Work Text:
2006
Age 12
“What are you doing? We’re meant to be doing our project! I’m not painting all eight of Jupiter’s moons by myself, Star. I’m not!” Maka stabbed her moon back into its styrofoam base and stood up, hands on her hips and glare fixed firmly to her face. At eleven years old, she was already a force to be reckoned with and she knew it.
Without turning to face her Blake (“Black Star”, “Star for short”) Barrett, sniped, “Quit yer whining, this is more important than some dumb moons.”
Maka glared at his neon blue beanie and whatever oh-so-important project he was hunched over in secrecy, “These dumb moons decide whether we can move on to middle school, you oaf! And I for one, want to move on to middle school!”
Star scoffed, “You gonna write some dumb guide like that TV show you’re obsessed with?”
Maka flushed furiously and balled her hands into fists, “It’s not dumb! Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide is educational !”
“It’s not a real guide, you do know that right? Like grown ups write that stuff.”
“They do not!”
“Do too.” he quipped flatly, back still turned.
Maka felt herself flushing; she wore Know-It-All as a badge of honour. “You’re just jealous that you could never think of anything that clever!”
Star looked over his shoulders at her, brows knit close together, “That’s no way to speak to your God.”
Maka rolled her eyes, “You’re not my God.”
He studied her seriously for a moment before breaking out in loud cackles, “That was great Maks, you had me going for a second.”
“I wasn’t kidding.” she sighed and flopped down beside him, idly twirling a moon with one hand.
Finally, he turned to face her, “Hilarious.”
She glowered at him over her half finished moon when he ruffled up her hair somewhat affectionately.
“Just for that Maka, I’ll give this to you early. Was gonna save it for when you left for summer camp, ‘cause I knew you’d be a baby about it and get all upset and shit.”
“I would not !” she shoved his hand away.
“You would, you cry every year. You wanna argue or you want your present?”
Maka kept glaring, but nodded.
“I present to you, my most loyal and devoted minion, this most glorious gift, a freakin’ part of me,” with a clumsy sleight of hand, he produced in his palms a small knit owl.
Maka took it gingerly, doubtful of the craftsmanship. Star had never been known for his delicate touch or attention to detail.
“It’s an owl see, cause you like the scary owl girls from that lame Greek mythology book.”
“Athena would smite you where you stand.” Maka quipped without looking up from the owl.
It was knit in shades of brown with a ring of green around it's eyes that matched hers. It was beyond anything she would suspect was his skill level.
“Where’d you get it?” she asked suspiciously.
“You wound me Albarn. I made this with my own godly prowess.”
“You? Made this? By yourself?” she raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a part of me! Now you can rest easy at camp knowing a token of your beloved Big-G God watches over you.”
“Lucky me.” Maka deadpanned.
Star cackled and clapped his hands, “I knew you’d love it. Now, throw me a moon, Sid’ll kill me if he has to plead my case to the school board again.”
2007
Age 13
"Staaaaaar." Maka whined into her brand new, gold, Motorola Razr, "I'm being serious here. I have no fucking clue what I'm doing."
Huddled inside a graffitied stall of Shibusen Middle School, Maka’s grip was white over the latch. She stared down at her ruined skirt on the closed toilet lid. The skirt used to be white too.
Crackly, over the phone connection Star protested, "No way, uh uh, I am not the friend you come to with this."
"You're my best friend who else am I supposed to go to this with?" Maka hissed down the phone line. The oversized, makeshift charm she’d made of her owl plush slapped her in the face. She growled at it.
"Don’t growl at me. Ask literally anyone without a dick… Geez Albarn, I don't know anything about periods. No mother, no sister, no pussy. What do you want from me?"
She stares back at her ruined skirt. Her parents always said she never did anything by halves and apparently neither did her damn uterus. Even her goddamned period had to be an overachiever. She knew most girls barely had any bleeding the first time and here she is Niagra Falls herself unexpectedly in the middle of the school day with no one to fall back on, but her douchebag of a best friend. What kind of luck.
"There is blood everywhere!” She took a deep breath, tried to speak a language they both understood, “ It’s Friday the 13th in here!” I need clean clothes. Just go get my gym shorts from my locker or something. Please .”
"Too much information." Finally he sounded a little freaked out.
"Star! Friday the 13th!”
