Silhouette
by: verveine

A/N: This fanfic is dedicated to residenteviler, who introduced me to the Flyleaf song. It was from my other fanfic, but I'm going to probably delete that one because I realized someone else something similar to it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater or any characters in Soul Eater. I do own my own story though. I also have no rights to "All Around Me" by Flyleaf!

He was still there.

Confined in that terribly depressing white room, with the smell of death hanging in the air. Old newspapers and dried up, crusty roses adorned the small wooden table next to him. He had deep, dark bags under his dulled scarlet eyes that made him look five years older than he really was. Numerous IVs that transferred his needed nutrients into his body poked him in all sorts of weird directions. His face was grim, but it instantly lit up the moment he saw a certain blonde softly walk into his room.

"Hey loser," she greeted. She took the fresh bouquet of flowers she held in her hand and shoved it in his face.

"Get it away from me, it stinks," he weakly told her, squatting the flowers away. She frowned.

"It smells good Soul. Besides, it will do well to change that flower vase for once," she argued. She took the vase with the overly ripe roses and headed towards the bathroom.

She heard him call out from his room, "So how was school?"

"It was okay, nothing special." Maka briefly replied back. "Black Star was as annoying as ever, Tsubaki tried her best to keep him calm, Kid failed yet another test because he spent all his time symmetrizing his name, and the Patty and Liz duo were checking out random guys in the hallway. You know, the usual."

Soul smiled in a melancholy manner as he thought about his friends. He had been trapped in the small hospital room ever since they found out about his condition two years ago. Two years without fail he fought off the illness; two years without fail she came to visit him.

"Hey Maka?" Soul asked in that voice of his Maka knew all too well; the voice of selfishness and desire.

Maka slowly turned around from the running sink and looked at him curiously. "What?"

"Want to go on a date?" He asked her out. A fragile grin possessed his sunken face.

"In your condition?" She scoffed. "Do you have a death wish?"

"Barely," he instantly replied. Then he thought about it. "Actually, if death would free me from this hellhole, then yes."

The minute he finished his confession, Maka looked at him with such a torn face that he regretted it the moment it came out of his mouth.

"J-Just kidding," he nervously laughed. Her face didn't lighten. "Sheesh Maka, chillax. I'm not going anywhere. I'll always be here with you," he promised.

She smiled slightly. "You better be."

He gave her a thumbs up, and tore away from her worried graze to the frosted window at his right. As he looked out the window, various thoughts crossed his mind. Ultimately, he decided he needed to tell her some crucial things. As much as he didn't want to hurt her, she had face the facts.

"Hey Maka," he started once again. "For you and me, today is all we have; tomorrow is a mirage that may never become a reality."

Maka felt pain terrorize her body at his dense words, but she pushed it away.

"Ha, Soul," she laughed nervously. "Are you so bored staying at this hospital that you're actually writing meaningful poetry?"

"Maka," he told her sternly. She could not detect even an ounce of joke in his words. "I've been bugging the doctor about this for months- no, years now. He finally conceded and gave me permission to go out, so don't worry about it. Just for one day, let's break away from here. "

Her emerald green eyes dimmed at his proposition. She mentally weighed out the pros and cons, when she saw a speckle of hope in his usually dead blood red eyes. She sighed in defeat.

"Fine, this Maka Albarn will give you the time of your life. I'll fulfill three of your biggest wishes. What do you want to do, Mr. Stubborn?" She walked closer to him, completely ditching the flowers that idly laid on top of the sink.

"I want to fly," he beamed.

XoxOxoXoxOx

"SOUL EATER EVANS!" Maka desperately screamed, tightly grasping onto his thick parka. The thick wind commanded her pigtails to harshly hit the side of her face, and she shuddered in pain.

"ISN'T THIS SO COOL?" Soul yelled back, smirking at the sight below them. They were fifty feet above the ground- the "ground" being an icy blue ocean. The way the tides splashed violently gave Maka the impression that they were cruelly teasing her and her stupidity for actually accepting Soul's requests.

"I'm going to die," Maka whispered hopelessly to herself. "I'm going to die."

"ARE YOU READY?" Soul loudly asked her. He was competing with the mixed sounds of the loud wind and seagulls that noisily chatted above them.

When Maka Albarn offered to grant Soul Evans any three wishes he had during their "date" together, she was definitely not expecting him to ask her to go Bungee Jumping with him. She cursed at herself for forgetting the fact that she was dealing with Soul Eater Evans; his demands were either impossible or ridiculously dangerous.

"W-WAIT!" Maka screamed, still tightly clutching onto his thick coat. "Ma-Maybe you should do this by yourself, this isn't really my thing." Her teeth chattered as she said this, more from fear than the raw winter temperature.

"Oh, don't be a wuss," Soul ordered her. He filled the gap between them and bone-crushingly hugged her.

And then, before she could react, he jumped.

