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It had been a pretty long time since Soul and BlackStar last had a movie night. Or rather, it had been a comparatively long time, BlackStar had just been busy the past two weekends. Really, the more Soul thought about it it wasn’t that long, and it wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other in school during that time, but a lot had happened since their last movie night, the biggest of which was definitely BlackStar’s new relationship.
Everyone except for BlackStar and Kid themselves had agreed that things seemed to be moving a bit too fast, but Soul supposed that was just their style. They’d gone on their date, then come back after the weekend declaring that they were an item and warning everyone that they were probably going to be really annoying about it. Soul honestly didn’t think they were that bad, but he was definitely in the minority on that and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the part he’d played in the whole operation or if it was because he had a lot else going on at the moment.
That was another big change, even though Soul had - in his opinion - done a great job at keeping his cool demeanor in check and leaving everyone else none the wiser to his inner turmoil. It was a big problem, though, and he was starting to feel like just keeping it bottled up might possibly not be the greatest idea he’d ever had. And BlackStar did owe him a favor. Not to mention they were bros and Soul was pretty sure BlackStar wouldn’t mind helping him out with something.
As payback for how long it had been, Soul had been graciously allowed to pick the movie, so they were watching Joker and while BlackStar didn’t seem like he got it, exactly, he did make an effort. Soul had mentioned something about themes when they first started the movie, and BlackStar had apparently latched onto that word because now and then he’d ask what the theme of some seemingly random scene was and Soul got an excuse to ramble about the masterful filmmaking for a while.
Right now, though, they’d been quiet for a while and Soul was finding it increasingly difficult to focus on what was happening in the movie. His thoughts kept drifting, playing out imaginary conversations to try and come up with the best way to breach the subject.
”Hey, Star…” He shouldn’t be this nervous, but reminding himself of that didn’t make him any calmer.
”M-hm,” BlackStar hummed around a mouthful of skittles, eyes glued to the screen.
”How-” Soul drew a deep breath. ”How did you know you were…you know?”
”Oh that was easy, I just googled.”
”What?” That was…certainly not what Soul had been expecting. He didn’t even really get how it worked, but fortunately BlackStar decided to elaborate.
”Yeah, there are quizzes, dude,” he explained. ”You take them and they tell you what you are. Super easy.”
”For real?”
”Yeah, for real.” BlackStar turned to face him, raising an eyebrow. ”What, are you questioning things? I can get you the quiz I took, if you want.”
”Oh yeah that’d be great,” Soul almost sighed in relief, and only realized just how tense he’d truly been when he relaxed and slumped back on the couch. BlackStar gave him a knowing grin which Soul didn’t like one bit, but at least he didn’t say anything as he opened his phone and clicked around for a bit before handing it to Soul.
”’Am I gay quiz? 100% real FOR BOYS!!!’,” Soul read the title out loud and BlackStar shrugged.
”Hey man, if it works it works. And this thing works.” He smacked Soul’s shoulder lightly. ”Now get to it, I want my phone back.”
”Okay, let’s see…” Soul started the quiz and quickly found that the questions seemed to be a bit…random. He asked BlackStar about it, and was reassured that it was probably about a bunch of subconscious shit neither of them understood, so he continued on, considering each question carefully.
”Holy shit,” he finally said, as he read his result, and BlackStar immediately leaned over to look over his shoulder.
”Oh, nice!” He shot Soul a grin. ”You got bisexual too!”
”That’s- I mean. Holy shit.” Soul almost dropped BlackStar’s phone but had the good sense to put it down on the coffee table, before running his hands through his own hair. ”Dude you don’t get it, it all makes sense now.”
”What makes sense?” BlackStar asked, then continued, with his voice lowered to a whisper. ”The implications?”
”The implications,” Soul confirmed. It was kinda sweet that BlackStar remembered that conversation so well, but he couldn’t think about that right now. ”Oh, it’s all coming together.”
”You wanna tell me what’s going on with that?” BlackStar was starting to sound genuinely worried, so Soul tried to collect himself a bit and spoke.