She could hear him breathing on the other end of the call, but not much else. She waited, pushed the owl away from her face. He made a groaning kind of sound, like he was tossing up the decision. Maka held her tongue, he was close to either giving in or hanging up, she was sure.
"Fine, fine. I'll find you some clothes." He conceded in a mutter.
"And pads." She added.
He groaned, loudly, and for a moment Maka thought he was going to hang up on her. Instead the groan turned to a sigh, “I’m changing your locker combination to my birthday.”
She did a little leap inside the bathroom stall and didn’t even care when the owl hit her in the face again. “Just hurry!”
When he returned twenty minutes later with everything she asked for and an unexpected Hershey’s bar he wouldn’t look her in the eye, just muttered, "I am the most generous God there is."
2008
Age 14
The TV wasn’t turned up particularly loud, and Star had music playing over the top of it anyways, but that still didn’t stop Maka from catching the penultimate phrase of the episode,
“My first girlfriend turned into the moon.”
Without missing a beat and without looking up from their homework, she and Star answered in unison, over the TV, over the music, over the sound of her parents fighting downstairs, “That’s rough buddy.”
They did look up then to smile at each other across her room. Her mother yelled something almost indistinguishable, but the phrase adulterous bastard rang true even over all their strategic sound cover.
“Nerd.” Star teased, aiming for lighthearted bullying. His worried glance at the shut door kind of ruined it though.
Maka flipped him off over her math book and opted to ignore both his unease and her parents, “ You got me into Avatar.”
“Well someone had to improve your taste in TV. Couldn’t have you watching the history channel forever.”
“I happen to like the history channel, it’s interesting”
He yawned, exaggerated and obnoxious, like everything else he did. It almost took the edge out of the door slamming downstairs. Maka looked to her bedroom door, eyebrows knit together. They both waited for the sound of the garage door, counting down from thirty under their breath. Like clockwork, it rolled up one breath after their count finished, rumbling through the floor. Maka sagged over her bed, face pushing into the comforter and blindly grabbed the plush owl from where it sat atop her pillows.
It was getting exhausting, all this fighting her parents were doing lately. They’d always fought, for as long as she could remember, but it was different now. Mama didn’t call it a tempestuous love affair anymore. She didn’t really have anything nice to say anymore at all. She squeezed the owl tightly in her fist.
“Six thirty on the dot… Who needs a watch with your parents around?” Star scoffed.
Maka peeked up at him with a weak smile, “Yeah, they’re ridiculous.”
“And they say teenagers are dramatic.”
She snorted and sat up, pushed some loose stuffing back into the toy. “We are. Just no more than them. They just say that to take the heat off themselves. Adults are stupid.”
“Let’s never grow up.” Star stretched out his arm, offered his pinky finger to her.
Maka eyed it warily and rolled the owl around in her hands. “Promise?”
“Sure, God’s always keep their promises.”
She reached down to twine her pinky with his, but hesitated at the last moment.
“Whats up Albarn?”
“I thought of a better promise.” she blushed slightly. It was going to sound dumb.
He scoffed. “I highly doubt that.”
“Just hear me out okay. We can’t stop ourselves from growing up-”
“Sure we can-”
“Shut up you animal.” she glared at him. “We can’t stop ourselves from growing up, but we can promise we’ll grow up together, no one get’s left behind or pushed out.”
He stared at her outstretched arm for a moment before breaking out in laughter. He linked their pinkies. She held on tight.
2010
Age 16
Blake pulled his car into Maka's driveway, ready to share the exciting and glorious image of his brand new hair style with his most loyal and beloved minion. He entered the house as if it was his own. After all the years it kind of was. The sounds of Shania Twain blasted through Maka’s house, rumbling the foundation and drowning out even Blake’s megaphone voice. He wandered through the house with both hands over his ears calling her name, not that it was making any difference against the downbeat and heavy violins of the song.
He found her in her parent’s room, the music pounding out from their damn near industrial sound system.
“Honey I’m home.” he screamed over the lyrics, banging on the door hard enough to shake it’s fixings for good measure.
Maka jumped and turned to him, spinning the volume dial down. Her mascara was smudged, which was no mean feat considering how little she wore. “Very funny. Didn’t think a god like you would know this song.”
He leaned against the door frame, it felt safer to keep a little distance. “Make it my business to know what’s important to my underlings. Can’t be competing with any other distractions you know.”
