"Pum-pum pumpkin pum-pumpkin…"

"Blair, would you please do your spells somewhere else?" Maka complained. "Or at least put some clothes on? I'm trying to study for the exam and Soul is about to pass out." The last was said in a low growl, and Soul struggled to turn away, shutting his eyes and pinching his nose.

Damn cat, flaunting her body like that. He should be able to ignore it, he knew that. Getting distracted was totally not cool. Damn hormones. Next Blair would come to whine at Maka, draping herself over Soul to do so, and—

Soul's thought was cut off as two large, soft somethings pressed against his back. Guh. Dammit, keep control. Think about music.

"Aww, come on, Maka," Blair whined. "It's a really fascinating experiment! Resonance-based teleportation! It won't take much longer, and our little Soul is doing much better, look."

Something fast and complex. Mozart, yes; Sonata in C Major. That one had taken forever to get down. The counterpoint in allegro was such a pain in the ass; even Wes couldn't…

His teeth ground, as ever, at the thought of his perfect older brother, but he was at least sufficiently distracted. Man, he was glad not to be living in the family home, but it'd be even better to be a world away.

"Pum-pumpkin pum-pum pum-pumpkin pum!"

There was a blinding flash of light that burned even through Soul's closed eyelids, and he felt a sudden surge of shock from his Meister's soul along their Link, before everything went black.

"Come on, Blake; I know you're worried about the White Fang, but we've gotta practice!"

Blake blinked, and glanced around. Damn, she'd been staring off into space again. "Sorry, Ruby. It's just…everything."

Ruby nodded. "I know. I'm worried about all this happening with the Festival coming up, especially since we're gonna be distracted with the tournament, but that just means we've gotta be at our best! That way, if something happens, we can still jump straight to helping people, even if it's right after a match."

Yang, striding up to them from her spar with Weiss, pumped a fist. "Hell yeah, sis! Inspiring speeches from our adorable leader!" She grabbed Ruby in a headlock, ignoring her frantic squeaks and flails as the younger girl struggled to free herself.

"Just as long as we still manage to make a good showing," Weiss put in, joining them at the edge of the Emerald Forest. "I refuse to throw a match for anything less than another Breach."

"That's fair," Blake mused. "We've got a lot to prove, as a first-year team. I just hope we don't come up against Pyrrha too early, or—" A cacophony of animalistic sounds cut through the still forest from far away, but didn't seem to draw any nearer. "Did you hear that?"

Ruby spun Crescent Rose around, collapsing and holstering it in a single motion as she took off running. "Come on!"

Hearing the unmistakable howls of Beowolves, Ruby and her team dashed forward, but upon reaching a nearby clearing in the Emerald Forest, they all froze in shock. There was somebody already fighting not only Beowolves, but a pair of Ursai and a medium-sized Deathstalker, too.

It was a girl, who looked to be about Ruby's age, with ash-blonde hair drawn into two tails. She was wearing what looked like a uniform—though certainly not one from Signal or Beacon, consisting of a long black coat over a cream-colored top and a white-and-green striped tie—and wielding a long red and black scythe. She seemed very talented, Ruby thought, watching the girl twirl her scythe to parry a Beowolf lunging at her back without so much as a glance behind her.

Shaking herself from her reverie, Ruby glanced at her team. "We'll need to back her up before they all rush in. Weiss, we'll help her with the Beowolves; you've got the center between us. Yang, you and Blake take care of the Ursae."

She just had time to see Yang's determined nod before she turned back to face the fight, drawing Crescent Rose from her holster. She fired behind her, lunging forward with her Semblance as she unfolded her weapon, eyes carefully reading the stranger's movements. Carving a path through three Beowolves, she ended with a spin which decapitated a fourth, some five yards behind the sandy-haired girl. Keen, olive-green eyes met hers for a moment, before the girl bashed another Grimm away with the butt of her scythe. Lightning flashed past them as Weiss entered the fray, covering both of their backs, and the girl seemed to adapt quickly to the elements occasionally flying past her.