”Okay, so basically what happened was that-” He swallowed. ”Maka was getting suspicious and I had to come up with something like, really fast. And so I said I liked Kilik and the problem is I’m starting to think- I think it might not have been one hundred percent entirely untrue.”
”Oh.” BlackStar leaned back, seemingly unfazed, but then his eyes widened and he covered his mouth with his hands. ”Oh.”
”Yeah,” Soul agreed. BlackStar stayed as he was for a moment, but then leaned over again, putting an arm around Soul’s shoulder.
”But hey, that’s a good thing, right?” He squeezed him a little too hard, as was standard for BlackStar. ”Kilik’s super cool.”
”I know, I know.” Soul couldn’t help but lean into the half-hug, suddenly feeling very tired. Like the past weeks of constant wondering had finally got to him. ”It’s just- Like, I don’t even know him that well and I definitely don’t know if he thinks I’m cool-”
”Whoa, okay dude I’m gonna need you to cut it out right there,” BlackStar patted him on the head, once again a bit too hard. ”You can’t go spiraling on me right now. First of all, it won’t do you any good and second of all, that’s my friend you’re talking about. Show some respect.”
”Thanks, man.” Soul smiled weakly. ”But I’m serious, I don’t know how to go about this.”
”You should try the note thing, it worked really well for me-”
”I know, but this situation is a bit different.” Soul waved his hand dismissively. ”You and Kid fought a kishin together and I get nervous when I try and talk to Kilik. Way different.”
”I get-” BlackStar looked away, suddenly seeming a bit flustered. ”I still get nervous when I talk to Kid, sometimes.”
”That’s fucking adorable, bro. But, no offense, I feel like that might be an irrational fear.”
”It’s not fear,” BlackStar huffed. ”I’m never scared.”
”Irrational concern then, whatever.” Soul sighed. ”The point I’m trying to make is that you guys had a bit of a base to build a relationship on, you know? Me and Kilik are acquaintances at best.”
BlackStar was silent for a moment, looking like he was deep in thought. Then he took a deep breath, gave Soul a pained look and spoke.
”Okay, I can’t believe I’m gonna say this but…” Another deep breath. ”I think you should maybe try and talk to him.”
”That’s good advice.” Soul narrowed his eyes. Really, it was more like decent advice, but it was still out of the ordinary. ”You never give good advice.”
”I thought to myself ’What would Tsubaki say?’” BlackStar managed to make that sound like an excruciating thing, rather than just a pretty good course of action. Then again, like they’d established when they were trying to get him and Kid together, he really wasn’t one for good advice and Soul would usually agree with him on that, but this was a very special case.
”Okay, fine. I’ll try and talk to him.” Soul felt like he’d just agreed to go to war, but also like he’d just promised himself that he’d treat himself to a self-care day.
”Tomorrow.”
”Tomorrow?!”
”Yeah, dude.” BlackStar glared at him. ”If you don’t you’re just gonna put it off.”
That was…a possibility. Soul didn’t admit as much out loud, but he was fairly certain his silence was confirmation enough that BlackStar was right. It felt wrong on, like, a spiritual level. That for once, BlackStar was the one who was being reasonable and Soul had to be wrangled into doing the smart thing. He managed to shake the sudden feeling of dread off as they finished the movie, and even kept it at bay for a while afterwards, focusing instead on beating BlackStar at Uno, but all good things had to come to an end. Maka and Crona came back, BlackStar had to go home and Soul was left to sit in his room and worry until he was tired enough to go to sleep.
I can do it, he thought to himself as he laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it.
”I can’t do it.” Soul slammed his locker shut. It was recess and that was usually a really fun time of day, but he was in a bad mood, a dreadful cocktail of exhaustion and anxiety, and BlackStar practically leaning on him - while still holding onto Kid’s hand like a lifeline - didn’t help.
”Come on, dude,” BlackStar whined. ”You promised!”
”I didn’t promise anything!” Soul was fairly sure about that, anyway. It didn’t sound like something he would do, but he had had to reconsider a lot about himself these past few weeks so who knew, anymore. Besides, it had been a stressful first few classes, with BlackStar and Maka both giving him Looks whenever Kilik was around and Soul felt like his brains had gotten thoroughly scrambled from embarrassment alone.
