Despite the date, Soul Eater is not mine

It was Saturday morning and Soul had his feet up at the table as he lazily read through the large stack of letters that had been slowly accumulating over the week. It had become something of a ritual for him to wait and read all of the letters, which ranged from partner requests all the way to declarations of love, until the weekend. He'd then take the time to briefly respond to each letter and, so he claimed, decline their advances. It was an uncharacteristically kind act for Soul but when Maka had asked he'd merely shrugged. He said that if people took the time the time to write the letters, he should at least be willing to read and respond to them. Under normal circumstances, Maka would feel pleased at this demonstration of maturity from her normally lazy partner but she had instead come to dread these Saturday morning readings.

"Do you have to do this at the kitchen table?" She asked irritably as she set down his breakfast with a bit more force than was probably necessary. He raised a lazy eyebrow at her.

"I don't complain when you read your books all through meals." He shrugged as he went back to reading the letter which judging by the practical ink color and the lack of hearts was not a sappy love letter and was thus even more frightening. "Besides it needs to get done and I'd like to have some free time this afternoon to maybe take the bike out. You wanna come? It's been awhile since we went for a ride." Maka pursed her lips as she turned away from him, busying herself in the sink with the dirty dishes.

"Not unless you'd rather take your new partner out instead." She said, intending it to come out light and teasing but even she could feel the harsh bitter taste of the words as she spoke them. She closed her eyes and went back to furiously scrubbing. She hated it, this twist of anxiety she felt when Soul spent the mornings running his red eyes over those words. It was nice to think that he read them out of kindness but she feared that one day, a particular letter written by a better, stronger, cooler Meister would appear and suddenly she would find herself alone. It would make sense, now that he was a Deathscythe, he could have any partner he wanted on all of his terms. He didn't have to stay with boring, old her and she couldn't help but dread the day when he finally realized it. He was silent for a moment except for the rustling of his letters.

"What?" He said quietly but Maka just shook her head, keeping her eyes low as she continued working on the dishes.

"Oh nothing, just teasing," she replied with hopeless cheer that sounded fake even to her. "I suppose all this racket I'm making is disturbing you. I'll clean these later when you're finished, put your plate in the sink when you're done." She said thickly, hurriedly wiping her hands on a towel as she made her way over to the door as quickly as she could before she lost her composure altogether. As much as it would pain her to see him go, she wouldn't stop him. He was an incredibly skilled weapon, even before he'd become a Deathsycthe and anyone would be lucky to have him. If he wanted to move on, she would give him her blessing and count herself lucky she'd had him for as long as she did.

"Hey, Maka wait a minute, stop," she heard him growl behind her soon followed by the screech of his chair as he stood up and grabbed ahold of her wrist. She gave a halfhearted tug in order to get him to let go but he just tightened his grip. "What do you mean?" He asked roughly before swallowing. "Do want to break up our partnership? Jesus Maka, what did I do? Are you done with me now that I'm a Deathscythe? Is that it?" He asked and Maka shook her head again before turning to him.

"No!" She said pulling her arm away more forcefully but feeling the fight leave her almost immediately. "No" she said again, much more quietly this time. Soul moaned with frustration, raking his hand through his hair while his other rested impatiently on his hip.

"Then what is it?" He paused before pointing to the table filled with letters. "Is it about this? Maka we've talked about this, it's not-"

"But what if you find someone better?" She interrupted, letting a little bit of her fear leak into her voice. She balled her hands up in her skirt and looked down, too ashamed to look up at him. "Now that you're so popular you have a chance to find a better Meister. Someone who won't nag at you all the time, someone who understands music-"

"You idiot," she heard Soul sigh and looked up to see him wearily rubbing his eyes. He then leveled her with a light glare. "Let me tell you something Maka, and you listen good because I've told you this before and I'll tell you again. You are my Meister and I am proud to be your Weapon. You've marked me, I will never leave you unless you want me to." Maka sniffed quietly and bit her lip.

