Best Way Not to Get Your Heart Broken

Chapter Four - That Night

Soul sat stiffly on his couch, Black star sat beside him. On the other end Maka and Tsubaki sat beside each other, looking much more at ease then the two men.

"So," Soul started, wishing he haden't when three head turned towards him. "...We going to talk about this?"

"Talk about what?" Maka said without a moment's hesitation, all emotion stripped from her voice and her eyes cold and hard as they landed on Soul.

"Maka, you know we're going to have to talk about this sometime," Blackstar told her, his voice strained.

"I don't see why." She replied stubbornly, but Soul felt some unwanted relief when her glare moved from him to the boy beside him.

"Maka..." Tsubaki said softly, placing a hand over hers. Maka looked up to her sharply, but her eyes softened as they landed on Tsubaki's kind ones. She didn't know anyone could be so kind. She didn't know such kindness could exist. "We're all here for you," she told her. "And you won't get better if you don't talk about this."

Maka cast her eyes to the ground, muttering stubbornly: "Getting better requires for me to be sick. I'm not sick. I'm fi-"

"Fine?" Soul sneered, finally losing his patience. All eyes snapped towards him but he didn't care. He stood up from the couch to walk behind it, rubbing a hand over his face in irritation.

"Maka, you are far from fine." He told her, his eyes stern as he glared right back at her, no longer belittled by her own. "I found you standing at the edge of a cliff, with the full intention to jump. Is that fine? Jeez, Maka can't you just be happy people care enough to help you? We just want you to get better! I've known you for barley an hour and you've already made me worry more than I have in the past month!"

Maka looked up at him in surprise. But before Soul could feel any relief about finally seeing some emotion on her face, her face went blank. Hard and cold, just as her voice. It scared him.

"Well, I'm sorry to be such a burden to you," she told him bluntly, completely ignoring everything he said but the last sentence. "But I didn't ask for your help, you more or less dragged me here against my will." Soul growled, preventing Maka from going on.

"You're not a god damn burden," he snarled, glaring at her furiously. "We're just worried and we need to know what's wrong otherwise we can't do anything about it."

Maka dropped her gaze, her head bowed as she responded.

"So, you're not just asking due to morbid curiosity?"

"Are you kidding me? No, of course not, we're concerned. We need to know why, Maka."

Maka sighed in exasperation before lifting her head, her eyes betraying her distress.

"What do you want to know?"

"When this all started," Blackstar said immediately, he obviously thought this was his fault.

"After Mama and Papa first started... arguing, I guess. You know what I mean Blackstar."

Blackstar's eyes narrowed in confusion before widening in realisation. He'd forgotten all about it, Maka realised. He's always been good and blocking painful memories from his mind but she didn't think he was that good.

"You mean-that...It was that bad?"

Maka turned her face away again, suppressing a groan. This was the last thing she wanted to talk about.

"Spirit really went to lengths to see that no one found out, huh? I thought maybe Mama would've told you when she finally found out." She said, her voice completely emotionless. Blackstar's eyes widened, he looked bewildered. Then disgusted.