”You promised yourself,” BlackStar said and Soul huffed.
”I didn’t.” That much he could be sure of, mostly because this definitely sounded like something BlackStar would make up to try and sway him.
”Okay, but you should have. And if you don’t talk to him today you’re a coward.” BlackStar was being way too loud, and it was times like these that Soul was very grateful for Kid’s tendency to just kind of zone out of conversations. He was the only one within earshot, the rest of the group preoccupied with a story about a raccoon that Patty was telling, but he hadn’t blinked in about three minutes so Soul was fairly certain he wasn’t listening in.
”I’m not a coward,” Soul countered. ”I’m reasonably apprehensive.”
”Isn’t that what glue is?”
”No, that’s adhesive. Apprehensive is worried.”
”So you’re a coward.”
”I’ll kill you.” Soul smacked BlackStar on the shoulder. ”But I will admit that you’re r- That you’re not entirely wrong. I’m just nervous, dude.”
”Okay, but how about I go along with you?” BlackStar cocked his head to the side. ”You know, for emotional support.”
Soul thought it over for a moment. His first instinct was to say ’no, absolutely not, are you out of your mind’, but the more he thought about it the more it might be best to have BlackStar come along. He was a lot closer with Kilik than Soul was, and he had a tendency to burst through any awkwardness like the Kool-Aid Man through an innocent wall.
”Fine,” he said. ”But please don’t bring Kid. I have nothing against him but I don’t need any more people knowing about this right now.”
”Of course.” BlackStar nodded, then turned to Kid and gave him a kiss on the cheek, which seemed to wake him up.
”You know the rules, you gotta do the other cheek as well, now,” Kid said, and Soul wasn’t entirely sure whether it was just part of Kid’s whole thing, or if it was a plot to get another kiss.
”Yeah, yeah, I know.” BlackStar did as ordered, then continued. ”I have some important business to attend to with Soul, so you head off with the others, okay?”
”Sure, I wanna know what happened to the raccoon.” Kid nodded. ”See you in class.”
”See you later, babe!” BlackStar waved, as he half led half dragged Soul away, down the hallway and around a corner.
”Okay, I’m thinking we intercept Kilik at his locker,” BlackStar explained. ”If I know him, he won’t have left yet.”
”Thank you,” Soul said and he did mean it, he was just still a little bit worried. ”But please don’t embarrass me.”
”Sure thing,” BlackStar responded, not looking back at Soul and Soul got the sudden, horrible sense that BlackStar had not meant it. Or that they had very different pain thresholds when it came to embarrassment. He had time to come up with all manner of disastrous scenarios, before BlackStar dragged him around a final corner and Kilik came into view.
He was standing by his locker, as promised, talking to someone Soul had never seen before while Fire and Thunder clung to his legs. In hindsight, he really should have realized that he liked Kilik sooner because who wouldn’t? There was something about the way he laughed, seemingly entirely comfortable with a guy who Soul was pretty certain wasn’t even in their class, that made Soul’s heart do a complicated set of somersaults worthy of an olympic medal.
”Hey!” BlackStar shouted, and the guy Kilik had been talking to quickly excused himself. ”Yo, Kilik!”
”Hi guys.” Kilik smiled at them and Soul got the distinct feeling that if he hadn’t been silent he would have stuttered. ”Here to harass me?”
”Of course,” BlackStar said, like it was something to be proud of. ”All our friends are being annoying so we’re gonna hang out with you. That cool?”
”Sure.” Kilik shrugged. ”As long as you don’t mind being babysitters.”
”No problem at all, I’m great with kids.” BlackStar crouched down and waved at Fire and Thunder, then said something that made them giggle. Soul didn’t manage to catch what exactly he said, because Kilik smiled at him, specifically, and it kind of made him lose focus on everything else.
”It’s been a while, hasn’t it,” Kilik said and Soul nodded, a bit too enthusiastically.
”Yeah, yeah,” he agreed. ”Like, forever. Super long.”
