A/N: This is my first time writing anything remotely sad so I hope you enjoy it! I meant for this to be short but somehow it ballooned into this. I may make it a two-shot.

Lunar

Soul draws the line when it starts affecting Maka, even when they weren't resonating.

It had happened right after they defeated a particularly brutal pre-kishin. They'd both collapsed in exhaustion on his bed, Maka curling into the spot she'd established as her home during the night and Soul molding perfectly to her shape.

He'd woken suddenly as she thrashed in the bed beside him, had heard her terrified moans of "drowning in blood" scaring him far more than any Black Blood nightmare he's ever had. When he had finally got her to wake up, he apologized until Maka had threatened to chop his head if he didn't go back to bed.

But even though he had shut up and watched her drift back into sleep, he had refused to go back to sleep.

That night had been the last night he accepted the relief his meister's presence in his room brought him. Because his sleeping peacefully and forcing his partner to endure the pain in his place is a thought he can't bear.

But he dreads sleeping on his own.

The very night he brushes Maka off and sleeps alone, the nightmares grow far worse. Without Maka's comforting wavelength, he flounders in blood that runs black, short annoying demons that talk too much and the constant scratch of a broken record player.

He wakes up in cold sweats, muffling his screams. Soul knows that Maka would come running if she heard him. But he refuses to suck her in his insanity.

He'll deal with it on his own.

So he starts staying up as long as possible, listening to the blaring techno trash his meister dares to call music. At least it keeps him awake.

He only gives into sleep just as the sun starts to rise over the horizon, the nightmares ready to play in the darkness of his mind like a movie in a theater. On one especially brutal night, the Oni cackles, "How much longer can you keep this up until you go mad, Soul?"

Soul refuses to answer, instead digging his nails in his palms.

At first she wants to deny it. She'd accepted the fact that Soul apparently no longer needed her or her wavelength with an uneasy feeling. But she refused to say anything because she was haunted by the thought that Soul noticed the way she curled into his back and this was his way of re-establishing distance.

However, when she hears the faint noise of her music coming from Soul, her "my music is better than yours" weapon, she knows that something is wrong.

She notices the bags under his eyes before anyone else, etching themselves deeper under the delicate skin underneath his eyes. Once, when she goes to wake him for school, he's not his room, his bed looking untouched.

That was the first time she asked what was happening and she knows he's lying when he promises he's "fine." It was the first time since their early days in their partnership that he lied to her and it hurts and maybe that's why she doesn't push it.

His behavior after that is anything but fine.

He snaps more than usual too, answering her questions in a monotone, getting upset when she starts to pry, which is surprising since she's usually the snappy one in their relationship.

He ditches class and refuses to listen to her daily lectures which eventually turn into pleas for him to tell her what the hell is going on.

But Soul refuses to speak, going sullenly quiet. Their apartment, which once echoed with banter and life, becomes as quiet as a tombstone.

Their friends start to not exactly avoid them but they wear pasted-on smiles when they talk to Soul, passing off his one-word answers to their questions as stress. They give her sympathetic looks and she knows they mean well but she wishes they would stop.

Even Blair, the most cheerful out of the three of them, begins to seek out Maka's company over Soul's. She moves from Soul's room to Maka's room as her preferred place to sleep, curling up in Maka's bed and purring contentedly.

Maka wants to scream. This is her Soul, her partner. She promised him that she would make him the strongest Deathscythe ever and she can't even help him from himself.

The day he stops bidding her good night and walks to his room and snaps the door shut is the day she cries herself to sleep.

He hates himself over the pain he's causing her.

Every time he looks in the mirror, he curses the reflection staring back at him. Sometimes he thinks he sees the Oni in his eyes and hears a low cackle in his ears. "See you in your dreams, Soul."

Gritting his teeth, he refuses to acknowledge the voice but it puts him on edge. When Maka's music fails to keep him awake, he sneaks out of the window. Wandering the streets at night is enough to keep him alert though he sometimes finds himself sagging against a telephone pole in exhaustion.

But Soul is convinced he has it in control. That is, until he finds himself waking up against the wall of their apartment, the sun much too high in the sky for Maka to still be asleep.