"Maka, on your left!" came a sudden voice, sounding oddly distorted and metallic. Ruby almost stumbled. That had been a male voice! She chanced another glance behind her, but past Weiss was only the other girl—definitely a girl, with that skirt.

The next few minutes were lost in the usual blur of battle, though the characteristic reports of Ember Celica and Yang's casual whooping told her that her sister was doing fine…and that nothing had damaged her hair. The strange voice did not speak again.

Soon only the Deathstalker remained, and Ruby cast an appraising eye over it as it advanced. It was, thankfully, still smaller than the one that JNPR had battled during Initiation, but it was nevertheless larger than it had looked at first glance, which was troubling.

"Any plans?" Weiss asked, gliding up alongside Ruby.

"Working on it." Deathstalkers had very thick armour, and this one would soon reach the age where it began thinking strategically. If it hadn't already. Ruby frowned in concentration. "We've got to get through the armour somehow. Maybe we can make it sting itself, like JNPR did?"

"I've got an armour-piercing attack," offered a new voice. Everyone's eyes flicked to the stranger. She smiled a little uncertainly, but her voice was firm as she gestured with her scythe. "I've never seen a monster like this, but Soul and I can cut it if we Resonate."

Ruby ignored everything the girl had said which didn't make sense, focusing only on the important thing: she said she could hurt it. That was all that mattered. "Monochrome, lock it down! Yang, cover!" Ruby barked, and Weiss and Blake shot forward.

Yang fired a few shots to draw the Deathstalker's many glowing red eyes, before Blake acted. Gambol Shroud lashed out, and wrapped around the giant scorpion's pincers, followed by a tree. Blake dashed around another tree and braced her foot against it, holding the Deathstalker momentarily still. In a flash of white, Weiss darted all around the Grimm, freezing its many legs in place with generous use of Freeze Dust. Ruby winced internally. Hopefully there were not too many more Grimm about; that maneuver had to have used up most of the Freeze that Weiss carried, and the heiress hated going into battle without her favorite element. Still, the Deathstalker was as still as it was going to get. Ruby turned to the new girl, realizing that she didn't know her name, but the girl's eyes were closed, with a look of utmost concentration on her face. "Now!"

The girl's eyes opened, and her jade-colored eyes seemed wilder somehow. "Let's go, Soul Resonance!" she yelled, and that other, metallic, male voice seemed to shout along with her. Her hair and clothes blew as though in a high wind, and her scythe's blade seemed to glow, extending by several feet on both sides of the haft, and curving wickedly. The glow brightened until the original blade was invisible, and the only marking on the light-blade was a shape like a large round eye, which had previously adorned the shaft of the scythe, just where the blade extended. She charged, raising the scythe high, and leaped into the air before bringing it down, turning head-over-heels to bring the weapon down. "Six Hunt Slash!"

The shining blade left a glowing trail behind it in the air as it arced down toward the Deathstalker. Its stinger shot forward, but the scythe knocked it away before carving into the Grimm's back as if it's armour wasn't there. True to the name, the glowing trail faintly resembled a numeral six.

Breathing heavily, the girl kicked off the Grimm's back, landing near Yang and almost collapsing before the blonde caught her. She staggered, but forced her way upright, leaning on the haft of her scythe, now returned to it's red and black form. The Deathstalker screeched, but it wasn't down yet. "White Rose, Petalstorm!" Ruby cried, this time naming not only a formation but a specific attack. She dashed forward with her Semblance. Weiss was closer; she would be there in time. Ruby vaulted over the claws that Blake had lost hold of, and slammed Crescent Rose home into the scar that the other scythe-wielder's glowing attack had left in the Deathstalker's armour. Then, she wrenched the haft forward, twisting the blade in the wound and forcing the armour further apart. In a flash, Weiss was beside her, Myrtenaster's revolving chamber clicking the Gale cartridge into place, and the long, slender blade glowed green in the instant before Weiss plunged it down alongside Crescent Rose. There was a rushing noise, and the Deathstalker's screams reached a new pitch, before it collapsed like a marionette with cut strings.