Maka rolled her eyes and turned back to the sound system, spun the volume back up a little.
“So it’s that kind of day is it?” he asked.
Without looking at him she replied dully, “Go back to being obnoxious. Considerate doesn’t suit you.”
“Well you don’t have to be a bitch about it.” He crossed his arms.
“No one asked you to come over Star, just go back to your vintage pornos or something.”
“Jeez, what are you on the rag?”
She spun to him, the fully realised fury of generations of wronged women burning from her green eyes.
“Fuck…” he breathed. Nothing good ever followed that look. “I’ll see you later when you’re ready to be a good minion again.”
Quicker than a whip, Maka had her shoe off her foot and flying through the air towards his head. He dodged it, barely.
“What’s your fucking damage Albarn?!” He screamed, turning on the spot to face her.
“You! Him! Every man ever! Why are you all so awful all the time!” She was crying. As if that made it fair for her to suddenly start treating him like anyone other than her best friend.
He stared at his feet. “I don’t know what Cosmo garbage you’re on about, but I’m out.”
“Fine! Leave then! Just like everyone else!”
He turned to leave. The Great and Mighty Black*Star didn’t need another shoe to the head or anymore screaming. He’d only wanted to share something cool and exciting with her and this is what he got. Still…
He hesitated at the doorway. “Maybe try not to push people away then.”
“Asshole!” She branded him with such callous, intentional poison he felt his hackles raise in response.
He spun back around. “Shrew!”
She shrunk from the insult as if he’d raised a hand to her. Held back and looked at him warily. He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d achieved, but he’d managed to interrupt her tirade and that was more than he’d expected let alone hoped for.
When she spoke again her voice was soft, tired even. “Where the hell did you learn that word, let alone how to use it right?”
He sighed. “We have the same English class Albarn, I’m not a total idiot.”
He looked at her flatly and for the first time, noticed the old knitted owl under arm. The thing never left her room, rarely left her bookshelf. At least it hadn’t for years, not since she used it as a phone charm and left her phone in her gym bag and her gym bag on the bus. She’d been on edge until she recovered it from the bus depot, terrified that she'd lost it forever. At the time he’d thought it was about her smokin’ Razr phone, but he was wrong. It was the owl she’d clutched close in relief upon its return. Between that, them both getting older and phone charms going out of fashion, he hadn’t seen the owl out and about since.
Something must have gone really wrong for her to be walking around with it now.
“What happened?” he asked.
She crumpled on the spot, her ass hitting the floor with a quiet thud. She leaned back against her parents’ bed, her head in her hands, “It’s finally over.”
He entered the room properly, looked around at the gaps he’d missed previously. Fewer picture frames on the dresser, an open closet half empty, the complete lack of her parents yelling despite it being past six in the evening. Oh.
He sat down next to her. “I never really thought it would be. I mean they always fought, but they always made up later.”
Maka sighed. “Me neither, not really.”
“Sucks.”
“You said it.”
She looked at him from the corner of her eyes. “What the hell did you do to your hair?”
He laughed and ran a hand through it, admiring the neon blue he’d spent a week’s pay achieving. “Pretty godly huh?”
Maka placed the owl on his head like a crown. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice it the moment you walked in. You look like a gatorade bottle.”
“You’re a bit preoccupied.”
“Yeah.” she rested her head on his shoulder. “I guess so.”
He didn’t say anything else, but he did sit with her for a very long time.
It was the least any God would do.
2012
Age 18
Star tied off his final stitch, tearing the excess thread off with his teeth. Tear mended he threw it back to Maka. “Be more careful that’s like my child .”
Maka caught the old owl toy with barely a glance and returned her attention to her laptop and the packing list she was making there. She didn't have a lot of time left before she'd have to make the list a reality and find a way to pack her entire life into her Mama's old car and drive thousands of miles cross country to a town and a school where she knew nothing and nobody.
“I can’t believe you aren’t going to DCU with me.” Star pouted, “What kind of follower are you? You’re supposed to follow me anywhere. It's right there in the title.”
“I’m not your follower you ingrate.” Maka sniped, throwing the toy back to him. “I can do what I want.”
“And why the hell would you want to go to some cushy east coast school?”
“To get away from you finally, obviously .”
The toy flew across the room again. She caught it one handed, still focussed on perfecting her list.
“You wound me Maks.”
“You’ll survive it.”