He rushes back to their apartment and sure enough she's in the kitchen, questions in her eyes.

Soul can't quite meet those eyes as he promises he's fine, that he couldn't sleep and thought a fresh walk would do him good. He's sure Maka can see the way the lie fell awkwardly from his lips but to his surprise, she purses her lips and nods. Then she goes back to the stove, telling him to wash up or they'll be late for school.

He's surprised she didn't ask more questions and maybe a little disappointed because maybe if she pushed hard enough, he would have told her everything.

When's he alone, he realizes what a mistake it would have been to tell her and vows to never confess, even if he went insane. She didn't deserve to have another burden on her back.

And it was after that point that things spiraled from bad to worse. Oni senses his distance from Maka and uses that to his full advantage, trapping him not only in nightmares but in daydreams that are somehow worse.

In a nightmare, at least he can tell the hallucinations are fake but in a daydream, they meld into the shadows, whispering his name. It forces him to be on alert all the time, unable to escape even in the sunlight.

It starts to unravel him a bit. Barely controlled rage makes its home in his body and he takes it out on the closest person to him: his meister.

Soul can see the hurt surprise on Maka's face at his sudden personality change but he tells himself over and over that it's better this way than to see her break herself to save him.

To avoid the daydreams, he starts cutting class, always moving. If he didn't give himself time to rest, then the daydreams and nightmares would be kept at bay.

He forgot to account for Maka though. She alternates between scolding and asking, almost in tears, about what had happened to make him like this.

The temptation to give into those pleading green eyes becomes too much and one day he simply walks to his room, without a good night.

As he lies in his bed, fighting against his drooping eyelids, Soul tries not to think about Maka and the tears he saw in her eyes.

Maka wakes up after crying herself to sleep, anger taking over sadness. She's Maka Albarn, for goodness sakes and she could take on any creature on this planet. And today, she's nailing a certain white-headed weapon to the couch after school and not letting him go until she has a satisfactory explanation for his behavior in the past weeks.

With a determined nod, she leaps from her bed, eager for school to be done, sending a yowling Blair flying to the floor.

For the first time in weeks, he got a decent night's sleep. He wakes up feeling rested, no annoying voice slithering in his ear.

He's not stupid enough to think that this will be a regular happening but sleep does wonders for his mood and he greets Maka cheerfully at the table.

She looks like a feather could knock her over as he continues to chat with her. He even teases her like before. "What's the matter, fat ankles? Cat got your tongue?"

She recovers quickly and ribs him back. "As if," she sniffs, turning to flip over the sizzling pancake. "I was just wondering when the ogre finally changed into a prince."

"Oh you think I'm a prince?"

Her face turns a shade of pink he hadn't seen for a while and she slides his plate to him as she sits down with hers. "Shut up! It's a movie reference, idiot!"

"Right," he rolls his eyes. "You tell yourself that."

Soul manages to enjoy breakfast and the ride to school before a hallucination like no other hits him, the Oni cackling away in his ears.

She should have guessed it was too good to be true. Right as they get to school, he lets out a hiss.

Maka opens her mouth to ask what's wrong but Soul snarls, "Stay away from me, freak." She doesn't register the words so much as his expression. It's directed inwards, not outwards. And it clicks. She wonders how she could have been so dense. Not sleeping. Withdrawing from her. The attitude change.

Her eyes narrow as Soul walks away. The Oni.

She allows him to walk until she almost can't see him and then follows him to a corner of the school where he collapses on the ground, clutching his head.

Biting her lip, she fights against the temptation to run out to him, knowing he would only push her away. But the minutes drag on and he doesn't move. Maka gets nervous and is about to step out but then she hears Soul's name called by someone coming from the other direction.

Backing into her spot again, she spots a ragged lab coat and wide-rimmed glasses and groans to herself.

Professor Stein was probably not who Soul needed.

From her viewpoint, she sees Stein bending down to talk to Soul. She can't see Stein's face but she can see Soul's. And she can hear them.

"Late to class again?"

Soul looks up, his face almost bared into a snarl. "Thought I'd get some fresh air instead."

Stein adjusts his glasses. A danger sign. "You don't look very comfortable."

