I woke up on a metal table, chains holding my limbs down. Where was I? The room was dimly lit and there was a tray on the counter next to me. I tried to see what was on that small steel tray, only to fail. The chains bound me there, stuck. I attempted to jerk myself up and a searing pain surged through my body. I looked at my slightly pale figure to find stitching that stretched across my torso. This was cool, like a murder mystery. I had a clue of who was doing this, but I wasn't certain. From a room nearby I heard a woman say, "You can't just keep doing this to people! If you want a toy to dissect then go hunt a deer or something!" She sounded young. The click of her high heels stopped and a man sighed. He sounded tired and drained as he spoke, "You're making a big deal out of this. If you don't like my crazy behavior then you can go stay with Maka." Maka? She was my best friend. Then it hit me, who the man was. I was in Professor Franken Stein's lab. I was shaking, but not from fear. From excitement. Dr. Stein was 26, I was 18. Maka and Soul just love to tease me about my obsession with this man. The woman spoke again, enraged. "Maybe I will! I can't handle any more of your insanity! Ugh sometimes you're such a..." There was a pause. She obviously didn't want to say what she was thinking. "Such a what Marie? Maniac? Jerk?" I was enjoying this. They were going to break up, and I was ready. Marie was crying now, but I couldn't have cared less. Through her tears my teacher screamed, "Screw you Stein! We're over!" and the door slammed behind her. I could just barely hear Stein sigh and mutter, "Finally, she's gone." Heavy footsteps got closer to the door leading to the room I was in. As they got closer I panicked, just then noticing that I was only wearing my long black pants and my white bra with stitches on it. What was I supposed to do? The heavy metal doors slammed open and he stopped in the doorway. "I see you're awake. Did you just hear all of that?" He asked, slightly stammering. A grin spread across my face, making me appear insane. " Yup. You're right Professor, she was overreacting. I really don't mind being dissected." I stated. The moment the words left my lips I regretted it. My head was full of thoughts, I shouldn't have said that... I should NOT have said that! But much to my surprise, he laughed and sat down on his spinning chair. "Is that so? What if I cut you open right now?" he asked teasingly as he grabbed a scalpel and held it to my arm. Now I laughed, there was no way he would do it. Marie stomped in with tears streaming down her face. "I thought you left." Stein said, once again sounding drained and disappointed. She looked at me and then back at Stein. Through her sobs she yelled, "If you love this student so much why don't you just date her! I hate you Stein!" I know that I shouldn't have, but just to add a little excitement I said in a bit of an arrogant tone, "Oh Marie, that's a little harsh isn't it? You jealous that your ex is dissecting other chicks?" The one thing I didn't expect was to hear Stein let out a huge burst of laughter and wouldn't stop. He cackled for what seemed like 15 minutes, rolling around on the floor. I liked to see that side of him, the crazy and childish side. Marie was extremely angry now. She stomped her foot and screamed, "Fine! Stein you idiotic heart breaker!" and ran out of the room choking on her sobs. My Professor now stood up, holding his sides and trying to hold back even more deranged laughter. He said, "You're not half bad Jade, I might keep you around. What did she say? That I should just date you?" What was he playing at...I looked up to see a twisted grin on his face. "You flirting with me Professor?" I didn't mean it. I was just teasing him, but he answered, "So what if I am?" I was almost hyperventilating because I was so excited. The man of my dreams was flirting with me. "Well Stein, you kidnapped me, chained me to a table, half-stripped my upper body, dissected me, and are keeping me hostage. You shouldn't be worrying about flirting." He chuckled and twisted the screw in his head. Before I could say anything he left for the night. I stayed there for 3 days, letting him perform his weird experiments on me. As he kept me there, we talked and became a lot closer. It's odd to think that the person holding you hostage would be your friend. On the fourth day there was a loud banging on the door. Stein went to answer it and I heard a man yell, "Police! You're under arrest!" and the sound of something being slammed onto the hood of their police car. I was afraid that Marie was going to go to the cops, and I was right. Luckily, Stein had forgotten to tighten the chains binding me to the table and I easily stood up. I grabbed Stein's lab coat and put it on, running outside. "Excuse me officer. Is there a problem?" I asked. It was a good time to practice my acting skills. The coat was light and I had to hold it closed. I was only in my bra underneath, so they got the completely wrong idea. The chief gasped and said, "Miss! This man has taken advantage of you! We need to get you back to the station to check for injury." This was getting good, the intensity rose and I could feel the angry girlfriend persona coming on. "Chief! How could you accuse him of doing such a horrid thing! If I had wanted to leave, I would have. Stein has done nothing wrong and you all should be ashamed for using police brutality!" I yelled, "Who told you to come down here and slam his head into a car? Maybe you should feel the pain yourself you idiots." and with that, I grabbed the shirt collar of the policeman holding down Stein. I pulled him to the other side of the car and pushed his head to the car quickly, I stopped half a second before the car would have collided with him and let his shirt go. They were all trembling because they thought I was actually going to do it. This was way too much fun for me. "Uh the report came from Miss Marie." The Chief stammered. It looked as though he was going to pee his pants. "Is that so? The recent ex girlfriend of Professor Franken Stein told you to come to his lab and make a scene?" I asked with a sarcastic tone. "I'm terribly sorry ma'am. We'll be going now." and they all left. Stein and I watched them drive away, dumbfounded. "Well that didn't take much." he said, "How did you get out so easily anyway?" I shrugged and walked back up the steps, stepping back into the dark laboratory once more. When he closed the door I handed him his coat and sat down on the couch. "You should at least give me the freedom of being able to roam your house now that I've saved your sorry butt." I said, turning to look at him. He sighed and sat next to me. "That's true. But I'm not done yet, so you have to stay here." He looked at me. The question in his eyes told me that he was not commanding, but pleading that I would. I agreed to stay with him until his creepy tests were done, and he made us dinner. An hour later we sat at his dinner table and drank a strange green liquid from beakers while eating steak and fries. "This steak is great! But what the heck is this drink made out of?" I asked, swirling it around as I spoke. "Not entirely sure." he answered, "But I think it has some sort of alcohol in it." I didn't care, we talked and he drank for hours on end. Just as Stein had finished his fourth glass of... stuff, there was a harsh banging on the door. A rough voice from the other side yelled, "Jade are you in there? Please come and talk to me!"

