Love Letters

"Hey, Maka," I say, raising my hand to wave as I walk down the corridor towards my friend. Maka is concentrating on a piece of paper in her hand and doesn't seem to hear me. She'd holding the paper really tight so it must be something important. Her face looks a little red too, a little bit like she's angry but something else too. She's concentrating really hard on that piece of paper, it must be really important.

"Maka?" I say again as I walk up next to her. She jumps a little, crumpling the paper, then quickly screws it up and shoves it into her bag, tuning really red. It makes her look a little bit like a tomato...being so red. It's kind of cute, though. "Are you ok?"

"Hey, Crona," she says, turning to look at me with a forced grin on her face. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just...it's nothing...shall we go to class?"

"Was there something important on that piece of paper?" I ask, trying to get a better look at her face. I'm really bad at telling what people are thinking by looking at their faces. Maka seems quite good at it, though Tsubaki-chan is an expert...maybe one day I'll be like her. I asked her to tell me how to do it once but she said it's something you have to feel, not something you can learn. I wish I could feel what Maka was feeling by looking at her face right now.

"No! It was nothing. Just a silly note. Let's get going before we're late!"

She heads of down the corridor, her face starting to go back to its normal colour, and I follow. It couldn't be just a note, could it?

~*~*~*~

"Yo, Crona, wait up!"

I turn around to find Soul-kun running down the corridor after me. I think he looks worried, I guess. It's hard to tell, Soul-kun makes a lot of faces when he'd trying to look cool, it makes it hard to tell what he's really thinking. But I think he looks worried.

I stop until he catches me then wait while he catches his breath, he was really running to catch up with me, this must be something really important. After panting for a few seconds he stands up and wipes his face, then relaxes back into one of his cool poses, his hands in his pockets, kind of slouching at an angle.

"Hey, have you noticed anything odd with Maka recently?"

"Maka?" I say, tilting my head to the side. "What do you mean by weird?"

"Like...like odd. I don't know, she's been really angry about everything for the past few days, she keeps hitting me and yelling at me about silly things and then sitting staring off into space. It's not like her...well...not to be so irritable anyway."

"That is odd," I agree, thinking. "She's been a little odd, very quiet in class. I saw her reading a paper in the hall earlier and when I said hello to her she went bright red and hid it in her bag...that was odd..."

"A piece of paper? What was on it?" Soul asks me, stepping forward. He's grinning in an odd way now, it's a bit scary.

"I don't know," I reply, wrapping my arms around myself. "She hid it in her bag as soon as I saw her. She said it was just a note..."

"Just a note my ass!" Soul-kun seems excited now, I think. Definitely excited. What can be so exciting about a piece of paper that makes Maka's face turn red? "Crona, meet me in the library after classes tomorrow, I'm going to get that piece of paper and get to the bottom of this!"

I nod as he turns around and walks back down the corridor, then turn myself and carry on back towards my room. Soul wants me to help work out what's wrong with Maka? I hope it's nothing serious. I wouldn't know how to cope if anything serious happened to Maka. I mean, I have other friends now, but none of them are as important to me as Maka-chan is. What if something's really horribly wrong and we can't fix it?

A pain in my back tells me Ragnarok has decided to put in an appearance. I gasp a little at the pain but I'm mostly used to it, it doesn't hurt as much now as it used to when he was bigger, and it's easier to move with him there now.

"Hey, Crona, what do you think was in that letter?" he asks, leaning on my head. I try to push him off but he ignores me, clinging to my hair so that when I try to push in away it hurts.

"How should I know?" I ask, tears springing to the corners of my eyes. "That hurts, please stop it!"

"Um...maybe it was a letter from the doctor saying she's going to die!"

"Don't say such horrible things!"

"Or it could be a love letter and soon she'll have a boyfriend then she won't have any time for you and you'll be all alone!"

"Leave me alone!" I cry, though I know it isn't any use because Ragnarok had never listened to me, no matter what I say he just ignores me.

"What will you do then, Crona?" he continues, poking at my face. "What will you do when it's just you and me again! You'll have to listen to what I say to you then won't you! You'll have to give me some respect then, won't you!"

"Leave me alone!" I cry, finally stumbling to my door and pulling it open, locking it behind me again and going over to my bed then curling up with my back against the wall, clutching my pillow. I just focus on breathing for a while. It helps when I can just focus on my breath. If I focus hard enough then sometimes I can't even hear what Ragnarok is saying to me, those are the best times. Though it's really hard to concentrate when he keeps pulling at my hair!

