Doggie Dissection

If there was one thing Maka could take, it was blood.

With her job being to put kishins out of commission, for good, there was always blood included. There might not be much—them being kishin stopped the blood flow practically altogether—but she'd seen her fair share when she had to fight enemies of the human-ish variety.

Then, there were dissections. They didn't bother her. Stein made them watch the dissections at least four times a week, and sometimes even five. They were usually frogs or something equally boring—nothing too graphic that might make her queasy or faint.

No. Nothing like that at all.

But when she saw him walking in a large chocolate lab cross, Maka's stomach fell with terribly negative anticipation. Soul, noticing Maka's now very pale complexion, took one look at her as his own face became screwed up in confusion. "Oi, Maka? Maka, you okay?" He asked her, turning to look at the cause of her distress, only to have a huge grin break out on his face. "You're worried about a dog dissection?"

Nervously, Maka nodded, pupils getting smaller and smaller with her anxiety. "It's—it's not just because it's a dog," She said, even though she knew very well that it was. But she had one deeper reason for her nerves. "It just looks like a dog I used to have. A gift from papa and mama, when…you know…they were still together. Belle."

Rolling his eyes, the partners quieted down as they saw Stein settling his chair at his desk; the dog sat obediently next to him, big choco brown eyes flicking from one weapon or meister to the next. The poor thing's tail kept on wagging, panting with her tongue lolling around. And the worst part was that Stein looked delightful.

"Now, I know that most of you, being sophomores in college and having already taken my class as sophomores in high school, you might find this a little redundant. But one of the transfer students was talking about what one of their friends said about it and asked if I could do one more, for old times' sake. So, I'll be doing just that," He said, the only different from the way he acted and looked from their high school years being the darker bags under his eyes—raising a baby, Miss Marie's, nonetheless, did that to you.

And one difference between Soul and Maka, now, was the engagement ring and wedding ring that were curled around Maka's ring finger. And a bump, barely there and definitely covered up by her regular choice of clothes—but now, with what Liz had made her wear, to show it off in all her pre-pregnancy glory (as she'd been told). So now, not only did Maka have to deal with some whispers—mostly about how she was letting herself go, or she'd been eating too much, or anything that had nothing to do with a baby—but she had to worry about her lunch not coming up too.

"Um, professor?" Maka heard someone ask quietly from across next to Soul, Tsubaki's concern helping the distressed meister's case. "Do you think…we really have to…dissect something?" Tsubaki asked, the shadow weapon just as nervous as her friend, who sent a look her way, catching it but barely giving her anything but a nod in reply.

"Well, Miss Nakatsukasa, I find that this is very necessary. Because of the fact that you will be trying to dispatch many opponents by hitting vital organs or such, we'll be using the similar body systems in the creatures planned for the dissection to show the student who was not here with you, just what he might want to target in case of an emergency." He stood up, hooking the dog's leash to the desk before he silently stalked towards the door. In equal silence, the door closed behind him without a click.

Then, the talk started.

Immediately, the three separated groups converged—Maka and Soul, Tsubaki and Blackstar, and finally the Thompson sisters and Kid.

The first to speak was Liz. "Do you really think he's going to dissect that poor, little defenseless dog?" She asked the group, shivering as she fell back into Kid's arms, which were already gently running up and down her bare arms, trying to comfort her as he paid attention to the conversation himself; finally, he'd grown almost a foot taller and he'd taken on broad shoulder and a lanky physique, towering over his girlfriend.

"I doubt he'd dissect man's best friend," He said, although he looked doubtful himself. Actually, he had the eagerness in his eyes that both Soul and Blackstar had moments before—except, now, they were trying to calm down their significant others with gentle words and some kind of caring gesture. "I mean, who dissects dogs?" He asked them, turning back to talk with his friends.

Soul shrugged, putting his arms around Maka's waist, hands landing on her baby bump, almost subconsciously. "Liz, I doubt he's going to cut open a dog…well, maybe. Who knows; he's crazy enough he might just do it," He told them, smirk on his face as all of the girls groaned—everyone except Patty.

"What's wrong with cutting open a dog? I think it's actually kind of cool—you know, seeing all the organs and stuff. I've missed it since sophomore year," She said, getting the rolled eyes she usually got from her friends; they'd gotten used to the crazy comments long ago. "And, plus, he's actually got a point. Animals have body systems very similar to humans, so it's kind of important. I mean, it's not like we don't already know it, but it's good to have a refresher," She replied, getting some amazing, surprised looks from her friends; they didn't usually get smart, college sounding explanations or sentences from the younger sister.

Maka shook it off quickly, turning away from the chocolate lab—who, she had to admit, was still only a puppy with the too-big feet and the way it tried running around, stumbling as it went—to speak with her friends and husband. "All I know is that if he goes on with the dissection, I'm not looking. I don't care—I'll pull the pregnancy card if I freaking have to. Unfortunately, none of you have an excuse so…" She said, trailing off as she found Tsubaki looking a little sheepish and raising her hand, just a little bit. "No way," Maka said, smile breaking out on her face as she hugged her friend tightly.

