Chapter Text
Soul Eater Evans only hesitated for a moment before he shoved open the heavy oak doors of the Moon Drop Lounge. The dusty and smoke scented air caught in the dying lying of the evening behind him Soul entered, practically sauntering up to the bar in a suit that fit him devilishly well, its dark red material almost black in the low candle light and ambiance of the lounge. Usually Soul wasn’t a suit guy, but the ladies seemed to love it, and Soul wasn’t the type of man to deny the ladies of what they wanted.
His eyes connect with his bosses, a short, impish man sitting on a bar stool facing out, his back leaned against the countertop as he went on talking to the bartender, who stands with his arms crossed, nodding with boredom.
Soul can tell from the mans dramatic hand waves as he talked that it couldn’t be of too importance.
“So I says- I says to him ‘If I don't get my fuckin’ cut of the money, I’m gonna blow ya fuckin’ head off- Ah! Evans!”
Soul nodded to the man and the bartender, standing and leaning against the bar on his elbows. “Ogre, Bazathrax, Good to see you both.”
“Supposed to be a busy night, Evans! I hope you brought all of that talent with you in tonight!”
“Can’t keep me away for long” He gives the men a toothy grin and waves for his regular order, which the bartended sets down on the counter in front of Soul. He grabs the glass which is chill to the touch, and knocks back his whiskey.
Mr. Ogre, the owner of the Moon Drop lounge grinned back, patting Soul on the back. “Atta boy! And I hope the apartment is to your liking? Its quite the batchelor pad huh?”
Soul nods, setting his glass down and gesturing for another, it didn’t hurt to loosen up and live a little, not like it was hard to just play the piano for a couple hours. “Yeah, it’s great, s’bitch to get the piano in.”
Ogre laughs and turns his attention to the door, Customers are finally starting to stream in, and by the look of Ogre’s face, more than the usual crowd of locals and Ogre’s ‘colleagues’.
It wasn’t as if the place was dingy or outdated, it had a classic look to it, there was plenty of dark oak craftsmanship everywhere and the booths and tables were made of a similar wood- the seats cushioned with red leather seats- Plenty of candles sat around the room and on the tables, adding to the ambience. In the corner of the lounge area there was a small dias for performing, on top of it an old grand piano sat, waiting to be put to use by Soul.
Soul threw his next drink back and nodded goodbye to the two men before he set out over to his seat. The piano had been neglected for years, it wasn’t until Soul had started working for Ogre through a family connection did it see love, it had taken him weeks to get it to sound right again, and once it did, more and more customers began to frequent the lounge, eager to hear live music.
Soul stretched out his long fingers and took his seat on the plush piano seat, his eyes slowly examining the group of people in attendance tonight. People sat close together on dates, the Bar was quickly filling up, and the waiters in the room seemed to have a harder and harder time weaving in and around the tables with drinks and food on their trays.
Partially obstructed by his view, at one of the booths in the far corner his eyes stopped, narrowing slightly on a girl that had to be around his age staring at him with wide and eager green eyes, a toothy smile spreading across her face- Her nose scrunching slightly with the movement.
He quickly looked away, pretending to busy himself with the set list in front of him. Vaguely he knew her, or at least he had met her before in passing- she was either one of Tsubaki or Blackstar’s friend, but she was off at school or something, wasn’t she? He figured that could have changed, hell it wasn’t really in his plans to be back here, or to have been gone at all-
Eager to not think about it , Soul starts to do what he does best, play the piano.
His set for the night is jazz and romance, playing up the mushy gushy vibes to the many couples in the room.
He didn’t want to think about how many times he felt the urge to look up and over to the girl again.
Once his set is over, Soul is back to the bar, ordering another drink, choking on it as suddenly someone slams their arm down and around his shoulders, pulling him a headlock.
“Soul!! That was so crazy cool, Maaaan, I can’t believe you came back to this dump!” An energetic blue haired ma was holding onto him, laughing loudly with his head thrown back. It was Blackstar, one of Souls friends from his childhood.
“It pays the bills. You here with Tsubaki?” Soul dodges out of his friends hold and settles against the counter, drink in hand, his eyes lazily scanning the room, partially to look for Tsubaki, partially looking for their friend.
“Ah, shes in the bathroom with Maka, you know how girls are! ‘Oh my god lets like pee together!’” Hes erupting in laughter again, only stopping to lean in and yell his order at the bartender.
Soul takes a long drink, taking a moment to let it burn down his throat. “Maka? Never heard of her.”
“C’mon man! I swear to god you two have met at least two times! Shes that smartass scholarship kid, always has her hair in pigtails, Dad works for Death Corp?”
Soul nods and takes another sip of his drink. He could recall, when they met he had been pretty fucked up at some party- he had been dating Blair. Plus, Cool guys don’t need to seem interested.
“Got it, Why’s she third wheel this week?”
