Author's Note- Aaaaand this is the end of Fault. I intended to post it much sooner but I had unexpected trouble with it and kept fiddling with it until I reached the conclusion that it just wasn't gonna get better. It's been awhile since I've written a scene in omniscient/plural POV and it gave me some troubles, so if I'm lucky, I didn't cock it up too badly. I was going for equal blending of perspective but I think I may have just made it jittery. Eh, maybe I'll revise this piece someday so it sucks less.

Regardless of my dubious "skill," I hope you've enjoyed this rather plotless bit of semi-introspective nonsense. If you've somehow enjoyed my writing, stay tuned. I have more Soul Eater fanfiction in the pipeline including my already-begun long term project, Legend of the Scythe-Meister, and a shorter piece (title and release date TBD) in which I shamelessly put Soul through the emotional wringer because when I love a character I have that authorial need to make their lives as hard as possible.

*shameless self-promotion* *shoujo sparkles*

Megan26- Since I can't reply to your review privately I'll respond here. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave feedback (and I totally agree about Soul. *sighs sadly* The unrealistic standard set by fictional men is the reason I am still single).

Theirs

Soul and Maka were very different people. Strikingly so, in fact. It was a part of why their partnership worked so well. They complemented each other and their strengths made up for the flaws and faults in their partner. This wasn't to say they were completely different. They had all the important things in common, the things that were necessary for their close friendship to flourish, and the peripheral differences only served to keep their partnership interesting. There was one trait they shared, however, that was the cause of most of the trouble in their relationship.

They were both unerringly, astonishingly, monumentally stubborn.

Once an idea had taken root in Maka's head she would cling to it like a pit bull with its teeth sunk into a particularly tasty trouser leg, ignoring any and all evidence to the contrary until things had reached the point when even she had to admit she was being ridiculous. Soul was far less likely to dig his heels in, and far less prone to fixating on preconceived notions, but when he had made up his mind it was equally impossible to budge him.

Naturally, with one of them positive she was wholly unattractive to her partner and the other convinced he'd single-handedly destroyed any chance he had of winning her heart years ago, romantic headway was at a standstill. The Eater/Albarn household was a minefield of sexual tension and uncertainty.

It maybe wasn't surprising, then, that things came to a breaking point between them. With frustrations filling up behind the dams they had built, it was inevitable that sooner or later that pressure would have to be released.

If you asked him afterwards, he would say it was entirely her fault for provoking an argument in the first place. If you asked her afterwards, she would say it was entirely his fault for having the gall to look so unfairly good in his leather jacket and a pair of jeans that did rather spectacular things for his ass, and then trying to slouch out the door without even saying goodbye.

"Where are you going?"

She was actually rather proud of the way she kept her eyes fixed on the book in her lap, rather than looking up at him like she actually gave a damn about the answer to her question. Casual, be casual. You definitely haven't been fretting for weeks about where he disappears off to in the evenings. Nope. Not a bit.

"Eh, just around," her partner replied.

It was the same answer she'd gotten when she asked him yesterday. And on Tuesday. And Monday. And Sunday. And most of last week. He was avoiding giving her any direct answers and it made her nervous. She wanted to trust what Tsubaki said and believe that what she suspected was just paranoia and her daddy issues talking, but Soul was making it really really hard to stay positive.

"Want some company?"

Since giving himself some space from her was kind of the point, Soul was quick to turn her down. Maybe a little too quick, since Maka actually looked up from her book for once. He hadn't been expecting that.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, and for the life of him he couldn't tell what her expression meant (which was weird because she was usually ridiculously easy to read).

"Nah, just... um, no. Everything's fine." Nice one, Eater. Way to not sound sneaky.

And now she was actually setting the book aside! That was... not normal.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking at him earnestly, even... pleadingly? What? What was going on?

Maka waited a few moments for a reply, but Soul didn't answer. He just looked at her, expression unchanged except that his eyebrows had drawn together slightly, and it frustrated her. Why did he have to be so annoyingly inscrutable all the time? Just once, couldn't he be easy to understand?

When his silence stretched out a few more breaths, she added, "If something's going on, you can talk to me, you know." She'd said it before, and no doubt she'd say it again, and he took her up on the offer exactly never. Ordinarily she was content with the certainty that he knew the door was open, even if he didn't avail himself of it, but today... maybe not so much. She was tense and curious and sexually frustrated and worrying herself miserable and she was sick and tired of Soul never, ever opening up to her, not really!

He shrugged. "Nothing's going on."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really."

"Then why are you never home any more?" she asked.

Despite himself, Soul flinched. He'd hoped she wouldn't notice. "Sorry," he said in a tone lightly laced with sarcasm. "Didn't realize I needed to give you my itinerary."

Might have been the wrong thing to say, if his meister's flaring nostrils were anything to go by. "You don't," she snapped. "Excuse me for taking an interest in your life."

