The smiling sun chuckled in the blue afternoon sky. Below, Soul Eater and Maka Albarn sat together on the rooftop of the Death Weapon Meister Academy. The two overlooked the city, sitting side by side on the roof's barrier - their feet dangling over the edge. Soul had tossed his jacket across the ledge, Maka's folded neatly next to her, and today, both had very different lunches. Soul picked up some spaghetti from the cafeteria, while Maka on the other hand had brought a rather... unusual sandwich.

"Say, Maka, what's that you're eating?"

"A PBP," She replied, biting into the center.

"A what?" Soul asked.

"You know..." She said between chews, "a PBP?... peanut butter and pickle?"

"Bleh! That's disgusting!" Soul exclaimed, "How can you eat that?"

"I dunno, I guess I just thought I'd make something new... You wanna try some?"

Soul looked at Maka with wary eyes and peered down at the sandwich in her hand. After a moment of consideration, Soul sighed and gave into her offer, opening his mouth with a big 'ahh'. Maka smiled and she held it to his mouth. He bit into it, and chewed with caution. To be honest, he wasn't really even thinking about the sandwich or it's flavor, so much as he was the thought of Maka's saliva in his mouth. It's not like he was trying to be creepy or anything, he just couldn't seem to bring himself to swallow yet.

Just a little longer. He thought

"So?..." Maka asked.

"Itchss... It's good," He struggled to say through a full mouth, then finally managing to swallow a few seconds later with a big proud smirk across his face.

A minute or two of silence passed between them. The only noises that could be heard were the faint voices of shop keepers and pedestrians from the city beneath them, and Soul's boyish noodle nibbling and tamoto sauce slurping. Still, it wasn't an awkward silence, for Soul and Maka had been friends for long enough to be comfortable in each other's company without talking. It was more of a thoughtful kind of quiet. Like the kind you feel when someone shares their earbuds with you so you can listen to their favorite song - the intimate melody carrying you away from the dimensions of space and time - as if you two beings are just that - beings - and the only ones in the world; and in that silence, soul noticed a cool breeze in the air, and in that, noticed it was gently brushing Maka's bangs to one side of her forehead.

"You know, you don't have to lie," Maka said.

"Huh?"

"I know you didn't like it. The sandwich I mean,"

"What are you talking about Maka? Why wouldn't I like it? You made it after all," Soul said taking a swig from his milk carton.

"You liked it... just because I made it?" She blushed.

"Well, to be honest, this whole 'peanut butter and pickle' thing isn't my favorite, but through it all, you haven't tried to poison me yet. Besides, I'd much rather be eating your spaghetti for lunch right now instead of this uncool cafeteria food,"

"Maybe I just haven't used a potent enough poison yet," She joked, "In that way, I sort of wish Medusa were still around. I could get some really deadly stuff from that witch and you'd finally be out of my hair!"

"I mean, I know if you really wanted to kill me, Maka, I'd have been dead a long time ago, but since I'm still alive, there's gotta be some reason you keep me around!" Soul winked.

The two friends spent the majority of lunch like this, laughing and joking and laughing some more. They made light of Medusa's maliciousness and, onto more serious notes, talked about what could have been had she survived Maka's blade; they talked about the black blood, which, today, was easier for them to control, so long as they did it together; and as classtime drew near, Maka remembered why she asked Soul to lunch in the first place.

"Hey Soul, I forgot to ask, are you feeling any better now?"

"Am I feeling better?... Oh, yeah! I'm fine! I was right, just hungry for pasta as always,"

"Right..." She trailed off.

"Hey Maka? I wanted to ask you... earlier, before we left for lunch..." Soul began, avoiding eye contact, "you called it a date..."

"Oh! Di- did I say that?" She cut him off.

"... Yeah, you did... but it's cool! I know you just meant grabbing lunch and not... you know,"

Soul couldn't even say it. A real date? With Maka? The very idea excited him, but he didn't know if Maka meant a real date, if she simply misspoke, or if he imagined the whole thing. In any case, he'd play it 'cool', just in case he was daydreaming or she did misspeak. That way, he wasn't putting his heart on his sleeve. At least, not yet anyway.

"Oh... yeah, of course... just, grabbing lunch," she repeated, her hands clenching her skirt.

Another silence settled between them, and neither of them had to make a sound for the air to grow uneasy. This silence was different from the last, in that it was an uncomfortable mix of both wanting and uncertainty.

Damn. Why do I have to go and ruin everything? Whether she means it or not when she says it, Maka's right - I am stupid.

Soul couldn't take the tension anymore - not knowing what Maka was thinking, and being too stuck in his own head to find out. Lunch was about to end anyway, so put his jacket on and flipped the collar up. Then he stood up, walked over to the garbage bin, and threw his remaining spaghetti away. He returned to a still quiet Maka and saw her sandwich only had two bites taken out of it.

"You gonna eat that? I'll throw it away for you if you want," He said.

"No, that's alright, I'm not done yet. You go on ahead to class, I'll catch up later,"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure Soul," She said, her green eyes locked to the horizon of Death City.

Soul's brow furrowed, his lips parting as if to say... see you later, perhaps? He didn't really know what to say, so he instead decided against saying anything at all, gently closing his mouth. For a moment, he just stood there behind her, not fantasizing, but regarding. The ends of her hair blowing lightly like little feathers against the back of her sweater, her perfect posture (anyone to think she was the pianist of the two), and her black jacket folded with creases in all the right places. Then he turned around and started towards the roof access; and it was only when his footsteps got far enough away, and Maka heard the door open and close shut that she knew he was gone, and with that, her tears could then safely fall from under her bangs onto the backs of her still clenched gloves.

Thank you for reading!

More/longer chapters are on their way, and I promise there is action coming soon (violent and romantic/erotic)!

In this, and the past 2 chapters, I've been focusing more on establishing Maka and Soul's current relationship, as to, not only define it after 3 years time passing, but also to set up the coming chapters. As an avid reader of fanfiction, I'm always disappointed when a story I'm interested in is seemingly cut short, SO HAVE NO FEAR. I plan on making this fanfiction longer than others with, most likely, 15 or more chapters (which WILL each be of longer length than these past 3), depending on how this story develops. Once again, thank you so much for reading, as I too look forward to the story ahead!

PUBLISH DATE: 27 February 2019