"What do you mean I've 'marked' you?" She was mildly surprised to see Soul blush and shift on his feet.

"I um I don't know exactly to explain it but," he brought one hand up to grip his shirt where underneath Maka knew his scar was tattooed across his skin. "Since that first battle with Chrona, when I took that hit, I think I realized that there wasn't anyone else I could be with. I guess I knew then that you were my Meister and I was stuck with you, that I couldn't bond with anyone else." By the time he finished, Maka was gaping with horror. Was he staying with her because he didn't think anyone would take him? That the scar had so disfigured him that no one else would want to partner with him?

"Soul, there's no obligation to stay with me. That scar isn't that big a deal! Any person, even a girl would have no problem with it. In fact, I think it increases your cool factor, you know scars are a sign of courage." She babbled rapidly because as much as she wanted him to stay, she didn't want to feel like he had to. If he wanted to go, she wasn't going to hold him back.

Soul growled again and stepped forward to grab her by the shoulders.

"No, stop, that's not what I mean." He bowed his head and sighed as he searched for words. "I mean, I didn't think when I protected you. I barely even remember doing it, it was automatic. When I woke up in the hospital to see you asleep at my bedside, I realized that somewhere along the way that I had become so attached to you that I didn't even have to think twice about stepping in front of that blade." He looked up and held her gaze with his deep red eyes and even redder cheeks.

"I'm not-I'm not good with people Maka, I've gotten better over the years but it's still… but with you, I don't feel like I have to pretend. You're my best friend, my partner and the other part of my soul, I know I don't say it often enough but it's true. If you want to leave that's fine, but don't think I won't fight for you because I'm selfish and I need you." He brought his forehead down to hers. "I'm not me without you. You've become such a part of who I am that being with you is the only thing I can imagine." Maka closed her eyes and smiled, breathing in Soul's familiar smell and realizing herself that she couldn't think of life without him either. They'd been through so much together, through good times and bad, where would she be without Soul?

Maka lost count of how long they stayed like that but at long last Soul pulled back and gave her forehead a chaste kiss which caused Maka to sputter and blush. He grinned down at her with that sardonic grin that she hated and adored at the same time because it was totally him.

"Are we cool? You're not going to have any more freak-outs on me are you?" She snorted and gave him a friendly push away sauntering over to continue cleaning up the dishes.

"No way, Evans, I'm afraid you're stuck with me." She said with a bright grin which he returned.

"Wasn't going to let you go even if you wanted to, it's not cool for a guy to be dumped by a tiny thing like you." She stuck out her tongue as she passed the kitchen table noticing for the first time that there were two piles of letters.

"Hey Soul, what're these two piles for? Why are you separating them? Are some of them different?" She looked closer and noticed that only one of the piles had his awkwardly written return letters while the other pile did not. Soul shrugged as he flopped back into his chair, picking up his pen and lazily playing with it.

"Those are the letters that make rude or unflattering comments about you, probably in a bid to convince me that we're incompatible or something stupid. Those are also the letters that I don't respond to." He said simply, putting the pen in his mouth for his sharpened teeth to gnaw on. "Like I said, no one touches my Meister." She smiled at that.

"Yeah, I'm starting to get that."

"Good, it's about time."

Happy birthday to me, as a present I gift you with my other Soul Eater one-shot I had sitting around. If it isn't painfully obvious, this whole story came from the sentence that Soul had been 'marked'. I was thinking about the point where Soul had really dedicated himself to Maka and that paralleled the physical scar he received. No matter how much he teases her, Soul would never give up Maka because, based on his actions with Chrona, he's gotten in too deep with her to ever really leave. So yes, fluff, I'm not used to writing fluff but it's very relaxing. I'm not sure when I'd put this, manga-verse for sure but between Baba Yaga's Castle and the Salvage arc I suppose. Hope you enjoy!