Maka stared in awe at the apartment she was led into. It was large and spacious, nothing like her hole of an apartment. She currently stood in the living room, which was complete with a balcony and a flat screen television with play stations and games, literally the works. She did see a few woman touches around the room, paintings and flowers. She whipped around the face Soul, her expression betraying her bewilderment. Soul raised a brow at her. They stood like that for a moment before Soul finally broke the silence.
"What?" he drawls, making Maka huff and gesture at the room.
"You call this apartment? Jeez, it's huge!"
Soul just shrugs and makes his way to the big L-shaped couch in front of his television, he slumps into it lazily before fishing his phone out of his pocket and pressing it to his ear.
Maka trailed behind him and sat awkwardly on a love seat, the furthest seat away from Soul. Yeah, maybe he saved her life and everything but if she'd wanted to be saved she wouldn't have attempted suicide! She doesn't understand how he can act so normal, so casual around her after witnessing her at her most vulnerable state, and him seeing her like that makes her far from comfortable.
She shuffles slightly in her seat, wrapping her arms around her torso like always, she immediately relaxes. She is oblivious to Soul watching her from the corner of his eye, his own narrowing slightly at her obvious discomfort, but his attention is drawn away when a familiar voice chimes in his ear.
"Soul?" Tsubaki's voice asks on the other side of the line.
"Yeah, hey Tsu." Soul greets her, standing to make his way to the balcony for some privacy, ignoring Maka's eyeing following him suspiciously for it was obvious it was her he was about to speak of.
When outside, he could finally release the calm façade he was trying to pull off in Maka's presence. Hell, how could he be calm? He just witnessed someone attempt suicide. He's seen it before, the cliffs is one of his favourite spots to relax and compose. But it was an inevitability to see people make their way over the edge of the cliff in pieces, sobs breaking through the lips and floods of tears running down their face. They seemed to have it so hard but they'd never ever jump. Most hardly even got anywhere near the edge before running away from the place.
Then there was Maka. She didn't cry, or even hesitate. That's what made him watch, made him worry. She walked right over to the very edge of the cliffs ledge almost casually, almost like there wasn't a 60 foot drop no more than 4 centimeters from where she planted her feet. Her face took on multiple expressions, sadness, betrayal, anger... but then absolute contentment. The emotion graced her face as she hung her foot over the ledge and let her weight fall forward...
Never had he saw that, in all the people he saw make their way for the cliffs. He shook his head free of the memory, and finally responded to Tsubaki's voice pounding in his ear.
"Soul? Soul! Is everything alright?" she asked, worry plain in her voice.
"Yeah, yeah, m'fine." Soul coughed to clear his throat before continuing. "But I really need your help. When will you be back, you still at Stars?"
"Yes, I got here about an hour ago. Blackstar and I were going to head over in a couple of hours. Why, do you need us? What's wrong?"
Soul sighed, finally letting the worry and stress lace through his voice. "There was a girl at the cliffs, Tsubaki. But she wasn't like the others, I literally just about saved her, but she was really going to do it, Tsu. She was definitely going to jump."
"Oh my god!" she cried, her voice going higher in shock. "Is she there? You didn't leave her did you?"
"No, no, of course I didn't!" he assured her and heard her sigh with relief over the line. "No, she's here now. But I don't know what to do, she's so..." she trailed off, not being able to find the words. "Calm. But I can tell it's fake. She's acting emotionless, Tsu. But she keeps wrapping her arms around herself, like... she's trying to hold herself together." His voice cracked at the end, he shuddered lightly.
"Soul, you did the right thing." Tsubaki told him in a light, reassuring voice that made him relax his tense stance. "But she's not saved yet, Soul. She's still broken."
"I know," he sighed, finally turning around to look back into his apartment through the window of the balcony. To his relief, Maka was still there, she haden't tried to flee. She was just... sitting there. Staring blankly at the floor. He turned his back again, he didn't want her to see him distressed.
"I understand. But we can fix her, right?" he asked, somewhat desperately.
"Of course we can, Soul." Tsubaki said confidently. Soul sighed with relief, smiling into the phone. He chuckled as he finally noticed Blackstar's voice in the background, demanding to know what's going on.
"Put Star on, Tsu."
He heard some rummaging before hearing his friends booming voice.
"SOUL! Why did you ring your Gods girlfriend and not your God?" he shouted, making Soul lean away from the phone slightly as he grimaced.
"Jeez, Star, lower you voice. I needed her help with something is all. Hey, you're around 16 right?"
"I am 16, hotshot. Just cause you're 2 years older doesn't give you the right the disrespect your God!"
"Oh, I am aware. Anyway, does a girl named Maka Albarn go to our school by any chance? I'm a senior so I wouldn't know."
The line went quiet for a while, Soul frowned slightly. "Star?"
"...You know Maka, Soul?"
"Do you?" Soul asked in disbelief.
Blackstar sighed and cursed lightly. Soul widened his eyes in confusion and astonishment. He'd never heard his best friend act so serious.
"This... girl. The one you were talking about to Tsubaki? That wasn't Maka right? Please tell me that wasn't Maka." He begged, his voice strained and cracking at the end.
"Her name is Maka Albarn," Soul said slowly and precisely, he couldn't hear Blackstar breathing on the other line anymore. "I met her today at the cliffs, where she was about to jump. She wasn't messing around Star, I only just saved her."
Blackstar let out a puff of air and cursed again before coughing to hide a sob. Soul's eyes widened again. "What exactly is your relationship with Maka, Star?"
"..."
"Star?"
There was a tense silence before he finally caved, his voice absolutely heart broken.
"Maka is wa- Is my sister. I was adopted into her family as a kid but I left about four years ago, when we were 12 I think, because her parents got a divorce and the adoption agency decided I shouldn't remain in the family because the divorce might cause me stress, so they moved me on. She lives on the other side of the city, bad neighborhood." Blackstar sighed before continuing.
"She's never had it easy, she was bullied for the entire time I was with her. I'd scare them off but they always found a way around me, it must have gotten so much worse..."
He trailed off and Soul couldn't contain his shock. Maka was Blackstar's sister? This is insane. He cleared his throat again as he took in the new information.
"She'd kill herself over bullying?"
"Jeez, Soul if you'd have seen it. These kids were ruthless, absolutely merciless. They'd do everything to tear her down, to break her. It was heart breaking to watch and I'm tough! I can't even explain..."
There was another silence, before Blackstar spoke again, his voice now hard. And angry.
"Is Maka still there Soul?" he asked in a taut voice.
"..Yeah."
"Good. Keep her there. We're going to have a little... chat."
"Star, I don't think that's a good idea. I already gave her a telling off and I really do thin-"
"You don't know my sister, Soul." He snapped, outraged. "When she makes a decision, she sticks to it. If she wanted to take her own life, she would've thought it through. Thoroughly. She reckless. And stubborn. If she wants to kill herself, then she'll kill herself." Soul blinked at the outburst, and even checked she was still there over his shoulder. He sighed with relief when she was.
"Fine. I get it. I'll keep her here."
"Good. Me and Tsubaki are on our way." And the line went dead.
Soul sighed in exasperation and stared at his phone before making his way inside, sighing as he made his way over to the small blonde who'd caused his so much stress in the 45 minuets he knew her.