Soul thought. He hoped that it would reach her.

"Hiro? You're going to have to make it quick, I've got somewhere to be... Are you sweating?" Maka said. By the way she said it, it seemed like Soul's thought did get across to her. Perfect.

"Am I? D-didn't notice!" Hiro laughed nervously. "I just wanted to apologize for yesterday. I'm not usually like that. I just didn't like how Soul spoke to you. I felt like I had to defend you." He didn't look at Maka. Instead he looked to the side, holding his head with his free hand.

Maka nodded with a smile. "It's okay... Thanks for the apology. Just know that I can handle my own self."

Hiro perked up and looked back at Maka. Those words brought up his confidence and he smiled along with her. "So we're okay? Because I was wondering, maybe you'd like to ha-"

"Maka! Where have you been? Remember that exercise Marie told me about? We gotta do that." Soul said casually. He slid into the room, taking simple steps as he moved towards Maka and Hiro. He slung his arm around Maka's shoulders and grinned. "Oh, Hiro? What's up? Having trouble with your cast?"

"Soul." Hiro said. His tone wasn't the brightest around. "Is this your next class?"

"Nope, had to come get my meister and escort her to her next class. Trying to strengthen our bond, ya know?" Soul's expression was bright, as if he had nothing against the guy before him. His eyes however, were staring holes into Hiro. They were telling him to leave. "Going to have to do this for every class actually."

"How come I wasn't inform about this?" Maka turned to Soul. He could see that she had no idea about what was happening. "I mean, every class?"

"Marie told me yesterday after school. She was busy so she couldn't tell you the message herself so she asked me to tell you." Soul said calmly. Hiro looked at him with amusement.

"Did she? I don't remember her saying anything like that Soul." He said. He was certain that said nothing of the sort. "Didn't she say to act like adults?"

"She did." Soul said back through clenched teeth. His eyes narrowed on Hiro, as if he was locking his target. "You probably didn't hear because I beat the little bit of sense you had out of you. Well, come on Maka. Gotta get you to that class before we're both late again."

Maka, who had been trying to understand what was happening, nodded as Soul pushed her out of the classroom.

"Bye Maka!" They heard as other students started piling into the room. It seemed like there was whole crowd gathered around the door, watching the three inside. Only one person got a front row seat, Dr. Stein himself.

"What was that all about?" Maka finally questioned Soul. They were pushing through the people in the hallways, trying to reach Maka's class.

"A friendly conversation, what else?" Soul retorted.

"Oh was that what it was? Glad you two patched things up." She spoke with sarcasm practically spilling from her mouth. "I don't even understand why you guys are acting so weird."

"I wouldn't expect you to. I can't either. It's complicated." Soul said under his breath. "It's highschool, hell, it's a meister and weapon academy. What did you expect? Laughs and giggles?"

"No, I'm not that dense you know. I'm not like you."

"I'm going to forget that you said that, being as I'm not stupid."

Things weren't going out like he had hoped. Hiro had almost asked Maka to hang out somewhere and if Soul haven't had been there then who knew what she would have said. Soul shook his head and looked at the girl before him.

"I just can't leave you alone can I?"

"What was that?" Maka said. Soul couldn't see her face but he could tell that she was smiling.

It was lunchtime now, this was the time where Maka could escape other people if she wanted. The whole school was still talking about yesterday but Maka couldn't blame them, fights inside the school were almost uncommon nowadays. If she walked into the cafeteria then she'd be a in room with too many students. She'd feel like they would be watching her every move. For her, that was a problem. The other problem would be Hiro. She was honestly glad that Soul happen to come in when Hiro was talking.

Maka stood outside under the same tree that Kid found her under on that fateful day. She was going to try to have lunch without the repeat of events. If it didn't happen to go as planned, then she'd just walk back to class. Though she really hoped that she didn't have to resort to that, not after hiding in the flood of people that were leaving the class for lunch. Maka was trying to avoid Soul and his friends. After hearing that he would come walk her to every class, Maka had been coming up with a plan to sneak out to have lunch alone. There were tons of ideas that she could have gone with but instead she used the most simplest one which was to just hide herself as she walked out.

Surprisingly it worked being as she was standing outside alone.

