The black motorcycle thrummed a deep heavy note as Soul navigated through the small series of condominium buildings. Pricey cars parked in doorless garages adjacent to the main buildings, along with several less obvious indicators of wealth, such as stained glass windows in some of the condos he passed gave him an inkling of the income level of the neighborhood.
Driving this rented monstrosity was grating. It didn’t turn as smoothly as Soul liked, the handlebars were too short, and worst of all, it was off pitch.
Soul’s usual bike in Nevada hummed at a perfect A. It had taken him some serious tinkering and no small amount of time to get the damned thing to do what he wanted, but riding this heap of junk made him inwardly thank the gods he had done it. This one made his skin crawl. Still, riding a motorcycle was more soothing than riding in a car. Soul didn’t like being the passenger in a vehicle. The lack of control over the speed and movement made him nervous.
The motorcycle finally pulled up to the seventh building and came to a halt almost perfectly in the middle of the space. Kid would have been so proud of him. The condominium building was three stories tall, with large bay windows on every floor facing the lot. Red painted wooden beams held up wrought iron stairs, matching the red accents around every window. The wooden siding was painted an almost beige color that, as far as Soul was concerned, was a graffiti tag reading “THE HOMEOWNER’S ASSOCIATION WAS HERE”.
As he kicked out the stand, he heard, rather than saw, the white moving truck get to the building. It, at least, was almost in tune.
He pulled the black helmet off of his head and turned just as Maka parked the moving truck beside him, switched off the engine, and got out, her black shoes clicking on the pavement.
Her hair was pulled back into a single ponytail, and she wore just a small amount of make-up around her emerald eyes. Her black formal dress poked outwards slightly at her belly. She was remarkably thin for a woman six months pregnant, though she’d been remarkably thin for a human being for as long as Soul could remember, so it didn’t come as too much of a surprise. Still, Soul had spent more than a few nights laying awake worried their child would be born premature or too small. When he had said as much to Maka she had laughed and said that wasn’t how babies or gestation worked, but still he worried.
Which was why he had told Maka to stay at their hotel this week and relax. Soul was more than capable of packing a few boxes and filling a car up with them. He just needed someone to drive the car after it was packed because technically he only had driven a motorcycle.
Soul began walking towards the stairs without a word, lost in his own thoughts, leaving Maka to scramble after him.
