Chapter Text
“I love you.”
Soul raised his eyes off the magazine that he had in his hands and he looked at Maka in bewilderment, who was standing in front of him.
“What?” he asked uncertainly.
“I've been in love with you…” she repeated bravely “for a long time.”
They fell silent. She didn't seem affected; in fact she was incredibly calm, something weird considering she was confessing her feelings. However, Soul got paralyzed.
He was surprised and not at the same time. He had realized the feelings of his partner for a long time, but it was an issue that neither of them had ever mentioned and that they would probably have to discuss at some point.
But he didn't expect it to be that sudden, out of nowhere.
“Maka, I…” he looked at her sadly “I don’t feel the same for you.”
She gave him a warm smile. “I know.”
Wasn’t this the moment when girls start to cry and run away? Why was she smiling at him if he was rejecting her?
“I knew you’d say that, I was prepared to listen it,” Maka started to say as she sat at his side. “It was just that I had to tell you, I could not leave this pending for much more.”
“I’m really sorry,” said Soul looking at the ground without knowing what to do.
“You don’t have to apologize, you've done nothing wrong.”
“Make my partner... no, my best friend feel sad is not exactly something cool.” He could feel how Maka's soul wave had shrunk in sorrow. She just sighed.
“I'm serious, Soul. I had accepted that you would never see me that way and I can live with that… if you see me sad it’s for another reason.”
“You are acting weird, what’s going on?”
Maka stood in silence and he felt her shiver. That put him on alert and he got scared. He had a bad feeling.
“Maka, just tell me!”
“We can’t be partners anymore.”
Soul was paralyzed by that horrible surprise. It had to be a joke; Maka would never leave him like this.
"What are you talking about? It’s because I don’t return your feelings?”
“No! if it was because of that, we would have separated a long time ago.”
“Then why?”
“It’s because of our resonance, Soul.” Her voice sounded so fragile and that hurt him too. “You know that it doesn’t exist anymore, it’s gone and will never come back.”
Soul felt horrible at the great truth his friend was saying. They had been a great team since they were eleven, had mastered multiple techniques of great difficulty and were proud of that. But for some time and without knowing why they couldn’t have a stable resonance. Maka could hardly take him without burning her hands and everything ended in catastrophe when they tried to make the witch hunter.
That's why they hadn’t collected souls in several months and no matter how hard they worked and trained nothing seemed to improve the situation.
“Don't say that, we are just in a slump, you'll see that we will beat this and we will kick kishin's asses again.”
Maka shook her head. “We can't fool ourselves any longer. Lord Death has been patient with us during these months but we’ve had enough.”
“Fuck Lord Death!”
“Soul! Don’t you understand?”
“No, I don’t get it because I’m sure we can get over this.”
“Soul, our duty as students of DWMA is to create a Death Scythe,” said Maka, looking him in the eyes. “How can we do that if we can't fight?? We can't just keep being partners just on a mere whim”
“But Maka…” His voice started trembling.
“And you have an incredible potential to become a Death Scythe. I can’t accept you being stuck because of me.”
“Stop saying nonsense. You are the best scythe meister that DWMA has, no one is more capable than you to turn me into one.”
“Maybe I was, but not anymore…. You have to look for another meister, Soul. You have tons of requests, I’m sure you are going to find someone.”
“No…”
“Please… try to understand.”
“What about you? You’re gonna to tidy up DWMA library or what? I will not leave you alone.”
Her look turned even sadder. “That is not gonna happen but I have to talk with you about that too.”
“Now what?” he asked, afraid.
“You know the situation that Lord Death has in Europe, don’t you?”
Soul nodded, without understanding why that situation had anything to do with them.
“The kishin’s population is uncontrolled there and with that, more weapons and meisters without a guide have been appearing,” she explained. “Not everybody can come over and study here and we can’t keep it like that so Lord Death decided to create a DWMA headquarter in Europe.”
He instantly guessed what she was going to say next and talked before she confirmed his fears.
“You… are leaving?”
“…Yes”
“I get it, you need to stay away from me.” His voice sounded empty.
That made her angry “Of course not, I will kill you for thinking that! Do you really think I would like to leave you and the others?”
“Then… it’s something that you didn’t choose by yourself?”
“No, they transferred me because they need me for a special mission.”
She stayed quiet for a moment knowing that she was going to hurt her partner if she told him about that.
“There are less and less scythes in the world, but one appeared in France…” She took a deep breath. “And they assigned him as my weapon.”
Silence, again.
“A guy?” Soul asked.
