"W-what the hell are you!?" Maka stammered out, staring at Soul. The reaction wasn't an odd one, considering the fact that Soul's abdomen was covered in blood and he was transparent. Still, Soul was kind of offended. He had just saved her from sexual harassment. The least she could say was a thank you. But given his appearance, he supposed that the question was an acceptable one.

"I'm a ghost. Been dead for five years now. Very depressing story. Don't make me go into it." He said it as if he was talking about the weather. A topic that wasn't very important, but was sometimes interesting nonetheless. Maka simply stared, wondering how he could say that so calmly.

She held up her stack of books for Soul to see. "D-did you...?" She then put down the books on her bed and pointed to the door. Soul nodded. Maka sat down on her bed, trying to take in what she'd just found out. A ghost was living in her house? And more importantly, was it going to haunt her like in the movies, or would it be more like Casper? Or some strange mix of both?

"Hey um, I'm not gonna make your life a living hell, alright? I only do that to jerks like that dude. You seem nice enough so..." He drifted off. He knew that if he was alive he probably would be blushing, and he silently thanked the fact that he wasn't. Although if he was alive, he wouldn't be there at the moment...

"So, you haunt people who do bad things?" Maka asked, seeming a little calmer now. Again, Soul only nodded. "So... why were you in my apartment, then?"

"I've been checking you out for a few days, trying to see if you were the kind of person I haunt. You really aren't so if you want, I'll leave you alone." Soul explained slowly, as if he was trying to elongate the conversation, if only for a few seconds.

Maka seemed to think it over. "You can stick around if you want to, but you're not going to pop out of the walls when I'm carrying breakable items, right? And you're not going to appear in front of anybody who comes over?" Soul laughed, and Maka frowned. In her mind, these were very valid questions.

"I'm not going to appear out of no where when you're carrying breakable items, no. And I can choose who I appear to, so if I do show up, your guest won't be able to see me." He reassured. Maka was kind of cute when she worried.

"So um, you must have a name, right? What is it?"

"Soul."

Over the next few weeks, Maka was forced to come to terms with the fact that Soul wasn't so good at controlling his abilities as a ghost because he was still relatively new to the whole concept of being dead. It was sort of an inconvenience, having to constantly look for things that she had just put down. However, she supposed that at least she was never bored. She also discovered that he had an even harder time with it when he didn't keep his emotions in check.

For example, just the week before, Maka had told Soul about this guy who shouted some not-so-appropriate things at her on her way to work, (Soul had stopped following her once she told him that it made her uncomfortable.) and naturally, Soul had been very put-off by this information. What wasn't so natural was that when Soul had started to rant about people who cat-called others, several books flew off their places on the shelf!

Soul claimed that he hadn't done it on purpose, and Maka took his word for it. Still, she was rather upset that the book jacket on one of her favorite books now had a slight tear.

Soul's inability to control his powers and emotions was rather inconvenient for him as well. Once or twice, Maka had come out of the bathroom after a shower with nothing but a towel on, apologizing for the fact that she'd forgotten her clothes in her room. "I-it's cool. It's your house after all," Soul responded, looking away. Unfortunately, several books fell on the floor at that moment, spelling out Maka. Maka stared at them suspiciously, knowing they were from Soul, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she went off to her room to get dressed.