Kilik laughed and Soul couldn’t help but join in, even though he had a feeling he had just messed up a bit. BlackStar was still talking to Fire and Thunder and he wasn’t sure whether or not it was an intentional move on BlackStar’s part to give Soul some alone-ish time with Kilik, but either way he was thankful for it. While also feeling like he was about to choke on his own anxiety.
”Yeah, man.” Kilik was still smiling and Soul realized that he should probably say something, anything, but when he opened his mouth nothing came out. It couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds, but it felt like a minute at least, before he finally managed to blurt something out.
”How have you been?” It wasn’t clever in any way, but it was the best he could do.
”Oh, you know, I’ve been holding up,” Kilik said. ”Mostly just trying to catch up with phasmatology class. What about you?”
”Me, yeah. I’ve been really into…” What was something Soul was into? He liked to think he had interests, some of which were even kinda cool, but trying to come up with one was like trying to grab a cloud of smoke.
”…movies,” he finally managed to say. ”I’ve been into movies lately.”
”Really?” Kilik nodded slowly, looking at least mildly amused, which was something.
”Yeah uh, are you into movies, at all?” Soul could have probably salvaged the situation a little bit there if he’d just thought about it for a second longer, but unfortunately his inability to speak had given way to rambling and he honestly wasn’t sure which was worse.
”I mean, I guess?” Kilik shrugged and Soul, while mentally screaming at himself, kept talking.
”Cool, yeah,” he said. ”I’ve seen like, ten movies. In the past month, that is. Not in total. I’ve seen way more than ten movies in total.”
”You wanna name an example?”
”Uh, I- Me and BlackStar watched Joker yesterday.”
”Cool.” Kilik smirked and Soul thought it made him look like he knew something about Soul. Or maybe everything. Maybe Kilik could read his mind. He hoped not.
”It’s pretty cool, yeah,” he agreed. ”It’s about this guy who’s a clown- like, he’s a professional clown, literally. But he’s also got this condition that makes him laugh at really inappropriate times and is obviously struggling with mental illness, so it becomes this commentary on how we treat the mentally ill. Not to mention the Marxist themes, of course, there’s a lot of ways you could read it…”
Soul went on about Joker, probably a lot longer than what was strictly necessary, if he were being honest with himself, but Kilik didn’t stop him and even asked a question here and there about the plot whenever Soul started running out of steam. It felt like no time at all had passed by the time the bell rang and they had to head to class, and Soul spent the remainder of the day barely paying attention to anything anyone said to him. It wasn’t until they were about to head home, and BlackStar pulled him aside for a chat that he finally snapped out of it.
”Okay, so what do we think of today?” BlackStar asked excitedly and Soul shrugged.
”Okay, I guess.” He couldn’t help but smile as he said it and BlackStar groaned.
”Can we get some optimism?” He shook Soul slightly. ”Today was huge!”
”I don’t know…” Soul did think it was huge, but if he looked at it logically it was honestly just the bare minimum. ”I mean, we just talked about Joker for a bit. Nothing amazing or anything.”
”Dude, you don’t get it.” BlackStar shook him again. ”Kilik’s already seen Joker.”
Soul froze, suddenly feeling like his eyes were about to pop out of his skull.
”What?”
”He’s seen it,” BlackStar repeated. ”I know because he texted me immediately after to tell me it sucked. And he let you ramble about it for like half an hour. He’s either really serious about that pity thing or…”
He trailed off with a pointed look and Soul swallowed thickly, trying to wrap his head around what had just been said. Kilik had let him go on and on about a movie he’d seen already, and hadn’t even liked. BlackStar was right, this was huge.
”Have-” Soul stammered. ”Have I been overestimating Joker?”
”Dude, no.” BlackStar rolled his eyes. ”I think you guys just have very different movie tastes. That’s normal.”
”Oh, okay.” Soul sighed in relief. ”But what do I do now?”
”Don’t worry about that,” BlackStar reassured him. ”I have a master plan, all you gotta do is wait.”
Soul didn’t just wait, and instead asked what the hell BlackStar meant by that, to which BlackStar just replied that everything would make sense tomorrow, and refused to elaborate further. It was honestly kind of impressive, because he usually wasn’t one for keeping secrets but he managed to keep his lips sealed even though Soul spent the time it took to walk from the school to where the gang would split up and head to their respective homes nagging him about it.