The Grimm were all dissolving, as team RWBY dusted itself off. Blake had retrieved her weapon and was gazing off into the trees, but her relaxed posture told Ruby there were no more enemies for the moment. Spinning Crescent Rose up onto her shoulder, she offered the girl a smile. "That was a neat trick, friend. Is that your Semblance?"

The girl was gazing around at the dissolving grim, looking puzzled. "No souls?" Ruby thought she mumbled, before seeming to realize that Ruby had asked her something. She blinked. "My what?" Oddly, she glanced at her scythe. The scythe's blade seemed to shimmer slightly, though it hadn't apparently moved. "I'm sorry." The girl looked back, smiling uncertainly again, "I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'Semblance'. That was Witch Hunter, a Scythe Meister technique."

"Oh." Ruby tilted her head curiously. "What's a Meister?"

The girl blinked. "Um." She looked puzzledly at her scythe again. "Soul?"

The scythe shimmered again, then the blade seemed to vibrate, and the male voice from before issued from it. "Beats me, Maka. We still don't know what Blair's spell did. This place doesn't look anything like Death City, those things don't look like any monsters I've ever seen, and all of these chicks have entirely mundane weapons."

"How do you know that?" the girl—Maka, presumably—asked the scythe.

The scythe huffed. "We were just resonating, weren't we? We only sensed four other souls around. Nice melodies, though; they're good people."

"But what about the ice and the lightning?" Maka argued.

"Beats me," the scythe repeated. Then, sounding a little sardonic, it continued. "Though, I think it's funny how you're always nagging me to be polite, when you're ignoring four people staring at you."

Maka jumped, and looked back at RWBY, scratching her head in embarrassment. "Sorry about that. It's just, I'm not quite sure where we are, and I didn't realize there was anybody who didn't know about the Meisters. We keep the world safe from monsters and demons on behalf of Lord Death."

Ruby glanced at her team, honestly a little offended that the girl's scythe had called Crescent Rose 'mundane'. Okay, she couldn't talk, but still! They all looked just as baffled as she felt. Blake was biting her lip, yellow eyes flicking from the girl to the scythe and back. Yang met Ruby's gaze, and twirled a finger around her ear in the universal sign for crazy. Weiss, naturally, reacted to confusion and uncertainty in her usual manner: getting angry.

"How is your scythe speaking? And what's this about death? Is this some kind of cult? And moreover, how can you claim to be a Huntress or a Meister or whatever you say, if you've never seen a Grimm before?"

"Cult…?" the girl shook her head, and visibly changed her line of questioning. "These things are called Grimm?"

"Of course," said Yang, in a slow, calming voice. Oh, man, she really thought this Maka girl was crazy, not just confused. Well, it was hard to argue otherwise when someone claimed not to know what a Grimm was, but…

"Where are their souls?" Maka asked curiously, looking at where the Grimm had lain.

Everyone looked shocked into silence again, so Ruby took the moment to answer with the simple truth. "Grimm don't have souls."

Now the girl looked surprised. "But everything has a soul. Humans and Weapons and Witches; monsters have souls too, albeit they've been twisted. Even demons have souls."

The scythe spoke up again. "Only sensed four souls around, Maka," it reminded her. Then it added, more quietly, "Just as well, I bet they'd taste disgusting."

This brought Myrtenaster up in a flash. "Your scythe eats souls?" Weiss hissed.

"Only monster souls, obviously," Maka waved a dismissive hand, apparently unconcerned with the weapon leveled at her. "But you four, you're really good. You would all have fit in at Shibusen. Why don't you have weapon partners?"