Soul scowls. "Well yoga ain't that comfortable."

"Ahhh trying to relax, are we? I must admit, you look rather fatigued. Anything keeping you up?"

Gritting his teeth, Soul spits out, "I sleep just fine." He stands. "I'm leaving."

Stein stands too. "No, you're not."

Maka watches as his face goes from simmering to furious. She sees the way that he unconsciously lifts his arms and she actually believes he might fight a teacher.

Acting impulsively, she leaps from her hiding place, calling out to them both.

Stein turns with an unreadable look on his face while Soul looks at her in horrified surprise. She speaks quickly. "Sorry to interrupt Professor Stein but Soul and I are needed for a demonstration."

The moments tick by as she stands there with a smile pasted on her face, hoping that Stein will let them go. After a long moment of staring at them bother, he nods. "You may go."

Soul practically stalks off and she has to run to catch up with him. He wheels toward her suddenly. "There is no demonstration," he states flatly.

"No," she says slowly, "there wasn't." She clenches her hands, raising her voice. "But it was the first thing that came to mind. I saved your sorry butt. Shouldn't you be grateful?"

As suddenly as he snapped, he turns from her. "Yeah, thanks, see you after school."

Maka doesn't cry because she's in school but she is sorely tempted to hit Soul in the back of the head with a thick book.

As he stalks up their apartment, the sun setting behind him, he berates himself for being such a terrible partner, throwing in a few good curses for the Oni now and then.

After the fiasco that was this morning, he isolated himself in the library-the one place Maka wouldn't go looking for him. After school, he'd wordlessly driven Maka home because she would have had to walk home if he didn't show and then said he was going out for a walk.

Maka had silently nodded. That had been shocking, considering their blow-up this morning. Maybe she wanted to give him her space. He had left the apartment, feeling more guilty than usual.

He promises himself, as he jogs up the last flight of stairs to their level, that he will try to make it up to her, Oni be damned.

Maka looks nervously at the sleeping pills that she had rushed out and bought as soon as Soul left. She feels like a traitor for doing this but now that she was sure of what was going on, she had to try to help. And it seemed the only she could help was confronting the Oni in the Black Room.

She didn't like resorting to sleeping pills but she knew that Soul's stubbornness was what had kept him up 24/7 for the past few weeks. He wouldn't be sleeping any time soon if he didn't have help.

Crushing two pills into a cup of hot tea, she impatiently waits for Soul to come home. The clock in their living room ticks loudly, marking the hours for her in the most obnoxious way possible.

After three hours, a terrible thought strikes her. What if Soul was struggling against the Oni right now?

Maka leaps to her feet, heart racing. She's still trying to decide where to search first when she heard the key in the lock.

Soul enters the apartment, yawning. Instead of sullenly walking to his room, he walks into the living room, leaning on the couch. A nervous look is on his face. "Maka, I'm really sorry for yelling at you. You didn't deserve it. I was angry at myself and not you. I…I haven't been myself lately." The words fall awkwardly from his lips-she doesn't think he's spoken or opened up this much in weeks.

He looks so vulnerable.

Eyes softening, she grabs the drugged tea from the table, gripping it tightly. She'll help him or die trying.

She walks over to him, holding out the cup. "Hey, it's okay. I'm your partner and that means I stick with you no matter what."

His scarlet eyes are filled with an emotion other than the anger that's haunted him. It speaks more than words. He accepts the cup, drinking it all in one swig.

Soul stands. "Thanks Maka. I'm feeling kinda tired so I think I'll turn in for the night."

She nods, takes the cup from him and watches silently as he goes into his room. Maka sits on the couch, staring into the cup.

She waits.

Something is wrong. Something is very wrong. Soul tries not to panic as his eyes droop lower.

He jams the volume to Maka's iPod to blasting but it's no good. He's falling asleep.

And for some strange reason, he can't feel his legs. He can't find the will to stand. To launch himself from the window. To fight the sleepiness that's taking over his body.

The Oni's voice whispers. "Come out and play, Soul."

His heart beats faster. What will happen if he falls asleep? What if Maka gets sucked in? And what if he can't wake himself up to help her?

