The soft glow of the computer screen illuminated Dr. Stein's tired face. His work was annoying him and he was bored of it. However, he could not deal with leaving his work unfinished. So there he sat, staring at a screen full of unanswered questions. He twisted the large screw that was plunged through his head, but nothing happened except the soft click of the scew turning in his skull. He put his head down and shuffled his feet. His house was deathly silent. He chuckled at the thought, Lord Death wasn't silent at all.
The wind howled outside and he shivered. He needed to fix the blasted draftiness of his house.
He lit up one of his favorite cigarettes and blew a skull shaped smoke cloud and sighed. He heard a crash of thunder.
"Great, rain's just what I need to stay awake." he said sarcastically. He didn't care for rain much, it put him to sleep when he could be working. The soft sound of rain started to beat on his roof. It echoed through the house and his eyes drifted closed in obedience to the rain.

It was his first day at the acadamy. He was uncomfortable aroud so many people. He didn't want to choose a partner either. He worked much better alone, that way he didn't hurt people and they didn't hurt him. Some one bumped into him with a squeak. It was a small red head with large blue eyes.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" he jumped back with a funny flailing motion.
"Don't worry about it..." Stein said quietly. He didn't like talking either.
The red head blinked. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Franken Stein...you?"
"I'm Spirit Albarn."
Stein nodded his head in acknowledgment.
Spirit shuffled his feet. "I'm kinda new around here...wanna get coffee or something?" he asked, blue eyes shining and hopeful. "We could check out the hot girls there!"
Stein could not bring himself to give a crap about the girls but the red head intrigued his interest. There was something different about hims and Stein was curious.

About a hour later he found himself seated across from Spirit quietly studying him. Spirit was admiring the ladies so he didn't notice Stein's green eyed stare.
Spirit sipped his coffee and promptly burned his tongue so he yelped in pain and held his hands over his mouth with a whimper. Stein chuckled and was content.

Several weeks later the two were inseparable. One would never be seen without the other near at hand. They even shared a room; unfortunately for Spirit, that's when the experiments started. Stein couldn't help himself, he had to see how his friend worked. Inside and out. Stein was fair however; when he would experimented on Spirit, he would experiment on himself. It's not like Spirit noticed anyways. This both disappointed and delighted Stein. It meant he was good at what he did, but, he wanted Spirit to notice him.

One day, several years later, he decided to show Spirit how he felt and kissed him.
Spirit acted as though he wanted to kiss Stein back but instead he ran away. Months later he was married.
That's when Stein shoved a screw through his head and nearly died.

Stein rolled over in his sleep. He hated those dreams. Dreams where he messed things up. The door to his house / lab opened quietly. Spirit quietly slipped in soaking wet and smiled at his sleeping partner. Stein was cute when he slept. Even with a frown on his face. Spirit changed out of his wet clothes and into pajamas. He then snuck over to Stein and placed a warm, tender kiss on his lips. It was raining when they both actually kissed for the first time.

It was shortly after Maka was born and Spirit was visiting Stein and freaking out about being a father.
Stein watched with an amused expression as his friend ranted and raved about how he wasn't ready to be a father.
"If you weren't ready you should have used a condom." Stein said simply.
Spirit stopped dead. "Damn, you're right." he said with a laugh.
Stein rolled his eyes. "You're hopeless."
"Yeah pretty much." Spirit said plopping down beside his younger friend.
Stein ran his eyes over Spirit, his Spirit, and sighed.
Rain sounded on his roof and he groaned.
Spirit blinked at him. "What?"
"I fall asleep when it rains remember?"
"Oh yeah...I hope Maka will do that." Spirit smiled gently.
Stein shifted his weight. He still wasn't quite comfortable with Spirit having a child yet. He was only nineteen after all, how could Spirit ever hope to handle it at that age?
"Are you okay Stein?" asked Spirit seeing Stein's furrowed brow.
"Oh yeah..."
Spirit leaned over and touched Stein's forehead. It felt alright.
Stein leaned against his hand.
"I'm sorry Stein...I didn't ever want to hurt you..." Spirit said softly.
"Then why did you run...why did you leave me all alone Spirit..." Stein looked up. His eyes flashed with emotion that his voice did not betray.
"I was stupid and scared Stein. Just like I am now...I don't think I'll ever be as brave as you are." Spirit said gently running his hand through Stein's grey hair.
"Brave?" Stein asked.
"Yeah...you don't run from every problem you face like I did. I'm not going to run any more. I'm going to be a good papa for Maka. I'm not going to run from you so much either. I promise. " said Spirit gently kissing Stein's lips.
Stein pulled him into his lap and just held him tight.

Stein slowly opened his eyes. "Spirit?" He asked the darkness.
He felt a gentle hand on his head. "I'm here."