"Finally," she breathed. "It's been awhile since I've had lunch alone. Or even have lunch for that matter." Maka slumped against the tree and looked around. Maybe she'd get to read some of her book that she'd been putting off.

"Sorry about that." She said as she sat down, her hand reaching for the book in an instant. "It's been a while..."

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Maka felt like her heart had stopped. She looked over her shoulder and saw what she hoped had stayed in the lunch room. Soul, Black*Star, Kid, Tsubaki, the whole gang was there with their trays. Even Crona was standing off to the side.

"Uh.. No." Maka wasn't sure of what to say. She just wanted to eat her lunch in peace.

"It sure did look like it." Kid smiled. He walked forward until he was standing before Maka. "I hope you don't mind us intruding. Tsubaki insisted that we come find you. She was the one that led us here."

"Is that so..."

"Yup, so it looks like we're having lunch together, exciting huh?" Kid beckoned for the rest to follow him. He waited for everyone to gather before sitting down.

"To...gether?" Maka repeated. What happened to being alone?

"That's right!" Patty said. Her smile meant well, that Maka knew, but she wished that it wasn't there. It would be near to impossible to read War&Peace now.

"Oh, great." Maka said weakly. She put on a small smile and looked down at her food. Most of the people that were surrounding her now weren't suppose to even know her name. She was sure that they didn't last week. Thanks to Soul, her enemies had begun to speak to her as if they were all just great friends.

This wasn't some love fanfiction, things like this didn't happen in real life. People weren't suppose to force themselves into her life, Soul was enough. Maka even questioned why she was his partner. She was suppose to hate him till her heart burst, not chit chat with him and sleep under the same roof. She let her guard down and didn't even notice. It didn't seem like she could put it up again either.

"Maka? Whatcha lookin at?" Soul waved his hand in front of her face. The huddle of people were looking at her, save Black*Star who could care less. He was too busy chowing down on his lunch.

"Nothing." The reply came quickly as Maka snapped out of her thoughts. "Lost in my train of thought."

"What were you thinking about? This huge ass book of yours?"

"No, and it's not big. There's tons of books that are larger." Maka scowled at him. She noticed that the food on her tray had gone cold. Great, that was exactly what she wanted. A cold lunch with a little audience.

Liz smirked and leaned forward, "Then what were you thinking about?"

"How I planned to eat alone in peace and quiet."

"Well that was quite blunt don't you think?"

"I was trying to avoid confusion and misunderstandings, so no, not really."

Liz nodded and took on a thinking pose. The people around her waited anxiously since they all were unsure of what to say. "Tsubaki?" she finally said after what seemed to be hours. "This was a terrible idea. Everyone's so tense and it's really awkward." Instead of speaking Tsubaki let out a forced laugh. She had nothing to say now so she just kept listening to the others.

"That was a bit harsh Liz." Black*Star said in between spoonfuls of soup. The voice was low and monotone.

"And he finally speaks!" Soul exclaimed and reached across from his spot to slap the assassin on the back. He was glad to hear his friend's voice. In fourth period he had learned how Tsubaki and Black*Star managed one or two words in between them from Kid and Crona.

Maka happened to take notice of how quiet Crona was being, usually she spoke a bit more. It was a bit saddening to know that she'd barely spoken in two days. 'Somethings wrong.' Is what Maka came up with. She didn't see Soul glance at her. In attempt to get Crona to speak, Maka simply called out to her.

"Hey Crona!"

All she managed was to startle her friend and get an indecent wave.

"How have you been?"

Crona just shrugged. She tried to smile but her effort was cancelled out by her trembling. Maka had no idea what was making her act like this. Never once had Crona act the way she was now, maybe it was because she was also surrounded by the people that use to pick on her? It couldn't of been, she surprisingly gotten use to the friends already.

"Crona.. Is there something you need to say?" Maka tried again, and received no response. Crona's behavior was starting to worry her now. Was she the only one who noticed Crona? Had Tsubaki seen her? These questions seemed to replay themselves over and over again inside Maka's head.

Oh whoops a filler. I lost my willpower with this chapter.

In this story Crona is identified as both she/he. I wonder if I mentioned in the last chapter that I revamped every chapter before posting chapter 12, Took some things out, added some too.

That's all for now!