Ruby glanced at her team again. "We have weapons, and partners," she said slowly. "Weiss is my partner, and Crescent Rose is my weapon." She tapped Crescent Rose's haft against the ground, but the girl just shook her head.

"No, I mean…" she glanced at her scythe once more. "It seems safe enough, Soul."

The scythe sighed. "It's a bad idea, out here in the field. Here I thought you were all about following rules. But, hey, my Meister ordered it; I can't refuse. That wouldn't be cool."

Maka held the scythe out to her side, and there was a flash of bluish-white light. Team RWBY all flinched, covering their eyes, and when they looked back, there was a slouching boy standing where the scythe had just been. He wore a yellow-and-black jacket over red trousers, and a headband in his spiky white hair read 'Soul'. His hands were deep in his pockets, and he looked them over with eyes the color of old blood. "Yo."

"I think we should start over," said the girl, when nobody said anything. "My name's Maka Albarn, one-star scythe meister. This is my weapon partner, Soul Evans."

"Soul Eater," The boy corrected, drawing an eye roll from Maka, and the Beacon students saw that his teeth were sharply pointed, like a shark's. They were all dumbfounded…except for Ruby, who was nearly vibrating with excitement.

"A weapon…partner?" she asked breathlessly.

"Uh-oh," Yang moaned. She made a grab for Ruby's hood, but missed as her sister sped forward with the use of her Semblance, stopping right in front of Soul and staring at him with stars in her eyes. He was only a little taller than her, and his slack expression turned to surprise as she suddenly appeared.

"So coooool!" Ruby squealed, and Soul seemed to relax.

He grinned. "Well, I'm glad you think so. Guess we're gonna get along fine." He chuckled and raised a fist, which Ruby bumped enthusiastically.

She then turned to Maka, and politely extended a hand. "Nice to meet you, Maka. I'm Ruby Rose, this is my partner Weiss Schnee, my sister Yang Xiao Long, and her partner Blake Belladonna." Each of her teammates nodded as they were introduced, and Yang gave her an encouraging smile. It seemed she was doing better at this whole meeting-people thing! "We're first-year Huntresses-in-training at Beacon Academy. Um. Maybe you had better come with us, if you don't know where you are?" Shoot, she had meant to sound more authoritative, but it came out questioning. Oh well.

"I guess…" Maka said uncertainly. She glanced at Soul, who merely shrugged.

"We've got nowhere else to go until we figure out where we are," he said, returning to his usual lackadaisical posture. "Never heard of a Beacon Academy, though."

"Me neither," Maka mumbled. Then she nodded firmly. "All right, Ruby, we'll be glad to accompany you."

"…And then we headed back, sir." Ruby wound up her report to Professor Ozpin.

"I see." The Headmaster of Beacon merely sipped his coffee, as inscrutable as ever. "And do you have anything to add, Miss Albarn?"

"No, sir," Maka replied, seemingly quite calm despite standing at attention. Soul, beside her, was less stiff, but nevertheless more carefully upright than he had been in the forest.

Ozpin hummed in thought. "Well, I cannot say I have a guess at what may have happened to you, but a browse through our library should confirm what I am about to tell you: the world you described is not known to me."

Maka looked stunned. "Not…known?"

Ozpin sighed. "I do not recognize any of the places, people, or creatures that you have mentioned. This world is called Remnant; it is inhabited by humans and Faunus, not by Weapons or Witches. Our predominant source of power is Dust, an energy propellent catalyzed by our souls' Aura. The only monsters to be fought are the Grimm. It is within the realm of possibility that you have suffered some injury to the head, causing you to forget what you once knew, but your otherwise unhindered ability to think and speak and fight rather tears that theory down. As it is, seemingly the only constant between our world and the one you describe is the use of the soul as a source of power, and even in that your description is somewhat variant." He drained his coffee, then added, "Until we learn more, you are of course welcome to stay here. A recommendation of your skills from one of our most promising teams—" here he winked at Team RWBY. Ruby kicked the ground, blushing slightly. "—goes rather a long way. You are a little young for Beacon, but it is not unheard of."

