Back in time…

"Hey!" I called. "What's up?"

BlackStar bounded forward, nearly bowling a couple of kids over as they played tag in the trees.

"Yahooooo!" the assassin shouted. "Your god has arrived!"

Let me explain something. My blue-haired friend had a serious god-complex, as if that wasn't obvious. He was loud and obnoxious and completely thoughtless. Self-centered, with arrogance to surpass my own, there was only one weapon, probably in the whole world(If you cross out Excalibur, because even BlackStar would never be able to handle that thing, ugh)that could handle him, and the was Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, the famous Shadow Demon weapon, or Dark Arm.

Tsubaki followed meekly behind him, her violet eyes scanning the area curiously. She apologized to the two young kids in her sweet, if slightly high-pitched, voice, then stood at BlackStar's shoulder, her long black hair falling loose almost to the ground. She had a seriously hot body that could turn into any ninja weapon in the hands of BlackStar, a trait which made her as formidable in weapon form as she was gentle in her human form.

"New hair, Tsubaki?" I teased. She blushed. Don't get the wrong idea, though. Tsubaki blushed real easy, and we were just friends. She was awesome and all, but there never had been and never would be anything romantic there. BlackStar would never allow it, anyway. "Never thought I'd see the day when you didn't wear a ponytail."

"Hey!" BlackStar bellowed. "Don't steal my spotlight, Tsubaki! I'm the biggest guy here, don't ignore me!"

I barked a laugh.

"I didn't call you guys over to discuss your awesomeness, BlackStar," I sighed.

"Why did you call us, Soul?" asked Tsubaki quietly. "You sounded pretty…animated on the phone."

I snorted. Animated. Yeah, that was one way to put it. There was also pissed, disgusted, and irate beyond belief.

"Animated is not the word I would have used," said a cool voice from behind me. I turned to see Kid standing with both of his hands in his pockets, standing perfectly straight. Kid wasn't his full name, of course. His full name was Death the Kid, and he was the son of Lord Death. He was a completely insane, OCD freak that could cough up blood and pass out if his name wasn't neat enough on his paper just as surely as he could fire six bullets from his twin pistols and hit the exact same spot every single time. He was crazy, he was deadly. He was also my best friend.

"Yeah, he sounded pretty pissed if you ask me," said Kid's weapon partner, Liz Thompson. She was tall, with long-ish dishwater blonde hair and big blue eyes. She wasn't as curvy as Tsubaki, but that didn't mean she didn't have a figure, and she loved to flaunt it with her skin-tight jeans and red "sweater" that barely even covered her boobs.

"Hahahah!" laughed Liz's sister, Pati, and Kid's other weapon. "Soul sounded mad!"

Yeah, Kid had two weapon partners instead of one. If he didn't, his symmetry would be off when he fought and he'd have one of his OCD breakdowns. The Thompson sisters transformed into twin pistols, no matter how different their human forms. Kid had found them one night when the foolishly tried to mug him—their lives had been lived on the streets, fighting tooth and nail and pistol to scrape by—and he had offered them a place at his side. They accepted, and were way better for it.

Sure, Liz was really weird about make-up and clothes and hair and crap, and Pati, with her shorter stature and far more developed body, was beyond slow and spacy, but they were pretty observant when they wanted to be. They were actually really cool. It helped that their hearts were always in the right place, however they acted.

I had to shake off the irritation that both of my best friends had already found their partners, found them before school had even officially started. Kid had met Liz and Pati over the summer, BlackStar had met Tsubaki just last week, and they were already joined at the hip. And I was still on my own.

"So, Soul, what's the new issue?" asked BlackStar. "Lose all your money gambling on that fight yesterday?"

I snorted again.

"If that was it, Blackstar, I wouldn't have paid up."

"Ass," Liz muttered, at the same time that Tsubaki sighed the words: "Cheapskate."

"Then what is it Soul?" Kid demanded. "We don't have all day, you know."

I ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Okay, here it is: remember that issue with Hiro being a player?"

