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memethebum · 2 years

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Finally got ch. 9 of A Sealed Prey done with!!!!

This one is mostly just the rest of Spartoi finally being introduced but there’s also some handholding and kinda pining involved in the middle of it hehe ;)

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“Do we really have to scare them even more than they’ve already been?” Jackie questioned as Kim winked at the white-haired man, who looked away with a startled expression and propelled his partner into an even faster trek through the crowd that had gathered to view the mangled corpse at the edge of the pathway.

“Oh, I know you’re enjoying it as well. If you weren’t, I might’ve listened to Ox and not have taken such an intimidating approach for our new clients ,” Kim hummed before pulling up the thin hood of her coat.

“Well, I’m glad it worked out this way then- since I’d hate losing to someone who seems to have a book shoved up his ass all the time. And besides-“ Jackie added before snaking a hand around her girlfriend’s elbow.

“People talk more when they’re intimated ,” she finished before both women knowingly grinned at one another.

————————————————-

“What’s wrong?” Maka called to Soul as she stopped rubbing a shirt onto her washboard.

“It’s-uh nothing,” Soul answered before tossing one of Stein’s drawers into the soapy bucket in front of him.

He attempted to give Maka a weak smile, hoping that it would be enough to diminish the look of concern etched across her face.

“O-ok,” his partner added, although her eyebrows continued to stay furrowed together even after she began vigorously washing the shirt once more.

Soul then took the initiative to begin working on his own pile of unwashed laundry, although his thoughts couldn’t help but return to the overwhelming sense of embarrassment he felt when Maka had opened the door on him changing in what felt like an eternity ago.

Of course I had to screw things over even more with that terrible joke. I’d probably have been pissed about it too if I was her the man internally grumbled as he began to berate himself over the lack of social skills he had acquired over the years of working various odd jobs in different cities.

“Everyone step back, your god has arrived!” he heard a voice boom from one end of the communal wash-basket line.

Soul turned his head just in time to see Maka’s pupils widen from the voice, although she let out a bemused groan a few moments later.

“Oh, afternoon Maka,” the voice exclaimed as they inched closer to where the pair was seated.

Soul was then able to pinpoint the bellowing voice as a wide-shouldered man that seemed to be around his age. He could feel the stranger’s eyes exchange a glance with Maka before moving towards him, which caused his own gaze to level towards the man’s odd mop of blue hair and the large Star tattoo that was plastered on his right tricep.

“Never expected Maka Albarn to go and elope with such a catch of a man-“

“SHUT UP BLACK*STAR! HE’S- he works with me at Gorgon Manor,” Maka exclaimed over his sneering.

She let out a low sigh before haphazardly waving a hand toward Soul’s direction.

“Black*Star, this is Soul. Soul, this is Black*Star, an old friend of mine,” Maka finished with a grunt.

“Nice to meet ya’, Soul,” Black*Star then said before reaching a hand out to him.

“Nice meeting you too,” Soul added before grasping the man’s hand in his own.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so young with white hair before,” Black*Star commented before gazing at Soul’s ivory strands of hair, which prompted the man in question to let out a small chuckle.

“Yea, well I could say the same about your blue hair-“

“There you are,” another new voice cut above Soul before a large shadow zipped right towards Black*Star.

“Ya’ got some nerve leaving me to do all that paperwork,” a man exclaimed as he grabbed Black*Star’s shirt collar and gave it a loose tug.

“I said I’d help examine the body, not the paperwork,” Black*Star giggled, causing the other man to let go of him with a huff and shift his attention towards Maka and Soul.

“Sorry for bursting into your conversation like that. Name’s Kilik Lung, I’m the sheriff of this little town,” he added before pushing up his square spectacles and giving them both a grin.

Soul couldn’t help but notice how the calm aura surrounding Kilik made him seem like a complete opposite of Black*Star’s wild charisma. He was just about to poke fun at the observation before Maka let out a startled grunt.

“Wait, you get that idiot to help you out!” she yelped while jabbing a finger in Black*Star’s direction.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Black*Star quickly added before huffing and giving Maka a half-hearted glare.

“Yea, didn’t sound like the best idea to me at first but he pulls his weight. We hardly get anything wild happenin’ around town anyway, well other than this morning,” Kilik explained with a dazed frown.

“That’s why everyone was so shocked about you working at the manor when ya’ first got here. Not to mention the sudden exit your friend made after we explained the place’s history,” Black*Star added as he stuck his thumb out towards Soul.

Guess I shoulda’ listened to those rumors Soul thought to himself before releasing a low sigh.