“Yes, and for all I know he’s older than us, but his weapon blood awoke recently and he needs an experienced meister to help him to control and learn his powers,” Maka answered. “They chose me saying the same as you, that I’m one of the best scythe meisters from DWMA.”
“They should send Stein; he could train him,” said Soul, bitter.
“I won’t train him; I’m just gonna be his partner. My mother will train us; she agreed to be a teacher at the headquarters in Europe.”
Training with Kami Albarn, that was something that any meister on the DWMA would kill for and without saying it, Soul already knew that it was a unique opportunity.
That disagreeable and painful sensation in his chest got worst. Everything that Maka was telling him was hard to assimilate and even harder to accept.
It wasn’t easy to accept that one of the most important people in his life couldn’t fight by his side anymore. She would go to the other side of the world, and the worst thing is that she had already found another weapon, someone who will replace him, someone she would turn into a Death Scythe instead of him.
“I don’t want you to leave,” said Soul. “Please, do not leave Maka.”
He noticed that his friend's eyes began to tear up before she hugged him. “I don’t want to leave either, but it’s the best for both of us.”
At that moment, as he felt something breaking inside him, he wished he had loved her.
Because, maybe, he might could have convinced her not to leave.
“We are going to miss you so much, Maka,” said Tsubaki, almost crying.
There was an expression of sadness on Maka's face. “I’m going to miss you guys so much too.”
“You have to tell us when you get there, okay?” asked Kid.
“And send a lot of pictures; we want to see how you do over there.” said Liz.
Patty approached her and gave Maka a little and adorable stuffed giraffe.
“It’s for you, that way you are not going to feel alone in the flight,” she said, smiling.
“Thanks Patty.” Maka smiled back and they hugged each other.
What they didn’t expect was that the next hug was a team brutality from Black Star and Kid, who captured Maka and squeezed her to death.
“Get off me, you idiots! You are going to break me!”
“That’s because we love you, Maka.” said Black Star.
“And we are going to miss you a lot.” Kid seconded.
That was enough for her to start weeping and her friends freaked out.
“Stop it! You are going to make us cry too, stupid,” said Black Star.
“You guys can be so uncool sometimes.” Soul shrugged and that made Maka laugh. She cleaned her tears and approached her friend. He extended his arms smiling and hugged her without wanting to let her go. Their hug lasted longer than the others and that left a sad sensation on all of them.
“Promise me you are going to try hard in class and that you are going to defeat a lot of kishins,” she asked him.
“I’ll do what I can,” said Soul with a smirk. “Hope you can survive without me, you are too american to understand the scottish accent.”
“Oh, shut up,” she said, laughing and smacking him in the shoulder.
In that moment, the speakers announced Maka’s flight and they knew it was time to separate.
She had a knot in her throat “It’s time…”
They all nodded, and then they gave her a last hug and helped her with the luggage.
“I love you guys so much and you will always be my friends,” she said. “I don’t know when I’m coming back, but I will.”
“And we’re going to play basketball!” said Black Star.
“Yes, of course.” She grinned at him. “Bye guys.”
They saw her walk away and fade into the airport hallways.
Liz turned to Soul and said him, “You should’ve kissed her, Soul. She would’ve stayed that way.”
Soul smiled bitterly. That was something he thought before, but it was something impossible for him.
The phone started to ring, distracting Soul from his incredible jazz cd that he bought not too long ago.
It was twelve thirty at night, who would call him at that hour?
It could only be one person… and that made him almost run to answer.
“Hello?”
“Soul!” Maka’s voice filled him with warmth and relief.
“Wow, you do sound excited to hear me. You can’t live without me, can you Albarn?”
“Don’t be stupid,” she laughed. “But I do miss you, it’s been hours since i last gave someone a Maka-chop and I have withdrawl.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, my mother was waiting for me at the airport and brought me to my new house,” she answered. “I’m tired, the flight was awful.”
“And how is Scotland?”
“From what I’ve seen while I was in the car, it’s beautiful. Pretty different too,” she told him. “There’s a lot of green everywhere and it’s very cold.”
“Wow, and here we are with more than seventy-seven degrees”
“Yeah, it’s weird,” Maka agreed. “But you know, I still kinda feel like I’m in home because I can see a graveyard by the window and next to it there is a playground.”
“Just like in Death City,” Soul laughed, amused.
“Typical of Death City.”
“So…any plans today? I’m guessing it’s morning over there…”
“Yes, I think I’m gonna rest a bit and then my mom told me we should go to Shibusen,” she said, referring to the new headquarters of DWMA. “To uh… meet my weapon...”
