Maka had always found the story of Hades and Persephone to be incredibly interesting. The story of the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon and goddess of springtime attracting someone like the ruler of the dead was something she also had a hard time understanding.

When Hades had seen the beauty and innocence of the lovely springtime goddess, he knew that he had to have her. While Maka didn't like the idea of someone owning someone else, she was still a hopeless romantic at heart and found the sentiment endearing.

Demeter flew into a rampage when she learned of her daughter's whereabouts, turning the eternal spring into a barren wasteland. She begged Poseidon and Zeus to help her, and Zeus decreed that if Persephone had not eaten anything in the underworld, then she could stay.

Meanwhile, Hades offered Persephone every delicacy he could, but the goddess still refused to eat. Finally, he offered her a pomegranate and she gave into her hunger and temptation and ate six seeds. When the King of Gods found out, he decreed that she would stay in the underworld with Hades for 6 months of the year, and with her mother for the other 6 months. The story was used by the ancient greeks to explain the seasons.

In some ways, she felt bad for Hades and Persephone.

While the story never said that Persephone grew to love Hades, Maka imagined the she did eventually, which made the six months apart each year all the more bitter. Obviously his original plan to get the woman of his dreams was a bit far fetched, but perhaps she grew to love her God of Death.

If only she had eaten more pomegranate seeds.

When Zeus decided that Persephone must stay away from Hades in out of the underworld for six months, was he actually separating two people who loved each other?

The blonde meister pondered the story frequently as it was a favorite of her mother's. She told the story often to her only daughter, in hopes of getting her to go to sleep at night.

It usually didn't work.

When the story ended, Maka would always ask of it was real. Kami would then smiled at her daughter and brush her head, telling her that Hades was not real, but there was a God of Death, and that she worked for him as a meister.

To a three-year old Maka, the two were the same. A God of the underworld and a God of Death. Then she would ask her mother if Persephone was real as well.

Kami would then kiss the blonde hair of her daughter and tell her that maybe Persephone was real, and maybe one day she would be just like her, spreading joy and life wherever she went.

00000000

"Ready to head back yet, Soul?" Maka called to her partner from across the square.

The pair had spent the week in Vienna, wiping out the remains of a witch training colony that had been unwilling to submit to the treaty created during the battle on the moon.

As members of Spartoi, Maka and her deathscythe partner Soul, had a mission to take them out.

They had done their job expertly, eliminating the six witches housed in Vienna as well as collecting all the souls to take back to Kid.

"Yeah, I'm good," Soul shouted back as he cross the square to his meister.

"Did you find anything for Liz?" Maka asked with a sly grin.

The Deathscythe immediately blushed and tugged his headband down. "Who said I was looking for something for Liz?"

Maka only laughed as they walked toward where he had parked the bike while they shopped. "Come on, Soul, it's obvious that you like her." She elbowed her best friend in the ribs, saying "Besides, why else would you be looking at a jewelry vendor?"

Soul looked away, not wanting to meet his meister's eyes. She was incredibly perceptive when she wanted to be, something he both loved and hated about her.

"Yeah, Whatever, just get on the bike," he said as he situated himself on the seat. She happily sat behind him, wrapping her arms securely around his waist was he kicked the kickstand and started the engine. They both lurched forward as he hit the gas.

"Hey Soul, I think she likes you too," Maka said from behind him as they passed other cars along the freeway.

"Why do you think that, bookworm?" he called back at her.

She growled in response, wishing that she could hit him with a book without killing them both in the process.

"I'm sorry," he called back with a chuckle. "But really, why do you think that?"

The blonde teen smiled. "I accept your apology. But it's more intuition than anything else. Girls just kind of pick up on that kind of stuff," she said brightly. "I can't pin it on an exact moment, but she always seems happier when you're around," she explained, causing her partner to blush even more.

Soul may have been "cool" but he wasn't exactly suave. He was still insecure about girls, but he tried to hide it under male bravado. He did really like the demon pistol, but he worried over the rejection that might follow if he pursued his feelings.

"Besides," Maka continued thoughtfully, "now that you're finally taller than her, it might actually work!"

The growl that followed was loud enough to be heard of the engine of the bike, which only made Maka laugh. She could feel the vibrations from her partner and the erratic wavelength of his soul as she continued the uncomfortable topic.

They continued the rest of the drive in silence, reaching the airport quickly. They showed their DWMA ID's to the red-headed woman at the counter who quickly ushered them to a jet that would be ready to depart for Death City in the next hour. It was really nice having that kind of power.

The flight attendant brought them drinks and a menu to choose from while they waited. Maka settled on steak and ordered salmon for Soul while he scanned through the movies, deciding on what to watch on their flight home.

After they started eating, Maka heard Soul mumble a thank you to his partner.

She didn't say anything in response, she just simply smiled, knowing that it was hard for him to voice his gratitude. She wouldn't force her partner becayse she knew it wouldn't be worth it. Instead, she always employed a gentler approach, one that would yield the same results with the least amount of resistance.

By the time the plane took off, both meister and weapon, were fast asleep in their seats, curled up next to each other. A blonde head could be seen on Soul's shoulder, her face obscured by her hair. His eyes were closed as he slumped back against his seat comfortably. The familiar presence of the other soothed their souls and relaxed their bodies, making the transition to sleep effortless.

The flight attendants cooed when the passed by the pair of teenagers who seemed so comfortable with each other. They had fallen asleep almost as soon as the movie started, so one flight attendant approached and turned the sound off so the two could sleep peacefully.

They slept for the entire nine hour flight. It was a good thing the DWMA had a jet stationed in the Vienna airport, or the flight would've been painfully long and tedious.

Both teens awoke with a start when a voice came from overhead, telling them that they were about to land in Death City. Maka stretched in her seat while Soul slowly opened his eyes lazily, the usually bright scarlet a dull crimson from sleep. He rubbed his eyes absently while Maka finally sat up in her seat and took out her pigtails.

"What are you doing?"

"Fixing my pigtails," she said with a roll of her eyes.

Soul snorted in response. "Why? We're just going to drop off these souls to Kid and then - ohhhh . . ." he said as a smirk grew on his face. His eyes flashed toward his partner.

"It's not like that!" Maka yelped as she punched her partner in the shoulder. A faint blush dusted her cheeks. "He just gets really upset when they're not even, because symmetry . . . and stuff," she trailed off desperately.

"Uh-huh, and stuff."

Soul should've known that the guidebooks on the backs of airline seats were actually very thick, and deadly weapons when wielded by his meister.

He nursed a bruise on his skull the entire way back to the Academy.

-Wri