Chapter Text
Maka balanced her smooth tin lunch tray as she walked to the table where she sat every day.
"Where have you been?" Soul asked.
"I was getting a study packet from Professor Stein," Maka answered.
Maka noted her own reflection in the shiny red skin of the apple in the top left corner of her lunch tray.
"Hey, has anyone seen Crona?" she asked, looking up.
"I saw them with the N.O.T. Class during first period today," Liz replied.
"Do you think they could be lost again?" Maka asked.
"Could be," Liz answered.
Maka stood up, picking the apple off of her tray. "I'll give it to Crona in case they end up missing lunch!" she thought.
"I'm going to look for them," Maka announced and promptly ran out of the cafeteria.
"But she just got here," Tsubaki sighed.
"Let's just be happy Crona has someone looking out for them," Liz consoled Tsubaki with a pat on her shoulder.
Maka ran through the hallways, still holding onto her apple. It was in this moment Maka wished her skirt had pockets.
"Oh, hi Maka!" an amicable voice called from the room behind Maka on the left.
"Ms. Marie! Have you seen Crona?"
"Yes, they just left for lunch a little while ago with the rest of the class."
"I was just in the cafeteria and they weren't there. Do you think they might be lost?"
"It's been a few months since they started classes here. I wouldn't think they'd still be getting lost, but you're welcome to look for them."
"That's why I was running in the hallway just then," Maka explained.
"Why don't you make your way back to the cafeteria? They might be on their way," Marie suggested.
"Ok," Maka said. Still clutching the apple, Maka ran through the hallway from which she came until she spotted Crona from a distance.
"Crona! Wait up!" Maka shouted, waving.
"Were you lost?" she asked.
"N-no, I talked to Ms. Marie after class..."
"I went looking for you and ended up in Ms. Marie's classroom, actually!"
"Really?"
"Mhmm."
"Why were you running with an apple?"
"I was going to give it to you in case we didn't make it back to the cafeteria before lunch ended."
"Oh. Th-thanks, Maka."
"No problem. Do you want it?"
"Sure."
Maka placed the apple in Crona's palm, hoping the sweat from her hand wasn't too copious and gross.
Maka and Crona returned to the lunch table.
"Hi Crona, would you like a cookie?" Tsubaki asked, pulling a paper bag of cookies from her purse.
"I-"
"YOU BAKED COOKIES AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!" Black*Star exclaimed.
"I baked them this morning before you woke up," Tsubaki explained. Maka rolled her eyes at Black*Star's outburst.
"You were saying, Crona?" Maka asked.
"I- sure!" Crona answered.
Tsubaki handed them a homemade chocolate chip cookie.
"Does anyone else want one? Now that everyone's here, we can share!"
Instantaneously, everyone at the table shouted, indicating that they did, in fact, want a cookie.
"I have one left..." Tsubaki noted aloud.
Sure enough, Ragnarok exploded from Crona's back.
"HEY! YOU FORGOT SOMEONE!" he yelled stridently.
Tsubaki leaned over the lunch table to give Ragnarok the last cookie.
He devoured the cookie and summarily retreated into Crona's back.
"Does it hurt when he does that?" Patty asked.
"Not really. Not anymore," Crona explained.
"But Ragnarok is hard as lead, isn't he?" Death the Kid asked.
"He only hardens during battle."
"Like oobleck!" Maka added.
"Oobleck?" Crona asked.
"It behaves like a solid when more force is applied, and like a liquid when less force is applied," she articulated.
"Whoa, watch out everyone, looks like we got a smartass here!" Soul commented.
"Oh come on! You're just grumpy because you failed the test last week," Maka chided.
When the bell rang that afternoon, Maka waited outside Ms. Marie's classroom with Soul.
"How come they're always the last one out of class?" Soul wondered aloud.
"You could always just ask them."
Crona finally emerged from Ms. Marie's classroom.
"Hi Crona!"
"Ah!" Crona exclaimed.
"I didn't mean to startle you!" Maka reassured.
"I just wasn't expecting you is all," they said.
"Soul and I always wait for you."
"I-I know."
"So why are you always the last to leave class?" Soul inquired.
"I'm having to do a lot of makeup work to catch up...and I'm not doing very well."
"Why didn't you say so? I can help you study!" Maka suggested.
"O-oh, ok."
"Blair, we're home!" Maka called as she opened the door.
Blair shifted to her human form with a puff of lavender smoke, and continued to lounge on the floor like a cat.
"Do you have any fish for me?"
"No."
"Bummer!" Blair exclaimed, and went back to batting around the fuchsia ball of yarn.
"You can set your stuff here, Crona," Maka said, gesturing to the coffee table.
Soul retreated to his room.
"Do you want to show me your worksheets, Crona?"
"Oh! Y-yes, of course."
Crona pulled a bulging folder of worksheets out of their black messenger bag.
Maka internally cringed at the bunched up and folded papers which were protruding from the side of the folder.
"Which one do you want help with?" Maka asked.
"This one," Crona said, pulling a crumpled worksheet from the folder.
"This one's from today, don't you want to start from the beginning?"
"It's a study guide," Crona explained, pointing to the "Study Guide" heading at the top of the page.
"Oh. Hey, I got a study guide from Stein today! In the E.A.T. class they're optional but I like to be prepared. So when's this test of yours?"
"This Monday after school."
Maka took the study guide from Crona and looked it over.
"The first question is pretty simple," she stated.
"...I don't know the answer," Crona confessed.
"Ok. It's 'A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body.'"
"Alright," Crona said, taking the paper from Maka and scribbling the answer in the blanks.
"but why is that the answer?" Crona continued.
"If you're injured, then your body isn't sound, and neither is your soul! You'll be so focused on the pain that it'll manifest in your soul."
"Uh-huh," Crona said, giving Maka their undivided attention.
"And likewise, if something is troubling you, then your mind and soul will be troubled too! The stress will manifest itself in your soul."
"Y-yeah, that makes sense."
"Have you never heard that saying before?" Maka questioned.
"No, not until I started classes at the D.W.M.A."
"Yeah, I guess Medusa wouldn't be the kind of mom that cared about whether her child had a sound soul or not."
"Hey Maka! What are we eating tonight?" Blair cried out from the other side of the living room.
"Is it time for dinner already?" Maka asked aloud, looking at the clock.
"Do you want to stay for dinner, Crona?"
"Y-yes, that would be nice."
"I'll help you study some more tomorrow at lunch!"
Maka felt a tinge of guilt; she wasn't that good at explaining things and tutoring people. She had literally just given Crona the answer, and she feared they wouldn't learn anything this way. Then again, they were only filling out a study guide that Crona would look over in their spare time.
Things would be ok, Maka reassured herself.