"I found out yesterday—surprisingly, Blackstar didn't tell anyone in the meantime," She said, giving him a little look as he tried spouting out indignant responses. But they only rolled off the two like it was nothing. "And my stomach is already churning at the thought of that…poor…dog…on the table…okay, new word for dog is PEETA!" She said, getting very pale as the moments churned on.

Liz raised her hand, looking a little proud of herself—even if the topic had already passed. "And guess who else is an incubator!" She said, pulling at her shirt until it tightened enough to show a bump a little bigger than Maka's. "You don't know how hard it's been to keep it a secret—but now that some people have decided to tell us, I've decided that it's the perfect time to announce that I'm expecting—TWINS!"She said, loud enough to get some looks from the people around them.

The girls, for a moment, forgot about the dissection—until the point Professor Stein made noise coming in, making the three girls turn around where they sat, keeping their eyes turned away from the dreadful sight before them.

For the next hour or so, the girls all sat on the top row, farthest from where their old Professor stood, performing the necropsy (as he always told them it was properly called) on the poor animal. The entire time, they tried chatting idly between the three of them while husband, fiancé, or boyfriend watched with disturbing interest. Idly, they tried discussing baby names—but every time, it seemed, something would pop or crack when they came up with a nice name. So, soon enough, they gave up. It was either that or have a lot of names tainted due to the sound effects that went with them.

Then, finally, they heard their teacher sigh and the plop of something falling into a plastic bag. But when Maka finally turned around, she found herself looking into the beautiful brown eyes of the chocolate lab mix Stein had first brought in with him. "But…what happ—" She asked herself, cut off by the lazy glare of the professor.

"Yes, Maka? Questions?" He asked lazily, pulling off plastic gloves covered with blood—from what, she had no idea.

"Professor…I—we—thought that you were dissecting that…poor dog," She said, getting a look of confusion thrown her way from the grey haired teacher. "I mean, you brought in the dog right before you said you were going to dissect something, so me, Liz, and Tsubaki thought you meant…that she…" she said, unable to finish her sentence as she gulped, trying to keep down her breakfast.

"Maka, while I wouldn't mind dissecting such an interesting animal, I'm afraid I'm trying to find this dog a place to live. Which is why we come to the next topic of discussion—anyone want a new pet?"

Without another word, Soul looked at his pale wife and then to the dog, getting up and raising his hand before he walked down the stairs. Quickly, he took the leash from the professor, and led the dog back to his seat next to Maka before anyone else could claim the dog.

Maka looked at her husband with a slight smile, although she did look a little surprised. "Soul, any reason why you decided to take the dog?" She asked him sweetly, an idea already in her head as to why.

He shrugged, handing her the leash. "I felt a little sorry for it—I mean, who wants to stay with the wack job professor? Plus…you seemed to like it…so I thought…might as well get a family dog before the baby…gets here. God, it feels so weird saying baby when we're talking about ours, ya know?" He said, letting his wife lean into his arms in a moment of weakness. "I can't believe he—or she—is gonna be here in less than six months," He told her.

Maka nodded, easily switching into wife mode as he allowed the motions. But then she tensed, sitting straight up as she looked to Liz and Tsubaki with a question clear in her eyes. "Wait. If he didn't dissect the poor dog, then what did he…?" She asked, while Liz and Tsubaki looked to their own significant others for answers.

Patti rolled her eyes at the three girls, shrugging as she replied, "If you thought the dog was bad, you probably don't want to know."

At that, the girls paled and nodded, picking up their stuff as the bell rang immediately after. Maka took the new dog home—who she had named Dasiy in the meantime—and they all left the boys behind for a boys night. And Patti stayed behind for a moment, smiling as Kid said, "Patti, he only dissected a from—what's so bad about that?" He asked, getting a sly smile from the short blonde.

"Nothing—it's just fun to see the three of them squirm."

And with that, the three guys watched the crazy blonde practically skip away, all the time watching her warily as if she had some disease they might just catch. Then, Blackstar turned to Kid, patting him on the shoulder as if in congratulations. "I have to give it to you; it takes a lot of guts to put up with a loony toon like her," He said, the three taking off as they headed to Kid's mansion.

A/N: I actually had to go through the dog dissection at school. By the time third period came around, I had to leave because the smell kept on coming back to me and it was making me faint. Unlike the Meister and Weapon gang of these six or seven, I actually had to go through it all—and it reminded me of a dog we took care of for like a year when I was younger. So, yeah, I felt terrible.

And this is definitely a prequel to my Blaze Eater story. This is Daisy, Blaze's childhood pet that died a few years before the events in my story. Before she became an official meister to JR, of course. And Blaze is born last out of all the kids, because her mom was like a week or two overdue. Tsubaki had Masamune early and Liz had the twins on time, if not a day early. Blaze is only the longest because her momma was overdue and Tsubaki was early.

So, yeah. There's the explanation to this one-shot. And I guess, until my next one-shot or chapter or something, I'll talk to you later.