Eeeeeh okay so this is my VERY FIRST fic on this site (I'm new. Hi! :3) so be easy on me. PLEASE please please please review. I LOVE you!

He was supposed to be something more than this by now.

Had it really only been a few hours? Was it possible for such a minimal stretch of time to drag itself so inexorably onward at its own suffocating, wretched pace to the point that had had forgotten what yesterday even felt like?

Fool. Even when you cast off your old skin and rid yourself of the pretentious, avid drain of rules and the potential they steal from you, time still remains as the one guard forbidding you to cross the line into the hold of seraphic capabilities.

But still…

I'm drowning. No, the man I was has already died. He was crushed beneath the ocean of his inner insanity; he gave in against the demons he had run from for so long. I remain…I should be more. This feeling, this thoughtlessness, this…

The whine of static cut across his ears, bleeding through all pretenses of speculation as it verberated against his fragile ear drums and grated against his throbbing mind. Through the buzzing, he heard a mumbling. It was soft, tormented, and hopeless; the sound of a man hissing and groaning through his teeth because he had been reduced to a mere mass of flesh, driven on to live only because he had even forgotten how to lie down and die.

This noise.

The static and the mumbling persisted, growing louder until it was impossible to ignore. What was living? What was dying? What was this barren, devitalized existence that strained so desperately between the two?

Make it stop…

He fell to his knees, hunching over and trying to cover his ears, trying to hide from the sound of his soul as the madness leeched away at his essence, not only erasing everything he had been, but eroding any future possibilities of the man he would become.

"What's this noise I'm hearing?" he whispered. "And how do I make it go away?"

The room. It was red, a dull, dark flat red that reminded him of blood. It was empty, like his heart…save for a radio on a simple table.

She was standing behind him. He didn't look, but he knew she was there even before her voice rang out over the noise, over the mumbling. This woman. He couldn't define her, but she was the only being that stood out in the emptiness. He had no choice but to listen to her, no choice but to follow every word she said. It wasn't a rule; it was his nature. He had nothing left to him but her words.

"It's completely broken," the calm, imperious voice was an alien in the tiny, fragile body she had stolen. "You won't be able to repair it."

The radio. The source of the noise. But that couldn't be…

"I have to. It hurts my ears." He could barely stand up; he was hunched over, the noise beating down on his back like a ten-ton rock.

"You could destroy it. Then the noise would stop."

Was that even possible? He felt like something else would be lost if the noise went away…

"Destroy it?" He was doubtful. Had she really said that?

"That's right. I said destroy." The viper reared its head as she stood in her full form behind him. One eye glowed red, brighter than the room. A star shining through the blackness.

Such radiance…such brilliance…

Brilliant.

Of course it was a good idea. There were no rules, there was no cost.

"Destroy it!" he repeated happily.

But how?

He could feel his body moving, reacting to this newest theory. Rubble and dust and light flashed before his eyes, but he was unhindered. Nothing could stop him, but the noise was not so sturdy in its rule-confined existence. Such cacophany and confusion could only be wrought from the distant realms of sanity and its vain attempts to keep a hold on the world.

A new voice choked through the static, even louder than the mumbling in its clear, annoying tone.

"Professor Stein! Listen to me! You have to wake up! We need you now! Please, Professor, come back!"

A name? Yes; that name had once been his.

The woman. She had silenced it for a while. It no longer called to him, no longer tried to pierce through his new skin. But this other noise, it still persisted. He had to stop it…he had to destroy it.

A touch. A gentle thump against his chest, calming and persistent in its silence.

"I finally reached you."

That voice…so familiar…

"Healing wavelength!"

Light. Blinding, beautiful light.

His name was being called. It was still his name. He answered, wanting to know who still knew him…who it was that hadn't forgotten him.

"Whoever you are…please do something. Please stop this noise inside my head…I can't do it."

Destroying it was not an option. All he could do was try to hide from it…try to keep his feeble grasp on who he really was, the part of him he could never really let go of.

The human part.

"Is destroying it the only way? She said it couldn't be fixed. What choice do I have? It has to stop."

The woman was always right…wasn't she?

"There's no need to fix it, or destroy it either."

Light filled the room, illuminating the red walls, taking away the taint of blood.

"Just accept it as part of you."

An angel's voice, and everything was silent.

It finally stopped.

"Now try. Try very hard to picture it. The place you're supposed to be. I know you can do it."

To take the hand of an angel is to accept final and true salvation. Could he ever forget those eyes, one glowing gold that he had never seen before? Could he ever repay that smile? Could he actually make amends to the heart that had refused to leave him alone when he tried to run away from the world?

