Finding the Raven Witch (A Soul Eater Fanfiction)

Mashed Potatoes and Memories

They had almost found Max once. Those DWMA kids sent by their Shinigami. They wanted to make Max one of them. But Rosalyn had seen what life was like for those students. As much as she loved her home in Death City, she couldn't let her Max be one of those. And so she left.

At the moment, her precious son was pushing his mashed potatoes around his plate, moving them into symmetrical formations, and then destroying them with a few swipes of his fork. Rosalyn could tell he was thinking hard about something.

Finally, he said, "You never speak of my father."

Rosalyn stared down at her plate, silent.

Max persisted in questioning her. "I know you lived together a long time ago. What was he like?"

Rosalyn closed her eyes. She imagined her husband's face, genuinely sweet, but with a comical twist, and a mouth that turned up just slightly at the corner... She was one of the few people who he had ever shown his real face to.

"He looked like you. You have his eyes. And his hair. He was a really nice man-"

"But you left him." Max's face was neutral; he almost never smiled.

"It was for your sake." Rosalyn avoided her son's gaze. The yellow eyes that bore through her now were the same yellow eyes that smiled underneath the quirky skull mask back in death city...

"But WHY?" Max demanded, "You tell me he's such a great guy, but you act like I would be in mortal danger if I were around him!"

Rosalyn pressed her lips together. "Max, I'm sorry. It's more complicated than you think."

"Then why don't you ever bother to explain it to me?" Max whispered, very much hurt.

Rosalyn went quiet again.

"Mother?"

She tried to gather her thoughts, desperately looking for something to tell her son, but the memories of her husband came flooding back. Rosalyn squeezed her eyes closed, trying to shut them out, but they insisted on staying imprinted in her brain. Tears squished out from beneath her eyelids, and she pressed her trembling lips, trying in vain to keep them contained. She could stand it no longer. Standing, she hurried off to her room as tears silently slid down her face, leaving a very confused Max to eat dinner alone.