Eventually, though, he stops and my mind starts to wander. I'm worried, really, really worried...but also a little glad. I know I shouldn't be but I can't help it. I mean, after all, Soul's asked for my help. I know that everyone here is my friend but there's a difference between knowing someone's your friend and knowing that they can come to you for help when they need it.

And maybe I can do something that will be helpful to Maka?

~*~*~*~

The library is empty after school, I'm glad. Most people don't stick around the building once school finishes, so it gets a little lonely, but on the other hand there's nobody to look at my funnily or worry me or anything. And Ragnarok has been particularly nasty to everyone today, I hate when he does that because then it's hard to talk to them.

It's nice when people put up with him when he's in a mood like that. Even Maka struggles though, and she's the best friend I've got. You can't expect too much from anyone else, I guess.

He's sulking now because I told him to be nice to Soul, not to insult him too much or anything. After all, this is important. I want to know what's happening to Maka and I want to help and, for the first time, somebody had asked me to help out. I want to help.

I look around the library but can't see Soul. I'd expect him to be here before me. After all, he said to meet him here. How can I meet him here if he isn't here for me to meet. What if he doesn't need me after all? What if he solved the mystery all on his own and somebody like me wasn't needed. I don't know how to cope with being left alone when I was told to meet someone.

I almost want to ask Ragnarok what to do but he's still sulking and staying inside so, instead, I go to sit down at one of the tables, somewhere you can see from the door. He must just be late, that's probably all it is.

I poke at the books on the table, a little. Pushing them by their spines, then reading the spines slowly. So many things I don't know. I thought, the first time that I saw the library, that there must be books on how to deal with anything in this library. I guess there probably are, I just don't know how to start. I came on here once and tried to read, but I didn't know how to cope with so many books, so many things! How do you know which book is more important? I just didn't know what to do...

I realise that I've been gripping the book in my hand tightly and force myself to let go, breathing. I'm learning now. Maybe I'm not ready for something like the library yet, there's too much here, but slowly I'm learning. Maybe someday soon I'll be able to pick a book without panicking about all the books I'm not reading.

"Hey, Crona!"

I look up, breathing a sigh of relief to see Soul walking towards me, a grin on his face. Something good must have happened for him to be grinning like that. It's not the normal kind of smile for Soul-kun to have.

"I found the letter," he says, dropping into a chair next to me and reaching into his pocket to pull out a crumpled piece of paper. It's held together with tape so Maka must have tried to get rid of it. Maybe that means we shouldn't read it...but if Maka was doing something she was worried about us knowing about then it makes sense that she'd be hiding it from us.

"What does it say?" I ask, reaching out then withdrawing my hand quickly before I can touch the letter. It seems like an invasion of privacy but, then again, Soul's already read it...

"It's a love letter!" He declared, his grin spreading further up his face. The soppiest love letter I've ever read. It's got poetry and everything...you should really read it..."

He puts the paper on the table in front of me and I reach over, slowly lifting a corner then letting it fall down again. I still can't quite bring myself to pick it up and read it, it seems wrong.

"Who wrote it?" I ask instead, turning to look at Soul so I don't have to look at the letter. It's easier to focus on Soul and to find out what's going on from him then to have to read it myself.

"Don't know, they signed it as a secret admirer. I guess that's the first thing we need to work out, who wrote it. After all, think of the possibilities. We NEED to know who wrote this note!"

Soul's grin looks scary. He's right, of course. We need to know who wrote this letter. We need to know so we can find them and make them stop. They're bothering Maka and that's not nice, they should stop. Still, I don't think that's what Soul's thinking when he says we need to stop them, not with a grin like that.

I open my mouth to reply, reaching over to lay a finger on the letter again, but before I can get any words out a booming voice interrupts me.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here? What's that? Can I read it?"

I gasp as the note is pulled out of my grasp and look up at BlackStar. He's stood across the table, a huge grin on his face, scanning the letter he'd taken from me. This is bad. BlackStar is the loudest guy I know, not that I know many guys...but he's so loud, he'll definitely let everyone know what's in that letter. It'll be horrible. I can see all their laughing faces now. I don't know how to cope with a guy as loud as BlackStar knowing about these things.

"It's a note to Maka," soul replies, apparently not upset by BlackStar, or not noticing me cringe anyway. "It's pretty funny, right. We were just talking about finding the guy who wrote this."

"Sounds like fun," BlackStar comments, dropping into a chair. At least his grin doesn't look as menacing as Soul's. Not that I think Soul would hurt Maka, of course. If I thought that then I'd kill him. He'll probably make fun of her though and that's not very nice. BlackStar...no, he wouldn't hurt her either. But he's not as close to her as Soul is, he might not have as much to lose if he did upset her...