I know you can do it.

Marie.

"Stein?"

Franken Stein blinked. Had she known he was thinking about her? No, of course not. He was being ridiculous. But still…that golden brown eye that now regarded him with concern mixed with a warm sense of contentment and companionship…was there anything about him now that it couldn't see?

That woman. Medusa. She had been inside his soul too. But she hadn't really known him. In her much crueler golden eyes, he was nothing more than a tool to be used or a new toy to play with. Marie, his weapon partner and recent rescuer, obviously saw him as something different.

What am I to you?

"Are you alright?" Marie asked gently, walking around the hospital bed to where he had momentarily frozen, lost in a world of madness-masked memories and nightmares.

"Hm?" She placed a hand on his arm, but he didn't withdraw. Her touch was one he could stand. It had saved him, after all; it was natural, not an invasion on his personal space. "Oh yes," he said. "I'm fine. I was just thinking."

Marie laughed and stepped away to check on Crona, their fragile-looking patient who had already begun to make a miraculous recovery towards consciousness after his near-fatal run-in with Medusa.

"Professor Stein," Marie mused. "When are you not thinking? I think it's unfair you berate me for my 'obsessive tendancies' now, don't you?"

The jibe slid harmlessly away, but he allowed a quiet smile for it as he watched her work over Crona. She was a natural nurse, a healer. Her healing wavelength was a gift she had never before considered using in such a way. Now, she was already at home in the infirmary. She could be the new medical doctor; he could finally go back to dissecting…

You're off-topic, Stein, he reproached himself firmly.

"Marie," he said, taking a step towards her. "Why did you come back for me?"

She turned, a delicate frown voicing her feelings on the question. "What kind of question is that? I'm a Death Scythe, and you are my assigned partner. I wasn't about to leave you behind…especially in the clutches of that woman…" She shuddered briefly but shook herself, assuming her normal bubbly, nonchalant demeanor. "Besides, after all the time and work I poured into finally refurbishing that dismal shack you like to call a home, I wasn't about to let you run off and leave it. Stitches." She shuddered again, this time making sure it was obvious. "I still need to get rid of those. A woman's touch! That's all that place needed, and it still does! I'm almost glad Lord Death hasn't yet assigned me a new living space; I've barely begun with yours! The bathroom is next! Mark my words, as soon as this kishin business is over and done with, I'll take my deserved sick days, roll up my sleeves, and…"

"Why didn't you give up on me?" He cut her off in mid-rant, and the superficial aidhead slid away from her face like sand as she tilted her head and fixed him with an unsual smile that he couldn't quite read. "I was lost," he continued. "I didn't think anyone would have been able to find me. How did you know you could? How did you know that the Stein you knew wasn't already long gone?"

Marie closed her eye, a picture of peace and happiness. "I had faith in you, Stein," she replied simply. "I always have."

I know you can do it.

He closed his eyes as well, confused. "But why?" he demanded.

When he opened them again, she was inches away from his face. Placing one soft hand against the side of his face, she responded earnestly, "I just did. That's what faith is. And I know you, Stein. I knew there was a part of you that would never give up…a part of you that was waiting for m – for someone to come and pull you out of the darkness."

Her touch. He could still remember when she had first called out to him in the ocean of madness, when her hand had first collided softly with his chest, releasing the powerful healing wavelength directly into his soul.

Such a calming touch.

This was much the same. He half-closed his eyes, grateful for the glint of his round glasses as he drank in this feeling. Her hand slid down his neck, but was instantly joined by her other as she adjusted the collar of his lab coat before taking it off and walking over to lay it over Crona.

"He's cold," she observed. "The loss of blood is still affecting him."

I know you, Stein.

He watched her from behind, replaying her words in his mind. He realized something, and walked over to her, taking off his glasses and laying them on the table so she could look right into his eyes as he laid a hand on her shoulder and turned her around. Her aura was intense, one of hidden intent. And the contentment that had been following her around since they had gotten back…it was the mask of someone who had finally achieved something they had been waiting to do for a very long time.

"You've been waiting for an opportunity like that for quite a while, haven't you?" he asked her. "The chance to rescue me. You had resolved a long time ago that if I ever got in trouble, you would be the one to get me out of it. Why is that, Marie? I haven't always been your meister, and our partnership right now could very well be temporary as it is."

