Title: Past Hauntings

Rating: T

By: ToastWeaselofDOOM

Summary: AU. Franken Stein has everything. A wonderful wife, a house, and a respectable job. But this could all change when a mistake he made fifteen years ago comes back to haunt him.

Disclaimer: ToastWeaselofDOOM does not own Soul Eater and never will. Okubo-sensei does. This is her first and last disclaimer for this particular story.

Warning: As this is an AU, character's might be a tad OOC in order to fit into society and general living. I've tried to fit their abilities into the story best as I could, but there is alays a few people who freak over these things, so I warn you now. I repeated, CHARACTERS MIGHT BE A BIT OOC. This also contains a bunch of my favourite pairings including (but not limited to) SteinMarie, SteinMedusa, SoulMaka, MarieSteinMedusa, etc etc, as well as it is not currently being betad as my beta is out of town without her laptop/interwebs access.

If you have a problem with one or more of these pairings, or with it the characters being OOC, or with it not being beta'd, I'm implore you, DO NOT FLAME ME IF YOU CONTINUE ON AND READ THIS. It will have been your fault for not reading my warnings and A/N before you read. Thank you! ^^

A/N: This is the Soul Eater AU I've been working on for a while. I'll try updating as regularly as I can, but my watchers know me and how sporadic my posting schedule can be. I hope you enjoy it!

THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN BETA'D. KTHXBAI.


"Franken. Franken. It's seven-thirty, time to get up."

Franken Stein stirred and draped a palm arm across his closed eyes. "A little longer, Marie . . ."

"I let you sleep longer then usual," Stein's wife said gently, laying a hand on her husband's shoulder. "Now, get up or you'll be late for work."

"It's acceptable if the director is late once and a while," Stein murmured, eyes still firmly closed.

"Because you're the director makes it even more unacceptable," Marie said sternly. "Get up, Franken. Now."

Stein noted the danger tones in his wife's voice and opened his olive-green eyes to peer warily from under his arm. "Alright, alright, I'm up."

Marie nodded, approval visible in the golden eye not hidden by her eye-patch. "Good, now stay that way. I'll have coffee ready for you when you're up."

"Thanks, Marie." His wife smiled and left the room. Stein sat up, rubbing his shoulder before running a hand through his platinum silver hair. He swung his feet onto the wooden floor, barely noticing the chilly surface.

He retrieving a clean pair of clothes from his dresser that included one of his patchwork white-and-black shirts and black slacks, he crossed the hall to the bathroom. After a quick shower and dress, he ambled down the hallway and into the kitchen, from whence wafted the heavenly aroma of his favorite coffee.

"G'morning, Marie," the man said, pouring himself a cup of the black caffeinated beverage and taking a large gulp of it.

"Good morning, Franken!" Marie chirped in her slightly accented voice, reminder of the years she had spent in Oceania.

Stein let his eyes wander over his wife's slender frame. Her golden hair, which usually flowed free, was pulled back in a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck. She wore a v-neck, long sleeved black shirt and her customary floor length black skirt with a yellow zigzag down the middle. A plain silver chain rested on her breastbone, and her one visible eye was bright. Stein dully noted she wasn't wearing the heeled boots she usually wore to bump her height up several inches.

"Why the ponytail, Marie?" Stein asked, taking another gulp of his coffee.

"I'm trying something new," Marie responded, elevating herself on her toes to give him a kiss.

Stein nodded. "You look nice. By the way, have you seen my glasses?"

"Did you look on the bathroom counter?" Marie asked. "I believe you took them off when you took a shower last night and forgot to put them back on."

Stein turned and went back to the bathroom. Sure enough, his glasses were resting on the counter. He picked them up and put them on, blinking as his eyes adjusted.

The man caught his reflection in the bathroom mirror and sighed. As much as he said he didn't mind it, sometimes the scar that ran from the middle of his forehead, under his eye, and down his cheek to right behind his ear bothered him. It was a stitched line that reminded him of things he'd rather forget. Shaking his head, he rid his mind of the thoughts and left the bathroom, turning off the light as he went.