Maka bowed at the waist, murmuring, "Thank you, sir." Soul inclined his head, glancing at Ozpin, though his focus remained on his partner.

"Team RWBY, you are excused from classes today, to get your new friends acquainted with the campus, and answer the questions I am sure they are burning to ask," Ozpin continued. Looking back at Maka and Soul, he continued, "Our dorms at Beacon are mixed; I trust this will not cause any problems?"

Soul shrugged. Maka shook her head. "We share an apartment back home anyway, sir. It's considered of the utmost importance for a Meister and their partner to bond, so every opportunity is taken."

"Beacon holds a similar ideal," Ozpin smiled slightly. "I shall contact our Facilities staff and have them deliver bunk beds to Team RWBY's dorm. In fact, I think we shall replace all your beds, while we're at it. The new ones may be a little narrower than you are accustomed to, but they will be altogether less…precarious." Ruby scratched her head, chuckling in embarrassment, but Ozpin merely rose to get more coffee. "Lunch will be starting soon," he reminded them.

The dismissal was clear. "Yes sir!" Ruby snapped a salute, grinned, and led the way down to the cafeteria.

Team JNPR was out on a mission, so there was plenty of room at their regular lunch table. Soul made himself a sandwich that everyone but Yang raised an eyebrow at, while Maka contented herself with a slightly-larger portion of Weiss' favorite Mistrali salad with chicken.

"So um," Ruby started, having polished off her lunch and returned to the table with a plate of cookies. "I hope it isn't offensive to ask, but uh…" She looked appealingly at her sister, and Yang supplied the question that she knew was on her sister's mind.

"How are you a weapon?" She asked, with all her characteristic bluntness.

Soul gave a languid shrug as he polished off his sandwich. "How are you a human?" he asked by way of answer. "This is who I am."

"I…guess that's fair enough," Ruby mumbled, glancing at Blake, who was plainly listening closely despite keeping her eyes fixed on her ever-present book.

"It's a little more complicated than that, Soul," Maka put in, gesturing at him with a forkful of lettuce. "After all, my Papa is a weapon, but I'm not."

"Not that you know of," Soul shot back. "You never want to try my meditation, so we don't know for sure."

"I don't want to be anything like him," Maka scowled, stabbing at her salad a little more viciously. "I want to be like Mama, and I'm going to make you a better Death Scythe than Papa ever was."

Soul grinned and bumped her shoulder with his own, and after a moment, she smiled back. Then, seeing the confusion on her friends' faces, she hurriedly explained how Meisters worked to empower their weapon partners to the point that they could serve Lord Death in maintaining world order. "My Papa, Spirit, is Lord Death's current scythe," she finished. "He has a lot more, but they take care of different parts of the world for him."

"They're all only Death Scythes by title, though," Soul added. "Only her dad is an actual scythe, and I'm way cooler than him." The grin dropped off his face, and he grumbled, "Who knows when I'll get to prove it though? Stupid cat…"

Blake blinked, but nobody really addressed his final words.

Seeing that their plates were empty, Weiss spoke up. "We've got work to do."

Ruby and Yang groaned; the girl seriously had a one-track mind. "Come on, Weiss, we've got guests!"

But Weiss merely folded her arms. "We all agreed that we'd study once we got back from that trip; we have an important test coming up! That hasn't changed!"

"Don't let us interfere," said Maka. "Studying is important. I can find something to read to occupy me." Then she gasped. "Soul! We're going to miss the Cho Hikkishiken!"

"Who cares? Nerd," Soul snickered good-naturedly, but both Maka and Weiss rounded on him.

"It's an important test!" Maka cried. "You have to train your brain as much as your muscles! 'A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body'."

