Planes. She hated planes. Soul hated that the fastest way to get to Australia was by plane. But what could he do? He held her close and tried to distract her from the fact that they were miles above the ground. Through their soul link he could feel how jittery she was. He tried his best to send soothing wavelengths to her, but every time the pilot came on the intercom or the plane shook Maka freaked out.

After a couple hours over the ocean, Soul noticed the cabin getting darker. Frowning, he sat up from his lazy position on the couch right as a flash of lightning illuminated the interior of the plane. Swearing, he leapt towards Maka. Before she knew what was happening, Soul had wrapped his arms around her and pressed his hands against her ears, burying her face in his chest. The momentum of his leap had them rolling across the floor of the plane's cabin, Soul shifting to keep his weight from crushing Maka. Within seconds of doing so, a thunderclap shook the plane.

Soul cursed repeatedly in his head as Maka screamed and her small body shook. He held her tightly to him, hating the plane more than ever before. He stood them up, never taking his hands off of her ears or her face out of his chest and led her to the couch a few feet away. The plane hit a patch of turbulence and threw them onto the couch. The unexpected move had Soul twisting to catch Maka, but his hands left her ears to catch her against him. The thunder clapped again and Maka responded with screams that slowly died down to whimpers. The rain began to hit the windows and her sobs were nearly drowned out.

The flight attendant came out to tell them to buckle their seatbelts, but when she saw Maka's hysterics she agreed to let Soul handle the situation. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he worked hard to restrain the small girl in his lap. He spoke to her in a soothing voice, reminding her that he was there for her, that she wasn't alone, that he loved her. Eventually he felt her soul turn to him slightly, indicating that she was starting to listen to his words. He continued to soothe her, and her shaking lessened. They were nearly out of the storm.

Soul knew when she stopped crying and exhaustion claimed her small body. Just before sleep overtook her, he felt her soul whisper his name. He was exhausted, too. Maka's reaction to storms always made his heart hurt and emotionally drained him. Unbuckling their seat belts, he pulled her so she was facing the back of the couch before grabbing a blanket and curling up behind her, spreading it over the both of them. In his exhausted state he managed to calculate approximately 12 hours remaining on their nonstop flight. Wrapping his arms around her once more, he let himself slip into a deep sleep.

When Soul awoke 10 hours later he immediately reached out his soul to Maka's and reconnected. She would sleep for another hour at least. After carefully extracting himself from the couch, Soul readjusted the blanket over her and placed a gentle kiss to her temple. She's so beautiful, he thought to himself, smoothing a hand over her hair. Turning away, he went to the bathroom to relieve himself and fix his disheveled hair. He grimaced at the sight of his shirt in the mirror. It was ruined, stained by Maka's salty tears and wrinkled beyond recognition from her clenched fists. He slipped it over his head.

Holding it loosely at his side he walked bare-chested out of the bathroom to the luggage compartment. Pulling his suitcase down, he heard a gasp behind him. Glancing over his shoulder he saw the flight attendant staring at the collection of small scars on his back. He grinned. Literal battle scars. He turned around when he found the shirt he wanted. "Can I help you?" He asked the flight attendant who still stood there. He watched her eyes trace the scar that spanned from his shoulder to his hip. He frowned lightly and cleared his throat when her eyes didn't stop their descent. "Can I help you?" he repeated. Her eyes finally met his and widened in surprise. There was something else lurking in those amber depths. Lust.

Soul frowned deeper and said, "I'm not interested," shortly. Her futile attempts to sway his mind were barely of note. There was only one woman for him. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed angel. His meister. Pulling on the shirt he walked back to the couch just as he felt her soul awaken. Sitting on the edge, he leaned over to kiss her. Her eyes opened and she blinked shyly. Maka turned towards him and whispered, "I'm sorry for earlier."

Kissing her again, he chuckled. "That's what I'm here for Angel-chan." Blushing, she let Soul help her off the couch. Running a hand over her face she groaned. "I must look like a mess. Since we'll be landing soon I'm gonna go fix my face." Laughing at her words, Soul let her go.

15 minutes later, Maka had returned and the flight attendant came back to icily order them to buckle up. Confused, Maka turned to Soul. "She was so nice earlier, what happened?" Soul briefly explained what went down by the luggage compartment. Fire leapt into Maka's eyes and her lips formed a pout as she stood to go give the flight attendant a piece of her mind. Laughing, Soul pulled her back down to the couch and buckled her in on top of his lap. Maka struggled for a minute before crossing her arms and pouting with a hmph. Soul kissed her. "You're so cute when you get jealous Angel-chan."