"Did you find your glasses?" Marie asked as she hurried around the kitchen, obviously distressed.

"I did," Stein affirmed. "What are you looking for, Marie?"

"My bag," said Marie helplessly, checking in the adjoining room for the wayward item. "Have you seen it?"

"You were grading papers in the den last night," Stein supplied. "Did you leave it down there?"

Marie brightened. "That's where I left it! Thank you, Franken!" She gave him a quick kiss then hurried downstairs to the basement den.

Stein smiled slightly at his wife's behavior then moved through the room and out onto the patio, where he took a cigarette from the box on the outside table and lit up. He inhaled deeply, letting the smoke swirl around his lungs, and felt the nicotine enter his bloodstream, easing his tensions with each breath.

"Franken!" said Marie's reproachful voice from the doorway.

"What?" Stein asked, turning to his wife with the cigarette dangling from his lips. "I'm outside, aren't I?"

"You know that's bad for you!" Marie said exasperatedly. "As a doctor, you should be setting a better example."

Stein sighed and took a final drag on his cigarette before snuffing it out in the ashtray. He went through this argument with his wife daily. She loved him, but the one thing she couldn't stand was his smoking.

"Hey, I don't drink excessively like sempai," he said in his own defense.

"Spirit quit his alcoholism," Marie said, giving her husband a stern look. "I'm sure you could quit smoking if you wanted."

"Ah, and therein lies the problem," Stein said. "I could quit if I wanted. The key word being 'want.' I don't have any motivation or inclination to quit, so I won't."

Marie sighed but rose up on her toes to give him a kiss. "You're a fool, but I love you anyway."

Stein smiled and kissed her back. "Same."

"You'd better get going," Marie said, glancing at the clock. "You'll be late if you don't hurry."

Stein took a quick look at his watch. Eight-thirty. "Ah, time stops for no man." The two walked to the front doorway where Stein slipped on his white shoes and took his lab coat, which was stitched together whimsically as a pun on his name and scars, from the hook.

"I'll see you when I get home, then?" Stein asked, pulling his labcoat onto his shoulders.

Marie nodded and handed him a thermos of coffee. "Yes. I'm not staying after school for anything today, so I should be able to come home straight away."

Stein took his coffee, grinning slightly. "Good. Have fun teaching those holy terrors you like to call 'students.'"

"Franken!" Marie admonished, putting her hands on her hips. "They are not that bad!"

"Says you." Stein shrugged and took his car keys from the rack. "You aren't the one stitching them up after they've landed themselves in the hospital five times in as many days."

"That's just Black Star," Marie sighed, "you know that. Don't pin it on the rest of them."

"I know," Stein agreed, "but after stitching that little idiot up for the hundredth time after listening to him shout about how he 'is more godly because he beat so-and-so,' you tend to be a little biased."

Marie smiled slightly and laughed. "I suppose you have a point."

"Of course I do," Stein grinned.

"Have a good day," Marie said, giving him a hug.

"You too." Stein leaned down and caught her lips in a kiss.

Marie broke it after a moment, grimacing. "You taste like tobacco," she complained.

Stein laughed and took a swig of his coffee. "I love you, too." He kissed her again. "I'm off."

"'Bye," Marie called as he walked down the path to his car. "Be back in time for dinner!"

"I'll try." Stein opened the car door, grimacing as the hot air escaped from the car that had been baking in the hot Nevada sun. He got in, closed the door, and after a few moments, the car roared to life. He backed out of the driveway and drove down the street in the direction of the hospital.


"Aaah, the symmetry! It's so wonderful!" Death the Kid cried as he stood in front of Death City's local high school, Shibusen High. "Father does know how to design a place!" He burst into tears of joy and the passersby stared.

"Dude, calm down," said a voice. "Making a public spectacle of yourself is not cool."

"Quiet, Evans!" Death the Kid snapped, wheeling on the white-haired teenager. "What would you know?! You're asymmetrical!"

"So're you," the boy pointed out. "You and those uncool stripes in your hair."