In unison the guys groaned, and Liz and Pati snarled under their breath.

"Reaching up the shirt of anything female," Liz growled.

"But then we set him straight!" giggled Pati evilly. I remembered only too well how much fun the sisters had had while beating their lesson into Hiro.

"Apparently not," I sighed, "Because he convinced that new girl out on a date."

"We had a new kid?" BlackStar and Liz cried in unison. Neither of them ever paid attention in class. Not that I was much better. But it had been hard to ignore that girl when she came in, and was assigned the seat right next to mine. I shook away the thought.

"Yes, BlackStar, we did," Tsubaki said calmly. "What was her name? Mayra?"

"Maka," Harvar answered immediately, popping up out of nowhere with Ox right beside him. "Make Albarn. Said she was a scythe meister when I talked to her, although she didn't have a weapon with her."

Ox threw Harvar a look that plainly said he didn't approve of his weapon talking to the weaponless meister. Was he afraid Harvar would ditch him for the cute new girl? Nope, not exactly.

"I can't believe you talked to her and didn't tell me," Ox grumbled.

"What's up, Ox?" I taunted. Harvar was my friend, but I couldn't care less about the weirdo with the freaky hair. "Jealous? Got a crush on the new girl?"

And, unbelievably, Ox flushed bright red and looked away.

"What about Kim?" asked Kid after a moment.

"Hey, guys?" Liz interrupted whatever Ox had been about to say. "Two things. One: we're getting a little off-topic. Second: I'm pretty sure Hiro and Amanda just walked by."

"Her name's Maka," Harvar stressed, then froze. "Wait, what?"

"I said," growled Liz, but this time I interrupted her.

"Where were they going?"

She looked down the sidewalk, and they all followed her gaze. There was Hiro, tall and lithe and pale blonde, walking down the path with his arm flung carelessly around the new girl's thin shoulders. I think I was the only one that noticed how she kept trying to inch away from his touch. Her sandy blonde hair was pulled into two pigtails, and her entire body was blocked from view by her long, sweeping black cloak. Only glimpses of her shoes were allowed by the jacket, black and silver steel-toed boots.

That was all that was visible from the back, but I knew how she looked form the front, too. Small, thin, with a body more like a guy's than a teenage girl's. Her legs were long and thin, with knobby knees that she didn't bother hiding. Her arms were skinny too—everything about her was slim—and her skin was pale. She was wearing a maroon, pleated skirt that fell halfway down her thighs, and a thin white button-up blouse beneath a yellow sweater vest. Then that long cloak and pigtails. Really, her appearance was comically like those characters you could make yourself on that stupid computer came Wizards 101. Geek. But her face was different. She had heart-shaped face, angular and defined, that actually made her resemble her age. Her nose was slender, her cheekbones high, and her eyebrows thin. Then there were her eyes. Bright, emerald green, and huge, framed by thick lashes. She could've been hot, if it weren't for her lack of anything resembling a body.

"Whoa…" Ox sighed, and Harvar and him stared after Maka. They must've gotten a look at her face before the two had passed.

"Wait, what's that place?" I demanded, zeroing in on the small, understated building that Hiro was leading the girl to.

"Some backwoods club. Doesn't even have a name," BlackStar said dismissively. "Tons of storage in the back rooms, though. No one ever goes back there, so that's where I usually…get…"

Understanding flared in BlackStar's eyes a second after it had hit the rest of us like a brick wall.

"Damnit!" Kid cursed. Harvar raised an eyebrow, but the shrewd look I'm sure he was giving Kid was lost behind his fancy sunglasses.

"Come on, guys!" Liz shouted. "Hiro's a dick that hasn't learned his lesson yet, and another girl's about ready to fall victim to—"

"Spare us the dramatics, Liz!" Pati snapped, surprising us all. "Let's go!"

Without another word, we were all sprinting down the darkening street, with the sun's dying laughter taunting us.