"There is nothing wrong with wanting to excel academically!" Weiss protested in turn.

"Don't mind him," Maka told Weiss, voice cutting. "He's more likely to cheat than to put in any good hard work."

Weiss scoffed. "Shortcuts like that will only hurt you in the long run. You've got to understand the basics before you can move on to more complex things."

Soul sighed. "Just what I need; another bossy girl who's flat as a board…"

Weiss opened her mouth in outrage, but Maka acted faster. In a single motion, her hand darted out, snatched the novel was reading, and brought the spine crashing down on Soul's head. He slumped onto the table, groaning, and waved a hand in surrender as Blake retrieved her book.

Weiss gave a sickly-sweet smile, which Maka returned. "Oh, we're going to get along just fine."

"Thanks for agreeing to show us around, Blake," Maka said, since Soul was still sulking and Blake didn't seem eager to initiate small talk.

"Not at all," Blake said quietly. "I may not be several weeks ahead like Weiss, but I'm not behind like Yang."

"What about Ruby?" Soul asked, noticing she hadn't been mentioned.

"Knowing her, Weiss is making her rewrite all her work to be more coherent. She's very bright for her age, but a bit scatterbrained at times, so her ideas are all over the place and her essays tend to skip around a lot."

"How old are you guys?" Maka wondered. "You don't seem much older than us. E.A.T. class at Shibusen starts at fourteen."

"Beacon starts at seventeen," Blake answered. "There are other preparatory combat schools where you can go at a younger age, though; most students attend one first, before applying to Beacon. Ruby got moved ahead two years, which is why she's here with her older sister."

"And she got made squad leader?" Soul whistled. "That's pretty cool."

"Squad leadership at Shibusen is decided on a mission-by-mission basis," Maka told Blake. "Because not every mission requires a team. The only permanent partnerships are between Meisters and their Weapons."

"How is that partnership formed?" Blake asked, in between pointing out the lab building and, of course, the library.

"It's more or less up to the students to find a partner with whom they can work well," Maka replied. "Soul and I became partners after I listened to him play the piano."

Blake hummed. "Sounds better than, 'the first person with whom you make eye contact after we launch you into this monster-infested forest', if you ask me. Slower though, I suppose."

"And it can lead to difficulties, if your partner decides he wants to work with someone else," Maka grumbled, shooting a sidelong glare at Soul.

Soul slouched deeper than ever. "How many times do I have to apologize for that?" he grumbled back. "We were just messing around, and it's not like it even worked. Black Star and I couldn't resonate at all; he couldn't even hold me. I'm your partner, Maka."

Maka bumped his shoulder companionably, like he'd done to her earlier. He didn't smile, but his scowl became less pronounced, and the crease between his eyes softened.

"What do you mean by 'resonate'?" Blake asked.

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know, since your weapons don't have souls. Well, um," Maka hesitated. "You can bring your…Aura, did you call it? You can channel it around you, can't you?" Blake nodded. "Well, does anything happen if you touch someone else who's doing that?"

Blake frowned a little in thought. "It's not well-understood, because usually the only contact occurs through weapons, but yes, even skin-to-skin contact can cause reactions. Usually there are spikes of Aura which drain both people's reserves, but on occasion, the reaction seems muted. Long-time partners can sometimes even bolster each other's Aura to a slight degree."

"Long-time partners, like people who know each other inside and out?" Maka pressed, confident now that the effect was at least similar.

"Someone who you've worked with for years, someone who you trust with your life," Soul added, eyes sharper.

Blake looked a little apprehensive, but nodded again. "That's what they say," she allowed. "Although…I'm not sure I could trust anyone that much."

Maka gave her an encouraging smile. "You'll get there with your teammates," she said. "Especially your partner. It takes time to build real trust, but in the end…"

She trailed off, and Soul took his cue. Taking one hand out of his pocket, he transformed it into a scythe blade that curved around Maka's neck, the razor-thin blade an inch from her throat. Maka kept walking, utterly unconcerned.