He could then feel Maka’s eyes slowly inch towards him after Black*Star finished speaking, although his partner closed her gaping mouth a few moments later and let out a small hum.

“Anyways, I was meaning to ask if you could put these together again, Black*Star,” Maka murmured as she began to rummage through her apron pocket, eventually pulling out the rings Soul had picked up from atop the burning pile of charcoal during their first day at work.

He watched as the other man gazed upon the rings for a few moments before letting out a whistle.

“You still have those old things on you? Yea, I’d be able to fix them up if we can find a metal wire or somethin’. Does your old m-“

“Great. Thank you.” Maka forcefully voiced above Black*Star’s response, prompting Kilik and Soul to exchange a look of perturbed confusion.

“Speakin’ of fixing,” Kilik added just as Maka dropped the rings onto Black*Star’s large palm .

“You really should take better care of your hair man” he hummed while craning his head towards the back of Soul’s scalp.

“Luckily for you, I know just the lil’ runts who’d be more than happy to spruce things up a bit. What do you think, Star?” the man finished before flashing a smile at Black*Star, who slung an arm around Soul before he could even heave a grunt in protest.

“Yea, our new friend here will have to look his best if he wants to be affiliated with a god like me. We’ll give back your date round’ noon Maka, hope you don’t miss him too much until then,” Black*Star announced while watching Maka’s hands ball up in irritation.

“I already told you, he’s not my-“

“Ah…as great as that offer sounds, I really don’t think it’d be right for me to leave in the middle of the workday,” Soul grunted before Maka could finish her statement, causing the woman to slightly loosen the tension that had settled around her jaw.

“It’s alright Soul, you’ve only got a few drawers left in your bag. It shouldn’t be that hard for me to finish up,” she added before giving him a small smile in encouragement.

The clothing isn’t really what I’m worried about the man thought to himself before meeting Maka’s benign gaze.

“You’re…sure?” he eventually questioned, prompting Maka to let out a giggle before lightly sliding a few of her fingers towards his palm.

“Yes, I’m positive. Just…enjoy yourself and meet me at the town library around one-o’clock,” she slowly whispered.

Guess we’re both thinkin’ the same thing Soul noted as his eyes took in the evident look of worry in Maka’s emerald pupils.

“Alright…just be careful,” he replied before enveloping his hand over her fingers.

“I could say the same for you,” Maka scoffed as her thumb began to caress the soft skin of his fingers.

“You two about done?” they both heard Black*Star call from just a few feet away, which immediately caused them to untwine their hands.

“Let’s-uh get going,” Soul added while attempting to divert his attention away from the pulsating warmth that had spread across his cheeks.

“Alright, the twins are gonna love having you for practice. I do have to warn you about…” Kilik commented as they followed his lead, although Soul appeared to be much too busy flashing Maka a final smirk in farewell as she gave him a staggering wave in response.

——————————————————

“Are these the only books you have?” Maka exclaimed to the clerk, who sighed once more.

“For the fifth time, yes this is all we have. If you really want to broaden your literary knowledge that much, there’s this town a lil’ over an hour from here by train that has both a library and a university,” he added as Maka to cringed outwardly at the statement.

“I’ll just-look through these shelves again,” she murmured before the man gave her a lazy shrug and ran his hand through his jet-black hair.

It’s not as if anyone knows about papa or why I even left town…but still- Maka thought to herself as she thumbed the spines of each book that came into reach, all while resisting the urge to bolt out the library and track down where Black*Star had taken Soul so that she could finally have a distraction from her impeding thoughts.

“HARV, IM GONNA NEED TO SEE A LIST OF-“ a voice boomed before Maka could even decipher what her mind had been meaning to convey with the last portion of that thought.

She turned around and came face-to-face with Ox Ford, causing the woman to let out a strangled yelp in both suprise and indignation.

“Maka Albarn?” the man in front of her gasped while Maka resisted the urge of bashing Ox’s cranium with a book before propelling her legs into a sprint that would get her anywhere but the building she was currently standing within.

—————————————

“He’s my customer, Fire!” the girl behind him huffed towards her brother, who had a firm hand clasped onto Soul’s scalp.

“All I’m asking is to braid his hair after you cut it,” the boy added before giving Soul’s head a hasty shake, which elicited a yelp in protest from the man.

“Neither of you is gonna have any hair to practice with if you keep gripping him like that,” Kilik interjected before lightly swatting Fire’s hand away, allowing Soul to watch the pair’s eyes widen in realization through the smooth mirror in front of him .