When we burst through the door, complete and utter chaos met us. People were gyrating grotesquely out of time to the pounding music. The multi-colored lights already threatened a pounding headache to accompany the loud music. Tables were spread against the walls, piled with drink glasses, some full, some empty, some halfway in between. People laughed too loudly, others shouting over the din to talk to someone right next to them.

Now I see why Hiro picked this place. I thought darkly. It's so loud, no one would hear a thing.

"BlackStar!" I shouted. He jerked around, keeping a hand on Tsubaki's arm so he didn't lose her. "Lead the way!"

He nodded and began to weave through the crowd, carefully avoiding the piles of sick from those who had tried dancing after having way too much alcohol. Sooner than anyone could've anticipated, considering the throng we had to fight through, we'd all made it to the Private: Staff Only door in the back wall. I waited until we were all there, then held up my fingers, counting down from three.

Three…

We all stiffened and listened. We thought we could hear something on the other side of the door. The thought of what it probably was sickened me, and from the green hue to Tsubaki's skin, she felt the same.

Two…

The sisters, Harvar, and Tsubaki all changed into their weapon forms just as the loud thumping sounds met our ears.

One!

We all shoved through the door, only to come to a confused and jumbled halt, running into each other and falling down a short flight of stairs. A surprising scene met our eyes, and I couldn't help the impressed smirk that spread across my face. Lying on the cold cement floor, clearly unconscious, with two awesome shiners and a bloody and broken nose, was Hiro. His carefully styled platinum hair was disheveled, three of his teeth missing from his gaping mouth. And standing over him, unscathed, was thin, wiry Maka, scowling profusely.

"Pig," she spat, then turned to look at us in our pile on the floor. "Can I help you?" Then she recognized a few of us, and to my great irritation, I wasn't one of the ones she recognized. "Harvar! Pati!"

In the confusion, everyone had changed back to their human forms. Harvar grinned at Maka upside-down. "Hey, little lady," he drawled. "Saw you and pretty boy come in here, and thought you might want a little back up. Apparently not."

Maka laughed and helped him up. "Nope. Thanks for the thought, though."

Her voice was warm and quiet, but I had no problem hearing it. Or the friendliness in it, directed at Harvar. For whatever reason, that set my teeth on edge

Groaning, we all clambered up slowly, and stepped forward one by one to introduce ourselves. Ox nearly tripped over himself to shake Maka's hand, going so far as to kneel and kiss it. She laughed a little and shooed him away, but not before I caught her twinge of unease at his contact. Hm…

"Hello," Tsubaki stepped forward. "I'm Tsubaki—"

"Nakatsukasa," Maka finished, then grinned. "I know. I made it my business to look up the Academy's only Dark Arm before I arrived. It's nice to meet you."

Tsubaki blushed and backed away, to be replaced by BlackStar.

"Yo!" he said eloquently(not). "I am the great BlackStar! Bask in my greatness, for I'm the biggest guy around, the brightest star, and one day I will—"

"Surpass god. I know that, too. I heard your speech in class when you got bored with the lecture."

BlackStar's jaw dropped. Someone beside Tsubaki had paid attention? I was stunned too. What the Hell was with this chick?

"Hey, I'm Liz, Pati's older sister," said Liz, shaking Maka's hand firmly. "I take it you've already met her."

Maka grinned and looked over at Liz's younger sister, with her shorter, paler hair and seriously more developed body—gah! Nosebleed!—and shrugged.

"I talked to her a little during break. You're like her idol."

Now it was Liz's turn to blush as she stepped back, to be replaced by Kid. Maka raised an eyebrow at Kid's black hair, sliced by three white stripes on the left side, but said nothing, and moved to shake his hand. Kid, however, cringed, and instead hugged Maka, taking her by surprise as both of his arms wrapped equally around her shoulders. Again Maka winced. He pulled back, and explained himself.

"Sorry, but a handshake is so asymmetrical. Mean, really, only one hand grasps someone else's opposite hand—whoever thought of it was repulsive!"