Still, it yielded no results and when he, Maka and Crona headed home, he was the one getting nagged, as Maka had heard that something was going on and wanted to know specifics. This was unfortunate, because Soul couldn’t just leave. They lived together, and it was his turn to cook so he couldn’t say he was going out for a walk or something, so he spent a few hours being asked now and then what he and BlackStar were up to this time.
”Fine, I’ll explain,” he eventually said, feeling like he was making a huge mistake. ”But you have to promise to not get mad, not freak out and not embarrass me.”
”Who do you take us for?” Maka glared at him and Crona looked…well, honestly like they always did, which was like they were about to cry at any moment.
”I’m not answering that.” Soul crossed his arms. ”The point is…The point is you know when I said I like Kilik?”
”Yeah,” Maka said.
”No,” Crona said.
”Okay, well, basically I told Maka I liked Kilik,” Soul explained to Crona, then continued. ”But the thing is, I lied. It was a lie to cover for BlackStar.”
”What?!” Maka leaned forward, almost all the way across the table. ”You lied to me?!”
”It was to protect my bro!”
”I’m your meister!”
”Please don’t fight,” Crona cut in, which managed to calm Maka down a bit. At least she didn’t look like she was going to start a fight anymore, and the conversation could continue.
”Okay, so is that what you two are whispering about?” Maka asked and Soul took a deep breath.
”Kind of. It’s complicated.” Another deep breath. ”I lied about it, but I also realized that I also didn’t lie about it. Like, I like him for real.”
”I’m confused,” Crona said and Maka snorted.
”Understandable,” she said. ”Soul’s just going through it, I guess.”
”Yeah, I am,” Soul agreed. It did feel nice to tell his roommates about it, even though he was a bit worried about what Maka would do with this information, not to mention he had no idea how good Crona was at keeping secrets.
The answer to that question turned out to be ’not very good at all’. The next day, Liz and Patty seemed to notice something was up like sharks sniffing out blood in the ocean, and while Soul never heard Crona actually reveal anything, he thought the sisters were looking at him in a very worrying way after their conversation with Crona. It was a big relief when they finally headed to their first class and Soul could occupy his mind with something else.
Now, Mifune’s classes were kind of weird. Soul still wasn’t sure what exactly he was meant to be teaching them, it was hard to find anything in common even between individual classes and when he looked back at what they’d learned in the year since Mifune had started teaching he could make absolutely no sense of it. They did, however, always do something and more often than not it ended up being at least vaguely interesting, so Soul found himself looking forward to the one class per week they had with Mifune.
”Everyone, please be quiet.” That was another thing. Soul had expected Mifune to be strict, but he was surprisingly nice with the class, at least compared to some of their other teachers.
”Today, I thought we should talk a bit about social media and online culture,” he said, like that was a normal thing for a teacher to say, and the class immediately started whispering among themselves.
”What did I just say?” Mifune sighed. ”Anyway, I thought that might be interesting for you guys. Am I correct?”
He got a few ’yes sir’-s in response and Soul nodded, to show his support more than anything. That was apparently good enough for Mifune, and he got on with the lesson. It kind of sounded like he’d just read a few articles on online marketing, found them interesting and decided to pass on this knowledge to the class. It was a bit excruciating to hear him try to explain memes, but definitely less so than if Stein had tried it. It ended up being a pretty fun lesson, if not one of Mifune’s most memorable ones (that honor went to the time he’d decided to talk about practical magic by having Angela help out).
”Now, I will also be giving you some homework,” he said, after ending the lecture and barely reacted when the class collectively and loudly groaned.
”You’ll be divided into pairs, and I want you to try and create a social media presence until next week. You can see it as a competition if you want. Whoever gets the largest following wins.” He shot someone in the room a look that Soul wasn’t sure how to interpret. ”And don’t bother trying to pair up among yourselves, I’ve done that already.”
He picked a paper up from the desk and started reading off pairs, while Soul suddenly started feeling suspicious.
