A/N: More platonic oneshots for everyone. This time it's Stein and Crona!
Crona tapped the table with long fingers and bit their lip, focusing on the board. Twilight was setting over the city and Stein was leaning back in his plastic garden chair, smoking.
"Um, pawn to E4?" They moved the piece, gently placing it down and looking up at Stein for confirmation.
Stein's glasses flashed as he grinned, flicking the cigarette to the corner of his mouth.
"That's aggressive, Crona." He mirrored the move.
Their eyes scanned over the board. Stein had agreed to teach them chess, much to Marie's delight. She was inside the lab, bright voice singing along with the radio. Crona looked up and saw Stein smiling fondly, eyes softening from the usual jade green chips to a more mellow color, more relaxed, less guarded.
They smiled as they moved a pawn next to their first.
Crona could recognize the expression from whenever they looked at Kid. Their own soft look of affection whenever Kid did something breathtaking.
Stein shook his head a little and moved his pawn to take one of Crona's. He flicked ash off the end of his cigarette. As Crona studied the board, he took a drag and asked, "Have there been any more problems with Hiro?"
Crona shook their head. "N-no. He stopped using boys pronouns. I think Black Star or Maka talked to him."
Stein smiled thinly. "Good. I was going to have him volunteer for the next class demonstration if he hadn't."
Crona kept their eyes on the board. "Please don't. He wasn't b-being mean. He was just confused since I said I said I wasn't a girl."
Stein shrugged, watching as Crona hesitantly moved another pawn up from in front of their bishop, then realising their mistake put it back and instead their bishop to the center.
"He should have asked you Crona. You don't need to accept people labeling you."
Something in his voice made Crona look up from the board. He was looking out over the city, cigarette drooping in his fingers.
"For years, even though I was respected for my abilities as a miester, people called me a monster."
Crona looked up, mouth open. "R-really?"
Stein nodded, eyes scanning the distant horizon. "And for a long time I agreed. If you hear something often enough, you begin to believe it, even if it might be wrong Crona."
He looked at them. "I'm sure you can understand what I mean."
They looked down.
"You're a bad child. You'll stay in here until I decide I can look at you again. Five days should do it."
"You're absolutely useless, Crona. You always choose to disappoint me. I don't know what I'll do if you don't stop."
"You really think they'll still be your friends after they learn what you've done? That's pathetic. They'll hate you, and you'll deserve it, child. But you've known all along that's what would happen. After all Crona, you're just like me."
They jumped when Stein carefully put his hand on their shoulder. They looked up, locking eyes with the Professor.
"Don't listen to it, whatever it's saying, Crona."
They both jumped, although Crona's was much more violent when the doorbell chimed. Eight knocks followed and Crona smiled.
Marie darted out of sight, the radio still playing. They heard a chair scrape slightly when she bumped it on her way into the entrance hall and her muffled curse.
"Coming!"
Stein sat back while Crona breathed through their nose, shaking away the cobwebs.
Maka called their memories of Medusa PTSD. They were all Crona knew. It had been the only life they knew until six months ago.
It would have been easier if Crona could have hated Medusa, or forgotten her. But she was still a part of them, she was still their mother. Some part of Crona still wished they could have figured out how to please her at least once. They still wished they could have her be a real mother, somehow.
Stein shifted in his chair.
"Do you, ahem, uh. Need to talk about it?"
Crona looked up, head cocked. Stein had taken off his glasses and was busily cleaning them on his lab coat.
"D-did they ever stop? Calling you a monster?"
Stein's smile was lopsided, stitches stretching with his skin. "Most of them did. I also found someone who helped to tune them out." His eyes flickered over to the kitchen window.
"Come on in Kid. Crona and Stein are still in the back yard." Marie's foot steps were headed back to the kitchen and Crona could hear the slight squeak of Kid's shoes behind her.
"Thank you, Ms. Marie." Their heart lept to their throat, and their palms started sweating, the same way they always reacted when Kid was around.
They jumped when Stein put hand on their arm. He winked at them, and it was enough to calm them down.
"And I'm pretty sure you have too."
-FIN
(Lame one-shot is lame. I want to expand on the idea of just how alike Crona and Stein are.)