"You're Death the Kid," guessed Maka. "Harvar told me you were kind of obsessed with symmetry."

"Ah…symmetry…" Kid got a faraway look in his amber eyes, no doubt fantasizing about perfect symmetry.

Maka's green gaze raked over all of them with a blazing intensity, like fire turned emerald, until it rested on where I slouched, half in the shadows. I waited for the flinch, or the cringe, when she saw my scarlet eyes, my white hair, my pointed teeth. She didn't cringe. She just looked at me, steadily, as if waiting for something. I could smack myself. Duh! Of course she was waiting for something—my name. Wow, was I slow.

"Soul," I said gruffly. She nodded.

"I was sitting next to you today, right?"

I nodded.

"You fell asleep in the middle of BlackStar's speech." It wasn't a question.

I flinched, and looked over at BlackStar, waiting for the outraged shouts, but he wasn't paying attention. He was talking quietly to Tsubaki and Kid about something. Liz and Pati hovered at their meister's shoulders, listening intently to whatever the conversation was about. Maka let her piercing gaze look me over once, then she turned her attention to Harvar and Ox, who was practically begging for it. Trying to push Kim out of his mind with the new girl, I guess. Hell, I would too, if I were him. Maka already seemed way cooler than angry, pink-haired Kim. But why was Harvar so animated? I rarely ever even saw him smirk, or take his glasses off. I didn't even know what color his eyes were. But he was full-out laughing with Ox at something that Maka had said, and he'd shoved his glasses in his pocket. His eyes were icy blue, and appeared even brighter compared to his dark brown hair, pulled back into a short ponytail.

What in Hell's name was going on?

"Uhm, guys," I started, immediately catching everyone's attention. I especially felt that one green gaze burning holes in my head, but I ignored it. "Unless we wanna get caught and fined, I'd suggest we bailed, now."

Everyone nodded their consent and followed me out, without so much as a glance at Hiro's unconscious body on the ground. He'd come around, and then they could beat him to a pulp at school.

…

A week had gone by, and Maka changed everything at the Academy. Harvar was loud and happy and talkative, Ox didn't obsess about Kim like he used to, girls always wanted to hang out with her, and for some reason they were always asking her advice. She was already tied with Ox for the top of the grading curve, something that Ox was not overly thrilled about. He started to lose interest in her. Maka sat next to me every day in her assigned seat, wearing that weird ensemble all the time; the only thing that changed were the colors. One day it had been a navy blue skirt, and a sweater the color of a clear summer sky. She quickly became friends with Pati, Liz, Tsubaki, Kid, Harvar, and BlackStar. Hell, even Kilik and his partners started hanging out with her. There were only two people that couldn't care less about the new girl. Hiro, who had returned to Shibusen still battered from his attempted assault on Maka, did his absolute best to avoid her now.

And me. I can't say that I didn't notice her. I did. Hard not to when she sat by me and was friends with all of my friends. But I kept my distance as best I could. There was something weird about her, and in any case, I wasn't breaking my personal rules anymore. I'd already gotten close to more than enough people. Any more, and I knew my luck wouldn't hold. Besides, she had enough friends already. She didn't another one that was rude and cynical and surly all of the time.

Still, she tried to reach out to me in a way that not even my other friends had. She went out of her way to try and include me in their conversations when I was around, tried to start up conversation with me directly. Why the Hell did she keep doing that? It made it harder and harder for me to keep my resolve. She was nice to me. She didn't flinch whenever she looked into my scarlet eyes, the way so many others did. She didn't even blink when I flashed her my serrated teeth.

She was a weird one.

"Hey, Soul!" BlackStar called. I looked around; he was with Tsubaki and Kid's weapons and Maka, and Harvar. That was strange. I looked around, but I couldn't fine Ox anyway. Harvar rarely left his side.

"What?" I said, walking over.

"Are you coming to Kid's party tonight?" Liz demanded.

Oh, crap, I'd completely forgot! Tonight was Kid's birthday party!