”-Maka and BlackStar, Patty and Crona, Soul and Kilik-”
…and there it was. He wasn’t upset, per se, and of course he couldn’t know for sure that this was BlackStar’s doing. Except, he very much could, since BlackStar gave him a huge grin and a thumbs up. Soul almost considered confronting him about this then and there, but before he could, Kilik - who had sat down at a spot below him - turned around and smiled at him.
”Dude, we have to win this,” he said, his enthusiasm immediately infecting Soul.
”Yeah,” he agreed. ”Or at least beat Maka and Star.”
”Hell yeah!” Kilik stood up, raising his hand, and it took Soul a moment too long that he was expecting a high five. It ended up not being the best Soul had ever delivered, but Kilik didn’t seem to mind, just laughing it off. His hand was warm and Soul prayed to whatever deity that would listen (except for Kid, on pure principle) that he wasn’t blushing too much.
”Do you want to work remotely, or should we get together- Like, go to one of our places and work on it?” Soul asked, which seemed to summon BlackStar because he swiftly entered the conversation and said that he and Maka were going to be working at her and Soul’s house so Soul and Kilik should do that too, so they could all hang out together, which Kilik agreed to. Apparently Kim had a babysitting gig going on (with Crona, of all people) so she’d probably be able to take care of Fire and Thunder for an evening, so they could get started on the project then.
”I’ll talk to her about it as soon as I can,” Kilik said, and opened his phone. ”Can you give me your number? And I’ll text you when I know which day works.”
Soul breathlessly recited his own number, feeling like this was something truly momentous. Sure, the two of them were already friends on Discord and Snapchat, but that was different. This was his phone number. He wasn’t even sure if all his friends had his phone number.
This was definitely a win, he decided, even if ’group project’ wasn’t exactly his definition of romantic. Furthermore, he still wanted to know how BlackStar had actually accomplished this, so before heading to their next class he dragged his friend off for some light questioning.
”Oh, it was super easy,” BlackStar explained. ”I spared Mifune’s life once, so he kinda owes me. I just asked him to put you guys together.”
”Thank you, but also you’re insane.” Soul ruffled his hair and BlackStar gave him a colorful string of curses in response, which continued even as they headed back to the rest of the group. Some way or another, it started a fight between all of them and Soul almost missed his phone buzzing. Luckily, he caught the noise and read the text he’d just gotten, feeling his face heat up as he did.
’is wednesday ok? - kilik’
Wednesday was absolutely okay, Soul had assured him, and he spent Tuesday night cleaning the apartment and reminding Maka not to be a nightmare. Crona would be out babysitting with Kim, so he at least had one less person to worry about, but Maka was definitely the bigger problem of the two, not to mention that BlackStar would be there as well. He tended to bring out not the worst in Maka, but certainly the most unhinged parts of her.
He told both of them this, as the three of them were sitting around the kitchen table and waiting for Kilik, who had had to walk Fire and Thunder home before he could come over. Soul kept checking his watch (finding that only a few minutes had passed each time he did) and casting nervous glances towards the front door.
”Dude, you need to chill,” BlackStar said and Maka nodded.
”Yeah, what BlackStar said.”
”I hate it when you two agree.” Soul glared at them, then turned to look at the door again. It looked just like it had the last time he looked at it. Probably because, he had to remind himself, it was a fucking door. It wasn’t going to look any different no matter what happened.
”We aren’t agreeing,” BlackStar huffed and Maka smacked him on the arm.
”Yes we are.”
”No. You agreed with me. I never agreed with you.”
”Are you like, genuinely stupid?”
”Die.”
”Shut the fuck up!” Soul whisper-shouted, as he’d just heard footsteps approaching from outside the door. Everyone held their breaths, or at least Soul did and hoped the others were doing the same, until the doorbell rang and Soul almost fell off his chair when he stood up. He hurried to the door - unfortunately followed by Maka and BlackStar - and opened it with a smile.
”Hi. Welcome,” he said, at the same time as both Maka and BlackStar said something kind of similar.
”Hey.” Kilik smiled at them and Soul tried to discreetly shove Maka and BlackStar out of the way so that he could come inside.