The toy flew again. She didn't need to look up to know he caught it. He always did. He was good like that.
“You’re not at all scared of being so far away?” he prodded.
“I need to be far away. I’m done with this dried up town and my dried up life.”
He laughed louder than her parents ever fought. “Yeah alright Hamlet you damn drama queen.”
“You’re a drama queen.” Maka grouched under her breath.
He leapt to his feet, standing tall on the window-seat. “I’m a god!”
She spared him a withering look and motioned for him to get down. "Don't be a child. We're going away to college now."
He tossed the toy between his hands. “Are you sure though? About leaving?”
Maka sighed, picked at her nail polish. “If I have to listen to my dad cry himself to sleep one more time, or stare at that empty answering machine…”
“He’ll miss you.”
“Well he should have thought about that before he slept with half of Nevada.”
“And your mom?”
Maka grit her teeth. “It’s not her fault.”
“She didn’t have to leave you .”
She glared at him, “Fuck off Blake.”
He glared back at her, “Fuck you Albarn.” The toy crushed in his hand, he’s stronger now than he used to be. Lately he’d looked like some strange new creature, a little kid’s head on a man’s body. Absently Maka wondered if it would ever catch up, if she’d miss that happening while she’s in Boston for college. If she’d lose him completely, the way she’s lost everyone else over the past few years. She wished she were holding the toy instead. She wished she could ask him for it without giving away how much all this change scared her, how much she still needs that toy, still needs him. Of course she won’t say that though. You couldn’t tell someone you liked them, it made you look like an idiot. Even if they were your best friend.
She sighed, closed her packing list. “Do you wanna watch Jennifer’s Body again?” she offered instead.
He broke out in a toothy grin and sent the owl flying for her nose. “Fuck yeah I do.”
Maka wasn't surprised when he followed it, leaping across the room to land half on top of her with one loud whoop.
--
“You know I’m not leaving you right? You’re family okay.” she offered quietly while Jennifer made her first kill. The picture quality was good, she’d just bought herself a new laptop to see her through college and the resolution was better than the old TV downstairs.
Star bumped his shoulder against hers. “Don’t be stupid. Of course I know that. Still sucks though.”
Maka pointed to the laptop screen and the gory scene revealing itself there, “Does it suck more than thinking you’ll get laid and winding up disemboweled?”
Blake scoffed. “Well obviously not more than that.”
They laughed and it drowned out the screams from the movie.
“It’s a close one though.” he adds quietly toying with the owl he’d made her so many years ago.
She bumped her shoulder against his, stayed there. “You’re gonna come help me move in right?”
“No can do Albarn. I start a week before you.”
“Oh…”
He ruffled her hair. “You’re gonna be okay though, you know that right? Besides,” he added, “I’ll come see you at every major holiday. You can’t get rid of me that easy.”
“Even the fake greeting card company ones?”
“You’ll pry Halloween and Valentine’s day from my cold, undead, godly hands.”
“I guess…” she stared down at the bedspread. She hadn’t changed it since Mama left. It was old, faded and too immature for her now. It didn't fit in her room the way it used to. She didn't really feel like she fit here either, even if she did still fit with Blake.
“Seriously Maks,” Blake smiled at her. “No one’s braver than you, only I’m tougher than you -”
Maka poked him hard in the side. “Hey! I won the lacrosse championship with cramps so bad I vomited after.”
He tsked her. “Those weren’t cramps. That was your appendix bursting.”
“Even more hardcore.” She insisted.
Blake rolled his eyes. “Fine, sometimes you’re even tougher than the almighty me. Just remember who carried your ass to hospital bare handed that day.”
“That would be the ambulance.”
“I rode along.”
They smiled at each other for a moment, the movie continuing with the sounds of gore and the soundtrack to their high school years. Blake reached for her, wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Maka let him.
His tone was unusually quiet and sincere when he spoke. “You can do this Albarn. Remember though, if I'm not around and you ever need your God, you can just grab that dumb bird. It’s a part of me after all. That’s some powerful shit.”
“Yeah,” Maka smiled, “Some pretty powerful shit.”
He bumped his head with hers, left it there so they were sitting forehead to forehead. “Powerful as a pinky swear.”
She linked their pinky fingers, smiled at him, her oldest friend, the only person who supported her leaving Nevada, who she felt confident would stand by her even when she did. “Promise?”
“Promise.”