"I—uh—yeah, 'course I am!"

Liz snorted.

"Yeah, right. You forgot again, didn't you?"

I looked away, scowling instead of answering. Pati sighed.

"Don't worry, Soul," said the shorter Thompson sister. "We got a present for him from you. We kinda expected you'd forget."

"Why?" I demanded indignantly. "What makes you say that?"

"Nothing!" Tsubaki jumped in quickly. "You've just seemed a little distracted lately."

I sighed and rubbed the heel of my hand against my temple, growling under my breath. I had been distracted, that was no lie, though I was loathe to admit why. I didn't even understand it myself.

Liz turned to Maka, who had stood silently beside Harvar while the others talked. "You're coming too, right Maka?"

Maka blinked, as if not understanding Liz.

"I…What?"

"I asked if you were coming," Liz repeated patiently.

Maka looked lost for words. Her bright green eyes shone.

"Really, Liz?" she asked. "You want me to come?"

Liz scoffed and threw an easy arm over Maka's shoulders. "'Course, Albarn. Wouldn't ask for kicks. You're our friend."

Maka smiled, eyes still shining, and nodded. "Then yeah! I'll definitely be there!"

Liz was about to let her go when Pati spoke up. "Do you have anything to wear?"

Maka frowned, confused. "Um…I have what I'm wearing now…"

Liz shook her head and clucked her tongue in disapproval. "Now, Maka, this is a party. You can't go to a party looking like a schoolgirl. Please tell me you have something resembling party attire."

"I have a dress for church…" trailed Maka uncertainly. Liz looked about ready to have an aneurism, and I barely bit back a laugh.

"I wouldn't have told Liz that if I were you, Maka," I said before I realized what I was doing. She looked at me with that bright gaze of hers, sending shivers through me. It was like she could see straight through me.

"Why not?"

"Because now she's going to drag you to our house," Kid spoke up, popping out of nowhere much like Harvar had a tendency to do. "And primp you until you will never recognize yourself."

"Got that right," growled Liz, almost savagely, and did indeed start dragging the poor girl after her in the direction of Kid's house. I snorted in amusement, then turned on my heel and kept walking to my apartment, hoping I hadn't actually gotten rid of that pinstripe suit I'd gotten from my brother like I'd been planning. I would never be able to deal with Elizabeth Thompson's rage if I showed up in jeans and a t-shirt.

….

"Hey, Soul," said Ox, leaning against the balcony railing in a posture that mirrored my own slouch.

"Mm?" I grunted, eyes roving over the surprisingly large crowd of people in the banquet hall. The sisters must have invited the whole of Death City!

"Have you seen Harvar?"

I looked around at him. "No, why? Need a dance partner?" I mocked.

Ox rolled his eyes and ignored the dig. "No, I just haven't seen him, and he said he'd be here. I was just wondering."

"Hmph," was my response.

I was about to say something else when Tsubaki appeared on the balcony, smiling warmly. "Come on, you two, it's a party. Come and have some fun. There's a piano, Soul, you should play."

Instantly I stiffened and scowled. "No thanks. I'll come in, but I'm not playing."

Tsubaki sighed, but shrugged and ushered both me and Ox inside. The music playing was something Spanish, with a really fast, upbeat rhythm. People in the center of the room were dancing.

"Wanna watch?" Ox asked, and I followed him up to the edge of the throng, where we could watch the dancing, and I froze. There was only one pair dancing, dominating the entire floor.

"Hey, Ox…" I said slowly. Ox had already been distracted by something pink that ended up being a balloon.

"Hm?"

"I found Harvar."

He was out on the floor, looking surprisingly slick in his snow-white tux with its pale green undershirt. His tie was green, too, albeit a shade darker. It was almost the same color as his dance partner's eyes.