”Okay, so I’m thinking we set up the account today and then we can each keep an eye on it during the week,” Kilik said, as they all headed back to the kitchen. ”Maybe meet up a second time during the weekend or something, if I can get Kim and Crona to babysit again.”
”Yeah, that sounds great.” Soul nodded, mostly in response to the ’meet up a second time’ bit. He broke off from the group for a moment to go fetch his laptop, and when he came back the rest had sat down at the kitchen table. It didn’t seem like Maka and BlackStar had done anything weird yet, and logically they shouldn’t have had the time to, but one could never know with them so he shot them a glare when Kilik wasn’t looking. Just in case.
”So what kind of ’social media presence’ should we create?” He asked, sitting down next to Kilik and opening his laptop.
”Honestly, I’ve no idea. Should we just make a Twitter account?” Kilik suggested and Soul nodded. It was definitely the easiest way to go about this and he quite frankly couldn’t care less about the actual project.
”Yeah that sounds good,” he agreed. ”Should we just post about whatever, or decide on a theme?”
”A theme might be good…” Kilik suddenly trailed off, and when he spoke again he was addressing Maka and BlackStar.
”You’re being uncharacteristically quiet,” he said, matter of factly, and while Soul thought Kilik was very smart for noticing that it was kind of a problem. Maka and BlackStar seemed to realize that as well, because they suddenly looked slightly panicked.
”We’re practicing telepathy,” was apparently the best excuse BlackStar could come up with on a short notice, and Maka - who Soul thought was supposed to be smart, or at least functional - nodded along.
”Yeah, that’s what our blog is gonna be about.”
”That’s great,” Soul said, through gritted teeth. He was starting to feel slightly violent, but at least Kilik laughed and that made everything feel a lot better in general, so they could all get back to working without Soul strangling anyone.
Or rather, Soul and Kilik could get back to working. Maka and BlackStar mostly mumbled amongst themselves and looked over the top of Maka’s laptop when they thought Soul wouldn’t notice. And Soul was honestly more interested in listening to Kilik talk than contributing to the conversation himself, so it was really mostly Kilik who got back to working.
He set up an email they’d use specifically for this account, then the discussion of a theme for the account came up again and Soul had to join in, instead of just listening. They played with a few different ideas for a while, with none of them actually sticking, until Maka suddenly decided to insert herself into the conversation.
”Soul’s way into old music,” she said innocently. ”Maybe that’s something.”
Soul felt his violent urges return with a vengeance, but before he could tell Maka to mind her business and maybe also go die in a hole, Kilik spoke.
”That sounds interesting.” He tilted the laptop screen down a bit, presumably to see Maka better. ”I don’t know a lot about older music, though.”
”Yeah, bad idea, Maka.” Soul tried to shoot her a very pointed glare, but she expertly avoided making eye contact with him and kept her eyes on Kilik, who continued the conversation.
”I mean, I guess it could be one of those things where I give my first opinion,” he said, then turned to look at Soul with that knowing smirk. ”If you’d wanna play me something.”
Soul had no idea what to say. Playing the music he liked for other people felt…weird. It felt like he was being tested, like if the other person didn’t like it then that was a failure on Soul’s part. But Kilik had asked, he reminded himself. He didn’t have to listen to it, and the way he’d asked to hear it felt so genuine…
”Yeah I-” Soul swallowed. ”I could do that. If you want.”
”I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.” Soul had known that before Kilik said it, but it was so, so reassuring to hear it said out loud.
”I’ve got my record player in my room, if you wanna…” He gestured over his shoulder, in the direction of his room and Kilik nodded.
”Sounds good, yeah.” The two of them stood up and Soul felt like he was walking in slow-motion as they headed to his room, and as he began looking through his vinyls for something to play, while seeing Kilik sit down on the floor out of the corner of his eye. He took his time with the records then finally settled on american swinging in paris and put it on. The first notes of Thème de Yoyo rang out as he sat down next to Kilik, and neither of them said anything for a while. They weren’t looking at each other, but sitting close enough that Soul could feel some of the warmth radiating off Kilik and that was enough to make something in his chest flutter. He didn’t like to think of it as butterflies, more like he’d accidentally breathed in a flock of moths and was choking on them. But in a way that was kind of pleasant.
