An Unexpected Twist

The Mistake

Maka couldn't believe it. She touches her lips, the feel of Soul's still there. His words play through her head, none of them making sense. Was he playing with her? Or was he being serious? Just what the hell is going on?

"MAKA!"

She jumps, startled. Giriko hollers for her again, much more irritated this time. Maka jumps to her feet and open her bedroom door, peeking towards the stairs.

"Get down here girl."

Maka sighs and opens her door all the way, slowly making her way downstairs. She stands in front of Giriko, fighting the urge to wrinkle her nose at the stench coming off of him. Giriko growls at her, his wild gestures causing him to slop alcohol out of the open bottle in his hand.

"Why is this house a mess?! I told you to clean it weeks ago!"

Maka glances around, noting that the house was indeed a mess. And Giriko had told her to clean up. But to be honest, she's just been too preoccupied to pay him much mind. And it's not like she's actually been home that often anyways. She sighs and looks at him.

"Sorry. I'll get right on it."

"You better." he growls.

Giriko stalks off and Maka rolls up her sleeves, getting to it. The mess was horrible. Rotten food and alcohol stains were everywhere, not to mention the aged bile and dirty clothes thrown everywhere. Though the stench was horrific, Maka sadly got used to it after a while. While she worked, her mind drifted back to that kiss and everything it could have implied. Tomorrow was Sunday, so she'd only have to wait through the rest of today and tomorrow to question Soul. She sighs as she cleans up the last bit of the mess. The next 31 hours were going to be antagonizing for her.

••••••••

Soul didn't see Wes all weekend, which worried him a bit. Maka wasn't answering her phone either, stressing him out even more. Come Monday, Soul felt sick from the amount of stress he was under at the moment. So when he walked into first period late, he didn't care about the teacher belittling him or his classmates' whispers. His eyes met Maka's and all that stress melted away, lightening his headache a bit. He walks over to his seat, hardly paying attention to what Stein had to say. He sat through class, fighting to stay awake for the short time that was left in the period. He hadn't gotten much sleep over the weekend due to his brain not shutting the hell up. The bell rang and Soul was the last one out, not seeing the point in hassling with the crowd. He has also wanted to talk to Maka, but she was long gone. He sighs and makes his way through the halls, wondering just what he was going to say if Maka brought the kiss up.

Soul and Maka ran into each other on the way out of school at the end of the day. Soul steadies her, as her usual heavy load of books makes her unbalanced.

"Thanks..."

"Yeah, no problem.."

Maka gets her balance back before she looks at Soul.

"About Saturday..."

"Look Maka, I..."

She puts her finger to his lips, effectively shutting him up.

"I'm not looking for excuses. I don't even really care about why you did that right now. I'm more upset at you for avoiding me for weeks and then suddenly showing up like you did. I want to know why."

Soul sighs and tugs her down the path, the two starting to walk to her house. He tells her everything, only leaving out the part after he came home Saturday. He didn't want to scare Maka. She listens studiously the whole time, never interrupting. After he finishes, they walk in silence for a few minutes.

"So you're saying you avoided me because Arachne and your brother threatened me?"

"Well, yeah..."

Maka stops and turns to look at him. Soul stops as well, nervously looking back.

"Why didn't you say something sooner? Why wait weeks? I'm not scared of them Soul."

Soul didn't answer her because he didn't have one to give. He honestly had no idea. He scuffs the bottom of his shoe against the pavement, trying to think of a good response. Maka sighs, figuring he wasn't going to answer her.

"So should I be expecting Arachne and Wes to show up at any time?"

"I guess. Just keep an eye out for them. If you see them, just get out of there and somewhere where there's lots of people."

Maka nods and they begin to walk again. The rest of the trip is in silence, Soul only breaking it when they reach Maka's front door.

"So I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow?"

Maka nods as she unlocks the door. She says goodbye and walks inside, gently closing the door behind her. Soul sighs heavily and walks home.

An unexpected surprise is waiting for him when he arrives. He opens the door to the house, using the light from outside to hang his jacket up. He closes the door and flips the light on, turning to the stairs.

"Long time no see Soul."

He jumps, his heart racing. Blair, his brother's girlfriend, or rather, ex-girlfriend was sitting on one of the lower steps, smiling at him.

"Jesus Christ Blair. How the hell did you get in here?"

"Wes let me in. He said he wanted me to make sure no one messed with the place while he was gone."

"You still talk to that creep? Seriously?" Her words then register in his brain. "Wait, where did he go?"

Blair shrugs. "He didn't say. But he had a girl with him, so I'm going to assume a date."

Soul mind starts reeling at this. He prayed this wasn't what he thought it was.

"Did the girl have black hair? Snooty attitude? Kinda slutty?"

"Sounds about right."

Soul utters a curse as he snatches his coat and the keys to his bike.

"Wait, where are you going?!"

"Not now Blair!"

Soul hurries out of the house, practically pouncing on his bike as he jams the key in, throwing the kick stand up as the engine roars to life. Blair shouts something but the words are lost as Soul rips out onto the street. It's been almost 2 hours since he saw Maka. And that was enough time for Wes to do whatever suited his twisted fancy. The wind tore at Soul like it was trying to wrap its icy fingers around him to stop him as he raced down the streets. Time was ticking.

••••••••

There was a knock on Maka's door. She didn't answer it a first, wanting to enjoy the time she had with the house to herself for once. But the knocking got more insistent, so she finally got up and reluctantly cracked the door open, peeking out.

"Can I help you?"

A voice she didn't recognized came back with a reply.

"You're Maka right?"

Maka pauses, wary. She didn't know this person and somehow they knew her name.