A final surge of adrenaline forces him to his feet but he can't keep his balance. Swaying back and forth, he falls backwards onto the bed and his eyes snap shut, like a guillotine.

Finally. Maka had almost fallen asleep herself, sitting patiently in the hallway by Soul's door.

The sound of a body falling back on the bed had been her signal and she now looks triumphantly at Soul's snoring face. She shoves him to the side of the bed, re-claiming her old spot.

She pauses for a second, looking at his face. He looks peaceful, something he hadn't been in weeks.

But as if the Oni can hear her thoughts, his brow furrows and he twitches.

Without a further thought, she reaches out with her wavelength, seizing Soul's.

The smooth fabric of the black dress she wears when she comes here whispers softly as Maka paces back and forth in the Black Room, waiting for Soul.

She'd expected him to be waiting for her, sitting in the black chair by the coffee table, like he always did when she visited but he's nowhere to be found.

She hasn't even seen the Oni and that is definitely weird.

It was reasonable, she supposed, seeing as how she was uninvited this time. But still, she thought as she searched, Soul should have shown up by now. He would have felt her wavelength the moment she arrived.

Oddly, she notices as she begins to search, the Black Room doesn't seem to reflect the worn state Soul's put himself in. In fact, it seems…vibrant, almost humming with life.

The black and red tiled floor gleams with the shine of the Oni's sharp teeth. The old record player in the corner plays loudly, skipping repeatedly. It almost feels like it's talking to her but she can't make out the words.

For the first time, she feels unsafe in here.

Giving up, she yells desperately, "Soul!"

The curtain hiding the walls behind her open with a whoosh. She whips around her heart in her throat.

A red door. It looks as if it's daring her to go in. Maka's suddenly sure that's where Soul is. Taking a deep breath she pushes back her fear. "Partners stick together."

She opens the door, bracing herself for what she might see.

The first thing she sees is a grand piano-it must be Soul's piano. The fall and the lid are closed. It doesn't seem he's here. She turns to leave, disappointed when a shock of white hair catches her eye.

"Soul!" She runs to where he's lying on the floor, almost hidden by the piano and kneels beside him. Cradling his head in her lap, her mouth runs dry as she takes in his pale face and feels his freezing hands through her gloved one.

Maka pleads with him. "Please wake up!"

"I don't think he'll be doing that any time soon." The Oni emerges from a dark corner.

Glaring at him, Maka notices he's taller than she last saw him. He's getting stronger, she realizes with dread.

Letting none of her fear enter her voice, she demands, "What did you do?"

The Oni looks politely affronted. "Me? Why I'm surprised at you, Maka. You are the one who slipped those pills in that drink of his. But he's merely sleeping, trapped in a nightmare, if that's what you're wondering."

He grins. "I should thank you, I suppose. It makes everything so much easier."

Maka asks coldly. "Makes what easier?"

She can see her reflection in his smile as he steps closer. "Taking over his body."

Maka has no warning as the room suddenly flips on its side, black streaming on the walls. She's thrown from Soul and slammed into a wall.

She tries to pull away but it's as if the wall is made of glue. The steady stream of black puddles at her feet and she lets out a gasp as the puddle tries to pull her in.

The Oni cackles. "Black Blood is so hard to pull away from isn't it?" His eyes glow. "Give in, Maka."

"No!" she shouts. She manages to pull her arms from the wall but the puddle of Black Blood pulls her to her knees. There's nothing she could hold onto to pull herself out. The puddle pulls her to her torso.

She thrashes harder. Soul needs her. He was always there to pull her back and she'll do the same for him.

The Oni taps his foot against the tile. "It's so precious to see you fight."

Maka's temper flares as she pushes her hands against the floor, straining to free her lower body. She would not end like this. But as she sinks even further, her face gasping for air, she has to admit it doesn't look very good.

I'm sorry, Soul. I couldn't save you.

She can almost hear him yelling at her, that his cool meister didn't give up. Determination surges through her. Think, she tells herself, think!

And then it hits her. Perhaps if she resonated with Soul, who was somewhere in the room, it might be enough to fight away the Black Blood. It would be a very one-sided resonance to be sure but it was her only shot. She could feel her fingers weakening from where they held onto the floor.