”It’s nice.” Kilik finally broke the- Not the silence, but the lack of conversation between the two of them, and when Soul turned to look at him he found that Kilik had done the same, leaving them face to face.
The song wasn’t very romantic. Here and there, it would go into a few bars that were just an almost incomprehensible mix of noises, and Soul wasn’t entirely sure but the lyrics sounded like the singer was just mad at someone. Honestly, it should have been ruining the mood completely, but Soul found himself silently agreeing with what Kilik said, albeit applying the words to more than just the song. It was nice.
”Yeah, I found it a while back,” he said, finding that his voice seemed a bit hoarse. ”I liked it, so I bought the whole album.”
”Cool,” Kilik responded, then leaned closer. There was that sense of slow-motion again, and Soul instinctively closed his eyes, feeling like he might have passed out right there if he could see Kilik while their lips brushed against each other. It was brief and soft, it lasted forever and hit Soul like a truck.
Kilik pulled away and Soul opened his eyes, trying to remember how he was supposed to breathe. Did he breathe in or out first? Did that matter? Whatever the case, he should probably say something, because Kilik suddenly looked a bit nervous.
”I hope I wasn’t misunderstanding things…” he began, and Soul quickly cut him off.
”No! No, not at all! It’s just-” He suddenly wasn’t sure what to do with his hands, feeling like he was seconds from wringing them together. ”I’ve never kissed a boy before. I mean, I’ve never kissed anyone before, but you could probably tell that. Anyway, what I want to say is, I really liked kissing you.”
”I’m glad to hear that.” Kilik laughed and Soul managed to relax a little bit. It was just very hard not to feel at least a bit happy when Kilik was laughing.
”To be honest, I’ve kinda wanted to do that for a while now,” Kilik continued, suddenly looking a bit embarrassed. ”It’s really dumb, but I was curious about your teeth.”
Soul took a moment to process that, but once his brain finally caught up with everything that had happened for the past few minutes, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Probably loud enough for Maka and BlackStar to hear him, but that didn’t matter right now.
”I’m glad,” he managed to get out between fits of laughter. ”And for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t mind kissing again.”
”Well, what are you waiting for then?” Kilik gave him that knowing smile again, and before Soul could start worrying too much he leaned forward and kissed Kilik. He probably wasn’t very good at it, but right now he could dare to hope that he might get to practice in the future. And even if the kiss wasn’t very good, he personally liked it a lot and Kilik was still smiling when it was over.
”Okay, my sixth sense isn’t great,” he said. ”But I think Star and Maka might be spying on us.”
”Probably,” Soul sighed. ”I’ll tell them off later.”
He did end up doing that, once Kilik had left, though he thought it might not have been as impactful as it should have been. Mostly because he kept intercutting it with ’thank you’-s to the both of them, since they had helped him out a bit, and partly because he couldn’t stop smiling, even when he was trying to give them both stern looks and a lecture about minding their own business. They ended up making tea and having a chat around the kitchen table, only taking a break when Crona came back home and they had to make them a cup as well. BlackStar did eventually have to go home, after giving Soul a congratulatory hug, but even after that the atmosphere at home was very comfortable the whole evening.
Soul’s mood stayed good, even when he went to school the day after and found out that Patty and Crona had gotten five hundred followers in just a few days, meaning they were probably going to win the competition. (”We just told people we’d win a competition at our school if we got a bunch of followers in a week,” Patty explained. ”And then I promised to post the same picture of Lou Bega every day until we get to a thousand. It was easy.”) Really, the competition had been dumb to begin with, he wasn’t even sure if Mifune would care that much about who won it.
It was super sappy and not very cool, but Soul found himself thinking that it was far more important that when Kilik passed him by in the hallways, or turned around to look at him in class, they’d smile at each other like they were both in on a secret. And he wouldn’t mind the fact that each time it happened his face heated up, meaning he was probably blushing, or the fact that all of his friends were definitely well aware of the ’secret’ by now, or the fact that he wasn’t a very good kisser. He’d make it work, one way or another.