The blonde-haired death scythe sighed as she sat the last of her belongings into her suitcase. She became aware of Stein's presence a moment before she smelled the cigarette smoke that clung to him like a shroud, a second before she felt his hand slip onto her shoulder.
"Marie, what are you doing?" His voice was quiet and questioning.
She turned to face him and stood as tall as she could, tears brimming in her eyes. "I'm not blind, Franken. I'm going back to Oceania. I'll be damned if I let you hurt me anymore." Stein watched, surprise painted across his face as she grabbed the suitcase and brushed past him, her tears finally falling to the floor, leaving dark marks. He felt paralyzed.
"Marie!" He suddenly found his voice and his legs were suddenly willing to work, and he found himself heading after her. His hand darted out, wrapping around the death scythe's wrist. "Marie?" A multitude of questions were laced into that one word as she pulled away from him slightly.
She stood in the doorway, her body framed by the light of the setting sun as she stared at him, her arm outstretched as he held onto her wrist. "You ignored me, Franken. You think I was blind? I know that I'm not the person you want to be living here. I'm not the person that you're willing to share your life with. I'll be damned if I'm going to stay here, hoping that someday you'll realize that Charlotte is your student, and that she shouldn't be your lover!" Marie's voice rose into a scream at the end and Stein released her wrist, taking a step back.
"Marie, we haven't-" he started, but she interrupted him, tears flowing freely down her cheek.
"Damnit, Franken, just don't bother! I can see the truth! I love you, but I can see how you look at her!" Her voice calmed a bit, and she bit her lip. "Goodbye, Franken." Marie turned her back on him then, rushing into the fading sunlight. The scientist stood in the doorway long after Marie left, her last words swirling in his mind. With a heavy sigh he pushed the door shut long after the sun had set and walked through the empty halls of his lab.
"Where's Professor Stein?"
"No one knows, they say that he didn't even call in today."
"I wonder who they're going to get to replace him for today then?"
"What about Ms. Marie? Have you seen her either?"
"Same as Professor Stein, no one's seen or heard anything…"
The whispers rushed through the classroom until Spirit Albarn stepped into the room, clearing his throat.
"Attention class. Normally I would simply cover for Hakase Stein, but I am unable to today due to official death scythe business. As such, that means that your class is canceled." The death scythe looked worried, frazzled and in a rush. The class cheered, most of them rushing out the door before Death Scythe could even take a step.
Charlotte met Rim's eyes. "I'll meet you at home, Rim. I'm going to go do some shopping or something before I come back. It's not often that we get a free day."
He knew that she was lying, but he just nodded. "Be careful, Charlotte. I'll play some basketball with some of the others while you're shopping then."
"Thanks, Rim." Charlotte said as she stood and slipped from the class.
Charlotte stood hesitantly outside of the Patchwork Lab, her hand resting against the door that was slightly ajar. Butterflies swirled in her stomach, and for the first time in a very long time, she was afraid of what she might find behind the doors. Taking a deep breath she pushed the doors open and stepped into the dark lab.
They swung shut behind her with a resounding clang. She shivered slightly, the lab quite a bit cooler than it was outside, though she remembered Professor Stein explaining once that that was because he kept it a steady temperature due to some of his experiments.
"Professor Stein? Ms. Marie?" Her voice echoed through the empty halls. She took a hesitant step deeper into the lab, calling out their names again. She took a deep breath and started to follow the path that she knew led to the research lab that Stein used most often.
"Professor Stein? Ms. Marie?" She called out again.
A rasp of air and the sudden scent of copper answered her.
She came around the corner and stopped suddenly, staring at the source of the scent and the noise. The Professor lay just outside the threshold of his research lab, his arm outstretched where it was obvious that he had tried to catch himself as he fell. His breathing was shallow, and drying blood had spread in a circle around him.
It was obviously from the wound in his chest.
"Stein!" Charlotte's scream broke the silence, the injured meister in front of her not reacting to the noise in the slightest. She hit her knees beside him, carefully turning him over and onto his back. Tears fell as she looked down at the wound in his chest. His ribs were showing through the incision that he hadn't even bothered to stitch closed. His face was slack, his breathing slow and shallow and his skin was pale.
Afraid of what she might see, Charlotte raised her head to look into the research lab, the only well-lit area in the whole building. Relief flooded her when she realized that she didn't see Ms. Marie laying on one of the operating tables.
Trembling hands reached into the purse that was on her side and Charlotte pulled out the small compact that she carried with her everywhere.
