Soul Eater is (c) Atsushi Ohkubo. This is the product of being bored during winter break and not getting called into work more often! This story is loosely inspired by the song "About You Now" by Miranda Cosgrove. Google the lyrics and you'll see what I mean. I think it fits Joe and Marie's relationship perfectly. I am more of a Stein/Marie kind of girl, but "About You Now" really inspired me and I couldn't keep myself from writing about Joe and Marie's past relationship. Even so, I still squeezed a little Stein/Marie in there at the end, heh. Once again, SPOILERS for those who HAVE NOT READ THE MANGA, or have not read past chapter 40.

He was an idiot. He always was, but... but... this... was her fault. If she hadn't agreed to dinner with him that night, he'd still be here. If she hadn't realized that maybe the two of them still had a chance together, he'd still be alive. If... if... all the "ifs" were driving her mad. She knew though... it really wasn't her fault. It wasn't his fault either. He was only doing his job.

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It had been so long since she had seen Joe, how could she not have wanted to try again? It's not like there had been anything wrong with their relationship in the first place; in fact... it had been great! Practically perfect! They could have gotten married, for god's sake! Granted, they'd only been seeing each other for around six months when he broke it off, but still... ! That was practically a lifelong guarantee in her book! Joe had been everything she wanted in a man: good-looking, sweet, hard-working... but maybe too hard-working, in retrospect. He took his work too seriously, far more seriously than she ever did with her own, and that had been their undoing. He feared for her safety, for the safety of their relationship. Because of his abilities, he told her, he was afraid he could never trust her. And it wasn't as if she didn't think that he was an absolute sweetheart for worrying about her like that, but... she'd never had anything to hide from him. Even so, it wasn't enough, and he told her that he couldn't feel comfortable in their relationship anymore, and that was that. Sometimes she wondered whether or not he had made up that excuse to break up with her for some other reason. Maybe she hadn't been pretty enough for him, or smart enough, or didn't have big enough boobs. All men wanted the same things in a woman, she told herself, so why should Joe be any different? The passage of time helped to ease the broken hearts of both, and she had done well to forget him altogether (had he done the same?), but seeing him back at Shibusen after so long... she couldn't help it. He was still the same Joe, she was still the same Marie. She knew that she still loved him, as hard as she had fought against herself to forget about what they had meant to each other so many years ago. She had even allowed herself to feel the teensiest bit of teenage giddyness as she prepared herself for their date.

And now... she was leaning against her bestitched colleague, biting down on the palm of her hand in an attempt to keep herself from sobbing out loud and outright breaking down on the spot. Her chest became heavier by the minute, the air around her felt thick as she she choked each breath in and out. Joe was dead. This wasn't supposed to happen. A million words tumbled senselessly through her mind. Everything she wished she could have said to him if she had known they would never see each other again. This wasn't supposed to happen, yet here she was. Stein's hand rested on top of her head; she noted just how surprisingly warm and comforting it felt. She felt safer somehow, and squeezed herself as close to his body as she could, selfishly craving more protection. She even swore she felt him pull her own body the tiniest fraction closer towards his. She did feel his hand slide down to rest on her right shoulder, rubbing it ever-so-slightly in what she knew could only have been an even more considerate, albeit awkward, gesture of comfort on his part. The man may have been insane, but she knew he wasn't a murderer. Besides, he was all she had now. And for the time being, she was okay with that.