"Okay, why the hell are you being so hostile all of a sudden?" He was baffled. He supposed it had been a long shot to hope that Maka wouldn't notice that he'd been avoiding her, but her reaction to it was confusing. He didn't have to resonate with her to recognize the set of her shoulders and the thin line of her mouth that meant she was as tense as the wires of a well-tuned baby grand.

"I'm not being hostile!"

"Yeah you are, Maka. What gives?"

The flare of panic (this was not an explanation she wanted to give, why had she started this conversation again?) made her reply more forceful than she had intended. "I'm not being hostile! And what do you care, anyway? It's not like you're ever around, are you?"

There was more to this than met the eye. Something was actually bothering her, and Soul knew from long experience that letting Maka fester in her own thoughts was never a good thing, because she had a tendency to come to ridiculous conclusions if he didn't step in and give her some perspective. It also didn't help that he was pretty sure he was being attacked. So even though every instinct he had was telling him this was probably gonna end with him saying something really stupid, he stepped away from the door and back to where she was seated.

"And just what does that mean?" he asked, just a little defensively.

"Nothing."

He wanted to tear out his hair at the petulant tone in her voice. "Maka, what the hell? Are you actually trying to pick a fight with me right now?"

This was stupid. She was stupid. She knew it, and the rational part of her knew that she was only acting this way because she was insecure and jealous. She wasn't doing so well at listening to the rational part of her right now, though. Even when her mind was telling her to shut up before she did any real damage, her mouth seemed to be on autopilot and her heartbeat was too loud in her ears.

"Well at least this way you're actually talking to me!" she snarked.

"I talk to you plenty!"

She snorted. "Yeah, sure. When we're on missions, or in class. I swear you spend more time with Ox than you do with me these days!"

Soul literally bit his tongue to stop the snappish retort he wanted to shoot back at her, and immediately regretted it.

Okay, take a step back.

He and Maka fought a lot. Well, not really fought, per se. It was rare for them to have an actual serious fight, but they bickered and pushed each others buttons. There wasn't any real anger or negative feeling behind it, usually just a little mild annoyance, and it was comfortable and familiar and just how they operated. This, though... there was a bite to her words that wasn't usually there. She was actually upset about something and was taking it out on him for whatever reason. He'd seen her do this a few times before, provoking other people into a fight when something was bothering her and she couldn't make herself address the issue directly. He should know, he was the usual target. But it wasn't going to do any good for him to rise to the bait. Just this once he was gonna try to act like a fucking adult and take a step back instead of letting her get under his skin.

Deep breath. Don't yell at her. You are not four years old, you can behave like it. Probably.

"Maka, seriously. What's this about?" he asked, in a marginally calmer tone. Thinking that it might help if he wasn't glaring down at her, he sat next to her on the couch. "And don't say it's nothing because you and I both know better."

"Think whatever you want," she muttered. Feeling thoroughly ashamed of herself, she grabbed for her book and attempted a humiliated retreat.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Soul was having none of that, and he pushed the novel out of her reach before she could get her hands on it. Ignoring her noisy protest, he said, "You know that whole "you can talk to me" thing? Two-way street, Maka."

Fully aware that her face was doing its best impression of a tomato, she avoided his eyes and stared down at her knees instead. Her knees might be knobbly, but at least they wouldn't laugh at her for being an idiot. "It's stupid," she mumbled.

"So?"

The silence went on. Soul waited, because usually if he was quiet for long enough she'd just spit it out, but apparently today Maka Albarn wasn't inclined to share with the rest of the class because she just sat there, avoiding his eyes with an embarrassed flush creeping across just about every visible part of her skin.

Fine. She didn't want to tell him? That was her business.

He tried not to think about the fact that she would pick a fight with him but wouldn't talk to him hurt like hell.

"Whatever," he muttered, and got to his feet.

Watching him walk across the apartment, Maka's tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth and her heart was beating way too hard and she wanted to stop him, but even with a vocabulary of 75,000 words she couldn't seem to find the ones she needed.

He was halfway out the door when he heard her whisper, "I just really miss you."

He froze. Turned. Stared at her. "Huh?" he asked stupidly.

She was still avoiding his eyes and she was still bright red, but she repeated, a little louder: "I miss you."

Progress. Okay.

The dam had broken and the words tumbled out before Maka could properly sandbag her stream of consciousness. "It just seems like you're gone all the time, you know? And I know it's none of my business because it's your life and you can do what you want, but I can't help it. You go off to wherever and I worry which is stupid because I know you can take care of yourself and Tsubaki says I'm being paranoid but I'm pretty sure you have a girlfriend so I guess I'm just freaking out a little because I don't think I'm ready to deal with that yet and did I mention it was stupid?"

Soul blinked.

Maka felt herself flush even darker. Well, she'd gone and put her whole hand on the table now. Falling for Soul had been stupid. All but telling him that because she had the emotional stability of your typical mental patient these days... well, they were going to have to invent a whole new word for this level of stupid. Maybe she could help them come up with it.