I hadn't seen Maka Albarn arrive. Liz had done her job of primping the new girl a little too well. Her hair was pulled half up, with a very carefully messy look. The make-up was minimal but did wonders to bring out the girl's eyes and make her lips look darker and fuller. And the dress. It was a tight, strapless, forest green sheath, shimmering with every movement, skimming down her legs to just above her knees. It hugged and accented curves I hadn't even seen on that girl! A product, no doubt, of her loose-fitting clothing, because oh, boy, did she have some curves. She was nowhere near as flat chested as I had thought, and her hips were nowhere near as underdeveloped as they appeared beneath that pleated skirt and billowing black jacket. She also wore black heels with straps that climbed up her calves and cinched just below the knee, accenting her legs nicely.

She was damn sexy. She was also dancing with Harvar.

Their bodies were pressed so close together, you couldn't have fit a slip of paper between their chests. They danced across the floor with a grace that was almost ethereal, twisting and dipping and, in Maka's case, spinning. People hooted and hollered, but I was rooted to the spot, completely silent as I watched Harvar and Maka in their erotic dance. Something stirred in my chest, something hot and tight and painful.

As the song approached its end, Harvar's hands slipped down to her waist, and their dance took a new turn. Maka gave a snake twist of her hips against Harvar's, and then spun quickly, Harvar keeping her hand and pulling her back into him. He dipped her, and she bent one leg and kept an arm around his shoulders. As the song came to an end, I was all set to leave, but then I saw something that caused an entirely unexplainable surge of heat to coarse through me. Harvar closed the small distance between their lips, and he was kissing Maka. Wolf whistles and cheers filled the hall as the two dancers locked lips.

The two broke apart, flushed. I scowled and was again ready to turn away when her emerald eyes captured mine. It was almost as though she was waiting for something again. Then her gaze sparked, and something flitted in its depths. Was that fear? I could assume that she'd finally reacted to my appearance, but she'd had a week of not even blinking at my differences. But that look in her eyes definitely said she was afraid of something.

Harvar pulled her back to him for another short kiss, and I tore myself away from that scene, once more going out onto the balcony.

What had that scene made me feel? What was it about seeing Harvar kiss the new girl, who always hid what she had beneath unflattering clothes, that set something growling inside me? I shook my head. This was so not cool! I was letting myself get all hot and bothered over some small, sandy-haired geek who dressed like she was a character in a computer game, or worse, like someone from a manga story! The very idea would normally have made me shudder with revulsion, but on the girl, on Maka Albarn, the look worked. Why did Harvar, quiet, reserved Harvar, have to figure this out before me? Why had it taken seeing Harvar dancing so intimately with Maka to make me see how special she was? How graceful, how beautiful? Damnit, that guy was making me so fucking jealous I—

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? Had I just said I was jealous? Of Harvar? Over a geeky schoolgirl like Maka Albarn?

Okay, that was it. Time to sort through my freaky, twisted thoughts. There was something different about that girl. That much I'd already admitted to myself. It was time I came to terms with the real reason that I had wanted to avoid her for the past week. Maybe the reason that I'd tried to have nothing to do with her stemmed from the fact that I actually wanted to have everything to do with her.

I mean, she was always pretty from the neck up. More than pretty, she really was beautiful. But in that dress, hugging her every curve, she was downright stunning. Gorgeous. Okay, this was not sounding cool at all. But I forced myself to continue.

She was smart. Really smart, to be competing with Ox for the top grade of the class. She read a lot, which was boring, but I guess she had to learn from somewhere, since half the things Professor Stein put on his tests were never in his lectures.

She was tough. She'd proven as much when she'd kicked the crap outa Hiro single-handedly. But she could also take any demeaning remark and spin it around, refusing to let it affect her, instead twisting it so that it backfired on the speaker. She didn't mind being different; in fact she thrived on it.

And, most impressive, and yet most understated, she was kind. Sure, she might toss around fighting words, but only if someone had done something to deserve them. Maka seemed to care about everyone, wanting to make people happy. To make them feel included. She'd even gone so far as to try and make me feel part of something.

Yeah, okay. I had a major crush on the new girl.