XoxOxoXoxOx

"Sheesh Maka, get over it." Soul rolled his eyes at the murderous face the flaxen haired girl next to him gave him. They walked side-by-side along the rather vacuous boardwalk- the only place where they were able to actually legally Bungee Jump. It was a freezing winter afternoon, and barely anyone left the comforts of their warm houses to come out to play. Despite the few amount of people, the mini stands were still open for business, and various enticing smells such as funnel cake and cotton candy filled their lungs.

"You tried to kill me!" She yelled back.

"Stop overreacting, Maka. It wasn't that bad." Soul yawned, casually putting his hands at the back of his head. "So anyways, I have two more wishes left, right?"

"I can hotly debate for that last one to be worth five-hundred wishes," she flatly replied back.

"Oh come on, stop being so stingy," he grinned, showing his jagged whites. "Besides, I already thought of something for my second wish."

"What?" She asked, not really willing to know the answer.

"For my second wish, I want you to sing for me."

"What? No!" Maka protested, a dark red color spreading rapidly on her face. "You know I'm tone-deaf."

"You promised me two wishes," he singsonged. "Either sing for me, or cook for me. You choose, I don't care. I like either."

"That's so not fair!" She sneered at his options.

"A promise is a promise. Or don't tell me-" he gasped. "Maka Albarn is an untrustworthy person who doesn't even keep her promises for her one and only best friend?"

She kicked him in the shin.

"OKAY! Fine!" She gave in, a thick blush sprayed across her features. "What do you want me to sing?"

"Lady Gaga!" She kicked him once again in the same spot- ten times harder. "Ugh, Maka. Fine, sing whatever you want to," Soul said, liberating her song choices.

"I-I, ahem." Maka coughed. "I don't really know a lot of songs," she admitted, darting her eyes at a nearby balloon stand.

"Oh come on, Maka," Soul groaned. "Even a bookworm like you has to know some songs."

"Well truthfully, I found myself listening to Flyleaf lately," she sheepishly admitted.

Soul desperately tried to hold his laughter in. This was gold. He hid his laughter by coughing, before he asked, "What song?"

"All Around Me?"

Soul was on the verge of tears. "O-Okay, go ahead. Start."

She started to mumble in an extremely quiet tone of voice.

"What? I can't hear you, sing louder!" Soul commanded, in-between his stifles of laughter.

"I can feel you all around me, thickening the air-"

"Pfttt."

"Fuck you Soul!" Maka screamed, a little too loudly. She walked away angrily, her cheeks burning from embarrassment.

"N-No pfft, wait Maka, pffft I was just kidding, you sing pfffttttt very pfffttt well," Soul managed to choke out, holding his aching stomach from all the laughter. He hastily followed after her retreating back.

There was tone deaf, and then there was Maka tone deaf.

XoxOxoXoxOx

After Soul's attempt to "fly" and Maka's embarrassing singing episode, they walked around a rather famous floral park few train stops away. They indulged themselves in the mesmerizing beauty and naturally sweet scent of the colorful plants together. His last wish was to take a long walk in the park with her, and although she teased him about being a romantic, he made his point when he told her it's been ages since he last got to properly just walk. He was always shackled to his dreary white bed with painful needles- walking quickly became one of the many basic things he stopped taking for granted.

When the sun set, and the darkness swallowed the sky up whole, they decided to sit down on a wooden bench. The park was completely empty, and a comfortable silence fell upon them. The white-haired boy rested his head against her shoulder, and she leaned hers back in response.

"Hey, Soul?" Her voice bounced around in echoes, before it lost itself into the pure darkness and silence of the night.

"Hm?" He tiredly asked. He tried hard to hide his weariness, but she quickly caught on and held his hand in comfort. It was cold.

"Are you happy?" She wondered, although she already knew the answer.

"Very." She couldn't see his face, but his contented voice screamed out that he had a smile on his face.

She smiled with him. The winter night was perfect; the star's bright light outlined their profiles, painting a phantasmagoric scene of their two silhouettes.

"Hey look." Soul lazily pointed to a blinding bright light. "There's a shooting star. Since you fulfilled all my wishes, I'll give this one to you."

"That's an airplane," Maka flatly stated.

"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use-"

"Okay, okay, point taken- stop singing," she ordered. Her leafy green eyes crinkled in amusement at the imitation star, before she promptly closed her shining orbs. "I wish I could see snow falling down on Death City with you."

"Snow?" Soul laughed in disbelief after a brief pause. "Maka, it hasn't snowed in Death City for the past seventy years," he reminded her.

"I know!" She replied, annoyed that he crushed her romantic dreams with hard reality. "It's just wishful thinking. I always see them in pictures and movies, or hear about it on television, but I've never actually seen the substance. I really want to see it, that's all. It looks pretty."

"Haha, okay. If you want it that badly, I'll make it snow for you," he offered, tightening his hold on her hand.

"Ha," she snickered. "Copying Black Star now, are we?"

His face twisted into confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You're not a God, you can't control the weather."

