"Maka dinner is ready" the boy yelled but the door stayed shut. It had been three days sense she had locked herself in her room and Soul was starting to worry. Then again it had also been three days sense the hardest fight they had been in sense defeating the Kishin Azura. They had taken a serious beating both physically and in Maka's case mentally.
After a moment of waiting Soul gave up and sat the plate in front of her door.
"I'll just leave it here" he said softly, obviously discouraged. From within the room Maka's heart ached. She didn't mean to hurt Soul but she couldn't let him see her like this. She was no longer the great meister who had defeated the Kishin Azura, she was broken.
All of this had started three nights early when she and Soul had set out to kill the Kishin Egg that had been terrorizing the city. It wasn't often that a Kishin Egg had the guts to hunt in Death City but this was no ordinary egg. At first it had seemed like a normal fight as always, Maka had the upper hand. That is until the Kishin separated them. Soul fought vigorously to get his meister back but to no avail. She had already suffered the full effect of the Kishin's touch causing her to fall into a deep sleep where the Kishin's true power was reveled and Maka faced with her greatest fears. Just the thought made chills run down her spine and tears spill down her cheeks.
Of course Soul blamed himself, if Kidd, Liz, and Patty hadn't shown up just in time he might have lost Maka. He couldn't even save the girl he loved.
When she was sure he was gone Maka stepped out into the hall and grabbed the plate. But she couldn't bring herself to eat so she sat the plate on her desk and laid down in bed hoping to get some sleep.
Almost immediately the dreams came. She was strapped down to an operating table, her feet and hands were bound. Professor Stein stood over her, a scalpel in each hand. She could here herself scream as the blades cut into her skin, blood running down the side of her stomach. Seeing the blood caused her to scream so loud she actually woke herself up.
She shot out of bed causing the cut on her stomach open up again and just like in the dream, blood ran down the sides of her stomach and covered her white sheets. She had been having this dream sense the first night she met Stein. The night he held her down and marked on her stomach in permanent marker where he was going to cut her open. Of course all of that had been only to scare them and Soul protected her but she had never really gotten over it. It was no surprise when this was the scene that unfolded inside the Kishin's dream. A Kishin with the power to make you live your greatest fear. When she had awoken from the Kishin's spell she had soon found that what had happened in the dream had also happened in real life. Her shirt and the inside of her coat were soaked in blood but no one noticed so when she got back home she locked herself in her room unable to bare seeing anyone. She was sickened by how afraid she was.
At the sound of her screams Soul had woken up. As Maka lay in bed unsure of how to handle the now blood stained sheets Soul rand down the hallway only stopping to kick open the door he knew was locked.
The door hit the floor with a loud crash and the two were staring into each others eyes. Maka didn't realize how comforting it would be to look into those familiar crimson eyes. It took him a minute to notice the blood.
"Maka what happened are you alright?" he asked sitting on the edge of the bed and lifting her shirt up to reveal the long gash in her stomach. "How did this happen?"
"The fight with the Kishin" she replied weakly.
"But you didn't" he began to say,
"It happened in the dream or whatever the hell that was".
"You know you can always talk to me Maka" his eyes were soft and filled with love. A love she had always know was there but was too afraid to except.
"I guess I have always been a coward even when it comes to the boy I love" she thought to herself as he cleaned and bandaged her cut.
"It was that night" she couldn't believe she was telling him this but she had to tell someone. "The night we first met Stein, the night he tried to dissect me" she says trying to play it off as a joke but Soul knows she was being serious. Wether she knew it or not he knew how much that night had freaked her out, how it haunted her dreams. "But this time you couldn't save me, you were dead the gash across your chest was fresh and Crona was standing over you" she continued, trying to hold the tears back that were already streaming down her cheeks.
"I will always be there to protect you Maka." He said pulling her off the bed and into his arms. "After all a cool guy always protects the girl he loves".
"Soul"
"I know, I know you have a lot on your mind that wasn't really good timing just forget I said-" before he could finish Maka cut him off. Pulling his face down to hers she pressed her lips against his, he was obviously surprised but did not resist. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Maka could still feel tears rolling down her cheeks. But these were different tears.
"We'll worry about your sheets tomorrow. You can sleep here tonight, that is if you want to." He said laying her down on his bed and climbing in on the other side. She answered him by pulling him into another passionate kiss.
"You know I'll always protect you, right?" Smiling she laid her head on his bare chest.
"You know, I don't think I am afraid anymore".
