Maka loved her friends. Her favorite moments were when there was no Kishin trying to destroy the world, and her class just relaxed. They were in Kid's home, which since his latest hours as active Shinigami, had begun to be empty of Kid. Kid was still at Shibusen tonight and Liz and Patty had been lonely lately. So they had invited the Spartori to just hang. Maka and Soul had just returned to Death City when they received the Thompsons' invitation. They'd been hunting down Russian Mafia for the past month and a half, so both were drained, but Maka was more exhausted since she couldn't sleep on planes and she had to tote around Soul when they fought.

They had arrived at the Thompsons, Maka's arms had been wrapped around Soul's middle and when they slowed to a stop Maka shook herself from her half-sleeping state. Liz and Patty greeted them enthusiastically, too enthusiastically for Soul and Maka's brains to deal with right now. Maka muttered a hello and was tackled in a hug by Patty. Patty left her to tease Soul.

"Hey, how's it going Maka?"

"Okay…" Maka rubbed her eyes and yawned. "Sorry, I'm just very tired."

"Come in then! You can lay down,"

Maka smiled gratefully, "thank you, Liz! You're a life saver!"

Liz and Patty let Maka and Soul into the house and they sat onto the couch, while they waited for the others. Liz and Patty interrogated them about their mission and Soul spared Maka from needing to open her mouth as he answered the sisters' inquires with his bored drawl. The room had filled up quickly once the DWMA had ended for the day. Ox, Havar, Kim, and Jackie entered first, followed by Kilik. When asked where Fire and Thunder were, Kilik told everyone that they had wanted to go back to their apartment.

"Where are Black*Star and Tsubaki?" Soul asked. Maka's eyes drooped lazily. She nudged her weapon so he would move his arm. Once he did she laid her head in his lap, her feet stretched across Liz and Patty who sat next to the pair on the couch.

Soul patted her head absently, his hands ran through her hair soothingly, massaging her head gently as he talked. Maka sighed contently as she listened to her friends and Ox talk. As if on cue the door burst open to reveal Black*Star and Tsubaki.

"IT IS I! BLACK*STAR! NO NEED TO STAND PEASANTS, I KNOW YOUR LOVE FOR ME KNOWS NO BOUNDS!"

"Sorry," Tsubaki muttered behind her robust meister.

"Shut up, Black*Star." Someone responded. Maka was too tired to giggle. The pair sat across Soul, Maka, Liz, and Patty. Kim, who was sitting on Jackie's lap, rolled her eyes at her new couch companions.

"How was your mission Tsubaki?" Jackie asked kindly.

Tsubaki laughed sheepishly. "Well, we're getting better."

Maka relaxed into Soul's lap, it was warm and comfortable. She loved the soothing pace of his fingers in her hair. Her trademark pigtails had come undone on the plane and since then she had worn her hair down.

She blinked lazily as she watched Ox (who was sitting on the floor in front of Maka's couch with Havar) lose game after game of chess with Kim, who had Jackie whispering suggestions in her ear the entire time. Patty said something that Kilik found so funny he almost fell off the chair he was sitting in, which was set between the parallel couches so they formed a U shape.

Black*Star soon was bored of non-Black*Star-centric conversation and climbed atop the table where Kim and Ox were in the middle of a ferocious game of chess. Patty roughly pushed him off while Ox and Kim yelled at him to get off of the table and that he was messing up the game. Black*Star landed on Tsubaki's lap shouting "REVENGE!" at the giggling blonde girl who then stuck her tongue out at him. Black*Star attempted to lunge at Patty but Tsubaki held him back with a cry of "Black*Star no!"

Patty laughed maniacally and Liz held her back from attacking Black*Star too, her reason being "Kid'll be so mad if you break something!"

Soul rolled his eyes and Kim continued to complain about how when Black*Star jumped on the table he had shifted the game pieces a little. The two brawlers calmed down and Maka's legs were lifted to allow the sisters to sit down.

Patty giggled when Maka's legs were laid across her waist. "It's like a seat belt!" She cried, and mimed a car. "Vroom! Vroom! Beep, beep!" She honked her imaginary horn with glee.

Maka loved her friends, she really did. But then that conversation came up. The one and only That Conversation, that conversation that seems to find its way into the group, that conversation that every handful of friends has at least once.

"Hey, don't you guys think it's funny how no one in our class has started dating their partner?" Liz commented. Maka was too tired for this.

There was a pause where everyone just looked at their partner. Jackie blushed and nodded at Kim, as if agreeing to something, Kim shrugged. "Well Jackie and I are dating."

"You are?"

"Since when?"

"My angel Kim is dating her weapon?!"

"Congrats guys," Maka said.