"Can you actually help with this?" Soul asked, taking the letter back and waving it in front of BlackStar.

"Of course," the other boy said, gesturing grandly. "I'm the man who surpassed God, aren't I?"

"Sure," Soul said with a sigh, laying the sheet of paper out on the table so we can all look at it.

I take the chance and look over at the paper. It's typed so we can't get any clues from the handwriting. It is typed on an old fashioned typewriter too. It's pretty simple, a couple of lines about how beautiful Maka is, a poem about how beautiful Maka is, then a declaration of love and no name.

We all look at it, passing it slowly around the circle to stare at the type, as if by studying it we can see into the mind of whoever wrote it.

"I guess the first thing to work out..." Soul said finally, pausing for emphasis while he ran his fingers over the words as though he could absorb them through his fingers, "Is if this was a genuine letter or if it was meant to be a fake...like someone having a laugh."

"You mean it might not be real?" I ask, feeling an odd sense of lightness creeping into me. Of course, if someone is trying to have a joke at Maka's expense it would be horrible, but it seems less horrible to me then the other option, that someone might be in love with Maka, enough to write these words.

"Sure," Soul said, leaning forward. "I mean, it might be someone's idea of a joke, get Maka's hopes up, ask her out then, when she shows up thinking that someone likes her, hide and watch her so they can laugh."

"That's so mean," I mutter, clenching my hands into fists. If that's the kind of person who sent this letter I will definitely find them and hurt them.

"But if might be real," BlackStar said, shrugging. "I mean, it's not impossible that someone like Maka. I mean, sure, I wouldn't have thought about it like that before but..."

"Hey," Soul says, glaring "That's my best friend, be careful what you're saying." I'm glad Soul leapt in defend her. I'm still not sure how to react in situations like this, but I know I definitely don't want BlackStar saying bad things about Maka.

"So, presume it's genuine," BlackStar says with a shrug. "He might like Maka? Once we've narrowed down our suspect list then we can start to work out who it was from."

"Any idea, Crona?" Soul asks, looking at me. I blush a little, then try to think. I've not been here very long so don't know too many people, it's hard for me to guess. I try and remember who I've seen hanging around Maka recently...

"Well, maybe Ox-kun? He seems to spend a lot of time staring at her in lesson?"

"I thought that was just an academic rivalry thing?" Soul commented, shrugging.

"Nah, it'd probably made sense. After all, they're the smartest people in the school, it's only natural that he'd probably be attracted to her, don't you think. If he didn't look so weird she'd probably like him too..."

"He's not normally so subtle though," Soul commented with a sigh, waiving his hand. "Something about it doesn't feel right..."

"How about Hiro, then?" BlackStar says, kicking back in his chair and resting his feet on the table. It doesn't look very safe, he'll probably fall off if she sits like that...

"You mean the kid who had Excalibur for a partner?" I ask, not taking my eyes of BlackStar in case he starts to fall.

"Yeah, that one. I mean, the kid's a complete pushover. Maka has a habit of sticking up for underdogs, like with you Crona...I mean, anyway, maybe she stood up for him when he was being bullied once or something and now he thinks he's in love?"

"That would fit his character," Soul agreed, leaning his head on his hands. "But Maka hasn't mentioned anything like that and, again, I think he'd be more open about it..."

"Maybe he thinks the notes are romantic. You've got to admit, he seems like the kind of guy who'd enjoy writing romantic poetry..."

"True," Soul says with a snicker. "Of course, the culprit could be someone much closer to home...she has very symmetrical hair..."

"You don't think that Kid-kun..." I mumble, scandalised at the very idea.

"Sending letters instead of facing it head on would be like him," BlackStar commented, crossing his legs and making me wince again. "And the poetry, I guess. I just didn't think he'd be the type to go after a girl like Maka..."

Soul shrugs and goes back to thinking. Nervously I reach over and pick up the letter, pulling it over to me. I trace my head down the side of the poem. There's something wrong with this idea, then I see it.

"It's definitely not Kid-kun," I say, easing the letter across the table. "The poem isn't symmetrical. He'd never send a love letter like this. If he wrote it, the poem would be arranged perfectly symmetrically."

They both lean forward, looking at then letter, then collapse in defeat.

"Guess I see your point," Soul said finally. "I guess it could be someone totally unexpected, someone we'd never ever consider but...who would write a letter like that if they didn't even know Maka so well?"

