Prologue

In the bedroom of the patch-stitch house, light from a computer screen flickered on. The digital clock on the nightstand read 12:30 AM in clear red lettering, but the young boy who had turned on the laptop couldn't care less. Nighttime was the best time for working. He'd established that fact long ago.

Forcing the sleep from his blue-green eyes, his fingers moved swiftly and effortlessly across the keys, searching for answers and getting very little, if anything at all. He tsk'd in annoyance. Why weren't there any records online from what happened all those years ago? Why wasn't anything written down?

Perhaps it was written down, the boy thought, putting one hand on the top of the laptop. Just not here. But I'll find it. I have to.

Just as he was preparing to shut the laptop, the familiar shine of light against glasses gave the boy pause, just a moment's hesitation, but it was enough. He knew he was no longer alone. Well, shit.

"Hello, Mama," the boy greeted softly, sheepishly. He fully closed the laptop and shoved it back under his pillow, plunging the room into darkness for a moment, before his mother reached over to turn on the lamp light on the desk. "What're you doing up?"

Yellow-green eyes narrowed in his son's direction. "Augustus, you should've been in bed an hour ago."

"I am in bed." The boy rocked back and forth a bit on the bed.

"You know what I mean."

August averted his eyes from his mother's gaze. "Well I... I was just doing some research. That's all."

"About what?"

"About... what happened before Aurora was born. Before us. Right after the kishin died."

His mother's hand twitched, the left one, like always when he got surprised. "How do you know about that?"

"Big sis Maka told me about it." August rocked back and forth on the bed again, putting his hands in his lap and staring at his mother intently now. "She told me, not long after that, you and Papa went on a mission. You almost died, but Papa saved you. Is that true?"

A slight glint of the eye showed irritation in his mother's face, but nothing else. "Yes, that's true. So what do you want to know?"

"I... want to know what happened. Why Aurora and I are here." August's stare grew more intense. "Why are you and Papa together? And how did it happen?"

I really need a cigarette, Stein thought as his fingers itched to draw one from his shirt pocket.

"That's not something I can tell you all in one night," he said candidly. "But I suppose you're old enough to hear it now. I guess I'll just start tonight."

The silver-haired meister took a breath, as if inhaling smoke from a cigarette, then exhaled.

"It was about a year after the Kishin died, I think..."

this is going to be the second mini-series within the "Before the Beginning" series, with the main focus on spiritxstein. enjoy!
cross-posted to ao3 and dA