"What do you want with her?"

The person doesn't answer for several moments.

"It's about Soul. It's important."

This has to be some kind of trap. Maka thought to herself. Then the conversation that she had with Soul earlier comes to mind.

"Who is this?"

There's no response. That was enough for Maka to shut the door and lock it. But as she does, whoever was behind the door forces it open, knocking Maka to the floor. A big guy looks at her, his lips pressed into a firm line of disapproval.

"It's rude to close the door on company Maka."

Maka scrambles backwards, getting to her feet as she does.

"Get out of my house."

"Oh don't be so rude Maka,"

She freezes as Arachne steps out from behind the guy.

"Happy to see me honey?"

Arachne's words are filled with enough poison to kill 20 elephants. Maka promptly runs up the stairs, not even bothering to answer. She slams her bedroom door shut, locking it behind her. She hears heavy footsteps coming up the stairs and voices being raised. Maka looks for a place to hide. She settles on under the bed, but just before she slips under it, she remembers her phone. She hurries to the other side of the room, snatching it off the charger. Someone starts to bang on her door, making her jump. She bites her tongue when she does and blood floods her mouth. She dives under the bed, hurriedly turning her phone on. Not that she got the chance to use it. The door flies open and the guy, who she's assuming is Wes, and Arachne come into her little room. She bites her bloody tongue so she doesn't make a sound as they root around. Silence falls and she's about to let out a sigh of relief, but a hand grabs her ankle and yanks her out from under the bed.

"Let go of me!"

She kicks at whoever it is. They let her go, and she gets up, only to be grabbed by Wes.

"Behave."

He holds her down as Arachne ties Maka's hands behind her back and gags her. Wes carries her off, ignoring her futile attempts to escape. He throws her and she lands on something somewhat soft. She hears a car door slam and when she looks around, she sees that she's locked in a car. All the fight leaves Maka and she curls up. When Soul said that Wes and Arachne would come after her, she'd never in a million years imagine this. Soul. Maka wished more than anything that he was here right now.

••••••••

Soul pulls up to Maka's house, jumping off his bike. It falls to its side and skids a good 4 feet as Soul hits the ground, running. He pounds on the door, frantic.

"Maka! Open up! It's Soul!"

After a minute, the door cracks open.

"Oh tha-"

"Oh you're finally here Soul? It's too bad that you're late. You just missed all the fun."

Soul roars in rage and attacks Arachne. His punch sends her to the floor, her voicing her shock.

"Ow! What, Sou-"

She doesn't get another word out as Soul punches her in the mouth. He hits her again and again, not stopping. The torrent of rage has him under its control, all the stress and anger coming out at once. Anger at Arachne, anger at Wes, anger at Maka's guardian, anger at everyone that's hurt her. But most of all, anger at himself. He threw it all at Arachne in the form of a clenched fist. Blood flies and bones crack under that rage. Soul can dimly hear her screaming, but he doesn't bother to listen enough to know what. He finally feels hands pull him off her, his own face getting smashed. He looks up into Wes's face, the anger there real and terrible. Wes goes to punch him again, but Soul grabs his fist, stopping him. Wes was normally stronger than him, but with the amount of adrenaline pounding though Soul's body, that wasn't the case this time. He pushes Wes away, getting to his feet.

"Where is she?"

Wes snarls, wiping Soul's blood off of his hand on his shirt.

"You little punk bitch, you'll pay for that!"

Soul snarls right back, approaching Wes. He shoves him, getting in his face.

"I do not have the time for your bullshit right now." He punches him once, effectively shattering his nose. "I'll ask you one more time. Where. Is. Maka?"

Wes pushes him away, wiping at the steam of blood coming from his nose, only making it worse.

"She's in the car you fucking freak."

Soul turn and walks out of the house. He searches for Wes's car, catching the sight of glaring taillights down the street. He promptly hurries over, and sure enough its Wes's car. He peeks in the back window to see a form huddled in the seat. The door is locked so he puts his fist through the glass, unlocking it that way and opening it.

"Maka?!"

The figure jerks and sure enough, it's her. She has a gag in her mouth and her hands are bound behind her back. He eyes widen at the sight of Soul. He reaches into the car, yanking the gag out of her mouth.

"Oh my god Soul, you're covered in blood! What happened to you!?"

"I'm fine. Are you ok?"

"Yeah... yeah I'm ok. But So-"

"No time to explain." He helps her out of the car. "C'mon, we need to get out of here before the cops show up."

"I don't th-"

"Just trust me on this ok?"

Maka silently nods and he leads her back to his bike. There's a few dents and scratches, but otherwise it's fine. He gets on, looking at her.

"Where are you going?"

He pulls her on behind him, starting the bike up.

"We're going back to my place for now. Hold on tight."

Maka doesn't even have a chance to protest. The bike roars and Soul takes off. Maka instantly grabs him tightly around the waist, burying her face into his back. Soul doesn't slow down until they're close to his house. The bike stops and Blair comes rushing out of the house, having heard its roar as they came down the street.

"Holy shit! What happe-"

"Later Blair!"

Soul gets off the bike after Maka. He messes with the kick stand for a few moments before turning towards the girls.

"I'll explain in a bit. Let me get cleaned up first ok?"

They nod and Soul goes inside, the girls following behind. He grabs fresh clothes and hops in the shower, letting the hot water wash the blood off him. His nose hurt like hell, but it was bearable. As Soul calmed down, and his adrenaline faded, the horror of what he had done comes flooding in. He couldn't believe he'd gone off like that. He had only wanted to save Maka, not become a feral monster. This was all a mistake of his. An now he and Maka were going to pay for it.