Oh my gosh. It was my ex boyfriend Giriko, and I was pretty sure that he was drunk. Again. Stein got up, wobbling a little because of how much he had to drink. He stumbled to the door and opened it, needing to look down because of how short Giriko was. "Is Jade in there? I heard from Maka that she was with you." he grumbled. Rolling my eyes I stood and went to the door, standing next to Stein. "What do you want Giriko?" I asked. I was annoyed that he was here. We had already been together twice, both times he screwed it up horribly. "Please just come and talk to me." he said. With an aggravated sound to my voice I said, "Fine. Don't try anything or you'll be extremely sorry." We walked into the front yard and he begged me to give him another chance. I told him that I had given him two chances and that he wasn't good enough for me. The look on his face was pathetic and sad. The man that stood before me had begged me on and on to come back, and he even tried telling me that my green eyes looked gorgeous in the moonlight. After ten minutes of this boring process of 'no's and 'definitely not's, he wailed, "Why not?" I was enraged that he even bothered to bug me again and wasn't about to hold back, "You're a pathetic drunk that never listens to a word I say and you don't respect me! Not to mention you're cheap, vulgar, and just flat out rude. You have sucked the life out of all 29 of your kids just so that you could live forever! Well now you have to live without me because you're an irresponsible, evil, and vain loser! So just leave me alone already!" He was really angry, the blades in his hand starting to move and whirr. He backhanded me across the face, causing a gash to open from just under my right eye all the way over to under my left. The blades cut deep, blood immediately pouring from the wound. The pain was unbearable, it burned as if it was lit on fire. Stein rushed out of the house and hook-kicked Giriko in the side of the head. Once the chainsaw hit the ground, Stein pinned him and punched him in the stomach, then hitting him with his soul wavelength. Giriko was alive, the injuries were nowhere near enough to be fatal, but he lay still on the ground. The Professor rushed over to me and pulled off his coat. He held the white sleeve to my face, trying to stop the bleeding enough for him to be able to go and finish beating the crap out of Giriko. I reached up and held the sleeve on the wound, gesturing to Stein that Giriko had stood now. Stein took a decisive step toward him and uppercutted his jaw. My ex stumbled and barely stayed standing. Stein powerfully kicked him in the stomach and he went flying out of the yard and landed on his motorcycle. Unable to take another hit, Giriko started the engine to his motorcycle and left. I was glad that Stein had a medical degree and could stitch me up easily, but I was even more glad that he cared about me. After he put his trademark stitches across my face he looked at me with a dazed stare. "What? Do I look like a beast?" I asked sarcastically. He chuckled and said, "No. You look beautiful. I was only staring because the stitches make you look like me. It suits you." Beautiful. The word rang in my mind. We didn't say anything for what felt like forever, just staring into each other's eyes. His face was only inches from mine and his warm breath felt nice on my skin. "Jade..." he said, "I just realized something that might be problematic." Wow, way to ruin the moment. But I couldn't complain, his quirks were what made him magnificent. "What could possibly be problematic at 11:30 at night?" I asked. His mouth twisted into a smile that made it obvious that he was trying to hold back laughter. Almost cracking up he said, "The only bed in the house that Marie hasn't torn up from anger is mine." So he was saying we had to share. I wouldn't mind so much, but my Christian religion said otherwise. I gave him a look to remind him of my beliefs and said, "There's a couch."