Ox sobbed for a few minutes before saying to Jackie solemnly, "you take good care of her." Jackie nodded, and tightened her grip around her meister.

"Hey! I'm right here, ya know."

Maka felt something nudge her foot. It was one of Liz's hands.

"What about you two?" Liz asked. Maka felt a blush creep up her neck. She really didn't want to get into this conversation, especially not in front of Soul. Her crush on him was strictly unrequited and she was sure of it. After all if it wasn't, then why wouldn't he get nosebleeds from her? And tease her all the time? And- "I mean, you two already act like a couple…"

"We do not!" Maka and Soul argued in unison.

Everyone in the room seemed to be wearing the same skeptical gaze.

"You're laying your head in his lap, and he's playing with your hair." Kim retorted.

Maka scrambled to an upright position, her face burning, and Soul removed his hand from her tangled blonde tresses. "I was tired!" Maka defended.

"Yeah! And I didn't have anywhere else to put my hand!" Soul added. Maka would never admit it but she missed his soft musician's hand and the comforting massage that came with Soul running his fingers through her hair.

"That's not what it looked like to us." Kilik commented, an eyebrow raised.

"We're not a thing." Maka denied, her stomach clenched as she said the words. It didn't matter how large Maka's crush on Soul was, all of it had to be requited.

"Yeah! Dating your partner is so uncool." Soul added. Everyone glanced at Kim and Jackie and Soul rubbed the back of his neck, hastily. "I mean if they don't love you! Like… then it's uncool." He added hastily.

"Smooth." Havar smirked. Soul rolled his eyes at him.

"I don't think so." Tsubaki disagreed. "I believe every partnership must have some type of love towards each other, otherwise they wouldn't resonate."

Havar and Ox slowly backed away from each other. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty sure Ox and I aren't in love…"

Tsubaki blushed. "T-that's not what I meant! The love can be platonic, but it's still love."

Soul snorted. "That's so uncool."

"What is? Being in love?"

"Well, yeah."

Maka put her hands on her hips. "And what, exactly, is so 'uncool' about being in love?"

"It makes you write poems and waste your money on jewelry and other stupid shit."

"Says the musician."

Soul crossed his arms across his chest and scowled. "Back me up here guys!"

Ox, Havar, and Kilik physically separated themselves farther from Soul, equal looks of "nope" crossing their faces.

"WHO CARES, NONE OF THIS HAS TO DO WITH ME! BLACK*STAR! THE MAN WHO WILL SURPASS GOD!"

They ignored Black*Star.

"Look. All I'm saying is that it would be weird to fall in love with your partner. They see your soul."

"That's exactly why it would be a good idea to date them! They really know who you are. Why are men so guarded?" Maka cried. She didn't want to fight right now! She wanted to curl up on Soul's warm lap and just go to sleep...

"I'm not guarded!"

"Soul it takes life threatening situations for you to play your piano I call that guarded."

The others flicked their heads back and forth between the two like their argument was an intense tennis match.

"That's rich coming from you Miss-I-Hate-All-Men."

"I do not hate all men! I only hate the cheating perverted dickbags!"

"Uh guys-" Liz tried to interrupt the argument which had somehow derailed from the original topic of That Conversation, but Soul cut her off.

"Maybe, but in your mind it's guilty until proven innocent!"

"Nu-uh!" Maka felt like she was five again.

"Uh-huh! And you give us like an inch of leash! It's not my fault if I get a nosebleed from Blair walking around the house naked! If you were into girls you would too!"

"It's totally your fault!"

"How is it my fault? I keep it in my pants, don't I? It's not cheating to be into a hot girl and not do anything about it!"

Kim narrowed her eyes. "Wait. You called it cheating, does that mean you guys are dating?"

Soul and Maka looked equally frustrated with one another. "NO!" Maka cried. As she said the word she felt like a dagger had been lodged in her stomach and turned to maximize pain.

"Yeah, right." Soul muttered.

That was the wrong thing to say.

"Woah," Liz added, "what's with the sarcasm? You say that like Maka is undateable or something."

"Maka is just as beautiful as the rest of us!" Kim defended. The other girls cried out in agreement, and Maka's already red face darkened in hue.

Soul turned as beet red as Maka. "T-that's not what I meant!"

"Oh yeah? Then what's the reason you two aren't dating?"

"It's more complicated than that!"

"Soul's right." Ox added helpfully.

Havar nudged him. "Dude! Never get into a fight with the girls! It always just ends up bad for you."

"Yeah, liking someone-" Soul opened his mouth to cut off Kilik, "and I'm not saying Soul likes Maka, but if he did, there's a difference between liking someone and them liking you back."

"It's not that hard!" Liz argued.