Blackstar shrugs, his cheerful disposition falling for a moment. “Her boyfriend cheated on her and kicked her ass to the street, she’s staying with us until she can find a place to rent.”
“Ah, really? That blows.” She’s single. Soul finishes off his drink and gets it refilled. His eyes catch sight of Maka and Tsubaki walking back from the bathroom.
“Yeah man… But hey, Ogre mentioned earlier that you have a spare room at your place, right?”
Soul curses under his breath, of course that asshole would just give out information like that, it was one of the prices of taking the hand he offered you. Blackstar grins widely at his reaction,
“You gotta offer it man, she needs a roof over her head, and I swear she’s well behaved.”
Before he can respond, the girls are up at the bar with them- Soul can’t help himself from giving Maka the once over, watching her as she takes the seat beside him at the bar, giving him a wide smile- her nose crinkling again.
Soul clenches his grip on the glass.
“Hi Soul! Great performance! What are you two talking about?” Tsubaki smiles up at him and he shoots her a grin back.
“Just gettin’ reminded by your dear obnoxious boyfriend of how charitable I tend to be” Soul’s eyes flick to Maka. “Heard this kid needs a place to stay? You’d have to deal with me as a roommate, but rent wouldn’t be high.”
Her smile caught him off guard, and the way her eyes gleamed in the lowlight.
“Really? I wouldn’t want to be a nuisance, but I really do need a place to stay” She laughs, brushing a piece of her hair behind her hair with her free hand, the other holding a half full vodka cran.
A flush tinged his ears, and Soul had to chastise himself, this was so not cool. “I don’t think Ogre will let me bum any free drinks, Wanna head up to my place?”
Tsubaki smiles and nods. “We’ve been wanting to see your new place! This works perfectly!”
After being tipped out, Soul lead the group out of the lounge and into the mid summer heat, the stars above washed out in the glow of the light pollution.
It isn’t much of a walk to the apartment complex, Ogre’s main source of income was aggressively buying up as much real estate as possible in the upper circle of Deathcity. The building he lived in was set in the centre of the district, all the way up to the eighth floor of an old twelve-story brick building.
The elevator opened directly into his apartments foyer, and he couldnt help but look back at his company to see their reaction to his cool guy place, the lights flicking on to a comfortable warm glow. There was a small bite to his stomach, last time they had seen him he had been living at his last place, not a fond memory.
“Welcome in, What does everyone want to drink?” Soul kicks his shoes off and walks into the kitchen. “I have a pretty stocked bar here.”
“I’ll have some water, please!” Tsubaki called, already walking around and checking out all of his art pieces. Black Star was following her, nudging all of the paintings slightly off centre.
Soul is slightly surprised to see Maka following him instead of the others, she leans against one of the kitchen counters and watches as Soul sets to getting a round of water for everyone. “What can I get you?”
“Whiskey, if you have it.” her smile is just as bright as the one at the bar, but her eyes hold a challenging spark, Soul rolls his neck and shrugs. What could he say, cool guys didn’t back down to a challenge. He grabs an older bottle and pours them two glasses, leaning in as he hands her glass over.
“To commemorate being roommates.”
Her smile gets wider and now her nose and the corners of her eyes crinkle with joy. Soul chooses to slam back the drink instead of focusing on that though. Her laughter is hard to ignore as she copies him, downing her drink as well.
“Want me to show you the extra room?”
She coughs a little on her drink and nods. “Yeah! I’d love to see it!”
Soul gives her one of his half smiles and straightens up, walking her down the hall and to the first room, opening the door to a fairly large bedroom- Ogre had furnished it with the bare minimum of a queen sized bed, a dresser, and a desk- Maka steps in and practically twirls as she takes in the room. Soul can’t help but watch her from where he leaned against the door frame.
God, Black Star and Tsubaki had totally set him up for this hadn’t they?
“Oh wow! The view is gorgeous!” Maka makes a bee line straight to the large window, which had been open to air out the room, and Soul is almost worried she’ll fall out when she starts leaning out to see the view of the city better.
“Are you really sure you want to rent this room out?” She glances behind her shoulder at him. Really he didn’t have much of a choice in this situation- she was homeless after a bad breakup and had been living with his best friends for weeks.
“As long as you don’t try and wake me up early or get mad at me for working weird hours and playing the piano constantly.” He shrugs, smiling at her.
Maka nods. “I’ll behave, I promise! I’ll be such a good roommate!”
Soul smiles back and shoots out his hand, the two shake on it. Yeah, this would be cool- Soul was a cool guy and he could more than handle being back in Deathcity- back at the lounge, and living with someone he had to admit was more than a little attractive. “Feel free to move your things in whenever, I’ll help.”
She grins and runs out of the room to grab the others, telling them the good news and making plans to get everything ready.
Soul hadn’t expected her to be there at 8 am the next morning, a hungover Blackstar and Tsubaki and all of her belongings in tow.
Soul could definitely handle this.