"It's true," she admitted a little nervously, looking down. "I guess…I guess the reason I waited so long for the chance to finally save you was…" She looked up again, determined. "I wanted you to finally see me. Not just as a weapon that was asigned to your side in the heat of battle, but as your partner, as your…friend." A rosey tint caught her cheeks becomingly, and she swiftly looked down again.

He placed a finger under her chin, lifting her enchantingly gold-stained brown eye up to his sight again. "Is that all? You should never have worried about that. You see…" He took a step closer to her until his face was a mere inch from hers. "Not a day went by when I wasn't completely aware of your presence in my life," he said quietly. The words…which ordinarily would have been so foreign to his cold, scientific mind, flowed directly from his heart unhindered in their pure accuracy. He was remembering all the times she had been there for him when he had thought no one could reach him. Her face, voice, and actions all stood out clearly to him in the mist of impending madness. She had been the reason he had held out as long as he did. No matter how alone he had felt in his lab, no matter how empty his heart had felt, he grimly clung to the approaching moment when she would open the door, letting all kinds of light in, and rush to his side to care for him and support him. She had given him…tangency.

She drew in a soft, quick breath, and he could almost hear her heart rate increasing. His was already singing in increased tempo, reminding him how gloriously human she had made him. He could feel. So many years had he wandered through, labeling himself as a machine programmed only to observe, compute, and dissect. He had once told the snake-witch Medusa that he was like her; that neither of them could comprehend any emotion, especially love. But Marie had woken him up to the truth.

I am human. My soul…it's there for more than just the characterization of my own unique abilities and desires. I feel…

When had she first reminded him that he actually had a heart? In his dreams. The illusions projected by his insanity. He had seen her die, and his heart had broken. He had felt so lost and alone…

Then his relief at seeing her alive…

I can't ever lose her again.

With his free hand, he reached out and ran his fingers through her golden hair until he found her slender neck. Pulling her toward him as gently as possible, he added, "How could I not have seen you? You were the one who gave my life meaning when I had given up on myself."

Then he leaned in and kissed her. She responded immediately, lips leaping to life beneath his careful touch. She wasn't impulsive or violently passionate as he would once have diagnosed her to be, given her obsessive tendancies and desperate act. Her hands glided up his chest until they rested against his face, drawing him even closer as she gently shifted the angle of hers, pouring all of her pent-up care and desire into one heavenly kiss. Everything she had always felt for him, every wish and tear she had spent on him…they were all there. It was love; he had been a blind, selfish fool all these years, too busy casting his own personal woes and feeling sorry for himself to realize the angel that had never truly left his side through the night. It was love. She loved him, and something in his chest exploded. Her touch was yet again the key to unlocking a part of him he had never seen, and then he knew: he loved her too.

He circled his free hand around her waist, pulling her against him and allowing no space to come between them as he kissed her more purposefully. She sensed the change in his mood, and her arms tightened around his neck. Their cautious tenderness had morphed to ectsasy, the pure and undiluted joy of two souls connected by destiny and discovering their entwined purpose in a single moment.

Marie. You've read my very soul, you've seen the deepest and darkest contours of my mind. If you can truly read what I'm thinking, you should know how much I love you…how much I've always loved you and never realized it.

He felt her lips part slightly as she smiled, a wetness against his cheek as she cried, happily this time, and once again her voice rang through his mind.

I know you, Stein.

This feeling in his chest…a burning fire…

Oh. He needed to breathe.

Reluctantly, they pulled apart, breathless and starry-eyed.

Once again, she laid her palm against his chest, a gesture that had been his anchor in the tempest, the lighthouse that drew him home. His heart raced under her touch, reminding him of many things that had only just been discovered, but above them all sang the one most true and important:

I am human.

"Um…"

The moment shattered as the two turned towards the bed. Crona was sitting up, his normally pale face beet red, confirming that he had been conscious for the past few minutes or so.

"I…I…uh…" stuttered the nervous boy, crossing his scrawny arms and looking from one of them to the other.

"Ahh, screw you guys!" A whiney voice interrupted, obliterating any evidence of the moment that had been left behind after Crona's wakefulness. A small, black, doll-like creature sprang out of Crona's back and brandished its tacky white fist at the couple.

"Go get a room! You two are perfect for each other; both of you needed to get laid a long time ago!"

"Ragnorak!" Crona reproached him in horror, but Marie cut him off by laughing and rushing to the boy's side, ignoring the blush warming her features as she hugged him.

Listening to her hurried attempts at covering the situation up, Frank Stein could only smile and wonder at the beauty and meaning that had been added to his life…or rather, the one that had been there all along.