Kid dropped to his knees, sobbing this time not in joy but in despair. "Damn you, Evans, damn you!" he cursed, beating a fist into the ground. "Die . . . dammit . . . depressed . . ." Without another word he curled up in a ball and began to rock back and forth, weeping.

The teenager sweatdropped and was just about to head into the school when a loud voice called, "SSSSSSOOOOOORRRRRUUUUUUUUUU!" The white-haired teen quickly stepped to the right and a black-and-electric-blue blur streaked by exactly where he had been standing seconds before.

"Hey, Black*Star."

"Yosh!" Black*Star exclaimed, turning on a dime and rushing back to where his friend was standing. "SOUL, HOW ARE YOU BEST FRIE—Woah, what happened to Kid?"

"I told him he was asymmetrical," Soul said with a shrug.

"I think you broke him, Soul," a new voice quipped sardonically.

"Oi, Liz, Patti." Soul went over to the two girls and completed a complex handshake with the taller of the two. "'Sup?"

"Nothing much," the taller one, Liz, said, twirling her long light brown hair on her forefinger. She went over to where her younger sister, the blonde Patti, was poking the still-weeping Kid, giggling insanely.

"C'mon, Kid, stop being immature and get up. You're hair is perfectly fine. Think symmetrical things. Think Shibusen and your house and equilateral triangles." Liz started to list off symmetrical items. "Think circles and squares and how the number eight is even better than the other numbers because it's bisymmetrical."

Kid looked up, eyes rimmed with red. "You're right!" Kid said rather loudly. "Eight is the best number of them all! So symmetrical!" He stood, straightening his jacket and making sure the white blocks were still aligned perfectly.

"Now that that's resolved," he said, as if the whole occurrence hadn't happened, "there is a matter to be addressed. Soul, where's Maka?"

Soul, who was fiddling with his cloth headband, shrugged. "I dunno. I swung by her apartment when I was leaving, like usual, but she said she had something to do, and she would catch up. She never showed."

Death the Kid was about to speak when an Asian-looking girl who had jet-black hair up in a long ponytail jogged up, breathing heavily.

"B-Black*Star!" she panted. "I told you to slow down!"

Black Star scratched the back of his spiky blue head. "Oh. Sorry about that, Tsubaki."

The girl smiled slightly. "That's okay. Where's Maka?"

"That's what we were just trying to figure out," said Soul.

"Well, wherever she is," Kid said distractedly, glancing over his shoulder, "we can't worry about that now."

"WHAT?!" Black*Star screeched. "Maka's our friend, you asymetri—" Black*Star was cut off by Patti karate-chopping him in the head.

"Marie-sensei is here," Death the Kid hissed, pointing at the approaching teacher. "We should continue this conversation later." His fellow students nodded and grew silent as Marie walked past.

"Good morning, everyone!" Marie said cheerfully. "How is everyone today?"

"Good," the six students chimed in unison.

"Wonderful," Marie said, smiling. Her smile faltered, however, when she realized one of her students was missing. "Where's Maka?"

"Sick," Soul grunted instantly. "She decided to stay home today."

"Really, now?" Marie asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I hope she feels better! I will see you all in class!" The teacher smiled again and proceeded into the school building.

"She didn't believe us," Kid stated matter-of-factly the second Marie was out of earshot.

"How d'ya know?" Black*Star asked, looking skeptical at best of Kid's theory.

"Because I do." Kid turned without another word and strode inside.

"Wait up, Kid!" Black*Star yelped, scrambling after him. "Tell me so I can surpass God!"

Patti giggled and both Liz and Tsubaki sweatdropped before following the two boys inside. Soul shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, scowling heavily.

'Where are you, you flat-chested idiot?' he inwardly growled. 'You disappearing is not cool.' Heaving a sigh, he ambled into the school after his friends.


A/N: So, how was it? I hope I didn't do too badly!!! Stein's a bit OOC, but I did try my best, and I think he HAS to bit a bit OOC for this relationship/plot to work. I do hope you stick around and continue to read it! I will hopefully update this soon! Thank you! ^^

-Love, Toasty

P.S. I love Black*Star. He's such a spazz! XD And Kid is... fun to torture. :D