The teens then zipped towards the front of the chair in order to meet the man’s startled expression.

“We’re sorry,” they spoke in unison, causing Soul to let out a sigh before regarding them with a weary smile.

“S’alright,” he mumbled and was rewarded with a large grin from both of the twins.

“I was thinkin’ about trimming the back edges, if that’s alright with you sir?” Thunder spoke before grabbing a pair of scissors and gently patting down a few stray ends of Soul’s hair.

“That’s cool. And you can just call me Soul,” he added and heard the girl let out a hum in approval.

“Well, I’m heading over to the Barret-Nygus inn for my lunch break. Why not come along and convince Anglea to get her hair braided Fire?” Kilik added while Fire’s pupils slightly widened at the suggestion before scoffing at the man.

“Fineee. Let me go grab my stuff then,” he groaned before following his sister, who had gone to collect more of her equipment from a large workbench on the other side of the room.

“They’re good kids,” Soul exclaimed, causing Black*Star to let out a chuckle from his seat against one of the patterned walls of the barber shop.

“Yea, it gets a lil’ crazy with them and Angela being in their rebellious stage but we make due,” he commented as Kilik released a low chuckle of his own at the statement.

“Me n’ Star here were both teenagers when Fire,Thunder, and Angela came into town. Angela had Mifune to take the spot of a parent for her and he was more than happy to take the twins, but I decided to step up since I was just startin’ off as the sheriff and had this overblown sense of duty. Wouldn’t have it any other way now that I’m thinkin’ back at it all, even though they can be such a pain in the ass-“

“Let’s go already,” Fire spoke above Kilik as he jogged towards the group and began to tug on the older man’s shoulder.

“You wanna come too, Star?” Kilik added after a breathy laugh, which Black*Star responded to by letting out a long sigh and slumping into his chair even further.

“Nah, I’ll just stay here and entertain the new guy. See you tonight for drinks though, the usual time,” he responded while Fire dragged Kilik towards the door, opened it, and waved goodbye to everyone in the shop.

“You should join us tonight too Soul,” Kilik’s voice dully resounded from the front door, prompting Soul to reach the ends of his lips into a small smile.

The room then settled into a lazy silence, which was only interrupted for a few moments as Thunder moved her things around and began to run a water canister over Soul’s hair.

“Sooo, you gonna make good on Kilik’s offer? I wanna say ya’ won’t leave with a hangover, but that’d just be a lie,” Black*Star questioned before Soul let out a low hum in thought.

“I’d say yes but it’d probably not be safe to walk into the woods drunk, especially at night. Maka’ll probably skin me alive if she found out I did somethin’ like that anyway,” he replied while Thunder began to comb through his damp hair and snipped off a few of the edges.

“Hah, that bookworm never learned how to loosen up. She used to give me shit about a bunch of lil’ things when we were kids. Speaking of Maka-“ Black*Star added before his voice leveled into a silent whisper, prompting Soul to give the man a weary gaze from the corner of his eye.

“Does she like the job…I mean other than it being a cursed mansion and all that crap?” he murmured.

“There’s been some u-ups and downs but-“

That’s the understatement of the century Soul couldn’t help but think to himself while wondering how much information he could share with Black*Star without looking like a complete lunatic.

He’s known Maka all his life, so he’d probably believe me he assessed.

“But…?” Black*Star probed, eliciting Soul to turn his head in surprise and notice that the man’s features seemed to be held into a firm expression.

I can’t tell him. It’s not my right to go telling people what Maka has been up to, especially considering how cagey she seems to be. Poor guy seems to really care about her too, so it’d probably be better not to rope him into the shit going on back in the mansion he decided and let out a disgruntled huff once feeling his chest inflate with a dull warmth as his thoughts continued to linger upon his coworker.

“The family we work for has been pretty chill so things seem to be going good,” Soul finished before watching Black*Star silently gaze at him for a few tantalizing seconds, almost as if he was using his eyes to sift through the information he had been given.

“Great! Guess she’s doing alright without the help of my divine power,” the man shouted, completely breaking the tension that had been present a few moments ago.

“Right, whatever you say man,” Soul lightly added as Thunder tilted his head forward once more and ultimately ended their conversation.

#let’s just pretend this chapter came out a month ago and I didn’t break my updating streak hehe #soul eater #soul x maka #maka x soul #kim diehl #black star #kilik rung #jacqueline du pré #ox ford #harver soul eater #fire soul eater #thunder soul eater #ao3 fic #se fic #meme attempts to write

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