I closed the door to his room, feeling proud of him for being a gentleman and letting me take the bed. I undressed and crawled under his covers. It didn't surprise me that even his blankets had stitching on them. My underwear was comfortable in a way that made me feel safe. I said my prayers and tried to fall asleep, the image of Stein looking into my eyes imprinted in my mind. I let sleep take me, dozing off into sweet dreams. I woke up at 3am to see a drowsy Stein standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. He then trudged over to the bed in his pajama bottoms and no shirt. He lifted the blanket and got in next to me. His strong and muscular arms wrapped around me and pulled me closer to him. Not thinking of anything but him I turned to face him and curled into his warm chest. I once again fell asleep, content to be living my fairytale.

When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't feel his arms around me anymore. I rolled over to look at the other side of the bed to see him sleeping on his stomach with his face buried in his pillow. I giggled and stood up, grabbing a towel from the closet and starting towards the bathroom. When I got there I locked the door behind me and turned on the shower. My heart was buzzing with happiness and a form of delightful madness. I burst out into song and nearly squirted shampoo into my eye. The lyrics to Cee Lo Green's "Forget You" burst out of my mouth, with David Guetta and Sia's "Titanium" following it. Almost my entire playlist poured from my lips and I didn't even notice that I had used all of the hot water already and was now showering in water that felt like it was fresh from the Titanic's crash site. I shut off the water and dried off. "CRAP!" I thought, "I forgot to bring my clothes in here!" So I slipped on my underwear and wrapped myself in the towel. When I stepped out into the hallway, I found Stein sitting by the bathroom door eating a bagel. Without looking at me he said in a very amused tone, "You have a lovely voice. Maybe you should have brought clothes to end the show." He held up my pants and shirt. I snatched them out of his hands and held them close to my body, as if protecting them. He laughed and stood up. "Breakfast is on the table, I hope it's still warm." and with that, he went into the bathroom and locked the door. I let out a relieved and heavy sigh and went to get dressed in his room.

I just stood there, staring. It was nice to have someone cook for me, but he seemed to outcook any chef I had ever seen. On his stitched up table Stein had left an everything bagel with cream cheese, a peeled and sliced orange, quiche, a german breakfast sandwich, and english tea. As I ate I felt like my heart and stomach were melting into a pool of all things nice. The flavors were unlike anything I had ever tasted and I couldn't get enough. Of course at the exact moment I had my mouth crammed with quiche I noticed a shirtless Stein watching me from the other side of the room. A damp towel was slung over his shoulder and his hair was wet. He wore an amused smile on his face. "How's breakfast?" he teased. I swallowed and after a few seconds looked up at him and said, "It. Is. Amazing. Where did you learn to cook like this?" He sat down across from me and shrugged. I mowed down the last of the food and put my elbows on the table, resting my head in my hands. There was a soft knock on the door and Stein stood to answer it. I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "I'll get it." I walked over to his huge metal doors and pulled one open to see Spirit standing there with his hands in his pockets and a confused look on his face. "What are you doing at Stein's house?" he asked. I can't believe he hadn't heard about it already. Before I could answer he shook his head and lightly shoved me to the side. Spirit marched over to the table and sat in the chair I was sitting in previously. "Stein, Lord Death is sending you on a mission to Siberia. We think that Medusa and the Kishin are hiding over there and we need you to go stop them." Spirit glanced over at me and growled, "Get out of here kid the adults are talking." Unable to control my anger I pulled a knife out of the drawer close to me and held it to the back of his neck, grabbing his hair with my other hand. "Disrespect me one more time you filthy pig!" I yelled. Stein's mouth formed into a twisted grin and he burst into deranged laughter. "Stein! Would you help me out here? The girl is about to skin me alive." Spirit nervously stammered. Stein stopped laughing long enough to answer him with, "No way Spirit, you got yourself into this. Plus you do kind of deserve it." and kept on cackling.

Stein and I stood in the Death Room, facing Lord Death. "So let me get this straight, you're sending me to go face the Kishin and a witch alone? Have you already forgotten that Asura's madness is close to absorbing me?" Stein said, I could tell he was angry and afraid. Lord Death's goofy voice echoed in the neverending room, "I'm positive you're stable enough to go on this trip. Even without a weapon you can defeat them Stein." Without a weapon? Spirit wasn't going?! "Okay. How long will I be gone?" Stein muttered. He was staring at the ground. "As long as it takes. You leave next Friday." Lord Death dismissed us and we walked down the hallway in silence. A hot tear rolled down my cheek, and several more followed. I couldn't look up. Couldn't face my friend. His arms wrapped around me and he said softly, "It's going to be okay."