Chapter Text
Maka's pigtails bob side to side, barely staying in place even before she stands all the way up again, arms crossing with that all-too-familiar pouty tone she's back to grumbling with. "Why can't they be done now, I wanna eat them already."
"We just stuck them in the oven," Soul barks out with a laugh, hands still drying on his apron. "When were you the impatient one; Thought that was my job."
"Well someone decided to eat the rest of the batter already."
He throws up his hands dramatically. "Says the one who just went on about salmonella poisoning – Talk about having your cake and eating it too!"
There's a grumpy smirk Soul doesn't miss attempting to hide in Maka's show of huffs and rabbit tantrumming, even while he double-checks the timer isn't set to hours instead of minutes again, and decides to take it easy on her this time with getting started on the clean-up now instead of later. By the way of her hands fidgeting with her rolled up sleeves but not undoing them, it's incredibly obvious she's just trying to keep up appearances at this point. "Look, you'd probably eat a whole carton of raw eggs if I let you, so I guess I'll have my cake and eat it later when it's actually done, and not half of it before it was even in the oven yet. I'm going to go take a nap or something."
"You? Napping?" The remaining measuring cups hover over the sink as he pauses, head cocked her way with an eyebrow to match. "Sure you don't want to stick around and gripe some more while you watch me clean the dishes wrong?"
"What, were you planning to get on my nerves today," she swerves on her heels, laughing. There she is.
"Only if you don't let me have my eggs and eat 'em raw too," his grin snickers. He nearly drops the nested cup when he lifts his arm up to defend against Maka barreling in to chop him on the head, his laugh fine-tuned to be infinitely insufferable as it is genuinely playful, much like how he pokes her in the side and has to avoid her trying to bite his finger off. What can he say, he's a master procrastinator at work.
"You're so annoying." A laugh continues to keep his grin at appropriately obnoxious levels despite it being infectious. "I know," Soul finally retaliates, shoulders fortified by smugness, "That's why I'm your partner."
Maka's halfhearted sigh of exasperation and eyerolling has Soul glancing between her and the dishes he's suddenly (and totally surprisingly) feeling very "distracted" from, that smirk of his cranked up a whole new notch of impish while he quietly and inconspicuously sets the whole set down, quickly bringing her eyes on him when he saunters in closer, just how he likes it.
"Well if you really wanna have and eat your cake so bad –"
"Soul, what are you..," she trails off, laughter taking over as he scoops both her hands up.
"– Looks like you're just gonna have to put up with me and dance."
That grin of his resurfaces full force as the fit of giggling spreads between them both, and as much as she likes to "fight it," Maka almost immediately falls into step with him and the slowish beat they sync up to. Side to side, she's gotten better at matching up to a rhythm, even if it's just on a kitchen floor, no checkerboards, and his smile is as secretly sweet as the scent of pastry wafting up through the room.
"Thought you hated dancing," a murmur quietly sways.
"Says the one who's gettin' good at it," a chuckle lightly plays.
Gentle shades of green and red reflect off each other's eyes, a soft harmony pulling them closer as Soul leads them further aside, Maka taking the reigns on the tempo, their faces a breath away.
"I'm your partner, it's my job to be annoying." He doesn't miss a single beat of wavelength moving along with his. "I know," he smiles, genuinely, "That's why you're the best."
Another snicker takes him over when she bats at his ankle with the side of her foot, somehow not knocking them offbeat. In their eyes never really leaving each other behind, however, Maka doesn't miss what his soul really means.