Blake had flinched back before she could help herself, and only the fact that Gambol Shroud was in her locker stopped her from drawing it. "How can you–?"

"Soul would never hurt me," Maka answered simply. "But the point we were making is, when you do trust your partner implicitly, your souls or Auras or whatever won't hurt each other." She laid a hand on Soul's arm above the blade, and in a flash, he was fully in scythe form, resting across Maka's shoulders. She offered Blake the haft of the weapon. "You can try if you like, but if you're not compatible, Soul will be too heavy to lift. If you're too far out of sync, he might even burn you."

Blake shied away, shaking her head, and Maka withdrew the scythe, letting Soul back down into human form.

"Your weapon is pretty cool too," Soul said after a moment, clearly unsure how to break the awkward silence. "We have a friend who can become a kusarigama, or a katana."

"Thank you. I think I would get along with Gambol Shroud, if it was a person," Blake allowed, eager to move the conversation on.

"Resonance is…like nothing else," Maka said quietly. "It's an amazing sense of connection." Soul frowned at her returning to the subject Blake had clearly been uncomfortable with, but he sensed along their soul Link that she had a reason. "You've felt a little bit of it," Maka went on, which caused Blake's eyes to widen. "I saw it in how you and your partner moved, earlier today."

Blake blinked. "Did we…move that well?"

"When you weren't thinking about it too hard," Soul offered, following his Meister's lead. "I could hear it. Your souls came into harmony once you started fighting. There were a couple hiccups, but for the most part, the resonance was stable and the melody was nice. The other pair, too. Collectively, your counterpoint was off by about half a beat, but—" Maka smacked him, and he stopped talking.

Blake raised an eyebrow, pointing at the room they were passing. "This is the music room, I think you'll be pleased to know," she noted dryly.

Maka opened the door for them to glance inside. Within, surrounded by many other instruments, there was a full concert grand. "Soul, it looks like–!"

"Yeah," he said gruffly. "It looks like my piano."

"I'd like to hear you play sometime," Blake said. "Weiss would probably like it even more."

Soul snorted. "A prissy girl like that? I'd probably never live up to standard, if she even appreciates music at all."

Blake gave an enigmatic smile, her usual mood obviously restored.

"Do you think it's the same time back home?" Maka asked Soul, as she stared out the window at Remnant's shattered moon. Team RWBY were taking their turns in the showers, so it was only the two of them, dressed in night clothes. Maka had borrowed a dressing gown from Weiss, while Soul was making do with his tee-shirt and boxers. The weather in Vale wasn't as chilly as the nights in the desert in Death City, so neither was worried about being too cold.

Soul shrugged, knowing that Maka would hear him moving even if she couldn't see him. "Did you try calling?" he asked, not getting up from his upper bunk.

There was a muffled thud as Maka smacked her head against the window. "I didn't even think to try…she mumbled, embarrassed.

"I wasn't really serious," Soul said quickly, trying to cheer up his meister. "I don't think it would be that easy—I'm beginning to think this really is a different world."

"Still," said Maka, straightening up. "We won't know until we try." She crossed the room to Yang's desk, which held a small mirror, and exhaled onto it, causing the glass to fog up. "Shini-Shini-Goroshi…", she murmured, tracing out numbers. "Forty-two, forty-two, five-six-four, whenever you want to knock on Death's door."

She held her breath, waiting for the mirror would react, hoping it would glow white and show her Lord Death's mask…but nothing happened.

She slumped in disappointment.

"Hey, I told you I was joking." Soul's voice was gentle, and closer than she expected. He had jumped down from his bunk and was standing right behind her. She didn't move. "Look…whatever happened, it was that stupid cat's fault, but it was obviously a mistake. She'll know she's made a mistake, and she'll do her best to fix it. If she can't, she's not too proud to ask for help. Between Lord Death and Doctor Stein, somebody will find a way to find us." He laid a hand on her shoulder, sensing that she wanted the reassurance of physical contact. "Besides, d'you think your goofy dad is gonna let anyone rest until you're back home?"