"Yes I'm not a God; I'm Soul Eater Evans." Soul unnecessarily introduced himself. "But, contrary to popular belief, I actually can control many things- including the weather."

Maka laughed at his stupidity. "Sure you can."

Silence surrounded them after that, but it wasn't an awkward silence. It was a comfortable, soothing silence that put them both at peace.

She sent sprays of her warm breath into the night air, as she tapped her foot upon the glassy road. "We should head back to the hospital now, it's getting really late Soul."

"Hey Maka?" Soul called out, ignoring her decision.

"I'm listening," she answered back.

"Someone once told me it's not about breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away. Maka, from the time we met- four years ago- up until now, you never failed to take my breath away," he softly told her. Maka could feel her cheeks rapidly reddening from the swelling of her unruly emotions. "I love you."

Maka darted her eyes away from him, her face a deeper red than his intense burgundy eyes.

"I love you too Soul," she finally confessed, her eyes sparkling at the stars. "Let's never be apart, okay?"

He didn't answer.

"...Soul?"

No response.

The warm feeling that had consumed her whole being minutes before froze.

"Soul, hey Soul," she alarmingly called his name out. She ignored the fact that his hand had gone limp, and proceeded to attempt to shake him awake.

"Hey Soul, this isn't funny. Stop it, I don't like these types of jokes," she begged him. Her eyes blurred, and she found it hard to look clearly. "Soul, wake up. It's cold out here, let's sleep inside the hospital."

His only response was the silence.

"S-Soul...Soul...?"

"..."

"Soul!"

XoxOxoXoxOx

Maka blankly stared at the multiple pills dancing in front of her. She had not bothered to switch out of her raven black mourning dress, or shut the television off in the bleak room.

"Maka, you really shouldn't blame yourself. Soul knew he wouldn't make it. The doctor repeatedly warned him about it, but he decided to leave the hospital anyways."

So he committed suicide? He knew how much it would tear her apart, yet he still greedily took his own life away for brief moments of bliss?

"He was so happy in the end; he died with a smile on his face. Not a lot of people have the fortune to be able to die peacefully like that."

He was happy in the end, but what about her? She would never have a smile on her face ever again.

"At least you were with him until the end, and that's what matters, right?"

Right. But when her end comes, who will she be with?

"He died together with you, the love of his life. Dying in the hands of your loved one is the most beautiful death one can ever hope to experience."

Maka shook away all the numerous words of comfort that people had passed onto her during his funeral. No one knew the pain unless they really knew.

What happens when it all falls apart and only one person is left behind? When the one you know you'll love eternally and no one else dies? What happens to all those ocean-wide emotions? Do they just evaporate? And just how intense and big will the pain be if they do evaporate? How empty would she be?

How come no one ever gave her advice on those topic? All they gave her were prettily framed words, helping her overwhelming, all-consuming sorrow in no way.

Maka grinned at the colorful pills in front of her. The insane expression molded on her face made her look absolutely ghastly.

She wasn't going to feel guilty about it. Not one bit.

Soul was selfish enough to take his own life away; why couldn't she?

"You lied Soul," Maka whispered sadly to herself. "You told me that day, when I went to visit you, that you're not going anywhere. That you'll always be here with me. But...you're not. You lied."

Maka grimly stared at the pills, contemplating when to swallow it, as her red-rimmed eyes scampered around his room. His familiar scent vaguely lingered. She closed her eyes, deeply inhaling his nostalgic smell before she departed to another dimension.

"...And the first snow in seventy years falls down on Death City, Nevada."

Maka popped her eyes open. What? The television...did it just say...?

"Meteorologists are baffled by this phenomenon, as there was no sign of snow falling down..."

Maka gaped at the colorful box with the shocking news in front of her. Blood rushed to her head, and she found herself rapidly running out the front door of her apartment, not bothering to put a coat on. She dashed down the stairs, almost tripping three times. As she slammed open the lobby doors, her heart stopped at the white flurries falling down happily, surrounding Death City wholly.

"It's a miracle!" Maka heard voices in the distant background scream.

"No," Maka absentmindedly replied, steam billowing from her mouth. "It's Soul."

She held her hand out, as the white dusts of frozen water started to collect on top of her hand.

Through the snow, he was telling her that he was still with her. He always had been, and he always will be.

She could feel him all around her, enveloping her, thickening the air she was breathing. He was like an all-encompassing silhouette that was always going to be with her, wherever she was. Death was too weak of a medium to split those two apart. She slowly closed her eyes and held her hands in a prayer.

Her loving words to him ascended to heaven from her cleansed heart like perfume streaming upwards from a heart of white rose.

As she opened her purified emerald eyes, she gently placed her hand over her heart and smiled at how warm it felt.

He was still there.

A/N: The inspiration for this one was actually the snow that fell down yesterday where I live (and of course, the Flyleaf song). I guess I really do prefer writing darker stories. Review please!