“Well… that’s awesome, I’m glad everything’s fine over there,” said Soul, faking happiness.
“Yeah, I guess,” she said, with doubt. ”But it’s weird, I don’t know this guy at all and now I have to live with him already and go to intensive train together. I would rather have some time to meet him beforehand.”
“Don’t worry Maka, if he’s a pervert or a psycho, just call me and I’ll go cut his throat personally.”
He heard her laugh.
“Thanks.”
“Thanks for what?”
“For still being my friend.”
He didn't hesitate for a second. “I could never leave you Maka.”
“Of course not, because it’s you who can’t live without me.” He could already imagine her grin. “I have to go, I’m tired and they are gonna drag me around the whole evening.”
“Okay, take care.”
“You too, Soul. I’ll call you when I can, bye.”
He stayed there for a while, with the phone still on his hand. He looked at the apartment and felt incredibly alone and empty.
Yes, he needed Maka.
After Maka’s call and some messages, they didn’t hear from her for at least two months.
Lord Death calmed them down after telling them that she was training with her new weapon in a place that kept them incommunicado, but he told them she was alright and there was nothing to be worried about.
But Soul just couldn’t stay calm
Even if he refused to accept it, he expected that Maka and her new weapon couldn’t resonate their souls so she would have come to Death City, but apparently he was wrong.
And he wasn’t doing well with finding a new meister. He wasn’t even putting a lot of effort into that. It was Stein who insisted that he get one and even introduced him to some, but none of them had been able to hold him.
They were all in the classroom during their break, sitting and talking in different places when they heard a shriek coming from Tsubaki.
“A message from Maka!” she yelled, looking at her phone.
She was instantly approached, mostly by the girls who were closer to her.
“What does it say, what does it say?” asked Patty, excited.
“It’s for everyone,” she said, smiling and starting to read. “Hi guys…”
“I hope you are all okay. I am so sorry for not calling or messaging you for awhile but the lack of signal in the mountains prevented me.
The training was fine, it was pretty hard but we’ve advanced a lot. A lot happened lately, but I'll tell you the details later.
I miss you guys a lot, this place is pretty boring without you, but at least I have my weapon Alex. He keeps me company, otherwise I would go insane.
I send you a lot of hugs and Maka-chops (for the ones that deserves them, of course)
With love,
Maka
PD: Alex sends you greetings; I attached a picture so you can see that he’s taking good care of me.”
“Picture?” asked Liz, alarmed.
“Let me see!” exclaimed Kim, taking Tsubaki’s phone. “God! Lucky bastard, why does Maka always get the hot guys?”
Soul raised a brow and she glared at him.
“Don’t get so arrogant Evans; a lot of girls say it.”
He sighed and got close to see the picture when Kim gave back the phone to Tsubaki. Maka appeared with her hair tied in a ponytail and a big smile while holding the camera with one of her hands. At her side was a guy with black hair and brown eyes saluting; he looked about eighteen years old (two more than Maka) and did not look even minimally uncomfortable or shy next to his new partner.
“He seems nice,” commented Tsubaki.
“Not as awesome as me, of course!” said Black Star.
Kid sighed with some relief. “They seem to get along; at least we can be calm knowing he’s not a creep that’s molesting her.”
“I don't like him,” stated Patty, to everyone’s surprise. “If it wasn’t for him Maka would still be here.”
“It’s not his fault Patty,” said Tsubaki, who looked at Soul. “Nor anyone else, ok?”
Soul nodded silently and turned around to go out of the classroom. He knew that Maka would be mad at him if she knew he was skipping classes, but he wasn’t in the mood to stay seated for two hours watching Stein dissecting a poor endangered animal or Marie blowing up a table with a hammer.
The truth was, he doubted that he even wanted to stay at the DWMA.
If Maka hadn’t asked him to be her partner he would’ve never stayed here. She was a fundamental piece in his new life, but she wasn’t there anymore and he felt a little lost without her.
After all, it’s the meister who guides the weapon.
“I’m pathetic,” he mumbled kicking a rock.
But no, he would stay. He promised her he would try. She trusted that he would become a Death Scythe and if he had to fight without a meister to collect souls, he would do it.
That way, when he saw her again, he could look at her in the eyes with pride.
Besides, he had this group of crazy friends. He would always have a home and a place to come back to.
He smiled. They were a present from Maka, too.
He just had to wait now. That way it would be him who would welcome Maka when she returned home.
He knew she would keep her promise too.