Maka grabs hold of Soul's faint wavelength, closes her eyes and lets go.

All she can see is black. She holds her breath for as long as she can, using the last of her strength to push her wavelength to the limit. Maka can feel it flowing from her from every vein in her body.

Nothing happens. Frantically she tries harder. It might be her imagination but her hand is slowly moving up. Her foot gives a slow kick. No, it's not. It's working, it actually worked.

She fights against the Black Blood for every inch. Her lungs are screaming for air but she can see the surface in front of her and she doesn't stop her wavelength until she breaks through.

Maka drags herself from the puddle, across the floor. She gasps for breath but smiles in triumph at the Oni's furious screech.

Shakily standing, Maka notices the Black Blood has disappeared. The Oni is standing by Soul's body, across the room. She speaks in shuddering breaths. "You…can't…beat…us."

The Oni frowns for a moment and then he laughs. "I should have known something would go wrong." He shrugs his shoulders. "Ahh, well time to take the party outside."

"Outsi-?" Maka's vision goes black as the Black Room disappears.

"Kill the girl."

Soul doesn't know where the voice is coming from but his body feels like he has to obey. He pushes the girl off the bed and she lands on the floor with a shout. "Soul!"

For a moment he pauses. She knows his name. That's weird. He'd like to talk to her but he can't seem to open his mouth. Or do anything, really.

But the voice urges him on. "Kill her."

He pulls the girl roughly to her feet. She doesn't look afraid-she looks confused. "Soul, what are you doing?"

Yanking her arm away, she dodges him. "Answer me, Soul! Is the Oni controlling you?"

Her green eyes, wide with concern, look achingly familiar but he has orders. He grabs her arm, twisting it, the voice guiding his body's actions.

She lands a kick to his stomach and he doubles over. He didn't know she could fight.

She keeps talking to him and it makes his head ache. "Listen to me, Soul, the Oni is using you. Fight it!"

Oni? The name doesn't bring up a familiar face but he feels slightly nauseous. He's able to pause for a moment before the voice takes control again, knocking her into the door.

She won't stay down and it's making the voice in his head mad. It lets out a growl. "Finish her."

Finish her? He's not sure if he wants to do that but his hands won't listen to him and find their way around her neck.

For the first time, she looks afraid. "Soul? It's me, Maka."

His hands fall away. Maka. To him, that means trust, safety, short tempers, short skirts, nerd and the person he cares about most in the world. His partner.

"Maka?" As her name breaks from his lips, the Oni loses control, thrown back to the Black Room.

Soul wishes he could lock him there forever. He falls to his feet, begging for her forgiveness, for what he's just done, for pushing her away, for everything, for being in her life.

She tugs him to the bed, covering him with the sheets and lies beside him. He's still a gibbering mess. He tells her to go, that he's a monster, she's not safe with him ever.

But she ignores him, pulls his head to rest against her chest and strokes his hair. She doesn't have to say a word. He knows she forgives him and that's what makes it the worst. That she'll stay beside him, no matter what he did.

Maka stays by his side the whole night, her presence finally quieting his sobs and lulling him to sleep.

He doesn't want to do this. But like last night had shown him, it was the only way. And this was his only chance.

They'd slept till late morning. He'd woken with a headache and a dull ache in his chest but no hangover from a lingering nightmare. Maka had already woken up, sitting patiently until Soul woke up. She refused his apologies.

Instead, she had brightly said that there were ways to deal with this, that they would go talk to Stein who certainly knew a thing or two about madness and he would be fine, didn't he agree?

It wouldn't be any good to argue. Her eyes were already shining and he didn't want to make her cry again. Instead he had nodded and her smile actually reached her eyes.

Bouncing from the bed, she had announced she was going to take a shower.

He had waited until the shower started before changing into whatever clothes he saw first, scribbled a note and then walked quietly out the door and out of her life.

"Sorry."

That was all the note said. The water dripped from her hair.

"Sorry."

And now he was sitting here in a bus, on his way out of Death City. Alone.

The voice cackled in his head.

"Never alone, Soul."