Slowly, Maka raised a trembling hand and laid it over his. They stayed that way for a moment, then her back straightened. She turned to face him, and the usual fire was back in her eyes.

"So," Soul finished. "In the meantime, I guess we've got to show this world what a Shibusen Meister and her Weapon can do. Right?"

Grinning his pointed grin, Soul raised his forearm. Maka pressed hers against it, and they both leaned in until their foreheads touched.

"Right."

The Resonance Link between them, which had been getting fuzzier with Maka's turbulent emotions as the mirrorcall failed, stabilized again.

"Uh, are we interrupting something?"

Yang stood in the doorway, clad in a thin tank top and shorts, her eyes sparkling mirthfully. Her outfit certainly showed off her body, and Maka braced for Soul to make a fool of himself like he always did around Blair.

"Nope," Soul said calmly. He laid a hand on Maka's head, just for a second, before turning and kipping back up into his own bed. Maka blinked in surprise, then smiled. Looked like even Soul could manage not to ruin a nice moment.

"Oh, you're no fun, Scythe-boy." Yang swept into the room, headed for Maka, who was of course at Yang's desk. "C'mon, Maka, tell me there was something juicy happening!"

Blake slipped by, smacking Yang's shoulder on the way to her own bed. "Get over yourself, gossip hound."

Yang spun to face Blake, mock-accusing. "Sounds like you know something I don't, kitty cat. Do I need to chase you for answers?"

Blake smirked. "You're barking up the wrong tree."

Yang's lips twisted. After a moment, she said, "That wasn't a pun, so it doesn't count." She turned away dramatically. "What did you even see on your tour?" she asked, taking the seat Maka had just vacated and beginning to brush out her hair.

"Cafeteria, classrooms, library, music room," Soul rattled off sleepily as Weiss and Ruby arrived. "Speaking of puns though, do you know the difference between a fish, a musical instrument, and a tub of glue?"

Yang paused, then continued brushing, appearing to think about her answer, which made Ruby giggle. Weiss rolled her eyes, glaring suspiciously up at Soul's bunk before crawling into her own and facing away from him. Blake, settling in with a book, smiled faintly. "Come on, Yang, Xiao Long are you going to take to think about this?"

Yang snorted, a grin reluctantly breaking out on her face. Maka chuckled. Weiss groaned. "All right," Yang said. "I give up, what's the difference?"

Soul rolled over, and his answer was half-muffled by his pillow. "You can tune a piano, but you can't piano a tuna."

Another snort from Yang turned into an actual laugh. Weiss groaned again, as if in pain.

Ruby paused in the act of climbing up her own ladder. "Wait, what about the tub of glue?"

Sensing that Soul had already fallen asleep, it was Maka who delivered the final punchline: "He expected someone to get stuck on that."

Four sets of giggles (and one agonized groan) overlaid Soul's snores, and punctuated the end of the Meister and Weapon pair's first night at Beacon.

A/N: The only way to make Ideas stop coming is to stop consuming media altogether, and…that's not an acceptable solution.

*waves* Hello, Internet. I am not dead! Celebrate by having a thing! This is one of several Ideas that I've been working on lately (along with, yes, the next chapters of some established stories), and as with most things, I have no idea where this one may go (if anywhere). Plot may happen, or not; character interactions absolutely will. I needed to get this down.

Yes, Soul can talk out loud in weapon form. I'm not clear if that's the case in Soul Eater canon, but speech is just sound, and sound is just a pressure oscillation transmitted through a medium, so as far as I'm concerned, Soul can talk by vibrating his blade. It's kinda metallic and distorted, but definitely recognizable, especially if you're Maka.