She'd given Soul a lot of information to process in a relatively short amount of time. He wasn't totally sure what to make of her ramble except that apparently his attempt to give himself some space had not only been noticed, it had actually upset her. Well, shit. Now he just felt like an ass.

Okay, damage control time. He chose to focus on the most laughably ridiculous thing first, and he'd deal with the rest of it later. "Why would you think I have a girlfriend?" he asked, shutting the door mindlessly.

She mumbled something so lowly the only word he caught was "stupid."

"Yeah, yeah, you're an idiot," he said, doing his best to keep the fond note out of his voice, walking back to the couch and sitting down next to her again. "I definitely don't have a girlfriend... unless you're volunteering for the job?"

He hadn't meant to say it. He'd definitely been thinking it, in that wistful never-gonna-happen kind of way, and somehow it had slipped out and oh dear sweet Death please let her think he was joking!

Her reaction wasn't what he had expected, though. Instead of laughing (or alternately realizing how much he actually meant it and looking at him like he'd grown a second head or something), she turned away from him.

"Don't be an ass, Soul."

Maka's tone was... not right. Her shoulders were slumped and she was all curled up on herself and she sounded so sad. For the first time in what felt like years, he was having a hard time reading her, because this reaction didn't make sense at all.

"I know we usually do the friendly banter thing, but... just this once, can you please just leave it alone?" she asked softly. "Don't tease me. Not about this."

There was something he was missing. Something big. "What are you talking about?" he asked, totally nonplussed.

"Look, I know you're cool and you're used to having all kinds of girls throwing themselves at you, and I know we laugh about that sometimes," she muttered, "but I'm not them, okay? This isn't something we can just joke about, at least not now. Maybe someday, but for now I'm just trying really hard not to let this screw up our partnership, so please don't make it harder for me."

Soul was not stupid. He could read between the lines and piece together what was implied. That didn't mean it made any sense, though.

"Are you... Maka, are you trying to say you have feelings for me?" he asked awkwardly, unable to believe those words had actually come out of his mouth.

Getting the feeling that he might not have recognized her initial slip-up for what it was and feeling thoroughly embarrassed (seriously, she could have avoided making even more of a fool of herself if she had just kept her mouth shut!), Maka nodded miserably. "Mm-hm," she mumbled.

"Oh jeez," Soul groaned, and she flinched. Yep, all the work she'd done to keep this to herself and not let it get awkward, and here things were... about to get awkward.

"You mean I spent all these months avoiding you so that I wouldn't do something stupid like kiss you because I forget that I'm not allowed to do that, for no good reason?"

He was actually a little bit genuinely frustrated. Keeping his distance from her had let him keep his cool, but it had also been hell. Deliberately spending so little time with the one person whose company he never got tired of and who had always accepted him unconditionally had been rough. And to know that all that could have been avoided... yeah, he actually was kind of ticked about that. Mostly, though, he was just focusing on how annoyed that made him so he wouldn't do something incredibly uncool. Like doing a victory dance. Or running to the window and screaming to all of Death City that Maka Albarn liked him.

Especially because she was suddenly looking at him and her eyes were huge and hopeful and surprised and it was occurring to him that she'd been every bit as much in the dark as he was. She'd had no idea how he felt, either.

"We're such idiots," he muttered with a shake of his head and a sharp grin that he flashed in her direction as he tried not to laugh at the irony.

Maka was trying to process what she'd just been told. And no matter how many times she conjured up her mothers image as a prime example of what happened to meisters who fell in love with their weapons, it wasn't enough to suppress the swelling bubble of elation in her chest because Soul felt the same way. Just to be sure, though, she asked, "You too, then?"

He nodded, and she was pretty sure she'd never seen him smile that widely before. Wow. Oh wow. She was really glad she was sitting down all of a sudden, because if his regular crooked smirk made her knees go weak... well!

"Wow," she whispered.

"Get over here," he said with a jerk of his head.

Even though she'd actually told him she had feelings for him, Soul had to admit that he was still a little surprised when she actually scooted across the gap between them and curled up next to him. He wrapped his arm around her and it wasn't really any different from any other time they'd sat like this, except it was.

"So," he said, trying to sound like he wasn't giddy and nervous and about ten thousand other seriously non-cool things, "you remember what I said earlier about not having a girlfriend?"

"Yeah?"

"Does this mean that's changed?"

She turned her face into his shoulder to try and hide her own beaming smile. "Only if you stop avoiding me," she teased.

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem," he said, and his tone made her look up to meet those striking eyes of his, "since the only reason I was avoiding you was so I wouldn't be tempted to do this..."

And then his lips were on hers and Maka promptly decided that Soul was right. The fact that they hadn't been doing this all along was incontrovertible proof that they were both the biggest idiots in the state of Nevada.