"42-42-564" She said as she carefully scribbled the letters onto the mirror. A moment later Shinigami-sama appeared in the mirror and before he could say anything Charlotte flipped the mirror around to show him Stein and the ragged wound on his chest.
Stein opened his eyes sometime later to the inside of his lab. There were restraints on his elbows and his knees. His fingers were bound together. There were three wavelengths near him, something that he realized immediately. He blinked his eyes multiple times before they finally cleared enough for him to see correctly.
A very familiar blonde-haired woman entered his field of vision first, followed by a red-headed man. He gave a weak smile even as Marie's hand pulled back and slapped him in the face. The owner of the third wavelength came into view then and Stein's smirk fell off as he saw the look on Charlotte's face.
He looked at her, and then back to Marie, and finally at Spirit.
"Wh-what happened?" The scientist managed to get out, tugging at the restraints.
Marie looked at Spirit. The man gave her a pout and she just shook her head before turning back to Stein. "I'm not forgiving you, Franken. No matter what stupid stunt you were trying to pull. You're lucky that Charlotte found you."
"I don't understand…" Stein said, itching to turn the screw in his head.
Charlotte spoke up, surprising both death scythes. "Professor… Ms. Nygus said it looked like you were trying to get to your heart. She said that it looked like if you had managed it, from the cuts on your ribs, you were trying to cut it in half."
Stein was silent then, and Marie turned her back and left. He felt someone take his hand and he looked down to find that it was Charlotte. Spirit just looked at the two of them, and Stein watched as he walked over to where Marie was and draped his arm over her shoulder. The woman collapsed slightly against the death scythe, and Spirit walked her out of the room.
"Do you… do you remember what you were doing, Professor?" Charlotte's voice was gentle, her touch light.
Stein pulled his arm against the restraint again and looked at her pleadingly. She complied, removing the restraints from both his arms and then his legs. She helped him into a sitting position, his chest screaming with the agony of the movement.
He took a deep breath before he tried to explain. "I… I think I was going to try to cut it in half, Charlotte."
"Why?" He could hear the pain and fear in her voice.
"Because… because I hurt Marie. I… I don't love her like I love you, Charlotte, but I don't want to knowingly hurt her. I think…" his voice trailed off for a moment and he looked at a point in space beyond what normal people could see, watching Marie and Spirit's wavelengths intermingle. "I think I was going to give her half, and give you the other."
"You scared me." Charlotte's voice was low and he felt her lean her head against his arm, not caring that there were other people that could see the display of affection that they tried so hard to keep hidden. "I… I thought that I had lost you…"
He raised his arm, slipping it over her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Charlotte." He hesitantly pressed his lips against the top of her head as she began to cry. "I promise that you don't have to worry about that…" his voice trailed off again as Spirit came back into the room, this time alone.
"Marie's going back to Oceania, Stein. This time permanently." Stein just stared in silence. "Do you have anything that you want me to tell her before she leaves?"
The scientist's eyes flicked to Charlotte, who was sniffling against his side, before looking to where Marie's soul was quivering, obviously in pain.
"Tell her… tell her I'm sorry. That I didn't mean to hurt her." Stein's voice was quiet. Spirit just nodded, and left.
Two weeks later Stein sat in his lab, Charlotte beside him. The meister had refused to leave his side, telling Rim that she had extra credit lessons each night to maintain the ruse. As usual, her weapon had known something was wrong, but had bowed to his meister's wishes for privacy.
Charlotte's head was rolling against Stein's shoulder as she fought sleep desperately the scientist pulling another all-nighter on the experiment that he had been working on before his "accident". She had refused to go to bed when he had asked her to, telling him that she had to keep an eye on him or he might disappear.
Stein smirked as her head leaned heavily against his shoulder, her mouth open slightly as she slipped to sleep. He moved slowly, and, despite the pain in his chest, he pulled the teen into his arms, arranging her legs so that she was sitting across his lap, her head cushioned against the healing wound. He would get her to a bed soon, but for some reason, holding her like this, her hands curling around his arm in her sleep and her face nuzzling the healing wound beside his heart brought him a peace that he hadn't felt in a long time.
And he was certain that it was speeding up the healing process as well. He was willing to cut his heart in half for the thought of hurting Marie, but he would keep it intact for Charlotte, unwilling to hurt her at all.
A/N: I don't own Soul Eater. Charlotte belongs to TheAUWalker. I'm just borrowing her to surprise AU ;)