Maka ducked down a side corridor to avoid being seen by BlackStar. Three quick lefts and she was almost at a trot to make it up the stairs before the crowd caught up with her. She zipped into the ladies outside the teachers' lounge just as the first year Meister history lesson let out and she sighed. She tightened her pig tails, straitened her collar and let herself into the handicapped stall. She extracted her book, an apple and a ham sandwich, before tossing her bag on the floor. She sprawled on the commode, propped her boots on her bag, and eagerly opened her book. Maka loved her Tuesday/Thursday guilty pleasure. She would die of embarrassment if Soul caught her with her potboiler romance. She couldn't read them at school, her Brainiac reputation would be shattered if she was seen sighing over such silly nonsense. But on Tuesday's and Thursday's 3 star Weapons cut out by 11, and the day finished out with Meister classes. She loved Blackstar but had no desire to have lunch with him on days when Soul and Tsubaki weren't there to dilute his overwhelming personality. Add in Kid without the Thompson sisters to run interference for his OCD and lunch was quite ruined before her first bite. Instead she snuck off for a piece of quiet. She could read in peace, enjoy her lunch, and get in some ridiculously light reading. In her little make believe bubble she had an hour where men were always faithful and appreciated the shy independent bookwork girls. Harmless indulgence.

She had chosen her location with care, as hardly anyone stopped in this particular ladies' room over the lunch hour. So she was slightly surprised when the door crashed open admitting some very loud someone's. Giggling girls to be specific. They banged into stalls carrying on with their gossip but Maka paid them no mind, flipping her page with her patented nonchalance, fairly confident that the girls wouldn't even bother to notice that the farthest stall from the door was occupied. Still she was pulled rather abruptly from her reading when one them said Soul's name. She was always hyper-aware of anything to do with her Weapon. Their conversation was drowned out by a flush for a moment but quickly resumed and Maka tilted her head to hear better over the running water of the sink, slightly guilty at her eavesdropping behavior, but curious nonetheless.

"Oh don't bother with that one, he is sooooo taken."

"Who's he going out with?" A zipper sound and the sound of rummaging around. The ritual freshening of makeup and hair must have commenced.

"That big shot Meister, the scrawny blond that runs with their group. He's completely devoted to her."

"I thought she was his Meister, not his girlfriend." A smacking sound of lips and a kiss noise made Maka aware of her own hanging jaw and she quickly snapped her mouth shut before she caught flies.

"Oh, she's his girlfriend too," a third voice chimed in and Maka ducked her head to get a glimpse of three pairs of stylish shoes and fashionable tights that offered no clues as to their owners. "They even live together, just the two of them."

"Scandalous!" giggled kissy face girl. "Still, he's too scrumptious not to try. It's even better if he's not available. I'll take that challenge, climb that mountain. Isn't that what the DWMA is all about?"

"Stealing boyfriends? I don't think you get graded for that."

"It's not stealing if I can take him. Then he was never hers to begin with." The sound of a zipper signaled that they were finishing up and Maka realized at some point that she had climbed to her feet. She fumbled at the latch of the door even as their voices moving towards the door were almost drowned out by their clacking heels. "We can call it an extracurricular activity."

Maka fumbled her stall open to catch the tail end of laughter as the door swung shut behind them and she rushed to the door, flinging it open to see three girls turning the corner towards the stairs. She didn't know them, at least not well enough to recognize them from their swinging backsides and long blonde hair. Maka collapsed against the door frame and took a shaky breath. Girls flirting with Soul was hardly new. However this was the first time that she had ever heard that people thought she was his girlfriend. She had the irrational urge to chase them down and correct them. She came to her feet with a deep breath and turned back into the bathroom, pulling rationality around her like a familiar warm blanket. They were just some silly underclassmen. She seriously doubted that it was a common belief that she and Soul were a couple. They were obviously a close Meister/Weapon pair but DWMA students, with the exception of 3 brainless gossiping flirts, knew better to make a thing of it. She went back to her stall, flipped open her discarded book, and got comfortable. Not worth fretting about, and her living arrangements were no one's flipping business anyway.