"If we can't think of another guy who sent it," BlackStar said, suddenly sitting up and full of energy again, "there must be two options. Either it was sent by one of us, or it was sent by some girl..."

"Are you trying to tell us you sent it?" Soul asked, snickering.

"I can't think of any girls who might send it either," I say with a sigh. "I mean, who are we close to? There's Patty, she acts like a kid, or Liz who's too grow up...or Tsubaki but she's not really the type..."

We all sit in silence for a moment, staring at the letter. It seems like our investigation has died before it even started. The letter is too ambiguous, it could be anyone. I can almost feel my spirits sinking again. If we can't find who it is, how can we stop them? I really want to stop them. Either they're going to make fun of Maka or steal her from me. I need Maka.

"There has to be something obvious we're overlooking here?" Soul says, snapping me out of my thoughts. "There has to be someone who'd obviously send Maka a love letter who we haven't thought of yet..."

"It's from Papa."

We all jump, and I turn slowly, holding my breath, to find Maka standing over my shoulder, an angry look on her face. It's a really angry look, I've never seen her so mad as this, not really. Not that I really remember anyway, probably when we fought but I don't remember that too well.

"Papa is sending me these letters because he thinks I won't listen to his feelings any other way. I won't listen to them this way either, but he doesn't seem to get that. Are you happy now?"

"Maka!" Soul exclaims, jumping to his feet. "We didn't, I mean..."

"What, you just wanted to laugh at me because it looks like a love letter and nobody would ever write a love letter to me?"

"That's not what's going on!" Soul replies instantly, he's starting to get angry now. I wish I had my pillow to hide behind, it would make this a lot easier to deal with. I don't know how to cope when my friends are angry at each other.

"Isn't it? It looks like that. I mean, Soul, BlackStar, I expected this from you. Crona, I thought you were better!"

Before I can explain she turns and walks out. Soul follows quickly, begging, but I feel like I'm glued to the chair. This wasn't how this was supposed to happen. I was supposed to have an adventure with Soul and, later, BlackStar...just like I see them doing all the time. We were meant to go all over asking silly questions then, in the end, find out who wrote it and make everything ok. This isn't meant to be what happened.

BlackStar sighs and stand up, waving goodbye and heading out of the room, but still I can't move. I made Maka angry. She didn't expect this from me? It hurts. I only did this because I care about her and now I'm in trouble.

There's a familiar pain at my back, then familiar hands grabbing my hair and pulling my head back.

"Idiot," Ragnarok says, yanking at me. "I told you not to get involved, now nobody likes you anymore. Might as well run away with things how they are...no point in sticking around now Maka hates you..."

"No," I mumble, reaching out to take the letter that had been lift lying on the table. "I won't run away. There has to be another way to fix this..."

"Hey, Crona, don't be such an idiot," he says, pulling at my hair again. "You're always such an idiot. Hey, listen to me."

"No," I say, not quite sure where the words are coming from. "I won't run away, I can't run away. What's the point of anything if Maka doesn't like me? I need to think...I need to make this ok..."

~*~*~*~

Maka is stood down the hallway with a piece of paper in her hands. I kind of want to run away and hide, but I can't manage to move from the spot. Ragnarok is cackling evilly above my head. That's just normal for him, though. He'd like nothing better than for this to go wrong.

I wish I could run away. I've wanted to run away all day, I've been creeping around the place trying to avoid Maka, so it has to just be fate that I come across her when she's reading the note. There's nothing else it could be, after all. I knew this was a bad idea...but at the same time I can't shake the thought that this was a good idea and, in a lot of ways, the only right thing to do.

She looks up, looking around the hallway, then her eyes fix on me and I want to run. I'm not at all sure about what she's thinking. It's hard enough for me to tell what people are thinking anyway but her face is really hard right now, I'm not sure if she's happy or angry or confused.

As she walks towards me I want to run, I can't though. Even if I wanted to, she's seen me now, it's too late to run. I'll just have to hang on and hope for the best.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" she asks, holding out the paper towards me. A joke, of course it's not a joke! Maybe I did something wrong, there seem to be some kind of mistake. She doesn't understand what I mean anyway, it seems. I shake my head, pulling my arms up around my chest.

"Then what is it?" she asks. There's something that seems a little dangerous about her voice.

"I wanted...after what Maka said in the library, the way you said it, it made me think that maybe you don't believe that you're beautiful, and I don't want Maka to think like that. I mean, I think Maka's beautiful." I can't look up to meet her eyes. She'd seemed to angry about the first letter, it seemed such a shame. She was the one who told me to write my feelings down as poetry anyway, and I think I'm better at it then her dad at least, though Soul and BlackStar would probably still make fun of me if they saw it. I thought a lot about Maka last night, about what I like about Maka, then I made it into a poem. I wanted to see her smile but I must have done it really wrong because she's so angry.