"Yeah!" Patty jumped up from the couch and pulled Soul's headband off his white hair, and pulled it onto hers. It ended up looking like a horizontal strip of black around her head and it slipped down her face as she moved. She leaned against the couch and made an exaggerated pout. She lowered her voice into a horrible impression of Soul. "Hey, Maka, I've been deeply in love with you since I play you my piano and I have to know if you feel the same way or the emo musician inside me will be stuck in un-confessed and possibly one-sided love forever." Patty grabbed Maka's loose wave of hair and held it over her own head in pigtails. Patty raised her pitch, her crude impressionist skills now butchering Maka's voice. "Oh Soul! Of course I love you!" Patty dropped Maka's hair and threw Soul's headband back to him. "Kiss kiss, fall in love, make babies, get married, not necessarily in that order. See? Not that hard."

Soul fumbled with adjusting his headband. "Yeah that's nice and all Patty, but that only works if Maka's in love with me, otherwise I'm just embarrassing myself."

"What makes you think she's not?" Patty cried. One day, Maka promised herself as her blushing face blushed harder (which she didn't think was possible), once day she would kill the younger Thompson sister.

The room got very quiet and Soul looked like he'd been slapped. Oh no! This was Maka's worst nightmare come true! Well, that was a lie, it was her second worst nightmare come true, her first is a story for another day (Yes it involves her father). He looked from sister to sister to Maka, his eyes were so wide that the red irises looked like deep pools.

"Patty!" Liz chided breaking the silence.

Patty covered her mouth, "Oopsies."

"Are-are you in love with me Maka?"

"I-um…" Everyone was looked at her, waiting for her answer. Normally Maka would have Maka-chopped everyone to get out of the conversation or she would have changed the subject or, to Death with it, she would have just lied. But Maka was so embarrassed and drained physically and emotionally that she didn't have the ability to make something up.

"Yeah." She turned to leave, she just wanted to crawl into a very comfortable hole far away from her classmates and die.

"Hey! Maka! Where are you going?" Soul grabbed her hand.

She turned around to face him, "look, Soul, I'm tired and I just want to go home. Do we have to talk about this now?"

"Yes! You just told everyone you were in love with me!"

"So?" Maka rubbed her eyes, pulling her hand from her partner's. "Like you said 'I'm embarrassing myself.'"

"I never said that!"

"Yes you did."

"No, Maka, I said I'd be embarrassed if you weren't in love with me."

Maka blinked, confused. "Huh?" Her brain didn't get the hint.

Soul blushed, his pink cheeks looked so cute. "D-do you mind?" he asked timidly as he placed his hands on either side of her face.

"No…?" Maka's brain was acting sluggish. What would she mind…?

Soul bent down and kissed her. Time seemed to stop as their lips touched. Soul tasted like oranges, they had eaten them on the flight, he still smelled like sweat and an abundance of deodorant since neither of them had showered yet. His lips were chapped and warm and as they kissed Maka felt her insides melt. Death, it was so surreal.

They broke apart and their friends howled, whistled, and began to slow clap.

"Fuck you guys." Soul responded.

Maka was too shocked by his actions to Maka-chop him for language. Soul glanced at her and his eyebrows pulled together in worry. She loved how cute he looked when he did that. "Maka, what is it?"

"Oh." She replied softly, as she touched her swollen lips. "Okay, now what you said makes sense."

"HEY!" Black*Star cried jumping onto the table once more. "THAT'S NOT FAIR! MY PEONS CAN'T CONFESS THEIR LOVE TO EACH OTHER BEFORE ME!"

Black*Star jumped back onto the ground and smashed his lips into an unsuspecting Tsubaki's. He pulled back and Tsubaki blushed furiously. "BEHOLD THE GREAT BLACK*STAR WILL AGAIN BE AHEAD OF THE PEASANT!"

"It's not a race Black*Star!"

Black*Star knelt in front of Tsubaki, who protested. "WILL YOU JOIN ME IN BECOMING SO GREAT EVEN THE GODS WILL TREMBLE IN OUR PRESENCE?"

"D-did Black*Star just propose to Tsubaki?" Maka asked confused. Sometimes hyper-Black*Star was just too fast for Maka's exhausted brain.

"You know, it was kind of unclear." Soul responded.

The door slowly fell shut and the group turned around to see Kid staring at all of them. He surveyed the room, taking in Black*Star's knelt position, Tsubaki's blushing face, and the awkward close proximity of Maka and Soul.

"Let me guess. Soul and Maka kissed." The Spartori nodded. "Patty you owe me eight bucks. And then Black*Star tried to one up Soul by kissing and proposing to Tsubaki." They nodded again. "Liz you also owe me eight bucks." A smirk slithered onto Kid's face. "So," He asked triumphantly, "what else did I miss?"

Hey, sorry if everyone is a little OOC :/

XOX

~ Diana