Life and Death

Soul's past.

Tsubaki woke up with a smile on her face. For a moment she thought what had happened yesterday was a dream, that it didn't really happened. The she touched her lips. Yes, it definitely happened. A smell filled her nose... pancakes? she found herself alone in bed, and stood up, making her way to the kitchen. When she saw her meister her jaw dropped to the floor. Was he actually cooking?
"BlackStar?" she asked. He turned around, smiling widely. "Good morning Tsubaki! Want some breakfast?" he said excited. Well that was unexpected. BlackStar doesn't even know how to prepare cereal, maybe she was dreaming. "Um.. sure?" she said in disbelief, sitting down. He put a plate in front of her, two pancakes with golden syrup and... "Blueberries?" she said the last part out loud. "Yeah, I know they're your favourite!" BlackStar said, before sitting in front of her wit his own plate. He also put orange juice for both of them. Tsubaki was just staring at it, speechless. "Thanks... where did you get the blueberries?" she asked. They didn't have blueberries in home, and there was no way he woke up earlier just to buy them for her, just because they were her favourite.  "I bought them of course. I woke up and you were still asleep, so I got dressed and went to the super." he answered. She stared at him in disbelief. "But you don't know how to cook." she said smirking. "Well... I did several attempts and failed... those are like, the sixth attempt." he said laughing, a little embarrased. "They are actually pretty good, BlackStar. Maybe you'll become a great cooker now." She said giggling. He giggled as well. "Oh, by the way, when you finish eating, we are going out." BlackStar said, smiling like crazy. "What? where?" Tsubaki asked, curious. "To our first date, of course. It's a surprise." he laughed proudly.

"Are you sure you are okay?" Soul asked for the 29th time. Maka just finished putting everything she bought and she was lying on the sofa, with a sad face. "I know you, Maka. Tell me!" he exclaimed. She sighed.
"No, I'm not okay, Soul." she admitted. "I just really want to know who this guy is, I want to know what he has to do with my mom. But the more I think about it, the more I realize how useless I am. I mean I can't do anything! The only one who can explain it to me is my mom, and no one knows where on earth she is! I can't do nothing more than sitting here and hope that my dreams will tell me more about him." she said, sighing again.
"What if you ask your dad?" Soul considered. Maka immediately shook her head. "No way, Soul. Something's telling me he is not gonna be so helpful in this case." she thought for moment. "You're just saying that because you don't like your dad. But you have to admit he could know about him, you just don't wanna talk to him." the scythe pointed.
Maka sighed, he was kinda right. "Fine. I'll talk to him on Monday. God, I'm not gonna like it... but you have to be there with me!" she exclaimed. "Maka, I'm always there for you. You know that." he said, honestly.
She looked at his eyes deeply. "Yeah, you're right... thanks." she smiled. They stayed quiet for a moment until Blair's voice interrupted them. "It's all so cute and everything, but seriously. I'm hungry." she looked at Maka.
"Don't look at me! It's Soul's turn!" she cried. Soul sighed and got up to the kitchen. "Aw man, this is not cool.