"So you mean all this?" she asks. Her voice is softer now but I still don't dare to look up, just nod a little. Ragnarok is still laughing but I try to ignore him, he's the kind of idiot who'd laugh at anything like this. "It's not...you know...I mean..." Maka mumbles, apparently at a loss as to what to do about my letter.

"I just wanted to see Maka smile," I mumbled, biting my lip. I don't know how to deal with a confrontation like this. I'm not sure how Maka is feeling now, I just feel alone.

"Hey, look up," a finger taps my chin and I risk a glance, tilting my head as little as I can and looking out through my hair to see what's happening.

Maka is smiling, a soft genuine smile. That wasn't what I expected. I thought she was still mad at me, not happy and smiling. Reluctantly I look up more, wanting to make sure I'm not being mistaken about it and that Maka is really smiling at me.

"Thank you for saying it," she says, reaching out to take my hand. "It's a little weird, nobody's ever said that kind of think to my before...not about my anyway."

"I would have thought people would say things like that more often," I saw, squeezing her hand in mine. She looks a little sad and I wonder if I've said the wrong thing again. Maybe she'd like it if people said things like that to her more often? I should say these things to her more often, maybe.

"People don't normally say things like that to someone unless they want to do their boyfriend of girlfriend," she explains, blushing. "I mean, I guess you wouldn't know that after all...but that's how it is..."

I feel myself nodding. It makes sense, I guess. I mean, if you think someone is as good a person as Maka is then it only makes sense that you'd want to date them. I'm just surprised that more people don't want to date Maka. I'm surprised they're not forming lines for the chance to talk to her, she's so nice.

"Crona," she says, stepping a little closer. She's looking down now, still holding my hand on one of hers, the letter clutched in her other hand. "Maybe you'd like to go on a date with me sometime?"

Her voice is soft, it's like the words are too slippery to get into my head. Silky words. I run them over and over again but there's something wrong with them. I can't get them to make sense to me. Is it an invitation or an accusation? So I want to go on a date with Maka? Is that even an option? What would be do on a date. I don't know how to handle this kind of thing!

"Hey, don't panic, just think about it. You don't have to answer right now...it would be nice..."

"I wouldn't know how to cope with going on a date," I whisper, starring at the floor.

"And nobody would really want to go on a date with a looser like you, anyway," Ragnarok puts in from above my head. I wince, I'd almost forgotten he was up there watching this entire situation. He's going to bully me to much about it later, it's not fair. I don't know how to cope with being bullied about a date.

"Stop being so mean, Ragnarok," Maka says, then raises her free hand, the letter still hanging between her fingers, and tilts my head up so I have to look her in the eyes. "It'd be ok going on a date if it was with me, wouldn't it?" she asks, softly. "I mean, I know it's scary to do new things...but if I'm with you then I can help, it'll be ok...what do you think?"

"That would be nice," I whisper, blushing more. It will be easier if it's Maka, I know Maka will take care of me whatever happens. If it's Maka, it's worth doing something I wouldn't normally do.

Then she leans forward a little, a strange look on her face. We were close before but now she's so close. I don't know how to deal with having Maka so close to me. It's almost like she's waiting for something, though it's hard to tell when her face is to close that I can't see her entire expression. Her hand then tilted my chin up has moved to rest on my shoulder. I feel like I should be doing something, standing here so close to each other but silent is really strange.

Then she leans forward again, just nudging that little bit closer, and her lips are touching mine. My eyes drift shut and it seems easier now I can't see Maka. Her lips are soft against mine, gentle, like I would have thought she would be. Soft, wet...it feels weird and strange and I think that I shouldn't know how to cope but, oddly, I do know how to cope and it's nice.

There's a cough and Maka pulls back quickly, going bright red and looking around, wide eyed. For a second I feel odd, then it's like the world moves back into focus again, Ragnarok's teasing filling my ears. Soul is stood behind Maka, a grin on his face.

"Stein sent me to find you," he says, casually. "Class has started, you know..."

"I know," Maka hisses, turning like she's going to leave, then she stops and takes my hand in hers and starts pulling me down the corridor. Soul is chuckling to himself and Ragnarok is laughing, I feel like I should be embarrassed, but I'm not. We make it to class late and I feel, from the looks, like everyone in the room knows what we were doing...but I can't seem to care.

What do their opinions matter? I'm going on a date with Maka.