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There was a whining creak as the door to Soul’s bedroom opened slowly. He groaned, not happy with whoever was intruding on is valued sleeping time. People waking him up in the middle of the night were not cool.
“Soul? Are...are you still awake?”
With a quick twist of his head, he saw a frail looking Maka standing in the doorway, peeking around the corner of the frame and watching him. All negative feelings drained from him as soon as he saw his meister so vulnerable. Especially because his parter was Maka Albarn, the bravest person in Death City.
“Yeah, I’’m up. What’s wrong?” He tried to make his voice sound kind to reassure her. She looked terrified.
There was a soft scuffle as she anxiously rubbed her feet together. “I’m sorry to wake you up so late, nothings wrong, I just...”
Her voice was so quiet he could barely hear her, but he knew her so well he understood what she was trying to get at. “Did you have a nightmare?”
She nodded deeply, hair mixing with her bangs as it covered her face.
Soul pushed back the covers and rushed over to her as tears began to appear on her cheeks. Wrapping is arms gently around Maka’s, she leaned her head into his shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry. It’s just a dream. I’m here, it’s okay,” he said soothingly, feeling a few tears soak through his shirt.
“I-I’m s-s-sorry.” Maka stuttered the apology, having a hard time speaking through the sobs. There was no way Soul was letting her out of his sight when she was like this.
“Do you want to sleep in my room tonight?” he asked, and felt her nod against him in reply.
Soul helped her over to his bed, navigating through the dark room while supporting her weight, and then helped her onto his soft bed. She laid down over the imprint from where Soul had been sleeping and he tucked the soft blanket up around her chin. Maka snuggled into it, gripping it tightly with her thin hands. He was about to back away when her hand shot out or the blanket and grabbed his arm, adverting her gaze but holding on stubbornly.
Confused, Soul frowned and asked, “Do you need something?”
“D-don’t leave.”
He smiled, “I’m not going anywhere, just to the other side of the room.”
There was a pause, neither of them moving an inch.
“Could you, maybe, sleep next to me? I want to know you’re still here.”
“Okay, whatever,” he agreed. It was a lot better then sleeping on the couch. Soul climbed in, pealing the blanket back a bit and settling down next to her. Maka turned and pressed herself against him, surprising him with her clinginess. Though, he was more surprised by how much he enjoyed it. He adjusted around her form, making sure they were both comfortable enough to sleep through the hot summer night.
Despite being content with their sleeping positions, Soul still felt uneasy; which compelled him to ask Maka one last question before dropping the matter and going back to his previous sleep, “Do you wanna talk about it?”
Maka didn’t respond for a minute, then pressed her face closer to him, her nose squashed against his collarbone. Slowly, she began, “It just felt like it was real. Like I was there and it was really happening...” She trailed off, going back to being silent. “It wasn’t real though. Your still alive and everyone’s fine, I just needed to make sure.”
Soul wrapped her arms tighter around her, deciding to use humor to raise her sprits. “Yeah, everything’s cool now. Mostly because I’m here.” He was becoming sleepy with the warmth of the room and Maka’s form curled against his. A pleasant, hopeful kind of sleepy that made his inhibitions float away.
A small and somewhat strained laugh came from her buried face. “Modest much?” she taunted, her joking tone relaxing Soul further.
He grinned and ran a hand through her soft, thin hair, so tired he barely noticed what he was doing so beyond thinking of how nice it felt. Just knowing she was still able to laugh was enough to put him at ease and made him more comfortable with the whole situation.
A warm, humid breeze came through the open window. Maka turned slightly in his arms and faced upward, one delicate arm lying across her stomach and one reaching up and splaying across the pillow the were sharing, where her fingers found his and gripped them lightly.
They stayed like that for a long time, Maka leaning against him and him curled around her, silent except for their steady breathing and the occasional noises drifting from outside on the street; heel clicks as someone walked by, a scuffle between animals, laughter and voices of the late-night-goers. Despite living over a street, it was pleasantly quiet.
Soul smiled one last time before falling asleep with Maka in his arms.
***
“Well, look-e here! What did you two get up to while I was gone?”
Both Maka and Soul began to wake, stirring slowly. It was then that Soul realized that Maka was in his bed, his arms around her body and in her hair, their legs had become somewhat entangled while tossing around in the night, and the covers had been kicked to the bottom of the bed.
Soul jarred himself awake and sat up abruptly, a blush forming quickly on his face. “I-It’s not what it looks like!” he attempted to explain to a smirking Blair leaning against his door.
Maka bolted up too, her face as flushed as his with embarrassment, which look adorable. Not that Soul thought Maka was adorable.
“Honestly, I don’t really care what you guys get up too while I’m out, but...” she jumped onto their bed and licked her hand, leaning over them, inspecting them with her large golden eyes. “Arn’t you two a little young to be doing this?”
“We weren’t doing anything!” Maka exclaimed, her blush deepening.
Blair gave them each a confused stare, then went back to cleaning her hand. “You’re tangled up in bed together, there isn’t much you can deny. Plus, you guys totally have crushes on each other,” she finished nonchalantly, not bothering to look up at their petrified expressions.
They were both shocked beyond words, refusing to look at each other. Maka began to pick at the blanket. “I do not have a crush on Soul,” she muttered huffily while sticking out her bottom lip stubbornly. Which Soul might have thought was a little cute, before he came to his senses.
“Yeah, you always hit me with your book. That’s not cool at all, why would I have a crush on you,” Soul agrees, hopefully not to quickly, his sharp teeth biting into his tongue.
Blair saunters away, “I’m going to go make breakfast, who wants fish?” she said, not bothering to wait for a response before ambling down the hall towards the tiny kitchen.
Soul sucked up his courage, urging himself to be cool about this as he turned to Maka. She was still looking away, so he tried to get her attention. “Hey, Maka-”
Maka cut him off with a swift kiss on the cheek, pressing her smooth lips softly against his flushed skin.
“Thank you, Soul,” she said with a cute smile on her face, looking down to avoid his shocked expression.
She scampered out of the room, leaving Soul alone with a hand hovering over his cheek. Then he grinned and whispered to himself, “That felt really cool.”