"Maka." Soul called. Maka groaned, after eatind she sat on the couch to read a book, but she was being interrupted by her partner. "What? don't you see I'm reading?" she snapped. "I'm bored." Soul complained. "Congratulations." she said before going back to her book. The next thing she felt was Soul lying on the sofa, with his head on her lap, and taking her book from her hands. "Hey! give it back!" she cried. Ugh, he was so immature. "Stop with your books and pay attention to me!" he demanded. Maka sighed deeply, trying her best not to Maka chop him. After all, having his head on her lap gave her kind of a warm feeling. "Okay, Soul. What do you want?" "I don't know. Tell me something." he said. She sighed. "I uh... found BlackStar on my way home from the store, and he asked me to do this weird things for him." Maka explained. "What things?" Soul asked curious.
"I had to tell him how to do pancakes, and then he gave me a little basket and a blanket and told me to put it on the little meadow full of tsubaki flowers. Only BlackStar and me know about that place, we used to go there when we were little kids." she explained. Soul thought for a moment. "Maybe he wants to take Tsubaki there.''
"Maybe. Hey, Soul?'' he looked at her. "I didn't know you had a brother." she admitted.
"I don't see him since like years." he answered, and Maka could feel a little of sadness on his voice. His head was still on her lap, and she started to caress his white hair. To her surprise, he didn't complain. His hair was soft, she liked it. "Why? what happened?" she dared to ask. Soul sighed deeply. She could tell it was hard for him to talk about him.
"Wes is four years older than me, so he's probably twenty now. But when we were little, our parents wanted us to play instruments. They wanted us to be into music for some reason, so they put us both in piano classes. I was like... five when I started the classes, but Wes was already taking them for three years. It's kinda hard to believe, but even with three years of piano classes, he couldn't learn anything. It wasn't that he was stupid, well maybe a little" they giggled. "but it was that... he wasn't interested in it. He tried to talk to mom and dad about it, but they wouldn't take us out of it. They obligated us to take those classes. At first it was kind of annoying, but as the years were passing, I guess I developed some kind of talent on it. I was eleven and I was able to play the piano really good, if you ask me." Soul explained. Maka removed a little bit of hair from his face softly, he closed his eyes.
"What happened with Wes?" Maka asked. Soul sighed, his eyes still closed. "You don't have to tell me, you know."
"It's okay. He was fifteen, and he hated piano more than anything. The worst thing was that he couldn't do anything about it. Since we were little kids, he would go to me and say 'hey, Soulie, don't you think this is so uncool?' and I would laugh, but inside me I would feel bad for him. He wasn't enjoying it the way I was. Then it got worse.
My parents started comparing him with me. They would say things like 'Wes, you should be more like your brother.' or 'why don't you try to be more like your brother, Wes?' and he didn't like it. Neither did I, though. I didn't like that my parents where like that with him. One day, he started questioning everything. He came in my room and started asking me questions like 'Soulie, why am I doing something I don't feel comfortable with?' he started talking and talking, and I stayed quiet. He was giving a speech and I just didn't talk. I didn't really know what was happening, I was just twelve. He finished saying 'this is the last time you're gonna see me in a long time, bro.'" he stopped.
Maka's eyes widened. "He ran away?" she asked shocked. Soul cracked a smirk. "And you know what? I helped him." He chuckled. "He said he was sixteen and that he was not happy. That all his life his parents have made all the decisions for him, and that he was done. That he wanted to go out and discover, instead of being forced to do something he didn't like to do. I was just a kid, and I admired him. So I just helped him packing and after a very emotional farewell, he left at night, when my parents where sleeping. I acted like nothing had happened when my mom asked me, I promised him that I wouldn't say anything to mom and dad. I was so proud that my brother was finally going to be happy and to do whatever he wanted to do." He stopped for a second.
"Two years after that, I moved, got into the DWMA, met you, and here we are. I never saw him again."
Maka sighed sadly. He opened his eyes. "Don't be sad for that story, Maka. I missed him a lot, but I was proud. I mean, I admired him so much. I wanted to be as cool as him. I guess he had a lot of influence in who I am today."
He admitted. "You stayed playing the piano." Maka stated. "Yeah, I liked it. I liked the feeling I had when I was playing the notes. I finished the classes before we moved, two years ago." he finished, and she smiled.
"I guess it's a good thing you stayed with it." she admitted, remembering the time they met. When he played that song for her. That's what made her know that he was the guy she wanted to be partners with. The way his fingers pressed each key. He played each note with such passion that was perfectly reflected on his eyes. Oh, his eyes. Maka thought Soul's eyes were so expressful. She could always tell how he was feeling by looking at his eyes.
Right now, he was sad. But not so sad, sad in a happy way. He was proud of his brother, but he missed him. Also, she could tell he was kind of... angry. Maybe because he left him, alone. Maybe because Soul didn't like spending all those years without his big brother, his role model. She also noticed hope on his eyes. Hope that he was okay.
"What?" Soul asked, and Maka realized she was staring at him, still caressing his hair. She sighed, pressing her back on the sofa. "Just.. trying to comfort you. Is it working?" she asked. Soul's expression changed into a sad one. Sad because he still missed his big brother. But he always blamed his parents because of what happened. If they didn't force him into doing things he didn't want to do, if they didn't molded that mentality he had, maybe he would be here with him. Maybe Soul would still be having his role model with him. Hopefully, he was safe and sound.
Soul closed his eyes once more, enjoying Maka's caressing. It was... making him feel better.
"Yes. Yes it is." He said.

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Enjoy it, because next chapter will be mortly about BlackStar and Tsubaki's date! a little too cheesy but it's okay!