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The least painful way to comb and prepare Maka’s hair was to make sure that she had a book to read. Her daughter could be very rambunctious when she wanted to, but the moment she had her sights on a book, she would be a perfectly behaved child. It also helped because both her and her husband where completely inadept at styling her hair beyond two basic pig tails.
As a high-ranking member of a prominent Meister clan, she had servants to look after her hair for most of her young life. The moment she moved to Death City she had cut it in an act of rebellion and had chosen to keep it fairly short for the convenience. But when her daughter had grown up, both she and her partner had been irrationally sad to try and cut her hair. It had taken many failed attempts and the poor child having her head yanked every which way until they eventually managed to figure this basic routine out. Such was the life of young parents.
But she doesn’t regret it for a moment. Her daughter was adorable and she and Spirit doted on her constantly.
“What are you reading today, sweetie?” She asked. Between the two of them, Spirit was the avid reader. While she had plenty of ‘book smarts’ and had enough competitive spirit to top any examination, she rarely read for pleasure, usually preferring some light physical activity to sitting still. Even so, she loved being involved in her daughter’s life and finding out all the little things occupying her heart from moment to moment.
“It’s The Legend of Excalibur, Mama.” She proudly stated. It was a thick book, so Spirit must have let her check it out on his card again, the sucker. The name was definitely familiar, but it took a moment to place it.
“Oh! I think I know that one.” She said “That’s the legendary sword of King Arthur, isn’t it?”
“Yes! How do you know about it Mama?” Goodness, Maka was excited now. Thankfully she was all done with the hair, so it didn’t matter that her daughter was twisting around in her lap.
“I think I remember hearing about him some time ago. The legend began in the 12th century, correct? It always sounded like he had quite a lot of adventures to talk about.” It was hard to keep a straight face as old memories rushed back to her. She had been so mean to Frank back then. She doesn’t regret it, but she does feel embarrassed for how childish she could sometimes be.
“Wait, did you meet him? Mama, were you the chosen one?!” Maka had such wonder and admiration in her eyes. “You gotta tell me everything!”
“Slow down, kiddo.” She laughed fondly. “No, I wasn’t the chosen one, but I did once meet him. He came by the school one time, not long after Mama and Papa became partners.” It was all technically true, she just doesn’t want to mention her indirect involvement in the incident. Or what she was involved in after the mighty weapon’s short visit.
“And besides, having a powerful weapon may be nice, but I wouldn’t trade having your father as my partner for the world. We grew together, and learned so much from each other. Our partnership was one of equals, nothing to do with prophecies and glory.”
That seemed to really make Maka think. Her daughter looked back at the pages of her book but she could tell that she was lost in thought. She waited, letting her daughter draw her own conclusions for a moment.
“I think I remember that there was a song that he loved to sing. Oh, how does it go again?”
At that Maka perked up again.
“A song?” she started frantically rifling through the book until she got to the page she’s after. “Was it this one?!?” She shoved the book right up in her face, prompting her to gently ease her child away a bit.
“Hm, Ex-cal-i-buur, Ex-cal-i-buur. Yeah, I think that’s how it goes.” With the lyrics in front of her, she gave a hearty, slightly off-key rendition of the little tune she had used to torment her poor rival for a solid month. She and her daughter were wheezing with laughter by the time she was done.
It wasn’t until they were out the door to the park that she thought that she might live to regret teaching her child that song, that she might be close to incurring Karmic justice for how obnoxious she used to be. Thankfully, a week later Maka had her nose buried in a different book and was too busy thinking about new things, so bullet dodged. Spirit would beg to differ, having gotten over it after the third or so time in a row their daughter sang it, but it was fine, he was a sucker for his daughter and would just focus on how cute she was when she sang so passionately about a character from a book.
“Ex-cal-i-buurr, Ex-cal-i-buurr. From the United K, I’m looking for heaven, I’m going to Cal-i-forn-yaa~”
Stein observed the whole scene from a distance, finding great amusement in it now that he wasn’t the victim.
Right after ‘that damned women’, then dubbed ‘that damned girl’ stole his test subject (and weapon partner), he was at a loss for things to poke into (and also had to get the teachers off his back now that he was weaponless). He had dug around the library when he found what seemed to be the answer to both of his current problems.
The holy sword Excalibur, a weapon unlike any other, would surely hold many secrets for him to unravel, and wouldn’t care as to how quickly they collected souls, and probably wouldn’t even complain much if he dissected him a little. He was fairly confident he could track it down, even without a weapon he was far from defenceless, unlike a lot of other Meisters. He had just enough arrogance at that age to think that being the chosen one wouldn’t be a long shot for someone like him.
And then he met the guy.
He almost put him back immediately, but he was desperate for a weapon, and the look on that homewrecker’s face when she realised that he was destined for greatness beyond what Spirit could do might just have made the whole thing worth it. And it had been, for about 5 seconds. Then the stupid thing opened it’s mouth to publicly berate him as a fool. He saw his former partner holding hands with that witch, saw the moment of shock, and then saw it slip off her face into that damned smirk watching his weapon wave a cave in his face.
The first hour was practice hour, and as he twirled the blade everyone was in awe. That hour was the most tolerable hour of that whole failed partnership. At lunch period, the thing started to recount history in a way so contradictory and chaotic that even his attempts to make sense of it fell short.
And then there was the song. Oh, how he hated that song. One more hour and he was planting that sword back in the stone, not keen to experience the 5-hour story party. At the end of it all, he was more than happy to pretend that whole day never happen. That girl didn’t seem to be of the same mind.
For the next month, every time he thought he had one upped her, she could easily render him useless with two, off-pitch lines. She bullied him with the reminder of his stupidity as often as possible, laughing at his misery, which in retrospect was fair enough. At the time, however, he utterly loathed her.
And then the DWMA sent a Meister that was of a similar proficiency (and overconfidence) as he had been, along with a virtual carbon copy (save the eye and hair colour) of his old high school bully to convince him to teach. How could he say no?
Maka Albarn was a diligent student, just like her mother had been. She was just as merciless to her friends and rivals as she had been. He watched as Kid and Blackstar groaned and made The Face as she loudly sang that damned song to embarrass them for their stupidity. Her own partner seemed to be ready to shut her up for how off-key the whole thing sounded, but rolled his eyes and indulged her when he realised that she was doing this as punishment for them neglecting their weapon partners.
He couldn’t help but laugh as he watched on. Things really were funny when they happened to other people.