Maka tried to push her silly lunchtime eavesdropping to the back of her mind and get on with her day. Walking through the halls she caught a flash of blonde swaying hair and spun around, but it wasn't the same girl. She got so caught up in wondering if she ought to warn Soul of a blonde barracuda that she didn't get her notes down. Soul knew how to spot a light skirt. He never let silly flirts turn his head. She didn't need to worry about him. He wasn't Spirit. Her ears strained to hear her name or Souls name in the halls but heard not a whisper. Not a single strange look. It was just some silly gossip.

Still she found herself hyper-aware when she exited the school amidst a crowd and took the stairs two at a time. Soul was alone across the street, waiting for her. Braced up against his bike, hands shoved in the pockets of his black jacket, one foot slung over the other. The very picture of slumped bad boy, a familiar sight. He was always a little bit early to get her so she wouldn't have to wait. For the first time however she noticed that he was the only weapon in sight. Granted a lot of the students lived on campus, but she couldn't be the only one who had a weapon who came to collect her. Even so, now that she was looking around, he was conspicuous by his presence. She didn't so much as glimpse another weapon. She slowed her step while her thoughts raced ahead. Was this why that girl thought that Soul was her boyfriend? She had said Soul was devoted to her. And he was. As he should be as her partner. Weren't most pairs devoted?

A spark of anger lit in her soul when she spotted a familiar trio of blondes break away from the crowd and cross the street. She put some force and swagger into her walk. Big shot Meister was she? There was a reason why she was a big shot. It was because she was one of the best. Skanky blondes ought to watch who they were running their mouth about. She might not have been Soul's girlfriend but she didn't like the idea that this chick thought she could dismiss her supposed claim out of hand. By the time she hit the asphalt her anger was a simmering flame. She was pleased to note that Soul hadn't shifted from his nonchalant pose and was giving his usual mono-cyclic replies to their inane chatter about school stuff. He spotted her as she approached and straitened to take her bag. "Yo, You all know Maka."

Maka aimed her sharpest smile at the girls and was pleased to note they drew back a bit from where they had been crowding Soul. They smiled back, sweet as molasses but Maka was wise to them. Without another word to his admirers Soul slung his leg over his bike and it roared to life even as Maka got close enough to climb on behind him. In a weird moment she couldn't even explain to herself she pressed her whole length against Soul and made a show of wrapping her arms around him. She took her time sliding one hand around his lean hips and the other firmly up over endless rock hard abs so that it wrapped around his chest. She laid her head up against his shoulder, smiling all the while, as she physically laid claim to him. He revved the bike without a word, tipped his hand in a small wave, and peeled away without ceremony.

Once on the move Maka relaxed into Soul, shifting into turns with him as if they were one. The roar of the wind in her ears drowned out her own stupid thoughts and she was grateful to be pressed against his back so he wouldn't see the hot blush that stained her cheeks. She couldn't believe that she had just done that. She hadn't even stopped to think, just reacted to the hot feelings welling up in her, and wrapped herself around him like a ribbon. Rejoiced in the surging satisfaction at the look on those girls' pretty faces. They might have dismissed her out of hand, but she was a Meister, and Soul was hers. For a moment she had been high on her own power and victory. But now, away from those girls, she felt ridiculous.

Soul didn't seem to cotton onto anything weird in the way that she held him and if he took the long winding way home it was probably just because it was a beautiful day for a ride, not because he somehow knew she needed a little extra time to compose herself. He was used to her touch, he wouldn't think anything of it. As he shouldn't, because there was nothing to it. Nothing at all. Maka melted into her weapon as they sped into curves and bends letting the motorcycle outpace her embarrassment and leaving the weird encounter in her past.